Jim keeps quiet during the diagnosis and ensuing discussion. Feck, that's a hell of a thing. Poor b@st@rd. When the planchette comes to a halt, though, he straightens up and addresses the invalid. "So, what we were here for has to do with that fog. It came with a dead body moving like a puppet, and the body looked like it'd been chewed on by a pig or three. Well, you've got the closest pigs. Got anything to say about that?"
The man's mouth works a bit and then sets and the planchette begins to travel. I owe you. I have certain abilities gained through the use of very rare drugs. Weak telekinesis and the ability to journey beyond consciousness. Those journeys have become dangerous lately. Raynaldo sold shiver here with his gang. Rumor is that their supplier is a cult of spider worshipers. I heard Raynaldo stole a book from this group. He died passed out on shiver last night and we disposed of the body in the pen.
Dibbs interest picks up as the man-chette speaks "Now thats fer summat... so we needs tae look fer pages an drugs eh? Raynaldo still bunked up 'ere wi' his gear like?"
I let the gang use a room back there. Asnaan seems to twitch a finger back toward where the bloody man and Kaul came.
"Kaul, mate, what did you find back there?"
Kaul flashes a leering grin;
"Hur. I seen a trio o' ne'er-do-wells lurkin' like. Weapons all drawn like they was up to no good. So I pre-emptively Lopp'ed 'em. Hur. Got two spilt like logs filled with jam, then the third one did a runner.."
The thug nods toward where the slippery sliding exit took place;
"He was the one that got away. Ol' Kauly then pocketed some silver skulls an' a fist full o' shiver. No gold mind.. None. At. All."
The brute's grin remains rictus in place.
Dingus stays out of the picture... due to some urgent requesting from Jim and Corliss. He then offers Kaul a high five... preferably with his less dangerous hand.
"Let's go see if you missed anything in your blood lust".
The thug returns the gesture with a meaty paw, then rumbles back to the scene of slaughter;
"Hur... Yer right Ding. Let's be 'avin' whatever be 'idden..."
Pupils burning with greed, the thug's beady eyes flit across the room and corpses...
Kaul returns once again to the scene of the crime- a small bedroom currently festooned with dripping blood and two partly dismembered corpses. Ignoring the already inspected stiffs, Kaul gleefully turns to dismantling the room. The mattress and pillows are reduces to strips of fabric and drifting bits of straw and feathers; the lamp, crushed; the bureau, splintered; the empty basin and mirror; shattered; and every loose board, ripped up. Finally, Kaul resigns himself to the fact the room was a mere temporary hiding spot and likely, Raynaldo unloaded anything stolen from the cult as quickly as possible.
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"That be the very definition o' 'thorough,'" Corliss comments from outside the room Kaul just obliterated. Then he goes back to the front door to make sure no angry mobs bearing torches are drawing near the place.
Kaul mugs a hairlip grin at the Besmaran, gesturing proudly at the wreckage wrought on both furnishings and footpads alike;
"Hur. Ye know me mate, all a'bout the fine detail..."
Corliss moves back to the front door to peer out onto the dark street. He smells a wisp of the odor from the pigpen out back and sees that the passing of the eerie fog has brought people back out into the street. Of particular note is a gathering group of ruffians that are eyeing the Grunt. Their voices occasionally rise in anger and Corliss thinks that he overhears the word 'snake' at least once. He doesn't see any torches yet, but thinks perhaps that won't be long in coming.
"Uh-oh...."
Corliss ducks back inside to report the situation to the others.
Still splashed in claret, Kaul mako grin widens at the prospect of trouble;
'Hur. 'ere that Lopps? More fir yer edge..."
The thug mulls their options;
"Want me to grab these dead 'uns an' launch 'em off the roof? Nuthin' like a carcass bomb to scare the bravery out o' folks..."
His scarred brow furrows in thought;
"Or... Fog'll 'ide me. They won't see me an' Lopps comin'... Hurrrrrr."
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"Let's get out of here. We have what we came for. Forget the mob, mate--we've got bigger things to deal with."
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With a stern look Dibbs shushes Kaul "Nei matey, nei way o' tellin if yer bloodyin citizens or bastards eh? Best we make scarce an hit tha feckers that matter eh?" musing and stretching his neck "Tha said, we could do wi' a distractin like. I ken fog up an we ken slip away softly softly cheeky Kauly?"
Kaul nods slowly, acknowledging the savvy play suggested.
"Hur. Makes sense matey..."
The thug's axe however balefully stares with its one eye.
With a nervous grin, the scarred brute changes the subject;
"What 'bout the ghosty coin? We keepin' it?"
"By the bye, where did that last thug go?"
"Oh I think he went down there somewhere. Richard... go check it out and report back to me pronto". Dingus moves towards the steps and waits for Richard to check things out.
Sneaky Snake
Richard slithers down the stairs to the drug den below. None of the reclining half-conscious figures in the room below appear to notice the deadly viper in their midst as the fer-de-lance catches the trail of fleeing gang member. The trail leads down a hallway with several doors and stops at the far end at a closed door. He returns to report to Dingus.
Kaul keeps an eye out for Dingus' snake reappearing, whilst fretting about the magic spelling coin....
The snake does slither back up the stairs and after an extended hissing match with Dingus, the snakey sorcerer reports that the last pusher seems to be holed up in a room downstairs.
