Clara shakes her head. "It seems like a great idea of one to invent. I'll think about it. For now though, no dice.
"I won't get more than 80 feet ahead of you all. I'll just scout a bit, and then come back and motion for you to come forward."
Clara (and Shalelu, if she can see) starts to cautiously go forward. Taking her time to look and listen for threats.
Before going in, Clara hands a fizzy-barky-skinny drink to both Tallak and Calder. Then she drinks her mutagen--causing her skin to turn a zippy yellow-green--and a fizzy-awareness-lifting drink.
"I'll be right back!"
As everyone prepares, so does Tallak. He eyes the vial the gnome hands with with apprehension, before drinking it down. He coughs and gags at the bubbling drink, and watches as his skin is coated in thick bark with no small amount of anxiety.
Calder sighs but also drinks Clara's extract. He's getting used to her pulling out odd liquids for people to use. "I can be stealthy." He mutters sulkily.
Shalelu and Clara sneak into the cave. The rest of the group has to stay some distance away from the cave's mouth in order to not attract attention, but 40' is enough that any light sources they have are obscured by the snow. Shalelu's vision is not as good as Clara's, so she must stop a little further back where there is still light, promising in a whisper to support Clara if it comes to combat.
Clara creeps into the cave. Inside, the ground is frozen, and packed down hard by many footsteps. Up ahead, the cave widens, and Clara can hear several guttural voices joking about something in Goblin in between disgusting noises of eating. However, Clara does not speak Goblin and so cannot understand what they are saying. Her keen vision allows her to see them - four large, muscular white-furred yeti-like creatures lounge around the room on poorly-tanned and sanitized hides made from various arctic beasts. Scattered lazily around the room are a variety of weapons made from stone, bone, and wood. Javelins, battleaxes, picks and clubs seem to be prominent. The wikkawaks are feasting on bloody haunches of what look disturbingly like humanoid limbs. Several bloody corpses have been frozen into the walls or ceiling for later consumption. The tunnel continues onward past this group, descending into further darkness. From down there, Clara can hear the voices of further groups of more wikkawaks.
Suddenly, while she crouches in a corner looking, one of the wikkawaks gets a funny look. It sniffs the air apprehensively, before turning to look directly at Clara. It barks out something in Goblin, before grinning wildly and getting up. Its teeth are rotting and yellowed, and in between all of them is gristle and raw meat. It begins to amble towards Clara, muttering to itself in Goblin...
Clara runs back with surprising speed, hollering,
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Clara's sudden yelping prompts a response from Shalelu, who calls out to the group outside, "Be ready! Get in here, battle has been joined!"
Wikkawak Cavern Battle, round 1
1. Calder (barkskin) <---You are up!
2. Aiko <---You are up!
3. Koya
4. Clara <---You are up!
5. Shalelu
6. Wikkawak #1 (red)
7. Wikkawak Elite #1
8. Tallak (barkskin, shield of faith, bless, bull's strength, weapon of we) + Nightfang
9. Vashta
10. Wikkawak #3 (blue)
11. Sandru
12. Wikkawak #2 (green)
Aiko moves in quietly and hugs the wall across from Shalelu.
Calder double moves to close with the Wikkawaks. "Blasted noisy Gnomes!" He grumbles teasingly.
"Hey, I was
"I think maybe they smelled my fizzydrinks though."
Shaking up a fizzy drink and tossing it at the nearest Wikkawak, she hollers, "You want to hear noisy, this is what a noisy gnome sounds like."
The vial explodes in a fiery BOOM and Clara gives Calder a wink.
Calder, Aiko, and Koya move into the cave as fast as they can, Koya conjuring a little ball of light in her hands as she enters the cave so that she can have some light. Shalelu, who can see but can't see the wikkawaks, draws her bow and moves up in front of Clara to protect her. Clara, meanwhile, throws a bomb.
