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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ealli" data-source="post: 3591091" data-attributes="member: 804">Chapter 4:  Pinch of Spider EggsThe day of shopping was beginning to wind down.  For Thundina it had been a very successful day of shopping.  Lots of little purchases were adding up to drain all the income from the Beastlands adventure but the sum was a shoring up of defenses.  Talor had joined Thundina and both were now on their way over to the artificer shop where Scyther was receiving some upgrades.When Thundina and Talor arrived, Scyther was standing at ease outside the shop.“Are you going to stand here overnight?” Thundina asked Scyther.“Affirmative,” Scyther rumbled.  “I intend to be present when the artificer returns in the morning.  That is the most efficient course of action.”“Well, suit yourself.  We’ll be at the inn having dinner if you change your mind.”“I do not require sustenance.  There is nothing I need from the inn.”Before Thundina and Talor could leave, a dark portal with brightly flashing edges opened nearby.  A tall man in gleaming platemail stepped through and glanced around.  Behind him the spinning darkness closed again and the portal winked out.  He carried himself like an experienced combatant but wore a tabard with a red dragon emblazoned on to it; the symbol of Dol Arrah.  He faced Thundina’s group and pulled off his helmet.A look of relief crossed the cleric’s face and then replaced by a smile.  Thundina recognized the young man standing before her.  She bounced forward and gave him a hug, “Jessuf!  What are you doing here?  Shouldn’t you be in Barovia running your barony?”Jessuf broke the embrace but still held Thundina’s shoulders, “There’s been some trouble in Barovia,” Jessuf said with some melancholy.  “Romann has gone crazy.  Ravenloft called to him and he answered the darkness.  Cyron warned me that Romann was moving against me, but that he would support Romann over me.  Romann is the Lord of Ravenloft now.”“How did you come to Sigil then?”  Thundina asked.[sblock=Ravenloft spoilers]“Deep under the Castle Ravenloft there is a portal which can take one anywhere you wish to go.  Romann and Cyron had overcome what defenses I had managed to raise and my first thought was that I should find you and Talor.  The portal brought me here, and here both of you are.”[/sblock]“What do you intend to do now that you’re here?”“Raise some forces to reclaim my barony.  Thundina, Talor, my friends, will you assist me to reclaim what is rightfully mine?”“I’m sorry Jessuf,” Thundina said.  “I have no intention of ever returning to Ravenloft.  I crave change and that would be a return to my past.”“I kind of like Romann,” Talor muttered.  “Plus, I gave my word that I would complete this mission, and I can’t break my word.  Good money on this mission.”Jessuf appeared to deflate some, “Then I do not know what I’m going to do.  I have no prospects and if you’re unavailable, I have no other friends.”“Then come with us!”  Thundina said.“A cleric would be really good to have,” Jessuf whispered to Thundina, “I wouldn’t have to do all the healing then.”Jessuf nodded, “Tell me more about the mission.”Scyther drew a parchment out of his pouch, “The contract of the company.  Since members of this expedition have vouched for you, we can dispense with the normal interview.  The objective of this mission is to determine the nature of the dark elf menace to Karrnath and stop it.  Investigations so far have revealed that the nature of the plot greatly exceeds Eberron.  You will need to sign your name at the bottom.  If you cannot write, you may give a unique symbol in its stead.  If you cannot read this contract, it will be read to you.  If you do not speak common, say so now and Comprehend Languages will be provided.”Jessuf read over the contract and signed on to the expedition.  Another person, a dwarf, heavily armored, approached the party with a somewhat dazed look, “Scyther, Thundina, Talor, I have been looking for you.”Surprised at this stranger knowing their names, Thundina asked, “Really.  Who are you then and why have you been looking for us.”  She put her hand on the magical scabbard she carried and eased herself into a fighting stance.  If he proved hostile, she could have her guisarme out before the stranger even knew what kind of weapon was being brought to bear on him.“I was ducking down an alley, taking a short cut when I began hearing voices in my head.  I could swear it was a swarm of rats.  They told me that I needed to find you and join you and if I didn’t, they’d kill me.”“That sounds completely crazy,” Jessuf scoffed.  “How do we know he isn’t lying; how do we know we can trust him.”Almost in a whisper the man said, “Demons are triple liars, but angels are not to be trusted either.”“Man, you’re my kind of crazy,” Thundina said.  “Okay master dwarf, tell us who you are so we can sign you up.”The dwarf introduced himself as Gorrin Ungar, a cleric of Dol Dorn, initially from the Mror Holds in Eberron.  Years ago his brother had vanished and recently Gorrin had learned that his brother had made it out to the planes.  Gorrin’s attempt to Plane Shift had left him a little lost and his brother’s trail had gone completely cold.After hearing Gorrin’s story, Talor whispered in Thundina’s ear again, “A second cleric would also be really good to have.  A spare!”Scyther took out another contract and repeated the speech he had just given Jessuf for Gorrin and had Gorrin sign on to the adventuring party.  Scyther remained at the artificer’s shop while the rest of the party returned to the inn where Thundina and Talor had taken residence.  Over dinner, they swapped stories of their adventures.  Thundina and Talor talked about the Beastlands and Yggdrasil.  Jessuf’s adventures were exploring his domain in Castle Ravenloft and turning out the remaining undead inhabitants.  He spent weeks poring over the ancient arcane tomes in the library and located and looted another treasure room.After another day of shopping and sight seeing in Sigil, Scyther’s upgrades had completed and the party was ready to venture into the Demonweb.  Near the Weaver’s Guild, Talor spotted a shop giving spider egg samples and pointed it out.  Talor, Thundina, and Scyther took several eggs each and then looked to Jessuf and Gorrin.“Seriously?”  Jessuf asked.  “Why would I want spider eggs?”“Just take them,” Thundina said.  “It’ll all become clear in a moment.”By crushing a spider egg at the entrance to the Weaver’s Guild, the party members found themselves transported to a chamber of webs.  Long, white strands woven together formed a floor which then curved up and over creating walls and a ceiling as well.  The chamber was a wide spot in a tunnel with four pedestals set in a circle in the middle.  Hundreds of bones with their marrow sucked out littered the ground around the pedestals with tufts of hair mixed in with the bones.Thundina approached each pedestal in turn to take a closer look.  The first pedestal was inscribed with an iron pyramid.  Near the base, she found a gold ring with strands of red hair.  The inscriptions on the other pedestals were a bronze star on one and a blue square on another.  The pedestal nearest to where the party arrived had no inscription.  Jessuf concentrated to Detect Magic and reported that the three inscriptions were magical, but the ring was not.The party look to each other, as if asking which direction to go.  Thundina offered, “We need to go the Ironwaste and the pedestal with the iron pyramid is nearest that exit, so maybe it’s a signpost with the iron pyramid meaning Ironwaste.”  The party agreed with Thundina’s evaluation and Thundina breathed a sigh of relief when no one brought up that there were only two exits from the chamber, but four pedestals.After traveling approximately an hour down the spider web passage with no points of interest, an elven voice called from ahead, “On whose authority do you walk the web of our goddess?”Talor gruffly called back, “We have an important mission to deliver these books.”  His call sounded unusual.  The spider webs muffled and distorted his speech.The elf responded, “Very well, continue forward.”  The party advanced until they could see a patrol of 5 drow.  As the party drew nearer, the drow captain sensed something was wrong and suddenly called out, “Halt!  Drop your weapons.”Thundina felt her bloodlust rising and responded, “Like hell!  You drop your weapons.”The whistle and thunk of crossbows firing greeted Thundina’s challenge.  The bolts mostly harmlessly bounced off Scyther.  Scyther, Jessuf, and Thundina charged at the drow.  The drow captain gestured to one of the drow in the back of the line and the tunnel became dark.  The light from Scyther’s scythe and Jessuf’s armband provided just enough light to see, but the shadows of the darkness made it difficult for Thundina to take precise aim.The drow captain and the other drow holding the front line attempted to pull back through the others.  Their withdrawal was not well orchestrated and each left themselves wide open to attack.  Scyther and Jessuf both took advantage to strike critical hits, killing the drow on the frontline.  After a fiery burst from Gorrin and arrow flights from Talor, the drow patrol was completely destroyed before they could regroup from the loss of their captain.The bodies were laid out and arms and armor stripped.  The captain carried an iron pyramid the size of two fists.  