GURPS Banestorm PBBB narrative thread

games
384

Thwip

Thwip is about to respond when…

Hawk’s back hits the wall of the passageway hard, and his head snaps back to follow it.

Blue Hawk’s outburst takes him aback. The shaman always seemed to have it more together than Thwip himself. Thwip believes this of the entire party. The self-doubt of the egg-head is a multiversal and he is moved to compassion. He’s not good at these sorts of things, preferring to measure clockwork to measuring the minds of others, but he decides to pay forward Nicholas’ kindness to him in his own moment of weakness the day before.

He approaches Blue Hawk and awkwardly tries to give him a masculine light punch on the arm. “Ifin t’ plan was t’ go in t’ tere, you’d be chokin’ on m’ dust, I’d be runnin’ 'way so fast.”

He gives a Goblin Grin. He then remembers that pinkies can be overwhelmed by the beauty of the fine set of teeth all goblins own, and switches to an awkward close lipped smile instead.

385

Jibrīl Al-Las’as

I hope that ward holds. Presumably we should try this other way?

Jibrīl steps over to the doorway where the door once was, and proceeds carefully through.

386

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

Stepping through the remains of the splintered door, you see a passageway that widens out into a larger room.

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However, it is difficult to see very far into the room. It’s thickly choked with whitish fibers; ordinarily, you’d say that they look like spiderwebs.

But ordinarily, strands of spiderweb are not as thick as your wrist.

387

Thwip

Despite not knowing what a high five is and the crushing feeling that comes with being left hanging, the lack of response from Blue Hawk to his attempts at reaching out in a comradely fashion leaves him with similar feelings. But there being no “I” in “party” means that he does not have time to dwell on it.

Glancing about at the others he notes that they all seem lost inside their minds, slack and unmoving, as if the puppeteer had removed their hand. This is bad.

– The thought of demons must have shaken all of us to create such silence. These are good pinkies. I cannot allow their morale to die out like this. –

“Chinz up comrades! Teres tings t’ be learnt here! Forward fir buildin’ are kin!”

He notes that Jabril has already proceeded ahead. “See, are man o’ stealth agrees! Shall we?”

Thwip spins and follows Jabril through the door. He stops suddenly at the sight of the… webs? He doesn’t want to meet any spider that may have excreted these. He pokes his head back out the door and addresses the still numbed others, “Mayhaps y’ shoult stand tere a bit more while we look inta tis.”

He steps back into the room and stands next to Jabril. In a clenched-teeth Arabic whisper, “Zis is und new zing to me. If zis is ze vork of und large spider as it looks zen maybe ve shoult fines an other path, eh?”

388

Ranar Bolijyr

Ranar squeezes up between the others to see what’s going on. He’s only caught bits of what they were saying about the glowing doorway, but glad to not be going the way of demons and pox. Looking in the other doorway, after Jibril and Thwip, he is relieved.

The webs are a bit odd, but spiders are friends. They catch the bugs and help keep things clean. Well, normal spiders do. But something that could make webs this size would need much larger food than little bugs. Considering that the stairway was buried and there were guardians, any suitable food would have to come from the other side of the webs. Perhaps the webmakers are long gone, but if not, there must be a steady supply of large beasts ahead. That unknown is a bit more frightening to him than the idea of giant spider friends.

“Alright, let’s all stick together and try not to get stuck!” Ranar uses his pick to try to clear out some of the webbing directly in front of the doorway.

389

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

Upon striking the web with his hammer, Ranar discovers three things:

Firstly, the webs are highly resistant to crushing/impaling weapons; his blow bounces off.

Secondly, there is something alive in the room. Although it is not visible, the shifting of the webs make it obvious that something very large is moving about in the background.

Thirdly, peering into the web, a number of silk-wrapped objects are visible. Most of them appear to be rats, although some of the mummified rats appear to be the size of small dogs.

390

Blue Hawk

Hawk returns from the comforting place that the recovery trance put him, now back in full control of himself. He had been tangentially aware of the things that had passed when he was in his trance, but had missed some of the specifics. He replay the sounds he had heard in his head a few times until they arrange themselves into a sort of sense: Lord Arron stating that they would not be going into [untranslateable, but obviously the room behind the ward in-context], and Thwip attempting to be comforting by also showing a reluctance to enter.

