Quote from: Xanther;379662I delight in the PCs completely mucking up the best laid plans of the NPCs particularily by doing something completely unexpected and audacious.
We all have these moments as GMs. We prepare the session, or have a set of expectations as to what the PCs might do in this or that situation. We run the game, get to the situation in question and... the shit hits the fan. The players do something COMPLETELY unexpected.
I LOVE this stuff as a GM. I strive on it. It keeps me on my toes, prompts me to improvise on the spot, keeps the game genuine, and makes it more fun for everyone involved. That's when imaginary exchanges between GM and players occur more "LIVE" than ever, in a way.
So. Share your "WTF" moments like this with me. Any particularly good or bad memories? Stuff that will live on forever in glory or infamy in your gaming chronicles? Share with us. :)
Years ago, during the days of Unearthed Arcana, one of my players was playing a cavalier and got knocked unconscious and captured by the enemy. Upon being rescued by the rest of the party, he immediately committed suicide because of the line in UA about "death before dishonor." I was scratching my head over that one for quite a while.
I also had a player jump off a high bridge and kill himself rather than be captured, even when it was abundantly clear it was one of those "and then break out / get rescued by the other PCs" scenarios. Isn't the daring escape supposed to be fun? I certainly think so. Not my player. He would have rather died, apparently.
Since then I don't really do imprisonment scenarios anymore.
I really wish I had one of those "and then my players went totally off the rails and it was AWESOME!" stories. But I don't. My players are awesome in ways that leave them on the rails, apparently.
In the last AD&D 1e campaign I ran, a group of players entered Viridistan and killed the last Viridian Emperor. The city was thrown into chaos and the empire split into civil war. This wasn't a WTF moment as the players pretty much stated their intent in killing the emperor. That came two years later.
It was my first major Fantasy Hero (1st edition) campaign. The players arrived in Viridistan hot on the quest after the Chromatic Crystal in order to deal with the Ebon Crystal they found. Along the way they managed to find the Regalia of the Demon King and had that in safekeeping. Viridistan at this time was under the control of the Church of Set who managed to cobble together a shaky alliance that brought order to the city. They were not nice guys and the players continually ran afoul of the Setites.
The WTF moment came when prowling around they discovered by the city guards. One thing led to another and the party's position in the city was compromised and they were being bagged one by one. The mage literally panicked out of game and in a rush of words said he was grabbing the regalia and putting it on.
The regalia was established as a "Real bad thing" like in your character becomes an NPC bad thing. However I decided to let the mage player have one last fling with the character and let him handle him for the remainder of the session. This was after a huddle in the hall outside of the dorm room we were playing.
A funny moment came when I was describing the mage character going around and zapping Setites while taking control of Viridistan. Two of the players saw him flying high in the air. One goes to the other "Hey I don't think the mage can fly can he?" the other goes "Nope, I think our problems just multiplied".
Eventually every player was bagged by the mage aka the Demon King and his flunkies.
The climax came when the Demon King is sitting in the throne room having eliminated the opposition. He orders the players to be brought before him. He order them to swear fealty or die. The players being a particular heroic bunch all refused except one.
He stepped up and announced he would support the Demon King. He was supposedly an ex-Setite but everybody thought he was evil. The player always played this character as a bad-ass and that little to help change this perception.
After the player announced this he then explained the he had the Chromatic Crystal (which they found during all this) hidden and was willing to present it to the Demon King. By this time all the players were glaring at him.
None the less he walks up to the Demon Kings, pulls out the Chromatic Crystal and to everybody's surprise zaps him. The Chromatic Crystal is a powerful holy artifact and it causes the Regalia to fall off. Freeing the mage and eliminating the Demon King.
This causes further chaos but because just about all the higher ups were killed by the Demon King the player gained the upper hand and control of the Viridistan where they still rule in the current present of my campaign in 4454 BCCC. (The Majestic Wilderlands supplement is written in 4436 BCCC).
