Korvosa Unchained - CotCT playtesting new rules (Inactive)

Game Master Darkness Rising

Lamm sneers again as Tyenar's attacks both go wide. "Stupid fairy. Like the Crown gives two clucks about some ambassador with a bit on the side."

He has gradually regained some confidence, although he still looks warily at Juliet's blade and Lorick's fists.

Xenia is up.

Xenia concentrates on the devil, making the bearded monstrosity react, if briefly, to the attempted attacks by Lamm's lackeys. As she does so, so speaks a few easy words to a simple spell. A moment later she calls out.

The powers of Cheliax do not condone those who would corrupt or threaten their ambassadors.

She then looks to the bearded devil and calls to it in Chelaxian:
Destroy.

The devil then looks down at Ladzlo and Davor, snarls, then throws back its head and roars as it swings at the pair of criminals. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are Ladzlo or Davor), the blow is just high, barely going above their heads.

Sadly, neither of the lieutenants is fooled by Xenia's illusion this time round.

The fight between the Lambs and some of their adult allies against the remainder of Lamm's goons continues, with hoarse shouting and feeble cries of pain. Hookshanks draws his whip (laced with nails and shards of glass) and flays about him, almost heedless of friend or foe; Tybalt dances between bodies, stabbing seemingly at random; the small combatants (Timmor and Anders among them) cannot be seen.

Sia draws a dagger from her belt and stabs feebly at Lamm.

She misses him completely, but at least she doesn't drop her weapon this time. Beneath the sheen of sweat on her brow her skin is taking on a greenish tinge.

Ladzlo and Davor ignore the illusory beast Xenia has created - Ladzlo moves in behind Juliet, attacking her, while Davor focuses his wrath on Otto. "I hatesh shkellies, I doesh."

Tyenar lashes out at them as they move, missing Ladzlo but striking a glancing blow at Davor, who seems almost not to notice.

Ladzlo leers at Juliet as he stabs at her repeatedly: "You an' me, girlie, we're finally getting to it, hey? Had this date coming, din't we?" Juliet manages to parry one of the attacks, and her riposte hits him squarely in the gut; he grunts in pain, but stays focused.

ROUND 3

Lamm is suddenly a blur of movement: one moment he's in the middle of things, and the next he's back on his throne. He moved impossibly fast - magic is clearly involved, somehow.

He bares his teeth at you all, in a combination of a taunt and a snarl: "You wanna come at the King of Spiders, you gotta take him in his nest..."

With that, he kicks at a hidden switch: the throne drops with a muffled thud into the room below, taking him with it.

Lorick is up, then Xenia, Tyenar, Juliet, Evelyn.

Tiptoeing round the edge of the mêlée, Xenia is able by careful positioning to cast a spell that enmeshes both Davor and Ladzlo while avoiding her companions (it inevitably means that there is consequently nobody between her and the lieutenants, but life involves a little risk now and then).

The half-orc looks bemused "Hey, looka the pretty lightsh!" - and then immediately concerned "Hey! Whersha lightsh!" He gropes about, blindly.

Ladzlo is however far too focused on his bloody carving up of Juliet to be affected.

Lorick, Tyenar, Juliet and Evelyn are up.

Lorick pauses just for a moment in his almost uncontrollable rage to lock eyes with the shivering Sia. He drops his sack at her feet It's got two cures and antitoxin in there. Stay alive and wait for me. Wait for me and rushes into the darkness.

Otto is crushed with little ceremony and Evelyn curses under her breath. She curses a second time as Juliet is stabbed repeatedly, and a third when Lamm disappears and Lorick goes after him. Forced to act quickly, she ducks her light frame through the crowd and to the opposite of Ladzlo. With a quick thrust, she jams her longsword into the mans back.

She shouts past him to Juliet "This situation is out of control. Lorick and Lamm are gone, we need to regroup."

