AAR: Blood bee hive

*ARCHIVED* Sub-forum for the original West Marches Discord campaign

Moderator:etherial

Locked
BrandenV
Posts:77
Joined:Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:48 am
AAR: Blood bee hive

Post by BrandenV » Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:49 am

Mission: Blood Bee Hive
Gm: The Fasa forums username of the GM with discord in parenthesis
Date: The date the adventure was run
Difficulty and circle rating: Circle 3 medium
Player Rewards:
Gronk Longtusk used 1 Kelia's Antidote and 2 doses of salt. Gronk Longtusk: 1400 Legend, Horn Needle, Kelia's Antidote, 113 Silver
Varis: Horn Needle (225) Antidote (62.5)1400 LP, 112.5 silver
Ceadda: 1400LP, 400sp
August Ray used 15 silver worth of salt and a Kelix’s Poultice
August Ray: 1400 LP, 1 horn needle 225, 1 Kelix’s Poultice (25), 1 Kelia’s Antidote (62.5), and 87.5 silver cash
Rolls that were witnessed:
Gronk rolled research on thread item elven warbow #1 rolled an 11 learned the first and second research rank.
Varis researched 3rd and 4th rank on spellcasting #1
Further Information: The blood bee queen has been killed only the ant queen and the horror that made them remains.

User avatar
etherial
Posts:964
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 11:04 pm
Location:Berlin, Massachusetts
Contact:

Re: AAR: Blood bee hive

Post by etherial » Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:57 am

From the Court-mandated parole log of Gronk Longtusk:

3 Teayu
We're heading into the Mountains to smoke out a Blood Bee Hive. August and Varis have convinced everyone to carry sacks of salt for protection from blood bees. I suspect it might be some kind of hazing ritual, but salt is useful so I bought it anyway. Naturally it rains.

4 Teayu
August and Ceadda hear Blood Bees in the night, but nothing attacks us.

5 Teayu
Lots more Blood Bees in the night, flying to and fro, particularly in the direction of the Iceclaw Moot. They're probably all dead.

6 Teayu
About an hour from the Trollmoot, a swarm of Blood Bees attacked us. A Blood Wasp and six minions flew in. I killed two right away but they managed to sting Shadow Stalker. Varis very effectively unleashed his Lightning and we mopped the rest up.

We raced the sun to the Iceclaws and found them in outright war with the Blood Bees. Another Blood Wasp and four Blood Bees greeted us at the door. Shadow Stalker leapt up onto a house with August on his back and engaged the Blood Wasp. We made relatively short work of them, but he ended up on the far side of the house and was then ambushed by two more Blood Wasps. We were able to rescue him, but Shadow Stalker had been knocked out and Varis was temporarily paralyzed in the action.

We gave August a bit of a dressing down about running off on his own and then sat down for a hot meal. He wants to use his damage shift talent on us, but he's just not loyal enough to us for it to be a serious consideration. He doesn't have our backs.

This engagement was a retaliation on the Trolls for trying to attack the Blood Bee Queen. The good news is, we know where she is. The bad news is, most of the Trolls are in rough shape. We'll have to decide in the morning whether to mount our raid or take a day to rest.

7 Teayu
With Varis fully healed, we spend the day heading West to the Blood Bee Hive. We coat ourselves in the ridiculous salt and I coated some of my arrows with it as well.

We discovered a massive underground hive complex with eight entrances. Blood Bees would periodically leave the hive and attack us until August charged forward to attack a lone Bee and they unleashed their Ambush on him. As he was nearly overwhelmed by the swarm, he and Shadow Stalker escaped, and the Bees switched their atention to Ceadda.

That's when the Blood Bee queen erupted out of the ground and joined the fray. I hit her with an arrow and Varis blasted her and some of her minions with a Desperate Lightning Bolt, but things were looking pretty grim for Ceadda.

