The thief tumbled into Mireleth's strong arms, and for a fraction of a second, she felt a warm happiness flood her, but the moment was fleeting. The warrior put the thief down on her boots, and turned to face the oncoming pair of spiders from the cave, leaving Colette to deal with the biggest one that was blocking their exit.
Back to back with the fighter, Colette once again drew her dueling blade while gripping the dagger in her off hand.
"Pest control. Right. On it!" She said, taking a quick moment to shove her skirt back down into a comfortable, normal position before darting forward with a warding thrust, hoping to harm the creature and perhaps force it back towards the small shamaness, Nagan, who appeared in the secret door's archway, seemingly at the ready to leap into the fray of battle as well.
Hack n Slash with precise rapier. If Nagan gets the creature's attention, Colette will attempt to jump out of the spider's eyesight for a flanking attack, but that doesn't seem possible at the moment.
Wyndyl walked through the room, looking for items that might be useful, finding not a lot. There was some dried out meat that could be useful if they were stuck long in the wilderness. A whip, that could be useful for other reasons, perhaps. The berserkers' weapons and armor, not very useful for her at least, but someone else might be interested. Two vials of the paralyzing agent the beastmaster had used, those were certainly worth having. She heard the sound of Colette falling into the trap, however, and grabbed the vials and ran to help, calling for Sir Wolf to join her. What she found on arrival was... troubling. Many spiders, one between Mireleth and Colette and the rest of them, others arrayed around the two women who had gone ahead. She didn't normally mind spiders, but then normally they weren't larger than her! The elf cursed herself for arriving late on the scene, drawing her bow and aiming an arrow at the spider that stood in their way. "<Sir Wolf, please follow my arrow, help clear an escape route>" she called as she notched the arrow and let it fly at the large spider.
Shooting at the rear spider, with Sir Wolf nomming at it
At the sound of something slamming down in the distance Sable was on her feet almost immediately, hand already on her sword. She wasn't certain whether that had been caused by a member of their own group or something else, but if she'd heard it then it was very likely others had too. Drawing her blade, she dashed into the next room where Colette and Mireleth had gone previously, arriving just in time to see Colette drop from above into Mireleth's arms through the doorway in the back.
Any questions she might have had were quickly forgotten when something else dropped down after her though. Sable couldn't quite tell what it was aside from some insect-like traits, but it quickly obscured Mireleth and Colette from her vision, its large body blocking the entire passage. Regardless of what it was though, they needed to kill it. She charged forward, quickly crossing the room before making a two-handed swing at the creature's rear with her sword.
Just moving up and using Hack and Slash. Will try to avoid damage if possible
Mireleth attacks the spider (10), dealing 5 damage.
She the uses I'm your Opponent on the second (5) but fails. It responds by spitting some sticky webbing on her (-1 to Str and Dex based rolls until removed) before scuttling past and pouncing at Colette. (+1 Exp)
Meanwhile, Nagan attempts to strike the spider in the doorway with her staff (6) but is simply kicked instead, taking 2 damage. (+1 Exp)
Colette also attacks the spider in the doorway (11), safely striking it, but only for 1 damage.
Wyndyl fires at the spider (7) dealing 7 damage, but being forced to expend 1 ammo in the process.
Sable also safely strikes the spider (10) but does 0 damage.
Status
Mireleth - HP 16/23, Webbed (-1)
Nagan - HP 10/19, No Status
Sable - HP 15/21, No Status
Colette - HP 10/20, No Status
Wyndyl - HP 17/17, No Status
Enemies:
Spider 1 - Unharmed, Pouncing at Colette.
Spider 2 - Wounded, Fighting Mireleth.
Spider 3 - Badly Wounded, Retreating up the wall.
