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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greyhawk" data-source="post: 3093264" data-attributes="member: 40355">Victory and descent into the darknessColeridge continues his poem:"Several minutes passed by before he looked in the lakeand saw nothing more than his reflection.But he had laid other plans given what was at stakeso it was not yet time for dejection."Then carefully circles round behind the remaining spider swings his sword and at last his blade finds its mark, disabling the beast."You guys kill this spider," calls Feng "And if the other is still alive by the time I bring my axe to bear, I'll off that then. Dying in it's sleep. When it reaches the afterlife I'll bet it's pissed off.""...I doubt the spider will notice its dead, just the change in its surroundings" muses Limara casually runs the spider through at the spider with her sword, then returns Justice to its scabbard while Beltain watches her admiringly.  "Nice one, Princess." He exclaims "That's cleaned out this nest of evil - but there will be more I suspect"  he smiles"Thanks babe...." she acknowledges "We need to regroup and do something with our dead comrades. Maybe Sparhawk could look after them... We need to heal the wounded too""Limara - we need to keep up the scare, here." Feng tells her "Our dead comrades - I suppose the dwarf is probably dead are going no-where but our foes, and their treasure, might.  They know the secret of their hideout is now lost, and they will probably look to move quickly, or strengthen their defences.  We must give them no time to re-organise and regroup.  The old chieftain used to say "hit'em on the end" which means to you city types "keep 'em offbalance.  Heal me, and we'll go through 'em like a knife through baby's guts.  If'n we do it quick enough, we might get enough loot to raise these sad sacks."  Feng feels the weight of his axe and looks speculatively at the sleeping spider.  Rizzit - you reckon we could train one of these like Beaker?..an If you ever need to get to the bar in a busy inn, I reckon this would clear the way for ya!  Anyone got a sack? I gotta take ugly's head cos I want to mount it on my helm. Them claws might look good mounted on my shoulders, too."Beltain casts a healing spell on the kobald and Rizzit bounds out of sight, bent on exploring the complex.Feng's Rage subsides and he feels Fatigued!!Limara feels that the experience gained in the fight has moved her to the next level.  Beltain rushes over and hugs her "Congratulations!" he exclaims, clearly delightedBeltain sighs and hurries over to the small figure lying amongst the dead spiders, the joy drains from his face.  He kneels and starts to intone the elvish rituals of the dead, calling on the Lord Protector of Elves to guide and Protect The Wizard Nosnibor as he journeys beyond this life.  After some time he finishes and then anoints the frail body with a vial of oil, tears coursing down his face.  He wipes his eyes and rises.  "It is done" he says.He goes over to pussy and strokes her absentmindedly "Your master will be back" he tells her"Chest back here" Rizzit yells back from the next room.  "Get Bob to look at the chest when he gets back from wherever he is hiding" he laughs.Beltain heals himself and then starts to take his armour off and try out the drow chainmail.  He calls out "Has someone killed that sleeping spider yet, I'd just hate for it to wake when I'm in the altogether!"Feng smiles and evil smile and administers a coup de grace on the sleeping spider, then removes the head and claws from the Demon then rests.Coleridge absent-mindedly continues his poem as he walks over to Nos' remains "He searched in his pack and finally withdrew" "some ingredients, and a pestle and mortar" "with which he ground them to a powder of purest royal blue." "Then deftly sprinkled it over the water."He finishes with a sigh " 'Tis a shame I did not get to know you better Nos, you truly seemed a chap of nigh-on inexhaustible happiness - a rare commodity in this world... if we are unable to get you raised I will f course endeavour to get news of your passing to your aunty Beryl  Now lets see if we can't find out where Bob has gotten to, he may yet need our help" so saying he moves across to where he first encountered the spiders after Bob's cry for help.  "Ohh no!! Bob too" coleridge laments as he finds the dwarf's body."Yeah, I feel bad for them, too." Says Feng in a disinterested tone "Now does anyone want to heal the big fighter that will save their arses?""I'm happy to do some healing, when I get this armour changed" calls Beltain from the next room "In the meantime, I'm sure that Limara will help you..." there are some clanks as he struggles with the change of metal-wear"C'mon people - healing now!" shouts Feng and add (in for those hard of hearing),  "MIGHTY FENG NEEDS STRENGTHENING! MIGHTY FENG THINKS THERE ARE MORE FOES TO KILL!""Damn," whispers Rizzit from the unsearched room "Can you move Bob to the other room please Col, I will scout around""..If we are not going to put the bodies outside with Spar, then at least can we put them together near the exit.."Limara summons forth the healing power of The Red Knight, curing most of Feng's damage.Coleridge drags the desiccated dwarf corpse back into the other room and lays it next to Nosnibor."Feng, they have already had time to set defences and regroup" Limara tells the barbarian "While I applaude your braveness and confidence, I think that are already two men down and we should be sticking together to maximise our defensive capabilities and stop further causalities. I also suggest that a more cautious, less cavalier approach would be more effective...in other words, a tight pack formation moving together will kill more drow..""We'll find Rizz when we follow the screaming." Says Feng stoically "Now, any more heals? I'm still knocked around a touch.  C'mon Beltain, lay hands on the Demon-Killer."Rizzit yells back "I should of been a rogue, I am great at all this sneaking about quietly"Feng just smirks "He'll never make a shaman." As ge goes to take a quick look into the barracks.Feng heads down to join Rizzit at the last closed door.  "What the others doing? Still recovering from the trauma of battle?".  Feng strugs "Or group hugging. Strange bunch". "Or shagging to the melodic sound of a love ballad" suggests Rizzit. "They don't have the balls." He flinches slightly.The other group ignore this conversation. "I have yet to use any of my daily allowance of spells Limara so can as yet cast 3 first level spells and 1 2nd level and my cantrips of course... I can however only use my poetics to inspire us on two more occasions this day though. "I will check the chest, but I will wait for Limara and Beltain to move forward, I do not think now is the time to spread ourselves out and make individual targets of us, especially in light of our recent losses." He turns to Limara and adds "I think your advice has fallen on deaf ears, it appears two of our number have recklessly rushed ahead, it would be my suggestion we stay together as you yourself suggest and make our way forward to try and catch them up... We can look at this chest Rizzit called back about on the way""I agree with Limara and with Coleridge.  We must not fall prey to over confidence" says Beltain "Also we should search this room for treasure and, more important, for information.  'Know your enemy' for if we can find out more of the strengths of what we face here we can prepare ourselves better.  My feeling is that they sent no word for aid from their fellows fearing the wroth of the females should they even contemplate the possibility of failure.  Not that they would have considered failure possible" he continues "The drow are an arrogant race and convinced of their own superiority." He bends over the body of the fallen dwarf and retrieves the drow keys.  "Who knows" he tells the others "These may come in useful"Meanwhile down in the South Rizzit asks Feng "Who has the drow keys now?  Try knocking on the door Feng," he jokes "Maybe they will just open it"Feng reaches into his pocket and tries the key in the lock after listening and hearing nothing."Just open it will ya Feng" Rizzit tells him impatientlyBack in the North Beltain turns to Coleridge "You mentioned something about looking at the chest that Rizzit found" he says to the bard "Do you want some moral support in your endeavours?".  The three of them cross to the room containing the chest that needs checking..Limara addresses her two comrades.  "Why won't those two just do one thing at a time... If they carry on running around like kids in a sweet shop we are gonna get ambushed again. guys... we need to do things as a group...." she appeals."Bel...can I have a read of that book when you have finished. Knowledge of their creatures will be useful" she asks her partner.  "No problem" he replies, giving her the collected papers, but mentions that the books are useful for reference the bonus given by book is only for whoever is carrying it.On opening the door Feng sees an immense egg sack fills this warm, humid chamber."Hmm" says Rizzit as he takes out his wand of burning hands and stows the crossbow "this room needs to be burned, you got any alchemists fire bud?""Why?" asks Feng, "This could be a hostage - it's probably quite important to these spider-freaks.  