"If the intruders goal is the central tower, all their trails show it to be so far, we may be able to catch up with them if they were forced into a detour."
He moves to the back stair and looks up, then over himself and his armor. As if wondering then deciding he hunches down and jump straight up into the floor above, landing slightly off balance. Speaking mostly to himself.
"Must be the mithral, didn't think I had the same range with all this on."
He turns around.
"I can pull anyone up that needs it."
"Yeeaaah, sure, the mithral..." Selena comments to herself, skeptic, as she flies up to the upper floor.
"After what Aunt Elie told us, I was fully expecting these plants here to jump and try to eat us." the haòf-succubus muses, before a thought strikes her "Say, do you guys think that the zombie fungus or whatever started here and then moved somewhere else?"
A smile broke on the witchwolf's face at the sight of the plants. As the others discussed climbing up, Aibek investigated the plants and vines in curiosity. Either paths was interesting...Aibek tried to make a mental note to discuss this area with Azerna. There may be something of interest to her.
As Nigrum flies, Aibek raises an eyebrow though it was likely less obvious with the additional dark facial hair. Aibek snickered at Selena's comment about it, before glancing at the plants again. Hearing Selena's comments about them gave the witchwolf a moment's pause.
"It's possible...though as they're outside it is likely outside...or if from a Tower, then the one is closest the docks...at least originally...they do look like they've spread between them...second mental note to find someone to help catalogue these later..." Aibek looked aside as if creating a mental lists in the air before the witchwolf turned to area everyone was climbing...
Having focused on the pursuit, he turns his attention to the plants for a moment as everyone gathers on the upper floor.
Adding his own thoughts on the matter as well.
"I would question why any plant would leave, if capable, an environment that can sustain it for one far less able such as stone and sand. Not to mention salt water plants and fresh water plants rarely have the ability to survive such a change from what I know."
Without looking into the source of the plant life, he could only guess. Still he felt strongly that the plants with in the tower were freshwater based, making their survival in a salt water location unlikely.
The species here are strange, exotic. It is possible that the pirates were somehow infected from the towers, and overwhelemed after they escaped. It might well be that the salt water and lack of other, habitable lands to take root in are what is limiting the spread of the creatures.
As Nigrum headed into the upper level, he noticed that the area was even more overgrown that rest. Vines spread between the area in thick ropes of green...and other, translucent lengths of...something.
Unfortunately, as Nigrum noticed them, something else noticed him...and three spiders the size of small horses attacked, there black armour having let them blend in with the darkness and shadows around him.
Only one of the creatures, the first to drop on Nigrum, managed to penetrate the thick armour he wore. But he felt more than fangs sink into his flesh.
Nigrum feels something flush into his blood. As if his body was infused with the determination and stubbornness of the residing soul it forcefully purges the venom from it's system. The foreign substance pools outside the wound and slides off his skin. For his part Nigrum only gives a slight shake of his head to clear the pale sensation before it disappears.
Azri finished making her way up, then focused on the spiders. Okaaaaay... casting a web spell was probably not going to work. With a shrug, she lobbed a bolt of force from her staff towards the crowd of spiders.
for
"Uh, if anyone else wants to get up here..."
Mihara curses under her breath as the vermin manifests. She draws her blades and goes for a strike, moving into flanking position with Nigrum, and aiming to pierce the spider's fleshy underside, avoiding any chitinous barriers.
The first spider continues to attack Nigrum, while the other two of the spiders recoil from the ladeis' attacks, and move to continue fighting with Azri and Mihara.
Nigrum takes out Tsui and brings it down on the annoying vermin.
The teeth were blunter than expected - odd, she'd usually thought of teeth as pointy - but they didn't seem to be magical, and Azri grinned as they sunk in rather less deeply than they could have, catching her hand in its mouth. She clenched her fist a moment later, sending a surge of deadly energy off of her hand and right into the spider's body.
for
"Well, looks like we're dealing with an infestation..." And that was fine.
"These things are huge!" the half-succubus exclaims, climbing up the upper floor and closing in on the spider that was gnawing at Azri.
Reaching out at the pony sized spider, the half-fiend grabs it by its mandibles, trying to restrain as many of its limbs as she can in the meantime.
Aibek finds the darkest part of the wall and with shadow-clad clawed hands briskly climbs up the wall. Once up, the witchwolf stands defensively while eyeing the spiders up, trying to determine how best to fight arachnids of ridiculous size...
The giantspiders continued there assault, undeterred by the additional attackers.
Aibek could see the scents of the people you were following heading away from you, across the bridge. There was no sign of them up here.
"Begone, pest!" Mihara snarls, furiously stabbing and biting at the spider she flanks with Nigrum.