Despite having quickly surrounded the two, the spiders soon found it difficult to approach them further. Mireleth and Colette were able to draw weapons and strike at the nearest two before they could pounce. Mireleth's longer blade gave her enough reach to counter the spider's own, her first strike from the draw hitting its mark and slashing across the creature's front legs. They were tougher than they might have looked though, and her blade didn't manage to outright sever them as she might have hoped. She did hear a distinctive cracking sound as her blade struck however, and the spider recoiled from her attacks, dark fluid leaking from cracks in its chitinous plating.
Where Mireleth had the reach to keep her at the edge of the spider's own, Colette was able to simply dart past a strike from the spider's forelimb. Her blade sunk into a gap in the tough chitin covering its body, where its front leg connected with its torso. Her blade drew blood and the creature recoiled back, but the thief was forced to retreat out of its reach again as it darted forward, trying to bite her.
Unfortunately, despite the success of their initial attacks, Mireleth's feint against the second spider did not go as planned. Instead of trying to avoid her blade the spider simply flung something at her, the sticky webbing catching her in the arm and doing its best to bind it to her torso. She could still fight, there wasn't enough to completely restrict her arm's movement, but it would most certainly make things harder. The spider simply continued to crawl past along the wall, the webbing attack having left Mireleth unable to stop it for the moment.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party attempted to deal with the spider blocking their entryway. Nagan was first to reach it, having been the closest when the attack happened, striking at one of its legs with her staff. She struck true, but her weapon simply rebounded off of the appendage without doing any noticeable damage, and she was unable to dodge away in time when the leg flailed out in the direction of whatever had struck it. Nagan was struck in the stomach by the flailing limb, winded and knocked away, but the blind strike hadn't wounded her seriously.
Just as she was stumbling back from that blow, a blurred shape leaped past her, Wyndyl's dire wolf latching onto the same leg that had struck her in his powerful jaws and holding it in place long enough for the archer to line a up a shot. The arrow flew true, Sir Wolf's assistance holding the creature in place long enough for her to aim through the gap between its legs and strike its vulnerable underside, drawing a screech of pain as is finally pulled itself out of the wolf's grip and backed away from the door.
Sable reached it only moments later, but the creature was on the defensive now. She had to step through the doorway it had only just vacated, and the spider had already started attempting to scale the wall next to the doorway when she reached it. The swordswoman managed to react in time to make one strike before it could move out of her reach, but her blade merely glanced off of the chitin covering its body as it scurried higher up the wall.
This left the exit from the cave open, but the spider that had managed to evade Mireleth had made it there as well. It paused for only a short moment, reorienting itself on the wall, before leaping at Colette, seemingly intent on subduing her by simply burying her under its weight.
Colette had managed to duck and weave her way through the spider's attack and draw blood from its front leg joint, but the space she had to work with was limited, and the bulky arachnids were quick and using their size and wall-climbing abilities to their advantage. She had no time to stay still, moving in a constantly fluid motion just to stay on her feet.
Her own spider foe had been driven away by the onslaught from the tunnel entrance, where the rest of her companions Nagan, Sable and Wyndyl had arrived in the nick of time, but the one that Mireleth had driven off to the side now threatened to take its place. Colette's head was on a swivel, eyeing both spiders and she waited for one to come at her. Eventually, the less wounded one did just that, barrelling towards her and seeking to use its superior bulk to pin her beneath it.
"Nope, nope, nope!" She grunted in self-encouragement as her survival instincts kicked into high gear. The thief ran straight towards the tunnel wall, churning her legs as quickly as possible and transferred her forward momentum into vertical velocity, running two quick steps up the wall before kicking off of it, right back towards the incoming spider with her rapier in front of her. Colette was hoping to catch the beast off guard and skewer it in the eye from above where it expected her to be.
Defy Danger to use wall jump acrobatics to avoid the spider pounce and allow Collette to effectively Hack n Slash at its vulnerable eye bits.
Colette attempts to wall jump over the spider (8) and mostly succeeds, choosing to put herself in danger to continue her attack rather than aborting it to avoid retaliation.
She then attacks (8), but deals 0 damage, and takes 2 in return as it throws her off.
