IC XIV

[Koren n'Rhys]

Quint Kacie
Hefting his slightly-shortened staff, Quint stays near Odo. "Sounds like we've stirred something up. I can't see anything yet through - anyone else?"

[Wyzard]

Severi slowly approaches the skritching sound, motioning for quiet.

[Atlictoatl]

Tev Meren, Fighter

Tev readies sword and shield and looks for the source of the sound.

[MonsterMash]

Thurgan, dwarf

Thurgan cautiously advances sword and shield readied.

[thirdkingdom]

As the adventurers advance, their lantern-light illuminates a half-dozen large beetles scrabbling on the floor towards them. The beetles are perhaps four feet in length, and a dullish grey in color. Almost the same color, in fact, as the substance coating the surfaces of this dungeon. As the light touches they their antennae begin to wave and, as one, they scuttle forwards towards the party. They are currently thirty feet away, and move fairly rapidly.

Nobody has surprise. Declare actions, please. And sorry for the delay; we're dealing with the first round of back-to-school sicknesses.

[Atlictoatl]

Tev Meren, Fighter

Tev sets himself by Thurgan's side in the center of the narrow room, preparing for a fight. "There's more of them than us," he says. "Are we doing this?"

[Alethan]

Rhys

Rhys draws his sword."The hallway is but 20' wide. Four of us should effectively block the path, allowing just four of them to attack at one time."

[MonsterMash]

Thurgan, dwarf

"yes, lets withdraw to the hallway and block them off while we fight[/b]

[Wyzard]

Severi consents to guard one flank of the hallway.

My thought on this is that if we are committed to killing the proto-orcs, we both need to get past these beetles and also need to save our (2 remaining?) sleep spells. So, we need to basically fight these guys. If anyone wants to try flaming oil, might be worth it for the bugs.

[Atlictoatl]

At the bottom of the stairs the corridor levels out and opens up into a long, narrow hall, perhaps twenty feet wide and stretching out beyond the range of the torchlight. There are no columns in this room, but a number of evenly spaced niches. Some . . . shapes occupy the visible niches, but the forms do not move. The sound of hammering is louder, and sounds like it is coming from the far end of the hall.

Thurgan, dwarf

"yes, lets withdraw to the hallway and block them off while we fight[/b]

I don't think there's any need to withdraw. The room/hall we're in is 20' wide.

I'm up for Wyzard's plan, but since Tev's got sword and shield readied, I'd prefer that Quint do the flaming oil honors, if he has it.

[Alethan]

Thrown oil has a radius of just 5', so this is not an AOE weapon. That is to say, it probably wouldn't affect more than one of the creatures.

[Koren n'Rhys]

Quint Kacie
"That seems smarter than facing them here in the open," he begins to move back towards the hallway through which they entered, shepherding Ono as he goes.
"I have some oil - we could lay down a flaming barrier that would allow us to pick them off from a position of relative safety."

20' is a WIDE area to defend - getting back into a narrow spot seems smarter. Then we can use the oil to block the end and take them down with arrows.

[Alethan]

We came from a stairway (width unknown) of some 20 treads that lead down from the main room (20'x40') where the first pillar was found. So the only area nearby that is possibly narrower is the stairs.

Also, note that the beetles are the same color as the melted "stonework" we found in the main chamber as well as on these lifelike statues. We might be careful that these beetles don't turn around and spray us with some weird liquid stone poo that hardens really quickly.

[Koren n'Rhys]

TKs description was:
"At the bottom of the stairs the corridor levels out and opens up into a long, narrow hall, perhaps twenty feet wide"
I though there might be a short hallway from the end of the stairs to where it opens into the larger room.

[thirdkingdom]

TKs description was:
"At the bottom of the stairs the corridor levels out and opens up into a long, narrow hall, perhaps twenty feet wide"
I though there might be a short hallway from the end of the stairs to where it opens into the larger room.

Sorry that was unclear. The stairs are 10' wide, and open immediately into this larger hallway.

[Wyzard]

Yeah, we should try and fighting-retreat back to the stairway.

[MonsterMash]

Yeah, we should try and fighting-retreat back to the stairway.

Yes, I agree

[thirdkingdom]

Round One

The adventurers retreat before the oncoming beetles, and are able to reach the chokepoint of the stairs before the beetles do. Rather than charge at the massed column of adventurers, the chittering coleopterans stop some fifteen feet away from the foot of the stairs and begin to spit a gooey, greyish substance at the companions! Caught flat-footed, Rhys is struck by three globs of spittle, Thurgan by one and the hapless Quint, standing behind Thurgan, is subjected to two of the foul globules. Within seconds, the adventurers can feel the foul substance begin to harden on them, hindering their movement.

As has already been stated, the Standards thread hasn't been updated yet. However, this post indicates that Rhys and Thurgan take the front row, with Quint and Semele in the middle rank.
I got some pretty crappy rolls for saves; those hit by the spittle have their movement reduced by 5 and suffer a -1 penalty to hit. This is cumulative, and when a character's move is reduced to 0 they can no longer act.

[Wyzard]

Okay, that is heinous. Can we get LOS for a Sleep spell? It seems like maybe one is called for.

[thirdkingdom]

Okay, that is heinous. Can we get LOS for a Sleep spell? It seems like maybe one is called for.

Sure. Quint's got line of sight now, and I'll also allow those in the back row to switch spots with those in the front as their movement.