Screen Saver
Ghouls! They have a paralysing attack, which could spell trouble if we are all afflicted. But the odds of each of us getting paralysed is surely negligible.
Well, Skelra's minimal armour class pretty much ensures he doesn't last long, particularly as the ghouls get a surprise round against us. But that's only one down and probably all the ghouls will have to celebrate, for what little unlife they have left. Ganelon springs in to action and slices one of the ghouls in half...
'That's a neat trick, I'm using my mace.'
'Okay, you smash him in half.'
...cleaving in to a second to kill two monsters in one swing. Yep, this fight is going to be simple. Even losing Brennan to a paralysing attack in the second round doesn't faze us, as Ganelon and myself are still up and swinging.
Ganelon is still up and swinging. A particularly well-aimed claw digs in to my side and I stiffen up. But it's okay, I drop a ghoul before I am taken out of the fight. It's just Ganelon and the ghoul leader. I know who my gold is on.
Maybe I should have bet on the ghoul, but then how would I collect my winnings? Our paladin's full plate armour isn't entirely impenetrable, the last ghoul standing slashing in through a chink in the paladin's defences. But even though his armour class isn't obscenely high, only stupidly, Ganelon's fortitude saving throw certainly is. He can only be paralysed on a roll of a 1 or a 2. For once, with the rest of the party counting on him, we appreciate this.
The D20 rolls across the table, bumping in to the GM's screen and landing on a 1. Crap, that means the whole party is paralysed with a ghoul ready to suck our attributes dry. But wait, the D20 hasn't landed flat on the table! It is slightly cocked against the GM's screen.
A little tug on the screen confirms that the D20 didn't come to a natural rest, giving the paladin a reroll. Thankfully, the second roll is an easy success and Ganelon finishes the combat by killing the final ghoul. But it was close.