this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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In a campaign I'm in, my party had to investigate a region outside of a city that was giving off malicious vibes. We ended up finding the source of the vibes and discovered that a member of the city's 5 person ruling council is collaborating with mindflayers to sacrifice the city. The party makes its way back to the city and wants to figure out how to present that information while still remaining credible. It really didn't help that we accidentally killed the captain of the guard who was sent with us to investigate (some of us rolled critical failures on attack rolls while fighting earth elementals and ended up hitting him for a lot of damage instead, and then he got crushed by a rolling boulder trap).
When we went in front of the council and other townfolk to present our findings, we hit an additional snag when we discovered that we need to present our findings while standing in a circle that allows the compromised council member to read our minds. Our paladin had a bright idea; she put the thought of the treachery we uncovered at the front of her mind and cast Command at the evil council member with the word "confess". The councilor failed his saving throw, but the DM didn't want us to get out of it that easily. The dramatic order captured everyone's attention and someone asked the council member what he had to say. "I... I... I... sometimes wear women's underwear". While surprising to the townsfolk, it was ultimately irrelevant to the them, and the council quickly (albeit not incorrectly) pinned the death of the guard captain on us.
The evil council member got to cover his ass while putting heat on the party and guards started swarming the room to arrest us. All but one of the party members managed to get away, and there was a several week period of time where the one who got caught was separated from the party and had to roleplay a jailbreak.
Ha! I can imagine, if I were making that scene into a movie, I'd have had not just indifference, but radical acceptance from everyone else in the room. Turn what the players had wanted to be a moment of shame for the traitor into a moment where he is unexpectedly emboldened in more ways than one.