Alicia gets closer to the action, readying her hand crossbow.
As he runs up to Alicia, Mahath calls out "Beware! The spider may yet live; the wasp can paralyze with poison!"
He points at the wasp and utters an arcane phrase, conjuring a flat ray of heat at the insect.
Move to K15, then casting scorching ray at the wasp.
Ranged touch attack, to hit
Damage
However, running over the rough ground and trying to avoid hitting 'Reaver, his beam sizzles off into the sky.
"Mynnwch ef, 'Reaver!" the dwarf yells as he steps up and attacks himself.
Mahath runs to the edge of the gully with Alica, but his rushed spell fails to fry the wasp.
Dorn steps up and does his best to swat the monstrous insect out of the sky with his hammer.
At the dwarf's command, Skyreaver attacks the huge wasp, failing to seize it with his beak but raking it with his talons.
Marikel steps up and swings his sword at the wasp, hoping to lay it low.
Marikel swings his sword, but the wasp buzzes nimbly out of the way.
The insect doubles its long abdomen over under its pinched waist and jabs its stinger into Dorn before it raises cautiously higher into the air.
Dorn doubles over from the nasty sting. "Blasted bug! We've got ta kill that thing quick!"
Alicia continues dashing toward the edge of the gully, slowing down to fire her hand crossbow one-handed. Firing as she goes, she jumps down into the gully. Landing on her feet with a cat's grace, she drops the used crossbow and draws her rapier, and dashes toward the giant insect.
Alicia's tiny dart grazes the massive wasp. She leaps down into the gully and moves closer to the insect, drawing her rapier.
Mahath looks back and forth between the melee and the horses. For an instant, he thinks about following Alicia down. Instead, he back peddles to the horses, keeping his eye on the deadly insect as he goes.
Move to G19 and ready an action: cast burning hands if the wasp comes within range of the spell. Damage , DC 18 reflex for half damage.
No longer able to reach the bug, "Get it, 'Reaver! Get that blasted thing!" He watches with interest for a moment before glancing at Marikel. Pondering an idea, "Toss me, lad." he tells the healer. He then prepares himself to be thrown until he looks back over at Marikel who just so happens to possess a look as if the dwarf has lost his mind.
Quite annoyed at the delay, "Toss me! What are ya waitin' for! Ya toss me at the bug and I try and smash it on me way down. It's fairly simple. Now toss me!" He then looks back up and starts to contemplate on exactly where to strike at the bee.
Skyreaver steadily continues his assault upon the oversized bug.
Marikel frowns at Dorn.
"Shoot it!"
Marikel thrusts his sword high and swings it down with a prayer cried to Iomedae, and a copy of his sword appears beside the wasp. The spiritual weapon slashes down at the creature.
Mahath backpedals to protect the horses, the words to a fiery spell on the tip of his tongue.
Skyreaver tears at the wasp which is now hovering slightly above the roc, battering the insect's carapace.
Marikel summons a longsword of divine power which slashes off the end of one of the wasp's segmented legs.
As the gully beneath it fills up with hostile things, the wasp opts for a more isolated target, buzzing away toward Mahath and the horses. As it nears the wizard, he spreads his fingers and conjures a fan of magical fire into the sky.
Fort save
Dorn rolls his eyes at the cleric's lack of cooperation. He then drops his weapon and unstraps his shield and drops it as well before drawing his bow.
Alicia makes another unladylike mention of Calistria and tries to scramble back up the side of the gully.
Dorn readies his ranged weapon
Stowing a weapon, Alicia scrambles back up the bank of the gully.
Skyreaver does not relent and takes off after the wasp, striking at it again as soon as he nears.
Skyreaver tears off another bit of leg as the wasp departs and, following, delivers another scratch to the striped carapace.
Mahath takes a full round action to rethink all of his life choices that have led him to this time and place.
The conjured sword flies after the wasp and strikes at it again.
With less ease Marikel pursues the creature then calls down the thunder of Iomedae. A sound burst erupts next to the wasp.
The divine longsword slashes through the wasp's carapace like butter, and ichor drips.
Marikel summons a righteous thunder ... that goes off a bit more like a damp squib.
The wasp drops to the ground and seizes the unmoving wizard with her pincers, doubling over her abdomen again to probe him for a fleshy place to implant her egg, while the terrified horses take the opportunity to flee.
Dorn raises his bow, takes aim, and fires!
