I could try to negotiate with the spiders. As I did once before. The problem is that there are no enemies of ours on whom we could incite them. So I couldn't guarantee anything. Friendship with one spider does not guarantee protection from all. - Kalanzar responds after hearing Jimjar's words. But there is no point in stepping back anyway.
I kind of doubt they respond that well to tubby rubs
Alexandra deadpans.
I can however use a spell slot to conjure another illusion, if you have something in mind that could either aid in negotiating or in distractiing, I am all ears. Note that the illusion is only visual.
She pauses
What if I conjure an illusionary dragon, nah, wont work, no sound, but something silent deadly cloud of pure death, and we pretend to be running from it? Spiders to tend to avoid threats that would destroy them and their webs right? Just an idea, you are the expert.
Kalanzar looks at the opened picture for a while, then squats down. His lips whisper incomprehensible words, something pre-human and pre-elvish. Something wild, cavernous and chthonic that gives goosebumps.
I'm going to investigate. A tail strike is a danger, freeze. Two strokes of the tail - follow me. Three - run or attack, according to the situation.
With each word, his voice becomes more hoarse and painful. Then he falls silent, closes his eyes and abruptly opens them again - now they are the eyes of a reptile. His whole body begins to bulge and he turns into a large lizard with great speed in front of your eyes!
The lizard looks at all of you and then confidently heads to the slope.
Gekko slaps his paws loudly in the silence of the cave.
Before passing through the waterfall, Maddy takes an extra moment or two to make sure to erase their tracks.
Arriving at the chasm, she turns to Shuushar expecting him to explain but it's actually Jimjar that recognizes where they are. Her question was still directed at Shuushar, "Does this mean we're still on the right track to the Dark Lake? If this Silken Paths place is close to your home, do you know a safe way through?"
Having no idea of what to do other than to keep putting one foot in front of the other, Maddy looked to the others for guidance. When Kalanzar transformed into a lizard, her jaw dropped. Leaning towards Ksenia she asked quietly, "Did we know he could do that?"
Not really wanting anyone out of her sight, Maddy crept a little further up the ledge and she drew her sword in case lizard-Kalanzar used his tail to signal to attack.
Ksenia stands next to Maddy, keeping an eye on Kalanzar, and draws her own sword. She then summons the short sword from Maddy into her off hand. It disappears and reappears with the slightest of audible pops.
Solemnly, Ksenia looks up at Maddy and hands her the sword. "You dropped this."
"Does this mean we're still on the right track to the Dark Lake? If this Silken Paths place is close to your home, do you know a safe way through?"
The kuo-toa shook his scaly head. :: I do not know of this place. There are a thousand roads to the Dark Lake. That little creek we walked through smelled like home, and hopefully I can find it again on the other side of this.::
Lizard, bat and barbarian move upwards along the ledge. It is wide enough not to feel dangerous. It might be scarier in the light, if they could see how high up they are, but it's easier not to be afraid of heights in the dark.
The webs are everywhere. Sometimes they're just long, thick ropes, others are full net-like webs. Some look new and shiny, others are old, tattered and frayed. Some are attached to the cliff-face to their left, and they have to climb over or duck under them.
They pass a stone projection and are able to see a bit further. The ledge continues to climb, and it looks like there's another opening ahead. Ziyad's bat flaps forward a bit and confirms another cave system.
Maddy, holding her phosphorescent algae, can only see a little ways around her. However, her eyes, craving light, are the first to notice another light source. It's coming from the chasm, somewhere in the webs. It seems to be at a lower level than they currently are, though it's very hard to tell for sure.
The giant lizard, his foot-pads slapping against the stone, catches a strange smell. He peeks over the edge, and sees...something. Climbing head-first down the cliff-face a little, he sees that the webs below are vibrating. He can't see far in the dark, but somewhere out in the void, something is moving.
The lizard taps its tail first once, and then three at once and begins to carefully retreat - back away.
Kalanzar clearly wants to reunite with the whole squad.
Kalanzar, Ziyad-bat and Maddy return, hackles raised, ready for trouble. However, no sound disturbs the darkness, and nothing comes to bother them.
Maddy chuckled as Ksenia offered her back the sword. "At least the sword's properties will be amusing, if nothing else."
Keeping the sword at the ready, she crept along the ledge. The other source of light drew her attention and she tried to determine what it was.
Her attention returned to lizard-Kalanzar as he begins to retreat towards her. She trusted his instincts considering she couldn't see what spooked him, and she followed him back to the others while keeping an eye behind them to make sure they weren't being pursued.
