Mahath casts a quick spell over the fallen armor, nodding after a few moments of concentration. He stands and faces the others.
"Well done, champions. If I interpret this correctly, the phantom animated the armor is banished, and is of no additional danger. In fact, I believe the armor itself may carry an enchantment that may be beneficial."
Raising an eyebrow, "Meanin' what, lad? Beneficial in what way?"
"It may have a residual magic upon it. Of course, it is too large for any of us. But we can take it with us, and perhaps offer it for a larger ally."
Marikel nods. "We should certainly remove it with us when we depart, along with any other evidence we find down here."
"There may be an easy way to do that. It may sound absurd, Marikel. But try picking it up as though you intend to put it on."
With some confusion, Marikel unfastens some of the straps on his scale mail armour and reaches out to the oversized item.
Marikel feels silly struggling into the oversized armor, the chain sleeves sliding past his fingertips toward his knees. But the next moment, the armor is rapidly shrinking, tightening around his pectorals and biceps, until it is a perfect fit.
Eyes going wide, "HA! Would ya look at that! That's gotta be the handiest armor I've ever seen. Fits like a glove it does."
Marikel nods but returns to his scale mail armour.
"Impressive, but the weight is wrong. I may practise with it later, but for now I'll stick with what I know."
If nothing else, the resized armor is less bulky to pack away. The party stows it along with the rest of the treasure from the tomb.
"Let's see if Miss Alicia disturbed anything else."
Marikel heads towards the area where the giant armour was, though he sheathes his sword and places a hand against the wall while he crosses the ledge.
Marikel leads the way onto another precarious walkway, sometimes as narrow as five feet, sometimes as wide as ten, with a rock wall on the right hand and an open chasm off the edge of the trail to the left before the solidity of stone once again intervenes.
"Hold it there, lad! Yer about ta walk right into a web. And by the size of it, yer not gonna want ta meet the inhabitant of this web. Probably best ya get yer sword back out. Just sayin'," he warns as he looks up into the web ahead.
Marikel does as he's told and halts, with a pointed glance to Alicia. But he pulls his sword with a swift grace and peers warily into the gloom.
"Is this back where those other spiders weren't?"
The end of the tunnel is thick with dusty webs. Marikel holds up his light-bearing sword and peers through.
It appears this may be the same web-filled room you saw earlier from the opposite end.
Relaxing a bit, "Yeah this is that same blasted room we were in earlier. What did we do, go in a blasted circle?"
"Evidently," Marikel snaps.
"We were just meant to follow the main tunnel. Can't you guide us, dwarf?"
Ali snickers helpfully.
I thought dwarves were supposed to be good at navigating underground... Mahath ponders. He glances back, wondering if he could find his own way back out if it came to it.
There are two ways out of Uskroth's tomb, both of which, it seems, connect with the main passage back to Baseil Sawyer's basement; there has been no sign yet, however, of the half-orc Skreed Gorewillow who supposedly entered the tunnel ahead of the party. Could he have blundered down one of the side shafts on the way in, despite Sawyer's directions? Or was he ever really down here in the first place?
Alicia mutters darkly, "I wonder if Sawyer sent us on a wild goose chase on purpose. Maybe he's planning a coup and wants us out of the way."
"Evidently," Marikel snaps.
"We were just meant to follow the main tunnel. Can't you guide us, dwarf?"
Dorn raises an eyebrow as he looks to the healer coldly. "Aye, I can, human. But if you lot want ta give it a go for yerselfs, feel free! Because the lass over here," he points to Alicia, "is doin' a BANG UP job up ta this point!" he declares with obvious sarcasm. "Way I remember it, if it wasn't for me, she would've nearly walked herself right into armor creature! I probably should've let her ta be honest! Maybe it would've taught her a lesson! But I doubt it as stubborn as she is," he nods adamantly, crossing his arms.
Marikel takes a deep breath.
"I'm sorry. That wasn't fair of me. I shouldn't be taking out my frustration on you. But Miss Alicia's thoughts have occurred to me. We could have been tricked into some pointless chase. But we have to be sure. Let's keep moving."
