Elgrin grabs a torch as well.
Let's try to quickly cut down those man-sized cocoons and then rush back out of the woods lighting the webs on fire as we go. It would be nice if we could face the spiders here in this clearing before nightfall.
and joins the others in operation piss-off spider
Realizing there was no talking them out of it now, Naomi turns back and whistles for Thistle, who had returned to the shoe. 'Not you too! Won't anyone listen to me?' Seeing the wolf just look at her, Naomi furrowed her brow and called, "بیا خار" Causing the wolf to drop the shoe and started trotting her way. Noami looked down, speaking to the wolf softly. "Traitor, you don't listen any better than they do.". Thistle only gave a happy 'woof' and trotted along.
Catching up, just in time to hear Elgrin say something about the 'man-sized' cocoons. She cleared her voice, "Just to make sure there is not misunderstanding, I said there were "two large shadows about the size of a man" and "they are ten foot of the ground." Don't forget that. Oh, and lets try to not burn down the forest." Sighing, she cocks the crossbow, and loads a bolt into it. Spiders or not it could still be dangerous.
She looks back towards Jalros as he begins to leave. "But trying to clear the woods of spiders? We may as well try and rid the sky of clouds."
"I wasn't talking of normal spiders, Naomi, I speak of oversized ones," he explains plainly.
Elgrin grabs a torch as well.
Let's try to quickly cut down those man-sized cocoons and then rush back out of the woods lighting the webs on fire as we go. It would be nice if we could face the spiders here in this clearing before nightfall.
Nodding, "That sounds fine."
You all head up to the dark shapes, torches and weapons in hand.
Guthlag squints at the dark shapes. "I think we should try to get a better look at those before we go into the thick bush." He tries to approach within sixty feet, so that his darkvision will work .
Knowing that seeing these creatures before they attack is paramount for their group's survival, Gubble casts a quick spell that will heighten his awareness for a time.
Hamish stops next to Guthlag, torch held high and rapier drawn. He nods to the spellslingers. "Any of you able to toss a bit more light into that gloom?"
Maybe a light spell on an arrow?
'I wasn't either.' Rolling her eyes at Jalros' observation, Naomi follows behind the boys. Listening as they talk about 'illuminating' a projectile. Stopping a little behind Guthlag, Naomi gestures toward Hamish crossbow. "Since there are two 'bundles' I can illuminate a quarrel if Gubble would like to illuminate one for Hamish." Touching the bolt on the light crossbow she verbalizes "روشن کردن"
Looking to Hamish, she asks, "I'll take the one on the left, you take the one on the right. Should we shoot at the same time?" Once Cubble has illuminated Hamish's bolt, she will wait for him to signal to fire. Once she's fired she will quickly reload the crossbow.
At the suggestion, Gubble moves to stand next to Hamish, touching a bolt to light the Day.
Jalros moves up next to Guthlag. "What do you see, Guthlag?"
Naomi fires a magically illuminated arrow over her companions - it falls on the ground near one of the dark shapes, which is revealed to be in fact a spider about the size of a man, standing on its web!
The creature scurries off and away from the light, retreating further into the forest, and out of sight.
Naomi fires a magically illuminated arrow over her companions
position AT33
Naomi fires a magically illuminated arrow over her companions
Seeing the spiders flee the light, Hamish has no intention of following the arachnids deeper into the forest. Instead he grabs his torch from where he'd stabbed it into the soft ground and cautiously steps forward looking for any actual survivors. But the play of light and shadows hampers his vision.
Sighing, Naomi reloads the crossbow, "Well, we figured out what the large shadows were." She watches as Hamish lifts his torch to see better.
Furrowing her brow, seeing two obvious choices. "Do we want to see if we can bait them to move towards us by messing with their webs? Or, do we want to wait and see if they come out of the woods after us once we've returned to the camping area?"
Holding her crossbow in the general direction of the spiders, she shrugs. "Or is there a better idea?"
Since there's no one to rescue. I'm happy to leave them alone. They're just animals doing what animals do. If it was a den of evil ghouls I'd say absolutely clear them out. But spiders meh...Up to you guys
"I dislike waiting. A nighttime battle on their terms sounds problematic, but charging into the dark woods after them sounds worse." he looks to Naomi and Guthlag "Trying to bait them with the webs sounds plausible, how would we go about that?
