The tabaxi took a few breaths, holding the dagger, she looked at Hannah and smiled meekly. "My bad." She said softly.

Despite that, she went to the hole and searched it, making sure every area within this cave was searched.

---

<OOC: Rain rolled 18 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 16.  Investigation roll.>

Felix felt the goliath's hand work on him, healing his wounds much better than he could himself.

Groaning, Felix worked his way up, using the cave wall behind him to help him stand.  He rubbed his head, checked himself once more to ensure there were no more spiders lurking on him, and reached up, patting his hand on Kursak's shoulder. "Thank you Kursak, I owe you one."

He then looked around for Minho, finding him still breathing heavy from the encounter with the spider and spider-kin.

"Minho, you alright?" When satisfied Minho was okay, Felix began to walk where Rain had mentioned finding some coin.  At least there would be one benefit to this grueling day.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:42, Tue 27 Sept 2022.

In the hole, Rain found several more hundred coins, scattered about and entrapped in the spider's webbing, as well as some gold-lined cloth, a small mirror, and a stoppered vial of clear liquid.  The liquid shimmered in torchlight, seeming to catch the light in strange ways, but there was no label on the vial.

Venturing into the southwest tunnel, Felix found the remainder of the stash of coins that Rain and Frilia could not carry.

---

In the southwest tunnel, there remains:
* 340 sp
* 30 cp

In the northwest tunnel spider-pit, there can be found:
* 78 cp
* 35 sp
* 359 gp
* 31 pp
* two (2) cloths of gold vestments
* a small mirror in painted frame
* a stoppered vial of shimmery clear liquid

Kursak watched as people ran around gathering coins like they hadn't just fought a battle that nearly overwhelmed them all. "We can loot the place when the threats have been eliminated. The longer we wait, the more time they have to mount a defense against us. We are the intruders here, we need to keep moving."

Rain sniffed at the fallen spider, and even spared time to kick it once as she looked at Hannah.

She then climbed into the hole. "Eeewww....this is worse than i thought!" She then started throwing stuff uncerimoniously out of the hole onto the floor of the cavern. Before long, all the coins were piled up out of the hole, as well as the cloth, the mirror and the liquid.

She placed the vial in a pouch, but left the rest as she climbed out, spiderwebs over the tabaxi.  She stood up and groaned. "ths is gonna be murder getting out of my fur!"

She went to the main cave and saw Kursak, and nodded. "If we pack the coins up in a pack or two, and leave them here hidden, we can get them coming out. As for searching, i don't want a spider sneaking up on our backs." She pointed into teh cavern they were in. "...just shanked a big bastard there. Coud have eaten Frilla whole - though it would have died of a stomachache for it's efforts." She winked at the gnome.

She starts emptying her coins into her b=pack, taking off the rope, some rations, a flint and steel and two torches, as well as the waterskin.

---

<OOC: As for the coins and loot, i say we get two pcks, store in them and hide them, then return. Rain can use her pack as one, if she can decant a few items (Rope, waterskin and some rations)....everything else she can leave with the coins for now>

"There is a wounded ettercap somewhere in there, lets finish the job, we can loot after, as this is a lot of coins. Kursak, are you with me?" Her piece said, she went towards the North east tunnel, bow in hand, and looking at the ceiling for the sneaking monster.

Today: Frilia Silverstring rolled 22 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 19.  perception. –

"You coming Minho or what?" Felix said as he followed Lia into the NE tunnel. "Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?  Spider got your tongue?"   Felix smirked at his terrible joke, which he purposely hoped would snap Minho out of whatever daze he was in.

The northeastern tunnel was horrific.  Frilia and Felix hadn't gotten more than a dozen steps in before they found themselves having to slow their steps to keep their footing.  And it wasn't due to the webbing, though there was plenty of that.

The first time Felix slipped it was because something thick and wet and ropey rolled under his foot.  The second time it was because the wall he used to steady himself with one hand quivered when he touched it.  Frilia, with her smaller and more nimble feet, had a slightly easier time, but that didn't make it any more pleasant.

There were fleshy tubes all throughout this tunnel, covering the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, if the goopy stuff that fell on their heads was any indication.  They ran in rows, all heading down the tunnel towards its terminus.

The tubes diverged as the tunnel opened into a small chamber, no more than 25 to 30 feet across.  As the tubes ran along the walls and the ceiling, they converged on a point on the opposite wall, where the hollowed out husk of a cocoon hung high.  The body of an ettercap lay unmoving at the base of the cocoon.

