Sniktch's Story Hour - City of the Spider Queen (Updated 04/25)

[Sniktch]

I'm just looking forward to the party's reaction. Especially Jack and Quinn's.

Me, too. What is your reaction, Quinn? I guess we'll have to wait until the next session to find out. I guess we should just be thankful balderdash hasn't gotten ahold of the Book of Vile Darkness yet.

Speaking of the next session, in case any of my players check this thread before I get to speak with them, it is going to be moved forward a week until this Saturday. I'll be on vacation the two weekends after that and I don't want to push the game back that far. Let me know if this doesn't work for you and we'll try to work around any schedule conflicts.

I think everyone is going to need to be here this time

 

[Sniktch]

The story continues...

Welby woke with a start, rising so quickly he bumped his head on the underside of the wagon. Long ago they had modified the wagon, building a small space underneath that was just large enough for a halfling to stretch out. Originally intended as an ambush platform for the diminutive barbarian, he had quickly taken to sleeping on it.

He had been sleeping there this night when the scream cut into his dream. It sounded like it had originated from the inside of the wagon, right above his head. He rolled off the platform and scooted out from under the wagon and found Malobar hurrying in his direction.

“What was that?” the elf demanded.

Welby felt the bump on his head tenderly, “Dunno, sleeping.”

The door to the cart opened and Artimas stepped outside. “What was –?” the elf started again but stopped as he saw the answer to his query. Behind the mage the still form of the dark elf was stretched out on the necromancer’s bed, the imprint of his hand seared into her flesh. Malobar pushed his way into the wagon, kneeling to examine the body. He found no pulse, and when he held a mirror under her nose the glass remained clear. He stood and faced Artimas, crossing his arms over his chest as he awaited an explanation.

“Yes, I killed her,” the mage stated calmly. “Don’t pretend to care about the fate of a dark elf, Malobar. It was the easiest way to question her, and now I know a lot more about the enemy we face. I had believed our task completed with the destruction of the band we faced, but it turns out they were refugees, driven from their homes by the true raiders.”

“Woke up for this?” Welby complained and crawled back under the cart.

“You are correct, mage, I care not a whit what becomes of a priestess of Lolth, and I, for one, am happy to have more information about our foes. Just you pray that the dwarves do not react differently to your deed.

“We will speak further in the morning.” The elf wheeled and paced away, failing to notice the mischievous spark that gleamed in the necromancer’s eye.

*****

It took a while before they even noticed. The companions had eaten breakfast and were breaking camp when Jack suddenly stood and called, “Right, where’s the bleedin prisoner?”

“Oh, I killed her,” Artimas answered cheerfully, “it really made interrogating her much easier.”

The activity in the camp ceased as all heads turned to view the dwarf’s reaction. Jack stood in open-mouthed amazement at the wizard’s boldness for several seconds, then shook his head and asked, “Well, when’re ya gonna let the rest of us in on what ya’ve learned?”

“But he killed her, Jack, he killed that girl!” Quinn voiced in shock, surprised at the look of acceptance she saw on her surly companion’s face.

“As I stated, it made the process of questioning her much quicker and easier. I ask myself, what is the price of one dark elf to learn more about the task ahead? Besides, I have never had the opportunity to, ah, work with a drow before,” said the mage.

Jack’s face colored at the last statement and he shot the wizard a look of pure venom, then explained to Quinn, “While I canna agree with the wizard’s methods, in this case I’ll no’ argue with the results. Quinn, she weren’t a girl, she were a viper, and I’ll no’ cry over a dead drow, no matter how it happened.” He turned back to face Artimas. “Ya’ll not be raisin her, though.”

“Oh, no, nothing of the sort. And I have no time for anything like that, assuming we are headed back into the crypts. I have simply cast a spell of preservation upon the body so it will be available to me for future endeavors.”

Seeing the dwarf’s anger rising again, Malobar interrupted, “Well, are you going to tell us what you’ve discovered before nightfall? My blade is thirsty for drow blood.”

