Titus heaves a mighty breath, then turns to the room with the spiders. He squares his shoulders, and brings his weapon up and ready. He turns to Sendi at his side and utters a quick prayer to Milani to ask for her protection. Shall we, then?.
Standing shoulder to shoulder with Sendi, he enters the room.
Phila reloads her crossbow with a bit of a wince as the bolt doesn't quite hit in the first two times. "So. I assume these spiders are not immune to being skewered by a bolt? Lets try to kill a couple before they think to spring at us." She steps forwards, hoping that the others will be ready to join her.
With a click and thunk the bolt flies through the air at one of the spiders up near the ceiling!
"Seems like the prudent thing to do!" he reply to the wizard, taking aim at a spider. For now, he has Vinz stay put, our of the way of getting swarmed.
As Titus and Sendi step into the room, Philacris looses a bolt that flies true. With a sofft *Shhhploop* a pink stain appears near the ceiling, where a spider once rested.
Pakuzzo launches a arrow of his own, though the small thing moves slightly as it nears. A glancing blow from the projectile nearly squashes the arachnid, but it stays upright.
In response, the spiders scurry towards the combatants.
Sendi:
Metronicus Crady:
Titus Enfeld:
Philacris:
==========================
Pakuzzo
Philacris
Sendi
Titus
Spiders
Crady
As the spiders surged forward, Sendi went into a frenzied blur of claws, desperate to keep them off of her.
As the tiny spiders approach, Titus sets his stance and swings down with his morning start in an attempt to crush one flat.
Titus swats again at the little creatures, this time targeting another as they converge upon him.
Phila reloads her crossbow hastily, then bides her time to look for an opening in Sendi's ferocious slashing and tearing. She purses her lips and fires at one of the spiders harrassing Titus .
Pakuzzo whistles for Vinz to attack, directing him toward the spiders attacking Titus. He activates his final burst of focus as he does so.
Vinz leaps in the air and soars past Pakuzzo, attempting to peck the nearest spider to death.
Feeling a surge of agility, Pakuzzo takes a knee and aims his bow sideways at one of the spiders attacking Titus, keeping the shot as low to the ground as he can.
He hisses a curse as the arrow skids harmlessly across the floor.
As the spiders swarm over Titus, the ravens dive in making quick work of them.
The sole surviver, too dumb to run, skitters straight ahead for Sendi, biting at her face.
Spiders (Green: -2)
Crady
[b]Pakuzzo
Philacris
Sendi
Titus [b]
All PCs Up - Only 1 spider left
"Darn it, guys", says Crady, running up to join the spider attack.
"What part of 'wide berth' did you not understand?!"
The last spider leapt at Sendi. With disgust clearly written on her face she slashed out at it with her claws...
Crady runs up to Sendi, frantically looking her up and down.
"Are you okay? Were you bit?"
Phila stows her crossbow with relief. "I don't know Mister Crady, did you see Sendi there? She was a whirlwind of claws, I can't imagine any of them got closer than a foot away from her before she finished them off. Along with half the ones on Titus as well!" Phila breathes a big sigh of relief that none of the spiders had thought to rush her instead. She wasn't sure what she would have done.
Phila steps forwards and into the insect-oriented room and takes a long look around for any more threats.
Once she's satisfied, she heads over to the robed body and inspects it as well.
Happily finding a lack of spiders swarming over her, Philacris takes an in depth look around the room. On the fallen man, she locates a few things of interest. A silver unholy symbol of Asmodeus hangs from his neck and a gold-plated "Hocum's Fantasmagorium" charm is clutched in his greedy hands.
In the pack nearby, she locates a vial of silver dust, and four scrolls. A finely crafted breastplate is still fastened to him.
Scroll of Cause Fear
Scroll of Doom
Scroll of Inflict Light Wounds
Scroll of Remove Fear
+1 Breastplate (Medium Size)
Looking through the southern doorway, she sees the following...
A briny odor wafts from a dozen water-filled cases in this room, each a display of strange, colorful sea creatures. Puddles of water cover the floor alongside shattered glass and fish skeletons. A ten-foot-square tank of murky water stands to the northeast.
Philacris looks the Asmodean follower up and down, looking for a sign of what killed him. As she does, she pulls off the holy symbol of Asmodeus and the unusual "commemorative" charm that the fellow had clutched. She sets both of the items aside for now.
She turns to his pack and slowly examines each of the scrolls, waving the others to move forward without her while she handles this critical task! Rather than rely only on her (already worn out) brain, she spends 15 minutes to refresh herself on the Read Magic spell . Once she's done, she simply casts it and inspects each of the scrolls.
