"Coming, coming!" Eilieen sing-songs, scampering down the steps at double-time, narrowly avoiding tripping over the sadly frayed edge of her foot-length skirt.  Ahead lies the doorway, and she hurries toward it, spear clenched in white-knuckled fists.  Fear fills her; not fear of the spider, no, but fear for her companions, hunting the beast in the darkness.

She needs to arrive and offer assistance, forthwith, on the off chance someone becomes unlimbed.

OOC - Hurrying up to the door, NOT spear-first on the off chance one of the boys jumps out.

"I say, if you do find a backpack in there, chances are it be mine!"

Bilfro shouts towards the door but does not get too near.

"Oh, and a staff!  I really could use my staff!"

He holds up a hand and opens it, revealing the tiny tortoise.  Leaning over he whispers to the tortoise, holds it up to his ear, shakes his head, whispers some more, lifts it up again and then laughs.

"Nonsense!"  He waggles a finger at the tortoise.

As many of the group hurry forward to lend assistance to Aarnr and Fergus, should they need it, they are perhaps disheartened to hear a strange hooting or wailing issuing from the gloomy depths of the turret.  Still, it makes a pleasant change from enormous, great, billowing clouds of dust and small arthropods...

Aarnr and Fergus each use their own methods for beating the spider out from its hiding place, and have some success.  A little more than they would have hoped for, if the truth be told...  There are, it turns out, two of the beasts lurking among the wreckage.  One of them suddenly rears up, chittering and spreading its forelimbs in a threat posture, while the second scuttles for the door...

Outside, Ozzy gallantly allows Eilieen to pass him, after all, it is only polite to let ladies go first.  It doesn't really help... the halfling bard sees the spider hurrying out of the door towards them at precisely the same instant that the priestess does.

Inside the tower, the spider apparently decides that making noises and waving its appendages about just isn't going to achieve anything - which possibly shows it has a better grasp of the situation than Aarnr - so it moves towards the priest, perhaps attracted by the strange noises the man is making.

Meanwhile Aramil notes that the dust cloud has dispersed a little, so he advances along the parapet towards the door, readying his bow as he does so.  With luck, his excellent vision will permit him to distinguish a target somewhere in the tower, in spite of the darkness within.

Corian and Erista are left near the top of the stairs, all alone, save for Corian's small, crawling friend, which manfully (bug-fully) attempts to right itself so that it will be able to make its escape.  Or launch another frenzied attack...

Colwyn, mindful of Erista's concerns, stops close to the foot of the steps and raises his bow, aiming at the door.  Still, he does not fire, well aware that there are people between him and his target, and that (with the way luck has treated him lately) he could probably manage to kill all of them with a single shot.

Bilfro is behind  Eilieen and Ozzy, shouting instructions to those of his new-found allies who are exploring the tower...

OOC: Oooh.  They say good things always come in threes.  :)

Combatant         Init
Oswald Osbourne    23
Giant Spider       22  AC=14
Giant Spider       18  AC=14
Eilieen            17
Colwyn Akbar       15
Aarnr Foultongue   13
Fergus Andarson    13
Aramil              9
Corian Barade       8
Erista              6
Bilfro Gabbins      4


Characters' Apparent Health
Aarnr Foultongue: Hurt
Aramil:           Good
Bilfro Gabbins:   Good
Colwyn Akbar:     Good
Corian Barade:    Good
Eilieen:          Good
Erista:           Good
Fergus Andarson:  Hurt
Oswald Osbourne:  Good

This message was last edited by the GM at 19:05, Wed 30 Jan 2013.

Aarnr is as surprised as anyone when the spider suddenly appears before him, lit up nicely in the light of his glowing sword.  Indeed, the beast seems to be attempting to surrender.

"Whoo ... Wha ? ... Whrrarrrggggghh !" the priest elucidates, clumsily dragging his blade back to hack at the creature, throwing in an inarticulate bellow for good measure.

Startled by the sudden appearance of the spider in the doorway, Colwyn momentarily forgets his resolution not to shoot any of his friends in the back.  He raises the bow, aims, exhales, and releases the arrow...

The shot, much to the rogue's astonishment, flies true.  It strikes the repulsive thing solidly, piercing its armoured hide and sinking deep into the flesh beneath!

"Bloody 'ells!" Colwyn declares, as he lowers the bow to reload, "I 'itted it!"

He tries not to focus on the troubling thought that he might have annoyed the creature.

His lungs and throat now clear of dust, Corian cautiously follows Aramil back along the parapet towards the hole in the wall that used to be a door.  As he moves, he spreads his arms and chants, "Diogelu mi nawr."

The air around him sparkles, and a faint aura appears, briefly, around the apprentice mage.  He proceeds to the opening with a little less trepidation.

Despite Bilfro hollering just behind him, Ozzy finds himself low enough and close enough to take advantage of a chance to strike the spider rushing for the door. He hastily loads a bullet into his sling, sets it spinning and at just the right moment, releases - sending the bullet flying in a near perfect launch which strikes the massive arachnid!