The bomb detonates on the closest wikkawak, creating a conflagration of flame that ignites the furry beast. It is illuminated for the moment, as the flames which cover its hide let off light. It screams with rage, dashing forwards despite the flames to hurl a javelin at the gnomish soda confectioner.
The javelin is easily ducked under, and as Clara dodges it she sees a second wikkawak coming into the picture, illuminated by the flames of the first. The other two wikkawaks bellow in Goblin farther into the cave.
Tallak says, ”Nightfang! Kill!”
The dire tiger snarls and surges forward, it’s claws digging in for traction.
HP: 55/55
AC 17 (moderate fortification), touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 17
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5/+8 (+1 vs. charm/compulsion)
Tricks: 2/6 (Vashta, mesmeric mirror; Aiko, false flanker)
Touch treatment 0/6
Spells: 1st 0/5; 2nd 0/4; 3rd 0/2
Effects:
Vashta moves into the mouth of the cave, and concentrates for a moment, three balls of light appearing deeper in to illuminate the way.
"Hard to see in here, dear," she says as she catches up to Ameiko. "Let's see if this helps a little."
As Tallak and Vashta advance, so too do the other wikkawaks, hurling javelins out of the darkness at Shalelu. One of them grazes her along the side of her arm. Shalelu draws breath sharply.
Aiko remains crouched behind the cave wall, now able to see thanks to the dancing lights, and waits for one of the wikkawaks to close in.
Calder double moves again, moving into melee with the creatures.
Clara steps up beside Shalelu and hucks another fizzydrink at the wikkawaks. The fiery explosion is followed by a cloud that stinks like rotten eggs.
________________
Caught up in the center of the stink bomb, the wikkawak which Clara strikes with her bomb erupts into vomiting, hurling up whole masses of nearly un-chewed humanoid limbs and bones before disappearing into the yellow-green cloud she conjures.
Without another visible target to shoot at, Shalelu shoots at the wikkawak that's on fire, loosing three arrows in quick succession at it in a cold, merciless manner.
She sinks two arrows into the furry creature's chest, near one another just below the creature's collarbone. Still burning, it grunts once and drops to the ground.
The largest and strongest of the wikkawaks just ahead of the group steps out of the smoke cloud that Clara's conjured. It takes a look at Calder, notes his use of a big weapon, and it launches itself at him, trying to wrap its overlarge limbs around him.
In unlikely fashion, it nearly slips on the icy ground beneath them and it comes up massively short.
”Damned gnomish magic,” Tallak mutters as he rounds the corner and sees the way blocked by a noxious green cloud. He then looks down from Nightfang’s back at the crowded hall and says, ”Make room!”
__________
HP: 55/55
AC 17 (moderate fortification), touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 17
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5/+8 (+1 vs. charm/compulsion)
Tricks: 2/6 (Vashta, mesmeric mirror; Aiko, false flanker)
Touch treatment 0/6
Spells: 1st 0/5; 2nd 0/4; 3rd 0/2
Effects:
Vashta rushes forward, bringing one of the lights with her, to where she can see the fight.
Tallak and Vashta find themselves unable to really advance through, due to the closeness of the tunnel and the noxious gas blocking the area past the wikkawaks. Plus, there are two angry wikkawaks in the way. Another one barrels out of the smoke cloud, swinging a bone axe at Calder while Sandru dashes through the tunnel, moving to back up Calder.
Calder manages to parry the wikkawak's blow with the hilt of his impervious greataxe. The wikkawak's axe blow doesn't even leave a mark.
Calder will grin happily. Stepping 5' to his left to clear the way for others to join the fight. At last something that can be settled the right way. With the violent application of a big axe!
"Hey Tallak, if you need a fizzy pop to make Nightfang smaller, just let me know. He'd be able to squeeze in then plus I bet he'd be adorable!!"
Meanwhile, she shakes up and lobs another fizzy drink at the largest of the wikkawaks. It erupts in a 10' diameter cloud of flames that (somehow) manage to avoid singing Calder and Sandru.
