Re: A Whole New World: Chasing Worms

Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:34 pm

A Whole New World: Chasing Worms - Page 2 Dwarf_24

Erlanger's little robot rolls over to the worm. It reaches its tiny arm out and relays the jolt of electricity it's been carrying over to the creature. A tiny stream of smoke snakes up from the point of contact. Dwarvenbanger, in the meantime, sings as out of tune as he possibly can. What's visible to the others, but not to the dwarf hiding behind the house, is the worm shaking its head for a moment.

As the Darann swings his hammer once more, it just bounces off of the animal's scales.

Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:11 pm

Still hearing the sounds of battle from the other side of the house, and with nothing much else to do, Gunderson keeps whistling his dissonant tune.

Dissonant Whispers for 3 damage

Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:26 pm

Erlanger runs over to Thrazar and, without saying anything, tries to grab the weapon from his hand. Unsuccessful against the stronger dwarf, Erlanger says,

I'll enchant your weapon, give it!

Erlanger takes the weapon and pushes energy into the greataxe. Blueish white streaks of energy pulse from the weapon and he hands it back to Thrazar.

Good luck killing this thing!

He turns to Darann and says,

you're next, give me your weapon!

In game mechanics:
Erlanger did an infusion called Enhanced Weapon.

Item: A simple or martial weapon
This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it.

Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:20 am

Darann thinks he has spotted a corner of a metal plate that looks a little loose and is focusing all his attacks on it.
With the magical sparks flying now flying around with each hit of the hammer it seems like a small dent is forming on the surface of the metal worm.

I ... humpf... THINK .... humpf .... WE'RE GETTING ... humpf ... THROUGH ... humpf

Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:06 am

Thrazar yells for someone to enchant his weapon, as it's clearly not doing anything as is. With a tongue faster than his brain, Darann yells back to just hit it harder. He quickly realizes Thrazar has a point, however, and waits til someone can enchant his weapon to, before rushing back into the fray. Erlanger heeds the call. He first tries to get the greataxe out of Thrazar's hands. Getting a raging barbarian's weapon out of his hands would be a feat on its own, so he quickly lets go and just lays his hands on the weapon, instead, then does the same to Darann's hammer. Blueish white streaks of energy pulses from the weapons. Darann swings his mighty maul and smashes quite the dent into one of the scales.

The worm itself gets dazed for a fraction of a second as Dwarvenbanger keeps sending out-of-tune songs into its mind, before it swings around and gobbles up two more soldiers. This time. As it does so, some of the dents and scratches seem to disappear.

Captain Boulderbeard runs up to the remaining few soldiers, which huddle up to all get their weapons blessed. With despair in their eyes, and their weapons now glowing, they send off another barrage of attacks onto the vile villain, denting and scratching its hide once more.

Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:20 pm

Drannar clenches his buttcheeks seeing several dwarves getting gobbled up, but his resolve holds.
Being focused more on defense then offense however, his next hammer swing goes wide.

Sun Oct 17, 2021 5:59 pm

Thrazar takes Dannar's advice to heart, puts some extra muscle into his swing and takes another hack at the giant mechanical worm.

Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:49 pm

Clenching his buttcheeks, Darann swings his mighty maul. After having seen so many soldiers getting gobbled up, he doesn't dare get close enough to actually hit the monstrosity and swings wide.

Dwarvenbanger's off-key melody with an utter lack of rhythm bothers the musical sense of even this machine, as the worm squirms for a moment, trying to shake the abominable audio out of his mind.

Heeding Darann's advice, Thrazar puts his shoulder more into his swings, twisting more weight behind each attack. He slashes twice, cross-shape across the vile creature's abdomen, cutting through most of the metal hide, actually causing some oil to seep out.

The sinuous adversary rears his head once more before darting towards two more soldiers, consuming them with skin and hair.

Captain Boulderbeard, standing right next to the creature's head, grabs the opportunity. He places the tip of his sword against the worm's cranium while muttering a quick prayer. A lightblue bolt snakes from his hand, across his sword, to the point where it touches the creature. It shoots out the other side. Wisps of black smoke twirl up from behind several scales while the creature turns to face the captain.

In the meantime, Erlanger aims his gun and shoots. The bullet ploinks off of the thick metal plate.

Several of the worm's scratches and dents seem to disappear once more. Alot still remain, along with the oil seeping and black smoke.

Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:55 am

As the worm turns away from him to face Captain Boulderbeard. The frightened Darann suddenly has a flashback to his childhood.

