The Campaign Builder's Guild

Hey Guys,
I'm stealing this thread idea from Forumopolis, because I figured it would work so well here.  If you've ever experienced any particularly heroic or epic deaths of a favored character, or if you've been in a campaign where one has occurred, tell us about it here.  I'll get a couple of mine together and get in on this later as well, but I wanted to post it here before I forget.
Cheers!

I once had a character who was so awesomely fearsome they decided to just tear down the building around her rather than face her directly.

Clever bastards...

It's not much of a story, though, is it?

I once had a sardonic compulsive-liar paranoid violent mercenary.

He died when he thought someone was watching him, stalked them and stabbed them. It turned out they were a member of the city watch. He was clubbed over the head and hanged the next day in sight of gods and men.

This isn't exactly a last stand, but my character thought it was going to turn into one. I had a wizard who got an entire hamlet angry at him by saying the wrong things in a tavern while a local holiday parade happened to be going on outside. He used Ventriloquism and some other minor spells to try to blame some other people, but ended up having to run away, and was chased into a cave. The cave happened to be infested with goblins, and the villagers and the goblins ended up killing each other. Apparently, he was wanted in the kingdom for mass murder after that.

Paladin. Stone Bridge. Over Lava.

It's not really original, but hey, it happened.

Can we post utterly non-heroic, non-epic, and possibly even downright embarrassing character deaths? If so, I have one from when one of my players decided to be dumb!

Well, one of my players' level 9 clerics once fought off a mob of goblins. At least fifty, I forget the actual number. The fatal flaw was doing this for a bunch of goblins in the first place, because they then poisoned his wine and he had so few hit points left he died.

I managed to run the climax of a siege as a last stand. Basically my players were each in charge of a small unit of mercenaries (so it was a little like Warhammer but without figurines, just markers to indicate units) but I ran it kind of like a combination of "Zulu" "13th Warrior" and "Blackhawk Down". (D&D setting--my campaign actually) The players themselves were actually tense, leaning forward, gritting their teeth at every die roll. Wave after wave of barbarians, spell attacks, general destruction until the fortifications were breached and slaughter ensued of all within.

We were traveling by ship across the inner sea and got jumped by orc pirates. We did what we could but the defenders were overwhelmed. The orc Captain gloated about how we were all to be ransomed for 10,000 gp. My Paladin said "Ha! I'm worth that much myself." (I remembered a story I heard once about Julius Caesar and hoped I'd get it right) The Orc Captain rejoiced about 20,000 gp. I said, "You'll never get 20,000 for all of us, and isn't one prisoner is easier to deal with than a whole shipload?" I took off my family heirloom sword and handed it to another PC. "If my family gets your message and this sword, they'll know what to do, and you'll be in line for an easy 10,000. Very smart." The Captain asked who I was and I gave my name with full authority. I was, in fact, a fourth level nobody, but the Captain said, "Oh, right! Well then, loot the prize and cast them off. Clap the rich boy in chains! Where is my scribe?!?" I figured that saving a shipload of people from orc pirate slavery would be worth the life of one PC Paladin.

I never got the details of the grisly scene but I was assured that they were inhumane.

One time, I was playing a Rogue in a party heading back from a dungeon. We met a mounted knight coming towards us, and a battle ensued.

At one point in the fight, the knight turned tail and started running away. We got off a few parting crossbow shots, but he was too far and the next round he was but a speck in the distance. We were worried, because now the people he worked for would know we were an enemy, and I wished he would come back so we could kill him.

Luckily, he did come back... charging, with his lance pointed straight at me! He gored me down to -22 hit points.

Off the top of my head, the only character I recall losing was a sorceress fighting a bunch of shadows. They were nasty to begin with, and when I finally thought we had one almost dead, it touched a rift of some kind and went back to full health. Being at like 5 Strength left, I ran, at this point. The shadow used it's superior movement to chase me down and drain 6 Str on the next hit. Actually, I think the DM may have killed another PC with the shadow that rose from my character.

I suppose that's more pathetic than epic.

[completely off topic]
Welcome back Sparkletwist!  
[back on topic]

Sdragon, you can seriously post any sort of character deaths you want here - I'm not going to moderate ;)

I joined a friend's game some years back as a "temporary" character - his PCs were mid-level, and were embarking on an aquatic campaign.  I played their guide, a 1st level, CG Aquatic Elf Ranger (with a hippocampus animal companion).  It was not easy to play a 1st level hireling fighting Sahaguin raiders, but my character got through a lot of close calls.  Though he started out as a rather shifty, untrustworthy wanderer in the eyes of the PCs, by the end of the campaign he had become a trusted companion.

We were basically on our last encounter of the campaign - fleeing a Sahaguin horde to a ship that was waiting for us (we were swimming).  The ship threw us a rope over the side to climb up, and my character insisted on being the last one up.  I somehow managed to slay 2 Sahaguin myself with my trident (I had gotten to 2nd level by this time, but still), letting the others climb up safely.  Everyone else had gotten over the side and I was half way up, when a Sahaguin surfaced and threw a single spear, pegging my character in the back (and removing the last of my meager hp).  As the rest of the party looked over the side, my character gave them a last smile, then slipped off the rope and into the inky depths, never to be seen again.

I was running a game with a ranger, rogue, and a barbarian. The  guy playing the barbarian, I strongly suspect, was more then just a little intoxicated at the time.

The PC's were, somehow, lost in the woods, and slowly realizing that they were quickly becoming even more lost, when they noticed a flash of white, which turned out to be a large deer (taken from an issue of Dragon). Everybody decided to chase it for a bit, the rogue even calling out to tell it to stop. Once they finally felt they caught up to it, they tried shooting it a couple times (both the rogue and the ranger had bows), when the guy playing the barbarian decided-- at the worst possible moment-- to play up the whole "brutal savage" thing to the hilt: "I throw my axe at it, so I can kill it and drink it's blood, Harry Potter style!" He managed to be the only character to successfully hurt the deer.

Immediately, the deer ran off and disappeared. The ranger and rogue both went on guard, knowing that if it could vanish at a moments notice, it could probably come back just as fast. Which, of course, it did. Right behind the barbarian, trampling him. I rolled the damage, asked for his HP, then informed him that he was now down to -2 HP, leading me to tell the other two players: "You find the deer, standing over [the barbarian's] unconscious body. Yes, take that however you like."

The barbarian was stabilized, but I haven't played with that group again yet, and the player for the barbarian recently told me he didn't feel like playing anymore (possibly because of that incident, but he assures me it's for other reasons), so next time around, the character is going to be dead.

My "epic death" I remember most because It was the first time  character died in one of my campaigns (my DM likes us to actually be heroes, giving us generous Abilities and rarely ruling against powerful stacking effects)
Any case, we're 12th level, solving a murder mystery. The group goes into this fight with a recent new member being added, a skilled archer being framed for a coming murder who happened to "suffer" from the belief that death was a preferable state to life, and therefore willing killed in "altruistic" fashion. (Ruled CN with evil tendencies, he legitimately thought he was helping) Anywho, my char gets hold person by a mage, and the bard villain suggests the archer "set me free".
One Bow coup de grace from 5 feet later, my character is dead.

Also led to one of my group's favorite lines "You...are under arrest." (Party leader, paladin, after the fight.)