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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Broccli_Head" data-source="post: 1403113" data-attributes="member: 105">Chaos in the Underdark, part III, Highharvestide,1378 DR,Year of the CauldronBenito Moltos was barely phased. Calling on the blessing of Ilmater he brought daylight to the darkness, cancelling out the shrowds that the drow had brought down and bringing a radiance to the gloom. However, the light extended only about sixty paces in every direction, where an impenetrable blackness remained. There were a whole lot of drow out there.Grabbing the sword-case he yelled, "Fall back, there are too many!"Another volley of small bolts followed and most of them bounced and skipped along the stone, and only a few hit their marks. Aris speculated that the drow were firing randomly. Two dwarves, however, had been unlucky, and toppled forward, victims of the famed drow sleep poison. Ellysidell slammed Golden-fire into the side of the dwarven warrior who had held the case dropping her to the ground. Then he scooped her into his arms and began to retreat towards Benito's position. Ivan scowled, but saw the tactical rationale to leave the situation. He also backed away towards the others as he faced  the edge of the darkness. Then a huge spider leg, as thick around as a stalactite stabbed out at him from beyond the black veil, slicing along his shoulder and upper back, leaving it slightly numb. The Rashemani cried out, and instinctively struck back. Sparks flew, but he felt as if he had just stuck stone. An explosion sounded behind him, and he heard Benito and Ellysidell's yells of shock and pain. The enormous spider scuttled into view and Ivan gasped. Then his eyes widened in horror as thousands of fist-sized spiders erupted from the darkness. Benito and Ellysidell had been hit with a column of fire and unholy energy. Aris Cloud-dancer had dived away at the last second rolling back to his feet. "Spellcasters!" cried the priest."You don't know the half of it!" replied Ivan slapping away another barbed, giant spider leg. He rolled his shoulder trying to stave off the unnatural stiffness and soreness. Briefly, he touched the wound. It bled at an alarming rate. The gigantic spider came fully into view. It was a sickly green color with baleful red eyes, and it was bigger than Ivan expected. Grim watched the spectacle from the shadows and tried to calculate the trajectory of the bolts to hunt down the evil enemy. He felt a pinprick of pain slice across his wrist, and the tell-tale burn of poison.  Another bounced off his leather vest. Impossible! he complained.He heard a third whiz by his ear. Then caution took over. The hunter had become the hunted. "Time. We need time," muttered the cleric under his breath after shooting the jade spider with a beam of searing light that had richoted away at an obtuse angle apparently doing nothing. His bass voice rumbled through the cavern as he spoke another prayer to Ilmater. Between Ivan and the great, jade spider arose a wall of stone."Regroup, Heroes. Let us get away from here!" cried out Aris, moving towards the entrance. On the other side of the wall, Ariod attempted as best he could to disperse the swarm of spiders, but there were too many.  His heart went out to the fallen dwarves. They had been overrun by the vermin and were being sickeningly consumed. Fortunately, his current elemental form could not vomit. He sailed over the wall, and the spider swarm followed. On the other side of  the wall, Ivan saw the spike-ladden legs of the gargantuan spider feel their way beyond. Then the rest of the horror's bulk propelled itself up and over. Ellysidell put down the dwarf to help Ivan hack at the creature's legs. It was like striking stone.  He raged as the giant spider tore into him with its thorny, column-like appendages. He shook off the sudden feeling of stiffness and with Ivan continued to hold the rear. Smaller spiders swarmed around them and nipped at their legs and jumped to bite their bare flesh. "We are trapped!" came the report from Aris. He had run into a wall of webs that had not been there before. He struck at them, and it was as if he struck metal, the cords of silk were so strong and magically enchanced. With all his strength he tore away his scimitar. They were sticky also. From the corner of his eye, he detected movement and somersaulted away. Three human-sized spiders dropped from the webs. Their eyes glared with menance and evil, and a foul ichor dripped from their clicking mandibles. Aris drew his hand axe and prepared his defense. With the exception of Grim, whose wherabouts were unknown, the rest of the party were hedged in by thousands upon thousands of spiders. Stomping and slashing and had no effect. The floor thickened and became slick with the fluids of hundreds of squashed arachnids.  