Radosric steps up and swings his sword at the giant frog that swallowed Terry.
Cramped inside the frog, Terry still tries to cut his way out with his sickle.
Rudrik brings down his longsword on the frog as hard as he can!
Isinghar tries to break free, dropping his battleaxe, and attacking the frog using his cold iron dagger that 'magically' appears in his hand (spring-loaded wrist sheath).
Thaldal steps forward and attempts to aid in getting Terry free from the massive frog's gullet. He drops his gavel down onto the creature's skull.
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Isinghar again tries to stab the frog before him, but once again his weapon slides along the slick surface of the amphibian's skin. Thaldal has more success, dropping his hammer down upon the goliath frog's skull and the animal squeals in pain! Raddosric adds the strength of his arcane strike against the beast and again the frog cries out! A third strike from Rudrik and the giant beast sinks to the ground, breathing heavily.
The remaining frog, sensing that it will not have a meal today, hops away (Aotor and Isinghar get attacks of opportunity) into the moat and disappears beneath the water (assuming that you don't manage to kill it).
Isinghar will attack the smaller frog as it escapes:
He will then cast Cure Light Wounds on himself:
The young human continues trying to cut his way out of the giant frog.
Aotor watches the frog jump away and shrugs his shoulders. ”Not like its an Orc or anything.”
With the giant frog down Raddosric jumps forward trying to retrieve what is left of Terry from the frogs belly.
Rudrik sighs at the expected slight, tosses his longsword aside for the moment, and goes to work with his gladius to help Raddosric cut open the large frog and get Terry out.
Wiping fluids from, well, every part of his hair, clothing, armor, and gear seems to leave a bad taste in Terry's mouth. "Let's not do THAT again, okay?" He shudders.
Raddosric wiped the frog's slime off his blade and his curiosity gets the better of him, "I wonder if the beasts have a nest?
He scans the area quickly and after his search, "Enough playing with the wildlife best we continue on our way. The hard resumed his position at the rear of the formation.
Rudrik sighs at the expected slight...
”Oh. Ooo. Not you of course. I mean, those other orcs. Your cool. Uhm, yeah...” Embarrassed, Aotor makes his way towards the front, ready to bring on what’s next.
"A fine idea," Thaldal replies to Terry. He also readies himself to continue on.
"Well, this means it's unlikely that people use the front door. But that's good for us, we might as well head inside," says Rudrik.
"I think you're right. Let's try heading in here. I don't want to find the next set of giant frogs over there." pointing towards the far corner of the building.
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The group treads carefully across the rotting drawbridge, which creaks alarmingly under their weight but holds. In the ruined courtyard in the center of the keep, all is quiet. You can hear the croaking of frogs in the distance. One door is hanging open on one great hinge, the other is splintered and holed but still in position, wedged and shored closed from the inside. A ruined tower, the upper floors largely collapsed is to the southwest, and a well sits in the courtyard in the southeast corner.
Rudrik retrieves his sword before crossing carefully. He keeps his gladius in his off-hand as he moves to the front and inside of the courtyard, watching carefully and listening to the surroundings. He surveys the well from a safe distance and looks up toward the tower rafters.
Raddosric grasped his sword tightly as he watched Rudrick make his way into the courtyard. He hangs back a few paces and followed the half orc The bard cautiously moved toward the well.
Girding himself for further combat, just in case, Terry moves into the courtyard as well, moving over towards the more secure door, the one with the hole in it.
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The well seems safe enough, though it is crumbling in places. Peering into the rafters of the collapsed tower, Rudrik's darkvision detects movement. Something fairly large is scrabbling about up there. He also sees a number of small animals (and a human) bodies on the floor of the tower. Most look to have been drained of blood and vital organs, as though having been prepared for mummification that was never completed.
Terry gingerly approaches the door to the main keep, noting no movement from within.
"Psst," says Rudrik. "Somethin' moving around in the rafters of the broken tower. Based on the bodies below, I think it's been eatin' stuff that comes through here."
The Druid warily follows the team.
"I'm not seeing anything over here right now, so, I guess we should set up to deal with whatever that thing might be before looking around further."
”Well let’s see if we can draw it out, or at least get a better look.” Aotor replies, then waves his hands around while mumbling some nonsense. Then suddenly four glowing lights resembling miner’s headlamps appear around him. He then sends the lights chasing the mysterious creature.
Terry readies himself for combat, and moves over towards Aotor, and away from the door.
"Good idea," the bard agreed as he watched Aotor. He picked up a small stone and casts light on it and throws it into the tower.
"Oh ho ho, that thing has to go," says Rudrik, hefting both of his swords. "C'mon, folks, let's lure it down. I'll go first, if you want."
"Splendid idea," the bard encouraged. "You draw it out and we rush in."
"Doesn't seem to be taking the bait. Do we need to spread BBQ sauce over Rudrik?"
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As Rudrik enters the ruins of the tower, the spider drops down from overhead. It is the size of a large dog, with eight spindly legs and a chitinous carapace. It barely hits the floor before Rudrik is upon it, slicing it in two before it can move any closer to him.
Amidst the rubbish on the floor, you find a total of 71 cp, 38 sp, and an ivory box (empty) about the size of a large book.
”Great work there big guy. Nice and clean. That oughtta cook up nice and tender. Mmm, mmm. Spider legs for dinner!”
"Crispy!" says Rudrik with a chuckle. He whips some spider goo off his sword. "Stay sharp. May be more critters lookin' for their lunch from little hiding places like that."
After poking around the rubble to his satisfaction, he says, "All right, looks like that staircase is probably no good. The upper area's all wreckage anyway."
He makes his way back into the courtyard and says, "Let's head up the big steps into the keep interior."
"Be carful, probably more than spiders in there," the bard warned as he followed Rudrik.
"Oh yeah. Maybe snakes or oozes or... or swarms of giant bees," he says enthusiastically. "Or, y'know, evil wizards or something. But we'll see. C'mon, let's get this front door open - carefully."
Raddosric shrugged his shoulders, "I was thinking bandits, but you bring up a good point, best we be prepared for anything."
"From what we've seen so far, I'm not expecting any bandits. Too many things about trying to eat people."
Terry moves over to go where Rudrik seems to want to go.
"If there are bandits, they sure don't use the front door," says Rudrik with a chuckle.
"All right, anyone wanna see if this thing has a trap or somethin' on it?" he says, pointing to the large main door of the keep with his gladius.
"Good idea. Not my area of expertise though," Thaldal says hoping someone among them was handy with traps.
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Rudrik enters first, moving cautiously into the darkened area. His darkvision shows nothing moving in the gloom. This was once a great audience chamber, as shown by the tattered banners and tapestries on the walls, destroyed furniture, and heaps of rotting cloth thrown into corners. Once richly appointed, it has been thoroughly searched, sacked, and despoiled. Leaves and dirt cover the floor, and cobwebs hang from walls and the ceiling above. Looking up, you see that pieces of beams and chunks of stone poke through, indicating that the upper stories of the place are totally destroyed and likely to be impassable to anything larger than a rat. Passages go west and south, and a door on the far wall leads further into the ruin, it would seem.
"Nobody home," says Rudrik. "This place is a mess. Anyone have a preference about west or south wing? If not, I'm going south."
Roddosric casts light on his sword and follows Rudrik, "South is fine."
"I had an old man tell me once to always choose left. It works more often than you might think."
Rudrik turns around to face Terry and says, "Left, eh? Well that's south from where I'm facing now, so south it is!"