#RPGaDay 2017 Day 7: What Was Your Most Impactful RPG Session?
This is from my old Mazeworks Play-By-Email Game. One of the characters, Nigel Taylor-Smythe, had been brought it to supervise the PCs. He was kind of an internal affairs officer from the magical organization to which Trent Capricornus, one of the PCs belonged. Think Ed Exley meets Wesley from Buffy.
Nigel was a bright, enthusiastic uncompromising go-getter who could never live up to his father's deeds. However, the senior Taylor-Smythe was secretly a villain, involved in the blackest arts imaginable. After his death, his cohorts had his skull rendered down into a magical artifact, and this allowed him to influence the world through his old magical, and they saw to it that Nigel the younger come into possession of this cane. The skull would offer the uncertain young mage aid and guidance during a difficult mission and would eventually lead him down the path to damnation.
This scene is from the end of the campaign. Nigel's father has been discovered and is ready to destroy the heroes. Nigel doesn't know what to do..
Trent becomes slightly shaken at the mention of Tanelorn. He wants to question the
creature, but knows he can not.
"I've walked the fine line of life and death for a long time, foul one. I've met Death. Not a bad guy. Definitely not someone to be afraid of." He takes a quick moment to see how Nigel the younger is holding up. "We are going to have to cooperate now, you know."
Nigel does not answer. He is reevaluating everything he has ever believed.
[Trent] will call forth elemental fire and direct it at the cane, the hottest, purest flame he can muster.
Ibis,
not paralyzed by the skull, joins in too, blasting rainbow fire from
his staff towards the cane. The resulting counterstroke of red
lightning almost consumes both men. In an instant, the temperature in
the room rises ten degrees. Nigel doesn't stir.
Nigel
Taylor-Smythe IV is a man who aspired to the ideal of his father. He
studied harder, pushed himself further than any other mage of his
generation. He was ruthless in his climb to the top, rationalizing that
once he achieved this impossible goal, anything he had done in its
pursuit of would be justified.. And now, Trent wants him to turn his
powers on his father's cane and his father's skull, destroying
everything he had worked for.
Nigel must realize that it is not
too late. Throw in with his father. Return to the Council as if nothing
had happened. Destroy the traitor, who resisted too strenuously when
being detained. Devise pretty lies to cover the trail. Or waver and be
destroyed.
What
a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties!
In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an
angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The
paragon of animals!
Even with combined efforts of Mister Ibis and Trent, the cane is
destroying them, beating them, rending their flesh, tearing their
minds. Trent is faced with the absurd realization that he's about to be
killed by a fashion accessory.
Nigel
sees none of this. As an educated man he is familiar with The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There is a passage in the book
that never made sense to
him. Huck was contemplating a letter he had just written, to turn in
his friend Jim, the escaped slave, as was his duty. Huck had been
taught, and he sincerely believed, that doing so was his duty as a good
Christian (and as a good, law-abiding American). He had been taught,
and he sincerely believed, that failing to do so would damn his soul to
Hell.
It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was
a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things,
and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and
then says to myself:
"All right, then, I'll go to Hell" -- and tore it up.
It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let
them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. ... And for
a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if
I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long
as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.
Study that a minute. Turning in Jim would condemn his friend to years
of misery in this world, but his own immortal soul would be damned for
eternity -- and what are a few mortal years compared with that? The choice never made any sense to Nigel, up until this moment.
"Of course," he breathes, as a massive weight falls from his shoulders. He raises his arm and joins his strength to Trent's.
Young Josh must have been quite the fan of Tom Moldvay, because he went directly from Star Frontiers to Avalon Hill’s Lords of Creation. I think I picked this up at K-B Toy and Hobby. In the early 80s they would often offer unsold RPGs at a steep discount. I bought a lot of Dark Sun that way.
There are two circumstances where I like to have short sessions. The first is for comedy games like Toon.
