To New Horizons(2nd ed game, game thread)

[Armen]

Tamora took in the scene before her. She had assumed that the lizards’ defensive posture was to stop their attackers leaving the water and threatening their families but it looked like whatever this was it would stay mostly in the lake – why didn’t they just abandon the huts and avoid this confrontation? And why did they even live here at all? Reminding herself how little she really knew about the situation she took her lead from the lizard hunters she had resolved to help as best she could.

She drew an arrow sighted the nearest attacker and fired.

[ 01-21-2007, 02:32 AM: Message edited by: Armen ]

[dplax]

Anne Evasdottir

She could hardly see from the rain washing curtains of water in her eyes, but her hearing was more than enough to ascertain that something was horribly wrong. Sounds of the water almost erupting upon itself were evidence that whatever had been causing the V shaped wave had arrived at the lizardmen's village. Anne increased her pace, brushing water from her eyes. Once she spotted the tentacles reaching out from the water she halted in her tracks, her eyes quickly darting along the figure of one of the attackers.

OOC: Anne is trying to see whether these creatures have any visible weak spots before deciding on a course of action.

[Encard]

Drawing his shield and short sword, Evon ran toward the water, sighting down his blade at the nearest of the tentacles and trying not to stumble.

[Tactics sent.]

[ 01-21-2007, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: Encard ]

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Gan Vahnsen

Gan follows suit with the others and attacks the nearest tentacle. Once's it is 'dead' he'll attack the next and so on and so forth - while trying to evade any attacks sent his way. He will use his longsword and shortsword - one in each hand - to attack with.

[PurpleXVI]

(OOC: This is how it's going to go. While I know most of you won't care about the mechanics of it, after every "round" of combat, I'll update with everyone's hit points, whether you hit or not, etc. Basically the numbers behind the pretty words, just to show that I'm actually using your character sheets for something and not just making it all up.)

Everyone

Amid howling winds and pouring rain the battle was joined.

As the tentacles methodically neared the shore, waving back and forth in near-hypnotic patterns as they did so, the defenders steeled themselves for combat.

Evon approached the shore, and one of the nearest limbs, carefully, keeping his eye on it at all times. It seemingly sensed his approach, for when he walked towards it, it twisted about and stopped heading for the lizardmen, instead setting a direct course for him. It closed with deceptive slowness and then lashed out like a striking serpent, instead of some sort of wide sweep, it just bunched up it's tip like a fist and rammed straight into his stomach, knocking the wind from him and sending him staggering backwards until he fell on the sand, leaving his leather armor covered in some sort of slime. It then retracted it's limb and continued to waver a bit away from the shoreline, seemingly waiting for his next action.

With no one else yet in range, the creature in the lake then focused it's attention on the lizardman defensive line. Javelins rained down on the approaching tentacles, but they weaved and dodged with surprising agility for their size, avoiding most of the projectiles. The few that hit were seemingly ignored, even when they stuck half-way through the limbs.

In close combat, the villagers seemed to have more luck, keeping their attacker at bay with their long, stone-tipped spears that the creature seemed reluctant to get too close to. There appeared to be more than animal intellect to the creature, however, for while the other tentacles were hovering about at head and torso height, feinting and dancing, occasionally attempting a side smash to knock a lizardman to the ground, one last one slithered out of the water, flush with the ground and at about the same height.

Before anyone could warn or yell out, it wrapped itself around the ankle of a lizardman and dragged the poor creature, kicking and screaming, into the lake. The water was churned up by his resistance, but that ended suddenly with a blossom of red and purple just below the lake's surface around where the tentacles were emerging from. Despite the horrific death of one of their number, though, the villagers continued to hold their ground.

Watching the action carefully, Tamora nocked an arrow to the string of her shortbow and took aim at the tentacle which had knocked down Evon, then let it fly. However, despite her best attempts at correcting for wind and rain, it didn't score anything more than a glancing strike. Thanks to the rain and the lake water dripping from the tentacles, it was impossible to determine whether she had even made it bleed.

Standing not too far from Tamora, Lorath chanted arcane syllables while waving his hands in mysterious patterns, as he finished his incantation, bolts of pure shining light streaked forward to impact the same tentacle that she had attacked. They didn't seem to do any visible harm, the tentacle did not wither and collapse, parts of it didn't fall off, but it pissed the creature off and, ignoring the fallen Evon, it extended to strike at the elven spellcaster.

Before it could reach him, Gan interfered. Leaping into the fray with his blade drawn, he cleaved the tip off of the limb before it could reach Lorath, it recoiled, spraying some sort of ammonia-smelling transparent ichor on Gan and the ground as it did so, but didn't retreat any further than the edge of the water. Several of the tentacles harassing the lizardmen redirected their attention to the party after this.

While the others were fighting, Anne and Bas held their distance, Anne apparently sizing up her opponent and Bas for some reason examining one of the huts.

(Evon: Action interrupted, 7 HP lost, 25 HP remaining.)

