Makara IC

Adelinde sagely climbs up the rope and likely stands somewhere behind Ketha. A wise decision as Steam's eldritch blast rebounds off the door, nearly hitting Steam before impacting against a wall.

Steam & Parveth
The genasi starts to charge another blast, but stops. She looks at the edges of the door, how it continues past the wall, so any sort of edging around it would take much longer to accomplish than she would want to commit. Besides that, the door is tightly sealed, preventing any sort of cleverness she might have been able to try by manipulating water into the door, and then trying to turn the handle from the other side.
No, she sort of just stares at it for a moment, before weakly hitting a fist on it. "This...is a beautifully made door. I really want to be mad at it for not letting me though, but just darn it all if it's not just already prepared for everything I wanted to do. Well played...door." She gives the door an affirmative pat, before moving to climb back up. "Welp, that's all I had for that. Wanna search around and see if there's another trapdoor that lets in to it?"

"No...not really. If you really wish to still seek entrance, you could leave the door open as we search outside, and keep your ears open for if we call for you." Parveth begins picking up her supplies, making preparations to explore around outside a bit.

"And give you time away from me? Not if I can help it!" Steam also begins making preparations to leave.

The group leaves the building and goes back to the four way intersection. There they find a communication ant waiting for them. The moment it spots them they hear the Queen's voice in their minds. She states that she hopes they're well rested and tells them that her colony has made a bit of progress while they've been asleep. At current she wishes for them to go clear a path through a tunnel not far from here. She will send some of her forces to assist them and offers them a choice in what they would find most suitable.

---

It would be awkward and confusing to express the choices in character and you probably wouldn't wind up 100% understanding the choices you were being offered, so I'm doing this OOC.
I would like each player to vote on which choice out of the following they would prefer:

1) 1 Large Iron Ant

2) 1 Medium Fire Ant, 1 Communication Ant, 5 Small Black Ants

3) 1 Ant Swarm, 1 Medium Black Ant, 2 Small Jolt Ants

4) 1 Flying Acid Ant Swarm, 2, Medium Black Ants, 5 Small Black Ants

The group selects option 2. The communication ant with them leads them along to the section of tunnel that was mentioned. On the way the other ants join them.

After a while they reach what they assume to be the appropriate tunnel since they see other ants heading in their direction and the communication ant telepathically alerts them to the danger. (It doesn't use words, you just understand what it means.)

Ahead they see ants of kinds they've all seen before but one, a massive ant with long mandibles (and a bad attitude?). Those who know their ants would recognize it as a bull ant.

Several of the ants charge forward at the party before they can do more than get their weapons ready.

---

Battle Map in case you didn't save the bookmark.

Large Bull Ant dashes from D&E 4&5 to P&Q 4&5

Ant Swarm dashes from G4 to O4.

Flying Ant Swarm dashes from E6 to Q6.

Medium Black Ant B dashes from F7 to R7.

---

Initiative
Large Bull Ant: 21 (P&Q 4&5)
Ant Swarm: 19 (O4)
Fling Ant Swarm: 18.1 (Q6)
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (R7)
Adelinde: 17 (W4)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (W2)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (V3)
Ketha: 13.1 (V4)
Fire Ant: 13 (V6)
Medium Black Ant A: 12 (F3)
Parveth: 11.3 (V5)
Steam: 11.2 (W5)
Acid Spraying Ant A: 11.1 (B3)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (W6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (V2)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (V7)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (G6)
Small Black Ant A: 3 (G2)
Acid Spraying Ant B: 1 (C7)

Info
Ketha: 31/31
Steam: 24/24
Parveth: 25/25
Adelinde: 24/24

Adelinde mocks the large bull ant on how its mandibles are clearly compensating for something (its clearly proportionally small antennae of course) in the form of a limerick. All while hiding behind Ketha and weaving her Bard-y magic on the Dovahkin Dragonborn.

Stuff:

The massive ant seems disoriented by Adelinde's magic words, though it almost certainly did not understand their meaning.
Then the communication ant waggled it's antenna, which began to glow with a soft blue light, in the direction of one of the larger black ant and suddenly it was hurled backwards and into the ceiling and then fell, landing on it's feet looking somewhat worse for wear.
At the same time two of the smaller black ants with the party advanced upon the bull ant. One's bite failed to penetrate the chitinous plates, but the other found a softer spot to bite into.

