Amanteia clutches her chest and staggers away from the spider. Even standing up is becoming difficult, but she has the wherewithal to fire two missiles at #3.
Dellan and Argus are unable to connect with the quick little buggers, but Ray's hammer makes solid contact with #3. Amanteia finishes #3 off with her two missiles.
The final spider bites into Dellan's foot and its mandibles snap off on the tough leather.
Amanteia finally overcomes the poison. The damage is done, but it certainly could have been worse. She leans against a tree and takes a moment to gather herself, then stands and nods to the party that she is ready to continue.
|
Dellan moves over to the sorceress. "Stay still, let me look."
He begins uttering a prayer to Pharasma, making strange eldritch gestures over her, and finally places his hands on either side of her neck, pouring divine power into her body.
He steps back, looking over her pupils. "Let us see how it worked."
He checks her lymph nodes and marks her pulse.
Argus walks up to the fountain at the center of the courtyard with a faint limp, leaning heavily on the glaive. His gray skin looks slightly flushed, making him look like raw beef that that has been out in the sun just a little too long, and takes a look around at the courtyard.
Ray follows the paladin, knowing the half-orc's eyesight is hot garbage, and also looks around.
Amanteia stands a little taller after Dellan's spell. "Thank you. I am fine now."
Argus and Ray move forward along the path. This wide clearing surrounded by high hedges contains a moving sculpture of bronze plates that resembles pages from a book. The plates twirl slowly around a thick central rod. Four wooden benches surround the sculpture. A few tattered spider webs hang from pergolas to the north and south and completely enshroud a human-sized shape reclining on one of the benches. The web-shrouded shape expands and contracts slightly, as though the webs concealed a sleeping figure.
Argus is about to take another cautious step when Ray notices something that the paladin did not: several nearly invisible lines of webbing criss-crossing the center of the clearing. The webs lead to the sculpture, and Ray can tell that the bronze plates would be flung from the sculpture (and into your soft, pliant bodies) if the webbing is disturbed. It's possible he can disable this effect, however.
Ray immediately holds an arm out to stop Argus from moving any further, pointing wordlessly to the near-invisible filaments the plodding half-orc nearly tripped. He motions the paladin back, then kneels down, producing a wrapped length of treated leather. He unfurls it, revealing over a dozen thin pockets filled with various slender picks, pliers, tweezers, scissors, and other tools of skullduggery, and begins trying to remove the thin webbing without accidentally murdering himself or his comrades.
Ray very nearly slips and bungles the whole thing, but he catches himself and successfully disconnects the webbing from the trap trigger.
The web-covered figure on the bench still undulates.
Dellan moves to investigate the figure on the bench. As he reaches out toward it, it bursts, covering everyone in webs and goo .
Congrats! You're not entangled!
"Eww."
Argus, covered head to toe in spider snot, looks about 1000% done with this place.
Ray swallows some and dies.
The party begins to extract themselves from the sticky webbing; it is slow, frustrating work. Just as you are getting close to done, a low, bestial growl comes from behind one of the trees ahead of you on the path. A disgusting, roiling wave of flesh with a dripping, tumorous face gushes forward toward you.
This is a lemure, a sort of devil. They have DR 5/good or silver and acid/cold resistance 10.
Immune to fire, poison, and mind-effecting effects.
Amanteia (27/29 hp, entangled [1 round])
Dellan (30/34 hp)
Creature (0 damage)
Argus (40/40 hp, entangled [1 round])
Ray (27/27 hp, 1 str damage, entangled [2 rounds])
Bold may act.
Amanteia steps to the side for a clear view of the thing, waves her hands, and a burst of dazzling lights and sounds appears in front of the creature's eyes.
The creature walks through the burst of Amanteia's spell like it is not even there. It charges Dellan and swings a claw at him.
The claw hits, but then something strange happens. Dellan feels like the sharp, ragged claw should have torn his flesh to shreds, but instead it only barely grazes him . Additionally, the creature's figure changes, looking like a transparent image superimposed on a vague, shadowy form .
This creature was summoned using shadow conjuration. It is a quasi-real illusion that acts just like the creature it is imitating, as long as the person it interacts with doesn't pass a will save to realize it is not fully real. Passing the will save reduces its damage and hp to 1/5 of their normal values, but only for those who pass.
Amanteia (27/29 hp, entangled [1 round])
Dellan (29/34 hp)
Creature (0 damage, -2 AC [1 round])
Argus (40/40 hp, entangled [1 round])
Ray (27/27 hp, 1 str damage, entangled [2 rounds])
Bold may act.
Ray felt the bonds of the webbing start to give, but before he could take advantage of the opening, they snapped back into place. He is left grumbling as he drags his blasting rod up, pulling against the tight bonds of the spiderwebs, and fires a bright orange-red beam of white-hot flame at the creature.
Ray spits out webbing from his mouth. "Lemure! A minor devil. Hard to hurt without silver, and resistant to acid and cold." Glad fire is my modus operandi, he thinks absently.
"Never fought devils!" he says jovially, despite their... sticky situation . "A few demons though. Worldwound is full of those."
Argus tears at the webbing and forces himself forward, dropping his glaive for the silver halberd, and swings at the lemure.
Ray's bolt slams into the lemure, engulfing it in flames... which do absolutely nothing. The beast doesn't seem affected at all. However, Ray now also sees the weird shadowy form covered in a transparent image of a lemure.
Argus hits the lemure and it screams as the silver cuts easily into its flesh. Argus still only sees what looks to be a real lemure, but it goes down to his strike. Shouldn't it have been tougher than that?
Ray sighs in frustration. "Damn shadow conjuration. It's not real, not exactly." He glances around suspiciously. "The caster can't be far."
Ray begins scouring the courtyard for a hidden caster.
