Following the wall and leading your companions forward, you stumble through webbing-choked stone for some time, until the webs themselves become more scarce. You pass several more victims, all of them unconscious, until you reach the very last one before the webs themselves give way. Whomever is inside is still struggling and muttering to themselves, though it doesn't appear that whatever they are have noticed you. You can't tell anything about the figure, as everything except their black gloves - medium size, five fingers - are visible. They're struggling to pull the webs apart, with no success.
Beyond the struggling victim is an open arch that doesn't have webbing on it. Beyond the arch is torchlight - as you approach, you see that there is more than one lit torch hung in sconces every dozen meters. What do you do?
Wek flaps about near the final figure. Could that be the witch, he wonders.
Lur walks over calmly to the struggling webbed thing, heft his giant sword into his hands, and begins carefully cutting the web. Should the creature struggle he will hit it squarely in the 'head' with the pommel and then continue.
Shattertooth keeps a weather eye on the path behind them as they travel but, thankfully, doesn't have to put everyone at risk by burning all the webs. Except Vorgo. Lucky flame-immune lizard.
You flap about the webbed figure for a moment Uek, but aren't able to discern much. The gloves are large and made of the kind of leather common to falconers, thick and obscuring, but everything else is webbed so deeply that you can't make anything out.
You do notice, however, that the torches that are lit in the chamber beyond appear to be magical flames.
It's a difficult task to do delicately with so large a tool, but Lur's great strength makes it more doable. The owner of the gloves cries out and struggles a bit, but quiets when Lur pommel-smashes it to silence it. Eventually, you reveal enough webbing to see a half-orc male's face. He looks both relieved and terrified to see you at the same time.
"Uh...HI!" he says. "You're not Zz'Sothra! Thank Gruumsh..."
Once finished Lur stands up contented at his work and proceeds to the open archway. Lur's lack of care for the newly released half-orc is apparent. At the archway he seems to look around hopefully.
Who is Zz'Sothra? asks a bat.
We're entering an area of magic, says the same bat.
The half-orc falls from the cuttings and lands flat on his face with an oomph. His frame is large and muscular, but it's apparent that the spider venom (combined perhaps with Lur's pommel smash) have weakened him considerably. The fairy hisses with anger when he's revealed.
He stands up and dusts himself off, pulling webbing off his clothing. "Ugh, these webs will take weeks to be fully rid of..." he complains, then turns to Lur. "Thank you!" he calls out, noting that the barbarian doesn't seem to give af.
"Zz'Sothra is the drider that lives in this part of the labryinth," he explains to the bat, not seeming to take any issue with the druid's telepathy. "I was to be her meal, until you rescued me."
Lur, on the ground 10 feet ahead of you is some sort of alchemical compound on the ground. Its reek seems to singe your nose hairs even at this distance.
Do you know this fairy over here? And is the drider the leader of this odd little web-spinning cult?
Wek noses at the compound. Princess, can you identify that? Half-orc, we need to move. There are a bunch of murderous sunlovers coming down the tunnel.
Princess lets out a low whistle as the muscular half-orc emerges from the webbing. "Hello, gorgeous!" she croons, fluttering her eyelashes. "My name's Princess. What's yours, big boy?"
When Wek asks about the compound, she gets down on her hands and knees and sniffs at it experimentally. "Of course! That's..."
To Uek, the half-orc nods. "Zz'sothra's the head honcho in this part of the labryinth, but she ain't the only one. I've seen others, when they..got me. Driders, I mean." he shudders. "Just a few, praise Gruumsh..." and when the bat asks about his fairy companion, the half-orc nods willingly. "Yeah, I should know her. I'm the one what had to catch her for the Lady. My boss." he sniffs and rubs his nose, pulling away webbing and grimacing. "Not what I'd rather do for my line of work, but she pays..."
