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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kayne" data-source="post: 1123351" data-attributes="member: 13153">Miles' Journal - Part EighteenChes 15th - While we were preparing our attack strategy for dealing with those at the bottom of the shaft, Adamo went ahead (having rendered himself invisible and intangible, clearly his magic is becoming very impressive) and scouted out the cave below. It would seem that it is a large double chambered cave, facing onto a vast web filled chasm, and that the guard below is considerably less then we faced last time. As he was down there, we were joined above by a man called Grim, a professional hunter and killer of drow (most fortuitous!). He has been hired by Respen and sent to aid us, in much the same way that Deirdre and Geoff were. I can only hope he proves to be more useful than they were.We launched our attack, flying down the hole (I used my alter self spell to give myself bat wings, which I have to admit I am rather fond of how they look on me, even though I find having them a little disconcerting, I value my humanity), and catching those below by complete surprise. In very short order we annihilated three drow, one undead spider and one of those skinless undead creatures that on closer inspection seems to have been made from an elf corpse. This was thanks in a large way to Adamo summoning one of his enormous snake monsters which crushed the life out of two of the drow.No sooner had we looted the bodies though than we had to deal with a counter attack, as about a dozen drow swarmed up the webing in the chasm and assaulted us. The battle was fast and fierce and I regret that I was forced to flee from it to heal myself up, as else I would surely have succumbed to my dire wounds. We eventually prevailed however, only to have to confront another denizen of the web... a MASSIVE spider, easily 40' across which easily overran us, forcing us to gather up our wounded and beat a hasty retreat up the shaft and away. I dare say we didn't stop running till we got back to Dagger Falls!Knowing that my sudden return would not go unnoticed by Respen I decided to make my report before I was summoned to do so. Alas my strength failed me, the spiders bite it seems carrying a virulent poison of some sort, and I was taken to a room in the guard barracks (which apprently I've been entitled to claim as mine for some time, being of officer rank) to rest. I used my healing wand to see to my open wounds, but sent for a cleric to deal with the poison coursing through my veins. I am told one will visit me tomorrow.Ches 16th - Indeed in the early morning a cleric of Lathander was brought to my bedchamber, and for a tidy sum in donation to the Morninglord, my strength was fully restored. Making my way back to the others I learned that they had again ordered supplies that would take time to make, and also that Adamo and Hilbrinn were both busy scribing new spells into their books and would remain so for a few days. I returned to the barracks, and as I outranked the drill instructor, took over his lesson, putting a group of guards though a tougher than normal training session. though I got shot plenty of nasty looks for their added ordeal, there wasn't a man amongst them who didn't thank me for the additional training.Ches 17th to 23rd - I spent these days training up Daggerdales guards in how to deal with assassins, including methods of hunting and searching for them. I was surprised in how well they took to the lessons and I think several of them could prove an effective unit if teamed together to ensure that agents of other powers cannot roam our town with impunity. I shall have to put the idea to Respen sometime.Ches 24th - My comrades business in town finally concluded, we set off this morning back to the crypts. Once there we find that the drow have not wasted the time we gave them, and have retrapped the doors. I aided Halbrinn in getting them open, only to find that the ever resourceful drow had conjured up a stone wall across the corridor just beyond the front doors. Adamo sumoned an elemental (finally a creature that was more or less recognisable) to smash the wall, but it only made a hole, which then required a couple hours of work with a pickaxe to widen out to make an entrance large enough for us to pass through it.Once we reached the traps, we decided against disarming them, instead flying across the caves and completely avoiding them this time around. When we reached the cavern with the hole, Halbrinn used a new spell to encase himself in an indestructible ball of energy and rolled himself down the tunnel to the shaft, setting off every trap along the way, to no effect to him. I have to admire our gnome at times like this, he is possessed of a certain mad genius that commands respect! However his idea didn't go entirely to plan as he set off a large trap that dropped a wall into the tunnel behind him, the impact of it sending him in his energy ball plummeting down the shaft to the cave below. Adamo summoned up a lava creature of some sort to get rid of the wall, by melting away the mechanism it was attached to. However it was unable to fly, so Yvgeny took hold of it and using his new spider climb slippers climbed up the wall to allow the creature to do its work, getting badly burnt in the process. With the wall dealt with, we headed down the shaft to provide aid to Halbrinn, only to find that he didn't need it, having used the ball around him to pin a skinless thing against one wall of the cave (the gnome had changed shape to an Ogre to give him the strength to do this, it is a form he has taken before). We quickly destroyed the undead, and then lured the giant spider in to attack us, which it did. We were ready for the beast this time though, and annihilated it over a protracted battle involving chasing it through the webs, in the process also dealing with another drow party who were moving up through the webs to attack us. Halbrinn who spotted them also dealt with the problem in timely fashion by fireballing them, destroying them utterly!During the battle with the spider though I had been bitten a few times and we thus retreated back to the cavern on the chasm edge to rest until such time as Aeron could restore my strength. I spent about twelve hours lying helpless, barely able to to breathe such was my debilitated condition as my companions rested and stood guard over me.Ches 25th - I was healed up by Aeron's spells early on and once Yvgeny had woken (he had stayed up all night on watch, only going to sleep once I was healed!), we readied ourselves to continue our assault downwards. Adamo used a spell to fortify our current position with a stone wall so that we have a more secure place from which to launch our forays and also to retreat to. He plans to further improve the defenses at this cave but does not want to exhaust his spell choices in doing so. I am once again fighting fit and very thankful to be so. Spending better than half a day lying utterly unable to move was maddening, thankfully my weakened state made it easy for me to sleep, indeed I could do little else!We (meaning Yvgeny and myself) launched a sneak attack down at the cave that the drow keep attacking us from, but a sentry escaped our initial onslaught and a pitched battle broke out as we were joined by the other Crusaders and the escapising sentry alerted about a dozen drow including a skinless undead. The drow all wore white tabards emblazoned with a black skull design, probably some form of house heraldry and Yvgeny cannot recognise any religious significance about it, and he would know of these things.The battle was fierce with Adamo using up a fair amount of his prepared spells (always a good gauge of how intense a fight was as our conjurer tends to be, how to word this, tactically conservative, in his use of magic). I took some serious wounds as the drow attacked in ranks using polearms. However, I was able to annihilate the drow comander using my boots to move swiftly behind him and slash him to ribbons with my blades.We then set to exploring the nearby chambers docovering that this was a sentry post of a sort, carved into the side of the chasm. The only other dizen being a fire being that tore through us as it appeared when Helbrinn triggered a trapped door and it appeared in our midst with no warning. I give praise to Mask for having the fortune to travel with well prepared companions, as Aeron, having learnt from dealing with that mimic to expect extraplanar creatures on this quest had a dismissal spell in mind, and used it to great effect to send the creature away. I then collapsed to one knee, my wounds being very grevious, indeed I was fitging to remain conscious. however, with the creature gone, I took out my healing wand and had restored myself to full health in about a minute or so.We decided to rest up before continuing onwards, and so after looting the many bodies of our fallen foes, and taking a lot of stuff that I'm sure we can put to better use than they did from them, we headed back up the web to our secured position.</blockquote>

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