I dumped the last of my Karma into a True Shot with a salt arrow aimed at her blood sack, and her abdomen erupted and shriveled at the same time, tearing her body to pieces. The remaining Blood Bees became listless and the hive was easily wiped out afterward. We burned the bodies and destroyed the remains of the hive and headed home. I need a bath.

Other PCs:
August Rey, male Dwarf Cavalryman
Ceadda, male Human Warrior
Varis, male Dwarf Elementalist

User avatar
BattleChad
Posts:422
Joined:Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: AAR: Blood bee hive

Post by BattleChad » Wed Oct 11, 2017 4:03 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Gronk Longtusk for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 70LP and 140 Silver

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: AAR: Blood bee hive

Post by ChrisDDickey » Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:42 am

The Trolls of the Iceclaw moot have been suffering nearly nightly attacks by blood bees.
Varis, Gronk Longtusk, Ceadda, and myself set out to find the hive and destroy it. Before leaving Throal, we all purchased large quantities of salt, which we planned to make into a paste and encrust upon our skin and clothes when it seemed that combat with blood bees was imminent. As usual, it took us 3 days to get to the moot.
About a hours journey before we arrived at the moot, we encountered 7 blood bees, one of them of their warrior caste. They displayed great intelligence and tactical acumen, first swarming me until Shadow Stalker was poisoned, and then concentrating their attacks upon the elementalist Veris.
We arrived at the moot to find a huge battle in progress. Every troll in the moot was out and battling a huge army of at least 100 invading blood bees. We attacked some unengaged ones near the fringe of the battle, and Shadowstalker and I jumped upon a roof in order to engage one that was hovering up there, and down the other side of the building to engage another.
After that I entered the main square, where the bulk of the battle was raging. Over 40 trolls and several wolves, fighting individually or in small groups battling the swarming hordes. It was a sight I shall recall with a shudder forever. As I entered the area of the general melee, I was immediately beset by two swarming warriors. They both attempted to poison Shadowstalker, and one succeeded, he went down before I could even apply a poultice to his wound. Fighting on foot, I engaged the two warrior bees. When they flew away I waded into the general melee in the central square, going to the relief of the trolls we were there to help. In only a few moments the battle was won and every bee in sight was dead.
The moot had launched an attack upon the blood bee hive two days previously, and the moot leader felt that this battle had been in retaliation for that raid. For the most part the blood bees had been paralyzing the trolls, just as they had been attempting to paralyze us. But all 4 of the survivors of that raid had been among the 5 trolls drained of blood during the battle and were dead. The moot was however able to give us detailed directions to the location of the hive.
The hive had lost many, many bees this day. We hoped that it was temporarily low on warriors.
In the morning we rode directly to the hive. There was very little movement, Gronk took a shot or two at the bees we did see moving. I hung back so I could make a charge if the rest were attacked. There was one moving on the far side of the hide. I think it was Varis (it might have been Ceadda) who suggested that I move up and attack it. Against my better judgement I did. As I 3/4 suspected, it was an ambush. However I did succeed in drawing all the ambushers out of their hiding places. One of their attacks wounded poor Shadowstalker knocking him down and poisoning him yet again. I jumped to my feet and rode Shadowstalker out of danger, but once again he was paralyzed before I could even get a poultice upon him.

The blood bee queen emerged, and things seemed dicey for a moment. Then Varis unleashed a desperate spell charm that did grave damage to the queen and several of her brood. Within moments the queen and her last warrior were dead and the few remaining normal bees grew listless and trivially dispatched. We thoroughly searched the hive, and plugged up all the entrances, then returned to the Iceclaw moot.

User avatar
BattleChad
Posts:422
Joined:Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: AAR: Blood bee hive

Post by BattleChad » Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:35 pm

The Great Library of Throal thanks August Rey for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 70 Legend Points and 140 Silver

Dougansf
Posts:465
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 4:14 am

Re: AAR: Blood bee hive

Post by Dougansf » Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:08 pm

Travel Journal of Varis

August Ray wants to go take out the Bug Lady's Blood Bee Queen. I'm not sure how much experience all the others have against the Bug Lady, so I made sure to sign up. Before we left, we made sure to stock up on antivenoms and salt paste to cover ourselves with. Gronk wants to experiment with salt tipped arrows, which sounded worth the investment.

