The Order of Initiative In: "The City of the Spider Queen"

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Starring:

Mr Brownstone 5th/5th lvl Half-elf Assassin/Rogue
Lipput: 9th/3rd lvl Half-Orc Barbarian/Rogue
Chandos: 10th lvl Human Fighter
Hairbear: 11th lvl Duergar Rogue​

Thein Stormfist: 10th lvl Conjurer
Judas: 10th lvl Human Cleric​

Character Descriptions

Chandos
A tall powerfully built warrior, pale skinned with a shaved head. The man follows ridged personal codes, although evil to the core he is a man that can be trusted to keep his word. He will never steal or take that which he has not earnt in some way.

Chandos started his career as a mercenary fighting for whichever cause paid the most. On one such campaign, fighting on the side of evil for priests of Orcus he finally found his neich in life. He impressed his employers so much he was promoted to commander of a sizable troop and later put in command of the priests own bodyguards.

Soon after a necromancer by the name of Mortise the dark attracted the attention if the Orcus when he recoved the Rod of Orcus in the temple of elemental evil. Seeing the potential for much evil in this mans hands Orcus comanded his priests to send a warrior to aid this man and keep an eye on him, thus Chandos was despatched at once to work with Mortise.
The pair adventured together for a few years gaining much power and wealth, spreading evil in their wake. Now with Mortise deep in studies within his tower Chandos has undertaken some adventures alone with the aim of collecting items useful to the pair.

Hairbear
“I’m a Kender. Least, that’s what I tell everyone. It’s simpler that way. I’ve never met no one that can prove me otherwise. Not here. Good thing too. I’ve changed, or I’ve been changed, and even me own kind ain’t sure of me.
“I didn’t like Krynn very much. All those steel coins and we trudged about in the snow a lot. My lasting memory of the place is this great ice wall we had to climb to get to a keep. Some sort of lookout post, I guess. A lot of work for little gold. Sums the place up, really. Weren’t there long though.
“Ended up in this dump of a city run by a vampire. I know ‘cause we broke into his school. It was easier getting in than out, I can tell you. Most of ‘em didn’t make it. I didn’t get out with the evidence, though, and bugger all treasure. Bit of a black time, really.
“The Celtic Island, on the other hand, was a different story. This witch in a village kept sending us on expeditions for stuff and she let us keep what else we could find. Happy days. She had some good stuff but I dare not lift none of it. She was canny for all her dwarf cakes and sugar coating. Met Running Wolf there. He did good out of her too, as I remember.
“The place I did best though was Myth Drannor. That’s the place that changed me. Spent most of me working life there. It does stuff to you, some good, ‘cause it being a Mythal, see. I sees better now and I have this sort of guardian comes out of me and looks after me when I was knocked unconscious. Lifted some stuff out of there, I can tell you. Got a pretty price for what I couldn’t use and kept what I could. Nice one.”

Thein Stormfist
Whispered quietly and only to friends, it is rumoured that Thein was taken away from his mother by order of Nevron himself. The reason is, of course, speculation but many rumours mention a prediction by Yaphyll. Thein is a natural and his ability is only equalled by his devotion to the pure art of wizardry. The first part of his early training was in the Tharch of Thaymount itself but he was soon moved to the metropolis of Eltabbar. His training continued until he found a burning quill pinning a message to his desk. The message had one word.
Kossuth.
In the morning he had order to leave the hall of learning and move out of Thay altogether. There followed infrequent messages, giving directions and advice, accompanied by burning icons. Gaining experience in many Thayan enclaves he journeyed ever westward until he was cut loose in Dagger Falls. The message was wrapped around the hilt of a dagger with a burning blade.
The next phase of your journey begins. Now you are training for the circle. Join the adventuring party fighting the drow.
The blade no longer burns but it is magical. This may prove to be the final step up before the trip home, and destiny!

 

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Session 1: Wherein Emberent, Willow, Borinan, Gilby, Tregar &Brother Elyus return to the Realm of Greyhawk, they are Knighted or made Elders of the Land for their services in destroying the Temple of Elemental Evil, they learn that 5 years have passed (Willow & Emberent have a birthday party). Meanwhile in Faerun in the Teshford Arms Inn just outside of Daggerfalls a discussion ensues as to who will and who wont work together. Cleric Lowden fights to maintain peace in the room as the various adventurers argue. Brod delivers a letter to Zarathrustra that reads thus:

Dear most evil cleric of Bane, Zarathrustra,

It is most distressing to hear of your continued existence. I had hoped that when you were righteously cut down, after running from the skeletal horde like a frightened little girl, that you would, at last, stay in the Tormented Plane of your choice. It was a dark day when Faerun was again cursed with your returning.

It is more distressing still to learn you wish to rejoin our party, no doubt to cause mayhem and chaos. I can not allow you to again disrupt our good works. I do, however, realise you have done well for us and those that live in Faerun – even if it was for all the wrong reasons! I could, therefore, see a circumstance when your rejoining the party would be beneficial, but under provisos.

One, you pay an as yet undefined sum of monies for myself and a good cleric of Moradin, Soul Forger, to return to Durgeddin’s Forge to consecrate the despoiled tombs of my brethren.

Two, at the first convenient time you plant a coppice of various trees in an area they will thrive.

Three, search out a bear, or similar natural creature, in danger of its life and rescue it, taking it somewhere to live a full and happy life.

Four, you found a hostel and soup kitchen for the homeless of Loudwater. It would be nice if you worked there for a time too. I would help you in this endeavour if you so wished.

I hope you would, of course, enter into the spirit of these provisos and not try to wheedle through loopholes, in the letter of the law, as it were. Furthermore, there shall be:

No malicious murders, killings, pogroms, ethnic cleansings or whatever else you may wish to call them.
No preaching in the name of the tyrant chaos monger that is your present patron.
No antagonising behaviour.
No wallowing in filth and depravity (no bathing in blood, or spider eating, etc.).
No collusion with undead (or Demons, Devils or Daemons, etc!).

