Yume bows in gratitude. "Please lead on then. We are grateful to have a Priestess of the Resplendent Goddess of Fortune as an ally."
Yume thanks Spivey for her divine healing. She spends some time practicing her katas, and then falls into a deep slumber.
In the morning she boils tea and chews on her dried rations before saying, "Alright, brother and sisters. It is time to do our duty, is it not?"
Shizun spends the evening staring off out at the ocean in quiet, and anxious, contemplation.
When the sun rises, she thanks Spivey for the sanctuary before nodding to her sister that she is ready...as she ever will be...
"Yes, but perhaps this time we should attempt a little more subtlety. If there are more things living in there, we are extremely lucky they didn't hear our battle yesterday and intervene after we were weakened. If we keep charging forward recklessly, we will be dead before we restore honor to the Jade Throne."
Yume bows to her brother's suggestion, and leads the way back.
When they near the hole in the wall, she listens and looks around for danger...
...but is too busy replaying the previous day's battle in her head to notice much.
As she and her siblings head back to the castle, Momo keeps an eye out for danger.
The gatehouse and immediate environs appear to be quiet and abandoned. The inner door that was previously opened by the corbies is now closed. All the corpses are gone, though there was no attempt made to clean up any of the gore.
Before heading inside, Momo casts Mage Armor.
"Kenmei, do you think it'd wise to use that entrance again?" she asks. "I can always slice an opening through the back door."
Yume shrugs. "Unless Kenmei sees an ambush waiting for us, I doubt we'll be any better off cutting a new opening. Your claws are amazingly effective...but they don't silence the sound of stone being shredded, and I suspect that's what brought us so much attention yesterday."
"There's a cliff behind this place, remember? I didn't see any back doors. The corbies who came from further inside to help their friends came through there," Kenmei says pointing to the five foot wide door at the west end of the room.
"I'd say Momo should go take a peek through that, with us right behind ready to run out if something sees her."
Yume nods, though tells herself to not let Momo out of sight.
Shizun nods nervously as well, willing to follow the more combat oriented of her siblings lead...
After a moment of hesitation, Momo gathers her courage, puffs out her chest, and... puts her pointy ear up against the door!
If she doesn't hear anything on the other side, then the kunoichi tentative opens it... and gets ready to run away and hide behind Yume.
This barren courtyard of hard-packed earth contains clumps of tough looking weeds, furrows in the ground as if made by taloned feet, and chalky white mounds of dung the size of human heads.
Immediately in front of Momo are a pair of open double doors. They appear to lead into a stables.
Yume approaches the double doors and peeks through, shield raised.
As Yume leans into the doorway to look, her shield encounters a thin strand of webbing which snaps under the contact. A moment later a spear comes hurtling down from above the doorway, propelled by a spiderweb bungee.
At the far end of the stable, she sees two sets of eight glittering eyes gleaming out of the darkness. There is a hideous purple creature that walks upright like a man, but its face is that of a spider, and its hands are sickle-shaped claws. Next to it, a black arachnid the size of a large horse crouches.
Initiative
Spider 18
Ettercap 15
Party 12.75
The massive spider skitters forward and raises its rear to blast a globule of webbing on to Yume's body.
The spidery humanoid runs to the wall and climbs up it as easily as well, a spider. It scrambles forward laterally towards Yume, looking as if it is ready to leap down and attack her.
"RRRrrrnnnngghh!! You can't hold me, fiends. I act with the grace of the Heir!"
She twists the Whispering Shrike and cuts the webbing off of her.
Realizing there's no way to cut herself out, Yume flexes her draconic muscles and roars...Shredding the web!
Shizun moves forward to support Yume, just in case she gets overwhelmed by these arachnids...
Momo hustles over to see what the commotion is. Upon seeing the big, scary spider, she promptly beings throwing acid at it! Internally, Momo finds herself wishing that she had better options available...
Kenmei flies forward and flings one of his bombs at the spider.