“Yes, yes, we should be on our way. The dark elves we faced yesterday are also victims of the raiders we were sent to deal with. According to our captive Lolth has fallen silent and her followers are being wiped out. Below us lies the drow city of Szith Morcane, where the followers of Kiaransalee, the dark elf goddess of death, now hold sway. Apparently, the White Lady, as she is called, has judged that it is time for the surface world to pay for their ‘crimes’ against the drow people, and they are responsible for the attacks on Lord Bryson’s citizenry.”

“A city o’ dark elves, y’say?” Jack asked, running his thumb down the razor sharp blade of his axe. “We better get ta work.”

Coming soon: Szith Morcane

 

[Broccli_Head]

Heh-heh! Artimas is delightfully smug!

 

[darkbard]

hmmm ... an interesting turn of events (or reactions, really). i would've expected quinn to see artemis' point of view and jack to spout invective (well, more than he did). now, what spell was it that artemis cast to learn memories from the drow as she died?

 

[Sniktch]

Yeah, it wasn't really the reaction I expected, either. Quinn was the one who saw it as the murder of a helpless captive, and to Jack it was one less dark elf, good riddance. Artimas was really self-assured, too - we thought he was trying to goad Jack, but Jack just wouldn't bite.

Artimas didn't absorb any memories from the drow - the knowledge he shared with the others is what he learned from his conversation with her, nothing less, nothing more. The last spell he cast in the previous post is actually what stopped her heart, but unfortunately, I really can't reveal any more about it yet. I promise it'll be quite a surprise when the full details are revealed!

 

[darkbard]

oh, you teaser, you!!

 

[Sniktch]

The sentries

They entered the crypts and pushed further into the underground. As usual, Welby and Malobar scouted about sixty feet ahead of the others, relying upon their natural stealth and magical enhancements to keep them hidden from any watchers in the dark. They moved slowly to match Igor’s shuffling gait. The tunnel gradually wound lower and lower beneath the earth until at last it opened into a large cavern. They paused until the light of Artimas’ torch became visible behind them and then started across the floor of the cave.

Suddenly, a large black shape sprang out of the darkness at the two scouts. “Spider!” the elf yelled and Welby dove to the floor, feeling a hairy leg brush against him as he rolled across the floor. At the same time bowstrings sang out from the darkness and a volley of arrows flew over their heads toward the light of the torch.

Grick heard the warning shout and started forward, grunting in pain when an arrow flew out of the inky tunnel and struck him in the forearm. Two more arrows whistled out of the gloom and struck Jack standing next to him. The monk pulled the arrow free and grimaced at the sight of the venomous paste smeared on its head, then broke into a full run and soon came upon the fight between the two rogues and a large, horse-sized spider.

He jumped right over the combat and continued forward, finding himself approaching a yawning hole in the floor of the cave. Two dark elves with shortbows melted from the shadows across the opening, firing arrows rapidly at the approaching monk. Grick plucked one arrow from the air but could not dodge them all and cried out as three more arrows bit into his flesh. One of the elves then leaped into the opening, grabbing the walls and scrambling on all floors down the chute like a spider, while the other held his ground and readied another shot.

Malobar lunged forward, scoring two hits on the soft underbelly of the spider. To his dismay, no blood welled from the wounds and the spider showed no signs of feeling any pain from his attack, biting at him with its powerful mandibles and forcing the elf to give ground. Welby scrambled back into the fray and hacked two of its legs off, and as the spider turned to deal with the threat he plunged his sword into its head up to the hilt, slaying it instantly. Seeing his opponent fall, Malobar turned to the dark shaft in the ground and drank a potion, gaining for a short length of time the ability to fly.

Quinn ran forward toward the sounds of battle, yelling for Artimas and Jack to follow. Artimas started off but saw the dwarf was still standing rigid and still in the hallway. “Jack?” he asked, leaning towards his companion. The dwarf did not reply for a moment, then a whistling snore came from the depths of his great helm. Artimas removed Jack’s helmet and discovered that the bold templar had succumbed to the drow's venom and was sound asleep. The necromancer grabbed the torch from Igor and ordered the zombie to guard the helpless dwarf, then cast a spell and started flying down the passage, fighting to hold back the laughter that welled up within him.

