Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

After pulling the ptera-folk closer to her, the vine quickly withers and falls away from the creature. Staring down at the current sole survivor between Meili and Hew's shoulders, Danica expression flinches as it rages out at its attackers. Approaching from behind her allies, she states solemnly, "I'm sorry." Using the last word as the verbal component to her Word of Radiance spell. 

Movement: 10 or so feet up behind Meili and Hew.
Action: Attack with Word of Radiance, DC 12 Con Save, Damage: 6
Bonus Action: None.

Ran climbs over the bodies of the dead pterafolk and continues on to the last one timing his arrival for after the effects of Danica’s spell fades.

If the creature still stands he slashes out with his two longswords.

Attack: 17 Damage: 9  

Attack: 10 Damage: 10  

CON: 16

A blistering spotlight erupts from Danica, singling out the lone Pterafolk, illuminating her in blinding light.  Meili and Ran do their best to bring it down but deal only glancing wounds.  The creature fights as if possessed by Wrath itself, buffeting away attemtped strikes with its claws and wings.

Round 7

Mica leans against the tunnel wall, gasping for breath as the creature in front of them falls and Ran pushes ahead. “Go on, you can be in front for awhile.”  Gathering his breath, he climbs over the pile of fallen creatures and joins the fight against the last enemy, sliding in behind Ran and swinging his hand axe.

Attack: 6 Damage: 6 plus 7 colossus slayer damage.

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In the close confines of the entryway tunnel, it is Mica's turn to swing wild and clip Ran.   [For the critical miss from Mica, I need Ran to make a DEX save DC 13.  Take 6 slashing damage on a failure; half that on a success.]

The battle continues, with Hew continuing to dance and stab, his whole body shivering and dripping with sweat.

Attack: Attack: 20 Damage: 11

Attack: Attack: 13 Damage: 6

Silent at last and bleeding out, the remaining Pterafolk continues its desperate attacks.

Bite Attack on Hew:  Attack: 22 Damage: 8

Claws Attack on Meili: Attack: 19 Damage: 6

The last pterafolk was strong - really strong! - to keep fighting with all its wounds, but even that monster was getting tired. Meili dodged the giant claw and lashed out again seeing the opening in its defences.

Sword Attack: 7 Damage: 8
Unarmed strike Attack: 17 Damage: 5

And with a last kick from Meili, the Pterafolk staggers, reaches once more toward the open sky at the mouth of the cave... and collapses, dead.

[Whew!]

Hew wheels around a few times, looking for more threats, before he too drops... not unconscious, but spent.  He sits against one of the cave walls, coughing, shivering, and binding up the worst of his wounds.

The rest of you find yourselves - beaten and bloody, for the most part [still need a DEX save from Ran] - surrounded by Pterafolk corpses inside a dry, refuse littered cave.  A tiny Pterasaur, not much larger than a pigeon, lurks in the corners of the cave, looking for an opening to escape.  The floor of the main cave room is filled with dirt, bones, fur, feather, and the mostly skeletal remains of at least two adventurers.

Outside, the sun is drawing close to the horizon.

[Based on the map from the previous page]

"I saw another opening over there." Still collected and concentrated on the matter, with the face covered with a mask, that added coldness to the tone, Meili went to check the small cave to the south. She returned quickly, informing others - with the same emotionless tone - that the cave has eggs in it. "What do we do with them? Nanny did not ask us to bring some to her but... we've done quite enough killing." She was still avoiding looking in the direction of the pile of monstrous bodies. "Maybe we can take those eggs to the grand hag? She might kill the little monsters inside, but there is a chance she will let them live. It's... their only chance. Then we rest in the ruins of the village." She was now looking down. "I would not want to sleep in here. And on this plateau we are in her domain no matter where we sleep, I am sure she already knows we succeeded. No point to postpone the meeting".

Mica catches his breath and then goes to explore the remains of the two individuals in the cave, poking around in the dirt and debris for any possessions or other signs that could be used to identify them, were they part of the white Wizards they were following?

