Round 1
Delia gives a start when the giant spider suddenly leaps down to attack Songan. "Gah! I do not like this place!" She draws her bow as she signals Jace to attack. "Jace, Attack!" she points down the hallway towards the spider.
Delia loads an arrow and fires as Jace sprints around the corner towards his intended enemy to attack!
Both Delia and Jace miss their mark but nearly succeed in distracting the spider from it's prey. Unfortunately the spider seems to have gotten a taste of Songan, and it wants for more. The spider again launches itself at Songan, for plus , this time the venom pumps directly into the bard's thigh.
Young Spider A snaps again at Tuzak, trying to drive off the larger sloth. It's for misses, failing to pierce through the hair and hide to reach tender flesh beneath.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Jace, Giant Spider, Young Spider A
Second Group: Dundin, Young Spider B, Young Spider C
Third Group: Groin, Leira, Songan, Tuzak
is up, 36 hour timer counting
"For all gods! Spiders!" shouts Leira as she gets her hands on the crossbow ready to defend Songan.
Dundin steps into line swinging his axe.
Dundin moves up and chops into the spider on the far right. His ax takes off a leg and splatters the floor with gore. In response two of the spiders lunge at the heroes, grasping and scratching wildly.
Spider B strikes out at Adir, for but misses.
Spider C strikes back at Dundin, for , digging a small furrow into the dwarf's arm. Dundin shrugs off the creature's poison, , smirking at the barely felt sting of the blow.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Jace, Giant Spider, Young Spider A
Second Group: Dundin, Young Spider B, Young Spider C
Third Group: Groin, Leira, Songan, Tuzak
Third Group is up, 36 hour timer counting
Groin swings his warhammer at the spider threatening Dundin, then backswings his shield arm into the face of the spider facing Adzir.
Groin crushes the head of the spider facing Dundin then batters the one facing Adir.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Jace, Giant Spider, Young Spider A
Second Group: Dundin, Young Spider B
Third Group: Groin, Leira, Songan, Tuzak
is up, 34 hours remaining
Leira retreats almost involuntarily hitting the wall with her back. At that point she suddenly seems to realize the party is fighting the new danger and without further hesitation she lets the bolt on her crossbow to fly towards the spider attacking Songan.
Although the shot is terrible she doesn't miss her faith and reloads the crossbow readying to continue fighting the horrible creature.
Growling, Tuzak strikes at the spider in front of him.
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Tuzak, uncertain of the creature he is facing, lashes out but only a single claw manages to skitter across the spider's carapace, leaving a short rough gouge. These spiders are certainly more resilient than the smaller variety of insect the sloth normally encounters when foraging amongst fallen logs and hollow tree stumps.
Songan does somewhat better as the spider he faces becomes distracted by the pair of assailants facing it, landing a solid thrust with his longsword. The catfolk and warcat easily pair up for a game of swat, with the spider as their plaything.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Jace, Giant Spider, Young Spider A
Second Group: Dundin, Young Spider B
Third Group: Groin, Leira, Songan, Tuzak
is up, 36 hours remaining
Jace continues his attack on the monsterous spider as one of his master's arrows flies past him!
And so it goes that Jace fully embraces the game of swat with Songan, one massive paw snapping a pair of limbs from the spider as his massive jaws crack open the creature's abdomen, spilling guts and unlaid eggs about the floor. Delia's arrow seems but an afterthought as it strikes the twitching spider corpse behind the head, protruding out the other side, one multi-lensed eye staring strangely at Songan.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Jace, Giant Spider, Young Spider A
Second Group: Dundin, Young Spider B
Third Group: Groin, Leira, Songan, Tuzak
is up, 35 hours remaining
Again, Adir stabs at the spider in front of Tuzak.
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Adir's spear strikes off the spider's tough exterior, bouncing away without finding a vulnerable point of puncture.
The giant spider ends it's twitching between Jace and Songan, clearly dead. The gods seem to smile upon you, as none of the expelled spiderlings seem to have survived the death of their mother.
