Kicking the Ankheg Hill

Travel to Sceap was mostly uneventful.  They stayed at The Hippogryph's Wing in Cliffgate, for 8s/night each; then started the long walk to Three Rivers.  Mia challenged Ondar to a rude song contest as they walked, which did not go well, as Mia started it and then messed up all the rhyming.

Osric took a stab at it, and did surprisingly well at his delivery, but his song was literally dirty:  all about grime and filth.  Ondar responded with a pretty terrible limeric.

There was a tall elf from Kershent
Whose organ was so long it bent
To save himself trouble
He folded it double
So instead of coming he went

This inspired Glesni and she responded with her own song… but failed to remember all the words, and then stumbled over translating the Elvish into Trade.

Anyhow, the Freelancers spent the evening of the fifth day at The Mule's Rest in Three Rivers for 8sp/night each; then they refreshed their provisions and headed to Sceap, arriving in the late afternoon of the sixth day.  Ondar and Mia led the other two past the giant ant head on a stake in the middle of the town, and Glesni and Osric stared at it, wide-eyed.

They found Counting Sheep with Malsam within, and quickly secured rooms for the night.  It was late enough for the shepherd Tansa to be there, and Mia greeted her.

Mia:  anything new happen since our last time here?
Tansa:  have been staying away.
Mia:  so, it hasn't spread?
Tansa:  no.

After dinner, beers in hand, Osric and Glesni went back to the ant head.  It was a bit decayed, but had held up.  Osric inspected the mandibles closely; he was checking if he had to be prepared to handle poison.  He saw snake-like teeth in the mandibles, and concluded they injected acid, not poison.  Glesni pulled out an arrow, and poked the head gently with the point.  She concluded a well-aimed arrow would hit the creature just fine.

They both concluded Arnari had been right:  it was horrible.  The head was bigger than Cathance; nobody was going to that pasture.

The next morning, after the Freelancers made sure they had enough rations, Ondar and Mia led the way back to the pasture where they'd found the ankhegs.  It took them a while to remember how to get there, and Osric and Glesni looked askance at them.

"What do you want?" Mia snapped, "I've been here once."

The landscape was unchanging, but always different.  Rolling grassy hills, dotted with low-growing oaks.  It was easy to miss what they were looking for, but finally, as they crested a hill, and Glesni's eyes caught wild hippogryphs gamboling to their south, the rest of the Freelancers saw the signature ground furrows of the ankhegs.

"Do we want to start stomping the ground, or do you want to be more subtle than that, because we want to find their home?" Mia asked.  Glesni frowned, still watching the hippogryphs.  "Why would you want to do that?" she retorted.

Mia said, not quite defensively, "It's how it worked last time!"  Osric suggested, "I can make tiny earthquakes."  Glesni looked at him.  "What's the range on that?"  Osric's face fell.  "5!"

Glesni said, "oh," and finally noticed the furrows.  She tried to figure out if they were going in a particular direction, and everyone else did too.  Only Ondar could tell, perhaps because of his great height, that they seemed to be pointed West/Southwest.

Osric:  what if I druid shape into a sheep?
Glesni:  we could get the same thing with Mia stomping.
Ondar:  if it comes and grabs something and heads back to nest, that's the way to go.
Glesni:  could try seeking arrow.
Osric:  could summon bestial spirit
Glesni:  could we get someone on its back?
Mia:  sounds like a recipe for pain.
Glesni:  could stomp and have them come, and observe where they come from, and test how long it takes them to come.
Mia:  and thin their numbers!
Ondar:  excellent idea
Glesni:  I could minor illusion sheep
Ondar:  minor illusion sheep noise!
Osric:  will they all come if we all stomp?  Because we could be overwhelmed.
Mia:  no, one person.

They started following the furrows West/Southwest, attempting to be somewhat stealthy, so as not to unintentionally stomp the ground.  Then Glesni stepped through the roof of one of the tunnels.

"Hey, girl, get yer nose out of the air," Mia admonished her cheerfully, as Glesni's leg audibly thumped.  Glesni grimaced, but did not rise to Mia's bait; she was trying to get unstuck.

Glesni got her leg out and the Freelancers were fairly prepared by the time a pair of ankhegs emerged from the ground with loud, raspy, screechy noises.  Five minutes had passed.

Dismayed by the reality of the whole creature that was behind that large, horrible head, Glesni disengaged and moved 20 feet southeast.

• Mia shouted "Hey!  BITE me!" and raged at the sight of more ankhegs.  The air around her shimmered with the presence of her ancestors, and then she completely whiffed her strike at the southernmost ankheg with her longsword.
• Ondar became large, and attacked the northernmost ankheg with his vicious scimitar, slashing open the chitin.
• The two ankhegs moved and spit acid at everyone but Glesni; it stung but the damage was minor.
• Osric summoned a wolf spirit, which attacked the sliced ankheg, biting it.

To the Freelancers' utter surprise, two winged ankhegs swooped over the crest of the hill to the north!  They were smaller than their ground-based analogs, but they attacked Large Ondar, and the wolf spirit.  Fortunately they missed.