Jessuf instructed, “If you can gather all the items together, I can check for magical auras.”Gorrin interrupted, “All the armor is magical, plus the captain’s sword, periapt, one of his potions, and most interestingly, the iron pyramid.”Jessuf shook his hands towards the sky, “How do you know all that already?”“I was concentrating on Detect Magic while you all were gathering the armaments,” Gorrin said.“Do we go back to the pedestals now that we have this iron pyramid?” Thundina asked.No one spoke in favor of taking the hour walk back, especially since no one knew if the pyramid by itself would take them to the Ironwaste, or even if the pyramid was the portal to the Ironwaste.  The party continued through the tunnel of spider webs until the path led to a rock cave.  Scyther halted the party, “Hold positions.  This is a suspicious cave.  I will detect if there is any evil in there.”  Scyther concentrated a moment before announcing, “The stone is evil.  The webs are evil.  This entire plane is evil, I cannot get any better reading of the area ahead.”Jessuf riley commented, “If there is a spider in the cave when there hasn’t been any spiders in the webs…”No sooner had the echoes of Jessuf’s words died away and the party stepped into the cave than a flashing set of claws dropped down from above the party and grabbed Thundina.  The creature scampered deeper into the dark, dragging Thundina along.Thundina screamed, “A freaking spider is trying to eat me here!”  Easier than waiting for rescue, Thundina knew that most large creatures relaxed after making an initial grab.  A quick burst could surprise them by using their own size against them.  Thundina attempted to drop through the grasp of the hairy legs, but the spider held firm.  She thought, “I guess I’m going to have to do this the hard way, breaking free rather than slipping free.”The spider’s grip on Thundina tightened and several legs raked across her armor.  The pain was excruciating, but Thundina realized it could have been worse if not for the diamond crystal she had attached to her breastplate just before leaving Sigil.  The spider’s lair was in a darkness Thundina could not see through until she saw the bobbing lights from Scyther and Jessuf.  Once she could see what she was fighting, Thundina kicked the spider and dropped to the ground.  She dodged past the spider’s other claws and into the safety of the party.Jessuf was the first to the spider’s lair.  He spotted the creature and shouted, “Flame Strike!”  A column of holy fire lit up the darkness briefly.  The flames rolled over the creature singeing it slightly.Right behind Jessuf, Gorrin too spotted the spider and shouted, “Flame Strike!”  A second column of holy fire, slightly more intense than the first, burned the creature.  It attempted to recoil but this time could not find a safe place and the fire burned it.  It waved its legs and fixed its beady eyes on the two clerics.Scyther charged into the spider and yelled, “Flame Strike!” as he swung his scythe.  The scythe plunged deep into the spider hurting it more than the spells had.  The spider retaliated by grabbing Scyther.  The spider squeezed Scyther and there was a horrible crunching sound as the spider dented Scyther’s adamantium body then raked him leaving long gashes across Scyther.Talor passed Thundina and whispered as he went, “Actually it’s a chwidencha, not a spider.”  He shot at the chwidencha as best as he was able with the darkness concealing the fight.Jessuf called upon Dol Arrah to infuse him with Divine Power and then eased his way towards the chwidencha.  He carefully positioned himself such that the full power of the spell would be taking effect right as he reached the chwidencha and without leaving himself open to a stray attack.  Gorrin simply brushed past Jessuf positioning himself in the narrow passage and attacking the creature with his longsword.  Jessuf was mostly speechless as he was cutoff and could no longer reach the battle.Thundina watched the clerics charge into battle while still nursing her wounds.  None of it was life threatening, but several of the wounds would need treating before returning to battle.  Thundina bound some of the smaller wounds and then looked to the two clerics to see if either was intending to do his magic to more fully heal her; both were concentrating on attacking.Talor took aim at the melee again.  His first shot met with a clank as the arrow lodged in Scyther.  He muttered a soft, “Oops.  Hope the second shot is better,” and launched another arrow.  That arrow struck home, piercing the chwidencha’s eye and into the brain.Thundina searched around the creature’s lair as Jessuf and Gorrin argued about tactics.  