Rova hits Yellow once, while Thkrull stomps on the dinosaur, taking it down!
Initiative!
Prism, -15 hp
Mukluk, -27 hp
Niksi
Lakkai (Yellow), -23 hp
Green Xulgath, -17 hp
Rova, -3 hp (Thkrull -19 hp)
Mukluk eyes his next targets, planning and plotting where to pick and keeping an eye on Prism’s movements.
Niksi takes a step back and away from the xulgath, then begins calling upon her old buddy one last time for the day. A smaller one, this time. The Brother appears right in the spot Niksi once stood in, buying some time for her to avoid the xulgath a little longer.
Prism swings back around the curtain to help Mukluk. "This one!" She calls out the yellow Xulgath.
HP 29/48
AC 21 (AC 23 w/ Shield and Inspire Defense)
Spells: 1st 0/1
Hero Points 1/3
Vibrant Display 1/10 minutes
Round 7
Action 1: Strike.
Action 2: Strike.
Action 3: Parry.
Mukluk carefully step and strikes at yellow with flank, then purple before crossing his picks defensively.
to hit;
cold iron damage
to hit;
damage
[ dice=ColdyVonPierceFace]1d20+13[/dice] to hit;
[ dice=P]1d6+4[/dice] cold iron damage
[ dice=Poker]1d20+12-4[/dice] to hit;
[ dice=P]1d4+4[/dice] damage
[ dice=Poker]1d20+12-8[/dice] to hit;
[ dice=P]1d4+4[/dice] damage
ColdyVonPierceFace
AC: 21 +1 with parry action.
Fort/Ref/Will: 10/10/10
HP: 58/58 -15
Focus: 1/3
Hero Points: 3
Speed: 20'
Luck? 0/1 used
Prism stabs the yellow xulgath once. Mukluk then finishes off the xulgath with a powerful blow.
The last xulgath standing, seeing all of their allies down, takes two careful steps, and then starts running for the door.
Initiative!
Prism, -15 hp
Mukluk, -27 hp
Niksi
Green Xulgath, -17 hp
Rova, -3 hp (Thkrull -19 hp)
Mukluk does not choose to chase.
”No need for more fightin’.”
Prism also doesn't chase the Xulgath and is unable to throw her flames as she has difficulty seeing completely through them. "Bah, lethim..go."
Niksi opens the curtain to assess what she has missed. "Fine with me." She lets the curtain close again.
"No, if you let them get away, they just bring more people to drive you out of your hideout!" Rova cries, taking off in chase.
HP 51/54
AC 21 (22, plus physical resistance 2, when inspired)
Fort +10, Ref +12, Will +9 (+1 to all with inspire defense)
Hero points: 2
Battle Medicine: Rova [], Thkrull [], Mukluk [], Prism [], Niksi []
Arrows used: 0/23; Stones used 7/14
Effects: Hunted prey (xxx)
Rova chases after the xulgath and tosses her fork!
The xulgath falls to the ground.
The two tougher xulgaths each had breastplate, a greataxe, and 4 javelins. One has a battered leather pouch containing four tiny emeralds worth 15 gp each and a dose of cytillesh oil. The other four each have 4 daggers.
Rova returns, carrying the xulgath.
"You can't just let them escape once you start fighting," she scolds the others. "They always bring more people back and make you leave your home and find somewhere else to live. But first you have to run away and hide!"
She shakes her head.
"I know it seems heartless, but they don't treat us any better ..."
Mukluk shrugs as Rova comes back. He's in no position to judge, he might have done the same when he was younger & sillier.
"Ah right. Ah right. Let's see about my wounds, then your wounds and your wounds and your wounds," Mukluk looks around at the bloodied party.
Prism, -15 hp
Mukluk, -27 hp
Rova, -3 hp
Thkrull -19 hp
Rova heals Thkrull for
Mukluk heals Mukluk for
Prism, -15 hp
Mukluk, -5 hp
Rova, -3 hp
Rova heals Prism for
Prism, -1 hp
Mukluk, -5 hp
Rova, -3 hp
Rova heals Prism for
Mukluk, -5 hp
Rova, -3 hp
Rova heals Rova for
Mukluk, -5 hp
Rova heals Mukluk for
Mukluk, -1 hp
Rova heals Mukluk for
The walls, ceiling, and floor are suddenly overgrown with moss that lasts for 10 minutes before dissolving; the moss has a very pleasant aroma.
