"Abomentolor. Would you please clean these things before I collect them?"
"No problem." Abomentolor replies and cleans them all with a casting of prestidigitation.
Tauriell takes some cloth and rolls all the tools into this cloth. That roll she packs into her backpack. "And now. Are we going downstairs?"
"No. I want to search this wall." Abomentolor replies and walks over to check it. Casting light again he helps his vision.
"There has to be something."
"What should there be at this wall?" Tauriell asks helping him search.
"There is nothing here. Just a wall."
"There has to be something." Abomentolor disagrees.
"There it is." Abomentolor states. He pushes with all his might until the secret door opens.
A curving stairwell shrouded in tattered cobwebs and a thick layer of dust extends into the darkness. A bulky cobweb shrouded shape looms in an alcove directly to the east.
Tauriell takes a look into the now open room? Stair?
"Wow. You know what? You would have loved this one as an enemy." Tauriell says to Abomentolor. "These are vulnerable to fire."
"Some years ago these pests came in large numbers out of the Irespan into the city. Since then it is strictly forbidden to take stones from the Irespan. Because someone opened a way for them to come out while collecting stones out of the struture."
"I don't care for hypothetical enemies. We have to go down these stairs now!" Abomentolor states and walks down the stairs after a short glance at the dead critter.
"Ok. If you say so." Tauriell replies and trots after the short legged gnome with her blade in her hands.
The stairs lead down to a door. The room behind the door shines with a golden light emanating from crystals embedded in the domed ceiling. The entire dome is painted in reds and golds depicting the glory days of ancient Thassilon and remain as pristine as if the pigments were just laid. An altar shaped like a seven-pointed star sits in the center of the room — a smaller seven-pointed shape has been carved into the center of this larger block of stone. Sitting in one of the star’s arms is a shard of black metal.
Also two of these spiderlike creatures like the dead one found at the top end of the stairs are in that room. But they are even bigger.
"I found some of these easy burning monsters. Hurry if you want to see them burn." Abomentolor states. Unrolling the scroll of fireball he held tight all the time he reads the magical words from it. With excitement and delight his eyes follow the small orange marble of fire that flies from his finger right into the center of the room and then explodes in a huge cloud of fire dousing almost the whole room in flames.
Niamh walks down the stairs behind Tauriell.
She takes a bit of the eagle s%*@ and says her words and makes her gesture towards Abomentolor.
Both of the Shriezyx evade most of the damage. The faster one shoots a net at Abomentolor.
Tauriell takes the place behind Abomentolor and shoots at one of the critters.
Gwenhwyfar also follows down the stairs. Then she prepares to renew the ward on Abomentolor in case it ends when he gets hurt.
The other shriezyx comes to the door and attacks the webbed in Abomentolor by biting him.
But it only takes a bite at the mage armor.
Jimmy walks down to see what is happening, spotting one of the spiders Jimmy prepares to skewer it on his ranseur
Abomentolor is pissed off. "How dare you to throw these sticky things at me."
He casts burning grasp.
"Hey! You're all blocking the door. How should I hit something from here." Tauriell complains.
As nothing manages to harm Abomentolor Gwenhwyfar casts Ear Pearcing Screem.
The critter fails at withstanding the horribly loud sound and falls down. Dead. Hit hard by the ranseur, burnt from the gnomes hand and that shattering sound is too much for the critter.
The other shriezyx waits. The stuffed situation at the door is obviously suspicious to it.
"Would someone please cut me out of this web thing?" Abomentolor asks.
"As I can't do something useful from here anyway." Tauriell answers and cuts down the web with an elegant swing of her blade.
Finally free Abomentolor runs in.
Abomentolor just made the first steps in as the shriezyx throws another net at him.
As he doesn't come far enough to douse the beast in fire again he casts fire breath and hurts it with insults. Because he can reach it with them.
Tauriell asks Jimmy "Would you leave that place in the door to me?" She waits for Jimmy to move into the room or at least away from the door.
As no one else comes in the shriezyx attacks the webbed in gnome.
It sinks it's teeth into the gnome injecting it's poison.
"You think you can save yourself by biting me. You're grilled meat." Abomentolor shouts at the beast. And then he exhales a cloud of fire.
The shriezyx is surprised by the fire and fails to evade taking a serious burning this time. Also the net covering Abomentolor catches fire and slowly burns down.
The beast is also frightened.
As Jimmy doesn't move or react Tauriell gives up on the idea of using her bow from the door and instead moves into a flanking position with her blade.
Gwenhwyfar patches Abomentolor up from afar through the scar.
The shriezyx tries to flee and 'hide' at the far end of the room behind the altar.
Tauriell slashes at the creature as it flees.
Abomentolor follows the critter and as soon as the beast is in reach he casts burning hands.
A very unhappy shriezyx takes another serious burning. And finally drops dead.
"Well done all."
Tauriell bows to the audience. "I'm happy you're satisfied with Abomentolor's and my performance."
"But maybe you should reevaluate your nightly activities as some of you seem to be too tired and nod off mid-fight. Luckily these ancient monsters were afraid of Abomentolor's fire which made it quite easier to fight them. But I don't think it was that boring."
Tauriell then turns to the altar and grabs the black shard. "But it looks like we have finally found what we came for."
"Cool. Finally. Let me see it." Abomentolor says holding his hand out.
Tauriell hastily pulls her hands with the shard close to her chest. "No. This one is mine! You can't have it." Turning away from Abomentolor she whispers "I wont give you away my preciousss..."
"Does anyone remember which shard it is we have found now?" Gwenhwyfar asks.
"I bet we'll see soon." Niamh replies.
Tauriell looks around. "As there is nothing to gain here we could as well leave and search for that remaining derro. He'll probably have something of worth." the elf suggests.
Gwenhwyfar is a bit annoyed by the materialistic view Tauriell has on the search for this evil creature. "It's a good idea to make sure no more harm comes from that derro."
"Yea that too." Tauriell replies and is on her way up the stairs.
"Tauriell running up front? Is there an error and she got the shard of eager striving?" Abomentolor asks as he walks after the elf.
Niamh shrugs and follows Tauriell.
Tauriell walks up to the large room again looks around and decides to take the stairs at the north-western wall. She waits until all the short legged ones also close the gap and then leads all down the stairs with her blade in hand.