• Glesni shot the northernmost ankheg, which was already sliced by Large Ondar and bit by a wolf.  It looked to be in a bad way, so she rode her own adrenaline surge and shot it with a second arrow, killing it.
• Mia slashed her ankheg with her longsword, then moved around to the creature's rear.  The ancestors shimmered.
• Large Ondar spun around, slashing at the airborne ankheg next to him with the vicious scimitar, but it fluttered out of the way.  Ondar moved around it to the south.
• The ground ankheg spun and tried to bite Mia, but she avoided it.
• Osric walked up to the flying ankheg on the wolf spirit.  He tried to hit it with his quarterstaff, but misjudged.  The wolf spirit bit it.

The winged ankheg on the wolf moved around it, away from Osric, who cast thorn whip at it, but missed.  It then spit acid at both the wolf spirit and Osric, searing them both.  The other winged ankheg moved and spit acid at Large Ondar and Mia.  Large Ondar was seared, but the acid fizzed out at Mia's feet.  "Ya got some dysfunction there, buddy," Mia quipped.

• Large Ondar used his stone rune on the winged ankheg, incapacitating it and dropping it to the ground at his feet.
• Glesni shot an arrow at the winged ankheg on Osric, but critfailed and hit the wolf spirit instead, which cried in pain.
• Mia, raging, slashed her ankheg again, ancestors shimmering around her.
• Large Ondar used his vicious scimitar on the winged ankheg at his feet.
• The ankheg crit Mia, its mandibles slicing her and then searing her with acid.  Mia's rage enabled her to ignore much of the former, but the acid stung, just making her angrier.
• Osric struck the winged ankheg with his quarterstaff, and then the wolf spirit limped to the other side of it and killed it.
  • The wolf spirit turned and growled at Glesni, and Osric said, "No, bad dog!  She didn't mean to, there are still real enemies."

The winged ankheg at Large Ondar's feet was still lost in its stone rune dreams.

• Glesni shot the ankheg attacking Mia.  It moved, and a last-minute correction made the shot more true.
• Mia tried to spike the ankheg, but failed.
• Large Ondar killed the winged ankheg at his feet.  Large Ondar was pleased.
• The remaining ankheg tried to bite Mia and failed.
• Osric moved towards Glesni, then cast produce flame and threw it at the ankheg which didn't really hurt it much.  The wolf spirit ran to it and bit it very hard on the leg.

Glesni moved 20 ' southeast to get a clearer shot, then killed the remaining ankheg, pleased she'd taken the time to examine the head in Sceap.

Mia grumbled about the acid on her clothes.  Glesni looked at her, then used prestidigitation to snap it away.  Mia grinned.  Glesni took thought to her compatriots, Large Ondar and Osric, also covered with acid.  And did the same thing.

Glesni:  should we check out where these winged ones were from?
Mia:  I think I want a quick rest.
Glesni:  excellent idea
Large Ondar:  should we move?
Glesni:  won't they hear us?
Mia:  ennnh, what she said

Glesni spent part of the rest time befriending the wolf spirit before it faded out, then recovered a couple arrows.

The Freelancers took more care to be quiet the next time.  Topping the hill, they found a couple more tunnel trails.  Following them, Mia almost tromped on Ondar, and Glesni stopped her.  Ondar was looking for ankheg sign, though, and saw fresher trails to the southwest; also he noticed it appeared the flying ones had grabbed a rabbit.  They kept going.

Mia:  I guess we now know the flying ones can burrow.
Glesni:  we're whittling them down!
Mia:  are the flying ones normally part of this?
Osric:  they need flying ones to establish a colony, so must be in early stages.  Good news, it must still be in early days.
Mia:  should we look more before camping?

It was early evening and they had no spot, and the Freelancers became concerned.  So Osric cast pass without trace and started looking for a good place to camp.  Mia thought they should camp where the ankhegs had been, and then they would not come.  The others knew better, and after a while Ondar found a safe (but uncomfortable) spot, basically camping on rock on the side of a hill.

Osric took the first watch.  Halfway through, sitting on the edge of the stony area while the others were sleeping, he was sure he saw an ankheg!  "They're coming!" he cried, waking up the others. "They found us, they're coming up the side, we're all gonna die!"  He cast produce flame as the others sat up from their blankets, grabbing weapons.

There was nothing there in the quiet night.  <narrator voice:  Casey rolled a nat 1.>

Osric relaxed.  "Fire scares them away!" he said, wonderingly.  "Fire scares a lot of things," Mia replied, and went back to sleep.

Ondar, Glesni, then Mia took subsequent watches.  Nature was noisy, but nothing untoward happened; it was a beautiful night.

The next morning, they set out again towards the southwest, following the ankheg tunnels.

Mia:  hey Ondar, you still have that potion of fire breath?
Ondar:  Ondar does.
Glesni:  I do, too.

The Freelancers were settling into a scouting routine.  They spent the morning heading South/Southwest, following the ankheg tunnels, taking care to be reasonably stealthy.  The Daystar climbed up into the sky, hit zenith, and began its journey down the western side.

They crested a hill and slowed, struck by a sudden feeling.  Looking around carefully, they saw a big hole in the side of the opposite hill.  It was big enough for two ankhegs, which they knew because there were two ankhegs walking through it.