"Well. Let's go see where he went, and what mischief he's up to".
The sneaky snake guys starts down the stairs... after girding himself in translucent snake scales (Mage Armor).
Kaul mugs a grin at the others as Dingus' slinks off to hunt...
"Hur. Ye want 'im lopped or stopped?"
He taps the axe then sap tucked into his belt, then back again...
Seeing the crew put two opposite plans into effect at the same time, Corliss rubs the bump on his head. "Shall I go back to me post at the front door an' holler when the mob's on our doorstep?" he asks Jim.
Jim turns to respond to Corliss' question when the planchette starts scraping again. There is a secret passage in the broom closet below.
"Stopped. We want to have words, and it's hard for the lopped to answer. Best we hurry, 'fore that secret passage is found." Suiting action to words, the Taldan hustles after the missing thug.
Hope them boards ain't prone to lyin'! Corliss thinks as his black boots propel him across the room and down the stairs after Jim and the others. Grinning a bit, the priest decides, Then again, a piece o' wood's got more smarts than most o' this crew! Secret door it is!
The crew quickly move downstairs into the drug parlor where the barely conscious reclining figures only blink at the noisy group interrupting their euphoria. The room is hazy with smoke and the nearly overwhelming odor of dragonweed, flayleaf, and even the twinge of pesh. Richard hisses in Dingus' ears giving directions forward.
"Don't git up on our account!" Corliss says to the addicts as he passes through the smoky room.
Kaul looks quizzically at Jimmer's requirement for bopped over lopped.
Grumbling under his breath he belts the murderous ax and replaces it with a shot loaded sap;
"Iffentheyaredeadwecanusethemagicalcointospeakwiththedead...Hur..."
Entering the drug den, the thug's beadies flit around looking for their victim;
Perception:
Dibbs follows the longshanks from the safe rear-guard position before he slightly cocks his head as they pass the group of drugged out zombies. His eyes narrow slightly as though noticing something before (after a few slivers of comprehension) he jerks back exclaiming "Bloody hell... feckin druggos gots spider in they grill... Look sharp an careful lads"
"I see it, mate." The Taldan peers around the room, looking for other signs of movement.
Perception
"What? Where? That would be a great trick. Wonder if I can make tiny snakes appear from my fangs"?
Dingus seems deep in thought as they proceed.
"Are we sure we want spider filled things behind us"?
Sound and color deaden around the crew as the smoke coalesces into filaments crisscrossing the room. The filaments quickly thicken into web-like strands that enmesh everyone in gray, translucent cords. The unconscious junkie that gave the arachnid burp now spasms as he vomits forth a steady stream of palm-sized spiders that rush toward the crew.
Keelhaul Kaul-
Madman Jim-
Dingus-
Corliss-
foe-
"Garn! Caught like a cricket inside a sticky thicket!"
Jim struggles to get free. "Feck! This thing is starting to seriously pi$$ me off!"
Feeling tiny legs poking, prodding and protruding into all his orifices Dibbs growls "Light 'em up Ding!" as he tries to work his way out of the arachnoidal spread...
Will Save
"Ahhh! I will if I can get free enough appendages to blast this thing".
CMB to escape grapple.
The webbing that now shrouds the entire room seems unreal, but the binding strands restrain the crew just the same. The entire crew struggles to free themselves from entangling strands.
The spider-spewing addict falls back onto the couch, bulging in unseemly ways. There is a sickly tearing noise as the growing swarm of spiders erupt from the dead man's body. Jim manages to rip free, but is quickly covered in biting spiders.
Dingus shimmies in the web, but can't break free.
Jim manages to keep his dinner down as the myriad spiders cover him.
"C'mon, Bessie! This can't be the way ye let yer 'umble servant go out! Swallered by a whale I can accept; nibbled to death by land-bound creepy crawlers...no!"
The entire crew struggles to free themselves from entangling strands.
Having had his fill of misty grappling, Kaul resolutely ignores the strands, instead focussing on the swarm of legs and fangs spewing forth around him;
"Feck... Spiders! Swarm o' em! I ain't got nuthin' fir 'em outside o' harsh language! Hang on Ding I's coming' tae get ye free!"
The thug moves toward Ding to attempt to rip him free;
:
"I'll help Dibbets, hey?" Ignoring the spider swarm, Jim tries to pry the oracle loose from the phantom filaments.
Kaul looks skeptically at the pantomime around him. Sure, the hazy smoke filling the room does have an unsettling stringiness to it rather like the fog out on the street did, but there's nothing there as witnessed by waving away the smoke in his face. He does see a dark and leggy spot emanate from an unmoving junkie on a couch though. He walks over to Dingus and gives him a yank to see if that helps the strangely writhing sorcerer.
Jim turns back to the web-encased stairway where Dibbets dangles like a bedraggled fly and pulls at him while trying to ignore the spiders crawling up the webs that drape off the swashbuckler. The swarm continues to grow so that another branch swarms over Corliss as well.
Corliss does his goddess proud, projectile vomiting like a real live waterspout. His struggles to escape slow as he tries instead to spit some leftover vomit on a spider getting dangerously close to his face.
Jim can't quite hold it together and, gagging and retching, retreats from the swarm.