Dred hears a commotion from above and looks curiously. Unfortunately, he could not see beyond the railing clearly.
I wonder what's going on up there.
He rushes back up the stairs.
Jordi's blade catches the spider, driving it to the floor, and cutting it near in two, with a spray of green ichor. Legs still twitching, the spider lays dead.
Glandur gulps as Jordi makes short work of the first spider. He carefully enters the room after Jordi's work, moving as far from the remaining spider as possible. With a hesitant look at the twitching corpse on the ground, he turns his attention to the other and fires a crossbow.
Glundur's bolt bites into the spider, causing it to keen in agony.
The spider scuttles away from Arelian's hurried attack. The slayer stabs only air.
The spider's mandibles scrape across the leather of Arelian's boot. The slayer is only just able to pull his leg out of harm's way. Droplets of poison fall from the spiders jaws, to the floor.
Glandur fumbles a bit before extracting and loading another bolt. The elf fires it at the remaining spider, and in his haste sends the bolt wide of the spider.
Dred just barely got into the room in time to see the fight and swings his quarterstaff at the creature. What happened to the ghost?
Nym moves in and takes a swipe at the spider as well
Attack-melee:
Damage:
Jordi moves to the other spider with caution, praying to not end in the lower floor with a broken leg, and swings his big piece of metal against the pest.
Glandur cringes at the clumsy hacking displayed by his mates, completely forgetting his own woeful contribution in the attacks. He manages to fight his impulse to make a comment, and works on reloading his crossbow while biting his tongue.
"It's just a little spider."
Seeing it evade multiple attackers, Sarden decides to take a shot and end it before someone gets hurt.
However, he just adds to the comedy of errors......
The spider scuttles about, adroitly dodging every attempt to squash it.
Dodging around Jordi's long bladed attack, the spider lunges at his chest, even as the paladin brings his sword up for another strike.
The arachnid's mandibles fail to find flesh, though. Jordi is able to parry the spider's lunge with his sword. The spider lands back on the floor quivering with rage. Or maybe fear, who can read a spider's emotions?
However, Jordi's face is a lot easier to read, one of extreme repugnance, as the spider jumped on him, and then relief when it droped to the floor again.
As the spider touches the floor, the man strikes with all his strength, without remembering he can accidentally sunder the rotten floor.
Sarden takes another swing.
"I'm not really trained for this."
damage
With the group gathered around the doomed spider, Glandur peers through the for the glimpses of the creature as his allies move about. He decides to attempt the near impossible shot as he loads and looses another bolt.
The spider hops about avoiding attacks, but Arelian's sword finds it's bloated body, skewering the beast. The spider collapses on the floor quivering, as green goo oozes out from the wound.
The glint of light that caught Arelian's eye turns out to be a piece of rock crystal.
"Well that was unpleasant. What the heck was that thing eating to get so big?",Nym asks while sheathing his blade.
"Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, it's not so much about what a creature eats, but the natural physiology makeup of the..." Glandur goes into a bit of explanation of big spiders that amounts to little more than "they're that way because that's the way they are". As he does so, Glandur takes a look about the room.
Big ass spiders eats big ass flys. Or unaware people, glad we found them instead of the carpenter. Says Jordi distracted cleaning his sword's blade before he sheats it.
Then, he gets out of the room, and takes a look through the corridor window.
The smudged window overlooks a weedy backyard, with a stone ringed well. Beyond, is the edge of a cliff and the Varisian Gulf. On a clear day it would be a spectacular view, but today's rain makes it a dull and leaden scene. Gray clouds over a gray sea.
An interesting view, sure there was a nice place to live.
Says Jordi while making his way to the closer door. Once in it, he tries the knob, and pushes the door with his sword, just in case there is another spider's nest.
Having surveyed the room, Glandur follows Jordi and Arelian as they move on. He frowns at the thought of the voice that all but disappeared since they arrived at the second floor. The thoughtful elf tries to work out in his mind where he could stand, and still be able to project such a voice into the first floor at that location.
This room was probably once a bedroom. It is empty now except for scattered refuse, mostly rat droppings and flakes of plaster from the ceiling. The leftward section of this floor shows obvious signs of dry-rot. Some of the floorboards are completely rotted away in sections.
The single window on the far wall is devoid of glass, or casement, it is just a rectangular hole in the wall.
(14, due to +5 bonus)
Glandur scans the room carefully, noting particularly the obvious signes of dry-rot.
Dred follows closely behind Glandur, ready to jump in front of him to guard him from melee.
Do you see anything? Being half blind can be difficult sometimes...
Glandur thinks he is able to tell the extent of the unstable floor.
Glandur steps just inside the room, and gestures at the dry rotted area. "I'd avoid, here, here, and here if I were you." The elf then proceeds to search the room as he carefully navigates around what he suspects is the dry rotted area.
Nym follows the elf's advice and stays clear of the weakened area. He carries down past the other to the next door.
"I wonder what is in here?" he muses as he opens the door.
Seeing that there is not any immediate danger from the actual room, Jordi goes after Nym to backup him.
I'm right behind you.
Says Jordi to the cleric.
The door knob refuses to turn in Nym's grip. The handle isn't corroded either. In fact, it seems to have been recently oiled. It must be locked.
"Hmmm..will you look at this! The door seems locked..and a new door knob as well. I wonder what is in here?:
Glandur puts a prominently pointed ear up against the door and tries to listen through it. As he does, he mutters to himself, "Shouldn't that bird be done loafing around by now?" As if in response to his mutterings, the all-to-familiar hawk flies through the glass-less window and the door to his master, and pecks the elf on the head, before landing on his backpack and settling in for some rest.
With a sigh, Glandur rubs his head and resumes listening through the door.
Anyone good at opening locks? Will be a shame to break something new in this house.
Says Jordi in loud voice, so the others can hear him.
Glandur barely hears a squeaking noise, as well as leathery rustling. These sounds are very, very faint.
The elf whispers to his group. "I think there's something on the other side. What do you think? Should we try bashing through the door and rush in, or something quieter?"
So we left the misterious locked door for the last? -Asks Jordi- Its all right to me, but I'll keep an eye on it, just in case.
Perception:
"Well look what the goddess has provided for us...a key! Now lets see if it fits this here lock."
He quietly places the key in the lock and turns it. If it unlocks the door, he will quickly shove it in and try to surprise whoever/whatever is in the room.
Except for having an unlit fireplace, this room is very similar to the one next to it. (The one with the spiders.) There are no webs in this room though.
The floor is rotted in much the same way, and in a pattern that mirrors the other room. The cause of the problem is apparent in this room. A steady drip of water falls from the ceiling, and sheets down the wall. There is a roof leak here.
In the far left-hand corner is a large brass bird cage. It hangs by a chain, from a curved floor stand. The cage sways violently as the creature inside struggles to escape. The thing in the cage looks like a human baby that has been stitched together out of leather. It has leathery wings, and needle sharp teeth, in it's over sized mouth. It's eyes are glaring and red.
As you watch, the latch on the cages door suddenly gives way. The ugly creature comes flapping right at you.
From what hell is this thing from?
Says Jordi, while instintively pointing its weapon toward the creature.
"That's a construct of some sort! A homunculus may be? Wow, I didn't expect to find one here, that's for sure. I wonder who made this thing..." The elf looks at the little flying thing, mesmerized.
"Oh, and watch out for its bite! It's likely built to poison. I think."
"By the goddess, what is a homunculus?? Should we kill it?", the lad asks in a panic.
Initiative:
"How dangerous is it?"