- taking a ten-headed hydra's charge-pounce on the chest, laugh it off and eat it's heart
You know, for some reason I remember that going down differently. Didn't I eat all of you?
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New Year's Resolution #1: "Never attack on land".
---------- Deca-Jaws is irritated that the death-water priest ensnared him in a whirlpool in his own lair. Deca-Jaws is further annoyed that this same priest ejected one of his heads to the surface and made it flop like a fish Deca-Jaws is particularly agitated that the large dwarf drove a spear through one of his brains. He had to re-grow the whole head – he hasn’t had to do that in years! Deca-Jaws is further agitated that the same dwarf took him on in a staring contest and managed to escape in the blink of an eye (so the hydra has some difficulty telling the dwarves apart – don’t we all?) Deca-Jaws is further enraged that this giant dwarf then cast some kind of hex on him – messing with his chi. (You seen one enlarged-dwarf, you seen em all, no?) Deca Jaws is seriously cheesed off that to top it off a draconic-beast man has entered his oasis and shouted him down in a contest of roars. Deca-Jaws is downright angry that this same beast has sunk his jaws into his neck and tore a gaping hole all the way down to his chest. Yeah, hulk definitely smash! (hit!)
(applies!)
(unconfirmed!) (n/a!) That's a total of 63 damage. However, Moonpate's stoneskin absorbs 62 points of that. Hurgah takes exactly 1 point of damage. Amazing. Though, I should note there's only 8 hit points of protection left in that spell. Dang, if it weren't for Hal, Deca could have exhausted the spell in a round. Lastly, Deca-Jaws fast heals 10 points of damage. ---------- The stampeding hydra rolls over the half-orc with ease, crushing him deep into the sand. It then stops on a dime and begins laying into the dragon disciple. One at a time each head rises to its full height and then comes crashing down, using the full force of its muscled neck to slam into the half-orc, each time with a reverberating thunder crack as the creature’s head strikes home. Angry and determined, the creature refuses to give its target even a sliver of time to recover and escape. It is time for the interloper to die. The half-orc however is. . . laughing?! Although practically buried in an impact crater, Hurgah finds the mega-hydra’s attacks merely amusing. For unbeknownst to the ten-headed one, the real power behind the half-orc’s daring gambit has come from the wizard behind him, the Potentate. By harnessing the mystic power of diamonds, the wizard has transfused Hurgah’s body with the properties of stone. With each strike the King-Lizard’s teeth simply shatter and break as they hit the half-orc’s glittering body. As the assault continues the hydra’s faces gradually transform into bizarre collages of purplish bruising – each blow brings the creature more and more pain with little return. Slowly Hurgah rises to one knee, then to his feet. Deca-Jaws pounds away faster and faster and more furiously until suddenly a new emotion strikes enters the creature’s brain-cluster, one the apex-predator hasn’t experienced in a very long time: fear.
I very much intend to - but only after I'm done snacking on your party's sorcerer.
Oooooo, a time-out – you guys got lucky there.
No sooner does Donkor unceremoniously dismount Belleson and land next to Breach then a second disturbance wracks the oasis at dusk.
A hoard of draconic heads emerges from the fog field, water draining off of their scales and splashing into the oasis below. All ten of the heads pull back and deliver a chorus of reverberating roars. Every desert creature for miles will have fled. Next, the tangle of heads cut through the fog and prepare to stab at Breach, Donkor and Jason, each set of jaws boasting a collection of yellow incisors long and wicked enough to be a butcher’s knife.
<---- Picture of me as me dentist say "Oben Wibe!"
With Moon and Gandel going on delay that takes us to Deca-Jaws-- --who again fails to make an appearance.
Still no sign of the hydra. . . Perhaps the Pharasman is right after all, maybe Deca-Jaws no longer wants anything to do with the Dune Squad.
