The Stolen Candle - Chapter 2

Grappling is handled with a Fighting check

Kai tries to catch the possible acid wipy person...

Scrub scrub scrub your troubles away

The insect scream-hissing makes a surprisingly good loofah for the dragon hatching, the acid is neutralized by the fire, even in those hard to reach areas. During the process, the Xiticix expires.

Kai takes the swords, spear and rifle for his collection and likely discards the crispy husk fall to the ground.

Nicely done dragon friend and some nice loot ya got there. Should we head back with the good news?

Searching around, you will quickly find the other weapons from the first Xiticix that Got shot out of the sky: a second sword, a spear, and a rifle.Back at the hive, activity intensifies. You feel threatened as if an avalanche of ants has spied your picnic.

"There's a mound with a whole bunch of them over that way.... that's good news?" Kai asks tossing his spoils in the back of Echo.

Aww I forgot about them in the excitement. But look, more loot!

Tipolei gets back on top of Echo, ready to fire on the firsts Xiticix he sees...

Ana, feeling pretty useless after her inability to help in the fight, saw the unclaimed rifle and grabbed it. She started looking over it, it weighing heavily in her hands but not in a way that'd impede her ability.

"Oh yeah they have bad breath that's green and sticky... feels tingly on the scales." Kai states pointing to where he got hit with it.

Candle approaches Kai, examines the acid damaged hide. With her touch, the armor repairs itself, closing in and relieving an itch that he had been ignoring. "Poor baby dragon," she coos.

Knowing that the insect hive had grown agitated and will likely send reinforcements, you jump back into Echo, convince Kai to ride on top, and head back up to the road that leads around the hill.

On the back side of the hill, you find an old road that leads down toward the town. As you get closer, you can see that a large swarm is headed for the area that you were at, leaving the hive itself less guarded. Chay drives within a few blocks of the hive, hiding in an alley. Any closer and you'll be seen for sure.

The hive appears to be under construction, taller than the buildings around it, but incomplete. The walls are thin and have gaps. Unarmed workers trudge in with raw material that is being chewed into hive stuff.

"Kill the queen and the hive dies," Candle suggests.

It seems dubious. If you can flush her out, then maybe you can take her down in the open. But go inside the hive? You have no idea what you might have in there.

What do you do?

"That sounds fairly straight forward, Candle," Ben says. "It won't be that easy though."

Ben takes a deep breath, and mulls the scene before him. "We need to be on guard he says. It's only a matter of time before we have company. I'd be surprised if those two didn't alert others. When they don't check back in, there's going to be more bugs looking for the ones that were just dispatched."

To himself, he thinks, "We need some kind of help..."

"We should drop a big rock on it, one that can catch fire. Their wings seem flimsy." Kai states after sniffing the area Candle fiddles with and licks it.

"That's a plan," says Ben. "I was thinking about calling into Castle Refuge for assistance. Until then, we'd have to collect information. There could be more where these came from nearby. Anyone else have any thoughts?"

I think asking the Castle for assistance is a great idea Ben or at the very least, letting them know what's going on.

Chay chuckles a little. And I like the rock idea too Kai.

Is this the consensus? Four or five day trip to the Castle and back?