Jenkins the Sorcerer

[DerVVulfman]

Trust me guys, I didn't come up with this.
I got this from a youtube video recounting pen-n-paper RPG stories.
Unfortunately, no names were attributed.

JENKINS THE SORCERER

I'm currently the DM for my group of friends, none of whom had ever played D&D previously but who were all enthusiastic to try it out. Our first adventure was Army of the Damned, which is set in Innistrad. Our party is composed of a Kessiger Arcane Trickster, a Gavoner Sorcerer, a Stensian Barbarian, a  Nephalian Monk and a Kessiger Ranger.

Our group was nearing the end of the campaign, having just reached Sigfried's stronghold. They cleverly befriended the dryad, who happily gave them access to the secret tunnel into the stronghold, which exits out into the kitchen.

The kitchen contained four Charmbreaker Devils, who are busy trying to cook a meal for an angry and impatient Balgura in the next room. I describe the Charmbreaker's conversation to my party, which consists of them complaining about the Balgura, discussing their desire to leave, and frantically trying to decide what to put in the stew (everything running from body parts to apples to shoes).

Through this conversation I was trying to demonstrate to my party that the Devils were both intelligent and unhappy with their current situation - if approached they would be more than happy to betray their master in exchange for their freedom, even providing the party with a sleeping potion to put in the Balgura's stew.

However...

The party member that scouted out the Charmbreaker Devils was our intrepid (and reckless) Sorcerer, Thurgood Jenkins (the choice of 'Jenkins' in his character name should tell you all you need to know about his play style). Immediately upon completing my description of the devils and their conversation, Thurgood immediately yells, "I CAST THUNDERWAVE!"

So much for the element of surprise...

Suddenly the Charmbreaker Devils are under attack, and the massive sonic boom from the spell has alerted every creature in the stronghold. The party, shocked, try to engage the devils as the Balgura and his crawling claw minions burst through the door. To make matters worse, although the Charmbreaker Devils are very weak, they do have one very useful combat ability - counterspell.

During the first round of combat, the sorcerer, arcane trickster, and ranger each have a spell counterspelled by the Charmbreakers. The balgura has engaged with Thurgood (who is in the front) and the party quickly realizes they are outmatched (most of the party was still in the tunnel at this point including the Barbarian who was farthest away from the action).

Within the first round, the party reluctantly decides that there is no way to save Thurgood Jenkins, and that he must pay the price for his Jenkins-ish behavior...

As the party members all begin using their turns in the next round to run away through the tunnel, we reach the turn of Thurgood Jenkins (who acts right before the Balgura). Thurgood seeing the direness of the situation, looks at me square in the eye and says "I speak Abyssal, so I want to try and convince the Balgura that I've been sent by Sigfried to become the head chef for the kitchen, since the devils are clearly so incompetent. I explain to him that my thunderwave was simply a way of punishing them for their ineptitude!"

There's a moment of silence as I gave him a long, hard look...

Normally, I wouldn't allow something so far fetched to have a chance of success, but I was legitimately impressed that he had managed to incorporate the details I gave him about the Charmbreaker Devils into the lie. It was true that the Balgura was very unhappy about the quality of their cooking, so I figured he at at least deserved a roll.

I told him to make a persuasion check. In my head, I'm thinking DC25. He's a high charisma sorcerer with the persuasion skill, so he needed a 19-20 to succeed. Anything else would inevitably result in his character being torn to pieces by the Balgura. At this point Thurgood Jenkins had a massive smile on his face, and everyone at the table is laughing over his 'Hail Mary' attempt to resolve the situation.

He rolls the dice, and...

Natural 20.

The entire table erupts in cheers and laughter, as he jumps from his chair screaming with pure joy. Based on his roll, the Blagura gave his character a long, discerning look, and then grunted approvingly, gestured at the stewpot and adviced "MORE SHOES!" before returning to the other room.

Easily one of my favourite moments playing D&D, and the perfect example of why I lover this game so much!