Eric swipes at the arachnid with all his might. Gareth had taught him that a shorter sword can sometimes be more deadly than the largest of battleaxe. It all depends how you swing.
Spithrax leaps at Shayne. The others attack the huge fairy spider with steel and magic. Dripping fangs stab at Shayne's neck. A hideous scream shakes the webbing as man and monster fall together.
A moment later, Shayne crawls out from underneath Spithrax, dragging his ichor-stained sword with him. Purple venom drips down his neck, staining his shirt.
Examination reveals that the monster sprayed a large amount of venom, yet didn't manage to inject any into Shayne. If the group's attacks hadn't been as quick or accurate, and those knife-sharp poisoned fangs had sunk in....
((Oh, god! Shame on me! Sometimes i do forget the obvious - very sorry.))
Carefully stepped closer to the monster and helped Shayne to get from under it. "You killed it!" Even said out loud the words were hard to believe in. She touched the spider body with her boot - it did seem dead. "Are you hurt?" Alyna looked Shayne up and down checking for wounds. "Wait, don't move". The bite mark was obvious enough and before it got contaminated with the poison, Alyna cleaned the wound with wet cloth and then touched to close with magic: Cure Wounds8
"Hope that ... thing was alone. Let's get the miller and everyone still alive and get out of that horrible place."
Shayne crawls out from underneath the giant spider thing coughing and sputtering. He stands, makes a big show of sluicing off the ichor and juices and who the heck knows what, then turns to the rest of the group. "Does my hair look alright?" He asks, running his fingers through it. "I hate when they mess up my hair!"
A moment later, Shayne adopts a more serious tone. "Thank you all. I had a moment there where I envision my death so vividly..." Shayne shivers at the very thought. "And the world is such a better place with me in it... Hey! We still need to check that cocoon!."
Hurriedly, but very carefully and looking all around him in case there was another of those things, Shayne headed over to the large bundle they saw earlier to try to start cutting it open.
Cutting the webs out of the way quickly fouls Shayne's blade, and he has to pause a few times to clean it during his ascent of the tree.
Upon slicing open the bundle, Shayne recoils at the sight of the ugly 'face' of a second giant spider, eight black, glassy eyes staring up. A jab with his sword, and the thing doesn't respond. No movement. Peeling back more of the silken shroud, he sees this one is about the size of a wolfhound. He rips into the silk, the fibers clinging to his fingers, and tears off a wide section, revealing a sticky mass of white balls. Hundreds of eggs...
((Technically, Alyna did not choose her circle yet. Wildfire druid is a thing, you know?))
That was Alyna's feeling all along - FIRE, lots and lots of fire. Though seen as opposite of life, it is as part of the big circle as anything else in nature, and in farming as well: every village anywhere begun with the careful (or not careful) forest destruction.
Not here, though. "Don't think we should do it - we are strangers here and we already killed someone who owned that part of the forest. Let's look around for all the victims and free them but then just leave."
Alyna finds and frees a few more small animals, tearing up a fair bit of webbing in the process.
Nothing bigger than a hare, although she does discover deer bones under the webbing and dead leaves at the base of a nearby tree. No sign of human victims, dead or alive.
The little bird that Shayne freed flits about as if seeking a way out of the surrounding webs.
Once freedom was granted to those still alive and the party moved away (hopefully) from spider infested parts of the woods, Alyna concentrated on the bird. Or, better say, on the way to ask the same ultimate question - did the little one see other humans in the woods?
"Leave it? So more of those things can grow up to be like that??" Shayne is amazed. Flabbergasted...
Inspired? "It could make for a good song... The kind, dear heart that after slaying the monster protected it's children. Hmmmm..." Shayne starts humming various melodies as he contemplates the lyrics.
"I agree. With both of you. Leave them and they grow into more of...those"he points at Spithrax, "but to kill more than we need. That can unbalance things in the forrest. And in this forrest, that could be catastrophic."He contemplates their next course of action while listening to Shayne's humming.
"Regardless, we should continue looking for Werthan. Where next?"His thoughts are that the Miller never made it this far, but the group wishes to search the area and he won't abandon his townsfolk. He squats and checks the leaf litter for any clues.
"No body, no personal things - I do not think Werthan passed through the spiders. May be we can check that trail we ignored before?" (The one right before the spider webs)
Backtracking to the unexplored trail branch and then taking it north, the party walks through the Darkling Wood for a couple of hours, encountering nothing larger or more dangerous than a chipmunk. Eric finds plenty of deer sign, but no man tracks. The miller has been missing a week, a timespan in which a lone man's trail could well have been effaced by the passage of beasts and the drip of rain through the trees shading the trail. If he came this way at all...
Golden sunlight shines through gaps between the trees ahead. A little further on, the ancient oaks and maples give way to pines and shrubs bordering a pleasant glade, perhaps thirty yards across. Wild grass covers the rolling earth in a lush blanket colored by clumps of ***** willow, dogtooth violets, yellow wood sorrel, and the dark green sprouts of fiddle-head fern. Touching the knee-high grass, you find as it as pleasantly cool as the sunshine is drowsily warm.
Searching the lovely glade, you don't find any obvious signs of Werthan, at least not right off, but you do quickly locate two trails leading out, one east and one west.
( Miss. But even a 7+6= 13 would have not been enough for Alyna's magic pebble throw to hurt Spithrax.
If Eric wants to hit the spider fairy in melee he needs to hit an AC of 14.)
Eric swipes at the arachnid with all his might. Gareth had taught him that a shorter sword can sometimes be more deadly than the largest of battleaxe. It all depends how you swing.
Attack: 17 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll.