I’m sure you would hate to die again but slaying of evil is fully endorsed by The Soul Forger. Have you considered a returning to all that is just and good? I would hope you become an avenger for Helm rather than an expendable puppet of your present master.

Yours truly, The Good Dwarf Goodmountain.

Zarathrustra protests his innocence and declares when has he ever gone against the party, as, in his eyes Coppice had done with “the Bear issue”..Hyakin shouts that Zarahrustra had attacked and animated her!!, Zarathrustra counters that by stating that he had been charmed by the “speaker in dreams” at that time. Willow and Emberent state that they will not work with Zarathrustra before they depart for Greyhawk, Running wolf also decides not to join the cleric of Bane. However, others are willing to work with Zarathrustra. Stepping out of the Greyhawk portal arrives a half-orc named Lipput and the Assassin known as Mr Brownstone Arriving from Loudwater, the Orcus worshipping fighter Chandos, and coming from who knows where the deurgar (tho he thinks he’s a kender!) rogue Hairbear. They go shopping. One evening in the inn they are approached by a man who identifies himself as a aide to Randal Morn. He tells the party that a band of Drow had raided several farms about 10 miles south of Dagger Falls. He states that local militia tracked the Drow band to the vicinity of an old set of crypts on the western edge of the Dagger Hills, rumor has it that those crypts contain an entrance to the Underdark. Our party of heroes (villans) accept the mission and head toward the crypts. It takes the party 5 hours to hike the distance. They come to two old, small, stone buildings that stand in the shadow of a hill. A stone door has been cut into the stone. They decide to check one of the small buildings. Mr Brownstone uses x ray vision to determine there a coffins inside. They get in and are attacked by 2 vampire spawn, as they engage these they are lightning bolted, they see nothing that caused this and start hacking away in mid air trying to hit the cause of the lightning bolt.. again they are hit by a bolt before Zarathrustra uses some Dust of Appearance to locate a vampire/wizard named Chahir. Chahir manages to summon four wolves to his aid, Chandos dicing these with his great cleave attacks. Chahir also manages to drain Brownstone 2 levels (temp) and Dominate Lipput who attacks Hairbear causing him much distress/damage before they fell the vampire. They search the area and decide to rest for the night.
Timeline: Chandos, Lipput, Hairbear, Zarathrustra, Mr Brownstone: Day 2

 

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Session 2: Wherein the party decide to open the great stone double doors leading into the hill. The party spend 4 hours attempting to open the doors before deciding to wait until nightfall to see if any Drow emerge. They wait over night…nothing happens. The next day they again spend hours attempting to open the doors, eventually they manage to force them open.. Inside a corridor stretches off.. on the floor are five dead Drow. They examine these bodies and deduce that three of the Drow died by wounds inflicted by small crossbow quarrels and the other two were killed by blows from blunt weapons. Each has been stripped of arms and armor but each still wore a black tabard emblazoned with a silver spiderweb insignia. Zarathrustra scalps one of the Drow and then uses Animates dead on them, he commands them to proceed ahead of the party. They come to a door which they open, it leads into a large room, they enter.. a glyph flashes on the floor and 2 celestial dire lions appear and attack, these prove tougher than expected but the party slay them. The room is a tomb and contains several bodies, the party find loot!. They come to another door in the corridor and Zarathrustra commands one of his Drow zombies to open the door. When the zombie touches the door it falls down. Undeterred the party enter the room. The vaults most prominent feature was a large stone statue of a regal-looking woman dressed in a long elegant gown. As the party enter the statue seems to animate.. It appears to talk to them but none in the party understand its words. Suddenly a ghostly woman materializes, her mere look drains Lipput of strength, dexterity and constitution.. Initially Chandos refuses to fight the Ghost, claiming he dosen’t fight intelligent undead, however , as various party members are drained by the ghost Chandos decides to step in. The ghost disappears and they decide to smash up the statue..Mr Brownstone doing a particularly good job. The area opens into caverns, graves are cut into the walls, Zarathrustra sends in one of his zombie slaves to check the graves in the walls.. the party see spores fly into the air.. Brownstone and Lipput don their “mask of the bees” (immune to airborne poisons ) and search the area. They come into another cavern that has a marble statue that depicts a gaunt, alien-looking creature with bulbous eyes, an insects mandibles, and a elongated oval head. They spend quite a while checking this statue out, but find nothing. They proceed on through the chamber and are attacked by a Roper, but after Hairbear, Brownstone and Chandos sneak attack/critical it is nomore. They decide to rest but are attacked by a Maurezhi, it manages to paralyze Lipput, Chandos, Hairbear.. Just before Brownstone is paralyzed he manages to shout and awaken a sleeping Zarathrustra who amazingly rebukes this creature. They carry on searching more caverns and get attacked by a few Drow and spiders.. They are also attacked from behind by two Bebiliths which prove fearsome creatures, Zarathrustra gains control of a wraith spider and sends it into battle. Once the Bebilith are slain Zarathrustra eats some of them and they retrace their steps and find a illusory wall. They proceed through and see what appears to be a Drow elf being attacked by a spider creature…the party go to aid of the elf, but are instead attacked by both creatures which turn out to be two Aranea (drow-spider things). After a few illusory walls the party encounter a band of 5 drow who attack the party.. The drow consist of a female cleric, a spellguard and noble guards. The party defeats these. Zarathrustra uses Speak with dead and they glean the following information.
Why the raids? ‘To get supplies.’ Why the expulsion? ‘Because we follow the Spider Queen.
Lolth has gone silent. Followers of the White Banshee have control.’
Zarathrustra animates 5 dead drow again, Brownstone coats his blade with drow poison and they are attacked again by the Maurezhi, Hairbear proves his worth and it dies. They resume searching the Dordrien Crypts and finally come to a wall of stone with a hole going down infront of it.
Timeline: Chandos, Lipput, Hairbear, Zarathrustra, Mr Brownstone: Day 4

