Yasami sighs with relief when she sees her friends in the hut. She sees Caiten trying to remove the bindings, and approaches with a dagger. "Wait... Don't move." she whispers and puts a finger to her lips to indicate they all stay quiet or silent.
She cuts their both Caiten and Oren's hands free, and looks at Hezle. "How much time do we have? Do we leave now and patch the wounds in the treeline, or do it here? It might take a while."
Then she looks at Lisi. "You get ready to make an opening in the western wall. We will leave for the woods, and probably clear the mine from afar." she specifies the plan to the prisoners.
Treating two people at a time with Ward Medic. So Caiten and Oren
When Caiten gets his hands freed, he rips the gag out of his mouth. "If we are able to leave, we should do so as close to immediately as possible. We will need to return for Dario once we can, but we need to be better prepared for that. Our equipment would be nice to have as well."
Hearing Caiten's suggestion, Hezle says quietly, "If we leave and come back later, the cultists will have time to get organized, or they might decide to leave with your equipment. Right now, two of the butchers are separated from the rest. If you can kill them and if I can drive the spiders out of the mudpit, it might be enough to take the fight out of the rest of the charau-ka and leave only the boggards to contend with."
Hezle sighs and reluctantly reaches into her bag, "I've been saving this, but I suppose this is a good time." She pulls out a complicated contraption and explains, "It's a snare I can rig up so that the roof will collapse on the first charau-ka to enter my hut after we leave ."
Caiten nods. "Set up the snare. Do anyone happen to have any weapons that Oren could use. It would be good to not be completely unarmed. And Lisi, you have healing berries, yes?"
"If we only have a few minutes to prepare, let's make the most of it. I have one healing spell still available. It may be better to keep that in reserve if we are going to fight things in the next few minutes though."
"Lisi, the signal to start this plan in motion will be you opening a new path through the back wall."
Hezle nods and moves over to the door, setting up elaborate concealed trip wires connected to the wood beams over the door, explaining, "When they come into investigate and trip these wires, a little focused charge will cause the beams over the door to collapse on the one in front."
"I've got berries, yes, and one Healing spell."
Lisi then moves over towards the western wall. "One I make the opening, I can't close it, so the last person out may have to go out fighting," he says quietly.
"Caiten and Oren first, then," Catalina whispers, gesturing at their rescued companions to make ready to run. "Give them time to run ahead, away from danger." The thaumaturge draws her pistol, mirror, and esoterica, readying her implements for any sign of trouble.
"One of you can take my rapier if you think you can use it," She adds, cocking the hip her rapier hangs from out in offering. She didn't want to drop her implements now that she had them grasped just so.
Sulee finishes her transformation and shakes herself vigorously. Looking around, she comments, "This doesn't exactly look like the most safe place to be at the moment. But it is at least better than that other building full of enemies."
"One of you can take my rapier if you think you can use it,"
"It might help," Caiten says as he grabs the weapon.
20 minutes pass in the crowded hut. Hezle periodically raises her voice and speaks nonsense in common in an appropriately intimidating tone (the charau-ka apparently do not speak common). A few times the impatient charau-ka knock on the door and Hezle has to aggressively shoo them away.
Close to the end of the 20 minutes, Hezle approaches Yasami as she treats Caiten and Oren, apparently wanting to discuss final details. "When your druid opens the wall, I will go out first and sneak to the trees and then move over behind the mud pile and try to scare one of the spiders out with a bomb. I won't try to scare out more than one unless you give me a signal -- I don't know how many there are and I don't want them to come after us. My snare will go off as soon as one of the guards come in, and I'm sure they will come in if they hear us leaving or if I don't answer when they next knock. I assume you've rigged the bomb to go off at the same time. If we need a backup meetup spot, there's a little clearing 200 feet to the West of the mudpile."
Lisi nods. "Here goes," he says in Taldane, and opens the western wall. He peels the wood outward, with the widest spot inside the hut, funneling down to spikes of wood that curve outward--something like a fish trap--in the hopes that no enterprising charau-ka try to enter via the opening.
As Hezle exits, he taps her quickly. "Guidance, for a bit of luck," he says.
As the wood groans and forms, the charau-ka knock on the door and demand to know what is going on. Hezle responds in a sharp and commanding voice, "Who are you to question my interrogation methods? Return to your posts!" You're getting some inkling of how this tiny kobold has managed to maintain some semblance of discipline in this operation.
