What do you do when a player does something really stupid? In this case, we were playing Sepia Throne and the players found a chest with one of the last Angels of Destruction, also known as the nasty summoned creature that inflicts hundreds of health levels, creates tidal waves, and can carve up large islands in a matter of seconds. Not to mention, they can fly just a tad under Mach 40.
They got a little information about it. The demons said they would not let it into the Infernal Plains, three different demons mentioned this, including the tiny little demon who was sent to watch they wouldn’t. They even gave one of the Solars a popup book showing them how they would torture them if they did. This popup book showed up at least twice in the adventure.
The first time they let it out, the chest popped open and it spent a round in stretch, then attacked a Sidereal. It managed to perfect block it, but the angel cut the Sidereal and the island he was on in the next turn. Then, he started to blow away large hunks of the countryside until they managed to close the chest. When they did, the angel was dragged into it, but it used its sword to gouge an immense crevice in the earth in an attempt to not be pulled into the chest. Oh, yeah and the tidal waves it created in round three.
So, immense and massive destruction. So, what do you do?
About eight hours later, they encountered a group of demons, so they let it out again. This time, it threw a ball of pure Essence after the rapidly fleeing demon dragon and shaved off part of the world. And yes, I used the term, “shaved off part of the planet.” It was also harder to get the chest closed (75 successes needed instead of the original 50).
So, they decided that the destruction was really intense. And they spent a day helping the people who were almost destroyed when the repeated tidal waves took out every coastal town in the area (the Sepia Throne is mostly islands).
What next? They decided to wait until everyone responded, then open the chest again. This third time, they were in the middle of nowhere, and the only target for the angel was on the boat they were on. So, it decided that it had to destroy the boat. Unfortunately, I used deus ex machima to save them (a Yozi possessed one of the demons enough to save them), and there was a fight that involved them fighting to close the chest while the angel and possessed demon fought. The Sidereal who kept putting prayer strips on them to stop them didn’t help, but he died.
They managed to close the chest (100 successes needed this time). The tiny little posssessed demon managed to survive and they told it that they were luring everyone there so they could kill them, with the chest being the “prize.” So, the demon said “great, I’m the last survivor, you got everything, I keep the chest” then it opened up a portal to an unknown location to take the chest out.
Now, as a storyteller, I don’t like to say no. I like to say how hard things are. So, when Amethyst said she was going to open the chest as it was being dragged out, I let them talk about it. The end result was, she thought it was funny, so she actually opened it.
Okay, so I already told them the demon didn’t want the chest to go to the Infernal Plains, so why would it teleport there. So, obviously it was going to a place in Creation. An unknown place in creation. So, they opened the chest as it was dumped some place in Creation. And then they fled to the Underworld to be crushed by the special effects (they were on bedrock of the ocean in the middle of a nifty sword-shaped hole, where gravity hadn’t quite caught on).
Now, I pretty much described the damage capabilities and they were fully aware that the angel was highly descructive from the first three times. I knew where the possessed demon was able to portal two (only two places, the Infernal Plains or the demense/manse it is bound to, world mechanic they were told about). So, the demon portals an open chest to a place south of the Imperial City, with no one being aware that an angle of destruction was set loose.
It would be like those scenes where people are having a nice day, then all hell broke loose. Even in my best, most generous aspect, it took someone 2-3 minutes to tap people capable of doing it and close it. Given how I described the damage it could do it one turn (6 seconds), millions must have died. They even knew where it would go (through the Imperial City to the Demon Tree). They knew that the angel focused on demons and their influence and the two largest was the Imperial City (which had all the demon architecture and like from the Elemental War) and the Demon Tree (which sucked up demons). So, the entity incapable of precision attacks would have wiped out both of those in gouts of Essence and destruction.
Millions, if not hundreds of millions of people would have died from that.
So, what is a storyteller to do? I know I made a few mistakes, namely I shouldn’t have given them a big Pandora’s Box in the first place, but it seemed to fit the story. I hate having hurting players, but even in the best of worlds, the Sidereals are probably going to declare war on the party. Assassins and everything, but even the raw destruction that happened. One of the character’s daughters may have died (we don’t know yet), the defense systems of the empire may have been vaporized, and basically all hell will break loose.
The conquences of that action would be terrible for the players. I try to smooth of the edges, not to alienate the players or have them die outright, but I don’t think I can just push this one aside as it were.
