Temple of Elemental Evil Part #7 - Session 5 Part 1: Poor Planning Pays Off

Part 7: Session 5 Part 1: Poor Planning Pays Off

“Hello, everyone. Did I miss anything?”

“Nah, I let William know what happened last session, but we’ve just been bullshitting since then.”

We can start now, though. So one last time: are you guys sure you want to go to Emridy Meadows first? You don’t want to get any experience clearing the Moathouse first?

“What’s the deal? You seemed set on us getting to Emridy first earlier.”

Yeah, that was before I looked up the stats of Hill Giants again. It’s CR 7, guys. 7. Your level is 2.

“If it ends up too much for us, we can always run away, assuming you don’t have him chase us for too long. We do have other business in Emridy, after all.”

Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Revenge of the Giant Enemy Crayfish! I’m not sure I mentioned earlier, but the first time didn’t end so well for the party.

Looks like we’re starting things out easy with a random encounter. Hal, looks like you won initiative.

I’ll start out by embiggening Big McLargeHuge.
_{Go figure that’s the one character name he can remember…}

Lewis, you’re next.

Shield of Faith and I run partway to the oversized crawdad.

Next is Meleny, and she summons a wolf who will hopefully distract the Crayfish for a little while. Suzie?

I’d like to get close, but only as close as Lewis. What should I do with my standard action?

You could always Ready an Action, like readying versus the enemy’s approach, for instance.

How does that work?

Well, you pick a condition, and if the condition is fulfilled before your next turn, you get to take the rest of your action just before the condition goes off.

It’s good for fighting defensively or sniping spellcasters.

Huh. I should remember that for the solo campaign.

William?

I run up and wait, too.

And the Crayfish spends its turn trying to kill the wolf and failing…Paul?

Inspire Courage and I run to the same range as everyone else.

That brings us back around to Hal.

Magic Missile! Woo!

…That’s 15 damage.

Pretty good, but since you’re the first one to hit it, the Crayfish decides to attack you next. What’s your AC again?

…So Meleny moves to flank the Crayfish with Garrett, which means Suzie gets +2 to hit and can use her sneak attack damage. Suzie?

Alright, let me mark that down…Oh, that’s actually enough to kill it.

Gotcha!

Can I get some healing now? I’m at, like, zero hit points.

Relax, I’m on it.

Okay, but that’s still less than half my hit points.

Oh very well. I use the Cure Moderate Wounds scroll on William. Is that better?

Yeah, close enough.

Right, I suggest we all rest before continuing on.

Several more random encounters showed up while I tried to rest, but nothing you haven’t seen before. In fact, there’s really only one notable incident from this part:

Meleny got a critical hit and dealt 1 damage. That’s normally twice as much damage, and Meleny hit for 1. So much had to suck for that to happen, it’s mind boggling.

_{(Quite the introduction for an empty field.)

(You’re telling me.)}

Throughout the Meadows are a few distinct skeleton encounters. They’re actually larger than the usual random encounter, so while Alistor is cutting this one short, there were still a few more to go.

Really, the most irritating aspect of the skeletons is that they are “rolling” encounters. You walk along and one pops up on its own, so you run up to kill it, but then two more are suddenly in range and attack, so you go kill those, but now you have four more skeletons to fight. Then when you’re done, you walk ten feet and another skeleton who was just out of range gets the drop on you again.

Damn, I’m dying.

Relax. I’ll let you use the potion from Cuthbert’s place.

The blue potion, you mean? Are you sure you want to use it?

“Blue” is code for “healing potion,” right? So I let him use it.

Alright, then.

I’m just saying you kind of wasted a Heal potion on him.

Seriously? Damnit…

Wait a second. A Hill Giant and a Brown Bear? You seriously threw in a Brown Bear? Let me make a quick calculation here…Encounter Level 8. EL 8 against a bunch of level 2’s.

Hey, I warned you. And what do you know, both the bear and the giant are going last.

Right, now may be a good time to run away, everyone. Paul, since you’re going first?

Hang on, I’ve got a better idea! Giants have bad Will saves, right?

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter? The save for your first level spells is, what, 15? The giant only has +4 Will, but it gets another +4 for not being Humanoid.

I cast it anyway.