This room is the largest you've seen here, and is filled with bookshelves and slowly rotting books. A large wooden balcony around the room overlooks the library, and hundreds of books and piles of rotting paper and rotting leather litter the floor.
As Dmitri entered the room, he skimmed the walls, knowing full well he'd found nothing that particularly interested him. He had his book, and that was all he needed.
Marching fourth, Apollo takes note of where Nom is, as he proceeds into the room.
Stay out there little buddy. If anything awaits us in any of these rooms, I don't want you getting hurt. Keep doing what you're doing.
Nom is jumping around in the distance, trying to catch flies, while Apollo kicks a few things to the side and looks all around.
Most of the books here are very old and rotted and crumble to the touch. There is one, however, that catches Apollo's eye as he roots around the room. A brick color, well-bound and trimmed in gold leaf, a large book entitled Courts of Stone and Flame sits on one bookshelf.
At a first glance through the pages, the book is a treatise on genies. It's well-written, well-preserved and overall a very fine and valuable-looking book.
Noticing the book, Apollo picks it up and flicks through the pages.
Angmar, does this mean much to you? he says, as he passes the book over to the Dwarf.
Kori growls in frustration, "Books! All this time I've been trying to check this room, and all there is is books? Arrgh!"
Kori thinks this place may be frustrating her as much as Pain-lover. "What a waste of time. I thought we were supposed to clear this place out. Next there'll be rats and spiders, nothing with punch."
She starts to head out of the room, but notices the others looking the place over. "Hey Short-legs," she finally settled on a name with meaning for the dwarf, "when you three are done I'm ready to look across the way."
Angmar flips through the pages...
Well most of what is written her eis humbug bout genies and stuff. But it's quite the treasure I'd say. On the markets o Katapesh this could go for a few hundred gold...
He then carefully stows the volume in his backpack and then turns to move on
Anyways more doors are waitin fer us. Let's move on!
Keep it. If we find something of worth to me, I'd like first pick, but otherwise I'm really not worried about such small trinkets. That gold leaf should ensure it'll fetch you a fine penny or two though!
Apollo walks out and heads to the other room with Kori.
This could have been more exciting he says to the woman. Dmitri's weapon broke, I've been put into this state, you're frustrated from a lack of challenge and all we've had to fight are bugs, Pugwampi and monkeys. At least Angmar's fine.
The man sighs as he enters the room with Kori, seemingly unsatisfied with the challenge also.
The entrance to this room is a large white arch. This 40-by-20 foot chamber contains ten rotting bunk beds. The roof is largely intact, save for one hole in the north end. The east and west walls both contain sturdy wooden doors that lead to other areas of the monastery. To the southeast is the ground floor of a mostly collapsed tower, the other floors and stairs having fallen in, likely years past. The door on the east wall is crowded and encrusted with a thick layer of mold, effectively closing it to easy opening.
This room appears to be yet another dormitory in all other respects.
Dmitri's blood had began to boil at the idea that this place needed savvy adventurers to clear it. Pest control could have handled this, or regular guards.
He wasn't one to complain at women-assigned work, however, so he didn't vocalize any of these frustrations, as doing so would technically be blasphemy. Dmitri wasn't one for blasphemy.
We'll certainly have plenty of room when we're done here, at least...
He looked around the room, not really checking on anything. His anger and frustrations were bugging him, however, so he wasn't paying attention to any details.
Setting his eyes on the wall, he notices the moldy door and amptly, in his hurry to be done or find something of merit, gives a swift, rather furious kick to the door.
Dmitri casts his gaze over the room, but the red mist of frustration and anger clouds his vision.
It does nothing to stop his boot, however, and the mold cracks quite hard when he hits it. The door is not quite open, but it is close.
While Dmitri takes out his anger on the door, Kori will vent a little frustration herself. She starts flipping bunks, to see if anything falls out or, is underneath, giving the room a once over for anything worthwhile.
While his companions busy themselves in breaking in the next door Angmar takes his time to exaimne the chamber for any valuables.
Perception
The room is musty and old, and when Kori goes rampaging around the room, the stirs up quite a bit of dust but finds no valuables.
Angmar, on the other hand, spots something curious up in the rafters of the shattered tower. A giant spider lurks there, easily five feet across, and it is slowly padding its way towards the group.
Initiative
Cunning Initative
Girls ye wanted a fight right?
The spider is about 25 feet up the collapsed tower in the southwest corner of the room.
Dmitri turns to look up and see the creature in question. Spiders were... a bit of a patron animal, but they weren't sacreligious to kill. Dmitri admired the look of it, but, anything that threatened anyone among them was certainly doomed.
It was out of his reach, however, and Kori would likely impale it with a throwing weapon shortly. He stood idle.
