"Just aim between the ears," she cautions.
AoO from Ben if needed...
Readied attack from Ben if needed...
Readied attack from Little Buddy if needed...
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Lidia fires two arrows at the strange creatures, the first one misses, but the second draws blood.
Ulretha fires another accurate arrows as well, making these creatures look more and more like porcupines.
The red creature flies towards Little Buddy, but Little Ben quickly ends the charge with a swing of his greataxe.
The orange creature flies at Thyste and claws at her.
It misses, and then gets swarmed by all of you and dies as well.
Combat Over!
Once per day, a gryph can implant eggs into a helpless target or a target it is grappling. As a full-round action, the gryph extends an ovipositor from its abdomen and penetrates the victim’s flesh by making a successful sting attack (+5 melee). On a hit, the ovipositor deals 1 point of damage and implants 1d4 eggs in the victim. The eggs draw nutrients from the target’s flesh, and give the target the sickened condition. The eggs grow swiftly, hatching in a mere 1d4 minutes into ravenous gryph chicks that immediately burrow out of the victim’s body. This deals 2 points of Constitution damage per gryph chick, after which the hatchlings immediately take wing and fly away (if needed, use game statistics for a bat familiar to represent a hatchling). Removing implanted eggs requires a DC 20 Heal check (a full-round action); each attempt deals 1 hit point of damage. Although immunity to disease offers no special protection against gryph egg implantation, remove disease, heal, or similar effects automatically destroy any implanted gryph eggs.
Please roll two perception checks each as you move through this area!
Little Ben
Little Buddy
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Lidia begins moving into the web-filled cavern. At first she seems distracted by the small motionless animal she carries in her makeshift pouch, but then she gets her mind back on business, scanning about the ceiling and walls, bow still at the ready.
"This is a lot of cobwebs for a cave." she mutters to herself.
"Yea, and not so old webs either. And lots and lots of spiders. I have a bad feeling about this. Could we burn them out first?"
"How is this guy getting past all these things, anyway?" asks Thyste.
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"Thyste, I was wondering the same thing. And I don't think it's because he's been in here before-- it seems to me they just now opened this place up for the first time. I think finding this was the 'project' they were working on. We know he's using a magical tattoo, so he might know some spells. He might be invisible or something. Or he's using the wolves to keep the critters away."
"Whatever the reason, he's leaving tracks and we aren't too far behind him. We'll find him."
"Or maybe he's just moving faster than us," she posits.
"Well, I've decided I'd rather face this guy ready than wade through a swarm of spiders. One swarm a day is enough."
With that Ben lobs an alchemists fire into the webbing where he sees the most spiders.
, minus lots of range increments.
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"How is this guy getting past all these things, anyway?" asks Thyste.
Little Ben clears the way for himself and little buddy using alchemists fire.
Thyste avoids walking into a web, but doesn't avoid a young giant spider falling onto her head.
fort save vs poison
Ulretha also avoids getting stuck in the webs, but has a spider fall on his head
The heynas avoid all of this entirely, likely using their keen sense of smell to notice the potential danger.
Lidia gets stuck in the spider webs that she failed to see. With their prey trapped, spiders begin swarming on the web towards her.
DC 16 escape artist or strength check to escape.
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Ulretha's able to brush the overly large spider off his head before it can get a grip and do any damage. He then stomps it before it can scamper off, pleased by the satisfying crunch it makes.
He draws his sword taking aim at the one atop Thyste's head, even pulling the weapon back for the blow...
But then thinks better of it. Besides Lidia seems in much more trouble so he hurries to help her, pulling alternately at her and the webs to get her free.
Thyste yips as the spider bites her, and she shakes the spider out of her hair, rubbing where it got her.
Taking stock of the situation, she raises an eyebrow. "Now isn't the time to get all wound up, Lids," she quips.
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"Ohhhw!" laments Lidia in sheer annoyance as she manages to walk herself face-first into what should have been a pretty obvious sheet of webbing. "Idiot!" she barks at herself, then tries twist away and bat the the webbing with one hand while keeping the other hand protectively over the immobile animal in her bundle. Her hair is caught fast as well, a veritable Gordian knot of hundreds of hair strands and silk strands all tangled together. Though her vision is compromised by web and hair and dark, she can feel the tiny skittering brushes of spiders running along her face and arms. She shakes her head violently trying to keep the little villains from her mouth, nose and eyes...
Ben also hurries to her aid and starts ripping at the webs.
He makes great progress at first, but soon his hands look like balls of webbing and he has to take a break and work his hands free.
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Lidia spends a good full minute slapping at herself to be rid of any lingering real or imagined spiders still skittering about her flesh.
"Ugh. Thanks for the help. I don't mind spiders usually-- when they aren't crawling on me hundreds at a time." She pulls a hank of hair out away from her head so that she can see just how interwoven with filthy sticky webbing it is, and just sighs in exasperation when she sees the results. For some small token of revenge, she stamps her boot into the floor a few times, smashing whatever spiders were hapless enough to still be roaming about nearby.
Only then does she notice the fresh bite on Thyste. "Are you ok?" she asks, more quietly.
