Indeed, the sounds of breaking wood reach the party up from further down the sloping corridor. Lur, with wide swings of your weapon you quickly demolish the barricade, scattering it around you in an orgy of destruction. It's satisfying to hit something after so long, even if it's inanimate.
The torchlight elemental follows Uek through the air obediently, banishing the darkness and casting long shadows that dance as the elemental moves through the air. There are more barriers after this first one, scattered down the hallway every few meters, along with alarm traps that stretch floor to ceiling and connect to ringing bells. They aren't a concern, obviously, since Lur is already making plenty of sound behind you, but whomever made these alarms couldn't have known that a barbarian that doesn't give AF would come along.
Speaking of the creators, the alarms themselves give you clues as to who they are. Let's see a Spout Lore roll from you, Uek, to determine some information based on what you see so far.
Princess, Shattertooth, Vorgo, what do you do?
Princess looks dubiously at the snake pit and the gap across it. "I'm not really the running and jumping sort. I don't think I'll be able to make it across."
The ogre calls out to Wek and Lur. "Yoo-hoo, boys! Any way you can help the rest of us across?"
Vorgo, friend to all snakes as he is, doesn’t particularly want to climb into a pit. Nor does he especially want to jump over a pit.
Shattertooth stands and waits for the scouts to return.
"Lur--I have no idea who set up those alarms, but one of the others might know," says Uek. "I wonder if Princess can alter this wood to make a bridge."
Just in case Lur doesn't stop, Wek gently reminds Lur that they may be setting off some kind of trap.
Wek trots around the corner, fire elemental bobbing along, to wave at Princess. "Lots of spiked wooden barricades, and alarum bells. I don't suppose you can build something out of wood to cross the pit? With magic?"
Upon mention of a possible trap, Lur stops smashing and grins excitedly while looking around.
Lur, as you look around, you see signs of recent habitation in this part of the labryinth. There are Small-sized bedmats of hay, in and among the spiked sharp stick barricades you've been destroying. Too, there are skulls on rope entwined with crude beads made of stone that appears to have been chipped out of the surrounding walls. Experimentally, you touch your fingers to one of the hay beds - it's still faintly warm.
Princess, you're aware of a spell that will construct a crude bridge, if enough raw materials are already present. Roll +int:
10+ all 3
7-9 choose 2
6- choose 1 and unexpected complications
The bridge is sturdy and can take the weight of the whole party without risking breakage under the weight
The construction of the bridge is swift, taking less than a minute
The bridge is collapsible and can be picked up and carried with you afterward
"Hmm, I just remembered an old trick! It must have been hidden in the corners of the wizard's brain. I am just now digesting it." The ogre rubs her bulging tummy happily, then proceeds to cast the bridge spell flawlessly.
Nice job! The collapsed bridge weighs 1 Weight unit, and takes about 20 seconds to deploy. It takes significantly longer for someone not versed in the arcane arts.
Vorgo walked across the bridge trepiditiously. There’s little arcane magic in the desert and he didn’t fully trust a bridge from nowhere.
Walking across, he whispered a blessing of Tiamat to the snakes trapped in the pit below. He hoped they fed regularly, on meals other than snakes.
He looked at the baracde with some concern. We have a rogue traveling with us, no?Otherwise I suggest we burn this baracde away. I can stand in the flames and collect the bells before they fall. Tiamat’s mercy will protect me.
Wek nods to Stybar.
"I'm also not concerned about alarms, really. Although...can anyone tell who made them?"
If you want fire, I have the Flame. says Shattertooth. Little balls of dancing fire appear between his fingers.
You all peer at the traps and alarms, but there don't appear to be enough distinguishing features to determine its makers' origins. You'll be entering their lair blind of intel, it appears.
Lur smiles widely at the thought of the perspective danger and pushes on further into their lair.
Wek hangs back, letting Lur take the front line. "Hey, fairy creature," he says to the little glowing winged woman. "Do you know where we're going?"
The fairy shrinks back, startled, when she's addressed directly - even by Uek's comparatively gentle voice. Alighting on Vorgo's shoulder, she shakes her head. "I was captured at Cutpurse Island while visiting...a friend," she says, glancing away down at Vorgo's throat. Her wings flutter slightly. "My only experience of this place so far has been inside that hag's cage." she exhales as she finishes and holds her hands together, then brings them to her sides, not seeming to know what to do with them at the moment.
As for your fire elemental, it appears content to serve your wishes for now, but you know that those of the Fire have notoriously short attention spans due to their mercurial natures. You expect it'll serve you for no more than 10 or 15 minutes, at most.
Lur, you ignore the irrelevant chatter going on behind you in your pursuit of more blood to smear on your face, presumably. Knocking aside barricades with your weapon doesn't require any rolling when you're not under duress, so you smash your way through several more ramparts before coming to a halt.
