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Four days later, nothing has crossed their path except a traveling group of monks, and they passed a corpse of a horse, but not their own. Then they spy a large beetle up in the hills. It’s very large, and starts moving towards them. Alzar doesn’t know the various large beetles from each other – except for Oil and Fire Beetles. It has no horns, just a long, thin body with nasty looking pincers.
The horses and wagons are secured as the beetle is moving closer. Without another obvious move, Alzar summons the Searing Serpent right in front of the beetle, but the beetle ignores it. Well, huh.
Alzar orders the serpent to attack. It misses. He moves in front and swings his staff. It misses. This not going to be easy. It slices into Alzar for 8 damage. Those are very sharp pincers. (It’s a Slicer Beetle for those who know and care)
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The next turn, it goes first and tears into Alzar again for 8 more damage.
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Alzar misses, The serpent misses, Aleigha misses and Estaish misses. Weapons are bouncing off this thing, and it appears to have a really tough chitin. A Mist Ball flies in from Dryshik and it makes it save.
Alzar backs up and tries a different tactic. He casts Ray of Ondovir on it. It fails its save. It is forced to attack exactly how it did before. That makes it much easier to hit and dodge. Aleigha pierces it for 7 damage. Estaish hits, barely, for 3. The serpent does not get a + to hit it since it does not know it will be making the same moves. It misses anyway. The Beetle totally misses. (It would have rolled a 19, which would have meant a lost arm or leg on Alzar, but since he cast Ray of Ondovir, he automatically dodged the piercing).
They win init. Alzar rolls a 14. +1 for the staff is 15, +2 for AC if 18, which is still not enough to hit. Aleigha rolls a 14, and +2 for her sword, +3 for AC, and a ThAC0 of 18 is a hit. 4 more damage. Estaish rolls a 12. +2 for sword, +3 for AC is 17, and his THAC0 is 20, so no go. The serpent rolled a 11, a wide miss. The beetle rolls a 9, and with Alzar’s AC of 6, and a THAC0 of 16, and is just a hit for 2d8 damage, Alzar takes 14.
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The beetle wins init and hits again for 9 damage
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Alzar hits for 5 damage. The serpent misses. Aleigha crits it for 6 damage and severely damages it. Everyone else misses. A Mist ball fails.
(If a Slicer Beetle attacks and rolls a 19 or 20, it slices off a leg or arm)
The beetle runs off at a movement way faster than them on the rocks. Alzar throws a dagger at it and misses. He orders his familiar to follow it. It goes into a cavern about 700 yards away. Alzar orders the group to follow it to the cave and leads them there. Megala guards the wagons in case someone comes across them.
They spend 20 minutes picking their way over rock and reach the cave where it lurks. They enter, with a torch tossed in so they can see. The Beetle is alone, and sees them, and backs into a corner, mandibles out. A third Mist Ball hits it, and this time is fails its save and takes some poison damage and it is blinded. They go in as one and stab at it, and two swords hit it for 9 more damage and it falls.
200 XP for all three
Inside the cave, they find some weapons, boots and gloves, and a gauntlet. Alzar casts Detect Magic and a magic boot. Alzar goes up to it and investigates it. He can’t identify it so he takes it back to the wagon for later.
(It’s a left Boot of Elvenkind)
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