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<< previous | RM Moments Main Index | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Through my 15 years as a GM, I have experienced countless acts of bravery,
heroism, luck/unluck, intelligence and sheer stupidity, but some moments are
more memorable than others. Here is one of them.
I will never be a knight again.
In an ongoing campaign a player who had just died, returned as
the Noble knight Sir Ernst von Pückelbrau, unfortunately
he joined the party just as they had defeated the evil wizard
Narcozar in his stronghold. This had been a long and painful struggle
and now the players were at last harvesting the rewards for their
bravery, especially the spellusers of the party were having a
feast as they plowed through Narcozar's belongings, his books,
scrolls, potions and magic items and was distrubuting these among
them.
It went on for 5 long hours of real time, meanwhile the Fighters of the party could do little more than count all the gold coins, polish their armor and weapons and brag about the incredible feats they would perform in the near future. When they left the stronghold the fighters were quite trigger happy, but luckily for them a band of nearby brigands had heard the news of Narcozar's downfall and arrived to pillage his stronghold.
What a glorius chance to display their much proclaimed fighting skills, and so it happened that Sir Ernst von Pückelbrau spurred his noble steed, lowered his mighty lance and charged the poor sons of bitches, death would surely come swiftly upon them. But just as the noble von Pückelbrau engaged the leading brigand and were about to run him through with his lance, he instead planted it firmly in the soil before his very feet and made an athletic and I dare say, very impressing polevault. In great height he passed all the brigands, who looked upon in awe and amazement, and landed not so gracefully on his head, right behind them, alas, the poor Sir Ernst von Pückelbrau was dead at impact, his first battle was to be his last.
This, however did not discourage my hardy and seasoned player and while the rest of the party quickly disposed of the brigands, he created a new and improved knight. Shortly thereafter the party met with the very noble and galant knight Sir Heinz von Prügelknabe, he was a sight for sore eyes, proud, tall and noble of bearing, yet he had a kind and gentle way with other people.
After a few days on the road, the party accidently camped on a barrow, which wasn't much to the residents liking. The Barrowwight came upon them late at night, and they battled hard and ferociously for quite a while, until at last, they had the foul creature cornered in its tomb and the barbarian Brutto slew the beast with his mighty battleaxe.
But it wasn't over yet, Brutto had employed his usual tactics and was in a frenzy, in his mindless rage he recognized nothing or nobody and began swinging his axe at Sir Heinz von Prügelknabe. Heinz wouldn't hit a friend even with his own life at stake and so he parried Brutto's brutal attacks with all he had and waited for him to snap out of his frenzy, Sir Heinz von Prügelknabe really lived up to his name.
Suddenly Brutto penetrated his defense and struck him down with a terrible
blow to his head, The noble Sir Heinz von Prügelknabe lay dead on the
floor, his first battle was to be his last. The player cried out: "I
WILL NEVER BE A KNIGHT AGAIN"
And so the session ended.
Life is hard and then you die
Il Padrone
Here is one of my favourite Rolemaster moments, but it's a little lengthy, so bear with me.
I was GMing a game, and the party had reached a rough coastal city, and were looking for passage on board a ship. They proceed to head to the docks to try to hire a ship, and end up in the roughest area. But that didn't bother them. They didn't bat an eye when, as they approached a local tavern, a fight came spilling out the door. The town guard, who had just rounded the corner, took one look at the fight, and took off. This still didn't deter our brave heroes, or make them think this might be an unsafe place.
They marched into the tavern, and dead silence fell, as every evil pirate in the place fixed an eye on them. But they were unphased. They grabbed a passing ruffian and one of the party demanded to know where they could find some healing herbs in town. This ruffian didn't know, so the party member raised his voice, and announced that he would pay gold to anyone willing to take them to a herbalist. Not surprisingly, at the mention of gold, someone in the tavern suddenly knew where an herbalist could be found.
This ruffian led them on a merry journey through city back lanes, alleys, etc. and finally reached a ramshackle building. The party entered, and were introduced to the ruffian's buddy, "Herb" the herbalist. He wasn't really an herbalist, but in reality, an accomplice, who depended on the ruffian to bring him foolish and naive out-of-towners, ripe for robbing and/or murdering.
Herb didn't have any stock visible, but said that he had some very special herbs, grown underground in the dark, that he could show to the party. These herbs were, he said, could knit bones, mend ligaments, stop bleeding, do just about everything. The party liked the sound of that. Herb explained that the herbs would be damaged by sunlight, so he'd have to shut the door, draw the blinds, and then he would fetch the herbs from the back room. Still labouring in their naivete, the party agreed. Herb locked the place up tightly, and then disappeared into the back room... and two seconds later, the party, in the darkness, could dimly see five rogues, all armed, charging in from the back room.
Needless to say, the party were surprised, and lucky to get out with nobody being killed (but lots of dangerous injuries). Finally, all the rogues were dead, and the party explore the back room. In there, they find a trap door, and a chute leading under the floor and (presumably) out the back of the house. Now, because this house backed onto the city river, the party deduced, correctly, that this was part of the drainage/sewage. So they decide to drop the bodies of the rogues down there. Of course, it's broad daylight... and as the town guard on the opposite side of the river patrol up and down, what do they see but 5 bodies plop out of this drainage hole on this house, and into the river, one after the other... they came charging across the river and round to the front of the house... but the party's difficulties with the guards, the Law, and the lord of the realm are another Rolemaster moment altogether. But the best part of this moment came when, one of the players, after all this, said "Well, let's just find the herbs and get out of here." He still expected the building to be full of herbs!
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