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It's been a long time since an encounter has actually made me feel something like a hero. Slaying a dragon is one thing, but rescuing two families from a burning building? It just seems more...heroic. I think because, unlike dragons, burning buildings are a real thing. We as players can more easily imagine the horrors of a burning building on a truly visceral level.
In any case, our "party" just completed this encounter, and I had such a blast that I wanted to 1) thank the author(s) who wrote the encounter and 2) brag just a little bit.
You see, when our party approached the fire and were apprised of the situation, half the party was like "We're CN, leave the firefighting to the firefighters. Why are we wasting time with this when we could be hunting down the saboteurs?" The other half of the party was like "The first two floors are on fire. Even if you could get through that mess, you'd be trapped and have no way of getting back down. It's suicide."
My character, the brave Dr. Bobby Medkow, was the ONLY person to risk his life to run into the burning building to help those poor unfortunate souls. Before this, he's had some bad rolls, got blown up a few times, and literally had to be carried by the party more than once. Though he was known to be a dedicated soldier, due to circumstances he had become something of a joke within the party (they call him "Mad Cow" instead of "med-co" for example).
With a few skill checks, Bobby estimated he had a minute and a half (15 rounds) before the building and everyone inside became a lost cause. Knowing this, he still went in to do what he could. After searching each floor, calling out to those in need ("SDF! We're here to help! Call out!"), and lowering each victim via cabling from broken windows. He lowered the final victim out the fifth story window in round 12 before repelling down himself. He was singed by a back draft and out of breath, but largely unharmed.
The GM claimed that if it weren't for my quick thinking (I used to watch a lot of firefighter dramas and so know a thing or two about rescue procedures) and quicker feet (movement speed of 60 feet helped A LOT) there was no way I would have made it out alive.
It's such a good feeling to have done so much for so many pretty much solo. We ended the session on that happy note. :)
I'm very curious to know how the encounter played out for some of you. (Note though, that my friends and I have NOT gone past this point in the module yet, so please take care with possible spoilers.)
I can't wait to run this for my home crew. 'Big damn hero' moments are the best
That's a great story! And it's awesome to hear scenes like this pay off!