"Oof! The beast hits quite hard! Not sure how long Jenrik will last with the poison in his veins!"
Stepping up, Hektor brings his sword out and slashes down on the creature, taking a defensive stance for the moment.
to hit; slashing damage
Eyes going wide as the creature viciously attacks Jenrick, Rhiastra calls out to her wounded companion. "Jenrick, come to my side! I can help!"
Jenrick, holding his neck, fumbles for his antitoxin pill. The young silmarian uses his tongue to force the pill down his dry throat.
Hearing the calls of the centaur, Jenrick takes a 5-foot step back from creature, then moves to the centaur's side.
As Jenrick comes within reach, Rhiastra extends her hand to touch him, feeling the heat of the poison coursing through his body. Though she could do little to affect the toxin, she hoped to at least alleviate some of the damage of the sting itself.
A soft green glow pulses down her arm, spreading up the wounded warrior's body and sealing much of the damage to his neck, as flowers spring up around the centaur's hooves, the grass where she stands becoming a bit greener in response to the life energies flowing through her body.
Marche strikes at the scorpion.
The scorpion rears as the feeling of intense cold sinks into its flesh. Rising up as it does causes Hektor to misjudge his strike and his blade tastes nothing but air. Marche has more luck and his swing cuts cleanly into the giant monster's claw.
Jenrick feels the antitoxin sink down his throat. The magic contained inside spreads instantly and he literally sweats the poison from his pours. Black liquid oozes up onto his skin and drips down to the ground below even as the green glow of Rhiastra's healing light sinks inside of him.
The scorpion, feeling the sting of its prey, unleashes its attacks. Claws sweep outward, attempting to break Trathing and Hektor with their massive crushing force but both dodge out of the way. Marche is not so lucky and the stinger of the scorpion jabs into his thigh. Poison flows into his body.
As Felticia weaves around to the rear of the scorpion she notices something growing from the back of its head. It looks almost like a cluster of the poisonous mushrooms which spring up overnight on dead logs back home in Mordavia.
Märche strikes back.
"This thing needs to die, soon as we can! Noone wants to catch those claws and tail at the same time!"
attack, fighting defensively.
Seeing that the creature can be hurt Trathing is filled with some hope.
Don't let up! This thing is a killer, and eliminating it will save many lives
As her allies cluster around the giant vermin, trying to lad their attacks, Rhiasta extends her hand, chanting as he does, calling forth the blessing of the pack to work in tandem to take down a mightier foe.
Kajika skirts the edges of the battle, wary of the scorpion's sting.
Hektor avoids attack but time spent with the shield is not time spent swinging. His own attacks prove ineffective. Marche proves to be silent but effective as her blade strikes in the same spot twice and removes the giant scorpion's leg nearly entirely. It screams in pain, a sound none of you will soon be forgetting. So intense is it, the beast barely notices the rime of frost forming on its midsection as Trathing continues to pump cold energy inside of it.
With the help of Rhiastra's healing and his own unique biology, black poison continues to leak out of the young silmarian's pores and the corners of his mouth.
With grim determination, Jenrick draws his gladius, looking closely for an separation in the monster's exoskeleton, steps forward the giant scorpion and strikes.
Finally ready for her rush at the monstrosity Felitcia moved rapidly and with grace as she deftly ducked in while the scorpion's eyes were focused towards the main group in front of it. She slipped into position and yelled a vow at the beast, "You will die this day monster!" Her blade sliced in at it's legs fiercely but she wasn't certain if she could hit hard enough to get through it's tough exoskeleton or not.
Almost as one, Hektor and Felitcia strike. The giant (giant!) scorpion staggers once and falls to the sand. Its tail twitches and then it, too, falls. The party has ended the life of the monster which threatened the caravans of Shapeir, although Marche still has the poison coarsing through her body.
With the fall of the mighty creature Trathing looks to his allies...
Was there ever a doubt as to how this contest of strength would come to a conclusion?
Surveying their faces Trathing's gaze comes upon Marche...
Marche you don't look so good.
Trathing Casts a spell heal his wounds.
"What ho! That thing died hard and bloody! Now we reap the rewards of the battle."
Mindful of the poison stinger, Hektor slashes down to cleave the upper part of the stinger from the tail.
"Oh... thanks."
Relieved that her attack actually hit Felitcia let loose a whoop of triumph, one that became louder when the thing died. She pulled forth a cloth attached to her scabard and stuck the blade down in the sand, taking the cloth, and scrubbing the blade clean of the ichor from the scorpion while her companions finished harvesting the poison gland.
The young silmarian male began to uses his hands and fingers in an attempt to wipe the pooling poison from his body.
