Despite Alessandra's best efforts, she is unable to dismantle the lock.
Gabriella leans close to Ellie.
"Even I wouldn't have tasted that thing's blood," she whispers.
She looks at the woman's flail. "Is that one of those masterwork lockpicks I keep hearing about?" She grins.
Ellie smiles in solidarity with Gabbi. "Yes, I think so. It should work something like... this."
She promptly swings the heavy flail at the lock, somewhat hindered by the desire not to destroy the contents of the case and the cramped conditions of the room.
The lock shatters, along with the glass around it. Suddenly, inky blackness engulfs the room, smothering all light it touches! The gloom is impenetrable, even to the keen eyes of a changeling or dhampir!
"Deeper darkness. It might last for an hour or so."
Ulrich is becoming even more wary of the tricks being used to try to frighten you.
As soon as the darkness descends, Gabriella lowers her crossbow to avoid any 'accidents'. She then tries to feel her way to the nearby wall. Encountering something, she explores with her hand to identify it.
"Oh, sorry, Ellie," she says. Although the apology seems to lack any real remorse. She leans in close. "Did you ever play 'Seven minutes in Elysium' when you were a teenager?"
"Yeep!" Even in the dark, Gabbi can feel the heat of Ellie's blush.
"Did you ever play 'Seven minutes in Elysium' when you were a teenager?"
"Uh, n-no. I don't know that one. When I was a teenager I was learning how to kill, injure and maim people."
It's a simple statement of fact. It's not intended as a threat. Probably not intended, anyway.
"So for all of you who were born with darkvision, this is what humans experience in a dark room. Enjoy... Oh, excuse me, oh sorry, oh I don't know who that was, but I do apologise..." Ulrich slowly inches his way to a wall and subsequently to the door.
"Marco!"
Alessandra, who was standing next to the case, simply reaches out to find the edge and carefully extracts the paper, working by touch alone. Once she has the documents she follows the sound of Gabriella whispering.
"I think we could make it fourteen minutes, don't you?" She asks when she gets closer, one hand outstretched in the dark to avoid 'running into' anything.
As Gabbi moves around Ellie to find her way to the wall and then to the door, she keeps one hand in contact with the woman. If the hand, perhaps, roams just a little, it could be explained as an accident.
Just before she moves away, the dhampir leans in a little closer. "You'll have to ask Allie to show you how to play." Ellie can feel the coolness of Gabriella's lips brush her ear in not-quite-a-kiss. "Or I could show you how."
The dhampir moves away.
Game-playing? Well, two can play. Ellie reaches out, stopping Gabbi from disengaging. "I'm learning lots from Allie already," she whispers back. "What can you teach me...?"
She wraps a strong arm around the inquisitor.
Gabriella gasps slightly as she feels the strength in Ellie's arm.
"We need to move along," Gabbi calls out in the darkness. "I don't much care for not being able to see."
"It would be rude to deny a lady what she wants." Alessandra whispers in the darkness, her soft breath playing over the drama a couple of feet away in the darkness.
"I knew you two would get along."
Once you are clear of the darkness, you can examine the infernal contract. Though it is now defunct, its wordsmithing is excellent, making it worth 450 gp as a paragon of legalese.
The southeast corridor opens into a large, dim room that contains a dozen wooden desks topped with hinged lids, each with stacks of paper and well-used inkwells. The desks are arranged in neat rows. A lectern stands at the front, facing the desks. Spider webs stretch from desk to desk and up to the walls and ceilings. Wooden doors stand in the north and west walls.
A creature stands at the lectern. This strange humanoid looks like a gangly, distorted caricature of an ettercap, with spiderlike fingers and an enormous wicked grin. It glares menacingly at you before dissolving into a swarm of spiders and retreating through the door behind it. As it does so, a dozen bright-red spiders the size of cats spill out from the desks and begin to skitter towards you!
"I HATE bugs!" Gabbi snarls as she takes aim and fires at the closest one.
She then reloads.
Gabby's bolt impales the spider, which falls on its back as its legs curl up.
Ulrich takes some of the alkali flasks from his bag and calls out "Who wants an alkali flask?" He delivers one to anyone who responds 'yes'.
"Pl-" Alessandra begins, before horrible images of what might happen to any alkali flask she hold rush into her mind and cut off her words.
Ellie moves to the nearest spider and tries to crush it.
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"Enjoy. Now you're released."
