Evil DM stories

[Warior4356]

So this is a thread for us to post the Evil/Awesome things our DMs have done or we have done as a DM.

So for this story to make sense you need some context. When I'm dming if you powergame your character, I powergame my characters too. Now in this particular instance the party was following one of the villians into a dungeon. The party knew the villian was a wizard who used a lot of illusion spells, what the party did not know was that the gnomish illusionist was a shadow craft mage. I had a lot of fun making that dungeon, the traps for the most part confused the party like fake blades and such. But the part of the dungeon that they still are cursing me about was the mini boss fight room. The floor of the room was an illusion so every meat shield in the party belived the ilusion and fell through the wizard bard and cleric made their will saves. At this point they are freaking out, the floor restores it self so the non believers can't be pulled up and have to go around from the start. In the mean time for the 11 rounds of sprinting it takes the fighter, barb, and paladin to show up, the 4 iron golems in the room had taken out all but the cleric. They still curse me for that one.

[SimonMoon6]

One of the PCs wanted to resurrect his dead wife. Resurrection/Raise Dead spells weren't easy to come by, but there were rumors that the Rod of Seven Parts could bring someone back to life (this was 1st edition where artifacts were customizable so they could have virtually any abilities... also being 1st edition, you didn't expect to be able to purchase any spell you wanted whenever you wanted to, though there were some rules for it in the DMG).

So, he went on a long quest to find the various parts. Fortunately, once you have one part, you can find the next part. At the end of this quest, he found out that he had started with the second part and therefore he had parts 2-7 only.

So, then he had to go on another quest to find part 1. And when he finally found it and attached it, he discovered the (customized) drawback that applied when adding the 1st part to the rest of the rod: his gender changed.

So, he *could* resurrect his wife, but he didn't see any point in it if he was stuck being female.

(Eventually, things *did* work with the help of a brain transplant... but that's another story...a story involving the transplanter accidentally dropping the PC's brain on the floor during the surgery, causing the PC to lose some INT permanently.)

[Elkreeal]

Info:
This campaign went from a homebrew world to a 4e darksun campaign with some alterations:
-The party was all petrified in their world, and instead of having them all "killed" they lived throughout the ages letting enough time elapse until a darksun world made sense to exist
-The Gods aren't truly dead, they got tired lost hope and or the willingness to be evil, they stopped caring, so they asked Vecna if he could force a secret to be kept in the world for all eternity, the secret of their existence.
-Some races were tweaked or story was added for it to make sense, for example, the existence of dargonborns and goliaths: extinction of the races a long time after we were petrified and before we "awaken", so the sorcerer-kings have no idea for example dragonborns had existed before.

They were preserved because they fell to the botton of the ocean while petrified, after that they were un-petrified by a psionic student that was leading an excavation after a looooong long time.

We were playing and the sun was setting, we were looking for a barbarian dragonborn tribe after discovering that dragonborns somehow here were magically created and discarded, we had a dragonbron Cleric|Paladin of Bahamut that wished to pass on the teachings of Bahamut by staying with the tribe (he was going to change his character), the party has had some weird headaches and memory lapses when they speak of the gods, and did not make a high enough check to recognize Vecna's influence in their minds and memories.
The dragonborn tribe was amazed at the fact they never saw a dragonborn with wings (bozak or kapak can't remember, he was named O'Reely) and were curious to our presence there and we justified ourselves with some good diplomacy checks and they allowed O'Reely to stay and pass on his teachings. We drank and feasted one last time and left sadly promising to return one day.
After one week (in-game time) the focus shifted to the tribe again, he had been teaching the dragonborn tribe day and night. In the distance O'Reely spotted a couple running from a medium reptilian creature ( A Nothic Eye of Vecna disguised as some kind of reptile, a good bluff check made it appear real enough), the couple quickly ran behind O'Reely in his shinning armor and he stood to protect them, suddenly O'Relly felt deafened by a shrieking and thunder-like sound from behind him. The couple was actually a couple of Secrets of Vecna and he was surrounded, we came back months later just to realize there was absolutely nothing there, no trace of the tribe ever existing.

