Log 16: The Swarm

Rewards Granted

A new feat was gained.  

Missions/Quests Completed

TLDR:  

A second ripple of time passed over everyone, and they gained the new feat "Complete Soul"

The party began looking around the shack, noticing the broken windows, the decaying boards, the covered up holes in the walls

The scarabs from Tiddles the Partizan crawled through the window and started attacking Lisk

Lisk and Naro Velis fought the scarabs off Lisk.

Ryder went outside to see what was out there, saw nothing until a giant wasp flew at him. He summoned Kir to kill the wasp

A bug started crawling towards the shack. Lisk saw as a trap was set off, smashing a flask against the bug, engulfing it in flames

Opal figured they had about half an hour before the rest of the bugs attacked. She attempted to figure out her gray bag of tricks some more, tossing out a few more animals and realizing what it was.

Everyone went back inside the shack, and boarded up the windows. Opal webbed the door. Opal, out of boredom, completed the Origami Beetle she had

the Origami Beetle turned into a swarm and started attacking, but was quickly defeated

party twiddle their thumbs a little bit waiting for the swarm to attack

the swarm began attacking. the bugs went for the boards on the windows, tearing at them. the party noticed and began quickly repairing whatever they could, mitigating the damage

at the same time, a loud metallic trilling sound was heard in the distance, coming nearer

Lisk and Naro took turns putting hammers through the boards, letting some bugs in, but the bugs were taken care of

Kir was enlarged by Ryder, and blocked an entire window

Held back the insect siege quite well, then a giant chain worm appeared and smashed Kir, grappling him, and ripping him through the window

Kir and Naro chopped the worm up, the door opened, and then they ran back inside. The worm however deafened Lisk. Lisk kept shooting the chain worm and remaining insects until all were dead

The party used glitter dust to find Lisk

Finally everyone entered the stairway, and Floor 3 was complete

Full report below.

Created Content

---

  Time unpaused, and everyone felt a second ripple pass over them. They felt complete. As if their soul was one, and their memories were restored. They felt as if they had power to alter their own destiny.   Tiddles, after dumping the scarabs outside, vanished.   The scarabs, unperturbed, scrambled inside through the broken window of the shack. They immediately targeted the nearest person, Lisk. Lisk grabbed an acid flask from his belt and whipped it at the scarabs, but the acid was fairly diluted and didnt seem to affect them.   The insects seethed and swarmed towards him, crawling up his legs.   "URGh, get off!" he exclaimed.   Lisk began slapping at his body, panicking. Ryder and Opal looked at him, and shrugged. They walked outside to see what else was out there.   Naro was sympathetic, and came over to Lisk, using all 6 of his arms to help his companion kill the scarabs swarming all over his body.   Ryder began looking around outside, but all that he could see was a massive wasp, flying straight at him. Ryder stepped back, and instantly summoned Kir.     Kir stepped forward and swung his greatsword, slicing the wasp in two.   "Phew. Thanks buddy." Ryder turned away just in time to see Opal pull something round and fuzzy out of her Gray Bag of Tricks.   "Last time this was just bats, but I am curious if it's always bats." She said as Ryder walked by her. Opal whipped the fuzzy ball a good 15' away from her -- the ball, when landing, turned into a large, burly dog, complete with a saddle on top.   "Huh"   Opal stared.   "Didnt expect that." She muttered.   She reached her hand back into the bag, feeling for another fuzzy ball. "Can I get another one...?"   She threw the next fuzzy ball out, which landed beside the dog. The dog, with a "poof", vanished. The second fuzzy ball turned into a weasel, which began running in circles.   With an "Mmph.", Opal tucked the bag back into her pouch, and went back inside to find a now scarab-less Lisk looking out the window.   "Whats up?" she asked.   Lisk pointed outside. "Just saw a bug explode into a ball of fire out there. Think there was some traps set up. Also I think more bugs are comin."   Naro and Ryder looked where Lisk was pointing, but shrugged.   Opal glanced, and then thought about more of the insects. "Yeah... I think with how many of em we passed walking here, and how far away they were, we got probably half an hour before the rest of them arrive."   Ryder chimed in "When does the door open again? Sunrise?"   Opal thought about it for a moment. "A few hours, I think..."   Everyone took a moment to look around the room.   The shack was in much worse condition than they initially realized. The windows were all broken, and the walls didnt fit together properly. There were large gaps in the walls that were covered in cheesecloth, which was presumed to be for keeping the bugs out. The entrance door had a 2" gap at the bottom of it.   Beneath one of the windows was a stack of boards, and beside that was a basket with hammers and nails in it.   "Guess we should fortify a bit" remarked Naro.  

