A proper ending

Two weeks ago we had a DnD session where my group, GMed by Naked Man, wrapped up a couple of big plot lines that we have been pursuing for some time.  We had gotten ourselves into a series of gladitorial combats for prizes and fame, with our longtime rivals destined to meet us in the finals.  These rivals have been around since the first session our group played 2 years ago, and we were looking forward to finally wiping the smirks off of their faces.

It was never going to be as simple as that, though.  The evil cultists had a plan to unleash a horrible undead monstrosity on the people watching the event and cover the world in darkness.  As good drama demands, just as we finally had our rivals on the ropes and victory was assured, the undead beastie smashed into the arena, ready to eat everything in sight.  We joined forces with our battered rivals in a desperate bid to stop the monster.

Our bard had a strange ability, granted to him some time ago, where he could draw on the life forces of people around him to empower his spells.  Seeing as we were surrounded by thousands of spectators he used this opportunity to see just how magnificent a scene he could create, and draw mightily from the thousands of people in the arena to Fireball the undead beast.

The GM announced "The Fireball does 8 extra damage."

That was not quite the splash we had all hoped for, needless to say.  We slew the undead monster, and then turned to our rivals to finish what we had started... or at least to claim victory.  They laughed, told us it was obviously a tie, and walked off the field.  "See you next year!" 

Again we were struck with a sense of disappointment.  After all that buildup, the competition is just over, and that entire story arc ends with "See you next year."

That is the sort of ending that makes a player not bother being invested in a story, no doubt.

(This where all the people that say "Dude, your GM sucks!" in response to my blog posts get to feel vindicated.)

But the next day we got an email from Naked Man saying that he was dissatisfied with the way everything happened and he wanted to redo the fight from the moment of the big Fireball.  There was some resistance to this, and although I don't love retconning things, I really wanted a better resolution so I signed on.

The next session we began again where the bard drew on thousands of people to empower his Fireball, and a gigantic, continuing inferno appeared in the middle of the battlefield.  The undead monster promptly died, and within the fire we saw a portal open to the Elemental Plane of Fire.  The fire started to increase in size, and it became clear our bard had accidentally torn a hole in the world that was expanding!

Now *that* is the kind of result I was hoping for!

I hucked Dispel Magics at the conflagration trying to hold it back, but I could only make a dent in it.  Our bard sang at it desperately trying to undo the damage.  A powerful entity of some sort showed up to help him, because it thought that this might well destroy the world.  Fire elementals began to wander through the portal and we had to try to drive them back in while also closing the portal and preventing the apocalypse.  

Our rivals ran away like cowards and left us to save everyone.

Finally we stopped the expansion of the fire, dealt with the elementals, and stopped to catch our breath.  Those of us with healing magic tried to help all of the injured people, while my character Levitated around the arena shooting fire at things and yelling about being the champion.

Since our opponents had left the arena without anyone being declared the victor, it seemed clear that we had claim to having won the tournament, so we grabbed our giant pile of gold for winning and stormed out to the taverns where I spent my time telling everyone about the cowardice and incompetence of those recently considered our rivals.

An epic ending, in every sense.

The finale of this arc went from letdown to celebration.  We figured things out, saved the town, saved the world from our saving of the town, and finally got to stick it to those jackasses once and for all.

(This where all the people that say "Dude, your GM rocks!" in response to my blog posts get to feel vindicated.)

I don't normally look to retcon stuff like that.  Just roll with it, even if it kills everyone.  However, this was a bit of retconning that I totally approve of.  It is hard to instantly figure out what the best thing to do is, and it is sweet to be able to make it happen when you do come up with the proper comeback late at night.

And now my endless taunting of our rivals might even set up a later meeting with them.  I do so like to give old enemies a chance to come back and take another shot at us.