Alara's gait appears to have been drastically thrown off by the spider venom; she plods along with a distinct lack of her former subtlety.
She also appears to be aware of it, sighing dejectedly. "Care to flip a coin? Heads, we go left, tails, right?"
While the light from the cantrip doesn't illuminate the entire area perfectly, Sharrd can see enough that it becomes clear that the open area meets back with the broad, main passage of the caverns.
"Random, Smandom." Sharrd says. "Koya always said the left routes were the more sinister, so I vote right." and with that he floats his light source back towards the western (right) passageways sending it down until it gets to the branch and then sending it to the left while he tries to sneak behind it about 20'
Shaking his head at his brother's repeated poor attempts at sneaking, he stays with the larger group, watching and waiting.
Piper sticks close, gripping tightly on the flute.
Masamune seeing that no-one else seems to be stealthy thinks that we have given up all pretense of stealth so he continues to clank down the tunnel with his sword drawn.
Alara gives a resigned sigh and gives up on stealth for now.
"I don't really care either way which way we go first."
Sharrd's lights reveal more bending caverns off to the left - extending beyond the light's ability to penetrate the darkness. To the right, it appears that the cavern eventually opens out into another chamber.
Piper strokes his chin. He writes: 'Let's go right. We can always double back and explore the entire cave system later, right?'
Sharrd nods at Piper's suggestion. He floats the light down the right passageway, trying to sneak up behind it.
"I will follow which ever direction the lot of you wish to go."
Alara simply nods.
Masamune makes sure his blade is still sharp and he begins to move down the right pathway.
The dancing lights reveal a dead-end chamber, largely made up of a pool but with a rise in the center as an island. The torch-like light of the spell is reflected back by small glinting objects on the island.
Leaving the lights where they are, Sharrd steps behind his brother so that he can talk to everyone at once. In a quiet voice he says. "Cave deadends at a pool with an island with treasure on it. But there's something moving in the water, I can't make it out."
Alara arches an eyebrow.
"Treasure? I like treasure!"
Then her face falls.
"But I can't swim."
Her face lights up again.
"But I like treasure! Wanna check it out?"
"Sure, I can swim." Sharrd replies as he readies his spear. "Let's get up to the edge of the pool and if it's something dangerous in the water, I'll try and spear it." He then starts to move back towards the dancing lights. As he peers into the cavern he moves the light over the pools surface so he can get a better view of the pool and what riches lie strewn across the island.
Piper nods. He writes: 'Let's be careful. Whatever might be in the water could be dangerous. But, the rewards might be worth it.'
Sharrd noticed the movement enough that the creature in the water does not ambush him from surprise, however, his return to the pool edge triggers a violent response as an amorphous creature rears up to lash out at him. Sharrd, however, is quicker (by quite a bit) and may act first.
Round 1 initiative
Other initiatives - to blend in at Round 2
As the ooze, well...., oozes from the water Sharrd gives a battle yell and stabs it with his spear. "Brother, get up here!"
Sharrd's spear thrust cuts deep into the ooze's soft goo and some kind of fluid leaks out, but the creature still has some fight left in it. A pseudopod lashes out and clobbers Sharrd (for 3 points of damage). The touch of the ooze creature burns his skin with an acrid smell (for an additional 2 points of acid damage). Finally, as if it hasn't already done enough, the pseudopod that hit Sharrd stretches, spreads, and wraps around him, holding tight and restricting his motion. Both Sharrd and the ooze are considered grappled.
That makes it everybody's turn (including Sharrd) - any order is fine with me.
Piper, hearing the struggle, begins his performance once more.
Alara pales as she hears the sound of battle.
"Sharrd!" Her arms tremble, and she grimaces in frustration. She couldn't go to help him without getting in Masamune's way...
"Son of a biscut!" Sharrd yells as he finds himself wrapped up by the goo. The acid burns through his clothes and his skin begins to blister. In a rage, Sharrd drops his spear as his hands lengthen to become talons. He starts to slash away at the ooze.
"Get off of him you ooze!"
Masamune charges forward, and tries to cut the ooze away from his brother.
Caught between Masamune's slash and Sharrd's tearing claws, the soft-bodied ooze is torn apart. Fluid, some kind of protoplasm, spews out of the creature's torn membrane, stinging a bit but causing no further burn injuries. The creature moves no more (nor will it ever do so again).
The room's pool is actually quite shallow - no more than about a foot deep, which makes getting to the island in the center easy. Sadly, the glinting visible in the light of the cantrip turns out to be a formation of naturally growing quartzite crystal and not items of great value. The whole formation would probably net no more than about 20 gold coins if it were taken from here and sold.
Piper stops playing. He looks at the crystal formation. He then looks to the others and writes: "Should we remove this?"
"That was unpleasant. Are we sure it is dead?" Once he ensures that the creature is dead, he walks closer to Sharrd and smiles, placing the tip of the magic wand and enacting the spell.
Alara feels a pang of guilt as she watches Sharrd get healed up.
Though her arms still tremble, she stands up straight.
"I want to start scouting again. It was one spider; I'm not going to let its venom keep me back." She squares her shoulders and starts down the other tunnel.
"I promise I'll be right back."
