(IC) A Hard Time in Harrowdale

[Arkhandus]

OOC: Voda Vosa? Hello?

Storn, the dwarf, steps around Evanar to get a better look at the giant bug, and says "Ey, swat da bugs! They's slip'ry!" as he takes a swipe at the stirge, his axe narrowly swishing past as the bug flies just a bit higher to go over it.
[sblock=Combat]Storn takes a 5-foot step closer to Merrick, and attacks stirge 2, which Merrick just pried off. 12 misses, would have been 5 damage, oh well.[/sblock]

 

[Arkhandus]

Round 1

OOC: Alright, I've waited long enough for Voda Vosa to take his turn. No sense holding everyone else up.

Abde'ragman is startled and confused for a moment, cringing as the oversized mosquito-like creatures dive down at Merrick and Abrielle. He panics and lifts his staff, swinging it frantically around before him, trying to ward off any giant bugs! ...It doesn't help much.

The remaining stirges dive at Abde'ragman, Evanar, and Selua's mule, latching into the Calishite's shoulder, Evanar's belly, and the mule's back! They drive their needle-like 'noses' into their victims, starting to try sucking out their precious, precious blood!

Abrielle panics and flails about for a moment, trying to swat or pry the creature off of her head, screaming! The creature ignores her frantic resistance, and tries to start sucking the blood from her veins......

But then Fayne swings his glaive around when Abrielle's hands aren't in the way, and he hacks off the little beastie's hindquarters! It convulses and nearly falls off of the sun elf's head, but somehow maintains its deathgrip on her, needle-like 'nose' still draining blood from the veins in her back....
[sblock=Surprise Round Ends]Surprise Round Initiatives:
23 Stirge #1 (mid-right)
21 Stirge #2 (leftmost)
19 Merrick
17 Storn
14 Abde'ragman
11 Tarven
8 Stirge #3 (mid-left)
7 Stirge #4 (middle)
6 Stirge #5 (rightmost)
4 Abrielle
2 Fayne

Abde'ragman wastes his turn on total defense, +4 AC until his turn in round 1.

Stirge 3 dives at Abde'ragman. Rolled 21 to hit, attaches to him.

Stirge 4 dives at Evanar. Rolled 22 to hit, attaches to him.

Stirge 5 dives at the mule. Rolled 16 to hit, attaches to the mule.

Abrielle attempts to remove the stirge. Rolled an 8 for her grapple check, but an 18 for the stirge's.

Fayne hits and drops the creature to 0 HP, though it's still barely conscious.[/sblock]
The stirge on Abrielle sucks out a good two or three pints of her blood! It remains clinging to her head, twitching and spurting ichor from the severed part of its abdomen, despite the grievous injury inflicted by Fayne.

Abrielle staggers and cries out, as much of the color drains out of her golden-hued skin, leaving her almost as pale as Evanar, Merrick, or Tarven. She feels somewhat weak and dizzy from the blood loss....

Selua's mule brays and bucks to and fro, frantically trying to shake off the nasty thing clinging to its back and stabbing its shoulders...! Despite the commotion, the mule cannot seem to dislodge its attacker.

The stirge by Merrick continues trying to drain him, but even as it grabs hold again, Merrick yanks it off of his shoulder with more force than last time, hurling it away as he stumbles away to the side, snarling at it.

Then, as its recovering its balance from being thrown off, the stirge is nearly cloven in twain by Storn's axe! It falls to the forest floor in a spray of ichor, twitching and unconscious, nearly dead.
[sblock=New Round]Round 1 Initiatives:
23 Stirge #1 (mid-right, 6 damage)
22 Selua and her mule
22 Evanar
21 Stirge #2 (leftmost)
19 Merrick
17 Storn
14 Abde'ragman
11 Tarven
8 Stirge #3 (mid-left, 1 damage)
7 Stirge #4 (middle)
6 Stirge #5 (rightmost)
4 Abrielle
2 Fayne

Stirge 1 drains some of Abrielle's blood! She takes 3 points of temporary Constitution damage, bringing her Con temporarily down to 5. She loses 2 hit points as a result of her Con modifier going down from -1 to -3. The stirge remains attached, though it doesn't move any more besides twitching.