Spithrax leaps at Shayne. The others attack the huge fairy spider with steel and magic. Dripping fangs stab at Shayne's neck. A hideous scream shakes the webbing as man and monster fall together.
A moment later, Shayne crawls out from underneath Spithrax, dragging his ichor-stained sword with him. Purple venom drips down his neck, staining his shirt.
Examination reveals that the monster sprayed a large amount of venom, yet didn't manage to inject any into Shayne. If the group's attacks hadn't been as quick or accurate, and those knife-sharp poisoned fangs had sunk in....
Well, Shayne's alive now.
And Spithrax is stone-dead.
((Oh, god! Shame on me! Sometimes i do forget the obvious - very sorry.))
Carefully stepped closer to the monster and helped Shayne to get from under it. "You killed it!" Even said out loud the words were hard to believe in. She touched the spider body with her boot - it did seem dead. "Are you hurt?" Alyna looked Shayne up and down checking for wounds. "Wait, don't move". The bite mark was obvious enough and before it got contaminated with the poison, Alyna cleaned the wound with wet cloth and then touched to close with magic: Cure Wounds 8
"Hope that ... thing was alone. Let's get the miller and everyone still alive and get out of that horrible place."
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Shayne crawls out from underneath the giant spider thing coughing and sputtering. He stands, makes a big show of sluicing off the ichor and juices and who the heck knows what, then turns to the rest of the group. "Does my hair look alright?" He asks, running his fingers through it. "I hate when they mess up my hair!"
A moment later, Shayne adopts a more serious tone. "Thank you all. I had a moment there where I envision my death so vividly..." Shayne shivers at the very thought. "And the world is such a better place with me in it... Hey! We still need to check that cocoon!."
Hurriedly, but very carefully and looking all around him in case there was another of those things, Shayne headed over to the large bundle they saw earlier to try to start cutting it open.
((Obvioudly, if Shayne was OK (was not sure about the bite) no heal was necessary))
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Cutting the webs out of the way quickly fouls Shayne's blade, and he has to pause a few times to clean it during his ascent of the tree.
Upon slicing open the bundle, Shayne recoils at the sight of the ugly 'face' of a second giant spider, eight black, glassy eyes staring up. A jab with his sword, and the thing doesn't respond. No movement. Peeling back more of the silken shroud, he sees this one is about the size of a wolfhound. He rips into the silk, the fibers clinging to his fingers, and tears off a wide section, revealing a sticky mass of white balls. Hundreds of eggs...
"Ahhhh, she was going to be a mom. Now I feel bad..." Shayne says with feigned sincerity.
"Anyone got fire... and good with fire? May be best if we do not burn the forest down..."
((Technically, Alyna did not choose her circle yet. Wildfire druid is a thing, you know?))
That was Alyna's feeling all along - FIRE, lots and lots of fire. Though seen as opposite of life, it is as part of the big circle as anything else in nature, and in farming as well: every village anywhere begun with the careful (or not careful) forest destruction.
Not here, though. "Don't think we should do it - we are strangers here and we already killed someone who owned that part of the forest. Let's look around for all the victims and free them but then just leave."
Perception: 18
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Alyna finds and frees a few more small animals, tearing up a fair bit of webbing in the process.
Nothing bigger than a hare, although she does discover deer bones under the webbing and dead leaves at the base of a nearby tree. No sign of human victims, dead or alive.
The little bird that Shayne freed flits about as if seeking a way out of the surrounding webs.
Once freedom was granted to those still alive and the party moved away (hopefully) from spider infested parts of the woods, Alyna concentrated on the bird. Or, better say, on the way to ask the same ultimate question - did the little one see other humans in the woods?
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
"Leave it? So more of those things can grow up to be like that??" Shayne is amazed. Flabbergasted...
Inspired? "It could make for a good song... The kind, dear heart that after slaying the monster protected it's children. Hmmmm..." Shayne starts humming various melodies as he contemplates the lyrics.
"I agree. With both of you. Leave them and they grow into more of...those" he points at Spithrax, "but to kill more than we need. That can unbalance things in the forrest. And in this forrest, that could be catastrophic." He contemplates their next course of action while listening to Shayne's humming.
"Regardless, we should continue looking for Werthan. Where next?" His thoughts are that the Miller never made it this far, but the group wishes to search the area and he won't abandon his townsfolk. He squats and checks the leaf litter for any clues.
Survival 5
If Werthan went this way, Eric can't tell.
"No body, no personal things - I do not think Werthan passed through the spiders. May be we can check that trail we ignored before?" (The one right before the spider webs)
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
"Everyplace is as likely as the next when you're clueless," Shayne says with a shrug. "Lead on!"
9
5
Backtracking to the unexplored trail branch and then taking it north, the party walks through the Darkling Wood for a couple of hours, encountering nothing larger or more dangerous than a chipmunk. Eric finds plenty of deer sign, but no man tracks. The miller has been missing a week, a timespan in which a lone man's trail could well have been effaced by the passage of beasts and the drip of rain through the trees shading the trail. If he came this way at all...
Golden sunlight shines through gaps between the trees ahead. A little further on, the ancient oaks and maples give way to pines and shrubs bordering a pleasant glade, perhaps thirty yards across. Wild grass covers the rolling earth in a lush blanket colored by clumps of ***** willow, dogtooth violets, yellow wood sorrel, and the dark green sprouts of fiddle-head fern. Touching the knee-high grass, you find as it as pleasantly cool as the sunshine is drowsily warm.
Searching the lovely glade, you don't find any obvious signs of Werthan, at least not right off, but you do quickly locate two trails leading out, one east and one west.
perception, using highest modifier in group
Something it's possible you will notice, but unlikely....
18