 

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Session 3: Wherein the party return to Dagger Falls and spend 5 weeks training, Zarathrustra spends this time trying to convince the party to fund some scrollmaking (restorations, cures etc), his offer is met with indifference. They spend some of their time in the Teshford Arms Inn and bump into a traveling wizard who asks the party if they have sensed a disruption in the weave… being as the party are made up of a fighter, assassin, rogue, barbarian, cleric..they hadden’t sensed e!… They return to the Dordrian Crypts and Chandos jumps down the hole (using a ring of feather falling). He comes into a cavern and is attacked by Drow, a wraith spider and a creature called a quth-maren. Chandos is knocked out and almost dead, but Brownstone successfully uses a Thunderstone on a Drow spellguard, Lipput strikes with two Javelins of Lightening, and Zarathrustra manages to heal Chandos. They are standing in a chamber.. at the far end a chasm yawns in the earth, reaching far down into the endless reaches of the underdark. Though it is only about 30 feet wide, the rift continues for hundreds of feet either side. A large web is attached to the side of the chasm and stretches down into the darkness, and far below you can hear rushing water
Timeline: Chandos, Lipput, Hairbear, Zarathrustra, Mr Brownstone: Day 35

 

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Session 4: Wherein the party equip themselves with various magical items. Mr Brownstone activates his boots of levitation, Hairbear his boots of spider climbing and Chandos, Lipput, and Zarathrustra use rings of feather falling. Mr Brownstone braves the unknown first and drops off the side into the chasm.. He floats down 20ft then see’s a drow Spellguard materialize 30ft away, flying.. The spellguard casts dispel magic on Mr Brownstone, his boots deactivated he plummets. Lipput attempts to come to Brownstones aid by chucking a rope of climbing at him as he falls..but he is gone..Miraculously (hero point) 300 foot down Brownstone manages to grab onto one of the strands of the web and breaks his fall, less miraculously he is held fast in the web… and a HUGE spider seems to have noticed him. Lipput uses arrow fire on the Drow spellguard and Zarathrustra uses searing light to good effect, blinding the drow. They manage to kill him and jump off to see if they can find Mr Brownstone. They float down (quaffing potions on the way) and notice a cave entrance… They float down to 300ft and see another cave enterance. Chandos is the first to land at the cave mouth and sees it opens into a large cavern. Inside Chandos spies two pack lizards loaded down with packs and crates. Three gray dwarves (who seem to be of the same stock as hairbear…but he said he was a kender!) seem to be selling wares from the lizards’ packs. The customers include a pair of drow, a trio of kuo-toas, and a mind-flayer. A ledge, about 10 feet of the ground, runs the length of the northeastern wall, and some half-dozen doors are set into the wall beyond the ledge. Suddenly there is a shout, Chandos has been spotted by drow sentries and a spellguard who attack. Lipput lands invisibly next to chandos. They engage. Chandos manages to cleave his way through the sentries, Lipput manages to avoid a lightning bolt from the spellguard and a charm person from the mind flayer, Zarathrustra once again employs searing light on the spellguard. Lipput initially attacks the spellguard with his axe but notices that the drow seems to be under the effect of stoneskin, quickdrawing Crow the Bow Lipput steps back and arrows the drow to death. The duergar disappear (invisible) and the kuo-toa flee…. Chandos rebuffs many attempted charms by the flayer until he eventually succumbs and attacks Lipput. Lipput and Chandos exchange blows, Chandos seeming unconfident and uncharacteristically missing a lot, Lipput hitting hard, Zarathrustra helps with cures to Lipput and soon Chandos falls to a mighty blow from the half-orc.. The flayer, goes invisible. Hairbear also invisible searches for the flayer. When it appears again Hairbear is ready and executes the killing blow. Lipput, Hairbear and Zarathrustra view the surrounding carnage. With Chandos dead at their feet and Mr Brownstone no-where to be seen Zarathrustra declares that that he just wants to go home.

 

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Session 5: Wherein the Duergar that went invisible re-appear and speak to Hairbear in their native language. Hairbear addresses the party and states they must leave quick as “the web team is coming”. They store Chandos and his equipment in bags of holding and they ascend the web, climbing up the central strand. Hairbear gets up first using his boots of spider climbing, Zarathrustra also manages to climb up without problem, Lipput loses his grip at one point, but due to his great climbing skills he manages to catch himself and successfully climb to the top cavern. They run through the Dordrian Crypts without incident and back to Daggerfalls where Chandos is resurrected by Cleric Lowden (Lipput donates 10k for his fallen comrade). Zarathrustra bids his final farewells to the party, he has decided to travel Fearun a while spreading the word of his lord and master Bane and maybe renewing contact with the Zhentarim. Chandos, Lipput & Hairbear buy some potions in Daggerfalls and decide to head back and try to find Mr Brownstone. They make their way through the Dordrian Crypts to the hole in the ground with the granite wall behind it. Hairbear decides to check out the wall and being a dwarf he determines that it is a Wall of Stone spell in place. They decide to leave it. Hairbear bravely descends the hole first, stealthily sneaking he comes into the chamber that adjoins the chasm and web. It again has Drow (14 in total) in, they don’t spot Hairbear and he positions himself in a vantage point in the cave, Lipput uses his strange Ring of Invisibility and descends into the chamber, he is unseen at first, but then a Spellguard spots him and combat begins. Chandos goes into a cleaving frenzy, Hairbear succumbs to a Drow poisoned arrow and falls unconscious, Lipput gets enfeebled by a Ray of Enfeeblement from the Spellguard. Chandos is lightning bolted by the Spellguard, Lipput returns fire but the Spellguard is protected by Stoneskin, the Drow goes invisible and flys out of the chamber, Lipput arrows into air but hits nothing. They retreat to the back of the chamber and attempt to wake Hairbear. After 5 hours Hairbear is still unconscious.
Timeline: Chandos, Lipput, Hairbear: Day 36

