"Clever, Maera, clever. We need to get to Sandra with all speed. How long do you think it would take to walk there?"
3
"We definitely need to get there quickly, but we should take care. So far we've managed to get ambushed twice, and if we rush in we may end up in a bad way." Doc says with a worried tone in his voice.
"If whoever was here has been spying on them, they must've been holding out against them for a while. It's likely we'll find useful supplies or information inside the dwelling itself." he adds sagely.
"I agree," she nods to Doc. "Whoever stays here must have had to deal with keepin' this vine creatures in check. Grindylows are equally entanglin' foes... perhaps there is somethin' we can use against them."
"Aye, lads and lasses. We search and then we head to save our missin' folks."
And with that, Diabolito gets into the searching process, grinding his now normal sized teeth in over-eager frustration.
The closer you get to the door, the worse the stench seems to be.
Maera approaches the door, but slows at the smell, trying to determine what it is.
It definitely smells like a dead body is inside.
She coughs, covering her nose slightly. "Scratch that. It's lookin' more like 'was' is more appropriate for this place's owner. Somethin' dead anyway."
"Tha's quite a stink!" Aramis chuckles, pulling the collar of her repurposed coat over her nose and mouth before venturing further. She keeps her musket trained on the door, before leaning back and forcing it open in one swift kick.
Diabolito grimaces and wraps one of his old bandages around his nose and mouth, the smell of blood hopefully drowning out the smell of decay and rot.
"Aye, lass. Lets make quick work of this and be onta the next part of this adventure!"
"Ugh, that's rather ripe isn't it?" Doc grimaces as Aramis kicks open the door.
"Perhaps we can figure out how recently the former occupant passed away, and what did him in. I reckon it might be a good thing to know."
The door slams inward revealing a corpse hanging from a rope in the middle of the room, obviously a suicide by the fact that a chair is kicked out from under the body. The stench is horrific, one of the worst smells any of you have ever dealt with. It has likely been dead for quite some time as a huge swath of flies are swarming the body.
The body looks to have had some disease before dying from hanging.
"Well, this jus' keeps gettin' better an' better," Aramis mutters, holding her collar in place over her nose with one hand. The coat stinks of sweat and the sea, but it's plenty better than the stench of the corpse. With the other, she waves her musket around the body, attempting to shoo the flies away. "We still plannin' on searchin' this place, or shall we jus' move on an' forget this poor sod?" She steps further into the room to allow the others to enter, glancing over the contents for anything that jumps out immediately as being useful.
Before Aramis can get that close to the body two things happen:
First, the 'corpse' begins to thrash and it's head looks up at her, though still hanging by the rope. Having taken a step closer, the smell is so bad that Aramis is overwhelmed by the stench and feels very, very sick. Aramis you are sickened for the next 6 minutes
Second, the flies pull from the corpse and swarm towards the crew.
Round 1: Crew Goes 1st
With a surprised yell, Aramis stumbles back, raises her musket, and lets the corpse have it. She fumbles to reload, stomach churning from the foul stench.
"Can't even kill himself properly, it seems," she mutters darkly, before uncapping the waterskin she's kept at her hip. Beginning a song not unlike the one she used to levitate herself to the Wormwood, the water snakes out from the skin to form a partial barrier between the swarm of flies and Aramis. Lashing out with the water once, she says, "Let's see if you like gettin' your wings wet..."
The water seems to be particularly painful for the bugs, knocking many out of the air and seeming to slow all those it hit, making them much easier to swat from the sky.
Diabolito growls in frustration at not preparing for a horrible swarm, and as such, his own tones call forth water to try and push their foes away.
The water pushes the swarm back into the rear wall, seeming to squish a few of the bugs in the process.
"A msas of flies and me without any alchemist's fire. I'll be sure to remedy that when we get back to ship!"
Doc fishes out a potion and quickly downs it, shrinking down until he's the size of a large halfling. "In we go!" he says, taking a deep breath before he goes in.
Inside the room is a small writing desk, a very nice bed, cooking equipment, and a pair of barrels filled with rotten food.
Malak steps forward and slams his ranseur into the swarm, slamming into it with all of his might.
The weapons does manage to crush many of the wet bugs.
Nissa hesitates, seeing no safe place to move into the room. The flies seem to be trying to lift up and reform to attack. It does manage to move forward and cause the two before it a distraction.