They hid in the grass and tried to assess what they could see.  It was all too much for Glesni; she would forever remember the sight as "lots".  The others saw 6 on the ground and 3 flying in the air, roughly 2000 feet away.  They tried to get a size on the ones in the air; Glesni really could not tell, but the others figured about the same as what they'd already seen.  <narrator voice:  Shari rolled two nat 1's in a row, WTF>  Ondar said, "Harder to hit," meaning the smaller targets in the air.

There was a pattern.  The Freelancers watched, and realized the creatures were in groups going in the 4 ordinal directions.  Or rather, three:  they were reasonably sure they'd killed all the ones that had gone their direction (Northeast from the hill).

Glesni:  we should not leave this.
Mia:  I'm all for burning this, but not how we'll come out of it.
Osric:  we can retreat and go south, and get that scouting party, and so forth.  Then, whittled down, we can take the nest.
Mia:  that I like.
Ondar:  Ondar likes the word, "shenanigans".

They contemplated the nest some more from their hiding place.  How long before the ankhegs noticed nothing was returning from this direction?

Ondar said, "Should we let them know in town, we are alive, don't send a scouting party?"

Glesni brought forth the silver raven from the chain around her neck, and it became a raven.   She cast animal messenger on it, for Malsam.

We're alive, found the ankheg nest roughly a day and a half southwest of Sceap.  Spending a few days carefully clearing it out.

* * session break * *

Osric cast pass without trace on everyone, as the Freelancers continued to watch the ankhegs come and go from the hole in the hill to their southwest.

There were 6 grounded and 4 winged ankheg they could distinguish.  Once they had a good sense of the ankhegs' movements, the Freelancers withdrew, and started circling clockwise, taking care to be quiet and hidden.  They were satisfied they'd taken care of those going northeast of the nest.

It was about an hour until Daystar zenith.

The pass without trace really helped, and the Freelancers remained undetected even once it wore off.  After a couple of hours looking, they found the telltale sunken trails.

Glesni, Ondar, and Mia were looking at the sunken trails, trying to confirm their prior observations at the ankheg nest.  Osric, however, was not paying attention.  He'd just noticed he had a bag of holding, and was staring at it, astounded, for there was nothing in it at all.  He kept reaching his hand in it, and … nothing.

Mia noticed Osric's consternation, and tried to sneak a tiny flask of alcohol into the bag.  But Mia is not sneaky, so she just managed to put it in Osric's hand.  He looked up at her, and looked at the flask.

Ondar declared, "This is something Ondar has not drunk."  He took it from Osric and drank it; it was not what Ondar was looking for, but it was actually a nice brandy Mia had picked up from a skylith on her way to Duquesne.

Perhaps as a result of this tableau, Mia and Ondar were at a good angle to see a winged giant ant thing over the next hill.  Glesni pointed out the tunnel sign leading that way.  They all dropped out of sight of the flying ankheg and discussed how they could draw out the flying ones without stomping the tunnels.  They decided to move to higher/closer ground, doing their best to be stealthy.  A stone outcropping looked like a likely place.

Mia just stomped things anyhow.  <narrator voice:  Lore rolled a nat 1.>  

Glesni <exasperated>:  you're so fond of stomping!
Mia <hotly>:  I'm gonna stomp you next!
<Mia tripped on a furrow, and fell into Ondar's back.>
Ondar:  that's outrageous, and true.

Anyhow, the two winged ankhegs of course heard all this and flew over the hill and spit acid, hitting all the Freelancers.  While dark, they had markings; one yellow, one sort of green.

• Mia moved around the brighter flyer, raging.  She swung her longsword and missed.
• Osric cast faerie fire on the two winged ankegs.  It did not stick to the yellow one, but the green one was sort of sparkly.  Then Osric made use of his Nature's Mantle to hide.
• Ondar became large, and slashed the yellow ankheg with his vicious scimitar.  He took a step back, and the ankheg failed to bite with its mandibles.  Then he stepped back up.
• Glesni rose up on her winged boots, to get a better shot, and killed the ankheg Large Ondar had slashed.
• Two ankhegs emerged from the ground!  A brownish one snapped at Large Ondar but missed.  A black one slashed Mia with its mandibles, searing her with acid.

The remaining winged ankheg, which couldn't see Osric, flew over to bite Large Ondar, slashing him as well as searing him with acid.  Osric swung his quarterstaff at it, but missed.

• Mia slashed the black ankheg, the spirits of her ancestors shimmering, preventing it from attacking others.
• Osric again swung his quarterstaff at the winged ankheg, and hit it this time; then he hid again.
• Large Ondar used his vicious scimitar to just slice the abdomen off the flying ankheg.  He grabbed it and swung backwards, in an attempt to strike the brownish ankheg with the stinger.
  • However winged ankhegs don't have a stinger, for all they look like they ought to.  The abdomen just squelched against the ankheg's head in a gross way.
• Glesni moved 30' counterclockwise, and down, then nailed both ankhegs with piercing arrow, applying a last minute correction to increase effectiveness.
• Both ankhegs decided to spit acid, searing both Large Ondar and Mia.

Mia moved to the black ankheg's butt, and critfailed.  The ancestors took pity, and with a strange surge of magic, a pseudodragon appeared next to her.  An empath, it sent (questioning) feelings at Mia.  Mia, still raging, but now confused, said "I also would like to know what's going on."