With that, Hezle slings on her backpack. She walks to Yasami and hands her a small bomb -- "Use this little bomb to set off your big bomb when the charau-ka enter." She then nods to the rest of the group and touches her forehead which some of you recognize as a gesture of good luck. She grunts in approval of Lisi's work and then in surprised appreciation at the primal magical boost, and pats her hut goodbye as she quietly exits the hut and crosses to the treeline.
The rest of you can exit in whatever order you decide, with stealth checks.
Caiten nods at the others and beckons to Sulee. Together the two of them head through the opened back wall. "Sulee, head to that meeting point mentioned."
"OK. Don't do anything too reckless."
Caiten moves over to the hole and climbs out, Sulee silently trailing behind. On the way out, Lisi gives him a primal blessing to guide his steps, and Caiten just barely avoids being noticed. The charau-ka butchers don't have a sightline behind the hut, so it is just a matter of avoiding notice of the regular charau-ka guards, who aren't terribly observant. Caiten does stumble halfway to the trees, risking getting a guard's attention, but he lays flat until Sulee says the coast is clear and is able to make it to the treeline.
"Everyone else, go. I'll give the charau-ka a welcoming fire when they open the door," says Lisi.
"Be careful," Catalina warns, looking at those behind her meaningfully as she slips out once Oren leaves, hoping to provide him with some backup in case things go awry.
"Way ahead of you..." Yasami whispers and winks at Lisi as she is setting up a vial of alchemical fire on top of the door, and making sure the snare Hezle set up pulls the flask down on the floor.
She pulls out a powder keg from the bag of holding and puts it on the floor. She makes a small opening in the side with her dagger, and powder the floor next to the barrel with a handful of powder. She looks at the vial as she does so, to make sure it falls at least close to the little powder hill. To ignite the powder, and subsequently the whole barrel.
Once she is satisfied, she walks to the hole. "Go on. I'm faster. I'll catch up."
"Don't be late, Yasami," says Lisi with a wink.
Lisi is as silent as a whisper--perhaps because he knows the land well by now.
Not wanting another fiasco where the party gets into a fight, Oren tries to follow Yasami's lead and sneak by as quiet as possible.
One by one, guided by Lisi's magic, the group eases out the back of the hut and crosses to the jungle treeline.
A couple minutes later , the group hears some banging and yelling coming from the direction of the hut, and then a huge crash followed by a boom with smoke and fire as the snare and bomb are set off in succession.
Although you cannot see, you hear the howls of the charau-ka and the hut explodes sending debri in every direction, as the fire reaches Hezle's chemicals.
At the same moment, under cover of the explosion, Hezle throws a bomb at the southern end of the mudpit.
Initiative order:
31 spider
28 boggard swampseers
24 sabosan
22 Yasami + Oren + charau-ka butchers
20 Hezle
18 Lisi
16 Catalina
14 charau-ka warriors
13 Caiten
11 boggard warriors
A giant spider comes scurrying out of the mudpile, to the shock and dismay of the charau-ka warrior standing there.
The spider attacks with its fangs, ripping the charau-ka warrior in two, it gnaws on the warrior's flesh and looks around for another to blame for the disturbance.
doubled for 38
The boggard swampseers and sabosan do... something.
The nearby charau-ka butchers, shocked from the snare and explosion and ongoing fire, see the giant spider emerge and kill the warrior in a single bite. They spend two actions getting out from the debris and standing, the one behind helping the other, and then they flee south, away from the spider.
The other butchers react.
The entire party is up!
Caiten watches - mildly concerned - as the spider emerges and rips apart one of the charau-ka. "I hope it will go back to its home once it no longer sees any enemies. And it would be best if we are not one of the enemies that it sees."
Caiten moves through the brush and peers around at the enemies to the south. With a quick word he casts a spell on Lisi. "Lisi, are you able to catch all of those grouped boggards with that fireball spell that you were mentioning?" Then with another quick word, he brings up his shield spell as well.