Status
Mireleth - HP 16/23, Webbed (-1)
Nagan - HP 10/19, No Status
Sable - HP 15/21, No Status
Colette - HP 8/20, Webbed (-1)
Wyndyl - HP 17/17, No Status
Enemies:
Spider 1 - Unharmed, Just inside the tunnel entrance.
Spider 2 - Wounded, Fighting Mireleth.
Spider 3 - Badly Wounded, Retreating up the wall.
The first step of Colette's plan went of perfectly, the nimble thief making it to the wall and kicking off of it before the spider could catch her. Once she was in the air though, it was clear things hadn't gone as well as she might have hoped. Instead of its head she found its abdomen rushing up to meet her. She was able to bring her sword to bear in time to strike as she landed in top of it, but the thin blade only glanced harmlessly off of the chitinous plating.
She didn't get the chance to try a second time, the spider bucking wildly and throwing her off, right into the far wall. The impact wasn't bad enough the do more than leave a bruise, but it was disorienting enough to leave her dazed for a moment. Just long enough for a softer impact to drive her back into the wall again, a ball of the spider's sticky webbing striking her directly in the torso and nearly plastering her against the wall. Fortunately most of it had stuck to her instead of the wall, so she was able to pull away with minimal difficulty, but the webbing would still make movement a little more difficult.
Letting out a roar of frustration as one spider darted past after covering her in sticky white gunk, Mireleth nonetheless had little attention to spare for the spider that had gotten past her. The impediment covering her she would just have to deal with, aiming another slash towards the spider that she had wounded, trying to drive it towards the bear traps if such was at all possible.
Sir Wolf darted out and held the giant spider still, pulling its leg a bit so that its underbelly was exposed, and Wyndyl put an arrow into it easily. Unfortunately it came a bit too late for Nagan, who found herself swiped by one of the spider's legs. The others attacked just afterwards, with varying levels of success, causing the wounded spider to begin to retreat. The way seemed to be clear... for a moment, at least. Another of the arachnids leaped at Colette from the wall, quickly drawing Wyndyl's ire. She had found success before, so why change her strategy?
Sable cursed under her breath as her blade only glanced off of the spider's carapace without doing any visible harm. The spider was out of her reach only moments later, crawling back up the wall it had jumped down from. She watched it warily, uncertain whether it was fleeing or simply seeking a better position to attack from. She was forced to turn her attention away when another pounced though, only narrowly missing Colette, who managed to leap over it. She seemed to have similar troubles to Sable herself though, blade unable to do any real damage to the creature.
Releasing one hand from her blade, Sable grabbed the bone spike she'd taken from the mutant wolf. She hadn't had time to fashion it into a proper weapon yet, but if she was right about it, it would likely be able to pierce the spiders' chitin with little trouble. She dashed after the spider that had just flung some kind of webbing at Colette, hoping to catch it by surprise while it was still focused on the thief and drive the spike into its back.
Using her newly acquired Wolfsbone Dagger on the unharmed spider.
Nagan caught the spider's leg in the stomach. It just barely grazed her, but the spider was massive, and its leg was solid; the blow forced her to lurch backwards with a surprised "oof!".
The shamaness lamented her lack of prowess as a warrior. She had always been too slow, too thin-armed to prove a challenge for even the most meager of her tribesmen when they practiced for battle and raiding. but with this many foul monsters, she could not merely stand behind the others and hope they would triumph - if she could slay no fiends herself, she would help Miraleth slay them instead - she was a tried and tested warrior, after all, but she seemed to have been plastered with webbing, and it seemed to be hindering her movements.
Nagan charged forward, holding her staff like a spear. She stopped some paces away, using the length of her to keep herself out of immediate danger from the monsters, and thrust her staff towards one's face, hoping the oddly patterned glint of her palm-patterned, metal staffhead would distract it. She spun and twisted her staff to make its metal head flash with the light from the room behind them, and screamed a furious warshout. Nagan knew all she had to shield the foreign woman with were sounds and fury, but nevertheless, she hoped the sudden appearance of strange visions and noises would make them pull away, when they would attack, and make them distracted, when Miraleth tried to plunge her blade into their hard, black skin.
