Enhanced CMB
"Ah let me out! I've got nothing against spiders".
With Jim's assist, Dibbets breaks free of his mental bondage. Dingus doesn't fare as well as he tries to talk the sticky strands into releasing him while Kaul yanks at him. Corliss also remains held fast and tries puking at the hairy creepers climbing up his legs. The taste of bile suddenly gains a hairy texture as horrifically, spiders begin spouting from his own mouth!
Spreading from two sources now, the swarming spiders cover the crew in a many-legged terrifying carpet.
Besmara continues to punish Corliss for some past slight or failure. The priest doesn't even seem to try to escape, instead convulsing a bit as he hangs in the ghostly webs.
The new infestation wreaks havoc on the Taldan's composure. Screaming, he flees the area, singlemindedly focusing on being wherever the spiders aren't.
Dingus continues to try and find his way out of the sticky webs.
CMB
As Dingus, flails and flaps attempting to cast a spell, Kaul tries to free the equally beleaguered Corliss...
"Hurrr. Lotsa legs indeed... C'mon matey. Time we were begone."
It is a horrifying scene in the drug den. Obscured by haze and gauzy webs, the crew are engulfed by terror. Dingus dangles feebly trying to bargain with the spiders spreading from Corliss to him. Corliss continues to spit out more spiders into the swarm that is quickly filling the room and covering the prostrate forms on the couches. Jim runs for safety and Kaul, the only one not incapacitated by the frightening figments, attempts to haul Corliss out of the webs.
Corliss spews another stream of spiders out his innards through his silently-screaming mouth.
Garn! Always suspected I were delicious. Now I knows it to be fact....
Concentration Check
"Well if you don't want to be friendly you only leave me one other choice". Dingus tries to loosen his arms enough to cast a damaging spell, however his bad luck continues, as the spell fails due to his decreased movement.
The Taldan searches for an oil lamp, or something else that he can use against swarms of spiders.
Kaul tries to haul Corliss out of the nightmare of entrapping webs and spiders erupting from within, but the sailor just hangs hopelessly fouled. Likewise, Dingus can't focus as the spiders begin crawling up his robes. Jim dashes into the open hall and into the door at the end. He opens it to find a broom closet and frantically looks for something to use against the horrific spider swarm.
Still feeling the wee buggers crawling all over his skin Dibbs growls "Graah, bloody eight leggered bastards!" as he backs into the corner and tries to blow the spiders away with a foetid draw of breath straight from the crusty Skylord's armpit...
Holding himself together, but unable to tear Corliss free, Kaul uses his savvy and brings Lopper to bear - knowing the axe can bite through most things...
"Hur. Don't ye fret there matey. Me an' Lopps'll 'ave ye free in a jiff."
"Be right there Ding. Once I get the spider-spewer free like!"
Dibbets huffs and puffs at the ghostly strands and spiders, but the webs barely ripple and only a couple spiders are knocked away. Kaul, not really seeing what the others are ranting about, though he does feel the bites of unseen vermin, swings Lopper about as if chopping back the phantom webs. The others can see that the magical axe has some effect, but it seems to pass through the strands as much as it sunders.
Meanwhile, Jim finds the closet full of shelves of linens and a couple buckets. He attempts to pull a mop and bucket aside to see if anything useful might be found on the floor behind it and finds that the mop and bucket don't move. They appear to be attached to the ground.
Spiders now fill the room, covering and biting everyone within. Then the hazy strands of the webbing loose their fibrous form, becoming once more the mundane smoky smog that smells of drugs and incense. The spiders are little puffs of smoke that quickly diffuse into a homogeneous haze. In a moment nothing of the nightmare remains expect the tiny bites of the phantasmal spiders. Unfortunately, several of the figures on the couches look to have succumbed to the multitude of spider bites.
Corliss manages to give Kaul a nod of thanks for his efforts, but the Besmaran appears shaken. He silently uses a positive energy channel to heal some of the damage he suffered in the phantasmal attack.
Finally deciding that maybe the nightmare's over, he experimentally opens his mouth a few times to see if more spiders will crawl out of it. When none do, he asks if anyone else needs healing.
"Ah! Where did all the spiders go? Where is the web? Dibbets... did you do this"?
The scrawny sorcerer begins to look around for the source of this spidery fog.
Perception
The funky halfling has a dark mien as he replies to Dingus "Nei matey - wee buggers didnae flinch at the wind... summat darker called em an' sent 'em way agin."
