Fiselius, seeing the battle upon the table, goes into the room and unleashes another Ray of Frost [S->W->S->S->] before heading back behind the others. [N] He curses as his bolt of cold (presumably) goes awry.

Ray of Frost
To-Hit: 5+5 = 10
Damage: 1 cold
additional effect (if it's a hit) is speed reduced by 10ft until Fiselius' next turn

Emmaline rushes in to attack the giant spider after its attempt to bite her companion, swinging her longsword at the flaming arachnid — but her blade goes past the beast's head as it hisses in anger. Izore looses another arrow in retaliation after the Paladin's attack, but her arrow narrowly misses the giant spider and pierces the stone wall beyond it instead. The Wizard dashes back into the room soon after, casting another frigid beam in the giant beast's direction, but his spell misses too as the spider turns its many burning eyes upon the Rock Gnome. With that, it's Vonbek's turn, followed by the giant spider. What will the Barbarian do?

Vonbek, seeing the others rushing the spider, joins the rush and melee attacks with his great axe, entering a rage against the spider.  Vonbek's rage show's as he swings his axe at the spiders's head.

Attack: 17+4 = 21

Damage: 2+2+2(rage) = 6

With his mighty battle cry, the Barbarian is the next to rush in towards the flaming arachnid as he swings his axe. The blade sinks its way into the giant spider's flesh, and the creature tears itself free while its steaming bodily fluids pour down between its eyes and drip onto the floor beneath it. Its giant limbs twitch and curl inwards protectively towards its slashed body as it attempts to climb back onto the ceiling and scurry towards the corner of the room. With its attempted escape, Vonbek and Emmaline both have the chance to make opportunity attacks against it. The giant spider appears close to death — a successful melee attack may finish it off.

(sorry for the wait, guys! I had a busy weekend, thank you for your patience <3)

Emmaline, taken offguard by the spider's sudden retreat, jumps into action and takes the opportunity to swing her blade at the creature... (8 to hit)

Vonbek, seeing Emmaline slicing at the monstrous spider, rushes in to assist her in finishing off the beast.  He swings his battle axe with both hands, and let out a battle roar.  

To Hit: 15+4 = 19

Damage 3+2 = 5

Emmaline takes a swing first at the giant spider as it attempts to retreat, but the Paladin's blade strikes past the arachnid as it fixes its legs to the ceiling and lifts its wounded, dripping body towards the stone above. Its huge fangs part with a few hissing sparks, like flint glancing against steel. Then, Vonbek swings his axe with barbaric rage burning in his eyes — and as the Dwarf lets out his final battle cry, his blade slices the giant inferno spider's head clean off. It rolls to the floor below with a thud, and its huge body follows soon after, toppling off of the bookcase and landing, crumpled, beside its head. Its legs fold inwards, forming a morbid cage around its abdomen, and then the beast is finally still. The room is quiet now, aside from the sparking of a few small smoldering fires that remain.

Emmaline drives her longsword into the beast, just for good measure, then drops to her knees in prayer, hands quivering as she grips the hilt of her sword. She whispers to her God, "Forgive mefor my rage." Then takes a steadying breath.

After a moment she opens her eyes again and looks around the room. "How are you all? Is anyone hurt?"

Izore slowly lowers her longbow, her fingers trembling slightly from the adrenaline as she is looking from the head of the spider to its body and back for a few moments, her brain trying to switch back to out-of-combat mode. It takes her a bit of time to accept the idea that the creature is indeed dead and finally a deep, shaky breath escapes her lips.

"Gods, what even was that thing?" She whispers to nobody in particular, just staring at the giant spider with wide green eyes, before responding to Emmaline a bit more loudly, "All good here!". She is gradually coming to realise that whatever adventures she had shared with Wymar in the past, it dawns on her that they had been comparatively tame and predictable. The greatest threat she had encountered in those simpler times was a mere bear. And here she is now, staring at the body of a fire spider. At least it is dead now.

The half-elf puts away her weapon and she walks around the room, not only to collect whatever is left from her arrows but also to have a look around. With the danger out of the way at least for the moment, the ranger curiously checks her surroundings. 