The half-orc blushes and flutters his eyelashes at Princess, before realizing that webbing has glued his eyelids shut. He stares at her backside lustily as she gets down to analyze the fallen mixture. The smell is unmistakable - it takes a lot to make an ogress wince, but this mess does it. It's Masonswort based, though every witch or hag swears by her own particular recipe. This one makes you back away hastily before it begins to actually sear your flesh. The effects of the potion are to create an area of acidic stink so potent that it causes rapid-onset unconsciousness and eventual death. It'd be hazardous to try and cross this pool of the stuff that has been created here, to say the least.
In the distance of the darkness of the labryinth, behind your backs, in the direction you came from, you hear the sounds of battle reaching you. It's fairly faint, but unmistakeable.
At the sound of battle Lur hefts his sword to the ready and begins stretching, an excited smile beaming on his face.
Wait, damn it, says Wek to Lur. We'll be fighting with our backs to that stuff over there that can overwhelm us and kill us. We should find a way to get around it and not try to fight an army of sunlovers. We're here to find items and deal with that witch, not die at the swords of a bunch of stinking human-things. No offense, half-orc. How do we get around that masonswort? If we don't have a way, we're about to be more stuck than in webbing.
The bat looks rather agitated.
Lur cocks his head at Uek. He then gestures at the walls of the hall and brings his hands close together.
Vorgo looks helplessly at Uek. You make a good point, largely. But...Tiamat bids me to kill all sunlovers I encounter.
He thinks for a moment. But...maybe we have a different option. Instead of letting them push us back, we push THEM back. Shattertooth, set me on fire. Lur and I will rush forward. The rest of you find a way to flank them.
Shattertooth grins. On your command.
Light me up!
Vargo bursts into rippling flame, and they don't immediately fade!
Vorgo takes a deep breath, thanking the mother for her blessing and charges down the tunnel toward the sunlovers
Lur lets out a hearty laugh as he charges right beside Vorgo. "YES!"
Shattertooth follows. The last thing they need is the flaming lizard starting an unsupervised conflagration.
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If a bat could sigh...
Very well then, change of plans. You get ready to hide and we'll try to drive the sunlovers into that cloud of masonwort. Or join us in battle.
Wek turns and streaks through the darkness like a bat out of spider-Hell. He overtakes the running saurian and taurian and flies carefully to be out of sight of the oncoming sunlovers.
Your flaming vanguard makes short work of the webbing, which largely burns up and falls away from you as you charge through. It takes a moment, but you return back to the hole leading to the surface that was left behind by the volcanic elemental exit earlier. Since you left, more rubble and rocks have been piled down from above, creating a crude and natural ramp leading up out of the hole, which has also been widened.
There are armored sunlovers here, wearing full plate and bearing halberds and longswords of tempered steel. They appear to be battling creatures that would barely qualify as humanoid; they look like someone amputated a tumor off of a giant's ass and then gave it hideous arms and legs. The aberrant creatures are latching on to the steel plate of the sunlovers with their many limbs and shredding them apart like they're nothing more than paper. The sunlover contingent down here is separated from what sounds like a larger force up on the surface, and it's clear that they're fighting for their lives. Still, there is scant smell of fear among them; they fight like a disciplined and orderly soldiering unit.
Lur hefts his sword into one hand, to increase the intimidation factor. He readies himself for the first challenger, his loincloth serving little purpose.
Wek flaps near the ceiling, unwilling to join the fray just yet, as these aberrations haven't proven to be friends of anything.
Princess waits with the others, ready to cast a spell when the fight is joined.
The soldier sunlovers see the flames' light coming out of the darkness of the labryinth, and step backwards from the aberrations to look safely over their shoulders. Seeing Lur there, one of the sunlovers cries out in their language, "It's the Shifter! Atten-HUT!" and the soldiers turn and form a phalanx of halberds and longswords, all aimed at you. The aberrant creatures hiss and appear to be peering at you over the soldiers' shoulders. Lur, you feel the unfamiliar sensation of being at a disadvantage in a combat situation as the steel-clad soldiers advance on you as one...their discipline gives them the edge against a flat-out charge.
They're advancing, but slowly, so as not to expose themselves too readily to an attack from behind. They appear to know they're surrounded, and each of them has grim resolve etched on their features, visible beneath their silver helms.
