Bram blinked as Saul... seemed to lose it a bit. "...I think the paranoia is catching up to him." Bram said, before drawing closer to the room with the clicking, stepping gingerly over what was once a recognizable shape. Maces in both hands, Bram peered inside, trying to get a look at what was making that racket...
Zea follows along to check out the room with the clicking noise but tries not to draw attention to herself as she nervously peeks into the next room while her knuckles turn white from gripping her scimitar at her side.
Plants, rocks, and hundreds of motionless specks fill the countless glass cases throughout this long hall. The preserved husks of giant insects and arachnids—including a ten-foot-tall spider—leer over the displays. A dead man’s body, swathed in red-and-black robes and covered in welts, lies on the floor.
The insect zoo featured a wide range of astonishing creatures few non-
adventurers have ever seen, such as driver ants, scarab beetle swarms, and an arm-sized house centipede.
The dead man is obviously from the clergy of the church of Asmodeus, as everyone who has spent some time in Kintargo can tell from experience.
The clicking sound comes from a cluster of cat sized spiders with scarlet bodies and black legs. They seem aggressive and move from the corner in a direct line to the intruders. It's at least half a dozen of them. Hard to tells with the movement.
Zea recoils in disgust and fear. "Don't let them bite you! Their venom likely killed that foul man over there!" She slashes wildly with her scimitar in an effort to ward them off.
The spiders are really agile and easily avoid the attempts to smash them. One bites Zea. Two get through to Saul, before he manages to stab the third, and one of the two manages to bite him.
"What the-!?" was all Bram could manage to get out, before instinctively swinging his mace down and looking to crush one of the spiders as it scurried past!
Chasing after the little manages, Bram brought his other mace down on the nearest one, looking to try and crush it too!
The first spider that attacks Bram gets hit over the head leaving it staggered and after a futile attempt to bite Bram it falls on its back and convulses. The second one doesn't even get that far.
Another spider comes for Zea, biting her.
The spiders scuttle around the feet of those in the room, but one spider who is indecisive whom to attack.
"Agh! Ouch!"
Fhingle dances back a bit away from the Swarm.
Fhingle will tell the group what they are and what defense's these creatures have.
The last spider bites Fhingle.
Fhingle slinks back a bit from the bite, steeling himself vs the poison.
HP 23/24
Cassius casts Sleep on the ickies.
The spiders are unaffected by the spell.
Zea, wincing in pain but urged on by the courage of the others and Jarithe's song, tries to pull her magic out again with her left hand and claps it against her scimitar's hilt as she strikes out at one spider then another.
Zea flails ineffectively at the arachnids dancing between her feet.
Bram continued to chase after the spiders nearby, going after the one near Zea and looking to crush it with his other mace.
Bram misses the tiny spider. As squishy as they are when you manage to hit them, it is really hard to get rid of them.
"Jackdaw will see you in Hell, vermin!" He really doesn't like spiders.
The whole situation is a huge mess. Saul misses these agile creatures again, still having two of them assault his legs. Zea is in the same situation, but Bram comes to her help and smashes one of them.
The spiders are single minded and continue to attack their 'prey'. All in all it's Saul, Zea, Bram and Fhingle flailing with disgust at the arachnids that swarm them. Jarithe and Cassius try to support their companions without joining the fray.
"Alright, you little creeps! Stay still so I can squash ya!" Bram says, bringing his maces down on any and all spiders he can get within reach! "Mind your feet, folks! Pest control is never clean!"
Zea attempts to weave her magic and weapon together.
Fhignle winces at the bite but swings again.
"How do we stop such a thing?" Fhingle asks
Bram misses with one mace, but hits with another, sending the spider off staggering. Zea also misses one spider, but kills the other, reducing the threat to an overseeable number of two. Fhingle is lucky, that he is not really strong. This way, at least, he doesn't hurt himself as he hits his leg.
"They're immune to my powers! Do you have any oil to burn?"
Jarithe also haven't found an effective way to fight the vermin. The staggered spider bites Zea and dies.
The other two keep attacking Saul.
Again, Zea attempts to weave her magic and weapons together.
Zea swings her blade at the spiders, two times, cutting one down and Jarithe skewers the other one on his spear. Finally Saul is free of the spiders.
Plants, rocks, and hundreds of motionless specks fill the countless glass cases throughout this long hall. The preserved husks of giant insects and arachnids—including a ten-foot-tall spider—leer over the displays. A dead man’s body, swathed in red-and-black robes and covered in welts, lies on the floor.
Zea gasps in pain now that she has a chance to catch her breath and leans heavily with her hands on her knees, a few small bloodstains on her poor garment and staggered by the spider's venom. She breathes hard for a little bit then stands up. "Ok then... what now?" She walks over to the dead man and looks him over for any valuables or clues.
Fhingle moves up to the body,
"That sucked."
The dead Asmodean still carries a silver unholy symbol of Asmodeus, along with a vial of silver dust worth 75 gp and one scroll each of cause fear, doom, inflict light wounds, and remove fear. He still wears his finely made breastplate, and clutched in his hand a gold-plated “Hocum’s Fantasmagorium” charm.
"He has been dead for a bit, Around the time of the night of Ashes." Fhingle says.
"Take his stuff and leave him here. Does anyone know what this charm does?"