The pain comes quick, three times, Ladzlo ducking Juliet's blade and letting loose a viscous series of stabs with his daggers. Grunting, Juliet pulls Spite back as her vision clouds, momentarily going black. If I'm dying tonight, that pervy a&~~+%#'s going with me.

"Much nicer experience than shacking up with you, I'm sure."

Stepping back, Juliet flourishes her blade in three quick swipes and then bracers herself to parry the counterattack, spitting a mouthful of blood on her nemisis as she does so.

"I've got some in-and-out for ya, Greasy. Enjoy it, its your last!"

Eyes still on Ladzlo, Juliet yells. "Well get this horser off me then, kid!"

Ladzlo coughs up blood as Evelyn's longsword pierces his back, entering a lung. His eyes widen in shock as Juliet skewers him; his daggers fall from suddenly nerveless fingers.

Dropping to his knees, he pats helplessly at his wounds with stupefied hands before reaching out imploringly to Juliet; he gurgles, a bloody spray of foam on his lips.

...

"O girlie, you've - you've done for me..."

...

"...you've done me good..."

...

The arms fall limply back to his side and Grease-Fingered Ladzlo slumps forward in a heap, never to move again.

Tyenar gets more and more panicked as he misses every attack against Lamm. Even Ladzlo's demise, that filled the Sylph with a bit of relief, only serves to further show Tyenar how he has no actual combat experience whatsoever.
Still throwing glances at the bloodied corpse of Ladlzo, Tyenar flails wildly at Davor.

Knowing the illusions are not of any use at this point, Xenia ceases concentrating on them, and instead moves over to the bag that Lorick dropped, picks it up, and draws one of the potions, which she hands to Juliet, before offering the bag to Sai to allow her to consume the other.

Need both of you strong to kill that sleaze.

Amazingly, even with Davor blinded and stunned, Tyenar manages to miss the half-orc with each attack.

The Lambs and their allies may be on the side of righteousness, but Lamm's thugs are brutal - and they enjoy their work. Hookshanks throttles one of his young charges with his whip, his face set in a cruel smile as he does so; Tybalt is beset by three goons - he takes them down, but they take most of the left side of the elf's face with them.

Sprawling to the floor, Sia's shaking hands tip the contents of the bag onto the floor: it's as Lorick promised, there are cures in there. She desperately grabs the vial of antitoxin and pours it down her throat, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. She cries, softly. "I can't - I can't feel my legs..." She wraps her arms round herself and shivers, despite the sheen of sweat on her forehead. "so cold..."

Davor paws helplessly at his eyes, trying to restore his sight.

Juliet smiles as Ladzlo slumps, the Kid coming into view behind him, Evenlyn's longsword thick with blood. "Ah, nice job, Evelyn! Now let's-"

Whirling to look for Lamm, Juliet's words die in her mouth, Lamm gone, apparently into the ground. Sia, writhing on the floor, pale and sweating brings a quick stab of pity. Nothing I can do, looks like. And the Jaw-

Lorick.

Gone too, probably down the spider's hole, alone with Lamm and his pet, whatever that thing is. Juliet's hand squeezes the potion just placed in her hand; the glass cracks in her grip.

__________________
LORICK
__________________

The opening of the throne to whatever lies beneath is a 10 foot by 10 foot hole; it's also around a 10 foot drop to the deck beneath.

Lorick lands, on his feet no less. It takes a moment for this lower deck to come into perspective: the light is odd. There's no light source within the deck, but the Eel's End is an old ship and poorly maintained, at that - the planks that form the walls have warped, and the outside light can stream in.

The striped effect it creates is slightly disorienting.

More disorienting still is the sight of Lamm: bastard's landed in some sort of hammock, and is sitting up, grinning at you. The hammock is... cobweb. Lots and lots and lots of cobweb.

Then the smell in the air hits your senses: shiver, raw and unprocessed. A quick look around confirms that there are webs all round this lower deck: a factory of dream spiders, spinning the gold that keeps Lamm afloat.

