Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

Firenewt pink rubs its eyes and staggers, blinded.

Hew is able to land an attack against one of the small smoke creatures.

Meili and Danica are up.

Meili Dex save: 8

This time attack came so unexpectedly Meili could not do anything. She still remembered the position of the pink newt, though, and could hear him coughing. Using only memory and sound, she struck.

Shortsword Attack: 23 Damage: 8
Unarmed Strike Attack: 23 Damage: 5

Mica Dex save: 9.

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Quote from LAXGunner >>

Mica Dex save: 19.

 Mica flails ineffectively at the newt, failing to land a single hit against the creature.  But he does manage to catch the movement of the smoke creatures out of the corner of his eye, which gives him enough time to avoid the ash. He shouts out to Meili and Hew  “Watch out, behind you! What in the bloody hell are those things?”

Danica will rush up between Meili and Ran to slash at the injured Newt, her expression focused. At least until after she finished her swing and then looked incredulously over it's shoulder seeing a being made up of smoke. "Definitely not Newts." She responded to Mica. 

Scimitar Attack:  10 Damage: 8

Meili, blinded as she is, manages to connect twice against the equally blinded newt.  It collapses to the cavern floor.

The two smokey creatures rasp and argue amongst themselves. 

"(cough) You said these guys would have cool stuff.  They look like (cough) a bunch of bums."

"Hey (cough)... Could you like... shut up?  I said they might have some cool stuff.  Screw it... lets go back to that sulfur vent and get high."

Only one firenewt remains.  Surrounded and outnumbered, it still raises its shield in time to defend against Danica's attacks.  Then it launches strikes of its own against Danica and Mica.

Danica:  Attack: 5 Damage: 4

Mica:  4 Damage: 3

Ran, Mica and Nalomanterys are up again.

((I'm assuming the last newt will be dead before my turn comes up)).

Nalomanterys, seeing an opportunity for information, attempts to keep the strange smoke creatures around to question them. He yells out in whatever language they were speaking: "Yoo hoo! Do you boys want a cool new way to get high?" He pulls a portion of bug repellent out of his bag and waves it in front of the smoke screen. He keeps a robed arm in front of his eyes in case more ash belches out from the tunnel.

Do I know anything about what those 2 creatures were?

Arcana: 14 ((if nature is a better role, it would only be a 10))

Ran focuses on the last firenewt, quickly slashing out with both swords to try and put an end to the creature. With only one creature left as an immediate threat and who-knows-what still waiting ahead, Ran doesn't overextend and conserves his energy.

Action: Longsword Attack: 13 Damage: 7  

Bonus Action: Longsword Attack: 20 Damage: 5  

Mica did not focus on the strange smoke creatures for long and turns his attention back to the newt in front of him just as it strikes.  Avoiding its attack, Mica launches two of his own, slashing across its midsection and trying to bring it down.

Attack: 18 Damage: 6

Attack: 10 Damage: 5

plus 8 colossus slayer damage.

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If at first you don't succeed, keep trying.  At last, Mica connects with one of his axes, finding a gap in the firenewts defenses.  He brings the hot, slimy creature down with a wicked blow.

Nalomanterys:

 The mephits look at Nalomanterys with a critical eye.

"(Cough) Heh heh... I think (cough) we need to find an adult.  A strange man in a wizard costume is trying to lure us (cough) with promises of drugs and good times (cough)."

"Yeah... (cough, cough) heh heh... the old dwarf already poked me with something... Stranger danger! Heh heh. Ow."

They continue to move back toward the smoke, disappearing into the swirling dark are of the right-most cavern.  

We are out of initiative.  The 6 firenewts are down and Meili's blindness ends.

Ran takes a couple of deep breaths, then starts to search the bodies of the firenewts in case they have anything useful.

"Is everyone okay?" Ran asks. Then he looks over at Nalomanterys. "Do we try that again? Lure a few more out?"

In the darkness of the cave Meili cad to blink several times to understand that the blindness is gone. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked over singed arm. "More or less," answered she the first general question then looked in the direction of the smoke whirling in the side entrance.

"Do we have to go there? The map says we have to get across to reach the gauntlet and those... things are not on the way."