At this point we were Lvl9, O'Reely and the dragonborn tribe had little chance of making it out alive. The monsters were lvl 19 and 22.

[geeky_monkey]

I was DMing for a group of low level players (Lv 3-4), who weren’t really paying attention.

Their characters were walking across an open plain on their way back from a dungeon crawl, but the players were busy chatting OOC and fiddling with various electronic gadgets. Clearly I needed to regain their attention.

I banged my fists on the table and explained that the skies had darkened as a huge shape flew overhead, one that they quickly realised was a massive Ancient Red Dragon which had dived out of the sky and was hovering barely 20ft above their heads.

To their horror I made them all roll a saving throw, which all but 1 player failed.

Her character was the only one that managed to avoid the huge mountain of dung that fell from the sky as the laughing dragon flew off after cr*pping all over the party of insignificant adventures he’d spotted on his way past.

The party had to trudge to the nearest village covered in faeces, where they all suffered a -2 CHA penalty until they got themselves cleaned up.

2 (real life) years, and many levels later the players finally tracked down that dragon after making it a major goal of the campaign!

[Warior4356]

My next one is of me being a player. This campign started with us all being clerics (the social position not the class) of stendar. You know how when a pc party enters a lair they kill every minion in sight and go for the leader? Well in this case we were the minions and the evil party came after us. We were the only survivors. I myself got energy drained passed out and woke up cruified to a tree.

[WbtE]

The characters tried rushing a young blue dragon and got their heads handed to them. (It was that nasty dust cloud encounter at the start of the 3e Temple of Elemental Evil.) Most of the party managed to run away, but they had to leave a man down. Once they'd regrouped, they decided to do the decent thing and parley to see if they could have their comrade's corpse back to give him a proper burial.

I had the dragon talk to party alright, but he was using their dead friend as a ventriloquist's dummy.

[Warior4356]

I think our dm got this from this fourm.

goblin is at the end of a hall taunting the fighter

PC:I charge the goblin
DM:You step in a bear trap
PC:I pry it off and keep running
DM: No, you step on a pressure plate and a dire bear falls from the ceiling, roll for inintive
PC:

[tulebast]

My favorite evil DM moment was in a 2e game years ago. The campaign started with the characters tasked with finding some artifact that a wizard wanted. He never said why he wanted it, nor why he couldn't get it himself (despite being powerful enough to have teleported each of them from random sections of the world to start their quest), just some vague comment about how they were the ones fated to retrieve it. As payment, he promised each of them one wish.

Well, after sending them off with a prophetic rhyme to guide their way and several interesting and wacky adventures later, they managed to find the item and got teleported back to the wizard, who did indeed grant each of them a wish/boon. Some of the most memorable:

• The Half-elf that wanted Storm Giant strength. The wizard transformed her into a Storm Giant, and she retired from the party ('cause, you know, Storm Giants have better things to do than hang around with PC losers...)
• The Halfling that thought Storm Giant strength was too greedy, and asked for a belt of Fire Giant Strength. However, the belt was "always on", meaning the Halfling would exert full strength at every opportunity. Made the first tavern interesting when he kicked the door off the hinges and broke every glass/mug that he attempted to drink from. [Eventually, the party managed to figure out how to remove the belt, which seemed to resist most efforts to take it off.]
• The leprechaun (NPC they'd picked up on the quest) wanted a pot of gold, if only for the novelty of understanding why all the humans were so obsessed about it. He was given a small chamberpot, made of gold. He still couldn't understand what all the fuss was about and buried it.
• The cleric that wanted a Staff of Baldur, which the wizard casually handed over. For several months, the cleric would laugh at the party for being too greedy with their wishes and getting hosed, although the player was occasionally concerned that he might have gotten the personal Staff of Baldur and that the god was somehow tracking him down to get his item back. But no, it turned out that he did indeed have a Staff of Baldur, with exactly one charge remaining and it turned worthless the first time he used one of its special abilities. [Though I did point out to him he was right, he was the only person in the party who didn't get hosed by his wish--it was not my fault he neglected to determine how many charges remained before using the staff...]

