Tales of Aequar: Runite's Rise IC IV

[CoffeeIncluded]

Jade's reply is cut short by a biting curse as dozens of the remaining ants climb up his legs and bite at his ankles.

Meanwhile, out of the corner of his eye Artorias sees something shift under the rubble. Kheel's eyes widen as he sees the rubble shift too. Something rises out of the pile, rubble sliding off of it and falling to the ground until finally the creature beneath is revealed. An enormous spider, easily the size of the bulettes faced earlier, has dug its way out of the rubble and is bearing down on the remaining party outside.

Spoiler: Damage and initiative

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Jadeite damage: (2d6)[6]
Jadeite's fort save: (d20+4)[5]

Initiative for everyone outside:
Spider: (d20+5)[14]
Elsee: (d20+4)[19]
Kheel: (d20+2)[6]
Sora: (d20+2)[21]

I'll update the map and then I need to pack some more.

[CoffeeIncluded]

The spider shuffles out of the rubble and tries to deliver a searing bite to the first creature in sight--Sora.

Spoiler: Rolls and note

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Attack: (d20+9)[21]
Crit: (d20+9)[12]
Damage: (2d6+6)[9]
If hit, make a DC 16 fort save or take (d8)[1] strength damage.

Okay, I need to pack. EVERYONE IS UP.

[super dark33]

Surdrak cooks up another blast. He doesnt even care where he launches it as long as it has ants on it.

Spoiler: Sllor

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Shooting at Jadeite joking im joking!

(1d20+7)[15]
(3d6)[8] No mortalbane this time. reserving the last one for another time.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Artorias reflexively turns back when he hears the spider scuttling. "Great... just great" he drops the insta-campfire ball in front of him as he draws his sword before jumping on the back of the spider, his blade drawing an arc in the air as he tries to attack

Spoiler: Actions

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Free Action #1:Drop the campfire on (49,BJ)
Free Action #2: Draw greatsword
Swift Action: Initiate Sudden Leap (1d20+13)[26] to (51,BJ)
Attack Spider (1d20+6)[26] Power Attacking for 3
Crit Confirmation (1d20+8)[17]
Damage (2d6+14)[22]

[Silverraptor]

Sora shrieks back from the pop-up spider.

Spoiler

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Fort: (1d20+6)[16]

She looks at the bite before puffing up herself in anger.
"OH NO YOU DIDN'T! You thought you would make a meal out of me?! Elsee, teach this spider a lesson! Bless!"

Spoiler

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Concentration:(1d20+10)[22]

If needed.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Jadeite looks distinctly nauseous as the ants bite into him, and hops up and down trying to shake them off. Meanwhile, Surdrak doesn't even look at where he blasts and so hits a meat cleaver instead, causing it to fly into the air and spin into the stone floor with a crash.

Outside, the spider bites into Sora, leaving a deep gash, but she's able to shake off the poison for the time being and responds with a spell to increase everyone's accuracy slightly. And Artorias swings his blade to deal the spider a deep grevious blow.

Spoiler

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i need a crit damage from from Artorias please, and and sorry Surdrak but that last one just missed. Elsee, Kheel, badger, and jadeite are up. In seeing a movie with friends so I'll post IC later.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Spoiler: Crit Damage/All hail battle Ardor!

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Crit damage(2d6+14)[21]

[CoffeeIncluded]

With one powerful swing Artorias nearly cleaves the the spider in two. It still stands, but just barely. Kheel follows up by diving in and slamming down on the spider's head with outstretched talons.

Meanwhile, inside, Jadeite runs over to the stack of firewood, and hurls it over the campfire Artorias summoned into the middle of the ants. As it passes through the flame the wood catches alight, and by the time it lands in the middle of the ants it's a torch that sears even more of them.

Spoiler: Rolls and notes

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Badger and Elsee are up. Athedia, don't forget Badger has a flaming bow...

Jadeite attack: (d20+5)[23]
Jadeite damage: (d4)[4]

Kheel attack: (d20+11)[22]
Kheel crit: (d20+11)[14]
Damage: (2d4+3)[7]

Jadeite's improvised torch lands right in a thick clump of ants, and they all go up in a sudden blaze. Meanwhile, Kheel lands straight on the spider's head, piercing several of its eyes but not quite killing it.

[Athedia]

Badger looked through the archway still shuddering. Quickly she darted next to Jadiete and snatched some of the wood from his feet tossing it at the ants. She was careful to stay as far from the ants as she could.

