Move 344:  Fighting Ropers

Smooth Caverns--Early, Day 36 (Marpenoth 20)

A volley of arrow fire flew from the cavern entrance, but none of it hit the intended target of the roper that currently had people captured. In fact, Echo had some trouble with the trigger mechanism on her crossbow and nearly shot off one of her toes. Aloysius, looking winded, cast a spell, producing a pale blue beam of light that shot from his hand to the roper then disappeared. It had no noticeable effect.

The roper continued reeling Blacky and Olaf in, not seeming to care much if they got tenderized by some bumps and bruises along the way. Olaf opened a vial of oil and flung it. He almost had to let go of his sword in the process, but oddly, the sword seemed to hang in midair until he could regrip it. He did not hit the tentacled pillar with the oil, but he did splash it a bit. He also splashed himself and Blacky when the bottle shattered on the stone. By the time Jana reached them, she had to scramble up the six foot ledge to get to them, but she got up there and managed to cut Blacky free when she got up there. Again, the strand stuck to her sword and to Blacky even though it was no longer attached to the roper. The strand holding Olaf was almost completely retracted now, and the roper opened a gaping maw ringed with sharp teeth to bite him.

The second roper crawled down from the ledge it had been perched on. It moved towards the cavern entrance where the majority of the group was gathered, making it about halfway there.

Blacky hacked at the strand holding Olaf.

Azrun dropped his bow to the side, "If anyone's got some oil now would be a good time to get it out, along with the torches. Aim low and in front of him. That way if you miss, you can still get some oil splattered on him."  The bard looked over to the elven priest, "Renn, perhaps we can attack it from the flank and slow it down long enough to let the others get the oil out. What do you say?"

"Let's see if we can do it," Renn agreed. He shrugged out of his backpack and let that drop to the floor of the tunnel. "I've some oil in a small bag in my backpack if anyone wants to dig through it," Renn added as he followed Azrun in their attempt to maneuver by the roper.

Azrun pulled his dagger out and worked with Renn to confuse and attack the Roper, "Arachne, see about getting that oil out of Renn's pack. Aloysius, I don't think magic is doing much against these things....see about getting a torch lit for when Arachne has the oil ready." With that said, the bard attacked the Roper.

Olaf slammed the pommel of his sword into his own mouth, knocking out a tooth. Grabbing the bloody tooth in his left hand and glaring at the beast he growled, "Tyr Grant Me the Jaws of Kezef!"

"Damnit," Echo muttered as she jumped out of the way of her crossbow bolt. She dropped it on the floor and grabbed a couple of daggers. "I don't think I have any oil."

Seeing Blacky hacking at Olaf's strand, Jana tried to yank her sword free of the strand adhering to it and hack at the roper itself.

"No, I'm not carrying any oil now," Arachne's voice said.

Aloysius prepared another incantation, spraying the cavern with a wide swath of colors that fanned across the roper moving across the floor. The colors dissipated, and the roper stopped crawling in their direction. It did, however, shoot out another rope, which easily snared Azrun as he was heading in the creature's direction. Renn came up from the other side, cutting into its rock-like hide with his longsword. Echo tossed a dagger into the fray, but it missed badly and clattered to the floor. Now that the roper was closer, everyone got a closer look at it. During its crawl across the floor, it had abandoned the camouflage it used to blend in with the vase-like formations in this room. It had a single yellow eye and a mouth full of sharp teeth, but aside from that, it looked like any of a number of rock formations the party had seen in other caverns and tunnels.

Olaf bashed himself in the face with the pommel of his sword. It busted his lip, among other things, leaving his face covered blood and him obviously in some degree of pain. It was minor, however, compared to the bite the roper took out of him now that it had him within mouth's reach. His strength seemed to be dwindling now, like Blacky's had earlier. Blacky, realizing that the strand holding Olaf was too short to easily chop away now without endangering the priest even more, hacked at the pillar instead. It was a mere shadow of the blows that he usually gave to things. Jana freed her sword up and attacked it too. Between the two of them, they caused the monster noticeable harm.

Something invisible rifled through the pack Renn had left on the floor in the
tunnel.

Jana swung her sword twice at the roper two-handed with all her might.

"Bastard sapped my strength, maybe it'll come back if I kill it." Blacky huffed as he swung again at the roper holding Olaf.

Azrun kicked and struggled in a futile effort to break free, "OH yeah, great plan there, Azrun. Charge the monster with 30 feet of reach." He looked to the elven priest, "Renn, keep hacking on that thing. IF you try to hack the strand you might not get your sword unstuck and then we're really in it."

Aloysius began casting another spell.

"Try to cut yourself free," Echo said loudly. "I'm coming to help." She tried to catch up with Azrun and cut at the strand with her dagger.

Renn gave an involuntary snort of laughter at Azrun's self-deprecating statement and continued to hack at the roper with his longsword.

Echo, dagger in hand, charged after Azrun, who was struggling to free himself
from the tentacle. She chopped at the strand, but she was unable to cut through it as it pulled Azrun in closer and closer. Renn slashed at the monster with his sword, but the blade failed to penetrate its rocky hide. The roper turned its attention to, or at least its mouth full of teeth against, Renn, taking a bite out of the elven priest's sword arm. Aloysius called five identical images of himself into being. All six Aloysiuses looked winded from the effort. From slightly behind Aloysius, a smooth rock flew into the cavern. Arachne appeared as soon as the projectile went airborne. It missed the roper by a consider distance.

Olaf called on Tyr's power and was rewarded by the transformation of his right hand into a pair of wolflike jaws. The jaws snapped at the roper holding the priest, but they could not get a good grip on the animate pillar.  The roper's jaws were more effective in clamping down and drawing blood.  Blacky swung his axe at the roper again, but unaccustomed to his reduced strength, he miscalculated and missed. Jana actually carved a piece off the roper's lower body with a powerful two-handed swing of her bastard sword.  She followed up by deepening the wound the creature had just taken.

"Dammit," Jana grunted as her sword thunked into the roper. She pulled back and swung again.

Olaf continued letting the jaws bite and tear at the roper.

Blacky echoed Jana's "Dammit" as he again attempted to injure the roper in his weakened state.

After taking a deep breath, the Aloysiuses began casting again.

Arachne ran out into the cavern from the tunnel heading straight for Azrun. Her sling lay on the tunnel floor where she'd dropped it.

With a grunt of annoyance at his inability to wound the creature and a hiss of pain, Renn hacked at the roper again with his longsword.

Azrun rolled ove so he could get at the strand with his dagger and commenced to sawing with everything he had, "What kind of world do we live in where a person can end up as a snack for damn rock? geez!"

Olaf laughed loudly at the joke.

Echo tried to cut the strand with her dagger.

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