Sabinus will use slumber (DC 17, 4 rounds) on one of the vipers and back up the stairs, feeling not so confident about his ability to resist snake poison.
Sabinus can't be sure if these planar spawned beasts are the same as in Westcrown, but they do not appear to be poisonous as far as he can tell.
The viper he targeted barely manages to overcome the hex, and it hisses at him in anger.
"That's a lot of snakes."
Caladius fires off a pair of arrows into the slithering knot of vipers.
Caladius's two arrows fly with deadly force into the press of bodies, but only one was fired with deadly accuracy, tearing through a small snake body and leaving it a ragged thing upon the ground. The errant projectile slides past a subtly dodging Enko, the speed of it's passage causing his clothes a slight ripple.
"Shield your eyes, friends!"
Enko tosses his flash powder at the heart of the swarm, then sweeps at the nearest snake with his rope dart.
The rope dart suddenly zips out impaling a snake through it's head even as it hissed at Enko, and it remains fixed to the dark as Enko yanks it expertly back to his hands.
Lucon and Ava join in the swing-fest with abandon.
Lucon
Ava
The two of them destroy a snake a piece, and the small reptiles slither closer and attack!
Snake
Snake2
Snake3
Snake4
One manages to nip Corneleous's shoulder, but the rest all are unable to get their teeth into you.
Enko smooshes the two nearest snakes, using Anti-Snake Style.
The snake targeted by Sabinus manages to avoid falling asleep, if just barely.
The squealing Viscount just misses crushing the snake who'd nipped him.
Ava likewise has trouble smashing the troublesome snake she tries to hit.
Enko smooshes the two nearest snakes, successfully using Anti-Snake Style, and leaving only 2 left.
Lucon slams his large hammer down, but the slippery snakes manage to doge the heavy weapon.
Caladius fires off two more arrows, trying to end the reptilian threat.
The ranger manages to impale one of the two remaining, it's small body thrashing for a moment before it realizes it's already dead.
The final snake attacks again, small fangs snapping towards Corneleous.
Again it finds an opening, nipping the wizard on the leg.
"Snakes." Lucon grimaces, bringing his hammer back as the creature rears it's head up. "Why does it have to be snakes?"
With a colossal strike of the hammer, the final snake is obliterated. As the dust settles and you catch your breath, the bodies of the slain snakes slowly dissolve in puffs of green smoke. In their place rest eight grape-sized pieces of green jade.
"That's one down. Let's deal with the others just as swiftly." She turns her head towards Corneleous, noticing the blood on his leg. She frowns. "I hope they weren't venemous. Do you feel anything, Viscount?"
Enko examines the jade, without touching them.
Caladius slips his bow back over his shoulder and looks on as Enko picks up the pieces of jade. "Have I mentioned before how weird this place this?" He crosses his arms and leans back against a wall, then reaches up an traces the edge of one his new sets of horns as he waits for the others to inspect the bits of jade.
To Enko's eyes the jade pieces seem inert but possibly valuable. The Viscount feels no ill-effects from the bites... that's he's currently aware of.
- Arachnophobia
- Hematophobia
- Pyrophobia
"Let's get the spiders over with. That's bound to be the worst of the rooms." An involuntary shoulder ripples through Caladius' shoulders as he pushes off the wall. He readies his bow and nods to Ava, presuming she'll be taking point once more.
The others hear Sabinus cursing and muttering to himself... "Why didn't it work? Are serpents immune? Is it just the ones in this damned place? It can't possibly be that all animals are immune..."
He watches the others gather the jade ( ) and follows the others out, muttering to himself, "The spiders better not be immune to my hex..."
After his inner turmoil Sabinus gives a quick appraisal of the jade pieces, figuring each is worth about 75gp each.
Enko nods to Ava and Caladius, rope dart at the ready.
"Spiders...it is as if a thousand feathers assault my flesh..." mutters the monk, trying to remember the rest of Tybain's lines.
If Ava is displeased, her expression doesn't show it.
"Spiders... I dislike them, but envy them at the same time." she says simply. "Both because they are good at what they do."
She scouts ahead, checking out the arachnophobia chamber from its entranceway.
Making your way up the stairs which allow access to this cylindrical room you can see the ceiling is obscured by thick tangles of drooping cobwebs. Nothing else about the room appears remarkable to Ava's keen eyesight.
"Who has a match? We can make this quick," says Enko.
Caladius shrugs his broad shoulders, "Not me."
Sabinus retrieves his flint and steel from his haversack and hands them to Enko, "I don't know what this 'match' is you refer to, but if you're looking to start a fire, here you go."
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"It's a...er...Tian word I picked up at the monastery...sort of a sulfur dipped tindertwig...I forgot they were uncommon here," says Enko apologetically.
Lighting a bit of cloth, the webbing is suddenly set ablaze. For a moment nothing happens for a few moments as the web burns, but then an entire swarm of hand-sized spiders rains from the sky like falling stars. The brief staccato of their small bodies hitting the floor dominates the room for a moment, and then all is quiet again. Either newly appeared or unnoticed until now, a trio of grape-sized, red garnets can be seen glinting in the fading light of the burning web.
In an uncommon display of joviality, Sabinus slaps Enko on the back, "Smart move, Enko! Although I am curious to see whether I could have put them to sleep, as the serpents seemed immune to my powers. Of course, that would have been a highly inefficient way to deal with a swarm of spiders."
Enko reflexively shifts ever so slightly so that Sabinus' slap is the merest brush of air against cloth. "Each instrument to its purpose, Sabinus," he says mildly.
Two more rooms still beckon, and the three garnets remain glinting brightly from the crispy/spider floor.
Hematophobia
Pyrophobia
Caladius leans against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his as the last few spider corpses fall from above, "That was easier than I thought it'd be."
Enko leaves the garnets for Ava, or someone else with gloves or gauntlets.
"I'm sure we'll face something horrible soon enough, Caladius."
Sabinus also defers to Ava, who usually seems to be keen on gathering up the loot. He'll try to gauge their value from a distance.
Ava happily collects the gemstones, before her expression turns sour. "These must be the 'prizes' that the voice spoke of. she says. "Granted that we have to present them afterwards, I get the feeling that we won't be keeping them."
She tucks them away, nodding at the Viscount.
"Do lets." she says, tugging on her bowstring. "Who's afraid of a little blood?"
From the door you can see what appear to be dozens of wicker bird cages hang by thick ropes from the ceiling, each dangling at a different height above the floor.
"Wicker burns. Fire worked last time."
Sabinus again retrieves his flint and steel, and also pulls out a flask of oil. "Are you thinking of shooting flaming arrows at the cages?"
Caladius looks at Sabinus as he pulls his bow off his shoulder, "I am now."