Tendal calls up light on his cane once more, illuminating the gloom on the other side of the bend of the tunnel, while the light on the rock he threw toward the pond goes out.
Phil reloads his crossbow and attempts to send a well aimed quarrel the way of a remaining land-squid...
Crossbow: for
...narrowly missing Braddon on it's way to strike the floor accurately with fleeting force.
Despite the butterfly's blessing, Phil's quarry eludes his quarrel.
As constrained by the close confines as the party, a reefclaw in the rear clicks its claws fruitlessly.
Snake attempts to hex one of the reefclaws attacking Braddon.
"I better be getting a lot of treasure for this."
Braddon's whirling blades slash at the creatures before him.
"Maybe even enough to pay you guys back."
"I still have to tell that dwarf about his exploding stuff. I wonder if it's made from these guys."
Gristav, annoyed the critter moved so quickly,
...continued his recent ineffectuality, and began to question his life's choices.
Gristav's swing misses the reefclaw in the tight confines of the tunnel.
The injured reefclaw manages to open another wound on Braddon but fails to hold him.
The uninjured one snaps as fruitlessly at Braddon as Gristav swung at it.
Tendal moved forward in the gloom of the tunnel until he could once again see the crustaceans surging against their group. The rosewood cane leapt from his hand, narrowly passing by Gristav to strike the creature he was engaged with.
"I may be able to enhance your staff Gristav with magic to improve your strikes, if it is not already so imbued." Tendal suggested. "I have a scroll for it. I also have another Color Spray scroll if you want to take the risk and attempt another casting of it."
Unwilling to let failure stand in the way of repeated ineffectual impact... Phillip reloads and takes aim once more...
Crossbow @6: for
...again striking the floor in the approximate vicinity of the foe with force and vigour.
Phil's quarrel is again unable to find a target.
The reefclaw in the rear is still unable even to approach a target.
Guidance on Braddon.
Snake continues to attempt to hex the injured one.
Snake curses the injured reefclaw.
The rearmost reefclaw crowds forward but can't reach anyone to attack.
"Ooh, I'm feeling a little dizzy."
Braddon continues hacking away at the creatures.
"Hey, the tides coming in. Maybe they'll drown."
"The _what_? I thought we had hours. Winds may have changed..." Remembering a certain recent reminder of the magic of the world he lived in, Gristav stopped arguing with himself.
Total Defense
"All out, GO! Dance-lights ahead, cast-light on me, I'm last, Braddon's wounded. GO!"
Gristav stands his ground, he'll leave last, reasoning his defense, as it is named, is Total. And if it comes to it, he knows he, at least, can swim.
Despite his increasing weakness, Braddon's short sword jabs deep within the wounded reefclaw, triggering its death spasm. Its claw tears open a wound on one of its own kind before it collapses to the stone floor.
Almost before it has stopped twitching, the reefclaw behind steps up hungily and snaps at Braddon.
Gristav takes up a defensive stance and calls for a quick retreat to higher ground.
Almost as it it has understood the half-elf's intent, another reefclaw snaps at both party members within its reach. Braddon is painfully seized, but Gristav easily evades the attack.
"While you may wish to remain behind Gristav, now that we have stirred the beasts, we must dispatch them before we retreat, else we be harried along as the tide rises." Tendal says, seeing Braddon grappled and pulled toward the reefclaws and the surging waters.
"This is going to be an expensive answer to our predicament." Tendal says with a frown, removing his scroll of web from his satchel, and then with his cane tucked underneath his arm, unrolling it and reading the words aloud.
Silver threads of light began to lift off the scroll as it disintegrated in his hands, before streaming forth towards the darkened recesses of the pit.
Tendal sacrifices a valuable spell in an attempt to make good the party's retreat. the wide, watery space at the end of the tunnel fills with a mass of strong, sticky strands which anchor the reefclaws to the walls and ceiling.
Not one to raise voice against the prospect of withdrawal, Philip clips crossbow to belt loop so as to free hands and begins to make space for those of longer limb to follow.
Phillip stows his weapon and moves back up the tunnel.
Bolbo rushes ahead, to learn of any trouble perhaps a beat up-tempo...
Lucky darts back toward the tall man, straight up toward the backpack and in.
Noticing Luck return to his favorite hiding spot, Snake moves his lights and retreats back up the cavern to where Phillip is.
Lucky returns to Snake, and the witch follows Phillip up the tunnel, pulling his lights after him.