14:56, Today: Oswald Osbourne rolled 18 using 1d20+4. slingstone.
14:56, Today: Oswald Osbourne rolled 3 using 1d3. damage.

"Ack!"  Eilieen pulls up short at the shocking sight, stunned by the spider's swiftness.  Arrow and sling bullet fly past her and she grimly grips her spear, moving foward to stab the spider as it postures in the portal.

Aarnr and Fergus could be in grave danger within...though the various coughs and outcries exhibit the fact that they still live, and fight on.

But her assault is flawed, a trifle clumsy as she hurries forward, the spear stabbing outward with less efficacity than before.

OOC -

Attack: 14 + 2 = 16.
Damage: 2 + 2 = 4.

Fergus stands undecided for a brief moment.  The spider making for the door passes quite close to him and he could intercept it or perhaps strike it from behind.  But that would leave Aarnr to fight the other spider alone and while Fergus respects the priest's ability with a sword the chance of a misstep in the ruined tower is too great to be ignored.

Fergus moves up next to Aarnr, walking cautiously so as not to risk his footing amongst the fallen debris.  He doesn't want to get too close to the alarming creature so he lunges forward as soon as the spider is within reach of his scythe.  His blow lands squarely but, being more of a thrust than a proper swing, it doesn't do much damage.

OOC: Attack 25, damage 6

Having moved up towards where the door used to be, the half-elf looks in and down the length of the tower looking for anything that moves. Pointing his bow where he is looking Aramil hopes that his nerve will hold, both to shot the large arachnid if spotted and to prevent shooting his comrades in arms. Sensing someone coming up from behind he startles slightly and turns to check who it is. With the establishment of friend rather than foe, he returns to his hunting of large spiders, hoping to a good shot to take either creature down, hopefully into the waiting fighting rage that is known as Aarnr.

Engrossed in a slowly heating argument with the tiny tortoise Bilfro appears all but oblivious to anything around him.  The argument seems rather one-sided save for the silence from Hermonious in-between the scruffy man's monologue.

Ozzy reacts quickly, as soon as the spider comes scuttling out of the doorway.  A stone hurtles across the distance between him and the beast, slamming into it with a loud thump.  Moments later the stone is followed by an arrow from Colwyn, which punches through the creature's armoured hide, and Eilieen's spear, which bites deep, and leaves the priestess holding a large dead spider on the end of it.

Inside the tower, the second spider suddenly leaps at Aarnr, but the man smashes it aside with his large sword, and Fergus' finishes the thing off with a well-timed swing of his scythe and a spray of ichor.  Up above, Aramil and Corian arrive just in time to see the swift, and gory, end of the battle...

Erista, meanwhile, continues to keep watch for any sign of more foes coming into view, while Bilfro appears to be arguing with a small reptile.

All of the spiders are dead.  At least the ones that are visible...

OOC: Well, I know who I'm calling next time there's an eight-legged freak in the bathroom...  :)

Characters' Apparent Health
Aarnr Foultongue: Hurt
Aramil:           Good
Bilfro Gabbins:   Good
Colwyn Akbar:     Good
Corian Barade:    Good
Eilieen:          Good
Erista:           Good
Fergus Andarson:  Hurt
Oswald Osbourne:  Good

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:57, Fri 08 Feb 2013.

Fergus stays in a fighting stance even after he and Aarnr dispatch the giant spider.  He half expects it to shrug off its injuries, right itself and leap upon them again.  Finally, he gives it a sharp prod with his scythe to be sure it is really dead.

That done, Fergus turns towards the spider in the doorway only to find that it too has been killed.  With no other threat apparent, Fergus starts to relax.

"That went pretty good.  I guess we should keep looking, make sure we got'em all?" he says to Aarnr.

The priest grins at Fergus, gesturing towards the dead spiders within and out with his glowing sword.  "We fight well together," he commends his friends, "let such swag-bellied creatures and half-faced haggards fear our might !"

"Thou think there may be more ?" Aarnr looks around hopefully, shining the light from his blade into all the dark places that he might spy or root out further fodder for his sword.

Inside the tower, Aarnr and Fergus take a quick look about for more spiders.  None, as it turns out, are in evidence.  Fergus' axe is though, gleaming in the light from Aarnr's sword.  The axe is one of the few things in the chamber which is clean.

Above, Corian curses under his breath, "Oh, fiddlesticks!  I wasted a spell."

Colwyn, meanwhile, is making sure everybody notices that he had shot the spider.  "Did yers see?  I 'itted it!  It were movin' an' all, an' I 'itted it jus' like that!"  The rogue laughs, "Jus' like that!"

Erista grins.  "It was a good shot," she allows, having watched it with a Halfling's eye for trajectories.  "And a good stab, too!" she adds, to Eilieen.  "Still clear over here.  Hey, since we got the chalice thingie, and we got Bilfro out... shouldn't we be headed back to town and all?  Or was there something else we were hoping to find here?" she asks.

