Farrukh studies Carina in order to get his mesage across better.
"What's that, Farrukh? The woman is escaping?" Astraden mouths. "I think that's what we want!"
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Eben tunes out any continuing protests as he escorts the prisoners to the front of the caverns. The naga's grumpy protests he does his best to ignore as well, though he keeps concentrating on the illusion even after they've passed it, figuring it's probably all for the best to not have to look in her eyes on the way back either. "We'll check up on you in any case, if only to make sure you made it back alright," he assures the muscular woman. "That is assuming we make it back alright... anyhow. Best of luck. Don't delay, that light will only burn for about an hour."
"There, that was only a minute, we can afford a minute to help people out. I mean, you realize that wasn't a prison cell, it was a pantry for the mind flayer, right?" Eben says as they head back, but falls silent at Farrukh's cuff on the shoulder and subsequent gesturing. The intended initial message seems clear enough, but the followup as the others try and silently communicate is... less so. Gods help us all, this group's complete lack of subtlety in all things would be hilarious, if it weren't also a good chunk of the reason they keep getting killed... Eben clicks his fingers twice to get everyone's attention, and points north, towards the wall of illusion. Blotchy, drippy looking electric blue letters appear on it, as though being painted on.
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Farrukh responds with universal sign language using both of his hands, but nods his head yes.
It looks like Elsaroth was walking around this area, lingering from time to time near the naga's area. Recently, he moved south back into the sewer and started running. Elsaroth must have bolted when he realized the party was backtracking.
"He went this way. We need to track her diwn before she stabs us in the back down the road."
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"Oh." Eben says somewhat disappointingly, dropping his silence. Though his face displays some confusion over Farrukh's rather ambiguous use of pronouns. Maybe drow just all look alike to him. Kinda racist, but hey. "Is that a good idea, though? We've already used our anti-Xyrxog scrolls. We might have just scared the guy off altogether."
"The last thing we need is that Drow coming in while we're fighting Xyrzog and hitting us with one of those slow-down Bombs. That could be even more devastating."
"The scrolls will last a while. But, did he leave into the sewers? I don't think it's worth our time to go after him there, given he's probably able to move much faster than us (well, me) and already has a lead."
Carina sighs. "I agree--we've already used up our scrolls, and depending on how long it takes us to find Zyr-Xyr-whatever the hell his name is down here, we might lose our edge before we find him. Every second counts."
"Maybe we can have one of Rodrigo's um... pets? Hang back behind us and guard the rear?" Eben suggests.
Eben dismisses the magic wall once the party has walked back past it again. "Sorry, Fassash, we had some people coming through and didn't want them to disturb you.." he calls out, over his shoulder, in response to the naga's grumbles.
Back past the drow lair, Eben gives a very, very wary look at the big purple glowing sigil on the floor. "Farrukh, any chance you can tell if that's set to blow up when someone steps on it? I mean, it seems too obvious to be a trap, but I guess we should be cautious anyhow."
Carina keeps her crossbow readied for trouble, scanning the area for any other potential threats.
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"I can check it, yeah. Magical, not magical, traps are all alike really. Step wrong and you get a face full of knives or something."
Astraden follows Eben, drawing her rapier once they pass back through Fassash's pool room. She looks at the sigil as Farrukh checks it.
Farrukh closely inspects the symbol. The more he looks at it, the more it looks like complete gibberish. Farrukh has seen a few magic traps before, and they usually contain some sort of focal point everything points to—some sort of trigger mechanism. This is just chaos. It doesn't look like an arcane glyph. It looks, in fact, completely harmless.
Farrukh is just about to step over it when, as an afterthought, he happens to glance up.
Silvery strands hang suspended from the ceiling high above, like an enormous spiderweb, covering the whole area. Farrukh peers at them, his keen eyes making out a subtle spiral shape that appears to be focused on the exact ten-foot area of floor the harmless symbol rests on.
"Yeah, it explodes."
Farrukh slips on his other pair of glasses and searches for a way to deactivate it.
Farrukh takes out one of the pigs and hits it on the rump. Squealing, the alarmed swine bolts straight down the hall.
Up above, the spidery strands flash. A blast of white fog pours down onto the confused little pig.
