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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rybaer" data-source="post: 449210" data-attributes="member: 118">Session #14.3 – Down the wellAmblin and Zalman spread the word about the illusion of the Shadow being merely a lure into the trap that took Rurik’s life.  Just as frustration was about to boil over, however, Bommer found a secret door.Carefully concealed behind one of the many swaths of cloth hanging about the walls of the Shadow’s room, Bommer revealed the narrow passage.  Cut out of rough earth, the bolthole was little more than a foot wide and twisted as it descended.  Bommer led the way down the passage, very alert for traps and invisible dark elves.Less than half a minute later, Bommer called back to the others that it dead-ended at another stone wall.  He found a release latch and swung it open.  The small circle of daylight directly above and the dark pit below revealed that the passage opened up somewhere in the middle of the keep’s well shaft.  Rusty iron rungs set in the crumbling stone formed a crude ladder leading both up and down.Zalman was brought down to the well shaft and quickly explored both up and down its length via his Fly spell.  Partway up the shaft, he found the crack through which the Shadow had been spotted drawing water.  Down the shaft, perhaps sixty feet, he found the water table as well as another crack leading into a cavern.  He only briefly peered into the gloomy darkness before returning to the others to report.  Telepathically, he asked Hooty to keep a very sharp eye on the top of the well.The general consensus was that this was probably an alternate escape route for the Shadow.  They hoped that he had merely fled at the sound of them setting off the pit traps and that he might yet be trapped down in the cavern.  Continuing with their pursuit-until-victory philosophy, they started climbing down.Bommer led the way, marking another rung rigged with a poison needle.  The others quickly assembled just inside the cave entrance.  The chamber was only ten feet wide and snaked away as it widened.  Nigel urged everyone to stay in place while he scoured the ground for tracks.  In spite of the poor surface, he found several.  Some were definitely booted ones.As Nigel rounded the first corner, he was rudely met with a wet slap in the face.  He choked and gagged on the slimy glob of poisonous spittle, falling backward and desperately trying to scrape it off.  The others, already poised for a fight, sprang into action.Feng and Amill, both brandishing their respectively large swords, were the first to round the corner and found a massive spider web covering several hundred square feet of ceiling in the larger chamber.  One spider had a leg span over ten feet across while two smaller ones flanked it.  The smaller spiders launched several more wads of spittle at the attackers.Amill broke to his right and hacked at one of the smaller spiders with his ferroplasmic falchion.  A leg was chopped clean off and thick yellowish blood oozed out of its side.  Feng, meanwhile, made for the larger spider.  The large spider lunged at the charging half-orc with alarming speed, its mandibles easily piercing the chain shirt he wore and injecting a full dose of strength sapping poison.  Feng’s greatsword immediately felt almost too difficult to wield, but he valiantly swung anyway, scoring a minor blow.Amblin streaked around the corner, planting a swift kick to the large spider and springing back out of the way.  Bommer decided that closing in on the spiders to sneak attack them was going to be far too risky, so he settled on using his short bow and peppering arrows when there was an opening.Nigel felt his strength sapped slightly, but he was still able to handle his bow well enough.  Once enough of the stinging poison was clear of his eyes, he drew and fired arrows as quickly as his elvish reflexes allowed.Zalman, assessing the situation, chose the flashy approach.  He launched a fireball slightly behind the spiders.  The concussive blast simultaneously rocked the cavern and obliterated the remaining web in a brilliant flash.  Two of the spiders were torched in the blaze, though neither fell.Amill, who was almost single-handedly dealing with one of the smaller spiders, took a bite and felt its poison burn through his veins.  Another couple slashes and a few helpful arrows from behind and the spider finally died.The concentrated fire on the remaining two spiders quickly eradicated the vermin.  Feng, moments after the fight ended, nearly collapsed under his own weight.  His sword clattered to the floor and Nigel and Amblin had to ease him down.  Amill, likewise, was unable to continue.“Press on or stay with these two?” Nigel asked.  He was slightly weakened, but felt good enough to continue for a bit.“Let’s explore a little further,” Zalman said.  “The Shadow may be close, and I’d rather not let him get the drop on us here.” They left Feng and Amill propped up in the narrow entrance near the well, both equipped with a loaded crossbow.  Nigel quickly surveyed the two exits from the spiders’ cavern for tracks.  The passage to the right held no tracks, though there was a squeaking and fluttering sound.  With Amblin in tow, he scouted down that passage until he found a massive chamber full of bats.  In the guano on the floor, he found no evidence of recent passage, so they turned back.The foursome of Nigel, Amblin, Zalman and Bommer explored a series of mostly natural looking caverns that branched off from the entrance at the well.  Many dead-ended and there were a few crevasses that dropped down into water.  Nigel had a difficult time tracking anything in the flat, rocky terrain.Down one particular dead end, they examined some loose rocks that appeared to be a number of caved-in or filled-in tunnels.  While looking for evidence of the Shadow, everyone became aware of rumbling in the ground.  Recalling a nasty encounter they’d once had with ankhegs attacking them from below, they decided that fleeing was their best option.  Bommer used his Raven’s Cloak to polymorph into a raven, allowing him to keep up with the others.They continued down another branch, leaving the rumbling sound well behind them.  This new branch again reached a dead end, but there was a foul odor of decay nearby.  A natural chimney shaft, no more than a couple feet wide, disappeared into the darkness above them.  Bommer flew up and found that the shaft twisted and turned a bit.  A raccoon, deceased at least a couple days, lay upon a small ledge.  The chimney continued further up, but Bommer found it difficult to negotiate in his raven form, so he returned to the others and reported his findings.  The group decided to continue exploring elsewhere and return here later if they found no other evidence of the Shadow.From the largest chamber they’d found, a nexus of sorts, only one passage remained unexplored.  This path twisted and turned, continuing for several hundred yards without any side passages before it finally reached a dead end.  The group had just turned around to begin the hike back when the rumbling could be heard again.Knowing they were trapped, they prepared for a fight.  Nigel drew his longsword and light mace.  Zalman had his staff in one hand and wand of lightning bolts in the other.  Bommer remained in his raven form in case a quick retreat was called for.The rumbling grew in intensity until the floor between Nigel and Zalman erupted in a cloud of rock and dust.  An umber hulk emerged and immediately raked its claws across Zalman’s chest.  Nigel laid into the beast with his weapons, scoring a couple hits and drawing its focus away from the wizard.  Zalman shifted position so that he could unleash a lightning bolt without hitting his companions in the narrow passage.Amblin was about to join the fray when another umber hulk emerged from the side of the cave, hemming both Amblin and Nigel between the two creatures.  The monk shook off the umber hulk’s confusing gaze, but felt the full brunt of its claws.  Amblin was tempted to spring attack the umber hulk and leap past to the other side of it, but he realized that to do so would leave Nigel flanked by the creatures and very vulnerable.  So instead he held his ground and attacked with a flurry of kicks and punches.Bommer waited just long enough to make sure no other umber hulks were likely to join the fight.  Once reasonably sure, he returned to his ordinary halfling form and snuck up behind the umber hulk that Amblin was engaged with.  He waited for the perfect opening, and then leapt forward and jammed his shortsword into the umber hulk’s back, injuring it badly.  The umber hulk turned and gave Bommer a painful swipe for his effort.Zalman backed up a few more steps and launched a spread of magic missiles into the umber hulk that Nigel was tangled with.  Nigel, lacking the necessary armor for a sustained melee, was taking a pounding.  Between his sword work and Zalman’s blasts, however, the umber hulk finally fell.  He joined Amblin and Bommer and quickly finished off the second.Everyone in the exploratory group had been injured, Nigel by far taking the worst of it.  No discussion was necessary for each to know that today’s pursuit of the Shadow was at an end.  They had lost Rurik – friend, healer, and the most heavily armored front-line fighter.  Amill, the psychic warrior, and Feng, their new priestly companion, were both incapacitated.  Nigel was badly injured, Zalman was depleted of his best spells, and both Bommer and Amblin were modestly injured.  To face the Shadow under these conditions would be foolhardy.  And so, with double watches posted, they made camp in the cavern next to the well shaft and tried to rest and heal.Next session:  Voice from afar and the last passage.</blockquote>

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