---

Large Bull Ant fails it's save and takes 4 psychic damage.

Psychic Ant uses Telekinetic Thrust on Medium Black Ant B and moves it from R7 to N7 and slams it into the ceiling where it takes 8 bludgeoning damage and then falls to the ground (doesn't take falling damage though as the ceiling is  less than 10 feet overhead).

Small Black Ant 5 moves from W2 to R3 and misses Large Bull Ant.

Small Black Ant 1 moves from V3 to R4 and hits Large Bull Ant for 3 slashing damage.

---

Initiative
Large Bull Ant: 21 (P&Q 4&5) (disadvantage on next attack)
Ant Swarm: 19 (O4)
Fling Ant Swarm: 18.1 (Q6)
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (N7)
Adelinde: 17 (W4)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (R3)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (R4)
Ketha: 13.1 (V4)
Fire Ant: 13 (V6)
Medium Black Ant A: 12 (F3)
Parveth: 11.3 (V5)
Steam: 11.2 (W5)
Acid Spraying Ant A: 11.1 (B3)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (W6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (V2)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (V7)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (G6)
Small Black Ant A: 3 (G2)
Acid Spraying Ant B: 1 (C7)

Info
Ketha: 31/31 (Bardic Combat Inspiration)
Steam: 24/24
Parveth: 25/25
Adelinde: 24/24

Ketha bull rushes the bull ant and swings, energy dancing around the silver blade and jumping onto the ant when the attack lands successfully...

(Moved from V4 to R5)
(Booming Blade Attack Roll (Large Bull Ant): 10 (Roll) + 6 (Str) = 16)
(Damage Roll: 3 + 1 2 Great Weapon Fighting Reroll) (Roll) + 4 (Str) = 9)

Ketha manages to chop off one of the mandibles and push through to slash a large gash into the massive ant's body.

The fire ant moves around to the currently neglected side of the enemy ants and breathes out a gout of flames upon the nearest enemies. The flames come close enough to Ketha that she gets a little hot for a moment.

One of the large ants rushes forward to join the battle.

---

Fire Ant moves from V6 to Q7 and uses it's Fire Breath on Flying Ant Swarm (saves, takes ? fire damage), Large Bull Ant (saves, takes ? fire damage), and Ant Swarm (saves, takes ? fire damage).

Medium Black Ant A dashes from F3 to Q3.
Initiative
Large Bull Ant: 21 (P&Q 4&5) (disadvantage on next attack)
Ant Swarm: 19 (O4)
Fling Ant Swarm: 18.1 (Q6)
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (N7)
Adelinde: 17 (W4)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (R3)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (R4)
Ketha: 13.1 (R5)
Fire Ant: 13 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant A: 12 (Q3)
Parveth: 11.3 (V5)
Steam: 11.2 (W5)
Acid Spraying Ant A: 11.1 (B3)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (W6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (V2)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (V7)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (G6)
Small Black Ant A: 3 (G2)
Acid Spraying Ant B: 1 (C7)

Info
Ketha: 31/31 (Bardic Combat Inspiration)
Steam: 24/24
Parveth: 25/25
Adelinde: 24/24

Parveth
Believing this to be a worthy use of her magic, the wood elf utters a phrase, supernaturally marking the especially large ant as her 'prey.' Now properly set up, she fires an arrow at the beast, before moving herself and pushing Steam a bit farther back. No need to be too close, after all.

Steam
The genasi allows herself to be pushed back, accepting the generally protective role Parveth usually holds toward her. Out of clever comments for the moment, she raises a hand, and with a phrase that burns the air, invokes a large ball of fire into existence behind the large unfriendly ant. The ball lashes out at the swarm hiding behind the ant, likely cutting a swath through it. It also provides light in the otherwise darkened tunnel.

Combat stuff:

The Ant Swarm is burn to little crisps by the ball of fire and the massive ant looks like it's barely able to stand now.

A lot of ants dash forwards. Some of the smaller ants on the party's side bite at the other ants to little effect.

The massive ant brings it's rear close to Ketha and attempts to stab at her with its large stinger, but Ketha easily deflects it. Then it opens itself up for attack as it tries to move away from the ball of fire. Or it would have if Ketha's earlier magically effect hadn't struck it down.

Ketha takes a mighty swing at the swarm of flying ants as it buzzes over to the fire ant and she cuts many down and her booming energy knocks down a few more, but the swarm is still functioning for now and it takes a bit out of the fire ant.

