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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2107431" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p><strong>The Mining Operation</strong></p><p></p><p><em><strong>9 a.m.</strong></em></p><p></p><p>A cold drizzle begins to spatter half-heartedly. Our heroes continue to travel along the island, looking for signs of anyone who might have the idol they are looking for for the ancestors that <em>restored</em> Naomi after the vampires energy drained her. Grulka, Chief Jawbreaker’s goblin wife, clutches his arm. Several members of the party have tried to make her take up arms, but she is frightened and Jawbreaker has told them to leave her alone. “She not have to fight,” he declares. “Jawbreaker fight for her.”</p><p></p><p>By elevensies the drizzle still can’t make up its mind. Then the party spots a pair of strange panther-like creatures with jagged, dangerous-looking tentacles protruding from their shoulders. The creatures start loping towards them, and the group readies for action, with Martini starting to fire his bow to whittle away at them from afar.</p><p></p><p><em>I am one with my bow,</em> he thinks. Pull arrow, draw string, loose; a dance of finger and fletching and string. Pull, draw loose; pull, draw, loose. </p><p></p><p>He already has two arrows in the air when the first one passes harmlessly through the image of the creature.</p><p></p><p>The strange beasts reach the foremost of our heroes, Jawbreaker, with teeth-shattering force, knocking five of his teeth loose! “Aargh!” he shouts, staggering back with his face bloody. Then he pulls his axe out and attacks, swinging in wide arcs. He laughs through his throbbing mouth as he feels something to the left of where it appears to be. He chops at it again, but then the terrible beast bites him, its sharp teeth tearing open a nasty gut wound!*</p><p></p><p>Jawbreaker groans and staggers back, scrabbling for a potion.</p><p></p><p>Naomi, meanwhile, uses her psychic powers to harm the creatures as much as she can. She causes one to <em>recall agony</em> from the most painful experience it had ever had, and then blasts the target with a massive spray of jagged crystalline fragments. Even though it isn’t precisely where she sees it, her spray catches it and harms it. It shakes its head as blood starts to trickle from its ear and nose. With a snarl it springs away, towards Beau.</p><p></p><p>Timothy isn’t having much luck with the one he’s fighting. The monsters snarl and snap and lay about them with their muscular tentacles, but they don’t slow down when he tries to make them. Instead, one of them jumps at him and starts trying to slay him with those tentacles! The other one beats on Beau, and he stabs it; and when he tumbles away, Naomi blasts it with a <em>mind thrust</em>,leaving it barely standing. With no enemy directly before it, the tentacle-panther turns-</p><p></p><p>To Grulka.</p><p></p><p>“NO!!” cries Timothy. Martini zings an arrow towards it, hoping to distract it.</p><p></p><p><strong>SMACK!</strong> The tentacle comes down across her head with alarming force, and Grulka’s neck snaps back at a dubious angle. Then, ironically, the black tentacled cat-beast staggers and collapses with a shudder.**</p><p></p><p>Jawbreaker quaffs the sweet-tasting potion and feels his insides begin to knit back together. The blood pouring from his mouth slows to a trickle; he spits a great bloody blob of phlegm out. He grips his axe in both hands, growls and bounds forward, intent on the kill.</p><p></p><p>Naomi’s mental powers are dealing terrific damage to the other panther-like beast. Beau, meantime, has managed to stab one of the monsters and tumble back away several times. It keeps advancing on him, but that’s okay. As long as he can stay a step ahead of it he should be okay. <em>Thrust and tumble back again. Don’t stick around.</em> But he does not expect its viciously swift counterattack. The monster’s tentacle tears across his side, and Beau stumbles. The creature jerks and yowls as another arrow from Martini sticks into it, this one landing deep in its neck. Then Beau thrusts forward, stabbing to the side of the cat thing’s visible image, and feels his small sword sink into something. With a grunt, he throws all his halfling weight into it, and the cat monster gives one last loud screeching yowl and collapses.