Move 440: A New Kind of CritterAs everyone started to move into new positions to face the newcomers, the largest of the monsters began gesturing with its hooks and speaking in a strange tongue, the first vocalization that any of the creatures had been heard to make. It moved quickly, and what appeared to be an ember of fire sprung from one of its hooks and flew to the area where the larger part of the group was gathered. The spark exploded into a massive ball of flame, catching Arachne, Azrun, Blacky, Echo, and Kanon in its midst. Aloysius, who had moved away from them to cast his earlier spell and was starting toward the webbed tunnel, narrowly avoided being caught as well. The fire dissipated as fast as it had erupted. Kanon was down, and everyone else had taken a moderate to terrible amount of burns. Significant pieces of clothing were burned beyond repair, and some of their equipment was almost certainly destroyed as well.
When everyone had recovered enough to make a visual assessment, the largest hooked monster was no longer there. In its place stood a bipedal creature, roughly the size of a large man, but with the head of a striped jungle cat. It was dressed in what appeared to be loose fitting silk clothing that was probably once finely made but had grown somewhat tattered, and around its neck, it wore a gaudy gold chain with some type of pendent adorning it. The other hook monsters did not seem to notice its change in appearance.
Those able to do so continued with their plans which spread them out from each other somewhat. Azrun took his charred staff in hand and moved forward, as did Blacky. Echo pulled out a scroll. Dalgaer and Jana both moved in from the spot where they had been fighting previously. Kanon's dust devil disappeared when he fell.
The two larger monsters moved to block the incoming fighters from the tiger-beast as did the four regular sized ones. Blacky and Jana each dispatched one of the normal sized ones. Dalgaer hit one with his axe and avoided being swiped in return. Azrun poked at the fourth one with his staff, trying to bait it away while attempting to keep his badly injured person out of its reach. Amazingly, he did some amount of damage to it with that tactic, although his damaged staff broke in the process.
Kanon layed splayed out on the floor of the cavern covered in a myriad of vicious burns. His charred armor remained intact but his helmet, cloak, and many of his pouches had been burned through consuming many of the contents therein. The priests face bears a heavy char on the right side where he turned to recieve the brunt of the fireball attack most of his hair removed from that side. All of his weapons and his powerful necklace charm are slightly charred but remain intact.
Arachne hunted for Dalgaer's powder and, if she found it (it was last seen in her purse), used some... probably a lot. Not sure how quickly it can be applied.
"What the hell?" Jana growled. She directed her charge toward the cat-headed critter.
Aloysius moved over to the webbed tunnel.
Azrun covered his face as the fire blast went off. When it was over, the man stood in mostly tatters. The majority of his possessions were scattered on the floor behind him burned to ashes. It looked as if only his daggers remained intact, mainly because they were metal. A shirt and pair of pants seemed relatively unscathed as well. "Damn! What the hells was that all about?" He fumbled with the magic dagger he had and backed away from the bug critter. "I hope someone has something they can use against this mess, cause I'm all out of tricks."
Blacky continued attacking until either he or the other creatures were felled.
Dalgaer swung twice at the beast facing him, fighting his way through to the tiger-headed creature.
"I've got a web on the scroll," Echo said, still frantic. "Do you want me to use it on the open tunnel?"
"You owe me a purse, you schmerck!" Arachne yelled at the catheaded creature as she extracted Dalgaer's dust from a ruined purse. "Not to mention a dress and some other stuff -- and they're never going to let me carry anything valuable again." She used the remaining powder. "Damned rakshasas," she muttered.
Aloysius got to the webs and started them burning. The fire flashed through the strands quickly and with little smoke. Azrun backed off of the monster he was facing, since his equipment now seemed to consist mostly of a couple of daggers and his rapier wit. The monster followed, but Azrun was far enough away from it that he did not get caught by any of its attacks. With everyone too occupied to answer her inquiry about the web spell and no immediate sign of hooked reinforcements coming, Echo knelt and checked on Kanon instead of using the scroll. Arachne used some of Dalgaer's powder to close up a few of her worst oozing burns.
