Chapter 4: Quenching the Burning Plague, Pt.1

Krytox finishes cranking the crossbow. He notices Alterith taking his time with... something. Whatever the halfling's plan, it wasn't clear to the lizardman. That didn't faze him though, and he lined up his own shot into the vines. While it might have been smarter to continue loading other crossbows, he was not very patient and decided to start shooting now.

Whenever he had gone on hunting trips with his tribe all those years ago, he had been instructed on proper technique. His short attention span had always ended up leading him into trouble. He had always wondered what the point of the instructions was because he would always have time to ask questions later.

Attack: 11 + 6 = 17
Damage: 4

ooc: I'm assuming these are light crossbows for 1d8 damage? Move to O5 and shoot at A5.

As the group looks on, Krytox looses one of the crossbows. It slams into one of the kobolds still entangled in Philo's spell, snuffing out its life and ceasing its struggles.

The other creatures in sight struggle, and none of them seem to be able to break free.

Alterith notices Krytox's skill with the bow and slides him a loaded bow, then begins winching his discharged bow and loading it again. Perhaps as a team it will speed things up.

Seeing Krytox hit successfully, the centaur decides to take a shot as well. After finishing loading the crossbow, he sets it aside on the barrels (pointed at the doorway) for easy reach by others if they so choose. Taking out his (long)bow again, he aims at the closest threatening creature that he can see. Hoping that arrows and bolts have a lot easier time flying through the grasses and vines than an axe, Squin lets loose his arrow.

Spot: 6 + 7 = 13
Attack: 12 + 7 = 19
Damage: 5 + 3 = 8

OOC: If the rat just looks like its trying to run and hide (in fear), Squin will ignore it.

RaSa moves to O-5

Spot: 2 + 10 = 12

RaSa does his best to pinpoint the new targets, but he knows that flour in the air is still making things difficult. It looks to be like there is a good choke point to fire though, and with immobile opponents and a nice long open corridor, RaSa makes good use of his situation and lets the first of many bolts loose. Regardless of whether or not he hit anyone, there was many more bolts where that came from.

Attack: 15 + 5 = 20
Damage: I don't know what kind of crossbow this is, so unless you roll for me, I assume I just do damage equal to whatever I hit's health. Sorry to whoever if that is a PC.

Though the crossbow is not her customary weapon, Philo begins to load it, a little clumsily at first, fingers growing more adept as she watches and copies the others. She takes a step forward once RaSa fires and lets an arrow loose, arcing high toward the back of the pack.

Attack: 10 + 3 = 13
Damage: 6

Krytox finally catches on to Alterith's plan. The power of teamwork! The halfling looked a little haggard after battling his inner demon and seemed content at loading and passing - at least for now. Krytox gladly takes the freshly loaded crossbow, aims and pulls the trigger. His hands were almost too large for the Kobold-sized triggers, but he makes it work shooting further back down the hallway.

Attack 14 + 6 = 20
Damage: 6

ooc: If I can see enemies further back, I'll shoot at them and leave the closer ones to my allies. If I cannot see further back, then simply shoot at A4.

ooc: The flour cloud is totally gone. It dissipated about 4 rounds ago, so there are no visibility issues besides the darkness.

As the group uses the enemy crossbows, a virulent shuddering passes through all of them, despite the dank air in this dark room being slightly damp and warm.

ooc: Alterith, Philo, Squin, make Fortitude saves.

As Alterith contents himself with loading more of the weapons, Rasa, Philo and Krytox use crossbows to attack while Squin draws his longbow. All hit the remaining enemies in sight, with Rasa piercing the goblin in the back, causing it to fall slack against the reaching vines but slouched in an awkward still-somewhat-upright position, and the other three decimating substantial parts of the tiny rat swarm.

Though no enemies are in sight, the group hears more struggling happening from beyond their field of vision, where surely the elf's entangle spell has reached - it very well could have prevented the entire enemy backup force from storming their position too suddenly, preserving their lives. Or it could just be a few stragglers.

Seeing no more in sight, Squin places his longbow down and looks for an empty crossbow nearby to reload. Before he can locate one, something washes over him, a feeling of some sort. Try as he can, the centaur shudders involuntarily. Confused, he looks around partly to see if he can figure out what that was, and partly to see if it was just him.

