Quintessa doesn't understand this tongue, but she's thankful Teela does. She listens to the words and tries to infer their intent by watching Teela's reactions.
The room that Teela steps into is a small workshop of sorts. Three tiny crude wooden workbenches occupy the center of the this chamber. The tops of the benches are strewn with various little tools, metal and wood hardware, and blocks of wood. The downward slope of the room steepens as it goes west, ending in another vertical shaft that drops below.
Standing on either side of the room are two small blue creatures with long misshapen ears and rather hideous countenances. Teela clearly interrupted them at work/play. They have a contraption made from wood and bone that appears to be a small catapult capable of firing marbles across the room, and they have been taking turns firing at each other's mouths.
As soon as Teela speaks, and brings her lights into the room, one of the blue creatures shrieks in surprise and rushes to attack, while the other busies itself with reloading and re-aiming the bone catapult at the doorway.
Prank Workshop - Round 1
26 Alvis
24 Teela (diplomacy)
22 Quintessa
19 Scarlet Knight
18 Dingetooth (Blue)
15 Uurch (Red)
11 Velas (stealth)
8 Graham
With his peeking besides those ahead doesn't give the best view with them rushing forward it causes Alvis to say, "They don't look friendly, put up your guard."
Alvis calls upon the Master of the First Vault, "Great Lord of Justice, bestow your protection on us."
"Bard: strike, or stay? I'll as you say." The Scarlet Knight's voice is urgent: he wants an answer from Teela as he prepares to enter into the room, his gloved hand already on the hilt of his longsword in a practiced way, his fingers poised to grasp and lift.
"Well, they're charging us, so it'ss or them, I guess." Teela responds, and strums her harp, singing softly. "Step by step, heart to heart, left-right-left, we all fall down; like toy soldiers."
Cold mist emanates from the harp, condensing into ice, then the material hurls itself in the direction of the charging creature.
Lady Orlovsky's hand flashes, thumb and forefinger sketching a sigil in the air. "Appears we shall speaklater, spark now."
Twin forks of white-blue lightning leap from her outstretched palm towards the ringstealers.
Afterwards, she casts Glass Shield on herself for protection.
◈◈
"Well, they're charging us, so it'ss or them, I guess."
”As you say,” the Scarlet Knight responds to her. He draws his longsword and moves forward so quickly it’s almost a blur of red, his cloak fluttering after him as he lets out a short battle cry and ends to standing beside both creatures, his shield raised as he moved forward. He Strikes at the Blue creature as a very practiced afterthought at the end of his charge.
Prank Workshop - Round 1 - continued
26 Alvis
24 Teela
22 Quintessa
19 Scarlet Knight
18 Dingetooth (Blue)
15 Uurch (Red)
11 Velas (stealth)
8 Graham
Alvis casts his new favorite warding spell and an aura of protection covers those within15' of the dwarf cleric. He then raises his shield to double his protection.
Teela's playing and singing to manage to inspire her allies against these strange blue creatures. She then lobs a large chunk of ice at Blue, which hits bloodying the small creature.
After securing agreement, Scarlet Knight advances and attacks Dingetooth, stabbing it in the abdomen before the creature can prepare. That foe looks pretty hurt already.
Dingetooth, the blue creature, leaps to the attack stabbing at Scarlet with a point little shortsword. One attack clangs off Scarlet's shield, while the other slips underneath, stabbing in a soft spot on the knight.
Red turns the catapult and fires it at Teela how has begun singing. The first shot hits Teela for mild damage. The creature then reloads and refires, hitting the bard again in an annoying way.
fail
save for half
miss
hit
The Scarlet Knight raises a finger suddenly, in an almost imperious way.
When Uurch takes a shot at Teela, he points at the creature menacingly and says in a lyrical tone,
"Your unkind acts and savage glee
Bring Arazni's dark gaze on thee!
This young bard won't ache.
Her will you won't break -
And swings that we take
Now simpler to make!"
Bucky clenches a gloved fist tightly, as if crushing something into dust -- perhaps the creature's resolve.
A series of bright scarlet red motes, almost fire-like in appearance but glittering with holy power, slowly sprinkle down upon Uurch until he's covered in them head to toe. Then, all of the motes flare up as if overheating before dying out in unison, with the light from each small red light turned inward and only into the creature's eyes!
