With the appearance of the ankheg in the field Ema knew that she was not about to go out there. Instead she focused and opened a gate on the other side of the ankheg from her companions bringing forth a celestial dog again which promptly bit the ankheg.
Kip followed Simon's lead and circled around to the right to flank with him, then reached out to touch the ankheg with his free hand.
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As the small grippli reached out, a blast of water shot forth knocking the creature off balance, but Simon was there to push it back into the fray.
Victrix charges into battle, but the ankheg's carapace turns aside her axe.
Ema summons a celestial hound opposite the monster from Victrix. It snaps at it, but doesn't hit.
Simon and Kip move to flank the beast from the other sides. While the half-orc misses, Kip blasts the bug with a burst of water.
Focusing on the largest foe, the ankheg snaps its mandibles around Victrix! It crushes her in its acidic mouthparts, grabbing her and lifting her off the ground!
Seeing how badly the fight suddenly seemed to be going for Victrix Ema focused and began to chant forming a snowball in the air in front of her. She then made a throwing motion and sent the ball of hard packed white fluff flying at the ankheg with tremendous force as the dog snapped at it's legs trying to hamstring the insectoid monstrosity.
Having dropped her axe, Victrix yanks out her new machete and swings at the beast!
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Desperate to save Victrix, Simon swings away, attempting to gather some inspiration from previous battles.
18 total...
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"Vicki!" Kip exclaimed, and quickly conjured his healing waters to aid her.
Victrix stabs at the monster with her machete, but doesn't get through its thick carapace.
Ema blasts the ankheg with a snowball, while her summoned dog tears one of the beast's legs from its body!
Simon slashes it with his newfound sword, cutting deep into the ankheg's side.
Kip moves to Victrix, healing the injured barbarian.
The ankheg drops the aasimar and whirls on the hound, ichor oozing from its severed limb. It spits a line of bubbling acid at the summoned creature!
A relieved & enraged Victrix screams and leaps upon the bug's back, hacking madly away at it with her machete!
Victrix leaps on the ankheg hacking with her machete. She slices into the back of the bug's head, tearing into its neck. She hacks and hacks until the head comes clean off. The bug thrashes as ichor spurts out of its body, staining the ground a sickly gray-green. Eventually, it lies still, quite dead.
When you get the chance to examine the holes in the field, you discover fragments of leather eggshells in a few of them. One hole contains a human skeleton bereft of clothing or equipment. The bones are pitted by acid, but one finger still wears a copper-colored ring engraved with arcane symbols.
Having survived numerous ordeals in your exploration of Talmandor's Bounty, you feel ready to face even greater challenges.
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"Arcane symbols. Perhaps we've found Mr. Hendrake?
The presence of Ankheg is a definite reason to have abandoned the villiage. We may find that the remainder of the villiagers fled to the backup site.
Let's make sure all of the eggs have been destroyed, and we can go let them know that it is safe to return."
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Her summoned dog would have given a yelp of pain, if it had cared, as it was it avoided the worst of the acid and it seemed that what did hit had no effect on the divine beast. The dog helped to harry the ankheg and distract it while they cut it down and when finished gave a happy bark and came over to Emalliandra who reached down and pet the creature affectionately before saying, "Good girl, you can go home now." With that the dog gave a happy bark and faded from sight.
With the fighting done Ema looked at the battered group and said, "We really need to work on your ability to dodge attacks don't we?" Her grin was amused but tinged with concern at Victrix wounds. "At least we all survived another rough fight."
"Hooray! We did it!"
When Simon suggested destroying any remaining eggs, Kip calmed down and asked, "I understand that we can't have these things running wild and killing people, but might it be possible to train one from a hatchling? Think of how useful it would be as a guard-ankheg!"
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Simon gives Kip an appraising look, not sure if that was intended as a joke or not.
"I suppose we could simply leave that up to the villiagers. Now that the primary danger has been eliminated, it should be safe for them to move back.
Until the babies that have already hatched reach breeding age anyways."
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Victrix yanks her bloodied machete from the dead ankheg and moves to pick up her axe. "Ow... wasn't expectin' ta get that beat up."
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"Working with excellent spell casters has given me some insights into how magic works. Kip and Ema, I'd like to thank you for all of the tips and pointers while I've been learning.
I've just been able to figure out an extract that will help me to determine the properties of magical items. Ema, hand me that Talisman we couldn't figure out earlier."
Simon takes a minute (that's how long it takes to craft an extract) and prepares an Extract of Identify.
Taking it, he concentrates on the Longsword and the Talisman (not sure if we have other items, but I think I'll only be able to do 2 items with the 6 round duration of the extract).
"I can't wait to try learning formula out of that spellbook when we get to rest later."
"An' I'm not gonna let somethin' that big get the better o' me again." The aasimar stands tall and strong. "I'm gonna be the most indestructible b@$~& this side o' the Inner Sea."
"Good thing you have all that fancy armor Vicki. He would have torn me in half!"
"It almost did that ta me, Kip." Victrix looks down at her blue & white armour with a bit of an appreciative eye. "Coulda been worse."
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While waiting for Ema to consider attempting to identify the remaining magic items, Simon will search through the open holes to see if there is any other loot remaining.
Then, it will be off to the alternate landing site. We will forage along the way, especially looking for some berries that Kip can use his wand on.