• The pseudodragon recoiled from Mia's rage, then tried to sting the black ankheg.  Its stinger got caught in the chitin, and it sent (unhappy). 
• Osric ran to the stone outcropping, casting a produce flame and throwing it at the black ankheg.  He again tried to hide with the Nature's Mantle, but forgot to put it over his arms & head.
• Large Ondar slashed the brownish ankheg with his vicious scimitar, then invoked fire rune to bind it with fire chains.  The binding failed but the creature was still burned by the fire.
• Glesni shot at the brownish ankheg, but missed.
• The brownish ankheg bit at Large Ondar, intending to slash and sear with acid, but Large Ondar applied Stone's Endurance and the entire attack was for naught.
• The black ankheg spit more acid on Mia, searing her.

Mia swung and missed the black ankheg.  The pseudodragon flashed (disappointed).

• The pseudodragon had got unstuck, and tried to sting the ankheg again, but failed (shame, sympathy).
• Osric was pretty happy with the Nature's Mantle.  He walked to the side of the stone outcropping, and cast thorn whip at the black ankheg.  It missed, because it could not wrap around the creature's abdomen.
• Large Ondar slashed at the brownish ankheg with his vicious scimitar… and chopped it in half.  He looked at it, then at the black ankheg, then shrugged.
• Glesni shot at the black ankheg and missed.  Unsatisfied, she stepped further west.
• The black ankheg bit Mia again, slashing her and searing with acid.

Mia swung and missed the black ankheg again.  The pseudodragon flashed (worry).  She sent back (reassurance).

• The pseudodragon stung the ankheg, piercing it.  The ankheg shrugged off the poison, but the pseudodragon emanated (triumph) at Mia, who sent back (good job).
• Osric, however, had none of these empathies, and he'd seen Mia struck repeatedly.  He hid again with the Nature's Mantle.  Then he ran up the stone outcropping and jumped at the black ankheg, raining a mighty blow on it from above, screaming, "Don't hit my friend!  Barbarian!  Person!"
  • The ankheg succumbed to Osric's blow.
  • Osric kind of tumbled gracefully.

Mia flung herself to the ground, glad to be alive.  The pseudodragon pounced on her chest (good job) (not dying).  It nuzzled up to her, then faded out.

The Freelancers decided to take a break for an hour.  Mia and Ondar needed to catch a breather.  Osric started harvesting the chitin off the ankhegs, thinking it might make decent armour, and he could then put the bag of holding to good use.   Glesni used prestidigitation to deal with the acid on everyone's clothes.  Then she looked around and retrieved the two arrows that had missed.

The Freelancers continued their long circumnavigation around the ankheg nest, turning westward.  By this time they were becoming practiced at moving quietly, and nobody stomped a furrow.

Glesni and Ondar were watching for the winged ankhegs; they were not paying any attention to the ground.  So it was Mia and Osric who saw the furrows & other sign on the ground.  They also noted some rock formations.  Everyone stopped, then moved to climb on the rocks, so the ankhegs couldn't burst out of the ground next to anyone.

Glesni rose up on her winged boots to get a good look around and spot any winged ankhegs.  She still saw none, but did see the earth shifting, to the north.  She cast minor illusion of an arrow pointing at the moving earth, so the others would see.  They quickly made a plan:  Glesni would minor illusion a sound to draw them out and the ankhegs would burst out of the ground where the Freelancers wanted.  She was going to make a thump, but Ondar suggested a digging sound, so she did that.

Seconds passed.  Mia loosened a javelin.  Ondar got out his longbow and became large.  Osric held a produce flame.

After half a minute, three ankhegs popped out of the ground around the sound.  Two were brown and one was black.

• Large Ondar shot the closest one, which was brown, with his longbow.
• Mia hit the same one with her javelin.
• Osric threw his produce flame and missed.
• Glesni's shot also missed.

Large Ondar shot again with his longbow and missed.

• Mia raged, and threw another javelin, pinning the brown ankheg to the ground, killing it.  She got down from the rocks and moved a bit past the ankhegs.
• Osric moved to the edge of the rocks, but his produce flame again missed.
• Glesni, who was still keeping up the minor illusion, shifted herself in the air to align the ankhegs, then used piercing arrow to nail them both.
• The ankhegs were still fooled by the illusion, and were trying to dig and bite at it.

Large Ondar shot the black ankheg with his longbow.

• Mia crit the remaining brown ankheg with a javelin.
• Osric again missed with his produce flame.  He looked at his hands, like, what's wrong?
• Glesni shifted, not much, and again used piercing arrow to nail both ankhegs, who both died.

The Freelancers all looked at each other.  Then Osric climbed off the rocks to harvest the chitin again, and Glesni grabbed the missed arrow.

It was roughly two hours before twilight, and the Freelancers did not want to fight these creatures in the dark.  They decided to go partway further, maybe another hour, and camp.

They left these furrows behind, and were moving through rougher terrain now.  The hills were a bit steeper, and they slowed down.  Glesni wasn't sure of a good place to camp, but Osric found a place that was rocky, so they could have a night and not be worried about ankhegs bursting out of the ground.