My second favorite time was when Tiamat granted everyone in the party a boon. Ah, good times.

[The Fury]

PC:I charge the goblin
DM:You step in a bear trap
PC:I pry it off and keep running
DM: No, you step on a pressure plate and a dire bear falls from the ceiling, roll for inintive
PC:

Ha! Ha-HA! I get it! Bear trap! Bear. Trap! (By the way, those would be my last words in that situation.)

The best I got right now is a story about an inept DM and a trolling player, would that be inappropriate? Maybe I'll come back if I can think of something better.

[Warior4356]

Ha! Ha-HA! I get it! Bear trap! Bear. Trap! (By the way, those would be my last words in that situation.)

The best I got right now is a story about an inept DM and a trolling player, would that be inappropriate? Maybe I'll come back if I can think of something better.

Sounds good

[2E Phoinex]

haha, well one of my players wanted to play a Paladin in a party full of chaotics. (incidentally that is the preamble for a number of our favorite memories of games gone by. I'm sure we are not the only group.)

Any way, in his very first adventure he may have told a lie and agreed along with the rest of the party to help a black dragon protect her eggs. His Paladin abilities were suspended by his deity who didn't like liars or those who help evil. (who'd of thunk it? Paladine was who he worshiped by the way) Seeing his god was displeased, he moved to immediately to redeem himself by crushing the dragon eggs.

At this point one of the gentler souls of our group jumped to the defense of the eggs for he firmly believed that nothing was born evil and the baby dragons were innocent. This lead to an argument, which lead to a wrestling match, which logically led to both players falling into an acid pit. Both managed to survive thanks to some acid resistance effect that I don't remember but they were hurt pretty badly especially the Paladin's ego.

But wait there's more.

Later, in order for the paladin to recover his lost powers he had to confess his sins to a priest and do a penance. Well he was a little snotty to the priest in recounting his tale so the ancient cleric responded "My son you must learn humility, go to this man with whom you quarreled and submit yourself to him as his willing servant. Do all that he asks of you as you would for your church and if you can endure him then in the eyes of Paladine you will be found worthy"

One week and several embarrassing events later including a couple nipple piercings the Paladin's powers were restored. (It's worth noting that this wasn't the last time that this particular player was enslaved by another member of his party)

[The Fury]

"My son you must learn humility, go to this man with whom you quarreled and submit yourself to him as his willing servant. Do all that he asks of you as you would for your church and if you can endure him then in the eyes of Paladine you will be found worthy"

...Knowing what I know of Chaotic-aligned player characters and their opinions on Paladins, hours of self-flagellation seems like a much kinder penance. Gotta hand it to that priest though, when it comes to penance the church of Paladine doesn't mess around!

[RustyArmor]

Back in the day we had multiple DMs often doing one shot games or just campaigns when we had enough devoted players for one. One DM was rather hack and slash and rarely used monsters intelligence. Even dragons would just land in front of us and attack as we hack and slash at it. The one time we sat around and one of the players was saying how weak and lame dragons are and I was defending them saying played right they would kick butt. Which turned into me doing a one shot dragon slaying quest. Keep in mind this was 2nd ed game.

I let them pick the dragon, they all jumped on white almost instantly. All eight of them were 10th level and I let each of them pretty much have six magical items they want outside staff of magi and other artifacts and any mundane gear they wished. And they were decked out, most picking belts of storm giant strength, vorpal weapons, ridiculous armor, etc. They were all set they knew they were going to kick this things butt to no end.

After long struggling with snow and ice they found a cave and ventured in. Watching out for a dragon they found the first trap. A deep pit filled with icy water. Did any of them have boots of north? No. Ropes or other items of climbing? No. Potions or items to Fly? Nope. Half the group drowned in the icy depths do to heavy armors with no reasonable means of getting out of such. Some of the members finally got to wall to start climbing only to look up and see the dragon grinning at them and greeted them with saves vs. breath weapon. Did anyone have resistance to cold full well knowing they were fighting a white dragon? Nope. So between icy blast of breath and dropping ice chunks at the party no one even made it to the ledge and weakest of dragon kind didn't take a single point of damage from a well armed but poorly geared adventuring party. And I had a whole cave complex drew out for them to explore too

[CombatOwl]

(If there is already a thread of this please direct me to it)

So this is a thread for us to post the Evil/Awesome things our DMs have done or we have done as a DM.

