The sparks from Jim's storm-charged blade don't provide much light, but it's enough to better make out the nearer region of the room. Broken timbers scattered upon the floor indicate that the original ceiling of this large parlor fell in some time ago though thick tangles of iridescent webbing creates a thick canopy obscuring anything farther up. The webs also sheet together debris around the edge of the room. There is a slightly ajar door to the south and toward the room's center are several tables littered with an arrangement of flasks, alembics, and cauldrons around a steaming contraption that emits the bitter smell.
Jim doesn't see the fleeing cultist with the captive thrown over his shoulder, but he does see a robed and hooded figure about a head shorter than himself amid the tables tending the equipment. It pauses to gaze at him, but the shadows from the hood obscure its face.
Not daring the dark staircase by his lonesome, Corliss scoots after Jim, bringing with him the light spell pre-cast on his blade.
As Kaul gets called, the prospect of being lumbered with the cultist loses its lustre...
The thug bellows back;
"Be with ye in a jiffy mate! Got some excess baggage to throw o'erboard..."
Holding the mook fast, he brings Lopper to bear;
"Hold still. This won't 'urt none... Hur-hur..."
Dingus is torn between watching Kaul dismember his captive, and the unexplored room ahead. Once he sees Kaul chop off something, he hurries into the next room.
"Who are you"? He questions the hooded figure.
Dingus hops from slippered foot to slippered foot trying to decide in which way lies more chaos. It's an odd angle, but Kaul brings Lopper down on the claw-bound cultist cutting an artery near his neck. Blood sprays across the room sprinkling the hearth and the illusionary fire that offers no heat. The cultist calls out to his forbidden gods, "Mog-lathar! Nightmare Lord save me!" But to no avail as he bleeds in Kaul's grasp.
Meanwhile, Dingus has already scooted across the old Desnan temple to see what else is happening. The small robed figure replies in a soft pleasant female voice, "I am Guela. I live here. The question is who are you and why are you here?"
"Well, we're after an unconscious fellow who's been carried off in this direction. We have a question or two for them, and the folks who were doing the carrying off seemed to be a mite displeased." Jim looks around. "Interesting decor. You wouldn't happen to know a gnome goes by Whitecoat, would you?"
"Whitecoat? No," the woman responds and she lifts a sleeve to point a small, slender finger at the partly open door.
Kaul chuckles as he hacks;
"Hur. Nightmare Lord? Hur... No such luck matey... This 'ere is Kaul. Once Apostle O' The Almighty Nut. Future Mecha-Man. Current wielder o' Lopper. Yer Mog ain't got the stones to come play with me. Right off with yer noggin'..."
The brute continues his hacking and lopping;
Kaul summarily executes the cultist, cutting short the strange prayers.
Chuckling at his handiwork, the thug drops the corpse and ambles toward the others.
Blood-spattered and belligerent, he arrives brandishing Lopper;
"Hur. 'Ere now lads! Last one was gettin' all chanty as me and Lopps ushered 'im off this 'ere mortal coil. Hur... Now what we got 'ere?"
The thug casts a jaundiced eye o'er small robed figure;
"Bit small fir a cultist ain't ye? Tho' Whitecoat was little too..."
Corliss moves cautiously to the half-opened door, fully expecting an ambush of some sort. He wisely (for him at least) casts guidance on himself so he'll be better able to deal with whatever ambush awaits. At the doorway, he positions his glowing rapier so that it illuminates at least part of the next room.
Despite Kaul's suspicions, the mysterious figure is definitely taller than a gnome and female. Corliss follows her pointed directions and moves to the door, cautiously peering beyond with the illumination from his blade. The room beyond has a faint candle light that is dampered by acrid smoke that burns Corliss' eyes and throat as he catches the odor. He can make out haphazardly arranged tables and chairs of various styles. The tables are littered with baskets of glass vials and dozens of small leather satchels. A large spigoted alembic hangs from chains above the tables. The door is pushes open by a pair of robed figures in strange beaked masks with goggles built in.
Guela loudly whisperss, "Surprise," with a sardonic tone and points at Jim as she moves deeper into the room. Jim snickers.