Colette tried to shield herself as much as possible from the wall as she was tossed away by the giant spider. She absorbed the impact well enough, but as she was picking herself up off the ground, she felt the webbing spray around her waist, sticking to her clothes and bits of exposed flesh and slowing her down.
"Ew. Sticky and gross." She groaned, and then, seeing that the other monsters were preoccupied with her charging companions, the thief busied herself with her dagger in order to cut away at the strands that were impinging on her major movements.
Colette tries to cut away the webbing that is impeding her movement.
Nagan attempts to aid Mireleth (8) and succeeds, giving her +1, but gets hit by a web from the spider on the ceiling in the process.
Mireleth's hack and Slash: 10, dealing 8 damage and killing the spider.
Wyndyl's Volley: 6, missing. (+1 Exp)
Sable's attack with her Wolfsbone Dagger: 10, reducing the spider's armour by 1 and dealing 4 damage.
The webbing would be time-consuming to remove, so Colette will need to wait until the next round if she wants to try, since she's already taken two actions.
Status
Mireleth - HP 16/23, Webbed (-1)
Nagan - HP 10/19, Webbed (-1)
Sable - HP 15/21, No Status
Colette - HP 8/20, Webbed (-1)
Wyndyl - HP 17/17, No Status
Enemies:
Spider 1 - Wounded, Armour reduced.
Spider 2 - Dead
Spider 3 - Badly Wounded, Climbing on the ceiling.
Before the spider could take advantage of the vulnerable position it had left Colette in her allies were already moving to aid her. Another arrow from Wyndyl flew through the open doorway, but the fighting was moving too far back into the cave for her to get an accurate shot from the other room. Her arrow very nearly struck the spider's side, Sir Wolf once again trying to hold the creature still for her, but this one managed to keep the wolf at bay while retreating farther into the cave, towards where Colette had fallen.
Sable was right behind, managing to dart in close with the bone spike she'd taken from the mutant wolf in hand. The spider quickly turned its attention to her, swiping at her with one of its many legs, but the monster hunter was able to duck under the appendage and keep moving, finally driving the spike straight through the creature's chitin just above its foreleg joint. The spider flinched away from the strike, tearing the spike from her grip and leaving it embedded in its body, clearly wounded this time.
Rushing through the ongoing fight, Nagan was able to reach Mireleth and the spider she was fighting with without too much trouble. She had to dodge around the other in the middle of the passage, but it was too focused on Colette and Sable to pay her any heed. The fight she arrived to was straying dangerously close to to line of bear traps, the warrior trying to push the spider back into them. Nagan's arrival forced the spider to split its attention, trying to keep the shouting shamaness away at the same time it was trying to pounce and grab Mireleth. Every time it was forced back another inch, needing to abort its own attempts at attacks to avoid having her blade strike anything vulnerable.
Finally, it took one misstep, trying to avoid both of the two harrassing it and a bear trap snapped shut on one of its rear legs. The spider stumbled, nearly toppling backwards as it had to compensate for the lack of support, and that gave Mireleth the chance she needed. Even hampered as she was by the webbing, Mireleth was able to deliver a deadly strike in its moment of weakness, cutting deeply right between its eyes and all but splitting its head in two.
Unfortunately, the focus on the two spiders still on the ground left the third, badly wounded one to continue to climb the wall unopposed, finally reaching the top of the tunnel and all but disappearing into the darkness there. It was quick to remind them of its presence, using the relatively safe position to simply fling more of its sticky webbing at them. Nagan was nearly knocked off her feet as she was struck from behind, the surprisingly tough silk clinging to her back and arms. Unless someone could do something about it, it was likely to continue to strike at them from the safety of its high position.
