"It's her footwear I'm after wanting to know more about. Might I see your shoes, ladies?"
The remaining girls are rather unresponsive to the party, too consumed by grief, but Peredur notes that their footwear is worn, but serviceable enough shoes.
The ranger begins to circle around the camp, looking for tracks.
Sour Heck follows Peredur around the moor, calling Aleece’s name and swatting insects. Every once in a while, he points out rocks the girl might have fallen over, holes she might have fallen down, low branches she might have lost an eye to, and field mice that might have devoured her corpse.
Talia follows as well, watching Peredur's actions but keeping out of his way. She occasionally calls out to young girl herself...
Peredur finds the tracks easily enough. They lead south and east out of the camp, following a rough path for a half-mile or so. The path leads into a boggy-river valley, and then quickly into the outskirts of a marsh.
Reeds grow high here, some over 8 feet tall. The tracks quickly fade away as the water level overtakes the path. Peredur is able to follow, though, a bent reed here, and the like, lead the party to cramped clearing that seems to almost float on the surrounding marsh.
Dismal-looking gray flowers grow in the damp earth. Surrounding the clearing, the reeds are thick and tall.
An agonized, terrified scream, high-pitched, female, and shatters the quiet rustling of the marsh.
The screaming voice seems... off. Not quite human? Not quite normal? It's hard to say, and it could very well be a result of the girl's... condition.
The ranger looks up quickly at the sound, trying to get a bearing on it while drawing his sword. "Something odd about th' cry...."
"Is it a trap, perhaps?" Eloise asks as she draws her sword.
Peredur nods. "Perhaps. Best we go carefully."
"The cry did sound odd, but, perhaps her condition? Lets be cautious, regardless."
"That sounds a solid plan in any event. But let's find her quickly, in case it's no trap, and she's in trouble."
"Agreed. Lead on, Peredur. I'll take the rear in case something tries to ambush us. Iesha, Talia, second place for healing purposes. Sour Heck, by my side," Eloise says. "Ten feet between ranks in case of a trap. Go!"
The party walks into the clearing, dry land again beneath their feet. The surrounding marsh now completely silent.
At least for a moment.
The scream comes again, but from a different direction completely.
The reeds rustle for a moment, off the to the west, but then fall silent.
“So, if this is a this trap we’re oh-so-cautiously sticking our necks into, do we want to get there before or after the bait dies horribly? Because that did not sound good.”
The ranger holds up a hand. "Something moving, close by." He looks for anything out of the ordinary where he heard the movement.
Just audible enough for the party to hear, Talia mumbles under hear breath, "And here I thought all the spookiness was left behind at the prison..."
Eloise fills her lungs and bellows out loud: "ALEECE! ALEECE! CALL TO US IF YOU CAN HEAR US!"
More quietly, she adds: "Guide us, Peredur. You're best at this."
Iesha
Peredur
Sour Heck
Talia
Eloise
spider
The words barely pass Eloise's lips, before something utterly monstrous simply appears before the party.
Larger than horse, in fact, almost the size of one of the wagons the party just passed, a spider, with the hideously misshapen head of a woman rears before the party.
"Feast! Feast!" it chitters in an empty voice, before it lunges at Eloise, baring wicked, greenish fangs.
The fangs sink deep into the woman's forearm as she tries to fend off the sudden attack.
The fangs sink deep, tearing away at the woman's flesh, leaving a slimy green residue that sucks at the woman's vitality.
"Feast!" it chitters again, through bloody lips, and then the horrible thing vanishes, as quickly as it arrived.
Eloise is poisoned, and suffers 1d2 con damage each round for 8 rounds. She can attempt to save each round at fort vs DC 18. 2 consecutive rounds and she's cured.
"Sc... Scutum!" Eloise chokes out, her eyes going wide, then squeezing shut in pain. A pulsing rectangle of force appears before her, moving as her gaze does.
Phase spiders are hunters that lurk on the ethereal plane, and phase in to attack with poison to weaken their prey before they consume them.
they tend to be solitary in nature
A long moment passes, and no further attack comes from the creature.
"A phase spider," Eloise grunts, shivering with the poison's effects. "It will... it will phase in from the ethereal plane, poison prey and weaken it... before settling down to feed."
