Cronin takes to the air, majestically popping another gardener and showering Greeg with larvae as he does so.
Disgusted, Don's feet slip as he wades through maggots to one of the few clear areas on the path, and his blow goes wide.
In the meanwhile, the Hunters move in. Deprived of Cronin, H2 flutters upright, opening an already existing wound and attacks Greeg. H1 targets the vulnerable looking assassin, while H3 flies belligerently towards Dram. Greeg finds himself in the unwelcome embrace of the insect.
"Well, we don't want this. All these maggots, very messy underfoot. I think we'd all prefer to be out of the area. Now, a little storm..." Guldarin concentrates, and as echoes of an ancient storm blast the area he backs away from the enemies.
Rev (spoilered to not clutter the thread)
Also, if I stay in the maggot areas, do I get attacked each round? Can I damage them at all with something like a cleave attack or strike two opponents type of thing. Cheers
Guldarin wipes out three more gardeners, inevitably producing more larvae which instantly attack Andaros and Cronin. He shuffles sideways, but still ends up ankle deep in maggots.
Guldarin's storm washes away some of the encroaching larvae.
Nayce steps through the shadows and reappears behind the hunter. Then he releases a wave of spectral attackers against several of his foes. Uncharacteristically, he dismisses his shroud against a distant hunter to focus on the enemy behind him.
H1 vs Will
G12 vs Will
Larvae in E10/G12 vs Will
Larvae in I15/K16 vs Will
Nayce clears another section of path for his fellows, but the maggot-free zone is short-lived. The last gardener trundles towards Don, attacks him and explodes over the rogue and the paladin, possibly sensing that they will least appreciate this treatment.
"a slide sounds like a capital idea just now, especially if we can get these larvae to converge."
Don curses again, "Maybe they're not so bad in the water."
Greeg felt the power of the little dwarf rip him from the insect creature. He slipped easily to a position between the two hunters, and used his greater reach to attack them both. "Bugs eh, remember last time we ran into bugs Cronin? Took you ages to clear that green stuff from your cape.. The biug goliath chuckled a little to himself at the memory. Cronin had been knocked out in that fight, and the warden had used his cape to wipe the sword he used back then clean of the blood. He'd never told the cleric that though. Cronin was a little touchy about his holy symbols and regalia.
He chuckled again even as he swung his weapon.
Greeg breaks gleefully free of the Hunter's grip and swings into both insects. For all their agility, they seem to have less formidable carapaces than the gardeners.
Dram sweeps his staff at the hunter while Dirt tries to bring him down with claws.
I'll take that 5 foot slide to H16
Acknowledged I'll take my present position as it is.
Andaros finishes a quick spoken invocation by pointing the Dawnblade at the Hunter facing Nayce and a bolt of energy flies out of the blade striking at it.
Andaros takes straightforward action, sending a force bolt into H1. Kevaras finds himself deep in larvae and suffers another attack.
Calling upon the power of the Raven Queen, a scintillating crown of radiant energy appears above the drow.
With a look of disgust, the paladin extracts himself from the mass of larvae.
Cronin returns to his humanoid form adjacent to one of the hunters, but the lightning wreath transforms into a whirlwind about the goliath as he chops down at one of the hunters.
Don sputters from the showers of larvae cover him again, "Ugh my mouth was open!" He taps his knives together. "I am so sick of this."
Move to M13, Low Slash vs H2's Reflex
for
If that drops it, Deft Slash, moving to N15 then
attacking J3
Deft Slash:
for
Don darts through the grossness, slashing at one bug, keeping his mouth closed this time, then slips away to hurl his dagger at the other, "Heads up, big guy!" He exclaims to Greeg, before the knife goes whizzing past.
Cronin deals a nasty wound to H1, while Don wades through the larvae to bloody H2 as it lies prone.
Also, Low Slash is a minor action attack, so no AP used.
The hunters start to disengage.
In heavily accented common, H2 rises and speaks.
"Stop. We only seek our own survival and that of our Princess."
Larvae gulp at Guldarin once more.
Guldarin slaps at his legs, stepping out of the swarm of larva. "Horrible things. Horrible! Ooh, what was that about a princess, are we going to be rescuing a princess now? I rescued a princess once, although it was a bit of an accident. But everyone seemed very grateful, at least mostly, although I was never quite sure about the sister." Off handedly, he blasts some of the larvae. "Shame how she fell into that moat, and I really did find it strange where the shark came from."
