Strain is the right word. Whatever this is, it has you wrapped tight and stuck. It takes all the strength you can muster to get your arm unstuck. But two successes will do, and your fingers wrap around the cold metal of your right-hand lightsaber...
Vwum!
The teal blade scythes effortlessly through the binding with eight successes on your base Lightsaber pool. Cutting yourself free, you can immediately see what the binding was.
Thick tendrils of spider web.
Which must have come from the massive spiders skittering around you, hissing from dripping maws and ready to feed. Several have gathered near you, expecting an easy meal on an unsuspecting, sleeping little green fleshy thing. Many others wait on the branches around, eager to join the feast.
While all the spiders are bigger than you, you can't help but notice a particularly immense one waiting below, screeching and drooling.
---
SPIDER FEAST, Start of Turn 1
Higher branches
Spidres (C6) x4
Middle branches
Vera-Kin (LS10): 3/0 [OGu CL BL] [BGu] (7F)
Spiders (C6) x6
Lower branches
Spiders (C6) x4
Mother Spider (C10): 1(2A)/0
---
Ahhh!
Years later, Vera-Kin will confront a giant ice spider and soothe it with the Force. But now, she is young and impulsive, and she resorts immediately to defending herself from these creatures.
Use Block for +1 armor. Attack two spiders if they're near enough to her and each other for a Cleave.
She finishes cutting herself free then launches into an attack on the nearest spider before moving onto the second, dispatching them with quick jabs of her lone blade.
6-1 means that Vera-Kin bursts into action before the spiders can react. She finds out quickly that these creatures are very mobile. Still, a lightsaber is a dangerous weapon. With a wide slash, you dispatch the two closest spiders.
More skitter up and down to go after you on the branches, but the nearest rear back and expose their abdomens and begin assaulting you with webbing, running about you in an effort to tie you down. They halve their pools but, working together, accumulate five successes against you.
With the webs restricting you again, you face a penalty of five.
---
SPIDER FEAST, Start of Turn 2
Higher branches
Spiders (C6) x2: 2/0
Middle branches
Vera-Kin (LS10): 3/0 [OGu CL BL] [BGu] (7F) (Bound: 5)
Spiders (C6) x8: 2/0
Lower branches
Spiders (C6) x2: 2/0
Mother Spider (C10): 1(2A)/0
---
Their attempts to Bind you functions differently.
5-3 puts Vera-Kin acting quickly to defend herself. She only rolls enough successes to off a single spider, running in through and stumbling when she attempts to go for the second, only wounding it with a tap of her blade. It hisses and skitters back only briefly. Another spider scuttles forward to take the place of the slain one. No Cleave tap, I'm afraid.
The Guard tap does prevent them from binding you further, but it's hard to fight when you can hardly move.
---
SPIDER FEAST, Start of Turn 3
Higher branches
Spiders (C6) x2: 2/0
Middle branches
Vera-Kin (LS10): 1/0 [OGu CL BL] [BGu] (7F) (Bound: 5)
Spiders (C6) x7: 2/0*
Lower branches
Spiders (C6) x2: 2/0
Mother Spider (C10): 1(2A)/0
---
2-3, Initiative to the arachnid nest.
With your failure to do much in the previous turn, the spiders take that as their cue to strike. They lunge forward, trying to bite at you with dripping fangs. Nothing ends up in their maws properly, squirming around as you are, but the effort costs you 4 damage.
You then cut yourself from, finally getting your saber into position to burn through the webbing. Five successes leaves you totally unrestricted for now.
---
SPIDER FEAST, Start of Turn 4
Higher branches
Spiders (C6) x1: 2/0
Middle branches
Vera-Kin (LS10): 2(2A)/4 [BGu CL BL] [OGu] (7F) (Bound: 0)
Spiders (C6) x9: 2/0*
Lower branches
Spiders (C6) x1: 2/0
Mother Spider (C10): 1(2A)/0
---
You do exactly that as you score Initiatve, 5-3. Five successes is more than enough to dispatch two of your spidery opponents. The first gives a shudder then collapsing off your blade. The second shrieks, scurries away from the source of its blinding, and accidentally off the branch into the darkness below.
Instead of wrapping you up in webs again, the spiders avenge their fallen brethren by attempting to bury their poisonous fangs in you. You take 5 damage exerting yourself to avoid them, bringing your blades about to ward them off.
---
SPIDER FEAST, Start of Turn 5
Higher branches
Empty
Middle branches
Vera-Kin (LS10): 2(2A)/9 [BGu CL BL] [OGu] (7F) (Bound: 0)
Spiders (C6) x9: 2/0
Lower branches
Mother Spider (C10): 1(2A)/0
---
The rest of the spiders scuttle onto your branches. The hulking mother hisses aggressively but keeps her distance.
If only young Vera had Charge, she could escape from this situation easily...
Anyway, Vera-Kin recognizes that these spiders could tear her up easily if she lets them, despite her defensive efforts. Could she possibly use her Mastered Presence to seduce the Mother Spider into calling off her brood?
If not, Vera-Kin skewers two more spiders on her sabers before shunting them off the branches and turning to the remainder, ready to keep fighting.
I also notice you lack Leaping, so you couldn't get away as it is. Since you've already performed some Leaping feats, please select a Force power to trade for Leaping...
But yes, you absolutely could! It would take a Force point and a Force roll. You would still be under attack while trying to connect with the mind of the mother.
Worth it to try! And shoot. I will ditch Lifting, telekinetic powers have never been Vera-Kin's focus (or never will be, technically). Leaping is far more useful right now.
Since Vera-Kin can't leap away from the horde of spiders closing in around her, she decides to try a different tactic. She reaches out with the Force to the Mother Spider, probing its mind and trying to establish a connection between herself and the creature. She sends the vibe that she is not a threat and to call her children off.
She taps Balanced Guard to defend herself while the spiders continue to gnaw at her, doing her best not to kill any of them while trying to convince the Mother Spider.
(Can she send the vibes out to the spiders too?)
Vera-Kin isn't a Master yet! And sadly, this shows in her Force roll. You briefly touch the Mother Spider's mind and sense her overwhelming fear of you. It is too much for you to assuage in the midst of the fight.
I will allow you to decide whether or not you gain kills from Balanced Guard, based on that.