Spoiler

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BJ49, throwing wood through fire

[Draconi Redfir]

Elsee mocked a surprised gasp at Sora's commands, unseathing her Kurkri and twirling them about as she encircled the large arachnid, sneaking up behind it as it's attention was focused on Kheel.

"An Astrid telling a Plavaan to risk her life for her!? Well call me crazy if THIS isn't a new one!"

Spoiler

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moving opposite of kheel on the spider for flanking bonus, then taking one attack, with a +2 bonus from bless and flank.

attack:(d20+10)[19]
crit:(d20+10)[29]
Damage:(d3+3)[6]

[CoffeeIncluded]

Elsee rubs around to get into a good position to attack the spider, drawing an attack from it.

Spoiler: Aoo

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Attack: (d20+9)[24]
Crit: (d20+9)[15]
Damage: (2d6+6)[16]
If it hits, make a dc 16 fort save or take (d8)[8] strength damage.

Meanwhile, Badger sets another log of wood aflame and hurls it into the swarm.

Spoiler: Rolls

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attack: (d20+10)[17]
Damage: (d4)[1]

[CoffeeIncluded]

Badger's throw crushes a few of the ants. Meanwhile, outside, Elsee tries to dodge the spider's attacks as she moves to drive her blade into the monster.

Spoiler: Tumble, PLEASE UPDATE YOUR SKILL POINTS

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PLEASE UPDATE YOUR SKILL POINTS!

(d20+4)[8]

You would have auto-passed the tumble check if you had updated your skill points, but you didn't so you failed the check and now you've taken max poison damage. This is what happens when you don't keep things updated. This goes for you and everyone.

Elsee can't tumble over the rubble, and though she kills the spider, in its death throes it slams its fangs into her shoulder. She doubles over in agony as the poison works its way through her and her muscles go limp.

[CoffeeIncluded]

There aren't many ants left, and they seem to be in a state of confusion, swarming back and forth over the carcasses and corpses of their brethren. Some seen to have been driven deranged by the heat and flame and actually swarm towards Jadeite and Artorias, climbing up them, up their clothes, into the legs of their pants and biting all the flesh they can reach.

Spoiler: Damage and saves

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Jadeite damage: (2d6)[4]
Jadeite fort save (nauseated for 1 round if failed: (d20+4)[21]

Artorias damage: (2d6)[6]
Artorias needs to make a DC 13 fort save or be nauseated for one round.

EVERYONE IS UP.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Artorias looks at Jadeite as if to say "Brace yourself" before producing yet another mini-campfire form his survival pouch and throwing it at his feet.

Spoiler: Actions

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Standard Action: Activate Survival pouch (2 uses left)
Free action: Drop campfire on his own square
Fire Damage (1d6)[6]
Fortitude Save (1d20+5)[13]
Reflex Save to avoid catching on fire (1d20+8)[21]

Yes, Artorias might just set himself on fire to kill the ant swarm.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Artorias hurls another campfire right in front of him, then rolls out of the way. Ants fly off of him as he rolls and are flung into the crackling flames. Nearly all of the crazed ants that swarmed him are cooked, and there aren't too many left.

Spoiler: Nice!

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Everyone else is up; I'll go for Jadeite tomorrow morning. Night everyone!

Does Sora have a Neutralize Poison prepared?

[Silverraptor]

Artorias hurls another campfire right in front of him, then rolls out of the way. Ants fly off of him as he rolls and are flung into the crackling flames. Nearly all of the crazed ants that swarmed him are cooked, and there aren't too many left.

Spoiler: Nice!

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Everyone else is up; I'll go for Jadeite tomorrow morning. Night everyone!

Does Sora have a Neutralize Poison prepared?

Spoiler

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No she does not.

[super dark33]

Yawwwn.

Surdrak wondered if these ants are the edible type.
Only one way to find out later.

Spoiler: blasting ants

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(1d20+8)[20]
(3d6)[12]

[CoffeeIncluded]

Surdrak shoots one last line of eldritch energy at the ants, incinerating hundreds of them in a single blast. When the smoke clears, thousands of ants lie in dead heaps. There are still a few scuttling over the carcasses and on the ground, but nowhere near enough to be a danger. For all intents and purposes, the fight is over.

