Q & A Session - The Bloody Nipple Saga

I actually ran an adventure once where the players deliberately killed the person being rescued, just so they wouldn't need to deal with all the headaches surrounding a noisy, annoying, and foolish NPC who would alert any nearby guard and trigger all the carefully avoided traps. The players dragged the dead body all the way outside the castle, and used one of the stolen pearls to resurrect the NPC. I let it go this time and decided not to pull any stunts over the whole resurrect technicalities. The first rule for this, though, is not to tell your plans to the person who cares for the kidnapped.

Transcript:

Scene: Valeria, Conan, and Subotai stand before King Osric, surrounded by guards.

King Osric (DM):I'll make this really simple. I want you to go into Thulsa Doom's Mountain of Power, steal my daughter, and come back with her.

Subotai:Oh, goodie. A princess rescue. Let me get my fire flower.

Conan:What's our reward?

King Osric (DM):Lots and lots of riches.

Valeria:But you just gave us an advance that could make us kings. Why should we save her?

King Osric (DM):Because it's an adventure, and I would like it if you guys equipped yourselves for once.

Valeria:Is this in character?

Conan:Do you want her back alive?

King Osric (DM):{ Stares back dumbfounded. }

Conan:What? I thought I'd ask. Clerics have that raise dead spell, so I thought we could just make it easier.

Subotai:He has a point.

Valeria:I think it's a plan.

King Osric (DM):{ To aid } My most trusted advisor, couldn't you find any adventurers who weren't imbeciles?