Talia moves to a better position and fires on the most injured beetle: , damage .
The arrow pierce the already weakened shell and the beetle collapses at Harold's feet.
With silent concentration, Istvan continues his acidic assault.
AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+6 natural)
hp #1: 12/19 #2: dead/19
Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2
Sickend, the beetle attacks Elvar,
, but misses.
Round 3:
21 Harold
16 Parnel
14 Talia
14 Elvar
13 Beetle 2 (dead)
9 Istvan
7 Beetle 1 (wounded)
Unwilling to step into the acid cloud, Harold delays, waiting for an opening to present itself.
Elvar strikes at the beetle and then steps back from it.
Nodding his thanks to Elvar, Harold steps up, and takes a swing...
...bringing his earthbreaker down in a two-handed thump which crushes the beetle to the floor, spraying ichor everywhere.
Sighing in relief, Istvan wipes his brow with a well worn scrap of cloth.
Well fought my friends. Istvan is overcome with joy that these foes were not quite so resilient as those we last fought.
"Well done every one. Let's have a look at that nest."
Talia cautiously approaches the nest/bassin/shelf.
Elvar pants after the exertion of the beetle fight and winches as he feels a dull throb in his leg where the beetle bit him. Looking down at it he goes pale at the sight of all the blood, his own blood, seeping into his clothing.
"Hey guys, anybody got a healing spell handy? I got bit pretty bad."
"I have no healing available today". "I shall beseech the forces of nature to provide me this boon on the morrow".
A search both magical and mundane of the room reveals the remains of 3 humanoids encased in the dried orange goo. Searching the remains turns up a MWK heavy mace, a magical pearl and 3 potions. Elvar also detects a magic aura coming from within the nest itself, which turns out to be originating from a ring on the desiccated finger of hand that has been incorporated into the nest's construction.
The decayed remnants of the corpses' armour all bear an eight-pointed star symbol on the left breast.
The symbol is that of the Seekers, a group of unscrupulous archeologists and pseudohistorians.
CLWx3
Feather Falling
Pearl of Power (1st Level)
Elvar takes all the magical items in turn and inspects them with detect magic, turning them over in his hands and scrutinizing.
"Three potions of cure light wounds, a ring of feather falling and a pearl of power level one. Nice!"
"If you don't mind, I'd like to quaff one of the potions right now."
Harold regards the bodies grimly.
"It would appear that we are not the first to penetrate this far... hopefully, we will not end-up as insect food, like these unfortunate souls."
Nonetheless, he takes a moment to kneel, and offer-up a prayer for those here who met such an ignominious end.
When he is finished, he rises, brushes dirt from his knees, and sighs.
"Where to next?"
"Dunno... I wonder if there is anything behind these mounds." Elvar mutters in reply to Harold and casts detect secret doors, wondering if the nests hid a door.
Istvan will happily accept the pearl. With it, Istvan will gain some flexability in the usage of spells.
Lighting the way with his staff, Istvan will peer into the tunnel leading east from the chamber we are currently in.
Istvan is wondering what other treasures can be found down here
"I'll take the ring for now, but whoever needs it will be welcome to."
Going down the short hall, you approach another room and peer in to see:
Eight man-sized stone slabs, about four feet off the ground, are arranged in two rows in this large room. A long-dead corpse, possibly a human, lays sprawled out upon one of these slabs, his red leather armor the only hint of color in the otherwise drab room. The north and south walls taper in somewhat, and the short west wall abuts a small stone stage. The red clay statue of a powerfully built warrior wielding a cylinder-headed great-club stands tall upon the stage, its eyes surveying the room. Another giant beetle, stumbles sluggishly between two of the room's large slabs. It does not seem to be interested in you at the moment.
Harold eyes the beetle cautiously.
"I'll keep an eye on it, whilst the rest of you search the room; you might want to start with that corpse..."
He then moves to position himself between the beetle and the others.
"Let's take it down", proposes Talia, carrefully taking aim.
Looking sideways at the sluggish beetle Elvar casts detect magic and surveys the room.
Watching the beetle carefully, Istvan remain alert as his companions search the room.
Parnel carefully approaches the corpse, Hector keeping an eye on the beetle.
Perceptions
Heal (Untrained)
Istvan keeps a close on the the enchanted statue. If it were to come to life and suddenly attack, Istvan has just the solution: Grease.
When you enter the room, the beetle finally takes notice of you. It hisses at you.
Round 1
21 Parnel
8 Harold
7 Elvar
6 Talia
4 Istvan
4 Beetle
*yawn*
"Woah. All of a sudden, I feel tired..."
Still, when he sees the beetle become hostile, Harold manages to shake himself from his lethargy.
"Hmmm?" Elvar blinks a few times at the approaching beetle then rubs his eyes and yawns.
Sighing at the effort he reaches for his sword and draws it.
Parnell starts at the beetles approach, and quickly releases a sling bullet at the rapidly closing creature.
Sling attack(PBS)
Sling bullet(PBS)
"Get him Hector".
Hector hisses and charges forward.
Bite, Charging
Teeth Damage
Harold moves up, and takes a swing at the beetle....
...cracking its carapace, and crushing it to pulp.
With a mighty smash, Harold crushes the bug, splattering the room with warm entrails.
"Oh, yuck!" Elvar mutters and wipes beetle goore of his pants.
Stepping gingerly over the splattered remains Elvar makes his way cautiously toward the red-armored corpse resting on a slab, keeping oone eye on the clay statue as he goes.
"Well done, Harold!"
Talia switches target, focusing on the statue that Istvan detected.
While Parnel, Harold and Elvar explore the room, she readies an action to send two arrows in it, should it move.
Walking slowly through the room, Istvan inspects the corpse and the red leather armor with both his normal senses and detect magic.
Istvan is hoping that little trap was all we are having to worry about. Is everybody ok?
Searching the corpse on the the stone bed reveals that his leather armour appears to be of high quality and still in fine condition(MWK) and is emblazoned with the same eight-pointed star as was seen on the remains in the other room. It also has a fine silver ring (non-magical).
The statue doesn't react to your presence at all.
Elvar strips the corpse of it's armor and the silver ring, placing the items with the other loot the party has gathered so far.
"Guy got crushed to death by several blows by a blunt object." he remarks.
Taking out one of the potions Elvar uncorks it and quaffs it down, healing some of the hurt caused by the beetles in their hive.
"Reeeally..."
Harold eyes the clay statue with the great-club appraisingly.
"Are you sure that thing is not going to animate and attack us?"
"Errr... No? The thing radiates heavy magics so... No. I'm not sure about anything about it. If you would be so kind Harold, would you mind interposing yourself between us and the statue while we work on this, please?" Elvar indicates Istvan and himself and the slabs.
After Elvar collects the armor and the ring, Istvan moves over to more closely examine the statue and its magic aura, spending several rounds to collect as much information as possible.
Harold nods to Elvar, and adopts a guarding position, earthbreaker at the ready...