She was able to interrupt them when she found a small silver cube in the rubble in the corner of the room.  Gorrin confirmed that cube was magical.Scyther reported, “I am need of further repair.  I have utilized all my magical repair for the day.  I am capable of continuing for now, but we are reaching a dangerous level of operation.”That prompted Thundina, “I need some healing too.  Something like four Lesser Vigor should be right.”Jessuf said, “Just a moment, I need to find the appropriate wand.”  While Jessuf searched his pack, Gorrin was administering the Lesser Vigor.  Jessuf was in shock, “Are you trying to make me redundant?  Everything I bring to the party, you’re bringing as well.”Talor spotted his arrow still sticking of Scyther’s back.  He went over to Scyther and brushed the arrow away saying, “There’s a chunk of spider claw on you back.  Let me get that for you.”Thundina whispered to Talor, “Actually, chwidencha,” and she winked.Jessuf was still ranting, “Alright, do you have one of these?”  He pulled out a cornucopia from his pack.  “A fruit a day which is empowered with a powerful spell.”  Gorrin was forced to concede that this was one thing he could not do, but he wondered what today’s fruit of the day was.  Jessuf reached in and pulled out a bunch of grapes.“Ah, grapes.  A Heroic Feast for any who is pure of heart,” Jessuf proclaimed.  He gave a grape to Gorrin and took one for himself.Thundina asked for a grape.  Jessuf said, “I’m sorry Thundina, but I do not think the grape will be of benefit to you.”“I know that, and you know that, but does the grape know that?”  Thundina said.  “I think I’m smarter than a grape, why don’t you let me try one anyway.”  Once Jessuf had given her a grape, Thundina held it, looked at it and said, “Alright grape.  Here’s how it goes, I can be good.  Enough.  Understand?”Once she had consumed the magic grape, Thundina’s skin took on a healthy glow and she felt very refreshed.  She raised an eyebrow to Jessuf and smiled.  Scyther asked for a grape as well.“Oh, yes,” Scyther rumbled.  “Very nutritious.  It is right to give thanks to Dol Arrah for this feast.”“I didn’t realize warforged would benefit,” Jessuf said.  “I’m sorry I didn’t offer sooner.”“A normal warforged would benefit,” Scyther answered.  “However, your initial supposition was correct, I do not derive any sustenance from this.  It is the nature of being a juggernaut.”“Then why did you say it was very nutritious?”“It would be very nutritious.  It was a simple observation on the humanoid quirk.”The rocky cave passage opened back into a web tunnel.  Another hour of walking and the party encountered a pair of drow females.  They shouted a challenge to the party in what must have been abyssal.  Scyther shouted back, “Speak in common, not that monstrous tongue.”The drow shot at the party with hand crossbows and the party charged down the tunnel at the drow.  When the party made it into melee range, one of the drow stepped back and filled the area with Web.  The other morphed into a large spider and attempted to attack the party.  She landed several blows against Scyther but pretty well failed to get through the hardness of his body.  The two drow turned and fled through the webbing, unhindered, while the party was entangled.  Gorrin started a fire with a burst effect which burned slowly burned away all the magically summoned Web.  By the time the fire had cleared the passage, the two drow were long gone.The passage opened up into another large chamber further down the way.  The ceiling seemed to have been torn apart and looking out of that hole, Thundina saw webs in all directions.  The chamber was an intersection of passages with a silver circle on the floor.  As Thundina approached the circle, she heard a screeching from above.  A large plant-like bat was clinging to the ceiling near the hole.  Talor mentioned that it was a spore bat and highly territorial.  The bat demonstrated its territorial intentions by fire a black ray at Jessuf then fading into a camouflage tone making it more difficult to see.The battle with the spore bat was a matter of trading arrow fire with black rays.  Jessuf took a total of three rays in the chest before he ran back down the passage, looking very nervous and pale.  Right before the arrows caused the bat to explode in a puff of spores which stuck to the web, the bat attempted to enervate Gorrin.  As the black ray touched Gorrin, his armor flared with a pure white light which canceled out the ray.From down the passage Jessuf shouted, “Dol Arrah curse you.  You even absorb negative energy better!”----------------------------Chapter 5 will be delayed due to the game taking a one week vacation.</blockquote>

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