xibalba ♔ sublime | like a heartbeat | in its own beat

[everyredcent]

Heartbeat - Gazelle Twin 

WHO || Christos, Risa, Gaz, Ella, Katniss, Dante  [closed] 
WHAT || The Knights explore several drow raids stemming from a series of caverns in Belize
WHERE || Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre, Belize 
WHEN || March (date TBD)
HOW || Actionspam (single thread)

[ Travel to the Mountain Nature Reserve goes smoothly, and as promised, a woman who works for the park meets them and escorts them within as 'researchers', guiding them towards the area near the cavern entrances.  She speaks very fluent English and makes it clear that she's willing to put her job at risk getting them in there if it means putting a halt to these attacks before waiting for it to get cleared through red tape with the authorities.  She stops them at the cave mouth, nodding at the entrance. ]

From here, you must swim inside of the cave, and then wade up the river within for about a kilometer before you will reach dry ground.  The caverns stretch within for another few kilometers.  Will you be alright from here?

Comments

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz only gets a 24 on spot, so she has no idea what the archers are aiming at, but she draws her swords anyway, I guess? ]

What is it, what's out there?

[ Gonna move closer to the edge, just in case... ]

[buttholy]

[dante's spot was only 11, so i doubt he can see anything either. (unsure) but he'll join gaz in drawing his sword and edging closer.]

Probably not anything good.

[herebemonsters]

[ welp they're about to sEE IT NOW because the spider comes crawling out into the open, heading right towards ella... and spits a web out at her (atk 28 vs touch ac... no save). the strands envelop her entirely, and attach to the strand she's standing on, so that she falls over... hanging off in her web cocoon. ]

[anthophobia]

Crap.

[Katniss continues her barrage on the spider, sending arrow after arrow flying (rapid shot atk 22/nat20/32, dmg 8/27/6)]

[sorceresslite]

[ meanwhile ella is like /squirms. (escape artist 14) ]

1/2

[everyredcent]

[ three more arrows strike home into the creature, the second one actually hitting it right in one of its many eyes, which causes it to make a hideous high-pitched noise that i'm sure is very comforting to ella, still wrapped up in threads as she is and unable to see what's transpiring outside.

christos manages to catch his balance much better now (balance 18) to lightly move across the strands, lashing out with his rapier to try to free ella from the web (nat 20, dmg 26). the sticky strings are split instantly by the blade, which manages not to nick her at all, annnnd she's free. ]

2/2

[layonhands]

[ annnd i'll have risa take both her turns! her first arrow from last time was frighteningly accurate (atk 36, dmg 14), and then unleashes three more in rapid succession (atk 37, 25, nat 20, total damage 15) ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz decides to take a page from Christos' book and stashes her off-hand sword, jumping out onto one of the strands (jump 23) close to the spider. She hangs on with her free hand and slashes at whatever part of it she can reach with her sword (atk 22, damage 10). ]

[buttholy]

[still following along, dante jumps onto one of the strands like a fuckin' badass y'all don't even know (jump 25) like hell yeah we're gonna beat the shit out of this spider. and then he strikes it with his longsword. (atk 27; 9 dmg) ]

[herebemonsters]

[ dante and gaz manage to be much more graceful than christos about jumping onto the web, which i'm sure he'll be grumpy about later. both of them manage to strike the thing however, and its hairy front legs swipe out at them as if to warn them back. christos did the most damage though, so it directs its attempt to sink its fangs into him, but he's fast enough to withdraw his arm from its reach just in time. ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss' next two shots are pretty terrible, probably because she's shooting around so many people, but finally aims true on the third (atk 19/15/30, dmg 7(if that 19 somehow hits)/14)]

[sorceresslite]

[ the moment ella catches her breath, keeping her balance easily (balance 22) she says fuck it and shoots a huge cracking arc of lightning at the spider, deciding it's even better than "kill it with fire". (elemental affinity, ranged touch atk 27, electricity dmg 27...) she, um, really doesn't like spiders? ]

[everyredcent]

[ katniss actually misses once, but otherwise her arrows sink into its side as ella unleashes crackling electricity that knocks it right off the web, and it falls down, dying, sparking with blue lightning just like palpatine at the end of return of the jedi, into the bottomless chasm below.

christos watches it fall grimly, before peering up into the dark beyond them. ] There might be others. We should move quickly.

[ /init! ]

[farmgirlfighter]

Great, just when I was thinking, 'Let's never do that again.'

[ With a nat 20 on spot (plus low light vision), Gaz attempts to see her way forward on the webby strands. ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss makes her way out onto the webbing as well, moving lightly along the strands so that they can cross before running into any more trouble (balance 24).]

[sorceresslite]

Fucking spiders. [ ella shudders, picking stray webbing off of herself now that she has a chance. gross. just fucking gross. ]

[buttholy]

It beats dire wasps. [always the dire wasps, man.]

[farmgirlfighter]

Why is it always the icky things that are dire? Why are there never any dire kittens?

[everyredcent]

[ gaz notices that further down the cliff wall, accessible across the webs, is a cleft in the rock face. she even can see a bedroll - tightly rolled and neatly tied - and a backpack lying propped against the wall.

below that and off to the left is another cavern mouth that they could reach, that one wider, and disappearing into a tunnel that bends out of sight. ] We should get across as quickly as we can.

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz points out what she sees, ] Looks like someone's set up camp there, and down there there's another tunnel.

[buttholy]

[dante responds to gaz with a shrug before they get back to business. the only way to keep going is to keep indiana jonesing their way over the strands, so dante keeps on with that. c'mon y'all. (balance (?? or whatever) nat 20. showoff dick...) ]

[anthophobia]

Do we want to avoid them or see who might be there?

[Asking Christos, tbh.]

1/2

[layonhands]

[ risa stays behind long enough to look to christos to and offer: ] If there's someone who might have answers that we can catch alone, we should speak to them...

[everyredcent]

[ EW PEOPLE. but ok fine. ] Very well. Let's try to approach quietly if we can. [ he doubts y'all can ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss nods and starts making her way down, her steps completely silent (move silently nat 20). Katniss pls.]