Anzath charges the line, swinging the Sword of Saracek in a wide arc at the middle hobgoblin.
The hobgoblins lower their glaives against the attacker:
Anzath dodges and weaves through the phalanx's attempts to stop her and cuts down her target with one fell sweep of the Sword of Saracek.
Zorzunar steps back and engages the Paladant with his Divine Power. He dips into Weapon Master to gain Power Attack from the orc gods:
The ant pops back into the Plane of Celestial Ants.
So, we have a bunch of hobgoblins huddled in from of the webbed cave mouth? Let's make life interesting for them.
Tragershen casts create pit. I should be able to get four together, plus maybe a couple on the slippery edges. 30' deep, DC17 reflex to negate.
The pit opens beneath the hobgoblins! Some slip and fall from the Webbing into the pit, but others remain suspended over the yawning interdimensional hole, either hanging onto the webs (Ref success) or because they are too gummed up to fall.
The bard keeps singing and moves into the Web, aiming for the non-put side of things.
He ends up stuck in the Web, too.
Panicky hobgoblins follow his lead:
One makes progress in his attempt to reach safety.
The bravest of the hobgoblins step away from Anzath in opposite directions. Then, they bring down their glaives:
One of them chops into the Slayer. He feels pretty good about this, even if it doesn't seem to slow her down much.
Bedlam will rush the cave!
A panicked hobgob dives the Web:
Bedlam points at the stuck hobgoblin. The dwarf is roaring with laughter!
Terapin imagines his friend the Paladant is getting a bit frustrated with popping back and forth every six seconds and decides to bring some friends who are a little hardier.
With a burst of reddish light, a familiar widely-built man leaps barking out of the shimmer, naked to the waist with blood-red skin and the head of a snarling mastiff, and slashes at Zorzunar with a great white sword, barking excitedly.
Rook has 39 HP and an AC of 21, or 23 if the hobgoblins are evil. And, if they're evil, anyone within 10 feet of Rook gets a +2 deflection bonus to their AC against the hobgoblins as well. By my reckoning, that's Bedlam, Lolly, and Anzath?
Whirling on his heels, Rook then assumes a defensive posture between Lolly and Daarog, assuming that's within a quick adjacent step, and crouches there snarling, crimson hair bristling on his neck.
Zorzunar goes down to one knee, his orcish ferocity keeping him in the fight against Rook.
A random hobgoblin rushes the web:
He gets stuck, but there's a horrible smell of burning Webbing. The hobgoblins inside the hill are burning their way out.
Lolygert chuckles at his opponent, "Nice one!" , then with a growl tries to return the favor!
Daarog reels from the punishment doled out by Lolly's three brutal slashes, but he keeps his feet and (stealing a play from Bedlam's book) grins.
Panicked hobgobs try to break through the Webbing:
Three of them break through the Web. One promptly falls into the pit.
Aurora brandishes her shield and mace before charging forth to join Anzath in dispatching the glaive-wielding hobgoblins.
Aurora whomps her target, who keeps his feet. Tough nuggets, hobgoblins.
Daarog attacks his barbaric counterpart, roaring as he twirls his falchion!
Lolly falls like a mighty oak before the woodswoman's well-whetted axe, thundering to the ground and biting the dust. His spirit pours forth from his broken throat, seeking the sweet meads of Valhalla. A warrior's death. For now.
Daarog then steps up to Rook and tries to send him back to the Plane Where All Dogs Go:
He fails to hit the doggo--surely his triumphant bloodlust is to blame!
Two hobs make it through the web to the interior of the cave.
Also, I forgot Aurora's AOOs when she came in on the glaivegobs!
Shrugged off, no problem.
"Sh!t."
Anzath sees Lolly cut down by the orc berzerker. She was so close to moving in to flank with the drunken madman. But, now the orc moved in to face the summoned doggo. She charges as she screams in bloody vengeance, leaping over Lolly's fallen body and bringing the Sword of Saracek swinging down on Daarog.
Daarog howls in rage (and during his rage) and, in fact, it's the combination of rage and his orcish ferocity that allows him to keep his feet despite the massive damage from Anzath's slashing blow.
Zorzunar casts Cure Serious Wounds on himself.
No longer staggered, he rushes towards the Webbed cave--Web that is swiftly being cleared by the hobgoblins inside.
Those hobgoblins inside? The ones quickly clearing all of the webs? There day is about to go to s*#t.
Tragershen, counting on his invisibility to protect him, takes a step closer and flicks something tiny and black into the heart of the cluster. For an instant, there is no apparent affect. But then massive black tentacles erupt from the ground and start to writhe and grasp.
Bedlam roars with laughter!
"Shut up and kill de orkz!" Anzath shouts at the laughing, invisible? Bedlam.
A whole mess of hobgoblins, the hobgobard, and Zorzunar are caught in Black Tentacles. Zorz is wise enough to understand that this is the end. As the tentacles coil around his mighty arms, he casts down his spear and curses the sky in Orcish:
"Gran déu Mork, per què m'has abandonat? El vostre culte ens atrapa a la gola com un vomit i rebutgem els vostres camins."
Daarog howls with rage and frustration, but he signals his submission, hurling his falchion away.
