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We had thought of continuing with our theme of asking you what you thought of the issue's Soul Thought. But when we realised that the obvious two questions were: "How many kids do you have?" and "How many of them do you think are actually yours?" we thought this might not be such a great idea. So instead we decided to ask for your thoughts on a little incident that just happened to us in one of our games (following a discussion between us and GM). The Incident We (the party) were creeping through a castle which was basically of the "steeped in evil" variety. We had already made our way past a room which seemed to be inhabited by some kind of air elemental that threw pots of makeup at us. Then, when we looked into the next room, we saw the following: a) An old women sitting in her chair. b) Hundreds of cats, some horribly mutated. c) Various "hunting trophy" heads attached to the walls, some of animals, some of people. The immediate conclusion that we jumped to, was that she was some kind of evil witch bitch thing who had created the air elemental whatnot. We shut the door (and immediately started hearing the scratches of the cats trying to get in) and came up with a simple plan. Which was: 1) Outlaw A to kick the door violently open, it hopefully smashing into the front rank of cats. 2) Charlatan (don't ask) to fire his crossbow at the old woman. 3) Wizard to fire two magical fireballs at the old woman. 4) Outlaw B to shoot arrow at the old woman. 5) Outlaw C to shoot arrow at the old woman. 6) Bloke who we had mysteriously found in a prison cell at the very start of the previous week's playing session to rush in and hack old woman to pieces with his axe. As it happens there was a slight snag when we realised the bloke with the axe had apparently wondered off without a word at the very start of this playing session. However, we decided to continue with the plan. (I should point out at this point that the GM didn't seem to be particularly impressed with our plan, but then we figured he was probably just trying to confuse us). What happened was this: 1) Outlaw A kicked the door violently open, sending several cats flying. 2) Charlatan fired his crossbow at the old women. The bolt managed to evade all the six cats that were apparently draped around her, and hit her in the chest, causing her to moan in pain. 3) Wizard fired his first fireball, hitting the old woman - and the cats - square. All six cats were killed instantly, three of them exploding and causing wounds to a further three cats. The old women received a mix of second and third degree burns, causing her to scream out in agony. 4) Wizard fired his second fireball (actually they get fired off in pairs, so he couldn't abort the second one) again hitting the old woman square. This second burst of flame completely set her alight, killing her outright, and leaving only a charred, blackened body. At this point a "discussion" broke out between us and the GM about the reasonableness of our combat strategy, and it occurred to me that perhaps this was something I could put to you, the readers. The Question So, would you consider our plan, and the outcome: A reasonable plan to deal with what was, after all, an unknown degree of threat from someone who, by her interior decoration, had demonstrated a complete contempt for human life. A psychotic over-reaction which ended with a harmless and helpless old woman (and six house cats) suffering a horrifying and agonising death.

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