So what started a fuck up that was going to result in them being jailed by the city guards wound up with them being in control of the city itself! A pure WTF from start to finish and a lot of fun.
I think I have told this story before... but here it goes.
A lengthy Feng Shui campaign was having its climactic battle. One of the heroes (a Martial Artist) was in the Netherworld in a showdown against his mentor, an Old Master who'd turned evil. The stakes were immense.
The setting was in a gigantic cavern, on a narrow stone bridge leading to a temple on a jutting island. The Old Master was guarding the bridge against the hero.
They squared off, and I decided to roll outside the screen as a sort of means of saying "No fudging on this." The battle was tooth-and-nail back and forth, with the characters both facing penalties and having to make balance rolls to keep from falling. The Old Master readied some mighty martial arts move that would have completely finished the PC hero off if it connected.
In Feng Shui, you roll two dice (a positive and a negative, averaged) and add them to the relevant skill (and any other modifiers). Rolls of 6s explode and are rolled again, indicating "something weird happens."
I rolled boxcars. Then boxcars again. Then boxcars again. Then a negative 6. Then another. Then another. Then a 2. The result was "triple weird things happen" and the villain had a modifier of something like -38 to his skill of 20.
I had him leap up into the air, coming down over and completely missing the player character, striking the ground so hard he shattered the bridge beneath him. He scrambled to try to reach a safe spot, only to have that section break off, then another piece break off, and then he fell to his death without a sound.
The players were stupefied that one of the three big bads for the campaign had essentially fumbled himself to death.
man I can't count the number of wtf moments I've had as a GM. One of the most entertaining that I recall was a fight between two players, one a wizard and the other a fighter. Although I don't remember the details of the argument, it ended when the wizard turned the fighter into a bag of weed and smoked him. It was also the end of our group IIRC. :)
Pete
In an AD&D campaign the PCs had joined up with the local, underground rebellion of the inevitable evil empire. One of the 'hooks' of the day included a grand ball that most of the big bad villains would be attending. It was meant to serve as an opportunity for the PCs to have more freedom to gather information from locals or steal into residences for plans, equipment, etc.
Instead, the PCs dressed up in noble disguises and bluffed their way into the ball. One of the PCs even got herself a dance with a general that she would soon be pitted against in open warfare a few weeks later. It was priceless. They came away well rewarded with knowledge of another kind; quirks, power relationships and bellies full of fine cuisine.
Well, we just made our GM in my face-to-face group a WTF moment Thursday night. The characters are members of the kingdom's militia, which is under the control of the prince. The Duke in charge of the kingdom's army has rebelled against the prince. We've been following the prince's trail, trying to reach him with important new (although, he already knew it). We came to the prince's girlfriend's city, which was under her family's control. However, we arrived late at night after the gates were closed. The guard on the gate was loyal to the Lady's noble house and told us that the Duke's men have taken control of the city and placed the Lady under house arrest.
We talk about different courses of action, some of which included sneaking into the city to rescue the Lady for our prince. There was talk of obtaining uniforms of the Duke's men, etc. However, our elf mage can fly and be invisible. So I suggested that he turn invisible and fly into the city and the Lady's estate to find her and talk to her. At first, we just wanted to verify if the prince was in the city or not. But, he found her and talked with her. I said get her out now. They climbed out a window and slipped into the canals of the city and got away.
The GM had planned for us to assault the Lady's estate to effect her rescue and had drawn out an elaborate battle map. We didn't use it at all.
WTF moments, let me count the times....
A) First and only game of GURPS: Traveller, I wanted to introduce the Players to a helpful NPC who captained a local Patrol Cruiser. The PCs jumped in with a Free Trader, so I had the Patrol Cruiser come alongside and request a boarding for inspection. The PCs weren't doing anything illegal, the inspection was simply procedural, and was set up for just a role-playing scene. The Free Trader captain PC declared over the radio, "We do not recognize your authority! Your Imperial marines will board our ship over our dead bodies!"
