Pharast 4th - Part 2 - A Stab in the Tickleback

Having tended to any wounds the group had suffered, they head to move down the passageway from which the attacking mites had emerged from. The passageway begins to spiral downwards deeper into the earth and as Kyrander takes the lead the group are spotted by two mites.  One of the mites rushes off, away from the group, whilst the other mite races towards the ranger.

Kyrander shouts back to the group, informing them of the escaping mite, as he draws his blade and rushes to meet the charging mite only to miss the horizontally challenged critter. Seeing an opening the mite seizes the chance to attack Kyrander but misses.  Dagger vs sword, the two combatants spend rounds parrying each other’s blows until finally Kyrander lands a fatal blow on the mite killing the critter in one decisive blow.

The rest of the group arrive to assist the ranger just as the mite's dead body hits the ground.  Vaneer decides to take the lead for the rest of the passageway and eventually leads the group into another chamber. This chamber is cluttered with broken items and bits of furniture, along with approximately 20 intact hammocks.

The group attempt to quietly enter the chamber when Kyrander spots what could be a mite hiding under a blanket; the group creep up on the hiding mite and bundled her up inside the blanket before 

Otto knocks her unconscious.  Before deciding what to they wanted to do with their gift wrapped mite a low dull noise could be heard from the exiting passageway of the chamber.

Cautiously the group put down their bundled blanket [forgetting about the mite inside - the one living witness to the upcoming 'mite day massacre'] and make their way down the passageway which ended in a naturally lit chamber.  Miro and Kyrander sneak into the chamber in attempt to peer around the various corners; the chamber initially appeared empty, apart from a large overturned table halfway across the chamber where at least three mites could be seen hiding behind it for defence, alongside one lonely mite sitting in a corner of the chamber banging his hand on what appears to be an upside-down plant pot, making quite a commotion.

Wasting no time, Kyrander  draws his bow and shoots at one of the mites behind the table lodging an arrow into its eye. Miro also notches an arrow but his shot misses the remaining two mites behind the table, who briefly appear over the table with a weird looking contraption that was intended to fire caltrops at interlopers.  Unfortunately for the mites, the contraption jams and then backfires on to its users injuring one of the mites.  Otto throws an acid splash spell at the mites but the spell overshoots, missing the intended targets.

Kyrander attempts to shoot at the table mites again but his arrow fails to find its target.  The mites having un-jammed their caltrop catapult and attempt to shoot at the ranger but fail to hit him.  Meanwhile the mite that had been banging the upside down plant pot (as a crude drum and warning system) and runs down another passageway out of the chamber.

Bob and Vaneer charge at the mites behind the table and the combination of a mace to the face and the badgers teeth in its throat causes one of the mites to die.  Miro attempts to shoot the remaining mite but again misses his target. Otto re-attempts to cast his acid spell and successfully manages to damage the last mite.  Kyrander tries to finish the job with his bow but is only successful at hitting the table.

All of a sudden from the high-ceiling above the fight, a large blur drops to the ground and a cold voice hisses “What’s you doing here humans’?” The source of the chilling voice was from a mite riding on the back of the black blur which appeared to be a giant tick.  At that same moment another three mites run out of the tunnel, charging towards the group.

As the mass combat begins Vaneer and Otto take the opportunity of the chaos as both drop a attack on the charging mites, Vaneer manages to kill one straight out whilst Otto manages to wound another as it tries to stab him.

Bob ravages another mite successfully killing it.

Vaneer turns his attention to Tickleback, the giant tick, and successfully lands an attack on the creature.

Miro sensing a good opportunity moves himself into one of the giant tick's blind spots and manages to land a blow, injuring the creature.

Otto casts a magic missile at Tickleback, grazing him.

Kyrander shoots at Tickleback, successfully hitting and injuring it.

Tickleback attempts to bite Vaneer, but fails to get through the cleric's armour.  Grabbles, the mite leader riding atop the tick manages to successfully stab Vaneer whilst hissing "Humans!  Inconceivable!", which sounds considerably more amusing than it was threatening, oweing to the mite's raspy lisp.

 

Another mite attempts to stab Otto but just misses him.

Two mites attack Bob but miss the badger.

Summoned by the noise of the plant pot's clanging, four more mites enter into the chamber to join the fray.

Natalia hits and injures the giant tick.

Bob growls at the two mites before ripping the throat of one of them out, killing it.

Vaneer lands another successful blow against the tick.

Miro acrobatically jumps on to Tickleback's back and jams his blade into the ticks neck, killing it out right.

Otto attempts to stab one of the remaining mites only to miss it.

Kyrander shoots Grabble who is still clinging onto the back of the dead tick and injures him, just as the ex-tick riding mite angrily swipes at Miro, but misses the rogue and so jumps onto the floor.  "What are you doing here, humans?  This land belong to our kind!  You are not fey!  You do not belong!" the leaders lips angrily at the party.

