You guys see more crabs.
And then even more.
A LOT more.
Crabs bubble up from the ground. Crabs pour out of rocks. Crabs would probably be raining from the sky right now if they could figure out how to manage that.
In addition to the tiny ones, two crabs the size of elephants rumble up out of the sand, shaking off yet more tiny ones. They look hungry. Probably. Crustaceans aren't good at facial expressions.
Ixrul (27)
Gremory (27)
Krom (23)
Giant CRAF (22)
Ace (13)
Daliya (10)
Giant CRAF (8)
CRAF Swarm (4)
See?! See, this is exactly what I'm talking about.
If she wont be hit by a crab, Gremory lights Sweetness up with a white and red glow before attempting a full attack on the collosal crustacean thats up first.
A bright crimson flash of light accompanies the first round, erupting from the barrel.
Gremory is an expert marksman, and her gun cooperates for once. A single shot strikes the weak point of the first CRAF and it falls to the ground, succumbing to the massive damage dealt to it.
The two following shots nearly do the job on the second, but one shot glances off just too much, and it stays standing.
Krom watches with awe as Gremory blasts both crabs to kingdom come.
Wow..No wonder she wasn't all that impressed with me!
"Okay, you've clearly got this under control. We'll thin out the swarm!"
Krom casts Evolution Surge, and smoke begins billowing from Gurram's mouth.
Gurram lifts off, hovering 5 feet in the air, and tries to get into a position where she can blast the entire swarm, including the remaining big one, with a 30-foot cone of fire.
"Everyone, get out of the way! We're going to burn these f%&@ers!"
After getting into position, Gurram readies an action to unleash her fire.
Ixrul will let the others deal with the CRAFS.
"Whose afraid of a little heat?"
Ace, against common sense, does not move but lets loose a lightning bolt against the remaining giant crab.
The smell of roast CRAF fills the air as the big one, and a not insignificant portion of the little ones are fried by Ace's lightning.
Turning so she was aimed away from her allies, Daliya opened her mouth and a spoke a word of power.
The swarm thins some more!
But they still nibble at your feets. And everywhere else.
"Okay, Ace, you asked for it!"
Once everyone except Ace has wisely moved out of the way, Gurram torches the remaining crabs, and also Ace.
"Didn't hurt!" Ace muttered, slightly singed
So everybody is roasted by Gurram's fire. That won't make him any friends.
The swarm is dead, but instead of taking the swarm damage, you now have to try not to get burned.
"What, do you guys like having crabs crawling all over you? 'Cause it doesn't look very fun to me."
Gremorys first action next turn will be to move out of the way of billowy smoke fumes.
Only just able to ignore the pinching pincers in some very sensitive places, Daliya moved out of position to avoid being roasted. Although anything had to be better than crabs inside plate armour...
The crabs are dead.
"Well, hope more shows up when the pirate consul arrives, hope they like roast crab"
Gurram lands in a pile of charred crabs with a loud *crunch*.
"I think they'd be more impressed if we served them triceratops meat."
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This is a small oasis with abnormally large (70 feet tall!) palm trees.
Ixrul (30)
Ace (27)
Gremory (22)
Daliya (16)
Treant 2 (15)
Treant 1 (14)
Krom (5)
Gremory does her damndest to avoid erupting in uproarious laughter while she tries to figure out what these are.
Oh sweet lord in hell, I want one.
These are jungle treants. They are plant type creatures that are resistant to piercing and bludgeoning attacks, and are weak to fire.
They can animate trees to attack their enemies, speak to plants, and deal ludicrous amounts of damage to inanimate objects.
These variants in particular can whip their heads at high speed to fling their coconuts at people, inflicting grievous harm.
Gremory casts Divine Favor on herself, and positions just outside of melee reach of the treants.
Ace tries to align both of them an lights them up with lighting again.
"I wonder if they could be persuaded to guard this approach for us," Daliya, being a Druid and all, wondered out loud.
[dice=Knowledge (Nature)]1d20+10
"I wonder if they could be persuaded to guard this approach for us," Daliya, being a Druid and all, wondered out loud.
Treants are quite intelligent, and usually fairly peaceful, so they can be reasoned with. These ones seem to have a lingering grudge against people, however. Perhaps the Cyclopes harassed them>
Diplomacy is possible, though it would be an uphill battle.
Gremory raises her hands after her spell, now genuinely smiling that she realizes she could have one, with her hands away from her gun.
Now, now. We dont have any need for this to turn into a fight. Truely, you must be very protective of this island. My... friends and I have been trying to make a home of this place for weeks now. Parlay?
Ace, I swear I will kill your family if you ruin this for me.
Ace, who was about to make smoky the bear upset, stops what he is doing, turns to face gemory, and says in a dead serious tone.
"My family is already all dead"
The palm trees stop and cock their heads at the lack of hostility.
Eventually, one speaks.
"You're more polite than the large ones."
"The large ones, even with their abilities, lacked foresight," Daliya replied. "We intend to remain on this island for some time, and understand that means sustainability. An alliance between us would help with that goal."
Krom puts his lance away.
"Aye, we're willing to coexist with any sentient creatures."
Gurram, turn to your right a little. I don't think they'd like to see my peg leg.
Ace, being slightly worse with words, remains quiet and waves at them sheepishly.
Im glad we have an understanding. Gremory turns back to the treants.
You refer to the larger ones. Would those be the cyclopses? If so, we've had nasty experiences with them ourselves. You can consider them taken care of by this point. Yes, you must be the truest forms of Treant I've ever laid eyes on.
"They defiled our grove to build ships." one says.
"They killed our brothers!" chimes the other.
"We are not a warlike people. Peace is best."
Krom turns to his friends and casts Message.
"So, do we want to try and convince them to fight for us? Personally, I think we'd have better chances with a 'live and let live' agreement. We leave them alone, they leave us alone. What do you lot think?"
"We can approach them later about that, once we've shown we're them we're not going to deforest the island."
"What say you, Captain?"
Ixrul thinks for a moment.
"I see no reason why we could not get along. We have no need nor desire to deforest the area - I am more than capable to magically quarrying, creating, or transporting building materials as necessary. We need relative little to repair the fortresses."
"Is there some form of collateral you would require, or can we agree to take each other at our respective words?"
"In return for peace, we would request nothing from you other than you assist in the defense of the island if we are attacked."
The treants stare blankly for a few minutes. You get the sense that they are thinking.
"Agreed. On one condition. As a show of good faith, replant the trees that were cut down by the large ones. We will nurture them."
"Agreeable. We shall do so once we have secured the island."
Daliya nodded. They'd need to source wood elsewhere, but overall the wood on the island didn't look especially great for ship hulls anyway.