"Awright, but those were already pissed off. Now we're pokin' tha 'ive." Raleigh moves to poke the hive himself.
Nathalion conjures another of his acidic orbs, aimed at the nearest bug.
Then the wizard starts around the pool, following behind Uuzkhangr and his pet.
Uuzkhangr sees the others leap across the channel into melee. He looks at Zyxl, and points at the roaches.
"Zyxl! Attack!"
He then hustles around the end of the pool.
Zyxl beats her wings with a thrumming hum and takes to the air. She flies across the water and snatches at the closest roach with her claw.
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Gazig reloads and fires off another bolt, nearly catching the eye of the nearest roach--but it flinches at the last second and the bolt rebounds, spinning away into the darkness along with a chunk of chitin. The shot is followed quickly by another glob of acid from Nathalion, whose strike sizzles and burns, pitting the bug's glossy shell and making it keen as in pain as well.
Trying to keep up the pressure Raleigh charges, but the mossy patches turn under his boot and the faux-guardsman stumbles at the last second. The roach has other things to worry about, however, as Zyxl comes winging over, claws extended and digging in through acid-weakened armor, dragging the unfortunate creature out over the water!
The cockroaches' shrieks only increase Borumaru's contempt for the lowly creatures.
"Disgusting..."
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Raleigh turns to watch as Zyxl drags the cockroach towards her--an error, as another of the bugs comes rushing out of the darkness towards him, its pincers jabbing through the half-elf's ringmail and tearing a deep furrow across his leg!
Borumaru pushes through the pain as one of the creatures sinks its pincers into his leg, reversing his katana and driving its blade through the offending roach. Amazingly, the creature doesn't collapse, though its hiss falters and fails as its green-red ichor spills upon the ground.
Uuzkhangr rushes towards the cockroach dead ahead, swinging his scythe in a wide arc.
"Damn carrion bugs. No class."
The roach snaps at Zyxl. She doesn't like that! She tries to pin the creature between her forelimbs.
As the roach escapes, Zyxl moves a little back from the roach.
The strange, unsettling buzzing the of the roaches makes the slayer's skin crawl. Not to be left behind, he hustles along the path after the others.
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The buzzing hiss sends a shiver down Nathalion's spine. The sound seems to penetrate his skull, dulling his senses.
Despite this, the speaks the draconic power words, along with the hand signs, to send another orb of acid toward a cockroach. The one fighting Zyxl.
Then he continues on his way around the pool.
Raleigh swings his spiked club down on his adjacent target. Though his mind stays clear, it sure doesn't look like it.
Zyxl breaks off and flies around behind Uuzkhangr.
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Zyxl drags her struggling prize closer, then promptly drops it as her flight starts to wobble. The hissing bug hits the filthy water with a splash as the mantis returns to her master. For his part, Uuzkhangr's scythe severs one of the his target's antennae and tears off a chunk of exoskeleton for good measure.
Nathalion lobs another acid-ball at the splashing roach and lands another hit, burning still more holes in its chitin as Gaziq moves around to the growing melee on the opposite side.
Raleigh's club misses its mark, and the angry roaches lash out to defend their meal.
Splashing and hissing, the one dropped by Zyxl scrabbles as the stonework of the sewer edge, finding purchase and hauling itself back up. Rounding on the investigator it snaps its pincers at him furiously, savaging the half-elf's forearm before he yanks it back.
The roach wounded by Uuzkhangr attempts to bite back, as does Borumaru's new opponent--though the dwarf and tiefling evade the bites. The badly wounded roach turns to flee, that it might live to eat carrion another day.
"HEY! Rally you'z makin' me look bad! I'z commin' to yer rezcue!" Fruggig hollers from his post up on the wall. Kicking Dribbles into movement the beetle skitters down from the wall and starts across the bridge, his rider brandishing his sword.
Borumaru leaves the wounded bug to bleed on its own and focuses his attention on the next enemy.
Raleigh takes his swipes against his new opponent, now wary of being surrounded.
"The 'ell kinda knight leaves people to fight fer 'emselves ta begin wit?! Ya should think 'bout signin' up fer tha guard wit' that attitude!"
Nathalion continues his traverse of the pool. Then he casts another of his tiny acidic orbs at the roach. A difficult shot with Uuzkhangr in the way and the bug involved with combat.
Nathalion has to pull his shot at last instant to avoid a friendly, the glistening orb goes high over the fray.
