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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 9779192" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 13The first giant centipede staggered as it was blasted by one of Folgar’s magic missiles. It tried to evade the rest of them, but there was no escaping the arcane darts as they slammed into the monster, blasting it into pieces.The second bug kept on coming, its body undulating as it shot across the room. The warrior felt his guts twisting at the sight of the thing; he could remember stomping normal-sized centipedes in the barn back home, but this thing seemed like something out of a nightmare. He remembered Leana’s words and waited for it to get close before he slammed his sword down. But the centipede proved quite agile, and it twisted out of the way, losing just a couple of legs on one side as the sword bit hard into the packed earth floor of the room.His companions were attacking as well, but their initial assault was ineffective. Leana threw some kind of magic at it; the warrior heard a dull ringing sound that thrummed through the chamber. But if it had any effect on the monster, he couldn’t see it. Ravani remained back behind the line with Folgar; as the centipede twisted away from the greatsword the elf dropped into a low crouch and fired an arrow through the warrior’s legs. But the shot just missed it, vanishing into one of the refuse piles on the far side of the room.The centipede rose up and lunged at the warrior’s legs. He let out a startled squeal and jerked back just before it could work its jaws through the leather of his boot. “Careful!” Ravani warned, as the two nearly collided.Folgar stepped to the side and fired a beam of white frost at the centipede. The icy ray did briefly catch its back quarters, but it didn’t seem to have much effect either. The warrior swept his sword at the thing, trying to keep it off him, but the wild swing merely caromed off its hard shell, cracking it but not doing anything to stop its attack. Leana came up behind it with her mace, but even as she swung it jerked to the side, avoiding both that attack and a second arrow from Ravani.“I think we’ve pissed it off!” Ravani said.The centipede rose up again, and the warrior tensed, expecting another lunge. But the monster abruptly twisted its entire body, shooting backwards at Leana. The cleric’s eyes widened and she tried to fend if off with her mace, but she couldn’t stop it from plunging its fangs into her chest, piercing through the links of her mail shirt and dragging her roughly to the ground. She cried out as the creature’s body fell onto hers, and it tried to work its jaws deeper into her flesh.Folgar rushed up, his left hand surrounded by a glow of sparking flashes, but the tail of the wildly twisting centipede snapped up and clipped him hard on the elbow, knocking him aside before he could unleash his magic. The warrior lifted his sword but hesitated; if he missed the centipede he could easily hit Leana. Instead he fell to his knees, sliding the sword between the halfling and as much of the bug as he could reach. Grabbing onto the hilt and blade, ignoring the jolt of pain as the edge sliced through his glove, he yanked upward. For a moment the centipede’s outer shell resisted the steel, but then with a sudden soft squelch the thing came apart. Guts and dark blue blood spurted all over him and Leana. The warrior’s expression twisted with disgust as he tossed the creature’s body aside. He started to reach for the head, but Folgar forestalled him with a raised hand as he knelt beside them.“Don’t, you’ll tear the wound,” the dwarf said. He took out a small bag from his satchel, and pulled out a small, slightly hooked knife that he used to extract the creature’s fangs from Leana’s chest. The halfling moaned and twitched. “Something’s wrong with her,” the warrior said.“She’s been poisoned,” Folgar said. “Just give me a moment… ah.” The centipede’s head came away, and the dwarf tossed it aside. He took a small vial out of his bag and spread a fine powder from it over the wound. The warrior had to look away as the wizard treated the injury.“It doesn’t look like there are any more of them,” Ravani said, returning from a quick examination of the refuse piles. “Is she…”“I’m fine,” Leana said, though she didn’t try to move as Folgar finished bandaging her wound. “Thank you,” she said to him. “To all of you. That was… something new. Yes, I think I’d rather prefer avoiding a repeat of that experience.”“I couldn’t hit it,” the warrior said.“None of us could,” Ravani said with disgust. “We defeated four cultists, and a bloody bug nearly killed one of us.”“An important lesson to remember,” Folgar said.“Why didn’t you hit it with more of those missiles?” the warrior asked. “You killed that first one easily enough.”The dwarf bristled, pointing a finger up at his chest. “When I advise you on the proper utilization of that bloody cleaver of yours, then you can tell me about…”“Gentlemen,” Leana said. “This is neither the time nor the place for this conversation. I would guess that the sounds of this combat have alerted the other residents of this place to our presence.” They all stopped to listen, and the sounds of bickering they’d heard before had indeed vanished. “Grimdark, the magic that both Folgar and I command is limited. We can use lesser magics, called cantrips, an unlimited number of times, but spells like his magic missile require a greater expenditure of energy. There is a limit to the number of times per day we can use them, so it is important to be conservative in their use. Now, help me up.”“Maybe you’d better rest for another minute or two,” the warrior suggested.“We might not have another minute or two,” she replied. She accepted Ravani’s hand, and his help pulling her to her feet. She looked a bit unsteady, but remained upright when he released her. “Spurt? Are you still there? The many-legs are dead.”They all looked back into the corridor. After a moment, the kobold’s head peeked around the bend. Seeing them all alive, he came forward enough to peer into the room. At the sight of the decapitated centipede, he let out an eager chirrup and rushed ahead. Drawing his knife, he speared the creature’s twitching body and held it up. He could barely manage the weight of it. “Many-legs dead!” he exclaimed.“Yes,” Leana said. “Maybe you could take us to meet with the rest of your people, before they get too nervous about possible intruders into their home.”“Yes! I take!” Spurt said. Holding the dead centipede before him like a trophy, he led the way down the tunnel. After a wary look between them, the adventurers followed.Game NotesThe centipede fight was a true comedy of errors; nobody could get a hit. Fortunately that included the centipede, at least until that last attack on Leana (which did 6 damage). Grimdark could not manage to roll higher than a 4 with his three attacks, but he finally Grazed it to death. At this rate, his weapon mastery is probably going to end up inflicting the most damage over the course of this campaign.</blockquote>

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