Suddenly, a block of the swarm was burned to ash. Ariod had changed to become an elemental of fire. Benito assessed the situation. They had to leave. They were hemmed in. Their main foe was turning aside the hacks and slashes of their best fighters. Desperate times call for desperate measures."I'm sorry, Ivan, Ellysidell."Directly upon the jade spider, he called down a column of sonic energy and holy flames, adding metamagic power. The blast engulfed the weapon's master and the widl elf. He staggered at the effort, and then nearly cried as the spider, though blackened and scorched by the sonic flamestrike still kept moving. Aris leaped and slashed and stabbed all the while dodging the fiendish fangs of the spiders. Grim darting from the shadows, ducked and weaved between their spindly legs and added more damage, ripping out their guts from beneath while Aris tore their carapaces from above. Shortly, there were no more large spiders, just seemingly an infinite number of little ones. Both dexterous warriors dove away from webs cast from the darkness. Space was getting tight as the rest of the Heroes backed into their area. "Benito, can you do something about that wall?" pointed Aris at the iron-like webs that barred their path. Ivan, scorched and cut, rolled around on the ground crushing more spiders, and barely avoided another viscious slice from the giant jade beast that continued to harry them. One of its legs hung limply thanks to Ellysidell, and black ichor oozed and bubbled from the wound. A  war cry brought from the flank got the genasi's attention as several drow detached themselves from the darkness and charged the party. The melee became fierce. Benito put down his cargo--a lead case and an unconscious dwarven female--and prayed for Ilmater to give him the power to remove the webs. A huge section vanished, only to reveal another wall behind it. A red beam of energy hit the small of his back, searing his flesh."Do not worry, drow priestess, wherever you are. I will deal with you very soon."He dispelled the second set."Now let's get out of here!" He began to run to the passageway. Grim ran after. Behind him, the jade spider still  harassed the party, while the drow fighters fell to the blades of the Heroes. The spider lashed out at random with one of its spikey legs, cutting Aris across the legs even as he tumbled backwards. His joints stiffened and stone crept across his body."Noo--!" His cry stopped short as his body hardened to stone, still possessing the momentum of his leap. Ellysidell dropped his weapon and dove to catch his friend. A drow male punished him with a slice across the back. But the wild elf slid under the falling statue of Aris saving the genasi's stone head by a hair's breadth. Benito could not wait any longer as he saw Ellysidell roll gingerly into the entrance carrying a statue. Ivan was on his heels."Ilmater, show them your power!" he prayed raising both his arms in supplication. And the earth complied as the Wrath of Ilmater brought down the cavern...**The dust settled and the aftershocks of the earthquake echoed throughout the Darklands. Ellysidell's magical falchion gave the passageway an eerie orange light as it protruded from between two boulders. A single, stone-spiked leg twitched from the rubble, and then lay still. Ivan pushed the last drow from his body. The warrior had leaped at Ivan at the last second, knocking both to the ground and away from the rockfall, that hopefully, had buried all the other drow within the cavern. He kicked the unconscious body of his enemy and raised his scimitar to finish him."Wait," suggested Benito Moltos grabbing the Rashemani's arm. "Ilmater has spared him. He can be redeemed."Ivan gave Benito a curious look, but then shrugged his shoulders. Benito then squatted beside the drow and stabilized him. Then he tossed him over his shoulder."Grim. This one lives," he said firmly to a nearby shadow.Ellysidell worked his blade free from the debris and hefted Aris across his back. "Ivan, please get the dwarf," asked Benito. "Let's leave this place, before any that survived regroup."Sullenly, and still hurting from the empowered sonic flamestrike the fighter complied. "Not to worry," came the voice from an incorporeal figure that slipped between the rocks, "I detected nothing else in that cave.""Still...," Ariod the ghost, nodded his head in agreement, and changed to Ariod the direwolf, and began bounding away, back towards the dwarven redoubt.The rest of the Heroes, burdens in tow, followed.</blockquote>

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