Mikka, this looks like a creature that a god might have assembled, having gotten half-a-look at arthropods several years beforehand. Your knowledge of ticks and spiders prepares you to understand this about as well as your knowledge of cattle would prepare you to understand a minotaur.
But the spidery bits that you saw yesterday, along Gurg's trail, resemble smaller versions of this.
--+--+--
Rasina automatically makes her Perception check as well and casts shocking grasp as she dismounts and draws her weapons.
--+--+--
Veren, thank you for your enthusiasm, but we've found it's simpler for me to roll initative for everybody. (I'll keep that 20-result, though, for your next saving throw.)
The something: 1d20 + 6
Mikka: 1d20 + 2
Nadeq: 1d20 + 5
Rasina: 1d20 + 9
Veren: 1d20 + 4If you make a Sense Motive roll, DC 20:** spoiler omitted **
The monster -- Stops 10 feet away from Veren, so 15 - 25 feet away from the rest of the party. It opens up its mandibles, and you all see a series of spinnerets inside its maw. (No, Mikka, that doesn't make any sense.) It exhales (No, Mikka, that doesn't make sense either.) and casts a bubble of webbing at Veren. (Attack: 1d20+8 -- it hits.) Veren, you're encased in a rapidly-hardening tangle of very tough fibers, which smell strongly of brackish saltwater. (No, Mikka, ...)You'll be able to get free with either an Escape Artist skill check or a Strength check. In either case, the DC is 23.
Veren
Nadeq
Mikka
Rasina
Remaining mounted and seeing Rasinia focused on freeing Veren, Mikka begins to cast again, the dry deserrt air crackling with the buildup of electrical energy.
Stealth
Nadeq will hide behind the legs of his mount and take another shot at the creature
Stealth to stay hidden
The monster -- Stops 10 feet away from Veren and casts a bubble of webbing at him. (Attack: 1d20+8 -- it hits.) Veren, you're encased in a rapidly-hardening tangle of very tough fibers, which smell strongly of brackish saltwater. (No, Mikka, ...)
You'll be able to get free with either an Escape Artist skill check or a Strength check. In either case, the DC is 23.
Veren --
Nadeq -- shoots the monster again, and then manages to hide amidst his horse's legs. Good show!. Nadeq, this is a little too intense for your mount; would you make a Handle Animal roll please?
Mikka -- casts call lightning
Rasina -- casts shocking grasp
Handle
acrobatics
"Blast your fetid fangs! I dare you to do that again!"
The monster -- Stops 10 feet away from Veren and casts a bubble of webbing at him. (Attack: 1d20+8 -- it hits.) Veren, you're encased in a rapidly-hardening tangle of very tough fibers, which smell strongly of brackish saltwater.
Veren -- waits until he notices that Rasina is casting a spell, and then struggles to break free of the webbing, to no avail this round.
Nadeq -- shoots the monster again, and then manages to hide amidst his horse's legs. Good show, but this is too much for your horse.
Mikka -- casts call lightning
Rasina -- casts shocking grasp
Nadeq's horse -- backs away from the monster. Nadeq easily ducks out of the way, but the horse (and his cover) move off, only to get stuck in the webbing spread over the roadway. Now it's beginning to get anxious.
The monster -- Rotates its head a bit, as if it were examining Veren carefully. Then it circles the group, moving clockwise around Veren, and loosing another bubble of brackish webbing at (alphabetical, , Mikka, from a distance of 25 feet. (Attack: -- it hits your touch AC.)
You'll be able to get free with either an Escape Artist skill check or a Strength check. In either case, the DC is 23.
Veren --
Nadeq --
Mikka --
Rasina --
At the monster: "HAH! You missed me!"
"Baccusbreath! This stuff reeks!"
Rasina realized their explorations in the Desolation will come to a grisly end if Veren is not freed quickly. She hacks at the strands holding Veren.
Attack, Rapier (slashing) , damage .
Fair enough. Rasina moves up to the creature --despite its size, it does not have reach for its attacks-- and delivers a touch attack. The design of its exoskeleton seems to discharge some of the electricity away from damaging the monster.
At this very close range, Rasina can identify one bright spot in each eye-spot. Most of them are constantly rolling around, but a couple have fixed on her position.
Maintaining her calm Mikka gudes her horse in an arc away fro the creature as a bolt comes crashing down onto the monster.
The monster -- Rotates its head a bit, as if it were examining Veren carefully. Then it circles the group, moving clockwise around Veren, and loosing another bubble of brackish webbing at (alphabetical, 1d3 ⇒ 1, Mikka, from a distance of 25 feet. (Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14 -- it hits your touch AC.)
You'll be able to get free with either an Escape Artist skill check or a Strength check. In either case, the DC is 23.
Veren -- attempts to strongarm his way free again, and fails.
Mikka -- uses a standard action to call lightning down on the creature. (Saving throw: , not close. It doesn't dodge out of the way.) (The webbing actually engulfed both you and your horse, so it's stuck moving at half speed. Also, you've already rolled damage for this round. Let's call 11 the damage the spell would do in Round Three, if you decide to cast another bolt.)
