Insecticide 101
Reinforcements! An enigmatically named cleric called Bob and a Half Elven Fighter Magic User called Zandeep Florin joined us to strengthen our meagre band, and our confidence suitably boosted we looked to move out. The monk heard some fluttering wings as she listened at the door, so we knew that something was up. Opening it, a swarm of stirges descended to attack, one attaching to the unarmoured woman where it began draining her blood.
Varamir with a mighty axe swing nearly took off the monk’s head, but fortunately missed though the stirge took a nasty wound. Witnessing this, I decided a more prudent approach was to grab a second stirge and I was able to pull one off* and hold it against the wall where it was despatched. Varamir did the same rather than risking decapitation of the monk a second time, and he pulled it off, hurling it to the ground where he danced on it** until it was a bloody smear.
*Oo er missus
**Some sort of traditional dwarven folk jig
We dealt with seven in all before moving on. Beyond, corridors ran north and west to a door. A further corridor turned east off the northern branch. The monk in her boots of elvenkind silently scouted a little way in both directions before trying the west door. The door opened into the corner of some stables. She was concealed behind the row of stalls but could hear orcish voices conversing.
Returning, she described the stables to the rest of us; she thought that there were at least three orcs. The stable had a hayloft, lots of sacks of feed and tack hung from the walls. The closest stall and perhaps others contained a horse.
We were concerned that taking on the opposition could result in the alarm being raised and Bob came up with a plan to create a zone of silence centred on a coin carried by the dwarf so that the noise of combat would be supressed. Our magic users would be unable to cast spells and of course we could not communicate but we figured this would not be a problem if half of the party hung back out of the zone.
I congratulated Bob on his plan but he modestly attributed it to divine inspiration, I believe he said his god’s name was Herpes or something. Poor misguided fellow. As best fighters, the dwarf and I led the charge; we came upon 4 half orcs wearing light leather armour. One tried to blow a horn as we charged but our silence spell negated the effect to his evident puzzlement.
We outclassed these opponents by a distance and chopped them to pieces in a few hectic seconds. Looting the bodies we recovered a few shortswords and 80 gp. Varamir shinned up the ladder to search the hayloft.* He discovered more tack and equine supplies plus a cowering and pathetically grateful escaped slave who had been trapped for several days waiting for the stable to be empty of orc stable hands.
*I did offer to toss him up there but you know the old saying….
Whilst the slave tucked into some rations he explained he had lived on rainwater that came through a hole in the roof. He said that a slaver commander name was Dibrak and that his name was Milinir.* He was anxious not to leave us and we magnanimously agreed he could come along handing him a shortsword and some of the orcs’ leather armour.
* And no, not James wise guy Liverpool supporters
The town lay beyond the stable doors according to Milinir, we hid the bodies in the hayloft and back tracked, taking the east corridor at the junction we had seen. Two doors lay down this route, one at the end where the corridor turned south and one on the south wall. Looking through the south door it opened onto the large courtyard we had seen earlier when the wall collapsed as we crossed the room with the unsafe floor. It was dusk, and not far away a stone walkway on pillars crossed the courtyard, though we saw no movement on the battlement. The courtyard had a neglected look, a few straggly trees and tumbledown stonework littered the yard the full extent of which we could not discern in the gloom.
Heading to the door at the end of the corridor, stairs descended to the south and the door also opened into a corner of the same large courtyard. We decided down was good despite Milinir’s doom laden words about how no one ever returned from below.
As we descended, the construction changed to hard packed earth with regular timber beams shuttering and supporting the tunnels. There was also the unmistakeable stench of sewage for which Varamir was initially blamed but it soon became clear that for once the dwarf was innocent.
The dirt tunnels were narrower and roughly hewn, when we reached the bottom of the stairs Bernice and Bob simultaneously suggested that I look for tracks. And tracks there were, some multi legged creatures and something bipedal but which left tracks like nothing I had seen before. The tunnel was well travelled in both directions. We headed west where the passage turned swiftly south before beginning to double back on itself, however before it could, it opened into a large cavern
And that is where it started to go seriously wrong…
Firstly the Monk, scouting silently and looking for traps as she went, triggered a silk tripwire and a sticky net fell on her and began to entangle her limbs. The net also had a number of bells attached, and giant ants and insect like men in the chamber beyond were alerted and made to engage us.
