Monster of the Week

We fought an AHNKEG this week. Not being a D&D fan, I was not familiar with it. For those of you who are also unfamiliar:

The ankheg (pronounced: /ˈæŋkɛg/ ÆNK-eg was a huge insectoid monster with many slender limbs and large antennae. It burrowed underground and hunted from below.

The ankheg was an ambush predator that waited around 5–10 feet underground for prey to wander into position. The attack was quick, as the prey was crushed and ground in its mandibles and assaulted with acidic digestive enzymes. If a foe proved too difficult, the ankheg could also squirt acid to take it down. (Ankheg)

Our party was chasing a pack of wolves led by two werewolves that had kidnapped a baby. The trail circled a hole in the ground which we decided to investigate. Archie lit a lantern and approached the hole. Krupke with his fine broadsword (2d+1) and Petra with crossbow ready right behind her. As Archie's light peered into the depths, this monstrous insect lunged out. Archie threw her lantern, hoping to set the beast on fire. Petra's bolt flew true and pierced its chitinous armor doing some damage.

Krupke rolled a 4 on his attack and then a 12 on the 2d+1 fine broadsword which produced 26 damage, slicing the monster's head clean from the body. It was glorious!

The rest of the evening was almost anti-climatic even though we still had to fight a werewolf and its wolf pack, and eventually save the baby.

Our GM has played so many RPGs that he tends to pull from all of them for ideas. This tends to keep us on our toes since we never know what kind of monsters we are going to face.

Igor - Rest In Peace

Igor, the goblin bard and fire mage was a member of our party. He was full of life and always prepared to lift our spirits or light our grenades, and drink our wine.

He died the other day at the hands (claws? pincers?) of a giant beetle that attacked the party while searching for dragonet eggs in the nearby forest. Our Physicker was not with us so we poured all the healing potions we had into him in an effort to revive him. That was not enough and his companions, Petra and Krupke, picked up his body and raced through the forest in an attempt to get him back to the village in time for the physicker to save him. Alas we were too late.

The Lord High Mayor Rumford declared the funeral day a day of mourning for this hero of East Riding. Goblins from the Moon Wolf clan came to honor him and the goblin shaman, Moon Dawg led the services. There was much crying and knashing of teeth. Igor will be long remembered.

He is survived by his cat, Pudding.