We managed to convince Briscoe to get an Essence Charm for his Medicine skill. Now that he’s trying for the mastery roll, he misses a 3rd of the time. So, he’s using hero points every night. This saves him one. Unfortunately, he had a +1 Society roll and could not possibly make the needed DC to have a rare item in town. And the GM would not let someone else roll. So, he put in an order from Absolum at +10% cost. It’ll arrive at some future date. Once we had everyone but Xeelie online, we headed back into the dungeon.
On our way down the spiral stairs, we could hear buzzing sounds from the devil level. TerStegan asked if it was the same as the “Belcorra is coming” sounds we heard previously. No. It was Giant Flies. However, something had killed one and left some of its parts in the middle of the level. As a warning? We went into initiative order to get things moving. Oakwood snuck forward and we could see one fly to the north. He, however, veered east towards the prison area, thinking anything that’s killing flies might be coming from that way. Maybe the flies were a distraction from the real threat. Clarisa delayed because she was used to going after the fight had been started. Briscoe moved north and cast Rousing Splash. TerStegan entered his stance and charged. Once he engaged the one, he saw 6 more ahead. He crit. Their AC was only 16 so they had not been scaled up to our current level. He did 46 and killed it. Clarisa then moved and tossed a Fireball past TerStegan. 4 failed their save and 1 crit failed. 21 points was enough to kill them. There was one left that wasn’t in the AOE.
Oakwood moved, turned on his Kinetic Aura and Thermal Nimbus but couldn’t get line of sight on the last fly. He moved behind TerStegan. Briscoe, in a similar boat, moved twice to get LOS and threw his shield. And missed with a 1. The last fly charged Briscoe and crit of course. That did 14 plus a 16 Fort save which he made. And then it missed. TerStegan went next and killed it. Briscoe did a Medicine check and thought he wasn’t diseased or poxed. The bodies were added to the pile we left before and likely the source of the flies. We checked the body of the warning one. A good Medicine check indicated it was likely killed by venom before being ripped apart. Ling Spider, we feared. The tracks also supported that fear. We briefly discussed seeking it but we thought it was still too tough for us. We had only advanced one level since the last time we avoided it. Clarisa was angry through the whole fight. That new lens.
We went down the rope ladder. (Thankfully, it didn’t occur to the GM to have our ladder be damaged by the Fireball.) We decided to sail around to the north and approach the mushroom cavern from a less common direction? We parked the boats at a decrepit dock. It appeared to have been smashed by massive force. A mushroom forest lay ahead. We also noticed bubbles coming up from below under the dock. The dock entered into a battered shack. We piled in to get away from the water. Oakwood remembered to do a Dash of Herbs on Briscoe while Briscoe did Preventative Medicine on TerStegan to give him help against any future poison. There were a couple of corpses in the south doorway. Children of Belcorra. They also appeared battered. The mushrooms appeared tended and there were cleared paths. There were also ones that gave off a low light. We could see a stone bridge crossing a deep chasm up ahead. More shacks to the south. Briscoe asked the mushrooms what lived in the water. He rolled poorly and we got no useful information. We considered trying to draw the water monster out and fighting it first. But that sort of plan usually backfires on us. We decided to search the 2-3 shacks to the south and see what happens. We headed to the first door/shack. It once had a lock but it had been rusted out. Inside we found the corpse of a Rust Monster, surrounded by piles of rust. Meanwhile Briscoe stayed behind and cast Detect Magic on the first shack but found nothing. TerStegan eagerly left the Rust Monster shack. The next one was a storage room for timber. Mushroom timber, according to lumberjack Oakwood. Briscoe hurriedly stepped in to that shack to get to use his Plant Lore skill. And start searching. When initiative suddenly occurred.
Suddenly a huge frog-like tentacled monster came out of the water. Unlike us, it got surprise with its sudden attack power. It stepped and struck an off-guard Clarisa with its 15’ reach. It crit and did 49 points. (It had a 60% crit chance on her.) As a free action, it grabbed her. It could only fail on a 1 but at least it did not crit succeed. So only grabbed. It then hit her with a Barbed Tongue. That hit for 23 and automatically grabbed her again. And a Fort save versus poison. She saved for half of 16 and no condition. But she was unconscious, regardless. We could attack the tongue to try to free her but the tentacle was part of the whole body. To wrestle her free of that would be a DC35 skill check. (Or escape roll.) Oakwood cast Heroism on himself, figuring this would be a significant battle. He hit a tentacle by 0 and did 14 points of fire damage. Sadly, the water monster was not vulnerable to fire. (It seemed to be not weak or resistant to anything.) TerStegan cast Haste, swung and missed with a 1. Briscoe did a Blazing Bolt on the body (tentacle) and the tongue since they were two separate things. He hit the tentacle for 13. And then stepped and did DV on Clarisa. She got 51 points back and was no longer Dying 2. But still doubly grabbed.
