The Fifth Adventure

[kipper]

Hmmm, I'm not too sure about that now that I think about it some more. If we somehow stir up the mushrooms then they seem to me most likely to emit some kind of area-effect attack through their holes. We don't know the range of this effect, we could be lucky and it would hit the fennecs (assuming they are more towards the middle of the room and we are towards the edge), but it could also affect the whole room (including us)!

And if it comes down to the ability to flee the room as fast as we can, I think the fennecs are faster than us!

So, in summary, the more I think about it the more I don't want the battle to enter that room.

[mushgnome]

OOC: Option B, as I imagine it, is that the battle takes place in the tunnel between 18 and 30, with Willie, Wilbur, and Dame Simonetta holding the line against the first round of attacks from the fennec. Then, on the party's half of initiative, the second rank leaps into the action, and all five of you counter-attack.

[acodispo]

Willie contemplates luring the fennecs into the mushroom chamber, but at a quick glance he thinks he sees that his comrades are holding the line in the tunnel. He joins this effort, and will not retreat into the mushroom chamber himself unless forced back by the attack. However, if he can grab a fennec during the melee & toss it into the mushroom chamber toward the treasure chest / mushrooms, he will do so -- just to see what happens!

[mushgnome]

Fennec Battle Round 1

Dame Simonetta sidesteps the charging fennec like a pro, but Willie and Wilbur get chomped!

Wilbur gets hit once and is at two-thirds health.

Willie gets hit twice and is at half health!

The fennec's viciousness has left them vulnerable to counterattack. Dougal and Kiplyn spring from the second rank, but their bark is worse than their bite, and they fail to land any of their blows. Wilbur is likewise ineffective, perhaps distracted by the fennec that is sinking its teeth into his sword arm.

Dame Simonetta cleanly decapitates one of the fennec, leaving 5.

Willie crushes the skull of the nearest fennec (leaving 4 left in the fight) and uses the momentum of his swing to launch the body into the mushroom chamber. It slams into the treasure chest!

The cave fennec carcass sticks to the treasure-chest, as though it is coated with some type of adhesive. Before our heroes' eyes, the wooden chest begins to melt or dissolve into a rubbery, amorphous mass. The fennec is slooooooowly being absorbed and devoured into an amoeboid creature that was 'mimicking' the form of a treasure chest!

The mushrooms immediately react to this, as though an unspoken signal has passed between them and the shapeshifting treasure-chest creature. Their stalks stop swaying back and forth, and their caps stop pumping like bellows. They shut their 'blow holes' and gently flutter their gills, making a soft purring sound. Though the mushrooms have no visible legs or feet, they begin to slowly scoot across the floor like slugs or snails, clustering into a tight ring around the dissolving treasure-chest and tipping their caps down in toward the center, like drooping sunflowers.

The surviving 4 fennec visibly change their body language: their ears, which were perked up at high alert, immediately relax and droop. They decide they don't like the odds and flee with their tails between their legs, back to area 18 and then the first tunnel on the right, leading SW.

Do you pursue the four fleeing fennec?

Fennec attack rolls vs
Dame Simonetta 12 miss, 10 miss
Wilbur 13 miss, 17 hit for 4hp dropping him to 8/12
Willie 19, 16 hit twice for 2+3=5hp dropping him to 5/10

Party attack rolls
Dame Simonetta 11 miss, 20! hit for 4hp killing a fennec
Dougal 6 miss, 7 miss
Kiplyn 1 miss, 7 miss
Wilbur 7 miss, 7 miss
Willie 20! hit for 4hp killing a fennec

Willie attack roll vs. AC 9 to fling the fox into the mushroom chamber, 1d20=19, bullseye

morale check 2d6=4, poor

[kipper]

I don't think there is any pressing need to chase the fennecs, however I am in favour of getting as far from the mushrooms as possible! I think we should flee as far as room 18, and then more cautiously follow the fennecs SW. Missile weapons ready to shoot as soon as we see them.

[mgtremaine]

Kiplyn turns to glance back in the room and says ..."Look at that...Maybe them fennies have the right idea, let's get out of here."

[ehiker133]

Dougal nods in agreement and readies his slingshot and moves towards room 18.

[acodispo]

Willie joins the movement into area 18, keeping an eye over his shoulder as long as he can at what else the mushrooms may do.

[mushgnome]

Since the fennec have a quicker movement rate than armored hobbets (and won the initiative) they easily escape pursuit. Soon they are beyond the party's 30' lantern light, moving to the southwest.

The Voice in the Well is more talkative than usual: "What is happening up there? Do I hear fighting? Are there any bodies? Throw them down here so I can suck out the juices!"

[coffee]

I'd like to pause for a moment, if I may," Wilbur says. "I just think a wee snack would go down nicely about now."