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Gabrielle doesn't see anything dangerous from where she stands. With Cazithiel, Konner, and Dentesila leading, you enter the archway. The northern wing of the tower seems to have escaped the worst effects of the collapse, but rubble still litters the floor and everything is covered in a thick layer of stone dust. Thick cobwebs cloak the ceiling and hang down the walls like gossamer tapestries. A single archway stands open in the southwest wall.
As Dentesila leads the party in, a glob of sticky web flies down and lands dangerously close to her feet. As she looks up to the ceiling, she spots a giant scaleback spider nesting in the webbing. It doesn't look very friendly!
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Cazithiel groans audibly in frustration. "I get the doors from now on! I should have seen this."
Expecting the need to move quickly, he steps forward and drops in a crouched battle stance, rapier in one hand, and his other hand becoming enshrouded in darkness.
Touch of Darkness:
On a successful touch, everyone has Concealment against the spider for one round.
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Irvine turns his attention to the spider, staring at it for a long moment before shaking his head ever so slightly. "No...Why spiders...? Why does it have to be spiders?" He looks at the ground for something to possibly throw at it, wanting to help in some way seeing he was out of range. He certainly wasn't about to willingly charge after a spider. Not that he was scared of them or anything... He just really hated them.
Looking at the ground for some kind of weapon but only finding rocks and rubble, he reached down finding a perfectly smooth stone about the same size as his hand. He used to love skipping these across the shore when he was kid.
He held the edge of it in his hand, raring his arm back and tossing it as hard as he could at the spider.
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The duo of arrows fired by Gabrielle and Caitlyn impale the spider through its abdomen, spraying the webbing with thick, green ichor. Konner's arrow punches through the spider's thorax, but Irvine's unfamilarity with his stone literally throws his aim off and he chucks the rock at the ceiling.
The spider shoots another spray of web at Dentesila, again missing its target. Exhausted of energy and severely injured, the creature falls to the ground in front of Cazathiel and curls up into a ball.
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Konner slashes across a small cocoon hanging in the webs. The cocoon holds the remains of an unfortunate dog that fell into the spider's clutches. The desiccated carcass is still wearing its leather collar, which is studded with lapis lazuli stones and has a silver tag reading "Kita." It is likely of some value to the right merchant.
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As Konner searches the webs, Cazithiel heads over to the one door in this chamber. He places his hand on the door and intones a few words in an arcane tongue.
"Show me, my lord, the realms beyond."
Using Exploration Domain's Door Sight power:
Door Sight (Su): You can lay your hand upon any surface and see what is on the other side, as if using clairvoyance. Using this power takes 1 minute, during which time you must be touching the surface you want to see through. You can keep looking for as long as 10 minutes with each use of this power, but must touch the surface and take no other action the entire time. The surface cannot be thicker than 6 inches plus 1 inch per cleric level you possess. You can use this power a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
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Retrieving her dagger from the ceiling webs with a hail of stones, Dentesila heads over to the curled corpse of the spider. She administers a super-cautious coup de grace to the arachnid. "Can't be too careful". Bending over the body, she gingerly ( to extract the poison glands of the spider, curious as to whether they can be removed intact."I wonder whether these could be used to apply spider venom to a blade?".
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You walk into the next room, which is also chock full of dust and rubble, and Cazithiel lays his hand on the door ahead. He speaks a strange incantation and in his mind, he sees a spiral staircase past the door. The passage down is entirely covered with rubble from the collapse, but you could definitely climb up to the second level with the stairs.
Looking back up at the tower from the outside, the floor above the one you are currently in is missing a wall on the eastern end, and you get the sense it would be easier to climb up that section of the tower to the landing rather than scale a smoother end. How will you proceed?
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Irivne pushes the creaky iron door open to reveal something of an armory. Racks for weapons line the walls of the chamber. Above the racks hang various shields, pieces of armor, weapons, and standards on display. Most of the racks are empty, but a few weapons remain in place. A horrible stench fills the room as well, akin to the smell of rotten eggs mixed with the reek of an open sewer.
