Jakob steps up behind Ortik and swings the hammer over the dwarf's head.
Wary of the dock colapsing, Karri keeps her distance from the melee ahead. She does however add her two coppers to the fight with a Ray of Frost
Ortik swings his own hammer at the slavering spider, hopping back afterwards to draw it out, in case it survives the onslaught of his allies.
Attack the spider, then 5' step away.
As the spider leaps forward, Ortik smacks it hard between the eyes with his hammer. He takes a step away.
Demitri stabs through the adjacent window, barely missing the spider's body.
Karri's ray of frost hits a window frame, causing it to splinter.
Lyla goes up behind Ortik and lobs one of her bombs... which lands directly in the spider's mouth. It barely has time to register what happened before--
The spider's lifeless corpse is thrown back into the stern of the ship, charred & missing several of its legs.
Unfortunately, as Ortik & Lyla reposition, the deck gives way under their feet, breaking into splinters.
Ortik relaxes only for a moment as the spider explodes in a fiery conflagration, and his eyes open wide as he registers the loud cracking beneath his feet. "Oh, sh-", he starts, and then falls through the deck into the water below.
The deck breaks into splinters under Lyla's & Ortik's combined weight.
The dwarf and the hobbit plummet 10 feet into the hold of the ship.
Lyla manages to stick the landing!
Ortik, however, does not.
In fact, he lands flat on his face.
Sunlight shines into the hold of the ship through the hole in the ceiling. A loud chorus of *chittering* rises.
Dark and dank, save for the hole above, the ship’s hold smells of mildew. Several barrels, crates, and other containers lie stacked here and there, and a shallow layer of river water has collected in puddles. A soft scratching sound comes from behind a few of the crates.
Thanks to your darkvision, you can see a whole swarm of spiders massing, coming from the cobwebs scattered throughout the hold.
The light shining into the hold doesn't allow you to see, but you can definitely hear the spiders coming.
They don't sound very happy.
Demitri's eyes widen as floor gives way and the pair fall. "No!" He runs over to the pit. "Are you two alright?"
"Yeah... well, sort of," Lyla replies, unable to see a thing. "By the sound of it, dwarfy plummeted like a stone, and I don't even wanna know how many spiders are around us! Someone throw us some light, quick!" She reaches for a tanglefoot bag and stands still, waiting for something to happen.
"Someone throw them a light and a rope. We need to get them out of there."
Karri hurries to get as close as she safely can and casts Light in the air above Ortik's head. If you leave they will die. If you stay, we can watch them die!
Karri's Light spell allows everyone in & around the hole to see.
There's a swarm of spiders on the opposite end of the hold where Lyla & Ortik are.
There's at least 20 of them, each of them the size of a gold coin.
Lyla looks up and sees Karri casting her spell. "Thanks, sunshine!" The halfling takes a step forward standing between the spiders and her prone dwarf ally. Her left arm swings in the air releasing the recently acquired tanglefoot bag; the bag spins clumsily through the air towards the spider swarm as Lyla says "Let's see how well you guys do glued to the floor, eight-legs...es!"
Lyla's tanglefoot bag lands right in the middle of the spider swarm.
It covers all of them in tanglefoot goo, but doesn't take effect in time for them to be glued to the floor.
The spiders *hiss*. They move to attack!
"Anyone got a torch?" Jakob says.
Lighting a torch, and backing away slowly.
"-it!", Ortik finishes as he crashes to the hold below. He feels a snap and a white lance of pain shoot through him as he lands. "Damnation, I just healed that!" He winces as he regains his feet, and looks about to see the swarms of spiders crawling towards him and Lyla.
"Well, Hell. This has turned out swimmingly." He also withdraws a torch from his backpack and lights it, preparing to swing the flame at the oncoming swarm.
Grabbing a torch and lighting it is probably a move and standard. I'll also toss out a K(nature) to find out more about these spiders.
Karri grunts and grits her teeth as the Legion tries to assert itself, "No..." saving them is the path to Lamm! She plucks at her wrist and whips frigid energy towards the swarm of spiders.
Demitri rifles through his pack and produces a vial. He hefts it at the swarm.
Their favored means of attacking is just swarming their target and biting them a lot. These particular spiders have a mildly poisonous, strength-damaging bite. They're also capable of distracting the target they're swarming, rendering them nauseated for at least 1 round of combat.
The torch in your hand can be used to drive them off.
"One by one won't work," Ortik says through clenched teeth, his free hand cradling his chest. "Another bomb if you please, Lyla? Like most things, they don't like being set on fire."
"Coming right up!" Lyla throws another bomb at the swarm.
Marissel looks down into the hole, looks at his gun, hesitates a moment, then pulls out an axe. He looks at the hole he needs to get it through. Finally he shrugs and attempts to throw it at the spiders. Gotta be better than a bullet
Demitri's acid flask lands off target, the flask breaking open on the floor of the hold. The acid immediately eats a hole in the floor, the stink of the bilges mixing with the acid's foul odor.
Lyla's bomb flies slightly wide of the swarm, but close enough that the explosion sends spider bodies flying. The swarm has been greatly reduced in number, but they're still coming. The bomb blows a hole in the ship's hull above the waterline.
Karri's ray of frost misses the swarm entirely.
Marissel's axe lands in the middle of the swarm, but the spiders don't seem to notice as they swarm over it.
Ortik's torch burns brightly, as does Jakob's.
The spider swarm advances, *hissing* and *clicking*.
