Aelerie is shocked by the nightmarish scene that occurs when Virdel disturbs the corpse. Ill-prepared for handling this sort of threat, it's all Aelerie can do to try and halt the swarm's progress. Retrieving a small pat of butter from her component pouch, the arcanist warms it between her fingers as she recites an incantation, imbuing the spell with a portion of her own magical energies to increase its power.
The two protective spiders leap down to try and protect the swarm from the intruders. The one that goes towards Albus is hurt by an arrow from the ranger before it closes the distance while the one that still has a dagger in it from Javell gets a glancing blow from an arrow fired by Laro.
Both of the giant spiders are unable to pierce the protections of the trained warriors. The swarm, bereft of its halfling meal moves blindly to the other closest warm body which happens to be the worshiper of Desna, perhaps instinctively moving towards the follower of the butterfly. Their hunger is such that they are able to wade over the slippery grease created by the young arcanist almost without pausing.
The hardy warrior is bitten in various places but shrugs off both their poison and the nausea he feels at being swarmed.
The poison continues working its way through Virdel's body
Spider on Albus 4 damage
Spider on Javell 10 damage
Javell 3 damage
Virdel 1 damage, 2 str damage
Albus leaves the swarm to others for the moment. He drops his bow and pulls the loop, releasing his axe to his hands. He then swings at the threatening spider before him.
To hit target. Critical on a 20.
Damage
To confirm a critical if rolled.
Damage from critical.
Albus' mighty swing gouges a huge chunk out of the spider's chintinous armor as well as the vulnerable flesh underneath. It still lives though. It still lives. Rearing up on its back legs and waving the others menacingly at the ranger along with its pincers.
Laro move up to the spider on Albus (flanking if possible) and attacks.
"Hate... bugs. Die!"
Javell strikes the big spider in front of him, aiming for a gap in the creature's carapace.
If that drops the spider, Javell quickly makes his way out of the spider swarm, ideally making his way towards Albus and his spider, though not all the way there. If the spider doesn't fall, he takes a 5-foot step to step out of the swarm.
Aelerie winces in sympathy as the swarm foils her plan and moves to attack Javell. Undeterred, she tries a second time, working the pat of slowly melting butter with her slim fingers as she continues the incantation. A second large patch of slippery grease materializes underneath the carpet of crawling spiders. "I can only slow them down," she calls out to the others. "If no one has a way to disperse them, we should consider leaving. The children aren't down here, and I doubt anything here is worth our lives."
Virdel tosses his flask of acid at the spiders, hoping to avoid his teammates in the process.
He then draws his crossbow.
Laro can't move to flanking position as the crowded room has a patch of Grease in the centre of it and two very large spiders on each end. He does move up to stand with Albus to slash at the spider that the ranger grieviously injured. His sword misses its mark though.
On the other side Javell's knife finds it. Stabbing hard and deep into the wound already created the warpriest eviscerates the spider, slashing it almost in half. The creature collapses, its legs twitching as it flails its last moments away.
Then as Javell steps away from the swarm Virdel lobs his flask of acid onto the swarm. He misses his mark....
but the flask still lands on a portion of the 10 foot by 10 foot area the swarm covers. The flask lands true and shatters into shards and corrosive liquid that covers a large enough portion of the swarm to scatter it for good. Javell gets splashed by the liquid though.
The last spider, hurt and enraged, lunges to bite Albus.
It again fails to find any purchase and it is subsequently quickly dispatched by being swarmed in turn by the blades of Laro, Albus, and Javell.
The corpse and dried blood of the already macabre cellar is now joined by a very large area of slippery grease in the center of the room, still bubbling acid sizzling on the roughly paved floor, and the twitching remains of two very large spiders on both ends.
It is not pleasant.
Javell moves to retrieve his starknife, then, the spider threat gone, he moves around the room, the glowing blade in hand, looks around the room for clues or valuables.
Aside from the cobwebs, the dried blood on the shackles of the far wall, and the corpse itself the only things of interest are on the table. There are barbed whips and sickles, a prayer book, some rotted herbs, a long pointed poker. The only things of real value are a pair of very finely made silver daggers (masterwork).