Grick leaped over the hole in the ground and knocked the dark elf archer from his feet with a vicious kick. The sentry rolled back out of reach and snapped a shot at point blank range into the half-orc’s gut, then dove over the edge of the pit and started scampering down the walls and out of sight. Grick tore the last arrow free and raised his flask to his lips, draining several gulps of strong liquor to dull the pain, then hopped onto the lip of the chute and began running down the side with his slippers. He heard the sound of rushing air as Malobar overtook him and flew past, hot on the drow’s tail.

The passage leveled out after a short descent and the rogue almost caught the fleeing sentry, but then the passage dead-ended at another opening in the floor that the retreating figure disappeared into. Malobar didn’t hesitate but continued the chase, flying through this second hole and ending up in a larger cavern. He sensed the dark elf’s form running from him just a few short feet away, but a new shape loomed out of the darkness; the shape of an unarmed dark elf that moved into his path and spit a stream of caustic, burning fluid into the elf’s face.

Grick saw Malobar fly into the hole after the fleeing guard and dropped into the opening behind him. As soon as he touched down he realized that they were in trouble. A new figure stepped into the elf’s path and launched a spray of blood that splashed onto the rogue with a sickening sizzle. This new opponent resembled a dark elf in size and shape, but here all similarity ended. It was skinless; puss and blood oozing from the exposed muscles, sinews, and organs as it stared malevolently with unlidded eyes. Beyond this horrifying attacker another large spider and two dark elves with glaives rushed forward to join the combat.

Malobar dodged past the skinless terror but was not quick enough to evade the next dark elf, who opened a long cut along his side as it brought its polearm to bear. He stepped in past the weapon’s reach and countered, opening two nasty bleeding gouges on the drow.

Behind him, Grick launched a rapid series of punches and kicks at the bleeding monster, connecting solidly with every blow. The monk screamed in pain as each successful hit caused a spray of acidic blood to burst from his opponent’s form, and the half-orc fell away, badly burned. The monster pressed its attack, stepping up and backhanding the monk and driving him into the path of one of its warrior allies, who speared Grick with its glaive. Four sickening green bolts of magic flew out of the darkness then and sizzled into the monk, who slipped in a patch of his own blood, banged his head off the stone floor, and did not rise again.

Malobar backed up to stand over the body, launching a desperate series of slashes left and right to keep his opponents at bay. The weird skinless drow and spider moved to flank him while the two dark elf warriors raised their wicked glaives and smiled evilly, while out of the range of his blindsight a dark elf wizard prepared another spell. The elf considered flying away but could not leave Grick to the tender mercies of the drow.

He renewed his attack, spinning nimbly to the left and cutting into the warrior he’d already injured, at the same time yelling, “Grick’s down! I need help! Hurry!!”

 

[Broccli_Head]

Wow! What a nasty battle....

 

[Sniktch]

The sentries, pt. 2

Yeah, it didn't go very well for the players. I think its the first time it occured to them that their darkvision extends 60' while the dark elves have 120' (which I make FULL use of) - here's the next update on the battle:
__________________________

After felling the spider, Welby ran over to the lip and looked down, but all the action had passed from view already. The tunnel sloped down at an extreme grade for about fifteen feet but then leveled out to a more manageable descent. The halfling carefully climbed down to this point before running in pursuit of his companions. He halted at the next drop, and although he could hear the sounds of combat below, he took the time to examine his surroundings before continuing.

Two details stuck out from a cursory inspection of the dead-end. First, the hole in the floor was ringed with strands of burned spider web and a heavy iron ring had been sunk into the stone, perfect for tying a rope to. Second, the ‘dead-end’ was a smooth wall of solid granite, which the halfling found oddly out of place in these caverns and tunnels of unworked stone.

“What past wall?” he asked the panther-like shadow that rose from the stone floor, and it disappeared through the rock. It returned brief seconds later and confirmed his suspicions, “Tunnel keeps going.”

