Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

The reptiles continue to fail to connect with Mica, but Hew is once again grappled and restrained in the jaws of a killer crocodile.

Inete picks up Hew's rapier from the bottom of the canoe and tries to hand it to the dwarf, as he is tossed about like a rag doll in the surf.

From his vantage point in the skies, Ninlil spots a few more smaller Dimetrodons and Crocodiles watching the festivities from their resting places in the sun, but for now it does not look like any other nearby predators are moved to get themselves involved in this.  

ROUND FOUR

• Danica
• Ran 
• Dimetrodons
• Meili
• Mica 
• Hew
• Velan
• Crocodiles
• Inete

And again it was no time to turn the canoe, still pressed between two giant reptiles, with Hew struggling to free himself. Meili tried once more to convince the stubborn crocodile that this "lunch" is way too costly.

Attack on croc 7.

Sword:  Attack: Bless 2 + 15 Damage: 5

BA (unarmed): Attack: Bless 2 + 18 Damage: 6

Ran watches as the croc starts dragging Danica into the water. But when his first reaction is to go in after the croc, he notices the two dimetrodons are now blocking his way.

”Bloody daft looking beasts.” Ran says.

He turns his focus on to both creatures, slashing out at the one directly in front of him. Before that blow even lands his other blade sweeps around to catch the same lizard in the side.

Action: Attack: 14 Damage: 11  
Bonus Action: Attack: 18 Damage: 5  

As Danica was being dragged further and further into the water, her boots scraping against the sandy banks of the river as the waterline reached her waist, her starry eyes darted from the beast clamped down on her to the two behind her looking for any opportunity to steal her away. She heard Velan's warning and was glad that she also heard that his voice was retreating. Though there was no certainty he might not run into further trouble at least he was putting distance between him and this trouble specifically. The other canoe looked like they were having just as bad a time of it, Hew being targeted most of all. A frustrated growl building up up in her throat, her nebulous hair seemed to flare as she shouted, "Detono!" A Thunderwave booming out from her in an effort to deal the most damage she could to the reptiles surrounding her and hopefully pushing them away. 

DC 12 Con save for any in in 15 foot radius around Danica. Half damage if saved. 
Damage: 6

(OOC Is Danica placing herself at the center of the cube or at one corner or one side - you can choose - and trying to see if Ran needs to be rolling a Con Save?) 

Crocodile 2 CON save:  19

Dimetrodon CON saves:  20  9

Ran's blades deal criss-crossing slashes to one of the Dimetrodons.  It looks primed to attack him, when Danica's Thunderwave spell goes off.  The Dimetrodon Ran struck collapses to the beach, bleeding from its eyes and reptilian ear holes.  The other Dimetrodon is knocked completely off its feet and rolls up the beach, landing 10 feet further inland.  

Crocodile 2 shrugs off the worst of the spell and still has a grip on Danica.  It looks seriously wounded, but its killer instinct is more powerful than its sense.  

Mica watches one of the crocodiles leave him and head toward Hew, still hanging in the water. “Get back in the bloody boat, fool, another one is heading your way!”   Mica tries to warn him and gives the beast a parting shot with his hand axe, then moves his attention back to attack the crocodile still facing him with two more swings of his hand axes.

 AoO against croc 7  Bless 2 + Attack: 21 Damage: 7.

Attack against croc 6 Bless 4 + Attack: 24 Damage: 4.

Attack against croc 6 Bless 1 + Attack: 6 Damage: 6.

.

22

Hew successfully snatches his rapier from Inete as Crocodile 7 thrashes him around.  His rapier flashes again, and again.  

Attack: 20 Damage: 6

Attack: 7 Damage: 8

 Between Meili's sword, Mica's handaxe, and Hew's rapier, Crocodile 7 meets the same fate as the rest, releasing Hew and sinking into the depths, dead, or else mortally wounded.

Hew, his hide armor torn, and bleeding, swims again to the canoe.  "Help me up, damnit," he coughs.  "But be steady so we don't all end up in the drink!"

Mica looks at Hew helplessly, unable to move to help him into the boat without leaving an opening for the crocodile.  “Grab him” he shouts to Inete and Meili “I will keep this one occupied.”

Mica did not need to shout, the girls were doing their best to fish the dwarf out of the treacherous water. Doing this while keeping the canoe afloat was not an easy task but Meili tried to coordinate help as best as she could.

It was also finally possible to move to the shores - the next task on Meili's list.

Quote from Thoradin_Orcbender >>

(OOC Is Danica placing herself at the center of the cube or at one corner or one side - you can choose - and trying to see if Ran needs to be rolling a Con Save?) 

 (OOC: I am centering it on Danica, trying to push away the three surrounding her, but it shouldn't hit Ran I think if I looked right he should be just outside of the range of the 15ft.)

