[Mutant Future] Welcome to Slimy Lake!

[Shayuri]

Alecto walks towards the spot Deathvine pointed to at a cautious, unhurried pace...until Grub went galumphing past her.

"Hey, wait! It could be dangerous!"

She ran after the mutant animal in long loping strides that ate up the head start he had in seconds. They arrived at the 'trap door' nearly simultaneously, and as Grub rooted around and tried to open it, Alecto extended a hand warily and waited to see if anything would pop out that needed to be bugzapped.

 

[Oni]

With a critical squint Clyde watched Alecto follow Grub, then looked back down at his bow.

Hmph.

Stepping after them, he nocked another arrow just in case.

Careful, might've had babies or something. I'll be less inclined to help you if you're covered in spiders.

 

[Alvordian]

With Clyde and Alecto covering, Grub prods at the ground near the "trapdoor". With little effort he reveals the spider's hole, pulling back a thin layer of grass matted together with webbing.

The spiders hole is a little over three feet in diameter, and consists of a shaft that goes straight down about ten feet, until it opens into what seems like a larger chamber whose floor is some six feet deeper than the end of the shaft. With the sun overhead peeking out from behind the green clouds you can see the tunnel gradually gets wider as it descends.

Along one side of the tunnel is a ladder of sorts, woven from the spiders web. And stuck along the length of the web-ladder are about a dozen copper coins, spread out from the top of the shaft to the floor of the chamber below.

Meanwhile, Deathvine's donkey seems to calm and slowly ceases its braying.

 

[GlassEye]

Grub pokes his head in the hole and peers down as far as he can. Before putting any weight on the web-ladder he tests it to make sure it is secured to the wall. He glances at the coins and pokes at one but doesn't pull it free. Leaving the hole and turning back to the others he says, "We go down, yup?"

 

[Alvordian]

Grub 's form fits into the hole. His reconnoiter reveals little given the depth of the tunnel and he is unable to see much. However, the mutant is greeted with the almost comforting (for an armadillo mutant) smell of turned earth.

The web ladder looks thin and spindly. Grub's careful examination finds it is surprisingly strong and stable, if sticky.

The copper coins stuck to the web are of various sizes and shapes. Grub can make out "in God we Trust" on some specimens; other larger coins are cruder in shape and bear faint images of many eyed bipeds- the coinage no doubt of some long lost successor state to the Ancients whose name and fate is unknown.

 

[Vertexx69]

Deathvine alites down to the group as Grub disappears to the waist into the spider's den. The plant wipes the sap off it's viney "hands" in the grass before it goes over to the braying donkey and pulls a torch out of the pack, resting the scythe over its "shoulder" type area. "Did he ever say anything about being able to see in the dark?" It rubs 2 of the small vines together at the top of the torch and it sparks to life. Grub feels a tap of wood at his hind quarters, as Deathvine offers the torch to him. There doesn't seem to be any poisonous sap on the proffered light.

 

[GlassEye]

"Can't see in the dark, yup," says Grub as he extracts himself from the tunnel. He grins at Deathvine apparently quite happy at the prospect of going down into the hole and having a look-see. He takes the torch offered to him and starts back in head first but realizes that just isn't going to work (but not before getting smoke in his eyes and burning off a patch of hair). He chuckles to himself and backs into the hole trying to look below as he descends. Once at the bottom of the shaft he'll try to drop down into the chamber below without seriously injuring himself. If he makes it down safely he step aside and hold the light so that others can climb down.

 

[hero4hire]

Slade took his time walking to the 'trapdoor'. When he arrived his good eye lit up at the glint of coin off the torchlight. "Ahhh...Goodies."

 

[Oni]

Clyde peers down in the hole, a frown hanging from his face.

Anything down there?

[sblock=ooc]

How much webbing is in the hole, is it enough to be a fire hazard if the torch were to be dropped?

[/sblock]

 

[Alvordian]

As Grub begins to descend, Clyde can see that the web ladder, while spindly and sagging a bit, supports the mutant's weight.

The ladder seems to be comprised of hundreds of web filaments. The filaments are thicker than those from a normal spider as would be expected and covered in a sticky film. The ladder is about 2 feet wide and runs from the top ofthe hole to the floor below.

The webs seem to be thick enough to survive a brush or short contact with flame. In fact, it seems as if the the flame would have to be held to the web for a few moments before it would alight, and unlike gossamer, would take a while to burn through the 16 or so feet of the ladder.

Given the size of the tunnel and hole, the party should it follow Grub must descend in single file. The decision to descend and order is of course up to each person...