The question of whether or not seems to be answered as the globe of darkness returns, moving around the corner but stopping short, presumably, at the sight of Berta. Thulae screeches a warning, and Berta barely manages to duck a small crossbow bolt aimed at her chest.
ROUND 17
[color=green]
Andakos (9/23 hp, paralyzed 1 rounds, prone)
Caladaer (21/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, fatigued 7 rounds)
Golloriel (13/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Vreeg (?? dmg, flying, bleeding)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Golloriel thinks that crawling might be faster.
Caladaer pauses at the intersection and begins a lengthy incantation.
Thúlae returns to Caladaer's shoulder.
The globe of darkness appears around the corner, but no bolts of energy or undead monstrosities emerge from it--yet. Vreeg has stopped screaming, so presumably he found healing or at least stanched the bleeding.
From somewhere back toward the way Vreeg went, a faint buzzing noise can be heard, steadily approaching.
After several horrifying moments, Andakos finally manages to move his limbs once more.
ROUND 17
[color=green]
Andakos (9/23 hp, prone)
Caladaer (21/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, fatigued 6 rounds)
Golloriel (13/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Vreeg (?? dmg, flying, bleeding)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Andakos leaps to his feet and.... dismisses the dang enlarge spell because it would take forever to squeeze through all these corridors.
In Celestial, he says to Berta, "Something is coming. Be ready." He then touches her shoulder and casts protection from evil on her.
Golloriel finally sees her father as she rounds another corner. Her leg is screaming in pain at her, but she pushes on.
Francesca gets in the derro's face, smiting his evil ass.
Thoroughly unimpressed, the derro takes aim and fires his light repeater again .
A bolt flies out of the darkness and lodges into Cal's chest, between the collarbone and ribcage, barely missing his lung.
Sure enough, he starts to feel the effects of a new and exciting poison.
His muscles begin to seize up around the wound, but he quickly rips the bolt out with a cry of pain before any more poison can seep in. He thinks he's going to be alright--for now.
The buzzing gets louder as Francesca sees two tiny winged creatures fly in, their long proboscises twitching, their bellies slightly distended as they weave almost drunkenly through the air. The derro snarls and points at Berta, and the creatures begin flying toward her in the darkness.
Francesca can report none of this to the effectively blind people behind her because she is a beetle, and has no intelligence.
ROUND 18
[color=green]
Andakos (9/23 hp)
Caladaer (21/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Francesca (4/4 hp, 3 rounds remaining)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, fatigued 5 rounds)
Golloriel (13/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Derro (0 dmg)
Flyer 1 (0 dmg)
Flyer 2 (0 dmg)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Andakos can hear his allies and begins rushing toward the sound, taking note of the copious amounts of blood on the ground.
Francesca bites at the derro again.
Caladaer isn't sure what else he can do. He hopes Francesca can hold off the derro until Andakos arrives. He steps out of the line of fire, pulls out a potion, and drinks it.
Golloriel moves up to the edge of the darkness, then heals herself.
The derro curses as the fire beetle's mandibles rip into his leg. He steps back (bringing the darkness with him) to fire point-blank at Francesca. The bolt rips through Francesca's eye socket and pins her corpse to the stony floor before she begins slowly dissolving into gooey, clear ectoplasm.
Two tiny, red-skinned flying creatures come bursting out of the darkness to try and attach to Berta. One just misses, but the other successfully latches onto her neck.
These are stirges. They attach to prey and drain their blood . They're notoriously difficult to remove once attached, though they are relatively easy targets.
Stirges are also notorious for carrying a horrifying smorgasbord of possible diseases, including filth fever, blinding sickness, and several others.
ROUND 19
[color=green]
Andakos (9/23 hp)
Caladaer (23/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Francesca (-4/6 hp, splat)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, fatigued 4 rounds)
Golloriel (23/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Derro (8 dmg)
Flyer 1 (0 dmg)
Flyer 2 (0 dmg)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Andakos finally reaches his new friends, but only just.
Golloriel sees Andakos round the corner and breathes a sigh of relief. She does what she should have done long ago: links her life force with his.