Lamm chuckles at you, and cracks his neck, side to side. "You caught me a fair few good ones, up there - nice going. Care for a rematch? Just you, and me, and my pets?"

A horrible, strident, chittering sound from behind you catches your attention and you see a four-limbed, upright, manlike form with a monstrous head approaching you. Its chittering increases in intensity.

To the other side of Lorick, two enormous spiders the size of cart-horses silently emerge from funnel webs.

Lamm chuckles again. "Nothing like a fair fight."

A few fleeting thoughts pass through, in no particular order:

• There's no obvious way of getting back up.

• Lorick has, like others before him, finally discovered the nature of Lamm's pet. But is he going to be the first to live to tell about it?

• Because Lamm is right: this is NOTHING like a fair fight.

Miyoto's voice comes, unbidden, to mind: look before you leap.

Again Lorick doesn't give any indication that he's actually heard the crime boss say anything.

Lamm grunts as Lorick's fist connects solidly. But he grins, through the pain. "Boy, you in trouble now..."

ROUND 4

Lamm's fist and knee lash out, catching Lorick in the temple and gut, respectively. Then, quick as lightning, he steps away, grinning, and puts himself behind the clawed monstrosity that is his pet. "I'll let Chitters take it from here, I think."

Nothing like a fair fight.

Lorick, Tyenar, Juliet, Evelyn are up.

The potion would have to hold Juliet over for now. Wand in one hand, longsword in the other, Evelyn rushes towards the pit and looks over the edge. Her mind races as her enhanced senses pick up the various beings below. She also realizes, in the back of her mind, that in her earlier hunt for the necromancer she had become so consumed that she failed to restock the flash vial - something that would come in handy right now. She curses quickly but puts that aside.

With great difficulty, she starts her normal incantation of summoning, though this time instead of a skeleton appearing, a dog-sized beetle creature springs into existence. Evelyn directs the creature, whose back opens up to reveal small wings. The beetle lazily floats into the pit, stopping to hover just above Lorick. In the dark of the ship's underbelly, the beetle glows faintly, shedding light in a small radius.

Still desperate in the situation, Evelyn continues to rack her brain for something else she could do. Mustering all her confidence she shouts down into the pit, mimicking the earlier chittering. Her speech is rudimentary, but effective.

I think that a Diplomacy check takes one whole minute, unfortunately. :/
Wide-eyed, Tyenar manages to miss completely a blind man as the realization of his own inexperience dawns on him. As his breath grows shorter, the Sylph starts shaking as the winds around him grow stronger.

Then, in a flash of clarity, Tyenar starts making for the dais.
Focus!Focus!
Searching in his backpack, Tyenar pulls out a silk rope and ties it around Lamm's throne, and then throws it into the pit to help him climb back up.

Juliet tilts the potion back and drops the empty vial as her wounds staunch. She prepares to launch herself into the pit after Lorick, when a thought - no, a revelation, really - hits her, stopping her in her tracks.

This fight was, simply put, bigger than Juliet D'Artangen.

Lamm was done. He'd murdered someone; the proof was hanging on the wall. The guard was outside. They'll take the King of Spiders, and no weeds would sprout in his wake.

Because Juliet was going to kill every single last bastard still loyal to Gaedran Lamm.

No distribution network, no muscle, no pushers, no blackmailers. Amprei would be free. The children would be free. Evelyn and Tyenar too, and maybe Lorick and Sia, if the gods were good.

Murdering every evil man and woman in this room would be the first noble thing Juliet had ever done.

Casting a glance over her shoulder - "Jaw, your woman needs you!" - Juliet levels Spite at Lamm's blinded henchman and charges.

"I'd say I'm the last thing you'll ever see, but..."

Evelyn's speech leads to a cacophanous, grating chittering sound rising up from the floor below, which might be the thing's equivalent of laughter.

Davor has in fact recovered his sight, but is still groggy from whatever spell Xenia hit him with; Juliet's lunge skewers his arm and he howls in pain and fear.