Whatever that shuddering was, the centaur found it difficult to shake off. He stands there for a moment, involuntarily shaking again, like an aftershock. Squin closes his eyes as he tries to refocus himself. Taking a few deep breaths, the centaur opens his eyes and hopes for the best.

Fortitude: 9 + 2 = 11

Alterith finishes loading his crossbow and then carries his axe to the forward edge of the spell. He leans it against the wall and sights the crossbow down the hall. "Lights please?" He flashes to Rasa in the dracen's hand sign. He waits to see what is further down the hall before taking a further action. A strange feeling washes over him suddenly and he stumbles to his knees.

Fortitude:+6

Random number (1,20) :

11

RaSa whispers back "You know I only can do that once per day..... where's your head at boy?"

He then gets the crossbow ready, aims another shot straight out the door, and lets one launch. It doesn't matter to him if he can see the enemy or not, if they are there out of his range of vision, that doesn't change the fact that they are still there. When they are stuck and unable to come at them, they are sitting ducks. If it wasn't for the fact that he'd get caught too, he'd probably walk right up and kill them right there. He then turns to Philo

"Elf! How long does this thing last?"

The others may not be able to see much, but even after the torch has gone out Krytox is able to see quite a distance in the dark. Being born on the lower shells might have seemed like a grim fate, but it did come with a few advantages, being able to see in the dark one of them. The lizardman follows suit and finishes loading his crossbow before moving to the edge of the plants. He didn't want to risk becoming ensared himself, so he stayed a short distance from their furthest reach. Peering as far down the hall as he could he sights the crossbow, but doesn't fire until he has a clear target in sight.

"Plant look like getting weak. Try to see into food room," Krytox says to Rasa and the others.

Spot: 6 + 3 = 9
Listen: 15 + 2 = 17

ooc: move to I5 and look down hall.

"I can only hold it for about three minutes," Philo responds, a little apologetically, "so it'll start to weaken soon, and--" She breaks off, a strange sensation passing over her. "What...?" She can feel her body involuntarily start to tremble. "Did anyone else feel that?" she demands.

Fort: 5 + 6 = 11

"Krytox":

Some of the party feel the small tremors course through their bodies, then subside. Deep down, they know this is different from the travel or even combat fatigue each of them have felt in the past. Alterith seems to shrug it off, but the feeling lingers with Squin and Philo. It feels like the sickly calm before the storm - the tiny tinges of weakness preceding some debilitating sickness. Could it be... have these companions been...? A couple tiny beads of sweat form on Rasa and Krytox's brows. As they glance at their companions, the centaur and the elf, they cannot help but feel similarly. As the blackscale peers hard into the gloom, his vision suddenly blurs as though he has been thrust headfirst into one of the murky, poisonous swamps of Dark Star. The dracen, as he is talking to Philo, feels his voice give out slightly with his last word. The breath immediately following is slightly raspy, but Rasa regains his composure.

What is happening?

"Uhhnn."

Krytox' body sags a little and his aim drops. Something was going wrong. His injuries weren't severe nor had he been caught in any spell. Yet... something was still amiss. As he finds his aim again he calls to the others, "Two more Kobolds, one [color=red]Goblin[/i]."

He fires the crossbow at the Goblin, hoping it will find its mark through the thick branches. After letting the bolt fly, he drops the crossbow. His growing sense of urgency to leave this place was beginning to get the better of him. There was no sense in continuing to reload crossbows if he was just going to collapse before leaving.

"Need to go. Now. Not feel right," he again calls back to the others. A crazed look comes into his eyes and he considers making a dash through the plants.

