Re: Incarnation

As Racknar looked at the sorry state of the queen he noticed a few of the other razor locusts were shambling around like zombies as well. These weren't undead, they were rotting while still alive. Thanks to his experience with Creatures and Catacombs he recognized this as an illness from the game. “Locath’s blessing… this is bad. If this illness reaches outside the cave it'll decimate an entire area before anyone catches wind and sends clerics and paladins to cleanse the area. Hundreds, maybe even thousands will die.”

These weren't just nameless NPCs in a game, but actual living thinking people with lives and families that would suffer. Racknar’s mind spiraled for a bit as he considered the consequences if he failed to win here. Rek grunted before speaking. “Look like little choice. Queen must die here, must die now.” Racknar nodded. “Cover your mouth and any wounds really well with cloth. I don't have any potions of cure illness.” Rek pulled a few out of a bag he had and gestured to them. It wasn't enough for everyone, but it was better than nothing.

After taking a few breaths and mentally preparing himself Racknar led the group down the slope and into the queen's chamber proper. Once there stealth wasn't really an option so Racknar charged right at the queen ignoring her minions. “Now would be a good time to pull out all the stops, focus your efforts on the queen and only take out her minions when necessary.” Racknar’s commands were followed by the spider riding goblins without objection.

Rek pointed at a few spots before making his own command in goblin. Rough translation: “Scorch earth.” The flammable liquid jars they brought in were tossed at the queen and the area near her before a torch was lit and tossed causing the area to be lit up as the queen and part of the cave burst into flames. The queen and a number of her servants scream in pain from the attack as the queen orders her servants to kill the intruders.

Racknar aggressively points at the burning queen as he closes in before shouting at her in Mandiblese “I can not allow you to spread your illness outside this cave!” The queen looked shocked that this humanoid was talking in her language and responded in kind. “I have been blessed by Locath, praise be his name. I will spread his glory throughout the world. His power flows through me, you can not hope to kill me for I am anointed by Locath himself to spread his will throughout Mortalus.”

Racknar recognized that term as being the word for the plane of existence morals inhabit in Creatures and Catacombs. Although the plane had multiple worlds and settings in it. Now wasn't the time to focus on that. Arrows, spears, and javelins started raining down on the queen and a few of her minions as Racknar got into melee range and started slicing at her with the razer sickles he held in his four hands. He had to dodge back to avoid an acid spit attack from the queen getting some light splashing on his chest making small dot marks on his cloak and chest.

Rek issued another order in goblin as he blocked an attack from a minion only to strike back, killing it. “Keep the minions off as Rek and Rak’nar focus on queen.” He then joins Racknar in melee range. The other goblins use their spears to keep minions away and fire arrows at the queen whenever they have a clean shot. Racknar thought to himself about how he had to be careful. “I am not sure how much damage I can take. I am not sure what my stat block would look like if this were the game, considering as far as I can tell I would technically be a monster with at least one character level.”

Now was not the time for Racknar to be distracted thinking about game stats and mechanics, he was in the middle of his first boss fight and unlike in the game his life was on the line. Weaving in and out of melee range trying to avoid swipes and acid attacks from the queen while also making his own swipes. Rek didn't have to weave as much since he had the benefit of ranged with his spear and his shield could parry any melee attacks. The only time Rek had to disengage was when the queen aimed an acid attack at him.

Meanwhile, while Rek and Racknar are focused on fighting the queen, the rest of this raid party was keeping minions off of them. Hop leaped over the line of fire and razer locusts to be behind them relative to Achilles so the two could flank the royal guard locust they are currently engaged with. Using their tactical advantage the two spiders and their riders started jabbing the monster from both ends. Gertrude narrowly dodges some acid from an architect as her goblin fires an arrow at the queen.

Terrance and Natasha close in on the architect attacking Gurtrude so their riders can attack it with their spears. Bertha, Barnaby, and Reginald shoot webbing at some drones as their riders focus fire on the queen using poison tipped or flaming arrows, avoiding Rek and Racknar. The big fire on the queen had died down but she was looking like a half rotted pincushion with various small gashes in her body from the blades.