</p><p></p><p>“Ow,” says Jawbreaker, spitting another bloody gob.</p><p></p><p>“Yeah,” Timothy answers, his voice full of sorrow. “Your wife...”</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p><em><strong>5/8/369 O.L.G., 1 p.m.</strong></em></p><p></p><p>After holing up for most of two days while it storms, our heroes leave the cave they have rested in and head into the hills. They are saddened by the joint recent losses of Grulka and Dogtooth- alas! As they travel, Ethel, Federico’s dog, finds something interesting. Investigating, our heroes find a trail of droplets of some sort of amber colored liquid. </p><p></p><p>“What could it be?” wonders Sandy. Federico shrugs.</p><p></p><p>“Let’s find out,” says Naomi, and the group follows the trail of liquid. After about a mile, the party starts to hear a distant loud noise, a weird whirling, grinding sound. Puzzled and nervous, our heroes move carefully from cover to cover until their vantage reveals the source of the noise: a pair of large metal <em>things,</em> drilling and punching into the side of the hill. Pulverized rock is all around them. A veritable cloud of rubble and chips of stone and dirt is flying all around them. A weird, unnatural burning smell is in the air.</p><p></p><p>Ethel starts barking wildly. This, unfortunately, gets the monsters’ attention. </p><p></p><p>The whirling drill appendages on the first construct spin down and stop. It withdraws from the cave mouth and turns towards the barking, snarling dog. As the cloud of dust and debris quickly settles in the drizzle, it starts to advance. The second construct begins advancing, too, but instead of whirling drill appendages, it has a massive hammer and a great big pincer claw at its forebody.</p><p></p><p>Our heroes decide right away that these things are potentially dangerous. Arrows and crossbow bolts start zinging into the constructs, which prove unreliable; at several points they pause and don’t move for a few crucial seconds. Nonetheless, they reach and engage the halfling band, drilling and hammering at them. One of them proves able to let out an ear-shatteringly loud noise, but our heroes rapidly overcome the automatons. When Timothy <em>slows</em> them, Jawbreaker charges, shaking and frothing and screaming, and proceeds to hammer into the driller. “FOR DOGTOOTH!” he howls, and he hacks its central motor to pieces. Laughing harshly, the barbarian whirls and begins battering the hammerer. He dodges its <em>slowed</em> attempt at a counterattack, and then Timothy finishes it with a volley of <em>magic missiles.</em></p><p></p><p>Once the constructs are dealt with, the band of halflings examines the dig site. It appears the constructs were following a vein of copper. </p><p></p><p>“Someone must have been controlling them,” Federico points out. “We should get out of here before they come to see what happened to their machines.” His little kobold tail is tucked between his legs. </p><p></p><p>“Dog’s right.” Sandy nods. “We should move off under cover somewhere.”</p><p></p><p>“Yeah, I think it’s time to eat,” says Beau.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p><em><strong>5/9/369 O.L.G., 5 a.m., under cover on the lee side of a hill</strong></em></p><p></p><p>Our heroes are awoken just before dawn by a strange beast that sprays them with acid. It’s not a very nice way to wake up, and after registering a lethal complaint with it our heroes get up. It’s nearly breakfast time anyway. </p><p></p><p>“Too bad we don’t have any coffee,” comments Naomi.</p><p></p><p>The party elects to spend the day resting and eating. They are somewhat wounded from the combination of digging automatons and acid-spewing monster, so they enjoy a still day, with a light rain in the afternoon. That seems to happen here most days, unless it’s raining heavily at the time.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p><em><strong>5/10/369 O.L.G., 9 a.m.</strong></em></p><p></p><p>After breaking camp, our heroes set out. They haven’t moved far when the sound of wolves baying reaches them- coming gradually closer.</p><p></p><p>“Uh-oh,” says Beau.</p><p></p><p>“Stupid wolves,” Jawbreaker snorts.</p><p></p><p>The group creeps to the top of a hill, from which they can see the mining site. They can see several groups of goblins, some of which look to include bugbears and hobgoblins, and most of which seem to include wolves. Worse, there is a huge hulking two-headed giant down there.