The Magus turns pale and starts to sweat. "Ambush predator," Eloise chokes out as one of her legs buckles beneath her, and she slowly sinks to one knee in the marsh. "Solitary most of the time... Ye gods, this is vile! I... I don't think I'm going to..."
Eloise vomits helplessly, her body trembling as the poison takes hold.
Sour Heck takes a firmer grip on his longspear. “This may sound crazy, but I don’t think that was Aleece. On the other hand, I’m sure it would be a great addition to the freak show.”
He squints at Eloise. “Did you know bards are supposed to learn the healing arts? Never could bring myself to sew something that bleeds when you stick the needle in, though. Too bad none of my old teachers are here...I bet some of them were pretty good at treating poisoned wounds.”
Seeing Eloise fall, Talia reaches towards her with a hand, warding her against further harm.
Round 1:
Peredur launches himself at the unnatural arachnid, but skids on an inconvenient patch of pond scum and nearly falls over.
Iesha rushes over and casts Cure Light Wounds on Eloise, dropping Bless Water.
"Th - thank you," Eloise grunts as she struggles back to her feet. "If that... thing attacked Aleece, sh - she's probably dead... by now. L - let's keep going. The ph - phase spider will probably f - follow me on the... ethereal plane. It's waiting for me to... weaken and die."
Despite these grim words, Eloise looks much improved, thanks to Iesha's quick help and Talia's magical warding. She mutters a brief spell and looks around, the black blade a little steadier in her hand.
The instant the phase spider reappears, Eloise's weakness seems to fade like morning fog under the sun. Growling with fury, she uncoils, the black blade whistling as it cleaves the air on its way to the monster's body.
Peredur again misses as the phase spider reappears.
The spider appears again, this time closer to Sour Heck.
"Feast!" it screeches and lunges at the bard.
The creature manages to sink its fangs into the bard's neck, drawing back in a spray of blood.
Heck is poisoned and suffers 1d2 con damage each round for 8 rounds. He can attempt to save each round at fort vs DC 18. 2 consecutive rounds and he's cured.
Reacting quickly to the appearance of the spider, Eloise scores a vengeful hit against the beast, drawing green ichor from its side. Peredur misses again, swinging wide, and just a moment too late.
Sour Heck claps his free hand over the bloody gash in his throat. “My favorite neck!” he gasps.
The bard’s knees buckle beneath him as the abomination’s venom takes hold. He stumbles away from the spider, sagging against his longspear, his blood streaking the pennant as it flaps against him. Fumbling at his pouch with rapidly numbing fingers, he pulls out a potion bottle, uncorks it, and drinks desperately.
With a startled gasp, Talia races to Sour Heck. "Oh no you don't, bard-boy. I still owe you a drink. You're not dying while I owe a debt to you!" Talia places a hand upon his wound, and healing energy flows through her fingers.
Sour Heck lifts his face to Talia’s as her healing knits his wound shut. “Maybe it’s the poison,” he says, “But hearing you say that with so much concern in your lovely voice, it sounds to me like you would really like to buy me a drink, then kill me.”
The spider recoils from Eloise's blow, and hissing in annoyance, once again vanishes from sight.
Iesha casts Bless on the group, then readies her glaive to try and catch the creature on it's next appearance.
Looking blearily about, Sour Heck readies his longspear for a defensive attack, should the monstrous spider reappear.
His eyes flutter shut for a moment, and he sways on his feet from the poison.
“I feel like I’m eight years old again, dizzy ‘cause I’d snuck swigs of my mom’s moonshine. She’d smack me until I couldn’t see straight.”
The bard seems to be fighting the effects off.
Eloise takes a deep breath and sighs it out as she assumes a ready stance, the black sword held in a two-handed grip.
The Magus draws in another deep breath as she braces herself against the poison's onslaught.
"Keep th' thing off of me, should it return...if it poisoned Aleece, she may be nearby and dying."
Peredur looks for Aleece's tracks.
Eloise powers through the poison, the pull on her fortitude fading away.
A long moment passes, with no sign from the spider-thing.
Peredur's sharp eyes see the remains of a struggle - the spider attacked someone nearby, and the victim's footsteps lead off the north-east, into the reeds and water.