The reefclaw in the rear yanks itself free from the webbing. Blocked from the potential prey by its fellows, it pulls itself back toward the advancing water.
Braddon twists awkwardly and smashes at his captor with his bastard sword.
"It's okay. I'll finish these bastards off myself."
Braddon uses the larger of his two blades to slash at the reefclaw holding him, wounding it further.
Gristav pushes past Braddon to the creature pinching the blanching half-elf in it's claw, preventing his exit...
"Tendal, help Braddon pull lose.", Gristav reasons aloud, hoping not to pain the peredhel with the planned impact of the ashen shaft on the aquatic adversary's crushing claw...
No.
Gristav seizes Braddon and pulls him out from the grasp of the web-tangled reefclaw.
The two nearest reefclaws work themselves free of the sticky strands.
Phillip continues to withdraw ahead of the others that follow in his wake, knowing that if he slowed he would become overtaken.
Tendal watched the reefclaws rip free of the entangling strands, their stickiness seemingly reduced by the cloying damp around them. Seeing that Braddon is free as well, he makes his decision to head up the tunnel after Snake and Phillip.
"I think its time to make an expedited withdrawal!" he said, then turned and ran up the tunnel as quickly as he could on the poor footing.
Tendal and Phillip retreat before both the rising tide and the vicious crustaceans.
Snake remains where he is and waits for the others.
Having seen Tendal and Phillip pass him, Snake waits for Gristav and Braddon.
As saltwater surges over the lower reaches of Tendal's dissolving web, the reefclaw in the back seems almost to leer as it bides its time, as if somehow it knows that, once the tunnel is flooded, it and its fellows can hunt the party at their leisure....
Bolbo continues to scout ahead, imagining himself to be a huge as a human, or maybe a rabbit, or, OK, a butterfly. But he scouts ahead, at least until he forgets that was what he was doing.
Braddon takes a final slash at the closest creature before backing away up the corridor.
"Yeah, we showed them! Ouch."
Braddon's large blade cuts open a gash in the nearest reefclaw, which snaps fruitlessly back at him as he retreats.
Turning to the inhuman gaze of the creatures, so clearly intent, Gristav offers, "Once this floods, there's some dead lobster, further up. Shouldn't go to waste." He idly wands his staff, and the hum in the hurtle of its arc is audible. "But you'll have none, of us."
Certain, then circumspect, he rushes to be the rearguard of the exiting expeditioners.
Fully committed to retreat, the party has no worry about the reefclaws catching up to them ... at least until the tunnel floods and they can swim rather than scuttle. Urgency makes it seem longer, but eventually they rediscover the wide, ascending shaft they bypassed to investigate the reefclaws. There, Snake and Gristav pause a moment for Phillip to catch up on his shorter legs before tackling the slope themselves.
In contrast with the narrow, winding tunnel they just left, it seems clear that this shaft is not natural but man-made, with relatively smooth walls and a direct path to ... wherever it is going. It climbs steadily, and the party's calves and lungs are feeling the strain of their pressing pace by the time the walls and floor exhibit the sharp and rough edges that indicate they have climbed above the level that regularly floods with the tide.
"Thank you, magicians, for the management of light in that scene, and this withdrawal. It's easy to forget, if you're blessed with elfsight, or to do badly, or selfishly. You both did well."
"Phillip, your restraint with your crossbow was not un-noticed. Very tight quarters, eh? Perhaps for future, Tendal might wear a howdah. Or perhaps more alchemical grenados, or caltrops or such. I can't imagine, being trapped where my only option, was none at all. And this is probably not our last, tight quarters."
"Will we be wanting to return with lowered tide, and lengthened lances? Or count the daggers as a loss?"
Phillip dryly replies "I had not thought of sloughing through brine-laden quarters when we departed..."
"Will we be wanting to return with lowered tide, and lengthened lances? Or count the daggers as a loss?"
Snake takes a deep breath and turns to Braddon, "You owe me for those daggers, bub," he says, with an absolute stone cold look. Although, there is somewhat of a possible wry smile that seems to crack said visage.
Tendal smiles, briefly but honestly at Gristav's praise.
"You are welcome." he says simply as they trudge up the inclined tunnel, Tendal's cane lit with magical torchlight.
"I simply could not allow those crustaceans to dine on my comrades. Such a complete inversion of the natural order should never be allowed. As such, when we have time, I have a mind to feast on denizens of the sea, steamed, with clarified butter, and a light white wine." he continues laconically.