Danica grunts, taking the hit from the firenewt and getting a little winded. She then rather vengefully enjoying the way Mica took it down afterwards. Then hearing an odd phrase from their wizard, she pivoted to give him an incredulous look. Snorting at the strange smoke being's response, the elf simply shook her head, glad that they weren't trying to pick a fight. 

Sheathing her scimitar, Danica grimaces at Meili's burn and at Nalomanterys' and her own state before suggesting, "We could rest up a bit, take a moment to catch our breath. Worst case scenario, they come to us. If not, then I can try and heal us up a bit."

((Short rest vs having Danica heal everyone via spell slots))

Mica flashes a grim smile of satisfaction as he is finally able to connect one of his blows with the newt to his front.  He takes a quick breath as the fight ends and helps Ran search through the bodies, looking for anything of use.  “The old dwarf thought there were about a dozen firenewts left in the forge, so there are still others ahead.”  He looks up at Meili  “No need to go chasing those things down through the smoke.  Did you see anything when you went inside that tunnel?”  Turning to Danica “I’m fine, Cap’n, but if you want to hold up here and see if more newts come looking for their friends, I’m game as well.”

Seeing that luring the smoke creatures was not going to work, Nalomanterys puts the insect repellent back in his pouch. "Mephits of some sort... elemental scamps." He explains, describing the smoke creatures as weak and annoying elemental tricksters. "Not worth chasing them. I was just hoping they would stick around to tell us more about the newts."

He looks like he's trying to keep his mind off his wounds - two red slashes on his chest which easily cut through the robe - when he hears Danica's offer of magical healing. "Egad! You can heal right now?! I thought I was going to bleed out over here. Stitch these up, if it please you!" The wizard gingerly exposes his wounds to the light and... they appear awfully shallow. More bark than bite. ((Nalomanterys is just above half health)).

In other words, Nalomanterys would prefer healing, but will be fine without it.

To keep his mind occupied, Nalomanterys turns back to planning the assault and answering Ran's question. "Yes, I could do that one more time ((reminder that Nalomanterys looks like a human right now, because he concentrated on another spell)). But if I do, I shall not be able to breathe ice breath again. It is one or the other. The next group supposedly has a warlock in it - probably a bit more savvy to my lies about his master - so I would be prepared for my failure to lure them out. It may be better to just assault the remainders. I shall leave it up to you lot."

Meili shook her head at Mica's question. "I did not see anything here, only heard voices and now we know whose voices it was."

She looked over everyone (returned vision demanded action) and concluded: "We are all - or almost all - scratched even if not lethally. But the battle was not quiet. If we are to fight another group, maybe better on the other side of the bridge. Or at least change the place if we are to take a rest."

[Spell slots are precious. Might want to save them for the next battle.]

Replying belatedly to Meili's question, Danica glances over at their more magically inclined comrade that had conversed with the strange smoke beings earlier. "What d'ya say Nal? Think they'll leave us alone if we leave them alone? Don't fancy goin' into that hole blind and Meili's right, our goal isn't in that direction." 

The elf mouths the word "mephit" in curiosity before shrugging. "We definitely weren't quiet," Agreeing with the lithe woman before craning her neck, looking forward and then behind where they had came from. "I hate any of the crew to go into a fight injured." Giving a slight smile at the wizard at his dramatics, "Even a little. We'll play it safe and do half n half." Walking up to Nalomanterys and placing a light hand on his injury before it begins to glow under her palm as she murmurs, "Te curo." 

((Nalomanterys Heals for 16 via Level 1 Cure Wounds ))

Patting his shoulder, the sailor states, "Well now that the most grievously injured crewmate is a little patched, might as well move up and see if we'll have a chance for a breather or work on whittling down the rest of 'em." 

Ran looks down at this own armor and up again. He looks a little sheepish when he realizes he didn't get even a scratch from fighting with the fire newts. 

"Do you think this little track track here does a bit of a walkabout and comes at the forge from another direction?" Ran asks pointing down at the track that leads off to the west. "If these lizards have heard us, they think we're where we are now. Maybe we can round back of them that way."

Mica looks down the tunnel to the west, trying to recall the map the old dwarf sketched. “I don’t know, this tunnel wasn’t on the map, could be a dead end, could lead anywhere.”

He turns to look at the bridge across the lava, trying to determine if it is in good condition. “If they get us as we are crossing this bridge we are in trouble. We either need to go fast to the other side or wait here and try to draw them out. Or go another direction.”