As his attacker backed off, Evon slowly got up into a crouching position, he seemed to be recovering his breath and waiting for the tentacle to make the first move, as he sat there. The attack he'd suffered had left him extremely sore, it hadn't just hit his stomach, but it had also bruised the lower half of his ribcage, meaning that every time he took a deep breath it was painful enough to half make him consider just not breathing any longer.

Not wanting to give the thing a chance to recover and strike again, Gan moved in front of Evon to defend him, while Lorath and Tamora used their spells and archery, respectively, to strike at the tentacles.

Again, the elven ranger took aim with her shortbow and waited for the opportune moment to fire, and as luck would have it, the perfect moment came along. For barely a second, the violent gusts of wind stilled and the damaged tentacle held still while two more formed up on it. She took the chance just at the right moment and sent an arrow plunging deep into the damaged tip. It thrashed wildly, apparently trying to dislodge the projectile, and then withdrew the limb underwater.

The two remaining tentacles went straight for Gan. One of them came in low, apparently attempting to pull him into the lake like it had done to one of the lizardmen, but the half-elf saw it coming and stepped out of the way of it's attempts to grab his legs. Being busy with that prevented him from dodging the second tentacle, though, it lashed out at him in a wide sweep at head-height, connecting with his left cheek and sending him sprawling with it's violent force. For a few seconds he couldn't hear, it felt like his brain had been dislodged and he knew he was going to have a killer headache in a few moments, but as the initial sensations passed, he knew something worse was coming. The entire left side of his face was both in agonizing pain and completely numb at the same time.

While he couldn't see it, it had already started swelling into nasty-looking blisters, each almost as big as a hen's egg. This was quite visible to the other combatants, though.

Seemingly not one to change a winning formula, Lorath repeated his chant and gesture, sending more glowing missiles towards the tentacles, making them recoil in pain as they were about to make a move for Evon while Gan was down.

Further along the beach, the lizardmen were still holding their ground, though a lucky smash by a tentacle had left one of them lying unmoving on the sand, either dead or unconscious. Several of the javelinners had made their escape after seeing that, apparently not too thrilled about risking their lives any longer.

(Gan: Down 8 HP, 36 HP remaining. Poisoned.)

With Gan out of the way, the tentacle that Lorath had briefly warded off was after Evon again. Staying in his crouched stance until it was almost upon him, he clumsily threw him out of the way, leaving the tentacle to slam into the sand as it tried to crush him.

The limb that had originally sent Gan down came after him again, apparently intent on finishing the job, and despite his pain, and the fact that the numbness was slowly starting to spread to the rest of his face and down his neck, he managed to get to his feet. Again, it tried a sideways knockdown, but this time he saw it coming in at chest height. Keeping his blade lowered until the last moment, he raised it to meet the strike, holding it vertically as the tentacle smashed into him.

It still sent him stumbling backwards, but this time he didn't fall, even though he was starting to feel immensely weary. His right elbow and shoulder felt like they'd been a recipient of unwarranted abuse when they resisted the attack, and even using them normally was painful.

He wasn't the only one who'd been hurt, though, a deep gash had been hacked into the tentacle and about a foot of it's length was hanging limply. It seemed to consider it's options for a moment and then withdrew into the water.

It wasn't fast enough to escape another arrow from Tamora and magical strike from Lorath, however, and by the time it was under the waves, it was leaking transparent ichor from a half dozen places.

(Gan: Down 5 HP, 31 HP remaining. Poisoned.)

The thing in the lake tried to snatch another lizardman, but they were prepared for it this time around and leapt on the sneaky tentacle, pinning it to the sand by impaling it with their spears and javelins, then viciously attacking it.

This seemed to be too much for the creature, and it withdrew all it's tentacles to focus on them. With wild, spasmodic and easily-dodged blows, it forced the village defenders away, plucked the spears from it's abused limb and withdrew every part of itself into the lake.

A minute passed, and then another, with no one daring to breathe easy for fear that their attacker was going to be upon them again as soon as they relaxed. But as the wind eased off and the sun shone timidly through a few cracks in the clouds, it soon became apparent that, at least for the moment, they were safe again.

(OOC: Apologies for the abysmal quality of the post, but it's been a long time since I last wrote some sort of big battle post. Please bear with me while I ease myself back into the swing of it.)

With their attacker gone, at least for the moment, the lizardmen who had been hiding in the trees returned and began tending to their wounded, as well as slowly getting back to things. With the rain slacking off, they started to light their cooking and campfires again. One of the lizardmen, which they recognized as among the hunters that had originally stalked them, made a campfire some distance from the others of his kind and gestured for the group to come to it and sit down. He did not, however, hang around at the fire himself.

(OOC for Calaethis: Gan's blisters and numbness have stopped spreading and growing, but they're still present.)

[ 01-22-2007, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: PurpleXVI ]

[Encard]

Groaning, Evon gingerly checked his chest to make sure none of his ribs were cracked. That tentacle had hit him hard - thankfully he'd had some competent people at his side, or things could have gone much worse.

