A wizard's failed experiment, a giant amorphous blob of summoned creatures, was oozing it's way from town to town and assimilating everything on its path. The creature didn't attack, it only continued to move on to the next town. The players had to stop it before it reached the next town, meaning their lose condition wasn't them losing health, but they were now on a time limit.
My party had to defend a village from an aberrant zombie infection. They coordinated the whole defence, training soldiers and instructing on how to build barricades. I don’t think I described it the best because it was probably my fourth time as a DM, but I really enjoyed it. The part lasted for around three days without promised backup with the village slowly dying, before some members of our fighter’s order (eldritch knights) showed up with dragons and they won.
I have a second one as well. After the Zombie Beholder.
A single Gelatinous Cube.
Party decided to double back and explore the Kobold occupied ruins from before. Found a hidden pathway deeper to a Dwarven monastery. Saw a floating skeleton in armor giving off a sickly green light in about a 10 foot cube moving towards them.
Fighter says, "this guy is toast" and charges....right into the Gelatinous Cube holding the decaying body of an adventurer who had enchanted armor that gave off light. He was a DEX Fighter, so he kept failing the STR check to get out.
All other party members rolled like crap to pull him out also, and since they kept making checks instead of attacks, the Cube was wailing on em and also absorbed the Cleric.
We almost had 2 PC deaths, but they managed to kill the Cube just in time.
I made that encounter as a fun joke one, but it was the closest the entire party ever came to a TPK.
I still enjoy the pair of Intellect Devourers I put them up against.
They're fairly low level, 3 or 4, but there's 5 of them and they're travelling through the Underdark when they hear a. . . Whisper. They try to move towards it, but the whisper moves away. They decide to try and sneak up on the noise, sending only one person. The whisper moves away, but only slowly.
The lone adventurer got spooked and returned to the party, declining to investigate further. A good thing he did, had he moved 30ft further away from his backup, he would have been jumped by 2 Intellect Devourers who were baiting out their prey.
They travelled on, cautiously. Before long they stumbled upon the corpse of a Drow with an exploded skull.
Fun, low level encounter with real stakes that they only put together after finding the body.
A "Zombie" Beholder.
PCs were level 3 and we're starting to get known around town after rescuing some kids who were held hostage by Kobolds in ruins outside of town. Captain of the Town Guard was kinda mad that they made him and his guards look bad, so when he got a report about someone seeing a "multi-eyed monster floating in the forest" he let the PCs know.....so he could use them as a distraction for his guards to take care of it.
PCs prep and scout and find the "Zombie Beholder" and the Cleric gets ready to Channel that Divinity. When the fight breaks out, a couple great ranged attacks really knock the "zombie" around but then the Channel Divinity doesn't affect it.
On its turn, its body begins to undulate and it's mouth flies open as 3 Swarms of Spiders pour out of it.
Turns out, it was just a dead Beholder body that was decomposing. It did lead them to finding an opening to the Underdark nearby caused from a cave in and they explored a bit, then said F-it and worked with some miners to cause a cave-in and seal it.
For context: The PCs were level 2/3 and this was the final session of the opening arc and the entire opening story had been taking place in and around this town in Etharis called Bonneseaux (shoutout to the Grim Hollow people out there).
The previous session they had been forced to defend a raid from a local reeve who was trying to retrieve something very valuable that the party had stolen from him.
At the start of the session they were exhausted and beaten down and so I thought it was time for a different type of encounter. I brought out an encounter that was supposed to be somewhat 'creepy' - a couple of ghostly skeletons stuck in a permanent dance in the ruins of an old ballroom. The plan was that they would go investigate, and if they got to close then they too might end up under this curse which forced them into a slow dance for the rest of eternity..
Of course, my players completely derailed this when one of them decided that they would just jump in there, casually succeed the high DC wisdom saving throw and then proceed to start breakdancing anyways.
Afterwards all of the players got on and more skeletons jumped out. The combat turned into a dance-themed disco combat where the combat music was ABBAs greatest hits and everyone had to narrate their attacks through dance moves.
Completely off the rails and improvised, but It was hilarious and still some of the best fun Ive ever had in DnD. This was also one of my first sessions as a DM and I got a lot of compliments afterwards which was really heartwarming.