It took us 4 days to get over the mountains, nearly to the Iceclaw moot. The sound of bees flying nearby was noticeable at night. They didn't take a shot at us until the last day, flying down a mountainside at us. Gronk was able to kill the closest one, giving me time to prepare a Lightning Bolt. This wounded several of them, but didn't kill them, which meant the Bug Lady told them to focus on me. I was able to stay out of the way long enough that they were all killed. It might have been a mistake to show my new spell to the Bug Lady so early, but I was concerned the Blood Hornet would take someone out before we even get to the Moot.

As we arrived at the Moot, it was under attack by a huge swarm. There were trolls and wolves fighting bees all over the courtyard. We did some preparations, then headed for the gate. Gronk takes up a sniper position, using the high walls to his advantage. Ceadda and I stick together. August and his mount jump up the wall onto a building to attack a bee. This reveals a Blood Hornet hiding behind the building, which attacked August's mount. No sooner is the first Blood Hornet killed, than 2 more split off from the main group to attack us. Around this time, August's mount is paralyzed by the poison, and he's on foot. I prepared another Lightning Bolt for the Blood Hornets, and they flew out of range. Interesting, she doesn't often show such care for her Constructs. Moving around the building, into the courtyard to regain my astral arc, I moved a little too close to where they could get to me. I got poisoned, and quickly lost the ability to move. Fortunately, Gronk and Ceadda were able to finish them off quickly.

We helped the Moot and wolves to fend off the rest of the assault, some of the bees did fly away when our victory was assured. I quickly headed to the mess hall to start cooking for everyone to recover. The survivors tell us that they recently sent out a group to find the hive. The group returned with a location, but they were specifically targeted and killed in the assault. Gronk took the directions to lead us there in the morning.

We follow Gronk to the location of the hive. As we are about to arrive, we apply our antivenoms, salt, and other preparations. The area has a number of large burrows in the ground, and bees hovering above them. Gronk is sneaking about again, and is able to take one out before we're spotted. A Blood Hornet came out of one near us, and we're able to focus fire on it to kill it quickly. We start heading Northwest, where the largest burrow is. After some ranged fire, there's one bee still in sight between us and the big burrow. August charges it, springing the trap. August was suddenly surrounded by bees, and his mount is knocked down. Ceadda runs up to defend August, and the Queen emerged from the burrow to attack Ceadda. I'd already been preparing a Lightning Bolt for the sheer number of bees that suddenly appeared, but now I had a primary target. Tapping into my Desperate Spell Charm, I was able to deal a grevious injury to the Blood Hornet and the Queen, while killing a regular Blood Bee. Gronk leveled one of his salted arrows at the queen, and tapped into all his Karma to place it into her blood sac. The salt boiled like acid inside of her, and she writhed in pain for a few moments. Once the Queen was dead, the other bees hovered in place. Apparently the Queens are needed as intermediaries for the Bug Lady's control. We killed them all, and made sure all the remains melted away.

We delved into the hive, searching for anything of note. Perhaps some link to the Bug Lady. Sadly, nothing was to be found, so we collapsed the hive on itself, and headed back to the Moot.

The Moot was ecstatic upon our return and good news. I imagine they will truly begin to prosper now that they will only deal with normal threats. They gave us access to their antivenom supply and charms.

I'm curious why we were hearing the bees so far away from the Moot, but not in the direction of the hive. I suspect the Ants may be located a bit closer to Throal's gates. Perhaps they're even digging towards the Eastern border of Throal underground?

User avatar
BattleChad
Posts:422
Joined:Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: AAR: Blood bee hive

Post by BattleChad » Wed Oct 18, 2017 7:21 pm

The Great Library of Throal thanks Varis for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 70 Legend Points and 140 Silver

Locked