Company of the Random Encounter ('complete' 14 Nov 2004)

[Capellan]

"Bounty Hunters" by Jim Gillispie's Module Workshop - Part 3

For a moment, it seems inevitable that Anastria will be struck. The elf is not as oblivious as she appears, however. Her eyes are sharp enough to catch a glimpse of movement, and her reflexes are more than up to the task of twisting her away from the blow.

She even manages to draw her blade as she does so, though her strike, made blindly, goes wide.

The rest of the group pour into the room to assist her against her attacker. The repulsive creature - a small humanoid with baggy, grey skin - uses its clawed feet to cling to the wall above the door, while lashing out with its long, almost tentacle-like arms.

"Choker!" Briar has fought one of these things before, "Watch out for the arms - it's stronger than it looks!"

Mantreus somersaults into the room, almost reaching the far wall before he turns and gestures, speaking an arcane phrase that sends a glowing arrow of energy streaking into the creature's side. Briar tries a mundane arrow in its place, but lacks the sorcerer's unerring accuracy.

This strategy of standing back to attack from range appeals to the others, who also draw bows and slings, adding to the barrage of missiles flying at the Choker. They have not reckoned with the creature's ability to move along sheer surfaces, however, and it suddenly scuttles across the ceiling, arms lashing down to strike at Mantreus.

The sorcerer is caught off-guard, and the creature's arm wraps around his throat, squeezing sharply. There is a sickening crunch of cartilage and bone, and then the arm withdraws. Mantreus stands for a moment, swaying slightly on his feet, then crumples bonelessly to the ground.

"Give me some cover!" the Padre yells, moving to the sorcerer's side. The others do as much as they can, fending off the choker's attack with their shields and weapons while the cleric hastily calls upon his god for aid.

The familiar surge of healing energies flow through the Padre's body, but the experience is not quite as it has been in the past. The flow now feels like a flood, pouring through him into the tortured flesh of the sorcerer's neck.

The Padre shouts out - a mixture of surprise and exultation - then slumps forward, momentarily drained by the power that has passed through him.

As he does so, the Choker lashes out at Stormstrider. The blow lands, but the powerful elf grabs the creature's arm, preventing it from getting the same deadly hold that it achieved on Mantreus. The Choker squeals it surprise and outrage, held still for just a moment, before it rips the arm free.

A moment is all that is needed: with the creature's focus trained upon Stormstrider, Briar and Elspeth land telling blows. Dark blood flows thickly from the two deep wounds, and the Choker's muscles relax, letting it fall to a heap on the store room floor.

Briar helps the Padre to his feet,

"Impressive." She quips, with a glance at the still unconscious sorcerer, "Maybe there's something in this religion business after all. Will he be OK?"

"He'll have a nasty bruise, but nothing worse." The priest massages his eyes, rubbing away spots of colour, "I have not channelled so much power before. It seems I have advanced in my lord's service. "

"Whatever you did, you have my thanks." Mantreus croaks, his eyes opening. Slowly, he sits up, tentatively touching his neck as he does so. The flesh is still tender, and he winces. Gathering his thoughts, he glances around the room.

"So, was there any treasure?"

 

[Capellan]

"Bounty Hunters" by Jim Gillispie's Module Workshop - Part 4

The group searches the room, and again turns up empty. Complaining bitterly about monsters that don't collect treasure for them to loot, they return to the large chamber with the hole broken in one wall.

"I think we can squeeze our way through." Briar reports, after examining it for a few moments. "It's definitely wide enough for a person, and we all tend to travel pretty light, so armour isn't a problem."

"Looks pretty tight to me." The Padre frowns, with a glance at the heavy wooden shield he carries.

"It's only like that for a few feet. After that, it widens out."

Anastria nods,

"She speaks the truth. Even fat, slow humans will be able to get through."

"Please stop helping." Briar rubs her eyes like she has a headache. "Are we going, or not?"

"No choice." Mantreus shrugs and begins to squirm his way through, "Those bounty hunters aren't going to go away without the diamond."

The sorcerer has a good point, and one by one, the group inch their way through the hole. The Padre is the last to do so, passing his shield through to the others before making the attempt. Despite his concerns, he has very little difficulty with the task.

"That was easy," he quirks an eyebrow at Anastria, who picked up some tears in her clothing while working her way through, "Looks like you need to lose a few pounds."

Not waiting for an answer from the sputtering elf, the cleric moves on down the corridor.

"It's wide enough for two abreast, up here." He calls back, "We'll go on in three ranks. Briar, you take the torch and stand in the middle with Mantreus. The rest of us will protect you, front and back."

The group adopts this marching order and moves on. They have gone only a short distance, however, when they notice a deep but narrow crevice in one of the walls. Showing more pluck than good sense, Briar volunteers to investigate it.

"Are you sure?" The Padre crouches and tries thrusting a torch into the crack, but the effort is fruitless, "It looks pretty deep, and you won't have any light."

"I've got a small oil lamp." Briar digs it out of her pack, "I can push it along the ground in front of me. Don't worry, if anything eats me, I'll be sure to scream."

