As the cultist's add to Kaul's collection of scars, the thug returns the compliment with a brutal hack of his ax;
"Garn!" spits Corliss as the cultists prove tougher than expected...and Dingus pisses off the stony spider. Unable to affect multiple targets with any of his remaining spells, the Besmaran priest tries to deal (in part, at least) with the ghostly arachnid. Muttering a prayer to Besmara, he tries to blind the thing before it can decide which crew member it's going to target first.
Dibbets' meanwhile invokes some insurance in the art of self preservation in the form of hobbling backward and calling upon some draughty protections...
Dibbets weaves a warding wind about himself as Kaul bellows and hacks ineffectively at the slippery cultists. Jim presses his advantage though and a crackling steel storm sends the remaining cultists either to their death or fleeing. Corliss sends a spell at the Giant Spider God and thinks it may have worked as a long leg rubs across its horrible eye-studded head.
"Ohhh! Good shot Corliss".
Dingus has found out that he's amused when his companions move about at a ridiculous pace... so he casts Haste upon them and continues to look for cover.
Knowledge: Arcana to try and figure out what the spider thingy might be.
Corliss grins at the serpent mage. "Figured I'd fire off a spell afore a bunch o' misty webs turn this dream into a nightmare!"
A melodic, but cruel voice enters all your minds, Do you wonder what I am, little worm? A mere shadow of what I once was millennia ago. I was powerful then, but too proud perhaps and foolishly let myself be lured from Leng by the promise of the dreamstone only to die and be buried here and turned to stone over the eons. Reconstituted after all that at the will of the stone I once sought to possess and the worship of the feeble beings that uncovered me at last. Not that I haven't enjoyed devouring those that the dreamstone has forever entangled in the veil between waking and dreaming, but the dreamstone's power grows and we no longer need your feeble prayers. With every soul that never awakes, this world sinks deeper into the living nightmares of the Dreamlands.
So saying, the giant ghostly spider floating some 15 feet overhead turns its dead eyes upon Dingus and sprays a stream of glistening webbing at him. Dingus is already on the move though and the sticky stuff narrowly misses him.
Dibbet's spits a loogie in defiant distain of the spectral spider's foreboding words;
"Little worm? Don't ye be castin' aspirations the size o' my cockle ye basterd!"
The grubby oracle reloads his boom-stick, before shouldering and drawing a bead on the 8-Legged Freak...
With added impetus from Dingus' Haste spell, Kaul mugs a murderous grin and lays about the nearest cultists with gusto;
"Right Lopps... Chop-chop we've a spider to de-leg!"
The wily sorcerer laughs at the beast and rises into the air so he can't be webbed to anything.
Corliss feels Dingus's magic take hold, so he finally steps up between Jim and Kaul and forgoes magic for steel!
for
for
for
Jim... sends the remaining cultists either to their death or fleeing.
"Corliss, see how yon spider likes a taste of Besmara's goddess-power!"
"Aye!" Corliss shouts back to Jim as he crosses his two index fingers underneath his chin (forming a half-arsed skull-and-crossbones symbol). Then he points at the ghostly arachnid, and what can only be described as a ray of searing light fires forth from his fingertip!
for
Dingus ascends while Corliss sends a luminescent sea green bolt of divine wrath into the big spider ripping through the misty form. It recoils and hisses.
Dibbets' squints as he draws a bead on the spectral spider, mulling if is shot will actually effect the creature;
"Needs tae hit the fecker first!
Kaul takes route one toward the creature...
Even Dibbets' notoriously poor aim can't miss the immense spider threatening above, though the bullet doesn't seem to do the amount of damage he expects from such a blast. Kaul advances at blurring speed, first vaulting onto the dais and then scrambling onto the altar before grabbing a thick dangling stone leg and clambering onto the swaying petrified body of the beastly spider toward its nightmarish phantom floating above it.
Jim follows Kaul leaping from floor to dais to altar to spider with blurring speed and panache. He stabs the phantom menace in the face. ;
The foggy, yet substantial creature bites the swashbuckler. Jim attempts to parry the threatening mandibles, but the creature is too big.
Jim looks in horror as the flesh around the bite blackens and rots away!
Corliss doesn't look pleased at the obvious damage the spectral spider manages to inflict upon Jim with its bite. He's not sure he can heal it, especially not while the crew's still fighting the thing.
"Besmara prnounces 'er doom upon ya, ye eight-legged, landlubbin', fly-nibblin' beastie!" he says with conviction, pointing at the big arachnid.
To Dibbets he adds, "Would it help iff'n I magicked yer boomstick?" Just then, a second Corliss pops into existence nearby.
To Dibbets he adds, "Would it help iff'n I magicked yer boomstick?" Just then, a second Corliss pops into existence nearby.]
"Wouldnae hurt!" Dibbets says as he loads his boomstick and holds it up to one Corliss, then the other.
From his levitated height, Dingus activates one of his anchoring rods to hold himself, and sends a Vapor Viper at the monstrosity from his fang ring.
