The Sigil
Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
Hi all,
I was just thinking about this after the "immersed in lava" thread - what is the most memorable but unconventional (or "not quite by the rules") use of a spell to great dramatic effect you've ever seen.
For me, it actually came near the climax of my last campaign (forgive a bit of setup here) - after several battles with a fiendish undead lord, the party eventually discovers a tapestry that has on it encoded a map to a powerful lost artifact of great evil... which they hope to destroy. They make a copy of the map on the tapestry but leave the tapestry itself in the village the undead lord's minions originally stole it from.
As they're slowly, nonchalantly making their way to the valley where the artifact is held, they notice one night a whole bunch of "fireflies" on the far side of the valley. One of the wizards polymorphs himself into a small bird and does some reconnoitering... sure enough, it's a whole freaking army of gnolls. It's at this point they realize they left the tapestry and the gnolls are obviously trying to get to the artifact.
So now it's a race... they manage to get to the point in the valley that leads to the artifact - a narrow natural rock bridge that takes them through a tight pass - with two enormous waterfalls on either side of the bridge (I hoped to make the area memorable)... and it's at this point that the gnolls finally catch up to them. The party is vastly outnumbered, and has spent many of their resources trying to knock out the guardians just to get to this point.
Can't just take 'em all out - there are too many. Can't run away... they'll get the artifact. As this was the climax of the campaign, my hope was to make this into a "valiant holding action" with most of the party trying to hold the narrow pass against the gnolls while a couple of members raced to grab - and destroy - the artifact. As I had hoped the party digs in on the narrow bridge and begins to fight a holding action. The gnolls are sweeping up the path leading to the bridge and peppering the party with arrows, though a wind wall spell makes these mostly ineffective. The gnolls, after seeing a few of their number picked off, now are just trying to bull rush/overrun the party... the group knows they can't hold out for long... but of course they don't split up, with most holding and a few rushing to destroy the artifact. Things are not going as planned and I'm staring down a TPK.
The Spell
Desperate to find a way to stem the tide, I see my players scanning their character sheets. Suddenly, the player who has cleric comes up with a plan. He asks if the waterfalls are a valid target for a "control water" spell. Never one to slavishly adhere to the game rules instead of giving PCs a chance for something truly memorable (and suddenly suspecting what he's about to do), I say, "sure." He casts control water on the waterfalls, raising the water level of the water half-way down the falls. I rule (as he had hoped, and as he described when casting the spell) that water shooting up (thanks to the spell) plus water flowing down will create, in essence, a "fire-hose" type spray, and with a couple of rounds of practice, he is able to divert the spray from running parallel to the bridge to crossing over onto the bridge itself.
Now the cleric is using two waterfalls as "fire hoses" and washes nearly the entire gnoll army off the bridge (failed saves). The party mops up the few gnolls near them. The remaining gnolls panic and scatter. The day is saved! The heroes destroy the artifact and finish off the campaign in a truly blockbuster/memorable sequence they still talk about years later. It was a showstopper, and you know, I think that was an even better climax than a holding action - spray the scum away! (This was before the LotR movies, so they didn't get the idea from the Ents at Isengard, either). I thought the description of the location would make it memorable... but it was their interaction with that "backdrop" that made it legendary. Good for them.
Yeah, I don't think the rules technically allow that. But I still think I made the right decision. Just thought I'd share, and wanted to hear any other stories out there like this.
--The Sigil
I was just thinking about this after the "immersed in lava" thread - what is the most memorable but unconventional (or "not quite by the rules") use of a spell to great dramatic effect you've ever seen.
For me, it actually came near the climax of my last campaign (forgive a bit of setup here) - after several battles with a fiendish undead lord, the party eventually discovers a tapestry that has on it encoded a map to a powerful lost artifact of great evil... which they hope to destroy. They make a copy of the map on the tapestry but leave the tapestry itself in the village the undead lord's minions originally stole it from.
As they're slowly, nonchalantly making their way to the valley where the artifact is held, they notice one night a whole bunch of "fireflies" on the far side of the valley. One of the wizards polymorphs himself into a small bird and does some reconnoitering... sure enough, it's a whole freaking army of gnolls. It's at this point they realize they left the tapestry and the gnolls are obviously trying to get to the artifact.
So now it's a race... they manage to get to the point in the valley that leads to the artifact - a narrow natural rock bridge that takes them through a tight pass - with two enormous waterfalls on either side of the bridge (I hoped to make the area memorable)... and it's at this point that the gnolls finally catch up to them. The party is vastly outnumbered, and has spent many of their resources trying to knock out the guardians just to get to this point.
Can't just take 'em all out - there are too many. Can't run away... they'll get the artifact. As this was the climax of the campaign, my hope was to make this into a "valiant holding action" with most of the party trying to hold the narrow pass against the gnolls while a couple of members raced to grab - and destroy - the artifact. As I had hoped the party digs in on the narrow bridge and begins to fight a holding action. The gnolls are sweeping up the path leading to the bridge and peppering the party with arrows, though a wind wall spell makes these mostly ineffective. The gnolls, after seeing a few of their number picked off, now are just trying to bull rush/overrun the party... the group knows they can't hold out for long... but of course they don't split up, with most holding and a few rushing to destroy the artifact. Things are not going as planned and I'm staring down a TPK.
The Spell
Desperate to find a way to stem the tide, I see my players scanning their character sheets. Suddenly, the player who has cleric comes up with a plan. He asks if the waterfalls are a valid target for a "control water" spell. Never one to slavishly adhere to the game rules instead of giving PCs a chance for something truly memorable (and suddenly suspecting what he's about to do), I say, "sure." He casts control water on the waterfalls, raising the water level of the water half-way down the falls. I rule (as he had hoped, and as he described when casting the spell) that water shooting up (thanks to the spell) plus water flowing down will create, in essence, a "fire-hose" type spray, and with a couple of rounds of practice, he is able to divert the spray from running parallel to the bridge to crossing over onto the bridge itself.
Now the cleric is using two waterfalls as "fire hoses" and washes nearly the entire gnoll army off the bridge (failed saves). The party mops up the few gnolls near them. The remaining gnolls panic and scatter. The day is saved! The heroes destroy the artifact and finish off the campaign in a truly blockbuster/memorable sequence they still talk about years later. It was a showstopper, and you know, I think that was an even better climax than a holding action - spray the scum away! (This was before the LotR movies, so they didn't get the idea from the Ents at Isengard, either). I thought the description of the location would make it memorable... but it was their interaction with that "backdrop" that made it legendary. Good for them.
Yeah, I don't think the rules technically allow that. But I still think I made the right decision. Just thought I'd share, and wanted to hear any other stories out there like this.
--The Sigil
