The flurry of activity on the side of the chasm happens all at once, too fast for anyone to properly process.
Muir's thorn whip strikes out, flailing through the air towards Sam before missing him completely and limply falling against the chasm wall. Gewyn dives to his knees with an outstretched hand and yells out, but the gesture is for naught. Past Gewyn's shoulder, Vin extends his rope and throws it as far as he can. With the teen supported by his loyal dog and Elthana, they brace to take the weight.
Sam instinctively flailing around for a hold on anything plummets, into the depths and out of sight.
A moment later the length of rope snaps taught, sending Vin, Neferox, and Elthana shooting over the edge and screaming into the darkness along with Sam, they leave behind only falling dust in the air and Nef's claw marks in the ground.
As Muir and Gewyn, suddenly alone, realise what just happened, watching most of their party be swallowed by the darkness of the chasm, they aren't given time to process before the groan from one of the tunnels behind them sounds out once more, "HRRRKRAATH!!" this time much closer.
There is a crash, a splash, and the sound of wood exploding into splinters as it strikes cold unyielding rock. Then a moment of silence as the fate of the fallen party members remains anxiously unknown.
"Jump in, the water is fine!" Sam yells up in a rather annoyed, perturbed and disoriented kind of way. "The fall is breathtaking. The landing a bit... sticky..."
Hearing the noise behind him, Gewyn picks up the torch from where he dropped it and spins around, peering into the darkness. He looks back over his shoulder as he hears Sam's voice calling up and eyes the chasm uncertainly.
With the torch light Gewyn illuminates the three tunnels in front of him, listening intently he can hear the low groaning and movement coming from the left side tunnel, it's getting closer, by gewyns estimate it might be between 100-200ft away.
Straight on is cold, with a slight fresh air breeze in his face.
The tunnel to the right belies nothing, it simply descends into darkness.
Behind him the chasm looms, the possibility of that not being Sam's voice flashes through Gewyns head, but hearing the intonations and slight regional accent, he is fairly certain that it is indeed Sam.
Muir lifts his trunk into the air and confirms the same as what Gewyn perceived. "Gewyn, we are going to climb down there and check on them. When I shift into a giant lizard, throw a rope around me and get on. There's no time to waste." And with that Muir shifts into a Giant Lizard
The moment Muir makes the offer, several odd noises come echoing up from the bottom of the cavern, four distinct popping noises and then the trilling of a creature on the attack.
Gewyn looks at Muir, then back down the left hand tunnel toward the approaching noise. "Oh, just one problem. I don't have a ro-" He turns around to see Muir already shifted into lizard form. "Damn it"
With no time to think, he shrugs his pack from one shoulder and slings it around the giant lizard's neck. Looping one strap around each hand, he pulls himself close and hangs on for dear life.
It is not a particularly elegant or delicate time for Gewyn as he hangs on for dear life, Muir's lizard form is large and his movements clunky. Muir's claws and tactile pads clatter along the rock as his body dances back and forth, moving like a monstrous gecko.
"HRRRKRAATH" the groan echoes around the cavern once more, ever closer.
At the bottom of the chasm, Elthana, Vin, Sam, and Neferox see the wobbling torchlight above and see Gewyn riding something along the chasm wall, but their attentions are taken by the surprise attack of four blue glowing spiders, which just teleported to the groups location and began attacking.
Gewyn (traversing) Elthana Vin & Nef Muir (traversing) Sam Enemies
Elthana groans as the spiders show up, but is pleasantly surprised that they miss their surprise attack. Stuck in the webs, she twists around and attacks the one to the right.
Attack: 22 Damage: 8
Attack: 13 Damage: 10
Attack: 24 Damage: 12
(If she does kill the one on her right before she is done, she attacks the one on her left)
Even whilst held by the thick webbing Elthana makes impressive movements to be able to attack, ravaging and bloodying the Spider to her right, though it remains alive and resolute.
Vin being surrounded by the spiders knows it will end poorly if he stays close to them. As such he tries to scan how the webbing is all connected. He needs to get out but just falling will be bad so he uses his ability to summon fire and does so on the webbing on one side of him in the hopes it will burn through and allow him to fall and swing down from the webbing stuck on his other side. If it works he should end up next to Neferox and she can help Vin keep the Spiders off. He will also be able to use his ranged spells better without a spider constantly trying to bite him. He needed a few moments to line up his spell which was made difficult as the sticky substance made it hard to move let alone dodge the spider trying to bite him. Right as it seems ready to pierce it's fangs into Vin's side he finishes the spell and unleashes a big burst of fire like creating a bonfire on top of the webbing. It burns and suddenly a dozen snapping noises are heard as Vin suddenly plummets and swings downwards and away from the spider. Vin ends up right where he wants and is right next to Nef who seems immediately relived that Vin is next to them. The hound for their part is also stuck in the webs but now they ready themselves to bite the very first spider that thinks of getting close to Vin. As Vin falls down a bit to Nef's level he shouts out "Elthana watch out! Its just you up there now." Vin begins to ready his next set of spells but will he make it in time to help Elthana?
