Quest #14 "Hidden Fortress of the Poison Spider Monsters"

[OGRE MAGE]

Inside The Wooden Structure
Giant Spider Attack: Round 2
Freeday, 5th of Goodmonth
Mid Morning, Hot, Humid

Seeing the group in peril, Avaala instantly begins casting a quick, non-combative spell, and on his own dog no less. His best friend Rollo the attack dog instantly vanishes as the mage commands him to attack the monster climbing up the wall at the back of the room. Unaccustomed to the intricacies of his masters magic, poor Rollo barks viciously the entire way around the huge spider, reducing the effect of the spell considerably. Fortunately, the giant monster has enough to deal with and pays no attention to the invisible barking passing by.

giant_spider.jpg (273.55 KiB) Viewed 362 times

Saracen, Jaxsen, Gramble, Judson, and Maag all get to work trying to take down this massive and dangerous 8 legged foe. Saracen hits it from one side while Gramble and Feightus help out from the other. Gooey ichor pours from its new wounds, spraying across most of the combatants as the big fighter carves into it with his massive ax. Fieghtus clamps his powerful jaws around one of the spiders legs just as it is about to retaliate against the stoic fighter. Likely saving its masters life, the war dog takes a powerful bite from the distracted spider, allowing the others to continue their onslaught. (6 dam and I need a save vs. Poison please)

Storm holds his position and throws a spell towards the fleeing spider man, still trying to climb away with the groups unconscious thief. Finding it hard to carry a full grown human while climbing through the webs, the creature is slowed a bit more than it would like. It can hear a loud barking getting closer to it, but it cant tell where the noise is coming from until it is too late. Suddenly the ugly ettercap starts to glow a bright purple color all around its exterior, making him all the more easier to see in this web filled room. The augmentation is just what Rollo needs to make a successful attack on the monster. He jumps up to his maximum height and catches the creature's ankle in his powerful jaws as he becomes visible again. The attack causes the ettercap to drop Eawad's body to the floor with a loud thud, now focusing all of its efforts to get away from this new threat. The monster shakes and pokes at the determined dog, finally resorting to another one of its sticky ass web blasts. A thick stream of webbing shoots out of the ettercaps lower area, almost completely enveloping Rollo in its sticky strands.

Seeing that it is vastly outnumbered, the ettercap decides to continue its escape up into the canopy with poor Rollo still dragging along behind it, unable to do much of anything to prevent it. The dog lets loose its tight grip on the monsters leg, doing everything in its power to continue breathing through the thick covering of webs. Brother Gilbert thinks back to the warning Orin gave him before he died. He tries to calm the mage as he watches his dog being carried away.

Actions!

positions:

IMG_2075.JPG (171.4 KiB) Viewed 361 times

Brother Gilbert 8/8 3/3 first
Jaxsen 9/10
Gramble 10/10
Fieghtus 8/14
Jeevus 3/3
Storm 8/8 1/4 first Faerie Fire: 4
Saracen 25/25 4/4 first 1/1 second
Avaala 12/12 CL DM RM 0/2 first 0/1 second
Rollo 17/17
Eawad -8/6 Unconscious
Judson 14/14
Maag 9/9

[Storm11]

Saracen seeing the spider attacking the hound and the fighter and the ettercap dropping the thief the half-orc disengages carefully from combat letting the pure warriors take over and tries to make his way around the monster as wide as he can to get to the fallen human to tend his wounds.

[Storm11]

Storm whips his sling out and if he can safely without hitting his companions will sling shot a bullet at the fleeing ettercap as it climbs up into the ceiling.

If the shot is clear

[1d20+3] = 4+3 = 7 : [1d4+1] = 1+1 = 2 : [1d6+1] = 3+1 = 4

[SirOwen]

Avaala the Grey

Brother Gilbert hears Avaala mutter, "No." as the mage takes off around the edge of the room, trying to reach Rollo before he gets too far off the ground. He attacks the web rope with his dagger, slicing or hacking, whichever seems to be more effective.

[SirOwen]

Rollo

Doing the only thing in his power, Rollo tries desperately to chew through the webbing holding him.

[SirOwen]

Jaxsen Reiter

Jax again lunges at the spider with his halberd.

Jaxsen w/ Halberd to hit [1d20] = 9

Jaxsen w/ Halberd Damage vs. L [2d6] = 7

[kruk]

Judson attacks by thrusting his sword forward, burying the blade deep into the spider"s side.

to hit and damage rolls (damage based on large size creatures)
[1d20+2] = 16+2 = 18 [2d8+3] = 6+3 = 9

[Jernau35]

Maag

Maag picks himself up from whatever he'd stumbled over and launches another vicious blow at the giant spider.

