Grum's blade is savage, sending a spray of ichor across the swamp as the spider-like being reels. It attempts to regroup, hoping another venomous bite might slow down the mighty warrior; when that fails to land, it slashes at him with razor-sharp claws, managing to cut him twice and leaving the half-orc reeling.
, ; ,
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Benedict slices at the creature. It is a well-placed strike, but doesn't sink as deeply as he hoped.
Jie steps around the spider so it will have to divide its attention between Amkarang and herself. As she steps she drops the crossbow and draws her sword, swinging at the large pest.
The spiderlike being wavers under Benedict's strike, but resolutely stays upright. Jie's sword is more than enough to finish off one of the spiders, however, and Lissa moves back to the north to strike at the other, cutting it down as well.
,
Amkarang lashes at the ettercap with his meteor hammer, missing entirely.
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While the half-orc had the fortitude to easily shake off whatever poison was in the creature's fangs, he was less able to ignore the damage caused to him. Already slashed, mauled, and bitten, he felt his vision began to dim. Barring his teeth he tried to make a battle cry at his foe, but nothing came out. With a force of will he tried to lift his blade to attack. He managed to take a step forward, but it was too heavy. He fell face first into the ground, a pool of blood steadily forming around him.
Benedict slashes at the monster, to no avail.
He takes a 5' step, guarding his fallen ally.
Jie yells out "Grum!" as the half orc falls to the ground. Wrenching her sword out of the spider she runs to the gap between Benedict and Amkarang and slashes at the monstrosity.
Her sword blow goes wide.
Amkarang lashes at the spider with his meteor hammer, striking especially furiously due to his comrade's fall.
"Lissa, can you heal Grum?"
While she is thinking about that, Benedict takes out his potion of Cure Light Wounds and administers it to Grum.
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The darkness that clouded his vision recedes as the potion is poured down his throat. Grum's eyes snap open and he sits up, coughing and sputtering. Looking around wildly, he sees the body, and his comrades around him.
"Thank you!" As usual, he spoke louder than was strictly necessary. "That thing would have eaten me. Glad to have you all at my back." With that he planted his sword in the ground and used it as support to pull himself to his feet.
Jie sheathes her sword and then walks over to her bow and picks it up. Happy to see that Grum is back among the living she asks. "What was that thing? Do you think there might be more spiders out there?" She peers into the trees looking for more of the giant spiders.
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"Probably." Grum looked ahead at the Redoubt. It was what they had come to find. Though no larger than a typical forester's cabin, he hoped that it would still have something of use inside of it.
"We came to find that. And I've been clawed and bitten near to death today finding it. Let's go inside. If there are any more spiders, we kill them like we did these ones. I doubt that they've looted the place, they're not smart enough."
Doing a quick reconnoiter of the bodies Jie moves across the bridge, covering the shack with her bow. 'There is no way I'm bringing Feng over here' she thinks wistfully.
"I'll cover the shack." she informs the group.
Benedict, at full health and with good armor, will investigate the shelter.
He opens the door and looks around.
"The rangers were called away to Fort Trevalay. Possibly more Ironfang raids there to draw them off? We should let Aubrin know."
He helps gather up the items.
"If we squeezed, we could have maybe five or six sleep in here at a time. It's a start, but I think we need to find a bigger shelter. Like those caves."
Any food supplies left around here? I would think not, but maybe.
Jie starts poking around the webs, looking for eggs. "This place is a trap. Maybe if it dried out some, but as wet as it is, if the hobgoblins found our camp and attacked in force we would have no way to retreat. Also we would have to find some way of keeping the livestock out of the quicksand."
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"Plus the spiders. Only a few here, but there might be more around. I wouldn't feel safe sleeping so close to them." Looking at the corpses, he continued "Think the spiders got these ones? Nice cloak on this one. Looks like it'd keep one warm at night. And that mail is still shiny. Let's loot the place and get going."
Jie looks over the redoubt as she helps loot the place. She doesn't let Feng get near, afraid he'll get mired in the mud. "I had such hopes for this place. Well, I guess we should hurry back to our camp and try to build as many shelters as possible. The weather should be nice this afternoon, but the refugees need some shelter tonight when it gets cold. We can try to find these caves tomorrow." Jie loads up Feng and mounts, ready to go.
"Yes, let's be on our way. We might need to spend tomorrow gathering food; we'll see how well our group has done today."
