Madir leads the way down the southern corridor, following along the waterway. The water gets thicker as you move along and after a bit, it takes over the corridor. The brackish pool doesn't looks very deep, although it's dark water so you can't see the bottom.
Gruhx senses nothing from his tremorsense, but Oren picks out a few marks that look like the passing of feet - barefoot perhaps, though the prints are hard to distinguish due to constant moisture. The tracks head right into the brackish water.
White sniffs at the water, but doesn't seem too upset at it.
Oren silently points out the tracks to Madir, then points deeper into the cavern, implying that they should follow. While not the stealthiest dwarf in the world, he does his best to move quietly as they continue on.
Madir nods, and slowly moves further, eyeing anything that might be dangerous.
Glancing down where the dwarf points, he squishes his eyes together. After a long moment, he nods slowly and points to the ceiling...then on down the chamber. With a toothy grin he trudges onward.
"Me see rocks!" he informs the group cheerily.
You continue on, following in the mighty Trox's steps after you see him pass, unscathed, through the water. It seems to only be about two or three feet deep, but the bottom is slippery and trips up Eli once or twice as he wades through in his armor. Still, you all make it through, and come to another branch of sorts. A small passageway leads off to your right, while the route ahead opens into a wide chamber, though you can't see much of it around the wall.
Oren takes a look around the corner to the side route to see if anything specific catches his attention, trying to remain hidden in the shadows.
Oren moves in to take a look down the corridor. The far end of it lies in darkness, but at about thirty feet, you can see some gray lines that run the width of the corridor - webbing perhaps?
Moving closer to the others to be heard, Oren quietly related what he sees down the side passage. "I don't like leaving something behind us to get flanked. Think we should clear this tunnel before going any further?"
Tallvar nods. "That's probably smart. Don't want any surprises back here." He glances over his shoulder briefly, as if expecting some shambling monstrosity to leap out at that very moment.
The half-elf kneels down beside his fox companion, placing one hand lightly on her back. He strains his eyes looking around into the darkness, then whispers to Ember. "What about you, girl? See anything? Smell anything?" As he says this, he sends apprehensive, questioning emotions to her to help communicate his thoughts.
Ember tenses up immediately as you approach the side passageway to the west. She sends waves of unease through the empathic link between her and Tallvar. Enemy...predator...lurker...patient hunter.
She seems quite afraid of this path.
"White and I can head in first if need be. If we can get anything between us, it will not be a problem for long."
Tallvar closes his eyes, focusing on the feelings being sent to him by Ember. "Careful," he says quietly, opening his eyes again. He gestures toward the western passageway. "Ember senses something. Smells it, maybe. Some kind of lurking predator hiding in there somewhere."
Madir nods. "Then let us take it down before it gets the jump on us."
Oren nods. "Alright. You go first, then. I'll be right behind you. Gruhx, if you can, stay close behind me."
Gruhx nods silently in reply. Considering the situation for a moment, he pulls a crowbar from his pack before watching Oren intently.
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Madir leads the way, with White at his side, and continues through the narrow passage. Unfortunately, the passage is just narrow enough for Gruhx to squeeze through, the massive Trox scraping along the side walls and the ceiling. The passage comes to an intersection with branches to the north and south. Ember growls at the north, while you can see two side passages along the southern path that head west.
When a Large creature (which normally takes up 4 squares) squeezes into a space that’s 1 square wide, the creature’s miniature figure occupies 2 squares, centered on the line between the 2 squares. For a bigger creature, center the creature likewise in the area it squeezes into.
A creature can squeeze past a creature while moving but it can’t end its movement in an occupied square.
"Let us follow Ember's lead." Madir says, and he and White continue into the northern passage.
Oren nods agreement and follows the Fetchling's lead, keeping an eye out for ambush.
Madir moves closer, with White leading. As you near the room, you hear the faintest sound of liquid slurping or sloshing. As you round the corner, you see a large cavern with thin gray filaments about its walls and ceiling.
In the northwest of the chamber, two large, black and brown spiders tense, as they are interrupted from their meal. The floor holds a slurry of partially eaten flesh and blood. A stringy line of such fluid drools down from one of the spiders as the aggressive creatures charge forward to attack!
At the sound of trouble, the big guy shoves his way through the narrow passageway. With a *POP* he finds himself in the open cavern.
Taking a deep breath, he smiles. "Oooo much betta."
"Pets?! PWETS!" Grabbing the closest creature, he hugs it tightly. "Wes gun be fends! Isa call you George and hug ya and kiss ya and squeeze ya..."
Gruhx wraps up one of the spiders, its furry legs scrabbling to try and find some purchase. Raised up in the giant Trox's arms, it suddenly doesn't look so dangerous...
Oren moves around Gruhx to get a better vantage against the giant vermin, then fires a blast of sand against the one that Gruhx hasn't grabbed.
Move Action: Move 20'
Standard Action: Sand Blast vs. spider.