By this time its likely the rest of the party has gotten tired of waiting for her, but if they're still around, she recites "Scrolls of fear, pain, and other malign magics, though there is also one to remove fear from one suffering from it. Titus, you may have an easier time with these. They appear to be mostly divine in nature... or should I say unholy?"
She also detects magic on and inspects the body.
"Ah, a magically enhanced breastplate , how odd to find that on this one."
Once he calls back Vinz, Pakuzzo looks over Philacris' spoils.
"Nothing here that I wish to make use of, but what we don't need could probably be fenced for coin. Does anyone want this armor?"
"I can't wear it", Crady adds. "Kintargo doesn't like me wearing too much metal."
"Titus, are you interested? Or would your goddess be opposed to repurposing an Asmodean breastplate?"
She also inspects the non-magical items, trying to get a rough feel for how much gold they might be worth.
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Titus nods to Philacris, though grudgingly. He takes the scrolls and puts them away. I'll take them, if for no other reason than to make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands. And this...
He examines the breastplate, looking for any sign that it would be specifically crafted or designated for the oppressive Prince of Devils. Milani would want this to be used to better her and our cause, rather than it be lost or found by another of Asmodeus's chosen.
As the others looted the place, Sendi shook her hands in vain to get the remains of spiders off of her. Then, forcing herself to calm down, she slowly and deliberately cast prestidigitation on herself, over and over again, to clean herself off. As she did so, she muttered to herself
"...not that bad. You've had worse. They're just spiders. Just spiders..."
Crady eyes brighten when the urban druid identifies the spells Sendi keeps recasting.
"Sendi!" Metronicus whispers. "When we get out of here, could you use prestidigitation on me! Kintargo does think I should have that spell, but it would make me easier to be around!"
Philacris hands off all the items to Titus and then catches sight of Sendi. Her face takes on a sympathetic cast as she makes her way to the clawed woman. "Ah Sendi, I didn't think, since you had handled yourself so confidently. " Looking contrite, she reaches down and gives Sendi's back a rub "Poor girl, don't worry. You've managed to get all those spider bits off. And I'm sure we've dealt with all of them. You fought them admirably." She gives Sendi an encouraging smile.
"Now, while Sendi recovers, Pakuzzo, would you like to lead the way again?"
"Ech, poor girl..." he says, regarding Sendi's minor freakout. But he's at full attention when Philacris makes her request.
"I don't see why not"
Heading for the next room, Pakuzzo makes a hand gesture in Vinz's direction, and the bird begins to creep forward on foot behind him.
Vinz stays a few feet behind Pakuzzo, not making a sound.
*******
Once he's made it to the next room, the tengu pauses behind the nearest piece of cover and takes in his surroundings.
Titus, seeing Pakuzzo attempting to sneak into the room beyond, hangs back. Knowing his bulk would, and had awoken the dead, he is content to wait and help however he can.
Blushing with embarrassment Sendi offered a small smile to Philacris. ”Thank you, I...just don’t like spiders. I...let’s keep moving, shall we?” She then busied herself with casting prestidigitation on Crady, something which he both dearly needed and which let her focus on something else. Inwardly she cursed herself for her weakness. She had tried so hard to put up a facade of pure confidence to prove that she was worthy of the rebellion, and had let it all crumble in the face of a few arachnids.
Hiding behind the first large tank, Pakuzzo notices the placard directly in front of him reads 'Quadclaw Marauder'. However, it's quite obvious by the skeletal remains in the tank, whatever used to reside her was rather harmless.
Looking around the room, little more catches the eyes, save more shattered tanks and skeletons. One tank on the far side seems intact. A pair of skeletal remains float within it. Though the flesh rots, it appears to be some form of half monkey, half fish abomination.
These are dead ningyos
The flesh of these creatures is poisonous when ingested
During the day, a dead ningyo stays dead. However, it rises again after sundown and lives a cursed life at night.
Glancing towards the circular room, you can just make out a maccob taxidermy of creatures. Unable to fully see them all from the room full of aquariums, it's hard to tell exactly what they all are.
However, it's obvious to you someone took several different creatures and sewed them together to form extravagant beasts.
Phila gives Sendi one last rub and smile, answering "Yes, let's." She follows after Pakuzzo to cover the stealthy Tengu.
But makes dramatically more sound in the process, accidentally letting a clasp on her clothing strike against one of the insect displays with a quiet but audible click. She looks around the aquatic display room with curiosity, but her lack of book learning regarding living creatures leaves her unable to draw any conclusions.
Nevertheless, she's somewhat suspicious of the rotting and skeletal remains. She casts detect magic and uses it to inspect the room.