"It looks like we managed to drive it back - you three and these villagers did, I should say," Evon said, addressing Gan, Lorath and Tamora. "I'm not too great with a blade, I'm afraid." He winced as he spoke, wishing that he didn't have to breath to speak out loud. Walking quickly over to Gan, he smiled, adding, "Thank you for keeping that thing off me - I don't think I could've taken too many more hits like the one it gave me. Now - those blisters don't look too good. How are you feeling? I do have that antidote Jonas asked me to bring, if you think it's poison doing that and not just a sudden allergy to tentacles." He chuckled for a moment at his own joke, but cut it off abruptly with a slight groan, clutching his chest instead.

If the rest of the folks he'd come with moved off toward the fire, Evon would move along with him - for the moment, however, he was more interested in making sure Gan was fine.

[ 01-22-2007, 01:41 PM: Message edited by: Encard ]

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

Lorath remained tense for several moments more, then finally relaxed, bringing his hands down to his sides. He was glad to have been able to help repel the sea creature with magic alone. After what it did to Gan, he wasn't too anxious to get hit with a tentacle himself.

A slight grin grew on Lorath's face at Evon's words. "Well, not everyone can be skilled with the arts of combat, I'm afraid," he responded. Then he looked to the ranger next to him. "I must commend you on your skill with that weapon. Were it not for your arrows, that could have gone quite differently." He also looked at Anne and Bas. Though he didn't show it openly, he wondered why they had sat the battle out while these four risked their lives. Then he shook his head to clear the thoughts, and started walking towards the huts.

He sat down next to the fire where the lizardman had indicated. After all, it would be rude to refuse their invitation after they fought side by side so recently.

[dplax]

Anne Evasdottir

All throughout the battle Anne stayed at a safe distance from the shore trying to find any weak point in the creature's defenses that she could exploit. The tentacled beast however did not lift what she guessed was its head from the water so she was unable to detect any vulnerabilities.

She had realised quite early on during the fight that her dagger was utterly useless against a foe attacking from over forty feet away with tentacles of that size. She therefore stepped up to one of the lizardmen and pointed at a spear fallen to the ground. She tried making it clear with her body language that she was asking whether she was allowed to take the spear.

The lizardman seemed to take a few moments before replying, either trying to figure out what Anne was saying or considering his reply, then responded with a simple nod. Picking up used and damaged spears and javelins seemed to be low on the list of priorities, a lot of their warriors had received bruises and breaks, it appeared, and half the tribe seemed to be working in concert to bandage wounds and set broken limbs.

Anne gently picked up the stone-tipped spear, hefting its unfamiliar weight from one hand to the other. Her arms used to much finer weapons felt uncomfortable with the increased weight, but strangely the feel of the long weapon increased her sense of security, and she actually felt as though she would be able to do something worthwhile if the creature re-emerged for another attack.

Anne walked over to where her companions wounds were being looked at. She felt her stomach contents churning at the sight of Gan's face, but tried remaining outwardly calm.

"I'm going to have a look around the lake to see whether I can find anything useful, or find out anything about the creature that just attacked us. From here I judge that in about two hours one could circumvent the lake. Anyone want to accompany me?"

OOC: Purple gave the lizardman's reply.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Gan Vahnsen

Gan did not reply at first. Gingerly, he touched the side of his face with his hand before nodding silently towards Evon, "You're more or less unharmed?" he asked, concerned that his companion suffered broken ribs or the like, "Perhaps we should find someone to take a look at you." he suggested and sighed. "It feels like poison," he answered Evon's question and frowned, "How much is there? It might be worth saving it for later." He shrugged and shook out his tunic with a groan, "We should get somewhere warm." He commented and began to walk unsteadily towards the fire. If Evon needed assistance, he'd offer it; after all, he was a fighting man and by his own admission, Evon was not.

Gan nodded to Lorath and Tamora, "It seems that if we are to survive, we must indeed work together. Though, I hope," he added wryly, "We don't encounter any more such beasties. Anyone know what it was?"

Once he was at the fire, he would sit down and rest a bit. He'd also inspect his weapons and clean them off.

[Encard]

Evon nodded. "It'll hurt for a while, but nothing's broken. Luckily, I've been hit often enough to know when it's something serious and when it'll heal with time... to such extent as getting hurt can be lucky, I suppose." Grinning a little, he added, "Not that I'll turn down any healing should these lizardmen offer..."

Evon took a few moments to think before answering Gan's second question. "I'd guess there's a single dose in the bottle Jonas gave me, but I suppose I can't be certain - I'm not an expert, and maybe one dose for someone more seriously affected could be more for one in better shape? Maybe one of the others would know, though - if it doesn't seem like that's getting any worse right now, I guess we can ask them. Maybe the lizardmen know something about that poison, too... Getting warm sounds good, though, I have to agree; it would be a shame to come down sick after surviving that."

Evon joined the others in heading toward the fire, offering Gan a shoulder to lean on if it looked like the half-elf's injuries or the poison were giving him trouble.

[ 01-22-2007, 05:30 PM: Message edited by: Encard ]