AMENDMENT TO LAST POST:
The hound archon helps Lord Zohan through the window. They examine the interrupted meal for signs of Black Arrow stew.
Most of the meat on the table seems to be form a deer but you do notice a human arm, could be a black Arrow. There is no indicator for you to be sure who it belonged too.
That is Karla and Zohan still need a post from everyone else.
Andras makes a parting shot at the nearest zombie before retreating into the dining room to free up the corridor.
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Zadderk fires another volley taking down this zombie as well.
The other zombie moves up and attacks Karla
Karla hit the zombie and the others take in down with arrows.
"Let us see what the undead ogrekin were guarding in their room. Black Arrows, perhaps?"
Lucan nods, still holding his sword. "Yes, let's press on. The building is assuredly alerted. If there are any Black Arrows being held here, we might have to move fast to recover them alive."
Andras puts the still-glowing crossbow away and reaches for a healing wand.
"Somehow the traps they construct are even deadlier than their hooks. May Serra's soul enjoy the access to the First Vault, but give me a minute to heal those still living."
Lord Zohan sends Khartelosch into the room once occupied by the zombies to scout out danger.
Reloading his crossbow, Zadderk smirks as the world slowly starts to speed back to normal again while he approaches the others. "I don't like'ese narrow corriders' one bit. Dasher's outside in tha' air, so e's gonna be just fine cuz'e won't attack unless i'm in view. E'll worry, but it'll be fine. That said, les' press on.' he says as he follows Karla behind the Archon.
As he descends he can't help but think of how swiftly the front door's trap had killed the rogue. "May wanna give the dog some distance.' he says.
You examine the room the zombies came out of.
This dark room smells of rot and old blood. Piles of gore-spattered skin lie heaped on the floor. A horrid rubbery face robbed of its supporting skull and muscle rests on top, its toothless mouth agape and empty eyes revealing only the layer of tan flayed skin resting beneath. Three wooden coffins stand upright on the north wall.
There is a small Taxidermy lab here along with all the tools one would need to skin or stuff animals.
Some gear is stashed in the corner a leather armor and a broken darkwood bow.
There is also a trapdoor in this room.
For further exploration you can go up or down.
"Perhaps grab a plank off that coffin or use the cracked bow to open the trapdoor, Khartelosch? It's certain to be trapped as well. If only I'd been clever enough to prepare an open enclosure spell. Wait! Perhaps I DO have just the thing."
Lord Zohan casts unseen servant and instructs the shapeless force to open the trap door, hoping it isn't locked or stuck. If it is unable to, he'll ask the hound archon to do so.
There are stairs going up and a trapdoor to the basement.
The unseen servant opens the trapdoor revealing a ladder going down to a dark hole in the ground.
The archon's canine visage grins back and it looks down into the dark.
Sensing obstacle nor evil nor threat (darkvision, detect evil, scent), it leaps down into the cellar, sword at the ready.
The archon goes down and signal for you to follow.
Below is a surprisingly large chamber 70 feet across and 40 feet from ground to ceiling. You find yourself on a catwalk 20 feet from the bottom.
The catwalk goes all the way around the room and at each corner is a cage.
Three of the cages are empty but the cage in the south-east corner holds three men.
You came in on the west side of the room.
The walls, ceiling, floors and the center of the room are all filled with thick spiderwebs.
You notice a few large spiders here and there in the webs seemingly dormant.
"Not spiders! I detest spiders." thinks Lord Zohan as he considers how susceptible he is to various vermin toxins. "Khartelosch, my comrades are going to extricate those three men from that cage somehow. Would you fend off any attacks for a moment while they do so. I'm going to, hopefully, provide a little distraction."
Lord Zohan commands the unseen servant to glide along the spiderwebs from here to the north-west corner and begins to cast summon monster II to bring up 1d3 celestial dire rats to occupy any eight-legged surprises.
"I'm going to leave the task of saving those men to the rest of you, if you don't mind. I don't quite have the stomach for spiders."
In the room with the taxidermy equipment and the flayed skin, Lucan grimaces. "Ogrekin are beasts, but this... this is worse and more brutal than what you usually expect of a hulking beast of the wilds. This is bad."
Downstairs, Lucan will walk over and inspect the three men in the cage. Are any of them awake? If so, he will ask, "Hello, my name is Lucan Arcaranarian. Are you of the Black Arrows? How long have you been down here? Do you know where there is a key to open the cage?"
He'll turn to his left, then to his right; failing to locate his invisible familiar, he says, generally, "Lily, can you look around and see if you can find a key?"
A small voice next to him says, "Sure! A key, to open many things..."
"Yummy! Magic items are my favorite snack."
Zadderk looks down the trap door from above before following along. Looking at the cages, he immediately heaves a sigh of relief at the thought that at least 3 people in this hell hole survived. What he doesn't understand is what is with all of these webs? From the safety of the doorway he looks closer, trying to discern exactly what's going on with this room. There aren't any ogres down here, after all, on guard.
"You might ask Lily to check those three ogrekin we just decimated. I'm speaking of the ones that weren't already undead, of course. No need to keep the key with a zombie... or would they do just that?"
You summon the rats who get entangled in the webs and the spiders rush to devour them.
