Toll the Troll

As the skittering mass closed in, I clenched my fists.

My body crouched low, bringing a fist down on the closest spider, crushing it into green goo.

It did nothing to dissuade or slow the rest.

A large spider sprayed a bolt of white goop.

My body swatted the sticky strand aside.

The spider, pulled by a thread, was yanked, flying at our face. 

My body delivered a devastating backhand, gore exploding out as body parts fell.

Two down… dozens? Hundreds more to go?

I knew we couldn't win, not like this.

We could retreat to the bedrooms, but that was a dead end.

We had to get past it.

My body ran along the edge of the room toward the kitchen window, aiming for the hallway, the storerooms, and everything beyond.

The swarm of spiders turned, staying between us and the exit from this dead end. 

Could we run along the tabletops to get there? It was worth a try.

Using a stool, we stepped on a table… and the legs gave out. Not all of them, just the two on our side. We rolled backward, coming to a stop against the wall.

A couple of spiders lept at us, fangs out.

My body swatted them away.

More were already coming.

Standing and running back to the doors, I scratched at my hand. Two shallow cuts itched. One of them must have bit him… bit me. I hadn't felt it. It was hard to think. Was now even the time?

I grabbed a stool and threw it… The results were lost in the swarm.

We ran to the other corner, only to have the swarm retreat and again put itself between us and the exit.

My body stomped on several individual spiders… but I knew it'd take all day to make a dent in their numbers.

A spider landed on our back, biting.

My body slammed itself into the wall, crushing the thing.

There were more spiders above, but only a few.

We picked up another stool and threw it at the closest one.

It fell, righted itself, and I lost it amongst the others.

Our back burned in agony, and my body slammed into the wall again. It did nothing for the pain.

Poison? Fuck… weren't most spiders were poisonous… or was it that most spiders weren't poisonous? It didn't matter; these were. How did the poison work? Were we going to kill all these spiders just to die from poison five minutes later?

When had my body decided it was going to kill them all? I didn't know, but I could feel my body's commitment.

Fine. We're going to kill the spiders. How? That was my department.

The swarm was close, too close… but that also put distance between it and the exit.

Could we run around it, get those empty barrels, and Donkey Kong them?

My body darted around the swarm, stomping spiders as we went, only to end up cornered again, the swarm blocking our exit. 

We needed a giant flyswatter…

My body grabbed the table with the two broken legs, flipped it over, and started swatting spiders.

Again and again, then we charged the swarm. Splat! Gore splashed out from between the floor and the tabletop.

The swarm, scattered, scurried onto the table to regroup.

We lifted the table again, but the legs came loose.

Another spider landed on him, biting.

We reached back and brushed it from our back. 

We ran back, feeling woozy and sick.

Were we going to die before we killed them all?

We had to stop.

We had to go back.

I didn't want to die.

My body listened.

We returned to the farthest bedroom, curled up, and… Didn't die.

My heart beating furiously, I wondered if my status screen could help.

"Status Screen."

Name: Toll. Origin: Otherworld Gamer. Class: Rogue level 2. Race: Troll Cursed Halfbreed - Stage 2. Medium humanoid. AC: 12. Health: 9 of 17, poisoned for 48 seconds. Strength 15, Dexterity 11, Constitution 15, Intelligence 11, Wisdom 10, Charisma 11. Saves: Dexterity +2, Intelligence +2. Feats: Skilled. Proficiency Bonus: +2. Skills: Athletics +7, Acrobatics +2, Insight +2, Investigation +2, Perception +2, Persuasion +2, Stealth +2, Thieves Tools +2, Video Games +4. Class features: Expertise in Athletics and Video Games. Sneak Attack +1d6, Thieves Cant, Weapon Mastery, Cunning Action. Racial traits: Darkvision 60 ft., Keen Smell, Regeneration of Proficiency Bonus + Constitution Bonus per 6 seconds, Multiattack, Natural Attacks - Bite, Claws. Natural Armor of 10 + Constitution modifier. Languages: Common, Thieves Cant.

I watched my health bounce around: 7, 11, 5, 9, 8, 12, 6, 10, 4, 8, 7, 11, 6, 10, 14, 17. The poisoned condition was gone. The pain was gone. The scratches were gone.

Poison was no joke. If it weren't for his regeneration, we'd have surely died.

I looked through his stat screen one more time. I couldn't be sure, but the only things that seemed to have changed were our health and maybe 'Cunning Action.' Had we leveled during the fight? Was that another reason he was alive? The auto-leveling had saved us again? What did we have for health before? A 10? We had gone as low as 4 of 17. Yeah, we would have been dead without the additional health.

I took a deep breath and closed the status screen.

We needed a plan.

First and foremost, we needed objects to throw at the spiders on the ceiling. We didn't need to kill them; we just needed to get them off the ceiling.

Looking around, my eyes settled on the bedframe.