Drawing his blade & slashing at the fell vermin in one motion, Rufus adds his own effort to Will's retrieval.
Rufus draws his blade and hacks at the giant spider, taking two of its legs out in a clean stroke and leaving the thing crippled, but still alive.
The spider, cornered and looking to make an escape, lashes out at -
- Rufus, snapping its scimitar sized mandibles at the warrior...
...but the man neatly dodges the attack and shifts to a more favorable attack position.
Dendarial takes another shot, eyeing his bard friend and wondering if their rescue attempt will be in time. After the show he moves to Will's side as his move action regardless if the beast is still up.
Dendarial fires off another whistling arrow at the massive spider, the shot landing squarely between its multifaceted eyes and sending it crashing to the ground in a heap, the remaining limbs connected to its body twitching violently as its life slips away.
Karse rushes forward and with an inspired attempt manages to stem the flow of blood from the wounds on Will's body.
Taking one of the healing potions, Rufus pulls out a handkerchief & soaks a corner of it in the potion before moistening Wills lips with the now potion infused cloth. "As sore wounded as he is, we dare not pour it in his mouth, he might choke. If this is enough to rouse him, he can drink the rest himself."
"I fear the poison more now." Examining Sir Karse's handiwork. "That was well-done sir knight, I've seen only a few battlefield barbers who might have done better."
Already at Will's side Dendarial retrieves his healing kit and tries to treat the poison coursing through his veins. I've dealt with this type of natural venom before. Give me room. he says as he begins to press venom from the deep punctures.
Dendarial continues to cradle the bard's head and monitor his vitals. He is stable Rufus. Give him the rest of that potion.
The area is obviously scattered with the remnants of many victims, and the dirt is nearly covered with valuables. Collecting the treasures takes the better part of an hour as the upright members of the party scour the area, sifting though bones, dirt, and other detritus.
Once everyone brings together their parcels of treasure and the results are gathered the total is astounding, more than you could have hoped for. Included are the following...
A suit of masterwork chainmail, a masterwork suit of half-plate armor, a falchion, a blowgun, a set of nunchaku, seven tindertwigs in a small metal canister, a potion of cure moderate wounds, a potion of guidance, an arcane scroll of vampiric touch, a divine scroll of inflict moderate wounds, a short sword +1, a white opal worth 679gp, an alexandrite worth 243gp, an onyx worth 17gp, a jasper worth 18gp, a blue quartz worth 2gp, a piece of turquoise worth 4gp, a tigereye worth 1gp, 29pp, 441gp, 1950sp, and 4900cp.
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After the potion is drizzled into his mouth, the healing magics slowly disperse throughout Will's body. His eyes fluttering open, he looks up into the cloudless sky, a vision he was sure he'd never see again. "Thank you" he stammers in a raspy voice as his lungs reinflate. He tries to stand, only to wobble half way up and collapse again. "If you don't mind, I'd like to rest for a moment before we move on."
The party gathers the treasure from the spider's haunt and begins the remaining journey back to Oleg's. After another day of travel they find themselves once again greeted by the welcome and familiar site of the trading post. The landscape has changed somewhat since your last departure, as you now see a fair sized gathering of cut timber and rough stone beginning to form not too far into the distance, an obvious sign of new construction in the area.
After Will's rest and the casting of his healing spell Dendarial examines his wounds again. The spider's poison has weakened you. I will be a few days before you are back to normal. I recommend the natural healing, but if we get in a tight spot you should drink this. He hands Will the potion of Lesser Restoration to hold.
While he is handing out potions he offers Winifred the potion of mage armor to carry. The rest of us are armored Winifred, at least lightly. You should carry this. As the loot is discovered and identified he will ask Does anyone mind if I carry this for now? indicating the short sword. I no one objects he will replace his normal blade with the magical one.
Before setting out Theod will ask the men they came across if they know anything of the kobolds, he'll also examine the maps and see if he can recall anything about likely kobold nesting grounds.
