Marrowdown moves closer to the spider, drawing his dagger as he does so. When he gets within range, he hurls the dagger at it.
Um Horsecutta was able to lithely wriggle out of the webbing. Seeing its prey escaping, the large spider attempted to grab him, but Marrowdown interposed and ripped its head from its body, slaying the beast; meanwhile, its mate trapped the alchemist in sticky webbing. Aka loosed a bolt of eldritch power, but it flew wide of the dexterous spider. Zoog attempted to break free of his own entrapment, but couldn't. Empowered by Spug's spell, Zurk valiantly swung his axe, but again, the swinging spider evaded the attack. And Marrowdown threw a dagger at it, but was unable to hit.
Round 4 Begins!
With a flurry of movement and a surety of aim Um tries to place his shots where they will count.
As Um Horsecutta's shots thunk into the spider's body, it loses its grip on the strand of webbing out of pain. It tumbles down to the earth... and lies there, unmoving. Probably stunned from the sudden drop.
Zurk grins and brings the axe down hard. "You dead now, bug!"
Zoog still hasn't managed to shake the stupid poison, but he is free!
"Maybe them's have nest around here? Me needs something to torture... maybe there be spiderlings there?" Spug begins looking around the ground and trees for what might be a "trail" the spiders left.
With one fell swipe, Zurk chops the head from the spider, killing it.
Zoog and Um Horsecutta finally shake the effects of the poison.
Spug also finds a trail that appears to be the spiders', presumably leading back to their den.
Ziki decides that she's had enough, and returns to the village.
As the party finishes up the fight, Gniffles and Zoog notice something odd...
A few feet away, you see what is clearly a footprint in the water. It is elongated and thin, with three toes and points that may be from claws, and it is slowly filling with water, almost as though whatever made the print came by only a few moments before your own arrival on the scene...
Spug calls out loudly, "Come, me find trail. We find thems' nest and torture thems' babies! Maybe thems' keep shiny things in nest too?"
"Torture?! Zurk love to torture. We ripses off the baby leggies and den...we praise dah Hungry Lady!" he seems almost giddy at the revelation. "And den, we eatses dah babies!"
Zurk uses the nearby trees and bushes as a simple way of cleaning his blade, slightly oblivious to how he's causing wanton defoliation as he chants.
Gonna eat dah babies! Gonna eat dah babies!"
Zoog, exhausted from the fight (his Strength will be at 6 when his mutagen wears off), calls out to the group. "Hey! Gobos! Footprint!" he points to it frantically while consuming his CLW Extract.
Gniffles crouches beside the muddy footprint, watching it slowly fill with water, before quickly standing up and wheeling about--scanning for any movement. "It fresh!" He growls, not understanding how something could be so close without them noticing it. He tries to sniff at the air. It smells like swamp and sweaty goblin. He reaches a boney finger down and sticks it in the muddy footprint as well, then brings it back up to his lips. It tastes like mud and sweaty goblin. "It might have been a sweaty three-toed goblin." he muses, putting the pieces together.
Gniffles then pushes himself back up to his feet with his staff, and bounds over to the dead goblins. Pulling his own blade free and replacing the thong about his naughty bits, he starts cutting into the giant spiders' curled corpses. He's hoping to find anything small and solid that he could use as sling stones, or perhaps something tasty.
Spug looks at the goblins standing around the spider corpses and surveying the area, appearing unsure of what to do next. Eager to follow the spider trail he picked up, the goblin warpriest will casually look at the footprint to see if he can ascertain anything.
"No, no Gniffles... it is giant toad track... and since me can find no more... me think it must be giant flying toad. It must have flown away." Spug says confidently.
"Anyways, me find spider trail, me want to find their nest to see what goodies are there... be it shinies or babies."
Spug starts following the spider trail he picked up.
Zoog looks around to see if the thing that made the print is still around. He also examines the print to see if he can ID whatever made it.
Poor Um tries to ignore his stupid compatriots.Um almost die and dey all like nice fight we go look for new fight now. Why I wit stupid gobbos anyway. Dat Ziki had da right idea. The poor battered gobbo sulks as he follows his compatriots.
Unable to spot the invisible sweaty goblin frog, Gniffles concludes his disection of the spiders. "We follow Spug now. Lead us to tasty nest!" He shouts, with a boney arm raising his staff in the air.