Racknar felt an amount of frustration, he knew this wasn't going to be an easy fight but it was taking everything he had to keep up this stalemate. They have definitely done more damage to the enemies than the enemies have done to them but a razer locust queen isn't something you'd throw at a low level party. Racknar found himself quickly doing some math in his head as he did his best to dodge and fight.

“In Creatures and Catacombs, a Razer Locust Queen was CR 8. This meant it was intended to be a difficult challenge for a party of five level 8 adventurers. High strength and constitution scores but its other stats were lacking. With a health pool in the hundred and thirties assuming it's healthy. Late stage Locath's Blessing reduces that so if I assume it has one hundred health points… the fire attack lasted about twenty seconds after it hit… one D two from the jar, three D six when it exploded, one D six per round lasting three or four rounds for an average total of twenty one damage over four rounds.

Racknar swipes at the queen for four more attacks with his sickles but only lands two of them as Rek gets a solid stab with his spear. Racknar continued to run numbers in his head. “Each arrow is one D six and the goblins hit it at least a dozen times. Thirty six average for a total of fifty one. Assuming all the arrows that weren't on fire were poisonous and did average damage that's another ten because of resistance. Sixty one. I've hit it six times and Rek got it three times.”

Racknar has to disengage to avoid a poison breath attack from the queen that interrupts his thought flow for a second. “Wait, poison breath? That's not normally something this enemy type can do. Wait… Locath's Blessing, right.” Rek, who also had to back off, tosses a dagger at it but it bounces off a thick part of chitin on the queen's body. “Don't breathe in that gas, it's not just poisonous but infectious.” Racknar warned as he returned to doing math in his head.

“Assuming average damage, using the normal goblin and young black iron stat blocks… forty five for a total of one hundred and five. That means assuming we did average damage it should be almost dead since Locath's Blessing reduces max health. Even if it didn't reduce its max health it would be at thirty heath. Wait… shit… Locath's Blessing gives poison and necrotic resistance meaning I wouldn't get that one extra damage assuming an average roll. Ninety five.”

Racknar felt confident that this monster should be below half of its heath meaning it should be bloodied. However if that were the case the monster should have entered a frenzy and changed its fighting tactics and patterns. “Something is wrong, be on your guard. It's hard to physically tell how damaged this thing is because it already looked half dead when we started but it should have changed how it fights by now.”

More minions enter the cave forcing the other spiders and goblins to focus on them. Though the goblins don't fire arrows at the queen for now the spiders still maneuver to find them good placement on the minions to make as quick work of them as possible. The team that Hop and Achilles are in kill the royal guard they were fighting and move to take on a drone. Gurtrude, Terrence, and Natasha’s team kill the architect they were fighting only to have three drones to deal with. Bertha, Barnaby, and Reginald move in to attack the restrained minions they set up earlier.

The razer locust queen roars at the group before clicking its mandibles to communicate once more. “What's with that look in your eyes? Did you expect this to be easy? Did you expect me to already be dead or close to it because of my appearance?” She makes a sound resembling laughter. “Such ignorance, such impotence. Did you really think that I, Karriona, chosen champion of Locath would go down like one of the common rabble that call themselves Locust Queens?! I will watch with glee when your corpse is riddled with maggots and mycelium. By my claw you will be met with Locath's embrace. Necros may take your soul, but your body belongs to Locath.”

“Crap, she's a named monster. If her statement of being the chosen champion of a god is true that makes her either a paladin, cleric, or warlock. Giving her class levels and potentially increasing her health as well as any bonuses that might come with being named. It is common in Creatures and Catacombs to have a monster with a name, normally with dragons. When that happens the monster has small buffs on top of the normal block. Enhanced stats, health, AC. There is no way of knowing her exact numbers because every named creature is unique by its nature.” Racknar was a bit worried but had already passed the point of no return.

The queen swiped at both Rek and Racknar, catching Rek on the left shoulder and a cut across Racknar’s abdomen causing him some pain. She then tried to spit acid at them both but the two were able to dodge out of the way of that attack completely. “Just die already! You have no hope of winning so don't bother struggling.” Rek rushes back in with his spear and hand at it three times in quick succession hitting with all three. Racknar then comes at her from the side and slashes with all four sickles hitting the queen with two of them. “One hundred and eleven” he thinks to himself.