Jenrick began to look around for a nearby discreet rock outcropping.
Smiling as her companions celebrate the hard fought victory, Rhiastra moves to check on those poisoned by the beast.
Smiling as her companions celebrate the hard fought victory, Rhiastra moves to check on those poisoned by the beast.
"Careful, Rhiastra", cautions Jenrick, as he takes a few steps back. "I don't want anyone to gets this..gunk on them. Maybe there is a place nearby I can wash this stuff off."
Gesturing above the noble warrior, Rhiastra utters an incantation as water begins to cascade down onto Jenrick, washing away the ichor.
Jenrick sputters under the sudden torrent. It was bracingly cold, but looking over his form, it was true, the black ichor was washed away.
The silmarian sighed, "A little warning would have been nice," but smiled.
The young man couldn't help notice that when wet, his traditonal silmarian clothing clung to his body tightly, perhaps too much for modest company.
Rhiastra lets out a sound akin to a giggle. "Sorry, I'll give you more warning next time. At least the desert heat should dry your clothes off soon. If we return to town with you like that you may find yourself getting some....undue attention." the centaur says with a grin.
"I like attention", grinned Jenrick, "especially if it's from the kind like of people".
"But I have heard that under these desert conditions, droplets of water on the skin can turn those droplets into magnifying glass, drilling the desert sun into your skin." With that Jenrick did his best to swipe any excess moisture from his exposed skin.
She smiles at Jenrick's unabashed confidence. He was after all quite the physical specimen.
With Rhiastra's healing, the poison is neutralized in Marche's body. The scorpion's stinger, big enough it requires not one but two people to properly detach it, is removed.
"I bet that old apothecary lady will pay quite the sun for this beasty!"
Hektor stows his gear and shoulders the chitinous item.
"So, do we have further business in the desert? Do we think the message from that missing courier is somewhere out here in the sand?"
As the giant (giant) scorpion's shining corpse gleams in the unwavering heat, both Hektor and Rhiastra notice a strange growth on the back of its now unmoving head.
"What's that thing, there? That seems unusual for a scorpion, even one as big as this thing."
Hektor points out the strange growth, but can't make heads or tails of what it signifies.
"Those are mushrooms, specifically white fairy mushrooms which are native to the forests of Speilburg Valley and Mordavia. There's no reason for those to be there unless they were brought here by whatever was controlling the scorpion." Rhiastra says after studying the growth,
Looking at Rhiastra... I think we are the only ones who can heal people. We should prolly do that before we carry on.
Feeling the wash of positive nergy wash over him, Jenrick feels better as the pain in his abdomen lessens.
Jenrick sighs, "Ahh! Thanks Trathing."
Nodding, Rhiastra moves over to rest a hand on first Marche, then Hektor, the same soft verdant glow spreading to her companions.
"thank you."
"You're welcome." Rhiastra replies with a smile.
The centaur shaman's healing energy feels much like a Medditerrean breeze and is certainly a welcome, but brief respite from the oppressive desert heat.
"Oh, that's nice. Thanks, Rhiastra. Sure would have been welcome to have you with us back on the march."
With the healing done and everyone finished with the scorpion's corpse, Felitcia sheathed her now cleaned blade and asked, "So, where are we going to now?" It was then she heard a couple of people ask what the strange growth was and the dhampir went to look at it. She examined it carefully and said, "I recognize that, it's a fungus called white fairy mushrooms which are native to the forests of Speilburg Valley and Mordavia. They don't grow on living creatures and certainly don't grow around here. We should take that back with us, the apothecary might have use for it and could possibly tell us more about it."
"Does anyone think they'd be able to follow the scorpion's tracks?" Rhiastra asks.
Seeing a large gash still in Hektor's side Trathing gives him a little more healing. Then seeing Rhiastra looking for tracks tries to lend her a hand.
I'm not really a tracker but another pair of eyes never hurt. I think I saw the scorpion turning as it emerged from the sand..
As Trathing indicates the disturbed sand from the turn, Rhiastra catches sight of it's path. "Perfect! Thank you Trathing, I thin I have clear set of tracks we can follow." the shamaness says beginning to lead the group along the indicated path.
The group follows the tracks for over an hour. By the time the cliffs of the mountains come into view, and cast welcome shade upon the party, Jenrick and Hektor are sweating buckets and feeling the effects of the desert heat.
The tracks lead straight to the cliffs and a large, flat stone which must weigh quite a bit blocking what seems to be a cave of some sort. Further examination of the stone shows it to be fifteen feet high, ten feet across, and at least a foot thick. The sort of stone a giant (giant!) scorpion might be able to move if it could think enough to make itself a door...