Kori looks around excited when Angmar mentions a fight, spots the spider, and her shoulders slump. "Gee, look, it's a spider. Where's the rat I predicted?" True to Pain-lover's estimation, Kori draws a javelin and throws it at the approaching spider. Her lack of excitement, however, truly manifests in her half-hearted, over-weak lob. The thing barely gets any air as she snorts in derision.
Still standing by the woman's side, Apollo looks up and shudders.
Man, I hate spiders. Paralysis is how they prevent your escape. Then they eat you alive, while you're conscious and staring at them as their venom liquify's your internal organs....
Going for a longshot, Apollo decides to throw his hammer up to the beast, hoping to either knock it unconscious with the attack, killing it with the following fall, or simply just outright killing it.
However, still weakened by his previous encounter, the relentless man fails to get his hammer past his knee's, as he awkwardly drops the thing a few feet ahead of him.
Spiders-19
Apollo-13
Angmar-12
Dmitri-9
Kori throws her spear with little effort, and the thing falls short of the spider by several feet. In response, one spider emerges from the darkness and leaps towards Kori, while the other climbs down and jumps towards her, leaving her with a spider on two sides. The spiders then lunge at her with their mandibles, and one connects, sharp envenomed teeth going through her armor in the left leg. She manages to shake off the venom, though. . Apollo throws his hammer at one of the spiders, but weakly only gets the thing a few feet. Angmar and Dmitri are slow to react and simply pull out their weapons and prepare for a combat.
As the spider leaps from from the shadows, much to everyone's surprise, Dmitri is still aloof, rather certain they can't harm any of them. Nothing else could, but, that's where he was about to be wrong.
The perception check doesn't reveal anything, of course, as as he skims the balcony, the sound of a grunt from kori reveals that the same spider he considered non-lethal has just. Injured. Kori.
Realizing this, Dmitri charges at break-neck speeds, absolutely furious.
For once, as if through some form of retributional strike, his weapon finally manages to find a mark. A hiss exudes itself from his mouth in his patron language of Abyssal. "AVASNISKATI!!"
*insubordination
Kori is actually taken aback by the bite, "Well, aren't you the toughest thing I faced all day? No wonder my people have a connection to the things." She takes her blade and swings at the one that bit her, now that it's her chance to fight back.
Apollo steps away from the Spiders and picks up his Hammer, keeping away from the reach of both spiders, though glaring at Kori intensely.
I may be weakened, but all she needs to do is survive the next few seconds, long enough for me to get to her. If she's as tough as she says she is, I see no reason why she can't.
With two spiders harassing Kori Angmar moves forward and gets into position to get his companion out of the tight spot.
Attack Damage
Spiders-19
Apollo-13
Angmar-12
Dmitri-9
Kori ponderously unslings and swings her heavy blade, connecting with the beast heavily, carving out a large section of flesh. The things mindlessly gnash their mandibles and continue trying to nibble on Kori. One drags its sharp mandibles uselessly across her armor, but the other connects with her swinging sword-arm, biting shallowly. Apollo repositions and lifts his heavy hammer as Angmar's axe crushes into the injured spider's torso, killing it and cleaving it in two even pieces. Dmitri, screaming fiendish curses, charges the other one and slices it deftly.
Angmar moves into position and attacks the next spider knowing very well that he better cut this one down as well quickly.
Attack damage
With the distance between Apollo and the Spider now being great enough, the man charges into flanking position, all bloodied and pale with his hammer, swinging in with a weakened side swipe from the huge chunk of metal the dark haired man wields.
Still ripely enraged, Dmitri raised the scythe once more to bring down the spider in question in one fell swoop.
Kori turns her attention to the remaining spider, with a nod of surprise at Short-legs. It was the first time she'd really seen him hit anything, glad to see the weapon he bore wasn't dead weight. Her attention on the dwarf was just enough to put her off her next swing.
Spiders-19
Apollo-13
Angmar-12
Dmitri-9
Kori's broadsword connects with the stone ground with a spark and a TWANG as the spider pulls its legs out of the way of her swipe. The spider, after having been injured by Dmitri, swivels and attempts to bite him. It, however, misses him, as his breastplate protects him. The spider takes an opportunity to try and bite Apollo as he rushes past it, but fails to connect before Apollo lands a torso-crushing blow with his earthbreaker. The creature collapses in a heap.
You good Kori? If so, let's move on! The injured and bloody man then smiles as he heads over to the door that Dmitri was trying to break through.
Eurgh, lost my grip. Dmitri, team work! he shouts.
As the hammer falls and crushes the remaining spider, Dmitri wastes no time to cast a glance at Kori's new wound. Obviously worried he looks at her and asks;
Are you well, Koritylija? Are you certain you're not poisoned?
Dmitri does hear Apollo's yell for assistance, but, the safety of Kori certainly came first.
His look of worry was obviously sincere, though, alien. He was genuinely worried.