Each remaining mite tries to attack the group, but being shaken after seeing the death of Tickleback they all fail to land a successful blow.  Another mite charges through the group, brandishing a knife towards Otto, only to be decapitated by Kyrander before he could reach Otto.

Kyrander, unwittingly from this point had begun the domino of death effect on the mites with Vaneer next striking another mite and killing it with his mace.

Miro attacks Grabbles and finally puts an end to his reign as he rasps his last, "The First World is coming!  But you will not live to see it....."

Otto smacks another mite killing it.

Kyrander jumps back into the fray by shooting and pinning two mites to the wall through their chests.

Bob devours the face of another mite.

The last remaining mite attempts to attack Bob but misses the large badger.

Vaneer approaches the remaining mite and whilst staring the mite down, his mace soon connected with the critter's head, caving it in.

The group take a minute to rest and heal their wounds now that the battle had finished. After a short rest period the group leave the chamber of slaughter and make their way down a short passage which leads them to another chamber which is split down the middle by a deep chasm.

As the group peer over the ledge a pair of glowing red spheres is looking back at them from within the chasm.  All of a sudden a 25ft long pitch-black centipede with red eyes launches itself out of the chasm to attack the group.

Bob is the first into the fray, and bites off one of the centipedes many legs.

Natalia is the next to join Bob but her attack fails to connect with the centipede.

Otto throws a spell and hits the centipede.

The centipede attempts to bite Natalia but misses her whilst its tail attempts to slap Bob into the chasm but fails to hit the badger.

Miro jumps at the centipede and critically injuries the under belly of the centipede hurting the creature a lot further.

Kyrander attempts to shoot at the centipede but just misses the creature to only shoot the darkness.

Natalia swings at the centipede and hits the creature.

Bob bites the centipede and is seen spitting at the awful taste of the creature.

Otto attacks and injures the centipede further.

Giving up on Bob and Natalia the centipede focuses its attention on Miro but misses with both its attacks on him.

Vaneer seeing that the group was struggling with exhaustion from the previous combat decides to cast a Bless spell to aid his comrades.

Miro has another attempt to injure the centipede and succeeds at shooting the critter.

Natalia misses her next attempt to hit the creature.

Bob chooses to swipe at the centipede instead of biting it and successfully deals damage to it.

Otto casts a magic missile spell, shooting the critter in the face.

The centipede attacks both Miro and Natalia but misses both adventurers.

Vaneer shoots the centipede with his crossbow, the bolt lodging itself into the skull of the creature, killing it as it falls back into the chasm from where it came from.

Starting to feel the tolls of all the previous combats, the group slowly make their way through the chamber and into the next, hoping that nothing awaits them. The next chamber appeared to be a sort of egg shape with cages dangling from the roots of the ancient tree above.

All of the cages apart from one contained a dead creature reptilian humanoid, however there is one still alive and upon seeing the group approaching and that they are not mites jumps up in his cage waving them over to him.

“Come here’s strangers!! Comes here! Help Mikmek! Yes?” said the creature as the group approached.

Tired and wanting to avoid another conflict the group set about questioning Mikmek, to see what the creature’s intentions were:

Mikmek explains to the group that he is a Kobold that had been captured by his enemy, the mites who have been warring with his Kobold tribe for a while.  He was on a holy quest to retrieve an idol that the mites had stolen from him. As Mikmek explains what the idol looks like Vaneer pulls out a statue from his backpack, which the group had picked up in the fight against Tickleback and Grabbles.  Seeing the idol, Mikmek screams in delight, exclaiming that this is the holy idol he had been sent to find.

Vaneer tries to hand the idol back to Mikmek, but he refuses to take it, saying that he would be cursed should he touch it with his bare flesh.  Tartuk is the only person that is allowed to touch it but he isn’t liked by the other kobolds.

Intrigued by this, Otto asks Mikmek why no one likes Tartuk, so the kobold explains that Tartuk, a shaman kobold, visiting the tribe a few months ago and announced that he was to lead the Sootscale Tribe instead of Chief Sootscale; if the kobolds didn’t do as he said, the idol would kill his entire clan!  This was an especially grave threat for the kobolds as the idol (an ivory statue depicting a crouched horned devil) was a great and mystical artifact that was capable of speaking to Tartuk and relayed it's orders to this shaman, relying on the newcomer to enact the idol's will...

The group looked at each other, suspecting that some underhanded mischief was in play, made especially evident by the fact that the idol gave off no magical aura at all.  And so the party of adventurers (remembering that they had a quest to either kill or parlay with the kobolds, which they picked up at Oleg's Trading Post) offer their services to accompany Mikmek back to his clan and speak with Tartuk (and possibly kill him should he be doing wrong against the tribe).

Mikmek grinned a large toothy smile, happy with his new friends' offer and with that they all made their way up out of the ancient tree and into the plains, with Mikmek leading the way to his tribe's home...