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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 1517965" data-attributes="member: 18280">Fourth SessionDarwin Ravenscroll awoke.  The pain of his many wounds was gone, leaving only a dull ache.  Blinking, he sat up and looked around him.He was in a roughly shaped cavern, dimly lit by torchlight and the abdominal gland of a fire beetle.  The center of the floor was dominated by a twenty-foot deep sinkhole some twenty feet across.  His companions were there, all seemingly unharmed, and with them were four human men Darwin didn’t recognize.  Darwin realized that Desu, who knelt nearby, must have healed him magically.  “Who are these people?” Darwin asked.Desu told him of how they had rescued these men-at-arms:  Anlaf, Cedric, Garmund, and Douglas.  Desu went on to tell Darwin how they had carried his wounded body, exploring further.  When they had come to a Y-shaped intersection, they had taken the right passage, which led downward into the earth.  Yet that passage had ultimately proved too difficult for them, so they returned to the chamber where they had rescued the men-at-arms.  The body they had left behind to attend to later had disappeared (Desu suspected that the tentacled creature they had met earlier had taken it to eat).  They intended now to try the left-hand way, for if the elder Oarsman’s fears proved true, there was now very little time remaining to rescue his son.When Darwin was ready, the group followed the northeast passage out of the chamber.  Desu pointed out the carapace of the fire beetle, whose abdominal organ he was using to help light their way.  After a time, the passage came to a Y-shaped intersection.  There, the way to the right began a very sharp descent, of almost fifty degrees.  The way to the left rose gently.  That way was shrouded with thick cobwebs that fluttered as though with a faint breeze.“I would like to try the right-hand way,” said Darwin, for Desu had told him of a carved fountain, with writing that might be in Dwarven script, that they had found in the tunnels that way.“Later,” Desu said.  “We must conserve our strength for what lies ahead.  And our time grows short.”“Very well,” Darwin said, pushing past the webs into the ten-foot diameter passage, Locke close behind him.  It was difficult to see far down the passage, choked as it was with old cobwebs.  Dusty bones and dried carcasses lay along the floor, or were caught up in the webs, though none of them seemed recent.  Looking at the bones, Darwin saw that humanoid bones were among them – some almost certainly kobold, and others human.  As he paused to look, he could hear faint chanting from somewhere ahead.Darwin pushed confidently down the corridor, but the old webs hid a pit.  Both he and Locke fell in, dropping ten feet.  Once they were out of the pit on the far side, the remainder of the party carefully walked around its edges.  The entire group continued, now more cautiously.As they traveled the winding, web-shrouded passage, the sound of chanting grew louder.  After about fifty feet, the passage opened into a huge cavern, so vast that their torchlight would have been insufficient to light it, had torches not been mounted in the walls to provide a feeble light around the periphery.Before them was a ledge that ran around the outer rim of the cavern, some ten feet over the bowl-shaped cave floor proper.  The cave floor was dominated by a great stinking chasm, filled with an odor like acid and sulfur.  Darwin could sense that a great evil lurked within that noisome pit.  He could see by the looks on his companions’ faces that they also sensed the menace that hid in the pit’s black depths.Around the pit were a half dozen people wearing black and scarlet robes, facing the pit.  They were chanting in a language of hisses and clicks.  To Darwin’s left, the ledge ran to another cave opening, which had been covered by a locked iron grate.  Much closer, to Darwin’s right, the ledge ran into another cave room.In all, the chamber was over one hundred feet across, with a ceiling that disappeared into darkness.As the party stood for a moment, taking in this evil sight, Darwin became aware of another presence.  In the shadowy light of the cavern’s far side, a large creature had appeared.  It looked like a bloated white spider, nearly nine feet in diameter, but its head was feminine and humanoid, and its forward hands looked almost like human arms.The creature spoke to the cultists in the same hissing, clicking language, clearly urging them on, though Darwin could not understand what she was saying.  Her eyes glowed with a facetted red light, and even from where he stood Darwin could see that her face was twisted with wicked glee.As they watched in horror, the spider-thing went up the ledge and came back with a bound human prisoner – presumably from the other side of the same chamber Darwin could see locked with an iron grate.  The spider-thing brought her prisoner to the edge of the pit, and, as they watched, prepared to consign him to the depths. “Brand!” said Desu.Locke quickly leaped into action, setting the men-at-arms in a line to fire crossbows down at the cultists while he, Desu, Darwin, and Hrum followed the ledge into the chamber to the right.As the first crossbow bolts sprayed among the cultists, the spider-like abomination let her captive go.  The man ran to the east.There, the northern wall bulged outward, making a chamber some thirty feet in diameter and twenty feet high.  The area was strewn with rough sleeping pallets, and contained an open barrel half-filled with water.  There were several clay chamber pots in there, some partially full.  Where these would be emptied was a mystery, as it seemed unlikely that the cultists would dump their excrement down the chasm in their cavern temple.The group passed quickly through, into the next chamber.  