Attack: 13 + 6 = 19
Damage: 5

Getting no help from the others to see, Alterith digs into his sack and pulls out a 2nd torch. Taking flint and steel he strikes a spark and watches as the glow flows out to light the area around him. Holding the torch in his off hand he settles the crossbow in his right and rests the front beside the torch to support his aim. He settles his axe loosely in its harness and shifts a couple of daggers on his waist to put them in grabbing distance. He moves to the edge of the waving weeds (Move to I4) and peers to the edge of his light. Unable to see anything he sets the torch to the base of the plants and tries to see if he can burn a path clear. Catching any kobolds and goblins in the flames would only be a bonus, if not the crossbow should do for them. Unfortunately the living plants seem resistant to catching flame, but he persists hoping to clear a path or at least occupy himself until the spell ends. Krytox's urgency unsettles him as he has not seen the blackscale disturbed previously despite the many strange encounters of the group, including the dinner golem they recently ate their way through. Unfortunately unless he can either burn his way out or the spell ends, there is no way out of this room. Holding the bow out to Krytox, he unshoulders his axe and begins sweeping it through the clinging plants in an attempt to cut his way through.

Alterith moves to the perimeter of where the twisting weeds wave and writhe, but even with the new torch cannot see the enemies Krytox is talking about - they seem just outside the outer dimly-lit radius of the torchlight. But the halfilng can definitely hear them... and even smell them, like one rotten egg out of a dozen.

Krytox looses the crossbow as Alterith tries to start cutting his way through after unsuccessfully trying to burn the plants. However, the halfling also meets with no success, seeing that the plants were magically induced.

"Krytox":

Unable to do anything else Alterith withdraw's a cleaning rag and begins polishing his axe blade carefully removing all the blood from the gleaming blade in anticipation of soon adding more to it.

Squin looks around at the others to try to figure out what is going on. Seeing the strength of the magical plants, he realizes that nothing more can happen until the end of the spell or whatever. Meanwhile, with nothing much to do, he just stands there recovering (hopefully) from that shiver that went through him a few moments ago.

Krytox regains some of his composure. If he could blush, he might have been doing so, but luckily his scales didn't allow for such shameful actions. "Can you make plant stop?" he asks Philo, not understanding how the magic works. He retrieves his morningstar, spinning and twisting it in his hand waiting for his chance to leave.

The group continues to wait out the effects of Philo's spell, but as they look around, some of them begin feeling weak, and a sick look passes briefly over their faces.

A wave of nausea and weakness washes over Krytox, Rasa, Squin, Philo. You take 1 subdual damage.

Slouching down and putting one arm on the barrel to help support himself, and raising the other hand up to clutch his head as he leans over, Squin exhales "Ugh..." After a moment, the centaur continues to no one in particular "First the stupid trap makes me deaf, and now I feel sick and weak." "What next" Squin closes sarcastically.

Remembering that he cannot hear and that they are in a battle situation, the centaur tilts his head up enough to keep an eye out on the wall of plants (and allies) in front of him.

Alterith continues sharpening his axe and waiting for the plants to subside. This is the part of adventure that he has always found he could do without.

The group waits for the spell to subside. The wonderful thing on Novemterra known as wizardry appears to be more of a curse than a blessing at this moment. They hear the weak cries of the enemy creatures beyond their field of vision, most likely as they are stuck by the plants as well.

What began as hollow, weak yelps and barks become something more alarming - the sound of reinforcements on the way, responding to their allies still caught by Philo's entangle spell. There is the veritable sound of marching, almost. Sounds like it stops just outside the spell's area of effect, outside of the group's field of vision.

There is a rustling from some of the nearby shelves. Squin peers toward the shifting items on the shelves covered in heavy shadows, curious. Suddenly, the centaur jerks backward.

"Squin":

"Krytox, give me a hand". Alterith grabs the nearest barrel and shoves it into the vegetation where it is grabbed. He grabs another and places it next to the first, as the spell wanes he moves the kobolds wall forward to block the doorway with only a single spaces passage between them to funnel the force marshalling against them. His work is disturbed by the sound of a centaurs howl. Looking over to see a direweasel attacking their companion it is all Alterith can do to keep from falling over laughing. He gets his legs under him and draws a dagger so as not to cut off the centaurs head in the process. Flinging it almost carelessly across the room, Alterith decides this creature might actually do some damage to his friend and draws a second dagger closing on the weasel.

Initiative: +4

Random number (1,20) :

15

Attack Thrown Dagger:+9

Random number (1,20) :

11

Damage:+3

Random number (1,4) :

1