Welby nodded and filed the information away for future reference as Quinn and Artimas finally caught up. The mage was excited about something.

“Do you realize the spider you fought was actually an undead?” the necromancer asked. “Just think, a whole new form of undead I’ve never had the chance to study!”

“Uh, where Jack?” was the halfling’s reply.

Artimas chuckled, “Oho! Our brave warrior fell asleep when the first arrow hit him! I made sure he wasn’t bleeding to death and left Igor to guard him.”

Just then a cry for aid came echoing up the shaft. “Grick’s down! I need help! Hurry!!”

Quinn’s face went ashen and the halfling went into motion. He pulled his spool of rope from his pack, looped the end through the iron ring, and jumped into the hole, rappelling rapidly to the bottom. Quinn went down right behind him, and then Artimas followed, slowly floating downward.

The halfling let go of the rope and fell the last few feet, landing in front of a hideously deformed, skinless drow and stabbing it without hesitation. Quinn crashed to the ground behind him and grabbed the unconscious monk’s leg, pulling him away from the fighting. Artimas floated into view and saw another of the strange new undead spiders, then his excitement grew as he saw the skinless drow and immediately recognized it as undead also. He drew upon his necromantic powers and hurled a spell of binding, freezing both of the lifeless monsters in their tracks.

Malobar had only held the drow off alone for six seconds, but it had seemed an eternity and the elf was now barely standing, bleeding from several new wounds. “It’s about time!” he exclaimed. “Now grab Grick and let’s get out of here before the whole city falls on us!” When he finished speaking the elf flew back up the shaft and started back in the direction of the surface, struggling to remain conscious against the pain of his many wounds.

Quinn agreed. “The elf is right! We need to retreat!” She turned back to Grick and laid her hands upon him. The half-orc sat up as the healing energy flowed into his body, and Quinn helped him to his feet and boosted him up the rope before grabbing hold and following. A howling gale of ice and wind suddenly arose in the area and smashed her into the wall, but she managed to keep hold of the rope and climbed out of sight. Artimas also felt the fury of the storm of ice but luckily the halfling and half-orc were both out of the area.

Welby snarled as the two dark elf warriors stepped in and speared him with their long hafted weapons. He grabbed one of the glaives as it impaled him and spun to the side, snapping the weapon in half, then charged the drow while it fumbled to draw its sword. He dealt the drow a nasty wound but had placed himself in a bad position as the other fighter moved into a flanking position and stabbed at him again. The halfling felt logic and reason boiling away and a red haze filled his vision as his mouth began to froth and foam.

Artimas was worried. A few drow warriors he could handle but he realized that a wizard was lurking in the darkness, out of the range of their vision. That and the helter skelter manner of their approach left them completely at the mercies of the cities’ well-prepared defenses. He pulled a long bone from his spell component pouch and yelled “Welby, look out!” before chanting a string of arcane syllables and snapping the bone in half. A cone of razor sharp slivers sprayed from the mage's hands, shredding the two motionless undead and badly wounding the two dark elves. “Now let’s go! We need to fall back!” he ordered the barbarian.

“No run!” the halfling shouted back and surged forward, cutting both of the dark elves down with disemboweling strikes. A crackling bolt of electricity flew out of the darkness as well as a volley of arrows but the halfling dodged through the barrage unharmed and ran forward into the darkness.

Artimas was hit by the lightning and bit his lip with the sudden jerking convulsions that passed through his frame. When his vision cleared he saw the halfling sprint from view and sighed in exasperation. Anyone else, he thought, anyone else and I would just leave them and tell the others there was nothing I could do, but we need that little bastard. “Welby’s not retreating!” he called up the hole. “I’m going to go after him, but we need support.”

Grick and Quinn sat at the top of the shaft while the priestess tended the half-orc’s many wounds. Grick looked up with pain-glazed eyes when they heard Artimas’ shout and said, “You check on Malobar and Jack. I go after them.” The monk got back to his feet and upended his flask, draining its contents in a few fiery swallows. As the liquor raced through his veins and chased the pain away he smiled and dropped back into the hole, while Quinn said a silent prayer for her friend’s safety and hurried back the way she’d come.