Like the previous room, the wall bulged outward to make a space some thirty or forty feet in diameter.  Within this room were several boxes and crates, a barrel containing several javelins, and a jumbled pile of swords and studded leather armor.As the party began to move through the room, a creature leaped from a web-like hammock strung on the ceiling, some forty feet overhead.  It landed near Hrum, attacking with its four spidery arms.  As part of the group moved onward, Hrum traded blows with the creature.  It was humanoid, with stringy black hair and faceted red eyes.  Spider-like mandibles jutted from its mouth.  Desu pulled out his sling to aid his half-orc companion.Pausing along the ledge before the next chamber, Locke and Darwin looked down into the chamber of the pit, natural temple of the dread spider-goddess Mellythese.  The men-at-arms had been successful, killing several of the cultists, but others were escaping, coming up at the edge of the ledge from the eastern end of the room.  It seemed as though the large spider-thing would escape, so Darwin sent his familiar, Blackwing, to attack and harass her.This proved ill, as the abomination swatted the raven away with one fell claw, knocking it wounded to the cavern floor.Darwin cried out in concern, then leapt off the ledge to the cavern floor.  Summoning his arcane lore, he cast a simple cantrip to scoop his wounded familiar away from the spider-thing.  Blackwing floated through the air toward Darwin as though by an invisible hand.  Darwin rushed forward to stabilize his familiar, ignoring the danger from the spider-thing and her cultists.Locke and Desu rushed through the next web-padded chamber, but dagger-wielding cultists engaged them, slowing them from coming to Darwin’s aid.  Hrum, having defeated, with Desu, the spidery humanoid, leaped off the ledge, following Darwin’s footsteps, ready to defend him with his life if need be.Another four-armed, spider-like humanoid crawled off the northern wall, this one clearly a female despite her black hooded robes.  It closed quickly with Darwin.  Faced by these horrors, it was clear that Darwin would have been quickly slain, had it not been for Hrum.  Hrum waded in with his greatsword, doing little damage at first, but giving Darwin a chance to retreat.  Luckily, Locke and Desu finished with the last of the cultists, and Desu was able to send Archimedes, his owl companion, to distract the spider-thing as well as sending magical spellstones at the creature with his sling.  That, combined with the might of Locke and Hrum’s swords, might have turned the day, had they been all the party needed to face.Out of the chasm crawled a wave of darkness, and in that darkness came a bloated black spider the size of a horse.  It was covered with stiff, coarse hair that seemed almost spine-like.  Its many eyes were red, and glowed like fire.  Its fangs dripped with thick greenish poison like puss, and its claws were of scarlet and ebony horn.  It radiated a palpable aura of evil that choked the air like venom.  As it came, darkness washed over the cavern, killing the light.Daunted, the party tried to fall back, even as Darwin countered the fiendish spider’s darkness with magical light, but the spider’s web fell over the group, and Hrum was trapped.  Unable to move, but still able to fight, Hrum traded blows with the fiend, risking its infernal claws and poisonous ichor.  The men-at-arms leaped off the western ledge to come to their aid.  And, miraculously, they beat back their foes.  Hrum’s blade lashed out.  With a hideous screech, the infernal spider fell back into blackness.This was more than enough for the spider-thing and the female spider-like humanoid.  As they attempted to flee, Desu continued to send sling bullets after the bloated abomination that clearly led the temple.  The humanoid struck down Darwin and escaped, skittering up the cavern walls.  Later, Darwin learned what had happened next.The spider-thing, lost and alone, began to sing, even as it moved away and Locke moved around the chasm to cut off its retreat.  Enthralled by the song, as though by a spell, Desu suddenly found himself believing that the spider-thing was his friend.  At its beckoning, Desu picked up Darwin’s body and brought it to the spider-thing.As the spell ended, the spider-thing picked up Darwin’s unconscious body and threatened to kill him unless the group gave their word to let her escape.  Seeing that there was no other way to save Darwin, the group agreed.  The creature carried Darwin near to the ledge, then dropped him and fled.The floor sloped up to the ledge on the eastern side of the cavern, allowing easier access between ledge and cavern floor.  Here, there was a narrow passage leading out of the temple to the east.  It was in that direction that the captive had fled.  A lump of old stalagmite there was polished through use over the ages, and stained with blood.As Desu healed Darwin, Hrum freed himself from the webs entrapping him.  Together, the group went up the eastern slope.  They noted that the air near the eastern passage seemed fresher – perhaps it led outside?While the rest of the group performed a cursory search for treasure in the caverns, Darwin explored the passage to the east.The passage was only five feet wide where it began, but after about twenty feet it widened.  The passage showed signs of common usage, and the air ahead was definitely sweeter than the air Darwin had left behind.  Sixty feet up the passage Darwin discovered the body of the sacrificial victim.  Although he had escaped the clutches of the spider-thing, he had not escaped the caverns.  His throat had been cut.Darwin came sadly back into the cavern temple.“I am afraid that our mission has failed,” he said, “for the man we were sent to rescue is dead.”“We can at least rescue the others,” said Desu.  “Perhaps there will yet be some reward for our efforts.”“There was a reward to return Oarsman’s son, either living or dead,” said Locke.  “I would rather have returned him alive.  Either way, we must free what captives we can.”They went up the eastern slope, traversing the northern ledge a chamber some forty feet across, barred on both sides by a locked iron grate.  At first, the people imprisoned within cringed, but when they realized that their deliverance was at hand, they quickly crowded near the grate.  It proved too hard to pull open.“That spider-thing had the key,” Desu said.  “We should never have let her escape.”“Hold on,” said Locke.  Rummaging through his backpack, he found the crowbar he’d taken from the ogre’s loot in the ruined tower, days ago.  With the crowbar, the group was able to quickly pry open the grating, releasing the prisoners.  They were overjoyed to learn that Brand Oarsman was among the captives – it had not been he who was to be sacrificed first.After that, things moved quickly.  In addition to Brand, seven men-at-arms remained.  Their armor and swords had been found in the cavern earlier, so they could be quickly rearmed.  So armed, the party moved through the eastern passage.  Hrum was the least hurt, and went first.It was soon apparent what had happened to the escaped prisoner – Hrum walked into a razor-thin strand of webbing strung across the passage at neck height.  Luckily, he was able to pull back before he was sliced too deeply.  Clearly, the man-at-arms who had escaped had not been so lucky.“I wonder why it didn’t get me,” pondered Darwin.  “Perhaps, this time, my height was to my advantage!”They cut the webline and went on.  After another fifty feet or so, they came to a jag in the passageway that blocked visibility.  Rounding it, they could see the sky through a thin veil of vines some thirty feet ahead.  Once more as they moved forward, Hrum felt a razor-thin line cut into his throat.  This time, he was barely able to stop before the cut became lethal.Darwin raised his blade and ran out into the sunlight, determined to cut any lines that remained.  They had rescued Brand Oarsmen, and brought him safely from the Dragon’s Lair.  And they had survived.* * * * *They camped outside the vine-shrouded entrance to the caves, resting and healing.  With the crates of food that they had found in the temple area, everyone was soon well fed and healed.  Eventually, Desu, Darwin, Hrum and Locke went back into the caves.As they examined the temple again, they saw that some objects had been removed from the web-lined side cave.  Obviously, they had missed some treasure.Desu took one of the cultist’s bodies to feed to the tentacled thing, but they were unable to find it.  In the end, Desu left the body where the creature had been encountered before, hoping that it would find and accept the gift.“I liked that tentacled thing,” he said.At last they went back to the Y-shaped intersection, and Darwin was able to explore the right-hand side with his friends.  After about thirty feet of sharp descent, the passage narrowed into a V of stone.  The floor was only a couple of feet wide, requiring the group to travel in single file to continue.  They could hear running water somewhere below.The difficult passage emerged onto a spot of more level ground, almost a grotto, where small pink stalactites grew down from the ceiling, with growths of whitish stone flowers among them.  Water trickled out of the right hand wall, forming a sort of small puddle before seeping back down into the rock.  The water came from the mouth of a figure carved into the stone – elflike, but with ram’s horns.  Below the figure, blurred somewhat from the cumulative effects of water erosion, were Sylvan words written in dwarven runes:Taste of thisAnd drink full wellFor by good willThis Water fell.They bent to drink.  The cold water had a stony, metallic taste to it, but it also was tingly and strangely refreshing.“I have a feeling,” said Locke, “that this water would have healed us, had we still been injured.”  He bent to fill his waterskin, and the others did the same.Darwin went to look at the passage beyond, but the cavern dropped farther than his rope would reach, and at last he gave up on exploring further.“Come,” said Desu.  “It is time to return to Long Archer.”* * * * *They stopped that night at the ruined tower where they had fought the ogres.  Darwin walked up the ruined stairway as far as he dared, and looked out upon Weirwood the Great.  They then went and examined the cairn the ogre had been building.  They uncovered a female ogre, who had been beaten to death by something – or someone – of great strength.  The group recovered the ogress.That night, three of the men-at-arms, who had been standing watch, disappeared without noise or trace.Spooked, they moved quickly on.* * * * *Back in Long Archer, Hubert Oarsman gladly received the group, and his son.  He invited them to dine in his home, and apologized for doubting the worth of the half-orc.  “For you have brought back my son,” he said, “and I was a fool to doubt you.”  To each he gave forty pieces of gold, with an extra one hundred coins to split among them for returning Brand Oarsman alive.“I don’t need anything more,” Desu said.“Nonsense!” the elder Oarsman exclaimed.  “If I could give you more, I would gladly do it, to have my son returned to me!  You have my undying gratitude.”“Actually,” said Darwin, “I was wondering what it would cost us to buy a ship from you.”  He had heard rumors of the ruined tower of Amoreth the Arcane, down the Selwyn River, in Selby-by-the-Water.  A great desire to find the lost magic of the long-departed wizard had arisen in him.Little did he know that he would never reach Selby-by-the-Water alive, and that – once there – his body would never leave.</blockquote>

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