IC 1: The Cyber Pits of the Ant-Men

[sleepydogboy]

Ve

"Man, and I really liked that trumpet too..." Ve sees in her peripheral more trash get heaped next to her. "That's hardly helping—", she turns and notices that it was deposited by an ant, "—GAH!" She makes a frantic jab with her spear.

 

Mim the Triad

As the ants turn and draw their weapons, Mim realizes he is still under-geared, and tactically decides that the time for pride must wait. He places his three-fingered hand over his nose and dives beneath the refuse, hopefully to be forgotten amidst the chaos.

 

Bamzaw

Bamzaw's eyes snap between the ants, the pile, the ants, the pile, and he mutters to himself, "I can take them all out, I just have to find it. It has to be here." He continues searching for his gear. "By the Ancient Ones, I pray they didn't steal it..."

 

[pesukarhu]

Dana

HP 1/1 | AC 11 | Luck 7/7 | S-1 A+1 S-2 P+0 I+0 L-1 | PSH | Gatherer | Cog

---

After rooting around in the rubbish for a while, Dana triumphantly turns up Bokk's dagger, antler hood, necklace, and other gear. After handing them over to Bokk with a grin on her face, she spies the ant-men entering the chamber. "Look out!"

She grabs her axe and attacks the closest ant.

Bokk

HP 4/4 | AC 10 | Luck 9/10 | S+1 A-1 S+0 P+2 I+2 L+0 | PSH | Gatherer | Cog

---

Bokk gratefully accepts his gear. It's good to have his stuff again. As the ants enter the room, the grips his trusty hoe and moves to attack them. "Everyone, if we attack as one, they'll never know what hit them!"

Yaz

HP 2/2 | AC 13 | Luck 11/11 | S+0 A+0 S-1 P-1 I+1 L+0 | PSH | Hunter | Curator

---

Yaz grips her spear and charges the ants. "Enough already, just let us out!"

Mouse

HP 3/3 | AC 9 | Luck 8/8 | S-3 A-1 S-1 P-1 I-1 L-1 | Mutant | Hunter | Glow

---

Mouse fits a stone to his sling and gives it a well-practiced whirl. He sends the stone flying towards the ants. "That's better!" His gear gives him at least a bit more confidence.

---

[Character sheets]

[Spacesong]

Jaxi

Holding her bow aloft after finding it the Panther woman puts her quiver and other gear onto her quickly. Interrupted by the workers entering the chamber she readies herself to loose an arrow. "You want a taste?!"

Zyx

"Wait a sec... MY AXE! And some fodder to use it on. HAVE AT THEE!" he exclaims to the confusion of anyone listening.

Ygg

Ygg stands in the intersection looking around. "Okay, the way out of here has to be close, right? I was so convinced the way out was this way... oh no... what if I was...wrong?!" The poor soggy man retreats inward physically and begins to shake as he explores the north path closest to the bridge. "H-h-hug left, I guess..."

Gelbur

Gelbur afixes his weaponry and chooses to match Zyx with the Axe gimmick. "Alright, I go one side. Yous other guys go the other."

Character sheets.

[Morphling]

Boch's spear scores a glancing blow on one of the attacking workers. Fern further injures it with her weapon. Ve hits one of the ants so hard that her weapon flies out of her hands, killing it! Mouse's sling crushes an ant's head! Zyx's axe cleaves one of the mutants in twain! Jaxi somehow manages to get her bow caught in her armor. She will be unable to use it next round, and will suffer a -1 AC penalty until she can spend ten minutes to fix the straps of her hide.

The three remaining workers attempt to rally and fight off the swarm of tribesfolk. The Ratman accidentally steps into one of the mutant's jaws and is summarily savaged (3 damage). One of them tries to bite Dana but she ducks before it can get its pincers around her neck. Yaz suffers a fatal case of ant bite to the sternum (4 damage).

OOC

There are three workers left. Any further ranged attacks will have a penalty for firing into melee, including the risk of hitting an ally.

Approaching the northern room, Ygg is almost overcome by a sickly-sweet odor. As he gazes into the dimly lit room, a horrific sight awaits; dozens of bodies are stored here, some upright, some slumped over, all covered in a translucent yellow goo. Some half-dissolved bodies are also visible in clumps of the goo further in, as well as jiggling goo-pods empty of creatures. Taking stock of the room, Ygg notices four gigantic horseflies encased in goo, as well as the fact that not all of the bodies in this room have been fully stripped of possessions - and not all are dead.

