Kalchine clutches his oversized ears, his pupils widening impossibly as he stares at the spider Daemon.
When it's shrieks end, he drops his hands to his side.
Quasit's question just brings a smile in response and the Triaxian turns to examine one of the walls very closely, petting it like some kind of exotic animal.
Kalchine straightens from where he was very closely examining the wall. He gives it a firm pat then turns to Quasit.
He grins eagerly and rushes over to help.
By joining in with a group hug.
"I felt something trying to influence me... someone with more knowledge of supernatural abilities might be able to shed light on it but I'll wrestle Thumper if need, I'm sure you can slip past Kal by yourself." Bulvi takes out some jerky and berries to distract Chest Thumper and if that fails a bit of play wrestling should get his attention.
Maka burns the last of the spiders. The scent in the room at the moment is... unforgettable.
"Well that was terrible!" Maka complained as she fanned smoke away from her face. "But good shooting Master of Arrows." Maka said to Fin as she took a moment to examine the large spider monster pin cushioned to the wall.
"What even happened? Why were there so many spiders in that fake window?" Maka asked to no one in particular. "Is anyone poisoned?"
"I felt something trying to influence me... someone with more knowledge of supernatural abilities might be able to shed light on it but I'll wrestle Thumper if need, I'm sure you can slip past Kal by yourself." Bulvi takes out some jerky and berries to distract Chest Thumper and if that fails a bit of play wrestling should get his attention.
"Okay if your brain is broken raise your hand." Maka unhelpfully called to the others.
Quasit goes limp and assumes a thousand yard stare while she waits for the love to end.
"Group hug!" Maka shouted with a laugh as she joined in on the love.
Selena uses Detect Magic, carefully peeking through fingers at first in case the whole room is blinding, but assuming she can avoid being blinded, she touches the wall where the window was to see if there is anything hiding behind the wall (unless it glows with evocation magic).
The whole room radiates powerful magic. Selena doesn't detect any difference in the magic where the window used to be.
So the wall feels solid when I push on it?
The wall is solid, yes.
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"But good shooting Master of Arrows." Maka said to Fin as she took a moment to examine the large spider monster pin cushioned to the wall.
The Elf smirks playfully as he performs an over exaggerated bow. ”At your service, m’Lady. And back at you, Mistress of Fire; your extermination of these spiders proved most effective as my arrows would’ve been useless. Fire and arrows make a good combo, eh?”
Sakiti looks at the growing orb of Quasit-Kal-Chest Thumber-Maka. She tilts her head to the side and scrunches her eyebrows together. "What are you guys doing?" She looks to Fin to see if he has any answers.
Fin turns to Sakitu as he retrieves the last of his durable arrows from the spider abomination’s corpse and grins. ”It’s called a group hug, Hlao-roo…here, I’ll show you, we can start our own…”
He walks up to Sakitu, hugs her warmly, brushes his lips against hers, and then gooses her lightly on her tush…
Looking over at the others having their moment, he queries, ”Where to next, Q? The fireplace?”
Kalchine gives Quasit a dull eyed grin and pats her on the head like a puppy a few times then loses interest in the group. He follows Selena to the wall, also prodding it after she does with the same smile.
In the midst, his eyes abruptly focus and his mouth takes on a more serious mien.
"That was terrible," he says, softly then goes to try to wrangle his brother.
Sakiti looks at the growing orb of Quasit-Kal-Chest Thumber-Maka. She tilts her head to the side and scrunches her eyebrows together. "What are you guys doing?" She looks to Fin to see if he has any answers.
"We seem to be having a moment." says Quast with a helpless shrug from the center of the pile.
"I don't know, Kal and Thumper started a group hug and I wasn't missing out on it!" Maka replied .
The Elf smirks playfully as he performs an over exaggerated bow. ”At your service, m’Lady. And back at you, Mistress of Fire; your extermination of these spiders proved most effective as my arrows would’ve been useless. Fire and arrows make a good combo, eh?”
"Yup!" Maka replied with a big thumbs up. "Hmm, I wonder if I could put fire on your arrows like Saki does with ice?"
Looking over at the others having their moment, he queries, ”Where to next, Q? The fireplace?”
"Yeah I don't think there's anything left here." Maka said as she stuffed the tan bag from the oven inside one of the bags of holding.
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"Yeah I don't think there's anything left here." Maka said as she stuffed the tan bag from the oven inside one of the bags of holding.
”Yeah, if we hadn’t gotten distracted by the magic bag in the stove, we might have been outta here before that spider — HOLY CRAP! DON’T!” Quasit lurches at Maka and grabs her arm before she can put the magic bag in the bag of holding.
“Look…I don’t know hardly anything about magic. I know like ten things. But one of them is that if you put ONE bag of holding inside ANOTHER, reeeeally bad things happen. So until we know what that bag does, let’s just keep it in a regular backpack, k?”
”Yeah, if we hadn’t gotten distracted by the magic bag in the stove, we might have been outta here before that spider — HOLY CRAP! DON’T!” Quasit lurches at Maka and grabs her arm before she can put the magic bag in the bag of holding.
Years of monastic training froze Maka in place. She stayed there in an awkward position with eyes wide open. "What!?"
“Look…I don’t know hardly anything about magic. I know like ten things. But one of them is that if you put ONE bag of holding inside ANOTHER, reeeeally bad things happen. So until we know what that bag does, let’s just keep it in a regular backpack, k?”
