A Twisted Tale of the Tongue...

nce upon a time, when yours truly was a much younger DM, I planned what was supposed to be your standard town-next-to-the-dungeon affair. Problem was, real-world time was running out. We were kids with curfews, after all, with less than an hour before the world froze in place until our next session. They’d gotten to the town in question, when someone decided to ask about the place. Fair enough, and it was just the sort of thing to fill half an hour. I put on my improv hat and got to work spinning a tale off the top of my head into the party's receptive ears...

_____________________________________

There was a country fair. With tents. Peddlers. And a menagerie of exotic monsters for the amusement of the townsfolk. Out front, there was a firedrake tied to a wooden stake, secured with a length of rope. Now understand, all of this was window dressing. Flavor text for the coming adventure. I didn’t expect the players to actually engage, which was a mistake of epic proportions from the perspective of my plans. Someone had the Untie cantrip, and the rope was history. I’d retroactively declare the latter as being enchanted to keep the monster docile, but the result was the same. Said firedrake ran riot in the town.

______________________________

Tents burned. People died. The menagerie was released upon the unsuspecting villagers. And the party? They quietly departed with their best it-wasn’t me nonchalance. What was supposed to be a bit of fluff to make the setting more interesting had become something all too real. My cause wasn’t lost, however. I recycled the dungeon, miraculously relocated to another village, and we all had a good laugh about it. But it was an object lesson in how anything said about the setting becomes a material reality, and ones your players will absolutely exploit. So ends my little tale of the tongue. 

______________________________

What was supposed to be some throwaway lines to describe a village was too tempting for its own good. My tongue led me astray, and I followed because it was fun spinning such a colorful yarn on a weekday night. I mean, what could possibly go wrong in 30 minutes? Apparently, the destruction of an entire town for starters. In a spoken-word theater of the mind, words are divinely empowered. But was it really so wrong? We had fun. And we got one of those memories that sort of pays for itself. If gaming isn’t about that, I can’t imagine what it’s possibly for. Anyway, end of story. See everyone next month...

__________________________________________________________________________