Lorick is up

Lorick doesn't care for the spiders or the chittering abominations. He steps forward, and then steps forward again, focused solely on the object of his rage, intent on crushing the life out of the man who had made his life intolerable for so many years.

Or. He almost does. Juliet's voice manages to penetrate his consciousness. He looks up and sees a rope swinging slowly against the light.

Only fool always keep asking how he remembers Miyoto griping at him once when he had stubbornly insisted on training throughout the night in Miyoto's little room Wise man first focused on why. What use is lashing out with foot if no reason to? Go home, find reason to fight, then come back.

Lorick had left, puzzling over the words and frustrated at the old man's cryptic response to just wanting to know how to kick harder. He had ended up at Sia's hovel.

Miyoto had tried to drill into Lorick the importance of why. Why was killing Lamm important? Because it would free Sia and Miyoto from his control.

Sia he whispers and reaches up, pulling himself into the light before the spiders can attack, hoping against hope that it would not darken for him permanently.

**

Outside the pit he reaches into the sack held by Xenia and retrieves the anti-toxin and pours into the un-resisting dying throat of the women he loved. Blinking back tears he looks up. Burn the pit and everything in it he chokes out. What Lamm had done to Sia... it wouldn't be right for him to do it to anyone else. It was not a reason to continue living that he would want, but it might be the only reason he would have left.

Sia splutters as Lorick administers the antitoxin, but she gets most of it down. Not that it seems to do much good. She clings to him, her hands like ice and her veins turning exactly the wrong shade of black. Tears leak out from beneath her closed eyelids. "'m sorry, Lor... heard your code but couldn't... move quick enough..."

With a great effort of will, she forces her eyes open and looks straight at the monk. Her gaze quickly unfocuses, and her voice is dreamy, unreal: "You reckon it's true, what they say, 'bout judgement? Cos I... I done some bad things, Lor." She closes her eyes again.

The fight between the Lambs and Lamm's thugs continues; in despair at their losses, one of the younger Lambs in the rafters grabs hold of a lantern, hurling it without thought into the fray below before anyone can stop him. He narrowly misses Hookshanks, who twists away from it desperately; the glass shatters on the wooden deck.

*WHOOMPH*

The Eels' End has been sitting on this dock for decades; it stays afloat only because it is moored to the pier, and lashed to the other ships. The outer timbers may be damp, but the interior is dry. Tinder dry.

In seconds, the rear of the room is ablaze, crackling as the fire devours it greedily. Lambs and thugs alike scatter: the younger Lambs in the rafters cry out in terror as the smoke drifts up to them, scrambling across the beams and towards the door...

At the same time, from the hole in the dais where the throne once stood, new horrors emerge: two vast spiders the size of carthorses, and a two-legged thing of nightmares, its arms ending in wicked claws and its entire head looking like that of a spider's.

Evelyn's summoned beetle is little more than a momentary delay.

From a position of safety behind the two giant spiders, the thing chitters at you.

Realising that Juliet is intent on killing him, Davor shakes his head, clearing the last of the fog from Xenia's spell...

ROUND 5

The fire in the rear of the throne room spreads rapidly, reaching the walls of the ship's stern.

Of more immediate threat is Lamm, emerging from the pit below like some mad demon king in a grisly pantomime - the sort where all the audience ends up disembowelled and eaten.

He looks around, taking in the sight of Ladzlo lying dead on the floor, the rear of the chamber ablaze, and Davor bleeding from a dozen wounds, his normally-docile Lambs and allies fighting with his goons. He gives a hiss of low menace, his voice barely more than a whisper: "My world. What have you done to my world?!!!"

Party is up. Juliet and Tyenar are in melee with Davor, nobody else is currently in combat.

Juliet scowls as the boat goes up in flames. Of course, it was her intent to do the same thing as soon as the kids were safe, just not so... soon.

But there were more immediate concerns. With a flick of her wrist, Juliet sends Spite's tip across Davor's nose, and then again into the thug's throat.

