BECMI Chapter 406 – Shaky Opportunity
The ground rumbled.
The Mick and Laurentine stopped and turned around sharply.
There was a shaking and a groaning, loud and coming from the distance, the ground they were on vibrating like a great heavy vehicle was moving past, all at once.
The Mick’s heavyfoot anchored him against the effect, nulling the vibrations, even as Laurentine’s Magefoot insulated her from the effect by keeping her a few inches above the ground. Stones were hopping, wires were twanging, buildings were shaking… but the designs of them were solid and sturdy, and if things were bouncing off of shelves and out of cupboards all around while the trees were swaying and the waters were rippling, nothing severe was falling down.
That twitch in his tremorsense said something had just broken, however.
“Localized earthquake, not natural!” he shouted above the rumbling, jumping and landing on the Disk that unfolded smoothly out of his Masspack and caught him. He pointed, and his wife grabbed his Disk and was speeding into motion as he pointed.
---
The epicenter was only about two miles away, out on the edges of the grounds owned by the armed forces here and among the regular farms expanding steadily as the trees were cut back and ground cleared for more arable land with breathtaking speed.
There was a crack in the ground that went underneath a brand-new barn, and had collapsed it and sent it tumbling into the rift in the ground as a crashed and broken ruin. It was a good thing it was during the day, or the livestock would have gone down and in with it!
Mick and Laur came zipping in, a small crowd having already gathered to look down into the ground at the wreck of the barn, cursing and swearing. Seeing two senior Adventurers with full Independent ranking, basically empowered to do whatever damn well was needed to secure the safety and future of the Eismark Federation, brought them all straightening up instantly, those who’d had military service even throwing salutes off to them.
Mick returned the salutes calmly to the veterans. They were good, strong men who’d volunteered to lead the way in clearing the wilderness. Unlike most pioneering situations, they were also going to profit from it, as Commander Briggs looked after his people, and King Antius favored them over those coming behind, for good or ill.
“Get away from the edge of the crevasse! There’s something moving around down there!” he barked out, hopping off his Disk and instantly feeling the impact of something with multiple legs shifting down well out of sight. Given the echoes he was feeling at this distance, the damn thing had to be pretty freaking big, too…
His warning was enough to get the men there to start herding everyone back urgently, while he crouched down and added his fingers to his Tremblesense, trying to get a picture of whatever was down there.
“Six-legged creature, maybe a bug,” he reported quickly. “Forward and rear legs contacts over eighty feet apart. Weight at multiple tons. It be digging into the rocks, not treading on them,” he reported /aloud and in the Markspace to some suddenly interested individuals. “Wait, it just slammed something broad into the stone down there… back away further! RUN!” he shouted, hopping back onto his Disk.
The farmers and their neighbors promptly sprinted away as fast as they could.
The second quake was accompanied by a grinding vibration being pumped into the ground. The crack in the land widened further and extended crazily to north and south. Windows exploded out of their frames in the nearby houses, and the crack extended right up to the back wall of the home.
The fleeing farmers were bounced right off their feet, and had to lay there as the ground bucked, unable to get back up until it passed. With a groaning crack of protest, the last remnants of the barn fell right into the darkness below completely, swallowed up by whatever was down there.
-Dispatch team on my location immediately!- he /sent out at the higher authority levels, drawing a lot of very interested attention. -Laur and I are going in to find the source of these earthquakes!-
Without another word spoke, Laur hopped over the edge and descended, her Staff trailing cinders, the Mick right at her side and Laird poised to be drawn and Morph to full size in his grip.
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They came through the bottom of the Rift, emerging over the wreckage of the barn and its contents, for a moment framed by the sunlight filtering down from above.
Masks glittered on their faces as they spun around one another in a full 360, Devasight and Devilsight doing their things to ignore changes in illumination.
Something moved to the north, and Laur immediately scooted south out of the light as it lunged at them.
Massive segmented legs crisscrossed through the cone of light behind them as an insectoid creature the size of a great whale lumbered into the light. Four legs tore gouges through the stone and scree that had fallen there, sending shards of rock spraying, while the scissoring mandibles promised to cut them in half should they land.
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Laur’s Assay went off, reading the thing and displaying the information they needed about it.
“Earthquake Beetle! Immortal Tool!” she reported, meaning it was a creature that was created by Immortals for their own purposes, usually massive destruction, and had not evolved naturally in the slightest! “Creates earthquakes by anchoring itself and channeling vibrations from its carapace! Armor 35, 40 Hit die, 4 leg attacks and a bite, all the equal of adamantine! NOT an Immortal Creature!” she finished up.
“Four attacking legs!” swore the Mick, a smile creeping onto his face. “And forty gor-damned Hit Dice?!” Given the damn size, probably a Con score of 40, at least +10 per hit die, damn near 600 Health, and that was before its no-doubt hefty Damage Reduction...