Alicia clambers to the top of the slope and draws her rapier again. Wordlessly charging the overgrown insect, she stabs at it with her sword.
Mahath takes a full round action to watch his life flash before his eyes.
Skyreaver flies forward and continues to attack the unkillable wasp as if it's all part of the job, and will continue to do so until either of them dies.
Ali fumbles her weapon back into her hand as she runs from the edge of the gully. At first, the point of the rapier skitters off the striped carapace, but just when it seems that her attempt to save Mahath has been fruitless, the blade finds a weak place from a previous wound. The point sinks into the wasp's soft innards, and it slowly crumples, its legs and wings convulsing, folding in on itself.
Mahath remains motionless and unresponsive for almost four long minutes before he begins to recover from the paralytic sting. The horses are fairly easily retrieved, though they skittishly resist approaching too near the wasp's remains.
Alicia takes a moment to regain her breath, then stabs the insect's corpse a few more times, just to make sure it doesn't get up again.
"Thing's dead. Is Mahath?" she asks as the others tend to their stricken wizard.
Marikel clambers inelegantly up the bank and rushes to Mahath's side.
"Mister Dorn, come closer. I can heal you both."
Marikel mutters to Iomedae for certainty and examines the wound Marikel received for foreign bodies.
"I believe Mr Mahath will be fine. The poison doesn't kill, just paralyses. Wasps prefer live prey so their eggs have fresh food when they hatch."
Marikel bows his head as Dorn approaches and a pulse of warm energy heals their wounds.
After what seems like days, Mahath finds himself able to move and speak.
"Uuuhhh. Oh, gods. Th-that thing didn't get eggs in me, d-did it?"
He starts to sit up, and at least gets up on his elbows. "D-Dorn. Check the spider. It might just be p-paralyzed too. With eggs in it."
"On it, lad." The dwarf then moves over to the spider and pulls it out of its burrow to examine it.
What's left of the spider is a hollowed-out carapace. It would appear that one of the wasps did lay an egg in the spider, and the larva ate its way out of the arachnid when it hatched.
Stroking his beard in thought a moment as he examines it, he draws his conclusions and heads back over to Mahath. "The way I'm figurin' it is, I'm fairly certain the wasp did lay an egg inside the spider. Once the egg hatched, the larva then ate the spider from the inside out," he explains plainly, shrugging. "At least, that's how I'm figurin' it."
"Think it's still around, then?" Ali asks, looking around warily. "The hatched bug, I mean."
"The creature we killed may have been the spawn," Marikel mutters.
"But we should certainly move on quickly. Mister Mahath, I can tend that wound over the next few days and ensure it ejects any foreign material. But for now, we should move on."
"Yes, yes of course. We should move on. I'm sure it will be fine." He glances once more at the hollowed out spider as a reminder of what his fate could have been before he mounts his horse and gets in line to move on.
"Of course you'll be fine, lad. I'm sure it didn't inject an egg in ya or anythin' like that. Not ta worry!" he says, waving it off, as if it's no big deal.
Looking around to make sure Skyreaver is still around, the dwarf follows behind the others.
The party continues up the gully, keeping a wary eye out for both spiders and wasps. Though they pass a few more burrows, the spiders that dug them appear to have abandoned them and are no longer in residence.
After another hour of picking their way over the uneven ground, the afternoon sun picks out a sparkling glint on a hill up ahead -- the hill from which the stone the flood troll carried must have come.
Alicia slows her horse and squints in the direction of the hill. She glances at her companions. "Think that's the place?"
A second look at the hill and she adds, "Looks like it. How long do you think it'll take us to get there from here?"
"We should certainly head there. There may even be farmstead we can stay at ."
Marikel does not smile.
To get there, the party must cross the gully, leading the horses down into it and then finding a way for them to climb back up the other side. As the group approaches, they can see that the hill is half-collapsed in a pile of rock and glinting stone; from the opposite approach, there is little of note about the hummock. The land around it is reasonably flat and still shows signs of past attempts at cultivation, the soil notably looser and less rocky than the unaltered landscape they have been traveling through. On the far side of the hill, a haphazard shanty still stands, albeit somewhat crookedly, built largely of stone and sod with a few precious timbers strategically placed to keep its roughly rectangular shape.
Marikel dismounts and takes the reins of Alicia's horse.
"Miss Alicia, would you be so kind as to take a quiet look around the area while we secure the horses here. Please do be careful and alert us if there's anyone... or anything... about."