OOC

There are a number of rival tribesmen in this room, who can be used as replacement PCs. It will take 1d3 rounds to scrape the goo off of them and revive them.

 

[Spacesong]

Jaxi

Letting out a low growl Jaxi frees her bowstring from her armor. "Of all the damned times to have such a massive botch..." She backs away to find safety in the chaos to right herself.

Zyx

Eyes wide, mouth agape the human dimwit can't believe it. He actually did something cool... He did something heroic! He felt like his talk could back up his demeanor. "...heh..hehe...HAHAHAAAAAAAA DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT?!?!?! THAT WAS SO COOL!!!!" Noticing the other works remaining he goes in for another attack.

Ygg

The shakes getting more impossible to supress the fearful Ygg steps closer to inspect the people in the pods. "Wh-wh-what are th-th-these? And wh-wh-why are there puh-people stuck inside them? Can... can-n I helpp them?!" He looks around more and notices the massive flies also stored in similar goop. "I have nothing to defend myself with." A fearful chorus rises inside Ygg. Pushing through he gets closer to one of the less dissolved looking humanoids and notices they have weaponry on them still which spurs Ygg to try and dig them out. "More people with me means more safety. More people with me means more safety. More people with me --" He beings to repeat to himself as he sets to work freeing the first tribes person, scooping goop as quickly as his meek personality would let him.

Gelbur

Taking stock of the action so far the self styled stoic stands back and watches Zyx revel in his victory, also somewhat impressed by the display. He notices his friend Jaxi having issues with her bow. "Ya hate to see it, love." And walks over to see if he can assist her.

Character sheets.

OOC

Let me know if I need to do anything mechanically with Jaxi and Gelbur. Hoping she can at least get another shot this round with an assist.

 

Edited April 21 by Spacesong
Formating, adding attack flavor for Zyx and OOC text (see edit history)

[Morphling]

Bamzaw finds his gear, and a small cylindrical artifact filled with liquid catches his eye. "Why not try a delicious paragon elixir?" The artifact says to him. "Our refreshing cola variant will give you the strength of the gods."

OOC

Small update because I forgot the results of Bamzaw's search. Lots of things to keep track of!

 

[Rakle]

The Ratman

AAAAAAAaaaaaagh The Ratman groans his last.........

AC11 Spear+1 d6+1 sling+0 d4

 

Fern

Fern continues her attacks

AC13 spear+0 d5-1

Grog the tracker

With renewed fury, Grog helps attacks the remaining enemies.

 

Slips-a-lot

Slips thrust his spear at an enemy

AC12 spear+0 d6

 

[sleepydogboy]

Ve

Ve feels a rush of dopamine as her spear slays its target, dulled soon after by the realization that she is now bare-handed. She thinks to herself, this might be my calling, I've just really got to work on my grip... She clenches her fist and rears back to throw a punch at the nearest ant.

 

Mim the Triad

Mim continues wading through the garbage, his nose held tightly shut. In an effort to move away from anything wet or smelly—perhaps a Sisyphean task—he pushes through the debris feeling for anything not entirely unpleasant, a different sort of "wandering the wastes" than he was prepared for when he embarked.

 

Bamzaw

"Yes... YES!!!" Bamzaw pulls from the refuse a leather sack, deformed by some large object inside. He hoists the unwieldy sack over his shoulder—that explains the hunch, anyway—and tears begin visibly streaming down his face. "We're saved, you hear me? Saved!" His foot bumps against a small cylinder, which he picks up and deposits in his sack. "And already, the Ancient Ones smile upon me. I am INVINCIBLE!" He charges+2 to hit, -2 to AC until next turn forward and attacks with his rake.

 

Edited April 22 by sleepydogboy (see edit history)

[JagrHunter]

Bochs

Bochs gaining confidence lays into his ant attacker.

Moth

Moth sneaks around the rear of Boch's attacker and slashes with his dagger

Talyn

Dead

Stryker

Stryker drops his bow and grabbing his Ant-staff attacks the nearest ant

 

[Malkavian Grin]

Gruza

HP 3/3 | AC 14 | Ammo 11/12 | Luck 17/17 | 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 blink and blink and blink. "What!" Gruza shout. Shake head. "Too many in way!"

Gruza dig in trash again.

 

Myycky

HP 4/4 | AC 15 | Ammo 5/6 | Luck 10/10 | 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

---

"Ah, dang it!" Myycky said as her dart missed. Seeing the swarm of tribe people go at the ants, she dropped the blow tube. Her hands went to a leather shield and a stone axe from her dead companions. "Fine, let's do this up-close! HIIIIIIIYAAAAA!!!" Myycky shouted as her war cry, charging into the melee.

