Quest #9 "Chauncey's Crab Hunt"

[Bluehorse]

Monocar

Under Lightfinger's tree, hiding behind it at the ready.

[Inferno]

Jack, lost boy:

Breathless with anticipation, Jack hides inside the treeline.

On the ground, behind the tree 15 feet north of the "J" in "Jungle"

[Urson]

Luther

Luther settles in the treeline to the left of the trap tree, which puts him about 20' from it. He glances at the sky, hoping there's enough moon- and starlight to see the prey when it suttles into the trap.

[OGRE MAGE]

I will wait a little longer to see if our 2 absentees still want to join in on this fight, but not much longer.

I appreciate the patience of all of the steady posters.

[Nuke66]

Raythan looks for a spot behind the melee crew , waiting for the crab to show up.

[Bluehorse]

Monocar

While they wait, he looks for coconuts on the ground. No reason to rush into combat if he can chuck a few of these from behind the tree.

[OGRE MAGE]

Crab Killers
Godsday, 23rd of Reaping
After Dark, Slightly Cooler, Unbearably Buggy

After sunset, each member of the hunt gets themselves into position. Luther looks around at the clear sky, thinking that there should be plenty of moon and starlight to give the humans some help with their inferior night vision. The sand and dirt in the general area is still very much rutted up and disturbed, unlike the rest of the smooth sandy areas that parallel the tree line. In their haste to get themselves hidden, every member of the group ignores this major inconsistency. Perhaps it won’t make a difference to the hungry crab.

As darkness sets in, the noise of the jungle increases significantly. The high pitched chirping of the nocturnal amphibians in this area is almost deafening. Chauncey remembers that this was very near to the same time as his earlier frog hunt when the crab was initially pointed out to him. He waits and watches with all of the others. Looking at Saracen in this dim moonlight gives the wizard an even more unnerving feeling.

For what seems like forever, the group waits in the darkness, getting slowly eaten by the swarms of flying, biting insects that continue to annoy and irritate. Eventually Lightfinger, the only one of the group who is elevated, spots a large form crawling up out of the ocean. The huge, round beast moves straight up the sand towards the trees, plunking itself down about 30 feet up the beach from where the trap is set. The crab bumbles into the tree line a few feet and begins scooping frogs into its mouth.

Another long while passes as the group tries to stay silent and wait for the beast to come closer to their area. Jack has a hard time not shooting arrows at the thing from a distance, but he overcomes the boredom by dreaming about how good the crab boil will taste when this is all over with. Slowly, the beast moves closer and closer to the clearing, eventually getting right up to the area directly in front of the log trap. It looks to be confused by the differing terrain, but once it gets a whiff of Luther’s toad snake paste, it starts to bumble forward through the rutted sand despite its initial concerns.

Crab notices the rutted sand? 50% [1d100] = 66
You all got lucky this time..... ignoring obvious clues will likely not end so well next time.

Lightfinger tugs lightly on the trigger rope until it is taught, ready to give it a jerk once the beast is directly below the pointy log. The halfling watches it crawl right up to where the bait was laid out. He tugs hard on the rope, allowing the log to release and fall from the rigging. In the blink of an eye, the excitement of the furious battle begins.

Actions!

As the only trap master around, Lightfinger can make an attack roll to see what kind of devastation this contraption will actually do to the poor giant crab.
To simulate the pressure and timing of the situation, please roll a D20 adding 1/2 of your Dex bonus (+2)

1-4 = miss
5-9 = graze 1d4+4 10% chance of being pinned to the sand
10-15 = good hit 2d4+5 25% chance of being pinned to the sand
16-19 = direct hit 3d4+6 55% chance of being pinned to the sand
20= bulls eye 4d4+7 80% chance of being pinned to the sand

The rest of you don't need to wait for tkrexx to see the results if you don't want to. If you are just firing missiles or casting spells, go ahead and post your actions and rolls.

Alordan 10/10
Saracen Solaris 12/12 1/3 first
Jack 10/10 CL, DM, RM, 1/1 first
Monocar 5/12
Luther 13/13
Raythan 6/6 CL, DM, RM, 1/1 first / 2/3 first (cleric)
Lightfinger 7/7
Chauncey the Adequate 6/6 CL, DM, RM, 1/1 first
Avalaa 5/5 CL, DM, RM, 1/1 first

positions:

IMG_1197.JPG (426.45 KiB) Viewed 479 times

[ravenn4544]

Alordan observes the crab for a second - somewhat in awe and somewhat exasperated - at the amazing wildlife this crazy island never seems to run short of. He then focuses his attention on the task at hand....

Short Bow Attack [1d20+3] = 4+3 = 7 (THACO=17)
Short Bow Damage [1d6] = 2

Short Bow Attack [1d20+3] = 10+3 = 13 (THACO=17)
Short Bow Damage [1d6] = 6

[ChubbyPixie]

Chauncey nudges Saracen with his elbow in excitement as the crab moves into position. As the action commences, he reaches into his component bag and readies to cast a spell, but waits first to see what effect the trap has on the beast...

[Storm11]

Saracen looks at the prestogidator and smiles his unnerving snaggletoothed grimace. "Nearly time," he whispers softly

The holy champion will wait and see if the trap works. If it doesn't and the crab starts to retreat he will begin to cast a light spell into the eyes of the crab to blind it. Then he will move out along the beach to try and get in its way and cut it off from the ocean. If the trap does work he will hold his action for now and watch what the others do.

[SirOwen]

Avalaa

Avalaa moves just far enough to give him a good view of the crab. (10', adjacent to the upper right corner of the 5' Key) Seeing the arrows starting to fly and the huge spear in motion, he raises his hand, points at the crab and says, "Winchester!"

