We’re nicely into the last part of Demon Queen’s Enclave in our weekly game now. The drow have been left behind and the party have struck out for Hordethrone to confront the bad guy. Something happened in the last game that hasn’t happened since, well probably the medusa encounter from way back in the heroic tier.
The players got scared.
It was a pair of bodaks. These are not creatures that I’d had much interaction with over the years, and my players will have had less. When I hit them up with some description and put the minis on the table, they still didn’t really make the players sit up and take notice. Even when they used battleaxe attacks that weakened their opponents, still no fear.
But then they opened up with the death gaze.
Death Gaze (standard, at-will) 
Gaze, Necrotic
Range 10; targets a living creature; +20 vs Fortitude; if the target is weakened, it is reduced to 0 hit points; otherwise, the target takes 1d6 + 6 necrotic damage and loses 1 healing surge.
Ouch! The look on Julio’s face as his rogue went from 104 hp to zero, no save, no roll, no nothing. Priceless.
I’m enjoying this extraplanar jaunt. It smacks of Dark Sun, or Clash of the Titans. It got that whole swords and sandals vibe, along with stop motion monsters and passals of undead. That may be because I saw CotT just the week before (don’t bother yourselves) but often films I see or books I read colour the gaming experience. At least my D&D games have a real 3d element.
