As the first rays of light filtered through the towering trees, the small
group gathered around the fire for a quick meal, before following Minsc
deeper into a part of the forest that seemed unwilling to let go of their
shadows, just because some yellow ball climbed into the sky…
Unfortunately, a group could not work as a lone ranger might, especially seeing as they were unable to memorize enough invisibility spells to make it worth the effort…
A ways in along a well-trodden path, they came across a bunch of giant spiders that definitely had no love for adventurers.
That two of them could teleport, didn't help matters either…
Ordering Aerie to stay where she was, Negrath drew his katanas, centered his mind, and led on into the buzzing leg-creatures, in passing noticing that Minsc evidently had no problem striking down these overgrown crypt- crawlers.
Behind him, Jaheira instructed Viconia to tell the others to get the hell out of there once she were about to finish her Entangle, and started chanting.
Familiar with the spell's time of preparation, Viconia kept her eye on whatever six-legged monstrosity were closest to her hammers, waiting until the absolute last moment before dropping a hammer to grab Negrath's shoulder with the freed hand, and pulling him backwards as she called to Minsc to retreat.
As Negrath moved past her, and Minsc withdrew, she bent down, and in a flash were back up, swinging both hammers like they were bamboo-sticks, as the misfortune she had begun to take some pride in relying on, made sure she was among the victims of the rapidly growing vines suddenly erupting from the ground, grabbing every creature in the vicinity, save for a few that made it through to the others.
Thanking Shar for her fortune, she happily dealt blows to two fellow prisoners that had been "grabbed" less than an arms length from her, a pair of beasts, that despite their size and aggressiveness, no longer had the option of withdrawing from her attacks.
That she couldn't avoid their attacks either, didn't bother her in the least…
Feeling her motions increase in velocity, she spared a glance and a maliciously joyful smile back at the avariel;
-"Thank you!"
Soon, her two opponents had had enough, and turned as much as they could in their green prison, intending to run away, unaware of the fact that they could not do so.
Wrinkling her nose at them, she gave each a final strike with the hammers, before calling in Minsc's general direction;
-"These are hamsterfood. Give me more!"
Looking back, she found that the two teleporters had cheated(as were to be expected), and were now going at her friends from the other side.
Gesturing at Aerie as the avariel moved to take up the new "safe" spot by Viconia, she tore at the suddenly oppressive vines surrounding and imprisoning her;
-"Get me out of here! My hammers are still thirsty!"
As the elven mage entered the motions of Remove Magic, Viconia locked eyes with one of the two free spiders, replacing a hammer in her belt, and preparing a Harm-spell with the free hand.
As the restrictive magic let go, the vines, without a force to keep them up, fell slack to the ground around both Viconia and the lone spider that had been out of her reach.
Slapping it with her Harm as it snickered over to Aerie, the Drow showed the mage over to her safe side, and instructed her to stay put.
Dealing the still chittering arachnid a swing of her re-acquired hammer, she lifted both weapons over her head, charging at the blinker that apparently had singled her out as well…
As some survival instinct within it triggered the teleport ability, two very heavy, very magical hammers smashed through its head, impaling it in the ground, eyes a horrid mess of fluids and flesh.
A moment later, it's body popped into existence next to Minsc, staggered a few steps, before falling under the weight of a ferocious hamster…
Spinning on her heal, Viconia remembered that Aerie had foregone memorizing her Magic Missile the previous evening, seeing as they were supposed to do this with as little opposition as possible.
Seeing how the other elf made no move to get out of the overgrown insects way, Viconia could only assume she had been tossing spells before helping the Drow warrior.
Calling to her goddess, she literally shot forward, fully intending to bite the creature to death, should her hammers prove inefficient, tossing a curse at the creature as she spat;
-"Whatever she may fall to, YOUR kin shall NOT cause it!!!"
Turning on it's many long legs, it met her charge by lifting it's stinging forelegs, a gesture of a creature that knew it would die, and fully intended to do as much damage as possible in the process.
