The huge insectoid creature seemed momentarily taken aback by the triple immediate attacks. Chompers' lunge did little other than distract it, but Bubbles bit deep into the chitin-covered flesh. The badger immediately let out a shriek of pain, and when she retrerated, Tivli could see that her mouth was covered with blisters, and the fur around her muzzle was scorched.
Ner took advantage of the creature's distraction to slice deep, carving between the chitinous plates and through strangely hissing flesh. A blast of steamy ichor sprayed out, coating his face in steaming, stinking goo.
His shortsword, when it emerged from the creature, was glowing red-hot, and Ner realized that another moment or two inside the creature, it might have started to melt.
The big bug didn't seem to know which of the creatures before it had caused damage, so it reacted to the noisiest one. Lunging down with the speed of a striking viper, it grabbed Chompers in its mouth, biting down with its rows of long, thin fangs. The dog howled in pain, and they all could smell roasting flesh and burning hair.
Tivli flinches as Chompers and Bubbles howl in joint agony. Then it’s just Bubbles, as the Husky goes limp in the Monster’s mighty jaw. There will be time to pray Desna’s forgiveness later. Her attention now is on slaying this impressive foe.
She searches the Monster for a weak spot. The eyes, or right through the mouth, perhaps. She lets fly two arrows, and pray her aim is true.
A guttural burbling hiss emits from Bubbles, though it’s impossible to say if it’s coming from the creature herself, or her burning, blistered flesh. The ferocious Badger writhes and growls as she maneuvers her way around the Monster - still attempting to follow Tivli’s previous command to flank even through her pulsing rage. She lunges forward, gnashing at a leg, determined to rip it clean off.
Petronia barely paused before stepping up to the creature. She noticed the way that it caused burns to whoever or whatever touched it but she wasn't about to let a big bug deter her.
She glanced down at her new gauntlet and grinned before bringing it up to deliver devastating strikes. She waited for her opening as it lunged with its attack against Chompers and then struck at vulnerable points of its neck and head with all the force of her strength behind her fist.
I haven't mentioned the weather specifically, other than overcast, so you can describe it.
You seem to be trying to talk me out of the spell. There could be a squall forming nearby. Maybe the wind is picking up. Describe it well enough, and you can have it.
Oh no! My good sword!! Ner stabbed his steaming sword in the snow and drew out again. He bobbed-and-wove trying to avoid the weight of the creature's massive body and struck out at it as he could. He wasn't able to get a good swipe in however. His little sword clattered like a tin cup across jail bars so he yelled as he missed, hoping to give Bubbles an opening.
You seem to be trying to talk me out of the spell. There could be a squall forming nearby. Maybe the wind is picking up. Describe it well enough, and you can have it.
"No, no good," the druid murmured as he began an invocation of summoning, hoping he could bring in some temporary allies to take draw the mighty beast's attention to themselves.
His little sword clattered like a tin cup across jail bars so he yelled as he missed, "YA, YA! YOU RUTTIN' WORM!! hoping to give Bubbles an opening.
Bubbles, a frothy writhing mass of rage, lunges forward and attempts to sink her teeth into another of the creature's haunches. She chomps down...on nothing but her own blistered lip. "RRRRRRAAAGGGRRRRR!"
The creature reared back in surprise in pain as it was punched and shot with arrows. The insect didn't scream or screech or howl; other than the chittering sounds its legs made, it was very silent. However, the red glow from its spikes and armour doubled, and those standing near it felt like they were standing too close to a forge. Waves of heat rolled off it, distorting the very air around it.
Lashing its head around, it identified Petronia as the most dangerous foe. It dropped the limp dog from its mouth. Body undulating as it twisted, the creature struck down at her, its mouth opening preternaturally wide, and it grabbed the shifter around the torso in an excruciatingly painful bite. A second later, Petronia was ten feet in the air, her head and arms sticking out one side of its mouth, and her legs out the other. She felt dozens of needly teeth pierce through her clothes and mithril chain as if it were paper. Immediately the mithril began to heat up, and she knew that she was in for some bad burns in next few seconds.
