Before the gremlin hits the ground, Much throws herself into a roll over the sloping wall between her and Laesah. Her view blocked, she lashes out at the gremlin's feet through her arachnid friend's legs.
With the gremlin now on the ground, Much flicks out her stone rope to try and add injury to insult.
The gremlin hits the ground with a groan, and then Much swings down and buries the rope in its belly. It vomits out a small pile of rubble, but is still attempting to rise and fight.
Laesah will get a chance to stop it, however.
Laesah's attacks leave the tiny gremlin near dead. Savagely undeterred, the gremlin tries to rise and Much, waiting for this moment, lashes out
...and reduces the gremlin to a gritty paste.
Down the hall, the miner bee is still resting, showing no signs of aggression.
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Laesah takes a moment to patch herself up.
"Well," the anadi murmurs to herself, transforming back into her humanoid form, "I think a pause in our exploration is a good idea. It'll give us a time to catch a breath and figure out just what they were all doing in here."
She pauses then peers at the wall where the shark-toothed gremlin was working.
While her compatriots bend to heal themselves or search their fallen foe, Much looks to the south, trying to discern whether the two paths she can see come together. And hopefully uncovering any foes that might be lying in wait on the other side.
The gremlins don't have much in the way of possessions. Just a light hammer on each. When you go through their living space to the left, you find a small pile of semi precious stones... Maybe snacks they were saving for later? They look like they might be worth something at the market.
The wall itself is just a wall, it's hard to tell where they might be tunneling to or why, but they were clearly "working" when you found them, and if the exhausted bee is any indication, they were working with fervor.
As for the room to the south, it's quiet. A more suspicious person might say it's TOO quiet. Even the buzzing that surrounds you in the halls is diminished, though not completely gone.
The too quiet is too enticing to Much, and she pushes southward, stone-rope at the ready.
As Much moves a chamber opens up to the west. Several wide, shallow puddles cover the floor of this cool, moist cavern. Thick brown fungus covers a natural pillar in the northwest part of this room.
The corridor that leads further south is somewhat featureless and uneventful.
“Hold on, Laesah, I know I’ve got something in here somewhere… Ha!” With a triumphant grin, Haunt pulls a couple of tightly-rolled scrolls from the depths of his bookbag of holding. “Just hold still while I read off one of these, OK?”
He unrolls one of the scrolls and reads from it, calling on divine power in an unfamiliar language (although it’s obvious that whatever tongue the scroll is written in, Haunt’s pronunciation is terrible) to heal the Anadi.
The scroll crumbles to dust. He points the other at Much. “How about it, Much? Better to go into the next fight feeling your best? This is my last one of these until we get back to the Powderpile to restock.”
Laesah peers at the brown fungus from where she enters the room, trying to decide if she’s seen it before.
You do recognize this brown mold, and it's nasty stuff. Brown mold leeches heat out of the air, and if a person gets too close (say, within 5 feet), it's cold enough to harm them. It also has volatile reactions to fire, which does not harm the fungus, but instead makes it spread out and lower the temperature even more painfully.
While the fungus causes pain with cold, it is also weak against cold.
This probably a good time for you guys to remind me how you are managing your light situation, since the cavers are dark this far in.
Much pulls up short, surprised by the sudden chill in the air.
She casts light on her stone-rope, only to find the mold that Laesah had already observed.
“How about it, Much? Better to go into the next fight feeling your best? This is my last one of these until we get back to the Powderpile to restock.”
Much looks down to see blood caked in the fur on her shins.
"Yes please, this hurts worse than you might imagine."
With some more healing done, the party follows Much and her curiosity forward. The calm quiet of the room is interrupted as she walks near one of the shallow puddles and a wet pseudopod lashes out at Much's leg. An ooze, unseen by the party was lying in wait.
CRIT: 18 Bludgeoning damage and 4 Acid - 22 total
Initiatives:
The ooze sees only one target, so it does what oozes do and tries to ooze all over it.
But, now that Much is aware of the threat, she's able to ward off the attacks.
Laesah knows all about this ooze, as she'd recently been researching them to round out a paper she was working on for Mafika.
It's a grey ooze, and while it doesn't have any weaknesses, it is resistant to piercing, slashing, and immune to acid, critical hits, mental, precision, unconscious, visual effects. Like almost every ooze, it's a bit of a punching bag - slow, easy to hit, but hard to take down.
They are mindless, which in some ways makes them more dangerous. Grab and dissolve with acid are the only things it knows how to do, besides some basic survival instincts.
...which do not kick in effectively, as a gout of water slams it for full damage.
It even hits a little harder than Laesah was expecting!
Much does not feel good at all.
Wincing, she slides back away from the slime before spinning out her stone-rope towards the ooze.
Satisfied that she has at least hurt the blasted thing, Much brings her weapon through a full spin before lashing out to destabilize the ooze for her friends.
This seems absurd...
◆ Stride
◆ Attack
◆ Trip
Much smashes into the ooze, searching for the center of its mass. If it has a center mass, it has a balancing point to disrupt. With a careful aim, she knocks the ooze off balance, sending it quivering.
"Bludgeon it from afar!"
Despite her burning shins, Much grinned. Bludgeon it from afar? Can do! I'm a natural born ooze killer!
Haunt takes Laesah's instructions and looks for a way to exploit them.
Realizing the Grey Ooze has no specific weakness, Haunt determines that this one must be tired of the cold, having spent so much time next to the Brown Mold and fires a ray of frost at it.
Even though that shot didn't feel particularly well fired, with some help from Barnabus's song, it barely hits the mark.
And PREVIOUSLY...
Haunt sees Much is in rough shape and uses his last scroll to help them out.
The ooze recollects itself, and in that moment, Much lashes out.
