Chapter 15: Empire Under the Earth

[Urson]

Zahra

Hearing Xorxen's gibe, Zahra growls an ancient curse, its true meaning lost in the mists of time: Get Bent!

[ravenn4544]

Amethu will hold his last remaining oil flask close as the magical fire will hopefully burn the queen to death - and the will of these drones. He will stand or fall back as the group surges in either direction.

[Inferno]

Giant Ant Colony, Beneath the Desecrated Temple of Osorus, The Underground City
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Eight. Dawn?, 21st day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia






In the eye of a frenetic hurricane of gigantic panicking ants, the flames on the turgid queen's exoskeleton subside. But the damage is done.

Garrin the Atlantean drinks of the sacred Elixir of Health (+5hp) as Loche and Xorzen loose sling stone and javelin wide. But Cruloc the barbarian impales the she-behemoth with two more expertly placed arrows!

Both fly past Kiri Khutan as he plummets impossibly from the cavern roof onto the monstrous queen's back! He tries to drive his trident into her vast misshapen head, but her flailing mass throws him off balance! Frantic worker ants scrabble up her immense bulk to kill the threat to their shrieking queen, but their ferocious mandibles cannot pierce Kiri's armor!

Zahra cleaves asunder a threatening worker ant in one swipe, releasing more chemical signals of dire emergency to the frenzied swarm! Two distraught arthropod servants lunge at her! Zahra's shield beats down one set of ravenous jaws, but the other grabs hold and rends her flesh without mercy! (4 hp damage) The albino amazon grows paler.

Meanwhile, while guarding the party's rear flank, Mako sees with alarm, fierce unrelenting soldier ants crawling up behind the raiders of the nest!





Actions?!


Map Detail:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.

Map:



Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 6, Monsters: [1d6] = 1 Party wins.
Missiles into a melee: Cruloc hits Kiri? (10%): [1d100] = 32, [1d100] = 49 No.
Giant Worker Ants charge Zahra: [1d20+2] = 11+2 = 13, [1d20+2] = 8+2 = 10, damage: [1d6] = 4, [1d6] = 5 One hits for 4hp damage.
Giant Worker Ants attack Kiri: [1d20] = 3, [1d20] = 1, damage: [1d6] = 4, [1d6] = 6 Both miss. No crit fumbles in this game.
Xorzen throws javelin: [1d20] = 2, damage: [1d6] = 1 Misses.

PC Status:

• Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 7/14, Spells: 2/7 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl, Lantern
  Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 9/35
  Garrin: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 3: Move: 12", AC: 3(1), HP: 8/26, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 2/2: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 14/14, Spells: 0/3 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 9/25
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 10/10, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl, Light Spell
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 3: Move: 17", AC: 6(4), HP: 6/16
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 3: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 3/21

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
  Healing Mists of Osorus (Garrin, Kiri, Loche, Mako and Xorzen have breathed of the mists): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
  Unseen Servant (Kiri): Duration: 53 rounds
  Light (Mako): Duration: 5 rounds
  Enlarge (Amethu): Target: Flames on the Ant Queen. Duration: 18 rounds. Effect: 20% larger.

Player Resources:

• The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
  Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
  Hieroglyphs (the story so far, in images)
  An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[SocraticLawyer]

Here, drink this, says Garrin to Zahra, handing over the healing potion. He then attacks any ant that engages with him first.

To Hit with +1 Long Sword: [1d20+1] = 9+1 = 10; Damage: sm - [1d8+1] = 2+1 = 3; lg - [1d12+1] = 6+1 = 7

[Urson]

Zahra
Zahra drinks the rest of the mystic potion. potion [1d8] = 1 poetic justice, anyone?

Other than drinking the potion, Zahra will hold her attack- just blocking the attacks from the ants.

[ChubbyPixie]

Struggling to steady himself, Kiri attacks the queen again, stabbing mightily at the very ground on which he stands. He takes no joy in it, yet knows they are doomed if they fail:
Attack with Trident +1, Claw of Chobek (THAC0:19): To Hit: [1d20+4] = 10+4 = 14 Damage vs. s/m: [1d6+8] = 5+8 = 13, vs. Lg: [3d4+7] = 9+7 = 16

“Loose your arrows! Do not mind me! We must finish her quickly!” he shouts as he sways there precariously.

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

"There is more coming up from behind us!"
Mako plants his quarterstaff into the ground and casts a spell,

Invisibility

planting his body flat against the wall just above the choke point of the passage to allow a party member to step in.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Kiri, desperately stabbing his trident downward into the queen's bloated thorax, provides a distracting presence to the barbarian archer.

Attack w/bow #1 [1d20+1] = 6+1 = 7
Attack w/bow #2 [1d20+1] = 2+1 = 3

Crom in his mountain laughs at Cruloc.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu sighs at the futility of their situation. He will turn and face the oncoming insects to protect the key battle raging with the queen.

[Scott308]

Loche

Tak' that ye giant boot! shouts Loche as he sends another sling stone directly into the soft abdomen of the queen.