Swinging at the raised talons with one hammer, Viconia brought the other down squarely on top of it's head.
Jumping out of reach as the creature retaliated, she could only assume that this one had a stronger shell…
Biting her tongue to stop an instinctive call for the groups resident berserker, she set to work disabling the despicable opponent, one leg at the time…
As the other blinker bit the dust, the groups other fighters turned toward were they had last seen the Drow…and found her sternly instructing Aerie to touch the back of the legless spider at the Drow's feet.
-"How can you fit in this group when you shrink from a harmless spider shell?" the dark-skinned female asked, kneeling to pound a crack in the solid cover, before driving both hands into it to the elbow, and pulling them out, holding unidentifiable pieces of spider innards in her hands, small rivers of green poison running down her arms;
-"See?
The shell is nothing. It's what's inside," she squeezed whatever it was she held into pure fluid, creating an oddly artistic image, green, blue and red mixing with her utterly dark skin. "that matters." She finished, lifting one of the hammers at her side, and smashing it through the thoroughly softened head with a one-handed, overhead swing, killing it at last.
Looking at the Drow for long moments, the slightly distant group slightly stunned, and unwilling to disturb the scene just yet, Aerie smiled with a joy that didn't fit the lecture at all;
-"I know what you're trying to tell me Viconia, and I thank you. Only you would use a giant spider carcass to prove your point…thank you."
-"Giant?" queried the Drow, looking critically down at the ruptured beetle- shape at her feet, before becoming aware that the rest of the group had grown silent in their battle.
Turning, she saw them look back at her with slightly confused, yet smiling faces.
-"What are you looking at?" she queried angrily, pulling her hammer loose from the dead no-leg;
-"Weren't we supposed to help take care of some mismanaged grove!?!"
-" That we were," smiled Negrath, as the rest went to work cleaning their weapons and armor, treating injuries and removing whatever trace of poison that might have gotten into them.
Jaheira looked quizzically at Viconia's poison and blood-streaked arms before turning to check on Minsc, as she saw the Drow, fully capable of cleaning her own system should the need arise, simply wipe it off with a corner of her cloak…that soon turned to smoking dust…
Unfortunately, a group could not work as a lone ranger might, especially seeing as they were unable to memorize enough invisibility spells to make it worth the effort…
A ways in along a well-trodden path, they came across a bunch of giant spiders that definitely had no love for adventurers.
That two of them could teleport, didn't help matters either…
Ordering Aerie to stay where she was, Negrath drew his katanas, centered his mind, and led on into the buzzing leg-creatures, in passing noticing that Minsc evidently had no problem striking down these overgrown crypt- crawlers.
Behind him, Jaheira instructed Viconia to tell the others to get the hell out of there once she were about to finish her Entangle, and started chanting.
Familiar with the spell's time of preparation, Viconia kept her eye on whatever six-legged monstrosity were closest to her hammers, waiting until the absolute last moment before dropping a hammer to grab Negrath's shoulder with the freed hand, and pulling him backwards as she called to Minsc to retreat.
As Negrath moved past her, and Minsc withdrew, she bent down, and in a flash were back up, swinging both hammers like they were bamboo-sticks, as the misfortune she had begun to take some pride in relying on, made sure she was among the victims of the rapidly growing vines suddenly erupting from the ground, grabbing every creature in the vicinity, save for a few that made it through to the others.
Thanking Shar for her fortune, she happily dealt blows to two fellow prisoners that had been "grabbed" less than an arms length from her, a pair of beasts, that despite their size and aggressiveness, no longer had the option of withdrawing from her attacks.
That she couldn't avoid their attacks either, didn't bother her in the least…
Feeling her motions increase in velocity, she spared a glance and a maliciously joyful smile back at the avariel;
-"Thank you!"
Soon, her two opponents had had enough, and turned as much as they could in their green prison, intending to run away, unaware of the fact that they could not do so.
Wrinkling her nose at them, she gave each a final strike with the hammers, before calling in Minsc's general direction;
-"These are hamsterfood. Give me more!"