Another large ant tries to do the same, but is unsuccessful.

---

Ant Swarm dies.

Acid Spraying Ant A dashes from B3 to N3.

Small Black Ant 4 moves from W6 to R6 and missing Flying Ant Swarm.

Small Black Ant 2 moves from V2 to R2 and bites Medium Black Ant A for ? slashing damage.

Small Black Ant 3 moves from V7 to R7 and bites Flying Ant Swarm for ? slashing damage (the damage is resisted).

Small Black Ant B dashes from G6 to P6.

Red Ant dashes from D2 to P5.

Small Black Ant A dashes from G2 to N2.

Acid Spraying Ant B dashes from C7 to M7.

Large Bull Ant attempts to Sting Ketha, but misses. Then tries to move, provoking an opportunity attack. Before Ketha can take the attack, it takes 2 thunder damage and dies.

Flying Ant Swarm attempts to move to Q7 and occupy space, provoking an opportunity attacks from Ketha.

Ketha takes the opportunity attack using Booming Blade, which hits dealing 6 slashing damage (after resistance).

Flying Ant Swarm takes 3 thunder damage from booming blade as it finishes moving. Then it bites Fire Ant for ? piercing damage.

Medium Black Ant B moves from N7 to P7 and missing Fire Ant.
Initiative
Flying Ant Swarm: 18.1 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (P7)
Adelinde: 17 (W4)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (R3)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (R4)
Ketha: 13.1 (R5)
Fire Ant: 13 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant A: 12 (Q3)
Parveth: 11.3 (W5)
Steam: 11.2 (X5)
Acid Spraying Ant A: 11.1 (N3)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (R6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (R2)
Medium Red Ant: 8 (P5)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (R7)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (P6)
Small Black Ant A: 3 (N2)
Acid Spraying Ant B: 1 (M7)

Info
Ketha: 31/31 (Bardic Combat Inspiration)
Steam: 24/24
Parveth: 25/25
Adelinde: 24/24

Adelinde moves up a little to keep behind Ketha as her attention turns to the biggest of the ants menacing the fire ant on their side. After a few moments of trying to think of something clever and coming up with nothing she just sighs in disappointment and berates it for looking kinda plain and uninteresting as far as giant ants go. Punctuating it with a somewhat half hearted strumming of a few chords.

Stuff:

The large ant doesn't seem too pleased with Adelinde's music. The communication ant turns to face the party and waggling it's antenna again, this time making no visual effect, but Ketha, Parveth, and Steam feel as if it's subtly helping direct their aim. A couple of the small ants on the party's side bite at the other large black ant.

---

Medium Black Ant B fails it's save and takes 4 psychic damage.

Psychic Ant casts Bless on Ketha, Parveth, & Steam.

Bless:

Small Black Ant 5 misses Medium Black Ant A.

Small Black Ant 1 bites Medium Black Ant A for ? slashing damage.
Initiative
Flying Ant Swarm: 18.1 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (P7) (vicious mockery)
Adelinde: 17 (T5)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3) (concentrating on Bless)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (R3)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (R4)
Ketha: 13.1 (R5)
Fire Ant: 13 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant A: 12 (Q3)
Parveth: 11.3 (W5)
Steam: 11.2 (X5)
Acid Spraying Ant A: 11.1 (N3)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (R6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (R2)
Medium Red Ant: 8 (P5)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (R7)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (P6)
Small Black Ant A: 3 (N2)
Acid Spraying Ant B: 1 (M7)

Info
Ketha: 31/31 (Bardic Combat Inspiration) (Bless)
Steam: 24/24 (Bless)
Parveth: 25/25 (Bless)
Adelinde: 24/24

Ketha, proud of a successful kill on the great ant beast, moves forward to attack the next ant ahead of her with a slice being brought from over her shoulder, holding the same kind of magical energy as before...

(Moved from R5 to Q5)
(Booming Blade Attack Roll (Medium Red Ant): 18 (Roll) + 6 (Str) + 4 (Bless) = 28)
(Damage Roll: 4 + 6 (Roll) + 4 (Str) = 14)

In a single swing, the red ant is cleanly bisected.

The fire ant struggles with the swarm attacking it.

The large ant near the flaming sphere tries to attack and push it's way through the line of smaller ants, but is fended off and winds up badly burned.