Maka's mind flooded with images of two bag of holdings molding into a giant bag of holding with teeth and an empty stomach. "Oh no!" She shouted as she tossed the tan bag away with violent force. The bag smacked against the wall before slowly sliding down. "Good looking out Quasit. I don't know what I'd do without you."
”Blow yourself up apparently!”
"Oh is that all it would do?" Maka said with some disappointment in her voice. "I mean that's bad but I was picturing something way worse. Like the bags form a mega bag with teeth and its stomach is bigger on the inside and can suck people up to eat them. And it's always hungry." Maka formed her hands into claws before sucking up as much air into her chest as she could to mimic the monster in her mind.
Part of Maka's vision went rent as some blood trickled into her eye. Though she was well used and trained to the annoyance, it was an annoyance none the less. "Hey Selena, could you use that healing curse thing on me? I'm bleeding from potato teeth or spider bites. I don't know which but it's getting in my eye." Maka asked as she began to rub the blood away.
"Hmm? Oh, sure." she says almost absent mindedly as she focuses for a moment giving Maka a chilling but soothing touch.
Selena resumes studying the room, wandering around, poking and prodding everything, usually with her sword, to discover the edges of the illusion.
Maka put her goggles back on and quickly followed after Fin.
Before leaving the room, Kalchine uses his knowledge of Healing and other Planes to draw some life energy into himself and Chest Thumper.
Selena suspects it's just the ceiling that's cloaked with an illusion in this room, though she doesn't have time to confirm.
Fin steps through the darkness in the hearth and finds himself in a short tunnel, lined with burned and broken skulls. From the size, they were likely the skulls of children. Only a few feet in front of him is a door.
Anyone who looks beyond the door needs to make a DC 23 Will save or be compelled to go into the room beyond and start eating the gingerbread room.
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Seeing the burned and broken skulls of children, Fin is disgusted, shaking his head. Controlling his anger while holding tight to his bow in one hand, he opens the door with the other and looks warily inside…
Fin withstands the urge to enter and eat. He alerts his friends, ”Be wary; just looking inside, I had an urge to enter and eat this gingerbread room, but was able to resist it…I’ll explore further…”
He enters the room and takes a look around…
A few moments after Fin stepped out of the darkness, Maka stepped out behind him. A ball of fire in her hand illuminated the tunnel. Keeping her defensive position, Maka continued to watch Fin's back. When the door was opened to reveal the gingerbread room, Maka's mouth began to water at the sights and smells before her. It took all of her training not to run in and start eating. "Okay well that's a trap."
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"No way, there actually *is* a gingerbread room?"
Quasit can't help herself, she has to peek. She emerges from the tunnel and looks around.
Her mouth waters and her eyes widen, but the skull tunnel and the warnings of her friends hold her back. "Oh man, chocolate and peppermint... gah, I love those! Doggone witch traps! You know, I'm guessing the tunnel made of children's skulls and the room full of enchanted candy furniture is no coincidence."
"Everyone else, stay back! This room is some kind of magical trap!"
Quasit pulls out her tools and begins testing various points about the room, wiping here, poking there, trying to find the key to disabling the trap...
Kalchine and Chest Thumper follow the rest of the group into the hallway. The former is still shaken up enough about feeling trapped that he shows no indication of going through any doors that don't promise to lead them closer to outside.
Bulvi shakes his head at Chest Thumper and starts trying to pry off some chunks of gingerbread to eat. "Not the bones! You can eat the room silly."
"No Bull! It's a Trap!" As Bulvi went to pro off a chunk of gingerbread, Maka twisted his arm behind his back and swept his heel knock him off balance. "Might want to hurry Quasit!"
In the chaos of everyone coming through the darkness and into the room Fin, Quasit, and Maka's warnings do not reach everyone. Maka's grab reaches Bulvi before he can do anything, but Chest Thumper finds himself ripping a chunk of wall off instead of grabbing the bones he was going for. It tastes delicious, urging him to eat more...
As the big ape eats, it's clear to the rest of you that the delicious appearance of the room is but a lie. Just under the surface the gingerbread is disgustingly rotten, filled with maggots and worse. But Chest Thumper doesn't seem to notice as he reaches for more...
...until Quasit, her keen senses tuned to magical traps, notes a pattern in some of the room's decorations that seems related to the enchantment.
With some quick work she rearranges enough of them to break the effect, though it seems like Chest Thumper remains enchanted.
As the big ape eats, it's clear to the rest of you that the delicious appearance of the room is but a lie. Just under the surface the gingerbread is disgustingly rotten, filled with maggots and worse. But Chest Thumper doesn't seem to notice as he reaches for more...
"Oh gross...!" Maka gagged as Thumper chowed down on maggots and filth.
...until Quasit, her keen senses tuned to magical traps, notes a pattern in some of the room's decorations that seems related to the enchantment.
With some quick work she rearranges enough of them to break the effect, though it seems like Chest Thumper remains enchanted.
"Wow, this is so wrong. What kind of monster would want to destroy candy for me? Let's get out of here." She looks about for other apparent exits.
"Who knows why witches do the things they do?" Maka replied as she followed Quasit.
"Who knows why witches do the things they do?" Maka replied as she followed Quasit.
"I don't think being a witch has anything to do with it. Do you I would do this?" Selena asks, giving Maka a hard to read smile.
"I don't think being a witch has anything to do with it. Do you I would do this?" Selena asks, giving Maka a hard to read smile.
**Quasit side-eyes to Maka**
Maka returned Quasit's side eyes then looked back to Selena. "Well...I mean not the child bones part I guess."