To Lamm, she calls out, almost breezily, "Ending it, King of Nothing. Told you, the crown wants you snipped. Hear that, dummies? The crown wants Lamm's head on a stake! Leave now and yours won't be next to it!"

Juliet's first and third attacks bounce off Davor's armour, but the middle one finds a gap. The half-orc snarls wordlessly in reply, eyes narrowed.

Lorick, Xenia, Tyenar, Evelyn are up.

Evelyn shy's away from Lamm and the emerging horrors and moves back towards her companions. Dodging smoke, fire, and distracted companions, she stops by Lorick. She'd been keeping mental notes of the battle so far, and she new that he had suffered wounds of the kind that she could heal. The other, the one's she couldn't fix, would have to wait.

Using the last charge of the wand she bestows a curative blessing on him, before resting a hand on his shoulder. She can't think of much else to say, so she drags her eyes away from the sorrowful display of pure humanity and instead keeps watch, ready to fend off approaching dangers with her brandished sword.

With his magically lengthened, flailing arms, Tyenar hasn't been able to lay blade on Davor - but this doesn't stop the sylph from trying again.

This time, the tip of the blade deftly, almost delicately, opens up the half-orc's carotid artery: thick, dark, blood spray-jets from the (clearly mortal) wound.

Davor gives a grunt of surprise as much as pain, left hand pressing to his neck, trying futilely to stop the flow. He glares venomously firstly at Xenia, whose magic has so expertly kept him out of this fight, before half-focusing on his killer.

He takes a stride towards Tyenar, which would be menacing if it weren't so wobbly. "Shtupid fairiesh - I hateshs faerish..."

He falls from a standing position, much like a tree; the thud as he hits the wooden deck is audible even over the hubbub within the Eel's End.

"I Hatesh 'em sho mush..."

"I...hateshshsh..."

"...evershing..."

His hate-filled gaze is still locked on Tyenar, but there's no spark of life behind his eyes: Davor One-Tusk is dead.

Xenia looks with horror as the monstrosities begin to pour out of the hole in the deck. She had figured there might be a shark or some type of sea creature from the noise and the rumors, but this was insane, true insanity.

Sucking her breath and overcoming the urge to flee, she once more raises her hand, hoping against hope that one of these creatures might be affected by her magic.

The spiders are huge, meaning that Xenia has to maneuver carefully to catch everyone in her spell effect; the blast of colours washes over the two spiders and the spider-headed monstrosity, and even Lamm is caught in its effect.

A high-pitched screech just on the edge of hearing tells her that it has worked: the two-legged thing with a spider's head staggers and nearly falls, while one of the spiders rocks back, hissing and chittering to itself. The other spider is unaffected, as is Lamm; leaving Xenia to reflect on the fact that she's put herself within 15 feet of the enemy, with no allies in between.

Lorick cradles Sia's head for a moment longer We did the best we could, girl of mine... hold on to that.. whatever else.. then he settles her gently back down and stands up.

The healing from Evelyn helps a bit ease the pains he's wracked with, the physical ones at least. But he is really tired, with a last burst of a rage quickly withering under sorrow, he moves in and lands one hard punch into the screaming crime lord's face.

The fight at the back of the room degenerates even further in the heat and smoke of the flames; scurrying along the rafters, coughing and choking, the Lambs do their best to escape - but on the floor, it's murder.

Sia's eyes are closing again even as Lorick settles her back to the floor. In her comatose state, her breathing is so shallow that it would be almost impossible to say definitively when it actually stops.

Lorick's fist breaks Lamm's nose with a sickening *crunch* and knocks out his front teeth into the bargain; the crimelord shakes his head, trying to clear it, before giving a bloody grin. "Spirited, ain't ya? Gonna enjoy breaking you..."

Xenia's spell has incapacitated - temporarily - the monstrosity and one of the spiders, but its mate scuttles over to the sorceress, its glistening mandibles bared.

Xenia feels the sting of poison coursing through her, sapping her strength.

