Hedran leaves a blurry multi-colored image behind himself and appears next to the creature.
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Hedran lands two nasty gnashes on the tendiculous, sending purple sap oozing out.
Nigel manages to clobber the Tendriculous, denting a whipping vine.
Hustling toward the peculiar plant, Ratel calls back, ”Come on bear, attack the tree.” as he strikes at the tree with his shield, bear runs up behind him and bits at it’s roots.
Ratel bashes the Tendriculous and it collapses on the ground. The party then make short work of the tree.
As Hedran takes up his watch, he sees large brown and black cockroach head towards the camp.
Hedran infuses his blade with cold energy.
"Get up."
Grenwold, Fenton and Robert wake up from Hedran's call, but the rest of the party remains asleep.
Grenwold recognizes the creature as a venomroach, it can fly and has a poisonous bite.
Grenwold picks up his cold iron glaive and gets up, gesturing for Fenton to attack the cockroach if it comes in range, while Fenton gets to his feet."Everyone wake up!" Grenwold yells. Only Nigel wakes up this time.
The cockroach flies over and lands as it approaches. Grenwold slashes at it with his glaive as it approaches, cutting it, causing yellow ichor to spurt out. The cockroach chittwrs angrily as it attacks Grenwold. Fenton tries to gore the cockroach as it comes into range.
Grenwold gets a savage bite on his side from the angry roach but manages to fight off the poison.
Gren shouts again "Wake up, there's a disgusting roach attacking us!" and he shudders. He drops his glaive and pulls out the morningstar, swinging along with Fenton, and muttering his prayer of bull. Fenton attempts to entangle the roach before Grenwold attacks.
Free - yell loudly
Swift - focus bull
Free - drop glaive
Move - draw Morningstar
Standard - attack/attack
Ratel and Cavall wake up, but Bear and Father Noelan are still asleep.
Fenton gores the roachs underbelly while Grenwold crushes its carapace, but the roach still remains stubbornly up.
Hearing Grenwold call out, Ratel starts to stir, "A disgusting roach? Just step on... Realizing what was upon them, He rolls to his feet, grasping his shield as he stands. Nudging Bear with his foot, "Wake up Bear! We need to do some exterminating."
Blocked by a tree Hedran moves (every square should have cover), ducking behind his friends to get into position.
Fatigue rider.
The cockroach collapses as Hedran runs 6 inches of steel into its guts. Hedran then lops off its head.
The rest of the night passes uneventfully and the next morning, the party awakens to having a venomroach carcass and a Tendriculous right next to their camp. "The..heck?!" Father Noelan exclaims when he finds the extra giant cockroach the next morning. "Next time, could you wake me up if we get attacked at night?"
"I really don't like surprises like that." Father Noelan grumbles irritabily.
Vardalel blanches as he sees both corpses and starts pleading with the party, "Oh please could you take me to Misthome? I think everything out here is out to kill us and I don't want to be some creature's snack!"
After the restless nights sleep, Ratel frowns at the priest, shrugging. "Odd, I would rather sleep the whole night through and let those on guard deal with the little things."
Turning to Vardalel, as he gathers his gear, he looks from the man into the woods, "Aren't you a lumberman? You should be used to dealing with these minor interruptions, They were here well before the goblin army."
He turns to Nigel, as he prepares to head out. "We're still rescuing that pup, before we return to Misthome, right?"
"I don't think that cockroach is considered little, since it's twice my size."Father Noelan remarks sarcastically. "Anyway, point is that you could have used help in the attack, so don't feel bad waking me up. It's better then all of us ending up it's gullet."
"Well, maybe our numbers scared them off but I've never seen in my years of logging anything so big nor ferocious!" Vardalel sputters. "All we get is lynxes and wolves, not overgrown cockroaches or monster plants!"
After reading his spellbook and preparing himself for the day, "well what's done is done. Remind me, If I have the magical energy I should be casting keep watch at the end of each day."
Grenwold smiles, ”Father, we made quite a ruckus - I even shouted ‘wake up!’ a few times. You were so sleepy, you didn’t even stir! After the fight I guess we just assumed you would want to stay asleep. Anyway, we ended up dispatching them in seconds. That said, if you haven’t prayed to regain your spells, I could use some healing.” He grins at the priest.
”Sounds good Hedran, I’ll try to remember.”
"Ooops."Father Noelan looks sheepish. "Next time shake me on my shoulders or something. I guess I'm not as young as I used to be for this kind of thing."
Father Noelan heals Grenwold, before praying for a new set of spells.
The party then sets off for the keep.
As the party heads towards the keep, 1 hour of travel later, they run into a crown of rough gems encircles the top of this sleek, orange-brown glob as it rolls forward, the detritus of the forest churning within.
Hedran recognizes the creature as a type of ooze known as an ambergrim. It can grab and swallow whole.
Father Noelan steps to the side and shoots an arrow at the Ambergrim while ordering Cavall to attack the ooze if it comes into range.
Father Noelan manages to stick an arrow into the ooze.
Hedran casts frostbite and begins to move.
