IC 1: The Cyber Pits of the Ant-Men

[Morphling]

Suddenly, you awaken from a fevered nightmare that you cannot quite recall. The last thing that you clearly remember was being sent out into the jungles of your native land to undergo your Rite of Passage. Finding no artifacts to bring back to your village, you undertook further and further explorations of taboo Northern lands. It was there that you first saw the cloud of winged insect men that fell upon you from the sky. One of them spat something in your face. Everything after that is a grey, indistinct blur.

At this moment, you're standing next to your friends on the front lines of a battle with a giant bee - it's as big as a hut! All around you are ant-men waving crude wooden implements at the thing, clicking and gesturing for you to attack the thing with your own tools. Four even larger-winged ant-men are fighting the giant bee in mid-air. The creature's abdomen has just been split open, and you are drenched in a sticky honey-like substance that is pouring forth from the giant bee's innards.

A dim violet glow rings the cavern. On one wall of the cavern is a giant portal that leads upward to open sky and clear air, while the other three openings lead only to darkness.

OOCWe begin in the midst of combat! Roll initiative once for your group, using whichever member of your funnel that has the highest initiative score, and then declare your action. Do you attack the bee? Attack the ant-men? Try to do something clever? As standard for combat, try to post as often as you can so as not to drag things down.

Currently, you have NONE of your equipment on your person. You do have a wooden farm implement, such as a rake, hoe, or shovel, ready in your hands. It does 1d4 damage.

Edited March 22 by Morphling (see edit history)

[sleepydogboy]

Gugga

As the beetle man becomes lucid, he surveys the scene with two black beady eyes, slowly turning himself in a waddling circle. He stops after turning a full 360, and a stony voice emerges through his mandibles: "Gugga understands. Stand behind Gugga carapace; Gugga shall protect." Clutching a wooden hoe, he runs towards the giant bee, and swats upwards at it.

Mim the Triad

A man—no, you count only three fingers—a mutant, shakes his head as though waking from a nightmare. Holding a crude wooden pitchfork, his eyes still look a little glazed. He mumbles under his breath something that sounds like, "...spit in my face... in the Triad's face...", drops to his knees, and reaches for a handful of "honey", throwing it upon his face as though splashing water on himself in the morning. A muffled yell from his honey-encased head is drowned out by the sounds of beating wings and frantic clicking as he wipes the honey from his eyes and his vision finally comes into focus. Taking a beat to process his surroundings, he quietly lays down in the honey and does his very best impression of a corpse.

Ve

A mutant woman, standing on two bird talons for feet, comes to awareness and looks down to see herself holding a shovel. She looks around herself, and says "oh—", seeing the gesturing ants, "—oh, yeah! Okay!" Following Gugga's lead, she plants her talons and charges forward, saying to an ant as she runs past, "...and thanks for the lift!", and swings her shovel at the giant bee.

Bamzaw

A pure-strain human wielding a rake emerges into lucidity, almost peacefully, before reaching a hand down to his side and finding... nothing. His eyes widen, and he begins to frantically dig through the "honey" for a moment, saying "no, no no no..." He rises to his feet, tightens his grip on the rake, and points it at the nearest ant. "You," he says, "what have you done with my priceless artifact...?"

Edited March 22 by sleepydogboy (see edit history)

[JagrHunter]

Bochs

Bochs comes to and takes into the battle happening above them. Making an assessment and seeing his captors greatly outnumber him he grabs the hoe he is holding and moving forward strikes at the bee.

Moth

Moth stirs and seeing several of his fellow tribesmen around him takes in the raging battle. He is a gatherer, not a hunter and merely grasps his rake tighter as he moves away from the growing battle. He isn't a fighter and self-preservation is so much more important than valor. Seeing the portal behind the Bee, he starts to make his way around the side of the cavern toward it.

Talyn

Ripping the remaining residue from his face Talyn rolls over taking on a ready crouch. The last thing he remembered was getting spit in the face by the ant-men and then things going black. Now he was awake, and his feral senses were in full sensory overload. He had no gear and only a simple pitchfork like implement in his hands. Seeing the battle raging above him he feels his blood stir. Battle is always welcome, and he lets out a tremendous growl and leaps onto the hovering bee.

Stryker

Stryker watched in awe at the assault happening above him. When the Cat Man leaped into the fray, he decided that enough fighters were involved and decided to look around for clues to their predicament. He had seen no other humans ...yet. Kneeling down he stuck a finger into the honey-like substance and rubbed it between his fingers examining it.

 

[Spacesong]

Jaxi

Awakening from her stupor the panther manimal is dazed, having trouble comprehending what's happening, but then sitting up right with a JOLT! "Now this just won't do!" She squares up with her pitchfork ready to slash her way to victory.