As the others move towards the door, he clears his throat. “I apologize for my outburst. Shamans have to deal with a great many things, and while plague is not common, it is almost the worst…”

As he moves forward, he sees Ranar’s blow strike off the web, and the creatures embedded within. “Perhaps we should try to avoid disturbing the spider more than this. I have been spiders; they can feel every pull on their web. Can we get through without breaking the web?”

391

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

This does not appear to be possible.

392

Thwip

Anglish, “Fýr.”

Arabic, “حريق”

Goblin, “Hyajae.”

393

Jibrīl Al-Las’as

Jibrīl gestures to de Courcy’s lantern.

I’ll go around sunwise, you go widdershins, and we’ll see what’s in here?

After checking that the Aralaise mercenary follows, and that everyone else is braced for what they might find, Jibrīl starts to slowly swing his torch around the room, illuminating the dark corners.

394

Nicolas de Courcy

‘Spiders. Giant spiders,’ de Courcey thinks, eyeing the thick webbing as he moves with his light in the opposite direction of the Arab rogue.

“Why isn’t there ever giant-size versions of something harmless, like gerbils”

‘Merde, I said that last bit outloud didn’t I?’ the mercenary winces internally.

395

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

As Jibril raises his sword, a huge black spider lunges down from the ceiling to within a few yards, lashing out with a massive clawed leg as it does so.

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(GM note: see other thread)

396

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

Jibrīl leaps backwards, and evades the scything claw strike by a whisker.

397

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

As Jibril leaps back, de Courcy presses forwards, waving his torch ahead of him with his left hand, while lunging with his rapier in his right. As the flame encounters the web, the strands shrink and vanish, but do not catch fire apart from some minor dust flares. His rapier points true; although the spider scrambles back into its web, his swordpoint punches through the thick shell, releasing a flood of ichor from the spider’s body.

Behind him, Thwip drops to one knee and raises his rifle to his shoulder and Ranar presses forwards besides Jibril. But, before Thwip can fire, Hawk steps forward, pointing his spear and chanting to the spirits. Ghostly energies flow between his spearpoint and the spider, but appear to slide off. Hawk mutters unintelligibly (and, given the tone, perhaps obscenely) in his own language before continuing his chant.

Enraged by its injury, the spider presses forwards and slashes at de Courcy. However, perhaps discomfited by the wound, the strike misses by a mile, and the spider falls from its web as it does so. Seeing an opportunity, Ranar and Jibril press forwards into the space cleared by de Courcy, preparing to strike at their downed foe.

Meanwhile, the Aralaise mercenary withdraws his sword and strikes again. Although the blow is true, the spider manages to avoid the strike by scuttling backwards along the ground.

As his line of fire is partially blocked by the row of fighters in front of him, Thwip holds his fire and refines his aim. As he does so, Hawk steps forwards and reinforces his chant. This time, the energy seems to sink into the monstrous spider’s flesh.

In response, the arachnid goes completely still.

(Player cue: nobody is hurt (apart from the spider), but Hawk is down 3FP. Wotcha all doing now? Taking the chance to push in for a quick stab/smash, or pulling back and observing?)

398

Thwip

"Izzit contained?! Izzit contained?! "

399

Blue Hawk

Hawk takes a moment after making sure that the arachnid is still, and then calls out to the others, “Wait! I now control it - it will not harm us! Let it alone!”

400

Nicolas de Courcey

De Courcey keeps his eye on the spider, his sword ready in case the Shaman’s control slips.

“For how long? How connected to it are you right now? Do you feel what it feels?”

401

Blue Hawk

Hawk orders the spider to make its way further into the web, noting the path it takes so that he and the other mercenaries can follow it without disturbing the webs too much.

“I can keep control for a few minutes only; long enough for us to get through. I am not very connected; it does what I tell it, but it is not like the hawk. To see and feel as the spider, I would need to stop seeing and feeling as myself.”

The shaman looks around at the mummified rats. “Be careful. If spiders here are the size of horses and rats are the size of dogs, magic here may be making other small things large, or large things larger.”

402

Jibrīl Al-Las’as

You want to go through this web? Or back to the main chamber?

403

Blue Hawk

Hawk isn’t sure how to answer that question.

“Lord Arron? You lead this expedition: should we go through the spider’s room, or go a different way?”