SAVE
SAVE
FAIL
(Less than its hardness, so it's ok this round)
So, here are the heat rules with this dude. Anybody doing a natural attack or unarmoured strike take heat damage (6d6).
Any weapon touching it has to make a Fort save, DC 19, using YOUR fort save bonus. If it fails, it takes the head damage (6d6).
Weapons have a hardness rating, and they ignore that many HP of damage per round. Any remaining damage comes off their HP. At Half HP, they're broken, at 0, they're ruined. See the tables on this page.
Petal's gauntlets aren't on the list, so here are their stats: +1 Gauntlets stats: Hardness=12, Hit points = 10
(I made a mistake the first round and gave Ner's weapon a 50% chance of taking heat damage instead of doing the fort save. I also under-rolled the heat damage, but have corrected it this round).
Any questions?
Any weapon touching it has to make a Fort save, DC 19, using YOUR fort save bonus. If it fails, it takes the head damage (6d6).
... Any questions?
Even from a distance, Tivli can feel the heat radiating off the beast. It's quite lovely. Tivli wiggles her toes, enjoying the temporary warmth of her boots. If she closes her eyes she could imagine being enveloped in a welcoming hug. Bubbles has never been one for snuggling (as the many pale scars on Tivli's arms can attest), and being alone in the frozen landscape for so long can be, well, lonely. One can find themselves yearning for some comfort. Some warmth.
She doesn't, of course. Close her eyes, that is. But she files the little fantasy away for a later, safer time.
Instead she takes aim at the beast again, careful to avoid piercing Petronia by mistake.
"That's it, you distract it while we attack!"
Bubbles spits out a frothy mess of her own blood, and strikes again.
"RRAAWWWGGRFFFRRGGG"
Any weapon touching it has to make a Fort save, DC 19, using YOUR fort save bonus. If it fails, it takes the head damage (6d6).
It's not 100% clear on the page I linked to. It looks like getting a saving throw at all is the bonus that magical items get. Anybody have thoughts about that?
However, I did forget that +1 items get +10 HP, so the gauntlets have 20HP, not 10. +1 items also get +2 to Hardness, which I did already account for.
PS - love Tivli's relaxing in the heat. :)
Ner looked at his shortsword, the little knife he took as a parting gift from the churnch of ferret-still. It had been with him since after the lone-times. He looked up at Pertronia ... then he charged the belly of the strange plated-worm. He rushed to one side of its' front and turned stabbing upward, hoping to get under the plates of the thing's exoskeleton. He tried to hit the creature's under-throat to weaken its' bite strength.
He thrusted quickly and pulled the blade out, this made him feel a little guilty - he ought to have pushed the blade deeper to help Petronia. The gleaming, blessed blade, once stolen from the forest priests of Erastil, was covered in oozing molten blood. When Ner whipped the blade behind him the ooze melted the snow in polka-dots.
The uncomfortable heat that was penetrating Petronia's armor told her that she didn't have much time. She knew that she'd be able to use the creature's weight against it to deal more damage if only she could get enough leverage. Twisting her body she applied enough pressure so that the grapple became painful for the creature to maintain.
SAVE
FAIL
- so they're toast
[dice=Fort,DC19]1d20+6 SAVE
[dice=Fort,DC19]1d20+6 FAIL
[dice=damage]6d6 - so they're toast
Nope, they have a hardness of 12, so you deduct 12 from the damage. 23-12= 11. They had 20 HP, so now they have 9. They're broken, but not toast.
PS, its AC is 20
PPS, Petronia isn't just grappled, she has been grabbed. Not sure if your martial feat will still work, and don't have time to decipher the rules just at the moment.
The druid's eyes widened in horror as he saw Petronia being all but swallowed by the aberration of nature, but he had little attention to spare from finishing his summons. Again, the druid drew two cards from his deck, knowing without looking the symbols painted on the wood.
