Tinier Problems pt3
There is a SIGN. IN GOBLIN.
This is possibly the worst possible thing. The only way it could be worse is if it was written in Draconic, because that'd mean Kobolds and who can handle that?
Elin can't read either Goblin or Draconic so it's both pretty bad to her.
This does make her rest her hand on the hilt of her big, heavy, curved sword that she wears over her back, though. "I wonder if they are keeping bugs. Maybe we should do some house-cleaning!"
Tamrielo inspects the thing with the skull and crossbones on it, thoughtfully. There's some scratches on it, next to the skeletal iconography. It's these that he focuses on, idly copying them into a notebook.
"You know, I think this might be writing."
Well, Shivani could handle little dragons with feet like rabbits. It's true, she swears! She'd love them, and pet them, and eventually they'd surrender. Or overwhelm and stab her to death.
But hey, right now they have some darkness to deal with. She keeps her blade in one hand and a torch in the other, close to the front as she eases her way down, only to stop when she sees the way it's all constructed.
Accented tradespeak echoes backwards, loud as can be. "HEY YOU GUYS, DOES ANYONE HAVE A WAY TO CHECK FOR TRAPS OTHER THAN LORIK JUST RUNNING THROUGH EVERYTHING?!"
A beat.
"Cause that would be some funny shuz man."
Iskandar has also acquired a lit torch, but as he sees the sign he puts it out, then sticks the unburned portion through his belt next to his last acid flask. All this is so that he can draw his bow, readying an arrow. "It would seem we've found the source of the bugs plaguing the poor farmers - now we have only to discover if it was intentional."
There is a sigh from Lorik. "I can /look/ for traps, just can't get rid of them. And that was /one/ time Shivani!" He says with a touch of an embarrassed smirk as he peers towards the door. "I can defiantly check though..." As he comes forwards to peer at the door. "...I have no idea what language that is but I'll check..."
"Like I said," Elin says, slamming her fist into her open palm. "House-cleaning."
Tamrielo raises a hand, a touch uncertainly. "I've, uh, I've got a bit of background making my way through places with traps and alarms." He looks a bit sheepish about this. "I've got some tools on me, even."
Kaelthilas moves through the cavern torch in hand. He pauses momentarily before the sign allowing the light to illuminate both its script and his armor as he gives it a cursory examination.
The dawn elf does not speak heathen.
Pulling the torch away he continues to skulk through the caverns noting for Shivani, "No means beyond my eyes," he states.
GAME: Lorik rolls precpetion: (18)+precpetion: 18
GAME: Tamrielo rolls Perception: (7)+9: 16
Well, the good news is that for once, the door does not appear to be trapped.
It is, however, firmly locked! And bolted. From the other side. Seems like you may have to bang it down. Keen eyes will now see a small number of bugs milling around the bottom of it.
Iskandar lets out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "It's locked," he reports. He stamps a few bugs with sandaled feet. @
Elin is back a couple people, but she can still see (it helps that even a single torch is enough for her, even when she's not holding it).
"Is it stuck?" she asks, before people are even really done investigating it. "Want me to open it?" She's grinning. "It's not going to be quiet, though..."
Always looking to be a team player, Shiv moves forward to also stamp at the bugs, jumping up and down on them furiously, and then when Elin offers to open the door she leaps back and out of the way.
"Prepare yourself door, for you have made an enemy!"
She'll of course hold her torch high to provide light for the door smashing.
"Its locked, if someone can get it open without making noise...its not trapped. Just locked." Lorik just smirks slightly. "Its a bit shoddily made but..." But then Shivani has declared the door to be an enemy and he just sighs.
"Or not..." He murmurs as he reaches for his crossbow.
Tamrielo pulls out a small set of tools, eyeing the lock on the door. "I can--" he gestures vaguely. "You probably don't need to break it down."
Elin did say it wasn't going to be quiet.
"Well, if nobody else can get it," she says, pushing her way to the front of the group (it's okay, she's gentle). She does stop before she does anything and looks at Tamrielo. "Well, if you want," she says, making room for him too. "But if you can't, I'll get it."
GAME: Tamrielo rolls Disable Device: (15)+8: 23
Tamrielo is surprisingly better than an apparently-apprentice hedge mage ought to be with those tools. They glint faintly in the light, and look professionally made, not the handmade tools of some average second-story man. There's a brief, gentle-sounding click, and then the lock pops open.
"That should do it," he says, straigtening up. The tools vanish somewhere in a pocket.
"Huh." Elin looks down at Tamrielo, then attempts to deliver a friendly thump on the back. "Good work. I didn't even have to break it down!"