Zyx

The human known as Zyx came to consciousness and immediately got to work. Lifting his hoe ready to fight in a mighty gesture he proclaims "No bee shall escape my wrath!!!"

Ygg

Cowering on the floor shaking at the sight, the meak Ygg trembles in his boots. "What do I do?! WHAT DO I DO?!" His hands clenching the handle of his rake haphazardly swinging at his enemies. "Am I doing this right?!"

Gelbur

Gelbur stood nonplussed by the chaos of the 23 other members of his party scrambling to fight the bee men. He sat back, thinking about what he was going to do when he finally got that artifact. "It's going to be easy!" Using his instincts he blindly swings at things with a shovel that get close enough to hit not really paying much mind to what comes at him. "Just watch!"

 

Edited March 23 by Spacesong
Note: 3rd roll is Zyx's attack. I'm bad @ the dice rolling on this forum still lol (see edit history)

[Rakle]

The Ratman

Awaking from his stupor, Ratman understands fighting. Taking his shovel, the human advances on the giant bee while screaming Bad Bee!

 

Fern

The human hunter briefly stares at the hoe in her hand, she moves to attack the giant bee...

 

Grog the tracker

"Attack the wings! Avoid the stinger!" The human man confidentially explains to everyone as he strides forward to attack the bee with his rake.

 

Slips-a-lot

Armed with shovel, Slips doesn't seem to happy with the situation. The human slowly advances to attack the enormous bee.

 

Edited March 23 by Rakle (see edit history)

[pesukarhu]

Mouse

Mouse wipes this honey off his face with one hand, and wonders what he's doing here. He's holding a spade of some kind. He brandishes it feebly at the bee, edging towards the giant portal, so he can get a better look, while keeping a good ten feet away from the giant insect. He's not running for it, not yet, but he's certainly not leaping to attack. If he sees a rock, he'll stoop and chuck it at the bee.

Dana

Dana's amazed to be waking up here, in a cave, with a bee. And ants. Her first impulse is that she should collect some bee guts. Her second is that that's utterly foolish.

Well, she's outnumbered, but they're distracted. She runs for the portal to the outside.

Yaz

Yaz wakes up, and, hearing Bamzaw's shout, has a very similar thought. She doesn't like the idea of fighting for what she's guessing are her captors, but she's not playing all her cards just yet.

She sees what Mouse is doing, spots Moth heading that way, and copies their idea. She'll edge around the bee towards the bright portal, her hoe at the ready, but not attacking yet.

Bokk

Bokk comes to, and quickly appraises the situation. He looks to the others stirring around him and calls out, "Fellow tribesmen! This can be our chance! Let us work together to survive!"

All of Mouse, Dana, Yaz, and Bokk are human stock: either pure strain humans or mutants without obvious mutations.

 

[Malkavian Grin]

Saris

HP 2/2 | AC 9 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S-1 A-1 S+1 P-1 I+1 L+1 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Hunter | The Curators (Traders)

---

A skinny Human man came to, somehow on his feet already, trying to claw at his face as he remembered the goo. It wasn't there, replaced by a rake that was immediately interposed between himself and anyone else. "Jus-jus-just stay back now! Stay back! Let me just... Stay back!" Saris said, definitely freaking out. He slicked back a sweaty swath of unkept black hair from his face.

 

Myycky

HP 4/4 | AC 10 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S+0 A+0 S+1 P+0 I+1 L+0 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Hunter | The Clan of Cog

---

Hearing someone freak out near her, a young Human woman with long, brown hair in braids leapt back as she came to her senses. "Yeah, hey, where are we?! What's with the bug-people? Friends of yours?" Myycky quipped, trying to cope with the gravity of the situation. In her hands was a shovel that she spun in her fingers. "Okay, I guess we're just doing this! FOR THE HONEEEEYYYY!" she crowed in a weird voice, charging at the huge bee.

 

Errid

HP 4/4 | AC 10 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S+0 A+0 S+0 P-1 I+1 L+0 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Hunter | The Clan of Cog

---

Coming to amongst the chaos was an average, if focused Human man with a shaved head but only on the left, the other a long tangle of dark hair. Still among his mundane possessions was a necklace of strange rocks, beads, and trash. He stared out with calculating eyes, letting the others freak out for him. Instead, he was far more interested in why he was here and why ants were telling him to kill a thing. Normally he'd have no issue, but this seemed like a trap.

As Myycky charged into the fray, and several others near him did the same, something stirred in the man. He gripped the pitchfork and dashed forward.

 

Gruza

HP 3/3 | AC 10 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S-1 A+0 S+0 P+1 I-2 L+2 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Gatherer | The Clan of Cog

---

Gruza wake. Fog brain clear. Get down! Big noise! Many fight! Why? Bugs fight bug? We fight bug? Gruza look at hands. Hold danger stick! Yes! Gruza danger stick!!