Azri's eyes flickered and gleamed as she sent a curse at the spider attacking her, willing its powers to weaken so she could punish it properly. She was resistant to damage, of course, but resistant wasn't the same thing as immune... and making new bodies was a pain. She cackled a moment later, just to make sure the curse would stick around for awhile.
When the spider attacks the lich girl, Selena leaps at it, trying to stop it from attacking Azri further.
Getting bitten a second time rather hard even for him. He studies the creature and lashes out with Tsui again, taking advantage of it's position between his furry comrade.
Mihara and Nigrum crush the spiders remaining life, Mihara's strikes amputating the relatively thin appendages of the creature with neat precision, and Nigrum nearly severed the creature along it's carapace.
Selena grappled the third, even as Azri's magics took affect.
Mihara moves to flank the remaining ungrappled spider.
She feints idly for a second, waiting for Nigrum to strike to take advantage and attack from the opposite angle.
Grabbing the spider by one of its legs, Selena slams it to the ground with a leap, holding it still with one of her feet.
Nigrum moves on to the next spider, bring Tsui across this time.
Azri lashed out at the spider that was attacking her (which had suddenly looked like it was having second thoughts about fighting at all), her hand sheathed in crackling black energy as she punched out at it again. One of the nice things about this power was that she didn't need to strike very well, she just needed to smack her enemies in the first place.
for
The spider, unable to escape, was dispatched in short order.
A quick survey of the lair that this section has become reveals the remains of centuries of victims, and some treasures to match. In assorted coinage you recover nearly 900 gold pieces worth of money from the spiders, in various denominations and nationalities. In addition, you find 12 strange coins of a metal that you don't recognize at once, and radiate magic.
Most of the equipment has long since rotted away or been destroyed, but a recent kill contains what was probably a Dwarf before the digestion began, carrying a Mithral Short Sword that also registers as magical.
Azri focused on the odd coins for a bit, trying to divine their properties, as well as those of the short sword. She wasn't too worried about curses, but she didn't want to let anyone else get hurt by something unexpected if there was any way to avoid it.
The short sword is a +1 Called shortsword.
The coins, however, are covered in illusion based magic. Working out the exact details is awkward, as the language is one none of you speak, but you suspect it might be Shory or older. When touched a small symbol appears above each coin, apparently showing it's value. Given the values are marked in the metal themselves, this is either an impressive magical counter-fitting deterrent or simple vanity. Either way, they are likely valuable to a collector.
|
As the sounds of battle end, a subdued voice calls up, "A little help, please."
Once up, Ayreth makes note of Nigrum's injuries. Reaching up, she places her fingertips to his injured arm and casts a spell. Afterwards, she mutters an admonishment about being more careful.
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"... it comes when called, you say? ... Most interesting." Mihara comments, tucking the short sword away for now.
As the party deliberates on where to go next, she takes a moment to study the strange coins and attempt to discern their value.
"Wow, these spiders had more money than that most people see in a lifetime." Selena whistles as they take the coins "Anyone can determine how much time ago that Dwarf got killed? Could he be one of the slavers?"
Azri knelt down to take a look. She wasn't an EXPERT in the healing arts, but she had at least a little bit of understanding when it came to biology and such.
...It might not have been enough, though.
The Dwarf had died very recently. Although the venom used by the spiders melted most of his internal organs, reducing them a soupy slurry they fed upon, the skin is still free of marks or blemishes. It's likely he died within two or three hours.
"So, should we move on?" Selena says, looking around the room to see if there was a way to get to the upper floors of the tower.
"Yeah, that should be fine." Azri said, placing a hand against her side and channeling negative energy to rebuild her physical form. That was never going to stop being useful. With that, she started ascending, once again keeping an eye out and looking for any trouble that might be waiting for them.
(It never even occurred to her not to ascend. They were the rulers of this city, darnit, and had the right to go where they darn well pleased.)
This floor has been overun. The stonework is a rare sight, as plants, vines and various other animal products cover the floor, ceiling and walls. Unfortunately, the smell of many of those animal products make it difficult to find any scent trails on this floor.
You see and hear evidence of a number of animals, and glimpse strange and exotic creatures occasionally. Some of them are quite large, but not hostile. The floor seemed to mostly support the spiders you defeated, and the webs slow you further.
Eventually, you find the main stairwell is still there, although it has been damaged by the vines. A bridge heading to the tower to the North East is also present, but has been destroyed, a 30 meter gap of air leaving it inaccessible to most.
But of course, you aren't most...
Azri looked over at Nigrum. "Anyone got a rope? You can just jump to the other side with it." she told him. That, of course, was a simple euphemism for flying over, since he seemed to be good at it... but hey. The point was, that tower probably needed to be inspected, and a rope they could crawl across would be nice and reliable.