"First card, the Snakebite. Poison, assassination. Death of men, death of ideals, poisoning both the flesh or ideals of the righteous. And second, the Inquisitor. The fanatic who will accept nothing but the truth, the immutability of reality... but that itself is a lie, as nothing in life is set in stone. Still, that certainty comes with a strength all its own, and strength we do need now. Go, my soldiers! Thy foe awaits!"
Three giantic badgers blinked into existence around the massive centipede-thing, eyes red with bloodlust as they went for the offense immediately, teeth and claws raking the huge enemy's scales to reach the soft flesh beneath, chittering excitedly as they tore into their enemy, while Matheus took a step back and launched a burst of hail and wind at the creature's eyes in an effort to hamper its attacks.
The creature was horrifically assaulted on all sides. The giant badgers, heedless of terrible burns they were taking to mouth and paw, tore giant chunks of flesh from the superheated bug. Writhing in the creatures jaw as she punched it in the head, Petronia snapped teeth as if they were made of glass, and the creatures blood was added to her own.
Ner's sword spilled something vital out onto the snow, where it immediately sank deep into a hole of meltwater. The only parts of the monster not giving off heat were the legs - the snow under it was getting soft, but not immediately melting.
The sudden hail storm was one insult too many...hampered by weather and entirely too many foes, the creature prepared to retreat. However, it wasn't going without its meal. Snapping its head up, it released the warrior who had so damaged its mouth. As she spun helplessly in the air, the bug widened its jaws to their maximum, then engulfed Petronia, head first, on her way down.
Having swallowed its meal, the creature then dropped its hindquarters into the hole it was standing over, and slithered backwards down the hole.
succeed
Petronia knew what was coming as she was thrown into the air. The last thing she saw before it all went black were the numerous teeth she hadn't managed to shatter. The searing pain began in the blackness and she was certain she was being boiled alive.
The agony had a mind-clearing affect on the brawler. If she could feel such pain then that meant that she was very much alive and if she was alive, she could batter the creature from the inside and kill it before anyone else died.
She punched and tore at whatever flesh she could touch.
Her fist punched through the creature's gullet and she gratefully breathed in the colder air from the surrounding snow. Petronia ripped and tore the flesh until she had made a hole big enough to crawl out of.
Ner's mouth went straight as he watched Petronia disappear into the creature. He looked quickly at the plates of exoskeleton, put his sword to his shoulder, and used his whole body to try to drive the blade int a tiny crack. The blade went in slick as a steel eel and when Ner pulled it out of the creature's body, the metal came out clean.
So many Badgers! Tivli can't help but name them, muttering under her breath. "Angel, and Needles, and oh, you are definitely Leo, aren't you buddy?"
Then the monster throws Petronia in the air, and Tivli watches in awe as the brawler flails like a fish out of water before sliding down the creature's gullet. To survive such an encounter - what a story! Tivli can't help but feel a twinge of envy.
Bubbles, oblivious to anything but her own consuming fury, snaps at the creature as it attempts its cowardly retreat. All she manages to do is chomp down on a hard slap of ice. The jagged shards cut into her bleeding blisters.
GRRRAFFRREWWWW!" Bubbles chases after the creature, biting at whatever piece has the misfortune of still sticking outside of the hole.
Tivli rushes forward as well, shooting an arrow at the monster's retreating face.
"Well done, Petronia! We almost have it!"
"That's it, you distract it while we attack!" ... "Well done, Petronia! We almost have it!"
"That's it, you distract it while we attack!" ... "Well done, Petronia! We almost have it!"
Matheus watched in horror as the beast's burning blood seared the flesh of his summoned minions, their horrid injuries overcoming the magic binding two of them to his service. He could only imagine what hell being swallowed by the beast would be - something Petronia now knew from personal experience. Not something the druid envied her for. But it was clear that the beast would have to die and die quickly, for there to be any chance of rescuing the brawler before she got cooked.