 

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Session 6: Wherein Chandos & Lipput slap Hairbear about a bit, after another hour he wakes!. They decide to descend the web again. Again they are attacked by the Spellguard who uses dispel magic on Chandos’ ring of feather falling, however chandos is climbing down and manages to hold on as he is lightning bolted by the spellguards wand . Chandos, hurt, climbs back up the web and retreats into the cavern to consume potions of healing. Lipput eventually fires the spellguard out of the sky with Crow the Bow.. the drow plummets into the depths. They descend the web 600ft and see the raging torrent of water below, they decide that if Brownstone fell here he is gone… they also notice another cavern entrance.. They climb back up to the bazaar level and Chandos decides to try and attract whatever is in the web by throwing bits of dead drow at the sticky web. His attempts attract a huge spider. Chandos and Hairbear approach the spider but get stuck in the web. Hairbear removes his boots and flees back to the cavern with lipput and they use arrow fire (hairbear having difficulty in hurting the spider). Chandos donning his periapt of poison potection stands his ground and wades into the spider. They slay the beast quickly. They ascend the web again looking for Brownstone (noticing other cave entrances). They find a lair at the top left of cavern, inside is a dead cocooned Brownstone. They place him in the bag of holding and proceed to another entrance off of the web. Hairbear scouts ahead first and spies two drow sentries. They attack these foe and slay them quickly, they determine it is a barracks area as they are attacked by another 8 drow and one of those undead quth maren creatures. The quth marens horrific sight gets to lipput before he is hit by 4 drow arrows and knocked unconscious. Chandos manages to stand the sight of the quth maren and bashes it up, Hairbear using range fire. Chandos cleaves his way through the remaining sentries. They decide to head back to Dagger Falls to get Mr Brownstone resurrected. They are in luck, the cleric named Lowden is still in town, he resurrects Mr Brownstone but states “I will be continuing my travels shortly, I am going to Suzail, the capital of Cormyr. So this will be farewell.” “Do not fret however, Randal Morns house cleric is Tunfer the Stout, he will be able to assist you”. Lipput awakens & trains.

 

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Re-Entering the Crypts

Session 7: Wherein the party goes shopping in Daggerfalls. They buy a lot of potions, Antitoxins and Healing potions being a particular favorite. As with Zarathrustra’s departure they are without cleric. Whilst they have a quiet drink that evening in the Teshford Arms Inn a powerful looking Necromancer enters, “good day I am Mortise a associate of Chandos. I need to speak with him, then ill be on my way” They whisper together for a moment. Then Mortise leaves. The party have a few more drinks and retire for the night. Tomorrow they will set off back to the Dordrien Crypts, and back to the drow beyond.
Morning arrives and the party set off on foot, none of the party wishing to ride. They take a leisurely stroll, it takes about 5 hours to hike the distance of 10 miles along the wide and dusty track. Two old small stone buildings appear out of the gloom. It had been here the party had faced the vampire Chahir. Nothing seems disturbed. “wish we had a tracker” says the Half-Orc Lipput. They approach the large stone doors set in the hillside. “Hope these aren’t shut, took ages to open last time” grumbles Brownstone.

The combined brute strength of Lipput and the human, orcus worshipping, Chandos pries open the doors easily, revealing the corridor stretching into the rock. “the doors haven’t been barred…” states Chandos. The party proceeds in. The Duergar, Hairbear feels comforted entering the Hillside, even though he has been blessed with Daylight adaptation, the dwarf prefers it underground. Even so, he doesn’t trust the Drow, he knows what they are capable of. He begins searching the corridor slowly for traps. The half-elf, Assassin, Mr Brownstone, impatient, strides ahead. Getting to the corner, Brownstone peers round to the right. He spies the corridor stretching off approximately 80 feet before entering the first cavern area of the Dordrien Crypts. “Seems to be clear” he whispers to the party. Lipput decides to check in the first room, it should contain a empty crypt.. yep, still does!. Hairbear stops searching for traps in the corridor, figuring Brownstone would have set them off by now with his nonchalant steps. Brownstone steps out and heads for a door on the left hand side of the corridor. This had been a family vault, the party had triggered a glyph and celestial Dire lions had appeared and attacked the party. The glyph therefore should be dispelled, best check. Brownstone begins to check for traps when suddenly out of the corner of his eye he notices movement at the cavern area down the corridor. Nanoseconds later a pillar of flame (flame strike) from above slams down on Brownstone, his reactions do not fail him however and he dodges the blast taking no damage. “we got company!” shouts Brownstone as he spies a Drow that has suddenly appeared in the cavern, by her vestments she appears to be a cleric, a cleric of this this new god Kiaranselee.. Chandos, hearing Brownstones cry starts getting potions/antitoxins from his backpack… “Poison me after I quaffed this lot!” thinks the warrior. Hairbear runs forward, round the corner and fires off a arrow at the cleric. The drow responds by attempting a Hold person on Hairbear, it fails. Brownstone once again utilizes his quick reactions as he sees several missiles scream towards him from another Drow that has appeared out of thin air in the cavern 80 feet away (a Arcane Guard), he is unsuccessful and two missiles slam into his body. “That was unerring” he thinks. More Drow come from the cavern, these appear to be common Drow armed with bows and rapiers, one fires a poisoned arrow at Hairbear but he resists its sleep effects. Chandos rushes forward with purpose. He comes under a hail of arrowfire. He can see the sticky black Drow sleep poison coating the arrows, fortunately he is aided by antitoxins. Hairbear engages the Arcane Guard with arrow fire initially before closing in. The cleric speaks to the party in broken common. “I am Velina, you will bother us no-more, attack my prettys!” Out of the cavern steps a creature the party is only to familiar with, the flayed skin of the undead creature drips with its caustic blood. It’s horrific gaze to much to bear for Chandos and Hairbear who cower before the creature. Lipput wields Crow the Bow and rains arrow fire at the Quth Maron from the end of the corridor. Brownstone attacks Velina. Velina lets out a cackle as another of the undead creatures enters the fray from the cavern, its awful visage overwhelming Mr Brownstone who cowers in its presence. Velina steps forward and attempts a slay living spell on the cowering Chandos but Chandos resists . The Arcane guard uses a wand on Lipput, but the Barbarian/Rogue manages to shake off the effects of the Hold Person Spell. Velina does however; manage to heal the Arcane guard. Lipput the only member of the party not cowering before this drow onslaught lets loose with Crow, his aim is true and he fells one of the Quth Maron. With the creature dead, Chandos and Hairbear are released from its gaze, they look up and see the other Quth Maron but both manage to overcome their fear. The party engages their attackers with vengeance. Hairbear attacks Velina with his shocking spear, he hits but as he hits searing flames burn him “she’s got some kind of fire shield on” exclaims the duergar. Brownstone attacks Velina and fells the drow cleric, but not before taking fire damage. Lipput finnishes off the remaining Quth maron. The Arcane guard and the other common drow fall soon enough with Chandos’s flailing arms & Lipputs arrow fire.