Strewn about the room were disorganised piles of body parts -- humanoid and spider alike: an arm here, a leg there, a mandible, even the skinned face of a drow.

Through all of that, the thing which dominated the chamber with its presence was the gaping hole in the center of the floor.  A gradual slope lead down to an opening perhaps 5 feet wide, and a slick tunnel heading down to... no obvious destination.  The tunnel turned shortly after its descent, so its destination could not be determined.  Spread around the opening of the hole were several spider-like legs and mandibles, but these were different, covered in reddish-black barbs and spikes, and artfully arranged so that the hole looked like a spider itself -- with legs far too long for its body.  One of the legs and one of the mandibles were slightly out of position.

Hannah stopped and crouched low. Something about the cave just seemed... off... to her.

---

I want to see if there's anything strange about the cave from where I am.


00:46, Today: Hannah Demsersk rolled 21 using 1d20+2 ((19)). Perception check

Also I'm gonna try to stealth.

00:48, Today: Hannah Demsersk rolled 4 using 1d20-1 ((5)). Stealth check.

"Rain, I think if you use one of those robes and tie it up around itself, you can probably fashion it into a sack of sorts. Maybe if you tie the arms, sort of like..." Kursak demonstrated the concept, executing it flawfully. "Maybe not just like that, but something like it, I think they'll be able to hold. I've never done it, but I've seen things like it if you want to give it a try."

Intelligence: 7

09:55, Today: Kursak rolled 7 using 1d20.  Int check. – [roll=1664549733.36382.365861]

Walking in the north east tunnel was like a living a nightmare, with slime and body parts all over. Attentive, she soon spotted the body of the dead ettercap, probably the one that she had attacked. Curious about where all those tubes went, Frilia cautiously walked among the butchered humanoids and arachnids, Yukiko coiled on her pack, trembling of fear. When the gnome warrior saw the sliding slope, and that only Felix was with her, she asked her familiar to go fetch the others. The tresym did not hesitate to take flight and went for someone she knew, Kursak.
[Private to Kursak:
::"Kursak, Frilia found something, get all the others and come with me!"::]

Rain nodded at the big priests advice and tied the robes into sacks, emptying as many of the coins as she could into them.  When that was done, she followed the others towards the tunnel.

When there, the tabaxi's hairs stood on end - she looked like an angry cat! Bow in hand she stood behind the warriors, directly behind Frilla. "I've a bad feeling about this' She muttered, arrow ready.

She looked at the others. "the other passages clear?"

Yukiko flew back and perched on Kursak's shoulder briefly.  It looked intently at him for a moment, then shook itself all over.  Her tail lashed back and forth behind her, whipping from one side to the other.

[Private to Frilia Silverstring:::Frifri, I can't reach him.  I'm your familiar, not his!::]

[Private to Kursak; Frilia Silerstring: OOC: according to the Find Familiar spell description, While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically.  It says nothing about the ability to speak with anyone else.]

Rain started to work on the gold vestments as Kursak suggested.

OOC: Rain, make an Intelligence check (DC:11) -- with advantage, since your mother worked in textiles -- to craft two sacks out of the cloth-of-gold vestments.  If successful, remove the vestments from your inventory, and add two sacks.

Each sack can hold 30lbs of weight -- which would be 1500 coins.

Kursak looked at Frilia's small companion, feeling a tug of loss as Isolde's shunting back to Mistress. He nodded to the her as he stood, reaching out an affectionate hand, "Frilia has found something, it seems. I'll go have a look while you work on these."

When he saw the sight that waited in store for him, Kursak naturally pulled back from it as he leaned this way and that to get a better view of different portions of it, "Part of me wants to study it, but an even larger part of me wants to set the whole thing on fire. Despite either of those," Kursak raised his voice to emphasize the words, "the last time we touched that thing, a small army came after us, and that was just one little sack. The ettercap was trying to get in here, probably to push another alarm and summon even more."

"Lets have a look at that larger passage first, see what's left up here, and then we can decide what to do with...whatever this disgusting thing is. With all of these tubes running down there, I think there's a safe bet that the source we're looking for is down there. Lets make sure we're not leaving another room full of abominations at our backs before we ring this gong."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:20, Sat 01 Oct 2022.