He looks up at Meili’s questions “The eggs would serve as proof we completed her task, that’s true enough.  I also do not wish to remain here long, who knows if there are others outside the nest that will return, but I don’t know if we should rest in the village either.  Can we trust the hag to keep her part of the bargain?  Speaking of which, we should think about what questions we want to ask.”

Perception: 22. and Survival: 12.  to look through the remains. 

.

Mica examines the bones.  In the back half of the cave are the bodies of two partially eaten explorers. A discarded backpack near them contains 6 gp in a pouch, a potion of greater healing and a heavy, red leather bound book.  The book is held shut with a brass clasp and the cover is etched with geometric patterns and runes.

Mica turns over the heavy, red book in his hand, memory striking him of the spellbook Velan carried and studied. “Well, we found some of those wizards, what is left of them, anyway.  A healing potion for all of the good it did them, and this must be one of their spellbooks.  Wish Velan was here, maybe he could put it to use.” He hands the spellbook and healing potion along with the gold over to Danica. “Here you go, Cap’n, you will put them to better use than I. I don’t want to stay long, but should we rest here a short while?”  He looks over at Hew with concern.

"Here?" Meili shuddered at the thought of sitting among the piles of dead bodies. "We do need rest." (Hew looked like he would not make it back to the hag) "But maybe we can rest outside?" Her tone was almost pleading.

Meili would not leave others, of course, and if they decide to rest on this newly carved graveyard - so be it, but should they agree to stay outside and take the eggs with them, would help with transportation. A backpack combined with already fixed rope had to do the trick.

Danica pauses for a moment, blood still high from the battle as the others quickly began milling about and investigating the cave. Her eyes however honed in on the unfamiliar movement of what seemed to be a much much smaller Pterasaur. Blocking its path to the exit where it was clearly trying to go, the elf froze with a piece of dried meat dangling from her fingers when Meili declared what was further in the cave. Stomach dropping a little, the druid's eyes pressed closed for a moment as she wondered internally if they did the right thing. These were clearly not exactly friendly creatures judging from the skeletons, but she could hear Fran's voice in her heart saying there was a difference between defending oneself and seeking a creature out in the safety of its home and eradicating its entire family. Just as surely as she could hear Xallin's saying in her mind that the best way to ensure that there are no more 'Terror-folk' attacks was to completely get rid of the Pterafolk. 

Heart and stomach a mess, Danica stared at the eggs Meili found as she spoke of giving them to Nanny and shuddered, truly not wanting to think of what the hag would do with them, but nodding at what Mica said about them being good proof of deed. Assuming the secretive witch didn't already somehow know of what they'd accomplished already. Accepting the potion and odd book, the elf gave the tome a passing glance over before stuffing it into her pack. Now wasn't the time to peruse it anyway, though perhaps Inete might be able to help her look it over later. Speaking of which, "Sh!#, we should probably hurry back up to Inete, she's alone up there." As grateful as she was for Hew's assistance, she didn't like the idea of the last decent magic caster in their party disappearing in similar fashion as Velan had.

Glancing the Dwarf over, she nods, "Rest period sounds like a good idea. It's neither safe nor sanitary to sleep where the dead lie, so somewhere between here and the village sounds good to me. Give us some time to recuperate and think of those questions." 

Turning back to the miniature Pterosaur, Danica quickly casts Speak with Animals and attempts to lure it closer with the bit of meat as she asks it, "We're sorry for scaring you. You don't have anything to fear from us if you don't attack us. I'll give you this meat if you can tell me if there are more Ptera-folk than the ones here. Or were these the only ones?" 

((Not sure which one is needed so did both))
Animal Handling: 16
Persuasion: 10
Guidance: 4

Mica’s face falls as Danica mentions Inete. He had promised to see her to her destination and she was alone on top of the cliff. He turns to Danica “You are right, this is no place to linger.  I will go check on Inete. Meet you back on top.  Yell if you need anything.”  With that, Mica climbs back over the pile of bodies in the entryway and clambers up the rope to the cliff top, choosing Ran’s rope to make use of the knots to ease the climb.  He looks frantically around at the top, looking for Inete and any threats.