Lur is now beaming at the incoming challenge. The phalanx was daunting, but Lur was not dead yet. His strength and ferocity usually won him the day, today (he figured) would be no different. With a barbaric yawp he charges forward, at the young one.
Lur twists his body to dodge the tip of a halberd. The twist sends his large sword in an arc, batting down the halberd. With the point of the halberd low, Lur now had a ramp straight to his target. Quickly utilizing the new path Lur uses the shaft as a jumping point and swings his sword in an overhead arc to crash down upon the silver helm of the soldier.
Seeing the sunlovers approach, Princess decides to try to even the odds. "Hey there, handsome. How about you come on over to the right side?" The ogre casts a spell and reaches out to caress the nearest knight.
Vorgo screams and rushes the opening Lur tore.
The half-orc and the fairy hang back, uninterested in getting chopped up in the ensuing melee.
Lur opens the fight by jumping right over the wall of spears and caving in the skull of the soldier that he rightly judges is the youngest and least experienced. You can't avoid taking a few cuts even when you fully succeed in a press-in like this, so take 1d4 damage from petty wounds. The phalanx scatters around the barbarian in a circle, 10 sunlovers strong now that one has been completely dispatched.
Princess takes the opening created by Lur's distraction to charm one over to her side. To make a sunlover drool for Princess' affections is powerful magic indeed. One of the sunlovers considers her a friend, and will protect her until the spell expires - though he won't attack his squadmates, as it's Charm, not as powerful as something like Mind Control.
Uek flies dangerously close to the abominations as he tries to get a headcount in the confusion. He succeeds, but he is put in a spot by the nearest of the three abominations down here, which attempts to grapple him in a tentacle!
Vorgo, meanwhile, has charged the nearest sunlover that expanded away from the barbarian's attack. Since they're no longer presenting a united front anymore, he's able to score a hit before the soldier can react - roll your damage, then Hack and Slash to see what happens next.
Wek swoops like a bat out of hell, but he flap-stumbles!
Annoyed, he shifts into a crocodilian form and descends rapidly upon the tentacle by way of gravity.
His crocodile jaws sink into the offending tentacle.
[ooc]I take several shots, now at use 1
He throws two to make sure they hit the nearest Sunlover!
Standing behind her devoted bodyguard, Princess fires magic missiles at one of the enemy sunlovers.
Lur smiles gleefully at the cuts he gained as he stand over the young soldier. Thinking quickly, Lur moves his foot beneath the dead soldier and kicks the body at another soldier's long weapons, deflecting it out of the way. As he kicks, he grips his sword and then follows the flying body forward to slash up at the hopefully distracted soldier.
Vorgo lifts his flaming sword and continues to strike the sunlover until it is dead.
With so many foes around, he worries more about defending himself and less about letting use maximum damage. For now...
Wek's squirming bat form abruptly shifts,transforming in the blink of an eye into a swamp mottled croc that lashes out at the abomination immediately. The skin of the creature is thick and tastes absolutely awful, but you create a satisfying rip of flesh that causes the creature to stumble back, howling. The other two abominations, both of whom look like a nightmare Hodge podge of a multitude of animals, turn to look at you with hunger gleaming in their eyes...
Shattertooth and Princess each slay a soldier before the sunlovers can react. However, when they finally do, they close in on the casters with determination. Both of you need to roll Defy Danger as you're threatened. Princess gets a +1 from her bodyguards assistance.
Lur is in his element, and with Vorgo expertly cutting down sunlovers at his side, the pair are completely unstoppable. Before the vicious cuts of the two warriors, the discipline of the soldiers breaks. The four remaining soldiers, other than the two threatening Shatter and Princess, are calling out to others above and attempting to retreat upward,ascending the rubble and rocks toward the sky while the abominations are fighting the druid. What do you do?
"Back off!" Princess snarls. She charges the sunlover threatening her and slams him with her prodigious belly, knocking him off-balance before letting her charmed friend keep her for at bay.