ROUND 6

There is a crash at the back of the room: the fire has burned through some of the supporting joists, bringing down the upper deck and just as swiftly burning it away: the sky is exposed, and the fresh oxygen gives the flames fresh impetus, driving the fire across the room, creeping towards the dais.

The light of the flames bathes Lamm's blood-streaked face, lighting up his eyes a with hellish intensity. The crimelord breathes in deep, savouring the moment, his earlier doubt now a mere memory. "You've made things interestin' - I suppose I gotta give you that. Be almost a shame to end this; it's been..."

He pauses, searching for the word.

"...emotional."

With that, he unleashes a flurry of kicks, punches and low blows against Lorick.

Party is up.

Juliet's head swivels back and forth, from the floor of the ship to Lamm. Children or boss? Hobbled by indecision, she winces as Lamm lays into Lorick. Sliding past the spiders and across from the Jaw, Juliet hefts Spite and sends it towards Lamm's heart. Or so she thinks; the light playing tricks, Juliet catches nothing but the crime lord's loose shirt.

Evelyn stows the wand and moves after Lorick, healing him once more

Dinetta sucks in her breath, feeling her energy drained as the pincers just miss severing her head from her neck.

Realizing that she has to incapacitate this creature as well, she steps back and attempts to disable the spider.

Get the man-spider and the big bug while they are disabled.

Xenia's spell cripples the spider - with a keening shriek, it rolls over, all eight legs thrashing at the air.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Juliet nimbly dodges around to the side of Lamm, driving Spite through his rib cage, deep into his black heart.

The crimelord twists round to face her, his sneer turning into a look of puzzlement - and then into panic. His mouth opens as if he's about to say something - a plea, a curse, Gods know what - but all that comes out is a long, lingering sigh.

Sliding limply off Juliet's blade, Gaedren Lamm slumps to the floor, inches from the dais where he ruled for so long. The fingers of one hand claw frantically into the wood, scrabbling for purchase; then, with a final spasm, he is still.

Juliet stands stunned as Gaedren slides off of Spite's blade, one word on her mind.

Freedom.

But not quite. Shaking her head, she screams out into the ship. "Oi! F@&*ers! Lamm's going down with the ship, deader than the King and twice as hated. Bugger off, and I won't hunt you down! Touch another Lamb, and I kill you too!"

Fresh off killing Davor, the light-footed sylph moves to engage the spider-headed monstrosity.

His second attack goes awry, but the first one hits: blue ichor spurts from the wound, hissing where it contacts Tyenar's sword.

The air seems to go out of Lorick. He feels his soul shriveling away inside him. It isn't the fall of Lamm that does it. It's something else, something far worse. Sia's breath has been a part of him for as long as he can remember and, even as shallow as it had become, he feels it when it stops. Feels it in the very core of his being.

For a moment he stands stock still, arms hanging by his side, as if he was the one stabbed in the heart rather than the dying crime boss that was sputtering his last in front of him. All the rage he had felt fades away. He realizes that it hadn't been Lamm he had hated. Not really. What he'd hated was his own inability to protect the ones he loved from Lamm.

The realization of his fear, that he would be unable to free Sia and Miyoto from Lamm's hold saps his strength and a great weight settles on him as Sia dies. He feels Lamm's final spiteful laugh stab at him from beyond the grave; a poisoned dagger like the one that had ended Sia's life and shattered his. It's almost too great to bear. Almost.

He hears Xenia's gasp as one of Lamm's spiders bites her. He hears Juliet shout at Lamm's thugs to stop attacking and hurting the little Lamms. He hears the chittering scream of Lamm's spider monster as Tyenar stabs it. The monster that had done more to tarnish Sia's soul than anything else when Lamm had forced her to take part in his twisted displays of power and dominance. Which had caused her conscience anguish at her dying breath. He turns. The ugly echoes of Lamm's life resounded around him

You breathe or not breathe. Doesn't mean you live He remembers Miyoto saying once Ripples you make on world is what shows you live. As long as ripples continue you live.