Maddy stared into the darkness, trying to discern something about the light. It was brighter than the moss she was carrying, but didn't look like a fire or torch. She could just make out what looked like stony floor and perhaps stony wall on one side? With a flash of inspiration she realized it was either a stalagmite or stalactite, with ledge sticking out of it, or perhaps carved out. Could somebody, or something, be living there? They would need to venture out onto the spiders webs to know more.
I am summoning an illusionary idiot whom absolutely nobody shall miss, if we are attacked by spiders, I shall kick him into the webs after stabbing him. Ideally have some mage hands to add vibrations in that case. Alexandra announced via the Stool collective, as she summons an illusionary Ronc!
Feel free to kick the idiot a bit She whispers to the twins.
The first step out onto the webs was...difficult, to say the least. Was it better or worse that they couldn't see the bottom? What was waiting for the one unlucky enough to slip? Would they be able to catch webs further down if they fell, or if their own web broke? What would happen if they were attacked, and had to try to fight, or flee? How far was the other side? These questions, and more, ran through their minds as they stepped tentatively onto the webs and headed away from the relative safety of the ledge.
The webs were in varying states of decay. The really old ones were whitish and tattered, easy to avoid. The newest ones were almost silver, and sticky, even more difficult to walk on. The trick was trying to find the sweet spot between fresh and ancient, between entanglement and falling.
The svirfneblin headed out first, with only a little hesitation - they were small, light, and used to the dark. Buppido hurried forward with either confidence or madness, apparently unconcerned with what might lie beneath. Stool gripped Ziyad's head tightly with his legs, and Shuushar had to meditate for several minutes before convincing himself to take that first step. The badger, oddly, followed Topsy and Turvy with relatively little difficulty. Its wide paws straddled several webs simultaneously, and having four points of contact made it more stable.
The chasm was silent. No breeze to ruffle the webs, no echoing footfalls, no drip of water. As you move away from the chasm wall, it soon seems as if you're completely suspended in dark space, with nothingness all around you. Even those with dark or devil's sight, you only have a 60 or 120' bubble of vision, revealing nothing but webs, with complete blackness on all sides. This is only broken by the small, white glow you're headed towards.
I dont belong here, at all. Alexandra thinks at the Alien enviroment.
But if I dont want to die here, and get out of here, I must move on. One step after the other. At least I can see, I am dextrous, reasonable in acrobatics and burn webs with my eldritch might.
Her mind raced as she made her first tentative steps, depositing the illusionary and thankfully soundless, weightless and smellless and well, Roncless Ronc over her shoulder.
Rarely has there been an illusion more improved by being silent, smellless and not actually alive, so keep focusing on the good parts Alex!
Her smile returned as she moved in Topsies and Turvies tracks.
It does actually have a certain beauty to it
She thinks as she moves on, eying some parts of the chasm, further down from where the party is, which seem to sway with the wind in an almost mesmerizing, even inviting pattern and...
OH F$+& NO, there is no wind here, so that would possibly be something big breathing. Also, Yza f$%*ing told me to never follow strange or inviting patterns in dangerous places, and sperged on a lot about the math concerning various things that would be trying to entice you to come to their lair, the low odds of any thing not nasty permanently surviving in a hostile enviroment if it is inviting and while I was mostly focused on her lips I did effing get the message! He exited mind accidentally communicating her heartfelt litany of through the stool collective.
Which Alex recogniced a moment later, adding
Possible danger, 95 feet this way, she speaks through the collective, pointing to where she believed to perceive something I believe I am seeing moving webs there, there is no wind here so it may be something big breating, advise to stay away.
As she cautiously continued. Possibly even more paranoid.
And the webs at this spot seemed inviting or enticing, as if promising rest in particular, some magical mind buggery may be in play, let us not dally here
This is hopefully just Alexes vivid imagination, channelling that she is probably quite tired. Like, she has an unfamiliar mode of vision for her, is under stress, in an alien enviroment, is opportunistically, at best, attached to objective reality anyway and yes, she will be seeing things that arent there. Neither her nor the party would have a way to know though.
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Maddy clung to her glowing algae like a hungry man grasps crumbs of bread. The small amount of light directing her feet was the only thing keeping her from being plunged into oppressive darkness. Even though she knew they were in a wide open cavern, the darkness could make things feel very closed in. The light reminded her that she had a lot of room to breathe.