Zandeep was trying to cut Bernice free with some difficulty, if only we had some vinegar, the stickiness was the same giant sundew secretion we had encountered before. Varamir and I were meeting the threat and Malakai began to throw out spells. Slow was an early one and the five giant ants and four insect men were affected for much of the engagement.
Just as well as the insect men all wielded 2 swords and 2 shields and their chitinous hides were to prove extremely tough as did the giant ants who were less formidable but almost as resistant to our blades. Malakai tried his usual blend of magic missiles and even tried protection from evil, but on reflection these creatures were probably neutral as they seemed more animal like.
Then to add insult to injury, at the rear of the party Milinir attacked Bob and suddenly we were fighting on 2 fronts. Worse, Bernice who was eventually freed, found herself fighting the only creature not slowed and she was quickly taking punishment. Bob tried Hold Person on his opponent but with no success, Malakai was more successful, hitting the doppleganger, for such it was, with a ray of enfeeblement and it did reduce the effect of his next attacks.
A war of attrition continued, and both sides were taking massive damage. Now Malakai tried his wand of paralysis on the doppelganger, and it worked allowing Bob to despatch the fell creature which resumed its hideous natural form as it died. With Bob free he could now begin to cast cure light wounds and he targeted the sorely wounded monk.
All of us were suffering though, Bob now brought his spiritual hammer into action and Malakai used his paralysis wand again on one of the insect men allowing Bernice to kill it. With the weaker ants starting to fall Malakai and Bernice were able to get behind the enemy group and attack from behind, Zandeep fired off a burning hands spell, but now the slow spell expired.
Although the ants were now gone the extra attacks from the whirling broadswords of the three remaining insect men now put Varamir and first Zandeep down. Varamir in particular was critically wounded. Bob’s hammer also expired and by the time the last of our opponents finally fell we were a mess.
Varamir barely recovered and Zandeep was rough too, we were all wounded badly and had expended many spells and healing potions. We retreated back to the sundew room to lick our wounds.* For some reason Malakai brought the doppelganger’s head with him
*Well I didn’t actually lick any
We needed to rest for six long hours to recover our spells but after only half an hour Zandeep woke us as a patrol of skeletons was descending the stairs. I brandished my Holy symbol, almost angry at the interruption, and blasted the unclean abominations with the power of my faith.
Zunee
16.7.22
Experience Awards
Bernice
Hearing the Stirges 10
Characterisation & Roleplay 50
Stirges 56
Stable gold 15
Suggesting ranger looks for tracks 50
Aspis 320
Giant ants 45
Total 546
Bonus 0
Reqd 7,436
Bob
Stirges 56
Using Silence to prevent alarm in the stables 200
Stable gold 15
Suggesting ranger looks for tracks 50
Doppleganger 205
Aspis 320
Giant ants 45
Healing 50
Spiritual Hammer 50
Total 991
Bonus 99
Reqd 13,410
Varamir
Characterisation & Roleplay 50
Stirges 56
Half orcs in stables 30
Stable gold 15
Aspis 320
Giant Ants 45
Total 516
Bonus 52
Reqd 23,577
Malakai
Characterisation & Roleplay 50
Stirges 56
Stable gold 15
Casting Slow 500
Using Paralysis wand 500
Aspis 320
Giant Ants 45
Total 1,486
Bonus 149
Reqd 2,719
Zunee
Stirges 56
Half orcs in stables 30
Stable gold 15
Aspis 320
Giant Ants 45
Healing 50
Skeletons 100
Total 616
Bonus 0/31
Reqd 11,595/23,754
Zandeep
Stirges 56
Stable gold 15
Aspis 320
Giant Ants 45
Total 436
Bonus 0/0
Reqd 12,282/17,282
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