"Oh let's see if these damnable things are even a threat to us." Cort says, annoyed by such a simple barrier stopping them, and drops one of the frogs form the bag of tricks into the bugs, watching avidly for the results.
Cort throws one of the spongy balls into the insect pit, and for a moment nothing happens. Then with a muffled thump, a giant toad bursts into being in the midst of the creatures. Insects are blasted outward from the force of the appearance and the squad is showered with a few stray beetles and centipedes.
The toad looses a "Crrroooooaak!" and starts to use its cavernous mouth to scoop up mouthfulls of the beasts to munch upon. The insect react violently to the intrustion, swarming over the frog and biting at it's hide.
From the look of it, the insects that are biting the toad seem to be dieing off as well - but more swarm to take their place. After a half minute of frenzied thrashing and biting, the insects overbear the toad and it falls down lifeless and unmoving. The insects continue to swarm over the corpse and eat away at the skin as the toad carcass is still visible above the swarm.
Gauging the response in the pit, you can definitely see an impact on the 'carpet's activity. The level of the insects sits about six inches below the top level of the pit next to where you stand.
"Well.... they're certainly dangerous." Cort turns slightly green at the quick destruction of the toad and rubs his maimed hand. "I'm all for waiting till you all have it figured out."
The druid is absolutely amazed at the battle of nature he witnessed.
By the Green Faith that was beautiful. I probably could summon a monkey or some such to clamber over there but I dont see anywhere he could tie a rope too and I dont know how Id feel about trying to climb over that pit of horror. That frog did quite a dent in the amount of bugs in there though. Look how far down they are now. I say we do that again.
Kaavel watches as the others try to get past the bugs than says " Do we have any oil or anything that we can use to start a fire?"
Blaze watches with interest at what the frog does. "Perhaps we should just throw all of the frogs in there at the same time, though that doesn't help us get across the pit."
We tried using fire and it didnt hardly hurt them. One frog did a good job. I say throw two in there at the same time and see what happens.
Kaavel sighs and shakes his head "I did not mean to burn them Sentis I meant to see if it would put them to sleep."
"Well if these err tha protectors then I an wary o them."
"I have a sinking feeling that we may be disturbing something best left undisturbed. I hope that is not the case." Darkbiter watches the others decide how to deal with the bugs, not really skilled in that kind of contest, much preferring a straight up fight.
I couldnt agree more Dark. and I still find it strange that for all his excitement, Vankerman chose to not come with us. Like maybe he knew what we'd run into down here.
"Bah! They're just bugs. I'll b' buggered if'n the're gonna keep us from collect'n our pay."
Knowledge nsture
"I though I saw a tree with tha sticky sap oozing out o it somewhar local"
Another couple of toads would probably do the trick?
Does not look like the beasts are replenishing themselves.
"Aw, bugger all." Doc growls, loading a shell into his mortar and aiming low. A hollow thump and the shell fired nearly strait forward before disappearing into the mass of bugs and detonating somewhere beneath their surface.
The mortar explodes with a muffled thump, then the squad is showered with a mixture of goop, broken insect bodies and a few spiders scared out of their wits. When the smoke clears you can see that it made a nice hole in the critters, that is slowly filling in with insects.
After equilibrium is reached once more you gauge that a couple more well placed mortar - or a single toad assault should clear up enough for you to pick your way through.
"Don't feel too bad, Doc, at least you can do something to these things. None of the rest of us are particularly well equipped to handle this situation."
Blaze chuckles at the mortar's devastation "Well that was fun. I say throw another toad in to mop up the remaining bugs and let's move on"
Kaavel watches as Doc throws mortars at the bugs.
Yah, save your mortars Doc and let Cort throw a couple more frogs from that bag into the pit. They did the most damage and you'll still have some left.
"Well I hate to lose my frogs but..." Cort shrugs and flips two more frogs into the pit. "Get to it you croaking little bastards." He smiles as he watches the battle.
Perception
"Looks like thar thinnin tha ranks."
The toad reinforcements quickly turn the tide of the battle back to the squad, between the insects they gobble up and the ones that die from biting their skin, the pit soon grows quiet and with little movement. The toads fall under the weight of thousands of tiny poisonous insect bites, but they have done their work.
A few errant insects still linger, but you're fairly sure you can pick your way around them without any issues.
Now that the insect movement is gone, you can clearly see a couple of humanoid skeletons partially protruding from the still mass.
Kaavel waits for what the others to pick a course of action.
"Looks like at least some metal survived the assault at least."
As Darkbiter points it out, the other squaddies can spot the items mentioned. It looks like a shield and a curved blade, though you can't tell from this distance.
"Glad we decided to rid ourselves of the bugs first. Seems like we gotta jump into the pit n climb back out the other side. Unless there are any other ideas."
Grusk climbs down
Carefully going to retreive the weapons....if possible
Grusk moves to the bodies carefully, though there are not enough live insects left to bother you overly. A loud crunch of insect corpses accompanies your steps.
The two items you recover are a light metal shield that is currently missing the leather strapping used to secure it to one's arm. The other item is a finely made scimitar. The rest of the corpses possessions are no longer in any useable shape.
Seeing that Grusk is fine after climbing into the pit, Blaze jumps in after him and admires the scimitar "That is a finely crafted weapon you have there. Not as nice as my own, but then mine has been passed down through my family for generations."
The druid will follow the others into the insect pit. Seeing Grusk's find he walks over and says May I? and casts Detect Magic and focuses in the two items.
"Go ahead not mah choice o weapons though tha big curve blade seems tah be well liked."
Oh, Im not claiming either Grusk. although the blade does interest me. Im just checking to see if they carry any enchantments.
As Sentis focuses on the items they both take on a glow in his mind's eye.
So the sword carries a small enchantment and if Blaze doesnt want it and there are no other objections Id love to have it. But the shield is something more. It will need to be repaired so it can be wielded before I'll know what though. The Green Faith doesnt permit me to use metal armorment of any kind so its useless to me. Any takers?
"I jus meant fer yah tah take em off mah hands so we ken get on with things."
"Hard enough tah tuble with this axe, I'd hate tah trys it with a shield."
Grusk climbs out of the pit at the other side and moves to the turn in the corridor for a look. After the bend it continues on for another thirty feet before it opens out into another room that looks like it is lit by torches. You can't see much from this distance and would need to get closer for a good look.
Blaze will follow Grusk, weapon at the ready.
Darkbiter follows Grusk quietly, and nods quietly as he moves forward to the edge of the room.
You enter into a square room with an elevated ceiling. There are torches in sconces high on the walls out of easy reach that cover the area in flickering torchlight. The entrance you came in through seems to be the only way in or out.
At each corner of the room stand large suits of armor, seated upon stone thrones. The center of the room has a circular raised dias which appears decorated with the same eye motif as was upon the book you found.
"I think tha eye is there, wha was tha clue again."
...Geez, these guys get quiet when at task...
The stocky half elf will exchange the scimitar at his hip with the one they just found and strap his old one to his pack and then also strap the shield to his pack until someone decided they wanted to fix it. Seeing that he was being left behind at this point he'll hurry to catch up with the others.
Used to his position in the back as support, mechanic, medic and resident pack mule, Doc offers to take the shield from Sentis and pours a vial into his ever present tankard, taking a long pull while examining it's workmanship.
"'Ere, lemme see. Yeah, ah think ah c'n fix that when we stop fer a few minutes."