"Kobolds, like many creatures tend to dwell near water, we should limit our search to locations in the Kamelands near water." Winifred explains to the others.
"I know little of those creatures, so I trust your judgement. I'll gladly follow along."
The group sets out the next morning, heading southeast through the plains to begin their search at the bend in the Shrike river where it heads east out of the Kamelands. Along their journey they pass through the plains where they had already spent a great deal of time, coming near to both the spider lair and the mine that was discovered.
As you make your way to the east, Theod spots an unusual sight and calls out to the group to hold for a moment. An old lightning-struck oak tree stands atop a low hill at this spot—the only tree in a 2-mile radius, in fact. Approached from the north, the tree looks eerily like a claw reaching for the clouds. Wanting to understand the nature of the landmark, and to add it to his map, Theod carefully approaches the location, with the party close behind him. Upon arriving at the oddity, the party takes a careful look around and notices a hollow amid the tree’s roots on the north side, and further search reveals that a section of earth there has been disturbed.
Inside the follow the group finds a number of items, which appear to have been hidden here on purpose. The cache itself is wrapped in a heavy leather cloak and consists of a masterwork dagger, a wand, a silver ring, and a spellbook. Unfortunately, rain seeping down into the cache has damaged much of the spellbook, but five of the spells (identify, mage armor, reduce person, silent image, and unseen servant) remain intact.
"Well, well. It appears we have been blessed with an odd find today. Do you think this belongs to bandits in the region?"
Once he's certain that the party isn't accidentally stealing from some honest third party, Castor will cast Detect Magic over the lot, and then attempt to identify anything magical with spellcraft.
"I believe this wand may very well come in handy should we come face to face with a severe threat."
Castor smiles and presents the wand to Winifred.
"I believe, of all of us present here, you are the most likely to make good use of it, Lady Winifred."
Winifred nods, taking the wand from Castor, "It's a shame I don't require a spellbook however, this is bound to have belonged to someone at one point, but judging by the damage to the spellbook, whomever it belonged to is long gone."
The party continues to the east until they reach the edge of the Kamelands and then catches the hook of the Shrike River and begins their way to the southwest.
A few days pass as the group follows the river, searching the overland areas for any signs of the kobolds they are looking for. As evening begins to settle in, and the party is checking the area for a suitable campground, they come to a crossing on the river, the remains of an ancient rope bridge spanning the water. A thick, sagging rope still hangs across the river, all that remains of the bridge that once spanned it. A signpost at either end of the ruined bridge reads “Nettles’ Crossing—5 coppers—ring bell for service.” A rusty bell hangs by each sign. On the south bank of the river, the crumbled remains of a burnt-down wooden building are slowly being overgrown by encroaching vegetation.
Theod takes detailed notes on his map as they continue their journey. Seeing the abandoned building "Perhaps we should check it out, maybe other items useful to our cause we could find there. The question is how to get across."
He tries to get a sense of the difficulty to cross and the strength of the rope and what it might take to reconstruct the bridge.
"Well, the sign says to ring the bell, even though the bridge is not there, it couldn't hurt to try ringing the bell." Winifred says, perhaps stating the obvious as she moves up to examine the bell, and should there be nothing wrong with it, ring it.
Castor looks around as well, for signs of anything suspicious.
Nettle's Crossing... Why does that sound familiar?..
"Wai-" Rufus attempts to interject as Winifred pulls at the rusty bell.
"I'd make good use of that dagger." Cappi pipes in, his voice breaking slightly as he does. "Aherm. I mean, I'm not much for the large weapons. And that one looks well made." Looking at the rest of the cache, he adds. "And while Winifred may not be able to make use of that spellbook, such a thing would likely prove useful to others. Although I wouldn't recommend anyone flip through it without the proper knowledge. Chum of mine friend his brain doing so."
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"I can try it on." He states looking at the remains of the footbridge, features pressed in a confident smirk as he spits on his hands, then rubs them together. "If the thing can hold me, that is. Give me an end or two of rope and we can tighten this thing up a bit, eh?"