Dethor's arrow is lost harmlessly in the webbing . The spider shoots a spinnerette at Nandipha!
But it misses! It then scuttles across the wall, down to the floor, and strikes with its fangs!
The needle-like teeth sink into the druid's flesh; she feels poison enter her veins…
Just then, a shadow flits along the wall… something horrible is on the ceiling… a biped with the face of a spider, and claws! It's definitely some kind of aberration. It pulls itself with bizarre grace along the ceiling and then down the wall, into a flank with the spider, and strikes.
Instead of slashing with its claws, it sprays sticky webbing from a gland in its palm, trapping Nandipha against the old dining room table. It then scuttles back up into the webbing, to watch with malicious intelligence… as if it wants to see about saving some of you alive for dinner later. It must also be controlling the spiders, which is why it was impossible to take a more diplomatic approach.
❧ ❧ ❧
Lucius Caligari
Baux
Nandipha, -5 HP, dc 16 fort save needed, Immobilized (DC 20 Escape)
Dethor
--
Spider 2
Aberration
--
Biltri
Biltri strides through the door as the chains of his meteor hammer begin to brighten with heat. His eyes burn with inner fire as he approaches the spider-man and swings the iron fist over his head. "Let no dwarf fall! Or a certain elf."
He whips the iron fist toward the aberration. The metal brightens as it becomes red hot.
Lucius sends a dart into the web lurker's eye — it screeches in fury! Biltri then ends the evil aberration's life like a… literal fiery meteor.
❧ ❧ ❧
Lucius Caligari
Baux
Nandipha, -5 HP, dc 16 fort save needed, Immobilized (DC 20 Escape)
Dethor
--
Spider 2
--
Biltri
Baux moves over to Nandipha and says "Looks like yer a little stuck."
Putting away his warhammer, he gets out his starknife. "If'n ya can't break it, I'll cut it."
"Gah, you sticky insidious arachnoid!" Nandipha shakes off both the poison and the webbing in a moment of sheer rage. "Immobilize a GANZI?! We not be controlled! I be shoving the power of CHAOS up your spinnerets for this!"
Then she calms down, and looks at Bauxite, pulling sticky strands off her arms. "Thanks for the offer of aid. I be fine... now!"
Once again Nandipha proves that she can totally wreck spiders.
As you heal Nandipha you also look around the room. There is a door to the North that has several planks nailed across it — as if keeping something out.
Lucius also thinks there is something odd about a covered item in the cabinet — you push aside the webbing to find a pair of silver goblets worth 20 gp as a set. They bear the Tanderveil family crest.
Putting away his starknife, Baux says “Yes, I can see that.”
Pausing, he then asks Nandipha “Want me ta try tending that wound, or wait a bit?”
"Got spirit. Good," Biltri grunts at Nadipha as he places a hand on her shoulder and channels Angradd's forge-fire through his hand to heal her wound. He eyes the boarded door with an arched brow and sour expression while he meditates.
"Those should get us a few antidotes for trade in town," he notes when the silver goblets are revealed. "Maybe make a trip tomorrow. We prying the boards?"
"Handy trick," Nandipha says admiringly as the healing energy flows through her. Then she glances at the boards, grabs her spear, and says, "Yes, perhaps we should be prying that open."
[/dice]
You easily pry off the planks. Turns out web lurkers aren’t skilled craftspeople.
You find yourselves in a kitchen. A stone oven, washbasin, cabinets, and tables line the walls. Several of the cabinet doors stand open, and pots and long-handled spoons lie scattered across the floor. The shutters over a small window (likely for ventilation and not for scenery or light) hang askew. There is a heavy door that leads outside along the left wall.
To the right in a shelf-lined pantry. A few empty crocks and boxes are all that remain on the shelves. A heap of empty sacks and broken crockery lies on the floor.
Biltri searches and finds nothing; Nandipha looks for tracks and such and doesn't see any reason why this area might be boarded off and no one has gone through the door outside in a while.
However, Lucius notes there’s something odd about the way the debris on the floor is piled up against the wall, under the pantry shelves.
Along the tunnel’s edges are a few iridescent scales and a bit of feathery down.
"We can always come back and dig through it, since it isn't trying to eat us like everything else we've found," Biltri grumbles.
“Hold a bit!” Baux says.
He picks up a scale from the debris, then points to a hole in the wall. “Cat or rat sized hole, but neither have scales and feathers.” He points at the feathers.
Wrinkling his brow, he asks “What sort of critter has both scales and feathers?” he asks, pointing things out in the debris.
Most of you think this combination of scales and feathers is from a type of goodly creature known as a couatl. Most couatls are larger than a human, though.