Athletics (for the climb, with advantage for the  knots): 20.

Perception: 7.

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Hew dusts himself off and rises back to his feet, still shaking slightly.  "That was a regular (cough) donnybrook.  Well done keeping them trapped inside."  At the discussion of the eggs, his expression turns blank.  "No telling what that witch would do with them.  If its mercy you wish to deliver, best to drop them over the edge of the cliff than hand them over to her, I think."

Danica makes a fast friend with the little Pterosaur.  It greedily takes the morsel of food in its beak and tips its head back, swallowing it whole.  Then it clambers up Danica's leg and hangs from her hip like a bat.  

Danica:

 Mica:

“No, no, no” Mica mutters and curses to himself as he tries to make sense of the signs at the top of the cliff.  He races to both the cliff face and the back opening, shouting down to the others “Shake a leg, there is trouble up top.  Inete is missing!”  He looks up as Ran’s bird flutters down nearby “What’s that now? Disappeared, eh.  Did you see what happened?”  He pauses, remembering Danica’s earlier experience, but reaches out and tries to speak with the bird anyway to find out what happened.

Danica nods, reassured as Mica said he would check on Inete. Focusing back on the tiny pterosaur, the druid coos and chirps with it in kind. It wasn't exactly great news, but it was somewhat reassuring to know that it didn't have much fondness for its former 'masters'. She couldn't help but pity the poor creature and smile down at it endearingly as it hung from the blue sash tied around her hip. "You seem very sweet." She says softly to the creature in a manner it would comprehend. "I'm sorry you were treated cruelly. If you would like, you can stay with me and I will feed you and try and protect you. But I warn you that I fight many dangers."

"The little pterosaur says that they don't think all of the Pterafolk were here. So it might not be smart to linger too close to this cave if we do decide to leave and rest nearby. Unless we want to try and spring an ambush on them. Not that we know when they'll return..." 

Meeting Hew's eye at his proposed mercy, Danica stated, "Unless we're eradicating this entire nest, meaning including whatever pterafolk are out of it at the moment, I'd rather not murder innocent unhatched infants. They still have some sort of chance if we simply leave them or relocate them or even take them with us to Nanny's. But she asked us to either kill all the Pterafolk or drive them off and burn their nest so they don't return. We could move the eggs and - "

Just as she was trying to give a hopefully convincing speech, the elf could hear herself and caught sight of the pile of bodies. Who was she kidding? Nature wasn't so kind. And these were far from simple beasts doing what they needed to survive. Shaking her head while rubbing her forehead, Danica states in a hollow voice, "Selune forgive me....  Let's just burn it all and be done with it. We'll smash the eggs first. They shouldn't have to experience that. No need for proof, Nanny seems plenty knowledgeable about us and what we do, be surprised if she's not watching us right now somehow." Green eyes roaming the cave's walls and ceilings in paranoia. 

That's when Mica's voice echoed down into the caves and the sailor felt like she had just crested a huge tidal wave, stomach dropping. "Gods damn it all, not again." Immediately making the trek topside to where Mica was now. 

((OOC: edited to reflect LAXGunner's post~))

Meili's eyes behind the mask softened at the beginning of Danica's speech but as the Captain came to the logical conclusion well in line with Hew's opinion on the matter, she lowered her head for a moment, then straightened up and walked into the "hatchery". A few muffled sounds of a sword going through the fragile shell echoed under the cave ceiling then Meili appeared again, cleaning the blade.

She barely had time to sheath the weapon, when Mica's shout came from the top. Still silent, Meili darted toward the chute [or the ropes if the chute was not accessible from down below].

Only at the top Meili spoke again. "Then we know the question we need to ask Nanny. It has to be sisters again but we need to know for sure."

Hew moves to try to stop Meili, but is too slow, sick and injured to get to the eggs first.  With the deed done, he looks disgusted with himself.  "I'm... I'm sorry.  You should have let me handle that business.  I have... it wouldn't have mattered to me.  I'm sorry."

With Mica's warning, the rest of you scramble up the ropes to the top of the ledge.  The sun is now just an orange sliver above the mountain range far to the west.