The King in *whoosh!*

[Metatron]

Alright then, I was running a bit of Tynes Carcosa for my players this afternoon, and two of them got invitations to the ball. Now, they get there and learn of the Yhtill and all that, and then they try to flee with an NPC from a previous scenario.

Trying to get a bit of scare out of them, they find their path blocked by a large figure swathed in yellow silk, and silver mask. So...

One of them pops open a bottle of wine in her pack and sets him on fire! Why? Have any of you ever had such an...interesting encounter between investigators and the Mythos? There was much San loss due to it, and needless to say that investigator won't be coming home again...61 points lost tend to do that.

Well, I think that is it for this tale.

Later,
Metatron

[GBSteve]

One of them pops open a bottle of wine in her pack and sets him on fire!

You mean they toasted the burning figure, or that the wine actually burned?

[thetragicclown]

I didn't think your average bottle of wine had a high enough alcohol content to be flammable. Did the investigators bring it with them, or was it taken from the ball?

[Roadkill]

I didn't think your average bottle of wine had a high enough alcohol content to be flammable.

I knew it! The King drinks bathtub gin. The reason he's yellow? Sclerosis.

[Metatron]

The bottle was brought with them, taken from an earlier portion of the scenario Night Floors, from DG:Countdown. I'm not sure what the actual chances of wine bursting into flame were, but they also grabbed some harder stuff as well...and considering the nature of Carcosa I just let it burn.

And yes, they burned the King. Set him on fire...which normally would have the traditional shovel v. shoggoth effect, i.e. none. However I decided that this was a fine enough time for a change of plans, and had him more or less 'retract' the masking it seems implied that he does in the 5th ed. writeup. It was a nice little illustration of just what not to do.

[Roucheau]

Wine is not flammable enough to burn. Cognac might, but wine will not.

[Metatron]

Ah, well, I figured that even if wine wouldn't burn the character was probably carrying something at that level, and I was playing Carcosa as being reactive to their intentions, so I fudged a little. Although only of us actually drinks, so there was a general lack of knowledge about the flammability of wine. And now we know.

[Mica]

Although only of us actually drinks, so there was a general lack of knowledge about the flammability of wine. And now we know.

Scary - I think that is a 0/1d3 san check in its own right. It just ain't a game unless the table is half covered in empty cans and players are looking nervously to the fridge and whether its contents will last to the final encounter.
This though might explain why my players, should they resort to using that ancient tome, it is generally as a blunt implement.

[thetragicclown]

The bottle was brought with them, taken from an earlier portion of the scenario Night Floors, from DG:Countdown. I'm not sure what the actual chances of wine bursting into flame were, but they also grabbed some harder stuff as well...and considering the nature of Carcosa I just let it burn.

So they were invited to a grand ball and brought along a bottle of "cheap cornershop p*ss" (to quote Bernard Black). In that case, it's probably not too much of a stretch to imagine Carcosa changed it into something more appropriate (like port or cognac), or some strange alien wine that's highly flammable

Anyway, back on topic.

Have any of you ever had such an...interesting encounter between investigators and the Mythos?

In a game I ran many years ago (using 5th edition rules) the players were a pair of FBI agents investigating a modern witch cult, comprised of teenage Willow-wannabes who'd gotten lucky and found some rituals concerning Shub Niggurath. The cult had a summoned Dark Young that lurked in the woods guarding their ritual site, though due to the way I'd described it the players thought it was the sort of "tree monster" you'd find in a fantasy RPG. They knew that to bust the cult they had to find a way of dealing with this creature, and came to the conclusion that the bane of all tree monsters is a chainsaw.

Suffice to say, things didn't go to plan. As soon as they arrived at the clearing the "tree monster" (which I then described in its true undescribable glory) charged towards them. The guy with the chainsaw threw it to his companion and ran off into the woods, where he used a spell he'd learned to get back to his office in Washington. The remaining agent picked up the chainsaw and promptly attacked the Dark Young, inflicting a decent amount of damage before the creature knocked him to the ground and crushed his left leg beneath one of its massive hooves.

Feeling merciful, I ruled that the Dark Young just stood there watching the agent try and crawl away. I didn't want to kill him, since I was aiming to have a decently long campaign. Seeing his chance however, he decided to pick up the chainsaw and take one more swing at the Dark Young, which promptly crushed his head like an overripe grape. He wasn't very happy about that and while it was a stupid thing to do, looking back I must admit he certainly had guts; the fact they ended up splattered over a forest floor is neither here nor there. :P

The player rolled up a new character; the ex-agent's brother, also an FBI agent, determined to find out how his brother had died. This plucky younger brother eventually did find out what happened, though it came at quite a cost and is a story for another time (he did manage to survive the end of the world though).