Graham moves forward, silently cursing the cramped space and being talked into descending beneath a massive tree. The size of the foes is a tad surprising, but not so much as to give the riverman pause.
The environment blunts the impact.
Prank Workshop - Round 1 - continued
26 Alvis (shield raised, +1AC from Benediction)
24 Teela (20/24hp remain; +1AC from Benediction)
22 Quintessa (+1AC from Benediction)
19 Scarlet Knight (28/34hp remain)
18 Dingetooth-Blue (15hp dmg)
15 Uurch-Red (7hp Dmg; off-guard, dazzled)
11 Velas (stealth; +1AC from Benediction)
8 Graham
As Uurch fires his first catapult shot at Teela, a flash of light emits from Scarlet, and the pain of the catapult stone vanishes from Teela. The bright light also sets back the attacking creature, and makes it blink rapidly trying to clear its vision.
From the tunnel, Graham leaps into the fray, attacking one of the foes as best he can with the low headspace. His attack hits, but the strange angle makes the damage less than desired.
Prank Workshop - Round 2
Alvis sees minor hits but isn't worried about it yet, but a quick look causes him to not cast a hostile spell in the melee because of bad angles. Instead he passively maintains his Benediction. He raises his shield again and tries to see if he can recall anything about creatures like these.
Velas moves forward to fight the closest creature. "Let's see what you've got!" Using his sword to draw an arcane rune in to the air, Velas combines martial and magic as he attacks at the creature.
◆ Stride
◆◆ Spellstrike
Bucky looks at his shortsword in hand, shakes his head, and drops it. "Feel free to throw my sword at one of them, Teela," he says in a dangerous tone.
The Scarlet Knight then clenches his fists and opens his kinetic aura. The usual red maple appears, growing to the ceiling of the cave before hitting it and tapping at it angrily, as if upset its growth has been restrained. Instead, the maple moves forward towards the blue creature in an almost menacing away; perhaps it too wishes to attack. Even the red leaves that usually flutter around the armored man seem to be hurling themselves -- without effect -- at the legs of the creature.
The Japanese maple grows a branch outwards suddenly, which shoots out and around The Scarlet Knight's left shoulder and taps him on the wrist twice. Bucky grabs the thin yet strong looking branch and snaps it off, holding it in his hand. He raises the branch up and cuffs the creature beneath its chin (he's attacking Dingetooth). Despite the branch being as thin as a switch, it hurts.
The branch grows back on the tree a second later, and the red maple continues to lean forward imposingly.
bludgeoning damage
"The twig is mightier than the sword," Bucky says with a grin evident in his tone, although his face isn't viewable. He raises his shield in expectation for what may come next.
(◇) drop shortsword
(◆) channel elements (opening kinetic gate and activating kinetic aura)
(◆) melee elemental blast
(◆) raise shield
Prank Workshop - Round 1 - concluded
26 Alvis (shield raised, +1AC from Benediction)
24 Teela (20/24hp remain; +1AC from Benediction)
22 Quintessa (+1AC from Benediction)
19 Scarlet Knight (28/34hp remain)
18 Dingetooth-Blue (15hp dmg)
15 Uurch-Red (11hp Dmg; off-guard, dazzled)
11 Velas (stealth; +1AC from Benediction)
8 Graham
Velas comes out of hiding to step forward and make a spellstrike on the Blue creature. His blade and magical claw finish off the small foe, dropping it dead to the ground.
End of Round 1
Prank Workshop - Round 2
26 Alvis (shield raised, +1AC from Benediction)
24 Teela (20/24hp remain; +1AC from Benediction)
22 Quintessa (+1AC from Benediction)
19 Scarlet Knight (28/34hp remain)
15 Uurch-Red Mitflit (11hp Dmg; off-guard, dazzled)
11 Velas (stealth; +1AC from Benediction)
8 Graham
With one foe down, Alvis does not enter the melee, but instead expands his Benediction spell, which now covers the whole party. He keeps his shield up and then works hard to recall what he knows of these creatures, if anything. He has heard of small burrowing gremlins before, they are sometimes called mitflit or mites. He recalls they are tricksters and evil, but that's all.
Scarlet Knight tosses aside his melee weapon and then concentrates as the maple tree grows around him. Suddenly the tree flicks out at the remaining mite, striking it quite hard. The knight then raises his shield just in case. The mitflit looks pretty bad off after taking that bludgeoning from the tree branch.
