Spiders
Ghaernan <== Up!
Gundar <== Up!
Caius <== Up!
Verilich <== Up!
Khalid <== Up!
Khalid will charge the first spider.
Verilich will charge the same spider if still standing or move on to the second spider if Khalid dropped it.
From the shadows at the chamber’s edge, Khalid emerged like a phantom of war, his silhouette a dark blur against the pale webbing-streaked walls. With a burst of speed and a low growl in his throat, he lunged forward, swinging his horsechopper in a vicious upward arc toward the nearest spider.
The blow landed with a sickening crack. Chitin split beneath the sheer force of impact, and the creature reeled backward, limbs scrabbling across the sticky floor as a thick gout of ichor sprayed across the web-laced ground. The spider gave a sharp, hissing screech—but it was still standing.
Not for long.
A sudden rush of air swept down from above as Verilich soared into the chamber, his wings slicing through the musty air as he banked hard and dove. His sansetsukon was already in motion as he dropped from the air like a thunderbolt, striking with surgical precision. The weapon cracked through the spider’s carapace, driving deep into its thorax—its screech was cut short as it collapsed in a convulsing heap.
The creature twitched once. Then it moved no more.
Khalid foot felt forward forward, preparing to close with the second spider—but his foot met something different. The webbing ahead was far thicker, more tangled, and clung to his boots with a tenacity that slowed his movement. He drew back slightly, noting the shift in footing.
Verilich, now on the ground after his descent, came to the same realization. Though he had flown cleanly over the worst of it, he now stood within the web-choked section of the chamber. The sticky, matted silk wrapped around his talons and ankles with every shift of weight.
Their momentum would not carry forward so easily now.
Caius moved forward to emerge from the tunnel into the chamber.
Khalid will warn his companions, "The webbing seems to be more difficult to walk on past this point. Let's finish this last spider off and be done with it."
From his current vantage point, fortuitously with a full view of the monstrous spider still at a distance within its webs, Ghaernan whirls the sling in his hand and hurls a projectile at the surviving beast...
Ghaernan does miss.
Round 1: Surprise
Spiders
Ghaernan
Gundar <== Up!
Caius
Verilich
Khalid
Verilich, now on the ground after his descent, came to the same realization. Though he had flown cleanly over the worst of it, he now stood within the web-choked section of the chamber. The sticky, matted silk wrapped around his talons and ankles with every shift of weight.
Gundar will follow the group healing wand at the ready.
The spider steps forward and attacks Verilich, but misses.
Round 2
Spiders
Ghaernan <== Up!
Gundar <== Up!
Caius <== Up!
Verilich <== Up!
Khalid <== Up!
Kill it like ye killed its friend! Gundar will encourage his friends. Willing to step in if need be with his hammer.
Caius moves up 10 feet + 5 feet into the webbing and attacks.
19-20/x2 S
The final spider is killed by Caius.
With the threat of the spiders handled, a quick search of this room reveals only the grisly remains of many meals, mostly fish, and a few birds bones, or perhaps bats.
There is no treasure.
The pool of water delves deep out of sight and is seawater, so likely this connects with the bay outside the Crow.
"Interesting, with all those steps up and down, we must be back to sea level."
Khalid will search for any evidence that this was ever used as an alternate entrance to the tower.
Baring anything discovered, he will urge his companions to continue onwards.
Khalid's noobish attempts at Survival and Tracking find nothing but the aforementioned spiders and their meals.
Verilich continues to follow the right hand rule and comes back to the bat cave
"stay back a ways and I will see if I can sneak in to find anything interesting about the room"
"We should also search that pool..."
Caius will follow Verilich "back a ways."
Verilich attempts to creep forward, but the bats notice him, and begin to start swirling in the air, agitated at his presence.
Caius: <== Up!
Ghaernan: <== Up!
Khalid: <== Up!
Verilich: <== Up!
Gundar: <== Up!
Bats:
"The bats are spooked. They may attempt to leave or perhaps settle down if we back out. Suggest we spread out and give them space, with Ghaernan or others with area effect abilities clearance with the swarm."
Verilich then flies out of the room.
Khalid will step up and throw a bomb.
If the range touch attack misses, it misses in a random direction, rolled by a d8. The number of squares in that direction is the range increment, so in this case 1. I aimed at the closest square, so this would make the bomb go off one spot to the SW. The swarm will take 3 points of splash damage.
Khalid's bomb knocks a number of bats out of the pattern and they fall to the ground burned to a crisp.
Caius: <== Up!
Ghaernan: <== Up!
Khalid:
Verilich:
Gundar: <== Up!