After that attack the queen lets out a loud roar before spitting acid in a focused stream like an acid breath attack. This hits all of Racknar’s allies as well as most of the minions. Several of the minions die and Racknar and his allies look like they are in rough shape. The queen then swipes four times wildly with her scythe arms but only manages to kill a few of her own minions in the attack. “Okay, she's definitely bloodied now. That puts her total at most two twenty two.” Racknar felt confident in his thought at this point. “Unfortunately I'm probably below half and so is the rest of my group”

The spiders and their riders are now free and clear to attack the queen so burning arrows fly at her. Out of the twelve arrows only four hit. Then Rek goes in for another triple stab only this time he hits chitin and doesn't get any damage in. Racknar makes four more slashes but this time is only able to get shallow cuts that probably didn't do anything as his sickles break on impact due to being partly melted from acid. “One thirty five”

The queen shouts “I have had enough of you, I shall smite you in the name of Locath!” One of her scythe claws glows a sickly green and swipes down, skewering one of the nameless spiders and its rider, the cut showing signs of necrosis. The queen then moved the kills to her mouth and hungrily devoured them with disgusting crunchy sounds before making a contented hum.

Racknar pulls the two handed great swords off his back and comes at the queen hard slamming both into her and getting one solid hit with both. “One fifty seven” Racknar was still trying to keep track of how much damage would have been dealt on average across all the attacks despite how angry he now was. Rek once again moved in for his third triple attack, hitting twice. “As a goblin chief he's got three triple attacks per day and that was his last use. One sixty seven. Maybe I shouldn't be using Creatures and Catacombs for reference but it's helping me focus through the pain and anger.”

The surviving minions close in and engage half of the remaining eleven pairs of spiders so only five of the goblins can fire their flaming arrows and all five hit. “one ninety seven.” The queen then does an acid breath that incapacitates two more of the spider pairs leaving nine pairs plus Racknar and Rek. Rek huffs as he makes a strike but it deflects, the queen swipes a glowing claw at Rek who blocks it. However, when the scythe impacts the shield there is a loud crack before Rek is sent flying back and hits the floor, he can hardly get up after the attack but is still alive.

Racknar lets out his own roar before jumping up at the queen's head. “I won't let you threaten my family, I won't let you hurt my friends, and I. Will. Not! Let you spread your vile infection!” As Racknar aims his swords at the mouth of the queen. She tries to spit acid and although it melts the sword and burns his hands he shoves what's left in her mouth causing her to choke a bit. Racknar then pulls his heavily burned hands out of the queen's mouth and starts punching at her face while screaming. “Two zero three! Two zero nine! Two one five! Two eleven! Two seventeen!”

The queen slashes back at him multiple times, she even manages to cut Racknar’s lower right arm off followed by the upper right. Despite this he continued to punch the queen while shouting. “Two twenty three! Two hundred and twenty nine!” He then takes his hand and shoves it deep into her decrepit eye socket while screaming. “Just fucking die already!” As he flails his burned up hand inside her skull and her body goes limp before hitting the floor with a thud.

Racknar breathes heavily as he wobbles over to the unconscious allies and does his best to help stabilize them so they don't die before walking his way over to Rek. “You okay down there little buddy?” Racknar tried his best to have a teasing tone but he was just too tired. “Rek not bleeding out, Rek still awake, aware, just unfit to fight. Rek think arms broken.” The goblin chief grunted in pain as he shifted slightly. “Yeah, no. I heard those arms break from like ten feet away. You wouldn't happen to have brought healing potions did you?”

Rek drew in breath through his teeth. “Rek has few, few antidotes and cure illness ones too.” Racknar grabbed Rek’s bag and pulled out some potions that were all labeled in common. “What kind of material are these bottles made of? Glass would have definitely shattered.” Racknar than helped Rek and the others drink potions to heal and recover enough to leave. None of the minions are moving anymore so Racknar takes a sickle arm from a dead drone and starts killing any infected locusts still alive.

After a bit Rek gets up and clenches his hands a few times before aiding Racknar in killing infected locusts. “No thing as too safe, tis what Rek say.” Racknar let out a grunt as he nodded. “Locath's Blessing is definitely a nasty illness. Makes the infected go crazy. You should have heard the shit that the queen was saying.” Racknar then takes on a shrill voice. “I, Karriona, the chosen champion of Locath, shall smite you. Your corpses will be used to help spread his glory.”