So for this story to make sense you need some context. When I'm dming if you powergame your character, I powergame my characters too. Now in this particular instance the party was following one of the villians into a dungeon. The party knew the villian was a wizard who used a lot of illusion spells, what the party did not know was that the gnomish illusionist was a shadow craft mage. I had a lot of fun making that dungeon, the traps for the most part confused the party like fake blades and such. But the part of the dungeon that they still are cursing me about was the mini boss fight room. The floor of the room was an illusion so every meat shield in the party belived the ilusion and fell through the wizard bard and cleric made their will saves. At this point they are freaking out, the floor restores it self so the non believers can't be pulled up and have to go around from the start. In the mean time for the 11 rounds of sprinting it takes the fighter, barb, and paladin to show up, the 4 iron golems in the room had taken out all but the cleric. They still curse me for that one.

I once paid the party in copper coins (seriously, they were being given a quest by a church at a major pilgrimage location--most of what the church had available was copper coins). It took them a full session to figure out what to do with them, since they weighted more than they could feasibly carry. The town had a magic item shop, but as per my usual rules, I just rolled on my chart for that settlement size to see what they had, and none of it was useful to anyone in the party.

It ended up being something like 5,000 pounds of copper coins.

Let's see... that same campaign had quite a lot of **** moves. Including an evil ranger who strung up 1HD animals around his base just so he could shoot them then use arrow eruption. Arrow eruption is quite nasty with a brilliant energy compound longbow, a 22 strength, deadly aim, and the vital strike chain. Unlike normal traps, they don't peg trapsense or anything, and perception just reveals a disabled rat.

[Lord Torath]

I think our dm got this from this fourm.

goblin is at the end of a hall taunting the fighter

PC:I charge the goblin
DM:You step in a bear trap
PC:I pry it off and keep running
DM: No, you step on a pressure plate and a dire bear falls from the ceiling, roll for inintive
PC:

How do they keep the Dire Bear alive? Does it enjoy being cooped up in a small little compartment? Or do you not worry about that, and just assume that the sheer mass of the dead dire bear will be a sufficient deterrent?

That's one of the things I've always wondered about chests "trapped" with living snakes or centipedes or scorpions or <insert your favorite small venomous monster> inside them that attack anyone opening them. How do you keep the poor nasty things alive?

[Jay R]

I'm currently running a game with the following plot.

The party had noticed an aura of Evil slowly growing in the forest. They traced it down to a single keep, and then to an amulet worn by the gnoll in that keep, which had a very strong aura of evil. They have now destroyed that amulet, and the forest feels less Evil.

They are quite proud of the fact that this is the first major effect that they have had on the world. And it's quite true; it is.

There are two more similar amulets at other places in the world. Sometime between when they find the second and the third one, I expect them to learn the origins of the amulets. They are the three items preventing demons from entering the world. The Evil that they sense isn't the amulet; it's the Evil trying to get in, being blocked by the amulet.

If they destroy all three, ...

[CombatOwl]

How do they keep the Dire Bear alive? Does it enjoy being cooped up in a small little compartment? Or do you not worry about that, and just assume that the sheer mass of the dead dire bear will be a sufficient deterrent?

Trap works better when the bear is unhappy about being cooped up.

That's one of the things I've always wondered about chests "trapped" with living snakes or centipedes or scorpions or <insert your favorite small venomous monster> inside them that attack anyone opening them. How do you keep the poor nasty things alive?

Holes in the sides, and good training to return to the chest after eating, drinking, etc.

[Fiery Diamond]

I'm currently running a game with the following plot.

The party had noticed an aura of Evil slowly growing in the forest. They traced it down to a single keep, and then to an amulet worn by the gnoll in that keep, which had a very strong aura of evil. They have now destroyed that amulet, and the forest feels less Evil.