Abruptly the fight is over, Albus asks everyone, "Is everyone okay? I ... I could try to... What in happened here? Mother thought so well of her ... Albus visibly controls himself. He turns to Javell, "Javell, after searching, could you go and see if you can find the lost trail outside? One other person should stay behind with me, no one goes alone anywhere. The rest go with, I'll catch up. I'll also the check out for some answers and then bury this body; I do not want this ghost rising. If I'm not back in an hour come looking unless you find the kids."
Unless interrupted, Albus will search the area for any clues as to what is going on and why. He'll also examine the body, then carefully carry it outside and bury it.
Search the area for clues.
The body, who or at least what the body really was Human, female etc., true manner of death, was it suicide or murder . Anything else of interest.
Grisly - search the body. Not sure if favorite enemy bonus applies here, humans lived here but it might be a stretch. +2 if allowed.
If possible remove spiders venom sacks for later or Laurel anti-toxin remedy making, may be needed.
Bury the body if nothing else comes up.
After he picks up Whisper, comforting either him or himself, treats him, lets him go, then catches up with the party, tracking them if necessary.
"Is everyone alright?" Seeing that the parts of the floor not covered in twitching spider corpses or corrosive acid are slick with grease, Aelerie sets to work undoing her previous spells to give the group some room to maneuver around the dank cellar. With a sharp, dismissive gesture, the magic is undone, and the large pools of grease instantly dry up. "I'm never setting foot outside the Hollow again without vermin repellant."
Stepping carefully around Elara's corpse, Aelerie moves over to the table and examines the different items laid there. Immediately, she is stricken by how incongruous the prayer book and the herbs look sitting side-by-side with the torture implements, and she takes a closer look at them, hoping to find some insight into what could have caused the caretaker to harm her charges so.
But, unsure of what she finds, Aelerie asks, "What do you all make of these? I thought it strange that Elara would keep a prayer book near while she was... was doing this to those poor children."
A thorough investigation of the environment shows the following:
* The corpse is a middle aged silver haired woman with her throat torn out and a slight discoloration on a ring finger. People don't kill themselves by tearing their own throats out. It was definitely not suicide. The woman has been dead for a few months. Everything points to this being Elara and the time of death fits with the time the orphanage burned.
* Nothing else is found other than what was on the table
Aelerie's usually incredibly reliable intellect fails her, possibly because of the ghastly and macabre circumstances she's working under. She does not recognize the rotten herbs. The prayer book is one of Sarenrae.
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Virdel is quite pleased with himself for dispatching the tiny spiders. "Next time you won't be so quick to jump into a killer's mouth, eh?" he taunts the acid-burned spider carcasses. He clutches his lapels boastfully as he turns to the others.
To Aelerie's inquiry about health: "Well, that poison took a bit out of me but I think simple rest will cure it." Then, discussing the findings: "She seems simply horrid. It's hard to imagine this prayer book belonging to her?"
"The daggers are too big for me to use effectively. Javell and Albus you guys wanna have one each?" Laro asks the group. More to himself he says, "Whips, sickle, poker, SILVER daggers. Why silver when the rest is so common. Anyone know what these herbs are?" He then looks through the prayer book for anything out of the ordinary.
Laro reads through what seems like a pretty standard holy text. It's a copy of The Birth of Light and Truth and it's full of stories about how amazing Sarenrae was before she ascended and then practical life advice. It'd take a few days of deep reading to get a good understanding of all the themes the text is concerned with if you aren't familiar with Sarenrae already.
Albus looks at the exhausted party and lets them rest for a moment after failing to get any useful poison sacks. He goes over to Laro, "I'll take a look, Goodman Laro, the herbs first.
Identify herbs. P herbalist or Heal might help.
Albus looks at the silver daggers, saying "Vaguely remember that silver is good against ... something but the details escape me. Maybe Aelerie will want one?" If no one else wants one he take a silver dagger.
Albus then sadly turns from the horror in the cellar, "We can take a brief break here, I doubt if anyone can eat here, but we cannot delay long. We need to recover the trail as soon as everyone is ready, I know everyone is tired but we need to keep trying the kids should be close, unless we totally failed in our tracking."
Albus does give Whisper some food to keep him happy and non-pestery, for a while. He'll take any item no one else wants, except the torture devices.