The different types of webs made her think of different terrain she had encountered while out in the wilderness. The newer webs reminded her of marshy ground that tried to suck your feet down into the mud. The older ones were unstable reminding her of frozen lakes in winter where the ice could crack underfoot. She needed to be ever vigilant about where she placed her feet on the webs or it could mean certain death, just like back home. She realized that she needed to approach the webs like she did the trees when she was little. She used to show off for Matty by climbing into the branches of the larger trees and walking the narrow limbs from tree to tree. She felt calmed by thoughts of her childhood even though she recognized that real danger lay ahead.
The way she saw it, the risk was worth getting to that light source. She hoped that it was someone who could help rather than harm. She readjusted the grip on her sword, either way she would protect the others.
Alex's voice penetrated Maddy's thoughts and her head snapped up. She peered into her dim surroundings trying to see the threat. Just because she didn't see anything, didn't mean that there wasn't anything there. She kept moving along the webs as if they were narrow branches and remained on guard.
The eyes clearly work differently. And the body, it's something else. Powerful, but... different. Kalanzar had to spend some time learning to focus his eyes on objects and cope with nausea, when the body, as if by itself, unexpectedly decided to crawl over the cliff wall for a short time from the path along which he went to explore.
However, Kalanzar decided not to change his appearance yet. It was really more convenient to move around the web this way. This allowed him to do the main thing - to patrol. He followed the squad, moving back and forth, helping someone who got stuck in the web with his powerful paws and tail, looking for danger…
And when Alexandra pointed out that something was coming, he stood between the squad and the potential enemy, preparing to take a blow.
You make your way along the webs, becoming slowly more comfortable with the strange mode of travel. Until Alexandra's mental cry puts you on alert. You all stop and stare, but it was Ziyad's little bat who discovers the cause of the panic. It sensed something about ten feet down and twenty feet to your right (you've been angling left and down, towards the light). A bundle, tightly wrapped in webbing, perhaps a bit bigger than Jimjar. And it was sporadically moving, twitching a bit, wiggling the webs.
Either a spiderswarm about to erupt or someone in need of aid, I can see it but I lack the wildlife experience to tell which, and it may be an and not an or
Alexandra states through the collective.
Can anyone tell me what to look for to determine this? I can see it quite well and could assist with the determination
Maddy's eyes widened in concern at Ziyad's revelation. ::If there's something alive down there that is most likely waiting in terror to die, we should help it - or at least I'll try. I think some of this webbing can be used as a rope and I'll climb down::
Ksenia grimaces at the description, thinking how terrible it must be to be trapped and alone like whatever is down there. But she hesitates a moment given how terrible everything has been in the Underdark so far and thinks back to all the worn encyclopedias of animals that she used to read in the used bookstores before clerks would yell at her to leave if she wasn't going to pay.
Hearing Ziyad's voice in his head, the drow suddenly realized that he could also communicate telepathically being in the form of an animal. :: I'll go check it out. I think it won't be difficult for me to go down there. Let the bat keep an eye on me - if I find myself in trouble, Ziyad will let you know :: And the lizard rushes forward and down into the darkness.
Ksenia thinks hard, but can't think of any beast that would use a lure like this. Perhaps a person would, but this seems a strange place to set a trap, in the hopes that some good folk, travelling through webs in the dark, might stumble across it.
The webs criss-cross up and down, and it's not difficult for the lizard to climb down towards the bundle. Maddy, using harvested webs as rope, follows behind more slowly.
Alexandra keeps scanning the area; her devil's sight is very strange, though she's getting used to it. It's like she's in the middle of a brightly lit bubble, with a solid wall of black at the edges. However, she can see very well within that bubble, and she can see nothing other than the target of Kalanzar's investigation. The bat also keeps her ears swiveling around, her soft chirps the only sound in the darkness.
As Kalanzar gets within 30 feet of it, he can see it clearly. He's seen enough flies wrapped in webs to know what this is. Clearly a creature of some sort, paralyzed and left here as a snack for later. From the movements and twitches coming from within, the spider venom had worn off, and the victim was trying, unsuccessfully to escape.
It could be a monster. But I have to check. It is simply impossible to do otherwise.
Kalanzar begins to tear the cocoon with his fangs.
Maddy muscles her way down along with Kalanzar. When she sees lizard-Kalanzar approaching the squirming cocoon, she joins him as soon as she is able. She approaches and says quietly, "Quit moving or I may cut you when I cut the webbing."
The young woman began to carefully cut the webbing, her sword working better on it than Kalanzar's teeth.
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The twitching didn't stop; either the person didn't understand, or couldn't comply. Maddy and Kalizardar worked together to free the occupant, which turned out to be a partially-paralyzed, wide-eyed halfling. She spasmed every few seconds, and it appeared to be an effect of the venom wearing off rather than anything she was doing on purpose. She looked terrified at the sight of Kalizardar, but then Maddy's face appeared over her, holding the dim light, and her panicked expression eased somewhat.
