Ulyi and Squint back up into an empty and featureless room. As they do so, a loud, frightened shriek sounds from the direction of the stairs.
Whipping around to see what is behind him, Ulyi just makes out a bulbous head darting back behind the wall, followed quickly by the slap of feet against stone quickly going down the stairs.
Barkot -3
Reillana -5, Bleed 1
Celia -11, Bleed 1
Paeral
Squint -2
Ulyi -6
Something
Sloshing out of the pool to follow Squint and Ulyi, Reillana tosses Paeral his acid flask back and draws the wand back out. "Who screamed?" she asks, activating the wand. "Is everyone alright?"
Squint didn't see whatever it was, as it was in darkness.
OK. Let's assume someone is going to heal Celia in the next round. We can drop out of initiative.
Current Status:
Barkot -3
Reillana
Celia -12
Paeral
Squint -2
Ulyi -6
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"Fuhgeddaboutit, whaddever it was, it's gone now. I betcha we find out soon enough, anyways. C'mere, Cee, let's getcha fixed up."
Barkot taps Celia with the wand until she's fully healed, then uses it to heal his remaining wounds as well.
As he activates the healing wand over and over again, Barkot begins to chuckle softly to himself. "Heh. So mebbe dat didn't zactly da way we planned it, but ya gotta admit, dat jetcaster worked 'bout as well as da guy who sold it ta me said it would. Sprayed all dem bats wit' oil, den Celia whacked a few of 'em wit' her torch, an' FOOOM! Heh!" He shakes his head, still chuckling, and puts the wand back into the sheath up his sleeve. "Don' get me wrong, I don' ever wanna go t'rough anyt'in' like dat again. But still - FOOOM!"
This may be the first time that the reclusive, disheveled, half-insane half-orc has laughed in the few days the group has spent together.
Current Status:
Barkot
Reillana
Celia
Paeral
Squint -2
Ulyi -2
Remembering the shiny thing that Paeral saw in the fountain, the party carefully heads back to the guano encrusted room.
A few bats remain, but they simply fly away as the party enters. The stalls and benches in the room make it clear that this room once served as a changing area for the pool in the other room.
Fishing the shiny bit out of the fountain reveals an unremarkable, tarnished silver bracelet. Once cleaned, it will have a value of 45gp.
A quick search of the cistern room shows that the spiders have apparently abandoned their previous feeding area. With nothing else to see on this level, the party heads for the stairs going down.
As they do, Reillana's keen elven eyes spot a few stones that don't line up quite right on the southern wall. Taking a closer look, she is certain there is a secret door.
"Nice goin', Reillana! Hear anyt'in' on da udder side?"
Grinning at Barkot, pleased with her success, Reillana shakes her head and backs away. "I figured I would let our resident expert sweep it for traps first. I'll go on the record saying I hope it's treasure, though."
Barkot quickly adds the secret door to the map he is sketching in his journal as they go.
"I'll help ya look, Paëral."
Detecting no traps, the party opens the door and sees a hallway extending in to the darkness.
Walking along the hallway, they eventually come to room with an open floor leading down to the water 10 feet below. There is a wide stone pillar in the middle of the open area, with a flat top.
A long, narrow ledge leads to a wooden plank that spans over to the stone pillar.
A bucket with a second board over it sits atop the pillar.
Ok, so da most innarestin' t'ing in dis room is dat bucket on top a' da pole. What's in it? What's da board on top of it fer? But to get dere, we gotta tiptoe or crawl along da ledge, den tightrope walk across da plank an' hope it don' break, and den lift da board off da bucket ta see what's inside? Sheesh! Even I know dat's a terrible plan!
"So, ah, Squint, Reilanna, eidder of youse got dat spell dat let's ya pick t'ings up an' move 'em jes' by wigglin' yer fingers at 'em?"
"Oh! Well, no stone unturned. Better to remember now than later, Squint." The elf scrutinizes her companion for a moment, then follows.
Celia is disgusting by the severed hand that serves as some kind of arcane device. When Barkot draws near her with the decomposed appendage, Celia says Ew! Get that disgusting thing away from me! Shelyn preserves me from such ugliness! Celia eyes Barkot critically. you should lay that to rest in the earth, or destroy it with fire... Celia eyes narrow in frustration and confusion, I do not know the traditions of the elves but, it seems disrespectful to keep such a thing. Celia puts some distance between herself and Barkot. She readies her bow and pointedly, looks away every time Barkot mentions or presents the mage hand.