1 Magic Missile Damage [1d4+1] = 4+1 = 5

[tkrexx]

Lightfinger tugs!

To Hit: [1d20] = 5
+2 (50%) DEX=7

DMG: [1d4] = 3
+4=7

[Bluehorse]

Monocar

"Damn..." raises a coconut to the ready for throwing if it is indeed pinned, otherwise he will hang back or retreat.

[Urson]

Luther

Moving as quitly as he can, Luther gets behind the crab- between it and the ocean- ready to block its retreat if need be.

[Inferno]

Jack, lost boy:

Jack can barely contain himself. But he thinks, If the trap misses, we could just try again tomorrow night!

If the crab isn't spooked, Jack will hold his fire and let the crab leave.
If the crab is injured or spooked, then it won't be coming back, so Jack moves closer and fires two dead-eyed arrows at the thing's impervious hull.

Jack: Arrows: to hit: [1d20+4] = 14+4 = 18, [1d20+4] = 11+4 = 15, damage: [1d6] = 3, [1d6] = 4

[OGRE MAGE]

As the spear log begins to drop, the party holds their breath, hoping for a direct hit. It falls just as the thing is turning and waddling its massive 6' wide round body about the clearing. The spear hits the edge of the monsters hard carapace, damaging it enough to debilitate one of its long legs, but not sticking it into the sand as hoped.
Crab is pinned? 10% [1d100] = 21 So close!

The beast seems confused for a moment, turning this way and that as the rest of the group begins its assault.

This is what we have so far for actions.
Al: arrows
Jack: arrows
Chauncey: ?
Sara: light
Ava: MM
Mono: There is NO food laying around on the ground anywhere near town, including fallen coconuts. There are a lot of perfectly good rocks lying around though.
Luther: Moves around to try to block it.
Raythan: ?

Please correct me if that's wrong or post your action if you haven't yet. Thanks!

[ChubbyPixie]

Seeing that the trap has only struck a glancing blow and likely will not "pin" the monster as they had hoped, Chauncey will quickly pull his hand from his component pouch revealing, grasped between his index finger and thumb, a pinch of an ironically abundant ingredient for the spell he is about to cast. Speaking an arcane formula which sounds like a combination of backwards whispering and the sound of one trillion ants crawling over one another, he throws his arms wide, palms up and fingers contorted into seemingly impossible configurations. From his entire body a fine mist of sparkling dust springs forth which then swirls and rushes towards the crab. Those nearby catch a faint smell of lavender.

Chauncey casts Sleep. (Duh.)

Also:

...In an alternate universe which suddenly splits off from this one, upon casting of the spell, the entire tableau - beach, jungle, party members, crab - freezes in place and flickers, jumping backward a tenth of a second in time endlessly, caught in an eternally repeating loop. Only the participants' minds continue linearly, fully aware of the hell they are trapped in until they are driven to insanity, then re-discover themselves, then go insane again, over and over until the universe collapses on itself and comes to an end....

"No more projectiles! It sleeps! Approach freely and dispatch it!" he cries. (Assuming it visibly slumps to the ground, asleep..)

[Storm11]

Seeing the wizard begin to cast a spell the holy champion of the blinding light will stay his own incantation until he knows the outcome of Chauncey's own spell.

[Urson]

Luther

Sword in hand, Luther approaches the crab, ready to attack the leg joints at the body to try and disable it.

[OGRE MAGE]

We Didn't Even Need To Do All Of This Hard Work?
Godsday, 23rd of Reaping
After Dark, Slightly Cooler, Unbearably Buggy

The confusion from the huge log smashing into it is the last thought that goes through this foolish beast’s simple mind. Before it has a chance to figure out what is actually happening, arrows and spells begin to fly.

Alordan and Jack open fire on the behemoth crustacean. The missiles simply skip off of the things hard outer shell, with only one of Jack’s finding a fleshy target. Seeing no coconuts to chuck, the unhealthy Monocar holds back for a moment. Luther begins to move towards the water once he sees that the monster hasn’t been trapped or killed by the log. Avalaa impressively fires off another of his effective finger tip energy bolts, this time however, only one of them shoots out unerringly into the face of the crab. Chauncey breaths a sigh of relief.

Saracen is about to step up to bring forth the blinding power of Pholtus onto this thing when the adequate wizard suddenly puts his hand on the half-orcs broad shoulder to stop him. Chauncey smirks when he thinks about the exhausting daylong efforts of the group who set up this impressive trap, all the while knowing that he could stop it with just one quick spell. Thrilled that he can finally unleash some of his magical powers on something, he steps out from behind his tree. He times his spell to activate precisely at the conclusion of the first volley of missiles.

As if he planned it all along, the wizard tosses his pinch of sand at the beast and intones phrases of magical energy. In mere seconds the huge beast splays its crusty legs out wide as its massive body plops down harmlessly to the sand. By all accounts, the giant crab looks to be fast asleep. Luther changes his course and bravely walks right up to the sleeping beast.

Actions?

Since Chauncey and Saracen were right next to each other, I allowed some communication between them. Since there was no other pre battle coordination, I didn’t allow that for those who weren’t close by.

Alordan 10/10
Saracen Solaris 12/12 1/3 first
Jack 10/10 CL, DM, RM, 1/1 first
Monocar 5/12
Luther 13/13
Raythan 6/6 CL, DM, RM, 1/1 first / 2/3 first (cleric)
Lightfinger 7/7
Chauncey the Adequate 6/6 CL, DM, RM, 0/1 first
Avalaa 5/5 CL, DM, RM, 0/1 first