Six players at Lost Legion Games and Comics: The Rifleman, Charleston WV. Been pretty much the same group for three weeks now. Awesome.
When the action started, the Eladrin Wizard, my wife, who I somehow finally convinced to try DnD with me, made a knowledge check to see what she knew about the bad guys. She rolled a crit. This set the theme for the whole encounter.
We took a poll for the moment of greatness and everyone chose: The Wall. The Wall was the single greatest terrain feature we've used in a game yet. The Cleric, the Psion, and the Wizard lined up along the wall and blasted away. The beholder almost threw the cleric off the bridge, but she made her save. When he tried it with the wizard on the next round, they showed how much they'd had enough by concentrating fire on it. Once it was bloodied, it was much less of a threat. And at that point, it was all that was left.
The Paladin and the Dwarf Fighter took the fight to the elves and the guard drakes. The elves got off their encounter powers against the partie's own elf ranger, dropping him, but it was pretty much the only thing that went right for them. They were never able to get CA and couldn't keep themselves from getting flanked. Once the two defenders and the striker got in position, it was over for them. The guard drakes were never much of a threat because I couldn't hit worth a damn with them. They only bit someone twice the whole battle.
The last three attacks against the beholder were all crits. No lie. Sometimes all the mojo is with the players and this was one of those times.
We're all really looking forward to the last three encounters. Gonna be good.