Ema studies the bow and the ring, but she is unable to identify the items at this time. There doesn't seem to be anything else inside the ankheg's burrows. It's time to rejoin the rest of the colonists aboard the Peregrine.
You head north from Talmandor's Bounty and into the wilds of the island of Ancorato. There are no trails or paths, so the going is slow, though not particularly arduous. You skirt the coast, and the vegetation isn't as dense as it becomes further inland. Most of the plant life on the island consists of evergreens. Pines and live oaks make up the majority of trees in the inland forests, with palm trees appearing near the coast. Small evergreen shrubs cover the ground along with short palmettos.
The weather is warm and humid. Insects buzz and chirp in the trees around you.
As they traveled, Kip frequently paused to inspect any potential berry bushes, then he hurried to catch up to his companions.
After an hour or so, Kip discovers a bush full of wild blueberries. The grippli is able to gather several dozen of them to use the wand on.
He also discovers several signs of boars in the area. The shaman guides the group away from their territory so as to avoid angering the ill-tempered beasts.
Soon, the presence of saltmarshes along the coast forces you to deviate inland a bit. Tangled clumps of moss dangle from the sprawling branches of ancient oaks, and the smell of pine sap hangs in the air. You cross through a lightly wooded region and approach a stream running southwest to the sea. As you draw near, though, something emerges from the water--the rotting corpse of a woman wearing leathers and gripping a handaxe. A strange nautilus clutches the corpse's head with oversized tentacles, its crimson-streaked flesh textured like the surface of some exposed, alien brain.
Ema took a look at the various magic items she hadn't tried to identify already.
As they began to make their way to their rendezvous Ema kept a wary eye out for trouble but didn't expect to find much. The fact that they found something other than rations to munch on was quite pleasing and that they avoided where the boar were thanks to Kip's searching a relief. That all changed when they found the shambling corpse though.
Ema looked at the thing in concern and tried to figure out what it was.
She felt a stab of pain in her head for a moment and gasped as she said, "It's an incutilis! It's controlling the corpse like a puppet. You need to focus your attacks on the shell like thing on it's head if you want to kill it."
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Acting before Ema's warnings and not knowing what the beast is himself, Simon retrieves his whip and attempts to put the creature on the ground.
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Simon's whip wraps around the zombie's legs and yanks it to the ground. Groaning, the corpse staggers back up to its feet while the incutilis waves its tentacles menacingly!
Victrix gives the tentacled beast a disgusted look before advancing on it and chopping at it!
Her first swipe is entirely wild, and misses it completely.
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Simon will attempt to send it to the ground again, making a better target for everyone.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Kip hurried up to the strange creature and stabbed at the zombie with his rapier.
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While his attack didn't do much, he managed to position himself for an easy flank with Victrix.
Focusing on calling down another of her celestial friends Ema opened a rift again. Unlike before this rift appeared in the air above the nautiloid monster and an eagle that had a near glow about it flew out and attacked the inculitus with a screech of righteous fury.
You converge on the incutilus, Ema's summoned eagle joining in the assault, but none of you manage to score a good hit!
The strange crustacean lashes out at Victrix with its tentacles, while the zombie tries to punch her!
Victrix grunts and swings her machete at the incu-thingy again...
Since his rapier seemed completely ineffective against the zombie, Kip leapt up and stabbed at the exposed tentacles.
Simon wraps his whip around the zombie's legs, tugging it to the ground once more. The extra advantage allows Victrix to land a good hit, cracking the incutilis' shell with her machete. Kip hops up and stabs at the creature's tentacles, but fails to hit.
Ema's summoned eagle attacks, but doesn't quite manage to get through the crustacean's shell. The arcanist readies a spell to attack when the creature stands up.
Indeed, the zombie climbs back to its feet, provoking attacks of opportunity. The eagle strikes while Ema sends an acid splash at the vile creature controlling the corpse, but neither hits.
The incutilis' tentacles lash out again, one striking Victrix.
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Tripping it is probably the best thing I can do to help, so I'll keep at it.
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Victrix screams in anger as the tentacle smacks her. "THAT'S IT! HOLD STILL, YA LITTLE F&*!!"
Her machete chops down in a brutal arc...
Victrix chops down with her machete again, this time slicing right through the incutilis' shell and tearing apart the soft flesh beneath. It tendrils flail as it sloughs off of the woman's corpse and splashes into the stream, floating still. The zombie wavers for a moment before falling lifelessly as well.
Victrix grins and wobbles before sitting down in the surf. "Oof... that was painful."
Ema was relieved to see the creature drop dead and found herself curious about how it was constructed. She was half tempted to try and examine the inculitis to see if she could learn something useful but decided there wasn't the time. There were likely more of them around and she could learn more from a live one than a dead one if she wanted to research them that badly later on.
She looked to her companions and said, "Well, at least we killed it." Her voice grew concerned as she asked, "Is everyone alright?"
"Well, I'm beat and battered. Pretty bad."
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"Kip, do you have any more of those berries for Victrix? We won't go very far if our warrior goes down."
Simon will examine the body for any leftover possessions, as well as looking inside the shell of the incutilis.
Under his breath, he mutters, "I wonder if these things are edible? A little butter and garlic, maybe it tastes like squid."
He sniffs at it and coughs. "Ugh.. I'm not sure there is enough garlic to cover up the scent of rotting flesh on these tentacles."