A funny thing happened on the way out of the dungeon
Many years ago in my weekly D&D campaign the party had gotten pretty chewed up. As I recall, no one died, but most of them were pretty low on hit points.
They'd left the ruined castle proper (everything above the ground floor was gone, and there was a partially water filled *crater* in part of the ground floor. An *elliptical* crater). They were heading across the large open area between the keep and the outer wall.
The gatehouse passageway was *huge* (as I recall, something like 50 feet across and 150 feet long). They'd just entered it when they encountered a small party of clerics heading in. From their symbols it was obvious they were of the evil variety.
Being as beat up as they were, the player party would just as soon not have another fight. They'd have almost certainly *won*, but they really didn't need the extra damage that'd ensue.
So some shouted negotiations took place as the two parties faced each other some distance apart. They'd just managed to agree to use opposite sides of the passage (at 50 feet, that was enough separation for both sides to feel mostly safe)
Then it occurred to one of the players that even *evil* clerics have cure spells. And it'd be nice to get healed some before they got back to town.
Since the dungeon was on a large island in a lake and the town was on another island over a mile away, this was actually a good idea. They might encounter some other problem before they got back to their boats, or encounter something while rowing back to town.
So, more negotiations. They wanted to buy some cure serious wounds spells. Much discussion amongst the evil clerics.
"Ok, it'll be a thousand golds apiece."
"A thousand! That's outrageous. They'e only 500 in town!"
The cleric shrugged. "So go to town. We're here, the price is a thousand each."
Much arguing but the player party gave in. Everybody watched carefully as the worst injured got healed. They were somewhat better, and the parties went on their ways. The player party got back to town ok and got healed up and everything.
A couple of months later, they hear some folks laughing themselves silly in a tavern. So they ask what's so funny.
Seems that the story was about how some priests of [????] had swindled some adventures. They'd charged them for cure serious but only cast cure light.
The players were *not* happy, as a cure light (in town) was only 100 gold. So they hadn't paid double the price, they'd paid *ten times* the price.
And this, children is how my players learned a painful lesson about the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge. Among other things.
It was hard keeping a straight face while negotiating that scene. And it was hard to wait all those weeks before I let the players find out. But *oh* was it satisfying. :-)
This entry was originally posted at http://kengr.dreamwidth.org/1038095.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
They'd left the ruined castle proper (everything above the ground floor was gone, and there was a partially water filled *crater* in part of the ground floor. An *elliptical* crater). They were heading across the large open area between the keep and the outer wall.
The gatehouse passageway was *huge* (as I recall, something like 50 feet across and 150 feet long). They'd just entered it when they encountered a small party of clerics heading in. From their symbols it was obvious they were of the evil variety.
Being as beat up as they were, the player party would just as soon not have another fight. They'd have almost certainly *won*, but they really didn't need the extra damage that'd ensue.
So some shouted negotiations took place as the two parties faced each other some distance apart. They'd just managed to agree to use opposite sides of the passage (at 50 feet, that was enough separation for both sides to feel mostly safe)
Then it occurred to one of the players that even *evil* clerics have cure spells. And it'd be nice to get healed some before they got back to town.
Since the dungeon was on a large island in a lake and the town was on another island over a mile away, this was actually a good idea. They might encounter some other problem before they got back to their boats, or encounter something while rowing back to town.
So, more negotiations. They wanted to buy some cure serious wounds spells. Much discussion amongst the evil clerics.
"Ok, it'll be a thousand golds apiece."
"A thousand! That's outrageous. They'e only 500 in town!"
The cleric shrugged. "So go to town. We're here, the price is a thousand each."
Much arguing but the player party gave in. Everybody watched carefully as the worst injured got healed. They were somewhat better, and the parties went on their ways. The player party got back to town ok and got healed up and everything.
A couple of months later, they hear some folks laughing themselves silly in a tavern. So they ask what's so funny.
Seems that the story was about how some priests of [????] had swindled some adventures. They'd charged them for cure serious but only cast cure light.
The players were *not* happy, as a cure light (in town) was only 100 gold. So they hadn't paid double the price, they'd paid *ten times* the price.
And this, children is how my players learned a painful lesson about the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge. Among other things.
It was hard keeping a straight face while negotiating that scene. And it was hard to wait all those weeks before I let the players find out. But *oh* was it satisfying. :-)
This entry was originally posted at http://kengr.dreamwidth.org/1038095.html. Please comment there using OpenID.