Maelicent weaves through the festhall's forest of tables, chair- and giant-kin legs, eventually reaching a secure position within 15 feet of the swinging door that leads to the Cockatrice's kitchen. His instinct kicking in, Maelicent hunkers down at the end of the bar and quietly strings his bow. The goblin's malevolent eyes swivel excitedly, looking into the kitchen as Pilgrim pushes past.
For his part, Pilgrim valiantly strides on quick feet from the common room toward the kitchen. A grim sight greets the kobold knight once he opens the kitchen's swinging door. A massive spider, surely larger than any Pilgrim has ever laid eyes on, feasts upon the dying cook. Sprawled across a long wooden chopping counter, and pinned beneath the bloated hairy body of a spider the size of a bear, the cook spots Pilgrim from across the kitchen and silently tries to mouth, "Save me." Instead of words, however, a font of blood gushes from a fresh rip in the human cook's throat as the spider tears at the man's flesh and swallows a hearty chunk without masticating. At the sound of the door swinging open, the spider turns its head to calmly regard Pilgrim. Though the creature has the body of a spider, Pilgrim sees that the spider has a mangy, filthy wolf head filled with a maw full of sharp canines.
The spider jumps down from its prey sprawled across the chopping block, leaving the cook's lifeblood to idly pump from the man's torn throat. With a low growl, the spider fixes its wolf eyes on Pilgrim and begins to creep forward, the talons at the end of each of its eight furry legs clacking on the kitchen's flagstone floor.
A scuttling noise on the ceiling alerts Pilgrim to the presence of a second wolf spider, just as the creature spends a spray of sticky webbing to rain down on Pilgrim. The knight of Bahamut vainly tries to dart away from the sheet of webbing but is caught fast in the doorway.
PCs caught in this creature's web may attempt an Escape Artist check, or may try to break free via a Strength check. Both are standard actions.
The wolf spider that had been feasting on the cook opens its maw and hisses at Pilgrim in a vile language unknown to the knight. Bits of the cook's rent flesh drop from the beast's maw as it speaks, its eyes black as death. Getting no response from the kobold, the wolf spider hisses again and leaps over the web, ignoring the small trapped knight for the moment.
From a far corner in the room, Gamad successfully casts mage armor to protect himself.
As the spider jumps over Pilgrim and lands with a thud near Maelicent, Frane blinks from behind the bar but boldly moves forward, swinging the ball of his flail to and fro, obviously seeking a choice spot on the fiend's carapace to plant the weapon. With a grunt, Frane swings at the spider's hind quarters. The metal spikes of the flail crunch through exoskeleton into flesh. As Frane pulls back to extract his flail, the weapon yanks a bit of fur and flesh along with it. Droplets of black ichor drip from the open wound, sizzling when they hit the wood floor of the Cockatrice.
Rancid's mouth drops in unnerved awe at the hulking carapace of the beastly spider. His fingers grasp tightly around the black wand laid on the chess table, and with a sudden fleetness, Rancid bolts for the door, wand in hand. Traven, however, was prepared for just such an event and steps in front of the fleeing Rancid. A dagger in hand, Traven slices at Rancid's arm. Traven hits true, and the dagger shreds first Rancid's billowy shirt sleeve, then slices into muscles. Blood wells from the cut. Crying in pain, Rancid drops the wand in favor of grasping at the slice on his left forearm. The wand clatters noisily to the floor and rolls ten feet from the pair of men.
From his table, Cheal rocks back in his seat but, other than drawing his short sword, makes no move to get up. A couple of his cronies, however, push back their chairs and run for the festhall's front door, leaving Cheal with only two men to protect him.
Undeterred by Frane's attack, the spider appears to zero in on Rancid and the wand.
Lewit, still seated at the chess table across from Rancid, finds himself the unwitting focus of the spider's attention. Slowly moving his hand to the rapier at his waist, Lewit frees his blade from its sheath.
Brakkus moves to meet the fiend and swings in counter time to Frane's attack. Brakkus's flail whistles through the air and bludgeons the spider on the head, dealing 6 points of damage. Using his good common sense, Brakkus realizes that with eight legs and fully a few hundred pounds on him, the spider will not be easy to trip.
With Cheal still seated at a table surrounded by his armed men, Dter takes advantage of the chaos and, using his shield, bashes an unsuspecting Frane in the back. Unarmored, Frane is an easy target, and Dter's blow deals the blonde barkeep 5 points of damage. Angry, Frane rounds on Dter. "What in the bloody hell, dwarf!"
Voadam, who had hereto been sitting quietly at the end of the bar watching everyone and managing to avoid scrutiny himself, rises from his seat and rolls up his sleeves. With a friendly nod of encouragement at Gamad, Voadam strides forward and moves to punch the wolf spider with a balled up bare fist. Dter's unexpected bash with the shield, however, causes Voadam to miss. Voadam's fist swings wide of the hulking spider. Disgruntled with his miss, Voadam instead calls out a warning to the rest of the folk in the festhall. "It's unnatural, from the abyss. It croaks that the Queen wants her...segment...back."
Initiative
Maelicent 22
Pilgrim 22
Terror in the Kitchen 20
Gamad 21
Cockatrice NPCs 14
Lewit 13
Brakkus 10
Dter 5
Voadam 4
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