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Regardless of Sara's proclivity for 'doing it at night' Melodie concurs. "We will not put you to all that trouble Baronet. Our thanks for your information and your hospitality. When we return we can talk more about the future for you and New Towne. We'll offer whatever help we can of course!"
Baronet Vort bids you good luck as you continue on towards Jambis. You arrive at the outskirts of the town late at night. What remains of the formerly prosperous trading town are leaning wooden buildings and bleached bones—some animal, some not—gathered in corners like autumn leaves. A fortress of sturdy stone, crumbling white plaster, and ragged banners overlooks the valley and town below.
"I'll keep you safe," she whispers softly.
She continues to eye the window nervously.
~~~~~~~~~
Zhi looks over the stone fortress looking for any obvious guards.
"I'm going to take a circuit around and see what other ways in or out exist," she says quietly. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
Before Zhi can reach the fortress, she has to make her way through the ruined town. Leaving the others behind temporarily, she creeps ahead, sticking to the shadows and using the myriad buildings for cover.
Dozens of hand-sized jumping spiders skitter through the shadows like rats, scavenging flesh from discarded bones, but they give Zhi a wide berth. She also is perceptive enough to spot the large mats of sticky webbing that stretch across several roadways, testifying to the presence of larger predators.
The rogue hears them before she sees them, and she presses herself flat against a building and holds her breath as two enormous spiders move through the darkened streets ahead of her. The size of draft horses, the long-legged spiders have huge, glossy black abdomens, marked on the underside with the shape of a crimson hourglass.
Zhi escapes the spiders' notice, but she's uncertain if her companions will be able to make it through the town without attracting their attention.
Zhi returns to where the ladies await.
In spite of her best efforts, a slight tremble is evident in both her hands and her speech.
"I didn't reach the manor," she says quietly. "There are s-spiders in the village."
She holds one hand up to over the top of her head.
"Big spiders. I saw two of them, but there might be more."
Zhi looks around at the others.
"We're not all going to be able to sneak by them. If we want to get to the manor, we're going to ... "
She closes her eyes and breathes for a moment calming herself.
"We're going to have to fight them."
The rogue shudders then glances back towards the village.
"They have web traps set up to catch the unwary, but I can show you where we need to go to avoid them. And we'll pray that there are only two."
Zhi checks her bag to make sure that certain potions are readily reachable and then draws her weapons.
"Unless anyone here has any better ideas?" she says hopefully.
"Hmm." Zileska thinks, looking slightly annoyed at the issue of spiders. "Even if we could turn everyone invisible, the spiders would still feel us disturbing the webs. And I don't think we have any way to magically fly over. But if we're going to make the town habitable again, the spiders will have to be driven out or destroyed anyway. Anyone carrying alchemical fire?"
Zhi shakes her head in the negative.
"Maria?" Melodie asks, looking towards their resident alchemist/girl scout. "I guess we just have to go in and kill them as fast as possible..."
After making preparations, you follow Zhi through the streets of Jambis. The rogue points out the patches of spider webbing so you can avoid getting stuck. You make it about halfway across town when you hear the chittering of mandibles. The two giant black widow spiders skitter into sight and begin rushing towards you!
Melodie pulls the new chakram from her belt and begins to whistle, sliding up the scale until she hits a precise frequency at which point she whistles louder and louder before hurling the now vibrating chakram at the nearest spider!
"I've a flask of alchemist's fire, should help with the webs if nothing else."
As the spiders came at them, Maria readied Dignity's Barb and loosed a bolt at the closest one.
Zhi draws her bow and arcs an arrow towards the same one that Melodie threw her chakram at.
Zileska uncoils her whip and, presuming that this isn't going to be the worst problem that the team fights tonight, she simply lashes out as one of the spiders approaches the group.
Sara grabs a large bone as she speeds by, stopping by Zhi and chucking it at one of the spiders.
But drops the bone as she pulls back to throw it.
Melodie hurls her chakram, the weapon vibrating with the power of her voice. It slices part of one spider's leg clean off, badly wounding it!
Maria and Zhi hang back and shoot the spider, their projectiles stabbing into its abdomen. Zileska moves up, uncoiling her whip, while Sara rushes past her and hurls a bone that goes wide.
The spiders rush forward, filling the street side by side, as they move to attack Sara. Zileska lashes out at one but doesn't hit, then both enormous arachnids sink their fangs into Sara, injecting her with virulent venom!
Zhi moves forward, dropping her bow and readying her weapons. She attempts to roll underneath the spider Sara is engaged with and attack it from the rear.
Zhi runs up alongside Sara and drives her rapier into the spider's abdomen, puncturing it like a ripe balloon. Sara and Zhi are showered with gore as the spider collapses, leaving only one to contend with.
Sara winces and cries out as the poison flows into her.
Undaunted by her pain, she rips one of the thicker legs off the spider and rushes toward the next one, clobbering it about the face.
But unfortunately, the leg simply bounces off like it were rubber.
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Marvelling as the chakram comes flying back to her hand, Melodie attempts another throw, just as Zhi punctures the spider and it explodes with gore. Melodie instinctively throws up her hands to shield her face, sending the chakram ricocheting away hopelessly.
As most of your attacks miss the remaining spider, it sinks its fangs into Sara's shoulder again!
Zhi, again, attempts to flank their single remaining foe.
Sara kicks at the spider uselessly as another surge of pain rushes through her.
Maria ran forward as she reloaded her crossbow, her tail disappearing into a pouch on her belt and retrieving her flask of alchemist's fire.
Firing again, Maria transferred the the flask to her hand.