Kaul grins proudly;
"They scuttled off quick an' proper when Ol' Lopps was produced. Realise who it was they faced an' scarpered fast as their eight leggies would carry!"
The axe-head bobs in affirmation.
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Jim comes staggering back in. "Sure, Kaul. Must be it. So who are the deaders? And where's the thug we were looking for?"
Dingus has no clue where the webs and mean spiders have fled. It's as if it were all a bad dream except for the dead or dead-to-the-world junkies lying on the couches. Richard slithers out of Dingus' robe and into the open closet in response to Jim's last query.
Jim follows the snake, blade ready.
Though Jim didnt notice any fleeing thugs in there moments ago, he follows Richard back into the closet to find the snake coiled at the back under the shelves of linens and supplies. Jim attempts to move the mop bucket to get a better view, but again, he finds that it won't budge.
"Kaul! Dibbets! Get in here, I think there's a hidden door."
Kaul ambles to the closet and grins at the prospect of more destruction;
"Hur. Lopps'll 'ave that opened in a jiffy Jim. Stand aside an' let Ol' Kauly work 'is secret door openin' magic!"
The brute brandishes the hatchet eagerly...
The grizzled half-man turns to Jim's words, but offers a wide enough berth to the scarred half-man to work his metallic magic upon the portal.
"I don't quite know where it is, mates, and it'll take a mite less time if Kaul knows where to hit."
Dibbets peers through limbs and intervening obstruction to see if he can ken the location of the pernicious portal...
Perception:
Corliss stands nearby as the others investigate the broom closet, occasionally sticking out his tongue and picking at it with his fingers while looking a bit green from the hideous experience.
While Corliss spits stray spider legs from his mouth. Dinbbets explores the closet. He finds that the suspicious mop and bucket holds a secret. when the mop is pushed down past the apparent bottom of the bucket and twisted, the back of the closet swings away to reveal a passage beyond that holds descending stone stairs!
Forestalling the bigguns "'Old on Kauly..." probing betwixt the nugget's nethers to plunge down with the mop and lay bare the downwards route. Smirking he notes "Roight... way's open eh?"
Cool air with a soupcon of sewage hits your faces as you begin down the stairs.
Corliss draws his rapier and casts a light spell upon its blade. Turning to Kaul, the priest says, "You want to scout ahead, since yer peepers work good in the dark?" Then he notices the staring eye on the half-orc's boarding axe and inquires in a whisper, "Can Lopper see in the dark, too?"
Dingus will bring up the rear, with Richard around his shoulders keeping an eye on things behind them.
As the crew reach the bottom of the stairs and Corliss' light stretches out along the tunnel, there is a fearful shout of alarm and then the rapid echo of a single pair of boots retreating away down the echoing passage.
Kaul mugs a hairlip grin at Corliss, as the hatchet head bobs in affirmation;
"Hur. Lopper see's all mate..."
The brute takes the lead, then curses as the light alerts their presence to their next set of victims...
"Hur-hur-hur... They know's we're 'ere. How we playin' this lads? Wait or go seek?"
Corliss shrugs. "Me vote be 'Go Seek.' Gives 'em less time to prep a nasty ambush fer us."
"Push on Kauly... nei reason tae waits aboot"
The brute leers as he's let off the leash, pressing off into the shadows...
Kaul pauses in suspicion of an ambush, but his companions urge him forward. In the interim, a faint light appears from around the corner ahead likely as the fleeing pusher pauses to light a bulls-eye lantern. Then the glimmer fades to darkness as the man moves at speed away.
The crew quicken their pace through the weaving passage until they reach an intersection. The stink of sewer is stronger here as if the passage is joined by the old sewer routes under the city. Kaul can just hear the distant scuff off boots ahead still and steers past the sewer passages. A short time later he hears voices ahead and the passage lightens. He creeps forward ahead of the others for a looksee.
Drawn toward the murderous melody of stifled speech and dropping bodies Kaul steps lightly and carries a big axe...
In the center of the room are three standing figures in dark, hooded robes wielding strange sickles shaped like segmented spider legs. They stand over the unconscious thug that fled from Kaul. He doesn't appear to be dead as Kaul hears a fevered moan escape from the unconscious man.
Jim waits patiently, blade ready.
Satisfied he's noted their foes, Kaul slinks back the way he came...
[dice=Stealth (15ft Move):