The blow is solid, but the ooze keeps oozing forward. After a quick moment of consideration, it decides to move AWAY from the biggest source of pain, and heads towards Laesah, and lashes out with a gooey tentacle.
That's 12 total damage - 9 Bludgeoning and 3 acid
The tentacle wraps around one of Laesah's legs, holding her tight.
Much sees the ooze glom onto Laesah before her friend rises up into an elegant stance.
Even covered in goo, Laesah is the most graceful member of the pack. Let's see what I can do to get her unstuck.
◆ Stride
◆ Attack
◆ Brutish shove
Much's attempt to shove the ooze off Laesah is a bit too successful. The ooze is flung off of Laesah only to spatter it across the feet of Haunt and Barnabas.
" Ah...ha... Sorry. I didn't mean to shove it quite that hard."
Between Laesah's flurry and Much's fury, the ooze is rendered inert.
Glancing around after the fight, Laesah, still hurt from the fight, notices an impression in the rock that looks unnatural. Looking carefully there's a nearly invisible seam running down the wall - a secret door!
Much's attempt to shove the ooze off Laesah is a bit too successful. The ooze is flung off of Laesah only to spatter it across the feet of Haunt and Barnabas.
" Ah...ha... Sorry. I didn't mean to shove it quite that hard."
Haunt stops in the middle of loading his sling (which would have been his next move) and frantically stomps his feet, trying to shake the bits of ooze off his boots. He stops when he has gotten rid of the worst of the gunk, puts the sling away, and picks up his rapier again.
He gives Much a sheepish smile. "Heh. Don't worry about it - it would have been worse if it had gotten into my fur."
The amurrun steps up to peer at the secret door. "Nice find. Did you see anything dangerous?" He checks it himself, just in case.
Haunt gets a bit of ooze in his eye and misjudges the distance to the tunnel wall. He bangs his nose on the secret door.
Clutching his wounded snoot, he says, "Well, I did nod see any draps, bud look yourshelves."
"Heh. Don't worry about it - it would have been worse if it had gotten into my fur."
Much smiles at Haunt, happy to be forgiven.
The group leaves a healthy distance between themselves and the hidden door as they take a moment to see to Laesah's wounds. With their arachnid ally bandaged, Much steps forward to examine the secret door after Haunt.
Much pushes the rocks inward, and they slide smoothly out of the way. As you move into the new corridro, the smell of rotten meat assails the senses. A large cavern stretches out before the group, with natural pillar in the middle of the room bears several metal hooks with gruesome slabs of meat hanging from each. Some torches are on the central pillar, illuminating the room.
Stalking around the pillar, momentarily oblivious, is a small gremlin. It seems to be lecturing a large fly. "'Go kill them,' he says. 'In and out,' he says. Well how can I get in and out if you wont let me ride you?"
The gremlin smacks the fly with the flat end of a nasty looking pick, then tries to mount the fly and gets tossed to the ground. He pops back up and shakes the pick in anger. "Aaaaargh! Let me up, ya giant pest!"
The fly ignores the gremlin as best as possible, and starts sucking some blood from the rotten meat hanging from the hooks.
Ugh. Why is it always giant bugs?
Much rushes forward to end the fight as quickly as possible.
She pulls up close to the gremlin and strikes him.
Unsure of the fly's intentions, Much does her best to discombobulate it, rather than outright kill it.
◆ ◆ Sudden Charge
◆ Trip
Much connects with the fly's spindly joints. It jerks back, ripping Much's weapon from her hands.
"Biyuh..."
Much hits the gremlin, then overextends trying to knock the fly down, sending the stone rope flying from her paws. The gremlin, small that it is, takes the impact without a flinch. It looks strangely happy...
"Oy, my lucky day. Yer ears musta been burning... Yer making my job easy by coming to me.”
The fly having been harassed by Much, buzzes over to defend itself, proboscis probing for flesh.
The first attempt is slapped away, but the second finds a gap in Much's armor and she feels some of her blood sucked away.
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"OK, that hurts."
Everything seems great!
"There are way too many bugs buzzing around this campus!"
Haunt tries to recall any weaknesses the oversized insect might have before running into the cavern, rapier and amulet at the ready, to stab at the creature biting Much.
Just before he strikes, he reaches into one of his pouches and pulls out the remnants of a nearly-used up bar of soap and slides it along the edge and point of his blade.
The gremlin snarls. "Oy, the whole gang is here! Time to get to work!"
The only target in reach is Much, so the gremlin starts swinging.
The gremlin leaves two gaping holes in Much's flank, dropping her to unconscious and dying. They point the pick at Laesah and say, "YOU! You die next!" Then rush over to threaten the anadi.
The fly turns to Laesah and Haunt and starts probing at them.
It doesn't have any luck, and makes a sad buzzing sound.
"Ughhh.."
Much has the presence of mind to realize that she is lying in the dirt unarmed (well, a Kholo is never truly unarmed, but she misses her stone rope), that she owes Barnabas a great deal, and that all of her options are grim.
I have to do something about that gremlin.
Much fumbles for and finds the end of her stone rope, before dragging herself to flank the gremlin and strike at his feet.
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"Ahhhhh! MUCH!" Laesah calls out, seeing her kholo friend fall to a vicious hit. The anadi narrows her focus on the responsible gremlin.
"You're more than welcome to try." As Laesah says that, her features blur.
Laesah's leg lashes out, trying to trip the gremlin, followed by impossibly-quick wing strike darts.
“Good fake out, Much! I thought you were down for the count! That sure is a lot of blood, though. Better swat this fly before it gets any ideas!”
Taking advantage of the flank Much is providing, Haunt lunges at the fly with his blade twice in quick succession before casting a simple protective spell.