OMG, this is awesome! I need to let Jim know about it... if he doesn't already.
On a similar note, in a 2E game I was playing in our characters fought a white dragon and saved this NPC grandma but my character later froze to death. He only had 1hp and the DM said he died in the night (everyone took 1hp of freezing dmg). Just to show him, I insisted on making up the granma as a character. Granny "Knives" Knickerbocker was a retired thief who returned when duty called (and her sewing business destroyed by said dragon) to stop evil in the land.
It was a blast.

DM (Good at making granmas out of gammas) Mike