"I have plenty, of course, but..." Selena nods to Azri, glancing at the ascending staircase "Maybe they went to the top of this tower instead of the other? They could just have started from the other tower if they wanted to go there. What do you guys think?"
As she asks the others for opinions, Selena looks around the stairwell to see if there are traces of someone recently passing trough there.
There were no signs of the mysterious others on this level at all. Your last trace of them was on the level below, and heading into the infested tower across the bridge. Of course, heading directly up or to other towers might allow you to get ahead of them or get to vital areas before them, but it means you may also miss them doing whatever it is they're planning...
"Well it seems unlike us they can not overcome the distance in these gaps among the towers easily. If we knew where they were going we could cut them off. As we do not I think it best to follow, if nothing else the path should have less dangers due to them and if lucky they will be weakened."
He did not like the jackal tactic, more fitting for gnolls, but these people may have connections to those that poisoned Halfblood and the slaver attacks. Little pity or honor was to be had.
"I agree. There'll be plenty of time to clean out these towers later, but for now we should track them best we can and see what they sought to acquire."
Aibek quietly followed the others, looking, listening, drawn into the flora and fauna, appearing to make another mental list while the others decided where they were going. The witchwolf had not expected this when preparing to enter this Tower. Aibek pushed homesick pangs that the plants brought up back while curiosity took over...
Offhandedly, Aibek tapped the side on their goggles before commenting aloud, while still looking around, "The traces that these pick up seem to show the most recent people here, other than us, crossed over the bridge on the previous level." Aibek said, pointing down for a moment, "None of them seemed to have tried at all to come up here... odd... unless they somehow saw the spiders earlier than us - or already knew about the damaged paths...and/or they knew their goal was in another tower -- or they were just really bad at climbing. I don't think I saw anything coming back..."
Aibek shrugged, falling quiet, amber eyes behind dark lenses still mainly on the plants and animals...
Selena listens to Aibek, then nods briefly after.
"Yup, I think Aibek's right: they probably crossed the bridge on the previous level. We last found traces of them there: I think we can just cross the bridge here and descend from there."
After continuously looking around at the plants and animals, nodding while listening to Selena talk, Aibek suddenly stops while looking in the direction of doorway to the other tower and moves swiftly towards the door. The witchwolf stops in the shadow of the doorway, looking carefully out with obvious confusion on Aibek's features. Amber eyes fixed on something beyond, the witchwolf takes a few deep breaths before commenting again...
"I...many of plants here aren't really local but..." Aibek's muzzle nose twitches while the witchwolf taps the side of the goggles again. "I'm getting traces of something...something really different. It's really standing out, like unfamiliar and unrelated to everything else which, among so many animals and plants from everywhere, is really...unexplainable. I can't even begin to attempt to identify it..." the witchwolf said in a voice that was a mix of curiosity, confusion, and concern.
Aibek had seen some weird things in this and the Shadow Plane and for something to be utterly alien to both was fascinating and worrying...
Mihara turns to fox shape in a moment, her three tails swishing as she sniffs the air for the scent Aibek spoke of. She turns back to kitsune form shortly thereafter.
"I'll say. I wish I could provide any insight, but I've never smelled such a thing either."
Aibek pondered the question out loud, eyes still on the scents that Aibek can see through the lenses, "...the most recent people are more likely a more immediate threat I think - both in being more recent and very likely being related to last nights attacks. Our last traces of them are from them heading into the Southeast Tower from the lower level. This...whatever this is...has likely been here awhile comparatively, the traces are much smaller and only stands out and distracted me because they are so...off but that doesn't mean it is a threat so can likely wait if the only sign of it is a tiny trace scent from the Northeast Tower...
If we go through the Northeast Tower to get to the Southeast Tower to follow the bigger threat we may get more on this but I can't be sure of that and I would certainly not prioritize it. With all of the towers interconnected I cannot say which anything is in just by these traces, we may find them all together, but for now I would think we should pick which route to get back to tracking the more recent people. Which route can we better do that?"
Aibek made no movement one way or the other, though the witchwolf's eyes were now on the large gap and trying to figure if it was safer for those who could not leap/fly to go this way with the large gap and well over 100 ft drop below them or to try to climb back down the 30ft to the last level and follow them more directly. In this late morning sunlight, the shadow creature was unsure of how well anything they could do work on that bridge nor remember anything about the bridges between the Northeast and Southeast towers...
The bridges between the towers effectively form a spiral, each bridge connecting to the previous tower on the same floor it connects to the main tower. The two bridges connecting the North East and South East towers seem to be intact, from what you can see.
It looked like hopping over to the towers would also help them circumvent damage to the steps, given what the vines had done here. (And, all right, Azri was mostly just kind of curious about what was over there and why the bridges had been destroyed. The more some part of the city tried to be hidden from her, the more she wanted to know about it.)