”Mostly!” says Thyste. ”More psychological damage than actual bleeding lately.”
She touches the spot and comes back with a little blood.
”A little of both, I suppose. Hopefully we can finish up quickly... and someone can draw me a bath.”
Ben has sympathy stings and rubs himself in odd places.
"If we survive all this I'll draw it myself."
Thyste stares at Lydia. Her mouth makes strange movements for a few seconds, and she’s eventually sighs.
”I’ll tell Ulretha later,” she decides. ”It’s not appropriate for your gentle ears.”
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"I would have carried you if it knocked you out," Ulretha says, demonstrating the height of gnoll medicine.
His mouth hangs open in expectant amusement as Thyste struggles to avoid shattering Lidia's naivete.
It tightens and grows grim after a moment. "Hey! Don't eat that!" he shouts to Crezobill who is sniffing around one of the multi legged bird corpses.
"I said get away!" he snaps, louder as the hyena pauses for a moment then keeps watching him as he slooowly lowers his muzzle toward the creature.
Ulretha starts speaking in gnoll. It's kind of hard to tell given the nature of the language, but you're pretty sure he's cursing the disobedient beast roundly.
It isn't until he makes a rush at it that it gives up it's culinary and trots away with head and tail down.
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Ledges and stairs are carved into the stone walls of this wide-open, high-ceilinged natural cavern. Embedded in a fifteen-foot-tall spire of centuries-old bones stands the skeleton of a massive armored warrior. Though its flesh has long since rotted off its frame, the skeleton still stands proud and regal amid the trappings of battle and mounds of gleaming treasure. The skeleton’s battered halfplate and scarred helmet hint at its many battles, and the warlord’s hands are clenched around a massive stone hammer. Beneath the helmet, a thick, round rock has been embedded in one of the skeleton’s otherwise empty eye sockets.
When you arrive in this area, you finally encounter the villain responsible for murdering Rodrik Grath and orchestrating the orc attack on Trunau—the half-orc alchemist Skreed Gorewillow, who is accompanied by two dire wolf companions.
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Skreed charges Little Ben, swinging Agrimmosh hard!
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Skreed
Lidia
Little Ben, -13hp
Thyste
Skreed
Wolves
Ulretha
Ben takes the blow with a loud *oof*, though it doesn't seem like he takes the full brunt of the blow .
"I'm not so sure. I think it would have been far better had he surrendered."
As a free action, before everyone can dart off in different directions, Ben activates the scales to do a communal protection from evil, granting protection to Ulretha, Ben, and Little Buddy .
Little Ben and Little Buddy step up to take a shot on the giantish orc.
Ben
Buddy
Thyste chuckles; "The bigger they are, the harder they go down," she quips, taking a running start--
--and slipping underneath the now-giant guy with the hard-to-pronounce name.
"You need to wipe better!" she calls, twirling her doru before sticking it--
--near his ankles.
Thyste sees that Skreed's about to fall right on the point of her doru and grins.
Until her eyes widen with recognition that she's under Skreed's falling body, as well, and quickly scrambles out of the way, abandoning her skewering of the big fella.
She's very glad that the big wolves have decided not to attack her, alone as she is on the other end of Skreed's body.
"Well swung, Ben!" chuckles the foxling, looking over his work. "So, this guy was behind it, then? If so, I think basic justice says he's responsible for a lot of deaths on both sides, so an execution would be justified."
"Y'know, in case we have anybody big enough to swing a headsman's axe."
"Though I suppose we could tie him up and question him..."
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Ulretha was planning on teaming with the Pack to take care of the wolves. That plan doesn't change now that their master has been vanquished.
He sets Onnikka and company to keep them cowed, the much smaller hyena's pouncing on any sign of defiance and depending on their numbers and psychological advantage.
Meanwhile, he gets his rope ready, cutting it in 3rds and tying lasso knots in one end of two of the lengths and a big knot in the other end before stowing the last.
Carefully, but confidently and with shows of dominance and cuffing, if necessary, he slips the loops over their heads, taking great care around their ears.
He keeps one rope for himself and hands Ben the other, careful not to loop it around his hand. The last thing he wants is for the powerful wolf to go rampaging around and the rope to crush his bones and burn his skin.
...or he gets bitten...
"How much do you think we can get for these things?" he asks, assuming he's not bleeding.
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As Skreed falls with a crash, Lidia lowers her bow and shakes her head.
"Idiot." she growls at his corpse. Only then does she take a moment to look around the strange cavern.
"So... what is this place? A tomb for a giant? And what's so special about that hammer? Just that it makes you big? Ben's been doing that all day. Seems like an alchemist could have managed that easily enough on his own."
"We should take it with us, I guess. And we should drag him out of here too. Kurst will want to see a body."
@Ulretha
"You plan on selling the wolves?"
Ben is not so sure he likes the idea of animal slavery any more than human slavery. And yet there are many instances of domestic husbandry that work symbiotically. Ben considers having a conversation with the wolves before he allows this to occur once he can replenish his spells.