Spoiler

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Fight's over. Sora and Elsee are both poisoned and need to make another fort save soon or take more strength damage. Your choice whether to treat Elsee's strength damage before or after the second fort save. And you can look around now too.

[super dark33]

Landing down gently, Surdrak folds his tendrils to resemble a long cape.
When no one notices, he ducks and picks up the fattest ant he can find and grabs a bite.

[CoffeeIncluded]

The ants are crunchy, and the burnt ones are crispy too. They're kinda sour, and burn his tongue when he eats handfuls at a time. There are a lot of ants here, enough to feed him for a few days at least.

Spoiler

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formic acid!

Anyway, wanna talk and look around?

[super dark33]

Sour and Crispy. To complete a meal he needs Soft and Liquid bases, along with salty and sweet.
Will need sugar and hot peppers for liquid and potatoes for soft. maybe some green veggies too.

He opened the Sepicer Semalg and randomly opened on a page.

It said:

Sreilppus eht neve, lla sdanmmoc Fehc Eht.

True words.


There was a cleaver that bounced over there earlier. What was that about? Surdrak started looking around.

Spoiler

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If you want to imagine what Spirit sounds like, take the way i write the Spirit words, put them on a Letters To Speech program, reverse the result and you have Spiritalk.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Looking around, Surdrak sees that the carcasses that the few live ants are still picking at are...varied. It's hard to tell at first, but some of the bodies are blink dogs, blasted and cut down by surprise. But two larger carcasses are partially dismembered, and not the bodies of dogs at all. Actually...they're deer. Half-carved deer. Surdrak looks over to the cleaver and suddenly what happened becomes clearer.

This is a kitchen. This is where food is prepared and stored--even if the blink dogs and wolf can live off raw meat, the halfling can't. They were probably in here, butchering a deer they caught on their latest hunt, eating and chatting amicably, when Alice attacked. They were taken by surprise and at least four were killed before they fled.

Spoiler: And if this is a kitchen/dining room...

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Do you want to look around some more?

[super dark33]

Kitchen?
Warlocks nearby.

Surdrak looks around some more, not before stuffing ants into his cloakpockets.

Hey, come in here and try to not step on large clusters of ants.

Spoiler: Hilarity

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I like how all the eldritch horror is basicly supressed by the fact that cooking is a dark art.

[Silverraptor]

Sora hurries over to Elsee.
"Are you alright?"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Both sora and Elsee feel their stomachs roil and their muscles painfully twitch as the poison continues working its way through them.

Spoiler: Sora and Elsee

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please make another dc 16 fort save.

Inside, Surdrak continues looking through the kitchen for any more clues. It doesn't look particularly eldritch. But it looks like cabinets were carved into the shelves. Surdrak opens them to find all sorts of foodstuffs: dried jerky, flour, barley, ground corn. A small jar of seeds, a slightly larger jar of preserves. The berries used to make them are utterly unfamiliar.

Many of the spices are strange too. Oh, there's salt and black pepper and garlic, but he doesn't see any of the cayenne, and of the spicy flavorings so common in Runitian cooking and the dishes imported from the Southern Islands. These spices don't have names on them, but a sniff and sample suggests that they're more savory than anything else.

Spoiler

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where did the cooking is eldritch thing come from? Why not just have Surdrak enjoy it? Either way, I fun this entertaining and in rolling with it. Treasure tonight.

[Silverraptor]

Spoiler: Fortitude

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Fortitude:(1d20+6)[21]

[CoffeeIncluded]

Sora braces herself against the old stone wall, breathing heavily. She shudders as the poison works its way through her system, and then fades away, leaving her shaken but unharmed. As for Elsee...

Spoiler

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I'll roll for Elsee if Draconi hasn't done it by tonight.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Elsee doubles over as the poison saps her strength.

Spoiler: Rolls

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elsees fort save: (d20+3)[16]

If fail, take (d8)[6] strength damage.

She doubles over but barely--just barely--manages to fight it off.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Artorias makes his way into the kitchen, he doesn't understand why but he feels a twinge of sadness and regret as he does so. Ciaran let's a soft cry from her perch on his shoulder. "I'm sorry Ciaran, this must be really painful for you too" he strokes her feathers in a comforting manner.

"You can go outside if you want, we will be fine here"

[Silverraptor]

Sora pulls out her wand of restoration.
"Here Elsee. Let me remove the damage you took from that poison."

Spoiler

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I actually never used wands before, so I don't know what I should do in terms of dice roll or whatever.