Ondar took first watch, and he found it uneventful, but was definitely distracted by how uncomfortable the rocky site was.

Osric took the second watch, and was not uncomfortable at all, as he heard so many sounds of Nature and such it made him happy.

Glesni took the third watch, but she had just emerged from elvish trance, which lingered.  She had an entirely too vivid daydream that a winged ankheg picked her up, then dropped her, and the winged boots didn't work after all, and yikes she jerked all the way awake then.  She jumped up and then up with her winged boots and shot an arrow out into the darkness.  <narrator voice:  Shari rolled a nat 1>

Mia took the last watch.  She heard some sounds of Nature too, but enh, not much to report.

Nonetheless, everyone got a full night's sleep.

After breakfast, Osric cast pass without trace again, and the Freelancers continued their circle around the ankheg nest.  Fresh for the day, everyone was sharp and on the watch for furrows and rock outcroppings.

It took about an hour to find it, but this time Glesni spotted a couple winged ankhegs as well.  They also had the yellow and green markings.  They decided to try the same strategy as before, ideally getting the burrowers before the winged ones.  Glesni, using the winged boots, would keep an eye on the flyers.

Everyone climbed on the rocks, then Glesni flew up on her winged boots, and cast the minor illusion sound.  After perhaps a minute, a black ankheg burst out of the ground… and rubbed its forelegs together, making an overly loud and large insect chirping.  The winged ankhegs headed straight for the spot.

Mia crit the one on the ground with a javelin.

• Glesni shot at the winged ankheg with green, 200' away still, and critfailed.  No worries there: her arrow struck the other winged ankheg instead.
• Ondar became large, and shot the black ankheg with his longbow.
• Osric tossed a produce flame at the ground anhkeg, burning it.
• The black ankheg scrabbled around where the minor illusion sound was, and figured it out.  It turned towards the Freelancers.

Mia raged, and went off the rocks to go after the black ankheg.  She critfailed with her longsword, but fumbled that so badly she critfailed slicing her own self with it!  The ancestors shimmered, this time bathing her in a healing energy.

• Glesni glanced at the winged ankhegs, then at the black one on the ground.  She moved a little east and shot the latter.  A last-minute correction enabled her to kill it.
• Large Ondar shot at the winged ankhegs.  It wasn't clear which one he was trying for, because he missed.
• Osric readied his produce flame, to throw if an ankheg got close.

Mia climbed back up on the rocks, readying a javelin.

• Glesni shot the winged ankheg with yellow, then surged and shot it again, killing it.
• Large Ondar's arrow missed.
• Osric readied his produce flame again, to throw if an ankheg got close.

The winged ankheg was now about 60' away.  Mia moved next to the dead black ankheg, and hit the flyer with a javelin!

• Glesni shot this ankheg too.
• Large Ondar shot it with his longbow, killing it.

The Freelancers felt a deep satisfaction.  Osric started on harvesting the chitin - with only one ground ankheg and two smaller flyers, there wasn't as much - as Mia exclaimed "Cool!  Let's go mess with the nest!"

* * session break * *

It was easy to say, "Let's go mess with the nest," in the early morning light of the Daystar, but the reality of the situation was that nest was underground, and neither Mia nor Ondar had darkvision.

Ondar:  Ondar is not afraid of the dark, the dark is afraid of Ondar!
Glesni:  let's see what's there
Mia:  we can always go closer and stomp to draw them out
Ondar:  Ondar is liking the stomp idea.
Mia:  we can keep divide or conquer
Glesni:  just keep chipping away

The nest was to the southeast, so they headed in that direction.

The Freelancers hadn't found the ankheg hill from this direction, and they kept getting turned around.  Glesni was again watching for flyers and distracted by distant hippogryphs, and Ondar tripped a couple times and stomped the ground a couple times when he did not mean to.  He shrugged off the glares of the others, certain they had taken care of all the scouts.  <narrator voice:  Shari rolled a nat 1 on perception, and Matt rolled a nat 1 on stealth.>

Around noon, they crested a hill to find themselves staring down at the same valley as before.  The entrance was ⅓ of a mile away, facing south; it was to the group's northeast.  The hole was about 15' wide, and appeared devoid of any ankhegs.

Osric:  let's loot it, and go home.
Mia:  let's smash the eggs.
Osric:  let's loot the eggs, so they can be raised as mounts

That was a startling thought.  Mounts had to be trained, and that means at least some independent thought, so they tried to figure out if that was a thing.  Ondar found the concept of bugs that think offensive.  Glesni & Osric thought the ankhegs weren't that smart, and/or had a hive mind.  Mia, though, she thought they were super smart, and was concerned.  "If we take the eggs back, they'll just infest the city!" she exclaimed.  <narrator voice:  Lore rolled a nat 1 on nature.>

Osric was dubious.  "Maybe, not bring them back," he said.  Mia agreed, "Yeah."

There was still no movement in or out of that hole.  The Freelancers started walking towards it, and Osric cast darkvision on both Mia and Ondar.

When they got within 30' of the entrance, Glesni flew up on her winged boots and cast the minor illusion again.  The Freelancers all waited, weapons ready, until the illusion had run its course and faded out.

Mia walked in.