OOC: If that's too many actions, I'll just stick with equipping myself.

---

[Character sheets]

[Morphling]

With a practiced thrust of his spear, Slips-A-Lot runs one of the workers through. Bamzaw, who is now invincible, proves it by killing an ant with a farming implement! Stryker puts his new spear to good use and destroys the last mutant worker.

With the battle over, Stryker continues studying his artifact and comes to understand it. The ancient writing on the package tells him what it is, as well as its dangers.

Stim-Gum

TL 2, CM 1; small pack of Stim-Gum. 1 stick grants 1d3 hit points for 1 hour (2 or more doses within 1 hour cause a penalty of -1d6 Agility per dose at the end of the hour). There are six sticks of gum.

Ygg manages to get the goop off of the rival tribesfolk and now has a potential ally.

OOC

Since @Malkavian Grin has the fewest characters, this first one will go to her. You can determine its stats in your character thread as normal.

[Malkavian Grin]

Bunnie

HP 4/4 | AC 8 | Luck 10/10 | Art. +0 | A.I. -4 | S-1 A-2 S+0 P-2 I-1 L+0 | Speed 30 | Mutated Gibbon Ape (white fur) | Occ. Hunter | Children of the Glow

---

Spitting goo from her mouth, a gibbon ape-woman looked up at Ygg with confusion and fear. "No, don't!" she begged, recoiling from him. Her back pressed into the strange tube she'd been taken from. Coming to her senses more, she continued to wipe goo out of her fur but she would need a proper bath. As it was, she looked a mess with her fur either stuck to her frame or sticking out at odd angles she couldn't see.

"You not gonna hurt me?" she asked, large deep-brown eyes staring up at Ygg.

An astute eye would see she had too many fingers on both hands--one extra on each side. A strange thing for a Seeker Manimal.

 

Gruza

HP 3/3 | AC 14 | Ammo 11/12 | Luck 17/17 | 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 find nothing but smelly slime and dumb metal. Gruza look for arrow and dart.

 

Myycky

HP 4/4 | AC 15 | Ammo 11/12 | Luck 10/10 | 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

---

Myycky's stone axe slashed ineffectively through the air as she reached the melee late, whiffing the air fiercely. "Well, dang it!!" she said as she kicked at the dirt. "At least we found our stuff...We should get going..."

Myycky started walking back to the bridge area.

---

[Character sheets]

[Rakle]

Fern

"Let's go. We are ready to get out of here " Fern tells the others.

AC13 spear+0 d5-1

 

Grog the tracker

Grog grabs the shield, spear and sling from the corpse of the Ratman. "See you in the next life". he tells the corpse. He is ready to move onwards.

AC12 Spear d6 sling+1 d4

 

Slips-a-lot

Grinning. Slips knows that he will join the hunters after he escapes this anthill of doom.

AC12 spear+0 d6

 

[pesukarhu]

Yaz

HP 2/2 | AC 13 | Luck 11/11 | S+0 A+0 S-1 P-1 I+1 L+0 | PSH | Hunter | Curator

---

Yaz gasps and falls to the ground, rubbing her shiny thing with one hand. "Just...make it out..."

Dana

HP 1/1 | AC 11 | Luck 7/7 | S-1 A+1 S-2 P+0 I+0 L-1 | PSH | Gatherer | Cog

---

Shaken by Yaz's death, Dana desperately swings her axe at the closest remaining ant-man before realizing that it, too, has stopped moving. She breathes hard for a few seconds before putting it away.

Bokk

HP 4/4 | AC 10 | Luck 9/10 | S+1 A-1 S+0 P+2 I+2 L+0 | PSH | Gatherer | Cog

---

Bokk cries out as Yaz falls. Crouching next to her, he wipes a bit of blood from her face, then checks to see if her armor can be salvaged. Finally, he stands and looks to the others, "So, across the bridge then?"

Mouse

HP 3/3 | AC 9 | Luck 8/8 | S-3 A-1 S-1 P-1 I-1 L-1 | Mutant | Hunter | Glow

---

Mouse is definitely getting more confident. He carefully puts his sling away and checks the rest of his gear.

---

[Character sheets]

[sleepydogboy]

Mim the Triad

Mim pops his head out of the garbage and quietly joins the party.

 

Bamzaw

Bamzaw cradles the artifact sack in his arms, murmuring sweet nothings to it under his breath.

 

Ve

Ve retrieves her spear and wipes the ant blood onto her pants. "Sure, bridge."