Jie rides back with the others into camp, alert for danger, but disappointed that they do not bear better news. She helps build shelters for the rest of the day, but her disappointment shows and she doesn't make much progress. She does set the tent back up and volunteers to sleep with Feng outside, insisting that her time as a postal rider have inured her to the cold.
The redoubt wasn't that far (2 miles), and we didn't have any long delays, so we should have time to make multiple attempts for temporary shelters. What time is it now?
Benedict begins making shelters.
He reports back to Aubrin the Green.
"The rangers were called away to Fort Trevalay. Do you know where that is? I know we need to focus on keeping this group fed and safe, but perhaps Jie can find way to send word to the Fort.
Also, Grum is injured. Can you call upon your healing magic?"
"Raiding a supply train would help us and hurt them. I'm up for it. We don't know where they are coming from, but we can at least go scout out the roads and paths."
Frustrated with her makeshift attempt for a shelter, Jie joins in the discussion that Benedict is having with Aubrin. "I'm up for raiding a supply train." She points out something she got a good look at in town. "When I was collecting Feng from the front of the Inn there was some sort of black tower that the hobgoblins were pouring out of in Phaendar. So I think that Phaendar will probably be supplied through that. But any forces that the hobgoblins have out in the field will probably be supplied out of Phaendar. We destroyed the bridge but I was never a member of the military. I'm not sure how a military supply structure would be set up. I do know the territory, however." With that Jie picks up a stick and starts to draw all the landmarks she knows, particularly trails that wagons would have to travel on, assuming that is how they transport the goods.
"Good idea, Jie."
Benedict tries to recall landmarks and add to the map.
He can only recall the basics of the Fangwood, and will have to rely on Aubrin for more detailed information.
"I think we can make another assumption. They would have left the Phaendar area around morning. Since we are a days travel away, if they have chosen to use a path that comes near, they should be arriving in our vicinity later this afternoon. So we might check the nearest such path and see if we can catch something."
"Depending on the size of their escort, we may want to split their forces. I can try my little magic trick again - take the form of a hobgoblin, tell them I am pursuing the rebels who destroyed the bridge, and ask for a detachment to come with me. Unless any of you have a better story.
I don't know what we can set up for a trap but we can at least split their forces. I should probably make sure my armor and weapons match the standard gear for one of their ranks."
Meanwhile, he will ask the NPC adepts to look at the items from the redoubt; the cloak, chain shirt, bow, arrows, mace, and scroll.
"At the very least, you can find out what their disposition is." Jie seems willing to let Benedict try his legerdemain.
He has no idea and trusts Aubrin.
"That's good advice. We can plan on late afternoon or evening. But, they can see in the dark so fighting them later at night puts Jie and Amkarang at a disadvantage. We do have some sunrods, I think. Even a Light spell on a rock, kept in a pocket until needed, would work."
"I can use my disguise, step out, and alter the plan based on what I see. If they seem too few to divide, I can shout "Rebels nearby! They've heard you! Form up!" - the signal for the rest to break cover and advance - and I'll pretend to join the lines until the rest arrive. Then I'll take a quick step and stab them in the back.
Grum, in this magic chain shirt you can move faster; might be worth it for this mission."
Jie chimes in. "That sounds like a good idea. I'm up for it. One thing, however. My mother is a fey sorceress and some would say she has more then a little fey blood in her. That's why I can speak to birds and can see at night if there is even the slightest starlight." She seems pretty happy at finally being proactive against the hobgoblins.
Benedict looks for a good ambush point.
A hiding spot about 80' from the road where Grum and Amkarang can crouch hidden (not lying prone - they may need to move quickly). And some outcrop or bush that Jie and Feng can hide behind.
He'll work to camouflage the rest of the party. Taking 20 on Stealth as we work over and over at getting the foliage right.
If Grum will take the +1 chain shirt, then Benedict will wear the breastplate, buckler, crossbow, and scimitar combo of the tough fighter that guarded the bridge. That might have been a sergeant or something.
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Grum follows Benedict's plan. The man was turning out to be a good leader, a role which the half-orc was happy to have someone else fill. The chain shirt felt nice. After so long wearing his heavy scale mail, it felt like nothing. While he doubted that it could take a hit like his old loadout, there was something to say for increased mobility.
With his blade at the ready, Grum waited.
Benedict uses Alter Self to take the form of a hobgoblin and steps out to the road.
What does he see?
The sound suddenly ceasing implies they have stopped, maybe to camp, rather than fading off in the distance.
If in fact the sound was gradually fading, like they are moving away from us, we'd have to change the plan and pursue before they get away.