Posted by Commander D’Vash Odinson (First Officer) in Cargo Bay 4: A call to action (new arrivals welcome)

Posted by Lieutenant Sural (Chief Engineer) in Cargo Bay 4: A call to action (new arrivals welcome)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sathut (Counselor) in Cargo Bay 4: A call to action (new arrivals welcome)
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
- Miriam

“So, you want to stop the web-crawlers with a web? Won’t they be able to traverse your web just as well as their own? A web by any other name is still a web.”

“Either way, I’m keeping a lit torch handy, just in case.”

Hood

“It is a web in design only,” Suravil replied. “Spiders may be more skilled at traversing webs, though this is designed to stick or slow creatures, including spiders. Perhaps a web appearing would, in their limited intelligence, cause them to believe they are moving on safer ground and be more likely to simply drop into it.” He was more concerned with the potential of them traversing the walls. What ‘was’ their modus operendi in how they were comfortable and used to engaging prey?
- Suravil

“This particular strain of spider is one which, I believe, prefers to snare its prey in the floating tendrils of web you see before you,” ‘Sam’ volunteered the information, stepping forward to crouch beside Sural and D’Vash. “Then they pull the prey up towards them. I do not think they will use the walls to travel down, but if we can lure them down to the bottom via their strings, I think ‘Suravil’s plan is a reasonable one.”

Sathut

“There is a spell, very minor, a cantrip really,” explained Suravil, “which I have. It conjures a hand that I can manipulate things.” He put a finger up. “Minor things, though in this case I could manipulate the strings to imply that something is there. Once they approach, if they do, I can attempt to catch them in the web. The wall is nearby that I can attach the web to to be firmer.”
- Suravil

Hood stepped back out of the way to give Suravil any room he needed. “The stage is yours, oh wonderous wizard. Weave your spell.” He unknocked his crossbow and replaced the quarrel in his quiver. As he drew the ebony blade, he added, “I’m going to have a torch handy either way. . . “

Hood

Suravil looked at the others to ensure that they were ready as Hood was. He dismissed what he took as a somewhat mocking statement from Hood, however his focus right now was on where to cast the spell. He wanted to position himself in a place where this hand could tackle more than one thread, keeping them within 25 feet of his person. He only had a minute with the spell and he wanted to do as much as he could. First he looked for small objects, a few of them, that may be husks of mushrooms for example. It would not do for the hand to be stuck to a hanging tendril; he would use an object. The hand could pick up something that was a pound or two with no issue. Additionally he prepared for the Web spell that may come shortly thereafter.

Thus prepared he took his spot. The spell, simple as it was, had a verbal and somantic sense, and with practiced ease he cast the ‘Mage Hand’ spell. First actions would be, once the magical hand formed in the air would be to pick up one of the sticks/husks and brought it to the first tendril and used it to waggle the tendril back and forth before pulling back to see whether the stick/husk stuck to it or not. His eyes watched for activity above … and if he had time to go to another or if he needed to prepare the next spell.
- Suravil

The spell was successful in that the hand was created, the piece of mushroom picked up and pressed against the hanging web. There didn’t seem to be a reaction to the movement, and the mushroom did not stick particularly harshly to the web, pulling off with a small tug.

Sathut

Suravil pondered that turn of events. What were the spiders waiting for? Some prey to climb up to meet them? Frowning slightly he glanced at Hood and the others before gripping the tendril of web with this hand and pulled. While the hand could not exert great force and pick up anything with any real weight to it, it could exert up to 10 pounds of force. It was with a greater force tug that he employed on that tendril, after dropping the mushroom bit of course.
- Suravil

The spiders still made no reaction, seemingly aware that it was no living creature below them.

Hood watched the episode play out and shook his head as things hadn’t gone according to plan. “Good idea, Suravil. Too bad it didn’t . . . .”

Not knowing the propties of the magic being used, he made a suggestion, “Wwwwhy don’t you just use that hand to pick the ‘shrooms?”

Hood (procurer of things, except when spiders are hanging from the ceiling)

Suravil was going to consider giving the mushrooms a wiggle as well if this latest ploy did not yield anything fruitful - fruitful being some activity amongst the ceiling denizens. Technically he could simply send a fireball swarming through their midst, however the resultant smoke and flame in a cavern such as this may not address important considerations such as air to breathe or allow the mushrooms to survive which, technically, was the objective of this mission. “Unfortunately the hand is not equipped for such toil,” he said. “It’s force is quite limited to small objects of only a few pounds. Pulling up mushrooms would require greater force; these aren’t your run of the mill orchard mushrooms. That, and the hand only lasts a minute.”
- Suravil

“They are a little larger than a regular mushroom, but they pull out easy, all we need is the cap.” Garret commented. It was true. The cap of the odd mushrooms was about the size of a hand, domed, and was glowing slightly.

Sathut stayed silent.

• Miriam-is-not-good-at-dming-yet
  OOC: You’ll get it! :)

“Still, five minutes of a hand is not going to pluck many mushrooms.” Frowning slightly Suravil shrugged as the spell ended. “You watch. I will pick. Perhaps they have eaten not long ago and are not interested, in which case we are only tempting fate by .. poking the bear. I will begin farthest away from the webs.”

Moving in an arc taking care to keep an eye and ear up in the webs the Elf gathered a sack and moved to the mushrooms. Curious, however, he carefully shifted them about to see whether there might be subtle web strands intermixed with the mushrooms. Move the ‘shrooms and activate their spidey senses. If not, he will begin picking quickly.
- Suravil

Hood had a lit torch and stood in the opening, reading to throw the torch in if any of the creepy crwlies began moving in the elf’s direction. He kept his gaze above Suivail the whole time. . . .

Hood (with the fire, man)

OOC: Bump :)

Ooc: Guess we lost the other guy
OOC: NPC candidate? Spider magnet?

Ic:

There was a chittering sound from above. The webs were a bit sticky, but not sticky enough to entangle Sural. They seemed to be hanging among the mushrooms, not quite touching them though.

Sathut

The closer in that Sural moved the more he did see fine web strands all about him. They were not previously visible - only the thicker ones were. These were fine and only caught now and again in the torchlight. He reported this. “Fine web strands here. Very fine. I think that I am stirring up some interest this way,” he said quietly over to the others. “I’m going to continue this. Warn me if they are preparing to drop.”

His mind ran over possible things he could do. Spells possibly. Fight another possibility. He could do both, though these kinds of spiders he had not encountered before. His ‘terrain’, what he was used to was forests and open spaces under the sky and stars. He could not quite understand his cave preferring cousins.
Suravil

Hood held the torch away from the opening, but was prepared to throw it in none-the-less. Keeping it too close might stir the bugs up and cause them to react to Suravil.

“Suravil, I’ve got your back. Be ready to jump out of there on my mark.”

Hood (bearer of the torch)

Suravil glanced back upwards. He knew that he was being the bait and willingly so. He had served for a time as an enforcer, a bounty hunter and had put himself in positions of danger before. His time as that was certainly not complete; he yet had a list of names to seek out when he was not otherwise working, like now, to fund his mission. He hoped with time he would gain the experience and prowess to better continue in his personal mission and yield better rewards in treasure, skills, and items. He knew that it would be better for them to be prepared for the battle and fight on their terms than to be surprised, even if it was only with large venomous spiders. They were, to Suravil, a blight to nature, an abomination that he would not mind removing.

“I’m ready,” he said, bending to delicately pluck the mushroom heads and toss them into the sack, ever ready to abandon it and take up arms if need be. He felt it to be an eventuality and was ready for it.
- Suravil