We're standing in the area that we believe is the entrance to the big evil guy's hideout. I'm a mage. (I commonly play clerics.)
Our fighter realises that a piece of metal lying in the ground of a vacant plot is covering up the entrance to his hideout. He just rips it right out of the ground, and lo and behold it opens up into two underground entrances.
One of the entrances seems to be quite shallow, maybe only one room or so. We send our gnome cleric down. We realise she is walking towards a cell. Then we see the silhouette of a big brown bear. A pissed off big brown bear.
The rest of the party races down the stairs to get to her. It grabs for her, but she escapes.
We decide not to let anyone go by themselves to investigate anything. So we creep around the other entrance; the bear takes a few pot shots as we pass, but nothing significant.
We head along a corridor, and then up some stairs. There are bedrooms here - and we decide to have a nap. The place seems pretty empty, so we have to wait for the bad guy to turn up anyways.
I'm just about to turn in, and then one of our non-human colleagues calls me to the window. She's the only one who has seen the bad guy before - the only one who can identify him.
"That's him!! He's down there!! Quick! Come look out the window!"
I race over to the window...
"You were too slow..."
"Uh huh", I think shaking my head at the empty plot below. Then I head back towards the bed I had chosen.
Then our night watch calls out in a whisper:
"He's coming! He's coming!"
I turn on the light, much to the dismay of my party. They were hoping for a surprise attack.
I wave my hand at them, in a defiant, confident dismissal. I have every intention of taking the surprise advantage, but I won't do it as a coward.
Before he reaches the top of the stairs, I raise my hands well above my head. I loom in the corridor as a giant figure, while the rest of my party hides in nooks and crannies.
I yell, rather masculinely, "FIREBALL!!"
I wiggle my fingers above my head, completely unintimidated. I watch as the energy flows from my hands to the direction of the shadowy figure reaching the top of the stairs.
The man looks up from the plastic bag in his hands, and turns towards me.
I have the surprise factor!!
He just sighs. He holds his hand up, and small blue sparkles head from it in the direction of my fireball energy. He mutters, "Not now!"
The energies intermingle and dissipate. Now I am perplexed.
The man looks briefly around the area, and although it is not possible to see the other members of my party, his eyes flick over each of their hidey holes.
"Man, this guy is going to be tough," I think.
He just looks back towards his plastic bag. He says to the bag, but loud enough for everyone else to hear, "This is not the time for our show down! We have a bigger problem."
When I reach him, I see the bag has chewing gum in it. I look at him strangely. He does not attack us.
He says, "Take this! And watch it!"
He puts some of the colourful chewie in my hands. This is strange. And then I realise that there is twice as much gum now as there was from the moment ago that he had put it in my hand.
He is chanting something over the bag. But I can see that the contents are increasing despite his efforts.
I say, "I'll handle this!"
I rip a hole in his bag and yell, rather masculinely again, "FIREBALL!!"
I aim it into the bag, and it does NOTHING! Absolutely nothing.
He sighs again! And says, "Don't you think I have already tried everything like that."
With his lapse in concentration, the bag begins to double in size with its contents. I hold onto the hole that I ripped in the bag desperately not wanting anything to escape.
"Er.. how's your mend spell working?"
He rolls his eyes at me. He does not want to help me, but he can see the hole will also double in size. So he touches it with his finger, draws along the hole and it is mended.
I woke up, unable to defeat my enemy, which I was so keen to do, but instead being forced to work on an impossible task together with him. Oh, and I woke with a need to raise my hands about my head and yell, "FIREBALL!" - in a very ineffective manner.