Looking back, she found that the two teleporters had cheated(as were to be expected), and were now going at her friends from the other side.
Gesturing at Aerie as the avariel moved to take up the new "safe" spot by Viconia, she tore at the suddenly oppressive vines surrounding and imprisoning her;
-"Get me out of here! My hammers are still thirsty!"
As the elven mage entered the motions of Remove Magic, Viconia locked eyes with one of the two free spiders, replacing a hammer in her belt, and preparing a Harm-spell with the free hand.
As the restrictive magic let go, the vines, without a force to keep them up, fell slack to the ground around both Viconia and the lone spider that had been out of her reach.
Slapping it with her Harm as it snickered over to Aerie, the Drow showed the mage over to her safe side, and instructed her to stay put.
Dealing the still chittering arachnid a swing of her re-acquired hammer, she lifted both weapons over her head, charging at the blinker that apparently had singled her out as well…
As some survival instinct within it triggered the teleport ability, two very heavy, very magical hammers smashed through its head, impaling it in the ground, eyes a horrid mess of fluids and flesh.
A moment later, it's body popped into existence next to Minsc, staggered a few steps, before falling under the weight of a ferocious hamster…
Spinning on her heal, Viconia remembered that Aerie had foregone memorizing her Magic Missile the previous evening, seeing as they were supposed to do this with as little opposition as possible.
Seeing how the other elf made no move to get out of the overgrown insects way, Viconia could only assume she had been tossing spells before helping the Drow warrior.
Calling to her goddess, she literally shot forward, fully intending to bite the creature to death, should her hammers prove inefficient, tossing a curse at the creature as she spat;
-"Whatever she may fall to, YOUR kin shall NOT cause it!!!"
Turning on it's many long legs, it met her charge by lifting it's stinging forelegs, a gesture of a creature that knew it would die, and fully intended to do as much damage as possible in the process.
Swinging at the raised talons with one hammer, Viconia brought the other down squarely on top of it's head.
Jumping out of reach as the creature retaliated, she could only assume that this one had a stronger shell…
Biting her tongue to stop an instinctive call for the groups resident berserker, she set to work disabling the despicable opponent, one leg at the time…
As the other blinker bit the dust, the groups other fighters turned toward were they had last seen the Drow…and found her sternly instructing Aerie to touch the back of the legless spider at the Drow's feet.
-"How can you fit in this group when you shrink from a harmless spider shell?" the dark-skinned female asked, kneeling to pound a crack in the solid cover, before driving both hands into it to the elbow, and pulling them out, holding unidentifiable pieces of spider innards in her hands, small rivers of green poison running down her arms;
-"See?
The shell is nothing. It's what's inside," she squeezed whatever it was she held into pure fluid, creating an oddly artistic image, green, blue and red mixing with her utterly dark skin. "that matters." She finished, lifting one of the hammers at her side, and smashing it through the thoroughly softened head with a one-handed, overhead swing, killing it at last.
Looking at the Drow for long moments, the slightly distant group slightly stunned, and unwilling to disturb the scene just yet, Aerie smiled with a joy that didn't fit the lecture at all;
-"I know what you're trying to tell me Viconia, and I thank you. Only you would use a giant spider carcass to prove your point…thank you."
-"Giant?" queried the Drow, looking critically down at the ruptured beetle- shape at her feet, before becoming aware that the rest of the group had grown silent in their battle.
Turning, she saw them look back at her with slightly confused, yet smiling faces.
-"What are you looking at?" she queried angrily, pulling her hammer loose from the dead no-leg;
-"Weren't we supposed to help take care of some mismanaged grove!?!"
-" That we were," smiled Negrath, as the rest went to work cleaning their weapons and armor, treating injuries and removing whatever trace of poison that might have gotten into them.
Jaheira looked quizzically at Viconia's poison and blood-streaked arms before turning to check on Minsc, as she saw the Drow, fully capable of cleaning her own system should the need arise, simply wipe it off with a corner of her cloak…that soon turned to smoking dust…
