Strike and step back Absinthe. I cannot get to the beast around those webs.
Absinthe does as she is bid, lashing out at the owlbear one final time before stepping back and giving Segang room to work.
Segang steps up to the owlbear skeleton and brings his earthbreaker to bear. As he swing he yells Die again!
Absinthe slams the skeleton one more time before stepping aside for Segang to finish it off with a arcing, overhead swing. Bones clatter in all directions as the fell energy animating it is dispersed.
"One thanks you for the loan," Absinthe says, a little sheepishly, as she starts to hand Cherias back his cane. The tiefling brushes a few specks of bone dust off of the improvised weapon and grimaces at the clearly visible dents. "If you wish, one may put her training to use and craft you a superior tool."
With this out of the way, Absinthe looks to the rest of the group. "One would appreciate a magical sweep of this chamber ere we choose the next way to go. In addition, one wishes to caution all that the noise we have made has likely alerted whoever is lurking down here, committing necromancy."
Cherias smiles as he takes the cane back, and considers. "Should we go back up and get a proper club? Or maybe there's one to be found here."
Cherias searches the area in detail, casting Detect Magic to find anything of use, and looking particularly for a usable club or light mace for Absinthe.
"If nothing else serves, one might take one's tools to some of these bones," Absinthe considers, eyeing the fallen owlbear skeleton.
There is nothing of any significant value among the skeletal remains.
"Do you suppose these were guards? We didn't get far before finding necromancy."
Melianthe looks at her never-used boar spear. "Absinthe, you can use this with the butt end, if that serves you. Bones can break."
"One thanks you," Absinthe says gravely, accepting the spear in addition to shoving a bone of approximately the right size into her backpack. "This may come in useful later. Now, as to that magical sweep...?"
Always go left.
Breathing hard as his rage leaves him Segang comments [b]We fought well. We were a team then. This is good. He seems content.
"A team that perhaps needs more blunt objects and offensive spells, but yes," nods Melianthe.
Cherias snickers at Melianthe's snark, and carefully looks into each bone pit to make sure no other skeletons are likely to climb out.
"One shall resume scouting," Absinthe says, her voice placid. "Kindly follow at a distance, lest one springs traps."
Segang falls in a protective 15' behind Absinthe, trying to be quiet.
Absinthe leading, you move into the southern tunnel. The passage is narrow and roughly cut into the rock, unlike the more precise Shoanti lines earlier. About fifteen feet in, the tunnel Y's to the left and right. Looking right, the tunnel continues for twenty feet or so before bending around a corner.
You follow the left branch, finding no traps on the way. Absinthe hears a strange chirping from ahead. It only runs about twenty feet before opening into another room, some kind of exsanguination chamber. Three wooden tables stand in the middle of the room, their surfaces stained red with old bloodshed. Two currently have occupants, human corpses each with two stirges -- an oversized mosquito-like creature with two pairs of bat wings, tangles of thin legs, and needle-sharp proboscis -- sucking away contentedly.
To the east stands a ten-foot-wide hutch with wicker doors opening into straw-filled cage. The cage holds three more stirges, chirping hungrily.
A pale-blue humanoid, the size and stature of a wiry halfling -- a derro -- stands by the hutch, waiting. As soon as Absinthe rounds the corner, he throws open the cage and retreats down the tunnel to the east. The stirges swarm at their fresh meal.
Seeing the bloodsuckers Segang goes for his bow instead of his earthbreaker and fires off a quick shot as he back peddles.
Cherias loads his 'Eric' crossbow and fires at any stirge he can see that is not in melee or blocked by another person.
Absinthe falls back a single step () to allow Segang to stand side by side with her, and flourishes her rapier, an almost clinical expression on her face.
"More enemies," she says, her voice cool. "The mastermind is beyond the insects. I do not think it wise to charge him at this time."
Depending on where Mel moves, Seren moves in to the corridor with his bow, taking a shot at a stirge within 30 feet if possible.