Which they did.
Shortest campaign I ever ran.
B) d20 Star Wars, the PCs had just freed some Rebel Agents and were sneaking them out of the starport to their ship. At one point, they hid in a fast food restaurant bathroom to change clothes in order to remain inconspicuous (they had been disguised as technicians to free the Rebels). To make it just a bit more tense, I had an Imperial Officer come into the bathroom and use the facilities. He used the urinal, finished up, didn't pay attention to the other PCs in the stalls, and began to leave.
While walking out the door to the main eating area of the restaurant, one of the Players decided that the Imperial Officer should be shot. In front of a Star Wars McDonald's full of customers this happened. Panic ensued. The authorities and the Empire were alerted. The rest of the night's game was a running gunfight across the starport to the PCs ship followed by a stock light freighter & TIE fighter chase scene leaving the planet. All seven PCs injured, including two dead, and their ship was heavily damaged.
I have more, but those two really stick out in my mind.
Those stories are hilarious, Jeff.
I did have something like that happen to me in a D&D game I ran in high school.
Player: I want to play a druid who goes on a grand quest.
Me: OK.
(Player rolls up druid)
Me: Your circle asks you to commence a grand quest to retrieve...
Player: I tell them to eat my ass!
Me: ...
So he wandered off into the woods, I rolled on the random encounter table and he was eaten by a grizzly. So ends the fabulous tale of druid-man.
We all have a lot of these. The longer you game, the more you gain. 30+ years for some of us means we've forgotten some good moments.
one comes right to mind.
One PC was playing an Assassin/Mage-type (Eodl) and a Healer/Druid-type (Bramble Oakthorn). He's a VERY in depth roleplayer, one of those players I've kept for about 3 decades in my games. Group is in town, doing various and sundry, and the first one tries to pull a sexual bad thing to another PC, especting to kill her afterwards. She escapes, and he has to flee.
The rest of the group decides it is their job to bring him down. (and remember, the Player now has PCs on both sides of this.) They all go out in pairs to hunt down Eodl, for which I was happy, becasue I was able to make the other PC with Bramble make all the directional decisions. But of course, it turns out that Bramble and the Other PC run into Eodl in a tavern in the Dockside area of Igbar. Of course.
The Other PC was still outside (having run into a member of his guild and trying to get info), when Bramble goes in and confronts Eodl.
And the Player has to have his characters engage in a combat to the death, with Bramble being disgusted by the amoral Eodl. WTF?
(It stayed in WTF mode, the Weaker one, the Healer/Druid type got lucky and killed the Assasin type).
I stocked the wizard's tower the PCs were exploring with various alchemical substances, just for flavor, one of which happened to be an explosive substance not unlike gunpowder.
I know I shouldn't have been surprised when they ended up blowing up the entire tower (to keep it out of enemy hands, of course :D).
I guess this is as common as dirt but the adventurers captured a magic-user who'd been using Orcs as muscle. Said M-U tried to weasel-talk his way out of giving the party any direct information (I was planning on having him come back at a later time if the party parlayed with him and freed him). The group cleric threw him down a 30' shaft (as he was only a 5th level magic-user the fall was quite fatal).
Oh! Another one in the same campaign: the party captured Gellor (from Gary's Gord the Rogue novels) and was planning on torturing him for information until another party member said "Uh, guys, he said he would work with us"
Very recently:
Players kill Iggwilv and free Iuz, Robilar and Zuoken form the God Trap. Castle Greyhawks starts to shake. They run, get outside. Castle Greyhawk starts to phase through the planes and whatever else.
Players find out that something bad happened due to a former friended NPC turning evil via Mirrormaster of Lynn artifact.
Players say: Fuck!
One Player: If we only could go back in time.