Keelhaul Kaul-
Madman Jim-
Dingus-
Corliss-
foe-
Besmara's at her fickle finest, her blessing not helping her apparently disgraced servant fight off the acrid smoke. Corliss begins coughing and then dry heaves--at least he hopes it's a dry heave--as he can't possibly have any more spiders nesting in his stomach. Right? In any event, he's incapable of casting a spell or even fighting his two opponents. Instead, he takes a careful step northeast to allow Jim and the others to engage the cultists to the south.
One corner of Jim's mouth quirks up, then he shakes his head. "Heard that one before. You got the accent wrong."
Dingus casts Breeze upon himself, and prepares to follow the others in.
Breeze
Breeze
School evocation (air); Level sorcerer/wizard 0
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a miniature fan)
EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature or object
Duration 1 hour (D)
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes
You create a light wind that blows against the target, from a direction of your choice. The breeze grants the subject a +2 bonus on saves against very hot conditions, severe heat, breath weapons, and saves against cloud vapors and gases (such as cloudkill, stinking cloud, and inhaled poisons). This spell does not function without air or underwater.
You can only have one breeze active at any one time. If you cast this spell while another casting is still in effect, the previous casting is dispelled.
Jim takes a quick step forward, his blade a crackling blur as he attempts to perforate one of the cultists.
Jim is not amused by the situation and steps up to the door as Corliss is overwhelmed by the caustic fumes.
Forewarned by Corliss' coughing fit, Jim holds his breath and squints as he steps toward the strange goggled and beaked cultists. Jim's quick blade darts out like a tongue of lightning to strike down the first one and then finishes the other one with supernatural speed. Further into the room, Jim spots another masked cultist that splits into duplicates copying Corliss' trick.
A ghostly hand floats from the shadows at the rear of the room and taps Corliss , but it's the wrong Corliss and his double disappears. Corliss barely notices as his eyes water and his doubles over coughing. In addition to the strange hand, three pale streams fall from the sheets of web overhead catching Corliss, Jim, and Dingus in a shimmering shroud of spider web. Entangled
Corliss is so happy to not be puking up spiders that he fails to notice streamers of sticky webbing floating down to ensnare him.
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Dingus starts to inhale and blow out a breeze, when out of the corner of his eye... or Richards, he sees the descending filaments. He instead places his thumbs together, and casts forth a fan of flaming snake tongues (Burning Hands) in the air above him.
Concentration Check.
FORT Save
Flame Damage (DC15 Reflex for 1/2)
The oils on the webs don't seem to affect the sailors entangled in the sticky mess . Dingus sends writhing flames up into the gauzy ceiling and it bursts into purplish fire. Three dwarf-sized spiny spiders are seen in the conflagration.
Kaul enters the room, clocking first webbing, then spiders...
With a grimace the thug hefts his axe and attempts to step lightly toward Guela;
Moving at supernatural speed and with superlative grace belying his bulk, Kaul vaults the table full of alchemical equipment with only a slight rattle of the glassware. He lands and swings at the hooded figure. Blood splatters onto the floor and stains the robes.
Frowning at the newly presented foes, Dibbets cracks his neck as the blunderbuss is raised from kiltward to foeward. Taking steady aim at the spiny spider dangling near to Jimmer the halfling half-confidently growls "Stay still Madman..." as he squeezes the relief trigger to the cacophonic weapon....
Deadly Aim: for
Dibbets gazes up at the purple flames that are spreading quickly through the webs and creating a haze of smoke. He fires at the closest spider and punctures the bulbous abdomen. Goo splatters onto the floor and Jim's boots from the mortally wounded creature.
The hooded figure staggers back from Kaul and quips, "You're sharper than you look." There is a flourish and Kaul feels a ticklish twitch of his lip.
With a little effort, Corliss squirms from from the webbing. Rapier at the ready, he tells Kaul, "I might be able to handle this critter, iff'n ye wants to deal with yon spellcaster!"
Jim draws his kukri and tries to cut himself free.