They are quite proud of the fact that this is the first major effect that they have had on the world. And it's quite true; it is.

There are two more similar amulets at other places in the world. Sometime between when they find the second and the third one, I expect them to learn the origins of the amulets. They are the three items preventing demons from entering the world. The Evil that they sense isn't the amulet; it's the Evil trying to get in, being blocked by the amulet.

If they destroy all three, ...

My reaction: Why did the forest feel less evil after they destroyed the amulet? Is the evil being redistributed to the other amulets, which are now doing extra duty? Because that seems to be an iffy explanation at best, and it's the only somewhat reasonable one I can think of. If I were your player, I would feel a bit ticked.

[Mikeavelli]

I'm currently running a game with the following plot.

The party had noticed an aura of Evil slowly growing in the forest. They traced it down to a single keep, and then to an amulet worn by the gnoll in that keep, which had a very strong aura of evil. They have now destroyed that amulet, and the forest feels less Evil.

They are quite proud of the fact that this is the first major effect that they have had on the world. And it's quite true; it is.

There are two more similar amulets at other places in the world. Sometime between when they find the second and the third one, I expect them to learn the origins of the amulets. They are the three items preventing demons from entering the world. The Evil that they sense isn't the amulet; it's the Evil trying to get in, being blocked by the amulet.

If they destroy all three, ...

You read Goblins don't you?

[Jay R]

My reaction: Why did the forest feel less evil after they destroyed the amulet? Is the evil being redistributed to the other amulets, which are now doing extra duty? Because that seems to be an iffy explanation at best, and it's the only somewhat reasonable one I can think of. If I were your player, I would feel a bit ticked.

Because the evil of the Death Lord's home universe could be felt through the amulet, since he is always trying to destroy them. It's like there are three metal locks on the prison door, and he's been keeping a welding torch on each one, trying to melt through it. It doesn't work, but those spots are certainly growing hotter. Now that the lock is gone, he's not trying to melt that spot any longer, and it's much cooler. The other amulets are far enough away that any change to them hasn't been felt in that part of the world. They aren't doing extra duty; it's just that all three locks must be destroyed for the door to open.

You read Goblins don't you?

No, actually. But the guy who helped me develop this might have.

[Slipperychicken]

I think our dm got this from this fourm.

goblin is at the end of a hall taunting the fighter

PC:I charge the goblin
DM:You step in a bear trap
PC:I pry it off and keep running
DM: No, you step on a pressure plate and a dire bear falls from the ceiling, roll for inintive
PC:

That's AMAZING. I haven't laughed that hard in weeks!

If I ever GM a game, I want to include one of these "bear traps"

[JHShadon]

I think our dm got this from this fourm.

goblin is at the end of a hall taunting the fighter

PC:I charge the goblin
DM:You step in a bear trap
PC:I pry it off and keep running
DM: No, you step on a pressure plate and a dire bear falls from the ceiling, roll for inintive
PC:

Reminds me of this comic.

[InQbait]

I was playing a Dwarf Fighter and I specced him out to be a really tough, tankish character. I gave him Great Fortitude feat, Toughness, etc. This was Pathfinder btw.
So our group goes up against 2 necromancers. 2 necromancers. That's it. In the middle of the woods somewhere. In the first round, one of the necromancers already has a spectral hand up and my character is still sitting on the wagon. The necromancer casts Ghoul Touch on my character through the spectral hand. Fortitude save. Fail. My character was paralyzed for the WHOLE combat. It wasn't that long of a combat, 5-6 rounds or so, but that ticked me off, cuz I did not get to do anything at all.

Later in that campaign, I wanted to stop playing that character because he was getting boring so I had in mind that he would take a long journey back to his dwarven home in the mountains. Didn't happen. Instead, my new character, an Elf Cleric of Earth and Madness, exploded my old character using magic and out of the gore and smoke appeared my new character. I was ticked

[Calinar]

Hmm... I've done quite a few things to my party since I started DMing a few years ago, some of my favorites are:

Bearded dwarven women.

