"Dat's der ooze-ual plan," Dregz agrees with Minmorc.  The priest has been fishing about in his sack for a tattered scroll, but holds off on the casting to see whether the rest of his tribe agrees with Raven. 

Certainly he might now wish to have begged Bargrivyek for different spells this night, having been mostly worried about protecting himself from poisons and diseases, given their destination, but will make do with what he has, if he has to.

In reply to Dregz (msg # 20):

Bored with being a rat, Jurz changes back to his normal shape  "I'se got a storm for the sally-manders, but we'se need to get dem out of de fire pit first."

"No probs, I'll jus reach in an pull der lobsters outta der pot!" Minmorc will enlarge himself to twice his usual size and will stride 50ft off down the corridor, contemptuously stepping over the small wall (three feet tall is more like a garden fence than a respectable barricade) and will ask "I gotta complaint about yer node, I bin told it's gone off an its got rats innit, oo's in charge ere?"

Jurz will follow, but stop looking over the wall, ready to cast Ice storm ....

"Ise could floods it wid water ..." Dregz begins to reply to Jurz before Minmorc doubles up and heads off.

"Oh dears ..."

"So many good ideas. But waters is gonna makes a steam baths and den we's all can't sees where we's goin." Moffdust sticks her clawed thumbs into her belt and nods sagely. "But we's could tops it offs wid a Walls of Ices! Den we's can all gets past before de ices melts and makes a fogs." She goes halfway down the corridor and prepares to cast the spell.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:00, Sun 18 Oct 2020.

OOC: Just edited previous post, in case anyone already read it in the last 20 min.

"Soes .. if I'se makes de ice storm, den youse trap it wiv a wall of de ice?" Jurz asks Moffa.

"Wha?!" Late to the barricade-party again!  Bulldust tosses away the empty vial and heads off down the passage.  Does stepping over count as 'storming'?, he wonders.  An whats a sally-mander?  What kinda 'storm' does Jurz have for dem?  How much can a bugbear bare?

"Now dat sounds like a real plans!" Moffdust nods emphatically. "Can youse makes it jus as big as de pits? Cos dat's how big I'll makes de domes of ices."

Since the glow of the fire pit provides plenty of light down here, Raven sheathes her glowing rapier and readies her crossbow instead. She scurries after Minmorc and Bully but stops short of the barricade as soon as she can see Jurz's sally-manders.

"Dregzie, does youse wants ter floods it wid waters first, before Jurzie storms it and I ice-caps it?" She grins at Dregz and Jurz hoping for a goblin all-play. "Don't look Sparkies!"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:23, Wed 21 Oct 2020.

While others' plans are still being formulated, Minmorc pumps himself up to giant size and marches down the tunnel, contemptuously stepping over the 3-foot barricade to demand some answers from the trio of salamanders basking in the fire pit. The heat from the fire pit is certainly more intense on that side of the barricade.

Jurz follows hot on Minmorc's heels but stops behind the safety of the barricade, just peeking over the top.

Moffa follows halfway down the corridor, still discussing tactics with Jurz and Dregz, while Bully pushes past to scramble over the barricade to join Minmorc and Raven advances to about 15 feet from the barricade with her crossbow loaded and ready.

The three salamanders are man-sized, red and black scaled creatures with muscular humanoid upper bodies and serpentine bodies from the waist down. They have hawkish faces and flame-shaped spines on their spine, arms and head. The closest two (s1 and s2) are facing away from the barricade and don't react until Minmorc speaks but the furthest one (s3) is facing towards the barricade and is looking straight at Minmorc before he even clears the barricade. That one shouts something but it sounds more like a raging bonfire than intelligent speech. [Language unknown: "Ilsathte! Vorce fo!"] The two closest salamanders (s1 and s2) grab their spears and slither out of the fire pit to block the walkways on either side while the third one (s3) slithers forward across the fire pit until it is close enough to threaten giant Minmorc's lower regions with its red-hot spear.

"Get back across that wall, fools, before you cook yourselves! No one is allowed in the node! Go away!" it shouts in the common tongue.

OOC: Main Game Map updated.
Minmorc’s Bless spell gives everyone +1 on saves vs fear and +1 on attack rolls.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:25, Wed 21 Oct 2020.

Minmorc isn't happy that a sillymanduh is threatening his lower regions with a red hot spear but will ignore him... for now. Taking a five foot step north east he will hum "Lob der lobster in der put an set ter simmer. Get back in yer pot yer silly lobsta!" His axe lashes out and a pulse of dark energy appears to split the wound wider, the wild backhand swing  gauging a rent in the wall.

"Dey don' like indtruderz," Dregz translates the creatures' words, rather unnecessarily as the menacing spear speaks for them.  Though poking the big Orc doesn't seem wise to him.

"Dey are silly-demanders !" the priest decides, in light of their actions and their request.

Once they reach the wall ... well, the height might not trouble the bigguns, but it poses a bit of a problem for the little goblin, though his Magic Boots save the day ... rising up just high enough to see over, Dregz casts his spell as Moffa suggests, then quickly drops back down again behind the barrier.

OOC: Move to K13; cast Create Water on the fire pit

As he sees Dregz casting, Jurz casts his own spell, an ice storm at the area of the firepit.

OOC: Bulldust had not yet crossed the barricade.  He drank a potion last round, single move, dithering about barricade-storming theory.

Bulldust steps up to the barricade next to the hairy hovering goblin.  All the other goblins are casting spElla, so bugbear-instinct tells him to hide.  He rests his paw on the barricade.  Made it!  He readies his chainflail to strike at any silly-manda that comes in range, and watches to see what comes of the goblins' talk of fire and ice, fogs and floods.

