Tchirash readies her shield and scimitar for whatever is in the spider to come out. "Sarenrae guide our hands."
Responding to Elmae's question, Horgus puffs up his chest and begins in a loud, proud voice "Well, I-" He's cut off by Elmae discovery of the strange motions inside the spider, but it's too late. His voice reverberates off into the darkness, echoing off the tall cavern walls. The spider stops moving.
Out from the spider's abdomen burst two maggots of enormous size. Each pale wriggling vermin is as long as a man's torso. They're small circular mouths open and close, showing rows of tiny sharp teeth within. Before they can even hit the floor, Lily's bolt flies with amazing accuracy. Finding it's mark in the creature's midsection, the force of the bolt throws the now limp and lifeless maggot back against the rocks over 20 ft away!
Tchirash advances on the remaining maggot, shield and scimitar held at the ready. She offers her prayer to the goddess and swings her scimitar in a wide downward arc. Not expecting the maggot's chitinous body to be so rigid, the swing glances off to the side.
"Whoa, Lily! You should join the troupe if you can aim like that! Althoooough...you should add a little bit of flair to it! You know, some pizzazz!"
She gives a small tug on the rope so Aravashnial knows she's about to move, and she does just that, moving out of the group towards the south and then southeast to make it easier for her to aim.
She places a single finger in the center of the starknife, rapidly twisting her hand and maneuvering the starknife between all five of them, before switching hands once, twice, four times! She spins the weapon rapidly on the top of her index finger, tosses it into the air, and finally throws it at the maggot after catching, taking a deep bow afterwards.
"See? Pizzazz! It always gets the crowd heated up!"
The spinning starknife slices through the air with a whizz curving in on it's intended target. The blades of the starknife slice through the maggot's segmented chitin hide, but the disgusting creature continues to wriggle it's way forward, still showing signs of life.
The bolt flies out and sticks into the pale maggot's body, now oozing green slime from it's wounds but still moving nonetheless.
Olivia draws her longsword and enters a defensive posture, ready to defend the injured civilians behind her, should anything else arise.
The maggot, meanwhile, engorges at the center of it's pallid body. The bulge seems to move it's way forward toward where Tchirash is standing, recovering her blade for another strike. The bulge reaches the maggot's circular mouth and it disgorges a sickening sight: it's own bloated stomach. The slimy organ opens a slit and the pressurized contents stream out all over Tchirash!
Tchirash throws her shield up at the last moment, trying to block the mess from hitting her, or at least to stop it from getting in her eyes, nose and mouth. Unfortunately she is not so lucky and the mess covers her. She visibly pales, and wobbles for a moment before spitting out some of the spew and regaining her resolve.
Elmae instinctively reached for her belt, and it was then that she realized her blunder. "Ah...Uh-oh..." she gasped, adopting an embarrassed smile. "Well, when you're out of options...Improvise! Aravashnial, get ready to run!"
After he has a bit of time to prepare himself, she charges forward, unleashing a mighty kick when she reaches the maggot!... Unfortunately, her body was more of a work of art, not a physical weapon, and she nearly trips upon reaching her target.
"And the crowd goes...wild?" she gulps, not looking forward to what might come next.
Tchirash, still recovering from the stream of bile and putrid half-digested spider guts that now covered her, brought her blade up to protect herself while she fought back the rising urge to be sick. Olivia continued her vigil over the civilians, eyes scanning the perimeter for new threats.
The maggot, having finished sucking its guts back into it's body goes on the offensive! It springs forward in reaction to Elmae's charge and lashes out with its small circular mouth.
Elmae's poorly executed charge left her open to the maggot's bite. It clamped down on her arm and hung there for a moment before falling off, a few streams of Elmae's blood dripping from its mouth
Tchirash lashes out against the maggot, bringing the scimitar down on the things mottled hide.
Tchirash's scimitar finally connects with the maggot, splitting it down the middle with a sickening squish!
As your small band begins to regroup around the battle site, you see that the cavern seems to fork here. The larger of the two paths continues to the north. The southern path trails off to the south.
Aravashnial pants heavily, a grimace of pain on his face. He grumbles to Elmae, "Damn it, girl I'm blind, beaten and still bleeding! If you're going to go off and do some gymnastics, don't fasten yourself to me!"
Anevia speaks up at this, her voice drenched in satisfied smugness. "I'll gladly hold his leash for you!" she says.
Aravashnial scowls in Anevia's general direction, it looks as though he'll refuse, but instead he relents. He still grumbles though when he says, "Well, at least you're lame. You simply can't run and leap about."
Horgus throws up his hands in exasperation, "Can we please just get moving!? I would very much like to be quit of this place."
Tchirash uses some water from her waterskin to wash as much of the maggot's gore from herself, especially her face in an effort to pass a small bit of time to see if her wave of sickness passes Once she feels a bit better she starts ahead, peering down the smaller side tunnel to make sure there's nothing there that can follow them, before moving the group towards the larger tunnel.
She smiles an almost wicked smile facing away from Horgus, "We're moving Horgus, but keep in mind that any loud outbursts like that could always alert anything hungry down here that there's prey in distress."
