"My thoughts exactly."
Blackjack ties a rope to his grappling hook and throws it onto the nearest rooftop ledge.
Then he begins climbing.
Scarrow does the same, using her handy dandy grappling arrow.
She tries to start climbing as well.
Vindicator, given that he is wearing full plate, will wait for one of them to secure the rope before following.
You climb onto the roof. There you find...A CARD! And not just any card, a card with a spider on it!
The Steel Sentinel grunts at his new teammates climbing all over buildings now.
He stands guard and advises citizens away from the scene.
Miraculously, nobody was harmed by the spiders, merely webbed. Some move in slow motion, but this should pass.
"What's this, a calling card? How trite..."
Blackjack examines the card.
"Any of you magic-users know what this is?"
Ice commands shade to sniff it, perhaps she can remember the smell later if she smell it again.
Scarrow scans the area from the rooftop, looking for anything suspicious.
Scarrow calms her nerves and takes her time surveying the landscape.
Psykoblade seems somewhat taken aback by the Shelynite's apparent care, his wounds being fully healed. He assists her in her task, terrible as he is. " You bring thou goddess much favor with such deeds. "
Looking up to Blackjack, " Thou must bring the object to be examined, Blackjack. "
You see and sense nothing else unusual.
Scarrow calls down to the others from her perch. "Looks like the coast is clear, for now. Thanks for the help, everyone. Don't usually see too many powereds in the area-mostly just me, Blackjack and El Beasto around here. Good thing you all were around though, this could've turned messy."
Steel Sentinel clenches his fist and looks down at it.
"Yes. All these powereds are definitely here by coincidence, not through any of my cunning machinations."
Blackjack tosses the card down to Psychoblade. "Catch!"
With a extended arm Psykoblade retrieves the item and detects it for any magical properties.
El Beasto would be joining the others in conversation about the revelation of the card, but he is preoccupied performing various maneuvers on the now dead spiders.
As soon as Blackjack touches the card, it reveals that it does indeed have magical properties.
A female face pops up from the center and addresses the assembled heroes.
"HAHAHAHAHA! SO you've FOILED my PLANS have you? No matter, Aranea, queen of spiders will have her revenge....on YOU!" she cackles again, and then disappears.
"Wouldn't bet on it."
He tosses it down to Psykoblade for real this time.
"I think it just may be a tad magical."
El Beasto puts down the spider that up until that moment he had in the rack, "Wait a second! Is El Terrible really not behind this attack!?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
"No, this Aranea is clearly just a puppet figure, and El Terrible holds the strings in his oversized fingers."
"I agree Blackjack! Clearly this Aranea figure is only meant to put us on a false trail, away from the true culprit, El Terrible!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Right...but tracking down Aranea could still get us clues about what El Terrible is up to. So I say we focus on that."
"Aranea? Lucky she told us her name. That should make things easier."
" It seems this Aranea have spun a nefarious web of fear and violence, but for what strange purpose? Regardless, it seems we shall have to gather to defeat this femme fatale. "
Steel Sentinel slams his fist against his chest.
What a bunch of weird people...
Any idea if the magic of the card is traceable?
Balamar shook her head sadly. Queen of the spiders? Where was the quality of villainy from the tales..."Should we look for a giant web?"
"Might as well. From what we've seen so far, she's not exactly what you'd call "subtle".
Blackjack climbs back down to ground level.
"I'll ask around town about her. Maybe someone has seen something."
He bows low.
"As you wish."
" I suppose it would not be a bad idea for me to accompany you both if you would have me. Though it will be... difficult to realize who I am without all of this. My knowledge is useful to an extent. "
"Umm...I dunno about that. Think I'm gonna hang back, make sure everything's okay here."
When Melina leaves, Steel Sentinel turns to look at Psykoblade and shrugs.
"I...uh, well...probably isn't necessary to stay outfitted...." The armored man seems less sure and awkward than before as he holds his arms out.
When he does so, the metal covering him unwraps itself slowly leaving behind a young man in dirty blacksmith clothes and apron with ash stains. He quickly wraps his Earthbreaker in a piece of cloth before going out to the sitting area.
"Pretty place. Er...my name's Jasper." Jasper looks about the place and keeps his hands in his pockets.
Meanwhile, Blackjack slinks off into the shadows and vanishes. A few minutes later, Arthur steps out of the Lucky Rabbit, and seeks out his usual contacts for information about Aranea, queen of spiders.
Ice better return to his house, it's hard for maximilian to justify long absences .
ARANEA, QUEEN OF SPIDERS is relatively well known around these parts as a crazy, but harmless woman living on the streets of the city. Many find it to be surprising that the woman that allows swarms of spiders to live in her clothing turned out to be a maniac.
"We should try talking to here, maybe get a heal for her, if she's suffering from some sort of insanity."