'arry the Bastard Sword (THACO 18) [1d20] = 13 Dmg S/M [2d4+5] = 4+5 = 9 Dmg L [2d8+5] = 8+5 = 13

[wolfpack]

saving throw: [1d20] = 19

Seeing Feightus injured Gramble goes into a frenzy unfortunate his lose of focus makes him miss

[1d20+2] = 4+2 = 6

Feightus continues to tear at the spider
[1d20] = 14
damage: [2d4] = 7

[OGRE MAGE]

Inside The Wooden Structure
Giant Spider Attack: Round 3
Freeday, 5th of Goodmonth
Mid Morning, Hot, Humid

Fieghtus barks wildly from the pain of the spiders bite, but somehow, the war hound is able to shake off the deadly effects of the poison injected into his wounds. Gramble goes into a rage after seeing this, causing his strike to land ineffectively. Maag and Jaxsen also fail to injure the huge arachnid any further, though Judson stabs his sword deep into the beasts huge body, causing more of its horrible smelling ichor to spill out onto the wet floor.

The massive spider rears back, this time trying to bite the fighter with the huge and dangerous ax. Once again its fangs are unable to penetrate the mans heavy armor. Gramble can see the poisonous green bile dripping from his chainmail as he prepares another attack on the monster. Storm slings a stone at the glowing ettercap trying to escape with the mages dog. His bullet gets caught up on the many webs that crisscross the entire room.

Saracen pulls away from the combat, skirting around the action to attempt to aid the groups incapacitated thief. He passes a few human sized cocoon husks lying along the floor up against the eastern wall. He also sees that the glint in the corner is definitely another one of the large copper coins that was given to Brother Gilbert. Unfortunately, by the time he gets to the prone form of Eawad, he finds that the human has already succumbed to the horrible effects of the spider mans poison. Two bloodied fang marks are clearly seen festering on his neck. His lifeless body is already becoming stiff and his skin has turned a sickly ivory white.

Seeing his beloved animal companion being dragged up into the canopy by the spider man monster, Avaala does something rash. Sprinting around the action on the western edge of the room, he also passes a few cocoons lying along the walls. He draws out his dagger in hopes of cutting his dog free from the strand, but by the time he arrives, the webbed dog is already above the mages tiny blades reach. Rollo chews and squirms wildly as he continues to rise up into the branches above. Avaala notices that the log walls of this room are not covered with the nasty black pitch like they are in the passages. When he looks up, he is startled to see the glowing form of the monster looking back down at him from about 10 feet over his head. The creature is pulling up his latest catch as fast as it can.

ettercap.gif (19 KiB) Viewed 337 times

Actions!

positions:

IMG_2076.JPG (242.57 KiB) Viewed 335 times

Brother Gilbert 8/8 3/3 first
Jaxsen 9/10
Gramble 10/10
Fieghtus 8/14
Jeevus 3/3
Storm 8/8 1/4 first Faerie Fire: 3
Saracen 25/25 4/4 first 1/1 second
Avaala 12/12 CL DM RM 0/2 first 0/1 second
Rollo 17/17
Eawad -9/6 Quite Dead
Judson 14/14
Maag 9/9

[Storm11]

Storm moves around the spider, staying as far away as possible. He moves to a spot where he can get a clear shot from his sling and fires it at the ettercap.

[1d20+3] = 2+3 = 5 : [1d4+1] = 3+1 = 4 : [1d6+1] = 3+1 = 4

[Storm11]

Saracen calls upon his light magic and summons forth a spiritual hammer and begins to bash it over the ettercap’s head above.

[1d20] = 7 : [1d6] = 4 : [1d4] = 3

[SirOwen]

Avaala the Grey

Avaala, unwilling to surrender his friend as long as he can see life, grabs his dagger in his teeth and tries to climb up the wall, hoping the webby remains will give him some additional grip. He hopes the ettercap makes a mistake and lets the Mastiff's head get too close to his own.

[SirOwen]

Jaxsen Reiter

Jaxsen, realizing that he is letting the spider intimidate him, pauses, takes a deep breath and lunges again, this time scoring a deep stab between the carapace plates of the giant arachnid.

Jaxsen w/ Halberd to hit [1d20] = 20

Jaxsen w/ Halberd Damage vs. L [2d6] = 3

[SirOwen]

Rollo

Rollo, unused to the role of prey, continues to tear and claw at the webbing.

[Jernau35]

Maag

Maag takes another wild swing that fails to connect. Seeing that the group's disorganized efforts are doing little damage to the spider that is as big as a house, he starts to re-think the wisdom of being here. Getting killed for a man who is almost certainly dead, and a dog that is about to be, doesn't seem like a very appealing idea.

'arry the Bastard Sword (THACO 18) [1d20] = 6 Dmg S/M [2d4+5] = 6+5 = 11 Dmg L [2d8+5] = 10+5 = 15

[SpinwardMarch]

Brother Gilbert

Seeing the victims, and the size and type of opponents, he yells, Retreat, retreat, before more are injured.