Tallvar squeezes forward after the others, stopping short of Madir in the cramped corridor.
Oren's blast slashes through some of the webbing around the cavern, but misses its main target, as the spider shrinks back, seemingly to become a ball of fur. It then bursts back out and scrambles over to attack back!
The other scrabbles about in Gruhx's grasp, but does not try to escape; instead, it attempts to sink its long fangs into the mighty Trox's hide.
Oren
Tallvar
Spiders
Madir and White
Eli
Madir and White give each other a small look, and then both dash past the large Trox and focus on one of the spiders!
Oren grunts away the pain of the bite, then backs up to take another shot at the spider, pulling the pick from the baldric on his belt.
Free Action: 5-foot step
Move Action: Draw weapon.
Standard Action: Sand Blast attack
Eli holds back from the clogged chamber, fully ready to heal anyone who may need it.
Madir and White weave around the base of the mighty trox to attack the free spider, and they fall upon it with fury! Both score hits, Madir opening a wide gash and then White's mighty jaws finishing the arachnid by opening up what would count for its neck, were it a normal beast.
"AAAAAA NAUGHTY!" shrieks Gruhx as he holds on tight. Instinctively, he wacks the beasty on the noggin.
Gruhx clutches the arachnid close and uses his other hand to slam it as hard as he can. The blow crashed down upon it, seeming to daze it, though it takes an instinctive bite in response. It can't seem to get through Gruhx's thick hide, though.
Not wanting to accidentally hit his companion, Oren holds his shot, on the off chance that the spider escapes from Gruhx's grip.
Oren waits to see what happens as the spider wriggles about in Gruhx's arms.
Tallvar squeezes forward, hands clutching his crossbow. As soon as he gets clear, he raises his weapon. Before he can consider whether attacking the spider while Gruhx has it in his arms is actually a good idea, he fires a bolt at the creature.
Tallvar's bolt whistles through the air and slams into the spider, causing it to squirm even more. It's legs scrabble for purchase to push away from Gruhx, to no avail. It lashes forward again in another attempt to bite.
You are dazed for 1d3 rounds.
The spider attempts to bite at Gruhx, but bites down so hard in an attempt to get through his tough hide that one fang breaks and the other is pushed up into its skull. It's head rolls to one side, seemingly unable to focus.
Madir signals to White to attack the remaining spider.
Success!
Madir and White both dash towards opposite sides of the spider and attack it from both sides
Madir jumps in and White obediently moves across so that they can attack the spider from both sides. They lay into the spider and tear it to pieces in Gruhx's arms.
You look about this cavern and see that it's largely empty save for some carcasses recently, partially devoured by the spiders, and a network of fine webbing. There is an exit to the north and the south, from whence you came. Thinking about it, you think that the northern exit connects back to the entrance of the cavern - it should be that right tunnel that you didn't take.
Hugging the corpse tightly, Gruhx swings the limp figure about a bit before dropping it on the ground.
"Me tinks not bestest pet. We go?"
Oren nods at Gruhx in agreement. He allows Madir to fall into the lead and follows along shortly after.
Madir and White lead the way once more, cautiously.
Madir and White lead the way to the south, their senses keen and searching. Oren keeps his eyes on the stonework, but finds nothing out of the ordinary considering a natural cavern. The way to the south looks to narrow considerably, to the point that Gruhx could no longer squeeze by - he could not pass that point at all.
Instead, Madir leads the way to the west, and follows the winding passage before it opens up into a wider chamber, about fifteen feet in diameter. You see a number of glittering crystals protruding from an island surrounded by a 5-foot deep pool of dark water.
Letting Madir hold the lead, Oren tries to see what he can into the room.
"Appears to be a dead end. Should we head back?"
Oren recognizes only that the crystals are simple rock crystals; they'd be worth a small amount if harvested - perhaps around twenty gold, depending upon how much you get.
Oren takes a moment to look closer at the rock crystals before he turns back to Madir. "Probably nothing major here, but we could come back to collect some of these. Could be worth a bit of extra coin."
"Understood." Madir doubles back and takes the lead into the next passage.
Glancing down the narrowing tunnel, Gruhx whines "Me no kin fit dere."
With a shove, tug, and lurch, the big guy manages to make his way back to the larger cavern. Heading southward a tad, he stretches his 4 arms, arching his back.
"Oh! Much gudda!"
Oren follows after the big guy. "It's alright, Gruhx. Hopefully we won't have to worry about going down that tunnel."
Tallvar trudges along behind the others, keeping his eyes and ears open for anything out of the ordinary.
Ember and Tallvar use their expert senses to check on the area ahead, and report nothing moving, so you move on. Ember communicates back to Tallvar an odd smell though...images of decay.
You enter a large cavern with water along the southern edge and a large pool to the southeast. There is little in this cavern but rubble, save for the mostly intact skeletons of what look to be eight armored humans. They don't seem to have any weapons. There are two more caverns branching off to the north.