Expedition 19: Kill the Mantises

*Or, "Nexrin and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day"*

### Summary

We attempt to solve the town's mantis problem, but end up in a predicament ourselves as the mantises turned out to be quite formidable enemies.

### Detailed Writeup

It’s a gray and stormy morning as our party of adventurers heads out to sea. Brightstaff has rented a sailboat to get us to the isle of Fer-Roc. Joining the determined monk on his journey are Calliope, Jaime, Nexrin, and Uzmir. The five adventures seek to find and destroy the hive of mantises that have recently attacked the *Everlost* of the Verrlek shipping company. All the local shipping companies have pooled resources and offered a bounty of two silver pieces a head for the insects and two gold should the nest be eradicated.

The trip to the island is uneventful barring the chill and damp from the rain that continues to fall. As we approach the island a few of us begin to hear a loud buzzing from above and spot 2 steely gray mantises, each the size of an ox, hovering just over the edge of the cliff shore. Brightstaff also notices another emerging from the water near the boat. However rather than gray this one is a bright iridescent blue, as if it were made of sapphire. Earlier Jamie had mentioned rumors he had heard of the mantises acquiring colors depending on their environment, sometimes even granting them elemental powers. This seemed to one such mantis. The party braced itself to combat the beasts, and a brutal fight ensued.

Brightstaff attempted his usual acrobatic flourish to grapple one of the gray mantises, but the bug dodged just as the monk would have made combat, and Brightstaff fell into the drink. The rest of us made our best attempts at ranged combat as Brightstaff climbed back onto the boat, but the mantises were surprisingly resistant to our attacks. As the blue mantis made its way onto the deck it let forth a icy blast from it’s mandibles, clipping Calliope and Uzmir, but hitting Nexrin with full force. The gray mantises then landed on the deck lashing out at Uzmir and Brightstaff, with the dwarf just managing to scramble away from their claws. Brigtstaff then sent a dizzying number of blows at the bugs, significantly injuring and disorienting them. The rest party then focused their attacks at the stunned opponents, with Brightstaff felling one. However the blue mantis had taken the opportunity to position itself for another gurgitation of frost and loosed it at the fray, once again hitting Nexrin head on and injuring Brightstaff and Calliope to lesser extents. The blast also killed the remaining stunned mantis, letting the adventurers focus on a single foe. We threw everything we had at the creature, with most magic having a significantly dulled effect. Eventually Nexrin got his retaliation against the beast, plunging his spear down the mantis’s gullet just before it was able to spew frost again, removing the beast’s head and ending the battle with a final blow.

After recovering some of our wounds we patrolled along the coast of the island looking for any signs of the mantises or their nest. Jamie spotted a mantis skimming the surface of the water about a hundred feet off the coast. Meanwhile Nexrin pointed out a couple goat carcasses, nearly stripped to the bone, hanging off the rocks of the isle. The ranger noted that it was a strong indication the nest was nearby. The party briefly discussed our course of action and decided it prudent to go after the lone mantis first, rather than have it find us at a more compromised position. Unfortunately the mantis wasn’t the only one caught unaware, as we discovered it was actually a trio of the bugs, this time 2 green 1 red. We once again prepared for a fight.

Armed with knowledge from our previous mantis encounter we guessed the red mantis spewed fire, and fearing a blaze aboard the boat we focused on that one. Brightstaff stunning it and then leaping to one of the greens before one again plunging into the water. Jamie, unable to reach any targets with his claymore, began flinging javelins at a green mantis hovering just out of reach, turning it into a pincushion. The green mantis retaliated with a stream of putrid acid hitting Jamie and Calliope directly.

Brightstaff continued his flurry of blows from the water, the others doing firing spells, arrows, and javelins from the deck and avoiding the caustic attacks from the green mantises. Unfortunately in the heat of battle we had forgotten the red mantis stunned at the top of the mast. Eventually the beast shook off the concussive blows from Brightstaff and released a plume of fire, igniting the ship, even through the torrential rain. As the green mantises fall to the party, most of us refocus our attention to the fire mantis and the burning ship. Nexrin scales the mast hoping to engage the monster in melee. Meanwhile Calliope quickly soaks some sail cloth on the deck and douses the fires burning the ship. Jamie however dives into the sea hoping to collect at least one of the mantis heads for the bounty, succeeding despite steel swimming attire. The swordsman climbs back onto the ship and joins Nexrin up the mast hoping to end the fight before the creature releases another bout of flame. They each land blows wounding the creature significantly, but it’s a mental assault from Uzmir on the deck that fells the last mantis.

The party takes stock after the fight. Pummeled even more thoroughly than before, they are in no shape to scale the cliffs of Fer-Roc, and face off against more mantises, and who knows what else on the mysterious island. The adventurers return to Vrall with 5 mantis heads in hand. Brightstaff attempts to negotiate payment for the sixth, but is unsuccessful without proof. The group splits the reward evenly and heads off to deal with more mundane tasks, many of them planning a return trip to finish the job.