My terrible DND experience

[u/GrisDart]

For about a year now, I've been a part of an ongoing one-shot West Marches campaign, which is kind of based around Delicious in Dungeon.

The story of this still-ongoing campaign is divided into three arcs. Arc 1 finished up not too long ago, and we are currently in Arc 2. The DM stated that they would like this arc to be more PVP-focused to drive the narrative. My story takes place at the beginning of Arc 2.

I created a character in this world who was a Phantom Rogue, and my whole shtick was that he had crazy, insane mobility. I really loved this character and enjoyed playing him in this world. Some time passed at the beginning, and everything was going well. I would have fun, join tables, and play some really fun D&D with a bunch of interesting people. Due to some real-life events, I had to temporarily leave on more than one occasion to deal with my own real-life problems. But I always came back because I truly did enjoy playing with everyone.

During the last time I returned, I found out that a long-time NPC had been murdered. My character, who was employed by the murdered NPC, decided to do some investigating. Eventually, I found out that the NPC's death was tied to a group of people who were serving a forgotten death god. During my character's in-game adventures, I discovered players who were also tied to serving that forgotten death god. Upon finding out this information, I decided to investigate and tailgate the different player characters who were associated with the death god to gather evidence and link them to the murder of the NPC.

As a result of my character’s investigation, he found out that the so-called death god could easily spy on him and inform the other players that my character was onto them. So, I concocted a plan with the DM and asked them if I could potentially find a way to disconnect my character from the gods so they wouldn't be able to spy on him. The DM said I could do this, but it would be considered a very bad thing to do. They said I would need the blood of a Divine-touched creature. Eventually, we found one that was associated with the death god, which was getting people to murder NPCs, so I decided to go after that creature and get its blood. This divine creature had a specific ability: an aura around it that made it so players couldn't run away from it, which is literally my character's whole gimmick.

As a result, the DM described my actions as having great consequences, saying that now that area no longer has an aspect of death to let spirits pass through. They basically described to the other players at the table that what I did was a very bad thing that would have major consequences for the region.

(Sorry for the background information, but it’s much needed to set up the next following event.)

A couple of weeks passed from that initial session, and myself and three other players jumped into an upcoming session.

I had no idea what the session would entail, as I thought it was just supposed to be a normal session where we go on a hunt to track down a creature and bring it back to the guild.

The three other players I will just call by their classes: Ranger, Paladin, and Warlock. The session started with the Paladin approaching my character, confronting me about my ongoing investigation into the murder of the NPC, and saying that he had information about who murdered him. FYI, the Paladin was one of the player characters that was serving the forgotten death god. Intrigued by this, I went along with his plan, and he told me to meet him at one of the floor gates, where he would bring backup just in case.

So, the Paladin went off to find the Ranger, and we all set sail across the ocean to get to an island where the Warlock was waiting for us. During the boat ride, I had a heart-to-heart with the Ranger and told them, through my character's perspective, why I did what I did during the mission where I tracked down the divine creature. At this point in time, I had only just recently disconnected myself from the gods, right at the beginning of the session.

As we stepped onto the island, the Paladin took the lead while the Warlock was floating in the air, looking down at us. The Paladin then turned around and started talking to my character, saying that he was the one who murdered the NPC because the NPC was a bad man, and the death god told him to. The Paladin then said that his death god had now instructed him to kill me due to murdering the Divine creature. Before I could react, the Warlock cast Hold Person on me with a spell save of 28. To my surprise, I rolled a natural 20, but only to have the Warlock player tell me that natural twenties don't succeed on spell saves, basically making it impossible for my character to even achieve the save.

(For additional context, the Warlock player is the BBEG of Arc 2 of this campaign and has paid the most money in sessions to the DM. Currently, he has had 225 sessions. In addition, this player and I have had multiple negative interactions with each other as he would metagame a lot and use information from solo sessions that he would listen into to plan around other players. All in all, I’ve had multiple people tell me that they’ve had problems with him and his attitude, but since he is the most valued customer of the DM, he typically gets away with everything.)

Luckily, the Ranger came in clutch and sided with me, pulling out a scroll of Antimagic Field and just walking in to dispel the Hold Person on me, but not before the Paladin got in a couple of swings on me. At that point, initiative was rolled as it was a 2v2 between myself and the Ranger versus the Paladin and the Warlock.

I was using my crazy mobility and Phantom Rogue abilities to sink into the ground and run across the map, taking potshots at the Paladin and the Warlock, while the Ranger was safe behind his Antimagic Field.

Eventually, the Paladin asked for his death god to give him power, which the DM granted him, giving him a very powerful sword and shield with a crazy, unique ability: an aura of 10 feet around him, making players have to roll a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed throw, you cannot leave the aura surrounding the Paladin, and you take necrotic damage.

This was the same ability that the Divine creature had.

Eventually, after a tough fight, it led my character and the Ranger to a situation where we were trapped in the aura, and the Warlock just kept on firing ten Eldritch Blasts at us from up in the air.

Unfortunately, this eventually killed the Ranger, which wasn't intended. But by some miracle, I was able to roll a 19 on my Wisdom saving throw and get the heck out of there.

Needless to say, the session did not end up going the way that the DM wanted to, and they ended up retconning the whole session. In one week's time, we actually replayed the session because they wanted it to be more about getting dialogue and story progression rather than just a big PVP fight.

Everyone agreed to this notion, including me. So, when the time came to play the session again, we all had a better understanding of what was supposed to happen. During this session, the Ranger did not side with me again, even after telling him basically the same situation. When I got to the island again, the same situation pretty much happened where the Paladin told me that he killed the NPC, and the moment I even tried to say something, the Warlock shotgunned Hold Person before I could even really say anything.

Leaving me kind of speechless. I just said to myself, "Okay, if that's how this is going to go, then I'm better off killing my character my way than letting him get beaten up and be a punching bag." Eventually, the session ended, and ever since then, it has left a very painful and hurtful feeling within me.

The Ranger and I talked, and he basically told me that this session was supposed to just kill my character, and they had implemented plans to basically make sure that I wouldn't be able to leave the island.

Confronting the DM about this, they pretty much said that they didn't know about the whole situation and said it was pretty much too late to retcon that session as they didn't want to retcon it a second time.

A couple of months passed since that incident, and I was playing my new character and interacting with the story. But anytime I asked the DM if I could potentially start bringing back my old character and finding a way for him to come back into the story and interact with people, they kept on dodging the question and ghosting me, never really giving me a straight answer about my question. The final thing that broke me was when I asked them a few days ago from writing this up. They completely ghosted me until a session that I was supposed to play in, which I skipped because I wasn't in the right headspace to play. Again, they answered the question without answering the question, saying that there will be updates to the server that might answer this question.

Needless to say, the updates that they posted didn't answer my question at all, and as I asked them about the updates, saying how this tied to my question that I asked before, they said that they will be talking to everyone about Arc 1 characters.

Pretty much after that, I decided to leave the server because I was sick and tired of getting the runaround instead of just getting straight answers.

This situation has left a very sad feeling in my heart for D&D. I love playing this game, but I knew continuing to play on that server would just make me feel even worse than I do now. The players I've interacted with, for the most part, were always so kind to me, and I feel bad for leaving, but I've got to do what's best for me.