Tibor seems to have accepted her lot in life. She complains about the length of time we are down here. I continue to take care of her bodily and emotional needs. We discuss what to do next and determine that we must take this queen out. Shaw scouts ahead to have a good look at the chamber ahead to assess the contents fo the Queen’s lair properly. I stay back with Tibor and show her how to use a crossbow that she may use to shoot at the queen. As Johnathan and Thorgrim prepare themselves for the upcoming battle.
Shaw comes back to tell us that he saw the queen who was tending some eggs and there were 3 newly hatched Ankhegs feasting on 2 dead Ankhegs which appear to be the ones we dispatched of yesterday. This is disturbing as they would’ve come near us while we were resting. We discuss the exact plans for battle and then continue onward.
Shaw and I take the lead through the tunnel. We stealth through, however, I fail terribly stealthing through. I take a breath of water via sheer instinct, even though I do not have to and then out of another ancient survival instinct I begin to cough and splutter making some noise before I realise what is happening and I clap my hand around my mouth and stop immediately.
Johnathan comes behind me, followed by Thorgrim holding two torches. The sounds in the cavern have stopped and are silent. I cross the water to the main side of the cavern, I see some larvae feeding off to the side which Johnathan walks over to. I get an instinctual feeling and look up to see the queen above me but she quickly moves over to Johnathan and her babies. I yell out to warn Johnathan and burst forth into my starry archer form. Johnathan moves very quickly away from the larvae who immediately burrow down into the rock below. Thorgrim moves further away as well, takes a potion of speed and tries to scare her but it doesn’t work so well. Shaw takes a shot at her with his bow. I unleash my starry fury at her but they miss. I start to feel rage at missing. We all attack turn after turn. I continue to miss my attacks toward the queen making me angrier and angrier. The Queen is eventually taken out by an attack done by Johnathan. Another Ankheg who has heard the commotion has also come to defend the queen but as I prepare to unleash my rage at the additional Anhek, two larvae come out of no where and attack me enough to render me unconscious.
I awake to Thorgrim giving me a healing potion and the scene that all of the attacking Ankhegs are slain. I am angry that most of my attacks against the queen missed and that the bloody creatures managed to take me down. We destroy the eggs with fire. We scout down a little to the south where we find a second hatchery which we also destroy with fire. I look to a tunnel to the west and see a stoned up wall that definitely was not built by any Ankheg, and Shaw scouts to the south to see an Ankheg feeding a cow to some other newly hatched larvae. We retreat back to the camp and to Tibor and take a rest, tend to our wounds and sharpen our weapons. Tibor is very happy to see us.
Once we’ve taken our rest, we realise that there is an easier way to get back to the hatchery through a tunnel to the East and we follow it through back to the hatchery, back to the stoned up wall. We begin to remove the stones to see what is behind the wall. Inside the small room is a small red raised alter covered in a taffeta red cloth. There are crude drawings on the walls of lizard-like people and there is a brown in the alter. We also find two vials, one with a red liquid and one with a yellow liquid vial which we take. There are labels on the vials in a strange language that one one present can read. Thorgrim tries to detect magic but cannot see anything. Thorgrim takes the vials and the silver bowl so that we can take them back into the town to see if anyone knows anything about them. There are the bones of a Kobold wearing a red tabard with draconian symbols on it. It seems that he secured himself in here and died in here. Possibly to protect the altar, possibly to protect himself. He may have been here more than a year, probably less than five. Likely around 2-3 years that he’s been dead in here.
We continue to the Southern hatchery, where we find more eggs, more larvae, some of which are hatching and some are feeding off the corpse of a cow, which we set out to exterminate. In the fight with the larvae, another full grown Ankheg comes down from the ceiling with another cow corpse intended to feed the larvae. We dispatch of the creatures and continue to look around.
To the West it looks as though the tunnels just circle back around to where we were originally camped. But to the East we see another rubbles up area. We get curious thinking that perhaps there is treasure or something behind the rubble. We enter and end up having a gelatinous cube which engulfs Thorgrim and renders him unconscious.
We are able to dispatch of the cube fast enough, but Thorgrim is still covered in acid and taking damage. I rush over to heal him but to stop the damage, Shaw and Johnathan attach a grappling hook and rope around him to prevent them taking on acid damage and drag him over to the water stream. He requires a further heal along the way but he is successfully thrown into the water and saved from acid damage. Several of his possessions are rendered useless and/or completely destroyed, including his clothing. He does however, still have his Mithril armour.
We do go back to check the room with the gelatinous cube including a +1 short sword, and 15 rough cut gems, which would be worth about 100gp once cut and polished.
We make our way back to the logging camp to have a long rest.
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