Gruza run to big bug and shout, "You big bug! Gruza danger stick!"

---

[Character sheets]

[Morphling]

The four flying drones and eight workers fan around the bee, attacking it. The drones with their spears seem far more deadly than the workers with farm implements. Indeed, while some of the workers successfully damage the bee, two of them strike at the same time and place, and their wooden implements smack hard against each other instead of hitting the bee. It would be hilarious if your lives weren't in terrible danger.

Gugga and Ve charge the colossal bee, with the beetle-mutant heaving his great carapace forward to shield the other twenty-three members of his tribe. Just as they are about to strike the bee temporarily flies high and out of reach, and their attacks miss.

Mim lies on the floor and plays dead, which works a little too well. One of the ant-men charging forward steps squarely on his stomach, which causes no injury, but knocks the wind out of him.

Bamzaw runs up to a mutant ant-man and demands answers. The creature is focused on fighting the bee, but after swinging and missing it pauses, chitters curiously at him, and then without warning spits a thick, sticky substance into his face.

OOC

Mim needs to make a DC 10 Personality check to see if he can keep up his performance after being stepped on. Bamzaw must make a Will save.

Bochs and Talyn step up to attack the monster bee, but their barely competent blows merely glance off its tough skin. Stryker, curious about the honey-like substance, ignores the pitched battle raging around him and examines it. He finds that it has the smell and consistency of honey and is probably edible if not exactly a pleasant meal. Then a stroke of genius strikes him. This is the substance that washed the ant-men's spit off their face! This is what freed them from enslavement!

Jaxi, Zyx, Ygg and Gelbur all assist in the battle on the side of the ant-men. But the bee is a formidable foe and none of them can pierce its hide.

Fern, Grog, Slips-a-lot, and The Ratman all join the battle against the huge bee. Most of their blows have little if any effect, but on his way towards the bee, Slips-a-lot slips in a pile of honey-ichor, stumbles forward several feet, and embeds his shovel deep into the bee purely by accident.

Mouse finds a nearby rock and chucks it. Unfortunately, the stone wasn't the most aerodynamic of objects, and it falls to the ground several feet short of its target.

Myycky, Errid, and Gruza all attack the bee. Of them, only Gruza is successful, hitting the bee with a wet smack of her danger stick.

The bee thrashes and flails in a panic as it is beset from all sides. In desperation, it closes its mandibles around a worker and snaps the ant-man clean in half!

Moth, Dana, and Yaz all elect to escape to the bright light. However, as the fog slowly clears from their brain, they see that no escape is available. The portal is not on level ground, but roughly six-hundred feet above them, and no one without the wings or adhesive mutation of the ant-men could possibly climb to freedom!

With the help of the workers and the twenty-four young tribesfolk, the giant bee is finally dropped by a vicious stab in its open abdomen from one of the drones. It twitches on the ground, and the ant-men crowd around it. With the help of the workers, the drones begin dismembering the dead beast.

Now that the battle is over, the tribesfolk can get a better idea of their surroundings. Scores of ant-men corpses lay around them, with only seven workers having survived the battle along with the four drones. Around them they can see that they are in a fungus farm, seemingly existing for the purpose of harvesting dark-yellow fungus. The violet glow circling the chamber also comes from mushrooms which emit the light.

[Malkavian Grin]

Gruza

HP 3/3 | AC 10 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S-1 A+0 S+0 P+1 I-2 L+2 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Gatherer | The Clan of Cog

---

"RAAAA! GRUZAAAAA!" Gruza yell. Raise danger stick! Dance! Gruza very happy.

 

Saris

HP 2/2 | AC 9 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S-1 A-1 S+1 P-1 I+1 L+1 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Hunter | The Curators (Traders)

---

Seeing the battle over in a glorious flash of action, Saris stood a little taller. He was on the winning team, afterall. Instead of celebrating, he began to look around at the cavern and the mushrooms. He walked over to one to see if it looked edible and if not, why the ants might be harvesting it.

 

Myycky

HP 4/4 | AC 10 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S+0 A+0 S+1 P+0 I+1 L+0 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Hunter | The Clan of Cog

---

"Squish goes the shovel! Or I guess it will next time!" Myycky shouted in victory along with some of the others. However, she suddenly felt confused as to what she was supposed to do next. With more of her senses at the ready, she stepped back from the ant-people and look at their grotesque work. "What are we doing here?" she asked.

 

Errid

HP 4/4 | AC 10 | Art. +0 | A.I. +2 | S+0 A+0 S+0 P-1 I+1 L+0 | Speed 30 | Pure-Strain Human | Occ. Hunter | The Clan of Cog

---

"That's a really good question, but I've got a bad feeling we're not going to get to ask it..." Errid replied as he too backed away from the ants.