Doc struggles with the distraction, but Aramis has no issues with it.
CREW is UP!
Diabolito growls low, beginning a chant as the smell of an inferno forms around him, the sound of crackling fire coming forth, as it overshadows the slight sounds of a bull's snort.
"Hold on, ya swabs! Help be a'comin!"
"Tha's Cap'n ta ye, Whiskers!" Aramis laughs, ignoring the queasiness in her gut and the rising fever. She blasts at the swarm of flies, the blast of her musket echoing in the room, fumbling to reload again.
Doc does his best to push through the flies to get at the desk. Mustering his strength, he overturns the desk, attempting to smash as many of the flies still trapped in the water on the ground.
I hope this does most of them in, having all of us catching fever now would be a really bad situation.
The swarm seems to be falling apart, far fewer flies swarm.
Nissa will cast Mage Armor. This place isn't safe. :-p
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Malak doesn't understand what the thing is that "birthed" these flies or why it is in this place. The barbarian doesn't know if it is alive, only that it is still moving and should stop. The sea reaver knows to kill.
The half-orc decides to thrust his ranseur forward and into the thing still hanging from the noose. Its simple movements a perceived threat.
The ghast looks as if it is having a bad day. If it weren't hanging from a rope, it probably would have dodged the attack, but as it is, the attack almost ended it.
Maera makes another attempt to drown the swarm.
While Maera's attack does keep the swarm wet, it does not appear to do any damage to it.
The swarm moves again, ever so slightly, attempting to feast on the party.
The ghast attempts to struggle free!
But fails.
Those who have not had the fever burn their veins manage to fight it off.
And only Diabolito is bothered by being surrounded by the swarm
That's it crew...FINISH THIS!
Diabolito grins through his nausea, as the elemental of fire bursts forth in a shower of ash, striking out at the swarm.
Feeling worse for wear, Aramis attempts to blast the swarm again. "Bessie's bloomers, why di'n't Pappy e'er get me tha' bunderbuss?" she grumbles, looking considerably more pale than usual.
The small elemental appears beside the swarm and immediately goes to smashing.
The bugs can not handle the flames and the small elemental burns enough of them for the swarm to dissipate, leaving only the smelly ghast hanging by his neck, which Malak uses his ranseur on once more and ends it's life...again.
Combat over. Swarms suck.
The gunslinger staggers to a nearby wall and slides down it, leaning forward, elbows on her knees. "Ye folks mind if ah take a breather? Not feelin' too great righ' now. Doc, ah don' guess ye've got anythin' fer a fever?" She chuckles weakly, tugging the collar of her heavy coat open.
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Malak grumbles and begins to search the building for anything. "Longer we sits, longer the suckers can eats Sandara..."
It seems like the barbarian is more likely to find the air than anything. He loses his temper and smashes a chair to pieces and attempt to do the same to the desk Doc had used earlier.
"Don' know if ye've noticed, but one a' yer cap'ns can't shot straight righ' now," Aramis points out. "Would ye prefer I risk shootin' Sandara? Ye saw wha' tha' bullet did ta Plugg. Ye want ta see wha' tha inside a' Sandara's 'ead looks like? I know I don't."
Seeing the last of their threats removed (for the moment), Diabolito waves his hand in salute to the elemental. It briefly returns the motion before exploding in a shower of sparks, returning to its fiery home.
Seeing the rough shape of his companions, he lets the air clear for a few minutes, motioning everyone outside so folks can get a better look at Aramis.
"Let ol' Stormbeard take a look at ya, Cap'n. We'll see if'n me n' the Doc can't sort it out."
After they both take a look at the Cap'n, Diabolito heads back into the small hut, do a bit of well deserved treasure hunting.
Doc goes over everyone who was in the swarm, checking them for bites. He then fishes around in his healing kit for a moment. Digging out a bit of some root, he breaks it into two pieces and hands one to Aramis.
"Here, chew on this and it should help keep the fever down."
He takes the other piece and begins chewing on it himself.
Disease is treated and both are cured of it (I prefer for the doctor's work to just succeed on this particular task, in general). With a few quick glances around the shack, several things are found....
a suit of leather armor, six spears, and eight finely tailored
courtier’s outfits(30 gp each).
style
young blonde woman worth 45 gp.
A wooden box is wedged into a drawer in the room.