Favourite moment from our latest DW session: when the cleric (of Pelor) convinced the paladin (of Pelor) to break his oath to Pelor!
They had been battling a village-squashing titan, and not faring very well. The wizard had already been stomped on, picked up, and thrown over the next hill (spoiler: he lived), when the PCs noticed that the earth-bound titan’s wings were badly hobbled by old bone-breaks that had never knit properly.
“I could fix your wings,” offered the cleric.
The titan paused mid-stomp. “What?”
A parley ensued, in which the cleric convinced the titan that she really could heal his old wounds for good. The titan Hantlogoth agreed to stop hunting mortals, if she could really do it. “But if you fail, I’ll kill you next.”
“How are you going to heal his wings?” I asked.
“I… don’t… know…” admitted the player, scanning her playbook. “Cure Light Wounds?”
Hantlagoth cracked his knuckles. The sound echoed off the hills like distant thunder.
“I can Lay On Hands,” offered the paladin. “Says right here, ‘remove one disease.’ This counts, right?”
“A debility is like a disease,” I reason. “Okay, it’ll work, if you roll well. He’s like a hundred times your size.” The PCs get the titan to lay down, and are all set to perform a miracle when the paladin realizes something:
“Hold on, I just swore to Pelor that I would KILL this titan!” He had in fact invoked the advanced move Exterminatus just minutes ago. “I can’t heal him now!”
“If you don’t, he’s going to squash us into jam!” the cleric stage-whispered.
Paladin, reading from his playbook: “When you speak aloud your promise to defeat an enemy, you deal +2d4 damage against that enemy and -4 damage against anyone else. This effect lasts until the enemy is defeated. If you fail to defeat the enemy or give up the fight, you can admit your failure, but the effect continues until you find a way to redeem yourself.”
“What’s the hold-up?” rumbled Hantlagoth.
A very interesting theological discussion ensued, in which the lives of the PCs and all the villagers were weighed against one hasty oath. The recently-ballistic wizard returned during this, spied this scene of healing and demanded “what the hell is going on??”
The cleric eventually prevailed, and the newly air-worthy titan kept his promise. Now we have a paladin who is firmly in the doghouse with his god, and is desperate for a chance to redeem himself.
Good times 🙂
Great character development!
Interesting, it could be argued though that in defeating your enemy you don’t not need to kill them, you just need to stop them from doing what they want to do and do what you want them to do…
No redemption necessary.
It could be, but I’m not going to bring it up! 🙂
Doug McDermott​ I dunno, I think this is more interesting. It gives more direction for the story to continue.
John Willson I usually like my gods petty, comic, rules lawyers who answer to much higher powers. In short like Fritz Leiber’s Newhon gods.
Death is much more powerful, but a gentleman. These are former mortals and are created and feed off the faith of their followers… Good times.
Sounds like a most excellent session 🙂
Doug McDermott That idea could actually be used in-game… the Paladin believes he needs to seek out a holy man of Pelor to redeem himself. He eventually does that, but the holy man explains that he actually defeated the titan by stopping him from rampaging. It hasn’t been Pelor’s displeasure that has been causing him problems since, but his own doubts.
It would have the same effect in the story as the holy man simply chanting and waving his hands and declaring the Paladin shriven of his failure, but seems much more interesting to me.
Robert Rendell Ehh… that feels too much like taking the Paladin’s agency away. I mean, you’re free to declare that their god is angry or disappointed with them, or that they’re not, but telling the player how their character feels about something? That’s a big no in my book. Especially if you’re going to wait until an arbitrarily long time later and pull it out of your hat like that, so that the player doesn’t even get a chance to object to it.
As a GM, the characters’ internal struggles are the players’ stories for you to encourage. They’re not yours to tell.
You’re right James Etheridge, that’s an important point; but in our case, the Paladin has already given voice to his internal struggles on this issue. I wouldn’t be putting any words in his mouth.
James Etheridge I agree in general, but I was assuming (and John Willson has confirmed) that the player was already going with the consequences of their Exterminus move, which says “If you fail to defeat the enemy or give up the fight, you can admit your failure, but the effect continues until you find a way to redeem yourself.”
So, assuming that he’s now suffering an ongoing -4 to damage against everything that isn’t the titan and is looking for a way to redeem himself, I thought it would be neat if examining what it means to defeat an enemy could be worked into his redemption.
I wouldn’t prescribe finding a holy man and experiencing that revelation as the only way he can find redemption, though… I’d ask the player something like “Has this happened to members of your order in the past? Is there a prescribed method of atonement?” If he decides that something like slaying a powerful evil creature in glorious personal combat while suffering the -4 is what he needs to do, then that’s good too!