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Nandipha waves her feathered, scaly lizard tail at Baux. "It not just be couatls that have scales and feathers!"
She calls out, "Feathers and scales, serpentine scales, wild and free, we friends be." Then she leans down to speak to the hole. "Do you want to come say hello? I be in possession of a feathery tail too!"
"Snirp." Carrots looks down at his own non-feathered dinosaur tail, sadly.
“Don’t consider ya a critter.” Baux grumbles under his breath.
A creature snakes her head through the hole and blinks back at Nandipha. It's dark down in the miniature tunnel, so Nandipha can only see the creature in black and white; however, the creature's eyes seem to glow. It's clearly a magical beast of some sort!
Oh, hello! I was just taking a nap! She yawns. Ummmm… You're not here to try and eat me too, are you? You can't fit through my front door, so I'm quite safe, you see!
Trying to hold back his indignation, Baux declares "I don't eat sentient creatures!"
Then a moment later, he asks "Who tried to eat you?" Nodding back towards the door, he adds "If'n it was that strange thing what liked spiders, we took care of that."
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Biltri is lost in thought, having picked up a few of the scales and feathers and staring at them. He jumps with the jangle and clang of his chain against his breastplate when the feathered snake emerges from the hole and speaks.
"Ah, no," he mumbles back. "You're not going to try to eat us, too, are you?"
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Lucius bends down to take a peek at the creature.
"Hello in there, it's quite safe out here too. No one here will hurt you. Do you know the Tanderveil family by any chance?"
Straightening up, he says to his friends, "How marvelous. Not everything here wants to kill us. We may have found an ally in this place."
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I don’t eat sentient creatures! … Who tried to eat you?
Oh, if you're not here to eat me, then maybe we can be friends! Eating sentient creatures is evil, you know… it's an official law of the universe, too! Well, Maybe. Anyways, all I know is that I don't want to be eaten… but that bully in the dining room keeps sending gross spiders in here to try and capture me!
You’re not going to try to eat us, too, are you?
I’m nice! Plus, I would never eat houseguests!
Do you know the Tanderveil family by any chance?
Nope!
At Lucius’s words, the tiny creature slips out of the tunnel and flutters up into the air. Her iridescent scales and bright feathers scintillate in the light.
I’m Ollie! If you can’t tell by my dazzling beauty, I’m a couatl. Do you like how my scales shine? She does a flip through the sunlight that streams in from the open window. Welcome to my home! Well, really, it's just the old bedroom behind the wall. Who’re you? It's nice to have visitors who aren't trying to eat me.
Baux nods his agreement with the statement about eating sentients being evil.
"Baux, priest of Desna. Pleased ta meet ya Ollie." I'll have to ask the others later exactly what a couatl is. Does have nice scales.
Pointing towards the dining room, he adds "Yer not gunna have any spider problems now."
"Are you a messenger of Alseta? Or maybe Folgrit?" the forge dwarf asks, the latter a bit uncharacteristically hopeful. "Kind of small."
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"Baux, priest of Desna. Pleased ta meet ya Ollie." I'll have to ask the others later exactly what a couatl is. Does have nice scales.
Just in case you don't know, a couatl is anyone with scales and rainbow wings, and who is admired for their wisdom and beauty! It should go without saying, that would definitely be me.
"Why of course. What beautiful scales." He nods and introduces himself. "How long have you been living here?"
Why, thank you! You are very polite. And what splendid ram-horns you have! She does more flips in the air. I came here in the winter when I ran away from the big city. It so was cold my rainbow scales got all frosted up!
"Are you a messenger of Alseta? Or maybe Folgrit?" the forge dwarf asks, the latter a bit uncharacteristically hopeful. "Kind of small."
None of the good gods have asked me to serve them. I serve myself, eating yummy fish and napping all day. Which is the wisest thing of all. She rubs her wings together in indignation at the "kind of small" aside but otherwise pretends not to hear it.
Pointing towards the dining room, he adds "Yer not gunna have any spider problems now."
You got rid of that horrible bully!? Olli grins mischievously. You really are nice people! I'm so happy! As a reward, we can be friends, officially! I will even grant you my permission to stay here, but the pantry and the room belong to me. Finders keepers! I like my tunnel, and I like my nest!
Nandipha also smiles when the creature announces itself as a couatl. "You be lovely! It be gracious of you to share the camp with us, Ollie." Then she thinks. "What do you like to do, Ollie? While we have plenty of food now, we would not be minding some help with it! Another talented fish catcher be useful!" She grins. "In recompense, maybe I share some of my hides? Soft fur for your lair, perhaps?"
Waving her own tail at the scalliwing, she says, "I be Nandipha, and this dromaesaur be Carrots!"