They search the bodies of the fallen Drow. Velina T’sarran had acquired a few items the party may be interested in, these included a Corrosive Dagger and Elven Chainmail +2 and Velina’s wand of hold person

The party continues through the Dordrien Crypts again without incident. Once again they come to the small shaft, behind it standing a wall of stone. Hairbear leads the way and they climb down into the room that adjoins the huge chasm. They peer down the huge web. There seems no sign of life.

The party have the choice of a six possible caverns/cave entrances to enter from off of the huge spider web. They decide to go back to the top right cave entrance, the area they had deemed The Barracks.
They successfully navigate the web and enter the small Barracks complex. There are a total of six rooms in this area, as well as cells. And the party encounter no Drow in this area. They enter a officers quarters. On searching this area Mr Brownstone finds on top of a neat stack of papers a wax-sealed bone tube containing a letter penned in Espruar Script, the drow dialect. It takes a while, but Mr Brownstone successfully deciphers the letter and reads it to the party

Indrizil:
Word has probably reached you about the fall of Maerimydra, and perhaps you have wondered about my safety. Obviously, i survived the sack of the city, although it was a close call indeed. The city fell at the hands of mere chattel— the priestesses of the Spider Queen had kept the city so cowed that, with their power gone, its defenders could not resist even a force of goblins, ogres, and giants. We held our strong places for a time without the clerics, but then House Chumavh was overthrown from within, and so we were undone.
I write to you now from Szith Morcane, the old outpost north and west of the city. "Perhaps you will come visit me— though I must say that if you still profess faith in Lolth you will not be welcomed by those who rule here now. The Spider queen's priestesses have found a new role here, which I think you would not enjoy very much.
I do not know if you still cling to the hope that the Spider Queen will restore you—will restore all of us—to her favor, but if you do, I urge you to reconsider, it is not too late for you or for our bond of blood. The Lady of the Dead will accept you still, just as she has taken me into her care. All Maerimydra is her temple now, and her emissaries rule here too. Abandon your empty allegiance to a silent goddess and come to Szith Morcane, but do not wear the emblem of the spider. I have need of allies of my own blood, and if Lolth still ignores your pleas, I suspect you do as well.
—Rhavauz

They search the other quarters.. One has a fire trap on the door wich blackens Chandos’s face!. In the main barracks room Hairbear and Brownstone are alone searching while Lipput and Chandos search the wizards quarters. Hairbear opens a footlocker and discovers a few interesting items including a scroll, a wand of fly, and a gold comb studded with small diamonds as well as 3 iron keys. “Will you say anything if I, err, keep this” says the bald dwarf holding up the comb to Mr Brownstone “I could use it for my beard” he says, knowing what Brownstone is thinking. “I will KILL anyone caught stealing from the party” bellows Chandos from the doorway, Hairbear dropping coins and his comb on the floor in shock as he tries to shove them in his pocket. Lipput, hearing Chandos, also agrees that death is a good punishment of inter-party thieving. Hairbear sheepishly apologizes and puts the comb in the Party treasure sack!.

Chandos begins to search the cells, there are six in all. All have heavy iron doors with small shuttered windows in. One of them also holds a trap that Chandos sets off. A Noble Salamander materializes in the hallway and attacks Chandos. Chandos attacks back doing mighty damage. The rest of the party running to aid Chandos. The salamander summons a fire elemental to aid it. Lipput gets burnt a lot by this creature, but the party survives the encounter. They drink some of their healing potions. “Where have all the Drow gone” Chandos says to himself “we must have killed most of them last time” replies Lipput. Where to go to next?. Perhaps the Bazaar area.
Timeline: Day 46

 

