Session 19: Big Bugs Number Two

General Summary

"Antyhing that isn't allied with us is about to get YEETED."

— Dymera, battle cry

This session picked up immediately after the previous session, with the party having just killed a large subterranean insect at the Loggers' Camp
Members of the party scrambled to get off the ground, once they knew there were more of the giant bugs still underground; Nissany awkwardly climbed onto a log, whilst Dymera jumps onto a box with astonishing grace. Elarnya examined the corpse of the creature and correctly identified it as an ankheg, having read about them at the library when she was young, but recalled that they are not native to this region. Both Elarnya and Yuri started to speculate about how the creatures could have gotten here, Yuri suggested that may have been lured there with food, as they don't seem very intelligent, based on their reaction to Hideous Laughter the previous session. Elarnya then attempted to provoke the bugs by throwing a rock at the ground but, despite doing so skillfully, is unsuccessful.
Nissany hatched her own plan to draw out the remaining ankhegs, she moved over to the ruined building with the stone foundations, which the ankhegs cannot burrow through, and the other party members to follow, then, she asked Kelloggs to peck at the ground nearby; with Jensen's consent, Kelloggs did this and before long a second ankheg erupted from the earth. Boston tried to climb onto the roof of the house but fell, then he fired a bolt past the ankheg from his crossbow, grabbing its attention, before firing a second directly into its thorax. Jenson cast sleep on it and whilst it was down Dymera viciously stabed it with her rapier and with one more shot from Boston, it was dead.
Frustrated with her inability to hit anything so far that day, Yuri thrust her sword into the ground, alerting yet another ankheg which launched itself from the ground, scuttled over to her, and grab onto her with its acidic jaws. The rest of the party immediately began attacking the creature, except for Nissany, who shot an ox in the head. Dymera stabbed it in the kidney, almost forcing it to drop the barbarian, but before long boston stabbed it between its multiple eyes, killing it and allowing Yuri to break free.
Jensen managed to locate the fourth and final ankheg underground, so whilst Kelloggs sat atop the northernmost tent (him was on tent, pretty cool), he stood on the ground above the burrowing monstrosity and cast thunderwave, confident that it would reach underground. It appeared that the wizard's assumption was correct, as a shrill scream terminated from the ground beneath him, followed shortly by the creature that produced the sound, an ankheg, larger than the rest, that bit into Jensen's unarmored flesh, injecting acid into the dragonborn's body and inflicting massive damage whilst his familiar looked on in horror. Elarnya tried to hit Jensen's attacker with an arrow but missed, hitting instead Jensen's Wizard's Hat, though the hat magically stitched itself back together almost as soon as the arrow had passed through. After taking a few hits, the ankheg was finally slain with a real good kidney stabbin'™ from Dymera, uprooting it from the ground and destroying a few tents.
After confirming there were no more Ankhegs in the camp, the party returned to the building at the south of the camp, where the man was. They tried to tell him that the bugs had been eradicated, but he remained sceptical, just then the ox on the stone foundations saw something in the nearby fireplace and ran away in panic.
The party headed over to the fireplace and found a totem consisting of thirteen androgynous stick figures, tiny lightning bolt runes inscribed each of them, tied together with hair and dipped in what appeared to be pigs blood. Nissany recognised the symbols, recalling the similar figures tied around the necks of the giant boars that had attacked them last month; sure enough, she identified them as symbols of the storm god Talos, most commonly utilised by the Anchorites of Talos. Jensen cast the spell identify on the totem, discovering that it was placed here to bring misfortune to the residents of the camp and Yuri removed one of the figures, ending the curse.
Reasoning that the totem was responsible for the ankhegs' presence, Yuri and Elarnya returned to the man in the office and told him about this. After a few minutes of moving furniture out of the way, he opened the door, satisfied with the explanation, revealing to them that he was Tibor Wester, half-brother to Harbin Wester. Tibor initially lied, unconvincingly, about his knowledge of the anchorites, however, when pressed he told the party that his employees had recently begun telling him about "shapeshifting orcs" in the woods that had warned them about encroaching on their territories. Although unconvinced at the time, Tiboar was sure the shapeshifters were responsible for the attacks. He also told them that the other residents of the camp were likely all dead.

Player Characters Present

Boston Bornes, Dymera, Elarnya, Jensen Astria-Wagner, Nissany, Yuri Canmore

Missions/Quests Completed

Find out what happened to the Loggers' Camp, Learn that ants have kidneys

Character(s) interacted with

Ox, Tibor Wester

An Ankheg

In-Game Date
9th of Nightall, 1491

Report Date

09 Mar 2021

Real Good Kidney Stabbin'™ by Me, an artist

"I wouldn't know anything about that. Certainly not. Not at all."

— Tibor Wester, on something he definitely knows more about.

"Use the key on Nissany's head."

— Boston Bornes, unprompted