'Nother Player: Iknwoiknowinknowwhatwegonnado; we seek out the phasing Castle Greyhawk, take that God-Trap power source Obeliskwhatsisface, an use that to power the Castle as a Transplanar Time Machine. Wait, and we use the Suelwhatchacallitpowerslerotinstuff-Books the mage guy found with his nerdy prestige class guys to bend time & planes.
One Player: Yess! We CAN go back in time and prevent evil shit from happening! That´ll teach 'em Mirrormasters!
Mage Player: I´ll ask my most trusted friends in the Arcane Order to start preparing a scholarly excursion force immedeately.
DM: ... ...
DM:....
DM: Awesome!
Quote from: Settembrini;379761Very recently:
Players kill Iggwilv and free Iuz, Robilar and Zuoken form the God Trap. Castle Greyhawks starts to shake. They run, get outside. Castle Greyhawk starts to phase through the planes and whatever else.
Players find out that something bad happened due to a former friended NPC turning evil via Mirrormaster of Lynn artifact.
Players say: Fuck!
One Player: If we only could go back in time.
'Nother Player: Iknwoiknowinknowwhatwegonnado; we seek out the phasing Castle Greyhawk, take that God-Trap power source Obeliskwhatsisface, an use that to power the Castle as a Transplanar Time Machine. Wait, and we use the Suelwhatchacallitpowerslerotinstuff-Books the mage guy found with his nerdy prestige class guys to bend time & planes.
One Player: Yess! We CAN go back in time and prevent evil shit from happening! That´ll teach 'em Mirrormasters!
Mage Player: I´ll ask my most trusted friends in the Arcane Order to start preparing a scholarly excursion force immedeately.
DM: ... ...
DM:....
DM: Awesome!
Where do you live, and do you have an open slot in your game.
Berlin, actually! And we could cope with another player.
BTW, since then we haven´t played that campaign...because I needed to create/review time-travel rules for D&D. The mage player was so kind to DM a 4e module as a try out.
Now I am all set with the time travel rules (Chronomancer by this Mark-dude, it´s sheer awesome), and more importantly, the history of time travel in Greyhawk (It´s in the fucking Boxed Set, Gary amazes me to no end, Len Lakofka also helps out, via Lendore Isles).
I once had a Ravenloft campaign where the goal was to escape the demiplane. I wanted to give the players a taste of freedom early, so I set up a portal, with a portal keeper. When the players came to the portal gate, they could see their homeland and their loved ones through it. The first player to approach the gate saw his wife and children in a meadow. The Gate Keeper told the player he could pass through, but the price was the the lives of his children. As he spoke lurking wolves appeared on the edge of the meadow. The player casually said "okay" and went through. That he went through surprised me, but I was completely taken aback (and impressed) by his next action. He scooped up the bodies of his children (who had been killed by the wolves), went to a temple and paid to have them resurrected.
Babylon 5 game, all the PCs are quite skilled military pilots, but only one has a small unarmed shuttle, which is landed on a starbase.
Alien fighters attack, strafing the base. Now at the point I expected the PCs to basically either ask if they could borrow a fighter from the base commander they knew, or man the defences or something along those line. But no they all pile into their own unarmed shuttle and take that into space instead. Disappointing, but hardly unreasonable.
They then have an argument and one PC *LOCKS THE OTHERS IN THEIR CABINS* before spending the entire fight flying around the base avoiding raiders for no reason, rather than just flying away...
This one was from me as a player but years ago, we were playing a Dungeon adventure 'A Rose for Talakara' -a one-off adventure with about 12th level characters. We'd fought our way through the adventure with the party being seriously depleted (the cleric and one of the other PCs, I forget what, having decided to kill each other). I was playing the magic-user with amongst other things a Ring of Spell Turning.
We got to the BBEG, -I believe an about 25th level wizard who had used wishes to up her ability scores enormously and who was currently working on become a demigod. She immediately casts a Mass Charm, suggesting we drop our weapons and go lock ourselves in her dungeon...gets 20% of the spell effect reflected on herself by my character's ring....rolls a 1 on her saving throw.
