So, in the last adventure my group ran, I had possibly the gold standard of "out of the box" thinking.
We were running the "Hidden Depth's" adventure from the GM's kit. The group had managed to sneak along the tunnel into the area that was the Rubat Spinner's nest. They had previously gotten a triumph on a roll to track the spiders (which they knew were there from a track the spiders had set previously. They chose for the triumph that since they knew the spiders fed off of rubat crystals that they could track the spider's to where the crystal chamber was. I played along, but said that although they could indeed trace the spider's to their food source, it was because they had slain a prospector, who's body sat in the center of the room with a sack full of rubat crystals, most likley from the source, and he might have a map on his body. They decided to invstigate the body, and all got pretty good sneak rolls, but the diplomat didn't get any successes (no threats either) just a bunch of advantages.
I narrated that as he "crept into the room behind the others, you notice an odd gleam towards the center of the room. A stalactite descends from the ceiling, and in the dark of the cave, it appears to have a dark purple hue in the gloom. As you watch, the gleam you spotted moves along the stalactite and is joined by another! You realize now the gleam is not the play of light off of stone, but rather a sinister set of eyes! With the body of the prospector at your feet, you realize the stalactite nearby is full of Rubat Spinners happily feeding off of the crystals in his pack! The spinner that spotted you looks to be turning to the others to raise the alert."
I had intended to give the group (since they'd all snuck really well) an opportunity to ready their weapons, but what happened next I couldn't have expected.
The Diplomat, without missing a beat, turned to me and said, "I Discredit him."
It took me a second. I had first thought, how is he going to discredit a spider to the other spiders. He answered the question though, "I quickly grab the crystals out of the sack and hide them, throwing some residue on the spider that spotted me." He reminded me that they were all happily nomming on the crystal in my description, and he was going to implicate the one spider in having more than his share.
I went with it, after all, it was a social action to shout to the other spiders, and only the one had noticed him. I assigned him 2 Setback dice on the Deception for the Discredit roll because he wasn't actually talking to anyone, only using subtly action to cause innuendo. He made the roll with flying colors, netting enough advantages to upgrade the difficulty two additional times. The Spider had a presence of 1, but I gave him two boost dice because he was talking with other spiders. Discredit per the rules upgrades the difficulty of a social check, and I ruled that alerting the other spiders would normally be so inconsequential of a check that it would be zero difficulty, so the first "upgrade" would add 1 purple. The second upgrade would make that purple into a red, and then the third would of course add another purple.
The PC's (in between breaths of their now riotous laughter) opted to be total d-bags and upgrade the poor spider's difficulty again with a Destiny, so the poor spider was rolling a single green and two blue against two red.
As you may have expected, a Despair and no successes was the result. The group decided to have the despair cause the spiders to get into a fight over the whole thing, allowing the group to move on unmolested.
So in my mind, I have this mental image of the portly little Rubat Spinner, his little mandibles full of crystal, munching a warning to his two big brothers, hoping to finally win their affection for spotting the invaders in their nest. As he mumbles an alert, his brothers turn to see the crystal powder all around him, the empty bag of crystals and his overstuffed spider cheeks spilling bits as he talks.
Poor, poor, spider.
Edited by Kyla