Burning the webbing seems super effective, as the webbing catches fire, the effected strands ignite all along their length like a quick burning fuse before extinguishing when they reach their anchor points on the walls or floor. The two spiders use the opportunity to attack as Vin swings away,
(22 to hit, 10 piercing + 22 poison, halved to 11)
(24 crit to hit, 8 piercing + 23 poison, halved to 11)
40 damage total.
Vin swings down but as he is unable to properly maneuver himself in his restraints he ends up bumping into Neferox, effectively becoming stick to her as they both remain restrained.
Sam's mind is a riot not of his own control. Sam thrashes and wriggles and squirms and lashes out, anything and everything to get the webs off him, to get free, to get away from the spiders! The webs alone were enough to send his mind into a spiral but now? Stuck and seeing the filthy, skittering, abnormal things lurking above? It is too much for Sam... He lashes out until he is free of the webbing and instead is falling...
falling
falling....
He is himself again once free. Screwed, but himself. Falling is not good. Landing probably worse. Not much to be done for it.... Except maybe? Reaching into his pouch... No, not the rust colored one he pulls his animal friends from but the one with the golden acorns. Carefully but quickly, pulling one out and twisting so as to maybe be able to throw it down so hopefully it hits the ground before Sam himself. He throws the golden acorn downward and tries to prepare himself to try to catch hold of the branches as the sixty foot tree that will erupt when it hits the ground does so...
With luck the acorn will strike the ground and immediately grow to it's majestic height instantaneously and Sam will be able to grab and latch onto the top portion even as it grows, lifting Sam up with it, away from the ground and up, up through the webs and back into the fight - Now with his wits about him once more and ready to face his fears...
((Sam and Neferox was 30ft above ground? The others 15 feet above them? So IF Sam can manage this, and if Sam is able to grab hold of the top quarter of the tree as it sprouts up from underneath him, he is MAYBE carried right into the fight?))
With Sam successfully breaking the bonds that bind him, he once again goes into freefall, though this time thinking clearly and prepared.
The acorn hits the ground just before Sam would have, and it explodes upward in a blink, it's roots burrowing through otherwise impenetrable rock in a split second, and solidifying the tree there, as if it had stood for the last 80 years. Sam makes to grab at the branches as they sprout past him but he disappears within the burst of leaves and brush.
The webbing all around Vin, Nef, and Elthana is disturbed now, the tree pushing through connected strands and moving each of them upwards, stressing and breaking some of the webbing that restrains them (athletics DC lowered significantly)
The four spiders feeling something wrong each disappear from existence with a slight blue flash of light and a harsh popping sound.
Above, Lizard-Muir and Gewyn hear the crash of rock crumbling and breaking, they feel a sudden surge of wind coming from below, and see the odd blue flashes from where their party members presumably are. Both of you estimate that the distance left for you to cover is around 150ft.
"Oh no,"Gewyn says, unsure of what is happening in the chaos and gloom below him. "Hang in there, we are coming!"he hollers, still clinging to the straps of his pack with a death grip.
Elthana cringes as she watches the spiders attack Vin as he expertly swings away. "You ok?" She calls down below her, trying to twist a bit in her webbings to see if she can check on the kid. Then realizes with a gulp, that she is the closest meal now for the spiders.
Suddenly Sam erupts with his adverse reaction to the spiders and a tree comes out of nowhere. Stunned, it takes her a moment to even realize the spiders have disappeared. She attempts to wrench her body free from the webbing.
Athletics 7
She hears Gewyn approaching, "We're ok at the moment, the spiders have disappeared. The noise you heard was Sam growing another of his giant trees!"
Elthana struggles but the webbing wrapped around her has her caught proper, the strands that suspend her in the air protest and a couple snap back with her movements. Elthana knows that the 50ft drop below her will hurt a lot if she falls without freeing her hands first, and the branches of Sam's tree are so close she can smell them.
The flurry of activity on the side of the chasm happens all at once, too fast for anyone to properly process.
Muir's thorn whip strikes out, flailing through the air towards Sam before missing him completely and limply falling against the chasm wall. Gewyn dives to his knees with an outstretched hand and yells out, but the gesture is for naught. Past Gewyn's shoulder, Vin extends his rope and throws it as far as he can. With the teen supported by his loyal dog and Elthana, they brace to take the weight.
