In my current campaign, this last Tuesday night, the party did something that floored me. totally and completely. One of those moments that, when I remind them of it at the end of the campaign will make their jaws drop. BUT THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY DID!!!!!
They walked up to one of the NPCs they just met and right after 'hello' said just about the worst possible thing to this person that they could have, and they won't know this until the final adventure in the campaign! It's one of those where i'm so glad we play online using Fantasy Grounds, because I don't think my poker face could have kept me from showing my reaction. It's one of those things where you want to turn to someone and tell this person about it, but the only people who would fully understand just how insane this action was are the players. I cant' tell them, it will ruin a large sub plot of the campaign, I can't tell anyone else. Fortunately, my players don't read here, but even in that, i'm not 100 per cent sure they won't stumble across it.
Has any DM run into a similar situation?
Here's what happened (SPOILERS FOR MY CAMPAIGN, PLAYERS DON'T READ BELOW THIS LINE)
The campaign revolves around the events in Hadrach Vale, one of six countries in the Mehari Empire. The Vale is approximately as large as France, and for the last six hundred years, has been in a state of mild extortion by a red dragon who extracts an annual tribute of goods and or services. In exchange, the dragon does not prey on citizenry or livestock within the Vale, and protects the Vale from any other large monsters or armed incursions. The Empire puts up with this for two reasons: first, the Dragon is very efficient at its side of the bargain, and second, it has actually been able to eliminate any 'dragon-hunting' units sent against it, treating them as armed incursions.
What no one knows is that one of the reasons the Dragon has been so effective against any smaller units trying to hunt it is that it is not one dragon but two, identical twins born from the same egg, who have bonded and cooperated. One always stays hidden, polymorphed as a human and living in the capital, becoming involved in the background of the political scene and adventurer's guilds and keeping an eye on potential dragon hunters. They change the appearance of this one from time to time to allow for generations, one 'person' disappearing in some calamity or another, and replaced by another, the dragons alternate in this duty, and they keep their hoard growing and enjoy their strange, almost lawful life.
So guess what member of the Hadrach City Adventurer's Guild Council they walk up to and say almost immediately "Someday we're going to kill the Dragon"......
Guess who just got put on a list....
it actually works very well for me...they'll get commisions that are going to surprise them with how tough they are....
LOL, that halarious! I love it when stuff like that happens. I was in a Shadowrun game when something similar happened. One of the players decided to backstab the rest of the players (won't go into why), but anyhow, he goes out and hires private detective to do some dirt gathering. Little does he know that a cooperation that the group had previously hit had one of their own detectives on the job already. The GM makes a secret roll for the corporate detective to see if he hears that one of the guys he is after is fishing for a PI. He succeedes. The detective contacts the player and manages to convince him that he is the right man for the job. So the player, chorteling to himself, sits down with his new "private detective" and disgourges every bit of information about the other players he has to offer. A few sessions later we were his by a suspiciously prepared set of corperate assualt teams. Anyhow, the above player winds up in a corperate cell (if I remember correctly, been a while) and who should walk in but the private detective, now dressed in a corporate suit.
"WHAT, you were with the corp. the WHOLE TIME"
"yup"
"GRRR, and I gave you everything you needed to know, didn't I?"
*grins smugly* "yup"
The look on the guys face was priceless.
