Ivor stabs at the reptile's legs right when it rolls free of the net, but it barely jumps to the side.
OOC:
I think keep that Fighter Maneuver, since it was not a hit and not used in the next one.
When the beast springs up, fanged maw open, Ivor brings the trident up quick in a slanting forward thrust. All three barbs catch under the crawler's mouth at the neck. They spear through flesh and windpipe, entering into the brain. The crawler is stuck writhing, a dying slab of scaled meat, until Ivor slings it hard into one of the statues. The body whips around tearing out from the barbs and thuds to the floor after flopping between statues.
With the bats flying all around him, slapping and clawing at his face, others already sinking their needles and claws into him, Ivor is starting to get disoriented in the room. He can barely see anything now. His head is spinning. His muscles are seizing up. The effects of the smoke are exacerbated as he breathes heavily from the exertion of combat. The only thing he can really see is the close torchlight and the other lighter glow from the north gate.
OOC:
Jabes, Ivor's scenario is a bad way. I have to speak bluntly so nothing is lost in translation.
This rope climb is shifting from DC 10 to DC 15, and still at Disadvantage.
There is a timer ticking to approach a second CON save vs. the poison gas. It's going to be bad.
The rope is 20', speed halved for Exhaustion. I've been counting the climb as 2 rounds, though it's more like 3 in reality.
The stirges are a literal HP drain every single round, with some staged up for auto drain and others still going to throw more attacks.
I saw your comments in Admin. I know I'm in danger of leading too strong to say what to do, but I'd rather live with that than have a PC death around the corner that might have been avoided if I had done better descriptions and given more clarity, so here goes some straight talk...
The low inner cage door on the north gate is open. Yes, Ivor doesn't know that, but there is a case to be made that he could suspect it.
The light is there, so it makes since that he could see where he is going.
He is also familiar with the large gate and the smaller inner gate from previously, when he was reaching through with the crowbar to manipulate the chain and got his on the arm. He knows it is not very far away, even if he can't see it.
Also he heard metal clanging sounds previously, suggesting that the gate door might be or might have been opened.
He heard some small sounds of a struggle before the stirges blew in and swallowed up a lot of the sound.
The gate is low in the smoke. For whatever reason, the stirges have not been flying out of there so far.
With 15' Movement, Ivor could get to the door and dip down, kind of Difficult Terrain at the last step there, but I say he gets to the other side.
And that could happen THIS round.
So, there it is. I've certainly may have blown the DM impartiality clause, so sorry if I've gone too far.
But on the other hand I feel compelled to lay the scene out clearly, and I think these are all things that Ivor may be able to assess with his feet on the ground living it out, just in case our gamer vision of what is going on is not as clear as it should be because of my lack of describing sufficiently.
No matter what, Ivor isn't out of the woods yet. He's still a bullseye target for a colony of stirges at the moment, but I think this next round or so of actions/decisions are going to be some of the highest stakes we've seen, so I have to tread carefully.