Sam instinctively flailing around for a hold on anything plummets, into the depths and out of sight.
A moment later the length of rope snaps taught, sending Vin, Neferox, and Elthana shooting over the edge and screaming into the darkness along with Sam, they leave behind only falling dust in the air and Nef's claw marks in the ground.
As Muir and Gewyn, suddenly alone, realise what just happened, watching most of their party be swallowed by the darkness of the chasm, they aren't given time to process before the groan from one of the tunnels behind them sounds out once more, "HRRRKRAATH!!" this time much closer.
“Oh hells no!” You can hear called out by Sam 25, 50, a hundred of more feet below? You have no real way to know.
“No, no, no, no, no!”
There is a crash, a splash, and the sound of wood exploding into splinters as it strikes cold unyielding rock. Then a moment of silence as the fate of the fallen party members remains anxiously unknown.
"Jump in, the water is fine!" Sam yells up in a rather annoyed, perturbed and disoriented kind of way. "The fall is breathtaking. The landing a bit... sticky..."
Hearing the noise behind him, Gewyn picks up the torch from where he dropped it and spins around, peering into the darkness. He looks back over his shoulder as he hears Sam's voice calling up and eyes the chasm uncertainly.
Perception: 19 to find the source of the groan.
With the torch light Gewyn illuminates the three tunnels in front of him, listening intently he can hear the low groaning and movement coming from the left side tunnel, it's getting closer, by gewyns estimate it might be between 100-200ft away.
Straight on is cold, with a slight fresh air breeze in his face.
The tunnel to the right belies nothing, it simply descends into darkness.
Behind him the chasm looms, the possibility of that not being Sam's voice flashes through Gewyns head, but hearing the intonations and slight regional accent, he is fairly certain that it is indeed Sam.
Muir lifts his trunk into the air and confirms the same as what Gewyn perceived. "Gewyn, we are going to climb down there and check on them. When I shift into a giant lizard, throw a rope around me and get on. There's no time to waste." And with that Muir shifts into a Giant Lizard
The moment Muir makes the offer, several odd noises come echoing up from the bottom of the cavern, four distinct popping noises and then the trilling of a creature on the attack.
(Everyone roll initiative!)
Gewyn looks at Muir, then back down the left hand tunnel toward the approaching noise. "Oh, just one problem. I don't have a ro-" He turns around to see Muir already shifted into lizard form. "Damn it"
With no time to think, he shrugs his pack from one shoulder and slings it around the giant lizard's neck. Looping one strap around each hand, he pulls himself close and hangs on for dear life.
Muir satisfied Gewyn probably won't fall scales down the wall of the chasm
It is not a particularly elegant or delicate time for Gewyn as he hangs on for dear life, Muir's lizard form is large and his movements clunky. Muir's claws and tactile pads clatter along the rock as his body dances back and forth, moving like a monstrous gecko.
"HRRRKRAATH" the groan echoes around the cavern once more, ever closer.
At the bottom of the chasm, Elthana, Vin, Sam, and Neferox see the wobbling torchlight above and see Gewyn riding something along the chasm wall, but their attentions are taken by the surprise attack of four blue glowing spiders, which just teleported to the groups location and began attacking.
Gewyn (traversing)
Elthana
Vin & Nef
Muir (traversing)
Sam
Enemies
Elthana is up!
Elthana groans as the spiders show up, but is pleasantly surprised that they miss their surprise attack. Stuck in the webs, she twists around and attacks the one to the right.
Attack: 22 Damage: 8
Attack: 13 Damage: 10
Attack: 24 Damage: 12
(If she does kill the one on her right before she is done, she attacks the one on her left)
Even whilst held by the thick webbing Elthana makes impressive movements to be able to attack, ravaging and bloodying the Spider to her right, though it remains alive and resolute.
Vin being surrounded by the spiders knows it will end poorly if he stays close to them. As such he tries to scan how the webbing is all connected. He needs to get out but just falling will be bad so he uses his ability to summon fire and does so on the webbing on one side of him in the hopes it will burn through and allow him to fall and swing down from the webbing stuck on his other side. If it works he should end up next to Neferox and she can help Vin keep the Spiders off. He will also be able to use his ranged spells better without a spider constantly trying to bite him. He needed a few moments to line up his spell which was made difficult as the sticky substance made it hard to move let alone dodge the spider trying to bite him. Right as it seems ready to pierce it's fangs into Vin's side he finishes the spell and unleashes a big burst of fire like creating a bonfire on top of the webbing. It burns and suddenly a dozen snapping noises are heard as Vin suddenly plummets and swings downwards and away from the spider. Vin ends up right where he wants and is right next to Nef who seems immediately relived that Vin is next to them. The hound for their part is also stuck in the webs but now they ready themselves to bite the very first spider that thinks of getting close to Vin. As Vin falls down a bit to Nef's level he shouts out "Elthana watch out! Its just you up there now." Vin begins to ready his next set of spells but will he make it in time to help Elthana?