(ooc]Ah. I was wondering if the thing had time to vanish from sight completely. Not that Matheus has much in the way of quick damage to contribute to the effort. If the summoned badger can suicide itself by charging down the hole (or if the critter doesn't make it all the way underground), might as well make those rolls just in case...[/ooc]
The centipede tried to vanish down its hole to safety, but it was harried to by badger, sword and mini-storm. Even as killing blows were rained down upon it from above, its meal burst forth from within. Hot blood melted through the snow, and the creature began to sink within an expanding meltpool, created by its death.
The others were relieve to see Petronia emerge from the creatures throat, covered in burns, blisters and blood, but alive.
Ner rushed over to Petronia and he yelled to Man Matheus, "Quick, she needs the healing stick! He checked her over as best he could, "Hey! Hey! Don't jus' lay there! Not like the Gray-Lady! You always get up remember! Besides, tha' worm gots to have some treasure doesn' it?! We gotta go look." Ner spent considerable time to make sure his friend didn't suffer from exposure and checked to keep the worst of her wounds bandaged. Whenever he had a free moment he went to mending her things.
Petronia laid gasping from effort in the snow. She closed her eyes and let the cold of her surroundings soothe her burns.
Her eyes flew open as she felt Ner prodding her injuries and heard the concern in his voice. She struggled to get to her feet, "See? I'm up. I'm perfectly fine." Petronia took an unsteady step, "Let's go find the treasure."
"Fine? Well done, I'd rather say," the druid murmured as he rushed to the brawler's side, trying to find an unburnt patch of skin to lay his hands on to channel healing into her battered body.
"Fine? Well done, I'd rather say,"
"Well done indeed! Tivli misinterprets Matheus and agrees whole heartedly. She strides towards the fighters and crouches down, beaming over Bubbles.
"Excellent work my friend! You demonstrated admirable leadership skills with those other Badgers, may they rest in peace."
Bubbles stops writhing and snarling, and her eyes don't look quite so crazy. The blisters around her mouth fade, leaving behind a thick crust of blood and spit. She starts rubbing her face into the cold ground.
Tivli turns to Petronia, grinning at her approvingly. "A cunning tactic, perfectly executed! Has our friend Matheus provided adequate healing? Do you require any further assistance"
She turns to Ner. "And you, my small friend, were you injured in the skirmish?"
She turns to Ner. "And you, my small friend, were you injured in the skirmish?"
"Nope"
Ner looked at Petronia's burns and the damage to her equipment, "I don' think there's gonna be any treasure. Even if there is it'd be hard ta go get." He looked at the steaming corpse of the wormlike monstrosity and how its' blood melted the snow.
Petronia's teeth unclenched as Matheus' healing washed through her body. She hadn't realized how much she was gritting her teeth against the pain until the pain dissipated. She was much more steady on her feet and she moved over to look at the hole.
"A cunning tactic, perfectly executed! Has our friend Matheus provided adequate healing? Do you require any further assistance"
The brawler half rolled her eyes, "Yes, I'm all about tactics. I'm not 100% but Matheus' healing was adequate to ensure a stiff wind won't blow me over."
She turned her attention back to the hole, "As much as I love fighting for the sake of fighting, it doesn't hurt to take a look to see if this creature had a hoard of somekind. Maybe this is what passes for a dragon in Irrisen."
"Well, the thing was dangerous enough for one," Matheus said, taking a look into the tunnel the thing had emerged from, looked for a small rock or piece of ice, found one to his liking, murmured an enchantment of light upon it and tossed it down to see how slick the walls were and how it would curve - if the heat of the creature's body had melted its route through the permafrost, the walls of the tunnel might be deadly slick.
"You could lower me down? No problem. Ner walked over to the hole, the rope still tied around his midsection.
Tivli rummages through her quiver, her arm disappearing into something much wider and deeper than it should.. "No...no...where are you? Aha!" She pulls out a stick about the length of an arrow. It's carved to look like a snake has wound its way up the shaft, its mouth the tip.