"Actually, there was." Corian replies, "Somewhere in this fortress are the effects of the mage Eralion.  Collecting them, and anything else of worth, was our original purpose in leaving Reme, after all."

"Well, my original purpose.  Everybody else found that out somewhat later, of course."

And then he winces, and glances towards Bilfro to see if the stranger had been paying attention...

Having already taken Corian to task for his deception, Aarnr has both forgiven and forgotten the subterfuge, particularly as the journey since has been so entertaining.

"Bone-lickin', fool-born puttock," Aarnr agrees with Corian's recollection, as he emerges from the ruined tower covered in blood, ichor and dust in roughly equal quantities, absently stomping on the spider-corpse lying in his way as he offers his own opinion of the mage Eralion.

"An' we need to do somethin' about that fiend-forged mace the corpse-botherer wielded," he reminds everyone of the malevolent weapon that did for the Nameless Monk.  "See if Bowbe wants the froggin' thing, else smash it or bury it somewhere."

Ozzy stands pulling at his sticky, foul-smelling clothes. " Well, let's collect that mace and the mad wizards treasures so we can get to a stream and get cleaned up." At the moment, he can't stand the smell of himself.

Happy to have missed the close melee with the spiders, Aramil is ready to move on. Moving down the stairs to gather with the others the hal-elf manages to hear what the others are saying. Having nearly forgotten about the original task that brought the group here he is ready to start the search for the mage's stuff. But having gotten some of the chamberpot on him he is agreement with Ozzy. "Well lets get searching for this stuff you are after and head off as soon as possible." he suggests.

The halfling is obviously made of sterner stuff than Aarnr thought if he was going to pick up the mace - the priest for one would not be touching the evil thing with an 11' pole !

"Reckon the fobbin' thing'd bite thee, if thou puts thy girlish fingers too near it," Aarnr warns Ozzie with a growl.

"An' thou should be careful of bathin'," he takes care to pronounce the word correctly, "else thou will leave thyself open to all kinds of ill-humours and evil spirits."

"Let's try that froggin' tower over there, then," the priest echos Aramil's exhortation with typical directness, levelling his sword at the structure diagonally opposite, "warp-moulded, pig-sniffin' wizards like to look down on everyone."

Corian nods his agreement, "That would seem to be a logical suggestion.  The tower still stands, which makes it a likely location for anything of value."

The other matter, the foul demonic mace, concerns him greatly though, "I too believe it is not a good idea to touch the mace, but would rather not leave it where other, less particular souls can discover it.  I would suggest throwing as much timber as we can find atop the thing, and making a pyre for our fallen comrade.  Perhaps fire will damage the weapon beyond repair.  It would certainly destroy the desecrated chapel."

Then, as an afterthought, he adds, "Or we could leave it where it lays and inform the priestess of Freya in Fairhill of its presence.  Mayhap she has the means to dispose of it."

Colwyn scratches his head and nods at the tower to the northwest, "Wha' 'bout there?  's bein' still stood up as well." 

Eilieen has been silent until now, trapped in a vicious quandry.  There's a huge spider stuck on the end of her spear.  What to do?  She can't exactly traipse around with it hanging off the weapon like an obscene banner; she's no Drow, so it won't accessorize well.  Additionally, it's heavy.

But the other choice involves actually touching the gooey beast.  She doesn't have issues with spiders, herself, but ichor, on the other hand...

After a few abortive motions toward the lumpy mass with a hand or foot, she drags it over to where Aarnr strikes a heroic pose, his sword outstreached toward their goal.  "That way?"  Walking past the other priest, she ensures her spear is between them, such that the dead spider bunts up against the back of Aarnr's feet as the priestess continues a few paces more.

*sucking pop*

Recovering her weapon in both hands, Eilieen smacks the head against the ground a few times.  "Ugh.  I have no wish to leave our lost comrade here, and also believe we should consign her to the flame.  But I would rather not burn her in the pyre we bake a thing of evil sorcery.  The chapel should burn with the mace, and the Nameless One put quietly to rest on her own pyre."

She eyes the tower.  "After the tower, I suppose."

Fergus picked up his axe from the debris.  He looked around briefly for something to clean both axe and scythe before deciding that the weapons were no dirtier than either he or his surroundings and stowing them away.

For Fergus the retrieval of the chalice has become his highest priority and, having achieved that he would be happy to return to town.  Well, maybe not Fergus personally, of course, one of the others could take it to Shandril.  Still, he could understand Bilfro's desire to recover his belongings and they had agreed to help Corian, so the chalice would just have to wait.

"I could throw you down the well, Ozzy.  That might do it?"

Ozzy shoots Fergus a glaring expression, as if he were being a racist and had suggested a 'dwarf tossing' contest. " And what if the well is dry?" he grumbles, wondering if perhaps he could be lowere down in a bucket instead. The smell of his clothes was overwhelming, but he was in no mood to be spelunking down an old well right now.