"Bit by bit, torn apart, we never win, but the battle wages on; for toy soldiers." Teela continues with her song, and the mists coalesce into ice shards again to assault the creature.
Quintessa shreds a fragment of metal into jagged shards and sends them flying forward towards the last remaining creature, hoping to end the encounter relatively quickly before anyone else gets hurt.
◈◈
"The further we go, the more strife we'll bring,
And no signs with them that parley's a thing.
Let's choose whether to abandon the ring?
Give raiders' regrets ... else show them who's king."
The Scarlet Knight's statement seems clear he's open to either option. But then he adds,
"But my instincts say
This is a future problem
We should solve today."
Prank Workshop - Round 2
The combined spell attacks from Teela and Quintessa are more than enough to topple the barely-hanging-on mite, and when he falls the fight is over for now.
End of Combat
Bucky will use a Lay on Hands to cure himself back to exact full health.
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"Right." Teela dusts herself off after being hit by a toy catapult. "That did actually hurt. For a toy, I mean."
She slides her bag on the ground and sits next to it to pull out her rubbing alcohol and some bandages. "I'm going to take a moment. Why don't you guys look around for anything useful? If you find anything in writing, I'll take a look."
And she looks at Bucky. "And we're not leaving the ring here. Well, -I- am not leaving the ring here. At least now we have a hint of where it is. If these creatures sell or lose it in the woods, that's it. It's done."
She continues patching up her bruises.
The Scarlet Knight nods in agreement at Teela’s statement, and her pulls out a very small notebook and an oversized quill and begins to make notes in it seriously, his visor now open, as he Refocuses to regain 1 focus point. He looks a bit perturbed as he scribbles in the notebook, his jaw tight.
Quintessa searches, but not alone. She nudges Velas and Graham in front of her, urging them forward so she's not wanedering around without some protection.
Alvis says, "It seems I was a bit overzealous in bestowing my lord's protection. I'll need to be more discerning going forward." When Teela starts treating herself he says, "Teela, I appreciate your hard-working desire for self-sufficiency, it's still easier if someone helps with treatment. Let me aid you." If Teela agrees Alvis takes out his healing kit and assists Teela.
Expert, Aid Treat Wounds
"I don't think you did anything wrong casting your spell. It may have helped someone avoid taking another hit," the Scarlet Knight says without rhyming, still writing angrily into his little notebook, only briefly looking up at Alvis before returning to his writings.
Besides a workshop with small-sized tools and gear for making pranks, like the bone catapult, there is nothing else of interest or value in this room. The far end of the room descends vertically, much like the entrance to the tunnels above, with roots to allow for ease of climbing up or down. This appears to be the only exit other than the way you entered.
After the requisite time, Teela and Scarlet are fully healed again, and Scarlet Knight's focus spell is restored. Unfortunately, Alvis' protection spell wears off during that rest time.
Teela looks into the 'hole' at the other side of the room. Hesitantly. She turns back to face the party. "You guys want to head back and look into the other tunnel first? Or go down?"
"I suggest we clear each level
Lest we be attacked from the rear.
Once done here, we'll laugh and revel
And restore a wife's ring most dear."
After wiping the gore from his blade and examining the fallen creatures, Velas concurs with Scarlet. "Better to venture into the other path before heading down deeper. We haven't made a very stealthy entrance so whatever might be in that other direction may have heard us and could be ready to follow us down."
Assuming no disagreements, Velas readies himself to take point again into the other area.
You move back up the tunnel (it slopes slightly upwards as you backtrack) to the shaft that leads back to the surface, and then continue on as the hallway slopes down again, more steeply than before. A noisome wet fluid drips from several places in the root filled ceiling and starts to collect in the floor running down the direction you are heading, not deep but still makes the floor wet. If you taste the water it is not pleasant, filled with the bitter taste of minerals collected from the soil above.
Eventually, the floor slopes into terraces that lead downward still, and the water drips and flows that direction. Soon enough, the cramped tunnel opens into a wider chamber, still with very low clearance. The wet floor of this large cavern is crisscrossed with several shallow trenches, each containing trickles of putrid fluid. Six foul mounds of compost and dung lie heaped about the room, each pile studded with small spherical white eggs.