She considers Petronia for a moment, then touches the wand to her shoulder (assuming it's the least likely place to offend her) and mutters a few words.
Tivi slips the wand back into her quiver, and joins Ner at the hole. She starts rummaging again, this time through her pack.
"Matheus' glowing rock is a nice trick, but in case you need backup, take this." She pulls out a black skull cap with a small, silver statue of a candle attached firmly to the top. She places it on Ner's head. The statue sways when he moves, but the cap somehow stays in place.
"Just say light to turn it on an off. And yell if you need help. I'm a fair climber...as I'm sure you well remember!"
"You are one for curious and useful items, aren't you?" Matheus murmured as he took in two new magical items in Tivli's collection, in addition to the portable wings she had used to rescue the chest they had lost to the crevasse. "I don't know if a beast like that has any need for a lair covered with richess, but on the other hand, if this one came with a mate I'd imagine she'd already be on the hunt for us, and since the earth isn't shaking under our boots... so might not hurt to take a look." As if there was a way to prevent the ever-curious halfling from jumping in the hole to check anyway, he thought, smiling in quiet amusement.
The tunnel is indeed frozen to a glossy slickness, but there are plenty of hand and foot holds in it - likely due to the creature's many legs digging in for traction. The halfling drops down into the hole, which goes down about 15 feet, then comes to a round tunnel travelling both north and south. It looks like the creature has a warren of tunnels down here, and then burst/melted its way through to the surface when it wanted to.
To the north, Ner can see light - undoubtedly from the hole they originally saw, by the bridge. Behind him, to the south, the tunnel seems to come to a T-junction, then branch out left and right. No matter which direction he goes, Ner knows it won't take long before he's out of rope.
"You are one for curious and useful items, aren't you?""You are one for curious and useful items, aren't you?"
Tivli smiles - her new friends think she's useful! "Sometimes I come across people who need help navigating their way across the Tundra. And sometimes they pay me with trinkets. The candle cap was a gift from a small group of monks who lost their way, both literally and, I suspect, figuratively. I was able to assist with the former."
She watches as Ner makes it to the bottom and inspects the tunnel. This is too exciting! She can't wait!
With her axe in one hand, Tivli starts to climb down.
Bubbles paces around the hole, watching Tivli climb into the hole. Before the ranger's head can dip below the surface, Bubbles runs forward and jumps on her back. She drapes herself along Tivli's shoulders, wrapping her limbs around her neck. Her tail thwacks rhythmically against the side of Tivli's face.
Tivli looks a little like she's being strangled. She's also glowing with happiness, and hums a little as she climbs down. Before her boots hit the ground, Bubbles scrambles down her back, and starts exploring the tunnel to the south.
Tivli wipes a little blood away from her neck, grins at Ner, and follows.
With a combination of ropes, ice axes, and climbing skill, the group lowers themselves down over the cooling corpse of the creature and into its tunnel system. Taking a peek south, they saw that the two tunnels running east and west head off for a considerable way in both directions. Turning their attention to the north, they move past towards the light, and past the second hole that came up under the bridge.
Here, it got strange. The tunnel continued straight ahead, not heeding the river in its way. As they moved into the darkening tunnel, they could hear an eerie, low creaking noise coming from all directions. The walls of the tunnel were translucent here, showing strange shadows flickering behind them.
Matheus realized that the strange centipede had tunnelled through the river which had not frozen all the way to the bottom. The slow-moving, slugging currents of the river swirled around the icy tube, and occassionally they caught a glimpse of a dark shape moving through the near-freezing depths of the wide river.
It was with some relief that they made it across to the other side, and found themselves in a tunnel through snow and ice again. As strangely beautiful as the river tube was, it was hard to forget their vulnerability, should the ice crack and the river enter the tunnel.
Soon again they came to another intersection. Bubble's nose led them to the right, and before long they entered a large, underground ice-cave. This appeared to be a lair of some sort. In one end was a strange, lumpy heap of something that looked black in the magical light. Farther in, there was a flatter layer of something that glinted faintly with their lights.
