Not used to fighting in sewers next to allies, Yash tempered his swing.
Sable’s blade strikes true, ending the life of one enemy. Senna, Xing, and Yash are so surprised by the speed of their enemies, they fail to capitalize on their advantage.
The roaches’ onslaught is sudden, ferocious… and largely ineffective. When the clatter of limbs and mandibles dies down, only Senna is bleeding and she seems little worse for wear.
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 24/24
Sable 26/26
Senna 12/18
Xing 20/20
Yash 22/22
Sabelina keeps killing bugs in a joyless, 'weeding the garden' kind of way.
"My talents are completely wasted on this" she carps to anyone who can spare the attention to listen.
You wouldn't normally associate a refined weapon with hewing... yet somehow Sable manages to cleave a roach in half with her rapier.
Yash side-steps around the bugs to avoid being surrounded before again asking for Grandfather's aid.
"Grandfather, guide my hand."
Shield of Faith: +2 AC [19 rounds remaining]
Divine Favor: +2 hit, +2 damage [10 rounds remaining]
The half-orc neatly frees himself from the flanking bugs but receives a bite on the kneecap as he attempts to call on his Grandfather...
Round 3
ORDER
Xing, Cookie, Sable, Senna, Cockroaches, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 24/24
Sable 26/26
Senna 12/18
Xing 20/20
Yash 21/22
”Here was I just about to compliment you..” PUNCH “..on how talented you seemed in this situation, Sabelina.”[/b] [I]STOMP[I/] ”Oh well.”
As Xing stamps another bug into unconsciousness , Senna falls back towards the safety of their line, firing arrows into the charred carapaces of the bugs next to her. Both bugs drop, but not before trying to take hunks out of her legs. Thankfully, the archer's luck holds.
Cookie keeps up with the group, but always just behind the front line. This time she shifts behind Senna and tries to create an opening for her.
Sable manages to wound the roach that drops behind the team. Then the swarm attacks again.
Our heroes' armor and defenses are too strong for the bugs' weak mandibles. Only Xing is wounded and it is a scratch she barely notes.
Round 3
ORDER
Xing, Cookie, Sable, Senna, Cockroaches, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 24/24
Sable 26/26
Senna 12/18
Xing 19/20
Yash 21/22
Sabelina strikes at the bug that'scome up beside Mama Cookie because the elderly lady is bite-sized, which could be a problem for her.
Yash stomps through the water, passing by the first roach to stand next to the second. He raises he axe as high as the tunnel will allow before bringing it down on the gigantic roach.
Shield of Faith: +2 AC [18 rounds remaining]
Divine Favor: +2 hit, +2 damage [9 rounds remaining]
Xing grunts in response to the small cut as spins to confront the flanking cockroaches. ”If we get a complaint from the cockroach community of this town..” HAMMER STOMP ”… I’m going to become quite frustrated.” BACKHAND
The trudging Spirit Caller's hide repels the bug bites!
|
|
Between Yash, Xing, and Sable, three more cockroaches are dispatched.
The archer steps away from the group and buries two arrows deeply in the carapace of another roach. Somehow, it stays on its many feet.
Mama shifts back over to supporting Yas as his big weapon is the most likely to splatter bugs in her opinion.
Standing amid the fallen husks of nearly a dozen of their brethren, the final two bugs opt to survive. They offer quick and ineffective nips at their enemies and then scuttle away down the northern corridor.
You stand victorious over the coveted trash heaps! So, uh, congratulations?
END BATTLE
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 24/24
Sable 26/26
Senna 12/18
Xing 19/20
Yash 21/22
Sabelina strikes at any opening the bugs present to her.
Xing gives one last kick as the creatures retreat. Then, trying to slow her breathing, she looks around the fetid gloom. "So now I guess we clear out some muck?"
She looks down at the unconscious buggies. "I guess we leave these here, huh? I didn't think about having to deal with them after the rest ran away."
Mama leans on her spear and takes a couple deep breaths. My goodness, that was exciting. I say leave them, dearie. No use killing something that can't fight back. Let's just do our job. If they wake again, we can always put them back to sleep.
I'll keep an eye on them. Lady volunteers. She slides down from Mama's shoulders to the ground. It's not like I'll be much help in clearing muck anyway.
Both strikes hit. Sable finishes off the wounded bug and Xing solidly wounds the other, giving it a bit more reason to flee hastily.
You quickly set to the task at hand - breaking up the refuse log-jams and piles so that the water flows well. It takes you no more than 15 minutes to put everything in order. Senna takes a quick peek up the left-hand corridor and reports there are no blockages and it is just a tributary.
No one spies anything of value or interest in the muck in this room.
”Well, I don’t spy anything of value or interest in the muck in this room.”
The tall Minatan hefts her broom as she checks her own small scratch. The her eyes, pooling what little light there is in the gloom … seeming two golden moons in the dark, search over the team’s injuries.
”Here,” she says as she gathers the whole team close, ”stand near me for a moment. We should be ready for more threats.”
She presses her left fist to her right palm, a sense of focus settling on her stance, then the tattoo of Irori’s open palm flares dimly for a moment in the gloom. A wave of warm energy flows out, washing away pain.
As Irori’s healing flare fades, Xing hikes her muck-cleaning stick and moves deeper into the sewers , eyes and ears straining for more sounds of trouble … or more signs of necessary mucking.
Senna nods her thanks for the healing and adds a smile. "You're handy to have around. I may keep you."
Following Xing, the party sloshes through the flooded corridor, clearing another debris log-jam, before entering another large room.
There are a few blockages here, but nothing nearly as impressive as the ones you saw previously. You do spy the wounded cockroach from the previous room that skitters toward the far wall as you enter the room. It looks like it wants nothing more than to avoid your party.