Kori waves off Pain-lover, not even having thought about how he would act to her getting bitten by the things. "Bah, just a few cuts, nothing serious. Hells, I'm not even bloodied." She then realizes what his second question was, "How would I know if I was poisoned? Can you feel it, does it hurt, or make you feel dizzy, or sick? I don't know, I don't think I've ever been poisoned. Hmm, I'll have to pay attention to that."
Kori sees Lizard-friend beat on the same door Pain-lover threw himself against. They were making an awful racket. She strides up beside Lizard-friend and gives it a solid smack with her shoulder. If her hit doesn't do it, they can hack it down for all she cares.
Angrodd will tell me if you were poisoned. Angmar remarks matter of factly as he begins mumbling in Dwarven and places a hand on Kori's wound.
Kori looks at the dwarf curiously, almost suspiciously, as he casts his spells. After he heals her, she nods, as if weighing his value "You know Short-legs, you may be worth having nearby in a fight. Why you waited so long to show it, I don't know."
Well, I'm bored. If I can't budge this door with my strength, I'll just have to smash right through it! Says Apollo proudly, as he violently swings his hammer fourth, in a swift arching motion from his shoulder.
detect poison does not reveal any poison. Apparently Kori's body was able to fight it off on its own.
When Kori moves to open the door, her tremendous strength pushes it open, the mold cracking and shedding dust. Just after pushing it open, she steps back to speak to Angmar, and Apollo absentmindedly smashes the door off of its hinges and onto the ground. There is a massive hole in the wood and mold, with many smaller perforations where the earthbreaker's spikes were.
With the door now out of the way, Apollo walks through and past Kori, who's currently in conversation with Angmar.
The door opens to a mold-encrusted, stone stairwell leading downward. The stairs continue down about fifteen feet before coming to a room.
Wincing a little as the door gets broken off it's hinges twice Dmitri is rather taken back by Koritylija's strength. Approaching the door to look down it, he simply states. "It would seem your rather eager to find something, hmm? Allow me to take point, my weapon is no longer capable of drawing blood much to my, and my deity's dismay, so, I'll at least hope for the next best thing...
I do hope it pleases her...
With that, Dmitri begins to descend down the stairs rather slowly.
Angmar does not take kindly to Kori's chiding praise.
Pfah.. well anyways ye ain't poisoned...
He then holds back Dmitri. Wait a minute lad. We going underground an it's lookin dark. Either ye light a torch or ye let a Dwarf or a Dark Elf go first...
With that he bids Kori to lead the way while indicating he will take the rear guard.
Kori looks down into the darkened stairwell, a scowl growing on her face. She turns, and looks behind the group toward the way they came. "There's still some rooms here we haven't checked. We should get those first." Not even discussing it, she walks away from the stairs to the west door.
Angmar, you're with me friend! If Dmitri and Kori want to explore the last few rooms up here, they'll be fine if we give them a little alone time. Besides, I could use your eyes!
Apollo then heads down the stairs, stopping as he enters the room to have a look at his surroundings.
True to his roots, Dmitri follows Koritylija. Protecting her came before anything. "I believe we're almost done searching this place."
As they walked toward the west door, Dmitri realized that, aside from "I hope we get to kill something" He'd made no attempts whatsoever to learn about Kori.
"Koritylija, would you be up for conversation after we're done killing every remaining creature in this church when we arrive back at the caravan?" His eyes were, as usual with Kori, completely sincere and didn't show any underlying plans.
Kori looks at Pain-lover askance, "Conversation? Aren't we already talking? What more do we need to say?" She shakes her head, cocks it to the side, then asks "You know of gods?"
"I know of plenty of them, though, the one I pray and dedicate my life to most would, and usually do, find appalling, but..." Koritylija was a Drow, which meant that she'd be aware that her own kind worshiped what some would consider "Evil" deities, namely demon lords. Much like Dmitri.
"In the simplest manner you could say that I enjoy the knowledge of most deities that the Drow worship."
"Let's see..." he bit his pinky as he thought. "Shax, Nocticula, Zura, whom is the sister of Lilith, my patron. Socothbenoth, Zon-kuthon, Cyth-v-sug, and Abraxas. Most revel in pain, but, the female deities revel in pleasure, for the most part.
Blessed Lilith dictates that I frequently partake in both." He said it with plenty of pride. It felt good to have someone that actually took an interest in this sort of thing, just as much as it felt good to finally inform someone of his religion.
"Apollo ye fool! Ye should a learned it's better we stay together." With that the Dwarf attempts to hold the large man back but will not follow him into the darkness...
Apollo laughs. Well, tell that to Kori. She's gone off with no regard for us, but if you'd rather follow her, you best be off friend!
I'll go it alone if I must. Probably have a better conversation with myself anyway. They don't acknowledge my existence it seems! says Apollo as he lets out another laugh.