Humu waddled after the big cleric, his voice a perfect echo of a young girl's going "Ew.  Ew. Ew-ew-ew." with every step.  He carried one of the torches Frilia had discarded in one hand, now lit.  The flames lit the tunnel with a reddish-yellow glow, which really didn't improve the mood much, but allowed the other to make out colour in the chamber beyond.

11:32, Today: Secret Roll: HuMu Ninn rolled 23 using 1d20+5, dropping the lowest dice ((18)).

"Look," Humu said, his voice now the imitation of an old man.  The little kenu seemed to struggle with the words for a moment, then shrugged and waved his finger over the torch.

A small image appeared in the flame, as the wizard used his magic.  A humanoid figure, then a spider, appeared atop the torch.  The two figures split -- the humanoid in half at the waist, and the spider with it's head removed from the body.  Then the arms and legs separated.

The flames flashed up, obliterating the image, and a new one formed.  The humanoid figure was bound to a wall, with hundred of spiders crawling over him, spinning a cocoon.  A fat ettercap stood to one side, inserting spider legs into the cocoon, one at a time, while the spiders worked to bind everything together.

Even as the others moved, she looked at Kurask and nodded, getting to work on the vestements. She had leart some things from her mother, and while she had in no way her skill, she had, before long, two sacks, large enough to fit the coins.

She then began putting the coins in the sacks, sparing an occasional look at the cave. "Try not to start something without me guys."

---

<OOC: Rain rolled 12 using 1d20 with rolls of 12.  int check (Advantage).
Rain rolled 10 using 1d20 with rolls of 10.  int check.

now have 2 sacks full of coins that i can't lift>

Hannah stepped forward and grabbed the coin sacks, nodding at rain after she finished putting the coins in.

OOC: What's the plan guys?  What are you doing from here?

<OOC: Hannah and I are still packing up the Gold in the makeshift sacks...so I assume we are behind the others  bit>

"This is where the abominations are created, then, HuMu? Half man, half spider, bound through this foul ritual. Before we leave, we should burn it. All of it. But," Kursak looked at Felix and raised a halting finger, "first we should investigate the other parts of this cave and deal with threats as we find them, rather than setting off another alarm and facing them all at once. If this is where the dark magic happens, we can work to destroy it, but we still need to find the source, for Felix's benefit."

The kenku shrugged, and gestured at the exploded cocoon on the far wall.  He then pointed at the fleshy tubing which ran across the walls and ceiling of the chamber from the main chamber beyond.  When he opened his mouth again, a steady, resonant heartbeat issued from his throat:  "thump ba-dump, thump ba-dump, thump ba-dump"

Frilia was glad for the presence and wisdom of her giant friend, nodding at his words. She then lifted a eyebrow when she heard the kenku wizard. "Are you saying that the heart of this evil can be found by following those.... things? I'm all for destroying that horror, that's for sure! We do need to find the way to reach it, I can probably slip in, but I don't think Big 'Sak can follow me through that mass of... I can't even name those things!"

Humu shook his head, becoming clearly frustrated with his lack of ability to convey his meaning.  The vision in the torchlight flared, then expanded.  A small lump sat in a hand, beating in time with the wizard's heartbeat-voice.  The "camera" angle of the vision shifted to show a tube connected to the lump, and then followed the tube, which draped across a floor before climbing a wall, and then ultimately connecting to a cocoon hanging on a wall.

---

OOC: Make an insight check (with advantage) to see if you can make out what Humu is trying to say.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:52, Sat 15 Oct 2022.

Rain, having finished the sacks and handed them to the woman paladin, made her way over towards the others and the creepy hole in the ground. She shuddered, then looked at Humu's indication with narrowed eyes.

---

<OOC: Rain rolled 19 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 15.  insight check.>

With a flash of insight, Rain understood what the kenku was trying to convey: the hollowed out husk of the cocoon hanging on the wall had been the the birthplace of the abominations.  Presumably captured people -- from the logging camp or elsewhere -- had been brought here, and... cut upon, like a physician working on his patients.

The hapless victims had been somehow (presumably through some arcane or divine magics) been disassembled and then remade into the abominations.  The fleshy bag Felix had stabbed was probably the "lung" of an abomination in the process of being made.

Humu shuffled in place with a tired "Humu Stormcrow" and pointed back at the main chamber.  Weariness suffused his body, and his posture indicated a desire to leave.