Javell accepts one silver dagger gratefully, the blade vanishing into his gear at lightning speed. If Albus doesn't want his, Javell will take the other one as well.
The herbs are too rotten for the group to identify. As they finish up they hear Whisper yipping outside.
With the small fox yipping outside, Javell draws his starknife, prepares for anything, and charges up the stairs to see what the dog is barking about.
Albus hears Whisper's excited yipping and see Javell charge up the stairs to check it out. He places his axe in its loop, grabs his bow and follows more sedately, nocking an arrow. Whisper may have found something worthwhile or is upset at a sassy squirrel he can't reach. Best be prepared.
Albus comes up and looks toward where Whisper is barking. "Hey Whisper, what's the matter?"
As Javell emerges and moves past Whisper, who is crouched near the entrance to the cellar, he sees a girl peeking over the crest of the hill the orphanage is on. When Javell comes out she stifles a yell and turns to run away, disappearing down the hill.
Albus doesn't see her as she's gone by the time he comes up.
"Wait! Come back! We're looking for you!" Javell calls out to the fleeing girl, assuming she's one of the missing children.
There's no response.
"It doesn't make sense to me, either," Aelerie admits to Virdel in regards to the prayer book. "I don't know much about Sarenrae, but I doubt She could ever abide by what was done here." Aelerie declines when offered one of the silver daggers recovered. "You should hold onto it," she tells Albus, knowing he was the one likely to have more use from the dagger. In her possession, she feared the dagger would only serve as a gruesome reminder of Elara's wrongdoing. "Hopefully, you can put it to good use."
Having reached her limit for the night on trying to make sense of the grisly events that took place in the cellar, Aelerie turns to Virdel and Laro to excuse herself when she hears indistinct shouting from above. Taking to the stairs two at a time, Aelerie emerges from the cellar with her wand held aloft, looking worriedly from Albus to Javell. "Is everything alright? We heard shouting."
Laro's head jerks up at the sound of shouting above, and he follows Aelerie up.
Virdel doesn't hear the whimpering like the others, but he has long ago learned to follow people hurrying away.
Albus walks up and asks Javell, "Did you see something? What?" Assuming that Javell tells him and Aelerie, Albus will drop his pack, going to combat load. Then will will go in the direction of the girl at 4x run for as many rounds as his con. Hopeful the girl is tired and less able in the wilderness. Before that, he turns to Aelerie, "I'll run as fast as possible, follow more slowly, don't break an ankle in the dark." Albus then yells out while running,
Help avoid breaking an ankle, by quickly picking correct paths.
Defaults on Perception.
The girl is slow in the deepening dusk and Albus catches up to her easily only a little way down the hill. She throws herself to the ground just before Albus reaches her and scrabbles backwards Please... Please don't hurt me she gasps. She is a rail thin girl who looks to be between 10 and 13 years old. She doesn't fit the description of either Savra or Kimi.
"A girl... she ran away. That way." Javell also takes off after the girl, following Albus.
Albus stops, puzzled by the child's appearance and his lack of any familiarity. Who is this? Albus says as soothingly as possible. "Child, I won't hurt you or anyone, we were just looking for our missing children. Are you hurt, hungry; we have food?" Albus, breathing heavily, crotches down to minimizes his size and to seem less threatening the way he would with a wild animal.
What, if anything, do I know about this child?
Reduce her fear.
Aelerie makes her way down the hill after Javell and Albus at a brisk, yet cautious pace, her "faerie lights" illuminating her every step. She slows to a stop at the bottom of the incline, coming to stand just behind the woodsman as he crouches in front of the unknown girl. "It's alright. We're here to help," Aelerie says in a soft voice, a look of almost maternal concern on her face. "Can you tell us your name, little one?"
The girl bursts into tears but the kindness of Aelerie and Albus brings her around and calms her down, especially the offer of food. I'm.. I'm Jeva, I lived in the orphanage after my.. my family died. Her mouse-brown hair is a tangle of twigs and brambles and her face is smudged with dark stains. Even in the darkness of the oncoming night you can see her back, arms, and legs are covered with brutal scars.