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She is not going to explode into thousands of spiders? Alexandra thinks.
This is suspiciously nice! Need to be on my guard!
she moves her left hand to the illuronc on her shoulder, ready to pretend throwing him, and grasps her eldritch might with her right, ready to lash out.
Ksenia looks in horror at the poor creature, imagining being poisoned and trapped, unable to move, waiting for a monster to come tear her apart. Her eyes widen at the thought of that monster and she grips her sword tighter, scanning the darkness all around.
"Eyes as sharp as your blades, friends. We're stealing something's meal, and it's not likely to appreciate it."
Maddy smiled reassuringly at the terrified, somewhat paralyzed halfling. She then patted Kalizardar somewhat awkwardly to reinforce the fact that the large reptile wasn't a threat.
She continued to pull the webs away and spoke softly and calmly, "I'm going to get you free and then we'll rejoin the others. You're safe now. My name is Maddy and this is Kalanzar." Maddy wasn't sure if the halfling could understand her but she hoped that her tone would bring some measure of comfort.
Once the halfling was free, Maddy took a closer look at the former prisoner's hands and arms. Maddy was pretty sure she could climb with the extra weight but she wasn't sure of how to secure the halfling to herself so that they didn't fall off while she climbed. "Can you hang on around my neck while I climb us back up? Or do you need to be hauled up?"
The halfling stared at Maddy with wide eyes, her arms and legs continuing to twitch as the venom wore off. She tried to speak, but only managed to open her mouth slightly and drool a bit.
As Maddy decided how to help the spider's victim, the spider slowly crept back along the webs. The vibration of the webs had alerted it to the presence of others, and it understood that its dinner was escaping.
Ksenia happened to be looking in the right direction, and noticed the spider when it was about 40 feet away from the others. It was a different species than the ones the drow had . This one was pale grey, camouflaging in with the webs. The body was smaller, the head eyeless, but the legs were much longer. Clearly adapted for this lightless world, it relied on the vibrations of the Silken Paths to tell it everything it needed to know. And right now, it knew where Maddy, Kalanzar and its halfing dinner were.
Focus on my target, I currently only see one
Alexandra says as she blasts the spider with eldritch fire, hoping for her blast to act as a partial tracer for her allies.
Ksenia realizes that the spider is blind, moving purely on the basis of vibrations on the webs. Got to distract it to confuse it enough to give Maddy and Kalanzar time to react.
Licking her lips and concentrating, Ksenia pulls the magical short sword from Maddy through the ether, and then hurls it into the webs twenty feet behind the spider.
Maddy is focused so much on the twitching halfling that she doesn't notice that the sword in her hand has disappeared. She began to hear confusing sentences through the Stool collective which caused her to lift her light higher into the surroundings but still can't see the danger.
::What's happening?:: she sends to the others. As soon as she's aware of the threat, she called her sword back to her hand.
Maddy concentrates on the sword, but it doesn't come back. She gets the distinct impression that it will only travel between the two people it is connected to, not from anywhere else.
Panic began to well up within Maddy. If Ksenia didn't have the sword then where was it? She didn't hear any sounds of a struggle but were the others alright?
Not knowing what was happening, Maddy did the only thing she could do while being trapped in the near dark without a weapon but with someone who needed help...she prepped the halfling for the others to pull her up. Maddy began to tie the web rope around the halfling.
As she secured the halfling she reached out through the Stool collective. ::Ksenia, what did you do with the sword? It's gone and I can't seem to call it. I'm down here without a weapon so if we are attacked, I don't like our odds::
::The halfling I found can't climb on her own as she's still partly paralyzed. I'm tying her into the web rope and you all need to haul her up. At least she'll be safe:: Even though she wasn't speaking audibly, Maddy's emotions were still colouring her mental thoughts as she shared her predicament.
Deep inside Maddy's mind there was a ghost of a voice that felt familiar but wasn't one she recognized so she thought she was imagining it. This is what happens when you trust others, you get left to die. I'm the only one that can protect you! If you continue to make such stupid decisions I'm going to have to fix things. She gave her head a shake. Her imagination wasn't very nice.
Alexandra had a dumb idea.
Maddy, Kalanzar, does she have a anywhere, if yes put it on her!
Seeing with her darkvision where the spider was, and that the halfling hat a head, will swap, help victim
Alexandra activates her cap of switching and switches places with the halfling, suddenly appearing behind Maddy, holding her spear out to be taken by Maddy and blasting the spider with her other hand again!