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Session 8:
Wherein the party leaves the barracks area and proceeds to the next cavern entrance down (on the left). A short tunnel leads from the chasm inward, ending in a archway that opens into a larger room. Hairbear precedes forward first, hiding. He looks into the larger room. Glistening walls of smooth, black rock tower upward, forming a octagonal room that looks like a squat tower turned inside-out. A single archway leads to the northeast on the ground level. Hairbear spies the two Drow Arcane Guard who stand watch here. He moves into a better position undetected. Mr Brownstone follows the Duergar into the room stealthily. Chandos rushes into the room. The Arcane Guard yell out a curse in their tongue and unleash two lightning bolts at the fighter as he advances. Hairbear uses range fire and downs one of the guards. Lipput runs in and slays the other. Suddenly, out of the sky, Chandos is hit by another two lightning bolts. There, hovering 20ft above are another two Arcane Guard. “I hate invis” states the warrior. Lipput arrows one out of the sky. “Give up and I might not kill you all” he shouts. Chandos moves to the cover of the archway. He notices a door ajar off of the room behind the alcove, just before he his hit by another 2 lightning bolts from drow that appear directly in front of him in the room beyond!. Badly hurt, Chandos runs out of the room, back towards the chasm to consume a potion of cure serious wounds. Lipput arrows the other drow out of the sky. Hairbear and Brownstone use arrow fire on the two remaining drow under the arch, one falls, one very badly hurt. Lipput runs forward and punches unconscious the last of the drow.

“Don’t Kill him, we need a prisoner” pleads Hairbear as the hulking figure of Lipput steps forward to put the unconscious drow out of his misery. “why” states Lipput simply. “They are of no worth, just slay them” states Chandos. “Ill bet you you can’t pull its head off in one go” Lipput grasps the unconscious drows head in his mighty hands. It does come of, but not as easy as the half-orc had anticipated .

They search for secret doors around the base of this inverted tower, and the small room beyond the arch. They find no secret doors and the room is a sparse living quarters area. Brownstone activates his Boots of Levitation and starts to levitate up the inverted tower looking for secret doors with his keen half-elf senses. He finds none in this 50ft high tower. He descends and rejoins his companions. “Nothing up there”. Slightly bemused the party decide to head to another of the cave entrances. The one furthest right. Hairbear scouts ahead, the cave mouth in the chasm winds back deep into the rock, opening into a very large cavern.

A feint green phosphorescence dances along the ceiling, which is easily 30 feet overhead at the entrance and rises sharply from that point. The cavern stretches for hundreds of feet to the east, its floor broken into a myriad of ledges and tilted slabs. Many of these are covered with weird fungal growths that appear to have been carefully cultivated; others sport bulbous houses or cottages that seem to have been grown from giant toadstools. Eerie green witchlight dances in the small, round windows of these dwellings. A few dark figures move about between the fungus patches and the houses.

“wow, a drow villiage or outpost” whispers Hairbear to his companions. “we can’t take a whole villiage of them” sighs Brownstone

“Go to the Bazzar” states Lipput bluntly. They navigate the huge spiders web once more back to the bazaar level, 300ft below where the party entered from the surface. The large chamber is empty, no sign of the pack lizards or drow and deurgar now. A ledge, about 10 feet of the ground, runs the length of the northeastern wall. Six doors are set in the wall beyond the ledge. Working from left to right the party approach the doors. Each door is barred from the outside, a heavy wooden beam nailed to the door. Mr Brownstone says “ahh, I think I might have something to aid us in this situation”, pulling out a ring. “this” he states “is a ring of x-ray vision”. Using the ring, Mr Brownstone systematically scans behind each door. Although he can only scan in 20ft he gathers enough information. Of the six chambers beyond the doors five seem to be covered in webs, dozens of spiders are visible in the webs, some as small as peas, others as large as dogs.! “Why would they seal off these doors” says Chandos to nobody in particular. “Because the Spider Queen is no longer their patron?” Replies Hairbear. Another room seems completely bare and featureless, no webs, no spiders.

Working left to right Chandos confidently steps forward. But the human has difficulty removing the bar from the first door. Lipput assists Chandos but still the bar wont budge. Lipput growls and strikes two mighty blows at the door, which splinters into many pieces, the spiders scurry away and don’t attack the party. Brownstone stands in the doorway and uses a wand of magic detection. Nothing is detected. They search the room which seems to be a old warehouse and a small room adjoined to it which seems to have been a small merchant residence. There is nothing of interest in these areas. The next door along hold the same. A warehouse (with lots of spiders in) and a merchant residence. In the third warehouse the party are attacked by two large blobs. “Black puddings” says everyone. Hairbear is the first to strike at these oozes with his trusty bow. As his arrow hits the ooze, it splits into two smaller puddings. The arrow seemed to do no other damage. “oh no” says a startled Hairbear.. Chandos and Lipput retreat out of the room. “these things destroy your weapons or something” advises Chandos, who starts scrabbling in his backpack for his flasks of oil. Hairbear also retreats from the room, leaving Brownstone alone. He starts to go find wood to burn “these things hate fire” thinks the Duergar. Brownstone, alone, faces a large black pudding and two small ones, fortunately, due to his positioning; only two of the creatures can hit him. He pulls out his wand of lightning bolt and bolts the large pudding. “Im coming in, gonna use oil on em”, shouts Chandos. Brownstone, hearing this, dons his ring of fire resistance. Just in time, as sailing over his head comes a oil bomb. It explodes on impact with the ooze, Brownstone is splashed, along with the other ooze. But his ring protects him from any fire damage. Lipput also throws oil bombs and Brownstone uses his wand of lightning bolt again.

Meanwhile Hairbear gathers as much wood as his short frame will allow him to carry, most of this wood had been acquired from the smashed down doors. Overloaded, unable to see where he is going, the duergar shuffles slowly back to the party.