Bats:
Caius will use a move action to "study" the bats and then prepare to face them as they emerge from the room.
Caius: <== Studied!
Ghaernan: <== Up!
Khalid:
Verilich:
Gundar: <== Up!
Bats:
Gundar, knowing some bats carry disease, will hit Caius with a resistance.
Without warning, the chamber erupted into motion.
From the chamber to the northeast came a sudden, shrill cacophony—a churning tide of black shapes poured from the shadows like smoke with teeth. Bats, dozens upon dozens of them, wings fluttering wildly as they screamed into the room in a whirling storm of claws and fangs.
They surged forward with unnatural precision, and in a heartbeat, they were upon Khalid.
The swarm engulfed him, a writhing cloud of shrieking bodies and tearing wings. Tiny teeth bit into exposed skin, claws raked along his arms and neck, and the flurry of leathery wings beat at his face, disorienting and unrelenting. Blood welled where they struck, rivulets running down his arms and dripping into the thick webbing underfoot.
He swung reflexively, but there was nothing solid to strike—only air and chaos.
The pain was sharp and real, the multitude of bites drawing more than just blood—they brought distraction, confusion, the sheer panic of being overwhelmed by a living cloud of predators.
And the bats? They circled and screamed and bit again.
Round 2
Caius: <== Studied!
Ghaernan: <== Up!
Khalid: <== Up!
Verilich: <== Up!
Gundar: <== Up!
Bats:
Khalid is distracted by the bats.
Khalid will move.
Gundar will hit Khalid with the healing wand.
Khalid will accept!
With the swarm of ravenous bats now making itself fully known as a dire threat, Ghaernan strides from the crevice out into the middle of the chamber, where he can finally perceive and target them...
Once there, the Bard rapidly whispers an arcane series of words, lost to meaning and memory once-uttered, that flow through swift patterns of glittering sand forming and shifting around one outstretched hand. The whispered incantation ends in a final decisive gesture, the sands shimmering and barely visible in the light, arcing over the cluster of his companions to concentrate and burst in the midst of the bats, enveloping the swarm...
"The last of my spells this day, lads, that's of any meaningful power against this threat!"
"Swarms like this like to stay together, but they will attack as many people as they can envelop at a time. Try to stay spread out so it can only attack one or two of us at a time! Try to hit it with Area of Effect items if you have any. High winds can also break them up." Khalid manages to weakly share with his companions as he tries to regain his breath.
Caius takes a five foot step and braces for the swarm to reach him.
Round 2
Caius: <== Studied!
Ghaernan:
Khalid:
Verilich: <== Up!
Gundar:
Bats:
Verilich lands on the other side of the pool. "Alas, I have nothing that can deal with this swarm unless others have additional items like alchemical flasks I can throw."
The bats move over and engulf Caius, Caius swings and is unable to do any damage to the swarm.
DC 11 Will save Caius, or be "distracted," and you have 1 Bleed, so you'll need to roll concentration to "cast" and such.
Round 3
Caius: <== Up!
Ghaernan: <== Up!
Khalid: <== Up!
Verilich: <== Up!
Gundar: <== Up!
Bats:
Khalid will throw another bomb once his nausea passes and the party is repositioned.
Bloodied and snarling Khalid gritted his teeth and reached beneath his cloak, fingers closing around the familiar weight of one of his alchemical bombs.
In one fluid motion, he hurled it skyward into the heart of the swarm.
The explosion came mid-air—
a blossom of fire and glass that detonated with a sharp crack!
The effect was immediate.
Shrieking bats burst into flame, their scorched bodies spiraling to the ground. The fiery shockwave tore through the center of the swarm, scattering what remained in a panic of wingbeats and broken formation. Some dove towards the window, others careened wildly into the walls before vanishing down side corridors.
In the aftermath, silence reclaimed the chamber. Dozens of tiny corpses smoldered on the floor.
The swarm was gone.
And Khalid stood tall in the settling smoke, bloody, but triumphant.
Woot! We'll go and search the bat room, which looks like it has nothing.
Caius, Ye look hurt. Ye want me to hit ye with the wand? Gundar asks.
"If you would, dwarf-friend."
Gundar nods and taps Caius with the healing wand.
Ghaernan enters the bats' lair behind Khalid, as watchful as possible as he joins the search effort...
Indeed, there is naught to find there.
With only the path to the west left, when you start out that way, Verilich spies a little short blue humanoid. He has been watching your combat, but when you turned and headed his way, he shrieked and started heading down the steps.
Khalid believes this would be a good time to document and report. Unless he happened to see the Smurf go through a secret door to the south instead of down the stairs.