</p><p></p><p>“Oh crap,” Sandy utters. “An ettin.”</p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Hot pursuit!</p><p></p><p></p><p>*Two crits on the poor bastard in two rounds.</p><p></p><p>**Before it struck, the monster was at 0 hp. It attacked and killed Grulka, took 1 hp, and collapsed at -1.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 2107431, member: 1210"] [b]The Mining Operation[/b] [i][b]9 a.m.[/b][/i][b][/b] A cold drizzle begins to spatter half-heartedly. Our heroes continue to travel along the island, looking for signs of anyone who might have the idol they are looking for for the ancestors that [i]restored[/i] Naomi after the vampires energy drained her. Grulka, Chief Jawbreaker’s goblin wife, clutches his arm. Several members of the party have tried to make her take up arms, but she is frightened and Jawbreaker has told them to leave her alone. “She not have to fight,” he declares. “Jawbreaker fight for her.” By elevensies the drizzle still can’t make up its mind. Then the party spots a pair of strange panther-like creatures with jagged, dangerous-looking tentacles protruding from their shoulders. The creatures start loping towards them, and the group readies for action, with Martini starting to fire his bow to whittle away at them from afar. [i]I am one with my bow,[/i] he thinks. Pull arrow, draw string, loose; a dance of finger and fletching and string. Pull, draw loose; pull, draw, loose. He already has two arrows in the air when the first one passes harmlessly through the image of the creature. The strange beasts reach the foremost of our heroes, Jawbreaker, with teeth-shattering force, knocking five of his teeth loose! “Aargh!” he shouts, staggering back with his face bloody. Then he pulls his axe out and attacks, swinging in wide arcs. He laughs through his throbbing mouth as he feels something to the left of where it appears to be. He chops at it again, but then the terrible beast bites him, its sharp teeth tearing open a nasty gut wound!* Jawbreaker groans and staggers back, scrabbling for a potion. Naomi, meanwhile, uses her psychic powers to harm the creatures as much as she can. She causes one to [i]recall agony[/i] from the most painful experience it had ever had, and then blasts the target with a massive spray of jagged crystalline fragments. Even though it isn’t precisely where she sees it, her spray catches it and harms it. It shakes its head as blood starts to trickle from its ear and nose. With a snarl it springs away, towards Beau. Timothy isn’t having much luck with the one he’s fighting. The monsters snarl and snap and lay about them with their muscular tentacles, but they don’t slow down when he tries to make them. Instead, one of them jumps at him and starts trying to slay him with those tentacles! The other one beats on Beau, and he stabs it; and when he tumbles away, Naomi blasts it with a [i]mind thrust[/i],leaving it barely standing. With no enemy directly before it, the tentacle-panther turns- To Grulka. “NO!!” cries Timothy. Martini zings an arrow towards it, hoping to distract it. [b]SMACK![/b] The tentacle comes down across her head with alarming force, and Grulka’s neck snaps back at a dubious angle. Then, ironically, the black tentacled cat-beast staggers and collapses with a shudder.** Jawbreaker quaffs the sweet-tasting potion and feels his insides begin to knit back together. The blood pouring from his mouth slows to a trickle; he spits a great bloody blob of phlegm out. He grips his axe in both hands, growls and bounds forward, intent on the kill. Naomi’s mental powers are dealing terrific damage to the other panther-like beast. Beau, meantime, has managed to stab one of the monsters and tumble back away several times. It keeps advancing on him, but that’s okay. As long as he can stay a step ahead of it he should be okay. [i]Thrust and tumble back again. Don’t stick around.[/i] But he does not expect its viciously swift counterattack. The monster’s tentacle tears across his side, and Beau stumbles. The creature jerks and yowls as another arrow from Martini sticks into it, this one landing deep in its neck. Then Beau thrusts forward, stabbing to the side of the cat thing’s visible image, and feels his small sword sink into something. With a grunt, he throws all his halfling weight into it, and the cat monster gives one last loud screeching yowl and collapses. “Ow,” says Jawbreaker, spitting another bloody gob. “Yeah,” Timothy answers, his voice full of sorrow. “Your wife...” *** [i][b]5/8/369 O.L.G., 1 p.m.