”Why do we need to kill them anyways?” Fitliss asks, idly swiping his finally lit torch at the swarm. ”They’re kinda cute.”
Irakelesh swings his torch at the swarm. "Cute? Fitliss, you need to get out a bit more if you think this is cute."
"Hm...", Ai'sha ponders, after seeing how inneffective her attack is. "Can I borrow a torch from someone?"
"There is one extra in my pack, take it." Aliva nods towards her pack as she is lighting her torch.
Ai'sha will pick up a torch and cast Spark to light it.
Aliva and Ai'sha both retrieve torches and light them.
Irakelesh brings his torch down amidst the bug horde and destroys a number of them. Fitliss also attacks the swarm, but only a few of the insects are hit.
G'nock glances backwards, then shoulders his bow and runs back to the death dog. "Somebody come help!
The swarm sways around before heading toward Fitliss, nearly burying him with thousands of tiny biting scarabs!
"Oww! Never mind, that doesn't tickle anymore and I definitely see why we need to kill them!" Fitliss hastily backs out of the swarm before laying a hand on himself and murmuring a quick prayer to Iomedae.
Irakelesh winces as Fitliss is set upon by the beetles. He jumps to his side and swing his torch in a wide sweeping arc. "Get out of here!" he shouts at the mindless mass of bugs.
Ai'sha aproaches the swarm and swings the torch at it.
"Burn!"
"Just burn them quickly before they mar Irakelesh's complexion more than that brand did."
Irakelesh looks at G'nock in mock shock and dismay. "You don't have a torch? What kind of adventurer doesn't carry a torch?" He dances around the beetle swarm, trying to avoid them getting on him then continues. "How about if you wrap some cloth around your tail and light it on fire? That would act like a torch." Irakelesh hops from one foot to another, a broad grin on his face as if he is enjoying the encounter with the beetles.
"Well, you know, some people don't need to light torches like cavemen when they want light.", Ai'sha banters back.
"What's wrong with cavemen? In fact, I know I've seen you hanging out with a few cavemen back at home. Remember that one hairy guy who kept pinching at you? What was his name? Grunder? or Krunder? or something like that"
Irakelesh keeps moving and swinging his torch at the beetles trying to sweep them all away.
"Oh, Aliva, I'm not worried about my complexion. There's not much that can harm this pretty face." Irakelesh stops for a moment in a pose with his face turned up and a broad smile on it.
”Pinching? That is rather strange. You two must have been good friends for him to be so comfortable around you Ai’sha,” Fitliss remarks, a little puzzled.
The group continues attacking the swarm of scarabs with torches, and the number of bugs is dwindling, but they still pose a threat!
Almost as if they sense G'nock lacks a way to harm them, the scarabs head in his direction .
Ai'sha tries to burn the swarm once again.
"I have no idea what he's talking about!", she says to Fitliss, embarrassed
Irakelesh swings his torch at the bugs again.
Fitliss continues merrily swinging his torch at the swarm. ”If you have no idea what he is talking about, why does Irakelesh know about it?”
G'nock moves quickly away from the swarm.
The rest of you gather around the scarabs and begin to bash away with your torches. Unfortunately, most of your attacks do not appear to have much effect on the swarm. As you watch, the swarm swerves one way, then another, then suddenly shoots forward into the courtyard. It covers the dead body of the death dog and begin devouring the carcass.
"I think we leave it alone for now, maybe once we find something to burn it more effectively?" ALiva backs more away from the dead dog.
"Sure, I don't want to deal with any more bugs...", Ai'sha looks away as the carcass is being devoured. "So...What do we explore next? I'm sure it'll be completely safe and have no dangers whatsoever."
"Were there anymore rooms that we haven't gone into? I think there were some staircases inside too."
”Really?” Fitliss responds to Aliva’s claim of safety. ”Well that is too bad, now it is going to be boring. Anyways, I don’t remember this door, let’s go this way!” the gnome suggests enthusiastically, attempting a march towards the door they had exited barely a minute prior.
"Shall we go up? See what else we can get to attack us up there?" Aliva says dryly while heading back to the house.
"Up sounds good to me." Irakelesh, as always, responds eagerly.
”Sounds good to me!” Fitliss adds exuberantly, following the others up the stairs.
"Hope we get a nice view of all the sand at least.", Ai'sha nods. "Lets go!"
You head up the stairs which split and turn back around the grand staircase to arrive in an open area on the second floor. There is a balcony wrapping around a twenty-foot-square opening in the floor, overlooking the inner courtyard below ) and connecting the rooms of the second floor.
Above, a square skylight in the ceiling provides natural light to the ground floor and ventilation for the entire building.
Six different sets of doors lead off of this balcony.
"Ok. So now what? Six doors to choose from. Any ideas?"
Irakelesh walks over to the balcony, his feet soundly lightly on the solid wooden floor. He peers over the banister at the area below then turns his head to look at the sky light. "You know, this looks like it would have been a nice place to live. A little small for what I'm used to. But nice."
He strides back to the group and waits for them to decide where to go next.
"Go from the left and work our way around?" Aliva moves to the left most door
"Agreed.", Ai'sha takes her place behind Aliva.
Fitliss drifts over towards the others gathering by the far door, standing by Aliva, but paying more attention to the architecture and pretty much everything that obviously is of no danger to the party whatsoever.
Aliva nods at everyone and opens the door they are standing in front of, dropping her shield in a defensive stance.
A horrific screeching fills the air. Three blackened fiendish heads with wings where their ears should be and tentacles dangling from their chins fly around the room. Two of them turn toward the open door and head toward Aliva while the third opens it's fanged mouth and let's out an ear-piercing shriek.
Aliva shurgs off the creatures sonic attack, moving into the room to cover the others.
Irakelesh steps up behind Aliva as she opens the door. He is instantly assaulted with a shrill screech. He tries to cover his ears but is too slow. The wave of sonic energy freezes him in place.
Fitliss shuffles up behind Aliva, driving his spear deftly at one of the strange creatures. ”This is the weirdest house I’ve ever been in,” he declares conversationally. ”I mean, what’s with all the head monsters? I really want to know how all of these things got here.”
Aliva, Ai'sha, and Fitliss seem unaffected by the screeching. Unfortunately, Irakelesh and G'nock are frozen stiff by the horrific sound.
Aliva moves into the room and draws two of the creatures toward her. Both attempt to bite her, but they are unable to land their attacks.
The remaining creature moves up to Fitliss and bites him, dealing 4 points of damage.
Fitliss grins, delivering a stab to the thing even as it bites him. ”Ow, I’m kinda beat up,” he declares, shuffling out of the fray to lay a healing hand upon himself.
Aliva swings her morning star at the closest creature.
Ai'sha steps closer to Fitliss and swings her scimitar at the creature who just bit him.
Aliva swings her morning star at the closest creature.
[dice=Morning Star]1d20+3;1d8+2
Aliva brings her morningstar around and bashes one of the monsters in the side of its head, sending it wobbling through the air. Ai'sha moves in to cover Fitliss and scores a deep wound with her scimitar. A gurgling cry leaks out of the vargouille as it slides off her blade and crashes to the ground . Fitliss uses the brief respite to heal himself.
The vargouilles around Aliva swoop in to bite her, the one she hit is apparently still recovering and it misses her completely, but the other manages to sink it's fangs into her arm.