Do not ask how many doors Elin has had to break down.
Iskandar takes a few deep breaths to steady himself, then prepares to jump through the door. He puts a hand on it, then glances at the others to see if they're ready. Isn't this when spellcasters rattle off a host of protective wards...?
The door opens!
....You know, the floor path here is carpeted with bugs. They're not actively swarming like the ones you saw earlier, but carpet is a good way to describe it. You're going to be scraping bugs out of your boots if you try to proceed. It's just... unavoidable.
They're beetles, mostly, amongst everything else.
There are many things Shivani does gleefully. Really, just ask anyone. But stepping on bugs? She does this MOST GLEEFULLY. In fact, she pauses to stomp up and down on them, intent on making sure she gets revenge.
"These ones make the most satisfying sound, but I bet they taste like awful being down here so long with.. who knows whut.
Of course, she'll continue onward, happily crunching some bugs as she goes.
Iskandar steps gingerly into the carpet, questioning his choice of footwear for the first time since he arrived in Alexandria. Yet even so he does his best to return to his position at the front of the formation. "Does anyone know what that sign said...?" he points with a thumb over his shoulder.
Elin just kind of walks.
Of course, since Elin is a giantborn, and a big giantborn at that, and she is wearing boots with metal greaves, this means she ends up crunching a lot of bugs. It doesn't seem to bother her, even if the sound is kind of gross. "Nope," she says to Iskandar. Well, at least she's honest.
Down the passage you go. It's not /terribly/ long, thankfully, and you push your way into an ovular chamber which has a sort of... spinning... light at its heart, thrumming with some sort of arcane pwoer. There are bugs /everywhere/ here.
So many hugs.
The light flickers between colors, sparkling and scintillating and every other adjective for light you can think of alternately.
The carpet of bugs just chitters there as Shivani goes stomping though them. Lorik is less enthuasitic about it, but he doesn't hesitate either. His boots crunching on beetle bodies as he moves, his crossbow is out though. The keen bolt pointed forward as he goes skulking forwards.
However the lights spinning round and round causes him to blink in suprise. "...what in the...is this some kind of strange artifice?" A longer pause. "...who put it under a /farm/. This looks like this has been drawing the bugs?"
"Whut."
This is the Mul's response to the lights as she looks to her cousin, and then back to them, every hue cascading across her face as one eye grows bigger than the other in silent awe.
"I didn't know that bugs got angry about colors you guys. Ohhh it's so pretty we should take it with us!"
Elin squints into the light as she tries to make out what's emitting it. She's kind of dazzled by the glare, but this doesn't stop her.
"Oh, so they're like moths," Elin says. "They get attracted by the light. But - how did they see it in the first place? If it's in this room, they would only see it when they were already inside!"
She finally looks away from the light and at Shivani. "Why would you want to TAKE it? Who'd want that many bugs?"
Kaelthilas is not in his favored terrain and so he too crunches upon beetles. Yet despite his burnished scale the situation seems to have little negative effect upon his attitude. He trudges forward like a soldier through muck and gore.
"Spiders are often drawn to light," Kaelthilas explains, "I do not know how revealing their web assists them in capturing their prey but nevertheless they find the glow of mana lamps alluring."
Tamrielo stares at the light, and the overall room. "Why is this... here?" He tries not to think about the bugs.
GAME: Kaelthilas rolls knowledge/nature: (9)+4: 13
Iskandar frowns deeply. "It's hard to say. Was it meant to draw bugs here, and they spread to the surface? Is it here for some other purpose and they are here by accident?" He pauses and then adds, "And more importantly, what should we do with it?"
GAME: Elin rolls Will: (7)+1: 8
"Break it?" Elin suggests, almost immediately. "It might get the bugs to go away, after all, if there is no light there anymore!"
She's still trying to figure out what's making the light show up. She takes a step forward after a moment, then another, heading toward the light. (This crunches more bugs. She doesn't notice.)
"Well I was thinking, if we take the light, this would make us in command of the bugs because they like the light. Then we could use them as crunchy-minio-..noooooo, Elin! DO NOT GO INTO THE LIGHT!!"
Shiv's eyes go wide and she reaches out a hand, teeth showing as she beckons Elin not go into the multi-colored afterlife.
"Well I'm going to hazard a guess and break it. But how we break it so it doesn't blow us up either." Lorik asks with quirked eyebrow. "I have no idea about anything like artifice." The inquistor replies with a shake of his head.