[/b][/i][b][/b] After holing up for most of two days while it storms, our heroes leave the cave they have rested in and head into the hills. They are saddened by the joint recent losses of Grulka and Dogtooth- alas! As they travel, Ethel, Federico’s dog, finds something interesting. Investigating, our heroes find a trail of droplets of some sort of amber colored liquid. “What could it be?” wonders Sandy. Federico shrugs. “Let’s find out,” says Naomi, and the group follows the trail of liquid. After about a mile, the party starts to hear a distant loud noise, a weird whirling, grinding sound. Puzzled and nervous, our heroes move carefully from cover to cover until their vantage reveals the source of the noise: a pair of large metal [i]things,[/i] drilling and punching into the side of the hill. Pulverized rock is all around them. A veritable cloud of rubble and chips of stone and dirt is flying all around them. A weird, unnatural burning smell is in the air. Ethel starts barking wildly. This, unfortunately, gets the monsters’ attention. The whirling drill appendages on the first construct spin down and stop. It withdraws from the cave mouth and turns towards the barking, snarling dog. As the cloud of dust and debris quickly settles in the drizzle, it starts to advance. The second construct begins advancing, too, but instead of whirling drill appendages, it has a massive hammer and a great big pincer claw at its forebody. Our heroes decide right away that these things are potentially dangerous. Arrows and crossbow bolts start zinging into the constructs, which prove unreliable; at several points they pause and don’t move for a few crucial seconds. Nonetheless, they reach and engage the halfling band, drilling and hammering at them. One of them proves able to let out an ear-shatteringly loud noise, but our heroes rapidly overcome the automatons. When Timothy [i]slows[/i] them, Jawbreaker charges, shaking and frothing and screaming, and proceeds to hammer into the driller. “FOR DOGTOOTH!” he howls, and he hacks its central motor to pieces. Laughing harshly, the barbarian whirls and begins battering the hammerer. He dodges its [i]slowed[/i] attempt at a counterattack, and then Timothy finishes it with a volley of [i]magic missiles.[/i] Once the constructs are dealt with, the band of halflings examines the dig site. It appears the constructs were following a vein of copper. “Someone must have been controlling them,” Federico points out. “We should get out of here before they come to see what happened to their machines.” His little kobold tail is tucked between his legs. “Dog’s right.” Sandy nods. “We should move off under cover somewhere.” “Yeah, I think it’s time to eat,” says Beau. *** [i][b]5/9/369 O.L.G., 5 a.m., under cover on the lee side of a hill[/b][/i][b][/b] Our heroes are awoken just before dawn by a strange beast that sprays them with acid. It’s not a very nice way to wake up, and after registering a lethal complaint with it our heroes get up. It’s nearly breakfast time anyway. “Too bad we don’t have any coffee,” comments Naomi. The party elects to spend the day resting and eating. They are somewhat wounded from the combination of digging automatons and acid-spewing monster, so they enjoy a still day, with a light rain in the afternoon. That seems to happen here most days, unless it’s raining heavily at the time. *** [i][b]5/10/369 O.L.G., 9 a.m.[/b][/i][b][/b] After breaking camp, our heroes set out. They haven’t moved far when the sound of wolves baying reaches them- coming gradually closer. “Uh-oh,” says Beau. “Stupid wolves,” Jawbreaker snorts. The group creeps to the top of a hill, from which they can see the mining site. They can see several groups of goblins, some of which look to include bugbears and hobgoblins, and most of which seem to include wolves. Worse, there is a huge hulking two-headed giant down there. “Oh crap,” Sandy utters. “An ettin.” [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Hot pursuit! *Two crits on the poor bastard in two rounds. **Before it struck, the monster was at 0 hp. It attacked and killed Grulka, took 1 hp, and collapsed at -1. [/QUOTE]
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