Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
A bit of excitement from our regular session today that I thought I'd share. I won't mention what adventure we're playing due to spoilers, but suffice to say the party is exploring a big dungeon complex (and the details will be up in the next week on diaglo's story hour).
Party of six:
Halfling Rgr5/Rog3
Elf Brd8
Human Clr6/Ftr2
Half-elf Rgr7
Gnome Sor7
Elf Drd7
The party had just opened a secret door when they heard a metallic "clang" from another corrider; the two rangers go to investigate. They encounter the four girallons charging out to meet them (in line down the corridor). The surprise round results in a 10 hp hit to the half-elf ranger, he loses initiative and is ripped to shreds by the girallon's full attack the next round (straight to -15). Almost death #1 -- the damage in the module stat block seems high; I check it against the MM to confirm, and sure enough, it's an error -- the ranger comes back to life at -5 hp, and the halfling begins dragging him out of range.
Thinking fast, the bard fascinates three of the four charging girallons (though not until after one gets behind the party). The fourth eventually gets clear to charge the party, takes some spell damage, and then is calmed by the druid, to be led back to its lair (smart thinking & good rolling by the druid's player using Wild Empathy). Eight rounds pass as the party tries to decide how to extract themselves without being demolished; meanwhile the wildshaped druid has been casting buff spells on himself. Finally the druid (wildshaped as a bear and buffed to the max) attacks the isolated girallon and takes it down in one round with the help of his leopard companion, then goes running to the party's aid.
The sorcerer decides to get creative with spells, breaking the fascination on the remaining girallons. One charges the bard, and shreds her in a full attack on the following round (bad choice on the bard's part -- she elected to 5' step to cast a spell to try an avoid an attack of opportunity, rather than withdraw, allowing the girallon to 5' step and finish her off the next round. Had she pulled back farther, accepting the attack of opportunity, she would have been hurt, but survived). Death #2. One girallon charges the druid and leopard, turning the leopard into pate. Death #3. The druid's retaliation is swift, and the second monster bites the dust.
The cleric, halfling, and revived ranger square off against the remaining two girallons, dropping one -- but both rangers are reduced to single-digit hit points in the process. The druid arrives just in time to finish off the fourth girallon.
The party retreats to rest and lick wounds; the bard is reincarnated as a kobold, and they press deeper into the dungeon.
A bit later they engage four Wight Fighter-4s, two with spiked chains, two dual-wielding swords and axes. The cleric is able to turn (using his Sun power to destroy) two wights, but one spiked-chain wielding wight drops him prone. A miss-located Scintillating Sphere (ie, electrical fireball) from the sorcerer drops the cleric's hit points by half, and a crit from a spiked-chain wight and it's all over for the cleric (almost death #4). But wait! The crit was confirmed exactly; the cleric's player forgot to declare his Dodge feat. The DM (softy that I am) decides to let the cleric apply his Dodge bonus; the difference means he survives, barely. The remaining wights are destroyed and their more dangerous ally is driven off (temporarily); the party retreats.
Lessons learned:
1. Girallons are nasty. I thought I'd learned that lesson from reading Wulf's story hour, but it doesn't really sink in until you're rolling all five attacks and adding up the rend damage.
2. Don't underestimate a well-played druid. The druid's player is a newbie (this is his third session) and he's done really well playing such a complex character. He made some errors in damage calculation, as it turned out, but even so he still saved the party's bacon. The bard's Fascinate probably prevented a TPK early on and gave them time to get their act together.
3. Check stat blocks! I do this routinely as part of my reading and pre-game prep, but the error in the girallon's stats slipped by me, and I hate to have a PC die because of an error like that. I'm glad I caught it when I did.
And a good time was had by all ... a great bunch, this group. The bard's player is tickled to now be a kobold -- first time I've seen a Reincarnate used in-game in 15 years.
Party of six:
Halfling Rgr5/Rog3
Elf Brd8
Human Clr6/Ftr2
Half-elf Rgr7
Gnome Sor7
Elf Drd7
The party had just opened a secret door when they heard a metallic "clang" from another corrider; the two rangers go to investigate. They encounter the four girallons charging out to meet them (in line down the corridor). The surprise round results in a 10 hp hit to the half-elf ranger, he loses initiative and is ripped to shreds by the girallon's full attack the next round (straight to -15). Almost death #1 -- the damage in the module stat block seems high; I check it against the MM to confirm, and sure enough, it's an error -- the ranger comes back to life at -5 hp, and the halfling begins dragging him out of range.
Thinking fast, the bard fascinates three of the four charging girallons (though not until after one gets behind the party). The fourth eventually gets clear to charge the party, takes some spell damage, and then is calmed by the druid, to be led back to its lair (smart thinking & good rolling by the druid's player using Wild Empathy). Eight rounds pass as the party tries to decide how to extract themselves without being demolished; meanwhile the wildshaped druid has been casting buff spells on himself. Finally the druid (wildshaped as a bear and buffed to the max) attacks the isolated girallon and takes it down in one round with the help of his leopard companion, then goes running to the party's aid.
The sorcerer decides to get creative with spells, breaking the fascination on the remaining girallons. One charges the bard, and shreds her in a full attack on the following round (bad choice on the bard's part -- she elected to 5' step to cast a spell to try an avoid an attack of opportunity, rather than withdraw, allowing the girallon to 5' step and finish her off the next round. Had she pulled back farther, accepting the attack of opportunity, she would have been hurt, but survived). Death #2. One girallon charges the druid and leopard, turning the leopard into pate. Death #3. The druid's retaliation is swift, and the second monster bites the dust.
The cleric, halfling, and revived ranger square off against the remaining two girallons, dropping one -- but both rangers are reduced to single-digit hit points in the process. The druid arrives just in time to finish off the fourth girallon.
The party retreats to rest and lick wounds; the bard is reincarnated as a kobold, and they press deeper into the dungeon.
A bit later they engage four Wight Fighter-4s, two with spiked chains, two dual-wielding swords and axes. The cleric is able to turn (using his Sun power to destroy) two wights, but one spiked-chain wielding wight drops him prone. A miss-located Scintillating Sphere (ie, electrical fireball) from the sorcerer drops the cleric's hit points by half, and a crit from a spiked-chain wight and it's all over for the cleric (almost death #4). But wait! The crit was confirmed exactly; the cleric's player forgot to declare his Dodge feat. The DM (softy that I am) decides to let the cleric apply his Dodge bonus; the difference means he survives, barely. The remaining wights are destroyed and their more dangerous ally is driven off (temporarily); the party retreats.
Lessons learned:
1. Girallons are nasty. I thought I'd learned that lesson from reading Wulf's story hour, but it doesn't really sink in until you're rolling all five attacks and adding up the rend damage.
2. Don't underestimate a well-played druid. The druid's player is a newbie (this is his third session) and he's done really well playing such a complex character. He made some errors in damage calculation, as it turned out, but even so he still saved the party's bacon. The bard's Fascinate probably prevented a TPK early on and gave them time to get their act together.
3. Check stat blocks! I do this routinely as part of my reading and pre-game prep, but the error in the girallon's stats slipped by me, and I hate to have a PC die because of an error like that. I'm glad I caught it when I did.
And a good time was had by all ... a great bunch, this group. The bard's player is tickled to now be a kobold -- first time I've seen a Reincarnate used in-game in 15 years.
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