Petronia's muscles tense as Tivli touches her shoulder but she quickly determines that the move is helpful and not aggressive so she doesn't retaliate but rather gives the ranger a nod of thanks.
The brawler stretches out muscles and joints, relieved to feel everything moving as normal. The ministrations of Matheus and Tivli had restored her to peak fighting condition.
Once in the tunnel system, Petronia was not impressed by having to hunch in order to walk through it. Her mood did not improve going through the river tube. She found it very unnerving to only have a relatively thin layer of ice between them and drowning in frigid water. Every time the tunnel groaned or creaked, she walked faster.
She gratefully stretches as they enter the ice-cave. Standing at her full height she surveys the area. She pointed at the glinting material, "That may be your treasure, Ner. If you check it out, I'll take a closer look at the black, lumpy heap."
Ner's grin was glowing as he was lowered into the hole, "Light" and the strange silver candle lit up, "Light" and it was off again. "Lightlight" The silver candle blinked for a second. "Ligh-ful-might!" The little candle started a faint glow and stopped. "LIIIIIGHT!" the candle turned on and suddenly a rippled mirror reflection faced Ner. He was nose to nose with himself in the reflective glacial hole surface. His other self made all sorts of distorted expressions at him. He stuck his tongue out in reply.
As he got closer to the bottom the glowing fist sized chunk of ice made the cap briefly inconsequential and he looked down the extended passage. Tivli was surprisingly beside him in no time.
They walked the passage which from time to time went dark, "Light" ... [smaller]"Light"[/smaller Ner backed up into Bubble's furry body as the halfling tried to escape the notice of the lumpy head in the dark. He looked Bubbles nose-to-nose. "Yeah, I was trying to protect you from getting scared. That's all." Ner walked forward towards the lumpy visage keeping an eye out for some trick or fiendish device.
If Petronia had a rough time going through the tunnel, it wasn’t anything compared to Matheus, who was a foot taller and much wider than the brawler. At least the slippery floor wasn’t an issue to the druid, as blessings nature granted him allowed him to keep his footing on ice and snow, no matter how precarious the surface might be to others. As his bulk made his getting through the hardest, he made very sure he was staying at the end of the procession, wondering at times if he’d have to resort to shifting his shape to avoid getting stuck, but luckily he had been spared of that so far. And he had to admit, the inside of a ice tunnel like this was a sight he hadn’t seen before – the play of their twin magical lights on the reflective surface and even better, the occasional glimpse of they lay beyond seemed magical worthy of any spell he had ever cast. If only he didn’t feel like a fox trying to navigate a rabbit’s hole.
A river tunnel! How extraordinary! Tivli's had a lot of experience with frozen rivers. She's crossed more than she can remember, fought on a fair few, and fallen into more than she cares to admit. But never has she walked through one!
She stares around in amazement, delighted by the bouncing light and strange shadows created as Ner's cap and Matheus' glowing ice chuck pass by.
"Petronia, you've gone from being engulfed in heat to being engulfed in ice, all in a few minutes. What a day! You must tell me what it was like, battling that creature from its own insides."
In the ice cave, Tivli keeps a careful eye on the lumpy heap, axe at the ready. Bubbles stays close to Ner.
Petronia examined the dark heap of...something. It stood nearly 7 feet high and more than 10 feet wide. Upon closer examination with a light, Petronia could see that it was not uniform in colour. Some bits were lighter brown, some darker, some almost black. Whatever it was, it was quite solid, though she couldn't tell just by looking if it was only solid because of the sub-zero temperature in the icy cave.
Ner's investigation yielded results that were similar, yet different. He approached to find a flattish surface of mixed metals. If filled a depression in the ice cave, nearly 15 feet in diameter. It looked as though many different metal items had been melted together. Most of it appeared to be the dull grey of iron, though smaller areas that shone copper, silver, and even gold were scattered here and there.