Little 12y old Darann is sitting on the floor in the kitchen of his house. He is sobbing. His knee is scraped and he has some bruises. Little Darann has just gotten into a fight with 3 other kids from his class and has run away back home. Also in the Kitchen is his older brother Dorann. He is tending to his wounds with a strict look on his face. Dorann says "It's only some scrapes little brother, you will be fine. " He then sighs and looks Darann straight in the eye "I'm disappointed in you Darann. There is no shame in losing a fight but you ran away. We are dwarves! We are Flashearts! We do not run, we fight!".

Darann comes back to his senses with a feeling of shame washing over him. He sees the worm turning it's back to him to assault Captain Boulderbeard. Clearly it thinks of Boulderbeard as a bigger threat at this point.
Darann screams and drops his shield. He charges the worm and jumps. Using the fresh cuts with oil spilling out of them as holds, Darann begins climbing up the worm towards it's head.

Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:28 pm

Swinging his mighty greataxe, Thrazar cleaves another chunk out of the worm's plating. In the meantime, Dwarvenbanger spews forth a stream of vicious insults at the worm's mother's address. The worm, having no ears or hearing, has no clue that's happening. Darann, in his heavy armor, clammers up the worm's back, scaling it by using its... scales.

The worm, blissfully unaware of the dwarf on his head, rears and chomps down on the last soldier remaining, quickly followed by chomping up captain Boulderbeard. The latter, however, sticks his sword up the roof of the worm's mouth, hanging tightly onto it as he mutters another prayer. Once again, lightning circles his sword as it shocks the worm. He's precariously hanging onto his sword at the moment.

Erlanger quickly summons up a vial of acid, from which he sprays a toxic stream towards the terrifying tendril. It splashes all over the worm, seeping into the wounds, melting away whatever is behind there. Some of those wounds start healing up again, however, but with the acid behind them.

Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:49 pm

Sensing that his latest volley of insults had no affect on the worm, Gundersoon peeks around the corner of the house to see how things are going. They are not going well. Gunderson sees a distinct lack of guards, where before there had been guards. He also sees Darann... climbing the worm???

Knowing that he won't be able to dissuade Darann from this course of action, he instead shouts some feeble words of encouragement. "Good thinking, Darann! You can do it!" he calls out from behind the minor safety of the wall of the house.

Reasoning that the worm did not seem to hear his taunts, but did seem affected by his dissonant tune, Gunderson points a finger in the worm's direction and sends a message bypassing its ears and directly to its brain.

"What do you think you are doing??? This is your mother, do you hear me??? Put down that dwarf, and go to your room!"

Wed Oct 27, 2021 1:32 pm

Darann has made it all the way to the worm's head. The worm swings its head towards the ground and Darann hangs on for dear life as he watches the worm gobble up another dwarf and then close its jaws around captain Boulderbeard himself.
With wide open eyes, Darann watches as Boulderbeard keeps fighting from inside the beast's gaping maw and he decides to try and help the captain out. He lunges towards the captain and grabs him by the belt. Using all his might he pulls in an attempt to free the captain from the creatures mouth.

Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:13 pm

Thrazar sees his attacks are having some effect. Doing what he does best, he takes another swing at the creature's body.

Wed Nov 03, 2021 12:53 pm

Getting slightly overconfident, Thrazar swings his axe wide and only grazes the worm. Gunderson, in the meantime, pops his head from behind the house and yells words of encouragement to Darann, showing him a clear thumbs up! After having accomplished this incredible feat, he continues to insult the worm's mother, which not even falls onto deaf ears.

When Darann sees captain Boulderbeard hanging on for dear life, he dashes forward, throwing himself off the head of the worm. One hand grabs onto the edge of a scale as he swings into the gaping maw. His other hand grabs Boulderbeard by the belt and, with the dash and swing's momentum, along with a sheer sign of pure, raw strength, he heaves both the captain and himself back onto the worm's head.

Suddenly, a cloud of dust obscures the colossus as a loud thud can be heard. As the dust settles, Darann stands proudly on top of the worm, Boulderbeard next to him, inspecting the creature. A mixture of acid and oil is leaking from several spots of the now motionless monstrosity.

Wed Nov 03, 2021 9:57 pm

Darann says

Quick, maybe it's not too late!

He looks around him and spots a spear dropped on the ground by one of the guards.
Darann then jams the spear in the worm's mouth and pries it open, hoping to find any survivors

Thu Nov 04, 2021 2:10 am

Hearing the mighty thud of the worm falling to the ground, Gunderson finds his courage and leaves the relative safety of the wall, making his way towards the worm.