Despite the building tension with the clustering of four Large-sized warriors at or near the shore line, Deca-Jaws does not yet appear. Perhaps the creature is still ensnared by Donkor's control water trap, or licking its wounds from Kogan's assault. Perhaps it is distracted battling Moonpate's newest minion--or swallowing Belleson. As the sun completes its decent, all you see is an eerie unnatural bank of fog which seems to hug the oasis' center. While the Dune Squad watches vigilantly in silence, every so often a bloody piece of viscera slowly floats out of the fog, collecting on the shore.
Deca-Jaws is up! If Deca-Jaws' main body does anything this round, you don't observe it from this side of the rift. Maybe he's playing Monopoly. Same goes for the three free hydra-heads back on the elemental plane of water. The hydra-head catapulted to the surface continues to do its best imitation of a fish out of water. It's not actually suffocating, but it's effectively stuck in place. That leaves one hydra-head. Its senses ignited by the blood in the water, the creature begins swimming back and forth in a tight shark-like figure-eight pattern, looking to dive at Donkor in vengeance for the attack on its brother. Just as it's about to strike, it seems to stop - almost as though it has received a message. It turns and immediately changes targets-- --attacking Belleson! (miss!) The beast hyper-extends its jaws like a snake, but the strike still misses, likely thanks to the protective ward woven by Halstadt. For a moment you wonder if the beast will continue its trajectory and vanish back into the rift, but it does not. Instead it continues to circle the Dune Squad looking for angles of vulnerability.
Why would you assume it is bad news? Just because it is? ---------- Once on the other side of the rift the Dune Squad discovers that two of Deca-Jaws’ detached hydra-heads lie in wait. As soon as Hal and Gandel pass through, they lash forward attempting to puncture the dwarf’s flesh and separate his vitals. The two work in concert, the first diving from above while the other takes advantage of the distraction to strike from below. ----------
(hit!) (n/a) (applies!) (hit!) (negates!) (n/a!)
---------- Hal is struck by the first blow but his armor protects him from the force of it, breaking two of the beast's teeth in the process. When the second shark-like head strikes, it discovers Hal is not where it thought he was, Bellson's magic obscuring his true position. The creature sails on by, confused and enraged at missing its kill.
“All together now, boys. We are gonna make this run for the rift together or not at all," says the older dwarf, halting just long enough to allow his kinsman to get in line.” Karek pulls out his spear and summons his inner frenzy. Hal utters a prayer to his fiery god. “Now!” yells Breach and the three swim forward, racing across the final stretch of space to the alien fissure-like phenomenon swirling in the water. As they do so, their muscles strain against the current created by Donkor’s square shaped cyclone, a vortex which drags the hydra back, forcing it just below them. As soon as the Dune Squad is in range, Deca-Jaws rears up with two of its heads, snapping at the Dune Squad as they pass. ----------
(n/a) (applies!) (hit!) (n/a) (applies!)
Deca-Jaws snaps its jaws around the least armored dwarf, tearing into Breach's flesh. The behemoth tries to get a grip on two parts of the dwarf at once so that it can quickly tear him apart. The dwarf however, kicks and flails like a madman, rendering it impossible for the two heads to maintain their grip. He is though injured in the process, the evidence of which is the red cloud quickly forming in the water. Strangely, the dwarf cleric next to him cries out in sympathetic pain. The smell of blood emboldens the great hydra even further as its remaining three heads on its main body rise up to the rift to join in the feeding frenzy.
(fails!)
---------- The behemoth fights against the raging current, fighting its way towards the Tumen Gate. Its five heads snap their jaws back and forth every which way it can, seeking a morsel of flesh to compensate it for the aggravation it has endured.
*("Hit me with your best shot")
And initiative for the big guy himself!
(Ugh!)
Hurgah pledges to eat Deca-jaws or die trying... Contact your local politician (or adventurer): Insist they take the Hurgah pledge.
My sincerest apologies for my prolonged absence. I'm back if you'll have me, and have posted in the IC thread... As Hurgah says, all the more for nom, nom! |