”Okay, this forest is getting weird.
Grenwold pats Fenton and they move until they are both adjacent to Hedran. Gren has his glaive out, and looks ready to take a swipe if he can.
Swift - animal focus
move - move to square left of Hedran
Standard - ready action to attack
Fenton doesn’t know how to ready actions so he’s doing nothing.
Nigel moves up.
The Ambergrim charges at the party.
Grenwold strikes at it as soon as it gets into range, then slashes it another time as it approaches Hedran, sending orange brown fluid all over the place.
The Ambergrim tries to bite Grenwold and Fenton tries to interpose himself between Grenwold and the ooze but is too slow. Grenwold is grabbed by the ooze and is sucked into the ooze's mouth.
Vardalel retorts, "Of course it's weird! Monster plants, giant cockroaches, giant orange brown blobs that try to eat you, I've never seen anything like this all 20 years of logging!" , then predictably, dives into the nearest bush to hide.
Father Noelan steps behind Grenwold, then sends two arrows flying into the ooze.
He then orders Cavall to attack the ooze. Cavall bites the ooze then gives Father Noelan a mournful look.
Bleh, everything down here tastes horrible!
Longbow
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Robert sticks another arrow into the Ambergrim, which is beginning to resemble a pincushion, but it does not seem to have slowed it much.
"Pila, guard me."
Hustling toward the ooze, Ratel calls back, ”Come on bear, attack the odd jelly thing.” as he strikes at the creature with his shield, bear runs up behind him and bits at its base.
Ratel smacks his shield against the Ambergrim but finds it ineffective since he's hitting blubber. Bear's teeth however, do make a dent.
Ratel smacks his shield against the Ambergrim but finds it ineffective since he's hitting blubber. Bear's teeth however, do make a dent.
Hedran cuts into the Ambergrim, his blade glowing blue.
Grenwold says, "Agh, it's got me! Fenton, smack it!" while squirming to escape
"Heeeeeeeelp!
Fenton stabs at the Ambergrim, causing quite a large orange-brown spurt.
Nigel tries to pull Grenwold out of the slime, but Grenwold is stuck fast!
The ambergrim gives a good swallow, and Grenwold goes down its gullet! Grenwold feels the ambergrim coat him in thick Resin.
"Oh sh*t." Father Noelan curses as he continues to put arrows into the Ambergrim.
Cavall savagely bites the Ambergrim, hoping to free Grenwold, while barking.
Hang in there, we'll get you out!
Hedran swings his icy sword once again.
PA
PA Frostbite (fatigue rider)
"Drop him now."
The Ambergrim doesn't answer but as Hedran cleaves into the Ambergrim, it finally stops moving, and eventually they are able to pry a rather sticky Grenwold, covered in orange resin, out.
"You okay?" Father Noelan asks concernly as he tries in vain to wash the resin off Grenwold with create water.
He then takes Nigel's wand and taps Grenwold twice.
Vardalel comes out of the bush, sputtering, "You see, good thing I wasn't around or it might have tried eating me too!"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little stiff. Let me think for a moment if I know how to get this stuff off."
Grenwold realizes the Dexterity penalty decreases by 1 for each hour as the resin becomes brittle or he could just wash the resin off with strong alcohol.
Relieved to see the little gnome free, Ratel turns to Vardalel and shrugs, "Ok, now that was something you don't see everyday."
”Vardalel, man, I just got partially swallowed by an ooze made of liquified amber and I’m fine. Just relax. There are much, much worse monsters than these, and this team is likely to have to go and fight them before too long, so just give it a rest.” He picks at the resin. ”Does anyone have any whiskey or vodka or something? I think that might dissolve the stickiness. Otherwise it’ll be a waiting game. I’m not incapacitated or anything so we can move on, but I won’t be at 100% until this stuff comes off.” He flexes himself ineffectually and climbs back on to Fenton if nobody has any alcohol.
"You don't look fine to me." Vardalel says critically. "You still have the orange goop over you. Are you sure that orange goop isn't going to dissolve you? "
"And if there are worse monsters, I would be much happier not ever seeing them."Vardalel answers firmly.
"You might be right." Father Noelan notes clinically. "Water certainly isn't helping and alcohol is a solvent for many organic compounds. Jet would have strong alcohol, and so might Rhyna and Oreld, but they're days away."
Fenton winces and snorts as a sticky bundle of a Grenwold starts pulling himself on him.
The party travels through the Fangwood for an hour, coming to a keep constructed from weathered blocks of smooth, gray stone. The exterior walls are 3 feet thick, while the interior walls are 1 foot thick. The mortar between the stones is discolored by a dark, tenacious mold, and creeping vines crawl up the fort’s exterior, particularly in the deep shadows between the western towers. The walls of the fort are 15 feet tall. Walkways run along the tops of the walls, with the towers 45 feet tall.The party can hear rowdy voices coming from the Keep, but is too far to make out the words. They also hear a faint whine.
Mummy! Help me! I don't want to be here with these nasty two leggers!
There are two entrances to the Keep, either by the main gate, or the collapsed north eastern tower.