Young Spider A however is very much alive, wounded, and driven into agitation at the death squel of it's brood mother. It at Tuzak for , the madness it feels driving it to thrash wildly rather than focus it's bite, such that several tiny stabs fail to find purchase in the sloth's hide.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Jace, Young Spider A
Second Group: Dundin, Young Spider B
Third Group: Groin, Leira, Songan, Tuzak
is up, 36 hours remaining
Dundin slides around to attack (if not difficult terrain, he can flank with animal compaonion) and swings his axe. It bites, bot not deep.
Dundin moves up to put additional pressure on the second spider, giving it a strike with his ax. Both spiders now look to be heavily damaged and in a frenzy. While neither has an avenue of escape, both seem too blind with pain to even consider retreat.
Young Spider B Dundin and attempts to return the damage inflicted, for , but failing to even scuff the dwarf's armor with it's weakening blows.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Groin, Jace, Leira, Songan, Tuzak, Young Spider A
Second Group: Dundin, Young Spider B
is up, 36 hours remaining
Tuzak continues to strike at the spider in front of him while Adir turns his attention to the other.
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Seeing the large spider down, Delia gives Jace a moment of respite and turns her attention towards the remaining spiders behind! She fires around Adir's torso just after he attacks and opens a spot for Delia's arrow, unfortunately the movement did not allow her to take good enough aim and the arrow shoots just over the spider...
Tuzak rips the young spider apart, bits of leg and shell flying all around. The sudden burst of gore throws off his companion's aim, that and the sudden arrow whistling past his shoulder.
The last spider seems to not realize it is alone, twisting and thrashing at the host of creatures invading it's home.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Delia, Groin, Jace, Leira, Songan, Tuzak, Dundin
Second Group: Young Spider B
is up, 35 hours remaining
Leira shots a bolt to the remaining spider, then reloads.
Dundin continues to slide along the wall and hack with his axe at the spiders. He hits the spider, and his axe sinks deeper than last time with a satisfying 'thwack'
Indeed, Dundin smiles at his strike, his axe thunking heavily into the wooden floor beneath the spider as he cleaves it asunder. The last spider twitches but a moment but then lays still, as everyone takes a moment to survey the field, awash in only the bodies of the spiders, all comrades safe and accounted for thus far.
To refresh everyone, the support walls and pillars that once connected the Plague House to the huge boulder behind it have burnt and crumbled in this ruined chamber, revealing nearly the entire face of the monolithic stone as well as much of the sky above. Thick webbing clutters the upper corners and a few spots along the ceiling, masking the burned upper level. Jagged red and white runes have been painted onto the rock in long, broad strokes that reach from top to bottom. A cabinet on the wall and a tall bookcase are all that remain of the room’s furnishings. The wooden staircase here that once led to the upper story has all but crumbled to ashes. One wall has collapsed, and the floor underneath has sunk entirely, leaving a dark, gaping hole in the ground surrounded by rubble. A single door exits the room, aside from the hallway from which you came.
Leira found Brinya's lost hopeknife, while Songan found the cabinet contained an iron flask containing a thin oily liquid and a small vial holding a golden colored liquid. A beat-up steel scroll case (worth 5 gp) held several rolls of parchment, three to be precise, while two vials of holy water sat upon the lowest shelf.
"That was impressive. Great job! Together we will find out what happened in this damned place. Look what I have found in the shelf" says Leira while holding the hopeknife in her hands.
She also uses detect magic to try identify the potions and scrolls.
Adir checks Tuzak for injuries. Assured, he walks over to see what the buzz is about.
"The Mystery of the Missing Hopeknife is solved," Adir jokes. More seriously, he says, "We should give it back to the fiancée."
"It seems a bit strange Rodrik miss it here, don't you find? Perhaps he leave it to check something and then he was surprised? Or..." the girl looks attentive to the sides "...someone might have interest on us to find the hopeknife in the hope we stop our research."
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"I think it more likely that he accidentally dropped it when he was here before. There was something here that he saw that he wasn't supposed to. When he saw it and ran, he probably didn't even realize this was left behind and commissioned a replacement to be made so that no one would ever be the wiser."
"Regardless, finding the hopeknife changes nothing about what we are here for. We should finish exploring this room and then leave for the night...though it might also be a good idea to try and remove the spider corpses. If whoever is staying here decides to have a look around it will make it terribly obvious that somebody was here."
