IC XV

[Alethan]

Sir Rhys the Traveling Knight

"Look... it is slow. Let us maintain a distance and attack it from afar and see if we can kill it that way."

Rhys moves back half his movement rate and fires an arrow at the grey blob.

Bow, Long (Basic): +4 To Hit (+2 BAB, +2 DEX); 1d6 Damage; Range: 70/140/210

[Wyzard]

Severi backpedals as rapidly as possible. "Argh, these slimes, molds, and jellies always have completely eclectic weaknesses and immunities. I am never able to recall which type of attack is appropriate to which sub-verminous growth!"

[MonsterMash]

Thurgan, dwarf

Thurgan joins in the retreat from the oozing monstrosities.

[thirdkingdom]

Quint Kacie
As Rhys and Severi come under attack, Quint begins to fall back, making room for those before him to retreat from the reaching pseudopods. As he does so, he fumbles for a flask of oil, recalling how the pillars down below burned so effectively. He wracks his brain, trying to dredge up any facts he can recall about the ooze-like creatures that might give some clue to a weakness they can exploit to defeat them.

Can Quint make a knowledge check to see if he'd know they are immune to fire? (if there are actually Grey Oozes)
I don't want to go all Meta and just use that OOC knowledge in-game.

Sure. Since you guys haven't encountered it before, I'll make a check using 4d6. Target number is Quint's Intelligence, so 17 or lower succeeds: 4d6=17. Just barely.

If he is not mistaken, Quint believes these strange creatures to be known in the dungeoneering parlance as "grey oozes". Though he has never encountered them before, he has heard they possess an acid touch, capable of dissolving cloth, hide and metal in a matter of seconds, unless said material is enchanted in some manner. A vague memory of speaking to a former fellow apprentice, her face arms and face pitted by acid scars, leads the mage to believe that fire may not be as efficacious as one would ordinarily think.

[Atlictoatl]

Tev Meren, Fighter

Tev draws back as well, preparing his crossbow. "Do we attack or try to skirt around them?"

[thirdkingdom]

Tev Meren, Fighter

Tev draws back as well, preparing his crossbow. "Do we attack or try to skirt around them?"

There is room to move around these things, if desired.

[Koren n'Rhys]

Quint Kacie
"If my recollection is correct, then the flaming oil won't help us this time, and the very touch of the things will destroy the weapons we use against them. That leaves magic, and I have nothing useful memorized at the moment, ranged weapons, knowing any arrows will be destroyed in the process, or we simply leave them be and go around as Tev suggests. As slow as they are, I say we just avoid them for now at least."

[Wyzard]

Let's try sticking a couple crossbow bolts in them. If that does nothing, we might as well just skirt around them. It's not ideal, sure, but we almost never run low on arrows anyway, and I'd hate to run into them again on the way out if we had to flee quickly.

[Atlictoatl]

Tev Meren, Fighter

Tev steps to the side of the room away from where the party is wanting to go and levels his crossbow, in hopes the things will come towards him, opening a broader path to the exit.

"Let's at least see if bolts will affect them," he says before taking a shot.

[MonsterMash]

Thurgan, dwarf

Thurgan uses his crossbow to see if it has any effect on the oozing monstrosities.

[phil285]

Vanco Basou, cleric
Vanco backs up a little to make space should those nearer the front need to retreat. He readies a pellet in his sling in case the crossbow bolts provoke an dangerous response.

[Koren n'Rhys]

Quint Kacie
With the decision apparently made to try and eradicate the threat from range, Quint pulls out his sling and targets one of the oozes.

[thirdkingdom]

Round One

The adventurers backpedal with alacrity, and wet, gel-filled tentacle slap the stone where Rhys and Severi once stood. The oozes are slow to move, and soon the adventurers are out of range of even the longest pseudopod. Those with missile weapons fire; bolts and bullets fly into the jelly-like masses and set them quivering. The organic material quickly dissolves, but not before doing some damage.

Oh, players with henchfolk, please provide actions for your henches. So, there are four oozes, with speeds of 3, so you guys can pretty much stay out of their reach. Each ooze has 3 HD, for a total of 12 HD, or hp: (12d8=60). Each round, the PCs can bring 3 slings and 4 crossbows/bows to bear, doing an average of 21.5 damage. I'll round that down to 15 damage, to account for some misses (there should be at least 1 rolled), damage spillover from overkill, etc. It will take four rounds to destroy the oozes; if you guy want to do it go ahead and cross off four rounds of ammo, each.

[Wyzard]

Severi lacks ranged weapons, he tells Bruno to fire with his heavy crossbow. I'll knock off four bolts.

[Alethan]

Rhys tells Semele to use her sling and fire stones at the oozes.

[phil285]

Okay, four pellets crossed off.

[Koren n'Rhys]

Works for me. Done.

[MonsterMash]

4 bolts done

[thirdkingdom]

Four rounds later . . .

The odious oozes are quickly reduced to anti-climactic quivering blobs of greyish goo from the barrage of bullets and bolts.

[MonsterMash]

Thurgan, dwarf

"Let us reform and proceed down towards those creatures while keeping a good watch for more of these dungeon vermin"