With a last impish grin, she drops to her belly and slithers into the dark space, arms stretched out in front of her.

This gap is far more tight than the earlier gap they all had to come through, and her progress really is a matter of inches, slowly shuffling forward, pushing the lamp before her. The tiny flame illuminates only the smallest of areas, but casts enough heat onto the rogue's face that she is soon sweating heavily in the enclosed space.

Suddenly something lunges at her, bursting out of the darkness. Briar has barely enough time for a squeak of terror before the onrushing creature has spilled the lamp, plunging her into pitch darkness. In that last moment, she sees only grasping tentacles and a soft-lipped mouth filled with small but vicious little teeth.

Then something cold and slimy wraps around her face, and every muscle in her body goes rigid with paralysis.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Briar. . . we barely knew you.

 

[Hammerhead]

Stupid carrion crawlers, hiding like that.

 

[Mantreus]

Stupid carrion crawlers, hiding like that.

You should have heard us all squeal like little girls when we realised what it was

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

Then something cold and slimy wraps around her face, and every muscle in her body goes rigid with paralysis.

Must...not... make... anime... joke....

I doubt Eric's grandmother would approve.

 

[Mantreus]

Must...not... make... anime... joke....

I doubt Eric's grandmother would approve.

I don't thin Briars player would either...

then again.

 

[Capellan]

"Bounty Hunters" by Jim Gillispie's Module Workshop - Part 5

Fortunately, the rogue's exclamation echoes back into the main corridor, and this - coupled with the sudden jerk of her feet - alerts the rest of the group to her trouble.

"Something's happened! Quick, get her out!" the Padre snaps. Stormstrider reacts with equal speed but more effect. Dropping his quarterstaff, her crouches low and thrusts his arms into the hole. Grasping Briar's ankles, he braces his feet against the wall on either side of the crevice and yanks back sharply.

For a moment, there is a tug of resistance, but the ranger's muscles bunch again and he hauls the rogue out bodily, dragging her assailant along for the ride.

The creature is a centipede-like monstrosity nearly six feet in length. It has sickly green-white hue and a bulbous head surrounded by eight tentacles, each over a foot in length.

The beast makes a burbling squeal of irritation and releases its grip on Briar. Red welts mark the rogue's face where it had grappled her, though the lack of other injuries suggest it has not yet had a chance to bite.

Elspeth and Anastria leap forward, each landing blows on the creature, but it hisses and lashes back with its tentacles, paralysing both as efficiently as it did Briar.

"Keep away from it and try to use ranged attacks!" Mantreus follows his own advice by taking several steps back and sending a magical bolt of force into the creature's side.

"Someone has to keep it busy or it may try to drag one of them away." The Padre moves in and delivers a crushing blow with his mace as he speaks, then dodges aside of the creature's probing tentacles.

Stormstrider doesn't bother to explain his actions, he simply charges in, gathering up his quarterstaff as he does so and bringing the iron-shod tip crashing down on the creature's back. The beast staggers, squealing, and grasps at the elf with its tentacles. One strikes bare flesh, but Stormstrider seems more resistant to the creature's toxins than were the others, and shrugs off any symptoms of paralysis.

This effort proves the creature's last. It is already moving more slowly after Stormstrider's blow, the rear half seeming to drag helplessly on the ground, and the Padre capitalises on this weakness, landing a heavy blow just behind the beast's head. It emits a noise that is something like a choking gurgle, then slumps to the ground, green ichor slowly pooling around it.

"What do we do now?" Mantreus asks, gesturing at their three paralysed companions.

"We move them all into the same place, so that they'll be easier to protect if any other creatures come along, and we wait for them to recover." The Padre shrugs, "We don't really have much option. We can't take them with us, and we certainly can't leave them behind."

"What if it takes a long time? We've got a deadline here. Emphasis on the 'dead'."

"We'll give it ten minutes. If they haven't recovered by then, we'll take them back the others and continue on alone."

In the end it takes only five minutes for the three victims to begin recovering some movement in their limbs, and by the time the Padre's ten minutes is up, they are all moving freely. Despite her earlier experience, Briar once more volunteers to enter crevice. Some people might question her sanity at this, but not the intrepid Company of the Random Encounter: they prove more than willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Thus, she crawls once more into the crevice, returning after a few seconds to collect a rope.

"There's a body in there, but it's too heavy for me to move." She explains. "I'll tie this 'round it and you can drag it out."

In no time at all ("It's nice to see that someone finally bought some rope.") the group have pulled the body from the crevice and thoroughly looted it. The corpse - the badly decayed and partially eaten remains of a human male - bears a finely-crafted longsword and a full belt pouch, but is lamentably free of diamonds.

Lacking other options, the group press on, travelling through further tunnels until they reach a chamber that is overgrown with vegetation. There is a gap in the ceiling of the chamber, and occasional patches of starry sky can be seen through a dense tangle of root-like vines, which cascade down through the hole and then run all around the walls of the room, creating a number of thick clumps and tangles. Dead and dying vines litter the floor, much of which is buried under a thick layer of decaying vegetation.

"This place is going to take ages to search." Mantreus grumbles. "And by the end of it we're all going to smell like compost."

