"There are traps along the edges of the room. Try not to step on them if you can." Mazul eyes the creature for a second, then shrugs and starts digging through her pack. "Trail rations a good enough offering for His Majesty? Because that's all I'm willing to give up. If he accepts we can leave the room and take our time deciding whether he's worth the trouble of killing right now."
She pulls out four days worth of rations and sets them on the floor in front of the creature. "Here you go. Tasty tasty trail rations. Much tastier than half-orc. I'm told we're very stringy."
The web lurker is momentarily silent as he looks at the rations. Then he chitters again and waves his claws in the air.
”Good news and bad news: he likes the rations but now he’s getting greedy and also wants us to polish his claws. If only we had a tanglefoot bag to “polish” him with....” Wan breaks into smirk. Thankfully, his Proto helm hides it.
"And tell him not to get greedy or we may just have to take more than the rations away." Zin frowns at the pitiful creature. He felt sorry for it. Its whole existence is based outsiders bringing it tributes.
Wan decides to take advantage of the situation, pulling out his bolas to distract the web lurker by acting like they're some form of a pumicing device.
The tengu turns towards his colleagues waiting to see if any choose to produce a tanglefoot bag or something similar as suggested.
The web lurker twitches and clacks his mandibles.
A pair of blue and yellow spiders the size of small dogs leap down from the web-obscured ceiling as the web lurker prepares to pounce!
"Yes, twitchy-fingers lead to stitchy ends. Or something like that." With that pithy quip, Wan flings his bolas at the web lurker.
"Some people just have to push their luck." Mazul had been willing to give up some trail rations if it meant avoiding a fight. But she was not going to give the creature a manicure.
She jumps over the table to get behind the creature, then quickly stabs at it with her rapier. "Anyone feel like distracting from the front?"
◆
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"Pushing my luck is my raison d'etre, sweetling!" Wan answers Mazul. "I think that's how you pronounce that Chelaxian phrase. I don't speak the tongue."
Zin slides into the room, as from what he was hearing it wasn't going to go well. "I'll get rid of some of these webs."
He cps his hands as dozens of bright and burning star-like orbs leave his hands like embers from a fire. These embers cling to the spider, lurker and webs alike burning all that it touches.
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Moderate (-2 AC)
HP 20/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 2/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 0/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 0/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Both the spider and the web lurker dodge some of Zin's spray, leaving them momentarily dazzled. Wan wraps up the web lurker with his bolas, and the creature bonks its head on the table as it falls!
Toska moves up to the prone ettercap and slices it with his sword. Mazul moves to flank and drives her blade into its belly, and with a final shriek, the thing dies!
The spider that Zin blasted tries to sink its fangs into the elf, while the other one leaps at Mazul! Luckily, neither one hits!
Akkaboo looks up from the flames curling around her fingers just in time to see all her companions beat down the big spider creature. ”Oh.” Seeing the two small spiders left, she lefts the flames die out and instead rubs her hands together very quickly. With a crackle, electricity bursts forth to dance up and down all the insectile legs still animate in the room.
"That was easier than expected." Mazul almost feels sorry for the now-dead 'King,' who'd clearly been way out of his depth. "You should have just settled for the rations."
She circles around behind one of the spiders and continues stabbing.
Proto's suit begins to whir with ramped-up speed as the tengu activates its overdrive capabilities!
The motors clank and catch, unable to build up any further velocity, triggering an irritated cluck from inside the suit. Wan then re-focuses his efforts from the fallen ettercap to the spider caught between himself and Mazul.
Zin draws his curved blade and hacks at the spider biting at him. He makes a rapid X pattern across the space in front of him, pushing the spider back for a brief moment.
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Moderate (-2 AC)
HP 20/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 2/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 0/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 0/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
"Hey Wan, how do you cook spiders anyway? Or do you eat them raw?" Mazul considers herself adventurous to try anything once. "Are they like those little finger-food thingies that they have at fancy parties? I always wanted to try me some of those."
”Don’t listen to her Mister Legs!” Akkaboo clasps her hands over the jiggling mound atop her head and glares at the taller woman. ”I won’t let her eat you!”
"Oh, don't fret, Akka-boo-boo," Wan purrs as he avoids the large mandibles of the aggressive arachnids, "I make it a practice to never eat spiders whose names I know."
He gives Mazul a conspiratorial look. "I relish them with a little bit of garlic salt, lightly puffed, and crunchy on the outside - like popcorn. Delicious!"
One spider dodges some of Akkaboo's lightning, but the other takes it full blast. Zin delivers two critical hits to that spider, slicing it into four equal-sized pieces! Toska and Mazul make quick work of the last one.