Prism shrugs as the Xulgath falls. She hadn't the energy to chase it down and waits as several more bloodied bandages are added to her body. Once healed she takes a look around both rooms as loose hay now litters the floor from her diving in and out of it.
"Thatsmells.good!" Prism smells the air
The room where the additional xulgaths came does smell nice, strewn with grasses and several aromatic pine boughs. A wide variety of leather straps, sharpened bits of obsidian, and woven vines are piled in the southwest corner.
Prism notices that the piles are trapped with a scent marker snare, which would make you very easy to track if so marked.
"That's strange that it smells nice, right? Unless maybe they know they don't smell good and are trying to cover it up?" Rova muses.
"I guess we should make sure everything else down here is OK, and then go up?" she asks the others, reloading her slingstaff and making sure her weapons are settled again. Clearly she's going to need them.
"Catsmellsgood!"
"What cat? What food? Gimme!" Mukluk moves over to Prism to see what food was found. He waits for the trap to be disarmed so he can get at the food.
"Theseare..scentmarkers..usedfor..tracking" Prism tries to diable what she can so noone gets marked.
"Scent markers? Intriguing." Niksi continues going through all the various xulgaths, looking for anything of note.
Prism easily disable the scent markers. There's nothing of great value there, but there are a lot of components for making snares.
Mukluk will take one of the scent markers and rub it into his armpits, trying to freshen the area up in lieu of an available bath or water based trap to wash himself. It will help some.
”You guys want to rest for the night or move up the stairs?” Mukluk asks those with magics to renew. He’s able to fight all day and most of the night if neede/
"Weshould..probablyfinish..checkingout..this floor." Prism points down the corridor with her sickle.
Rova nods, agreeing with Prism that they should finish at least this floor.
Mukluk follows along with the disagreeable shortlings, taking the lead as they move to finish this floor before moving to the hoity-toyty second floor.
Niksi pets The Brother’s arm. ”I am fine with continuing. How about you, Brother?” She extravagantly cranes her ear towards him.
Niksi throws a hand up to her mouth with a gasp. ”My goodness! You are right. I am dreadfully drained of magical energies. How did you know?”
”Am I now? Well isn’t that a twist! I never would have guessed.”
”If you are me, then you calling me a liar would be like me calling myself a liar. That ends up a rather odd paradox, don’t you think?”
”Ah! But of course. Point taken. You really must be me, then.”
Rova giggles slightly at Niksi's performance, reminded of why she wanted to experience more things before The End. Clearly there's not much time left, in fact, before Great Groetus arrives, so she'll take what she can get.
You make your way to the final corner of the first floor. This odd-shaped room is divided by several piles of stacked stones, each stack about four feet tall. Large nests made of sticks and mud are spread around the room on both sides of the stone stacks. The northwestern corner of the room contains a large hut made of poorly tanned hides and topped with the skull of some enormous fanged beast. The eye-watering smell of xulgaths, animal dung, and unwashed reptiles fills this room.
Two large dinosaurs lumber to their feet as you enter. They huff angrily at your entrance, but do not immediately charge the stacked stones separating them from you.
Niksi thinks back to the animal-handling tricks she picked up from Danica back when they were an item. She makes herself small by kneeling down and staying perfectly calm.
Mukluk focuses on remaining calm as well, barely noting the scents in the air other than his fresh smelling armpits.
”You got this,” he utters and keeps quiet and let’s the animal people handle the animals.
Rova does her best to help Niksi, also trying to calm the dinosaurs. "It's OK. Go back to rest!" she whispers soothingly.
They seem to be somewhat calmed down by the efforts of Niksi and Rova. They return to their nests, but keep wary eyes on you.
Mukluk moves back, staying out of the way.
”I’ll be back here if you need me.”