Sling of Sutehk (20): [1d20+3] = 20+3 = 23 Bullet Damage S/M: [1d4+3] = 1+3 = 4; Dam L: [1d6+3] = 4+3 = 7

[OGRE MAGE]

Xorxen launches another errant javelin at the ant queen.

Javalin Attack [1d20+1] = 2+1 = 3 Damage [1d6+2] = 3+2 = 5

[Inferno]

Giant Ant Colony, Beneath the Desecrated Temple of Osorus, The Underground City
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Eight. Dawn?, 21st day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia





"There is more coming up from behind us!" cries Mako from the rear. Then, with magic words and an oblique gesture, the conjurer of the distant East disappears into thin air! Suddenly, nothing stands between Amethu and the murderous gigantic soldier ants!

On the front line, Garrin offers Zahra the last of the wondrous Elixir of Health (+1hp). Cruloc's arrows and Xorzen's javelin cannot pierce the thick exoskeleton of the elephantine monarch!



But Loche the Pict crashes a sling stone into one of the gargantuan queen's multifaceted eyes, blinding it! Then, from atop her hideous mass, Kiri drives his trident deep into the distended giantess' head, finishing her!

By arrows and flame, by stones and javelin and trident, the explorer's merciless onslaught slays the queen of the giant ant colony!

She collapses beneath her vast weight as pheromones flood the chamber, undetected by humans, transmitting the message instantly to all her subjects. They reel.



Lamentation, anguish and confusion seize the hivemind of the teeming collective. The colony of the giant ants is finished... doomed. Their unity of purpose is gone, their social machinery ended. Without a queen, the order of the nest is no more. There is no reason to live, no reason to go on. Terror grips the swarm. It scatters without purpose or direction. The invaders are forgotten, along with everything else.

All that remains in the collective mind of the giant ants is fear and horror.


Actions?!


Map Detail:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.

Map:



Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 2, Monsters: [1d6] = 1 Party wins.

PC Status:

• Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 7/14, Spells: 2/7 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl, Lantern
  Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 9/35
  Garrin: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 3: Move: 12", AC: 3(1), HP: 8/26, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 2/2: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 14/14, Spells: 0/3 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 9/25
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 10/10, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl, Light Spell
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 3: Move: 17", AC: 6(4), HP: 6/16
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 3: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 4/21

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
  Healing Mists of Osorus (Garrin, Kiri, Loche, Mako and Xorzen have breathed of the mists): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
  Unseen Servant (Kiri): Duration: 52 rounds
  Light (Mako): Duration: 4 rounds
  Enlarge (Amethu): Target: Flames on the Ant Queen. Duration: 17 rounds. Effect: 20% larger.
  Invisibility (Mako): Target: self

Player Resources:

• The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
  Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
  Hieroglyphs (the story so far, in images)
  An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[Urson]

Zahra
Zahra half-kneels, protecting herself with her shield to keep from being randomly bitten or trampled by the panicking colony.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu also holds his staff grimly should the attacking insects from the southeast overcome their fear...

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

Stays frozen in place.

[OGRE MAGE]

Xorxen keeps his distance from any of the roaming ants, not wanting to give any of the hungry ones an easy target.

He motions for Kiri to grab his 2 errant javelins, if they can still be found in the mass of ant bodies.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

"A bare moment ago, we were surrounded by swarming warriors thirsting for our blood!
Now they begin to shrink away – cowed like dogs before a heavy boot!"

Cruloc emits a single approving grunt in Loche's direction in recognition of the diminutive Pict's skill with a sling. He avoids eye contact entirely with Kiri, however, overcome as he is by a dual sense of awe and timorous, shuddering fear at the potent display of butchery and wizardry put on by the audacious Easterner.

A door begins to open in Cruloc's mind to the possibility that magic, puzzling and frightful though it be, may be a tolerable ally in battle. Even so, he wants no part of it.

He searches for his eight expended arrows amongst the scorched carcasses of the insect army, all the while maintaining a respectful distance from the warrior who climbs like a spider.

[SocraticLawyer]

Garrin keeps his sword and shield ready, but does not attack any of the insect horde. He waits patiently for the beasts to scatter, all the while looking for signs of Tjuroy, or failing that, anything else that might be of interest to the party.

[ChubbyPixie]

As the colony begins to scatter, Kiri, from the top the dead queen, relaxes slightly, relieved that they no longer have to exterminate these creatures. He smiles and waves at the others, except for Cruloc, who will not meet his gaze. He shrugs it off. Probably some barbarian stuff I don’t understand he thinks.

He nods at the Verulian and cautiously sets about looking for the errantly cast javelins, all the while keeping an eye on the remaining panicked horde of giant insects lest they should change their minds and attack anew.

Suddenly he remembers why they are here. “Any sign of Tjuroy?” he says as he begins to climb down from the monstrous armored back of the queen.

[Scott308]

Loche

Seeing the ants appear to have lost interest in them with the death of the queen, the Pict loads another stone in his sling, eyeing his companions. We're nae gonnae dae anythin' glaikit, lik' attack ony o' thae fuckers again, ur we?