Sure enough, Ray spots Colulus behind some trees on the path ahead. He points it out, and as everyone spots the ettercap, they are overcome with a palpable sense of dread (except Argus, whose resolve bolsters everyone around him).
No one succumbs to their fear! Colulus growls in frustration and closes on the party.
Colulus is a nightmare ettercap. In addition to the usual ettercap abilities (climb speed, trap affinity, control over spiders), it also has a number of abilities granted to it by the nightmare template.
Ask away! 14 = 1 question; 1 additional question per 5 over 14.
Amanteia (27/29 hp)
Colulus (0 damage)
Raybin (27/27 hp, 1 str damage)
Argus (40/40 hp)
Dellan (29/34 hp)
Bold may act.
Amanteia causes a burst of golden dust to appear around Colulus's face.
Colulus is covered in the dust, but does not appear to have been blinded by it . In response, it points at Amanteia and says, "Go sit on that bench until I tell you to get up."
Without a word, Amanteia turns, finds a bench, and sits down. She looks quite demure.
Colulus cast suggestion on Amanteia.
Amanteia (27/29 hp)
Colulus (0 damage)
Raybin (27/27 hp, 1 str damage)
Argus (40/40 hp)
Dellan (29/34 hp)
Bold may act.
Argus strides forward and brandishes the glaive at Colulus. "You have one chance to leave this place alive, creature. I have no love for killing, and I do not wish to do so now. But by Shelyn's grace, I will end you before I let you harm me or my compatriots. Leave and live."
Ray sighs. This paladin's idiotic code is going to get them killed one of these days. "Just kill him, man! Look at it! There's no f***ing way that thing is running. Ugh."
He touches himself, and an invisible disc of force pops into being in front of him.
He tells the others what he remembers about nightmare ettercaps.
|
|
Dellan stifles his irritation at Raybin's words. Worse, he hates to admit it but he has a point. He is all for mercy when an enemy begs it, but offering it when the fight begins just seems naive.
Still, as far as he's concerned, Argus is leading this little troupe, so he follows suit, touching himself and coating himself with a force barrier from Pharasma's grace.
Amanteia sits quietly, with her hands folded in her lap.
What the hell are you doing?! Evil creature over there! Go kill it! Are you guys seeing this??!
Colulus ignores Argus, approaches Dellan, and lashes out with a bite. Dellan easily steps out of the way.
Amanteia (27/29 hp)
Colulus (0 damage)
Raybin (27/27 hp, 1 str damage, +4 AC [39 rounds])
Argus (40/40 hp)
Dellan (29/34 hp, +2 AC [39 rounds])
Bold may act.
Argus' eyes harden. "You were granted mercy. It will not be granted again."
He slams the butt of his glaive into the ground, and it erupts in a corona of holy power. Colulus cannot help but know that holy power is directed specifically at him; it has spat in the face of Shelyn's gift, and She will not stand for it. The vile sludge and webbing burns away in sizzling black wisps from the light that bathes the paladin as he strides toward the hideous nightmare creature.
Ray snorts. "That's more like it. This guy is so dead."
He strides up to the ettercap, dropping the hammer to draw the silver longsword, and swings out with it.
Bob, deciding Amanteia's the smart one of the group, f@+&s off to go sit on her head and watch the fight from a respectable distance. [color=blue]"You got this, champ!"[/color] he calls cheerfully.
Argus's glaive strike lands true, tearing open a wide gash on Colulus's side. Dellan's dagger and Ray both miss, as Colulus laughs.
Amanteia (27/29 hp)
Colulus (0 damage)
Raybin (27/27 hp, 1 str damage, +4 AC [38 rounds])
Argus (40/40 hp)
Dellan (29/34 hp, +2 AC [38 rounds])
Bold may act.
Amanteia doesn't react as Bob alights on her head.
The party watches in horror as the large gash Argus opened in Colulus becomes a much smaller gash. Colulus laughs maniacally, then assaults Dellan with a bite and pair of claws. Only the bite hits , but the green ichor dripping from Colulus's mandibles is definitely a concern...
Dellan avoids becoming poisoned. He feels like it was a very near thing.
Amanteia (27/29 hp)
Colulus (?? damage)
Raybin (27/27 hp, 1 str damage, +4 AC [38 rounds])
Argus (40/40 hp)
Dellan (23/34 hp, +2 AC [38 rounds])
Bold may act.
Argus doesn't seem fazed by the sealing wound. He simply swings again.
Ray narrows his eyes at the healing wound. Fast healing, or regeneration? Only one way to find out.
He steps sideways so he doesn't catch either of his allies in the blast, focuses his thoughts, and unleashes a cone of flame on the ettercap.
Argus's glaive enters Colulus between two of the ettercap's ribs, and a subtle twist catches the hooked blade under a rib.
Argus basically cuts Colulus in half, but the body immediately begins stitching itself back together. You remember that nightmare ettercaps fear silver and good-aligned weapons; perhaps a strike from one of those will halt the regeneration?
Amanteia (27/29 hp)
Colulus (?? damage, unconscious but regenerating)
Raybin (27/27 hp, 1 str damage, +4 AC [38 rounds])
Argus (40/40 hp)
Dellan (23/34 hp, +2 AC [38 rounds])
Bold may act.
Ray, seeing Argus cleave the creature in twain, steps in with the silver sword and stabs it in the head.
The tiniest nick from Ray's sword kills Colulus; the fact that he keeps hacking away is just egregious.
With Colulus dead, you take a look around. A path winds from a web-shrouded pergola to the south through this garden. The path weaves around several large topiary animals, and the heads of all these topiary creatures are entirely covered with webs.
Amanteia still sits on the bench.
Argus walks over to Amanteia, leaning on his glaive with a slight limp. "Amanteia? Are you w... w... well?"