So, she says 'Gee that sounds like a great idea...", drops her Staff of Power, and goes off to lock herself up :)
Quote from: Settembrini;379781Berlin, actually! And we could cope with another player.
BTW, since then we haven´t played that campaign...because I needed to create/review time-travel rules for D&D. The mage player was so kind to DM a 4e module as a try out.
Now I am all set with the time travel rules (Chronomancer by this Mark-dude, it´s sheer awesome), and more importantly, the history of time travel in Greyhawk (It´s in the fucking Boxed Set, Gary amazes me to no end, Len Lakofka also helps out, via Lendore Isles).
Ah, I don't think I'm going to be able to make that game commute.
I'm in Florida.
In a fantasy RPG game the players were becoming embroiled with the fey, dryads, ents, etc. over an acorn from a oak that could grow golden apples from which ambrosia can be made, etc. They got it from some dryads whom they rescued from centuries of slavery and on promises to find a good home for it. (My take on a module many of you may have played) Long story short, the druidic order wanted to grow this tree in the forest to the south of the kingdom, the fey of the forest to the north had their own desires.
The PCs are also in the business of defeating evil creatures that are repopulating said northern forest and have talked some giants into not cutting down so many trees from the forest among many other good deads. (My take on another module many of you may have played.)
Well the fey of the northern forest, most of them, have taken a liking to these PCs. Previously helping in small ways, helping them find paths through the woods. Some pixies giving them a warning of approaching danger, but also pilfering some coin.
After a major defeat of the orcs, werewolves, gargoyles and other nasties that have been destroying the forest the fairie king wants to talk to the party druid. You know thank him for all the help and try to “persuade” him to plant that acorn in the northern forest.
Well PC meets fairie king. Listens respectfully and basically says sure no problem, here’s the acorn. This is certainly against clear druidic corporate policy on said acron, but heck why not. That’s not the WTF moment.
Well this is big to the fey, good magic for their forest and a real coup over their oh so important brothers and sisters in the southern forest. So the fairie king decides to grant the PC a wish. Now this is the first wish the players have got access to ever in over two years of playing. I go through a whole monologue about how they wont screw you if you don’t over reach. If you over reach then they may get very literal about things. I proceed to give a bunch of examples of overreaching vs. OK types wishes. You know, all those tales the PCs would grow up hearing of the capricious fey.
Well this is big time for PCs you’d think. Maybe a magic item? Ring of invisibility, potion to bring you back to life. Maybe a good permanent attribute increase? Maybe a “level/skill” increase? That kind of stuff. The fairie king is getting ready for pure human greed here.
Now before I go much further, we’re a loose bunch always joking. We make jokes of RPG stereotypes, we make jokes out of mispronouncing PC names, call cautious characters pansies reversing gender pronouns, etc. We’ll the last session prior to this one we had slipped up a couple of times and called the druid a her (when the PC was a he) and it became a bit of a running joke for that session. I’m sure a lumber jack reference got thrown in there somewhere.
Needless to say, the druid PC did not wish for magic, or gold, or power, or knowledge. No the druid wanted to be a girl. You see he had lately become gender confused. No really, that's what he had the PC wished for. Now the player, who is male, had always played male PCs as far back as day one (or 1976 or so). He did it for the shear WTF of it.
I can honestly say I was prepared as a GM for pretty much anything but this. Well likewise the faries. This was just too mischievous, too good of a joke, and just blew their jaded minds that they certainly complied. This will live in fairy tales for generations. Heck they reversed almost everything. The druid had fire dragon armor, they made it ice dragon. His lynx animal companion Hermes, changed gender and name to Mercury. Etc.