Glesni dropped back to the ground, arrow nocked, ready to attack anything that was on Mia.  Ondar followed Mia, and Osric stood next to Glesni.

As they disappeared into the nest, Glesni and Osric followed them just close enough to keep them in sight.  They did not get far before the tunnel forked, almost like a T, and they paused, looking in both directions.  Ondar pulled out three unlit torches, and set them against each other cleverly, so that a creature walking by them would knock them over, causing a noise.  While he did that, Glesni looked for tracks; there were a lot of them, footprints looking like pickaxes in the packed dirt.

Mia pointed left.  "Any objection to this direction?"  Glesni cast a minor illusion of a person shushing.  But that's the way she and Ondar went.  Osric and Glesni still followed them, and of course managed to knock into the torches, which fell over with a clatter.

Ondar:   guys.
Glesni:  what was this for?
Osric:  I think they were supposed to detect ankhegs.  Does this mean there are ankhegs in there?

Ondar did not bother to reply, but walked back to the torches to set them back up.  Glesni helped him, and they looked harder to knock over.

The tunnel turned to the right, and Mia and Ondar saw it opened into a very large chamber, in which was a giant ankheg.  And four baby ankhegs.  No, eight.  The two Freelancers recoiled, and Ondar gripped his potion of fire breath.

"Oh, Hello, Your Majesty," Mia said.

Glesni and Osric had caught up to them, and Glesni took one look and said to Mia, "You want a potion of fire breath?"  Mia kept looking down the tunnel at the large ankheg.  "Not going to say 'no'," she replied, and Glesni handed her the potion.

Ondar drank the potion of fire breath, and it was not the drink he was looking for.

The ankheg queen had wings the same size as the flying ankhegs, but she was much, much, bigger.  The chamber was 15-20' tall, and there were eggs behind her, with sheep bones littered across the floor.  Only some of the baby ankhegs had wings.  Mia said, "Awed in the presence of royalty." 

"Ondar has seen bigger," Ondar declared, and became large, unlimbering his longbow.  He shot and killed the closest baby ankheg - his arrow went all the way through it - and stepped in front of Mia.

• Glesni shot the baby ankheg closest to the wall, but did not kill it.
• The baby ankhegs all chittered angrily.
  • Two ran down another tunnel to the Freelancers' right.
  • Two hid behind their mama.
  • One each attacked Large Ondar and Mia, to no avail.
  • The one Glesni shot ran up to Large Ondar.
• Osric cast produce flame and threw it onto the baby Glesni had shot.
• Mia raged, and killed the injured baby ankheg.  She went around Large Ondar, following the left-hand wall into the chamber.
• The ankheg queen made a really disturbing mandible clacking noise, then scraped her forearms together to make some other loud singing noise.  Then she moved to Mia and spit acid, since Mia, Large Ondar, and Glesni were in a row.  Glesni was just past it and the acid splattered at her feet.  Large Ondar applied Stone's Endurance to resist most of the acid sear.  Mia shrugged off about half of the sear.

Large Ondar did not like getting spit on, and decided tit-for-tat was the order of the day.  He moved into the room, ignoring the baby ankheg who tried to bite his ankle, and exhaled fire at the ankheg queen, burning her badly.  He then slashed at her with his vicious scimitar, but was rebuffed by her chitin.

• With a baby ankheg between herself and the queen, Glesni used piercing arrow to get them both.  They avoided the bulk of the damage though.  She backed up until she was in the corner where the hallway turned.
• Baby ankhegs were still a large cohort!
  • The baby ankheg Glesni had hit bit Mia.
  • The two running down the tunnel kept running.
  • The remaining three tried to bite Large Ondar.  One fell on its face, one just missed, and one slashed his ankle, also searing it with acid.
• Osric rounded the corner to enter the tunnel leading up to the queen.  He summoned his unicorn spirit totem in front of him, then conjured a healing spirit as a little pseudodragon, which landed on Mia's shoulder.  As it healed her, the unicorn totem healed everyone else, with sparkles everywhere.
• Mia, feeling better from the psuedodragon, chugged the potion of fire breath she had, then swung her longsword at the queen, entirely missing.
• The queen ankheg, seeing Large Ondar in front of her, grabbed him around the waist with her mandibles, slashing and searing him with acid.
  • Large Ondar used his stone rune on her to charm her, but it didn't work.
• Another ankheg appeared, from where the two baby ankhegs had run!
• Glesni saw another ankheg coming as well, from her right!

Large Ondar slashed at the queen with his vicious scimitar, to no avail; his sword arm was also caught in her grasp.  So he burned her again by breathing more fire, from his potion.  The flames glittered off the unicorn sparkles.   Then he used his fire rune on the queen, to restrain her with the fire shackles.  Finally, adrenaline surging, he broke out of the grip of her mandibles.

