Six From Gate Pass - Chapter 3: Shelter From The Storm

[Gregor]

Arnir, your arrow just barely sails over the lip of the roof and beside a stone pillar. The green arrow splatters, spraying caustic acid across his shoulder. He winces and thick smoke begins to waft up from his sizzling clothes.

 

[funkmamagoat]

Kirio struggles through the choppy water to Bannock and touches his shoulder as he hums a tune... after a green flash his outline appears blurred, shifting, and wavering...

OOC: Kirio casts blur on Bannock, 20% miss chance for next 6 minutes

 

[Gregor]

Round 2

Bannock, your attack misses the shifty tentacles of the squid and splashes into the ocean without effect.

********
Initiative

1 - Lars
2 - Lee Sidoneth (DM)
3 - Tentacles (DM)
4 - Hrimr
5 - Torrent
6 - Arnir
7 - Kirio
8 - Bannock

********

 

[fromage67]

Lars sloshes the 15 feet that separate him from the base of the stairs, turns around and takes a shot at the squid.

 

[Gregor]

Lars, the tentacles swipe out at you in all directions as you try to move away from the squid. The tentacles wrap around your neck, your arms, your waist and one of your thighs. They pull you before you can move away, drag you under water and reel you in towards the squid's sharp beak. Gripping you like iron chains beneath the salty brine, you are pressed against its beak which takes a sharp bite into your shoulder. Thankfully the damage is mitigated somewhat by Torrent's Shield Other spell, which still protects you. She grunts slightly as she feels half of your pain.

GM: Lars, the AOO triggers before you can shoot so that action does not take place. You are now grappling with the squid and you are considered to be within the same square. In order for you to do anything: escape, move away, attack with a light weapon, etc. you must succeed on an opposed grapple check against the squid. You are also under the water right now, but due to the water breathing potions you all quaffed, drowning is not an issue for you.

 

[Gregor]

Lee glances at his smoking shoulder and sees that Arnir's conjured acid will remain for some time. Grimacing against the acrid stench of melting clothing and sizzling flesh, he raises the glimmering blue gem in his hand to the sky once again. Murmuring words the gem pulses once more and another gargoyle animates from its perch upon the stone columns.

"Serve me!" he cries as the gem turns grey and then to dust as its power is extinguished, "serve me by slaying my enemies in the waters below!"

Blue orbs sizzle in its eye sockets and it leaps down into the water to do battle with the party. The stony beast lands before Bannock with a huge splash, but suffers a grievous wound across its chest by entering into Bannock's deadly range. You can see that beneath its stony skin, it is a creature of flesh and blood which now spills into the ocean. The beast is not slain though and it fights on, clawing at Bannock in service of its master.

The other gargoyle, slips through the water with ease on what you can now see are webbed feet and claws. It is clearly some kind of aquatic gargoyle and it easily swims 5 feet to apply pressure to Torrent and Arnir. It avoids any opportunistic strike by Torrent and when it splashes up from the depths, it unleashes a number of attacks against her. One of its claws slashes her face, its sharp teeth dig into her shoulder and its sharp horns pierce her flesh along her collarbone.

Lee then moves back slightly, to shield himself from further attacks from below.

 

[Gregor]

Beneath the water, the squid attempts to tighten its grip and then move away into the depths with its freshly caught meal. The water suddenly turns an inky black, obscuring all sight into the water and a fierce thrust is felt upon the submerged legs of Bannock and Kirio.

Lars, you feel yourself being whipped away somewhere cold and into deeper water, still locked in the iron grip of the squid.

GM: I have removed Lars and the squid from the map as they are effectively invisible to everyone right now. You have no idea where they have gone. Only a black patch of squid ink, bobbing in the shallows can be seen.

GM: Also, Lars I used your Escape Artist skill because its 2 points higher than your straight up ability to grapple.

 

[The Bashar]

Hrimr curses as Lars is pulled under water. He hopes the water breath spell is still working. Hrimr begins to cast a spell.

"Keep them off of me, I'm summoning some help."

OOC: Spontaneous cast Summon Nature's Ally III by forfeiting spike growth.

 

[Gregor]

Torrent nods at Hrimr, agreeing to help hold the line while he completes his spell. She is breathing hard now, weeping blood from her wounds, but she hacks at the gargoyle once again. Her axe strikes true, driving into the chest of the beast, but it only manages to draw a drop of blood. The sound of the impact is like a blade striking a boulder. She looks at her weapon in confusion.

"It resists the edge of my axe!" she call out, "what in Istishia's name can we do?!"

 

[digimattic]

Seeing Lars disappear and the gargoyle splash down in front of him, Arnir resolves to get out of the water as fast as he can and take the fight to Lee himself, thinking about the gargoyle's ability to resist damage.

Suddenly, he recalls reading something about this "Magic weapons! We need magic weapons to really hurt the things! Can you bless your axe, Torrent!?"