Back in the days, we used to play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons with me as the DM. We were a group of four players (plus me) all smart and imaginative, but one. He was the psycho killer, the hoarder and the delicate flower kind of player all in one. He used to throw tantrums after every action I took against him (normal DM actions) so, for the sake of the game and of the rest of the group, I started to let him have what he wanted and do what he wanted. While the group played the campaign, he did not, roaming the countryside and doing what he wanted, occasionally bumping into them and going along from time to time.
To his credit I can tell that he tried to play different characters (a fighter, a wizard, a cleric, a paladin, a swashbuckler) but all in the same way, without the slightest kind of roleplaying, and always trying to hoard treasure, challenge fellow players and kill almost everyone.
During one of the last campaigns we run, he had an elf warlock named Haer D’Alis. I can’t remember where we found rules for warlocks, but the fact is that he could cast spells without having to memorize them, so he was like a spellcaster machinegun. Despite that, he wasn’t of any help at all: at the first hint of combat, he used to flee and leave the group dealing with enemies, but, in the end, he wanted his share of the hoard.
I don’t remember how, but he managed to cast on him a flying spell and a permanency spell, so he was constantly hovering in the air to avoid combat. He also used to cast on him invisibility and didn’t do anything until the combat was over.
He always described his character as a wonderful, delicate, blonde elf with flowing robes.
In that campaign, I brought them in the Nordic country of that world and said the air was a bit chilly. All of them had summer or spring clothes on.
Anyway, after battling some monsters, they saw a magic portal hovering midair. Haer D’Alis player said he wanted to fly through it, so he did, not waiting for the rest of the group.
The portal was connected with and Arctic landscape where ice blocks were floating on a freezing sea. Further on, there was and ice coast of land where a cave opened and where I had put the final boss.
For some reason, the rest of the group didn’t follow the warlock, leaving him alone.
I told the player his character was freezing, and that the cold was draining all his strength. He said he would rest on one of the ice blocks for a bit, while cursing at me and trying to convince that, as a warlock, he would not suffer freezing cold. He didn’t not cast a spell against it, because he had all battle-type of enchantments and because he was very angry and could not think how to solve the situation.
I had already told him that his character saw black fins on water from time to time. He thought (rightfully) they were killer whales, but he didn’t care, because all the flying stuff.
I don’t remember why, but now he was not invisible.
A killer whale made a surprise attack from below, flipping the ice block over and tossing the warlock into the freezing dark water, then swallowing him whole (I made all the attack rolls well in front of him to avoid tantrums).
I remember he calling me names, throwing the eraser, banging fists on the table, cursing God and saying that I had programmed all that because I wanted to kill his character.
Years after, he still had a grudge on me for that story but despite being friend when we were teenagers, I don’t see him anymore now.
[zombify_post]
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