Leira learns the first two scrolls are both the Knock spell, but is not sure of the last one though, the runes used are different. She finds she is still a little green when it comes to potion identification as well, and fails to sort through the auras they show. They are definitely magical however, so they are something more than the simple holy water vials taken from the last shelf.
Leira nods in agreement with Songan "Lets hide those spider corpses" she says storing the scrolls on her scroll case "Perhaps some of you is able to identify the potions and even the last scroll"
The girl starts then moving the spider corpses out of the Plague House "It is perhaps a good moment to wait for the night fall now if you wished to make a watch for checking who might be around the building events."
"I doubt this was a much used area by any interlopers. The presence of spiders probably prevented the hopeknife from being discovered, or surely it would have been hidden to prevent any from following Rodrik's backtrail." Groin suggests. "Still, hiding the carnage is probably a good idea."
Delia leaves the others to identifying the potions and scrolls as she wanders over to Jace. She pats his head and scratches behind his ear. "Good job, Jace!"
Dundin takes to tasting the potions to figure out what they do.
I am ok with hand-waving for now. Once the Battle for Trunau begins, that will change and stocks will need to be tracked. Likewise with spells, all casters should have current memorized spells listed and usages tracked.
Dundin is not able to identify the potions, but he does determine the first is a thin oil which tastes of metal polish, the second leaves his tongue slightly numb.
I am ok with hand-waving for now. Once the Battle for Trunau begins, that will change and stocks will need to be tracked. Likewise with spells, all casters should have current memorized spells listed and usages tracked.
Leira helps Groin to hide the corpses outside the Plague House.
She then comes back with the rest of the group "So you could not identify those potions Master Dundin? We can leave it for now and try it again later. For now we can continue with the exploration then. What do you think?"
Leira approaches the southern door and opens it.
MAP
The southern door is made of rusted iron, connecting this small stone extension to the Plague House’s main building. A large steel lockbox sits bolted to the floor in front of a steep stone staircase that winds down into the darkness below. A small wooden panel wall separates this door from another which leads to the infirmary previously visited. As the door is opened, Leira startles both herself and a trio of rats who immediately rally to fight off her trespass into their domain.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Groin, Songan, Dire Rat C
Second Group: Delia, Jace, Leira, Tuzak, Dire Rat A, Dire Rat B
Third Group: Dundin
is up, 36 hour timer counting
"Let them come out into this hall and we can get them easier."
"Sure thing," Adir nods at Dundin's suggestion and moves forward, shield first.
It would be a difficult shot, through soft cover as well as the partial cover from the doorway. I would say you may take the shot, but remember if you strike the cover it could be an ally.
One of the dire rats rushes the doorway and at Leira, clawing and scratching for , scoring a small puncture wound along her leg with it's teeth.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Groin, Songan, Dire Rat C
Second Group: Delia, Jace, Leira, Tuzak, Dire Rat A, Dire Rat B
Third Group: Dundin
is up, 36 hour timer counting
Leira merely withdraws from combat with a yell of pain "Ags! It bited me! Ah!"
She places herself behind Songan "It is so ugly and dirty, iuuuuks! Do you think it made me some bad disease on me?" she checks then her crossbow reloading it if necessary.
Tuzak comes lumbering in, quicker than most might expect.
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Delia and Jace find themselves momentarily confused at the sudden shift, having been thinking more about the cleared up area now free of spider gore. They fail to realize Leira has released a closet full of rats upon the room, though once noticing such they together take defensive stances.
Dire Rat A came rushing quickly out through the doorway at Groin, squeaking loudly, only to be solidly smacked by the warrior's hammer. The creature is batted hard to the side, it's neck snapping and it's body skidding back against the wall, truly dead.
Dire Rat B rushed the druid Adir, but it's , confirmation , merely chipped a fang on the large man's sturdy boot leather. The thing looks up at the man, it's eyes bloodshot and runny, screeching and squeaking fiercely. Small bony protrusions appear all along the creature, yellowed and brittle, not as solid and white as might be expected of the species.
Group Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Dundin, Groin, Songan, Dire Rat C
Second Group: Delia, Jace, Leira, Tuzak, Dire Rat B
is up, 36 hour timer counting