A massive gelatinous cube pretending to be an underground lake.

An evil artifact sword that the party took to a powerful wizard to have identified, which took over the wizard and caused a ton of havoc.

An empty room with only a chest and a mimic disguised as the exit door.

Kidnapping the naive PC who wandered off alone looking for an omelette shop.

Having one of the BBEGs seduce the horny bard and mind control him to frame the party for murder.

[JDarkshadow]

Having one of the BBEGs seduce the horny bard and mind control him to frame the party for murder.

I love murder mystery campaigns, Please elaborate. Who was murdered and how did the Bard frame them?

[Calinar]

I love murder mystery campaigns, Please elaborate. Who was murdered and how did the Bard frame them?

Alright, but at least one of my players lurks around on this forum and the plot hasn't been fully resolved, so I can't reveal the entire story. The setting is Eberron.

Spoiler

Show

While he did switched to wilder within the first 2 levels, he still plays his violin and acts like a typical horny bard, so we still call him a bard. The bard has taken to the typical bardic tradition of sleeping with a new tavern wench every night. After a big mission where they bring back a demon bound in a sword to their employer, a powerful artificer named Keveric who specializes in binding elementals, the bard decides that today is his birthday since he hadn't chosen a day for it yet. So, they head on down to their favorite tavern, have a party, and get drop dead drunk. The bard heads to the roof and the mysterious women who had given him some valuable information earlier in the campaign follows him up, seduces him, and mind controls him.

He wakes up in the morning and can't find her, so he gets together with the group and heads to Keveric's lab to see if he had made any progress with the sword. They find the lab ransacked, the sword missing, and Keveric dead with a Keeper's Fang in his back. The guard and inquisitives arrive, of course, right when they pick up the Fang. They confiscate the Fang, cast object reading and other divinations, arrest the party who stayed, and chase the Bard and the Rogue who escaped out the window. It's not long before the Bard and Rogue do a jail break for the party and flee the city together.

They have a few loose theories on their framing:
It was done by a group of at least two women, known by the titles the Tigress (the one who seduced the Bard) and the Huntress (one they met later). They have enough influence to pull strings within the city guard. One of Keveric's assistants work for these two and provided them inside information (they have narrowed it down to one of the three). And lastly, they know the sword was their objective, but otherwise have no clue why they were framed.

My players have lately come to believe that anything good that happens is really a trap. I have no clue where they got that idea from, everything is a trap. Except for actual traps of course, those are road signs.

[originalginger]

I'm not sure if this is 'evil' or not, since it was largely a result of the players acting rashly and not thinking through their actions, but i think its funny, so here goes.

High magic, somewhat steampunk setting. The world is made up of a single large continent, about the size of Eurasia, and an Australia sized island subcontinent where the VERY evil Elven race lives, as well as numerous island chains.

The party consists of a Geomancer, a Marksman, a Mechanic/Engineer, and a Chemist. They are reasonably high level, and have a small armored vehicle with a light cannon and a good bit of supplies.

The party is tracking the source of a plague that has befallen a few small rural villages located inside of a large valley.

Below them lies a system of caverns, and above them a large stone dam in the mountaintops that's purpose is to regulate the flow of water that supports fishing communities and trade in the highlands, and irrigates the relatively barren lowlands to allow enough farming for the residents to live comfortably. Basically the dam was holding back a huge lake, only allowing a small river to flow though the lowlands.

They know the plague is originating from the caverns, but they assume it is the creatures that live there that are causing the problem.

In fact, it is a result of dark and ancient magics contaminating the water supply.

I more or less expected them to explore the caverns, fight some bad guys, maybe a monster or two, and eventually figure out that they need to either seal the entrance to the cavern or somehow divert the course of the water so it doesn't pass through the caverns. This, of course is not what happened.



Instead, the chemist builds high-explosive cannon ammunition, and they load it into to the armored truck's cannon. The Marksman then takes aim on the dam, hitting the weak points discovered by the Mechanic/Engineer's natural 20 roll, and the Geomancer stars tearing down large chucks of the dam with his magic as the explosives waken it's structure.