The hallway here suddenly broadens to three times its former width. You can see broken-off parts of stone slab walls on the ceiling and floor, dividing - or formerly dividing - the hallway into thirds. It appears that someone has decided to take the direct approach to "fixing" this labryinth, and has broken the walls down.
It must have taken either a tremendous amount of time, or a tremendous amount of power, to do such a thing. You're not sure which is more unnerving.
There's only one hallway, but it's broad enough that you're still faced with a choice to follow the left wall, right wall, or forge straight ahead. What do you do?
Shattertooth follows the Pathfinder Lur, but more cautiously. This felt a lot like a trap waiting to happen...
"Hmmm...how old is this destruction?" Wek peers at the damaged maze, taking in the sights and scents of the wreckage. "Hold. Just a moment. We don't want to rush into something stupidly."
As you advance forward, Lur, you hear Uek call for you to halt. However, you've already taken several steps forward, out of the torchlight and into the darkness. You hear a faint sussuruss of air, and only your preternatural barbarian reflexes even give you the opportunity to dodge. Roll to defy danger with a -1 due to the darkness, or be suddenly bound in a noose that tightens painfully around your throat and silences you from saying anything but grunts and struggling noises.
Uek, there have been beings here recently - the air is still disturbed by their movements. Your sense of danger is spiking, and the fairy covers her face in fear. However, Lur is out of sight in the blackness of the underground, beyond the reach of light. You take +1 forward when acting on the foreknowledge of an ambush.
"Flame Spirit! Burn our attackers, light our way, and be released of duty!" shouts Wek. "Ambush!"
Not knowing what to expect, Wek follows the flame elemental, ready to shift into a tiny, dodging form. Or maybe a snake. He isn't sure yet. He decides to crouch, duck, and roll forward, trying to stay out of the light, but using it as a guide, if possible, and get the drop on whatever is about to attack...or is attacking.
Lur while walking forward confidently doesn't notice the noose trap as he has gone beyond the light. He does however feel the noose brush his hairy face and barely pulls his head back out before it is sprung.
Vorgo hears the cry of ambush and rushes to aid. He slings out his glistening shield and stands to defend Uek.
Uek, your torchlight elemental charges forward and erupts in midair about 15 feet ahead of you, scattering fire and light around the room, briefly illuminating everything within 60 feet of itself. You appear to have scorched some targets as well, given the chittering and screeches of anger you hear. With the sudden burst of light, you see what inhabits these tunnels.
Over a dozen creatures are gathered here - from a surprising variety of races. Before the light begins to fade, you see hissing gnomes, goblins, kobolds, and even a deep dwarf or two. The unifying feature they all share is the webs. Dark strands of purple spiderwebs limn their features and stretch between their limbs, giving them dangerous tools in close combat. It is indeed, one of these sticky threads that two of them attempted to throttle Lur with.
Lur has managed to yank his head back thanks to his supreme reflexes, but his impressive beard is a drawback in this scenario - though his head is yanked free of the noose, the sticky web-knots lock in on his facial hair and pull him forward! Roll +Con to defy danger, Lur, they're trying to pull your beard clean off your face!! On 10+, choose 2. On 7-9, choose 1. On 6-...at least you gain an XP.
-Spiders half the size of your fist do not crawl up the webbing and onto your face.
-You are not yanked off-balance and pulled flat on your face.
-You do not take 1d6 damage as the noose tightens on your beard.
'Uek summons the spirit of the winds, his crest flexing in anger. He grips his necklace of coral and driftwood and spits out hissing sibilants and sussurrussing words, invoking the violent storm that flattens the marsh reeds.
"Blow them all against the walls, O Wind. If you buffet me and that big barbarian as well, so be it. They are unnatural. Paste them to the ceiling so that we may pick them off one by one."
Lur's eyes go wide with surprise which continues as he moves quickly into rage.
Despite his rage however, his surprise and jerking back threw him off balance and he is now at the mercy of these web weilder. For now.....
Shattertooth snatches the opportunity to expand the little elemental's influence. He channels the Spirit of flame into one of the little sparks that floats high overhead and turns it into a searing Fireball!
Uek's strange druidic magic makes your hair stand on end, if you have any hair. Winds begin to whirl around the underground passage, making the flames gutter and spit sparks hither and yon as the druid incants his spell.
The spider-thralls are buffeted back, some of them pasted against the ceiling, or thrown backward into the darkness. However, to your dismay, you see that spidery instincts appear to have infiltrated these thralls' senses, allowing them to twist their own bodies in midair to land on all fours when the winds' strength fails. Horrifyingly, the darkness beyond the torchlight appears to be absolutely choked with spiderwebs, floor to ceiling. This works to the thralls' advantage, allowing them to break their falls. Only a few of them suffer from cracked skulls, taking two out of the fight, leaving at least ten remaining.
