ToEE 4E Session 9 - The one with the Giant Crayfish

Once again - but for the final time - beneath the Moathouse, our heroes arise from an extended rest:

• Torgor Bearkin, Dwarf Sentinel Druid with his bear companion "Po" (Apprentice Red)

• Isaac, Human Swordmage (also Red)

• Torinn, Dragonborn Sorcerer (Apprentice Blaster)

• Apollo Magewood, Elf Bladesinger (Also Blaster)

No longer able to resist the temptation (after finally making 3rd level)  our heroes decide that the orcs time has come - no longer will they be allowed to cower in their corner of the dungeon! Despite having talked their way through the orcs twice now, the party was spoiling for a fight. Pausing only to trash-talk the poor humanoids combat ensued as soon as boots hit the floor in the room (28 for those of you following at home).  Overconfidence nearly claimed a victim/taught a lesson in the 1st round as Isaac found himself surrounded by orcs and was quickly bloodied. Round 2 saw Po dispatched to the spirit world (again) and the Bladesinger had to use his shield spell to stop a nasty orc charge that would have bloodied him as well. The battle wasn't totally one-sided but in round 5 the Swordmage was shot by an archer and dropped for the rest of the fight. Eventually the orcs were slain to the last ... man ... and the party took a short rest to recover. 

Examining the map the party soon realized that there were not many loose ends left - in fact there was only one passage unexplored, so they headed straight for it and the glorious finish of their first full dungeon.

Creeping down the stairs ... nothing unusual except some dripping , watery sounds ... around a corner ... a quiet pool ... a light spell cast into the pool and OMG ITS THE BIGGEST LOBSTER IN THE WORLD!

No not that one

An epic 8-round fight begins that sees exploration of the interaction of grabs, escapes, teleportation, forced movement, difficult terrain, and drowning. Lessons learned by the party: a) don't fight aquatic creatures in the water and b) swordmages are very good at fighting grabber type creatures.

Round 1: Swordmage gets grabbed. 

Round 2: Swordmage tries to break out, fails, so he teleports away

Round 3: Sorcerer goes 'zilla again - scorched, blasted crayfish grabs the Druid 

of course you knew I was going to use this

Round 4: Bladesinger gets grabbed, non-teleporting Druid gets squeezed hard

Round 5: Bladesinger manages to break out, Crayfish slides back into deeper water with new Druid friend

Round 6: Fight moves to the water with varying degrees of success for the party

Round 7: Swordmage grabbed again, Druid finally escapes, Crayfish says "enough" and dives to bottom of pool

Round 8: The biggest Crayfish in the world is slain by a magic missile from the Bladesinger

In true D&D fashion the party high fives at surviving and finishing the dungeon, takes a short rest, then heads back to town, in this case the village of Hommlet, but not before stripping off a bunch of Crayfish shell to use as decoration and armor.

Yeah, that one

Back at the village they restock, tell some tales in the tavern, and debate their next move. Most likely they are going to seek out the temple itself - at last!

DM Notes: Those poor orcs were doomed. Talking to the Apprentices when you're a monster makes you look weak in their eyes and spurs a lot of "we can beat them" talk at the table. Ah well - hopefully I gave them a good enough fight to cure them of some of that attitude for now. 

They got very excited when they realized they only had one passage left to explore. We started this adventure a year ago, and they've never cleared an entire dungeon level before, and this is the first time they've made it to 3rd level in 4th Edition, so there were several milestones being passed here. 

The fight with the crayfish was a lot of fun and I hope my tone here captures the spirit of the fight with a lot of comments being made in between die rolls, and much laughing too. Once again, much like their old Basic adventure, Blaster wants to make armor out of a crustacean. I'm not sure that a shell should really count as leather or hide, but I'm going to find a way to give it to them as no one wears plate and no one uses a shield which would be the obvious calls here.

Anyway this forced me to go in and detail out the ruins of the temple and I will be posting them here soon.

Ahhh ..the crayfish was only playing dead - he's now lurking and nursing his wounds, waiting to take his revenge...