Borrowing a head

[zmflavius]

(I didn't actually write this story, it is taken from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong. And I think it's interesting)

Once upon a time, a warlord called Cao Cao was besieging a city.

Very soon, he began running low on supplies. He knew that in a month, he would be able to conquer the city, but he did not have a month's food.

Finally, he summoned Granary Officer Wang Hou. He ordered him to deal with the food shortage by issuing short rations. Wang Hou protested that this would cause major morale problems, but he did it anyways.

One month passed.

By this point, the soldiers were on the verge of revolt. Cao Cao summoned Wang Hou again.

"The soldiers are about to revolt."
"Yes..."
"They are angry about the short rations."
"Yes..."
"I need to shut them up."
"How will you do this, sir?"
"I need to borrow something from you to do this."
"What do you need, sir?"
"Your head."

Immediately, two guards entered and dragged out the screaming Wang Hou and beheaded him. Then, his head was hung in the camp square where a placard was set up saying "Wang Hou - Punished for stealing rations."

Full rations were restored, and the soldiers took the city.

[Young Ned]

That seems pretty unfair to Wang Hou... and wasn't it lucky that only one week of short rations was enough to make the food supply last for the rest of the month?

Oh, and did he give Wang Hou's head back once he was done with it? :)

[zmflavius]

Argh, typo. I'll correct it.

And to the best of my knowledge, as soon as everyone was done spitting and cursing at it, he removed it, sewed it back onto the body, and mailed it home to his family.

[Oldschool]

Nice post ZM.

Must be on D&D nostalgia overload as when I first saw the thread I thought it was going to be a take on the D&D "classic" - Head of Veneca.

For non Dnd'ers Veneca was an arch lich who was thought to be killed by his lieutenant Kas. Veneca's hand and eye and the Sword of Kas were all that survived the battle iirc.

All three items were ultra powerful artifacts but to enable the eye and hand one had to replace his/her own with them.

The "Head of Veneca" was non existent and probably urban legend in gaming circles as I never knew or heard of anyone actually doing the following.

Story goes that a party would find the Head of Veneca and utlitmately a party member would volunteer to be beheaded so the Head of Veneca could be put on his neck.

Of course there was always much flamboyant telling to the stories and probably not funny unless you've got the proper perspective.

[Young Ned]

Argh, typo. I'll correct it.

Ah, that makes more sense.

And to the best of my knowledge, as soon as everyone was done spitting and cursing at it, he removed it, sewed it back onto the body, and mailed it home to his family.

Oh, so he really did only borrow the head. Good man. ;)

Must be on D&D nostalgia overload as when I first saw the thread I thought it was going to be a take on the D&D "classic" - Head of Veneca.

For non Dnd'ers Veneca was an arch lich who was thought to be killed by his lieutenant Kas. Veneca's hand and eye and the Sword of Kas were all that survived the battle iirc.

Wasn't his name Vecna?

The "Head of Veneca" was non existent and probably urban legend in gaming circles as I never knew or heard of anyone actually doing the following.

Story goes that a party would find the Head of Veneca and utlitmately a party member would volunteer to be beheaded so the Head of Veneca could be put on his neck.

Of course there was always much flamboyant telling to the stories and probably not funny unless you've got the proper perspective.

Haha, I never heard that one before. :D

[Oldschool]

You're right - no wonder my googling for Head of VENECA produced no results.

Maybe it wasn't urban legend after all.

Courtesy of Young Ned's spell checking.

From, http://www.sjgames.com/ill/1996/ill-dec96.html

Spoiled for space...

Mark Steuer <steuerm@nichols.com> recounts this tale: Many years ago (back when we all were still playing D & D), I ran a game where I pitted two groups against each other. Several members of Group One came up with the idea of luring Group Two into a trap. You remember the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna that were artifacts in the old D&D world where if you cut off your hand (or your eye) and replaced it with the Hand of Vecna (or the Eye) you'd get new awesome powers? Well, Group One thought up The Head of Vecna.
Group One spread rumors all over the countryside (even paying Bards to spread the word about this artifact rumored to exist nearby). They even went so far as to get a real head and place it under some weak traps to help with the illusion. Unfortunately, they forgot to let ALL the members of their group in on the secret plan (I suspect it was because they didn't want the Druid to get caught and tell the enemy about this trap of theirs, or maybe because they didn't want him messing with things).
The Druid in group One heard about this new artifact and went off in search of it himself (I believe to help prove himself to the party members...) Well, after much trial and tribulation, he found it; deactivated (or set off) all the traps; and took his "prize" off into the woods for examination. He discovered that it did not radiate magic (a well known trait of artifacts) and smiled gleefully.
I wasn't really worried since he was alone and I knew that there was no way he could CUT HIS OWN HEAD OFF. Alas I was mistaken as the Druid promptly summoned some carnivorous apes and instructed them to use his own scimitar and cut his head off (and of course quickly replacing it with the Head of Vecna...)
Some time later, Group one decided to find the Druid and to check on the trap. They found the headless body (and the two heads) and realized that they had erred in their plan (besides laughing at the character who had played the Druid)...The Head of Vecna still had BOTH eyes! They corrected this mistake and reset their traps and the Head for it's real intended victims...
Group Two, by this time, had heard of the powerful artifact and decided that it bore investigating since, if true, they could use it to destroy Group One. After much trial and tribulation, they found the resting place of The Head of Vecna! The were particularly impressed with the cunning traps surrounding the site (one almost missed his save against the weakest poison known to man). They recovered the Head and made off to a safe area.
Group Two actually CAME TO BLOWS (several rounds of fighting) against each other argueing over WHO WOULD GET THEIR HEAD CUT OFF! Several greedy players had to be hurt and restrained before it was decided who would be the recipient of the great powers bestowed by the Head... The magician was selected and one of them promptly cut his head off. As the player was lifting The Head of Vecna to emplace it on it's new body, another argument broke out and they spent several minutes shouting and yelling. Then, finally, they put the Head onto the character.
Well, of course, the Head simply fell off the lifeless body. All members of Group Two began yelling and screaming at each other (and at me) and then, on their own, decided that they had let too much time pass between cutting off the head of a hopeful recipient and put the Head of Vecna onto the body.
SO THEY DID IT AGAIN!... [killing another PC]
In closing, it should be said that I never even cracked a smile as all this was going on. After the second PC was slaughtered, I had to give in (my side was hurting)...
And Group Two blamed ME for all of that...
So let that be a warning to you - don't let your head get cut off unless you really know what you're doing.
-- Bob Apthorpe

[Young Ned]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/Old_Ned/lol.gif

Awesome tale, well told!

[Badstench]

Reading the predicament of Wang Hou reinforced the wisdom of a habit I've got into at work... any request made of me outside normal work procedures will only be undertaken if accompanied by a written request in the form of an email.

I'll not hang my head out for the chopping block!

[texlaw1992]

As I recall, the two artifacts of Vecna were his hand and his eye.

I obtained the Rod of Orcus one time (we had some high level and weird adventures), but I don't recall obtaining any other artifacts. My DM told me I was hit by the Rod of Orcus and survived because I made my saving throw - I didn't feel like pointing out that the Rod does not alow a saving throw (lol).