Had a group that consisted of a human mind mage, an elven life force mage (who had spent several thousand years in suspended animation), a gosai assassin (well, sort of.. he went into a coma the previous campaign, and they kept him around.. they found his body useful), a human assassin, a ratling necromancer, and an elven longbowman.
I put these guys through Hell on Palladium. They backed themselves into corners left and right, and had to cut deals to get out of them. Well, of course, the piper came calling for payment (literally.. one of the guys they owed was a bard, who was really really good at playing pipes). The group was given a "simple" job to do.. go into the local woods, DIG up a buried high priest of Bob (dont ask...), said high priest having been dead for over 200 years. They are then to take his mace, buried with him, and return the mace to the local Church of Bob. Thats it. Plain, cut, and dried. Of course, the players are seeing all sorts of "evil wicked things" that (according to them) are going to occur.
Nothing special was part of it. It was as simple as it appears on the surface. I knew they'd overthink it (and maybe even sorta kinda encouraged panic, a bit). Wool pulling number one.
Of course, because they saw this as a 'trap', instead of taking the mace to the Church of Bob, they took it to the Church of Ra, figuring "Ra's a good god. And he's a rival of Bob, so, we need to take this to the god we KNOW is good". They end up turning the weapon over to this corrupt low level priest who uses the claiming of the enemies holiest weapon, as a way to boost himself in the church.
The players are then called up by EVERYONE else that they owe favors to. Except for 2 people. They are told they WILL reclaim the mace, and return it to the Church of Bob. So, the players, fearing for their lives, run to obey. And they almost have it- when they encounter the two people who havent called in favors yet.
Now, the PCs have been 'positive' from moment one, that these guys are members of the church of Bob. High ranked members was the belieif. Turns out, they are high ranked members of the Church of Ra. Wool pulling number 2.
These players so worked themselves into the middle of the politics between the two churches, it led to several more adventures. And left the PCs actually having their characters look forward to death. They didnt race after it, but they looked forward to it.
Then, death finally came for them, all at once (partially my fault.. they had amazing luck, which was something I took into account when working on the games... well, one night, luck failed everyone at a crucial moment). I let them start cheering and relaxing... and then one of the guys noticed that I still had my notes out.. Wool pulling number 3. They waited.. and then I explained that, just as death had claimed them, they had been claimed FROM him, and they could hear two distinct Gods arguing over who was getting their souls... The Utu ended the argument, but shoving them all into new bodies.... was HILARIOUS
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GS