 

---

[Character sheets]

[sleepydogboy]

Ve

Ve surveys the carnage around her, carefully stepping over bodies as she moves back towards the tribe. "Good fight everyone! So uh, do you think these ants know where we could find some artifacts?" Her expression is almost painfully sincere. "Maybe we should ask them!"

 

Gugga

The beetle man approaches Gruza and bows rigidly. "Gugga impressed by your martial prowess. Gugga thanks you for your help." He sidles over and bows to Slips-a-Lot as well, "Gugga admire your methods. You are more successful by accident than Gugga is on purpose."

 

Bamzaw

Bamzaw's eyes glaze over immediately. He never stood a chance.

 

Mim the Triad

As Mim is stepped on by a passing ant, he bites his tongue and bears it. This is not the first time he's been stepped on. He fantasizes about the day he becomes king of the mutants, and that ant is dragged before him to beg for forgiveness, and he personally lays a three-finger beatdown on that inferior rube. But for now, he is a corpse in the honey. Everything in its time, everything in its time, everything in its time.

Edited March 24 by sleepydogboy (see edit history)

[Rakle]

The Ratman

"Dead is good. Back to trading. Then Ratman realizes that he no longer has any of his gear...

 

Fern

What now? Why are we fighting with tools and no spears? Fern asks no one in particular. She looks up at exit far above them in an attempt to spot an exit..

 

Grog the tracker

Grog calls out to the ant-men. "Where is our weapons? We need it back. Are there any artifacts in the area?

 

Slips-a-lot

Looking at the bee slime on his shovel, and then at the dead bee. He wondered if giant bees could be eaten.

 

[Morphling]

Saris examines the fungus, which is growing everywhere in the garden. Unfortunately, as a hunter his expertise is not in edible plants. Perhaps if a gatherer were to do the same thing, they could glean more info...

Fern looks for an exit but finds none other than the immediately obvious. The portal in the ceiling is clearly inaccessible, but there are three tunnels at ground level leading off into darkness.

Bamzaw comes to his senses a moment later. Nothing seems different about him, except that there is now a sticky, gummy substance on his face that would be extremely difficult to remove by hand.

The ant-men finish carving the dead bee into quarters. Once that's done, the four flying drones each take part of the bee and fly off, two upwards into the light, and another two down the most eastern of the three tunnels into darkness.

The remaining seven ant-men turn back to the young tribesfolk, and begin clicking and gesturing at the fungus gardens, presumably wanting them to get back to work. However, very quickly they stop doing this, staring at everyone with their beady, soulless eyes. And after that they begin fanning out around the group, poising to prepare attacks with their farm implements.

OOC

Everyone declare your actions at this point, and accompany them with an initiative roll!

 

Edited March 26 by Morphling (see edit history)

[pesukarhu]

Bokk

Bokk calls out "Help the tribesman the ants spit on! I'm sure the bee's juices will get that stuff off him!"  With that, he moves towards the nearest ant and swings his hoe at it.

Yaz

She's nervous about getting too close, but the guy who got spit on seemed to have some sense, so she scoops up some of the bee juice in her hands, runs over to Bamzaw and tries to use it to wipe the stuff off his face. She comes from behind, trying to keep him between her and the ant. "Hold still, let me help you get that gunk off!"

Mouse

Mouse still doesn't want to get too close. He picks up another rock and chucks it at one of the ants.

Dana

Well, so much for getting out of here. Resigned to her fate, she readies her hoe in her hand and moves to strike one of the ants.

 

[sleepydogboy]

Bamzaw

Bamzaw is desperately clawing at the substance. Hearing Yaz, he turns around and points frantically at his face.

 

Ve

Ve whispers to Grog, "they seem a bit touchy about their artifacts...", as though worried the ants might overhear. "Sorry," she turns and says to the nearest ant, "but I need them more." She swings her shovel at the ant.

 

Mim the Triad

Mim peeps an eye open to survey the scene. His hand slowly works its way over to the pitchfork next to him, and he tightens his grip. He's waiting for an opportune moment to enter the fray.

 

Gugga

Gugga locks eyes with the nearest ant and, without a word, steps forward and heaves his hoe at the creature.

 

[JagrHunter]

Bochs

Bochs cheers the killing of the bee even though he had little to do with it. Hearing Stryker's statement he also moves back to where 2 of his tribemates stand.

Moth

Disappointed that he can't reach the opening. He moves closer to the dying bee, using its bulk to hide his actions as he watches his fellow captives

Talyn

Talyn turns to his other tribe mates taking count of those he remembers. Tightening his grip on his hoe He moves closer to the others ready to attack.

Stryker

"The "honey" washed their saliva form us. It is what freed our minds." yells Stryker. "They captured and enslaved us." he yelled at the others as he moved closer to his tribemates.