He thinks,This is all going so badly. We must leave this place, before more are killed or wounded. Then we need think on different tactics or return.

He will head towards the doorway.

[kruk]

The fighter attacks the spider again using the same tactic, but this time completely missing his target.
Frustrated by his failure to hit, but more so by the clerics comment he responds

To hit and damage rolls [1d20+2] = 3+2 = 5 [2d8+3] = 11+3 = 14

NO! Keep fighting! We must protect the mage! We leave now he'll be killed as well!

It is not in Judson's nature to retreat from a fight when others in his party are vulnerable. He was
not raised that way.

[OGRE MAGE]

Inside The Wooden Structure
Giant Spider Attack: Round 4
Freeday, 5th of Goodmonth
Mid Morning, Hot, Humid

The huge spider gets the jump on the group and bites into Gramble's war dog again. The dog lets out another loud whine that upsets his master even more, though it seems to continue fighting off the effects of the harsh poison. The spider shakes its huge head, rocking the dog back and forth violently, its mandibles digging into the canine even deeper as it growls out in pain. 6 dam Gramble hits the beast in its head, careful not to injure his dog any further, but the blow does not release the tight grip on his animal. Jaxsen takes a moment to gather his chi before piercing the bulk of the beast deeply with the point of his halberd. Again the monstrous arachnid does not release its death grip on the poor dog.

Brother Gilbert shouts out a retreat from the doorway, not wanting any more of his comrades to fall to these horrible things. He turns to rush back out of the structure with Jeevus the scribe right on his heels. Maag misses his mark again, wondering if his group has gotten themselves in over their heads. Judson swings and misses as well. The young fighter not only ignores the command to flee, he tries to rally the troops instead. Judson refuses to leave the battle when Avaala is in such a dangerous position.

Other than Gramble's scribe, not one member of the group heeds the clerics warning to run away. When Brother Gilbert reaches the opening, he turns to see that none of the others followed. He again remembers the dying words of his friend Orin when he told him to be careful with the inhabitants of this strange place.

At the back of the room, near the shiny copper disk, the secondary battle also rages on. Avaala sticks his dagger between his teeth, like some common pirate thief, and begins climbing up the back wall after his trusted companion. Rollo shakes his head around, trying to free his face from the sticky strands covering nearly his entire body. He is making progress with the webs, but is still being pulled hand over hand up into the dark canopy. Storm slings a lead bullet in the direction of the elevated ettercap, but it too goes flying off harmlessly into the darkness of the foliage above. Saracen pulls forth a tiny hammer from his pouch, hurling it at the fleeing monster. As it flies, he intones magical phrases that create a shimmering force next to the ettercap. The blow misses the monster, but it definitely seems to attract its attention. The beast lets out an audible screechy hiss towards the huge spider below, which results in a surprising effect. The huge spider, its powerful jaws still clenching the barking Fieghtus, seems to start backing away from the hardened fighters and their pointy blades. Unable to attack again with the dog in its mouth, the beast looks around for a place to climb. With amazing speed for such a huge creature, it grabs at the webs stuck to the east wall and looks as though it is about to start climbing up into the canopy above.

Actions!

The ettercap has pulled Rollo nearly all the way up to the 25' ceiling. Rollo has his mouth free enough to attack, but it will be at a -2 due to the "sticky" circumstances. If Avaala can make a hard DEX check, AND a hard STR check, he can get to the monster to attack before it disappears further into the foliage. (or try cutting at the strand if you prefer, either will require a successful to hit roll)

The huge spider seems to be retreating, giving Maag, Gramble, Judson, and Jaxsen an attack of opportunity, along with your regular attack. (that's 2 attacks this round) If the spider isn't killed, it moves fast enough in the webs to get away after this round. (unless you have means of elevating yourselves or want to climb after it, of course)

Good luck with your rolls!

Brother Gilbert 8/8 3/3 first
Jaxsen 9/10
Gramble 10/10
Fieghtus 2/14 (Prone)
Jeevus 3/3
Storm 8/8 1/4 first Faerie Fire: 2
Saracen 25/25 4/4 first 1/1 second
Avaala 12/12 CL DM RM 0/2 first 0/1 second
Rollo 17/17 (Webified -2 to hit)
Eawad -10/6 Dead
Judson 14/14
Maag 9/9

[SirOwen]

Jaxsen Reiter

Jaxsen continues to attack the spider. His first attack is foiled by the spider's leg as it turns away.

Jaxsen w/ Halberd to hit [1d20] = 2

Jax uses the creature's retreat to launch another attack, though.

Jaxsen w/ Halberd to hit [1d20] = 11
Jaxsen w/ Halberd Damage vs. L [2d6] = 9