Gaziq reloads and takes aim, but can't seem to find a good angle from his position. Better to get a closer vantage than risk friendly fire.
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Uuzkhangr steps to one side of the giant roach, and sweeps his scythe around at the roach.
He turns and points to the roach facing Boromaru.
"Zyxl! That one!"
Zyxl moves behind Uuzkhangr and attacks her new target, reaching with her long and slender forelimbs.
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Raleigh and Borumaru take full advantage of the roaches' errors, club and sword landing solid blows. Boru's katana splits the roach's chitinous head and it collapses like a marionette with its strings cut. Both men follow up their strikes with a second, Boru slashes the face of his second opponent while Raleigh hammers at the bit of shell cracked by his first attack.
Gaziq and Nathalion move closer, Nathalion's acid bolt going high while the ratfolk prepares to fire a more physical bolt.
Uuzkhangr steps up to support Raleigh, a vicious sweep of his scythe very nearly taking the leg off the roach before him, while Zyxl advances and takes a cautious swipe at the roach wounded by Borumaru.
Cornered and surrounded, the roaches continue trying to bite.
"Yeah, Rally, datz more like it! Y'juz needed sum encourge-ment!" Fruggig calls as Dribbles moves to cut off the roach confronted by Zyxl and Boru.
The roach snaps at Dribbles but the larger vermin shrugs off the attack and bulls forward, drops of acid drooling onto the ground as its own mandibles tear into the smaller bug. Leaning over in his saddle the goblin smashes the coackroach over the head with his sword.
Overwhelmed by this flurry of attacks from all sides, the roach collapses to the ground, twitching.
Borumaru just takes another step and attacks the nearby cockroach.
Raleigh brings down the pointy end of his morningstar as hard as he can on the remaining roach.
Borumaru flicks his blade with a quick slash to get rid of most of the blood in it, then produces a handkerchief and carefully wipes it clean.
"An acceptable warm up." he says, calmly. "Maybe the fallen can be given a more appropriate funeral now."
"Cockroaches don't normally require funerals. They are close to nature, and... oh, you mean the goblins."
Nathalion sighs in relief as the bothersome chittering is cut off. "A dangerous lot of bugs. It's well we killed them before they found a way to the streets, or killed the maintenance people who have to work down here."
"Oi, lets get a move on, which way from here, Fruggig?"
He winces at the pain in his arm, but the half-elf knows he's on a deadline. Also, knowing he cant put his spear away due to its sheer size, Raleigh pits his morningstar back in place.
Cant believe were following a goblins directions.
Gaziq lowers his crossbow as he approaches the group. He kneels beside one of the goblin corpses and looks it over. Even though the roaches have been eating away at them, he hopes there's still some sign of what killed them. Perhaps that would give them a lead on the "dog monsters."
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A cursory glance is enough to tell Gaziq that the battle fought here was a nasty one. The splashes of blood and chunks of moss torn free from the stone suggest that they group of goblins and goblin-dogs was running before turning to fight--and the shredded bodies make it all too clear that they didn't win.
Yeah, yeah, killin' bugz iz fine n' all, but we haz a job ta do!" the goblin leans forward in the saddle to peer at Raleigh's injuries. "Hey Rally, y'doin' okay? Datz a lotta blood, 'an y'can't herald me if ya passes out!"
"Here, let me look at that," says Uuzkhangr. He examines the wound. "You're not griping about this little scratch, are you? Well... fine. Here." Uuzkhangr lays his hands on the wound and mutters some guttural words.
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Nathalion watches with interest as Uuzkhangr performs his magic. [b]"A useful power, that."[/b ]
The wizard gives the area a cursory search, while Gaziq does his work.
Then he moves on when the others do, keeping his place in line.
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Nathalion pokes around the messy remnants of the battle, picking over the corpses. The roaches, naturally, have nothing of value, but some items of value can be found on the goblins' corpses--57sp, 18gp, a (Small) masterwork crossbow with a jagged bayonet, (6) bolts plus a pair of acid-filled bolts.
"Awright, awright, we'z gotta keep moving! If'n alla deze sewer gobz getz killed den who'z gonna pay me?"
"This looks decent." Nathalion holds the crossbow up for Gaziq's inspection. "A couple special bolts too..."
Gaziq accepts the crossbow and the bolts, nodding appreciatively as he looks them over. "A fair bit better than the one I've got. I'll make good use of these."
The ratfolk retakes his position as the group as they move deeper through the tunnels, towards the apparent source of these dogmonsters.
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