Caladaer sees the bugs trying to latch onto Berta. "Stirges on Berta! Kill them quickly!" He repeats it in Celestial for Berta's benefit, then takes a step to the side and fires an acid dart at the stirge that is latched on.
He groans at the missed bolt of energy, then reluctantly instructs Thúlae to try to kill the thing.
Thúlae flies off of Cal's shoulder and tries to tear the latched on stirge off of Berta.
Thulae manages to rake the stirge on Berta, but it doesn't do much save shear off one of its six legs. Thulae does note that this particular stirge appears to have a very recent wound on it.
Nobody else manages to land a blow.
The first stirge successfully slips under the barbarian's defenses and attaches on the side of her neck, while the other one sucks greedily at her juggular.
Another bolt flies from the darkness and lodges into the rock inches from Cal's neck.
Golloriel feels some of her life force ebb from her body. Andakos feels an itching, tingling sensation over his face and chest as his wounds seal shut a little.
ROUND 20
[color=green]
Andakos (14/23 hp)
Caladaer (23/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, fatigued 3 rounds)
Golloriel (18/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Derro (8 dmg)
Stirge 1 (0 dmg)
Stirge 2 (?? dmg)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Cal flinches as the crossbow bolt barely misses him. He sees Andakos coming and fully intends to make room for the tiefling. But first, he hastily fires another acid dart at the stirge that Thúlae hit.
The exhaustion and thrill of battle must be weighing on Cal's mind. He funnels arcane energy into his fingertip to fire off at the stirge, but in his fatigue, his mind snags the wrong strands of aether and accidentally pulls his mage armor spell off himself and fires it at the stirge.
The creature seems utterly unaware it is now protected by an invisible barrier of force energy.
Andakos down his shield extract, then starts working his way through the narrow corridor toward the derro that none of his friends can see.
Thúlae hovers by Berta and swipes twice at the bug .
Golloriel moans as her essence is transferred to Andakos. She heals herself again.
Three things happen in rapid succession.
First, Thulae's claws tear at stirge #2, the first to attach. It weaves drunkenly back and forth attached to the dwarf's neck, but doesn't stop sucking greedily. It then detaches, sways once in the air from the size of its bloated thorax, then shudders violently and falls to the floor. Its velocity is enough to rupture open its thin, veiny fluid sac. The whole of the creature bursts like a water balloon, spraying blood on bird and Berta alike.
Then the second stirge seems to go into a sucking frenzy when covered with its friend's remains. She looks visibly paler now.
Finally, a bolt whistles out of the darkness at Caladaer. Because the remaining stirge now has his magical protections, the bolt easily pierces Cal's defenses and then his shoulder, burying deep in the muscle. Thankfully, this time he feels no poison try to seep into the wound.
Your GM is very tired. The bolt fires at Berta and misses.
ROUND 21
[color=green]
Andakos (14/23 hp)
Caladaer (23/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, 3 Con damage [28/36 hp], fatigued 3 rounds)
Golloriel (25/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Derro (8 dmg)
Stirge 1 (0 dmg)
Stirge 2 (?? Dmg, dead)
Vreeg (?? Dmg, gone)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Andakos revels in the life rushing back into his body. He rushes past Berta, looks curiously at the skewered fire beetle at his feet, and stabs at the derro with his spear.
Golloriel drops the link with Andakos , drops her spear, and moves next to Berta, drawing her mace on the way. She swats at the remaining bug.
Thúlae is the worst magical hawk ever. He stands up after hitting the ground hard.
Cal flicks his wrist, catches the mage armor wand, and taps himself with it, shaking his head. What the devil just happened? He shoves the wand in his belt, not having the time to properly secure it in the wrist sheathe.
Berta simply rests the hammer against the stirge and presses. Eventually it pops like an overripe tomato.
Andakos stabs the derro hard in the flank, drawing serious blood. It drops its crossbow and backpedals, drawing its aklys and throwing it at Andakos. The hook of the weapon actually manages to come within millimeters of his nose before finally being deflected by his defenses. The derro seems less than pleased.