As the fire spreads through the webbing overhead, the big ugly spiders burn. The one injured by Dibbets' shot succumbs and falls to the floor, narrowly missing Jim. The others flee the flames: one scampering down the wall to bite Dingus, who is bound to the door frame by the webbing. , the last horrible spider drops onto the lab table next to Kaul. It lands awkwardly, scattering and breaking equipment, which foils its attack.
Kaul can see from his advanced location that another type of spider has creeped down behind the webbing along the wall at the back of the room, but hangs back waving its legs in a suspicious manner. The ghostly hand floating nearby darts forward, but narrowly misses touching Corliss as he wiggles free from the webs.
Jim slashes the strands away with his cutting blade and sees that the masked and doubled cultist in the next room casts another spell on itself. The burning webs release a colorful vapor that quickly fills the room and overpowers the acrid scent of the drug processing facility.
Kaul mugs a grin, and chuckles menacingly;
"Hur-hur. Ain't me that's sharp... Tis Lopps 'ere..."
The brute hacks wildly, but seems distracted by the saluting spider...
Still limber and free from entanglement Dibbs busies himself with reinstalling fire, thunder and fury into his trademark boomstick.
Fort:
The acrid smoke puts a mild tickle in his nostrils, but its no worse than the smell of self-inflicted soiled bedding that Dibbets generally wakes to so the halfling is able to fortify his mind against it. Words to mouth he exhorts "Watch our fer the biter Kauly... Jimmer ye gots eyes on tha bugger? Corliss, lively now an Ding - dinnae hang about matey."
Dingus attempts to use his fan of flaming serpent tongues to clear away the binding webbing, as well a scorch a few baddies if possible.
Concentration
Burning Hands Flame Damage
... three pale streams fall from the sheets of web overhead catching Corliss, Jim, and Dingus in a shimmering shroud of spider web.
Dingus is in a silken pickle as he tries move enough to cast a spell and avoid the really, really big spider that just bit him. At least the venom has no effect. Dibbets reloads and shouts orders.
Kaul is still unimpressed with the robed figures comedy routine. Annoyed, the figure pulls back the hood to reveal a face that is human, at least above the nose. Below that hairy chelicerae emerge from where a mouth should be. Her hair is coarse and bristly on her head and extra limbs bulge along the sides of the robe. You've heard legends of spider people living hidden in the creepier corners of Freeport, but took them for tall tales until now.
Guela raises a hand and sends a trio of mauve bolts at Kaul before coughing from the weird smoke from the burning webs fills the room.
Corliss moves to the wall on his left and then holds his palm outward. A blistering ray of searing light shoots at the spellcaster to the north.
for
THe Taldan is unmoved by the smoke. He takes a quick step towards Dingus and unleashes the fury of his crackling blade on the spider there.
Corliss moves to the wall to target Guela. He has to dodge an unnervingly large spider though and it throws off his aim. The beam of light burns through a swath of webbing on the far side of the room. Jim steps alongside Dingus and makes short work of the big spider threatening him.
The last spider on Kaul lunges at him, but is blocked by the heavy metal claw. The twin cultists in the beaked gas masks burst into the room and slash at Jim with a sickles shaped like a spider legs. But they misses. The ghostly hand still floating about the hazy room darts forward at Corliss again and barely grazes the sea priest. Corliss feels the chill of the grave run through him.
Corliss feels his muscles preparing to betray him, but he fights the spell off...perhaps with a little help from his fickle deity.
"Danged Spiders. I thought they were pretty cool if not nearly as attractive as snakes... but this whole web thing is getting old".
He then tries to find a supported position and unleash his own Vapor Vipers at the closest bird face.
Concentration.
High End Vapor Vipers Magic Missile at Level 3.
As spiders, Cultists and crazy snakes assail Kaul's senses, the thug snaps and brings his axe to bear on the nearest arachnid;
"Feck this! Be ye 8 Legs, 2 Legs - all o' ye are gettin' lopped!"
Dibbets is in the midst of relevelling a restored boomstick when Dingus' plaintive cry cuts through. With a softly spoken "Hold yer breeches..." the halfling exhales smoothly and attempts to put a leaden present into the nearest foe...
Boom: for