---

  "You know" said Opal, as windows were being boarded up. "This probably wouldve been easier if we had access to the 150' of cheese cloth Tiddles had."   She pointed her hand at the door, and cast a spell. Thick sticky webbing appeared all over the door, blocking the gap at the bottom of it, and forcing the door closed.   "Actually, I think Tiddles has a lotta useful things. That instrument that builds things woulda been PERFECT for this. And what about the dwarf? Rusticus? He's got that glue and that rod..."   Lisk turned his head rapidly. "Dwarf? Where? WHO?"   "Rusticus, a party member of ours. You havent met him yet, he's been hidin out in his bracelet a lot lately."   Lisk scowled. "Dwarves...."   "Anyway" interjected Naro. "Pass me that hammer, got one last window to board up."   "I got you" said Ryder. He finished hammering the board Kir was holding up, and passed the hammer to Naro. Within a few minutes, they had the remainder of the windows completely boarded up, and even had boards to spare.   As the dust settled after the frantic reinforcing, the party looked at each other.   "Well, I'm bored." said Opal. She reached into her bag, and pulled out the origami beetle she found earlier, in the alchemists ruins. The paper insect still had 2 unfinished folds on it. "Might as well finish this off..." she muttered.   Two folds later, and the origami beetle was complete. And then there was 2 of them in Opal's hands. And then 4. Rapidly the paper began multiplying, until a 10' square of ground was covered in origami beetles, which began crawling and swarming about.   "Oh shoot!" exclaimed Opal, stepping back. "Sorry y'all!"     The beetles, ignoring Opal, swarmed at the nearest target, Kir. Kir begain stomping his massive feet around, flattening as many of them as he could. Naro calmly made his way over, and shredded the remaining beetles.   Opal sheepishly looked around. "Uh... anyone else got something to do?"  

