So I managed to kill my first PC...

[Heliomance]

This week's session was great fun. Last week I had my players fighting a couple of wendigos, from the Fiend Folio. Now, Wendigos have a rather fun disease attached to their bite. Every time you fail the save, you take 1d3 Wis damage and make a Will save. If you fail the will save, you are overcome by an irresistable craving for human flesh, and will go and attempt to kill and eat someone. If your Wis drops to 0, you become a Wendigo yourself.

Three of the characters had contracted this disease last week, and at the beginning of this week's session I rolled for incubation time. The first words out of my mouth as we began playing, pointing at the players in turn, were "Can I have three fortitude saves, one fortitude save, two fortitude saves."

The Beguiler made two saves in a row, and shook off the disease. The Monk made his single save, still needing another to shake it off.
The Favoured Soul failed. And then failed the Will save.

I showed him the entry for the disease, then sat back and watched hilarity ensue. He rolled, and decided that he turned up at the Beguiler's house. Saying he didn't feel too good, he persuaded her to let him in - at which point he promptly attacked her. She, shocked, used Blinding Colour Surge, followed by Ghost Sound to make him think she'd run upstairs. He ran up, and she Expeditious Retreated out the front door. Phoning the rest of the party, she related the tale, and so she was sequestered safely away while the Monk, the Warblade and the Werewolf hightailed it over to hers to deal with the suddenly insane Favoured Soul.

A fight ensues, the FS having resorted to smashing the place up when he was unable to find the Beguiler. In short order, they knock him unconcious and tie him up, though not before he's used a shotgun loaded with dragonsbreath rounds and set fire to the wallpaper. They manage to put out the fire, and the police arrive soon after, having been alerted by a neighbour hearing a fight.

Well, they relate what happened, and the FS gets taken in. He wakes up in hospital, under guard, with no memory of what happened.

He then goes and fails his next save against the disease later that night, and tries to attack the nurses. He promptly gets moved to an insane asylum, and at this point - after checking he's okay with it - I rule that about a week later there's an escape from the mental hospital. The doctors are absolutely baffled as to how he got out, but he did.

Wendigos have Wind Walk at will.

[Hironomus]

Sounds like he's alive and well to me...

[Mongoose87]

Nice to see your players go along with it so well. A relatively elegant PK, IMO. Poor guy, though, failing a Will save, as a Favored Soul.

[Callista]

Yeah, that was just bad luck. Poor guy.

If you have the party fight the Wendigo in question, let the player run it.

[Aidan305]

Sounds like it was very cleanly done and the players enjoyed it. Well done.

[Heliomance]

Yeah, that was just bad luck. Poor guy.

If you have the party fight the Wendigo in question, let the player run it.

He's already reserved the right to roll all the dice should that happen ^^

I was quite happy about it, to be honest. I didn't have nearly enough plot prepared, and it essentially ran the session for me :D

[Akal Saris]

Congrats on the fun PC death, glad the wendigo player and the others took it so well :) I once had a wendigo once bring two PCs to -7 in straight combat, with the party cleric 1 hit away from dying before she brought it down. But the disease itself wasn't a major issue compared with the brutal fight

[Psyren]

Your group must be fantastic at improv, kudos That was a fun read

This story also shows how awesome Beguilers can be even when caught by surprise.

[Crossblade]

I'm confused... its clearly set in modern times, due to the shotgun, hospital, police, mental institution, etc... So why wouldn't they have been able to even identify the disease?
Also, Remove Disease is only a level 3 spell, so you need only be level 5 to cast it. Wendigo are Base+2 CR, you said there was a couple. Two are a CR 4, three are CR 5 encounter. So how come nobody cast or was able to cast Remove Disease?

Either way, good you AND your players enjoyed the player "death", that's how it should be.

[Callista]

I'm confused... its clearly set in modern times, due to the shotgun, hospital, police, mental institution, etc... So why wouldn't they have been able to even identify the disease?
Also, Remove Disease is only a level 3 spell, so you need only be level 5 to cast it. Wendigo are Base+2 CR, you said there was a couple. Two are a CR 4, three are CR 5 encounter. So how come nobody cast or was able to cast Remove Disease?

The default wendigo has 8 HD--I'm assuming someone botched the DC 18 Knowledge check to identify it to begin with.

[Heliomance]

I'm confused... its clearly set in modern times, due to the shotgun, hospital, police, mental institution, etc... So why wouldn't they have been able to even identify the disease?
Also, Remove Disease is only a level 3 spell, so you need only be level 5 to cast it. Wendigo are Base+2 CR, you said there was a couple. Two are a CR 4, three are CR 5 encounter. So how come nobody cast or was able to cast Remove Disease?

Either way, good you AND your players enjoyed the player "death", that's how it should be.

Because magic is not common knowledge. It's a magical disease. The medical pros had never seen it before, as far as they were concerned he was just going insane. Sometimes it happens.
And they were level 4, and IC they're fairly new to knowing magic exists. One of them finally made the check to work out he was turning into a wendigo the morning that he escaped.