Focus Points (max 3): 1
Hexes
◆ Stoke the Heart
↺ Phase Familiar
◆ Needle of Vengeance
Focus
↺ Delay Consequence
Innate
◆ Time Sense
Cantrips
◆ Shield
◆◆ Haunting Hymn
◆◆ Stabilize
◆ Guidance
◆◆ Divine Lance
1st
◆◆ Bless
◆◆ Fear
◆◆ Command
2nd
▸
◆◆ Shield Other
◆◆ Resist Energy
3rd
▸
▸
◆◆ Heal H+2
Catalina dashes after Caiten, skidding to a stop just enough to see the charau-ka directly ahead of her. She narrows her eyes, rummaging through her mental encyclopedia for a weakness to exploit.
While you have mortal weakness applied, your Strikes also apply that weakness against any creature that has that weakness, not just creatures of the exact same kind. For instance, if you used mortal weakness against a red dragon to apply its weakness to cold to your Strikes, those Strikes would also apply to the weakness to cold of fire elementals or any other creature with a weakness to cold. While you have personal antithesis applied to a non-humanoid creature, you can apply your custom weakness to all creatures of the exact same kind. For example, if you used personal antithesis against an imp, the custom weakness would apply to other imps but not to other non-imp devils.
The thaumaturge pulls out the feather of dove, representative of peace (in her mind, the opposite of what the charau-ka represent), and lets it resonate before firing off a shot at the charau-ka before her.
Hezle moves through the jungle trailing the party but remaining completely out of sight. Only Yasami is aware of her presence at the moment.
Lisi skirts around the bombed building, and casts at the charau-ka. "Folks, I can't calm that spider down unless I chat with it for a good minute, so it's better that we steer it towards the enemy," he shouts, as rocks drop from the sky upon the pugnacious primate.
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Yasami pulls out her blade. "Run for the trees, people! We have already fought them in the open and that's how we ended up here." she shouts at the party as she moves to cover their retreat.
"I'll catch up."
She stands next to the charau-ka that is closest.
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Catalina sees one of the charau-ka butchers staggering, and targets it with a punishing blast, and it recoils with pain and surprise.
In the confusion of the explosions and movement everywhere, Lisi fails to hear Caiten's suggestion to target the boggards with a fireball. Instead, he emerges from the trees so he can target the two charau-ka butchers with a scatter scree spell.
Both charau-ka butchers are surprised by the bludgeoning rocks from the sky and fail their saves. The one in back is covered with blood and staggering on its feet.
Hearing Yasami's suggestion to stick to the trees, and concerned about securing his equipment, Oren moves South through the jungle, at the moment entirely concealed by within the trees.
ROUND TWO!
Avoiding the fire in the hut, the still annoyed spider scurries and comes up alongside the charau-ka butchers. The charau-ka shriek wildly, and quickly move to the south, pausing after the first stride to throw debris at Lisi.
One projectile connects with the side of Lisi's head, for 15 points of damage.
One of the other charau-ka butchers also shrieks wildly , approaches the spider to twice throw debris at it, and then retreats near its companions.
It connects twice, and does 19 and then 15 points of damage.
The boggard swampseers continue their slow movement and all four direct long rays of frost at the spider.
Three of the rays connect, for a total of 25 points of damage.
The spider looks shaken from all of that damage rapidly inflicted.
Hezle moves but the party is unsure where.
The entire party is up!
Caiten stomps through the brush to speak with Yasami and Catalina while still within the cover of the trees and shrubs. "Will there be a better time to come back here?" He almost casually blasts divine energy at a charau-ka behind Yasami.
"It would be good to get Dario's body and the rest of our equipment. And to neutralize this location from our enemies. I am not completely prepared, but I can still contribute. We can leave while they are distracted by the spider, but it doesn't look like it will last long."
"I say we kill all of them," says Lisi. "It's what Nature would want."
A lance of brilliant divine energy flies forth from Caiten and strikes dead the charau-ka in front of Yasami.
Oren moves silently through the trees, wanting to get closer to the equipment, but not so far from the others that he's at risk of endangering himself.
Catalina grins with murderous glee as several of the charau-ka go down, and she casts a quick glance at Yasami and Caiten. "Following Oren!" She says quickly, darting after the large barbarian.
The charau-ka in front of Yasami drops to the ground. With a happy expression, she puts away her sword to draw a bow. "Lisi, we need to attack from the treeline."
She nocks an arrow and lets lose at the blood-covered butcher to the southwest.
She shrugs. "Well, that went about as well as anticipated. This will be a battle of wills more than anything else."