---

Red Ant dies.

Fire Ant misses Flying Ant Swarm.

Medium Black Ant A misses Small Black Ant 5 and takes 11 fire damage (failed save) for ending it's turn adjacent to the Flaming Sphere.

---

Initiative
Flying Ant Swarm: 18.1 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (P7) (vicious mockery)
Adelinde: 17 (T5)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3) (concentrating on Bless)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (R3)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (R4)
Ketha: 13.1 (Q5)
Fire Ant: 13 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant A: 12 (Q3)
Parveth: 11.3 (W5)
Steam: 11.2 (X5)
Acid Spraying Ant A: 11.1 (N3)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (R6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (R2)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (R7)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (P6)
Small Black Ant A: 3 (N2)
Acid Spraying Ant B: 1 (M7)

Info
Ketha: 31/31 (Bardic Combat Inspiration) (Bless)
Steam: 24/24 (Bless)
Parveth: 25/25 (Bless)
Adelinde: 24/24[/quote]

Parveth
Her former prey already taken down, the wood elf quicksteps to the edge of the tunnel, receiving communique from the psychic ant that she might have a line on one of the stronger ants behind the front line. Finding the spot, she mutters an arcane phrase, marking this new ant as her prey, before firing an arrow at it.

Steam
The water genasi moves forward, Parveth no longer directly in front of her to stop her. She raises her arms in front of her, firing a burst of red energy from one hand and directing the fire orb to circle around a pair of ants with the other.

Whatever:

Parveth and Steam take down a few more ants and once again the smaller ants and one of the larger ants attack and have middling success as a whole.

---

Acid Spraying Ant B and Flying Ant Swarm die. Acid Spraying Ant A makes it's save.... and dies.

Small Black Ant 4 moves from R6 to Q6 and misses Small Black Ant B.

Small Black Ant 2 bites Medium Black Ant A dealing ? slashing damage.

Small Black Ant 3 moves from R7 to P5 and misses Small Black Ant B.

Small Black Ant B bites Fire Ant for ? slashing damage.

Small Black Ant A moves from N2 to Q2 and misses Small Black Ant 2.

Medium Black Ant B misses Fire Ant.

---

Initiative
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (P7)
Adelinde: 17 (T5)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3) (concentrating on Bless)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (R3)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (R4)
Ketha: 13.1 (Q5)
Fire Ant: 13 (Q7)
Medium Black Ant A: 12 (Q3)
Parveth: 11.3 (W5)
Steam: 11.2 (X5)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (Q6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (R2)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (P5)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (P6)
Small Black Ant A: 3 (Q2)

Info
Ketha: 31/31 (Bardic Combat Inspiration) (Bless)
Steam: 24/24 (Bless)
Parveth: 25/25 (Bless)
Adelinde: 24/24[/quote]
[/quote]

Adelinde continues to taunt the larger of the ants near the fire ant.

stuff:

Adeline and the communication ant attack the two remaining larger ants, the later of which perishes after being slammed into a wall. Two of the smaller ants rip apart another on the enemy side.

---

Medium Black Ant B fails it's save and takes 2 psychic damage.

Small Psychic Ant refreshes and uses Telekinetic Thrust on Medium Black Ant A. Psychic Ant wins the skill contest. Medium Black Ant A is thrown to M2 and into the wall there and takes ? bludgeoning damage and dies.

Small Black Ant 5 bites Small Black Ant A for ? slashing damage.

Small Black Ant 1 moves from R4 to Q3 and bites Small Black Ant A for ? slashing damage. Small Black Ant A dies.

---

Initiative
Medium Black Ant B: 18 (P7) (VM)
Adelinde: 17 (T5)
Small Psychic Ant: 16 (W3) (concentrating on Bless)
Small Black Ant 5: 15 (R3)
Small Black Ant 1: 14 (Q3)
Ketha: 13.1 (Q5)
Fire Ant: 13 (Q7)
Parveth: 11.3 (W5)
Steam: 11.2 (X5)
Small Black Ant 4: 11 (Q6)
Small Black Ant 2: 10 (R2)
Small Black Ant 3: 7 (P5)
Small Black Ant B: 5 (P6)

Info
Ketha: 31/31 (Bardic Combat Inspiration) (Bless)
Steam: 24/24 (Bless)
Parveth: 25/25 (Bless)
Adelinde: 24/24

Ketha brings her sword back to her and thrusts it into the ant closest to her...