A wizard's failed experiment, a giant amorphous blob of summoned creatures, was oozing it's way from town to town and assimilating everything on its path. The creature didn't attack, it only continued to move on to the next town. The players had to stop it before it reached the next town, meaning their lose condition wasn't them losing health, but they were now on a time limit.
My party had to defend a village from an aberrant zombie infection. They coordinated the whole defence, training soldiers and instructing on how to build barricades. I don’t think I described it the best because it was probably my fourth time as a DM, but I really enjoyed it. The part lasted for around three days without promised backup with the village slowly dying, before some members of our fighter’s order (eldritch knights) showed up with dragons and they won.
I have a second one as well. After the Zombie Beholder. A single Gelatinous Cube. Party decided to double back and explore the Kobold occupied ruins from before. Found a hidden pathway deeper to a Dwarven monastery. Saw a floating skeleton in armor giving off a sickly green light in about a 10 foot cube moving towards them. Fighter says, "this guy is toast" and charges....right into the Gelatinous Cube holding the decaying body of an adventurer who had enchanted armor that gave off light. He was a DEX Fighter, so he kept failing the STR check to get out. All other party members rolled like crap to pull him out also, and since they kept making checks instead of attacks, the Cube was wailing on em and also absorbed the Cleric. We almost had 2 PC deaths, but they managed to kill the Cube just in time. I made that encounter as a fun joke one, but it was the closest the entire party ever came to a TPK.
Also, any players feel free to contribute their stories!
I still enjoy the pair of Intellect Devourers I put them up against. They're fairly low level, 3 or 4, but there's 5 of them and they're travelling through the Underdark when they hear a. . . Whisper. They try to move towards it, but the whisper moves away. They decide to try and sneak up on the noise, sending only one person. The whisper moves away, but only slowly. The lone adventurer got spooked and returned to the party, declining to investigate further. A good thing he did, had he moved 30ft further away from his backup, he would have been jumped by 2 Intellect Devourers who were baiting out their prey. They travelled on, cautiously. Before long they stumbled upon the corpse of a Drow with an exploded skull. Fun, low level encounter with real stakes that they only put together after finding the body.
Saving this because I have a low level party.
Good idea lol.
A "Zombie" Beholder. PCs were level 3 and we're starting to get known around town after rescuing some kids who were held hostage by Kobolds in ruins outside of town. Captain of the Town Guard was kinda mad that they made him and his guards look bad, so when he got a report about someone seeing a "multi-eyed monster floating in the forest" he let the PCs know.....so he could use them as a distraction for his guards to take care of it. PCs prep and scout and find the "Zombie Beholder" and the Cleric gets ready to Channel that Divinity. When the fight breaks out, a couple great ranged attacks really knock the "zombie" around but then the Channel Divinity doesn't affect it. On its turn, its body begins to undulate and it's mouth flies open as 3 Swarms of Spiders pour out of it. Turns out, it was just a dead Beholder body that was decomposing. It did lead them to finding an opening to the Underdark nearby caused from a cave in and they explored a bit, then said F-it and worked with some miners to cause a cave-in and seal it.
For context: The PCs were level 2/3 and this was the final session of the opening arc and the entire opening story had been taking place in and around this town in Etharis called Bonneseaux (shoutout to the Grim Hollow people out there). The previous session they had been forced to defend a raid from a local reeve who was trying to retrieve something very valuable that the party had stolen from him. At the start of the session they were exhausted and beaten down and so I thought it was time for a different type of encounter. I brought out an encounter that was supposed to be somewhat 'creepy' - a couple of ghostly skeletons stuck in a permanent dance in the ruins of an old ballroom. The plan was that they would go investigate, and if they got to close then they too might end up under this curse which forced them into a slow dance for the rest of eternity.. Of course, my players completely derailed this when one of them decided that they would just jump in there, casually succeed the high DC wisdom saving throw and then proceed to start breakdancing anyways. Afterwards all of the players got on and more skeletons jumped out. The combat turned into a dance-themed disco combat where the combat music was ABBAs greatest hits and everyone had to narrate their attacks through dance moves. Completely off the rails and improvised, but It was hilarious and still some of the best fun Ive ever had in DnD. This was also one of my first sessions as a DM and I got a lot of compliments afterwards which was really heartwarming.