Meanwhile, as the only member of the group still outside of the tunnel, Wyndyl was the first to hear the sound of hushed voices. It sounded like men, speaking in the same language all the others had spoken. They were still some distance away, but not far. Down the hallway to her left and likely the staircase that branched off of it, and by the sounds of the footsteps that soon followed they were moving quickly. It seemed that the sound caused by the trap had carried to whoever was still below, and they were finally coming to investigate.
Map
Since there was some confusion about positioning last round, and it's difficult to properly lay out through text alone, I made this quick MSPaint diagram of the battlefield:
The creatures were on the run now, but that only left Sable even more eager to chase them down. Hunting creatures like this was her job after all, but it was more than that too. It was practically what she lived for. Completely focused on the target in front of her to the exclusion of all else, Sable followed relentlessly as the spider backed away, recoiling from the blow she'd dealt it.
Taking her blade in two hands again Sable charged forward with a wordless battle cry, trying to force the creature back even farther, away from Colette to give the thief a chance to deal with the webbing it had covered her in. She needed to be wary of that, she'd seen creatures employing this kind of tactics before: disabling their victims completely without killing them before dragging them back to their lairs. Whether simply as food to consume at their leisure, or for whatever other twisted purpose such beasts might have.
Sable's grip tightened on her blade as she fought to keep the blind rage from consuming her, to keep focused on the battle. It was a problem she faced often, the rage such creatures inspired in her, but practice let her control it most of the time. Making another wide slash to try to force the beast back farther, she quickly reversed her swing, taking another step forward and bringing her blade up from the floor towards its head. The creature was wounded and on the defensive, she only needed to keep the pressure up until it was dead. One good hit might be enough.
Hack and Slash again, and making an effort to force the spider away from Colette if she can, to give her time to remove the webs (Whether that's another roll or not).
Mireleth wrenched her blade upwards, out of the dead spider's head. One down.
She quickly turned to Nagan only to see the shaman - who had just helped her - get blindsided by a burst of webbing, much like what already covered both Colette and herself. Turning towards it, she saw that it was well out of reach, and turned to swing at the other spider that Sable was attacking instead.
Nagan let out a grunt as the strange sensation of sticky white webbing hit her in the back - the strange spew growing tougher and stickier as it solidified into the hide over her back. Channeling her fury elsewhere Nagan twisted her staff once around the thick rope clinging to her, using it as a handhold so she wouldn't have to get her hands on the rope webbing as she bent and hauled with all her might on the strand of silk, trying to yank the spider down and off the wall!
Wyndyl's arrow flew wide as the spider struggled, and after a moment it managed to escape from the grasp of Sir Wolf and retreat into the cave. The others had more luck, killing one of the giant arachnids after herding it into one of the bear traps, and in all the creatures were weakened and on the run despite the fact that the more badly wounded of them appeared to still be spraying webbing at the women from close to the ceiling. Wyndyl would have to do something about that... But some noise caught her attention, coming from her left. The sounds of muffled speech, coming from her left. The elf ran into the room, notching another arrow and looking to the ceiling, trying to find the spider that had webbed Nagan and shoot it before it could do more damage. "Men approacheth from behind" she warned, "fairly near. Shall we withdraw?"
Trying to shoot the weakened spider and whatnot. Suggesting that we retire to the previous room to chokepoint our enemies.
Colette tried to withdraw backwards in the direction of Wyndyl, letting Sable and Sir Wolf confront the giant spider head on while she continued to struggle and rip away the confining webbing so that she could be more prepared for whatever new problem it was that the elven ranger was talking about.
The thief's survival instincts were kicking in at that time, and the idea of being surrounded while partially webbed was not her idea of a winning situation.
"Ergh... Hrnnh... Maybe just find a good place to hide, Wyndyl. Let them charge in and fight the monsters too, then snipe the bastards!"
Colette searched for a dark corner where she could settle down out of sight and free herself completely.
Sable attacks the spider: 11, for only 1 damage, but manages to force it back, further down the tunnel (10).