• Glesni shot the black ankheg coming down the tunnel that the others could not see.  Her own adrenaline surged and she shot it again.  A last-minute adjustment failed, and the second arrow was less effective than it could have been.
• The baby ankhegs attacked Large Ondar and Mia again, to no avail.  The two which had fled were now returning on the heels of the brown ankheg coming to help the queen.
• Osric's healing spirit moved to Large Ondar, then Osric moved up to Large Ondar and cast cure wounds on him.  The unicorn totem sparkled, healing the others.
• Mia slashed the queen with her longsword, and it got through the chitin, wounding her.  The ancestors shimmered, forcing the queen to focus on Mia, as she exhaled fire from her own potion of fire breath, burning the queen again…
• Still burning from the fire shackles, the queen bit at Mia, but got her shield instead of her person.  The queen tried and failed to get away from the shackles.
• The black ankheg that Glesni shot knocked over the torches, then spit acid at Glesni, searing her badly.
• The brown ankheg came up to Osric, then spit acid at both Osric and Mia, searing them both, although Mia's rage was such she ignored most of it.

The healing spirit healed Large Ondar, who growled at the ankheg queen, biting down on Mia's shield, "Get away from her, you bitch!"  He slashed the queen with his vicious scimitar, and burned her with  the last of the fire from his potion of fire breath.

• Glesni shot at the approaching black ankheg and missed; she moved towards the brown ankheg on Osric.
• Three of the baby ankhegs bit Large Ondar; one crit, so his ankles were getting even more slashed and seared with acid.  The two following the brown ankheg were still on its heels.  <Narrator voice:  and one is MIA from the notes, but probably attacked Mia and missed.>
• Osric cast cure wounds on Ondar again, the unicorn totem healing the others.  He withdrew from the melee, and cast healing word on Glesni, triggering the unicorn totem again.
• Mia, with the ankheg queen in her face, said, "Hello, friend, I have a sword to introduce you to!"  She slashed the ankheg queen with her sword, then exhaled fire from her potion of fire breath, killing the ankheg queen!
  • Large Ondar said, "Not bad, for a human."
• The black ankheg bit Glesni, mandibles slashing, acid searing.  It held her in its mandibles.
• The brown ankheg bit Large Ondar, mandibles slashing, acid searing.  It held him in its mandibles.
  • "Ow," Mia said in empathy.

The healing spirit healed Large Ondar again, and then he tried to cut the brown ankheg in half with his vicious scimitar.  However, that's an awkward angle, and he missed entirely.

• Glesni drew her rapier and pierced the black ankheg with it.
• The baby ankheg cohort was there to avenge Momma!
  • One missed Mia.
  • Three missed Ondar.
  • One ran up to Ondar, but couldn't get to him, so ran to Mia.
  • On ran up to Ondar just to miss.
• Osric ran at the black ankheg, screaming "Let her go!" and struck the creature with an overhand swing of his quarterstaff.  He crit, breaking off its pincers and killing it.
  • Glesni, surprised and startled, exclaimed "You go, Osric!" in perhaps the most heartfelt thing she'd said since joining the Freelancers.
• Mia moved to the brown ankheg (getting a bite from one of the baby ankhegs) and attacked it recklessly, invoking her ancestors.
  • "Dishonour on your Ankheg cow!" she exclaimed, then made a face.  Really?
• The brown ankheg tried to bite Large Ondar, but was so distracted by Mia it missed.

The healing spirit healed Large Ondar again, and Large Ondar missed the brown ankheg again.

• Glesni shot at the injured baby ankheg that had bitten Mia, but missed.  She glanced at the ceiling - it was tall enough - and used her winged boots to fly over it, out of reach.
• The baby ankhegs were still chittering.  Two of the baby ankhegs missed Mia, but the other four were on Large Ondar.  One crit, slashing his ankle and searing it with acid.
• Osric moved next to the baby ankhegs, then cast produce flame and threw it at the brown ankheg.  He critfailed and his Mia instead, burning her a bit.  He cast healing word on Large Ondar, and the unicorn totem healed the others, including Mia, for more than the produce flame had burned.
• Mia slashed the brown ankheg with her longsword, then turned and exhaled the last of her fire from the potion on one of the baby ankhegs.
• The brown ankheg, distracted again, failed to bite Large Ondar again.

Guess what?  The healing spirit healed Large Ondar again, and Large Ondar missed the brown ankheg again.

• Glesni moved towards the back of the queen ankheg's corpse, and got a lot of the ankhegs in a line!  She used piercing arrow again, the arcane shot going through the four baby ankhegs attacking Large Ondar and the adult brown ankheg.  Two of the baby ankhegs died.
• The two remaining baby ankhegs on Large Ondar missed.  The burned baby ankheg missed Mia.  The remaining baby ankheg turned and bit Osric, piercing him and searing him with acid.
• Osric did not appreciate being bit, and smacked the baby ankheg with his quarterstaff.  Then, since everyone had moved into the chamber, he moved the unicorn spirit totem closer by 30'.
• Mia recklessly attacked the brown ankheg, slashing vigorously with her longsword.  She cut off its mandibles and part of its face, finally freeing Large Ondar as it died.
  • She turned at the burned baby ankheg behind her and screamed at it.

The healing spirit healed Large Ondar again.  He turned and stepped up to the burned baby ankheg.  The other two baby ankhegs tried and failed to bite him as Large Ondar failed to hit the burned baby ankheg with his vicious scimitar.

