In the 12th session of The Delve, we saw the return of Von Grissle, a 2nd-level variant human UA ranger who hadn't delved since session four. The party had inadvertently freed Queen Zenobia, a medusa, from her prison-maze after defeating the helmed horror guarding her cell. The short-lived combat saw two of the party - Elron Huckabee (rogue 1/cleric 4) and Mel'endir (drow sorcerer 4) - turned to stone. Thak (dragonborn fighter 3) and Valgus (dragonborn cleric 4) stood down and let her leave, lest they too become petrified. Once Queen Zenobia departed for some other section of the dungeon, Thak and Valgus dragged the statues outside of the Delve to come up with a plan.
That's when, as luck would have it, Von Grissle, accompanied by the folk hero brawler "Immovable Rod" Manleigh (variant human barbarian 1), turned up at the dungeon. When they found out their friends had been turned to stone by a medusa, Von Grissle drew upon his knowledge of monstrosities (Favored Enemy: Monstrosity) to discover that if the statues are bathed in the blood of the medusa before a day had passed, Elron and Mel'endir could be restored. It was almost 2 pm, the trek from Grimdark having taken 6 hours and their efforts in the dungeon another two, plus Thak and Valgus could use a rest after their ordeal with the earth elemental in the chapel of Ogremoch and the ensuing battles with the helmed horror and medusa. The party resolved to take a short rest (eight hours in this campaign) and to take another stab at killing the medusa in order to save their friends remaining statues, despite now being lower level as a party on average.
Von Grissle's superior survival skills in the wild helped the party achieve victory in a group check to resolve finding a location for and setting up a defensive campsite. This meant the random encounter check would be rolled twice and the party could choose the result they wanted. However, in this case, a random encounter was unavoidable as both results indicated trouble.
A strange song echoed out of the darkness of the wood as two berserkers with blank expressions on their faces waded into the PCs' campsite with murderous intent. Von Grissle was on watch and his alarm spellhelped alert the party to the attack. He got to shoot first due to Natural Explorer. A fierce battle ensued as the groggy PCs defended themselves and tried without success to reason with the berserkers. A harpy swooped in - the source of the strange song - and tried to lure the adventurers into becoming her servants as she did with the berserkers. Von Grissle engaged the harpy (a monstrosity) immediately with his crossbow, initially failing his saving throw against her luring song but turning into a success because he is so Lucky. A few good shots with his crossbow later, thanks of course to his +2 bonus to damage rolls against monstrosities, Von Grissle felled the harpy as it tried to get away. After this battle and the remainder of the 8-hour short rest, Von Grissle advanced to 3rd level, choosing Hunter Conclave. Valgus, who was already on the cusp of leveling at the end of the previous session, became 5th level.
It was late at night when they re-entered the Delve through the secret tunnel used by the yuan-ti, a snake cult finally wiped out the week before. Von Grissle put his tracking skills to use to find Queen Zenobia, gaining advantage on the check due to Favored Enemy: Monstrosity. She had been scouring the Delve seeking her yuan-ti allies and was on the cusp of venturing down to the eighth level of the Delve when the PCs caught up to her. By some strange confluence of randomness, the party - including two plate mail wearers! - succeeded in surprising her. Once again, Von Grissle went first thanks to Natural Explorer, hitting Queen Zenobia with an ensnaring strike which basically set the tone for the rest of the encounter. They averted their gazes and wailed on her normally thanks to the advantage/disadvantage wash with no risk of her petrifying gaze and little concern for her ineffectual attacks. At one point she broke free and "Immovable Rod" Manleigh did the ol'-punch-grapple-prone move on her which was enough to keep their advantage/disadvantage wash going. Von Grissle's Colossus Slayer was useful since the medusa started the combat down hit points, having failed to short rest in her search of the dungeon for allies. Additional damage also came, of course, from Favored Enemy: Monstrosity.
Queen Zenobia defeated, they bathed the statues of Elron and Mel'endir in her blood and restored them to flesh. "Immovable Rod" Manleigh skipped 2nd level and went straight to 3rd level (or will after a rest). Von Grissle and Rod bid their allies a fond farewell and headed back to Grimdark while the original expedition team delved further to plunder the gems from the chapel of Ogremoch.
I was disappointed that Primeval Awareness did not get used so I could adjudicate it like a boss (do we say that anymore?), but all in all, I think that the mechanics supported the concept the player was going for, that is, a gentleman Monstrosity Hunter.