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Barkot raises his hands in confusion at Celia's bizarre outburst. "What in alla da Hells are you talkin' about? I might be a little sweaty and mebbe I gotta little bat crap on me an’ I know I ain’t much ta look at, but disgustin’ is a little much! An' I don't like bein' called a t'ing, neidder!"
Barkot steps away from the angry gladiator and whispers to Squint, "I t'ink mebbe dem bats got inta Cee's belfry, if ya know what I mean." He rotates a finger around one ear and raises his eyebrows. "We oughtta keep an eye on 'er."
Ignoring the back and forth, Paeral takes action.
He nimbly traverses the narrow ledge, then decides that the plank looks quite rotten and decides to jump across instead.
Landing in a three point stance on the pillar, he pulls scans for any danger. Seeing none, he approaches the bucket and carefully takes a look at the bucket.
Under the board, he can see that the bucket is filled with dead bats.
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Paëral shrugs as he looks at his companions, revealing what's in the bucket. "Bait? Perhaps someone fishes from this spot? If so, they must be wanting to hook some large fish..."
Assuming, he sees nothing else of interest, he'll jump back over to the ledge...
...and traverse the ledge back to his companions...
"Are you an elf?" Squint asks the half-orc.
"Not as far as I know," Barkot responds. "I didn't know she had anyt'ing 'gainst elves."
Barkot eyes the water warily.
"Any a' youse ever been ta da Lord-Mayor's Menagerie? Ya know how da trainers for dem dolphins an' sharks'll stand onna t'ing an' toss food inta da air over da water..."
Her eyes darting confusedly between Celia, Barkot, and Squint, Reillana opens her mouth to say something, then changes her mind and closes again. Aloof and mysterious, aloof and mysterious...
She starts to approach the water's edge when Barkot's suggestion brings her up short. "You think someone is training some sort of aquatic beast here?"
"Ain't dat what it looks like?" Barkot pulls some trail rations out of his pack, then draws his longsword. "Whaddaya t'ink? Should I toss 'em in, see what comes up?"
Taking a few steps away from the pool, Reillana shrugs and draws her sword. "I think you should, yes. If there's something here I'd rather know now."
"Better to know about it now than to be surprised by it later, Paëral!" Reillana calls back.
"If dere's somet'in' in here, I t'ink we better take care of it."
Barkot chucks the rations into the air over the water, aiming for it to come down in the pool as close as possible to the pillar.
The rations hit the water with a splash and quickly sink. For a long few seconds nothing seems to happen.
Then, a few bubbles rise to the surface near the pillar. The bubbles increase in intensity, and spread out.
Suddenly, three medium sized spiders break the surface, coming half-way out of the water, clinging to the pillar.
They appear confused at first, then you sense their compound eyes observing the party and the mood in the room becomes malevolent.
Celia
Blue
Reillana
Squint -2
Ulyi -2
Paeral
Green
Barkot
Red
"Dat was not at all what I expected!" Barkot shouts. He grips his sword tighter and glances over to Celia.
Sure hope she's over whatever was bugging her. "Ladies first, Cee!"
Celia hurries to the overhang while drawing her bow, sending an arrow arcing at the Blue Spider and embedding into its black and crimson back.
The spider responds by spitting a mass of sticky webs at Celia, wrapping her up and making it hard to move. The spider goes under water and starts swimming toward the party.
Celia
Blue -6
Reillana
Squint -2
Ulyi -2
Paeral
Green
Barkot
Red
As the spider dives, Reillana moves to protect her companion, dropping the sword to withdraw the scroll once again and preparing herself to blast the spider when it surfaces. This time, her nerves steady and the magic almost seems to leap off the page of its own volition.
Ulyi races up to the water's edge and reaches out with its elongated neck to bite at the approaching spider.
[dice=Bite Attack, Reach]1d20+4;1d6+2
You are 10 ft above the water and it is still 10 ft away from the edge, so it is out of your melee range currently. I'll treat that as a readied attack for once it breaks the surface.
Green follows Blue's example and sends a ball of webbing hutling toward Reillana. It's aim is bad, due to the distance, but Reillana is unable to move completely out of the way.
Celia
Blue -6
Reillana
Squint -2
Ulyi -2
Paeral
Green -2
Barkot
Red