Dalgaer whacked the creature he was facing a couple of times with his axe. It looked badly wounded, but, apparently a little tougher than some of the others, it continued to fight. It did not continue to fight well, however; it missed the gnomish warrior at every turn. Jana cut into one of the two big monsters blocking access to the tiger-creature. She wounded it badly with a couple of sword blows, and it countered by catching her with both claws, holding on, and ripping with its beak. Blacky chopped the other big one down before it could do any damage, but he incurred the wrath of the spellcasting beast in the process. It slammed him with four magic missiles, leaving the already wounded fighter in serious danger of being struck down.
Jana, muttering obscenities, hacked at the hook-critter between her and the tiger-critter.
Ignoring the creature he had been fighting Dalgaer rushed at the tiger-headed beast, swinging his ax and shouting, "FAERADD! I'LL SPLIT YER GIZZRD, BEAST!". Dalgaer's ax starts to flow blue.
Azrun continued to back pedal and guard against the critter that was chasing him, "I see what it is..It was mage envy...yep....Our mage blows the hells out of your friends, so you had to go find you one to blow the hells out of us.....but really where's this getting us, huh? Sooner or later there not going to be anyone left to blew the hells out of, is there?.....So why don't you guys just go on back to your little hidey holes and we'll be on our way? OK?"
Azrun looked to the remaining folks that weren't fighting, "Anybody got an idea of what to do here?"
Blacky lets Dalgaer go by and attempts to take down the hook creature he had wounded.
"I've got to keep the others from escaping this tunnel!" said Aloysius, standing away a bit from the burning webs. "Distract the tiger if you can."
The mage seemed focused on the burning webs.
"Kanon's still alive," Echo said as she stood up. "That's all I can do for him." She pulled out a couple of daggers and staying back as far away as she thought she could throw, flung them at the hook chasing Azrun.
Aloysius surveyed the remains of the web for any emerging monsters, but nothing seemed to be alive in there. Arachne used another pinch of Dalgaer's powder to close up some more open wounds. Azrun continued to avoid the creature after him. Echo threw a couple of daggers at it, hitting it with one of them. This seemed to take the thing's attention off Azrun; it turned and moved in her direction.
Dalgaer abandoned the hook creature he was fighting to go after the tiger-man, his battle axe glowing an icy blue. Blacky tried to intercept the monster the gnome had been fighting, but the spellcaster wove another magic missile spell and downed the big fighter with one on the bolts. The others, he directed at the gnome coming in his direction. Dalgaer got to him and took a swing, but missed. The hook creature that he had left behind attacked him, grabbing him with both hooks and pulling him away from its leader before chomping on him with its beak. Jana got bit again by the creature holding onto her before she was able to dispatched it and turn on the tiger-creature too. She managed a solid hit, but the blow looked like it did considerably less damage than her swings usually did. Still, the creature was wounded now, proving that it could be hurt.
Jana swung twice more at the tiger-critter, putting every ounce of strength behind her two-handed swings.
"GARL'S BEARD!" Dalgaer cursed. He raised his legs so the hook creature was supporting him and swung his ax twice ferociously between his own legs into the abdomen of the beast holding onto him.
"These creatures are all dead," announced Aloysius from the tunnel with the burning webs.
Seeing the hooker going after Echo, Aloysius plucked his best dagger from his bandolier and charged the creature. "Get away from her!" he screamed.
As soon as the hook monster turned to go after Echo, Azrun jumped back at it to attack from behind, "Ah ha! Now you've done it. You've pissed off our mage and he's going to cut you into little bitty pieces with his unique dagger fighting stance....oops guess you can't see that can you..oh well...We need to wrap this up! I'm running out of snappy banter!!"
"I was betting on outrunning it," Echo remarked, adding the command word for her boots.
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