Lucan makes his way to the cage, it's made of wood but seems quite sturdy.
He doesn't see any key.
One of the men looks to you. "Yes were black arrows, I am Jakardros the second in command...First now I supposes. Watch out for the big spider it's at the bottom!"
As he speaks you see an enormousness creature making it's way up from the bottom.
"Get out of here! Warn the people of TurtleBack Ferry! The fort has fallen! The town is about to be destroyed!"
You manage to break open the gate to the cage but the black arrows are also chained to the wall.
Attracted by the noise the largest spider attacks Karla.
Make a fort save. dc 22,
Let me know if you have a problem with your staring position, I put Shalelu and Zohan in the small hallway which is off the map.
Given the circumstances, Zadderk isn't particularly surprised, and he can now tell why the people were both locked in cages and chained up with no resistance from Ogres. These damn spiders were sitting in here the whole time, and they never came to attack just because they weren't in the webs. He spits, taking a 5 foot step back and loading his crossbow accordingly, not wasting the haste. These weren't people or giants, but they were still big and as a result he saw no issue with filling them full of arrows.
Spiders weren't his Forte, and he'd made it a point to aim for the legs, against his better judgement. Not to mention that the surprise of them plunging their fangs into Karla surprised him enough for him to haphazardly place an arrow for the first time in years. All that aside, he was still a profoundly good Crossbowman.
Khartelosch, the hound archon, looks at the options and at the spiders to determine if they are normal or fiendish in some way (i.e. evil). It risks the AOO to move up next to Lucan and readies an action to strike the huge spider when it tries to bite him.
Lord Zohan: "If you're up for melee, Andras, I could make you bigger for a while. I also have a flask of acid, if you think that would get through the chains or manacles holding the prisoners."
For this round, however, he sees a need to split the foes, so he casts summon monster ii to call in a lantern archon that will appear next round.
By Abadar's grace, these eight-legged freaks are worse than the ogres!
The view of a huge spider draining Karla's strength unsettles Andras, but he tries to stay calm and inflict as much damage as possible. He touches his weapon with his holy symbol, and the bolts immediately set ablaze as they are fired.
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"I have to be able to get into melee with them!" Lucan says. He starts casting a spell defensively. He manages to get the spell off while not opening himself up to an attack from the huge spider in front of him. That done, he flies into the air, and moves in closer to melee range with the spider.
(Lucan takes a five-foot "step" -- more of a five-foot flutter -- one square forward, brandishing his sword. He will be able to fly for the next 7 minutes.)
Casting a third-level spell (Fly) Defensively, on the assumption that he's in range of the huge spider. DC is 21:
OK, I'm grateful that I spent those feats on improved concentration!
Uh oh. Our hound archon friend nods and then winks out of existence in this dimension.
Haste is also over.
The Huge spider is hurt but has it's eyes set on Karla who it can sense is weakening and soon to be lunch. It attacks going for the kill.
As the creature attacks Karla strikes it causing it to reel back in pain.
The spider seems hesitant to attack again...
The others however are uninjured and still hungry.
Two large spiders go for Zadderk and Andras and one goes for Lucan.
your go again post in any order.
As the giant spider's legs and mandibles bounce off Andras' plate armor with a disgusting screeching sound but otherwise harmlessly, Andras does his best to keep a steady aim, unleashing a load of flaming bolts into the chaotic tangle of limbs and eyes before him with a grimace of loathing on his face.
Lucan is grateful that his armor has protected him from the attack. He concentrates briefly, imfusing his sword with some of his arcane energy. He attempts to cast a spell defensively, charging up his sword with electrical energy. He then swings his sword at the huge spider...
A lantern archon, Shlarell, appears in the edge where the northern wall meets the ceiling opposite from Karla and Lucan and attacks the huge spider, trying to draw its attention.
Sweat beads on his forehead as Lord Zohan concentrates intensely to mine his brain for the remnants of the formula to cast haste with aid of his arcane bond; once he has the bits and bogs gathered, he casts it immediately with his last use of extended metamagic.
Zadderk shoots at the spider attacking him.
and takes it down.
Andras takes down the spider in front of him.
Lucan cast his spell but the spider avoids the blow.
The archon zaps the huge spider repeatably causing it more pain.
The spider hesitates to go for Karla at first but seeing her weakness it tries to grab Karla in it's mandibles.
And takes a chunk out of the balcony...Having failed it begins to descend back into it's nest.
The other large spider retreats as well.
Lord Zohan sinks in relief at seeing the spiders retreating. "I have acid here we can use to eat through the chains holding them to the wall if we cannot find the keys?"
He directs the archon to hover menancingly over the spiders (as menacingly as a ball of light can) to make sure they don't come back without a warning.
Lucan will fly in a slow circle in the air over the spiders, ready to attack them if they return. He won't attack them if it really looks like they're retreating and will stay away, but he's going to remain on guard for the moment.
It doesn't look like the spider are coming back.
Using acid you manage to get the men free.
Trusting that the spiders will not come back -- but knowing that he can still fly for several more minutes if they do -- Lucan flies over and sets down next to Karla. He looks at her. "She doesn't look good!" he says to the others. "Does anybody have anything they can do for her? I fear healing magic isn't my strength!"