Fri Nov 05, 2021 3:30 pm

Peeking from behind the wall, Gunderson sees Darann break open the fiersome foe's foul mouth and makes his way towards the rest. Darann discovers the throat of the worm is several layers of spiked rolls, shredding anything that goes through. There's no hope for any survivors, but some guts can still be found on a spike or two.

As captain Boulderbeard finishes his quick inspection, he calls everyone over.

A Whole New World: Chasing Worms - Page 2 Dwarf_22

Captain Boulderbeard

"Moradin's mead can't taste as sweet as this victory! We lost a few good men, but the village and the rest of the world is safe for now!"

He puts his hand on Darann's shoulder.

"I would have been one of those few good men if it weren't for you, laddie! If you ever visit Farnâdehar, find good ol' Brokkr. I'll send him word about what you did."

The old dwarf turns back to the rest of the group.

"This worm isn't a normal thing coming out of the mountain. We should get to the bottom of this. Long ago, during my adventuring days, I roamed the country along with a fellow called Vitr Fireglow. He's always been very knowledgeable. If anyone can shed some light on what this worm is about, it has to be him."

Captain Boulderbeard frowns, trying hard to remember something.

"I'm afraid I don't know where little Fireglow may be now. Last I know, he was living in Kitin Manar. It's been so long ago, mind you, but that may be a good place to look for him."

Boulderbeard turns to the worm and sighs.

"I shall have to inform the families of these young lads. They were good boys, they were. Good boys, and great in goblin raids, but no real war experience. It's a shame they had to go this way."

Sun Nov 07, 2021 9:04 pm

Darann reaches into the worms mouth with his crowbar and picks up one of the pieces of guts. He holds it in the air and stares at it for a while.

Aye ... we must get to the bottom of this ... someone will need to answer for the death of all these good dwarves

Darann turns towards the captain. Slowly and very well articulated, as if asking him an extremely important question, he says.

Did you see an Orc around here?

Mon Nov 08, 2021 4:22 pm

Kitin Manar? We must go there with haste and ask around for information on this Vitr Fireglow. But first…

Erlanger turns to the mouth of the worm, sees Darann digging around in the guts and shakes his head. He then says a prayer to Tyr in honor of his fallen brothers. Finally, he uses his tools to open the worm and remove parts to make his next homunculus.

Tue Nov 09, 2021 2:47 am

Gunderson reaches into his pack and pulls out what appears to be an arm bracer made for a child. He holds it out in front of him, offering it to Boulderdeard.
"Would you mind signing this for me? It's the beard bracer jewelery thing that I wore when I played you in Zarum Biriz."
He looks up at the ones currently adorning Boulderdeard's beard.
"I could sign one of yours for you as well, if you would like."
After Boulderdeard responds to the signature swap proposal, Gunderson adds, "It looks like I'm heading with these three to Kitin Manar and will not be able to continue my starring performance in Ghouls and Dwarves. Can you please get a message to Sazmud Metalbraids that he will have to continue taking my role for the remainder of the season?"

Wed Nov 10, 2021 2:53 pm

Captain Boulderbeard

The old dwarf gets out a dagger and loads it up with another jolt of lightning, quickly sending it towards Dwarvenbanger's bracer. Using the white-hot tip of his dagger, he signs his name with a flourish onto the bracer. He hands it back to the bard and looks over at Darann, one eyebrow raised.

"I haven't seen any orcs near here for about a decade now. Sure, they sometimes send some goblins, kobolds or other minor nuances to scout, but an actual orc this close? Why would you even think one would wander this close?"

Wed Nov 10, 2021 9:40 pm

Darann makes a dismissive gesture

... never mind ... it's just a theory I'm working on.

Thu Nov 11, 2021 4:48 pm

Gunderson puts his autographed costume beard bracer back in his pack.

Hurt that Boulderbeard didn't ask Gunderson for his autograph in return, Gunderson quickly rearranges his perception of reality. Boulderbeard must not have heard his offer of an autograph exchange.

Gunderson fishes in his pack for a moment and withdraws an old playbill from his Zarum Biriz production, and a quill. With a flourish, he signs the playbill and offers it to Boulderbeard.

Thu Nov 11, 2021 4:57 pm

Darann notices Gunderson messing about and offering something to Boulderbeard.

Oi, what's that Gunnie?

Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:12 pm

"It's an autographed playbill from my starring lead performance as Captain Boulderbeard! I am sure that Captain Boulderbeard would be honored to have such a memento!"

20 Charisma roll to influence Boulderbeard to feel like he should want my autograph, or at least pretend to