The Third Adventure

[kipper]

Dame Simonetta is curious about the beetles, and watches Dougal's operation intently, offering (ultimately unhelpful) suggestions. She offers to empty one of her oil flasks for him to fill up if he wants. "There are three more beetles, maybe you can do better on the next one now that you've had some practice," she says.

[mushgnome]

Dame Simonetta is curious about the beetles, and watches Dougal's operation intently, offering (ultimately unhelpful) suggestions. She offers to empty one of her oil flasks for him to fill up if he wants. "There are three more beetles, maybe you can do better on the next one now that you've had some practice," she says.

OOC: Unless the Dame is a litterbug she would have an empty flask in her inventory, from the oil currently in her lantern.

[ehiker133]

Dougal empties his wine skin and fills it with the gland secretions.

[mushgnome]

OOC: I've updated Dougal's inventory appropriately.

What next, folks?

[kipper]

Dame Simonetta doesn't want to sully her own hands by attempting to remove a gland herself, so if Dougal is finished with the beetles she will join Willie to the North and lead the way onwards down the tunnel.

[ehiker133]

Dougal follows the group once he's done sullying his hands.

[acodispo]

As they proceed north-ward, Willie points out the cleanliness of the tunnel to all.

"Somebody's keeping this place very tidy! I hope they are friendly, but I'm beginning to expect they are probably not..."

[mushgnome]

Turn 21

Our heroes come around the bend and discover the tahini beetle lair.

The lair is fastidiously clean. (The beetles must dispose of their refuse elsewhere.) The only feature of note, is a set of fur pelts or rugs spread out on the floor. There are six of these hides, the perfect size for a Hobbet to curl up and take a nap, arranged neatly like the points of a hexagon. And then in the center is a seventh fur rug, which is circular in shape and about six foot diameter.

Four of the fur pelts are unoccupied. Two of them are occupied by big beetles like the party fought previously. And sleeping on the big hide in the center is an even bigger beetle twice the size of the others!

The 2 tahini beetles leap to their feet and begin making the telltale sesame-gland noise deep in their throats. It takes a moment for the 1 bigger beetle to wake up and become aware of its surroundings. It groggily rises from its sleeping mat, and has not yet signaled its combat intentions.

What next?

Neither side is surprised.

The encounter takes place at 30' (within the range of lantern light, so both sides can see each other).

Apologies to Willie but I did secretly make a Listen check for him, when he scouted ahead on Turn 20, and he failed miserably with a roll of 1. Lucky for him, the beetles failed their roll, too.

As a change of pace, I will be rolling individual initiative this time. Keep that in mind when declaring your action, that this will be a free-for-all, and your action might happen before or after your friends. Feel free to use conditional 'ifs' when declaring your intentions (within reason).

[kipper]

Our fighters are all down on hitpoints, which may affect our strategy. We have three choices I think:
1) Retreat, probably to head back to the surface for full rest and healing. However, if someone gets hit and becomes stunned before we can fully execute a retreat we'll be trapped in combat anyway, and we'll have lost a round in trying to flee instead of attacking.
2) Charge! Maybe the beetles cannot spit at melee range? Or maybe their mandibles are worse! Plus with individual initiative we cannot all charge simultaneously.
3) Exchange missile fire. At least we know what to expect, but we may not all survive the exchange, especially with that one big beetle coming into action.

All three options are rather risky, does anyone have any other ideas? I think the chances that the large beetle is intelligent and will call off the attack if we attempt to parlay is negligible and not worth considering.

EDIT:If Noh can cast Entangle (if the beetles don't move), that would give us the opportunity to retreat, I doubt the spell would stop them from spitting at us though. If it does affect all of them, we could circle around behind the beetles though and with luck the spell will prevent them from turning to target us? I don't know the exact specifications or wording of the Entangle spell.

[mgtremaine]

Yeah it's risky my gut says do the sling battle and hope for the best. The hobbits 3/2 gives us a slight advantage but you're right we are low enough that 1 or 2 hits on the wrong people we've lost someone.