Clarisa cast a full Force Barrage for 39 and made the flat check. It pulled Clarisa towards its mouth with its tongue. And let go with its tentacle. It was Athletics vs her Fort. It succeeded with a 3 on the die. It pulled her in and attempted to Swallow her Whole. A -5 MAP Athletics vs Reflex and succeeded exactly. She was grabbed and slowed 1. She had to hold breath or suffocate. And took 16 more points to boot. Somehow the tentacle missed. Oakwood used his Blazing Wave, hoping its Reflex was worse than its AC. It saved for half for 12. And then turned back on his kinetic aura and Nimbus. TerStegan discussed the Word of Freedom power on Otari’s key. He had no line of sight to her but had line of hearing? The GM allowed it. It took an action to pull it out. That spell canceled the grab condition for a round. She fell out of the mouth and into the water. TerStegan then charged carefully through the mushrooms as to not hurt them and attacked. And missed. (AC 30 will do that.) Briscoe cast a Heal at range on Clarisa for 41. And tossed his shield and missed.
Clarisa swam 10 feet with a good Athletics roll and got onto land. She cast Laughing Fit and it failed its Will save. Slowed 1. It did a tongue attack on TerStegan. That hit for 28 and a free grab. (I guess the GM forgot about the poison save.) And did a tentacle attack on Clarisa. That hit but was not a crit. That did 25. Oakwood moved into Nimbus range to get automatic damage since it was so hard to hit. And missed with a 2-action melee Energy Blast. TerStegan still had the key in his hand. He made his 5 flat check to cast Unfettered Movement. He then did a Swipe on the tongue and tentacle. He hit both. He did 21 which cut the tongue and free himself. Briscoe cast Tempest Surge. It crit saved for none. And then he moved up.
Clarisa cast TK Projectile and missed. And sustained the LF. The Froghemoth could now get all of us in its Flailing Tentacles attack. 4 attacks with no MAP until after. TerStegan was hit for 25 and Restrained. Briscoe was crit for 55 but the program wouldn’t let it do another grab. Oakwood was crit (by 16) for 47. Clarisa was crit for 41. Oakwood did a Hunt Prey on it. He then missed and used a Hero Point to hit. He did 17. TerStegan did an Escape and auto succeeded. He then stowed the key and regripped his axe. He finally got to enter his Marshall Stance. And then hasted attacked and missed. He then heroically hit after all with a HP. That did 29. Briscoe did a group heal. We all got 21 including it. So, 84 versus 21. A fair trade.
Clarisa tried another TKP. She missed and sustained the LF. It did a jaw attack on TerStegan. That crit for 57. Then it crit grabbed for Restrained. And then tried the Swallow Whole. It crit succeeded again. TerStegan was now inside it, Slowed 1 and took 16 more points. He had 1 left. Oakwood tried a Blazing Wave since TerStegan was safely inside it. And it rolled a 20 on the die for the save and took none. TerStegan auto escaped and fell into the water. He swam over to the boats to get flanking and attacked. (Turns out, it couldn’t be flanked because of its multiple stocked eyes.) He missed by one, got Guidance from Oakwood and did a meager 15. Briscoe couldn’t get to TerStegan with one move so he used two and then did DV. But he could not risk risky. He missed the roll and then used a HP to succeed. That did 42. And then missed with his staff.
Clarisa sustained the LF. She tried a Dragon Breath. It saved for half of 27. It was still hungry and TerStegan proved to be too slippery. So, it crit Oakwood for 65. But it missed its grab due to Oakwood high Fort. Hooray. It then hit with a tongue. That did 24 and took him out. Boo. It then auto grabbed. TerStegan cast Bless and then hit for 29. And then missed. Briscoe ran through a bunch of movement options to minimize the actions needed to get to Oakwood. But leap and jump and swim wouldn’t help him. So, he used two moves to do a DV on him. But again, he couldn’t do it riskily. That did 37. He had one action left. He then hit exactly with his staff and did 7. Every little bit helps.
Clarisa sustained and used Dragon Breath again. It crit saved for none. Oakwood cast Sure Strike from his cloak, making the flat check. He hit by zero on the bigger die. He did 20 and cut the tongue. He was free but still prone. It then crit him again and knocked him out again. The grab auto worked. Then swallowed him whole. And then 21 damage plus the slowed. That put him at Dying 3 because he went down with a crit. TerStegan tried to Demoralize but failed. He then missed by one. He used a HP and crit with a 10 (20). That did 40 points. He then attacked again and missed. And missed again. Briscoe didn’t have LOS to use Stabilize on Oakwood. He considered jumping into its mouth but that would be hard to figure out how to do that, rule-wise. And it would only buy a round. It was “near death” so he ran through his damaging options. He chose the Timber cantrip. It took half of 17. That killed it. There were rules about cutting someone out of its dead body. Basically 3 actions of slashing or piercing damage to carve him out. But the clock was ticking.
Clarisa cast TK Projectile for two actions of slashing damage. Unfortunately, Oakwood was next. He rolled a 15 on his death save and went to Dying 2. And then he took 20 more damage from being in there at the end of his round and went to back to Dying 3. TerStegan then chopped him out, pulled him ashore and cast Hymn of Healing. We crawled into the fungus timber storeroom and healed up. I think the GM agreed to “let that happen”. We’ll have to search the body and the shacks next time. Can we continue on? Briscoe and Clarisa used some spells but he used 3 BFM. TerStegan used two of his spells and lots of Otari Key powers. (That key really saved us.) If every fight is balanced to be “do or die”, can we afford to open any door below our maximum?