The mule tries bucking off the stirge, but cannot. Essentially wasting its turn.

Stirge 2 will close in on Merrick again and try to reattach itself. 16 to hit, succeeds.

Merrick snarls and tries to pry the thing off once more.... Natural 20 on his grapple check, and a total of 7 for the stirge, so he throws it off again and moves a bit.

Storn will take another swing at stirge #2. 23 to hit, for 10 damage to the stirge. It falls unconscious.

Post your actions for regular round 1. Please remember to keep OOC stuff, like combat rolls and combat-action rules-details, in spoiler blocks. I will post the remaining NPC/enemy actions for the round after Selua, Evanar, and Abde'ragman have posted their actions.

The map, such as it is......
2 T X X * X X * X
s M X X X X X X X
X E4 X * X X * X X
F A3 X X X X X X X
S a1 X X * X * X X
m5 X X X X X X X X
X X * X X X * X X
A = Abde'ragman, a = Abrielle, E = Evanar, F = Fayne, M = Merrick, m = mule, S = Selua, s = Storn, T = Tarven, 1-5 = stirges, X = empty 5-foot space of light undergrowth, * = tree (half cover, effectively heavy undergrowth for moving through the space)[/sblock]

 

[Scott DeWar]

OOC: a quick question: I am trying to remember if you want us to post in turn, or just proclaim our action and let the chaos sort it self out?

 

[Myth and Legend]

"EEEK! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!" Abrielle shrieked with horror as she felt the nasty thing's "nose" pierce her skin and start draining her blood. The Elf was horrified of nasty critters, especially bloodsucking ones that were attached to her body!

"NASTY NASTY NASTY NASTY EWWWWWWWWWW" the girl had little experience with animals, as Evermeet's wildlands were populated by sentient horses, not bloodsucking birds or whatever these things were!

Troughout her panick Abrielle remembered a play she had seen when she was younger, that had inspired her to seek out a life of adventure. The main hero in "Dancing with Dragons" did not lose her composure when attacked by a Red Dragon, Abby surely could not become useless because of some bug thing!

Despite feeling dizzy because of the blood loss, the Elven girl tried to gather her wits about her and do the best thing in this situation - she unsheathed her longsword and attempted to cut trough the thing's snout so that it could fall off and stop draining her blood.

[sblock] Abby tries to swing her longsword at the thing. I mean, how hard could it be to sever the trunk, if it has already attached itself to her body?Attack Roll: 5 Anyway, I'm glad to be back [/sblock]

 

[Rhun]

"Stand still, girl!" shouts Fayne at Abrielle, as he pulls his glaive back. He watches the girl's movements carefully, and then thrusts his weapon forward, skewering the blood-sucking beastie!



[sblock=Combat Information]
AC 15, hit points 10/10

Glaive vrs Stirge 1: Attack 19,Damage 9
[/sblock]

 

[Voda Vosa]

OOC: Sorry, I lost track of this one. I) was wondering how to use a sleep spell here. Does it affects everyone? or the closest to the burst? Can I pick the 4 creatures? my assumption that the mosquitoes are of 1 HD is correct? Many questions.

 

[Arkhandus]

[sblock=ooc]Please remember to put OOC comments in spoiler blocks.....
Or at least post them in the OOC thread.

No need for separate blocks for different OOC notes, though, Myth.

Don't worry about turn order. I asked for Evanar, Abde'ragman, and Selua to post actions, and am still waiting on them. I can't resolve the last 3 stirges' actions until after them, nor Tarven's action.