"Snirp!" With his nose in the air, the jealous dromaesaur pointedly turns his back on Ollie.
These were my people FIRST.
I ate everything in my pantry. You look around at the chaotic jumble of empty jars and sacks of grain.
Well, I fish every morning, especially when it's sunny and warm out. I suppose, with your hands and fingers, that you’re very good at catching fish? She perks up and grins again, very poorly disguising how enticed she is at the idea of food delivery.
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Nandipha grins at the tricky Ollie. "Our poor fingers be surely no match for your serpentine quickness. Perhaps we have fishing contest tomorrow, and see which of us can catch the most?"
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You got rid of that horrible bully!? Olli grins mischievously. You really are nice people! I'm so happy! As a reward, we can be friends, officially! I will even grant you my permission to stay here, but the pantry and the room belong to me. Finders keepers! I like my tunnel, and I like my nest!
"Well, pantry is meant ta store food. Think maybe we can find a way ta share it?"
"Since ya bin here awhile, do ya know Blue Finley? We was told they has a room ta themselves here."
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Actually dromaeosaurids are feathered dinosaurs.
Carrots stares in amazement as feathers suddenly sprout from his tail! He glances at Ollie. "Snirp?"
Did you just do that?
"If you be willing to share the kitchen and pantry, there be more cooked food here." Nandipha nods. She closes her eyes and breathes in the imaginary scents. "Ah, the smell of roast pork and fish stew when there be cooks in the kitchen!"
"Of course, if you prefer cold and empty pantries... That be your choice."
Ollie is delighted with Carrots. Almost as pretty as my couatl feathers!
She is amenable to sharing the pantry… especially if you stock it! Deal!
Oh I know Finley. They're pretty boring, just moaning and crying all day and not talking. I tried, but then I got bored. So I went fishing instead. I forgot to ever go back. They stay on the other side of the cabin.
"Which room is your nest?" he asks . "Mind if we look for useful supplies. That you're not using?"
Later on, he asks, "Finish scouting the house? Then lunch?"
Sure, I like visitors. Just make sure to knock!
“Might want to start the boar cooking. Think it takes a long time ta cook.” The way he says it suggests Baux isn’t sure how to prepare the boar.
“Maybe clean in here, start cooking, then finish wit’ the exploration?”
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"Ollie, me name's Dethor Ironfist, not to be confused with me cousin Dethor Ironfist or me uncle Dethor Ironfist . Pleasure t' meet ye'."
Dethor thinks for a moment on what Biltri is asking. "So, me friend, Ollie, can ye' tell yer knew friends what other miscreants and varmint might be hidin' out in the home we are all gonna share? T'would be easier to evict 'em if'n we ken their existence, and prob'bly be a lot less dangerous to we friends."
I would never confuse one Dethor Ironfist for another! It's very obvious! Ummm… let's see… the crocodiles come at night. But they usually can't get inside. Unless you leave a door open. I prefer the window, myself. Maybe there are other spiders? They're good at hiding.
"Well, we need ta clear out rest of this place. Some of the spiders did go up in the roof, hopefully they decided to leave."
"Is it a problem leavin' doors open during day?" If so, we should probably go shut some doors.
Baux is willing to follow wherever people want to go, but would suggest the room between Ollie's and Blue Finley's room.
"Check Ollie's room. So we don't bug him later and nothing there going to kill us," Biltri suggests. "Then next room."
You have to walk the long way around to Ollie's room, back down the U-shaped hallway and to the other side. As you pass the far door , you hear a faint sob from within. Lucius notices an old scrap of paper pinned above the door.
Finley's place — leave 'em be.
You leave it for now and knock on Ollie's door. She is happy to see you again. A wooden bed frame in here has slats but no mattress, with a battered trunk at its foot. On the other side of the room is a simple table holding a ceramic pitcher and a matching bowl full of leaves. Light streams in past one of the shutters that hangs slightly ajar.
Come in! This is my room! Isn't it grand? Ollie playfully flies into the bowl and rustles the leaves. Her head pokes out. This is my nest!
❧ ❧ ❧
You move on to the next doorway.
It’s another bedroom, much like the other. There’s an old fishing pole on the all and tackle in the chest. Along with what was once some very stinky bait.
"Dumb... expensive... fishing..." Biltri turns from the room muttering under his breath. "Skip the bawling ghost for now?"
In Ollie's room, Baux complements her. "The lighting is nice. Looks like you've made a nice place for yerself here." Nodding towards the bed frame, he says "Let us know if ya want that taken outta the way."
When Biltri suggests skipping Finley's room, Baux nods his agreement. "Want a full belly before listening to that."