"...taking the light out /might/ turn the light off, Shivani." The man replies with a grin as he looks towards his cousin and the figures antics as he watches his cousin try to save Elin from the evil of the light.
GAME: Lorik rolls will: (1)+6: 7 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Tamrielo rolls Will: (15)+5: 20
Elin is paying about no attention to Shiv. Or Iskander, really, as she just kind of marches forward.
GAME: Shivani spends ONE point of PANACHE.
GAME: Shivani rolls will+4: (3)+3+4: 10
....
"But who would want to turn the light offKravar (talk) 16:42, 15 May 2018 (EEST)"
Says Lorik as the crossbow bolt dips and he stumbles towards the center of the room and the light.
GAME: Iskandar rolls will: (17)+1: 18
GAME: Kaelthilas rolls will: (18)+3: 21
"You kno-" LIGHT. "I thin-" LIGHT. "Ish..feh.." LIGHT.
Somewhere behind Shivani's eyes, a certain kind of Mul'niessa music that the noble class listens to begins to blare. It's called 'disco', named for the flashing lights and flying discs the performers use when in concert, she begins to saunter, saunter, spin, saunter, half-dancing, half walking, drool hanging from Shivani's bottom lip as she, too...
Goes into this Rainbow Inferno Lightshow.
Apparently, the light captures the attention of things that aren't just bugs.
As you get closer, that's when it becomes obvioous that something /dwells/ within the light. Something moving...
GAME: Shivani spends ONE point of PANACHE.
GAME: Shivani rolls will+4: (6)+3+4: 13
YOU CAN DANCE.
YOU CAN JIVE
HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIGHT.
SEE THAT LIGHT.
WATCH THAT LIGHT.
DIG IN LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT.
These and no other thoughts go through Shivani's head, moving methodically in step with the music in her head towards the light and dropping her torch to reach out with her free hand with a spark in her eyes.
Ohhhhh, she's gonna get it. Gonna get that light. Yes she is.
GAME: Tamrielo spends ONE use of BARDIC PERFORMANCE.
GAME: Tamrielo rolls Perform/Comedy: (11)+8: 19
Tamrielo glances around worriedly as people seem entranced by the light. Taking a deep breath, he gets his now-familiar dreamy look and speaks. Unlike the focusing and hyper-present words from before, these are sharp, commanding, and demand attention. Instead of warmth and clarity, they're cold, like plunging one's face into a snowbank.
"Don't look at the magical light, My friends, just keep me in sight. It'll get in your mind, Leave you in a bind, So stand not amazed, and FIGHT!"
[WhirlChan] Iskandar says, "Tam is an awesome bard :D"
Lorik is about to wonder towards it again and when Tam starts up his little song. With a shake of his head he shutters slightly. "Thanks!" He calls out as he plants his feet again, staring at the light as he attempts to figure out just how to turn this crazy light thing off.
"Shivani! Don't get too close! We don't know what else it'll do if anything touches it!"
GAME: Lorik rolls knowledge/Arcana: (20)+6: 26
GAME: Lorik rolls spellcraft: (9)+8: 17
[WhirlChan] Tamrielo blushes.
"There is something in the center of the light there thats causing all this, I mean if we break it it'll stop...but it might explode!" Lorik calls helpfully.
Or perhaps unhelpfully as the case may be.
There is indeed something in the light. SOmething at the orb of light's core. It seems to be... moving within it. What could it be?!
Legs begin to spread out from either side of it. Leeeegs.
Lots of the,.
GAME: Fabris rolls 1d20+7: (9)+7: 16
GAME: Fabris rolls will: (19)+0: 19
GAME: Fabris rolls 1d6+3: (1)+3: 4
Fabris steps forwards, and lunges at the LIGHT BUG quicky, desparately. I mean, all those gods-damned legs! In and out, fast, no questions, just a little stabbing!
GAME: Elin RAGES!, gaining +2 to melee attack/damage/Will saves and 4 temporary HP
GAME: Elin rolls Falchion-1: (11)+Falchion+-1: 10
GAME: Elin rolls 2d4+11: (4)+11: 15
GAME: Elin rolls Will: (17)+3: 20
Elin snaps out of it at Tamrielo's urging.
And then she roars, drawing her falchion. Gripping it in both hands, she swings it in a great arc at the suddenly-legged point of light. "Stop making me stare! You piece of - " She hesitates. "Shine!"