Guldarin absents cleans up the path some more as he reminisces on the rescuing of royalty.
The hunters flinch slightly.
"Do not destroy our young. There are so few of us left."
"Gather your young off of us and cease hostilities. Then we'll talk. While I am sympathetic to the idea of protecting one's own it will not be at the expense of becoming your children's next meal."
Don adds, "You're going to have to explain that story, dwarf. I gotta hear that." He wipes bug off of his face, with his forearm. "And how do we know, you guys just aren't going to ambush us with even more of ya?"
He fumes further, "I got maggot things all over me, tryin to eat me, and it all reeks. This is a real stupid problem to have."
"You would not be eaten. You would be hosts to new Trignotarbs and perhaps evolve into hunters," explains the hunter earnestly.
"You would not be eaten. You would be hosts to new Trignotarbs and perhaps evolve into hunters," explains the hunter earnestly.
"We kind of prefer ourselves as we are. Thank you all the same. Now gather your young off my comrades if you want to end this fight with them alive. That is not an optional request. We kind of have things to do that require us as we are."
The hunters move slowly as though to prove their good intentions and carefully move the remaining larvae off the main pathway.
H1 seems to have appointed himself as spokesman and pauses as one of his bretheren asks something in his own language.
"Yes. He is right. You are already Hunters, but some of you are more than that. Some of you are Savants with the power to rend minds. How many have you consumed to gain this power?"
"Too many. I don't like to talk about it..."
He grins slyly, barely able to keep even a basic bluff.
"No. You are a Hunter. Perhaps when you pupate, you may devour your kin and mature into a Savant."
The Trignotarbs have not entirely let their guard down, but seem prepared to accept that the party will talk. For now at least.
Andaros dims the Dawnblade and returns his sword to it's sheath.
Sensing a potential sticking point in the conversation, Cronin thinks back. "Princess? What's the story there?"
Don calls out to the others behind him, "Can we get someone up here who can speak Nature?"
The trignotarb hunter settles on the slope above the party.
"Our princess is learned. She has consumed many, many kindred and has knowledge of this city before it fell. She yearns to rule, but the old queen is obstinate. The queen is failing. She lays few eggs. She does not add to the hive or our kind. Aid our princess to her rightful place and you will be rewarded."
"What type of aid does this princess require?" Nayce asks doubtfully.
Greeg listened to the quesions and conversations with interest, even as he cleaned his hammer of the ichor it had accumulated in the short fight.
"Afore we start getting specific about aiding this Princess, perhaps we should make sure that being rewarded doesn't mean getting et' and passing on our memories "for the benefit of the hive"
He spoke in a low voice, pitching it so Cronin could hear him and maybe one or two others standing near him. He didn't feel particularly generous with a bunch of large wasps that effectively used other sentient creatures as hosts for their young. He'd see what wasp young did to spiders and caterpillars. Not pretty.
"We will take you to the princess and she will decide if you can help her. If so, you will then remove the old queen."
A burst of conversation in Trignotarb follows and the hunter continues.
"We think it odd that you do not wish to be part of the greater good of the hive, but I understand that you will not want our greatest gift. This is because I will be a Savant when I pupate."
The hunter's mandibles twitch as he explains.
"We are very few in number. We wish only to survive. We will not offer you our mind, but we will offer you gold and knowledge."
Don elbows Nayce in the side, through gritted teeth he says, "Not our problem..."
"Well, perhaps not," Guldarin overhears Don, "But don't you think it would be something new and interesting? I've never helped a Princess overthrow a Queen before, and I'm sure there are all sorts of fun in doing so. Not to mention, helping a society to grow rather than stagnate. That's a suitable mission from Moradin, creating something again. I'm all for it."
"Who is Moradin? Is she your queen?"
"I'm inclined to take him up on his proposition. It may be profitable and we could stand to learn more about our environs in order to press on with our main quest." Andaros turns to the Hunter. "You should realise that your Queen may not be willing to take her removal on a philosophic basis and will probably express her opinion with all that she can bear. Which means that we will similarly have to be unrestrained in dealing with her objections. Any young she has in that area would be your responsibility to remove from collateral damage."
[ooc] In the mean time, Andaros uses prestidgitation to clean off the organic mess on himself and his comrades.
"Wait...if there's all these gardens here, then you must have a good water source, right? So maybe we can just do our thing without getting into bug politics and succession rights."