 

[Sniktch]

The sentries, pt. 3

Malobar flew back down the tunnel until he came to the standing form of Jack, still snoring peacefully, his armor propping him up. The zombie stood behind the dwarf where it had been ordered to remain. The elf landed in front of the dwarf and began smacking him across the face, shouting, “Wake up! Wake up!”

Jack snorted and his eyes fluttered open, staring at the rogue dubiously. “What’s goin on? Where is everyone?”

“They are fighting for their lives against the drow while you are back here catching a nap,” the bleeding elf explained. “Now, I could use some healing, if you don’t mind.”

The dwarf focused on Malobar and seemed to notice his wounds for the first time. He laid hands upon his injured companion and prayed to the Lord of Battle, restoring a significant portion of the elf’s lost life, then pushed past him and started running down the hall. The elf flew after him, exclaiming, “Wrong way! We need to get out of here! They were too well prepared and now they know we’re here.”

Jack ignored him and ran on, meeting Quinn as she clambered back out of the first shaft. She pulled herself over the edge and sat gasping for air before speaking. “Artimas can’t get Welby to pull out and Grick went back down to help. We have to get back down there.”

Jack climbed over the edge and the two dwarves raced off to aid their friends, leaving a disgusted Malobar hovering in the cavern. “Can’t we make up our minds? We’re all going to be killed,” the elf lamented before following.

*****

Welby ran forward, his entire being focused on the desire to slay and maim. Artimas and Grick rushed to catch up with him and overtook him just as a hiss sounded from the darkness and another ravening bolt of energy split the air. The halfling and monk dove to either side and Artimas absorbed the full blast, but not before he saw, briefly illuminated, the wand wielding dark elf that cast the bolt.

“This way,” he directed, changing the course of his flight and sending a fireball in answer with his own wand. The cave was illuminated briefly by the broiling sphere of flames, and they saw two opponents standing near the edge of a cliff – one archer and the floating mage. The chilling laughter of drow filled the room as the flames washed over them but failed to overcome their innate resistance. Another tongue of lightning smashed into Artimas and two arrows thudded into the halfling’s chest.

Welby charged in the direction of his foes and they came into his range of vision. The drow wizard flew off the ground when it spotted him and dove over the side of the cliff and out of sight, but the archer stood his ground and let fly with two more arrows that bit into Welby’s flesh. In his current frenzy the little warrior felt no pain and finished his charge, cutting across the drow’s side and exposing its ribs with the powerful blow. Grick caught up to the halfling and launched a double-fisted punch at the archer, catching it full in the chest and knocking it back and over the side of the cliff. The dark elf let out a long wailing scream that slowly faded from their range of hearing.

It grew very quiet then and the companions realized that they had driven the drow off, at least for now. Welby moved up to the chasm and peered over the side, then gasped in amazement and awe at the sight before him. The canyon dropped straight down more than five hundred feet to a raging river. Stretched across the cliff wall was a spider web of epic proportions, each strand bigger in diameter than Grick’s barrel-like chest. The strands stretched back and forth between a series of caves set into the cliff wall at varying heights. The entire web had been decorated with a great number of permanent faerie fires and danced with an ever-shimmering array of blues, greens, and violets. It was the most beautiful sight the halfling had ever seen, and, considering its occupants, the most disturbing.

“Whuzzat?” Grick grunted, pointing at the nearest cave.

Welby looked and saw the flying wizard land and begin conversing with a group of drow. The discussion grew very animated, the floating mage often gesturing toward the cave the three party members watched from. Soon a group of a dozen dark elves moved onto the web and began scaling up towards the heroes.

Welby backed up from the edge and regarded his friends. “Now we run,” the halfling informed them and bolted, sprinting for the exit.

Next: More mayhem coming! Beyond the wall of stone, Jack is feeling down, and Welby goes solo! (How low? So low you can hardly see what he's doing! Ba-dum dum)