Lamm may not be breathing anymore but the evidence of his life were all around Lorick. The same wasn't true for Sia. As much as she still lived it was only through him.

Eveylyn's healing washes over the monk and he takes a long shuddering breath. His work wasn't done. Not quite yet. Lamm had to die a true death. Sia had to live. And so, Lorick raises his fists again.

Deprived of the rage that had sustained him Lorick's attacks are weary but clinical, passionless. At least one of them lands.

That was my action for the turn and I have to wait for next turn to act, no?
Dazed, the Sylph slowly realizes what he is doing as he pulls the rapier out of the creature. The last ten seconds were the most confused the Sylph had been in his whole life: one moment he was flailing wildly against the blind half-orc, is eyes shut in fear, and the moment after that Davor was falling to the ground, blood flowing from his neck.

It's only when he hears Juliet shout that Tyenar snaps back to reality: in a moment, he finds himself face to face with a spidery monstrosity. Panicking, he looks around him, eyes wide at the hell that was breaking loose around him, and Lamm dying half a meter away from him.
What is going on? What do I have to do?
Tyenar squints his eyes to concentrate on the present, but all that it accomplishes is showing the sylph Davor last hateful glare in his mind.
Focus! Focus!

"We have to find proof of Lamm's deals with the ambassador!" Tyenar shouts after a deep breath "I'll search the dais, and then jump down the hole to search for something.". He looks at Lorick, and then at Sia's and Lamm's dead bodies "If you want to go before I'm done, do it, but bring Lamm's body with you...and that woman's."
If I don't find anything, Lamm's body is the only way we have to find information...And maybe we could still raise that woman.

There is no more combat at the end of the room: there is only panicked flight by those still able to run, walk, hobble or crawl. The Lambs scramble up the rafters, then scuttle rapidly along, dropping down by the door, fleeing to freedom, carrying (or dragging) their wounded - but on the floor, it is Lamm's thugs who have won the day.

They are given precious little time to enjoy their victory - even as Juliet turns and screams at them, venting her rage, there is a groan of distressed timber and the floor beneath them literally gives way with a resounding crash. Screaming men and burning wood fall to the deck below, where Lamm's shiver factory has been located. The webs catch light almost instantly, and those spiders not immediately incinerated are roused to an invertebrate fury, swarming over their wounded, and trapped, prey.

Sparks - and the sound of screaming - rise upwards, along with the crackle of flame. The stern of the ship has become a furnace, an inferno; and beneath you, the fire spreads, unchecked.

Neither the spidery monstrosity nor the two actual spiders pose any threat for the time being, but the poison continues its course through Xenia's system.

ROUND 7

Party is up.

Gods, Juliet thinks, staring slack-jawed as the ship becomes an inferno - and a grave for most of Lamm's thugs. A quick tinge of panic crosses the duelist's mind - Tybalt! - but Juliet pushes it aside; now was not the time for panic. Plus, her brother was like one of those wicked winged roaches that haunted Korvosa's dark; he could survive anything, anywhere.

Turning her attention to the monster, Juliet stepped forward, two quick cuts from her rapier aimed at the thing's chest. That thing, homeless and hungry in the shadows and alleyways of Korvosa? That couldn't be allowed to happen.

Both of Juliet's attacks miss the thing; it dodges nimbly and hisses at her menacingly.

Moving to the throne, Tyenar starts looking around the dais for papers, anything that could be used as a clue, glancing in the meantime at the blazing inferno below deck.

Exhausted, and looking more than a little hale, Xenia shakily moves toward the throne to help Tyenar.
I . . . I could use some healing I think. She says as her steps wobble momentarily.

She tries to assist Tyenar, but the poison from the spider is too much and makes her unable to concentrate on much of anything other than standing up.

Tyenar and Xenia find nothing around the dais apart from the mechanism Lamm used to drop the throne down to the deck below.

Lorick, Evelyn are up