• Glesni shot the baby ankheg closest to her, arrow pinning it to the floor.  It died.  Movement to her left caught her eye:  the eggs there were wiggling.
• The remaining baby ankheg in front of Glesni ran up to Large Ondar and missed.  The burned baby ankheg also missed.  The baby ankheg on Osric bit him, again piercing him and searing him with acid.
• Osric clobbered the baby ankheg with his quarterstaff, exclaiming "STOP!  BITING!  ME!" as he did so.  
• Mia recklessly attacked the burned baby ankheg, bisecting it.

The healing spirit healed Large Ondar again, although not by much.  Large Ondar turned around and saw the remaining baby ankheg, wings folded over its back.  He speared it with his vicious scimitar, then lifted it up so that it flew off, smacked into the chamber ceiling, then fell dead.

Glesni turned and sent an arrow through the wiggliest egg, and it stopped wiggling.  She landed, no longer needing the winged boots.  Mia started stomping eggs, emphasizing with each stomp, "This.  Is.  So.  Gross.  Burning.  These.  Socks!"

Osric used produce flame, and Glesni poked at an egg with a rapier.  They really were gross.  Glesni went and retrieved Ondar's torches, lighting them with prestidigitation, for better light, and igniting eggs.

Once the eggs were dealt with, Osric turned his attention to harvesting the chitin from the ankheg queen and two adults.  Mia helped.  Glesni and Ondar did a walkabout the tunnels and caverns, looking for stuff… like more ankhegs.

Glesni was pretty grossed out by the various detritus and literal ankheg shit they discovered.  Ondar, less distracted by such things, found weird piles in two alcoves in one of the tunnels.  Coins and gems glinted!  But, in the alcove furthest from the door, he found a saddle.  In the other alcove, there was a 12' piece of wood, and a small leather pouch.  Ondar checked the pouch.  "Looks like dust," he said.  Glesni, more versed in the arcane, looked and said, "Looks like dust of disappearance!"

They returned to where Osric and Mia were finishing up, and Ondar took the ankheg queen's head.  The Freelancers headed out past the alcoves, and with everyone looking around, they were much more confident there were no more ankhegs.  They grabbed the coins, gems, and items from the alcove and headed for the entrance.  Odd markings were on the wall to their left, but Osric recognized them!  They were in druidic, which none of the others knew was its own language.

The Resolute Champions of Āhua Tūturu have placed this seed to strike back against Civilisation.

Osric read it to the others, then said, "Seems like this was intentional."  Mia looked at her socks.  "That's great," she replied.

Once outside in the cleansing light of the Daystar, the Freelancers looked more closely at the items.  The saddle and the wand were both tooled and carved with nice Nature themes.  They began to suspect these "Champions" had "planted the seed" but failed to run away from the ankhegs fast enough.  The saddle appeared to be designed for a gryphon, not an ankheg.

Glesni thought back to her training in threats to Cloudworks, and explained, "We've heard about them, as Nature-based terrorists who want to take down the cities.  This is not the Children of Āhua."

Osric, without missing a beat, said, "The Disowned Children of Āhua?"  Everybody laughed, then Glesni said, "While some are fanatically against the harm cities can cause Nature, not all of them are sincere; many are new money, disaffected by society and using this to strike back."

They started heading northeast, towards Sceap.  It was more than a day away, but at least they would not need quite as uncomfortable a campsite.

The evening of the following day, they rolled into Sceap, Ondar still carrying the head of the ankheg queen.  While camping the night before, Osric had tried to attune to the wand, figuring it was a druid thing and he was a druid; what he found out was the wand did not take attunement, and was "merely" a wand of magic detection.  He checked the saddle and it was saddle of the cavalier, for a hippogryph or gryphon (and also not needing attunement).

Anyhow the people of Sceap saw the Freelancers coming and were waiting to greet them.  Tansa was happy to see them, but horrified at the head.  "It's bigger than Osric!" she pointed out.  Ondar tried to put the head on a spike, but the spike collapsed; it would need a log.

Malsam emerged from Counting Sheep, and his jaw dropped.  

Malsam:  that was out there?!
Mia:  yep!  We won!
Malsam:  why was it here?
Mia:  we're working on it!  ...Osric has some theories.
Glesni:  there were 4 parties, we had to kill all of them.  Some had wings!
Mia:  once we got the babies, there were easily over 20 of them.

Malsam and the villagers changed their plans, and there was a very big delicious dinner for all, and free-flowing beer.  After, he counted out 150gp each to the Freelancers, admonishing them, "Make sure you give Freelancers their cut , I hear your leader is intimidating!  But now, this was above and beyond, and does not need their cut!"  And on that note, he counted out another 200gp each; the wool industry must pay well.

Osric told Malsam about possibly crazy hippie druids, warning him to be careful.  Malsam stated he might send some shepherds to check the burrow from time to time, but he was not really buying into how Āhua worshippers would try to attack Sceap.

Osric said, "If it makes you feel better, we think the person who brought them there got killed because we found their stuff; but you might wanna keep an eye out."  For some reason Malsam did not find this statement reassuring.

The next day, Ondar and Osric spent working on the ankheg head to ensure it would be preserved, and then the Freelancers departed for Cliffshadow, Ondar carrying the head.  They got some funky looks in the towns they passed through on the way back.

• Ondar → lvl5!
• Osric → lvl5!
• Mia → lvl4!