Sleep affects creatures of lowest HD first, then closest to the center of its area for those who are tied in HD. You can't be sure how many HD the stirges have, in-character. If you make a Knowledge (Arcana) check against DC 15, Abde'ragman will recgonize them as being very weak magical beasts, like average cats or dogs. You still won't be sure if the spell will only affect the stirges, or if they're strong enough for you and your allies to be affected by the Sleep spell if within its area.[/sblock]

 

[Scott DeWar]

the young warrior is not so scared of an over sized misquito, so he keeps his cool by dropping his bow and arrow, draws his dagger (move action) and takes a stab at the creature stuck in his belly (standard action)

1d20+5=18, 1d4+4=6

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Selua tries to calm the mule and get it to stop bucking long enough for her to get the disgusting little creature off, but the mule is too panicked.

Selua takes a swing at the creature attached to her mule with her longsword.

[sblock=OOC]Sorry for holding up the works.

Handle Animal check; Long Sword attack; Damage (1d20+2=10, 1d20=14, 1d8=5)

Move action: Handle Animal check to get the mule to Stay (failed).

Standard action: Longsword attack (hit AC 14 for 5 damaage.[/sblock]

 

[Arkhandus]

Stirge Fight: Finis

OOC: It has been more than a week. I'm moving things along. Please don't make me NPC Abde'ragman further this month.

Selua takes a few seconds to try calming down her mule, but the distressed beast just keeps bucking and braying in helpless frustration at the pest digging into its back....

Evanar unsheathes his dagger and drives it into the stirge on his chest! The little creature spasms and squirms, then goes limp as Evanar uses the dagger like a lever to pry the dying beastie off and toss it to the ground. It lies there and twitches a few times before dying.

Abde'ragman continues to panic, flailing about with his staff and grabbing at the stirge, but doesn't manage to pry it off. The overgrown mosquito-thing slaps his hand away with its leathery little wings.

Tarven comes to the Calishite's rescue, however, dashing around Merrick and Evanar to reach him, dropping the crossbow and drawing his longsword swiftly to hack a long gash through its head and torso! The guardsman pries the bug off of Abde'ragman as it falls to the ground in a bloody, twitching heap.

Abrielle tries to cut off the bloodsucking beastie on her head, but her sword is a bit unwieldy in such close quarters and she barely grazes the bug's proboscis, not wanting to cut clean through into her own neck.

Fayne, however, comes to her aid again, spearing the little beast with his polearm and prying it off. The stirge falls to the ground in a mangled heap, quickly bleeding out.

Victory!

Everyone works quickly to bandage the thin, bleeding pinpricks where the stirges pierced their flesh, and further blood loss is averted. Tarven and Merrick clean their weapons, sheathing swords and retrieving their crossbows, reloading them as needed.

[sblock=OOC]Round 1 Initiatives:
23 Stirge #1 (dying)
22 Selua and her mule
22 Evanar
21 Stirge #2 (dying)
19 Merrick
17 Storn
14 Abde'ragman
11 Tarven
8 Stirge #3 (dying)
7 Stirge #4 (dying)
6 Stirge #5 (dying)
4 Abrielle
2 Fayne

Selua fails to calm down the mule, but cuts the stirge off its back.

Evanar draws his dagger and stabs the stirge on his chest, forcing it off and rendering it unconscious.

Abde'ragman tries to remove the stirge. He rolls an 8 for his grapple check, versus the stirge's 15. He fails, still panicking.

Tarven drops his crossbow and moves towards Abde'ragman, drawing his longsword. He gets a 17 to hit, for 5 damage to the stirge. It drops; Abde'ragman is narrowly saved from any Constitution loss at the last second.

Abrielle misses the stirge, trying to avoid cutting the back of her neck while slashing at the stirge; she just grazes its 'nose' harmlessly.

Fayne finishes off the stirge on Abrielle.

Abrielle, Evandar, Fayne, and Selua each earn 150 XP. Abde'ragman earns 10 XP, and the guardsmen take 70 XP each. Non-combat XP will be awarded after each day or so in-character.[/sblock]