They take the whole damn dam down. Millions upon millions of gallons of water come crashing down into the valley all at one. The idea was to flood the caverns and kill everything inside without having to actually put their lives at risk. I was stunned. It would actually have been clever, except the plague was water-borne, and they had never actually been to the top of the mountain rage to see how much water was up there. Session ended, and the players felt triumphant.

But I, as the DM had to work out how to handle this. I COULD have been nice and kept damage to a minimum, but instead I decided to rule where the logic of the situation took me. I ruled that the players had inadvertently triggered the apocalypse.

On the highlands, the water source had been utterly destroyed.

Fishing yields dropped 90% for nine cities situated on the banks of the (now nearly empty) lake. Trade all but stopped, as there were no longer the essential waterways. No fishing and no trade, meant no money, and the people were left with basically nothing.

On the lowlands, it was even worse. The cities nearest the source of the flood were basically destroyed due to the massive flash flood. For the length of the valley, over 200 miles, the water level in the once rather tiny river rose six feet overnight, flooding farmlands, forcing people out of their homes, and basically ruining the geography and economy of the entirely of the lowland

Then there was the issue of the plague. Of course, pretty much all of the survivors of the flood caught it, and they started dropping like flies, and of course, that much water isn't easily contained.

When I followed the geography along, it turned out that it was unavoidable that the water would reach the largest river of the southern potion of the continent. That river feed into dozens of smaller rivers and streams, spreading the plague to millions. It was terrifying.

75% of the population of the southern third of the continent, including the capital city were killed by the plague. This brought trade with the northern areas to a stop, as production stopped, and most cities were quarantined. Since most of the farmland was in the south, that also meant starvation in the north. Which meant the north had less people able to work, and less production, and could send less aid to the south.

And so the cycle continued until the entire country collapsed.

Taking advantage of this, the evil (and incidentally fully self-reliant and plague-resistant) Elven Nation rose up against the weakened continent, and waged all out war. Of course they won. Mass genocide, complete cleansing of the race of men.

And that is the story about how the world of men ended because the party tried to take a clever shortcut to avoid a relatively simple dungeon.

One of the best campaigns I have ever run.

[TuggyNE]

75% of the population of the southern third of the continent, including the capital city were killed by the plague.

Given that the Black Plague "only" killed around 25-30% of Europe's population at the time, and was one of the most deadly plagues in history, yes, that was evil.

[Reyne]

On the other hand, disease killed more than 90% of the indigenous population of the Americas (thanks to lack of immune response, etc.) So 75% death rate for a plague caused by "dark and ancient magics" seems justifiable.

Depending on world power level, though, one might expect high-level spellcasters (if they exist) to take collective action and forestall the carnage.

[BeerMug Paladin]

I don't have any especially great evil-DM stories to share, but I do have this from a (mostly) silly game.

After surviving a couple of deadly encounters and schemes, the party was trying to do something about the king's advisor, who was their antagonist. He was slowly trying to spread tyranny throughout the kingdom and make the place much more lawful-evil inclined. The PCs scoped out the castle, and discovered it was very well guarded and secure. There was little they could do to storm it or attack. Their antagonist never left the castle, as far as they knew.

They discovered that the castle did, however, get a special delivery of food from a restaurant delivery person a couple of times a week through a back door. The door itself was guarded at all times and secure except for the deliveries.

Simple plan, they found out that it was delivered from a Spicy Chicken restaurant, and decided to just steal some of the uniforms, get one of the deliveries, and pose as the usual delivery teams. The players decided they would eat before pulling off their plan and decided to get extra servings in order to see why their nemesis was so keen on the stuff.

Not bad, actually! Quite spicy, and an oddly unique flavor for chicken! Apparently, the villain had good taste.

Later on, they discovered that the restaurant sold butchered humanoid meat. Human, in particular, was the kind they tried. Several of the players immediately said their PCs were sick, and one player decided their PC would give up eating meat 'just to be sure' for the rest of the campaign.

That player eventually became a vegetarian. I like to imagine that was my doing.