Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 3035357" data-attributes="member: 9626">The Gate of Madness: Giant Hideous Insect Monsters Are Too TrustingA quick glimpse around their immediate location made their next path clear.  Upon entering the second level, the party saw three paths.  The path to the northwest was periodically buffeted by jets of steam that could be seen even from the stairwell.  The northeast path was full of steam as well, and while Geritch told the party of a safe place to rest in that direction run by semi-friendly elemental creatures, the party thought it would be wise to try the other way for now.  Once again, Enrique insisted on going ahead (at an extremely strong suggestion from Anastacia.)  As he crept carefully down the tunnel, he clearly heard the sounds of battle ahead.  He got closer to investigate and saw firsthand how the creatures of the Gate were clearly getting weirder.  A massive, semi-humanoid crab was apparently being ambushed by two tiny frogs!    Enrique quickly got back to the party to give his report, prompting the party to eagerly investigate the event.  When they got near, Lorren took a quick look at the fight and explained the combatants as best he could.  “The large creature is called a crabman.  Or, if you insist, a crabfolk.  They’re generally isolationists, and they rarely attack unless provoked.  The frogs, however, are dangerous.  They’re known as Blindheim, and they can, as their name suggests, blind their opponents.  They’re also very hostile in pursuing food or power.  I can say with near-certainty that they started this fight.”    With that, the party rushed to attack.  If they were going to get into a fight, they were much happier siding with the one who might be grateful afterwards.  The crabman, for his part, was surprised to see the party arrive, but he ignored them to focus on the frogs.  The fight quickly turned problematic, though, as both the crabman and then Anastacia and Luke were blinded by the brilliant eyes of the frogs.  Fortunately, they were destroyed before they could cause further trouble, but then the party had to decide if they wanted to wait for the blindness to wear off, whenever that was, and what to do about the crabman.  Fortunately, after it heard the death croaks of the Blindheims, it immediately froze in place out of fear that it might harm its saviors.  As the party planned their next move, Enrique took the opportunity to pick the creature’s pouch!    The party waited several minutes, and after the blindness failed to end, they decided to press on and leave the crab for now.  They passed several exits before coming to a cavern that seemed to be shrouded in a dark, shadowy mist.  Since the party was half-blind anyway, they decided to explore while the darkness wouldn’t bother them that much.  This almost proved a mistake when a large creature landed with a heavy thud in front of them.  Those in the party who could still see could just make out the dark outline of a bat before it screamed at them, stunning much of the party.  Despite much of the party being stunned and/or blinded, however, the remaining competent heroes defeated it and ventured farther into the depths of the dark cavern.    The creature ran as it heard the panicked clicks of his friend.  He soon caught up with his terrified friend as he stood in a river.  He looked around and started to plead with the creature.  The two creatures didn’t share a same language, but their native tongues were based on the same emotional connections to the same sounds, so the creature could make out the crabman’s pleas.  “Help!  Items stolen!  Must find new friends for help!”    “Well, that was a waste of time,” Lorren complained as they reached the end of the cavern.  “We almost got eaten by a bat, we’ve been blinded and deafened and the gods know what else.”  Elvis coughed as dramatically as possible.  “Oh yes, and Elvis came down with a cold something.  And all we found was a staircase further down.”    Anastacia shrugged.  “Well, we may have to explore the lower levels some day.  It’s good to know where we’ll have to go in that case.  And who knows?  Maybe the Effervo Vesica made even more allies after the orcs.”    “Even so, we’re better off backtracking from here,” Ik suggested.  “We won’t find the orcs from this direction.”    As the party traveled back, however, they were surprised by two completely different groups.  First, mysterious snakes apparently made out of the very shadows emerged out of the walls themselves.  The party swung at them in desperation, but their weapons had no effect.  Just as the snakes were about to be upon them, they saw the second mysterious potential threat.  A mantis-like insect had entered the cavern and was impassively staring at them from the shadows!    Fortunately, the insect seemingly had no interest in the party, at least at first.  This let them concentrate on the snakes, which were forced to shift into physical bodies before they struck.  They managed to get a few light bites at the party, but before they could do any real damage, they were easily ripped apart by the party.  At that point, though, the mantis suddenly turned and emitted a clicking noise.  The crabman emerged from the shadows and appeared to be speaking to the mantis in a strange clicking language.    Surprisingly, the mantis turned to the party and spoke to them in Common.  “My friend tells me that you helped him when he was ambushed earlier.  Did you happen to see who stole his possessions afterwards?”    Trying hard not to look at Enrique, Ik nervously replied, “No, we didn’t see anything.  It must’ve been…washed down the river.  Yeah, that’s it!”    The mantis explained this to the crab in the same strange clicking language, and then introduced himself.  “I am Chitka.  My friend and I would like to accompany you for now and provide assistance in return.  Both of us have been separated from our people.  My friend here, who sadly lacks a name you can pronounce in this tongue, lives in this place, but he got separated and can’t find his way back down to his level.  As for me, my people first came to this dungeon to look for a new home, but we were attacked by something.  I wasn’t able to see what it was before the others told me to flee.”    The party quickly debated on accepting these new allies.  “Well, I think we can use all the help we can get,” Grim suggested.  “It’s not like we didn’t find friendly bugs here earlier.”    Enrique shook his head. “I don’t trust anything that strange,” he offered.    Elvis nodded.  “There’s something about them that makes me nervous,” he admitted.  “Especially that mantis thing.  I think we had something similar creatures back on Mesion, and they didn’t get along well with elves.”    “They didn’t like you?” Anastacia asked.    “Oh, they liked us a lot,” Elvis replied.  “They thought we were delicious.”    “Look, we can use all the help we can get,” Lorren grumbled.  “If they cause a problem, we can get rid of them, but until then, I say they can say.”    The majority agreed with Loren, so Chitka and the crab joined the party.  Chitka, who was wandering this floor of the dungeon for a while now, pointed out that the orcs were living in the eastern path the party previously skipped.  Before they could even get to the orcs, however, they encountered yet another unusual Gate of Madness inhabitant the orcs were apparently using for a pet/guardian.  A snail, far larger than anyone in the party, slowly emerged from the tunnel.  The party was split in how to respond to such a strange threat.  Half of them, including Elvis and Lorren, preferred to fight the monster from a distance, but Enrique, Grim, and even the crab, who had difficulty working with the party in regarding battle tactics due to the language barrier, were already too close to the snail to withdraw.  Instead, they surrounded the creature and slowly reduced it to a puddle of goo, but it was a difficult battle.  The snail responded to their attacks by swinging at them using a number of antennae shaped like flails, and by the time the monster was brought down, half the party could barely stand.    “We can’t fight the orcs like this!” Anastacia complained.  “Can you think of anyplace nearby where we can safely rest?” she asked Chitka.    Chitka thought for a moment and then reluctantly offered a suggestion.  “Well, there is one place,” he said, “but the creatures inhabiting it are kind of, well, strange.”    OOC Notes: Chitka is going to be a new player in the campaign.  Since I couldn’t find a level progression in Savage Species for the Thri-Kreen, I had to make one up.  That character should be…interesting once the game moves back into Fra Dane territory!  The “weird things” part of the adventure is not quite over, but it should get finished up by this weekend.  There’s probably only a 50/50 chance of playing this weekend due to Labor Day.</blockquote>

Verification