Unfortunately her tale is a commonly heard one for the beleaguered residents of the Hollow; so common that even Aelerie isn't very familiar with this particular one. Despite the efforts of the Sheriff and the Lumber Consortium stories of children being left orphaned by monster attacks spread through the town with depressing regularity just as stories of parents losing children do. After all isn't that what the two halflings and three humans are trying to prevent right now?
You're.. looking for the five kids that came here yesterday aren't you? Jeva says still sniffling into her sleeve as she gnaws into some of the offered rations I saw them
Aelerie's heart goes out to the poor girl for the suffering that she has endured, but the young woman tries to keep the sadness she feels from showing as she makes introductions. "Jeva... That's a pretty name. I'm Aelerie, and these are friends of mine, Albus and Javell," she says, before motioning to the two child-sized figures on the hill, silhouetted against the night sky. "And those are two of our halfling friends, Virdel and Laro."
When Jeva makes mention of the five children, Aelerie nods, saying, "Yes, that's right. Could you show us where it was you last saw them?"
I was scared so I hid and watched them Jeva says the barefoot girl shrugging as one of the straps of her ragged and torn yellow dress flaps loosely. You're not going to like what I saw happen, the lizards took them
Jeva leads the group to a small false peak not very far away from the orphanage. Javell and Albus can guess that the children got confused as to where the true apex of the hill was and instead followed another rise in the wrong direction. An easy mistake to make especially for inexperienced hikers in the dark. Whisper stays close to Aelerie, Albus or Virdel during the short journey.
There they find the children’s campsite. A large, makeshift tent lies shredded on the ground beside a crude fireplace of flat stones. Signs of a struggle are everywhere, with broken twigs, crushed foliage, scraps of clothing, and patches of blood on the ground. Javell and Albus quickly find a few reptilian scales around the fire pit. Albus especially but even Aelrie and Virdel easily identify these as kobold scales (They look quite a lot like Great Scout Gurtlekep after all!) .
The kobolds made little effort to conceal their tracks after the struggle and it would be very easy for Albus and Javell to follow them as they head north in the direction of the forest even in the darkness of night.
Two leg lizards, I don't like them. They're tough and I hide from them. Jeva explains as she scratches herself on her arm I watched the kids make the camp and then... I got scared when all these two leg lizards showed up and grabbed them. The kids fought but the lizards dragged them away!
Albus, seeing the girl relax a bit and having the others, especially Aelerie arrive, leaves the girl to them. "I'll go back and get my pack, Master Harg and Goodman Laro, would you be so kind and to watch me as I do so? Please keep watch Master Javell, this area is too full of dark mysteries."
Albus gets his kit, to the house he prays, "In Iomedae's name, I promise a search for justice, in Erastil's name I call for the blessings of peace. I promise to return and bury the all that needs to be. Haunt not the living but pass into the realm of the Lady of Graves." With that Albus rejoins the group.
Albus nods at the grim tale, "We need to go after them but Jeva should not make that journey, I guess we need to split the party, but how? Hmm," Albus seems a lost in thought as he wrestles with the need to be in two places at once.
Javell stays silent when talking to the girl, keeping an eye out for anything that might attack.
"No point in wasting too much time. With the spiders dead, the orphanage's cellar should be safe- if a little creepy. Jeva might be able to stay there." the woodsman turns to the girl, "Do you know how to use a knife? Here, take one of mine." A dagger materializes out of nowhere, blade gleaming in the light of his starknife. "In any case, we can't waste time. We need to get moving."
Jeva's face turns white when Javell mentions the cellar. Noo, noooo she moans her face twisted with fear. I don't want to go back.. there. she looks at the others pleadingly with a rapidly whitening face Please don't make me go back down there. I'll be careful with you and won't get in your way. Just please don't make me. I'll be a good girl I promise
She looks like she might have a panic attack.
Virdel embraces the girl warmly. "Don't worry, little one. My friend here means well but he doesn't understand what he is suggesting. Of course we will not force you to go back there. Come with us and be my ears to warn me of danger. My woodsy friends and this nice young lady will be able to protect us."
Javell goes down on one knee, "It's okay. We won't make you go down there if you don't want to. We just want you to be safe. It's not the spiders you're scared of, was it? Do you know what happened down there?"