Swapped places, blasting spider, take spear
Alexandra informs Maddy, speaking quickly and without much flourish.
Nice! No, Maddy had her out of cocoon.
Ksenia's eyes widen at Maddy's words and she tries to summon the sword back to her. They widen further when nothing happens.
I've made a huge mistake in understanding how the sword summoning works.
Ksenia takes a deep breath and thinks well, my fault, I'd better fix this
:: I'll detain it. Or even tear it apart. Problem. There will be others. Go away. I'll catch up. ::
Kalanzar's thoughts in the body of a giant lizard sound somehow short and cold in your heads. It was as if the language had become more alien to him, as well as part of the emotions.
Anyway, Kalizardar heads forward to the spider.
The lizard ferociously rushes at the giant insect and the bite with elusive speed almost bites off one of the legs of the enemy.
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Things started really well. Alex shoots the chasm spider with her devil-fuelled magic, making a smoking crater in its exoskeleton. Ziyad follows suite, further burning the enormous arachnid.
Ksenia tosses her sword behind it, making the creature pause for a moment. Then she immediately regrets her actions, when she and Maddy realize that the sword couldn't be recalled from just anywhere. Determined to correct her mistake, she leaps from her current, somewhat stable, piece of webbing. Her intent, to land behind the spider, grab the sword, and ...well...it wasn't clear exactly what was meant to come next. It was a moot point, however, as the dwarf forgot how sticky some of the webs were. Rather than rocketing straight down to the entangled sword, Ksenia finds herself getting caught up in intervening webs, which slows her momentum. She finds herself in front of the spider, not behind it. She also finds herself falling past the spider.
Meanwhile, Kalanzar rushes forward over the web, hungry for the taste of spider. The lizard finds himself well-suited to this, and ends up with a leg-chunk sticking out of his strong, flat mouth.
Simultaneously, Alexandra finds a use for her new hat, and uses it to swap places with the halfling. Maddy finds herself suddenly looking into Alex's eyes, then has a spear thrust into her hand. Climbing to her feet, Alexandra fires another devastating bolt at the chasm spider, and hits it, despite it being half-behind Kalanzar's large lizard body.
The others react with various levels of confusion, fear, and excitement. Buppido cheers wildly as Ksenia leaps into the void, urging her to success. The twins fumble with their crossbows, trying to fire at the spider without hitting Kalanzar. Topsy manages a solid hit to the cephalothorax, but Turvy's bolt tumbles into the void.
And speaking of tumbling into the void, the mostly-paralyzed halfling, landing prone, precariously where Alexandra had been standing, begins to fall. Shuushar notices and dives to catch her, but the halfling slips past his webbed fingers. She manages a low, soft groan of fear as she falls into the darkness. Shuushar, his flippered feet bearing sharp scales, accidentally slices through the web he's on, and also falls, following the halfling to her fate.
The spider, meanwhile, lashes out the lizard that just bit it. It retaliates in kind, but its sharp fangs fail to pierce the lizard's scales.
Ksenia sticks to the first web, thus throwing her entire jump off kilter. She desperately twists in the air and manages to catch her toes on the next web over, whipping around once and landing mostly on her feet. She bows like an acrobat to an imaginary audience.
Shit no I... Just killed her! But she is not dead yet!
Maddy catch her I swap again
Taking an insane risk, for the sake of salvation, rescue and redemption, she all but puts herself into her deity and her patrons hands/claws.
Abyssal: Wings of Midnight carry me!
Openly Invoking her Patron Deity directly, Alexandra jumps, swapping with the falling halfling again, seeking to use her agility to grab hold of a piece of webbing.
22
The Halfling should be secure, if possible, Alexandra will call for Shushar to grab hold of her, due to how I think momentum works, Alexandra can maybe grab hold of something, as she has not been falling for long, while shushar has already accellerated. There is no way she can actually hold on to him (or he to her), but she aims to direct his fall towards a solid piece of webbing nearby.
The lizard continues to bite the spider, but not so confidently, because it has to dodge the retaliatory attacks.
Only years of being a shepherd and having to react to twitchy sheep and unexpected threats and predators kept Maddy calm as chaos erupted around her. First the halfling disappears and then Alex suddenly appears and thrust a spear at her.
Once she had a weapon in hand, Maddy knew exactly what to do. Being alerted to the spider's presence, she thrust upwards with the spear so that it would know it wasn't the only predator here.
Alex was on the move again and Maddy prepared herself for the sudden reappearance of the halfling.