While most of your attacks miss the giant spider, Zhi slips around behind it and drives her sword right into its spinnerets, scoring a critical strike! Turning its attention from Sara, the spider whirls and lunges at the rogue! Guided by its magic, she brings Koriana's Blade up in between its mandibles, keeping its glistening fangs from plunging into her flesh!
Seeing Zhi get attacked, Sara's vigor is renewed; she wheels around and whacks it hard into the spider's behind.
Sara finally lands a solid blow, splattering the spider's abdomen with the other one's leg. The spider thrashes and falls, rolling over and curling its legs up as it dies.
Zhi stands for a moment, looking over their defeated foes - her nightmares come to life. She slows her breathing and looks around verifying for herself that everyone is ok.
Without thinking, she reaches up and wipes at her face. She looks at her hand and her eyes go wide. Her eyes then look farther down, taking in her spider-goo coated self.
The shriek begins as a soft in-taking of breath but grows in intensity as the young woman begins flailing her arms about. She throws her weapons to the ground and tears at her tunic pulling it over her head. Next follows her boots and then her breeches.
She doesn't being to calm down until she's standing trembling in the night air in nothing but her smallclothes. At that point she finally takes in everyone's confused or amused looks.
"I DON"T LIKE SPIDERS!" she says. Without another word, she stomps over to her dropped backpack, still shaking. She pulls from the bag replacement clothes.
"What are you all staring at?" she snaps as she begins pulling on the clean breeches. "I'm sure you've all seen a naked woman before."
Once she's regained what dignity that she can, she pulls a potion from her bag and walking over to Sara, hands it to her.
"Drink this," she says meekly.
Melodie tries very hard to suppress her giggles as Zhi suddenly starts flailing around the street and screaming about how much she hates spiders. She doesn't entirely succeed however and her stifled chuckling makes almost as much noise as Zhi does.
Gods! Even her giggles are beautiful.
Once Zhi has gathered her weapons and the ladies are ready to continue, the young rogue steps close to Melodie.
She continues towards the manor.
"What are we waiting for; There's a curse to break."
You continue on up the hill to the manor overlooking the town. The once-sturdy wooden doors now lie on the overgrown lawn, half-rotted, while a tree has collapsed into the eastern bastion, partially caving in the wall. Other than those two points of entry, there doesn't seem to be any other easy ways in.
"Let's start with the front door," Zhi says as she moves forward to the doorway. After she glances around the archway, she moves through.
A scattering of dead leaves covers most of the floor here, though much of the furniture has held up well, if a little faded and mildewed. The open hallway south leads outside, while wooden doors stand in the east and west walls. The east one is slightly ajar, while the west one is closed and locked. To the north, a massive oaken double door has been locked, chained, and barred from this side.
Zhi doesn't find any traps, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. As she steps into the hallway, the floor gives way beneath her as a pit opens up!
Feeling the floor shift, Zhi nimbly steps to the side and avoids a painful fall.
"That could have been ugly," she says as she glances down into the darkness. She barks an arcane command and her rapier begins glowing, shedding light around her.
Peering down into the pit reveals it to be empty. There doesn't seem to be much of interest in the foyer here.
Zhi waves to the others to follow into the large room.
She moves to the east to peer around the door that is partially open. Although she keeps glancing at the northern door with chains and padlocks on it.
A large oak seems to have crashed through the wall here, leaving this chamber open to the elements. Various small scavengers scuttle about the debris. A few doors lead to other parts of the manor.
Zhi steps back to the middle of the room, unable to take her eyes off the triple locked door to the north.
"Someone really doesn't want us going in there," she whispers.
She moves closer to the door and reaches out and lightly brushes one finger over one of the chains.
Inside, Sara looses her bustle, displaying her new corset for the world to see before walking to the north door. She guides her fingers along the top of the corset until she finds a hole she had cut. Reaching in, she pulls out a long metal rod, slender and flexible, wrapped in alchemical glues and bindings. Rather than attack the padlocks, she slides it into a chain link and pulls on it, hard.
Zhi doesn't see any traps on the door. They appear to be slightly worn, as if they have been here for some time.
Sara is able to break the chain links, causing them to clatter noisily to the floor. The door itself is still locked.
Zhi sighs and shakes her head.
"Give me a moment," she says as she pulls a few tools from her thigh bag.
Once it's unlocked, she steps out of the way and gestures towards the door.
"After you, Madam Chain-Breaker."
This massive feasting hall was once an elegant entertaining space, but now the silk banners are frayed and the plaster crumbles from the walls. All the doors leading into this room, save for the southern double door, have been sealed with masonry. Several couches and chairs have been dragged onto the dais at the north end of the hall and stitched together with webbing and bones, forming a warm nest.
As you look around, a scratchy voice sounds from the nest. "Who dares disturb the spider prince?"
Tightly gripping the spider's hairy, chitinous leg, Sara steps inside nervously, trying to track the voice. "Lord Baron," she begins uncertainly, but follows through with the risky assumption. "We are your loyal subjects, come to treat with you."
Zhi feels her skin begin to crawl.
Not another spider. Please don't let it be another spider.
She cancels her light spell and slips around the edge of the doorway, attempting to use the shadows to remain unseen.
Once inside, she moves along the edge of the room, attempting to get a better view of who or what is talking to them.
"Ah... It has been so long since I have had a visit from my citizens. My delicious citizens. Tell me, what has become of you? Does Jambis still thrive and prosper?"
Zhi creeps closer, but she is unable to see a source of the voice.
Oh gods! It is a spider, isn't it?
Zhi expends great effort to withhold a shudder as she continues her circuit of the edge of the room.