[Axel]

Well, in response to the apparent end of my ill-conceived campaign I have been informed that I must tell the tale of how a level zero spell nearly ruined an adventure. To do this I must take you back before the adventure hook, to some other interesting occurrences.
Our story begins way back at level 1, when our heroes decided to take a ship from the island on which they first awoke to the mainland. Along the way they were accosted by pirates, whom they valiantly fought off. During his hasty retreat the pirate captain called out a job offer. Though the rogue was sorely tempted, she restrained herself. Adventures on the mainland ensued and the party found themselves several levels higher and engaged in a tournament. The wizard wisely refrained from joining, but the fighter, rogue, druid, and cleric joined in. Here they again encountered the pirate captain, who displayed his dazzling rapier skills and impaled the rogue, who was being used as a meat shield by a much larger adversary. In the end, however, the party's druid somehow beat their fighter in the final round (lousy bad roles, I was trying to give the fighter a moment in the sun. Still she was the only one to keep her trophy.) That night, during a festival in honor of all the contestants (even the drunken gnome who I kept bringing back as a quazi-magical running gag) Captain Martin again extended a job offer to the rogue (who he eventually recognized despite a species change). This time she grabbed her pal the druid and ran off, stopping only to grab the druid's animal companions: a wolf and a housecat (another story in itself).
At sea their ship was accosted by Sahuigin. Again the party bravely defended their vessel, this time with the assistance of redshirts. One of whom survived, gained a level, and eventually became a major NPC named Lt. Ritchie. However (as the hook for the next adventure) the sahugin did manage to damage the ship's hold, contaminating their food and water supplies. The ship was sailing around the coast, and the nearest land was a wasteland, and the nearest port a few weeks away. The adventure was simple: find food and, more importantly, water. Until the druid calculated that, using most of her spells per day, she could produce enough water for the entire crew.
I pushed the food issue and managed to get them to go ashore in the desert. There they encountered a group of desert tribesmen (read: Fremen). She again used create water to secure their reverence and was taken to their witch. He was dying, and had no apprentice (I decided to turn that bloody spell against her) without her help his people would die of thirst. My intended moral crisis turned into a mass exodus! After delivering food from the tribe's stores, grabbing Lt. Ritchie, and creating makeshift carts from available stone (stoneshape) and using the local dewbacks they led a group of exiles through the desert, over the mountains, and into the forests beyond. They were trying to assemble their own fleet, with Lt. Ritchie as Master at Arms when the plot gods intervened!

[Dthclaw]

Wow. I've never heard of Create Water derailing anything before.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Yikes. Interesting story. So let me get this straight, because I am trying to read through tears of laughter. The party used create water to turn your NPC into Moses? I think I have a new one-liner overheard at a pub.

[Axel]

Worse. they used it to turn themselves into Moses. They ended up with a thousand loyal followers.

[Dthclaw]

In other words, in the future, consider that maybe the society has a low-level spellcaster or two that can cast such spells, eh?

[Axel]

After she began flaunting said spell I did. To salvage the adventure he was dying, and didn't have enough time left to train an apprentice. Thus they had far too many people to cast for. It was supposed to be a moral dilemma, but they came up with a better solution than I intended. For the next hour they had their heads together working out logistics for the move while I handled the other group.

[Dthclaw]

Wow. I guess there's something to be said for high-magic where the 0-level Moses spell doesn't really happen

[Axel]

This is what I get for not checking what spells the druid can cast before sending her on an adventure centered around finding water in the desert. Granted, the tribe basically did have its own caster to take care of that spell, but when he's about to die with no one to take over....

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Yeah. The moral of this story certainly is "Check your PCs' spell lists before writing adventures."

[Axel]

Thankfully that was the last time I encountered that problem. Well, sorta. They did assemble their own ship later using warp wood and woodshape. But I approved that plan, since something similar was done to create their sand-sleds.

The game had several other amusing anecdotes, largely do to me making it up as I went along, but few with any moral.

[super sorcerer]

It is also possible that a party would have to get somthing from a safe that is locked by a supreme lock an is warded by an antimagic field and the only way to open it is with its speacial key, and the key just broke one day. Then the party just saved the world when they cast mending on the remains of the key.

There are also many scary things that you can do with cantrips. Ghost sond and Mage hand can do miraclus things sometimes, so always remember that cantrips are magic, and magic is powerfull.

[Lyinginbedmon]

There's talk somewhere about using the cantrip summon instrument to creatively wield a pipe organ. I think all of this is evidence that one shouldn't underestimate low-level spells and their casters

[Dthclaw]

Ha ha ha... nice... summon pipe organ...

Welcome back, Lying! Ain't heard from you in a while...

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Hahahaha! Captain Nemo, the bard....Awesome. Hmm...that'd be an interesting campaign...

[Dthclaw]

Oh god... and with my Crafter rules its actually possible...