Bladud nods in response, "Knew I liked'ya! See ya at'tha bottom!"
He waits just long enough for Brak'kadur to get a firm grip and footing before he sprints for the opening. Hoping to avoid a total collapse, he slides the last couple of feet. Momentum carries him a few feet out over the gap before he seems to slow then plummet down into the blackness.
A huge chunk of the ground along the rim of the hole collapses dropping Bladud down into the pit much sooner than he anticipated. The hole, originally big enough to swallow two men, suddenly tripled in size.
Bladud managed to control his fall as the ground dropped out from under him, but the problem with looking before you leap is not being sure where you might land.
In this case, Bladud found himself falling through a tangle of thick, sticky cords. He didn't even hit the ground. A ways below him he could see another man tangled in the webbing as well, his long coat over his head, blinding him. The other man struggled against the webbing but wasn't making much headway. To make matters worse, Bladud has just dropped a few hundred pounds of dirt on top of him and much of it was now caught in the webbing as well. Bladud could hear muffled curses in a rasping language.
The ground was perhaps fifty feet down. The fallen rubble partially covered the pebble-light reducing it's glow from a torch to a candle. What was left of the light revealed a man with an obviously broken leg staring in fear into the darkness of a corredor that made a sharp turn out of site. From his high angle Bladud couldn't see what was lurking in the dark but it had the injured man terrified.
Up above, Brak waited for a jolt on the rope that never came. Bladud hadn't reached the end of the line.
"Wait!" Bal yelled as Bladud sprinted forward and fell out of sight, widening the hole further.
He sighed. "Surveyors. Why are they all insane?"
Fala shook her head and rubbed her face as though pained.
"You alright down there?" she called out.
|
Brak kept waiting for the hard pull of the rope as Bladud either came close to the ground...or hit it. The fact that it never came was surprising until he heard random muffled curses from below. Bladud! You still alive down there? What's going on?
Brak peeks into the hole as much as his balance will allow...
Bladud grunts and gives a few test yanks with his arms and legs, testing the strength of the webbing while also being as careful as possible to avoid getting further entangled. ”A’m fine! Stook in’a right sticky web!”
If that proves futile, the highlander pops a small stone flask from one of the pouches on his bandolier, uncorking it with his thumb. He begins pouring acid on what look to be key binding points of the entangling web, hoping to burn his way to free-falling freedom.
As he works, he roars at the object of the broken-legged man's fear, "YOO SODDEN SHADOW-WELP! WONTCHA TRY'AN MAKE A MEAL OUTTA SOMETHIN THAHT CAN BITE BACK!"
Torgan gathers the planks at the wagons and helps them move to the site as quick as possible cooperating with others to make sure the same accident does not happen again.
The Viking dwarf helps Torgan at the wagon, axe slung across the back and at the ready, figuring that battle is likely but its better to be doing some support work at this point.
Lyla's breath catches in her throat as Bladud plunges down the hole, concern for her friend filling her despite the fact that he was well equipped to handle many of the most dangerous things she'd ever encountered.
"We might be dealing with a giant trap spider that rigged this to catch prey." she shouts to the others present. "If you can keep enough light on them it might shy back and stay in the shadows!"
Torgan and Hal quickly re-stack the fallen planks and take over lifting the stack. They are heavy. Its easy to see how a misstep caused the workers to drop them.
They start slowly waddling up the hill with their heavy load, the workers grabbing a second, smaller stack from the quartermaster's tent and following.
Noros hustled with his big coil of rope and dropped it near the tree.
"What do ya need, Bal?"
"Time! There's something down there! We need to move faster. Hell, I don't know. Normally this is where I'd be asking Jonas if he has any tricks up his sleeve." Bal said rushing to the tree to start measuring out the rope.
"I might have something!" the dwarf says running back down the hill as fast as his stubby legs can go.
Fala looked to the others who hadn't moved, who seemed, like her, unsure of what to do.
"Any of you familiar with unstable ground? Know what to look for? Where's the most stable side? We need an approach."
After hearing Lyla's warning, Cadeyrn touches the rope that Bladud is hanging from.
"Time to make a bigger light then."
He then proceeds to cast to Light on the rope, which starts to glow.
He will also try and look for stable parts
Lyla's eyes scan the area of the sinkhole, but it is simply what she sees in front of her, the wealth of flowing knowledge for now stemmed.
Perception
Knowledge Dungeoneering
Unfortunately Lyla can't spot anywhere that seems more stable than any other. It all seems dangerous. It reminds her of stories of desert creatures that create funnels out of sand made to give way and pull things in once the threshold is crossed. The whole situation is very worrisome.
Torgan moved carefully carrying the planks across uneven ground.
Cadeyrn has better luck.
A quick scan spots the tangle of webbing on the far side of the hole. It occurs to him that it might help give some stability to the ground in that area.
Dvalin waddles up the hill with a plank or two and looks for unstable ground at the request of Fala. Not finding any, he keeps delivering planks.
Hallvarðr works with Dvalin, delivering planks in a no nonsense manner.
Down in the hole, Bladud left behind cloth and a little hair and skin, but managed to tear free of most of the webbing.
He tumbled downward, half caught, half supported by the sticky strands and ended up in the canopy formed by the man with the coat over his head. Whoever he was, he didn't seem to have the strength neccessary to break free.