"Marrowdown's not sure it be tasty, them big spiders were more icky than yummy." Marrowdown looks around for his dagger, and then, once it is found, tucks it back into his sash. He then bends over the footprint and examines it as well, curious as to its origins.
Able to find neither a sweaty three-toed goblin nor a giant flying toad--despite the brilliance of the suggestions--the group heads off along the path of the spiders, finding themselves at their apparent lair within a few minutes. It is composed of several fallen trees and a whole lot of webbing, in which are several dozen bodies. Some are those of goblins, and some are longshanks or other wicked humanoids. There's even a wild dog or two in there, all wrapped up in web.
With some searching, you might find something on these bodies or in the lair, but it would involve touching the corpses of various creatures.
"Dead longshanks, dead spiders, dead dumb dogs, and all we do is search for dah yummy bits!" Zurk is going to go searching through the bodies for something good, almost singing the words to himself. After all, longshank fingers are yummy.
Spug seems most disappointed to find the nest free of spiderlings to torture. He then begins looking around for shiny things, and to aid him in finding the juicy stuff, Spug chants forth some divinations.
Gniffles races to the slung corpse of a dog and begins to beat it with his staff, again and again. The thumps continue until the poor witch is exhausted and struggling to breathe from the exertion.
"Never. Can be. Too. Sure." he manages between breaths, smiling behind his mask. His dog caution satisfied, he begins searching with the others.
Um joins in the fun of searching for things.
Zoog finds some berries that magically restore his strength..... :p
Marrowdown enters the lair at a leisurely pace, but his eyes light up when he sees not spiderlings, but things of actual scrumptiousness! He spends a while strolling amongst the various bodies, pulling off bits here and there to sample. He watches admiringly as Gniffles whacks the dog corpse, and when the witch finishes, he pulls it down and slings it over his shoulder. "Dogses make good soup, 'specially now that Gniffles made it all good 'n' tender. Tasty, tasty!", he announces to no one in particular.
Marrowdown joins the others in the search, though he's doubtful that anyone stupid enough to die in such a manner would have anything of value.
Digging through the lair, the goblins find a multitude of lovely treasures. Teeth! Bones! Scraps of hair, and bits of meat, and lots of great and wondrous and very, very valuable baubles.
Also, two dozen bits of shiny round gold, and a pearl, and some very strong-smelling licorice, enough for everyone (assuming you share). There's also a pretty-looking goblin-sized crossbow here, along with a few bolts. [dice=1d12], to be exact.
So, enjoy your ill-gotten spoils, gobos! Your spirit-guide and voice-in-sky leader is off to camp for a few days. While the longshanks are away, the goblins will... well, they'll probably strangle/beat/set fire to/eat/attack/grapple/choke/maim/kill one another, in all honesty. Hopefully there's not too much of that while I'm away!
Zoog examines the crossbow.
Marrowdown surreptitiously gathers the bi-products of the foolish victims (except for the bones, teeth, and hair which get tucked away into a pocket), and the licorice and stuffs it all into his mouth. He leaves the other items to the group. They aren't of much use to him. Marrowdown finds that the strong taste of the licorice, a new experience for him, goes well with the stringy bits of meat. "Thish verm tastfth. Yom foolsch for nyot," he swallows here, "snatching the yummy bits up."
Um stares forlornly at the rest of the gobbos.must not kill the group, I need the meaty bodies to block incoming dogs. What would scribble do. What would scribble do. Scribble would get himself caught and banished that what scribble would do. Ok so what I do. One, stay calm. Two don't get into fight I can't win. Three, stop with stupid listing off and just do things...... oh wait, are they staring at me? They knows something not right. They knows I super smart. I can't let them catch on. Got to be big bad gobbo.... no then they try take me down..... subservient gobbo, that how you stay alive.
"Hey big smart gobbo faces, how we split up stuffs." Um, bends down and picks up the pearl. "I can has marble since others take hurty bits and tasty bits and shiny bits yes." Oh noes big mouth, not subservient enough.... um think fast. Um pockets the pearl and begins to back away from the group until he has a log to his back. "We should make song commemorate killing eats babies and eats babies too."