It could also be a potential pet or bodyguard – let's not be too eager to kill it before we've looked into it properly."  He spots a hundred, maybe more large spider eggs, each nearly 6 inches long.Coleridge examines the chest and noticing nothing of significance he attempts to open it."We need to rest and regain our magic capability" Beltain says to Limara and Coleridge as they prepare to open the chest " I will head South and try and assist them in making a defence. We need to watch those stairs - perhaps we could find somewhere to conceal ourselves and take turns in watching the steps in case danger threatens...?" and so saying heads off to join Feng and Rizzit.Rizzit agrees "Let's check everything then camp up by the stairs and stop anything coming up, maybe put some beds across the top""Sounds like a good scheme Rizzit!" agrees Beltain"Oi Beltain" says Feng pointing at the gigantic egg-sack "Not even Feng's nadgers are in such a large sack - what does ya reckon?"  Beltain thumbs through the notes from the magic users study, to see if there is any references to egg sacks but finds nothing of significance."Perhaps I was wrong" wonders Feng "Never saw the point in readin' before now.  Anyways help me shift some bunks to the top of the stairs, Belt" Beltain goes with Feng to collect beds for the makeshift barrier, leaving Rizzit to deal with the egg infestation.  Beltain mused as he walked as to just what kobalds ate in the wild, perhaps ant-eggs and spider-eggs, amongst other things, he thought to himself, I wonder if it's in that old wizards notes. "Kobolds can eat pretty much anything, " laughs Rizzit as if reading Beltain's thoughts "Animals, plants and even dirt and shells.  Its pretty hard to starve a kobold" he chuckles "But what about the eggs?  We must destroy them" insists the kobald.As they walk over to collect the bedding for the barrier Beltain asks Feng.  "Do you think it might be a good idea to have the barrier 5' back from the top of the stairs?  That way we could 'seed' the space at the top with caltrops.  That would slow them down a bit!" he laughs and looks at his companion for a response."The caltrop one is a fine idea - the attacking Drow will be hopping mad when they try to breach our breastworks" Feng smiles at his pun"What's keeping the Princess and Cole - he serenading her whilst she fixes her hair?""I don't think that she needs to fix her hair, ever" says Beltain naively, taking Feng's words at face value "She always looks like an angel to me.  Although sometimes an avenging angle...""And why bother burning the eggs?" Beltain asks Feng "It sounds as if they would make a nice snack for Rizzit.  But if he isn't hungry then closing the door would seem to be the best idea.  I hope that they are spider eggs, the idea of demon spawn gives me the creeps" he shiversColeridge examines the chest but can't find any trace of a trap.  The chest does appear to be locked, but he attempts to pick it a dart shoots forth from the chest hitting the bard and doing both constitution and wisdom damage.  Inside the chest a set of magical leather armour and some money but still no magic user spellbook.Meanwhile Rizzit brightens up and trots off and starts to descend the stairs mumbling something about voices in his head "Squeek, squee, sqittity squeek" he says to WizzyBeltain dumps the bed he was carrying at the head of the stairs and follows the kobald, calling softly to Limara and Cole telling them what's going on.  Beltain looks upward towards heaven and says "Morituri te salutant "Very soon he is joined by Feng "Very well, Mighty Feng is ready for more battle" he announces.  Beltain gets out a healing scroll and uses it on the big barbarian Feng nods his thanksMeanwhile Limara commiserates with the bard "Ouch! Bet that hurt Col, sorry I don't have anything for poison ... yet" puts the money in her backpack with the folded leather armour. She then goes back to the room with the acid and puts the two vials in one of the backpacks side pockets.  Then she jogs back through the summoning chamber to join the others as they go down the stairs. "Wait for Coleridge boys.." she recommends "I think that we have enough spells and cold steel to smash this place before bedtime, Rizzit give me one of your cure scrolls and I will cast it on you when you request a heal".  Rizzit rummages in his pack and pulls out 4 cure light wounds scrolls that he passes back to Limara and Beltain. "Just use them on anyone that is in need" says the kobald generously."What do u see Wizzy?" whispers Rizzit asks his familiar as it scurries ahead into the darkness at the base of the stairs.</blockquote>

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