Wek, his jaws bloody with disgusting, aberrant ichor, flings himself at the next abomination, using his crocodilian abilities to barrel roll the abomination in a crushing, biting choke hold. If it has a neck, he figures, it still has to breathe.
Victory through destruction is like a drug to Lur...in every way, and he wants MORE.
Lu's face and posture takes on a vicious hunger as he wheels around and charges at his next victim, the closest abomination .
Lur positions his sword next to his body, as if the blade were extruding from his shoulder and puts his full weight into the charge. Once the blade connects he thrusts such that, once his body collides with the creature his sword has hypothetically gone to the hilt.
NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER! Vorgo is caught in a blood frenzy, the glory of Tiamat flooding him. He's still on fire. He's never been happier.
He lunges on the back on one of the fleeing sunlovers, clawing and biting.
Shattertooth hurls his last flaming dagger at Vorgo's victim in an effort to distract him and give the flaming lizard a hand.
Vorgo takes advantage of the opening Shattertooth affords him and crushes the sunlover in his jaws.
Princess belly-bumps the sunlover threatening her, who happens to be the ranking member of this small offshoot group down here. The soldier's clearly a cunning and disciplined fighter in his own right, and he almost gets a clean stab into your side - when a gauntleted hand claps down on his wrist and interrupts his blow. The soldier lieutenant glances up at the stern and bespelled face of his Charmed subordinate. "Trev..." is all the soldier manages. Princess' bodyguard shakes his head slowly.
"Can't...let you do that, sir." is his reply. The two men clash swords as Princess steps backward, regaining her footing and watching the two warily.
Princess, you find yourself near the center of where Lur initially landed at the start of the fight. Most of the sunlovers have scattered away from your two warriors, apart from the one still threatening Shattertooth (need a Defy Danger roll from you too still, sir). Your bodyguard isn't letting his superior officer break the sword-clash that they're holding each other in, offering you a clear shot at the sunlover soldier's back.
Nearby, the abominations are roaring with discordant, un-matching voices as the shifty druid lunges for what approximates a neck. However, in the chaos of combat, Uek actually bites into what turns out to be an "arm", or something close to it. The creature wails, sounding briefly like some kind of young child, and heaves backward as blood pours from its side. However, as Uek is forced to lose the shape of the crocodile, he finds himself flanked on either side by the remaining two! Your party is focusing on their old enemies, ignoring the new - so you're on your own against these two.
You struggle to act, but the creatures strike so hard and fast that it's all you can do to defend yourself from being skewered, grabbed, or smashed to a pulp. Roll Defy Danger with a -1 modifier due to being attacked from all sides.
As that is resolving, Lur and Vorgo are stomping through the sunlovers like righteous gods on a warpath. Lur's attention shifts to the nearest abomination - though you can all tell that the barbarian is acting purely on instinct now, as he is more bear than man. Perhaps it is his animal side that better senses the wrongness that the abominations represent.
In any case, the one he chooses is the one that Uek bit in the underarm. It's leaking blood into a puddle on the ground, and the creature is shuddering as it crouches over the fluid pool. The blood seems to be boiling somehow, leaping over itself in wavelike motions as shapes begin to rise from it...
Your blade, Lur, interrupts the creature's focus, and your steel rasps along the hardened bones of the abomination's vertebrae. Your strike has knocked it off-balance, giving you a +1 forward to your next Hack and Slash. The creature looks up at you, and its eyes meet yours - you think you recognize a fleeting glimpse of a plea there.
Vorgo leaps over rocks and boulders in pursuit of the fleeing soldiers. The soldier was ready for it, though - as he climbed, his fellows had hung back behind some rubble, preparing to stab Vorgo when he took the bait. It almost worked flawlessly, and the efficiency of the trap gives you some pause, Vorgo, but it seems they didn't count for Shattertooth's assistance. His thrown dagger distracts them for the crucial moment that you needed to latch on to the bait-sunlover's back for a brutal bite.
As he struggles, the sunlover you're battling slams his gauntleted fist into your temple, knocking your vision around for a moment. Take -1 to your next Hack and Slash. The sunlover soldier is shouting for his allies to go on without him, that he's got this...