She looks at Lisi again. "Coming?"
"Yes, yes, but let me give them a little present," says Lisi.
He casts Entangle on a broad swath of the clearing.
As Yasami sights the bloody charau-ka with her bow, she sees it collapse to the ground, apparently dead (). She redirects the arrow, but fails to land a clean enough strike on the next butcher.
In response to Lisi's command, the tall grass and weeds reach up and wrap around the ankles of the charau-ka butchers and one of the boggards. All but one of the charau-ka appear to be affected, but none seems completely caught up in the grasping vegetation .
The remaining charau-ka warriors run around and one gets lucky in debris tossed at the spider, hitting it for 8 points of damage.
The giant mud spider notices Lisi, but continues to direct its rage at the charau-ka, who threw rocks at it. It closes the distance and bites at the closest charau-ka.
Lisi watches in satisfaction as the fangs find their mark, and he assumes deliver venom as well. Nature in action.
The sabosan continues its ominous approach, ignoring the spider below.
Yasami hears another explosion from the direction of the mudpile, which she suspects may be Hezle trying to cause another spider to emerge.
The boggard swampseers croak in a manner that sounds like an incantation, and make mighty jumps over the area of entangling foliage.
They then again direct rays of frost at the spider.
This time, only two rays connect, for a total of 15 points of damage.
The entire party is up!
Caiten nods as Catalina heads through the brush. He beckons to Sulee with a quick hand signal and follows. He chooses a different path to try and keep Lisi within casting range.
Lisi sighs. "Wish I could get all those others in this spell," he says to himself, and points a finger to the side of the sabosan. A tiny bead of fire whisks away and expands to a roaring fireball in seconds.
He then melts into the foliage.
Retargeting, then!
To clarify, we are in the middle of round three.
Lisi sees the large crowd of foes caught within the entangling grass and weeds, chuckles, incants, and points his finger towards the middle of the group, causing a sphere of fire to launch, growing gradually, and exploding in the middle of the crowd, engulfing all of the boggard swampseers and two of the three charau-ka.
Fire engulfs the area and the group hears the primate and guttural howls of pain and confusion. All four boggards look quite scorched, and the butchers' fur is all black as well, with oozing wounds. Lisi can notice the "purple" charau-ka touch its side where it was bitten by the spider, which makes him suspect the venom is still working in the primate's body.
The charau-ka butchers (who have not acted yet this round), surround the spider, still the most immediate threat, despite the harrying attacks of the party.
As the party well knows, this type of attack is the butchers at their most dangerous, and they easily reduce the spider to a bloody pulp, repeatedly thrusting their tridents into the carcass and screeching in a frenzy.
The charau-ka warriors move around, some slowly crossing the entangling grasses, and some going around the bunkhouse. Also two pass in front of the mudpile.
Yasami, Catalina, and Oren are up, and then onto round 4!
Catalina races forward as quickly as she can through the foliage, pausing only briefly to squeeze Oren's shoulder as she makes her way past, gesturing toward the building that he had been heading toward as a way to quietly indicate she's following and supporting.
Oren lets out a brief smile as Catalina squeezes his shoulder, then follows her towards the building, going as quickly as he can.
Once everyone disappears in the treeline, Yasami looks at the charau-ka nearby. "Hey! Want to come get us? Are you sure you can?" she performs a mocking little foot shuffle at the creature to divert the attention from the party to her, and then runs for the trees, winking at the charau-ka.
The charau-ka blinks in confusion as Yasami taunts her and then disappears into the trees. All the charau-ka howl and grunt at each other in what those of you nearby assume to be Mwangi, apparently engaged in some discussion.
Round FOUR Initiative order:
First group: spider; boggard swampseers; sabosan
Second group: all PCs & Hezle
Third group: all charau-ka and boggard warriors
Another annoyed giant mud spider emerges from the mudpile, spots the charau-ka, and gives chase.
The boggard swampseers get past the area of entangling grasses and look around, trying to figure out what is going on. Not seeing any immediate explanation, they head in the direction of the sabosan, who seems to be flying in the direction of prey.
The sabosan lands on the ground at the edge of the jungle and emits a tremendously loud shriek of frustration in Lisi's direction, that also affects Yasami and Caiten.
Another distant explosion suggests that Hezle is still up to her tricks at the mudpile.
The party is up!