They even let him (her) keep the acorn. The northern forest was still beset by evil. The fey were not sure they could protect it. Best to say the old male druid had left the party to travel into the forest to find a safe place for it. You know throw the bad guys off the scent. The new female druid was just one that had been caught/held in the land of fairy for many, many decades. This stuff happens. Who was released at the male druids request as a reward.
There was some explaining to do back at druidic corporate headquarters, but oddly enough the head druids did find a mention of just such a lost female druid in their records and even produce an elf that vouched safe the tale.
OK I forgot there was another one with the PCs prior to this.
We are running through G1, modified to fit my campaign. The only relevant modification, if you can call it that, is alignment doesn’t exist. Giants are no more evil than humans, but they can still do pretty bad things, like humans, and often do. One big question in this modified G1 is: Are the giants in the fort all in on attacking the kingdom or is it a few bad apples.
So the PCs after a week of cautious travel approach the fort. They have two familiars and a good scout/thief. They send them in to take a look around. A raven catches a sleeping guard in a tower, the fox finds a rat hole near the kitchen. The PCs sneak up. They climb up the tower and slit the sleeping giants throat.
The mage gets up on the roof, the thief prepares to drink an invisibility potion and sneak in the big hall where the giant’s are feasting. Everyone is there including the giants guest of honor (who I made an emissary). The raven familiar is looking down through the feast hall roof vents. The fox familiar is in the kitchen. The rest of PCs are huddled up in the tower.
Now I love role play details. I know my players love to scout. So I made up a gossip table. Bits of conversation the PCs might overhear if they listen to small talk. He said, she said stuff. Now the fox in the kitchen gets the ear full. She loves him but he won’t give here the time of day, the chief and his wife are fighting, those dirty orcs, if x only knew y was cheating on him, a certain giant better get with the program (new regime) or its off with his head, like the old chief and shaman. etc.
Now the thief gets the great idea (which is pretty good) of using up the several lust, love and greed potions he has acquired over time. He’s going to go invisible, sneak in to the feast hall, pour the potions in various drinks and let chaos reign.
I tend to hand out a fair amount of magic that is non-combat, that requires a certain flair to use. Such as the lust and greed potions, scrolls like magic mouth and simple illusion (one sense only) scrolls.
Well the theif gets in no problem. Spikes some greed potions into the gambling giants, and goes up to the head table with chief et al to really get it going. There’s the chiefs wife, the chief, guest of honor, and a few other. Lust in the chief, his wife and guest of honors drink = recipe for a fight. Drinks are deftly spiked.
But this is not the WTF moment oh no. This I can handle. Unbeknownst to the PCs and giants at large one of my modifications placed a spy of the guest of honor at the head table. This spy could not see invisible objects but could see into the “ether.” Which is where I rule bags of holding hold there stuff. Well poor thief had a small bag of holding so the spy sees a bunch of potions (and crap) go waking by. Every once in a while one disappears and then catches the splash of something going into the drinks.
Now the guest of honor gets up to make a speech and toast. You see there has been a regime change amongst the normally peaceable hill giants that was instigated by the guest of honor. The waxed heads of the former chief and shaman are on the wall behind him to remind the people.
But before the guest of honor can finish his speech and toast the spy (who looks like a giant) gets up and yells wait. He proceeds to make a massive scene (to get his masters attention and stop him from drinking), when this doesn’t work strikes the cup out of the guest of honors (let’s call him GOH) and storms off.
GOH knows something is up and follows his spy. The spy tells GOH what he saw. Not being fools they figure its an invisible PC type, probably the dwarves they have been raiding. No need to alarm the giants. Since they might have some explaining to do. They'll take care of this themselves. They get the plethora of orc slaves (see G1) and arm and organize them to look for the invisible guy they think is in the entry store room (the PCs are right upstairs).
Meanwhile the chief and his wife drank their drinks and are rediscovering their marriage in private. Fights are breaking out amongst the gamblers and everyone is talking about the scene between spy and GOH.
