Mission 4 - Turn 5, Dragon Turtle *Next turn starts
4 AM UTC, 25 November The Awakening - Gothic Storm (Gilius awakens the Grove)
(roll dice)
Count Karnstein circles behind the startled centipede while it is concentrated on
Bellandra, waiting for it to lower its head. As the centipede lowers to strike at her,
the Count jumps on it, mounting it like a horse. (roll dice)
He plunges Frostbite between chitin plates right below the head, letting the blade do its work and the centipede rears up again, seeking to bash him off against the tree branches. (roll dice)
Count Karnstein ducks and hangs on, reminded of a certain bad tempered mount he had once. Remembering Clíodhna instructing Aylar about the griffon,
Count tries to maneuver the beast using his body, only much less gently, throwing his weight to the side while also pulling on the saber. (roll dice - Luck) The centipede throws itself in that direction and starts whipping its head back and forth, (roll dice - Luck) but the
Count adjusts and throws his weight again while driving Frostbite deeper.
(roll dice) Having finished off the Giant Squid,
Captain Baldbeard's pack return for new instructions and on seeing the centipede, immediately
start to harry and drive it like a pack of hounds on a hunt. Seeing his plan might possibly work,
Count pulls his saber and jumps off, (roll dice) swiftly moving to intercept and
catch Aeshma before she possibly runs into the oncoming collision in her single minded focus to get to her goal.
(roll dice) Hounded by
Captain Baldbeard's sharks, its brain now frostbitten, the
centipede drives itself into one of the Stone Elementals, which proceeds to pound it into paste while the pack circles, awaiting further instructions from
Captain Baldbeard.
Looking at the cloudy skies above (and hearing Aeshma's warning),
Argy isn't very sure of the success of
Grog'tial's tactics, but hopes it will provide a decent distraction in any case. She is surprised by the centipede's sudden appearance, and also by
Bellandra's swift reaction, not having noticed
Bellandra using the mirror to look around, which had given her a split second notice before Gilius' warning. (:P) Trusting her mateys will deal with the monster,
Argy scouts the surroundings. (roll dice) Hearing something from above further into the trees,
Argy looks up in time to spot
a Harpy taking flight above them.
[per previous post intent] (roll dice)
Bellandra dodges the centipede's attack and seeing the
Count and the sharks turning it back into the Grove to finish it off,
she uses the mirror to inspect the tunnel for anything hidden there. (roll dice) Nothing hidden shows there, but the tunnel seems to go under the Grove, but it is unknown where else it might surface. Looking around,
Bellandra realizes Aeshma has already skirted around the group
heading straight for the path through the Grove to the spring and
Gilius is following her,
both unprotected, while
she feels a trembling in the ground and the rumbling of Stone coming from the end of that path.
Aeshma is moving quickly down the path hoping
Gilius is right behind her when she suddenly runs into
a strong swiftly moving object that sweeps her around off her feet to the side of the path and behind a tree. Catching her rather abruptly curtailed breath she looks up ready to give somebody a piece of her mind only to see the
Count's intense eyes looking at her before inclining his head and nodding to the end of the path where she sees the centipede being driven into a large moving assemblage of boulders. "Okay. Fine. Thank you. But the magick underneath this whole place is moving,
Something is coming and I have to get in there
NOW. Any bright ideas how to do that?"
Gilius steps immediately back to dodge the incoming centipede. Assessing the situation and feeling the fading of his weather control spell, he decides to avoid it and leave it to his crewmates to handle. He circumvents the centipede and
follows Aeshma towards the path through the Grove. Hearing the rumbling of stones ahead,
Gilius recalls fond memories of his old pal that he lost after his adventures in the cursed dungeon and joining Admiral Polly. But this time, there are two of them and they are unfriendly.
Calling on his Nature Sense and dwarven intuition of earth and stone,
Gilius tries to feel the elementals and the energy that animates them. (roll dice)
Remembering Clíodhna's words to him, he checks for
Old Magick and finds it twisted by a corruptive force. To even have a chance to reach out to the Stone Elementals or have his Staff possibly use the roots to help, he will have to try to address and repair what he can of the Old Magick running beneath the Grove. (roll dice-Luck) Bringing old memories of his connection to his old pal to the surface again,
Gilius reaches deep within, using his connection to nature and the Dragon Turtle's impending motherhood to
call upon the Old Ways and the Mother of Earth and Stone, Tree and Grove. He senses the grove's life essence, feels how it behaves, its connections with the life forms around, draws on it to tell him its ills, drained, parasites, cursed. (roll dice) He feels
something ancient respond sluggishly, hurting, drained and poisoned, twisted in the root and soil through the water of the corrupted Spring. The Spring would have to be Aeshma's part, but
Gilius does what he can, untangling roots, easing pathways and flow, nudging the magickal web which interconnects it all while interfering with the node's corruptive influence and turning it back where he can. (roll dice) His quartz pendant begins to glow as he channels its purifying essence to follow his concentration and intent, spreading outward as the Grove begins to respond. (roll dice) Even the unmagicakal among
the Crew can feel a heaviness lifting, a lighter look to the trees, a not quite so menacing feel.
Gilius focuses his intentions and memory
to the Stone Circle and finds
more sleeping Stone Elementals. He turns his attention to the
Elemental beating on the centipede, looking with a Druid's sight. (roll dice) There!
A small black implanted stone in a mid-joint shows an unnatural force working on the Elemental. The other one probably has one also. If he can just get that out, the Stone Elementals should return to neutral, or possibly become Allies!
He yells to Aeshma that the Grove is now healing and he's almost ready to accompany her to the Spring, but first
he shouts to the Crew about looking for the small black stones inserted into a crack or joints of several of the Stone Circle Elementals
and to remove them quickly if they can!
Recognizing that
Gillius is key to the first part of the mission,
Pugwash accompanies him in his trek towards the Grove.
Pugwash believes that his only course of action against the stone golems is to be a distraction, as even special crossbow bolts would do little damage against stone. The moment either of what he believes to be stone golems come toward them
Pugwash decides he will try to draw them away from Gilius. He believes it shouldn't be too hard as
stone golems are slow moving. Aren't they? He watches over
Gilius as the Druid goes into a type of trance,
ready with his crossbow to take on any additional monsters that might appear, while also very aware that they are in a magic grove (albeit cursed), so setting the trees on fire would not be viewed favorably by the spirits.
Stone elementals? There was no time to waste, those beings were so strong to fight!
Durik activated his cannon:
"Dakka! Eat da stone enemi! But keep it.. don't burp it out or big turtle be angry!" (roll dice)
Durik feels a much stronger pull then before with Dakka, and then a struggle and thumping on his back before a final "Whuump!" and everything seems quiet.
The Stone Elemental that had been coming towards himself and
Argy was
now safely stored in Dakka, ready for when Durik needs a very substantial cannon ball! ;)
(to be continued below ...)