The second of the smaller puddings, begins to climb the wall and move onto the ceiling, it seems to be trying to maneuver into a attacking position. Chandos moves back out of the room having thrown all his oil bombs, he sees a walking pile of wood coming toward him!. "WE GOT WOOOOD!" states the Duergar. Shaking his head, Chandos grabs a piece to use as a club. Lipput throws his last oil bomb over Mr Brownstone’s head onto the large pudding attacking Brownstone. It hits the ooze, but fails to break on impact. Chandos moves back into the room and strikes at the blob with his newly fashioned club. It hits and hurts the creature, but the club dissolves in his hand “arrrg” says Chandos. Mr Brownstone dodges four attacks by the large pudding before it finally strikes lucky and hits the assassin. It envelops him, constricting him, acid burning his clothes. Chandos exits room again and the walking woodpile that is Hairbear hands him a lovely bit of wood. “thanx” replies Chandos before running back in and killing one of the smaller puddings. The club again dissolves on impact tho. Lipput slashes away at the second of the smaller puddings that had dropped down from the ceiling right in front of him. He uses the Butt end of his Guisarm, thinking wood would be immune to the dissolving effects. After seeing Chandos’s clubs destroyed, however, the half-orc knew this not to be the case, but it must have proved lucky because the weapon remained sturdy as he destroys the last of the smaller puddings. Chandos, knowing Brownstone must be in trouble under the ooze slashes away at it to free his comrade, he does mighty damage but fails to slay it. If they’re not quick, it could be too late for Brownstone (who is getting constriction and acid damage per round). Lipput steps in just in time and kills the beast. They pull up a badly wounded Brownstone, his body bearing the mark of acid burns. He drinks several healing potions.

There are two doors in this room that lead to smaller rooms. One of the doors was guarded by a glyph of warding that explodes in Chandos’s face as he attempts to open it. It must be Chandos’s unlucky day. On opening the door an unspeakably vile stench, combining the worst elements of decaying flesh, refuse, and waste, wafts out. A fetid pool of slime glistens in the center of the chamber beyond, and a number of amorphous shapes twitch around it. Within the pool of slime, something glows with a sickly violet light. As Chandos is taking all this in he suddenly is hit by a long tentacle. His line of sight follows the tentacle back to the opposite wall of the small room ahead. It is attached to a creature that resembles a stalagmite, he hadn’t seen it before, it had been blended in with the surroundings. The tentacle saps Chandos’s strength, before Lipput strikes and severs it. As he does so the Roper exudes another. Another two tentacles hit Chandos as he stands in the doorway, he is greatly weakend and can do nothing but stand there. “Do you need this wood?” inquires Hairbear “NO, I need you to cut off these strands!” whimpers a weak Chandos. Hairbear attempts to cut a strand but fails. Brownstone sends a lightning bolt toward the Roper.. it hits but the Roper is unaffected. Lipput, not wanting to see Chandos pulled toward the Roper (and into whatever that puddle is) goes into a berserk rage and frees Chandos from the two tentacles attached to him. As he does so, however, another strand shoots forth and attaches itself to the warrior. Hairbear manically tries to cut it, but doesn’t do enough damage to sever it. Lipputs strike is fast and true and once again he releases Chandos, who, so weakened, almost falls to his knees. Before the Roper can fire another strand Lipput slams the door to the room shut.

They retreat and attempt to formulate a battle plan. Chandos drinks five potions of restoration gaining some strength back, but he still isn’t 100% fit. “I say we leave that Roper, I hate Ropers, really, lets go” “One little problem and you want to retreat?. I say we slay this beast”. Replies Brownstone. “It’s not far back to Daggerfalls, we could go back and resupply, I need rest, I am weakend”. Hairbear offers the suggestion of camping in the fairly secure and defendable Barracks area, but seeing Chandos will not accept this reluctantly agrees to go back to Daggerfalls. “well…. if we are losing our main Tank, we might aswell head back”. Lipput spins round and stares at the Duergar “Lucky you find me in a good mood” It seems not being considered the “main tank” is a insult to the half-orc. They search the rest of the bazaar area and find just more empty warehouses.

 

[tariff]

New Blood

Session 9: New Blood
Wherein the party decide to head back again to Daggerfalls. They ascend the spiderweb and proceed through the Dordrien Crypts without incident. Back at Daggerfalls Chandos trains in the ways of the warrior, this takes two weeks. During this break, the Necromancer Mortise once again comes to the Teshford Arms Inn and speaks with Chandos. Lipput enquires of the mage “Do you have the Magiks to upgrade this” he says holding up his greataxe. “I do, lets talk” replies Mortise. “I’m going to stay behind, I need to upgrade my weaponry” says the half-orc to the party. “I also will be abandoning the party for a time” says Hairbear. “there are some matters I must attend to”. “we will need others” says Chandos to Brownstone. “Judas!” shouts Brownstone in surprise. Across the room, sitting at a table is a human adorned in full plate mail. He is playing chess with a man opposite him who also wears a red cloak. A cleric of the Red Knight, thinks Chandos. “Checkmate” says the Cleric who looks up from the Lanceboard “Brownstone”. “There’s our cleric” says the assassin to the fighter.

Thein the Conjurer was a little shocked. He had teleported to Daggerfalls from a Thayan enclave, with the aid of scrying. The journey had not been smooth; he was sure he felt “travel sick”. He tries out a few mundane spells. Nope, they seem to work fine he says to himself.. Suspicious Thein visits the Inns of Daggerfalls to try to find another Wizard. He had just about given up when he spies a figure dressed in robes with a flowing beard coming ambling up the track toward Daggerfalls. Thein rushes out to meet him. The wizard is a little taken aback by the heavily tattooed Thein who is obviously much more powerful than himself. “Have you noticed anything wrong with your spells my friend?” asks Thein. “Nope, cant say I ave” replies the mage. “Not your teleport spells?” “dunno, aint tried. Mmm let me see, I have that memorized at the moment. Tell you what, ill try it out.. ill teleport over to that tree” he says, pointing to a tree 50ft away. “ok” says Thein. The wizard begins casting and disappears. Thein waits a while for him to appear by the tree. He continues to wait, and there is still no sign of the other wizard… “mmmm” says Thein. He begins to walk toward the tree pondering when he notices a dagger stuck in the base of the tree, its blade burning. Wrapped around its hilt was a message

The next phase of your journey begins. Now you are training for the circle. Join the adventuring party fighting the drow.

