Focused, again. Marcus draws his shield back out, standing defensively. He has to reinforce his armor.
Waving away the nice smelling web vapors from her face, Magda tries again to wrap her whip around the leg of the strange purple thing and trip it.
Not really wanting to enter the webbing, Vera stays in the doorway and just keeps blasting the thing!
Krovax thrusts his sword forward as hard as he can for the things gut, hoping to eviscerate it.
Shi tries to wiggle out of the webbing that is hampering her before doing anything else, happy to stay behind the walls for now until she can get loose.
Shi frees herself from the webbing, Kaliyah successfully hits the bloated beast, and Vera's magic missle thumps successfully into his purple hide. The beast sees that it's not doing as worse as it could be, even though it is outnumbered. He directs one of the spiders to web Krovax and the other to bite him.
Krovax is now entangled, as it seems that the strategy of these creatures becomes apparent. The bloated creature can't decide who to attack, as both foes are entangled.
The creature misses, and it notes how well-defended Marcus seems to be. It hisses angrily at Marcus, and chitters at his spider companions.
Marcus sees they are turning their attention away from him, and retaliates!
But the weird and cramped fighting conditions are too much for the large greatsword.
Magda's whip hits webs, hits the mast, hits Krovak (not that the wall recognizes minor things like pain), so she gives up and tries to infect the thing with her misfortunes.
The plump one seems to boggle, blubbering about how he's cursed "whyb amb Ib cursedb!" but it doesn't seem to be stopping it's aggressive posture.
Free of the webbing Shi moves back up to attack the nearest spider.
Vera wades into the room and sends a magic missile at the same spider that Shi stabs!
Kaliyah fires twice into the bloated thing, trying to pin it to the wall. Though her first shot is decent, she doesn't pull the bow back far enough to get much power behind it due to the poison in her body.
Krovax continues to press the attack, slashing his blade at the bulbous spider-man-thing.
The plump one dodges Krovax, due to Krovax' entangle, but takes the hit from the magic missle and one of Kaliyah's arrows.
The spiders just step forward and try to attack their foes.
The bloated creature attacks Krovax, looking at him earlier, and not realizing that Marcus wasn't using a shield anymore.
The creatures all miss, terribly!
Marcus hacks at the webs covering him.
Vera just keeps blasting the bloated creature!
Krovax also begins angrily carving away at the webs on him to try and help fight more effectively.
Shi keeps on fighting the spider in front of her hoping to get another lucky blow on the thing.
The poison in her body is slowly getting to her as she finds her ability to focus on the battle is becoming increasingly difficult. She struggles to hold her bow steady and bow shots fly terribly wide.
Marcus and Krovax free themselves from the webs, and Shi hits a spider, while Vera accurately uses her missile.
The plump creature switches back to Marcus.
Marcus takes a little more damage, and is badly hurt, but shakes off the poison. The quivering mandibles pierce Marcus' shoulder, and he winces in wordless pain.
Krovax continues slashing at the fat one hoping to bring it down!
Marcus can't believe they managed the criminals so well this time and now they're getting torn down by an overgrown infestation. His sword comes down again!
"OH COME ON!" Kali shouts, frustrated. She shakes her head trying to focus and then takes aim and fires two shouts, the first of which is quite accurate.
Shi swings again in her continued battle with the oversized arachnid, hoping to score a blow before it does.
Magda forgot the whole chanting thing so tries to curse him again.
Marcus' blow drops the purple people pincher to the ground, and Kaliyah's accurate arrow thuds into the chitin of one of the spider. Uncontrolled, the spiders look to attack mindlessly.
The party dispatches the two remaining spiders with aplomb, and finds themselves in a webbed room with no remaining enemies. All appears to be quiet on the ship, at the moment.
"I used to like spiders." Madga mutters, before trying to move around and search through the bones and such. Getting stuck over and over and over, and swearing here and there.
"Eww, what is this place? What was that hideous creature? And how did it live here so long?" Vera was brave enough to enter the room when there was danger, but not so brave that she wanted to stay in it. Quickly stepping back outside, she conjures more light--not that Magda needs it--and then looks from her safe distance for any magical signatures.
Marcus throws the ichor off his blade, breathing heavily. He slowly takes his shield back out, turning to scan around the room. When no more threats are present he takes a deep breath, steeling himself. Then he goes to stand by the door, keeping guard while the others search the room.
Noticing their wall having a slight crumble to it, despite the attempts at scowling through the pain, so she'll tap him a couple of times with the wand. "Any better?" the half orc asks with surprisingly (to her at least) genuine concern.
Marcus grunts in appreciation. He is still injured and would need some rest, but he no longer looks on the verge of falling over.
After a short amount of work, the party hacks away at the dream spider webs, eventually finding a hidden nook where Barvasi has stashed 1462 gold pieces, or what appears to be most of the bribe money the party provided him.
They are able to make their way to the deck of the ship easily. It appears the disappearance of the enforcers and thugs has not appreciably changed the prevalence of activity on the associated ships, with various and sundry debauched entertainments underway.
The party returns to shore and finds a man with a large nose and finery standing next to their old friend Belzer, chatting amiably. The man smiles at everyone when he sees them, and Belzer waves.
The man has carefully used putty, makeup, and hair dye, but is your acquaintance Vencarlo Orsini. It appears that he’s quite good at disguise.
.
"Belzer!" She waves amicably back at the friend. She then stares at the old man. "Um, Vencarlo?" she asks, not at all sure.
Good to be among allies again. Marcus nods to them, checking his armor; it still didn't feel quite right. Takes time to get everything on right.