Lur's body grows hairier and more massive as the werebear hulks out and his nails elongate into claws. Howling and snarling, the trapped beast is yanked off his feet, being pulled slowly out of the torchlight. Huge feral spiders begin to crawl over his face and down his neck, their sharp toe-claws digging bloody rents in his flesh. Before you take your next action, defy danger (using CON) to avoid being distracted into a shuddering mess by the spiders' legs all over you. 10+ you succeed and can take your next action, 7-9 you take your next action at a -1, and 6- gives you a -2 to your next roll due to spidery distraction.
Meanwhile, the flames that Uek awakened are stoked to a raging height by Shattertooth's magics. As the minotaur gestures, the dancing flames make his shadow appear enormous, cast on the tunnel behind you. The fireball ignites the spiderwebs that currently are encircling Lur - this means that he's not being dragged off, anymore, but now he has the new problem of what will happen when all the webs burn off and the fire tries to burn him.
Princess's nose wrinkles as she sees the spider-thralls. "Ugh, nasty beasts!" She casts a spell, sending pure projectiles of magic streaking into one of the creatures.
Shattertooth pushes the flames away from the angry bear and up into the mass of webs above! It only lasts a moment, but maybe it's enough.
Princess, in the ultimate display of pot calling the kettle black, calls the spider-thralls nasty and fires two pure bolts of magic at them, blasting two of them where they stand. One of them, the dwarf-thrall, loses his head, standing there as a headless husk before tumbling backward. (9 remaining) The other survives with half of its chest and its entire right arm missing. Driven on by its spider master, it hisses and leaps forward to press the attack.
Shattertooth twists the flames burning away at Lur's body to his will, forcing it to submit to the Eternal Flame that burns in his eyes. Retreating from the barbarian's hairy body, the flames direct themselves upward instead, revealing a sort of chimney hole in the ceiling, leading upward and presumably to the surface eventually. The webs don't burn as easily as mortal cobwebs would, but they catch soon enough, and the flames burn their way upward overhead before darkness falls on you once again. The fading light shows the thralls advancing on you, the same hungry glow in each of their eyes as they stare at you with one will. What happens next?
Princess sends another pair of bolts at the monsters.
Shattertooth's eyes burn bright as he locks gaze with the collective.
Even as he gazes into their souls, firey knives appear in his hands.
He flings one at a nearby thrall and scores a clean hit!
Lur, now in complete rage, ignores all of the little spiders covering him and charges the nearest spider creature(s).
True to form, mauling begins. Biting...clawing...rending...
After his knife throw, Shattertooth can't help but stare in awe at the sheer brutality of Lur's entrance into the fray. It's... impressive.
'Uek calls upon the spirits of the earth themselves.
"Earth, stronger than bones, stronger than life, seize these abominations and hold them fast. Let their limbs sink into the ground. Let the very path they walk upon betray them. Break their ankles, break their wrists, let us give you their bodies to moulder in the ground and convert them to fresher soil. They are unwanted here," he hisses and rasps. He taps upon the coral and wood knots and boles of his necklace, and the fish-shadows of his flesh dart in agitation.
Princess gestures fiercely and her bolts flash across the darkened room, killing 1 of the thralls and injuring another. (7 remaining, 1 injured)
Shattertooth, meanwhile, stares into the eyes of one thrall, then the next, and then the next, seeing the same fire burning in each - the desire to wrap up these interlopers, and bring them alive to feed to Zz'sothra the Wise. His flaming dagger throw kills another thrall (6 remaining, 1 injured)
Lur shakes off the spiders that were crawling on his skin like a dog shaking itself after coming in from the rain, sending spiders scattering everywhere. In a furious rage, the werebear backhands a goblin-thrall so hard that its legs are left standing as its torso goes flying off into a nearby web (5 remaining, 1 injured).
Because he rolled a 7-9, however, some of Lur's spiders are sent flying directly at Shattertooth when he does his shaggy-dog impression. The shaman is briefly spellbound by the barbarian's rage, not noticing the spiders flying out of the dark at him until it is too late.
Shattertooth, you are placed in danger due to the barbarian's reckless fighting style. Roll Defy Danger using Constitution to keep your self-control as spiders the size of your fist begin to crawl up your torso toward your face. 7-9 means you take -2 to your next roll, and 6- means your next action must be spent knocking them off you.
Uek needs to choose two out of these three, which will affect what happens in the fiction:
* The effect you desire comes to pass
* You avoid paying nature’s price
* You retain control
Next, the thralls will pause and tilt their heads to the side briefly, in confusion, before nodding and dodging backward away from Lur. As one, the 5 remaining thralls begin to charge at Uek and Princess, before Uek's action takes place and interrupts them somehow...
Shattertooth yelps as the spiders land on him! He instinctively turns one of his flame daggers into a swirling vortex of fire, twisting it Aaron's himself to burn of the arachnids!
It only lasts a moment, but perhaps a moment is enough.
Lur's roar seems more joyous now as his targets are hindered. He mimics their charge , gets on his hind legs and uses his massive body weight along with his strength to destroy his enemies.