Guthlag eyes the woods around them. "We could set fire to the webs. They are often flammable. If we destroy them, they might not have a reason to come back." The druid thinks about how the weather has been lately and inspects the undergrowth, trying to determine if a forest fire is likely.
It has been raining or drizzling for the best part of the past few days, so the undergrowth is pretty damp. Thus the probability of a forest fire is low.
Seeing Turbo a b's examination of the undergrowth, "hmmm, good idea to check. The webbing will also be wet, so I wonder..."
Looking out into the damp undergrowth, Naomi's mind wandered back to a rainy day as a child. She was looking out the window watching a small brown spider spin its web in the frame of the small window. The rain was coming down and the spider was just about finished when a gust of wind blew the webbing away, the spider, dangling on a thin thread of silk in the wind. She remembered the little spider pulling itself back into the protection of the frame and began weaving her web in the same location.
Hearing the boy's conversation, she shakes her head. "I don't think destroying the web will keep her from spinning another, and we're so close to the road and the 'fort' wouldn't she prey on people stopping?"
She points the crossbow towards where the spider had been. "I remember watching a little brown spider on my window seal. When she was done with the web she would wait in the middle until a fly landed on the web and she would scurry to catch it."
She looks towards Gubble, "If we 'pluck' the web maybe she'll come towards us so we can kill her."
Knowing Guthlag's vision was better than hers, she asks "Guthlag, can you see a web?"
"Yes, there is a web there." Guthlag shudders as he takes a step into the denser undergrowth. He looked around for a long stick to poke the web with.
"I mislike the idea of walking in alone. Let us all stay close, and pluck the web together." Unless anyone objects, the half-orc will begin walking towards the web alongside the rest of the party. He plans to cast Shillelagh before poking the web.
"Yes, there is a web there." Guthlag shudders as he takes a step into the denser undergrowth. He looked around for a long stick to poke the web with.
"I mislike the idea of walking in alone. Let us all stay close, and pluck the web together." Unless anyone objects, the half-orc will begin walking towards the web alongside the rest of the party. He plans to cast Shillelagh before poking the web.
Nodding, "Agreed." Jalros moves out with the half-orc.
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Handing Jalros his torch, Hamish takes a moment to fish out the folding pole he'd picked up back in town. Nodding briefly to the wisdom of old Rook, he snaps the pole out to its full ten foot length and hands it to Guthlag.
Elgrin moves forward with the others looking curiously at the folding pole which he's never seen before
Handing Jalros his torch, Hamish takes a moment to fish out the folding pole he'd picked up back in town. Nodding briefly to the wisdom of old Rook, he snaps the pole out to its full ten foot length and hands it to Guthlag.
Accepting the torch, "Thank you." Jalros then leads the way forward.
Gubble itched to record NNaomi's tale but writing at the moment was not in the cards. Instead he stay with her, keeping his eyes and ears open for trouble.
The group carefully approached the webs - as they move forward they get a better notion of how darker it is toward the inside of the forest, the whole place having a gloomy, dark and foreboding feeling to it.
Closer up they can also more easily discern the webs - there are several of those around the edge of the forest, with many 'cocoons' of webbing spread out all over them, most likely the remnants of many small preys.
Guthlag summons nature magic to enhance his oak club, then pokes the web with the pole provided by Hamish.
Almost immediately you can hear movement from atop several trees around this area - you hear eager chittering, and the snapping of mandibles. It feels like they will be upon you at any moment!
But then it suddenly stops... The movements and noises seem to recede into the forest, until everything is silent once again.
So distracted by the chittering, Jalros sees and hears nothing else. Like nothing at all. He's completely oblivious.
Guthlag steps protectively towards Cann, raising his club high and preparing to strike upwards. After several tense moments of silence, the wolf shakes her head, ears flapping, and yawns loudly. "They seem afraid of us. Perhaps they will be more bold this night."
watching the spiders retreat
Huh..Maybe they're smarter than we think. Should we light the web on fire and see if that pisses them off enough to attack?