Down the unexplored corridor, helped by a pool of light, you see another body of water that appears to dominate what little you can see of that room. You also hear the sound of 'rushing' (albeit slow) water.
Since the cockroach isn't threatening them, Sabelina pays it no mind. She's sure ridding the sewers of insects would be an impossible task, so the minimum required to finish the job safely is plenty.
"Let's get this done and get out as fast as we can."
Sabelina continues to grimly clean.
"This way. Water."
Not seeing any other exits or threats, Yash sloshed forward through the tunnel towards the sound of water.
When nothing else presents itself fin this chamber, Xing gives a shrugging smile over to Senna as she shoulders her scrub-pole. ”You may end up regretting that. Most people think I’m more trouble than I’m worth.” Her brow furrows, ”Though considering the strangeness of our coming together, you may not have much choice but be stuck with me.”
She leaves the bug alone and follows, keeping her eyes and ears open as they progress, looking for both muck-stucks and threats.
As she follows Yash, she speaks, keeping her voice low. ”I think you’re right, Mother Cookie. Leaving what we can alone is likely best, but this place has me second-guessing everything. What do you all think of this place? Most interesting place ever or the harbinger of our dooms?”
”You may end up regretting that. Most people think I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
The petite archer sizes up her taller companion. "Perhaps... but most people are fools, so that isn't a good yardstick to measure your worth."
Senna glances around the room they've barely entered and haven't cleaned, "Guess we're moving on." She follows the group, taking the rear guard position.
Xing's question brings a chuckle from Mama. Why not both! One's doom is so much more interesting than any average day, I'd wager!
She uses her push-pole to dislodge an unidentifiable hunk of congealed nasty.
I just hope my Actual doom smells better!
"Oh," Xing mutters, seeming surprised, "Did we miss something? We should take care of that while we're here."
Mama Cookie's humor draws our Xing's own throaty chuckle. "You are probably right about that, Mother Cookie." She pauses as she helps the smaller woman with a particularly tough bit of disgustingness, and her face resumes its usual seriousness. "I do not usually entertain the idea of fate. If it exists, it is cruel, in my experience. But this place does make it seem like there could be a purpose to our arrival." She grins over at Cookie, "Let us hope this supposed fate chooses to smile for once, then, yes?"
"Perhaps... but most people are fools, so that isn't a good yardstick to measure your worth."
"I will not argue that point, Senna." She grins at the group sheepishly ... a strange departure from her usual stoicism. "And while I do not know which of you are fools, yet. You are at least fools I am enjoying."
Sabelina grunts grumpily as she dislodges something awful and moves it along its way.
The clean-up is a brief exercise due to the modest blockages. Our heroes find no items of note in the refuse. Soon they are moving down a long corridor...
As you slog down the corridor, the room becomes more visible. It is a circular and vaulted chamber, at the center of which is a large drainage pool. Offset in the pool is a large hole that acts as a modest waterfall where the water and debris rain down into some lower level of the sewer. You believe the pool here is deeper and there must be some sort of raised lip on the edge of the waterfall… because there are several creatures swimming and periodically vanishing below the surface of the water. From this distance, they appear to be roughly dwarf-sized and are lizard-like with mottled gray skin and dorsal fins running along their backs. At least two of them stop and watch your group keenly, only their eyes and the beginning of their fins raised above the water-line.
Xing looks over everyone's shoulders (having to look around the side of Yash's due to his height) a the new chamber.
"I suppose that is the drain we were warned against entering?" She points at the finned creatures swimming in the deeper water, "Which makes those the things interested in pulling us into it."
She looks around the room, as much as she can, at least. "Is there a way to get around them?"
Perhaps hug the wall and don't make any sudden or aggressive moves? I haven't seen their like before. Mama Cookie offers.
Senna seems to know something about them. "They're a lizard-like species called Muckdwellers. They'll eat carrion as well as meat and plants. They aren't particularly fierce or tough but they are ambush predators, as I recall. They like to shoot jets of water and then attack any creature they manage to blind with the spray."
Sabelina knows far less than Senna about the things the peeking eyes and fins belong to, but she pipes in anyway.
"Yes indeed, Muckdwellers. Let's leave them alone and keep to our business. Maybe they will be kept busy eating the filth we're dislodging."
"Let's just be sure to watch our backs when we've passed them by."
Xing considers a moment further, then once again works through a slow, steady kata. Her Irori tattoo flares once more, this time the energy seeming to settle into her legs. She bounces on her toes a few times before taking a long length of rope from her backpack, tying it around her waist.
”I can move quickly when I need to,” she says, holding the loose end of the rope out to the team. ”I’ll see if I can find a way across without starting another fight.” She eyes the drain, ”Please don’t let me fall in that, please.”
Xing moves into the room. She values speed over caution, circling around the left edge of the room as she tries to get into the far opening.
With a shrug, Yash spread his arms out wide and embraced the wall. There were times, much like this one, where he did not understand others, but they seemed to be smarter than him so he tried to listen to their ideas.
That done, he returned his attention to the rest of the room. As Xing held out the rope, Yash glanced to each of the others before taking the other end. He nodded to Xing. "Yash hold."
Mama peers into the room and keeps a weather eye on Xing and the things that are floating in the water.
Senna moves to the front of the group and knocks an arrow, planning to cover Xing. "If any of them twitches in your direction, I'll shoot."
The speed of the monk's move takes the muckdwellers by surprise. She is across the room before they can react. They dip lower in the water, some eyes on the monk and others on the group of allies. One of the creatures swims with cautiously around the south side of the waterfall, venturing closer to Xing.