When the mist dissipates, the webbing is gone. The harmless symbol remains. The pig's body lies there on the ground, much of its skin eaten away by the acidic magic.
Carina winces and turns away from the trap's blast.
When she looks back, her face turns a pale blue and she covers her mouth. "Oh my heavens..."
...that was horrible...
"Huh. So that's what it does."
"Glad we sent the pig."
Astraden watches the explosion passively. "Too bad it wasn't a fire trap. All that acid probably poisoned the meat," she says, starting down the passage.
"Dammit, why'd you have to say that? Now I want bacon."
"Oh well. Onward?"
"A shame indeed," Rodrigo sighs. "Though this place hardly has the best effect on one's appetite. Onward, brave pig slayer!"
Eben is a bit nauseated at the thought of using a pig as a trap-springer, but having already cost the group some time by insisting on escorting the prisoners out, he figures he's used up his allotment of protests for the day. He looks away as the poor animal is sent ahead, and cringes at the sounds of sizzling flesh and squealing terror, as the already poorly treated swine ends its days in appalling horror. The screams seem to go on forever, though it's really barely six seconds. Out of the melted carcass, a miraculously intact eyeball sits amid the bare bone and sloughed flesh of the hog's head, seeming to cast a baleful glare at him and the group. Well, I was going to bring you out of here, but we'd probably have just sold you to a butcher anyhow, so really, at least you got to help us take revenge against the guys that mistreated you so... The postmortem attempted justification doesn't bring him much solace.
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Tanith frowns at the cruelty Farrukh is so quick to laugh at but it wasn't anything unexpected as far as the big Kordite is concerned. He follows closely on the slayer's heels in order to keep the protective spell on him intact. "Let's keep an eye out for more of those things."
Carina swallows briefly, nods, and keeps her crossbow readied for trouble. She follows behind, giving the pig carcass one last apologetic look before moving on.
Set into the cavern wall of this foreboding chamber are a pair of tall white marble double doors, streaked with veins of a faintly glowing purple mineral. Flanking the doors are a pair of tall ivory columns, each bearing a familiar tentacular symbol burned into their surface.
Farrukh can't see a lock on the doors, nor does he see any telltale signs of a trap. For a moment, Astraden thinks she hears something tapping against the wall, but it's so faint and brief she realizes she must have imagined it.
Farrukh moves up to listen at the doors.
Astraden cups a hand to her frayed ear and mimes a tapping motion with her index finger against her shield, then points to the wall. She stands stock still while the slayer listens.
Still paranoid of possible danger, Carina keeps close to Rodrigo and makes sure her crossbow is loaded.
Farrukh moves up and begins inspecting the door. It's not locked or trapped, though he believes it to be barred or blocked somehow from the other side.
As Astraden and Eben are following, Astraden becomes aware of something else: A rapid pop-pop-pop sound from above. She looks up.
Astraden initially notices a single creature climbing down towards them—then she notices two more approaching from the west and south.
Six purple tentacles support single bulbous alien eyes dripping with viscous slime. Rarely blinking, each creature's star-shaped pupil moves rapidly about, scanning the area. Two longer tentacles end in razor-sharp claws and undulate hypnotically in the air around each of the creatures.
The creatures had been hiding amid stalactites on the ceiling until now, but now they climb extremely swiftly, their tentacles' suckers popping on the rough stone as two come to rest roughly five feet above the heads of their targets. The other two let go when they're ten feet off the ground, allowing themselves to land safely on the ground.
The two creatures that have not landed remain slightly above as long and sinuous claw arms lash out, aiming for Farrukh and Carina.
As the sharp claws sink into the flesh of the slayer and the undine, they rip away, as if trying to rend their targets in two.
Meanwhile, the other two advance on Farrukh and Tanith.
As they whirl to confront these new foes, the adventurers feel the glowing eyes boring into them, slowing them down. Astraden notices this first, and is able to shout a warning.
Tanith grunts in pain as a monstrous claw is raked across his iron-like flesh and then feedback from his link to Carina follows. He shakes off whatever baleful thing is tugging at his mind and tries to focus on the enemies. "Farrukh, we have to bring one of these things down. Now."