Rasina -- moves up to the creature and delivers a shocking grasp.
Nadeq -- uses his wand of expeditious retreat and moves up behind the creature.
The creature -- hisses in several short bursts, sounding like a chuckle, and attempts to bite Rasina. (Attack: ; it hits. Rasina, take points of damage, and I'll need you to roll a Fortitude saving throw, please.)
Veren --
Mikka
Rasina
Nadeq getting ready to use shocking grasp.
Rasina sees Nadeq ready to strike the creatures flank ,and readies her attacks to coincide once he reaches flanking position.
Veren drags his way through the webbing towards the beast - a cold grin on his face as he aligns next to Rasina to flank with Nadeq.
"Time to sting back you big freak - I've seen better carapaces on dungbeetles; TAKE THIS!"
The creature -- hisses in several short bursts, sounding like a chuckle, and attempts to bite Rasina. (Attack: 1d20+13; it hits. Rasina, take 2d6+6 points of damage, and I'll need you to roll a Fortitude saving throw, please.)
Veren -- drags himself over to the spider/tick thing, the adhesive webbing cloying at his every move, hampering both his speed and his attack. With hundreds of eyes, the creature can't be flanked, it would seem. But Veren's practiced eye is good enough, and he whacks the abomination in the side of its carapace. Some sort of reddish ichor flows from the wound, drying to a fine powder before it hits the ground.
Mikka--
Rasina -- With hundreds of eyes, the creature can't be flanked, it would seem. But it can indeed be struck a critical blow!! But roll a Fortitude save, first, please, to see if you're in any condition to throw such a terrific shot.
Nadeq -- getting ready to use shocking grasp.
The creature -- hisses in several short bursts, sounding like a chuckle, and attempts to bite Rasina. (Attack: 1d20+13; it hits. Rasina, take 2d6+6 points of damage, and I'll need you to roll a Fortitude saving throw, please.)
Rasina -- With hundreds of eyes, the creature can't be flanked, it would seem. But it can indeed be struck a critical blow!! But roll a Fortitude save, first, please, to see if you're in any condition to throw such a terrific shot.
As soon as the monster bites her, Rasina feels her muscles seize up; her strength drops by points. (And the hit point damage is in the post above that one: 2d6 + 6 : (5, 1) + 6 = 12 points of damage.)
As soon as the monster bites her, Rasina feels her muscles seize up; her strength drops by 1d8 points. (And the hit point damage is in the post above that one: 2d6 + 6 : (5, 1) + 6 = 12 points of damage.)
Mikka once again directs the lightning down onto the creature.
The creature -- bites Rasina.
Veren -- strikes the monster
Mikka-- calls forth a lightning bolt, doing 11 points of damage. Again, the creature seems to shrug most of that off. (Mikka, you already rolled the damage for the bolt this round. We'll keep the 13 damage, in case you want to call another bolt in Round Four.)
Rasina -- Hits it well.
Nadeq -- seeing the creature ground the effects of more powerful blasts of electricity, Nadeq decides to simply stab the creature. (Attack: ; misses.)
The creature -- Attempts to shoot goo at Rasina, point-blank range. Technically, this is a missile attack so Veren, Nadeq and Rasina each get an opportunity to make a single attack.
Veren's AoO --
Nadeq's AoO -- (Attack: ; misses)
Rasina's AoO --
The monster then shoots webbing. (Attack: ; which hits.) You'll be able to get free with either an Escape Artist skill check or a Strength check. In either case, the DC is 23. Until then, your movement and attacks are hampered.
Veren --
Mikka--
Rasina --
Nadeq --
The attack strikes, but is not a critical. (So now you guys know its AC is somewhat better than 17, but not as high as 23.)
I assume it is a full round action to attempt to use Escape Artist, correct?
That's right. And you're free!
Veren's terrifically powerful blows stagger the creature. It now has four more gaping holes in its armor, each "bleeding" out a gout of red powder.
It's on its last legs!
PS - I'm using the awesome ogresheet, available at http://www.d20.ca/
Nadeq will attack once more with his simple rapier. Attack: ; which just hits! Damage: , which is just enough to tke the creature to -1. No-one is more surprised than he.
As the webbing dries, it hardens into a waxy substance that is easier to break off. After a couple of minutes, everyone is free.
Veren carefully prods the carcass two more times. Then helps Mikka and Rasina clean up the last remnants of webbing. As he does so he notices the somewhat uncomfortable color of the bite wound she received and offers her a cup of liquor ("Here, this stuff helps for that.")
Rasina looks over to Mikka with a questioning look in her eyes, as she walks over to the monster, preparing to end its miserable life.
Mikka nods to Rasinia. "This is no creature of the natural world, I suspect a fiend of some sort."