Two tall, bipedal creatures with dull grey scales hiss as they notice you.
"Who are thesseeeee peopleee? In our tower?"
"Massssster will not be pleaasssssed. Kill themmmm!"
Given their proximity to the creatures, the awful smell overcomes most of the party's senses.
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Overcome with a wave of nausea, Cazithiel chides, "That's why we don't just knock!"
Nevertheless, the cleric rushes into the room, ignoring his churning stomach to move to the opposite side of the creatures. His free hand becomes swathed in darkness as he attempts to force it upon the foe.
He staggers from the stench and fails to connect.
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Gabrielle chokes on her breakfast as the disgusting smell overcomes her senses. ".... Oh my goodness, I didn't think anything could smell worse than the servants' quarters. I was mistaken."
She moves up past the door and fires an arrow at the red lizardman.
The nausea causes her to lose her grip on the arrow and she releases it prematurely. "Oh dear."
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Seeing Cazithiel lunging into the room, Dentesila raises her blade and rushes after him to engage the righthand creature. Her movement is hindered by pushing through her allies, and so she is unable to charge it or attach its flank, but nonetheless she arrives at speed and drives a rising lunge at her foe's exposed throat.
"Someone watch the other doors in case that was a call for help!"
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Dentesila manages to lob her weapon through the red creature's mouth, and despite being choked up by the rancid smell, Caitlyn's aim is true and she punctures the green trog's chest with an arrow. Konner's disgust throws off his aim, however.
"Fooolssss.. You will die for thissss.."
"I call the big juicy looking human once we kill them... tasssty"
Irvine advances and holds his blade ahead, waiting for the creature to advance. The red-eyed troglodyte finds himself surrounded, and tries to smash Cazathiel with his club.
The angry creature's balance is off and nothing connects. This last ditch attack causes it fall over and bleed out.
Green lobs a javelin at Irvine and instead smashes apart a wooden armor rack in the far corner with it.
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Ducking in reaction to the impact of the javelin in the armour rack behind Cazathiel, Dentesila recovers then launches herself across the room at the remaining creature. "I've got this" (muttered more to herself than to the other party members).
Flanking the creature, she watches for an opening, then aims a lightning slash at the creature's right forearm - a literal disarm attempt.
move, flank attack whilst sickened
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"Good work Irvine - this is being swiftly settled. Let's finish this one, then hope their struggles have passed unnoticed." Dentesila looks over her shoulder, warily "although I don't know whether I'm more apprehensive about the threat of reinforcements, or the threat of turning my back to three trigger-happy archers..."
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Irvine and Dentesila unleash a combination of attacks which proves to be deadly, with Cazathiel setting up the creature to be flanked from the side. Dentesila lunges at its forearm, slicing it across and causing the troglodyte to drop its weapon, and when it turns to think about picking it up, Irvine carves the monster down the middle, leaving a pool of scaly grey flesh and greenish brown goo.
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Moving up to the nearest (southeastern) door, Dentesila readys an attack against anyone coming through.
If nothing appears to be coming through, she'll risk putting her ear to the door to listen for activity on the far side of the door.
"Hey - anything worth taking in here? Let's not dawdle: this stench is driving me mad!"
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Irvine glanced over to Dentesila at her question, opening an eye. "Well... yes actually... but I was a slave first. Then a Slaver Captain..." he thought a moment at what he said. "It sounds worse than It actually was..." He thought for another moment and rolled his eyes at himself. "Okay, well-... It was bad but the retribution was eye opening..."
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"The Forest of Shadows? I heard some terrible things about that place. I heard that there, a party of adventurers can be adventuring together one moment, then the next, some of their number just vanish without a trace - even in the midst of combat!" Dentesila looks about her in trepidation.
"I even heard of one group of adventurers who found themselves lost, frozen in one place, able to talk together but not move, for what seemed like an eternity..." She looks at Caz fearfully: "You are so lucky to have avoided such a cruel fate. The Pathfinder Society would not allow such a horror to happen so close to having left Absalom."