Witty and emotionally-charged Scion

The plot of the most recent couple sessions of my campaign have had some really interesting situations and performances.

The PCs have this sidekick who's a Scion of Tlazlteotl. Mama Tlaz' has been noting (disapprovingly) that the PCs are Demigods, and her daughter's not advanced that far or fast. She accused them of holding her daughter back for their own benefit. Then she grabbed her daughter by the wrist and hauled her off for this big televised ascension ritual of a rather depraved nature. This did not go over well with the PCs, who attempted to sabotage the event.

It's kinda complicated to convey everything that's gone on in the the 12 most recent hours of the campaign, but in addition to Mama Filth, I've had appearances by Apollo, Ares, Poseidon, Odin, Eric & Donnie, and multiple sequences involving Pan.

The PCs killed Pan, but ended up buried under the Avatar of Earth because Pan was an instrumental part of Tlazlteotl's drastic plans for her daughter.

An NPC involved had Ultimate Wits, and was able to retract the scene back to the moment before they crossed the line (and thus retroactively stopped the situation from escalating). Everyone left alive - even Pan - but things have been quite tense. What a fun setting.

The whole Ultimate Wits rewind thing was premeditated. I created a situation where the PCs could easily hang themselves despite the clues granted by Epic mental traits. Then I kept notes on how much Legend and Willpower they spent and gained in the process of building their own gallows.

It blew up into this hideous climax that would have ended the campaign with a TPK. I let them scramble to save themselves ("everybody take cover beneath the person with Earth 1!") and sweat for a moment, then said "and at the point the friendly NPC activates Ultimate Wits - we back up the story to point X, just before the fatal mistake. You have 23 legend and 7 willpower. You have 42 legend and..." etc.

Much fun was had by all, though I suppose it was a touch more fun for me than them. Two out of three players have now indicated their intent to buy Ultimate Wits when they get to L12.

Oh, and don't worry - this isn't railroading or "The GM's glorious NPC alter-ego saves the day!". The players got to see the worst possible outcome of courage overcoming subtlety, and on try #2 worked out a much more clever and less direct way of undermining Pan and Tlazlteotl. They still got most of what they wanted, but first they got to see how she could wreck them if they were too brave for their own good.