The Forgotten Forge

[Verbatim]

Sareth watch in frustration as the rubble did little to halt the insect's relentless attack on those he was tasked to assist, and as he heard the female urge the large man to retreat up the tunnel, Sareth called towards them both.

"They are surging up the tunnel...press forward and to the sides...let the small bastards go where they want."

Even as he yelled, his hands were searching for another tossable chunk of rubble, hoping that if nothing else, he could give them a little step to get them moving.

[sblock]ooc: Sorry that Sareth is not more help, but he doesn't have any fire and his rapier would be useless against the swarm.[/sblock]

 

[Delemental]

Following Sareth's advice, Tai will double move out of the swarm and to the side of the room, possibly climbing up on the rubble if she thinks it will keep the bugs off her (OOC - Wisdom or Intelligence check to figure out best place to be?)

 

[DEFCON 1]

'ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!! BURN SOMETHING!!! ANYTHING!!! LANTERNS! MORE TORCHES! OIL! LIGHT SOMETHING ON FIRE PEOPLE!!! BURN THESE LITTLE BUGGERS BUT GOOD!!!'

After having Tai lay a hand on him and heal some of his bites, he hears her yell 'Run!', and so Pohl turns and does. He throws his warhammer to the ground, waves the torch one final time in the mass of beetles ((Attack - torch +4 / 1d3 damage)), then dashes south for the tunnel. When he reaches the wall where the tunnel is six feet above the ground, he'll leap up and grab the lip of the tunnel's mouth to pull himself back up into it next round.

 

[DarkMaster]

Pohl continues to relentlessy swings his torch at the swarm of insects. (roll 18;dmg 2)

Pohl notices that the number of insects attacking him has significantly reduced, it shouldn't take too much to disperse the rest of the insects.

He steps back and retreat towards the hole. He runs towards it and jumps hoping to make it inside the hole. The wizards still hidden steps back to leave him some space.

(jump 10+3; climb 17+3) Pohl is unable to jump high enough to enter the hole directly but is able grab the edge of the entrance and pull himself in without too much trouble.

Tai(knowledge dungeon 10+2) recognises the insects, it is a fairly well known species of agressive beetles. They can climb almost as fast as they walk on the ground.

She is stuck now without light, moving forward could be dangerous when you don't know where you put your feets.

Sarath hoping to escape the insects press forwards on the left end wall

 

[DarkMaster]

Updated map with Sarath and Tai discovery

 

[Delemental]

She is stuck now without light, moving forward could be dangerous when you don't know where you put your feets.

Umm, what about...

Tai puts away her sling, but keeps the bullet out. She casts light on the bullet. "I'm afraid my eyes aren't as good in the dark as Master Sareth's." Clenching the bullet between her teeth, Tai grabs onto the rope and waits for Sareth's signal.

Though I doubt she still has the bullet in her teeth. Tai is likely holding it in her buckler hand.

Knowing that the beetles can just climb after her, Tai will likely try and smash them as they approach. She'll use her buckler rather than her spear, dropping the latter and holding the former in both hands, smashing it on the ground to maximize the surface area hitting beetles. She'll have to drop her light bullet too.

 

[DarkMaster]

OOC Sorry Delemental I forgot that post

Tai moves forward along the ruins on her right

---

Round 4
Swarm 20
Pohl 14+1
Sarath 11+3
Zane 12+2
Tai 6

The swarm stops for a few seconds as Pohl jumps in the tunnel and starts moving towards Sarath. The swarm is now about 30' from the gnome.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Pohl stands on the edge of the tunnel and looks down upon the swarm of beetles that are now starting to move towards the gnome. He can feel a few more still crawling up inside his trousers, but those are more irritation than pain so he ignores him. He reaches down to the flask and potion container on his belt and grabs one of the two final alchemist's fire flasks that he has. As he throws it down amongst the beetles, he yells behind him to Zane.

'ZANE! THERE'S ONE MORE FLASK ON MY BELT OF THE ALCHEMIST'S FIRE! GRAB IT AND THROW IT!!!'

He watches as the bottles sails through the air, and he hopes that his throw was true. ((Attack - thrown flask +2 / 1d6))

 

[DarkMaster]

Pohl standing on the edge of the tunnel carefully aims at the mass of insect heading towards the gnome. Once he got a good aim he throws the bottle. (roll 18+2) The bottle flies right in the middle of the swarm and explode burning (dmg 4x1.5=6) a large quantity of insects. For a few moment the room fills up with an horrible smell, but the natural ventilation system of the room quickly dissipates the odor.

The few remaining insects that survived run away in all directions.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Pohl drops from the ledge back into the cavern, and starts undoing much of his armor and clothing, trying to get the few remaining beetles out from inside his clothes. As they each drop to the ground, he stomps on them with his boot.

'Take that you little creeper! The Mockery take you all!'

After he clears evertyhing out and he gets himself back into his clothes and armor, he stretches his muscles a bit and then starts rummaging through his backpack.

'All right... I think we learned something today. When we are told to bring fire somewhere... we must BRING FIRE. LOTS OF FIRE. MANY MUCH FIRE. So here... each of you take one of these... in fact, Zane? You have both hands free... you take two!'

Pohl distributes torches to each of the three others, so that when everything is said and done, Sareth and Tai both wield a torch, Zane wields two, and he himself has a torch in one hand, and the remaining bottle of alchemist's fire (the last one they have) in the other.

'Who knows how many more of those things are down here? We need to be ready this time! And Sareth... don't bother throwing rocks at them anymore, okay? That's about as useful as taking a whip to a gelantinous cube.'

He stands up and slings his backpack back over his shoulders once more, then picks up the torch in his right hand.

'Okay people... left or right? We've got two ways to go. Did anyone happen to notice from which direction the swarm of beetles came from?'