The tides of the battle seemed to go increasingly in their favor, save, of course, for the fact that Danica seemed to be dragged by one of the beasts. Seeing that Velan repositioned himself in a manner that the reptile is no further than a hundred and twenty feet from him and started whispering. As the arcane words left his lips a familiar teal glow takes hold of his eyes. He rises the right hand, focus on the palm, changing the energy of the weave in pure force.

With a single move, not too dissimilar from the throwing motion he deployed on Fire Bolt, the wizard fired three glowing darts against the enemy grappling the wizard. The keener eye would know that he didn’t bother with taking aim. His mind focused on the beast guided the spell making it sure to hit. Magic Missile, he thought during the strike. Maybe I should have kept it for later. But then he still had some strength for later and he owed the druid in particular for her help in the battles against the gladiator and giant wasps. If only the damage were to be enough. Considering his sort, he doubted it would but at the end of the day, when everything is said and done, a man can hope.

Notes: Velan uses Magic Missile (all three darts targeting the crocodile grappling Danica). If the crocodile dies he uses his speed to get 30ft further away from the dinos. Damage below.

Dart 1: 3
Dart 2: 5
Dart 3: 2

The wizard's glowing darts slam into the crocodile, impacting with the force of heavy hammers.  Danica can hear ribs snapping inside the monster, and its grip on her leg releases.  The body of the croc slips downstream.

The surviving Dimetrodon rises, shakes its head and lets out an angry hiss toward Ran... and then turns and lopes away inland.

Crocodile 6 lurks in the water beside Mica, its cold, gold and black eyes fixed on him.  Mica can easily imagine the creature is frustrated at its failure to snatch him out of the boat.  It disengages and sinks beneath the water with a last hungry look that seems to say next time.

Meili and Inete are able to pull Hew back up and into the canoe.  We are out of initiative.

Danica:

Ran secures the canoe, making sure it doesn't float down river while they sort themselves out after the lizard battle.

"You okay there, Cap?" Ran calls to Danica, while still keeping his eyes on the retreating dimetrodon.

("From now on land safe, water... not safe." (c) )

With Hew's successful rescue, Meili could return to the paddling and did her best to bring the canoe to the shore to join the rest of the group. It seemed some rest, even if short, was in order after the fight. (If they are lucky, and if at least one crocodile was dead, there was a hope the rest of the pack would eat the body and leave travellers alone).

"How are we doing? Anyone needs medical help?" Hew was definitely wounded and Meili could not shake off the thought about "throat leeches", the question was, how serious were all wounds.

Whether she was bandaging the wounds or simply checking the conditions, she could not help but ask. "Are you sure the river is the safest way?" She did remember raptors but the crocodiles left a stronger impression. Definitely fresher at least.

Cursing up a storm as her spell did little to deter her main problem, Danica stared down into the slit eyes of her foe as it still held fast to her leg, her hand scrambling for the hilt of her scimitar. At least until a trio of magical bolts pelted into the reptile and finally its jaws released from around her thigh, the elf letting out a hitched hiss as the river water hit the fresh wound before spitting at the sinking body of the croc. Glancing back towards Velan, who she could only assume was the one to have saved her, "Thanks for the sav-" But she only saw a his retreating form as he moved to put more space between himself and the remaining dinosaur.

Eyes turning back to the river, the druid backed up shakily towards the shore while looking for any remaining threats and while she didn't see any more crocodiles, she did certainly see something else concerning. A frothing underneath the river's surface that quickened her pace. "There's somethin' else in the water!" Whether it was whatever had taken down the hadrosaur from earlier or even a school of quippers she couldn't be sure, only that she didn't want to find out. Seeing the remaining dimetrodon retreat, Danica focused on getting back into the canoe with Ran, waving at Velan to turn back, "Come on!"

Seeing Meili bring the other canoe their way she shook her head before looking at Hew, "I'm guessing that as dangerous as traveling on the river is, it's even worse to go off of it? Let alone in it. Blood's in the water. And our fight likely is going to attract others to the area. We need to put as much distance as we can between this place and us b-Ach, **** -sake." Danica hissed as she put too much weight on her left leg, blood leaking out of the wound moreso. Still she waved off any help, "I think Hew needs more looking after than I do. Saw him wrestling with that croc. Not good for your health old man." She tried to tease before settling herself into the canoe and resting her hands around her thigh. "Te Curo." 

Cure Wounds on herself: 9

Ran nods and after making sure the crocs didn't put any holes in the canoe he makes ready to push off, but up stream a little to avoid the churning water.

"If we're going, yeah, let's rattle our dags and get a move on," Ran says. "That was a touch unpleasant but at least we could see what was going on. Step a few paces into that jungle and we can't see what's coming until it's right on top of us."

Mica watches the crocodile slide back under the water and quickly turns his attention toward helping Hew get situated and moving the canoe closer to the others.  “Yes, this is no place to rest.  The dead and wounded will draw more attention, if they haven’t already” he glances at the churning water. “Best move further upriver before we stop”  He leans into his oar with powerful strokes. 

“But I can’t wait to get out of these damned boats and back on solid ground.  These canoes are no place for a fight.”