The bottle explodes right over the spider's eyes, showering it in venomous powder and temporarily dazzling it.
================================
The spider scuttles forward to attack Yume.
It misses her, partially blinded by Kenmei's flashbang.
The spider-man weaves another web, flinging it at Yume to slow her down.
He misses in his haste.
Not having any better options, Momo continues firing acid; this time, she targets the Ettercap.
Shizun says a prayer to the divine beings, and sends out a blessing to her siblings.
Yume narrows her eyes at the giant spider. "Today you die, vermin!"
Kenmei flies laterally a ways to get a clear shot, and whips another belladonna bomb at the spider.
Another deafening burst of light leaves more poison coating the bedazzled spider's face.
================================
The spider continues to lunge at the closest humanoid, in this case, Yume!
Yume deflects the venom laced fangs at the last second.
The strange spiderman creature...
"Oh, that's an ettercap!" Kenmei thinks to explain.
...the ettercap weaves and flings another web at Yume, looking worried for his large arachnid companion.
It then scuttles back from the cursed dragons warily.
Unable to effectively target her foes, Momo scurries to find a better position. When she ends up near Kenmei, the kunoichi discovers a clean line of fire that gets the giant spider and none of her siblings. As such, Momo take a deep breath and, well, unleashes a line of fire!
Yume strains against the webbing, but isn't quite able to break it. "Unnnggh!! Can...one...of...you...help...me...break...free?"
Shizun spots the small bundle of strands that seem to be holding Yume in place. She reaches forward nervously and cuts them with her claw.
Kenmei shrugs and figures enough poison will eventually kill anything, and chucks another poison flashbang.
The spiders eyes are basically destroyed by belladonna powder at this point, and it is twitching wildly as it attacks Yume.
The ettercap runs away out the back of the stables.
================================
Yume yells, "Get back here!" at the fleeing ettercap, while slicing again at the giant spider.
Annoyed that they will likely be facing the entire castle again, Momo decides to just take out the spider as quickly as possible.
Kenmei floats forward a bit, and bathes the spider in his lightning breath.
The spider continues to attack Yume, completely addled by the poison completely coating it now.
The spider finally manages to strike home, and sinks fangs into Yume's flesh, pumping the wound full of venom.
The ettercap opens the door next to it, and then climbs up the outside of the castle wall.
New Init
Spider 18
??? 16
Ettercap 15
Party 12.75
Momo continues to fire volleys of acid at the spider.
"Aaaah!!" Yume manages to fight off the worst of the poison through sheer determination, but the pain throws off her aim and she ends up just slapping the spider with the flat of her wakazashi.
”Kenmei!” Shizun calls out as she spots the ettercap climbing a wall outside, pointing. ”Over there!”
"Yeah, I see him Zunzun. One thing at a time!"
He raises his alchemical crossbow and fires off another volley at the spider.
The two bolts fly true, straight into the center of the poison coated-shrapnel shredded eye cluster on the spider's face, sinking to the fletching. The massive arachnid twitches a few times as it falls and curls into a ball, clearly dead.
================================
A large lizard, about the size of an adult woman, comes sprinting out of the building the ettercap opened. The reptile sees Momo on the ground and begins running toward her hungrily.
The ettercap continues to climb along the outer wall of the keep like a spider, rapidly heading around to the other side and gaining height as he goes.
Yume hustles toward the lizard.
"Kenmei, can you stop that ettercap from going wherever he's heading? I'll keep this lizard busy."
Momo casts Shield to reinforce her defenses and then moves back to make it more difficult for the lizard to get to her in a timely fashion.
Kenmei flies towards the ettercap and fires another couple of bolts at it.
He misses twice. "Sorry, guys! This was always a lot easier in training!"
================================
The lizard charges Yume, who decapitates it in a single blow!
The ettercap pauses to fling a web at Kenmei!
The sticky strands wrap tightly around the intrepid scholar, entangling him!
Seeing the lizard fall to the Whispering Shrike, Yume runs up below the Ettercap.