I started running The Lightless Depths tonight for a party of five. It was going pretty well; the bard flubbed his perform check when summoning the Glutton, but then rolled tw0 20's when using diplomacy. All was going fairly well. They got past the weak sentry, and made their way to the Trog village. Freed the Olman who was feebleminded, and decided to high tail it out of there back to the ship for now, as they were unprepared to face the trog priests and couldn't cure the feeblemind. No problem.
Heading back, I rolled for a random encounter. They got one, so I rolled on the chart and a 02 came up, a beholder. I considered it, and decided to go ahead with it. They all failed their spot checks, and the beholder descended from a natural chimney in the cavern and caught them flat-footed.
But, they continued to roll well, and in that round, all that happened was one slowed sorceror. A little frustrating for me, but hey! Plenty of more rounds to go, I thought.
The druid won initiative for the new round. The player was whining and moaning about a beholder ("That's at least 3 CR's higher than us! We're gonna die! Moan moan, complain complain.") He decided to cast a Baleful Polymorph, just for the heck of it (I allow it in my campaigns, even though it's all kinds of broken, with the understanding that their enemies will make use of it as well...and often.) Heh, okay. The beholder's central eye was still closed from the previous round, so whatever.
I rolled a 1 for his fortitude save. I rolled a 2 for his will save. *Presto* One monkey with beholder HP. Huh. Well, the dice fell the way they fell. I had the monkey start to scurry off, and just get away. But the bard wanted a pet monkey, so he chased after it and cast Speak With Animals. Another 20 diplomacy check was rolled, and the monkey was suddenly very friendly and hopped up on his shoulder, curling its tail around the bard's neck.
But that's not the end.
The druid decides that casting an Awaken spell would be a hoot. The now monkey ex-beholder fails that save as well (I was not rolling well tonight), and now they have a monkey with a 12 int who speaks common, beholder HP and physical stats (and saves), and an affinity for two party members (the bard and the druid). The monkey demanded pants and a shirt, and asked to accompany them, if they wouldn't mind too much (after asking some questions as to how it got there and what was going on).
Shoot, I'm rolling with it. I've decided that the monkey is going to get some rogue levels eventually, maybe even ninja levels or something. It's garb is that of a cabin boy, as those were the only things on the ship that came close to fitting its little body.
I've been playing for over 20 years, and not once did it ever enter my mind that this sequence of events could ever possibly occur. That's why I love this game.
Intelligent ex-beholder monkey rogues dressed as sailors and speaking in common. What could be better?