Hamish swallows loudly, his heart pumping and nerves tingling. The chittering sends chills crawling along his spine as he peers into the inky dark depths beneath the trees.
"Darker than the bottom of a sump pond in here." He says quietly. "Not sure if they're afraid, or just luring us in at this point." He adds with a nod to Elgrin. He holds another torch high, straining to peer into the canopy above. "I don't see any sign of anyone or anything to rescue. I think we return to the stockade and build up our watch fires. At least there they won't be able to drop onto us from the tree tops."
'Afraid of us and Smarter than we think, that's a disconcerting thought.' As he chittering and other forest noises come to nearly a complete stop, Naomi looks from Gutlag to Elgrin, then towards Hamish. Relieved that they didn't see anyone or anything that needed immediate rescue, Naomi echoed Hamish's words. "Yes, if they leave their webs and attack the fort, we'll know they truly are a threat to travelers." She gestures towards the dark webs, "For now it seems their fairly afraid of us."
Concentrating on the webs in front of him for a moment, he eventually nods. "I agree. Plus, the daytime will prove a greater ally than the night. Let us return." Jalros takes one last look before heading back.
Let's go back. I'm satisfied there's no one here to rescue. But I don't think the walls of the stockade will be of any help against these spiders if they try coming at us in the night. Instead, the walls might just provide them with the high ground and put us at a disadvantage. Maybe we should camp outside the stockade, with the stockade doors open for us to retreat into should something other than spiders creep up on us in the middle of the night.
Gubble was too busy recording the scene in his mind to see anything additional. "Intelligent spiders, fascinating." he agrees that going back at the moment is a sound plan. "That sound is the stuff of nightmares, coupled with the dead silence after is enough to stop ones heart from terror." Gubble sounds interested more than terrified though.
The group of brave adventurers heads back to the Way Station and rests for the remaining of the afternoon. At night they close and bar the large gate, settling down to rest.
During your watch, you hear rustling coming from the outside - on the south side of the palisade
"I want four walls around me," Guthlag says in reply to Elgrin. "Spiders are not the only danger." He shudders again as the group makes their way back to camp.
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Guthlag makes sure that Elgrin hears the same sound, then moves to wake the others. "I think Gubble needs his sleep," he says quietly, moving to wake Jalros first. The big man doesn't seem to need much. After waking everyone but Gubble, Guthlag doesn't plan to do anything offensively. He just wants the group to be ready in case they are attacked.
"Huh? Wha?" Hamish splutters when Guthlag first nudges his shoulder with a boot. "Oh...it's time then. Best stoke the fires and I'll add a bit more light." He says matter-of-factly as he quickly dons his armor and then turns the wick on his lantern as high as it will go to illuminate the surrounding area as brightly as possible.
As they walk back to the stockade, Naomi nods her head in agreement with Elgrin. "Your right Elgrin, it doesn't look like there is anyone to rescue. But I don't see how the spiders having the high ground would help, they still would have to climb down to attack us. Who knows, if they are on top of the wall maybe it would make them more visible." She shrugs, holding her hand out in front of her spreading her fingers. "I mean really who knows? The only spiders I've fought were the size of my fingernail and I smashed them with my boot."
As Guthlag joined the conversation she nodded, Spiders weren't the only danger. As the group begins to bed down, Naomi double checks the heavy bar on the large gate. Having the first watch with Hamish, she keeps the crossbow at the ready. At the end of her watch she woke Guthlag and Jalros then headed to her bedroll, unloading and decocking the crossbow, she laid it on one side as Thistle laid on the other.
Elgrin nods in Guthlags direction signaling he's heard the sound and goes about quietly waking up the rest of the group except for Gubble
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Gubble sleeps
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Gubble and Elgrin:Stuff
Hamish illuminates the area around them and above the palisade, but sees nothing out of the ordinary, apart from a crow perching atop the wooden structure.
Those awake continue hearing the rustling on the south exterior side of the palisade, then they circle across the right side, and to the back.
Guthlag also hears what seem to be like yipping or whimpering mixed with the rustling.