"Shi!" Madga holds up the familiar sack of gold "We found your money!" she tries to pull off the mess of spider webs that is getting everywhere but fails miserably.
"Where did the old guy go, I wanted to thank him... he's not dead is he?" Magda asks the gnome in worried tones, completely fooled by the disguise.
The man grins, ”not so old, I think, that I cannot pull off a disguise.” He winks and takes off his putty nose, and it’s clear that even with the powder and makeup, Vencarlo Orsini stands before you. He bows and smiles, then says to Magda, ”I am glad your plan worked out so well. Your drake friends made quite the distraction, and of course, his goons couldn’t do much to them. They knew to fly out after a few minutes - looks like it bought you some time.” He hefts a sack of coins, and Belzer points to his own bulging purse. ”We even made a bit of money gambling, too. Not sure if we’re welcome back - but it’s a moot point now. Is everyone feeling themselves?” He looks over the group, tutting. He especially turns to Shi, ”you seem to have come out of the experience in one piece” He seems to be focusing almost completely on her, and he asks, ”was it a good learning experience?” He’s asking playfully, but there seems to be a slightly serious undertone to the question.
Shi smiles when Magda discovers the coins "Glad we could recover most of that, though that's not all mine, that is our share now since Devargo no longer has need of it..."
Outside she follows along with the others and once Vencarlo reveals himself and seems to take a particular interest in her she purses her lips a bit as she replies "Well, honestly I think that question should be directed at some of the others. I mean... I'm glad things worked out and we put down a threat to Korvosa, but was it necessary?" She shrugs rubbing at her wrists where her fur is matted and bloody from being bound by those horrible manacles. "Things could have been much worse for a fight that wasn't even particularly necessary..."
She let's out a deep sigh as she concludes her rant but then forces a smile "Anyway, thank you for your assistance. It is obvious out little group has much to discuss in terms of how we handle things moving forward." With a moment to finally breath she turns to Magda and goes to give the girl a hug "Thank you for coming for us." She goes and gives Vera a hug as well in thanks before asking "So, how did you two manage to put this all together?"
Marcus nods sharply in response to Shi's point that they have much to discuss, but he clearly intends to have the conversation alone with the group, without other onlookers.
Magda frowns at what Shi is saying but it dissolves into the hug "The city needed it, fo- Shi." an act of trying by using the lady's name instead of her own nickname of 'fox lady' "Asshats like spider guy are a rot inside her that she can't dig out. She needed us to do it instead."
"Sorry you got hurt cause of it though." she adds with regret.
At the question of how, "Lots of help. These two, the little dragons, the halfling... oh.." she pulls off her hat and scratches her ear in a bit of embarrassment. "I said a lot of bad stuff to the head guard lady, you all might want to talk to her without me from now on."
"Cressida put us in touch with Dokkren, the thief who helped us break in. And she gave us a bunch of healing potions! She's just sort of obsessed with following the law, so she wouldn't help us directly. I think she'll be glad that the Spider is dealt with."
Vencarlo raises an eyebrow, smiling, ”well, I should hope she follows the law. She’s the chief law-enforcement officer of the city. So long as she follows the law, she can have the ear of the seneschal, the queen, and others. Would you rather she lose her position, and be replaced by a tyrant, or an idiot?” He laughs, ”not that I care about rules much, but it isn’t my job to do that.” He shrugs, ”believe what you’d like, but you give her less credit than she deserves. She’s saved thousands of people in her time as Field Marshal - I may disagree with her methods but she’s gotten results.”
He stretches and looks like he’d like to be on his way, ”anyway, you should listen to these young ladies, the four of you. You owe them a lot. The next time you rush into something, your enemy will likely be less merciful, and less greedy. Or, ignore my advice if you’d like. Maybe Desna will favor you forever.” He smiles, ”Korvosa is a dangerous city, and I’ve never seen luck last forever.” He looks down, a little sadly, at Belzer, who grins up at him. Belzer bows with a flourish at the others, and adds ”good evening to you all, I must be going, it is past my bedtime. Gnomes need their beauty sleep to remain full of vim and vigor.”
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Magda gives both the men a grin and slapping pat on their shoulders. "All that's nice and all about her, but she can still bite me. Thank you both for the help. I owe you BIG."
"We're so grateful for your help! If you ever want your fortune read or have some other mystery that needs solving, just let us know."
Krovax was quiet as he left the ship of the Spider. He was still roiling with inner rage at the whole situation.
He turned to children and squatted down in front of them, catching his breath and settling his nerves before looking up to them. ”You did good work here. This hive of scum are gone, no longer a festering boil on this city, thanks to you.”
Shi moves over and extends her hand to Vencarlo and Belzar "As the others said, thank you again for your assistance and should you ever need the favor returned you can count on me to help."
As Krovax mentions the 'hive of scum' being gone, she turns her attention back to the group "With Devargo dead, what do you all think is going to happen to this place? I fear that as long as it remains someone else will just take over the reigns. Maybe the next person will be better, or maybe they will be worse, but either way we've now created an opening for someone to step up and claim power here."
She pauses a moment before adding "Unless we plan to burn it all down?" There is a bit of a twinkle in her eye at the suggestion, her chaotic nature shinning through a bit more than usual.
Krovax turns and looks at the structure. He ponders a moment before saying ”Unless we do.”
He turns to the others and adds ”The displaced orphans need a safe place to lay their heads. And we could use a safe spot to fall back on that isn’t haunted,” giving Vera a pointed look. ”We can secure this place for ourselves and also keep it out of the hands of other unsavory individuals.”
Krovax hears in his ear, "I'm always with her. Did you forget?"