-An Immortal Tool means it is not alone!- Briggs’ grim /voice interjected to all and sundry listening. -If it was alone, it would be an Immortal Herald or Envoy! How did it get there?-
“There’s a tunnel leading into this chamber!” the Mick said, taking the moment to race forward.
Titan-Fighting. Add a multiplier to your Dodge bonuses equal to the size difference between you and your enemy!
It was a bug. A very magical, very over-sized bug, but still a bug. He was very, very good at fighting bugs, and had paid for all the Favored Enemy bonuses against Bugs several times over.
Four size increments larger than him. Quintuple his Dodge bonus of +1 Dodge Feat, +1 Combat Dodge Feat versus selected enemy, and +1 Favored Enemy Dodge.
+15 Dodge bonus to AC!
He could read the attack pattern of the creature like it was moving in slow motion and broadcasting its intents to him. The four legs attacking was a bit of a new wrinkle, as few bugs attacked with their middle legs like that, but it didn’t really mean much at this point.
This was tight quarters, and Laur couldn’t get out of its reach to bombard it effectively, so he had to draw attention away from his wife and keep it focused on him.
Laird hissed out to full length, the Baneskull of a great mantis slapped onto the pommel of his Sword, and he was moving in at full speed, armor not slowing him in the slightest due to being a Crystal heavyfooter.
Titan Fighting turned his nominally straight and direct path into a jagged, crystalline zigzag of great precision, ducking under one strike, stepping aside from another, and even sliding under a lunge of the scissoring mandibles… the last one he punished with a thrust that parted chitin harder then steel and drew a vibrating shriek of outrage from the startled mega-insect.
Then he was abruptly underneath it, sliding by on his armored knees and shins like the ground was slick ice instead of rough stone.
He could see the thing was unnatural just by the shell configuration, as this was not a creature that had grown into its size organically, but likely simply just been created and enlarged itself magically. There were no gaps or layers like a normal bug would have in its carapace, doubtless the reason for its Armor Rating, but the great thing was adamantine was famously indiscriminate on what it could cut through… and it had legs, which meant joints and sockets, and those were a vulnerable point for bugs.
Chok!
His One Strike hewed deep, and he kicked away as the thing tried to drop upon him, definitely not used to something fighting it from beneath. The seam of the thorax connecting to the stumpy neck couldn’t be avoided if the thing needed to be able to move its head around at all, and Laur should be just about-
The Searing Rays burned with starfire heat into its shell, and did remarkably little damage as they did so, heating the carapace red hot for a moment before dimming to dark again. Still, it was enough to get the creature to raise its neck and head for a threat display before threatening to lunge at her, which nicely exposed that seam for him to take advantage of.
Laird arced up as he rose to his feet, cutting a clean circle and shearing at least a three-foot slice between the chitin of the thing as he did so.
A twitch of a massive spiked foot kicked him, but he was ready for it and simply used the momentum to slide further back, plowing across the stone and scattering rubble away from his feet as he did so, Armor and Ways of Stone soaking most of the hit regardless. Laird’s bright Golden edge and its Banefire instantly commanded the beetle’s attention, shiny bright attractive thing that it was fluttering around like a jeweled hummingbird on fire, and he was instantly rushing back to the attack.
-Eternal-grade bugs?- was Sama’s sudden /comment, and she had a whole different kind of hungry vibe in her /voice. -How many of them?- she almost /purred in the Markspace.
Rather suddenly there were a whole lot of very powerful individuals, all of whom had plenty of practice grinding against Bugs, a whole slew of Favored Enemy Masteries against them, and some rather impressive needs for Karma, all of them very focused on what he was doing.
The Mick found himself grinning as he deflected the first incoming leg away from him, his +4 Mobility bonus against Attacks of Opportunity from movement suddenly a colossal +20 on top of his +15. This thing could not possibly hit him if he didn’t want it to while closing… and it didn’t appear to have any skills to enable it to lash out quickly, meaning someone could draw its attack and open it up to others.
-Get a Senior Dispatch team ready and find out where that tunnel goes!- Briggs /ordered with a growl.
-If me old Team would like to prance about with a bug the size of a troop carrier, on me Ring!- the Mick /grinned.
His old team basically exploded into motion, dropping what they were doing to go get their Gear.
Eternal-grade Bugs, first kills, showing the newbies the way, something they’d never fought before, and the earthquakes generated made it a viable threat!
KARMA!
The Mick wasn’t sure, but it seemed like for a second there this Earthquake Beetle thing trembled. Perhaps it suddenly sensed hundreds of minds focused upon it, wanting to come here and beat the ever-loving shit out of it and reap that most precious of resources!
Laird chopped, and the other forward leg of the Beetle buckled and snapped under its weight once the joint was half-severed. That brought its head down right next to him, but his wife was on the job.
Fire crackled and shifted to lightning as he lovingly inserted Laird into one of the bulbous crystalline eyes of the thing, plunging it deep into a head the size of a horse before stepping away.