The light from Velas' spell draw the attention of the denizens of this room. Another single mitflit stands next to a bowl, where at least 3 long centipedes, about the size of a large dog, seem to eating from the bowl, several more of the large vermin clamber around other parts of the room. The mitflit cries out as she sees you, and alerts her "pets" to attack.
Hatchery - Round 1
24 Purple smaller centipede
24 Teela
22 Graham
21 Scarlet
20 Green larger Centipede
20 Blue larger Centipede
17 Yellow larger Centipede
16 Velas
14 Quintessa
13 Alvis
8 Quoggy mitflit
8 Red smaller centipede
8 Orange smaller centipede
Immediately, the Purple Centipede rushes at Scarlet in the front rank and bites twice on the intruder. The damage from either bite is not significant, but each bite also injects a mild venom that start coursing through the champion's bloodstream.
Bucky sighs even as he summons some the assistance of the woods through his still-open kinetic aura. An impressively long tree-like club, like the top of a moderately-sized pine tree, appears in his hand as he grips it at the bottom. He swings it in an upward strike aimed at the nasty little bug.
"I don't appreciate bugs at all.
They skitter, infect, bite, and crawl.
They're the bane of the farmer,
and they mess up armor.
They hurt my father.
Me they bother.
They're so smug.
Hate bugs,
Ugh."
bludgeoning
The Scarlet Knight raises his shield now, prepared this time for any shenanigans.
"Ugh indeed." Teela looks into the room, her mouth twisting with revulsion. She starts plucking at her harp. "Hold me down. I need to be tied to the ground. When I get this feeling, I feel it just behind my back. I call it a dog, I call it a dog, the dog is black"
Again, mists form around the harp, coalescing into icicles that she hurls at the nearest creature.
Focus 1
Muse maestro
You add a flourish to your composition to extend its benefits. If your next action is to cast a cantrip composition with a duration of 1 round, attempt a Performance check. The DC is usually a standard-difficulty DC of a level equal to the highest[1]level target of your composition, but the GM can assign a different DC based on the circumstances. The effect depends on the result of your check.
Critical Success The composition lasts 4 rounds.
Success The composition lasts 3 rounds.
Failure The composition lasts 1 round, but you don't spend the Focus Point for casting this spell.
x2
Graham moves forward at Bucky's poem and –
Oh, yuck.
The appearance of another blue-skinned foe and pet bugs don't help his already-foul mood thanks to the cramped quarters. Still, he turns his attention to Purple.
Hatchery - Round 1 -continued
24 Teela
22 Graham
21 Scarlet (30/34hp remain; shield raised)
20 Green larger Centipede
20 Blue larger Centipede
17 Yellow larger Centipede
16 Velas
14 Quintessa
13 Alvis
8 Quoggy mitflit
Teela starts another martial tune, this one almost playing itself as it eggs her allies forward to the fight. She then conjures shards of ice that she sends against Purple Centipede. The force of the icy blast rends the icky bug, killing it.
Graham, suddenly free of a creature's attack, steps forward and plows through Red Centipede, killing it with a pair of attacks.
Bitten but not envenomed, Scarlet Knight blasts elemental energy forward, damaging Orange which is nearly at the edge of his range.
With all the smaller centipedes dispatched, the larger ones all advance making stinging bite attacks at Graham, Velas and Scarlet. All the attack are successful with varying degrees of damage. The Scarlet Knight is able to use his raised shield to fend off all the damage from the most serious attack he faced, though the shield does take the brunt of it.
hit
hit
hit
hit
crit
hit
4 total shield block makes it zero
Earlier:
Replying to Sir Scarlet, "I mean it seems it would be better if I waited for a larger group than two. I cannot do it again today."
Hatchery - Round 1
Alvis sees the situation as concerning, taking action he moves besides Grahan and, making sure his allies are not at risk, he calls for a blast of discordant heavenly music. "My lord these creatures aid the savage. Let our path be cleared of it."
Damage Sonic Fort save DC 17
Quintessa shifts sideways along the roots to get a clean lane, lips curling at the stink. "Eck! Mind your footing boys, let’s see how they like a live floor."
She snaps a sigil with her wriest as wwin bolts fork from her palm into the room, leaping first to the centipede in front of Scarlet and then chaining to the one worrying Alvis. .
◈◈