Force Damage
Tendrils of vapor stream off the wounded nightmare beast after Dingus' serpent missile strikes. Kaul burbles as his axe goes snicker-snack.
The suspended stone spider he's using as a platform swings at the exersion throwing off his first strike, but the lumpy sailor quickly gains his sea legs and drives Lopper deeply into the phantom horror! A mental cry of anguish is heard and the mists disburse leaving Jim and Kaul standing atop the crumbling stone spider above the excavated pit in the dais.
Jim shakes his head, blinking at the vision of his necrotic leg. He prepares to strike the great ghostly spider only to see it fade away as Dingus and Kaul unleash their fury on it. Then Jim's mind is further wracked by the unearthly venom that courses in his veins.
Not sure upon rereading if Jim's poison damage is noticeable to anyone but himself, so I'm just gonna roll a treat poison here assuming Jim comes down off the spider and makes his poisoning known.
No real surprise there: I'm in another 'Can't Roll Double-Digits' funk on these forums. Corliss will take 10 on the next round (if necessary) for a total of 20.
Kaul hacks a chuckle from atop the sundered dias;
"Hur. Told ye we was the nightmare's 'ere... Hur... So what we killin' next lads?"
Jim continues to look stricken, sweating and eyes darting, but still responsive. Kaul hops down on to the dais chuckling and looking for something else to harm.
Corliss notices Jim's affliction and pulls himself up onto the hanging stone spider to assist. As soon as he touches Jim, the sailor suddenly turns on the priest with a wild look in his eye and shoves Corliss away. Taken by surprise, Corliss gapes as he slips backward off the spider and plummets into the pit below! Jim regains his wits a moment later uncertain what has just happened.
aaaaaaarn!"
Dingus floats down as the immediate threat seems to have disappeared in time to see Jim throw Corliss off the spider.
He turns to Kaul with a snicker. "And Jim thinks we're the crazy ones".
Dingus begins to look around the room for anything interesting, or mildly dangerous, including searching the victims.
Perception
Dingus shrugs off Corliss' dive into the depths and looks for something of more immediate interest. Sadly, the cultists have nothing other than their weird spider-leg sickles and robes. Of more interest perhaps are the web-wrapped sacrifices dangling at levitation level before the stone spider. They don't appear to have been liberated of their gear before their sacrifice.
Dibbets hobbles up to have a look into the pit and Asnaan reappears eyes wide and gazing at the pit rather than the huge petrified spider swinging above. He points a finger into the pit from whence there now seems to echo a distant crashing of waves. "That. That is the source of the Dreamland Incursion."
Jim straightens up, brushes his hair and clothing into something like a semblance of order, and sheathes his sword. "Didn't you say that going down in this place is a bad thing?"
Asnaan nods. "Yes. But whatever is down there is pulling all of Freeport in there after it."
Bereft of things to kill, Kaul turns to plunder and begins using Lopper to slice open the web graves of potential loot;
"Hur. First we fill our pockets lads... then worry 'bout the pit..."
He pauses, beady eyes furrowing;
"Someone goin' tae 'elp Corliss? I would like, but I's a bit busy..."
The greedy thug gets back to the grisly task at hand...
Dibbs' leans in squinting down the pit;
"Blackboots? Ye 'ear me lad? Iffin' ye can, mind yer 'ead!"
He then hacks a loogie down the pit, and grits his teeth;
"Roight then. Time we we're goin'."
The grubby oracle stretches on the edge, bones popping as he limbers up...
The Taldan draws his sword again and lights it up, looking for ways down. 'Dingus, can you put a little light onto one of those blades and toss it down? Don't use the high-powered light yet, we might need it."
Dingus starts when addressed as he'd been wondering how deep this was.
"Ah! Yeah. Sure thing Cap'n".
Dingus casts light on a blade, and sends it over the edge... rushing forward to see what it reveals.
Dingus cuts the strands suspending the pair of webshrouded sacrifices to let them drop to the floor with an enormous crash. Kaul eagerly cuts open the grisly piñatas to reveal a gleam of steel. Interestingly, the prizes are revealed to be two well armored and muscular men, without any clear cause of death despite the network of old scars that covers their fit, sinewy frames. The armor is sturdy breastplate, but covered with jagged shards of hard metal which seems dangerous and perhaps is the origin of many of the old scars on the dead warriors. Unfortunately, nothing else of value remains on the remains.
Dingus quickly loses interest and happily complies with Jim's request to illuminate a segmented sickle and spin it into the pit. It quickly becomes a fading glow in the thick mist that obscures anything beyond the first score of steps spiraling down into the haze.
"All right, gents. Let's go." Jim marches down the stairs as if to an unheard martial drumbeat.
Dingus a bit disappointed by the falling, glowing scimitar, simply shrugs, hikes up his robes, and follows behind Jim.
"Keep you're eyes open and tongue sensing Richard".
Jim feels a certain dreadful deja vu as he is once again descending stone stairs with Dingus hissing ominously behind him.