"A fiend? A bloody nightmare! Look at this thing! - if it didn't have these fangs here I wouldn't even be able to tell this is the front. How did it know of us anyway? We didn't stumble over any nest or anything - it literally came hunting us down."
"You two are both right, I suspect this thing was sent to capture one of us and kill the rest. It certainly was intelligent, without a doubt. If Richard, or possibly Durnast were here, we could possibly communicate with it, and learn more about who sent it."
Rasina pauses, and unless somebody raises an objection, she plunges her rapier into the creatures skull(?) and finishes it off. as an after thought she will look over the corpse for any items, or other clues as to its origins.
After cleaning her weapon off, she mounts her horse and says, "We must hurry now, I think more of these creatures will follow after us."
Rasina, several of the monster's eyes retain a spark of light, even after death. Otherwise, there's nothing about it that gives you a hint about its purposes or goals. Let me know if anybody wants to poke around any further.
--+--+--
It's about five in the late afternoon when you get to the part of the road where you'd turn off to find Veren's companions. You leave the road and head east, into the Ashen Wastes.
You find the corpses of the human and dwarf. They are now half-eaten, by ghoul-wolves by the look of it.
Veren begins digging two graves, to allow what remains of their bodies to rest in peace. After he completes the job he stares mournfully at the mounds.
"Gorbir, he was a great dwarf. A great drinker. Would hold a barrel of Dwarven mead at ransom if he could. Once he saved me when I was nearly drowned just off the cliffs of Redrock. A dwarf! He floated like a hammer, couldn't abide by water - but by Baccusbreath, in he went and dragged me out."
"And Farran... oh Farran - I don't know how this could've happened. A magic most foul must have griped hold of him. He was a legend. I can still clearly remember how he fought his way passed a pygmy tribe to rescue Vilgara from becoming Elven princess stew."
Veren's eyes are teary again - but he remains more somber now and opens his best bottle of oldlaw whisky to share with the two graves.
Rasina knows they are running out of daylight, but also knows trying to convince Veren to move on would be a futile gesture at best. To save time she assist him in digging the two shallow graves, while asking Mikka to locate the trail of the surviving companion.
More than an hour, but less than two, till sundown.
Mikka (takes 10 on Survival) finds the trail of a single person, likely female, heading in a raggedy fashion to the east-north-east.
"We should get moving now, we don't know what else is out there now." Rasina says to her companions, as she mounts up.
Just a bit slowly Veren agrees. After all, the ghoul wolves are likely to come back here in the night. Veren suggests to follow the trail at haste while the light still lingers.
After a while, the sun sets, and in the dwindling twilight, Mikka would need some sort of light source to continue her tracking.
Rasina notices the sun starting to set and realizes the mounts are probably getting tired, so she motions everyone off them, so as to conserve their strength. "It is useless to push our mounts since we need to find Veren's companion, not travel to Bards Gate."
The mounts need to rest for the night. They've been traveling along the hard-packed road for the most part, only walking in the fine silt of the Ashen Waste for the last few miles, so they're not fatigued yet.
Mikka, you find a long strip of cloth, half buried in the sand. It's a green brocade with elegant silver filigree. It's a ring of cloth, about two feet wide, with a diameter of four feet. Veren, you recognize the material as coming from Vilgara's (oddly impractical, now that you think on it) gown.
Given the speed at which the Ashen Waste claims anything left in its sands, you would estimate you are one to two days behind your quarry. Although, if Vilgara was caught in the bonestorm last evening ...
Rasina turns to her companions and suggests, "We should press on through the night, guiding our mounts along without riding them. If this Vilgara has any sence she found some shelter, hopefully, and we can gain some distance on her."
She turns to Veren, and asks, "Does this Vilgara have any survival skills at all, would she have the sense to look for shelter? She would need a place to ride out the bonestorm that occurred last evening."
Veren:
"At this pace we would be at least a day behind her if not more. Without a horse and stopping to rest her progress ould not be that great. If we press on we may have a good chance of finding her."
Veren grins as he recalls: "Vilgara is of finer stock - but does not mind getting dirty at all. That said, she has the good sense to make use of what destiny gives; and anybody that spends even a little time in these wastes quickly learns some essentials (or dies trying). But I would not say that she's as exceptionally gifted and talented in the ways of nature as Mikka here."
"Mikka's right, this is our chance to gain ground on Vilgara. Let's use the horses until they get to tired to ride , and then we'll press on foot. May the gods watch over fools and their followers."
"You sound like you too walk in the footsteps of Baccus. It is a privilege to have you three by my side."
Rasina repies, "Well, we are certainly honored by this, although I think Dionysus would be a more apt moniker."
After a moment, she adds, "One thing is troubling me, though, we did not find any signs of the centaur companion you mentioned earlier, when we discovered...uhh, passed by this way earlier."
Nadeq sighs "I can't believe i'm about to say this but i too think we should press on. When the need for rest arise, i can create an extra dimensional space like the one Durnast was capable of. It won't last as long as his but it will protect us for a few hours at least"