The web lurker has gathered a fairly large stash of "treasure" in a bundle of webbing affixed under the table. Most of these valuables are worthless trinkets, like rusty arrowheads, shiny rocks, bits of glass worn smooth by the surf, or neat seashells. Among the clutter is a mesmerizing opal, five shining sling bullets, and a type I necklace of fireballs.
Wan takes an immediate shine to the discovered fire magic.
"Oh, I would adore the chance to play with that," Wan simpers, "though I understand that some of you would do better at making it practical. Nevertheless, I am not overly-fond of practicality."
As if to punctuate his point, the giant armoured bird suit inadvertently drops a mechanical widget.
"Didn't need that, really. Now what do we make of this Ghost City? Are we newly-crowned monarchs?"
Wan busies himself in attempting to disarm, or at least, safely spring the various traps scattered about the room.
"Sorry, I didn't realize Mister Legs was related to spiders." Mazul smiles encouragingly at either the goblin or the jiggling mound on her head; it's hard to tell. "I don't eat friends. Or pets. Or...whatever Mister Legs is." That is very much true. She's adventurous, but not that adventurous.
Last of the spiders dealt with, she busies herself with the important task of seeing whatever other tributes His Highness may have acquired. "Useless, useless, random junk, a shiny rock that's worthless but pretty so I'm going to take it anyway...aha! Some actually valuable stuff. At least it looks valuable. No idea what any of it does."
She shows off the items found. "Anyone know what any of this is and/or want any of it? Otherwise it's going in the bag to be sold once we get back to Otari."
Zin gingerly holds the necklace out to Wan. "Why someone would willingly wear these around their neck is beyond me." Zin does his best to explain what the magical equipment does, or at least as much as he knows as he heads off towards the southern set of doors they left behind.
Once you are ready, Zin opens the door in the southern hall. Shelves line the walls of this room, each filled with tools used for cleaning or repair work. A silver-headed cane lies amid a tangle of mops, brooms, and buckets.
None of these tools are particularly valuable, but even a brief glance is enough to note that they’re all clean and in good condition. The cane hides a silver blade; it’s a low-grade silver sword cane.
Doors lead to the north and south.
”Now THAT is stylish,” Wan croons as he sees the silver cane. ”Highly impractical, so of course, I must have it. Unless, of course, you all have a more pressing need?”
Wan titters as he appraises the thing, going on about the types of parties that he’ll get invited to with his new cane.
Wan all of a sudden perks his Proto head up. ”We’ve gone two rooms and haven’t found a secret door. Did we miss something?” he asks with partial sarcasm.
As Wan removes the cane from the shelf, several other tools clatter noisily to the floor. A few seconds later, the north door opens. The walls of this room have been painted, crudely and almost childishly, to depict a horrific Hellscape of burning mountains, rusting cities, and tormented souls. A chubby, fly-bodied fiend glares angrily at you. "Great, now I'm going to have to clean that up!" he snarls before moving to attack!
”Zounds! I’m being punished for being fashionable!”
"Eeeek!" Akkaboo shrieks. It's been too long since she's been able to let out a good shriek - the giant spider-man could have been worth one, but Wan was negotiating and she'd been told that shrieking during negotiations was bad form. "What is that!?" Quickly she fires off a magical projectile to keep it away.
Seeing that Wan looks a little worse for wear, Mazul pulls out her supply of bandages. "Let me see if I can help you with that."
She has no objection to Wan taking either the necklace or the silver cane. In fact she's almost as eager as he is to have fun with the latter. In an attempt at imitating an upper-class drawl she says, "Fabulous darling, simply fabulous. You'll be the belle of the ball." She's disappointed, (although not particularly surprised), when this game of dress-up is interrupted by an angry-looking...fly? Fairy?
"I feel it's only fair to warn you that attacking us doesn't usually go well. For the attackers."
Hearing the commotion Zin rushes into the room and holds his hands out to try and calm the situation. "Whoa, maybe we can help you clean it up." He readies a beam of light in case the creature presses the attack.
◆ Stride
◆◆ Ready Action (Moonbeam)
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Moderate (-2 AC)
HP 20/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 2/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 0/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 0/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Akkaboo can’t recall this creature’s weaknesses, but the ray of frost seems to hurt it well enough. Ignoring Mazul’s warning and Zin’s offer to help, the fiend buzzed at Wan. It dodges Zin’s moonbeam as its mandibles find gaps in Wan’s armor. It tears into him, including a critical hit that drops the tengu, leaving him bleeding on the floor!
Mazul tries to dodge behind the creature, but the vicious attack on Wan startles her and brings her momentum to a halt. "Wan?" She bites her lip, then glares at the tiny creature. "You're going to pay for that."