As Bladud bumped him, the man with the coat over his head lashed out blindly, a spray of torrential water bursting forth from one of his hands.
"Back! I will not be anything's dinner today!"
Below them, the injured man scuttled backwards as best he could as an enormous horror squeezed itself out of the darkened tunnel.
It was a spider the size of an ox.
It reached forward slowly with it's foreleg and gently touched the injured man's boot. Then it yanked him ten feet across the ground and into it's shortsword sized mandibles.
Up above, the whole camp heard the skin chilling scream.
Nár, thank you for now. Dorian says as his otherworldly butler disappears. Immediately afterwards another small portal opens from which celestial eagles fly out. Equipped with vision in the dark and flight they ought to be good foes for whatever dwells down there.
There is a giant spider down that hole, I want you to vanquish it and return to me. Thank you friend(s)
Bludad sputters flails, but is able to somehow stay barely out of the spider’s webs. ”I’m ‘ere to help you. Stop with’tha water-works.”
When the spray resides, he begins picking his way down to the injured and en-spidered man… yelling at the spider the whole way. ”OI! SPIDER! PUT’IM DOWN OR I’LL STUFF YER MANDIBLES INTO YER ARSE!”
He carefully makes his way towards the spider.
The eagle swoops into the hole to attack.
Dvalin grabs two planks of the top of the stack and rushes them to the top. Cad points out the solid side and he and Dvalin carefully lay down the first plank. Two more and it should be enough to get someone to the edge.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I thought you may have been a spider. Honest mistake. Can you see? What is happening?"
"After we lay down 2 more planks, I'm going to the edge. It seems to be getting nasty down there."
The eagle just can't avoid the webbing and ends up snagged, looking much like an overgrown fly.
Bladud pushed off mightily and cleared the thickest part of the webbing. He hit the the ground like a large cat, ready to move forward to engage the spider who was savaging the injured man. A few feet away in the tight confines, a small vaguely humanoid shape rose from the ground.
The spider had the wounded man firmly in it's grasp, pumping venom into his body. The man thrashed twice and then seized up, making desperate clicking noises. He tried desperately to escape, but the spider was just too strong.
The huge creature backed up into the corridor taking it's paralyzed pray with it, already beginning to wrap the man in sticky webs as it moved.
Up above planks were laid down as quickly as possible. The first three went straight to the edge, then the team began laying them out in an overlapping circle around the hole.
By now most of the camp was gathered, doing what they could to help.
"I got a potion of Spider Climbing, and a scroll of Levitation!" The quartermaster says holding his prizes aloft and huffing as he runs back up the hill.
I shall take that scroll, thank you
Thinking he would not be able to control the movement of what he cannot see he uses the scroll. Drawing it's arcane might around himself, as he lowers himself 20ft downward safely, after first making a quick spot for webs.
Meanwhile the little rock valiantly tries to defend the envenomed man by charging* at the spider.
,
And the fly in the web tries to break loose
The spider lashes out with a fast stab, but it's leg chips off the elemental, scoring it's rocky skin but dealing no significant damage.
The elemental slides past the struggling man in front of the spider, and swings from partially inside the earthen wall.
It's stone fist slams into one of the spider's forelegs, cracking chiton. The big predator hakes a hissing screech and pulls back the injured leg.
Up above, Dorian didn't pick a great place to lower himself down. He realized to late that the webs were closer together than he thought. If he kept going, he'd risk getting himself caught.
Brak downs the potion and begins his descent.
Brak chugs the potion and moves over the edge.
Unfortunately, the underside of the sinkhole wasn't supported by the planks. The magic held Brak to it, but he was only able to crawl about five feet when another chunk of earth gave way beneath his weight. Suddenly he was in free-fall.
Up on top where Cadeyrn stood, about ready to make his own descent, the ground beneath the planks was suddenly gone. The plank slipped forward and tumbled over the edge.
Cad went with it.
But he didn't fall far. Brak was below him, caught in the net already. The two warriors slammed together painfully
Then the plank slammed into Cad from above, painfully pushing the pair further down into the webbing.
When their shuddering descent finally stopped they found themselves bound together awkwardly, Brak sideways and Cad upside down, both wedged firmly along side the plank.
Cad looked around and realized his axe hung in the webbing about 10 feet above him…
Below Brak and Cad, the mass of earth that had fallen crashed down on Bladud.
Thud.
Bladud was suddenly gone.
One of the workers was too close to the edge. He tried to reach out and grab someone, but he was too slow.
Luckily he had roped in before laying planks close to the edge.
Unluckily, he ended up in the webbing, just above Cad.
Another plank tumbled down into the mass, hanging awkwardly.
1d20+5
Hanging there in midair as people and planks tumbled down into the spiderwebs around him, Dorian was suddenly very glad he'd picked the scroll.
He reached down and helped his eagle friend.
It latched onto his front with it's talons, hanging on for dear life and leaving feathers behind in the sticky strands.
Laying a plank, Dvalin is content to see the camp mobilized building the planks. Stepping away from the edge, he gets out and starts to put on his climbing kit: it's a webbed Swiss seat with carabiners at the appropriate technology and inventors. He looks for an anchor for his 100-ft rope. Failing that he looks for a couple of stout guards to act as anchors.