The tanglefoot bag Lyla threw keeps them from advancing too quickly, however, and they stop 5 feet short of her.
Hahahahahaha Your weak flesh missed! Try again! hahaahah!!
Karri scrapes her fingernail against the back of her other hand and pulls out a wriggling form, she presses it between her fingers, harshly, and flings it at the swarm.
Ortik swallows as hundreds of spiders crawl towards him and Lyla, and brandishes his torch towards them. "Sorry about this," he said, apologizing as he pressed the flame forwards. "I'm a terrible houseguest."
Not sure if this torch actually works - the rules seem to indicate it acts as an improvised weapon that deals bludgeoning damage, plus 1 point of fire. I'm guessing the fire might be the only thing that actually harms the swarm. Here goes!
, plus 1 point of fire
Marissel watches as his axe lands right in the middle of the spiders and does nothing. He grimaces looking around for any sign of hope. His eyes brighten as they land on the window in front of him. He jumps, twisting in the air, trying to get through without getting hurt.
He lands moving quickly down the stairs. Once there he leans down, trying to find a broken plank he could use as a weapon.
Demitri looks around to those still up top. "Anyone got rope?"
If someone does, he will spend his turn lowering it.
"Not like this," he mutters, clenching his teeth, and drops down into the hold.
Damn! Running out of bombs... gotta save some for Lamm!
Lyla looks around the room thinking about her next move; while she studies the situation, the halfling girls steps away faster than the swarm can reach her, keeping the danger at bay. Her lips curl into a smile as the girl remembers the acid vial in her pocket, discreetly subtracted from Yargin's body. Lyla suddenly spins around the lower deck while reaching for the acid; she throws the flask at the spiders between backflips while still in the air, landing gracefully as she watches the vial shatter on the floor.
Karri's ray of frost flies wide of the swarm and hits the hole Demitri's acid flask made in the hold's deck. The odor coming from the hole is now one of frozen bilge water.
Marissel leaps through the cabin's window, sticking the landing with a spot-on action roll. He gets to the bottom of the stairs and sees Lyla & Ortik against the starboard wall of the ship, the swarm of spiders before them. There are a few stray planks that he can use as an improvised club, if he so desires.
Jakob leaps down into the hold, a lit torch in hand. He sticks the landing flawlessly, brandishing his torch, driving the spiders back.
Ortik swings his own torch as well. The spiders recoil from the waving flames, gathering into a big clump...
...just in time for Lyla's acid flask to land amongst them and shatter. The acid splashes over the remaining spiders, *sizzling*, killing the rest.
The only sounds to be heard are the lapping of the waves against the sides of the ship.
Once rope is handed out, Demitri will lower it and help the party back up so they can resume their mission.
Marissel waits at the bottom for a bit, but when Demitri doesn't begin climbing down the rope he finally calls up. The rest of you coming down? That man said the entrance was through the hold of the ship. He stops, motioning around him at the hold that he, Lyla, Jakob and Ortik are standing in. He turns impatiently away and begins looking for the exit.
Demitri will start climbing down slowly then.
Ortik pants in relief as a second flask in as many moments flies into the oncoming mass of spiders, and they disperse before they could swarm over he and Lyla. The dwarf turns to the halfling girl and gives a strained bow, wincing from the exertion. "Of all the people to fall into a ship's hold with, I fall in with you. And thank all the gods of good for that." He looks up through the hole in the ceiling, through beams of sunlight that illuminated the dust and cobwebs floating through the air. "It's safe," he calls. "These spiders have been pacified."
He sits down for a moment and pulls a bit of moss from his belt pouch. He spits upon it, and cups it in his hands, blowing onto it as though he were trying to coax an ember into a flame. Form follows function, and the moss does in fact glow, long enough for him to press it to the sharp ache in his side, whereupon it melts into his skin. He sighs in relief as a few daysof healing happen in the blink of an eye. "Not as good as I'd hoped it would be," he remarks, testing his range of motion as he stands. "But it will have to do."
Lyla bumps her fist on Ortik's shoulder. "Nah, it was nothing. You'd have done the same for me if you hand't landed on your nose," she teases the dwarf. "C'mon, let's help them down. And by help, I mean you hold the rope and I watch," she says with a wink.
Karri carefully comes into the hold of the ship, grateful that the spiders did not seriously injure the tools of her revenge. She mutters under her breath, "Now seems to be the time, sweet Velaro..."
You notice that, along the port wall of the ship's hold, there's a rectangular handle cut into the wood. Giving it a tug, you open what appears to be a smuggler's hatch.
Beyond lies a small set of stairs leading to the walkway to Lamm's door. Looking above the water, you can see the vat room through the hauling bay.
The walkway itself is quite narrow--it appears you'll have to cross it single file.
Jakob peers out at the walkway and then looks around at the others.
"I can go first," he offers. He readies the hammer.
Demitri draws his sword and nods to Jakob.
Jakob advances slowly, using the long-hafted hammer to test the footing ahead.
Marissel pulls his axe free of the floor boards. In his other hand, he still holds his gun. Looking about, he motions to the dwarf, then falls in behind him.
Testing the walkway with your hammer, you find that unlike the docks above, these boards have recently been replaced. They feel much sturdier than the ones above. You feel that you can all safely cross at once.
Proceeding carefully and quietly, Jakob approaches the door.
Or, not so quietly. At the door he pauses, looks back to make sure everyone's ready and....
...pushes the door open.