Elmae winced in pain as the maggot attacked and drew blood from her arm, gently rubbing the wound with her other hand. With the maggot dead, she was free to retrieve her starknife, but ugh...
"That was the biggest...the biggest bug I've ever seen!" she jokes, giving an apologetic scratch of her head towards Aravashnial, having only partially forgotten that he was tied to her in the last scuffle, not to mention that he didn't seem to be the most physically able elf in the world. Still cradling her wound, she speaks up again.
"Yeah, Horgus, there might be something spoooooookyyyyyy down here! You should stay close to us!"
Tchirash sticks her head into the narrower of the two paths away from the large cavern. A good 15 feet in, she sees a stone ledge jutting out at a right angle on the south wall of this area. The ledge is about 14 feet of the ground. The leather strap of a backpack hangs from the edge of the ledge, while above, a narrow fissure yawns up into the dark.
The climb looks a little challenging, but not insurmountable.
Horgus, after being chastised by Elmae and Tchirash, turns beet red. His brow furrows and when he speaks, he does so in a sputtering manner, his speech clearly stymied by his rage. "Well, I never! I will NOT be spoken to as some child! Let's move!"
Elmae attempts to tie a portion of her remaining silk rope around the center grip of her starknife, lining up a shot as she searches for what she believes is a decent crack. "Here...we...go!" she starts, flinging the weapon at the cliff wall. She takes a good hard look at the wall before making any additional actions, unsure of whether it stuck or not.
The star knife whizzes through the air and finds purchase in a nearby cleft in the rorock wall. The blade sinks into the stone up to the circular hub of the weapon. The rope seems taut and firm when tested.
Elmae grins, unable to hide the fact that she's pleased with her feat. She grips the rope and yanks as hard as she is able, aiming to dislodge her starknife.
"Thank you! I do my best to keep myself up to par, or I could get out of shape. I have to keep up with my teachers, after all!" She strides over to Horgus and pats him on the shoulder gently. "Sorry about that, Sir Horgus, but we could really use this stuff, don't you think? I mean, if you get hurt or something, there's some useful things in there...at least, I think so. There's food, at least!"
Lily smiles "It was indeed fancy work, and the extra supplies will come in handy assuming...assuming we can actually find a way out of this place"
Tchirash lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding once Elmae gets back on solid ground. "Good work, Elmae. Looking at the arrows sets off an idea in her head, and she looks back at the three citizens with them, "What can the three of you do in case of a real fight? You've seen that we can handle some small things, but I'd hate to leave you completely defenseless. Aravashinial we know you're a mage of some repute, so that will be helpful. Anevia, I know with the injured leg, you're less mobile, but can you help? If you had a crossbow or throwing knives? And Horgus, I know you're above such things, but if we gave you a dagger, could you defend yourself as a last resort? I will stand between you and danger, but if we should fall..." She leaves that last to linger.
Salomae is unfortunately unable to determine the nature of the potions using her magical knowledge.
In response to Tchirash's inquiry, each of your newfound companions responds. Horgus harrumphs his indignation at the question. "I am a noble of Mendev! Of course I can handle a weapon!"
Arivashnial chimes in to interrupt Horgus, "You're a glorified penny pincher, Gwerm. I'd be surprised if you know anything more than what end to hold." He tilts his bandaged head toward Tchirash now, "I have a number of spells prepared that may be useful, however with the loss of my eyes, I fear many of my directly offensive spells may prove . . . hazardous. That being said, I am a skilled conjurer, and may summon assistance if deemed necessary."
Horgus mutters something about a rapier under his breath while turning a deeper shade of scarlet. Anevia pulls a shortbow from behind her back and gingerly slings her quiver to her chest and takes stock of her situation. She sighs with resignation, "I'm decent with my shortbow, but only four of my arrows survived the fall. I could use some of those arrows from the bag you found if no one else needs them."
"Oh, it's okay Horgus. We'll make sure nothing happens to you, right? So let's see...I guess if this is what we found here...We can move on, right? And now I get to flip all around and show you guys what I can really do!" She explains to the group, clearly excited.
Tchirash takes the lead again after a few moments to wait for the sickness from the maggot to leave her. She heads down the other branch of the cavern, cautiously. Thankfully the pace they have to maintain allows her to move slowly without too much bother.
Saranae watch over us, we've several civilians and a child that thinks this is all a performance
Hearing no dissenting voice when she suggested she take the arrows, Anevia will scoop them up and place them in her quiver. "Well, it isn't much, but at least its something if things go sideways down here."
Horgus folds his arms in front of chest, "Of course I don't need a rapier, I just got finished saying I could handle a blade. My true skill does lie in the rapier, of course, I've had years of training. What does it matter though? You all seem perfectly capable on your own. I'll be rewarding you handsomely for seeing me safely to the surface, what would I need a blade for?
Aravashnial simply sighs heavily while tapping his foot against the ground, to show his impatience.
Lily hides a smile at the man talking rather defensively. "As you wish" she casually replies, before turning and making an effort to see a little further through the tunnels ahead, determined to see what is up ahead.