Mireleth follows up with an attack on the same spider: 9, for 7 damage, killing it.
Wyndyl attempts to shoot the spider hiding on the ceiling: 6, but misses, and it escapes further down the tunnel, out of sight.
Nagan (8) and Colette (9) both succeed at removing the webbing from themselves.
Status
Mireleth - HP 16/23, Webbed (-1)
Nagan - HP 10/19, No Status
Sable - HP 15/21, No Status
Colette - HP 8/20, No Status
Wyndyl - HP 17/17, No Status
Enemies:
Spider 1 - Dead
Spider 2 - Dead
Spider 3 - Badly Wounded, fled into the darkness further down the tunnel.
The spider was quick to back away in the face of Sable's attack, having seemingly grown wary of her after she'd managed to stab it. It was visibly favouring its legs other than the two nearest to where the spike was still stuck into its body. She managed to strike it once with her sword, but the blade merely cut a shallow gash as it continued to flee. She had succeeded in forcing it away from her companions, leaving Colette plenty of space to work on freeing herself from the webbing.
Mireleth was able to take advantage of the spider's focus on the other swordswoman as it retreated, managing to land a far more solid strike as it scuttled past her. She struck from the side, all but splitting the spider in two with the length of her blade. It was just as it collapsed to the cave floor that Wyndyl joined them, giving her warning and taking a shot at the last living spider, the one hiding high above them. Unfortunately her arrow only struck the stone beside it, finally prompting it to scurry away into the darkness deeper into the tunnel, impossible to see without taking a light source and venturing deeper themselves.
It seemed content to flee however, the sounds of its movement growing more distant until falling silent entirely. Alone and wounded it was unlikely to return for them, but there was still the possibility that more than those three spiders lurked in this cave. Regardless, there was enough time for both Colette and Nagan to free themselves from the majority of the webbing. Removing the entirety of it would take much longer (And likely assistance, or removing their equipment), a few remnants of strands still clinging to clothing or hair, but what remained wouldn't hinder them.
The silence that fell after the final spider's escape revealed something else, however: The men that Wyndyl had warned them were approaching were nowhere in sight, nor did they seem to be making any noise. That was uncharacteristic of what they had seen so far, the warriors seeming to prefer shouting and attacking with reckless abandon—with the sole exception of the beastmaster so far. Whether they had fled back downstairs or were waiting in ambush somewhere was impossible to tell from where they were, but if anyone in this place had yet remained unaware of their presence here before now, it was likely they now knew.
As soon as the last spider fighting them on the ground was down, Mireleth turned to view her companions. Nagan and Colette were already free of their webbing, at least for the most part. Their clothes would have to be cleaned, but that could wait. More pressingly, while the last spider skittered away, she could hear no sounds of approaching men, as Wyndyl had warned...
"Are you sure you heard them coming this way?" Mireleth asked in a low voice, moving to stand beside the elf. She didn't doubt the ranger's senses, but with the echoes in the halls who could tell where a given sound came from. As it became clear that a squad of barbarians wasn't coming in at them, however, Mireleth glanced around. Sable would have time to claim her trophies, Colette and Nagan were fine... She made to wrench her own remaining webbing off, her face scrunching into a frown as she touched the sticky gunk, trying to pull it all off and toss it aside.
Colette crept softly back to the rest of the group, encouraging Nagan to tag along with her. When everyone was together, the thief took her dagger and began to help free Mireleth of the webbing, speaking in a hushed whisper as she did so.
"I'm sure I heard movement from back the way we came. Voices too. They're probably waiting for us in ambush. We need to explore this area more, to see if there's another way out. If not, we'll need to make some sort of plan for how we're going to fight our way out of here."
Finishing with Mireleth free of her webbing as much a she could be on short notice, the thief sheathed her dagger and waited for the team's assessment.
She eyed further down the tunnel, into the darkness.
"I have a spare torch, if we need one," she mentioned in afterthought.