GAME: Iskandar rolls weapon1-4: (15)+8+-4: 19
GAME: Iskandar rolls 1d8+3: (7)+3: 10
GAME: Iskandar rolls will: (6)+1: 7
Iskandar raises his bow and pulls back an arrow. He hesitates for just a moment - he finds it harder shooting arrows into the midst of a chaotic melee than some more skilled archers - but then lets fly. His arrow strikes true, but midway through reaching for another Iskandar pauses again, this time lowering his bow. With that same slack-jawed expression as some of the others he shuffles towards the light.
GAME: Shivani rolls weapon11: (19)+11: 30 (THREAT)
GAME: Shivani rolls weapon11: (15)+11: 26
GAME: Shivani rolls will: (9)+3: 12
GAME: Shivani rolls 2d6+16: (3)+16: 19
With a glance to her cousin, and a gleam in her eye, Shivani seems to heed his warning. It might explode, he says. Oh, it might explode.
It.
Might.
Explode.
Challenge accepted, she begins in a running slide, whirling in a twisting, rolling somersalt that will crush bugs all over her, the reflecting arc of enchanted steel slashing upward as she slides beneath the creature in near slow motion.
Eyes wide, bugs in her teeth, she comes out the other side of it on her knees with a flourish of her blade.
And completely covered in techno-color goo.
"HEY LORIK I MADE IT EXPLODE MOSTLY."
GAME: Shivani gains ONE point of PANACHE.
GAME: Tamrielo spends ONE use of BARDIC PERFORMANCE.
GAME: Tamrielo rolls weapon1: (17)+5: 22
GAME: Tamrielo rolls 1d6: (3): 3
Tamrielo continues dreamily speaking as he draws his rapier. "In hidden caves below the farm, we find a strange light, and we shall NOT be taken in by it!"
He's clearly not used to much other than skirmishing or duels, certainly not fighting some kind of light-insect-thing and certainly not with this mostly-decorative rapier. Still, he manages to score a hit and pokes a hole in... something.
GAME: Lorik rolls weapon9+1-2: (6)+8+1+-2: 13
GAME: Lorik rolls weapon9+1-2: (11)+8+1+-2: 18
GAME: Lorik rolls 1d10+4: (4)+4: 8
GAME: Lorik rolls 1d10+4: (10)+4: 14
"Good job! Explode it more!" Lorik calls out as he pulls out the crossbow. The runes across the side of the weapon now burst into life as he fires the first round. Golden light trails the bolt as it slices though the air to impact the center of the legged creature. Swiftly its joined by a second one as Lorik works the reload mechanism to slam in a second bolt as he takes a step back.
"Its got legs! Light generating spells are not supposed to have legs!"
GAME: Kaelthilas rolls mydraahilhit-1: aliased to Melee+1-1: (18)+6+1+-1: 24
GAME: Kaelthilas rolls mydraahildam+3: aliased to 2d6+4+1+3: (3)+4+1+3: 11
The skirmish breaks out.
Kaelthilas begins forward his armored vestments soundless as they flow against his stride. Arrows and rapier upon their foe. It is not until he reaches striking distance that he takes arms. Left hand to right shoulder he grabs the gilded hilt and draws his blade.
Mydraahil; the sword of Dycan. The ephemeral blade hums as it glimmers within the fel-light. The blade snarls as it cuts crosswise against the air to land into the dawn elf's two-handed grasp. Shivani dives through. He stands in opposition.
Pivoting with a well-practiced stroke an arc of steel sunders the fluid-filled carapace spilling vicious glimmering fluid upon scale and cuirass. Moving the blade to a defensive position across his party he takes a firm step to the left. Strike. Move.
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d20+9: (7)+9: 16
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d20+9: (11)+9: 20
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d8+6: (2)+6: 8
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d8+6: (8)+6: 14
It's more visible now. Made of light, this spider-like being (because what else eats this many bugs) stretches its legs out. It's phantasmal, almost, half phusiocal and half not. The sword strikes are /hurting/ it, cutting through it and clearly causing it pain, but it's not entirely /real/, either. Not entirely solid.
It's fangs lash out and are just about to sink into SHivan's flesh when she manages to ward it off, if barely.
BARELY.
It's form flickers several times, the scintillating lights becoming less odious.
GAME: Shivani spends ONE point of PANACHE.
GAME: Shivani rolls weapon11: (9)+11: 20
"...Kael." Lorik says slowly as he watches the strange spider thing raise up from the artifice. "...you were right. It's a bloody spider."
GAME: Fabris rolls 1d20+7: (16)+7: 23
GAME: Fabris rolls 1d6+3: (6)+3: 9
Fabris keeps circling, trying to figure out this half-there spider. He times his thrust better this time, putting it through the body pretty solidly before stepping back quickly! No fangs!