"Wheee!!!"
_____________
"Excuse me," says Aiko as she decides to enter the fray. She leaps over Clara, slips in front of Shalelu, dashes down past Calder, all the while evading the reaching strikes of the wikkiwaks.
She lashes out at Calder's foe with her wakizashi, calling on the mental trick from Vashta to give her strike sudden deadliness.
Calder steps around the wikkawak elite brawler and swings his axe twice. The first is deflected by an open hand from the brawler, but the second carves a clean slice along the front. As Aiko dashes into combat, both wikkawaks swing at her, with both axe and fist.
Aiko dodges underneath the fist of the first wikkawak, but the second carves a slice out of her flank, spilling blood on the floor.
Clara's bomb sends a wave of fire which bends inexplicably around her allies, setting the wikkawak brawler on fire and ensuring the unconscious wikkawak's death. The wikkawak brawler slows down...
Seeing their enemies wounded with little chance of escape, Shalelu allows herself a small grin before unleashing a trio of arrows at the wikkawaks.
Her three arrows sink into the necks of the two wikkawaks, sending them both sprawled to the floor, dead. "What's next?" she asks, softly.
Clara nods to Tallak's suggested arrangement. As she gets in position, she drinks two jars of fizzypop. After the first she shrinks to barely more than a foot tall. Then she drinks a second jar that's unusually gummy.
"Awwight," she says (with her mouth clearly full of something), "Ah'm weady!"
1. Wikkawak Leader
2. Wikkawak Elites (Red, Green)
3. Tallak
4. Vashta
5. Aiko
6. Clara
7. Calder
8. Wikkawaks (Blue, Yellow, Purple, Brown)
The noxious smoke cloud created by Clara clears, revealing a group of seven bloodthirsty wikkawaks beyond. They gnash their teeth and smash their bone axes onto the cave floor. Their leader, a monstrous specimen with glowing red eyes and a longsword forged from cold iron gripped in a meaty hand, roars at his underlings, and they tense up in anticipation of a leap forward.
The leader waves a hand in the air, a bone fetish with an icy claw tied around his fingers. A noxious black energy coalesces around its hand, and he gestures at the group. A cold miasma of greasy darkness washes over the whole group, rending right into their goodly natures.
Just after it casts its spell, the wikkawak elites hurl javelins at Tallak's tiger Nightfang, seeing it as the most pressing and immediate threat, before pulling massive stone axes from leather belts. Both javelins are hurled mightily, but they bounce harmlessly off of the tiger's thick, intimidating armor.
Calder clenches his teeth and stands his ground.
Tallak works his own magic, granting most of the group a blessing from his clans ancestors.
Nightfang roars at the collected horde of goblinoids, and moves forward and begins tearing into one!
__________
Aiko winces but remains silent.
"Uuunghhh, yuuuch." Clara mumbles, trying to keep from spitting out the adhesive fizzy drink currently in her mouth.
Despite being unsteady on her feet, Clara steps forward, underneath her (now much bigger) big sister's legs and a bit in front of her. As she does, she draws a couple vials from her best and then lobs a fiery fizzypop at the big one in the back.
Tallak and Nightfang surge forward, Tallak imbuing his allies with speed and power granted by his ancestors. Meanwhile, Nightfang tears into the lead wikkawak with two claws, but is unable to keep a hold on the furry creature or bite through its thick skin. The creature begins to bleed, but it roars defiance in the face of Nightfang. Vashta dashes forward as well, new rapier in hand, staring at the other lead wikkawak. She lunges forward at it.
Vashta stabs the second lead wikkawak brutally, psychically enhancing the pain. The wikkawak begins to bleed from its eyes and ears, and roars with pain and rage. As Vashta and Tallak advance, Clara hurls a bomb which envelops four of the farther-back wikkawaks in flame.
All three lesser wikkawaks manage to avoid the worst of the splash explosion, although the lead wikkawak erupts in flame and roars in pain.