oxford ♔ crawling out of my own skin

[valdrin]

WHO || Marty, Matthew, Nels, Miles, Val'drin, Mr. Broggon
WHAT || The Knights investigate a mysterious package sent to a shop owner
WHERE || Sword & Sorcery, in Oxford, England
WHEN || Wed April 16th, about 8pm
HOW || Actionspam

Sword & Sorcery:  Old Books for a New Age is located in a strip mall in a relatively nice part of the city of Oxford.  A scattering of other cars fill parts of the parking lot, with most of the vehicles congregated to the side nearest the Teriyaki Rok'n'Wok, a rock and roll themed teriyaki restaurant.  The bookstore sits farther down the line of shops, in the more deserted section of the strip mall.  Val'drin raises an eyebrow at the Rok'n'Wok, slipping one hand into his pocket as he surveys the others.  

"Everyone's at least armed, I do hope."  

Comments

[valdrin]

[ as soon as miles turns around, the spider strikes. this one is considerably larger, about the size of a very large dog, about four feet across. the fucking st. bernard of spiders. luckily miles is fucking prepared, because it only got an 11 attack as it hisses and comes jumping down at him.

val'drin is ready for this shit and fires twice (atk 30, atk 19, 16 dmg total, which actually... sends horrible spider blood everywhere holy shit). but it's still moving... slightly. ]

[zwy_il]

[Not again. Never Again. Nels charges and lashes out, shouting "Dead Spider" in Drow]

Elghinyrr orbb!! [Striking the spider with a total atk of 26, dealing 10 Damage (3 die + 3 str + 4 inspiration)... Our lovely GM has informed me that will slay the spider. /End init. This went fast. That's what she said.]

[theshameofcain]

[Bambi barely has time to shriek and hold up her bat before it's all over. She looks from Nels to Val'drin and huffs.]

Damn. I'm glad we brought the drow with us.

[valdrin]

[ Val'drin looks mildly irritated by Bambi's casual racism, ok. ] Nels is free to take the killing blow on any of them. The Spider Queen has a special hatred for the death of her little pets, and I greatly prefer to live my life without drawing Her attention in any way. [ he looks down at the web stuck to his shoe with a sigh, trying in vain to delicately scrape it off, and ignoring the shape half-buried in webs at the back of this dead-end chamber. anyone who makes a spot of 15+ can see it, however. ]

[zwy_il]

[Nels glares, and reflexively rubs his crazy prosthetic hand. He's had more than enough interaction with the queen bitch of spiders for an elven lifetime.]

She's free to claw her fat ass up here and face me herself whenever she likes. [And he spits on the spider.]

[cabot]

Good, you're free to keep her busy then while I make a life-preserving break for it. [ grumble, grumble. he surveys the dead-end with a frown, and then wheels back towards the tunnel. ] Let me hazard a guess about what awaits us down the other way.

[theshameofcain]

Wait! [Bambi spots it with exactly a 15 and grabs Val'drin's shoulder to keep him from leaving, all while pointing down the dead-end.] There's something down there.

[cabot]

Oh goody. [ /dry as the sahara. with a sigh he looks back. ] So long as it isn't moving. [ it's not, in fact. further investigation concludes that buried beneath those webs is... a big treasure chest???? ]

[zwy_il]

Lets have a look at this...

[I have zero trust that the chest is not full of spiders. Searching for traps. Gonna use an action point to re-roll because that first one was... horrible... so, Rolled a 14, +10 from skills, +1 from Cunning Knowledge, so 25 total. (And he has trapfinding, for magic traps and traps over DC20)]

[cabot]

[ no traps in sight!! but it is locked, so there's that. ]

[theshameofcain]

[Once she's decided it's safe to approach, Bambi removes one of the bobby pins holding her hair in place.]

Lemme try something.

[idk how far she's gonna get with a disable device 16, but she's tryin']

[cuivre]

[Miles moves with her, peering over her shoulder as back up, both in a mechanical sense (aid check, also disable device 16? can i do that?) and as physical backup in case something nasty pops out of that thing.]

[cabot]

[ bambi keeps feeling like she's on the brink of popping it open... but the stubborn lock will not budge :( ]

[theshameofcain]

Ugh! [She throws down her bobby pin and kicks the chest.] You suck!

[valdrin]

[ val'drin sighs and steps forward, pulling out an actual... lockpick. ] Allow me. [ with a 24 disable device, it pops open readily. a cloud of dust erupts from within and val'drin yanks out a handkerchief to cover his mouth, waving one hand in irritation until it clears. when it does, he carefully draws out two dusty vials of a glowing blue liquid, and then a larger item wrapped in cloth. when he cautiously removes the coverings, it reveals a gleaming longsword. ] Well, well.

[cuivre]

[He's already standing nearby so he peers down at the pretty shiny ooo]

What exactly do you think we're looking at here. Besides the obvious, I mean.

[It's gotta be special, right?]

[theshameofcain]

[Bambi squints at the pretties, but doesn't come up with anything familiar, as she does... not have spellcraft ranks.]

Beats the shit out of me.

[cabot]

The potions are definitely curative. [ he hands them back over his shoulder to miles, to take a better look at the sword. his eyes widen a bit, and he's clearly impressed. ] I think it's a speed blade, actually. Someone's enchanted it with a haste spell, which makes it faster to wield.

[zwy_il]

[Nels lets loose a big whistle;] She is a beauty...

I don't suppose there's any sort of official policy on what becomes of this treasure? [He said, holding his aged dull blades in hand.]

[theshameofcain]

Wow if you get the sharp pointy, I'm taking that book from upstairs. [She glances over the top of the chest.] D'you think there are more spiders?

[She said with a spot of 7....]

[zwy_il]

You can have all of the books, as far as I'm concerned

[cabot]

Have at it. [ val'drin waves his hand, unconcerned with who gets the blade, to be honest. while magic weapons are neat, he likes his artifacts a little more obscure. ] There might be more back down the other passageway. Only one way to find out.

[theshameofcain]

Yay...

[Once more into the breach. Bambi's staying close to Miles though. Hi, Miles.]

[cuivre]

[Hi bb. He's got you.]

Go for it Nels. Congrats.

[And off they go to run into what is likely to be more spiders. And possibly something nastier. Hurrah.]

[valdrin]

[ val'drin leads them back down to the first turn in the chamber, heading down that passageway as they cut away webs again. as they approach the corner ahead, a listen check of 10+ is all that's necessary to hear angry chittering from snapping mandibles, an alien, unnerving noise. ]