"Make a choke point and don't let the blood suckers pass. I can't reach the leader from here. Or perhaps...."
Melianthe moves into the channel and casts Daze at the derro.
The derro disappears around the corner of the east exit. Stepping backwards, Segang quickly unslings his bow and fires off an arrow at an approaching stirge, wounding it badly. Melianthe moves up and uses magic to daze another, while Seren finishes it off with a well-aimed arrow.
Two of the stirges attack Absinthe, and she dodges one but the other comes on too fast, jabbing its proboscis into her thigh and starts sucking. Absinthe backs away, stabbing at the attached stirge but only wounding it. Cherias fires his crossbow at the remaining stirge, but is foiled by the jammed quarters.
"Aie!" Melianthe's eyes widen at being in the front of the choke point and ducks towards the back. She casts Daze at the next stirge in line.
"Kyeszt!" Absinthe curses, swearing, as she jabs again at the stirge feasting on her. "Melianthe, Seren! If you have spells to affect a larger area, use them! We cannot afford to fight these vile bugs one by one!"
Cherias casts Bless, and shifts his crossbow to his right hand (the one wearing his buckler) to snatch up his cane, ready to attack a stirge trying to latch on to him or anyone next to him.
"None here," says Melianthe, thinking. "I should have saved a web. A gullet-spew of spiders would be useless against flying things."
Segang, pauses for a moment while Cherias blesses the group, then dropping the bow he steps up to Absinthe and tries to "tap" the creature from her with his large hammer.
Another is wounded then by Segang?
Acid splash at whatever is left, moving as required.
Segang pauses a moment. Melianthe casts a spell at the next stirge, but it fails to take hold. Seren splashes a glob of acid into the one on Absinthe's leg, killing it. As it falls away, she turns and stabs the remaining stirge through as it flies to attack.
Cherias will trepidatiously step forward, looking at the stirges attached to the corpses. "Should we kill them, too, then?" He raises his cane, ready to smash one of the disgusting creatures.
Melianthe glances at her spear in Abby's pack. "We should put those little beasts down," she says, her eyes glittering. "And then, track down that humanoid."
The stirges, gorged on their grisly meal, offer no resistance if you decide to kill them. The two corpses, recently dead by the look of them, appear to be homeless or vagrants. There's no sign of what the captured blood was used for.
You note two additional exits from the room, in the southern east and west corners. The west passage runs twenty feet into another chamber, the stench from that direction quite overbearing. The east passage (where the derro fled) runs up a set of stairs before continuing east.
"Where there is stench there is meat, and perhaps more undead," says Melianthe. "Do we want to fight again, or just track that blue fellow?"
"He may be getting away! If we don't bother the undead, if there are any, they may not bother us. Possibly. Worth a shot, anyway."
Agreed - plenty to fight down here it seems without looking for things to fight. Segang says as he kills the other stirges.
"One shall take point in pursuit, once again," Absinthe says. "But Segang must support me, to look for tracks. Ignore the bugs for now, time is blowing in our teeth."
Having said so, Absinthe tosses Melianthe her spear back and advances at a trot, rapier in hand.
Segang is unwilling to leave the nasty little threats to hunt again after they digest their current meal and takes the time to finish them, accepting help from anyone else. [b[This world need fewer stirges, that is a fact.[/b] he says quietly. He then falls in behind Absinthe searching the ground for tracks.
Cherias hits one of the stirges several times with his cane, flinching when blood splatters out. "Yuck! Horrible creature." (It takes him multiple hits to effectively dispatch it, whereas Segang only takes one per creature.)
As they follow the derro, Cherias crouches down on the floor to help study traces of the derro's passing. Unconsciously, he flicks his tail back and forth as a cat might while hunting.
Absinthe leads the group up the stairs, which leads into a high-ceilinged hallway of Shoanti design, running to the north. The walls are encrusted with dozens of yawning skulls, their mouths open into dark holes in the walls.
This construction, it looks familiar.