@Lidia
"Oh that? I was trained under a druidic mentor that, like me, has a little giant's blood in him. By sacrificing a certain degree of connection with nature, we bond with, well, megaflora and dinosaurs and gain certain abilities such as this sort of transformation. One I progress to a certain point, I should be able to take on the form of troll or giant. I do hope it ends up being worth it, not that I had any choice in the matter. It's not like folks were lining up to apprentice me."
”Assuming Kurst himself isn’t a body, he may or may not be interested in seeing one more,” she sighs. ”If we’re killing him, let’s finish him off and cram his head in a sack.”
”Just keep that hammer away from me and I’m good with whatever, though.”
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"Oh that? I was trained under a druidic mentor that, like me, has a little giant's blood in him. By sacrificing a certain degree of connection with nature, we bond with, well, megaflora and dinosaurs and gain certain abilities such as this sort of transformation. One I progress to a certain point, I should be able to take on the form of troll or giant. I do hope it ends up being worth it, not that I had any choice in the matter. It's not like folks were lining up to apprentice me."
Lidia listens with obvious interest, especially once Ben mentions that he has giant blood in him. She cocks her head and knits her brow curiously and for a moment looks off into space imagining something. Her gaze snaps back when he talks of bonding with dinosaurs, and by the time he is talking about being able to actually become a troll or a giant, her mouth is hanging open a little bit. At the end she just nods, but her look suggests that there's a lot about this she doesn't really understand.
"It sounds useful to me." she says.
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You find a potion of cure moderate wounds, acid (2), alchemist’s fire (2), black adder venom (2 doses), bloodroot (2 doses), blue whinnis, liquid ice (2), oil of taggit, tanglefoot bag, thunderstones (2), mwk studded leather, mwk cold iron falchion, dagger, light crossbow with 10 bolts, formula alembic, a locket containing a lock of hair, alchemy crafting kit, antitoxin (2), formula book (contains all prepared extracts plus enlarge person, invisibility, shield, and stone fist), mwk thieves’ tools, portable alchemist’s lab, letter from Grenseldek, 37 gp. In addition, Skreed is currently holding a hammer that he claimed is called Agrimmosh.
The skeleton of the Hero Chieftain is still clad in magic armor. In addition, Uskroth was entombed with much of his treasure. The chests, vases, and other containers piled around Uskroth’s funerary spire are overflowing with coins, gemstones, jewelry, and other fineries worth a
total of 1,300 gp. Scattered among the treasure are several items valuable in their own right, including a masterwork breastplate, a suit of masterwork splint mail, four +1 human-bane arrows, 13 adamantine crossbow bolts, a masterwork orc double axe, a belt, a scroll, a scroll, and a wand.
The rock lodged in Uskroth’s eye socket is no simple stone. Removing the fist-sized hunk of dark, igneous rock and examining its other side reveals it to be a magnificent geode whose rich violet and verdant emerald crystals form glittering crystalline patterns.
reveals the geode to be a spectacular pleochroic variety of tourmaline, the nearest known deposits of which lie in the Mindspin Mountains to the south and west.
reveals that the geode’s structure is no fluke of nature; the geode’s crystalline valleys and mounds reflect the exact topography of the Mindspin Mountains, and a carved groove along the mountains seems to indicate a trail through the mountain range. The “map” leads to the tomb of the fabled giantslayer Nargrym Steelhand, but unfortunately, it is incomplete. In order to fully use the map, you must find the second half of the geode. The only clue to the second half of the map lies in a letter (written in Giant) from Grenseldek to Skreed, which can be found on Skreed’s body.
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Lidia picks up the strange eye-rock and runs her fingers over its edges curiously. "There's something about this..." she mutters to herself. Her head turns this way and that, then she holds it up even with her eyes and looks at it end-on for a long time, then closes her eyes like she's remembering something.
After a long time like this, her eyes snap open. "I don't know if... I mean... I think this is a map... sorta." she says excitedly. "This geode... the crystals are carved to look like the Mindspin mountains. I recognize this pattern of hills. And look here, there's a path marked through them. But I think there was a second stone, probably originally in the other eye hole of the skeleton. So the map isn't complete... wherever it was going."
Thyste pokes through the various treasures with the not-quite-as-sharp butt of her doru.
She seems wholly uninterested in the man's corpse-- after all, he's not a dead Halfling, so it's very unlikely that the armor fits her-- but curiously pulls a letter from Skreed's pocket after rifling through a few of them.
"What's this, now?" she mumbles, unfurling it.
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Ulretha slavers over the piles of valuables, literally. Some drool actually drops from his jaws to spatter on the stone floor.
Unlike when the group first met, he doesn't eye the rest of them jealously and with a clear intent on tricking or bullying them out of an even share.
"What are we going to tell them about this place? How can we hide all this? We don't want the others robbing us," he says.
Some things change...but only a little.
"I mean, it's really unfortunate that the orcs got here first and looted all the valuables," she says quickly.
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Lidia looks up from her strange stone map and looks around at the others as if it had never occurred to her that they would keep all this treasure for themselves. She looks around at it, thinks a moment, then seems to come to a decision.
"Yeah. Shame about that." she says with a nod to Thyste and Ulretha.
Then she looks at Little Ben.