GAME: Elin rolls weapon1-1: (16)+9+-1: 24
GAME: Elin rolls 2d4+11: (5)+11: 16
"And it's about to be a very dead spider!"
Elin may be attacking powerfully, but she's not all brute force; there's skill behind the powerful chopping blows. She puts the weight of her gigantic sword into her swings, trying to carve the half-physical spider; while she can't bisect it the way she wants to, she does manage to strike with the blade, carving into it before passing through. It is still not a very dead spider.
She's working on it.
GAME: Shivani rolls weapon11: (7)+11: 18
GAME: Shivani rolls 1d6+8+4: (4)+8+4: 16
Fangs dig deep in the Mul as she slides by after her first swipe, and though she tries to swat them aside with another whirl of her blade, she cannot.
"Oh nooooo LORIK it feels like b..burning..."
Or does it feel like a rainbow? Either way she's feeling lightheaded from the extradimensional biting. So she grounds herself by biting down on her own lip, and with a roll to the side Shivani lashes out with a harrowing slash arcing towards the creature's legs!
GAME: Shivani rolls intimidate: (19)+9: 28
GAME: Tamrielo spends ONE use of BARDIC PERFORMANCE.
GAME: Tamrielo casts Cure Light Wounds. Caster Level: 2 DC: 14
GAME: Tamrielo rolls 1d8+1: (5)+1: 6
GAME: Lorik rolls weapon9: (14)+8: 22
GAME: Lorik rolls weapon9: (2)+8: 10
GAME: Lorik rolls 1d10+4: (1)+4: 5
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d20+9: (12)+9: 21
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d20+9: (14)+9: 23
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d8+6: (8)+6: 14
GAME: Floofystink rolls 1d8+6: (7)+6: 13
You knowe. It might be half made out of light and looking like it's about ready to shatter, but the horrible spider beast lifts two legs and jams tthem through Tamrielo and Fabris' guard. The legs do not seem to do any real physical harm, at first, but given the way both of them react in pain, it seems that it definitely /does/ hurt a great deal.
GAME: Fabris rolls 1d20+7: (10)+7: 17
GAME: Fabris rolls 1d6+3: (5)+3: 8
GAME: Elin rolls weapon1-1: (19)+9+-1: 27 (THREAT)
GAME: Elin rolls weapon1-1: (8)+9+-1: 16
Tamrielo winces as the spider bites Shivani. It's almost enough to break his continuing voice, but he manages to keep it together. "The arcane phantom spider's bite cannot hope to win this night!" He crosses the distance to Shivani and lets his free hand brush her shoulder, tracing a faintly glowing rune with his fingertips. At his touch, wounds knit and blood flow stops.
It means he's distracted, and not watching when the spider goes for him. He lets out a choked gasp, looking down at the phantom limb through his midsection and trembling slightly. For the first time, his eyes are clear again, and pained, and he stumbles backwards.
GAME: Elin rolls 4d4+22: (8)+22: 30
GAME: Elin ends her rage.
GAME: Floofystink removes the timestop.
Timestop by Floofystink has left.
As Fabris goes down, Elin reacts by, if anything, getting even angrier.
Letting out a wordless roar, Elin shifts her grip on her oversized blade only an instant before delivering an almost vertical two-handed blow, suitable for bisecting chunks of wood or, as it turns out, phantasmal half-existing spider critters. "HANDS OFF HIM!" she yells, snapping back to a ready position, looking slightly wild-eyed.
...it shatters. Shatters into a million pieces of light that glitter in the dim torchlight within the chamber.
So shattered, the room is immediately /less/ lit, of course, anmd there is a hideous amount of bug carcasses all around what appears to be a crystal set in the floor here, slowly rotating under some sort of artificed power. It all looks old. The farm had to've been built above it, decades ago, more than likely.
There's more of this place to search. ACross the way is another door.
One of the two shadow elves in the room slowly breathes a sigh of relief as the spider goes /squish/ as he blinks slightly. "It defiantly was a spider. Thing. Spider." The phase spider splatters all over the floor that blade comes down.
Then he draws a breath. And looks towards Fabris.
He gasps as he sees the man fall, moving over to rest a hand against his arm. Channeling healing energies into him to at least get him back on his feet.
"So? What now."
Shivani stares at the bug thing, or rather, the crystal left shattered all about. She glumly kicks one rock. LIKE A BOSS.
"Okay guys I think we did goo.. Oh no another door. What if there are like, Four of them? What if instead there's like, a crystal beetle this time. OR A CRYSTAL SLUG. Foy shuz man!"