Upon entering the room, the urban druid knew something wasn't right. Approaching the large tanks in the corner, Crady gasps in horror.
"That an undead form of ningyo. In life, they have poisonous skin. In undeath, I can imagine it's far more dangerous!"
Fighting to turn his head from the horror, the city guide looks around the rest of the room with equal disgust.
"Someone has defiling the laws of Nature! It looks like someone is attempting to fuse two..or more forms of life together. Theses poor creatures! Many of them look in deep pain."
Crady's face hardens. "This blight must be removed from the face of Kintargo! This place should be burned to the ground!"
Seeing that he would be disturbing no one alive by entering the chamber, Titus moves in and begins to walk about the room with the others, inspecting the hideous creations. He moves down to the south, positioning himself with a clear view into the southeastern chamber as he watches for dangers.
Crady, there's no way these are going to...get up, is there?
"Undead? And magical experiments? I don't remember Hocum's being so... extreme." Phila bites her lip, watching the currently-still abominations as if any one of them is suddenly going to break free of its tank. "If they're animate, we should destroy them. But... I don't see any motion from them yet."
"And Mister Crady, while I mostly agree... think of the risk to the neighboring buildings if we burned this place down."
The tengu regards the fused remains with grim interest.
"Easy folks; whatever these things went through, they're dead now; no more pain for them. Now, the undead, that's the real problem."
He points at the desiccated mer-monkey.
"That thing Crady said--the what, 'ningyo,' right? I vaguely remember some tales my folks told from way, way back in the old homelands. When these things die, they stay dead during the day, but then they rise after sundown. I'm not sure how long we've got until nightfall, but I'm all in favor of chopping it into pieces before it gets the opportunity to become a major concern."
While the others are talking, Vinz peers into the exhibits, but is ultimately disinterested. These creatures had been too well-preserved to have decayed to any appetizing degree.
”I have to agree with Crady here.” She looked over at the fuming Druid, who for the first time since she had met him, looked clean. ”Is there a way besides Fire we can destroy these abominations completely? Perhaps with acid, during the day?”
Titus thinks back to the various services he's attended, both militant and pious, trying to remember the rites Milani had offered for making certain the dead could not rise again.
Titus shakes his head at the vile creations. Holy water...or fire, I'd think. The first may be preferred as the second would draw much attention. If these things don't reanimate till the evening, I'm not sure the holy water would affect them till then. Shall I try to channel the power of my goddess to see if her goodness will harm them?
You seem to recall the day you studied the proper way to put down undead fish....however that was also the morning session after you were up drinking.
You can't recall any useful information for this specific situation.
"Titus, I'm not sure if you should risk it. Maybe that'd animate them early? If they don't awaken until it gets dark, we can just make sure they're well destroyed before then." From the way Philacris immediately starts towards the east, she's not volunteering to do the destroying.
She peers down the corridor to the circular room, looking around for anything unusual that could surprise the group while they're dealing with the ningyo. She also keeps an eye on the floor and ceiling for any traps left by the Redactors.
Titus narrows his eyes at the remains as he considers Philacris's point. I think that's a risk I'd rather take....these things cannot be left to rise again. If you'd watch for trouble, I'd appreciate it. He looks over to Pakuzzo. Will you help me break these abominations into their component parts?
Whether or not he's helped, Titus will do his best to go about destroying these creatures physically so that if they reanimate, they'd find it quite difficult to ever move or attack anyone again.
”Agreed. I’ll help in any way I can.”
"Sure, sounds like a lark," Pakuzzo says, unsheathing his scimitar. "Let's get chopping. We can dump the bigger ones on the floor if we need the leverage."
Crady puts his club away to replace it with it's dagger.
With his knowledge of the natural order, despite their jumbled makeup, the urban druid seeks to end the lives of the experiments in a quickly and painless means available.
Though it takes a few minutes, between the slashing and beating, the bones and flesh give way. Crumbling to simple bits of dust and gruesome chunks, you feel confident they won't return to fight anything ever again.
After the satisfactory destruction of the atrocities, Titus nods to himself, then turns to follow Crady into the next room, weapon up and ready.
Philacris continues to inspect the hallway to the east, doing her best to ignore the ugly smashing, squelching sounds coming from the room she just left. Once they're done, she comments in a whisper "Dealt with, I assume?"
By the time that Philacris comes in, Sendi is looking immaculate, and is busying herself cleaning up Crady (again) with prestidigitation.
"As well as it is going to be. Would you please help cleaning up Titus and Pakuzzo? Not only was this messy work, but the smell here is most unpleasant. When we leave, it would be best if we do not look like we...well, did what we did."