"I'm going to go with "biting, making webs, and being really f*!!ing creepy." Judah said from the back of the crowd.
"Oh, for Iomedae's sake..." Cassiel grumbles and moves to cut up the nearest spider.
Mathis knows a bomb isn't the way to go and so uses his cane to attack Cassiels spider.
Lorant snakes through the room to the spider next to the one targeting Edmund. As much as he disliked the boorish and perverse spirit, him getting flanked would be a tactical disadvantage.
Ella, now over her shock, steps forward and lays a hand on Lorant's arm. Strength flows into him from her touch. You can do it.
"Ugh, is this really the best you have? C'mon, I figured the one that talks to rats would be a pansy, but I thought you might actually be able to swing that sword arm, Cassie." Edmund grumbles as he pummels the spider in front of him.
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Mathus steps forward and attacks a spider with his cane, but the attack misses. Cassiel has better luck, but his blow does not kill the spider. Edmund strikes twice, the first blow causing the spider that he was fighting to turn belly-up. His second blow strikes the spider in front of Cassiel, but does not kill the oversized arachnid. Both of the remaining spiders go on the offensive, but neither is able to connect.
Cassiel shoots Edmund a dirty look before chopping at the spider before him.
"Talk s*!%, get hit. Instructor taught me that. Apparently, in MY case, not very hard."
Lorant barges through Edmund and prepares to bludgeon the spider Cassiel is engaged with, trusting his mail shirt to protect from opportunistic, hungry chelicerae (spiders don't have mandibles).
The spiked head of the morningstar bounces ineffectually off the spider's carapace.
Mathus clubs again
for
Ella, seeing that the spiders aren't having much luck harming her friends, bites her lip. But then again, the reverse is also true...focusing her gaze, she flings a rock from the back of the room at one of the spiders to distract it!
"Wha-hey!" Edmund growls as Lorant pushes past him. "Rude!"
He takes it out on the spider Cassiel has struck with his sword.
"Yes, Edmund, you are," Lorant replies dryly.
Judah loaded another crossbow bolt, but didn't fire it. The melee was too much of a mess. He didn't want to shoot one of his friends.
Well, maybe Edmund...
Edmund just growls at Lorant, clearly peeved.
Lorant can't resist the urge to smirk at Edmund's impotent frustration.
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The group presses the attack, Cassius dispatching the spider in front himself before turning his attention to the one remaining. Lorant attempts to slam the spider, but his morningstar deflects off its carapace. Mathus tries to club it, but misses. Only Edmund is able to connect, with a remarkably solid fist, but the arachnid fights on. In that instant, Eleanora skitters a stone behind the spider and it turns, sacrificing its chance to attack this round.
Cassiel steps up to the spider and tries to drive his sword through its back.
Lorant joins Cassiel in pressing the attack, the morningstar crashing down on the spider's bulbous abdomen.
Mathis seems to think that Cassiel and Lorant are on the job and takes a step back.
Judah stands next to Mathus and watches, his crossbow still in his sweating hands.
"They're... pretty good at this stuff." he comments nervously.
"Oh yes, oh yes, they're very impressive," Edmund says snidely, swinging an ectoplasmic fist at it.
"Now, see, I can do this too, but my expertise was always in more...delicate stratagems." He chuckles ghoulishly.
Ella scowls but just watches the fight, looking out in case any of her friends are injured.
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The final spider is quickly dispatched and the group is free to examine the room more closely.
It is easy enough to determine that the chapel was once dedicated to the worship of Pharasma.
Ella lets out a sigh of relief as the spider is crushed, and, lifting her torch high, begins to examine the area. "A Pharasmin chapel...well, no wonder there were none of those apparitions here. Wait, what's that?" Striding into the back corner, stepping delicately around the dead spiders' legs, she brushes some cobwebs off a cabinet that seems to be still intact. Opening it carefully, she reveals a shelf containing five vials of water, a scroll, and a piece of wood. "Interesting...one moment." Muttering to herself, she gazes at the objects before picking them up and examining them one by one.
"Aha. This is a curative wand!" Ella says, holding it up triumphantly. "...And the scroll here is some sort of spell, but I don't know what. The water's not magical."
Lorant approaches the altar and sweeps some more of the cobwebs away, before kneeling at it.
"Lady of Graves, hear us. Sanctify this Table once dedicated to you. Let it once again be to us a sign of the great Altar where your shades and psychopomps praise you for ever. Accept here the continual recalling of the sacrifice of those who now stand before your judgment. Grant that all who eat and drink at this holy Table may be fed and refreshed as is their fate, be forgiven for their sins, united with one another, and strengthened for your service. So let it be."
He traces the spiral on his chest with a closed fist, and then stands.
"We do Pharasma's work here," he says to no one in particular.
Lorant looks to the others, his eyes catlike in the torchlight.
"The wand will be useful, both as healing for us and as a weapon against the undead here."
Ella nods, thoughtful. "That's true--I hadn't thought of that use. I'm not the...best in a fight. Would one of you rather carry it?"
She holds the wand out, offering it to the others.
"We'd best get a move on and investigate the rest of this place."
"I can certainly activate it, through the grace of the goddesses. I believe Cas could as well."
He smirks a bit and gives the paladin a good-natured nudge.
"Though you've got a ways to go before you can cast spells yourself, heh?"
Cassiel just gives Lorant a deadpan look and starts looking around the chapel for an alternate exit.
Mathus prays briefly at the Altar and ends his prayer with Not yet, not today.
"I guess if anything is behind the rest of these doors they probably know we're here now. That wasn't really quiet." Judah said looking down the halls.
"How about we just stick together now?"
"Good idea." Cassiel starts leading the way out of the chapel.
"Perhaps, but the spirits already knew we were here to begin with. Anything becoming aware of us now will be easier to deal with than those."
Lorant follows Jude and Cas out of the chapel.
Judah gestured with his crossbow toward the door opposite the chapel. "That one's unlocked. Open it up."
Ella follows the others, wand at the ready, with Edmund drifting behind. "May as well see what's in store for us, I suppose," she murmurs.
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The door is opened to reveal an oddly-shaped chamber beyond. This chamber is in a shambles—old wooden benches lie in ruins along the walls, while rusty chains and bits of rotten rope lie scattered on the floor.
From the floor, two sets of manacles and chain rise into the air and begin to move towards the party.
Initiative
Eleanora
Cassiel
Chains
Mathus
Judah
Lorant
(low-light vision, darkvision)
Ella frowns, peering into the room from the doorway. "Ugh. Why is nothing in this ruin still? Not really sure there's much I can do...but I suppose anything helps!" Stepping into the doorway with her torch held high, she frowns at the nearest set of chains, and a rock zips across the ground and collides into it. "Edmund, get in here and keep those off of me!"
Edmund scowls, but obeys, pushing his way through the crowd into the room and swinging a fist at the nearest chain.
Cassiel arches an eyebrow in surprise and moves to engage the other set of chains.
"Huh. Well, that was a thing." Cassiel pokes the manacles with his sword.
"That... wasn't so bad." Judah said.
He'd tensed at the floating manacles, but it had been over before he'd really processed what was happening.
Lorant strokes his beard as he considers what's just transpired.