Burning the webbing seems super effective, as the webbing catches fire, the effected strands ignite all along their length like a quick burning fuse before extinguishing when they reach their anchor points on the walls or floor. The two spiders use the opportunity to attack as Vin swings away,
(22 to hit, 10 piercing + 22 poison, halved to 11)
(24 crit to hit, 8 piercing + 23 poison, halved to 11)
40 damage total.
Vin swings down but as he is unable to properly maneuver himself in his restraints he ends up bumping into Neferox, effectively becoming stick to her as they both remain restrained.
Spiders!
Webs....
crawling legs
spiders eating biting skittering
webs sticky clinging biting crawling
everywhere scattering splattering biting eating
spiders webs fangs legs
webs eating eyes inside underneath everywhere
bursting popping eggs poison eyes skittering
spiders spiders spiders spiders spiders spiders
SPIDERS!
Sam's mind is a riot not of his own control. Sam thrashes and wriggles and squirms and lashes out, anything and everything to get the webs off him, to get free, to get away from the spiders! The webs alone were enough to send his mind into a spiral but now? Stuck and seeing the filthy, skittering, abnormal things lurking above? It is too much for Sam... He lashes out until he is free of the webbing and instead is falling...
falling
falling....
He is himself again once free. Screwed, but himself. Falling is not good. Landing probably worse. Not much to be done for it.... Except maybe? Reaching into his pouch... No, not the rust colored one he pulls his animal friends from but the one with the golden acorns. Carefully but quickly, pulling one out and twisting so as to maybe be able to throw it down so hopefully it hits the ground before Sam himself. He throws the golden acorn downward and tries to prepare himself to try to catch hold of the branches as the sixty foot tree that will erupt when it hits the ground does so...
With luck the acorn will strike the ground and immediately grow to it's majestic height instantaneously and Sam will be able to grab and latch onto the top portion even as it grows, lifting Sam up with it, away from the ground and up, up through the webs and back into the fight - Now with his wits about him once more and ready to face his fears...
((Sam and Neferox was 30ft above ground? The others 15 feet above them? So IF Sam can manage this, and if Sam is able to grab hold of the top quarter of the tree as it sprouts up from underneath him, he is MAYBE carried right into the fight?))
With Sam successfully breaking the bonds that bind him, he once again goes into freefall, though this time thinking clearly and prepared.
The acorn hits the ground just before Sam would have, and it explodes upward in a blink, it's roots burrowing through otherwise impenetrable rock in a split second, and solidifying the tree there, as if it had stood for the last 80 years. Sam makes to grab at the branches as they sprout past him but he disappears within the burst of leaves and brush.
The webbing all around Vin, Nef, and Elthana is disturbed now, the tree pushing through connected strands and moving each of them upwards, stressing and breaking some of the webbing that restrains them (athletics DC lowered significantly)
The four spiders feeling something wrong each disappear from existence with a slight blue flash of light and a harsh popping sound.
Above, Lizard-Muir and Gewyn hear the crash of rock crumbling and breaking, they feel a sudden surge of wind coming from below, and see the odd blue flashes from where their party members presumably are. Both of you estimate that the distance left for you to cover is around 150ft.
"Oh no," Gewyn says, unsure of what is happening in the chaos and gloom below him. "Hang in there, we are coming!" he hollers, still clinging to the straps of his pack with a death grip.
Elthana cringes as she watches the spiders attack Vin as he expertly swings away. "You ok?" She calls down below her, trying to twist a bit in her webbings to see if she can check on the kid. Then realizes with a gulp, that she is the closest meal now for the spiders.
Suddenly Sam erupts with his adverse reaction to the spiders and a tree comes out of nowhere. Stunned, it takes her a moment to even realize the spiders have disappeared. She attempts to wrench her body free from the webbing.
Athletics 7
She hears Gewyn approaching, "We're ok at the moment, the spiders have disappeared. The noise you heard was Sam growing another of his giant trees!"
Elthana struggles but the webbing wrapped around her has her caught proper, the strands that suspend her in the air protest and a couple snap back with her movements. Elthana knows that the 50ft drop below her will hurt a lot if she falls without freeing her hands first, and the branches of Sam's tree are so close she can smell them.