---

  After a brief waiting period, the party began to hear scratching and digging sounds at the walls around them. As they focused on the walls around them, a sudden metallic trilling sound was heard in the far distance, incredibly shrill and loud, and coming closer.   Any chance to discuss the large sound was lost as the first large beetles started chewing their way through the boarded up windows. Small wood splinters began to fall from the boards, and mandibles could be seen poking their way through. Those standing near the pile of boards quickly got to work, grabbing materials and patching up holes made by the insects.   Lisk, hammer in hand, put a little bit too much force into his swing. The hammer came down, and crashed straight through the apparently weak boards across the window, knocking out any coverage on the window. Through the window streamed another swarm of scarabs, accompanied by a large beetle.   Opal, Lisk, and Naro made quick work of the bugs that came through, before patching up the hole again.   "Careful!" called Naro. "We really need to keep these windows boarded up!" He grabbed a hammer, and moved down-wall, to the next window that was taking damage. "Try not breaking things yeah?"   Naro wound up and swung, but put too much force into it. His hammer came crashing down, straight through the boards in front of him.   "Ah fuck"   A beetle and swarm of ants managed to scuttle its way inside the room before Naro utilized his extra arms, grabbing more boards and placing them against the window. The insects warmed towards Opal, who used her Planar Tuning Fork to teleport to the back of the room.   "Uhhhhhhhhh..." mumbled Naro. His arms were full, and he was stuck at the window.   Lisk gave him a look, then fired two arrows into the beetle. Ryder quickly ran forwards with tools, and hammered some nails into the boards, freeing Naro to use his arms again.   Three more windows were suddenly under attack, and the board supplies were dwindling.   Ryder looked to Kir, and nodded at him. Kir moved quickly to the nearest window, and was enlarged by Ryder. He then turned around, and braced his back against the boarded window, blocking it in its entirety. The wasps on the other side attempted to continue stabbing their way in, but Kir's thick armor repelled any damage they mightve done.   Next to them, a now empty handed Naro grabbed the remaining boards, and began rapidly patching holes in one of the two front windows.   "Well, we're outta boards, and there's a lot of bugs coming!" he called.   Ryder looked to the window in the corner of the room, which had just been busted open. He witnessed the first bug to crawl through be skewered by two arrows from Lisk. Ryder ran up and poked his head out the window, spying more bugs coming.   "Stand back from that window Ryder," called Lisk. "I'll take care of anything coming through."   As he said that, the window next to Naro was broken down.   Naro looked at it, annoyed. "OH GOOD." He looked around. "Anyone know how much longer till it's daylight?!" He thought about it to himself for a moment.   Lisk responded "I swear we have hours to go still... this aint looking good."   Naro nodded in agreement, it's what he thought too. Opal glanced between them. "I dunno y'all, I'm pretty sure it's almost day time..."   Suddenly, Kir was knocked forward a couple inches, as if being struck by something massive behind.   Eyes went wide for a moment, before relaxing slightly. However, everyone was on high alert from that moment.   Opal then turned to the open window beside Naro. "I gotcha! Lemme give you a lil hand here" she called, as she cast her aggressive thundercloud, and directed it out the window. Any insects in it's path were electrocuted, bursting into tiny balls of flame.   Ryder left the corner window and joined Naro at the main windows, next to Opal's thundercloud. Naro was ripping and tearing into the insects with fury, he and Markus working in perfect sync. Ryder pat Naro on the back, sending magic into him, enhancing him with haste. Naro nodded in appreciation before redoubling his efforts.   Three windows were broken open, and all the insects seem to be funneling in through them.   The corner window was covered by Lisk; any movement in its frame, and he'd let loose two arrows straight into it.   The large main window was covered by Naro and Opal. Naro tearing up bugs, and Opal firing lightning bolts into large masses of insects.   The side window was under control via Kir and Ryder.   And then something grabbed Kir, and ripped him backwards through the window, destroying the framework. Through the window, Kir could be seen, massive mandibles clamped around his waist. Connected to those mandibles was an enourmous, armored centipede; its bright red eyes shone with malice and hunger. It whipped Kir back and forth, holding the armored eidolon tight in its mouth.     "Oh shit" murmored Lisk. He popped his cloak's hood up, and melted into the background, becoming almost impossible to see. He moved backwards slightly, and began taking shots at the chain worm, sending acid arrows into it.   Ryder was calmer than most. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled "Kir! Hit it with your sword!"   Kir began slicing away at the face of the massive centipede, while it tried ferociously stabbing back. While the two giant beings were locked in battle, Naro and Opal finished up with the bugs near them. Opal ran back to stand beside the door, and directed her thundercloud over to the giant centipede. Naro sprinted up to the side of the beast, and slammed his fists down. The armor dented and cracked where he had hit.   The centipede held Kir aloft, high in the air. The metal plating along its back and sides shifted in place, and then began to vibrate very quickly. An incredibly loud, high pitched, metallic trilling sound radiated out of the insect. Everyone within 30' grit their teeth from the sound, but Lisk clapped his hands to his ears and fell to a knee, deafened. Naro quickly unloaded a flurry of attacks into the spot doused with Lisk's acid from earlier.   The chain worm dropped to the ground, dropping Kir.   Two chain worms rose up. It had been split in two, and both halves angrily seethed towards Kir again.   At that moment, Opal, who had been standing next to the exit door, heard a click. She turned, and found the exit door to be slightly ajar.   "I TOLD Y'ALL!" she yelled. "DOORS OPEN, lets gooOOOOOO"   Naro turned his attention away from the two chain worms and looked back at the witch and the open door. He glanced at Ryder, but Ryder was already sprinting back to Opal.   "It's okay!" Ryder called as he ran. "Dont worry about Kir, lets go!"   Naro abandoned the fight with the centipede, and followed after Ryder. Lisk, unnoticed, had just stood back up from the stunning sound from earlier. The now deaf ranger stepped to the side to let his two companions sprint by.   "Cowards." He thought to himself, unable to hear their calling. Lisk notched another two acid arrows, and sent them into centipedes.   "LISK!" the remainder of the party called. "Cmon man lets GO!"   Opal remembered how poisoned Lisk was, and tried to detect poison. However it only told her the small 5' square she was looking at did not have poison in it. "Well that aint gonna work" she mumbled.   Kir, outside, swung his greatsword and split another centipede into two smaller versions. The smaller the centipedes got, the weaker they were, and he continued making short work of them. Lisk was sending acid arrow after acid arrow out into them as well.   "Hang on" said Ryder, with sudden inspiration. He waved his hands, casting a spell; the area was suddenly coated in a fine glittery powder. "Glitter dust!" he called.   The glitter slowly drifted to the floor, revealing a Lisk-shaped object in the middle, firing.   Ryder jogged up and caught Lisk's shoulder. He gave it a shake, and pointed back at the door.   Lisk however, was high cursed and poisoned from the journey through the swamp. His brain was moving at half pace. Lisk looked at Ryder with confusion, and shrugged. He put another 2 acid arrows into the dwindling centipedes. Ryder groaned with frustration, and looked to Kir.   Kir took the hint, and started stomping the life out of every bug near him. The massive centipede had been reduced to just one insignificant quarter-centipede, and it soon met it's end.   Seeing the last centipede die, Lisk raised his arms in triumph. He turned around, and felt his smile falter as he saw Opal, Ryder, and Naro standing next to the open door.   "DID WE DO IT?" he asked, far too loudly.   The party waved him in, and they turned to walk up the stairs to the Fourth Floor.   Lisk was unable to hear their groans as they did so.