Attacking from the front feels unnatural, but she does her best to stab the fiend anyway.
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Seeing Wan go down Zin does the only thing he can and tries to push past the large flying fiend as he slashes it it with his sword. "Keep Wan alive while we drop this!"
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Moderate (-2 AC)
HP 20/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 0/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 0/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
”Wan!!” Akkaboo fires another icy blast before pushing through the crowd to reach the fallen tengu. ”Don’t be dead, Wan!”
Mazul stabs the little devil from the front, scoring a hit. Zin manages to heroically tumble past the fiend and slices it from behind with his curved blade. Akkaboo blasts it with more ice, and the creature shrieks and raises its hands. "Alright, alright! Don't kill me! I have the ability to record things I see and share the memories with others. Spare my life, and I will share a special memory with you!"
Zin quickly lowers his weapon. "We didn't want to hurt you to begin with." He shoves the bulbous orb out of the way as he makes his way to Wan. "You better hope he is alright."
Zin is able to barely stop the bleeding before he can get to work on making sure Wan doesn't die. "Get him out of this armor so I can see where he is hurt."
Akkaboo glares at the creature over Wan's prone form. "What special memory?" she asks finally. "I have special memories too, but nobody wants to see them."
The flylike fiend buzzes over to Akkaboo and reaches out to place a hand on the goblin's arm. As it does so, the goblin receives a flash of information as the creature transfers its memory to her.
The memory shows a lanky Varisian man running through the dungeon's corridors. He is badly wounded, and he staggers through the door to the washroom and closes it behind him. The memory ends.
Akkaboo recognizes the man as the adventurer Otari Ilvashti. That room was where you saw the glowing green light that claimed to be Otari, so it stands to reason that it might actually be somehow related to the town's namesake!
Akkaboo stifles a shriek as the flying thing approaches, then her face falls blank. After a few seconds, she shakes her head and then her arm. "Why is that one special?" she asks irritably, unhappy with her head being messed with. "Or just go away - and don't come back!"
"It was the most recent memory I had of surface-dwellers," the creature buzzes. "I assumed you would be interested in it!"
Mazul keeps her rapier pointed at the demon, although she doesn't strike. "We didn't want to hurt you. Emphasis on 'didn't.' Given you nearly killed Wan, my feelings on the matter have changed."
She glares at the creature for another moment, then sighs. "Fine. I've got a couple questions before you go. I would not recommend lying."
"First, you said that was your most recent memory of 'surface-dwellers'. What about non-surface-dwellers? What else lives here as far as you know?"
"Second, anything valuable and/or useful in these rooms of yours? Because if so, we're taking it."
"There are morlocks that dwell in the rooms to the south, plus a web lurker to the north," the fly-fiend says. "There is little else of value to be found in these chambers. The terms of the binding that keeps me here have forced me to be nothing more than the eternal janitor for these wretched halls! So I beg you not to make too much of a mess before you leave!"
The fiend appears to be speaking truthfully.
"Is the fancy dress ball over already? I'd like another cup of punch, please."
Wan seems to be waking to some alternate reality as he picks himself up off the floor woozily.
"Found the web lurker, killed the web lurker." Mazul is still glaring, clearly far more irritated by this fiend than she had been the spiderish monstrosity. (An emotion that's not particularly fair, given that the web lurker had also been trying to kill them, but perhaps understandable.) "But thanks for telling us about the morlocks. Who bound you? One of them?"
The fiend scoffs. ”Hardly! The one who bound me was a powerful wizard named Belcorra Haruvex. A wicked and cruel mistress if ever there was one. Even centuries after her death, her magic keeps me bound here!”
"Anything we can do to help break that magic." Zin thinks. "Maybe this light is also somehow left over magic from before she died. But why now?" He helps Wan back to his feet. "Do you know anything about that ghostly light?"
”You would need a powerful ritual to break the binding, something which I think is beyond your abilities,” the fiend says condescendingly. ”I don’t know anything about ghostly lights.”
Woozy Wan gets to his feet, picking up his belongings slowly. As Mazul replies to the fiend, Wan cocks his head in a most-tengu like fashion.
"Did not we kill the morlocks as well, fair Mazul, just like this annoying thing?"
The creature shrieks in surprise as Wan slices it with the silvered blade! It falls to the floor, twitching, as it dies.
The tengu vengefully double-taps the thing with his warhammer just to be certain. He then turns to the others as he sheathes the sword-cane.
"I did not appreciate being chastised, nor did I find it had much of interest to tell us. You are all sweet kittens for distracting it long enough to allow me to properly express my annoyance. Shall we explore further?"
Wan gestures with his enchanted warhammer to the door to the west while inserting the sword cane inside Proto's suit and closing the head-piece.