Nightmare in Katapesh IC

[SanguinePenguin]

Having just concluded his transaction with Sadar, Zetath gasps when Gex faints in front of him. Unsure how to react, he rushes over, fumbles for a moment, and Kali and Mauricio dash to the gnome’s aid. Their combined medical prowess quickly gets the unfortunate gnome conscious and back onto his feet.

Meanwhile, the man in the yellow turban, who callously ignored the fainting gnome, shakes the silver rod with the stone dials, he spins a few of the dials seemingly at random and presses into the top of the rod. Suddenly, the whole area is bathed in a blinding, but momentary violet light. A faint lavender-colored mist that smells of sewage and rotting onions lingers as your vision returns, but before you can process the scene, urgent screams drown your other senses as the area descends into pandemonium.

The man in the yellow turban fiddling with the rod is now covered in dozens of writhing creatures. The fist-sized things are a revolting sight. There is little uniformity to the creatures, each is a pallid fleshy blob with one to three lamprey-like mouths, a black appendage resembling a giant spider leg with a barbed tip, most have a few black wiry tendrils, most have one or two bulbous purple tentacles, some have an orange eye or two, some have a protusion or two that somewhat resembles a humanoid finger, but with far too many joints. The things perpetually emit a cacophonous din of screeches, yelps, clinks, chirps, and wails - but the unnerving cadence removes every vestige of familiarity from the sounds. They roll, flop, and twitch about, using their assorted appendages to approximate some form of locomotion. They crawl and writhe over each other and everything in the vicinity. Where they find exposed flesh, either of the man or one another, they bite, climb, and plant their throbbing, barbed spider-like leg deep. You witness one of the creatures split open in a burst of violet goo, and another similar creature crawls from the husk - the newcomer slowly ratcheting the corpse it emerged from into one of its three lamprey-like mouths. The creatures are a fundamental offense to the senses, their presence makes thought difficult. While Gurmok's years with Irori help him keep a calm center, Kharesh, despite his similar background, is driven to the brink of madness.

Joining the horde are two larger creatures, each about the height of a toddler, that stand on almost a dozen uneven and randomly arranged spiny legs that fall somewhere between crab and spider in design, however the body it hosts is a fleshy mass that appears partially melted and hosting black eyes with yellow centers and mouths arrayed with jagged shark-like teeth all haphazardously arranged around the creatures with no discernible pattern or symmetry at play. A black mucus drips continuously from the eyes and mouths, running over the creatures to drip a slime trail in their wake. They scuttle about on the legs, and the flesh near the various mouths stretch outward from the body to bite at whatever living thing they can. One charges into the midst of Gurmok and Sadar, the other into Zetath and Kali. While Zetath and Kali both manage to back away from the gnashing mucous laden teeth, Gurmok and Sadar are not so lucky.

Spoiler: Actions

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X1
1: Move to N11
2: attack Kali: (1d20+9)[17] Damage: (1d6+2)[7]
3: attack Zetath: (1d20+4)[8] Damage: (1d6+2)[8]

X2
1: Move to J11
2: attack Sadar: (1d20+9)[20] Damage: (1d6+2)[5]
3: attack Gurmok: (1d20+4)[19] Damage: (1d6+2)[8]

Swarm
1: Damage [roll]1d6[roll] Reflex (Y) (1d20+4)[12]
2: Damage [roll]1d6[roll] Reflex (Y) (1d20+4)[23]
3: Maddening Display See OOC

Welcome to combat! All PCs go now

Spoiler: Map

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Pink - the swarm
X - the two spidery thing
Y - yellow turban
Z - Zetath
Green (red, gray, blue) are merchant stalls, can stride through require a DC 12 Acrobatics check: crit success: pass through as normal; success: to pass through them as difficult terrain; failure: end stride; crit fail: as failure, but fall prone.
P and E,G are all fleeing in terror.