Now the PCs are a bit at a lost. The GOH is smart, he palces guards at exits and is getting flour from the kitchen. Then the PCs get their flash of brilliance. Some of the gossip has been about the old regime. That a certain giant better get with the program or its off with his head, like the old chief and shaman. They put 2 and 2 together and correctly identify the waxed heads in the hall.
The PCs proceed to use the illusion scroll and magic mouth like scroll to bring the shaman head to “life” Rule point, this magic mouth like scroll allowed you to speak in real time if close enough and in line of sight. So the mage, after making a few rolls not to fall off the roof, is looking through the roof vents pretending to be the spirit of the shaman.
The shaman proceeds to tell the giants the GOH has betrayed them. He has armed the troublesome orcs (see G1) and he is going to kill them all. After a little banter, the shaman head tells the skeptical giants to look. Sure enough they open the door to the entry area (off the main hall) and they see a couple dozen armed and armored orcs! Of course the orcs are searching for the PCs but the giants don't know that.
Sure enough it’s true! The slaves have been armed we are betrayed! All the proof a drunken, simple giant needs. Meanwhile the smart one (the chief) is with his wife in their chambers.
Needless to say a battle with the GOH and his spy ensues and the orcs. The shaman head says he will provide help…after a respectable delay cue the PCs.
My first (and thus far, only :() session of Carcosa was full of these moments.
I was running Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer by Geoffrey McKinney, using a maship of AD&D and RC OD&D with some homebrewed classes.
After exploring some ruins and helping the Dinosaur Riders decimate the People of the Consumed God, the PCs were asked by the red man who leads the dino riders to go and slay the bone sorcerer. They agree.
They trek out to the dungeon, go inside, figure out marching order, and run into a pack of white lotus zombies. The fight goes badly, with only a single character, a bone (clear skinned) thief, surviving. The thief's player informs me that he is gathering up his fallen companion's possessions, which included an amber idol of a wolf demon and a ray gun, and "running off into the night screaming 'I'm rich! I'm rich!' and cackling maniacally."
Meanwhile, the rest of the PCs have already rolled up new characters. I place them outside the entrance to the dungeon and tell them that they are adventurers from the north who have come to raid the bone sorcerer's lair for treasure and sorcerous lore. Then a puckish urge came upon me, and I told them that they saw a bone man with a horrid idol and a ray gun comes running out of the cave, gesticulating wildly and yelling incoherently- "Oh my god!" says I, "It's THE BONE SORCERER!"
Well, you can imagine what happened. The formerly fortunate thief was swiftly butchered and looted and another new PC was rolled up.
Later, one PC waded out into a lake of green slime because he thought it might mutate him. It dissolved him, but he seemed cautiously optimistic.
At one point, the party encountered a robot. One player told it that another PC was to be made a sacrifice. The robot began chasing said "sacrifice," who himself began chasing the first PC. On it went, until I got tired of the instigater (who was also the fellow who had played the bone thief earlier) not being able to come up with anything more creative than "I keep running," so I told him I was tired of this scooby doo crap and told him the robot tore him apart after his torch went out.
The "sacrifice" I let roll out his fight with the robot, but he didn't stand a chance. He passed his save against death when he hit zero, so I let him live...
Eventually, the last surviving PC, a black fighter, found the bone sorcerer and, after a very unfavorable reaction roll, engaged him in combat. After 5 rounds of whiffing on both sides, I had the bone sorcerer offer the fighter the chance to work for him, as he had a task which would require such talent. The fighter accepted. Then the robot showed up with the "sacrifice" alive but unconscious in his arms. The sorcerer brought him around and made him his new apprentice, since the PCs had killed his earlier apprentices.
And thus my PCs went from being guests of the People of the Consumed God to helping the Dinosaur Riders massacre them, to becoming minions of the bone sorcerer, who will use them against the Dinosaur Riders, and all in a single session. Everyone went through two characters, and 8 PCs died in all. It was a great beginning.