In common, he bellows at the top of his lungs (well, as loud as he can with the tentacles squeezing said lungs), "DRAKON! I KNOW GNOT WHY YOU HAVE SENT SOLDIERS AND MAGES TO LAY WASTE TO OUR PEOPLES, BUT CALL OFF YOUR DOGS AND WE SHALL WORSHIP ONLY YOU AND TIAMAT, MOTHER OF DRAKONS, FOR ALL OF OUR LIVES!"
Aragnak roars with delight, calling to Zorzunar, "CAST YOUR EYES UPON ANZATH, THE DARK CRYSTAL, AND WORSHIP HER AS WELL! I WILL CONSULT WITH HER AND HER ARMY, AND WE WILL DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH YOU."
The final armed hobgoblins cast down their weapons. Hodger the bard leads a ragged, fear-tainted, tentacle-crushed chant of "HAIL THE DRAGON! HAIL TIAMAT! HAIL THE DARK CRYSTAL!"
Aragnak flies over to the party and lands in the fort. "Well, what say you? Shall we murder these miscreants? Roast them, eat them, tear them limb from limb? That would warm my belly! But it has been a long, long time since I had a host of my own, and these orcs seem strong. Strong enough. I am inclined to bring them back to my island and accept their worship."
Bedlam looks about at the confusion, carnage, and his clean claws.
Me be tink'n dat des hobs suck!
The dwarf awaits the group's decision. He seems to be a bit disappointed that they didn't have a cave troll hiding somewhere...
Tragershen wrinkles his nose. "You want them to live with you? And all these years I have been told that dragons had a more acute sense of smell than elves."
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Aurora lets out a huff and, retrieving one of her scrolls into one hand, books it over to Lolly's side. Hopefully he's close enough she can actually get to him in time.
At his side she drops to her knees and sets to work: unrolling the scroll and flicking her gaze over its contents...
Though Nethys has wrote labyrinthine rules into the usage of scrolls, Aurora is adept enough to bypass the basic speed bump of requirements to use a scroll of more powerful magic than she can normally cast. Divine words are quickly read off the parchment and she dips down to press a chaste kiss to Lolly's lips, breath unnaturally hot and chased with a coolness not dissimilar to menthol. Magic.
The cleric slowly glances around.
Breath of Life: 5d8 + 9 ⇒ (2, 7, 7, 2, 3) + 9 = 30
The math gods smile upon Lolly and, from once being at a dismal (and miscounted) -60+, he finds himself not only at -39, but quickly at -9 and breathing! And fading.
The dragon takes a long look at Tragershen and snorts a breath of hot air in your direction. "You'd be surprised how concepts of stench vary across species, elf. Ever known a dog that was attracted to feces? Ever consider that he might smell better than you... in several senses?"
Anzath levels her sword at Daarog's throat. As Aurora pulls Lolly back from the brink of death, she spits in his face, speaking in Aklo, "Your life belongs to me. On your knees, pig."
Daarog does not bow.
Anzath lowers the Sword of Saracek. Then, with an upward thrust drives the blade towards Daarog's heart.
Daarog grabs the sword and pulls it deeper into his chest with his last effort. Several of his mighty fingers fall to the ground, but he doesn't need them anymore. He spits his final breath back into Anzath's face, giving blood for saliva.
"Un orc fidel a Mork et matarà algun dia, llepador de dracs."
He collapses. Zorzunar doesn't hesitate: he proclaims, "Praise TIAMAT!"
Anzath pulls the bloodied sword from Daarog, and feels it is not yet sated. She turns to Aragnak "De orkz and goblinz are yourz az you wish, Master." then to her komrades "De humanz vill regroup and be upon uz. But ve should see vhat iz in diz kave."
Tragershen watches on, letting his pit, tentacles and web do their work while others discuss.
Bedlam rumbles over to Lolly.
Ain't be time fer napping!
He then begins smacking him awake, while pouring a couple Cure Light Wounds Extracts down his throat.
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Lolly's eyelids flutter open, and he's called back from yet another dream featuring his lips upon the very perfection of all that's beautiful, tall, blonde, full-bodied, and lightly beaded with moisture.
What a beer that was.
Zorzunar turns and watches the tentacles strangle the life out of many of his soldiers. Their muffled cries become mere spasmodic twitches, and they finally fall silent. Hodger the Bard cuts himself free as soon as the tentacles drop and starts casting Cure Light Wounds on himself. The hobheroes who survived look at each other significantly: courage preserved them.
Aragnak doesn't seem to notice. Instead, he dexterously starts shucking the armor off of a fallen hobgoblin and munches on his snack. The live hobgoblins redouble their chanting. In between bites, he asks Anzath and Tragershen, "What will it be, my minions? I'm as willing to pursue the human morsels as I am to allow you to explore this cave immediately. Of course, you'd have to remove the Web, wizard."
Bedlam begins whistling innocently; as Trag's spells continue to stay active...
"Of course, mighty wyrm of land, sea and sky." He dismisses the web.
Zorzunar explains that it will take an hour or two to give the party a full tour of the hillfort. The upshot is that he currently has about 20 surviving soldiers, about 40 hobwomen, and 15 or so hobbabies (many are half-orcs, funny enough). He has 10,000 gold in a magically trapped chest, but he warns you about it. Otherwise, it's a hobhole--winding passages, defensive structures, traps, storerooms, and an underground spring that makes a small rivulet in a lava tunnel (upstream for drinking water, downstream for sewer).