"No need to bother them, I don't think," Rova agrees, though she's willing to sneak in too, if Prism wants to.
Niksi stretches to make sure she is limber enough to control her movements with precision. "Oh, I won't bother them at all. It'll be like I'm not even there."
Her training as a dancer makes it easy for her to move into the room quietly and (hopefully) without disturbing the animals.
"Yup, leave..thembe. We..canfree..themafter." Prism beams a smile as she skips back to rest before heading up another floor.
Niksi carefully walks into the hut, which is currently unoccupied.
The tent contains a few trophies, including an urn with nearly a hundred dinosaur teeth. Among these teeth is a shark tooth charm.
Rova exhales a sigh as Niksi makes it back safely.
"That was dangerous," she whispers. "We used to do creepy-crawling growing up, but you should never go alone, just in case!"
Still, she's glad her friend is safe, and is happy to return to the secret room and lock themselves in for the night.
Mukluk lets out a breath when Niksi returns. He's quite happy to have avoided a fight, it just wasn't what he wanted.
"Yeah. That was dangerous. I remember fighting things like that down in the pits. Tougher hurting critters like that than men-things. Men-things are there for a reason and understand what's going on. Some things they made you fight didn't know nothing. That was never good," he says as he turns and moves away towards the rest-room.
Mukluk, when its not his turn at watch, will sleep soundly and missing his fren Moose, the mule.
Niksi tosses the charm in the air, catching it with her wood-covered hand. She also took as many of the other teeth as she could grab. Certainly, she can find a use for them, at some point.
”That was very dangerous, indeed. My apologies for worrying you any, dears. I just could not resist checking. Magic item and some lovely teeth is not a bad haul, though, eh?”
You rest in the secret vault. In the middle of the night, a peal of thunder echoes within the tower, but everyone soon goes back to sleep. In the morning, the temperature suddenly drops severely.
If you don't have cold weather clothing or another way to deal with the cold, you take 1 cold damage after an hour. The temperature then goes back to normal.
Mukluk shivers against the cold and his inability to make a fire inside an enclosed and not-ventilated room.
"Ah, dammit! I wish I had Moose with me. Then I wouldn't be cold. Ol' Moose is as warm as a nightmare's fart most nights. He and me kept each other warm when we walked all the way too Absalom, you know how it is. A good mule is worth a few good fires, HAW HAW!" Mukluk relates as he's making cold breakfast.
"Hopefully, everyone other bad guy here has run oft and we can have our pick of the place, no more fights. That's what we can hope for."
Mukluk will eat, piss, and be ready to go after about an hour.
Prism makes a small ball of magical flames in her hand to help heat the food. "HereMuk!" She giggles as the breakfast begins to sizzle and pop before the room goes dark once more. "Doyou..reallythink...theyare..gone?"
"Brr!" Rova shivers. "When did it gets so c-c-c-cold?" Taking heed of Mulkuk's words, she tries to get close to Thkrull, but the small elephant's hide feels as cold as her own skin.
"Maybe there will be some furs in here we can use to keep warm?" she says hopefully.
[i]I always thought ice wouldn't be that bad, because you could bundle up, but maybe fire would be nicer...[i]
Loading her sling staff, in case everything else in here hasn't run off, she prepares to head upstairs.
"Oh! The poor dinosaurs. I bet they're really freezing!" she says sadly.
"Beer, Mukluk!"
Mukluk looks up with excitement only to have his face turn dark and angry at the jest.
"Not funny, you unicorn fart. I coulda burnt myself reaching for that. Be careful next time!" Mukluk takes his cold and soggy breakfast away from pyromaniacal, polyhued gnome. He goes to eat his cold breakfast in the corner, not amused.
* * *
When people are ready, Mukluk will lead the team upstairs.
"Why did it get so cold? Anyone know? Seems weird right?"
Niksi thinks out loud while they group heads upstairs. "If dinosaurs are reptiles, and reptiles are cold-blooded, then would that not mean that the drop in temperature is very much Not Good for them? Perhaps that was not the xulgath's doing. It would hardly make sense for them to hurt their own animals so."