Moffdust moves up to the barricade with the other goblins. She grins toothily seeing what they're doing. "Ones, twos, threes!" She calls gleefully, casting Wall of Ice in a dome to cap off the doused fire pit.

She gives Sparky a sad smile. "Don't worry About that...youse can makes a new fires in da nodes soon."

Giant Minmorc clearly knows a thing or two about cooking seafood, but less about salamanders. He steps forward and delivers one mighty blow with his greataxe on the salamander (s1) blocking the northern walkway, but misses completely with his second blow. That salamander is grievously wounded but still blocking the walkway.

Then it is time for goblin magic! Dregz summons a substantial downpour upon the fire pit, which rapidly intensifies into a much larger ice storm that engulfs the whole fire pit and the eastern half of that circular chamber and even extends a little way down the corridor beyond. Two of the salamanders (s1 and s3) are caught in that ice storm but it narrowly misses Minmorc and the third salamander.  Minmorc's salamander (s1) collapses on the walkway, apparently unconscious but still hot enough that the ice melts and evaporates when it touches the salamander.

Then Moffa attempts to cap the fire pit with a dome of ice but the two remaining salamanders both slash with their red-hot spears at the ice as it begins to form and the spell is disrupted.

Bully lumbers up behind the goblins but can't quite reach the barricade with Jurz and Dregz blocking the way. Raven tries to shoot at the salamanders with her crossbow from behind Bully but her bolt deflects harmlessly off the salamander's scales.

Both of the remaining salamanders react to Minmorc as the only intruder yet to breach their barricade. The one in the fire pit only moves a few feet northeast shadowing Minmorc's movement then stabs with its spear and lashes at Minmorc with its tail as well. All three attacks hit and burn as well as drawing blood, leaving him seriously wounded. To make matters worse for the overgrown orc the salamander in the fire pit (s3) tries to grapple Minmorc by wrapping its tail around his legs, as well.  (Minmorc would get an attack of opportunity on s2 before it hit him, which has not been rolled yet. You can roll that AoO. Roll an opposed grapple check against the salamander's grapple score of 21 to avoid being grappled.)

Then as soon as the ice storm abates there is a tiny orange glow that briefly illuminates a female drow dressed in silver chain shirt armour about 40 feet down the eastern tunnel. That tiny orange glow comes from a tiny ball of fire that instantly hurtles down the tunnel to strike the top of the barricade and explodes in a fireball the same size as the ice storm that Jurz had summoned moments earlier. (Everyone in the party is within the 20ft radius of the fireball. Full damage would be 21hp each. Make a DC16 Reflex save for half damage. Those with Protection from Evil get +2 on that saving throw.)

OOC: Main Game Map updated. Curiously, the fire pit was not affected at all, even momentarily, by the downpour and ice storm, nor was there any steam or fog when they met.
Minmorc's Bless spell gives everyone +1 on saves vs fear and +1 on attack rolls.

The spears of his enemies cut deep and just as he manages to bat aside the snaking tail of a salamander the fireball erupts catching him full on. Shedding blood and wisps of flame Minmorc succumbs to his rage and lashes out in a pattern of devastating axe strikes. Bellowing in rage he stretches out his arms and embraces the spatter of the volcanic viscera of his foes.

OOC: Partial update – everyone else can still act this round.

Giant Minmorc did manage to hit the salamander (s2) behind him before it stabbed him but that wasn’t enough to stop the fiery creature’s red-hot spear from biting deep and cauterising the wound at the same time. The giant orc also fought free from the other salamander’s tail (s2) but he was caught completely unprepared when the fireball exploded in the chamber leaving Minmorc grievously wounded.

Minmorc’s first response was a mighty roar of pain and rage. Now he truly is every foe’s worst nightmare – a flaming, raging, giant orc with an angry Axe-wife. Retribution follows before the echoes of that mighty roar have even faded. His adamantine greataxe slashes across the chest of the tail-slapping salamander (s3) hurling it back into the firepit where it lies without moving. Then Minmorc’s greataxe literally splits the last salamander (s2) in two and gouges a 6-foot long scar in the wall of the cave beside him (at L11).

From out of nowhere there is suddenly the sound of a hundred orcish voices cheering and chanting, "Nuff-full, Nuff-full, Nuff-full!"

"Dats not nice." Jurz shouts before he starts casting a spell.

Goblins have big ears (no, not the gnome of that name - Orcs killed and ate that worthy many years ago), a natural defense to warn them of incoming danger.  And for one so paranoid as Dregz, the body obeys the call to flee sent by ears that hear the hiss and sizzle of an incipient flaming death long, long before Mr Brain has chance to even think about it.

Before the fireball explodes, the priest launches off from his place by the barricade, diving between Bully's legs in a headlong flight that does not stop until he is just beyond the leading edge of the fireball.

Turning back and baring his pointed teeth at that maelstrom of fire (which is just a little close for comfort), the goblin proceeds with Plan A, a quick but careful reading of the scroll he has clutched in his paw ...

Moffdust Ducks behind the barricade into the position Dregz just left, the worst of the blast going over her head. She says to Sparky "Makes her crispies!" and points at the drow spellcaster. Then she summons a Howler into position s12. "Sic em Rexes!" She sends them both charging into the node shrieking and howling.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:15, Sat 31 Oct 2020.

Bulldust flattens himself against the wall to avoid the fireball and comes out pretty well.  He steps over the puny barricade and edges past the raging orc to stand at gore-spattered o10. "Calm down Min, don't ruffle yer Nuffle." He pats the giant orc on his bloody hip and casts the healing spell from his Hair Shirt of Suffering.  He watches the scene in the node.

08:01, Today: Bulldust rolled 17 using 3d6+5.  cure serious on Min.