(Booming Blade Attack Roll (Small Black Ant B): 5 (Roll) + 6 (Str) + 1 (Bless) + 2 (Bardic Inspiration) = 14)
(Damage Roll: 3 + 6 (Roll) + 4 (Str) = 13)

...and then the Fire Ant rips apart the remaining large ant.

With the combat over, the communication ant relays a message that you're to join the rest of the ants in their push forwards for now.

---

Combat over.
You each gain 205 xp (there was bonus xp for you making it through this without any of your ally ants dying).

Now I'd like you to each describe how your characters help with the push forward through several tunnels and rooms of enemy ants. I'm hoping for at least a paragraph of descriptive text. Feel free to narratively kill a bunch of enemy ants and stuff. Just as long as it isn't over the top and is stuff that's reasonable your character could do. I'll reward XP for that when you guys are all done. (Yes Kal, you have to write one for each of your characters.)

Greatsword in hand, Ketha continued to unleash her onslaught by staying on the frontlines. She opted to focus on the larger ants that were close to her, energy leaping from her silvered blade whenever it made contact, while avoiding the swarms and leaving them to her allies when possible. She had learnt her lesson from her last encounter with them. When there were no ants nearby, she flung fire bolts and the occasional handaxe towards the enemy forces. During any lulls in the battle, Ketha would have Mibis look around and ahead for any enemy ants so she wouldn't get caught off-guard. By the end of her push, she was drenched in sweat and her blade in blood. Her swinging arm starts to tire out, but Ketha keeps marching forward to victory...

Parveth begins restraining herself as they continue on, leaving the majority of the work to the others, noting the fervor that Ketha seems to be launching forward with. The wood elf contributes still, but takes her time aiming and holds her shot until she spies the variant ants, or when normal ants are just about to attack an ally.
(She expends some amount of arrows, I guess?)

Steam, on the other hand, seems to be surprisingly into all of the ‘move forward, bathe things in flames, continue moving forward and bathing things in flames.’ She periodically makes small chat when the group isn’t fighting more ants, but of the most part she’s just sort of grinning to herself and…’cackling’ isn’t quite the right word, but it’s pretty close. Her clothes are mildly scorched as they approach the end of their charge.

Adelinde for her part follows along, initially on foot but after a while somehow finding herself riding on the back of the friendly fire ant. Alternating between playing her songs and using her magic to assist the others or taking shots with her crossbow from the back of her fiery mount when she grows tired of singing or playing.

While the going isn't particularly fast, what with the hordes of opponents you wade through, you feel like your group's help makes a notable difference as the ants you're allied with push ever ahead. After what feels like some hours, you're encouraged to relax a bit in the back just walking for a bit. After a bit of a walking rest a communication ant informs you that your group is being tasked with holding one of the tunnels at the fork ahead for as long as you can so that the ants can focus on pushing through in other areas.

You are lead over to said tunnel and walk for a while down it. It's not terribly long before you hear ants approaching from the other direction.

---

You each gain 300 xp and get the benefits of a short rest. Especially you.

Battle map

As the rounds go on, more enemies will appear. You guys can retreat whenever you want by attempting to move past the rightmost edge of the map and will get xp based on what you kill/damage.

---

Initiative
Steam: 20.3 (T4)
Flying Ant Swarm 1: 20.2 (B3)
Medium Black Ant 1: 20.1 (E3)
Small Black Ant 2: 20 (E7)
Adelinde: 19 (T5)
Medium Red Ant 1: 17 (D7)
Acid Spraying Ant 1: 15 (C4)
Parveth: 12.1 (S4)
Acid Spraying Ant 2: 12 (C6)
Small Black Ant 1: 11 (E2)
Ketha: 10 (S5)
Large Bull Ant: 9 (D&E 4&5)
Small Black Ant 3: 8 (C3)
Ant Swarm 1: 7 (D2)
Flying Ant Swarm 2: 6 (B6)
Medium Black Ant 2: 5 (E6)
Small Black Ant 4: 2 (C5)

Info
Ketha: 31/31
Steam: 24/24
Parveth: 25/25
Adelinde: 24/24

Steam
The genasi grins, rubs her hands together, and launches a blast of crimson energy at one of the smaller ants flanking the massive ant.

Enter the Gauntlet: