Vaashti drifted in her thoughts as she tried to recall something that kept jiggling her memory. No, it was no good. Whatever it was just slipped away, like morning fog in the warm sunshine.
Hearing the arc call out about a spider, Vaashti half-ran, half-glided over to him, her wings at full extension. As Sutandir opened the door and was caught in the spider's webbing, she flinched. Then, she reached in to grab the alchemist by the arm and try and haul him out of harm's way.
strength check? to aid Sutandir of getting loose
With Vaashti's help, Sutandir is able to pull himself free of the webbing and move out of the room.
Realising he's in the way, Rakarech holds up his axe defensively and scoots around the spider, trying to get to its other side.
"I don't know if this works against spiders . . .." Shartol leans over and gathers a double handful of dirt from the ground, before tumbling into the enclosed space with the spider and then trying to dump the dirt into the spider's many eyes . . ..
---
Ruhk decides to stay back for now, leaving room for the members of the party that are unhurt.
"Go get him big man!" Ruhk smiles at Kervos.
The spider reaches out at Rakarech as he goes by, but it misses badly. With its attention focused on the half-orc, Br. Shartol moves by the spider and throws some loose dirt at the many-eyed creature, which recoils in pain and stamps its legs.
Kervos flashes a feral smile at Ruhk before dashing forward, swinging out his greataxe to build momentum as he does so. Immediately as he comes through the doorway he uses that momentum to heave his weapon around at the spider in a forceful, if rather inelegant, attack.
Kervos swings wildly, but in its present condition, the spider is unable to react, and the greataxe hits its mark, slicing into one of the creature's large legs.
The spider retaliates, instinctively feeling the half-orc's vibrations in the ground and pinpointing his location. He lunges out with a bite that sinks into Kervos, opening a wound. Kervos feels a foul substance seeping into the wound, but he shakes the spider off before too much enters.
Rakarech growls something unintelligible in orcish and seeing the spider bite Kervos he takes his opportunity to swing down.
Rakarech's vicious swing slices right through the spider, which collapses to the ground.
Sutandir slowly pulls the strands of web off of himself. "Thanks for the assist, Vaashti."
Once free, he returns to the items in the backpack that were found. "This stuff looks useful, who wants to carry what? There's a curative potion, some lockpicks, and a nice silk rope, plus some coins."
"Not a problem. Can't have my friends getting eaten by giant spiders. Kervos, how badly did it get you?" Ever the healer, Vaashti fussed over Kervos' bite wound for a moment before deciding that it wasn't that bad.
"You should be okay for now, but if you start feel ing drowsy or if the wound starts to itch or feel unusual, let me know immediately."
"I don't need any of that," mutters Rakarech. "Sutandir, maybe the spider has venom you can use?"
With that Rakarech starts exploring the base of the tower.
Kervos leans his axe against the doorway, probing the bite wound with the fingers of his right hand momentarily. Grimacing slightly, he produces his fingers in front of Vaashti, displaying some of the spider's fluids.
"It tried to inject me with something, but I feel fine. If that changes, I will indeed let you know."
Shaking most of the toxic-looking fluid free from his hand, Kervos once more picks up his greataxe, heaving it to a resting place on his left shoulder. He then gives a nod to Rakarech, thanking his companion in Orcish, before clapping Shartol on the back with his right hand.
"That was quite the quick thinking, Shartol. Without you blinding that beast so, I don't believe I would have been able to injure it at all."
Sutandir puts the potion and the coins in his apron pockets for the time being, and comes over to inspect the spider to see if he can make any use of its venom, or find a way to preserve it for later.
Sutandir carefully examines the spider's venom glands, then puts on a pair of gloves. Using a small knife, he extracts the glands and squeezes the liquid into a pair of small vials. "There, that may prove useful in the near future!"
Putting his gear away, he gets his fighting dagger back out and rejoins the others looking around the tower.
"I'm just glad it seems to have worked!" Glancing about while the others start cataloging their finds or investigating the space, Shartol notes "This place has an awful lot of hungry predators in it. We should probably try to be more careful."
As the party searches around through the various crates and barrels in the tower, most have rotted away and contain little of note. Rakarech, however, finds something wrapped in oilcloth. When he unwraps in, he finds a finely-crafted shortsword that has survived the deterioration of the rest of the tower's contents.
Rakarech grunts, and flips the shortsword over his thumb.
"Nice blade, fancy. Anyone want?" With his offer hanging in the air, Rakarech wanders over to the stairs leading up to a trapdoor. Carefully, he puts a foot on the stairs, shaking them a little.
"I've never learned to use a sword, but it looks like it might be worth something to someone who does. If anyone has room to strap it on, we could probably sell it."
"Looks like most of you lummoxes carry axes around. But, like Sutandir said, we can probably sell it or trade it back in town for an axe of similar quality for one of you."
Sutandir sets the sword in a safe spot and notes its location in his journal. He picks up the rope and carries it over to where Kervos is checking out the stairs. "Do you have room for this in your pack? Could be useful as we explore the place."
As he says this, he gives the stairs a look-over.
"If he doesn't want to take it, I can. I travel pretty light, and Bethany is all the weapon I ever need, isn't that so old girl?"
Ruhk pats Bethany and smiles.
"Time to get the mushrooms..."
Rakarech calls Grobu in and motions for the group to lead the way north.
The party moves to the north door and enters. You enter a long hallway—at the east end lies a destroyed statue of some sort. The walls are stone, and barely any light illuminates the hallway—only the light from the moon outside. There are two doors on the right side of the hallway to the left, and a seemingly destroyed room lies to the right.
"Seems kinda dark. Let me get a torch out." The young man pulls and lights a torch, holding it out and up to help light the way for everyone.
"Seems kinda dark. Let me get a torch out." The young man pulls and lights a torch, holding it out and up to help light the way for everyone.
Moving up from the rear as he re-configures his pack to hold the new length of rope, Kervos takes a look down the hallway.
"I can head down the hallway and check things out in advance, no need for light. If anything's waiting within, being able to find it before we draw attention to ourselves with a light source may prove useful."
Kervos looks to the rest of the party for any protest as he slings his pack back over his shoulders and re-adjusts his grip on his greataxe.
Rakarech grunts over to Kervos. "Go."
Sutandir holds his sunrod away from the hall and nods at Kervos.
Kervos heads down the hallway, and it remains dark as he peers around the corner to the south. He sees a number of other doorways, and that the hallway ends about 50 feet to the south. He sees no sign of movement, and the entire monastery seems eerily quiet.
Kervos stands in silence for a moment, calmly soaking in the darkness and quiet around him. Content in his search, he makes his way back to the party.
"The hallway comes to a dead end a ways around the corner, and there look to be a few rooms we can examine. Beyond that, this place is more quiet than anything I've experienced in a long time. No sounds of people, or even little critters that may have taken the place over. I would remain wary on the chance there is something unnatural here, but do not believe we will be in any immediate danger further examining this place."
"I guess we will have to search the whole place, bit by bit, where do we start?"
Rakarech looks left and right down the hall.
"Statue and that broken room, then we try doors. That way we don't miss things."
With that he ushers his little bear along, who doesn't seem too happy in the confines of the monastery. Upon approaching the statue, Rakarech kneels down to look through it and then examine the destroyed room.
Sutandir follows along, watching behind as well as in front.
The young human follows the crowd, unconcerned about where they go (after being corrected about the smithy), as long as they are looking for the mushrooms.
Rakarech is able to barely make out that the statue was once of a dwarf, but it has been badly destroyed. His stone hammer sits on the ground next to the shattered remains of his head.
After inspecting the statue, Rakarech snatches up the hammer and looks it over before he returns down the hall to check the first door on the right.