Investigation: 20

The Ranger searches the room in the aftermath of the battle, broken glass from the shattered alchemical equipment crunching beneath her feet as she ventures around the ancient wizard's laboratory. Years of decay, along with the flames spread by the giant spider, have left most of the books and equipment completely unusable. However, there is one book that Izore stumbles upon that seems strangely undamaged. It is a Wizard's spellbook, containing three spells: Detect Magic, Identify, and Arcane Lock.

Fiselius straightens his robes and runs his fingers through his beard for a moment. "Doing okay here." he says to Emmaline's query. To Izore he said, "Looks like some kind of spider straight out the 9 hells." He pauses to think if he's ever heard of such a terrible creature.

Nature: 2+3

//I'm assuming that's not gonna get much info

He stands about ten feet away from the spider's carcass, not wanting to get closer, and spits at it. "Nasty spindly-legged monstrosity." To Izore he asks, "Find anything interesting in those books?"

Izore's nose twitches from time to time because of all the fumes, smell of decay and dust, as the teenager walks around the laboratory, looking at whatever is left from the equipment. So fascinating! Izore still feels it is amazing that she has finally had a chance to step foot in a wizard's abode, despite the bad state of the place. 

"Ah, Master Fiselius, would you look at that!" She exclaims to the wizard, as she comes across the unusually well-preserved book amidst the rest of the chaos. "It appears that this is a spellbook!" 

The half-elf isn't particularly familiar with spells, but nevertheless she looks at the finding, wondering what they could do with it.

Arcana: 11

Vonbek walk to the spider and nudges it with his foot. Poking at it to make sure it dead, and that there aren’t any little ones jumping off.  As he’s checking it for life he shudders and grumbles” Glad that’s dead. Rats I can handle, but spiders…mmm”.

Fiselius' eyes light and there's a happy wrinkling of his nose as he approaches the young half-elf. "May I?" he asks, gesturing to the spellbook. "Seem like some nice spells. This one," he says gesturing to arcane lock, "is a little beyond my capabilities at the moment and this one," gesturing to [spell[identify[/spell] needs a pearl, "but this one might have some utility right now." he says gesturing to detect magic. "If you're willing to wait the time, I could cast it as a ritual to see if there's any lingering magic here."

Emmaline's eyes scan the room for any danger as she replies to Fiselius, "I'm in no hurry to get anywhere."

"But of course, why not!" Izore looks around to the rest of their companions, checking to see if there are any objections. "I don't think we are in any hurry for anywhere..."

And besides, she is very curious to see what the results would be. After all, they are in a wizard's place at the moment, who knows what else is hidden around them besides the spellcasting book and the dead fire spider. 

"Very well then. I'll start" says Fiselius as he begins to cast detect magic using the newfound spellbook. As he starts the ritual his face lights up at the opportunity to be trying a new spell. 

When the ritual casting is complete, Fiselius begins looking around the room and saying to himself, "Well, tower, what secrets do you hold?" He checks the tables, bookcases, whatever he can see within the room.

Spitting upon the corpse of the giant, curled spider in disdain, Fiselius sifts through his memories for any previous knowledge he might have heard about a creature like the huge flaming arachnid they had slain. However, the Gnome hadn't heard of anything of the sort — and the way his skin crawls when he looks at the giant beast's body tells him he probably would have remembered if he had. Vonbek finds it easier to approach the dead spider, nudging it with his foot to make sure it's well and truly dead. Fortunately, it is, and you each gain 50 XP.

Izore, meanwhile, examines the spellbook she has discovered before handing it off to the Gnome to his great excitement. As Fiselius demonstrates while he begins to cast his spell, the ancient book gives the Wizard the ability to learn new magic. He searches the room once his spell is cast, and discovers no magical elements remaining within the room. But through the door to the western corner of the laboratory, Fiselius can see a faint aura emanating from a small area on the ground. The color of the aura tells him the magic is of the School of Transmutation. And as the Wizard turns, examining about the room, he can see another aura which emanates through the stone walls behind them, leading towards the other doorway that the adventurers hadn't entered. This magical aura covers a much larger area — and it seems to be moving.

Emmaline looks to Fiselius. "Well? Any insight on which way we should turn next?"