[HQ Ignorance] Scene 112: The Great Mouth

[Nicolas Hughes]

> 
> The Fourth nods, "The bitch is mine..."


Aalmon barely nodded in response, caught up in his own thoughts. Looking at that gaping maw and the sheer number of claws there was only one way, it was all very well for Sir Ethilrist - that self-flaggelant probably secretly enjoyed it - but the Arrolian rather doubted he would enjoy it so much.  Standing toe to tentacle with that monster was obvious suicide and sneaking up on it probably impossible even if there was anything behind it but an endless drop straight into Hell.

He would need all the help he could get. As he moved away from the growing noise from the elf he let himself feel the essence of his prayer book and its blessing of fearlessness washed over him. He reached out to the harsher power of his spell book and it unleashed as much of its essence power as he dared as the joy of its power gave him the toughness he would need.

He held onto the thought that this monster was fomenting the wars in that land above that seemed so distant, letting his feelings against those wars brace him against the horror to come, for ordinary bravery would not be enough. Grasping the ricasso of the great dark blade in his off-hand he gave his silver amulet a kiss as he cast his spell to bear suffering.

Readied, he waited for the frenzied cultists to be distracted a moment. He had seen enough of their chanting and frenzy, and was well enough trained in appreciating such strange customs that a mimicry of their chanting and frenzied movement might get him up close to that maw. Then he would dive past the claws, cheating the demon of its chance to rend him and feed the maw in pieces - there was no way to avoid that maw so better to go in willingly and still able to act. 

"Damn sword had better be as good as you said it was" he muttered "or I'll never get back out."

[OOC: pretty much what that implies, his  "tactic" is to get past the claws and teeth (plus whatever other chaos horrors it has in the way of tentacles etc) by taking a headlong dive into the maw. Inspired by the story of how Sir Ethilrist defeated the Hungry Jack, there are other similar Gloranthan myths but I think that's the one Aalmon would take as inspiration. With a shortened grip in the sword he then has to try to hack/stab/cut his way out before he suffocates or otherwise suffers a horrible fate in there. If this was HQ2 there are special rules to cover this sort of thing. Spending lots of HP is definitely an option]