I played in a one-shot last week with a new DM from the for-hire company I use. It was only $5 (he's running 3 bargain priced one off's to drum up players for his upcoming weekly game. Smart.) so I could hardly pass up bonus DnD (especially since my weekly game was cancelled that week) . It ended up being a fairly young table with at least one guy playing for the first time. I was honestly impressed with the knowledge of the game and role-play the youngsters had. I say youngsters, there was a couple BF & GF in their early twenties, a single lady maybe just past 25 and the newb who was probably even younger than the couple, but still twenty-ish. The DM was in his thirties and was pretty decent. He seemed to really enjoy the world-building aspect, talking up his post-apocalyptic setting.
I used a character I had created for another one-shot that I just didn't get enough time with the last time out. Gymdell Morigak is a dwarven paladin of the god Hanseth (God of brewing, singing, and carousing). He swore an oath of vengeance when raiders destroyed his families' brewery and stole their secret, proprietary hops. I had fun with him, singing drinking songs as he charged into combat.
We were hired to clear a mine of whatever we find there because something is happening to the miners and anyone else who enters the tunnels, a sickness and madness in the few who've returned. Pretty standard dungeon crawl; blasted through some rats of various sizes, discovered one survivor who was covered in fungi and pustules muttering about being unworthy before we, and went down one dead-end tunnel before finding the Myconid big bad. Him releasing poisonous spores when hit was troublesome. The whole thing was triggered by an evil, sentient ring encased in a crystal. I tried to use lay on hands to cure the "disease" that was affecting the victim, which failed but allowed me to sense the innate evil of the thing. The fight is touch and go, with a well-timed healing potion from a team-mate keeping me up long enough to cleave mushroom man from clavicle to crotch, freeing the gnome cleric he'd swallowed so I could lay on hands to save her.
I do remember back in the day an old game where the PCs try to use a ring off a defeated badguy I didn't want them to use...
They were given every warning (cold to the touch, aura of evil and negative energy)
Well one dude said fuckit, so he put it on and his finger rotted off from the ring to the tip after failing his dex check to take it off swiftly.
Fuckers left it in a temple donation box after paying for a Cleric to regrow the finger with a spell...they felt overcharged.
along those lines...
The newb, playing a drow rogue, ignored our warnings and clutched the newly accessible possessed jewelry. He failed his save but was deemed worthy by the entity in the very last seconds of the session. He was instructed to turn over his character sheet as he is now going to be an adversary for the players in the DM's regular game (some of the other players are in that group, but I don't know which.)
I'm going to his 3rd and final one-shot tonight, which should be even better since my daughter and regular DM will also be there this time. Then tomorrow night is my regular game, also with my daughter, so 3 sessions in a week!
well, 8 days. 