She hasn't quite recovered from the venom, and it shows in her plodding along down the tunnel.
"Thanks Ash. Did you see the size of that thing! It like grabbed me and was going to eat me."Sharrd excitedly says. Disappointed by the lack of treasure, Sharrd expresses his opinion as to the quarzite. "I think it looks pretty where it is." Then he sees Alara heading off down the the tunnel. "Be careful, Alara" he yells after her, not helping with the sneaking.
The passage Alara peers down and starts to explore narrows substantially (and it was never super-wide). The walls press in as the passage roof presses down with tons of damp rock, but just as it seems like the claustrophobic tightening will never end, it does and the small tunnel seems to open into a wider chamber again.
Alara turns and trots back to the rest of the party.
"The tunnel gets *really* narrow a ways ahead. I don't think it's wide enough for any of us to fit through." She reports.
"I think it's time to try the main chamber again."
Piper nods and makes his way to the main chamber, while aiding Alara.
Alara gives Piper a little hug as he helps her back to the main chamber.
"Thanks." She smiles.
She steps into the shadows of the main chamber of the cave. "I'll be right back, I promise." With that, she moves further in.
Her gait is still noticeably ungraceful, and she makes a fair bit of noise.
Alara's move back past the side passages and to the main channel does not go unnoticed by companions thanks to the scrape of equipment against the cavern wall, but there is no obvious response from any natives of the cave.
The broad main passage of the caverns starts to make a slow bend to the right just as its fading into the darkness at the far limit of Alara's eyesight. The slightly uneven floors of the passage collect a lot of moisture even outside of the long pool along the eastern wall. There is barely anywhere to step that doesn't involve putting at least one foot in a shallow puddle.
Alara returns to her companions. "The cavern's wider in the main chamber. And it's dark. Wet too."
Piper returns the hug and continues to help. When she returns, Piper's quick to support her. He signs, "When we get back to Walthus's, you're going to bed to rest, young lady. We'll see if he has anything to relieve the spider venom." The way he's signing indicates that there's no room for argument.
Aiding Alara, he eventually steps in the puddle. He looks down and a frown mars his face. Hearing her report, Piper deflates. 'Great. Walking through cave water. That's connected to the swamp. Ugh. I'm definitely going to need to dump the water from my boots when we get back.' He digs through his pack, careful not to place it in the water. He pulls out some flint and steel. 'Flint and steel... and no torches. D**n it.'
At Piper's insistence, Alara only nods. It's not like she's in much of a position to argue anyway.
She winces as the sound of water *squishing* echoes in the chamber. "I know, Piper. I'm not a fan of trudging through swamp water either."
Seeing Alara nod, Piper only kisses her forehead in a caring fashion. He signs: "Don't worry, darling. I'll take care of you."
Piper shudders and nods at Alara. He signs: "Let's see if we can finish this quickly."
Sharrd moves up behind Piper and Alara, sending his lights a little down the side tunnel so that it doesn't backlight them. He seems a little dejected at the lack of undead.
Alara smiles as Piper kisses her. 'I know you will.' She signs back.
Watching Sharrd cast his lights down the tunnel leading to the entrance, she nods in thanks. "Wait here."
With that, she disappears into the shadows of the cavern.
This time, she's finding her feet. She's adapting to the spider venom, and now can move with barely a sound.
The passage widens even further ahead. The light, as it is currently placed, can't even penetrate enough of the darkness to reveal the further cavern walls.
From Alara's vantage point (and with her superior vision in these low-light conditions), she can see an object lying on the cavern floor. It appears to be a lighter color than the rock it rests upon, but it is impossible to identify from this distance.
Alara returns to the party yet again. "There's some kind of object on the floor ahead. It's a lighter color than the rock it's on. I couldn't tell what it was from where I was standing."
Sharrd moves himself and the light up to Alara. Straining he tries to make out what lies on the floor.
The forward light now brings the object to the edge of the bright light, by Sharrd's vision, but well within bright light for Alara. Between the two of you, you can now recognize the object as a body. A rotted one to be precise since it seems just about the only parts left are skeletal. There are two more that can be spied farther up the chamber.
"Oooh, Skeletons!" Sharrd calls back to the others as he readies his mace. Just In Case.
"One moment." With that moment and a word, Ash casts one of his newest spells. Detect Undead And Concentrates on the things before him.
Piper readies his flute, a look of determination on his face.
After a moment's concentration, Ash definitely feels the presence of creatures that are undead.
A moment more and he can discern that there are six faint auras.
The information continues to refine itself and he soon pinpoints the six auras. Three were already visible as the skeletal corpses lying on the ground. A fourth one lies on the stony floor of the cavern just at the edge of the dim light thrown by the dancing lights. The final two are not actually visible, but Ash perceives them lying off in the water to the left.
The skeletons just lie there, though. Whatever they are tasked to do in this mockery of life... they aren't doing it yet.
"There are a lot of undead in this room, but if I rush in, I should be able to draw their attention...and do a fair amount of damage in the process." He says and looks to Masamune to ensure that he will be there for him.
Once gives his nod, Ash is actually going to rush forward and channel, wand still in hand (at this point the cure light wand is basically Ash's primary tool in combat).