After letting Gabbi go, Ellie moves towards Alessandra, holding her gently and kissing her until she's out of breath. "I like when I'm with you - you make me feel safe - Gabbi's different - spiky and prickly and dangerous and - I like that too - but I couldn't if - if I didn't feel safe with you first - thank you..."
Alessandra can taste blood (Ellie's blood) on Ellie's tongue.
"Enjoy. Now you're released."
"Oh, I intend to," Gabbi says when Ellie finally pushes her away.
Ellie squishes a spider, followed by the next one to rush at her. But four others dance around her legs, biting at her, while another four swarm Elka. The last one skitters up to Allie.
Gabbi takes aim at one of the spiders swarming Ellie and fires.
She reloads again.
"Terribly sorry!" Yells Ulrich as he launches a flask into the air, aiming for the center of all the spiders.
"Kamosh, peck them!"
"Kamosh doesn't like this!" But the whippoorwill tries anyways. He flies over to Elka and starts pecking at a spider.
"Yow!" Ellie scowls as she's bitten by spiders. "What is it with all the biting?"
She smashes at them with her flail.
"What can I say?" Gabbi snarks back as she's pulling back the string on her weapon. "Once we found out how wonderful you taste, we had to tell all our friends."
------------------------------------
Allie brutally stomps on the spider that approached her and glances around at her companions, trying to work out who needs help.
In the face of a veritable wave of spiders there isn't much else to do but claw and scream. Elká almost drops to the ground under the combined weight of the spiders and terror, but somehow manages to remain standing.
Elka rips apart one spider climbing on her, while Allie stomps on the one at her feet. Ellie misses with her swing. Ulrich's alkali flask splatters all of the spiders, along with Ellie and Elka, wounding each slightly. Kamosh pecks one arachnid, further wounding it. Gabby dispatches a spider on Ellie with a well-placed bolt.
Six spiders still remain, biting at Ellie and Elka. Both get bit once.
Gabbi takes aim once more. This time at a spider crawling around Elká.
"I hope there aren't a lot more of these things around here," she says with distaste. "I'm going to have nightmares about them." She reloads her weapon.
Death whistles on by and Elká lets out a surprised 'eek!' as a crossbow bolt slams into one of the damned spiders that are making their way up her legs. "Kill 'em, kill 'em, kill 'em!!!"
Alessandra hurries to help Elka and curb stomps at another spider.
The tiny spiders prove quite dextrous, dodging Elka's claws and Allie's stomp. Gabby manages to shoot and kill one of them.
"Argh!" Ellie makes a sound of annoyance as the little critters prove to be hard to kill.
She swats at them with her flail, aiming for the one that bit Elka.
Ulrich's about to throw another flask when he realizes that it's probably not as effective as he thought. He decides to swallow his fear, and carefully steps into the fray.
Ellie splatters another spider on Elka, and Kamosh finishes off the one he previously pecked. The changeling is bug-free now, but three spiders still swarm over Ellie. One deliver another nasty bite!
Gabriella shifts a little to get a better view of the spiders on Ellie then aims and fires.
She reloads with determination.
Ulrich... helps... sort of
Kamosh flies over to Ellie and starts pecking another spider.
Elká screams in panic when one of the spiders tries to hug her face. What ensues is a blind rampage, with Elká flailing about.
Elka tears apart two of the remaining spiders, and Gabby dispatches the final one with another bolt. At last, the pesky pests have been exterminated!
"Are you ok?" Gabriella asks Elká quietly, moving next to the panicked changeling.
She then spends some time gathering up any crossbow bolts that didn't shatter.
"Let's go kill that ettercap," she says finally with her flawless skin paling slightly at the thought. "He went west."
"No?! Those things bit me, repeatedly, all over! It itches! It burns! And worst of all, the next I meet someone I like, I might cut off his hand the moment he touches me! Ugh, yes, let's move. I need someone who I can punch in the face."
"Ok, then," Gabbi says with a raised eyebrow as she draws her hands back.
"Itching? That is one of the symptoms of venom. Are you sure you are alright, Elka? I can take a look for poisons and diseases, and treat them with only a few minutes at most."
"Sorry about the acid..." Says Kamosh as he flies back to Ulrich's shoulder. His beak has spider blood coating it.
Ellie shudders, picking bits of spider corpse off her clothing and her flail. "Not the worst thing we've encountered, but still - enough to give me the creeps."
"OK, let's keep moving. After that noise I guess they know we're here."