"Nothing for it but to fan out and each do a separate part of the room." Elspeth shrugs, "That will speed things up a bit."

The group does as the ranger suggests, each adventurer poking through the vegetation in a separate part of the room, some exhibiting markedly less enthusiasm for the search than others.

"Uh, guys?" Briar straightens up suddenly, looking around with a worried expression, "Is it just me, or are some of these vines moving?"

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

"Uh, guys?" Briar straightens up suddenly, looking around with a worried expression, "Is it just me, or are some of these vines moving?"

Anybody ever see the first Evil Dead movie? There's a scene where Helpless Female Bystander #2 gets attacked by evil tree vines. In a matter that makes you wonder if Sam Raimi ever watched certain anime movies.

What is it with Briar, anyway? (Or maybe the question should be: What is it with me, anyway? )

 

[Capellan]

"Bounty Hunters" by Jim Gillispie's Module Workshop - Part 6

Suddenly, the adventurers realise that some of the vines and creepers have curled around their ankles, entangling their legs and making it very difficult to move. Even as they start to try and pull free, more vines drop from the ceiling, grasping at the adventurers arms and throats.

"There!" Mantreus points to a thick clump of vegetation, "I think tha's the main trunk of this thing! All the vines seem to lead back that way!"

He raises his crossbow and readies to fire it, but as he does so, two of the vines wrap around his arm and wrench up toward the ceiling. There's a damp crunch as the joint in his shoulder dislocates.

The sorcerer goes white with shock, but can't even manage a gasp of pain before the vines wrench again, grinding the dislocated bones against each other. There is another, even more intense wave of agony, before blackness mercifully sweeps over him.

The vines lash out at the others, as well, but none suffer as badly as Mantreus. One particularly thick vine wraps around Stormstrider's chest, cracking several of his ribs as it squeezes tight, but the elf tears himself free with brute force, then sends his quarterstaff smashing into the trunk of the plant.

"There's a body in here!" he calls, crushing part of the skeletal remains as his next blow to the plant goes astray.

"Let's focus on not joining it!" the Padre calls back, using his dagger to slash at a vine that has wrapped itself dangerously close to his throat. Managing to sever his target with a well-placed blow, he snakes between several more grasping tendrils, moving up beside the druid.

The vines continue to grasp at the group, but there are simply too many adventurers for the plant to deal with all at once. Each time one of the Company is grasped, another member comes to their aid, and both Stormstrider and the Padre refuse to be distracted from the task of smashing the thick truck with the heaviest blows they can manage. Mace and quarterstaff are applied with vigour, and the men's crushing blows tear large rents in their target.

Soon, the attacks of the vines become weaker and less cohesive. Sap oozes from nearly a dozen wounds in the trunk, and four or five of the tendrils have been severed completely. Leaving Stormstrider to complete the job of destroying their enemy, the Padre moves over to the unconscious Mantreus. The sorcerer is still unconscious, and his skin is clammy and pale, but the cleric finds a faint pulse at his throat.

"St Cuthbert grant thee succour." The Padre invokes his god, channelling healing energy into the dying man. Slowly, Mantreus' colour improves.

"What's that noise?" the sorcerer asks, eyes still closed.

"Stormstrider's putting the finishing touches to your recent admirer." The Padre glances across the room, "There's bits of wood flying everywhere."

"That's alright, then." Mantreus opens his eyes, "I was having visions of some hideous afterlife. This dungeon is no fun."

"You do seem to be doing a lot of the near-death thing, today." The cleric agrees, nonchalantly. "And for the record: trying to use missile weapons in hand to hand combat is a bad idea."

"How was I supposed to know it could reach that far?" the sorcerer grumbles, sitting up. "Ow." He presses a hand to his side, "I don't think your healing quite finished the job, Padre."

The cleric nods and looks around at the others, noting the many small injuries they have all suffered. Removing his backpack, he digs inside, eventually withdrawing a slender wooden box.

"Time to try that wand we bought in Duvik's Pass." He remarks, withdrawing the item in question.

As the Padre moves around the room, applying healing to his companions with the aid of the wand, Elspeth digs through the detritus of the plant, until she able to prise free the skeletal remains of its previous victim.

"He's got some valuables still on him." She reports at last, dangling a pouch full of gold in the air, "But no diamond."

The adventurers continue their search, uncovering a water-damaged set of doors behind a curtain of hanging vegetation. Beyond the doors lie several more subterranean chambers, including a room which - from the small altar set against one wall - is obviously a chapel. Based on the perverse designs of some pewter ornaments they find, and a black-handled scythe that hangs on the wall, the Padre declares that whomever used the place must have been a devotee of the death cults.

"Only a foul wretch would have debased himself in such a place." Is his opinion, which he underlines with several hefty blows of his mace, seeking to destroy - or at least damage - the stone altar. He has little luck in this regard, however, and soon realises that it would take hours of painstaking work to inflict any serious harm.

Muttering under his breath, he satisfies himself with smashing the masterwork scythe, thereby depriving the group of the single most valuable item they've found in the complex.

Wisely, no-one compares this to the incident with the cat.