These markers where familiar to Thein, they had been part of his life for a long time. “Time to go to work” he says striding purposefully to the Teshford arms Inn.

“Yes, we could certainly use a wizard” says Chandos to Thein, “That would complete our party, we have a Assassin, a Cleric, a Wizard and a Main Tank!” he permits himself a small smile. Mr Brownstone and Chandos fill in Thein and Judas as to the current state of affairs. “Ahh Drow, what scum god do they bow too?” asks Judas “It seems Lolth has abandoned them, they now seem to bow to a god named Kiaransalee” replies Brownstone. “Lets go, their gods don’t interest me” states Chandos heading for the door.

They travel to the Dordrien crypts yet again on foot. The stone doors leading into the hill remain shut, but not barred. The party travel through the crypts, down the hole, and to the large spider web. “There’s several ways to go here, but we have unfinished business with a Roper” says Brownstone looking over the chasm into the depths below. “Lead on, with sound tactics we will avail anything” states Judas. They navigate their way down the web to the Bazaar level some 300ft below. They head straight for the room that contained the Roper. The party prepare, drinking some potions. Judas invokes his Domain Power (Nobility) Inspire Allies. Thein readies his Magic Missiles and Chandos flings open the door. The Roper is hit by the missiles but they fizzle on him ineffectively. In the small room there is a pool of something, round the edges, blocking the way to the Roper at the back of the room, Chandos notices Ochre Jellys. He leaps over one and confronts the Roper. Brownstone stands at the door and throws a thunderstone, the Roper resists its effects. Eleven tentacles shoot forth from the creature. The attacks are aimed at Chandos and Brownstone, but all the strands miss. Judas from behind Brownstone casts a Doom spell at the Roper, this too fizzles!. “Do we need wood?” jokes Brownstone “uh?” says Judas. Thein conjures up a flaming sphere and directs it at one of the oozes. Chandos hits the Roper with two almighty strikes slaying the beast. “Now why couldn’t you have done that the first time?” says Brownstone “Because Last Time” snarls Chandos “I was stuck in the door” The remaining Jellys advance on Brownstone and Chandos. Judas steps in and clouts one with his sword, it spits in two. “Doh” says Judas. Chandos gets wood!. Judas lends Brownstone a magical mace “use this” he says “I don’t think these destroy weapons” states Chandos. The jellys attempt to hit Brownstone, but he is too nimble, avoiding their strikes. Thein continues to control his flaming sphere, moving it into the oozes, the rest of the party engage in melee with them and soon destroy them. Thein directs his flaming sphere into the pool in the middle of the room. It fizzles out as it touches the liquid. Chandos bends down and touches the pool with his dagger.. The dagger begins to fizzle at its end.. Chandos withdraws it and wipes it on the floor “Acid” he says. A sickly violet light emanates from the pool. Judas leans over to view what is making the light. He sees the image of an unblinking lidless eye. Judas casts detect magic. “It’s a permanent magical symbol to the Deity Ghaunadaur” says the cleric “patron of oozes, slimes, jellys, outcasts, ropers and rebels. And incidently one of Lolth’s foes is Ghaunadaur. She really has fallen from favor here”. Judas casts Dispel Magic on the eye and it fades. In two clay urns in the room the party find some loot.

“Where to go now?” inquires Thein. “I believe the bottom cave, some 600ft down, must go deeper into the Underdark” says Chandos. “But we haven’t checked it out”. “What was that stone wall back up in the Dordrien Crypts?” asks Thein. “We don’t know” replies Brownstone “Hairbear determined it was a Wall of Stone spell, but that is all” “Lets go take another look” says Chandos.

The party ascends the huge web again. They go up the hole in the roof of the cavern and stand before the wall of stone. Chandos smashes through it in no time. They come out into another roughly hewn tunnel that is very dark. Thein, Chandos and Brownstone consume potions of Darkvision. Judas pulls down his visors of dark vision.. Brownstone scouts ahead first, checking for traps. He finds one. A large pit trap is covered by a illusory floor. “Nice one!” says Judas. Brownstone takes out his block of chalk and starts marking round the pit trap. A acrid, sulfurous odor fills the cavern probably emanating from the heap of filth in the far southwest corner. Suddenly Brownstone notices two large forms shaped like bloated spiders with a drows upper body crawl down from the walls and ceiling and attack.

“Driders!” shouts Judas just before Chandos is hit by two Lightning Bolts “Not again!” crys Chandos. Thein responds by using Magic Missiles on the Driders. Brownstone throws another Thunderstone at the Driders but they resist. Judas uses Command on one of the Driders “Come here” he says. The Spider/drow creature walks forward willingly toward the cleric. It falls into the pit trap and is impaled by two large spikes. It stops twitching. They destroy the other Drider with ease. They search this cavern. Concealed in the heap of filth in the corner they find some coin and two scrolls in waterproof scroll cases.

They proceed on into the last cavern in this area. Gigantic tangles of webbing, encrusted with dust and rubble, fill this large cavern. Two enormous spiders attack the party. Thein launches a Fireball at them, causing them great damage. Judas aids his comrades with a Prayer spell. The first spider attempts to bite Brownstone but misses, the second fires a web at the party, but it misses and hits the wall of the cavern. Brownstone retreats and Chandos steps in and hits one of the spiders. Thein uses Melphs Acid Arrow. The spiders are quickly dispatched. Judas heals Chandos with cure critical and cure light wounds spells.

“Those Driders, says Chandos addressing the party “they were once Dark elves. Lolth puts a test to them, if they fail they become these creatures. They are then outcasts from the Drow community.”

“well, there dead now anyway” replies Judas