ROUND 22
[color=green]
Andakos (19/23 hp)
Caladaer (23/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, 3 Con damage [28/36 hp], fatigued 2 rounds)
Golloriel (20/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Derro (14 dmg)
Stirge 1 (10 dmg, heckin dead)
Stirge 2 (?? Dmg, dead)
Vreeg (?? Dmg, gone)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Andakos follows the derro, sensing he has it on the defensive, then tries to put the tip of his spear into its throat.
Thúlae leaps from the ground and flies into the unarmed derro's face.
Cal flicks his wrist, catches the mage armor wand, and taps himself with it, shaking his head. What the devil just happened? He shoves the wand in his belt, not having the time to properly secure it in the wrist sheath.
Golloriel moves into the darkness, taking it slowly (which, to be fair, is the only way she can take it).
The derro, wavering on his feet, stumbles back and away from the investigator, easily ducking the clumsy stab from his longspear. He looks ready to fall.
ROUND 23
[color=green]
Andakos (19/23 hp)
Caladaer (23/23 hp, 1 Con damage)
Thul (8/11 hp)
Berta (31/39 hp, 3 Con damage [28/36 hp], fatigued 1 round)
Golloriel (20/33 hp, feelin real gross)
Derro (25 dmg, disabled)
Stirge 1 (10 dmg, heckin dead)
Stirge 2 (?? Dmg, dead)
Vreeg (?? Dmg, gone)
Skeletal Horse (13 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (33 dmg, dead)
Ogre Zombie (39 dmg, dead)
Zombie (15 dmg, dead)
[/color]
Andakos was unconscious during a large part of the fight with the wizard derro, but he deduced from the fact that there wasn't a body (and the trail of blood leading away from the room) that he had gotten away.
He isn't about to let the same thing happen twice. He chases after the derro, having no qualms about putting his spear into its back.
You put the spear through the back of the derro's head and out his eye socket. You don't think he's going to get up.
You slide the dead derro off your spear and hustle down the hall in chase, but you quickly find your quarry: he lies in the doorway at the south end of the necrophidius/acid trap hallway. Vreeg has two puncture wounds on the front of his neck, and lies in a surprisingly small pool of his own blood.
COMBAT OVER!
After a few minutes, the darkness spells fade away, and you can see the room where Vreeg finally fell.
From the looks of it, the stirges sensed Vreeg's blood loss and went into a frenzy, draining what would normally have been an ally. Derros aren't exactly known to be great team players, so this derro probably just left Vreeg to die to come take care of the intruders.
Andakos finds Vreeg and almost collapses to the ground in relief. He calls out to the others that the wizard is dead and they can take their time working their way through the darkness to him. When they arrive, they find him sitting on the ground next to the corpse. He points at the marks the stirges had left. "I don't know which one of you made him bleed like a stuck pig, but it sealed his fate. Well done, you two. I am sorry that I was not there to finish it with you." He uses his spear to push himself to his feet. "Now help me search the body and this room. Then we need to go back to where we found him and search that as well."
+1 traps
Caladaer is almost surprised to find himself pleased that the tiefl... Andakos... is okay. He isn't so proud that he can't admit that this fight would have been unwinnable without him. And he did nearly die; in fact, Cal isn't quite sure how he didn't.
Maybe the tie-- dammit! Andakos! It's not that hard, Cal! Maybe Andakos is worth spending some time around. He's definitely an insufferable know-it-all, but it might be ignorable. Or at least tolerable.
He helps Andakos take a look around, taking particular interest in any goodies the wizard had on him.
Golloriel is visibly relieved -- and sort of amazed -- that they all lived through this. She looks at the older men and is almost incredulous that they don't seem very fazed. They just fought a powerful, flying, darkness-emitting, zombie-conjuring necromancer all over this crypt, and won! Sure, Andakos was within a hair's breadth of his life, but he's back and he's standing. They are all standi...
Wait.
"Berta! BERTA!"
|
Berta waves feebly as she moves into the room with the others. "I am alive. It will take more than a couple bugs to kill me."
Despite her words, she looks pretty ragged; few actual wounds to speak of, but the blood drained from her has left her pale and drawn. Still, she hefts her massive adamantine earth-breaker on her shoulder without apparent effort, and she doesn't look quite so tired out as she did during the second half of that battle.