Rash chuckles.

"Yes, I'm fine... that orcish blood is pretty good at keeping me alive."

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

Darvin stays close to Spira for safety - just in case the chitinous horror decides to start moving again - but fortunately it doesn't.

"Have you and Aidwyn encountered a beast like this before!?" he marvels "If I didn't already know you were a tough one, dear, I'd have proof of it now!"

"Yes, I remember it too..." Aidwyn confirms, thoughtfully "Although I can't say if it's the same one we met or just another specimen of the same breed".

 "Actually, I think I might be even more concerned if it wasn't the same one.," Spira frets thoughtfully.  "A mated pair, say ... "  She starts cudgeling her memory in earnest to see if she can figure out about how far Rassalantar is from the place where Amazon's Coveter waylaid the party before.

"And Gaer, doesn't this look awfully like the pile of random trinkets and knicknacks you might find in a nest?  Say, a jackdaw's?"

===***===

Nature 2 {"Intelligence (Nature) allows you to recall lore about terrain, plants, animals, and weather.}

Gaer takes a look, leveraging his greater experience with the animal kingdom, and shakes his head: "It's a pile too big for the animals I know... And some of the pieces have been damaged - sometimes badly - in being piled up here... I'd bet that these trinkets and knicknacks were originally scattered around the room... maybe in order, maybe not... and that this monster has piled them rather ungracefully on top of its 'treasure' (i.e., the gems) to hide it. Was this a storage room for old children's toys?" the tiefling ranger finally asks himself - but he doesn't seem too convinced by this latest hypothesis himself.

"Was it this monster, then, that piled up the bones we saw before?" Darvin ponders.

"I don't know" Aidwyn shrugs. "But at least this dangerous predator won't be making any more attempts on anyone's life."

Roxana makes sure to pick up the coins, unless Aidwyn already had. "Well split this up later," she says. "Rash, if you're still doing ok, why don't we move along?" she suggests. "Maybe head to the east." 

Following the eastern corridor, the party soon arrives at the doorway of a new room.

This room contains the broken and rotted remains of what must have been a central table and two or perhaps three stools around it. Part of the ceiling has collapsed, so this area is now in communication with the upper Level and the northernmost part of the room is littered with rubble (fallen from the ceiling and the floor of the level above).

There are two openings: one in the easternmost part of the north wall and one in the southernmost part of the west wall. Those who approach the openings will easily notice that they must have once been closed by wooden doors, of which the hinges remain, with a few remains of rotten wood attached.

In the center of each wall is a roughly carved face in low relief (these are different carvings; it is not the same carving repeated).

Mival looks at the room... "How strange, with those faces... What do we want to do? Shall we go in... or do we go back and see where the other corridor leads first?"

"Let's go ahead and go in," Roxana says. "We are here after all. We'll just tread cautiously."  She moves slowly into the room, heading for the exit on the northeast part of the room. 

Roxana and Gaer enter cautiously... and as soon as they set foot in the room, the carved faces begin to sing! The result is quite chaotic, because they do not all sing the same song, but each a different one (even if they all seem to be typical tavern songs). The tone is nevertheless festive, so the resulting atmosphere is that of a cheerful tavern.

From cracks near the carved heads, however, an impressive number of snakes suddenly emerge, which, perhaps disturbed by the noise and the intrusion, promptly head towards our heroes!

Time to roll for initiative...

NPCs/Monsters:

Swarm of Snakes: 6

Khellbluen: 19
Mival: 18
Aidwyn: 12
Dawnborn: 20
Anita: 13
Unseen Warrior: 8
Darvin: 2
Gaer: 11

(Roxana Initiative: 24)

Rolling missinginitiatives:

Rash: 15
Spira: 4

Round 1

The sudden appearance of the Swarm of Snakes (Ss) does not surprise most of our heroes, who can therefore go on the offensive!

Roxana, Rash, Anita, Aidwyn, Dawnborn, Darvin and Unseen Warrior are up! Any order!

Combat Stats (those interested can peek):

Roxana simply holds her position, drawing her bow again and firing an arrow at the swarm. 
(Shortbow Attack: 16, Damage: 9 piercing + 4 sneak attack) 

Round 1

Roxana's arrow is as accurate as ever, and while it can't necessarily kill more than a few snakes [[ OOC: Swarm has resistance to that damage type, it seems ]], it still creates havoc in the slithering mass.

Meanwhile, Aidwyn, determined this time not to be beaten to the punch by Rash, makes her way into the room and directly confronts the ball of snakes, while Dawnborn follows her and reaches a corner from which she can provide support if necessary.

Aidwyn Longsword Attack: 21 Damage: 12 (slashing)

Round 1

The mass of snakes parts as the young heroine's blade passes, slowed by the water. Darvin comes alongside and tries to do better, swinging his sword while defending himself with his shield, almost a male and mirror version of Aidwyn.

Darvin Longsword Attack: 5 Damage: 6 (slashing)

Round 1

Unfortunately, even in his case the water slows his movements enough to allow the swarm creatures to split as the blade passes.

 Rash, Anita and Unseen Warrior are up! Any order!

Combat Stats (those interested can peek):

(OOC: When did Rash get damaged? I'm pretty sure he was at full health after the last fight + he still has full Armor of Agathys + 4 points of Arcane Ward)

Rash is going to move in, as usual, and start clobbering.

"You know, I hear that snakes taste kind of like chicken," he says with a little smile. It seems Rash might have missed breakfast this morning.

Quarterstaff vs. SS
Attack: 20 Damage: 6 (magical bludgeoning, via magic weapon)

With an utterance of arcane power, he casts booming blade on the weapon as well, surrounding the swarm with thunderous energy that will explode and do 7 points of thunder damage if the swarm tries to move.

[[ OOC: You're right! My bad, when copying from a previously used stats I forgot to edit Rash's HP. Fixed. ]]

 Round 1

The snakes also easily avoid Rash's quarterstaff; Anita steps forward and takes aim with her Crossbow...

[[ Any special orders for the Unseen Warrior? Or does he wait outside the fray? ]]