He's just about to say something but finds himself at a loss for words. "Well, um, okay then. That sounds... sounds good," he says, scratching his head in confusion. "Let's definitely keep movin' then. So... do we leave? Or do we keep goin' ta see where this blasted cavern might take us?"
"Follow this cavern. Can someone burn these webs away?"
Scrounging through his pack, the dwarf shakes his head. "I got no torches. But I got some flint and steel ta light one with if any o' you lot have a torch. I do have this," he pulls out a flask of alchemist's fire. "Not so sure it's worth usin' on a bunch o' webs though. But if we got nothin' else...," he shrugs.
Marikel glares at Mahath.
"Fine, I'll do it myself."
He cuts away at the fibres with his masterwork longsword.
Mahath sulks. "I could burn it away with a spell, but there are limits to what I can do, and it may be better to save it for a foe that will cut back."
He pauses and adds "The only torch I have burns without heat."
Alicia shrugs the pack from her shoulders and procures a torch from inside. Resituating the backpack on her back, she sets the torch aflame and places it against one of the more solid-looking webs. " There's something ironic about the one who likes shadows being the only one to carry a torch," she notes.
Armed with blade and fire, the party cautiously begins to move into the web-strewn room to clear the way.
As they near the bridge over the chasm, Alicia catches sight of the webs below and shudders. Retrieving and lighting another torch, she drops the first one over the edge into the web-choked chasm below.
Dorn keeps a lookout for over-sized spiders as the others take out the webs.
As Alicia drops the torch into the chasm and the webs start to burn, a spider suddenly scuttles up onto the stone bridge from the underside.
With a startled cry, Alicia does what any sensible sixteen-year-old girl would do (okay, maybe not) and stabs it with her rapier.
Alicia steps up and stabs the spider.
Dorn immediately steps over to the other side of Alicia and takes a swipe at the spider.
Mahath steps a little closer and fires a ray of frost at the spider, readying an alchemical flask to enhance it at he advances.
Mahath targets the arachnid with an icy cantrip, but in his care to avoid hitting Alicia, the ray angles awry over the chasm.
As Ali stabs the spider, she is surprised by the lack of resistance. "What the--I think this thing is already done! Like those beetles earlier!"
Skyreaver flies to the other side of Dorn and strikes at the spider, hoping to acquire himself a meal.
Marikel steps forward to Alicia's side and brings his sword to bear against the vermin.
The roc's beak breaks through the spider's exoskeleton.
Daring the edge of the precipice, Marikel steps up and brings his blade down on the spider ... which shatters into a cloud of dust, having been a mere empty exoskeleton, reanimated by the malign magic of the tomb.
The rogue is seized by a coughing fit as she inhales the undead spider's carapace dust, but it subsides in a few moments and she coughs again for good measure.
"I was right," Ali mutters as she crosses the bridge to the other side, torch in hand.
Marikel steps back away from the edge.
"We should at least find out what's creating these foul monstrosities."
"Yer not kiddin' about that, lad. First the armor and now these blasted spiders. What in the blazes is next?!" he exclaims, huffing in annoyance.
Skyreaver snaps at the dusted spider but to no avail. Although it's hard to tell, one might think the large bird finds himself a bit disappointed over a lost meal.
Mahath pauses to see if any more spiders are coming, and then steps forward to the others. "Try not to breath that in; it can't be good for you." He'll start to cast prestidigitation to clean the bits of spider off of the others.
As he works, he says "I suspect we have already discovered the source of these undead aberrations. That stone we found earlier, the one that I have in my pack, radiated a dark aura that is consistent with the type of magics surrounding the undead."
"Of course, I can't be sure until we've had some time to study it." Realizing he said "we" and not "I," he clarifies. "Agrit may know more about such things than I do. I'd like to consult with her on it."
"But, if it is indeed the source, I am guessing it is slow acting. It takes time for the aura to infect things around it, so it shouldn't pose an immediate danger." He pauses and says "Well, unless there are other things already in place down there that it originated."
He steps back and looks at his now cleaned friends. "There, that's better!"