Move 310: Aloysius, Monster Slayer
Grell Nest--Early, Day 29 (Marpenoth 14)Azrun turned Arachne over to Echo's care and started preparing to fire his bow. Olaf struck the creature with another blow from his sword, but it was still not enough to finish it off. Renn, in spite of his quiet pleading with Corellon, failed to hit the monster. It was possible, however, that the prayer had an unexpected effect, as prayers are on occasion known to do. Aloysius charged in, brandishing a dagger, and in spite of bumping into frozen Jana and knocking her over, he buried the small blade up to the hilt in grayish brown flesh. The monster was unable to handle this final blow and slumped over, as much as a spherical mass can slump. Its writhing tentacles were still, and it seemed to be dead.
Azrun ran up to the group, "Pull everyone away from this thing. We need to set it on fire with oil or something. It can either heal itself or its like a troll and can regenerate. I don't want this thing getting back up in a few minutes and beating the rest of us to death." Azrun looked over to Aloysius with a smirk, "When in doubt, improvise...heh, Aloysius." He then set upon the task of getting people away and burning the critter.
Olaf bent over for a moment and caught his breath, then he stood up. "That was close. I don't have any more prayers available for removing paralysis, though I have some healing chants left. First, let's make certain this creature is dead. It could be faking for all we know. I'd suggest we hack it some more, and then pour some oil on and burn it. We can light the oil just before we leave for some place safer to nurse our wounds."
Olaf started hacking into the dead beast with his sword, obviously searching for anything that looked like it was an organ of some sort.
His emotions still bubbling forth, the scrawny mage frantically hacked into the beast's corpse a few more times before stepping back and taking a few deep breaths. Aloysius was not a happy camper.
"I think it be not as the trolls," he declared. "Likely it had some arcane method of healing itself." Looking over at Olaf, he raised his dagger once more.
"Assist me in insuring its final demise, Olaf." With that, the mage proceeded, once again, to maniacally and repeatedly hack into the body with his dagger.
Aloysius and Olaf decided to attack the unresponsive creature some more. They managed to get themselves covered in an impressive amount of monster gore while they did so. They splattered Blacky and Jana, who were both practically underfoot while the additional hacking was going on, to a lesser extent.
The group had replenished their oil supply to some extent when the cottage had been last opened. This thing was obviously much less flammable than trolls since it had not caught on fire when it was hit with magical fire earlier. It would probably take all the oil they had on them, and possibly more than they had on them, to get the hulking carcass to burn.
"Azrun, help me move Arachne near Jana if you would please," Renn said as he sheathed his longsword. "I've a spell which may remove the paralysis from the both of them...I hope," he chuckled.
"Quite the well timed blow Aloysius," Renniriolas grinned before he set his jaw and began to work at getting Arachne to Jana's side. When the deed was accomplished, he began to chant.
Azrun nodded and went to retrieve Echo and Arachne, "I guess we'll be staying here in the Grell Caves at least one more night. I believe I'm going to have to learn a few more helpful spells than the ones I have."
Aloysius didn't seem too concerned about the amount of monster goo on his clothes. He resheathed the dagger he had used on the beast and then removed another one that glowed with a soft light. His expression was a dark scowl as he silently stalked off in the direction of the area where the party had first seen the monster.
Echo turned Arachne over to Renn's care. She called after Aloysius, "Do you want someone to go with you? We don't know for sure that there's nothing else in there."
The mage stopped abruptly upon hearing Echo's voice. He stood silent for a moment, continuing to stare straight ahead. He then looked back over his shoulder.
"If you'd like, Echo," he said, "but I doubt there is anything else alive in there." He continued walking.
Aloysius stalked off into the cavern the creature had come from while Renn tried to rearrange some of the immobile party members. With considerable effort and some expenditure of time, he managed to get Arachne and Jana where he wanted them, away from other members of the party. He then cast a spell which freed Jana but not Arachne.
Jana oomphed as the spell was removed and she slumped onto the ground in a
more natural position. She rolled to her knees and stood, wincing as she worked the kinks out of her limbs. "Dammit, I just washed, too," she groused, looking down at the creature goo on her clothing and armor. She looked around. "Blacky'll be okay?" She waited for some sort of assurance before picking up her sword and shield and walking over to the cavern the thing had come from.Olaf made certain the creature was dead with no sign of regeneration. 'I guess we don't need to burn it." he said.
Then he went to see who needed healing. He went to Blacky and started praying over him.
Olaf provided some healing spells for the unconscious Blacky while Jana headed back over to the cavern the monster had come from.
Olaf prayed over Blacky a number of times. Once he was done, most of the unconscious warrior's wounds had disappeared.
Azrun went over to Arachne and frowned, "I'm sorry, Arachne. It looks like you're stuck like that for a bit." He went to his pack and pulled out a blanket and went back to her. He wrapped her up in the blanket and laid her down. He pulled the blanket out a little to form a pillow for her head. Once he was done he sat down beside her and rested.
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