Rek chuckled. “Rek wasn't sure if all that clack was her talking smack or not. Rek no understand bug talk.” Racknar also chuckled. “Let's grab whatever we can find that's useful and get the hell out of here.” With the help of the other goblins the two start packing up the corpses of the non infected locusts. “Rek sorry about Rak’nar new swords.” The goblin says as he loads up the spiders. “Nah, it's fine.” Racknar takes a chunk of the queen’s scythe arm that had yet to start rotting as proof of his success.

Rek grumbled as he finished packing things up. “Rek also sorry about arms. Swords can be replaced, but arms… Rak’nar cripple for life now.” Racknar looked over to Rek as he also finished securing his packed load and tilted his head. “Black iron spiders, like some other types of spiders, can regrow limbs as long as they have a molt cycle. Since I am still young, I've got plenty of growth left.” The group started heading out of the cave and were able to use the bridge to leave much faster than it took them to get there. “Oh” Rek said simply as they started walking.

Once out of the cave the group headed to the goblin village to drop off Rek's share of the loot as well as pick up the wounded spiders that left the party early on that had a chance to heal up thanks to having a chance to eat and rest. Racknar and his spiders get some sleep at the goblin camp, while doing so Racknar eats what must have been three times his own weight, after which he sends all the nameless spiders home with some stuff for making traps later with any locusts parts worth money being loaded up on named spiders. “I'll be turning in the quest and getting my money. Maybe I'll see you around Rek. Good luck.” Rek nods and shakes Racknar's burned hand. “Rek wish luck to Rak’nar as well.”

With goodbyes said, Racknar takes his loot into town with the help of his named siblings. As he approaches the towm a guard stops him. “Look man, I'm not going to ask any questions about the six spiders you have carrying corpses. I've seen plenty of strange things from adventurers. I can't let you take them into the town though. They'll have to wait out here at the stables with the horses. Just make sure they don't eat the horses.”

Racknar pats Hop on her head as he leans down and talks to her in Mandiblese. “Behave, and don't eat the horses or any people.” He then leads them to the stables before grabbing some of the chitin armor from several of the locusts. “You can eat these since I already got what I need from them.” He then slings the net full of natural armor over his shoulder, grabs the queen's scythe, and makes his way to the bar and inn to turn in the quest.

Once at the counter, Racknar places the scythe and the quest form from the board onto the counter in front of the barman. He looks at it, and raises an eyebrow before grabbing the paper and putting a stamp on it. The stamp on the paper reads” “certified complete. reward voucher.” In a circle around a logo for the adventurers guild.

The barman then hands him back the paper. “You'll have to take this to a guild hub in a city, I don't have the coin on hand to pay a reward of this size.” Racknar nods and grabs the paper. “Where is the nearest-” the barman cuts Racknar off. “There's a map of the town there, the blacksmith location is included.”

Racknar nods again. “Many thanks.” and starts looking at the map when a group of five adventurers with solid looking equipment start verbally complaining while looking at the local quest board. “Ah damn, looks like someone else got to the one good quest in this backwater town completed already.” A man in silver colored armor with a sword and shield complained. A companion with high quality leather armor with a bow and arrows responds to him “Let’s just go to Flowers, the guild hub there has all the best quests and it's only a few weeks by carriage.”

Racknar, hearing this, walks over to them. “Excuse me, but if you are going to Flowers by carriage, would it be alright if I tagged along. I need to go to a guild hub to turn this in.” Racknar holds out the certificate of completion. The guy in the armor looks it over and the scythe that Racknar is holding before he responds. “Sure, I'll buy that razer locust queen scythe from you at a discount to cover your travel fee.”

Racknar nods and hands it over, getting five gold in return. He then goes to the blacksmith with the chitin and gets another twenty gold for the lot of it. After that is finished he follows the party to the stables where he tells his spider siblings to wait for him at the cave and gets into the carriage with them. Sitting in the back with everyone but the ranger and what Racknar assumes to be a mage of some sort who are sitting in the coach. Racknar bundles up under a blanket behind some boxes, and finally goes to sleep for the first time since the dungeon.