Six From Gate Pass - Chapter 3: Shelter From The Storm

[Gregor]

Arnir, you're confident that Kirio fell victim to some form of curse. The spell can be invoked through both divine and arcane means. The most common form is known as Bestow Curse and can cause any number of ailments to the recipient. However, due to the almost incalculable ways to modify, customize and personalize the spell, it is not possible to assert what foul effects may have befallen Kirio should he have failed to resist.

Additionally, the magic emanates from the statue. The emeralds are mundane.

 

[funkmamagoat]

Kirio gets up and dusts himself off, then smiles at the younger elf "that is rather nasty of them don't you think?" he holds up his shiny green prize "There is another one... care to give it a try, I'll boost your resistance to the effect a bit... c'mon, try it, it was... well... not fun, but resisting it is immensely satisfying..." He looks to the dwarf "How about you Hrimr... try the legendary dwarven ... will, stubbornness... whatever."

 

[The Bashar]

Hrimr shakes his head.

"You risk getting cursed for a shiny gem? Crazy! Maybe we should just move on to through the stone door in the back."

 

[funkmamagoat]

Kirio shrugs and pockets the emerald... "probably wise... it was a rather unpleasant experience, depite the reward." he indicates the hallway with the door "after you good dwarf..."

 

[The Bashar]

Having already checked the door for traps, Hrimr moves forward and attempts to open the door.

 

[Gregor]

Into the lair...

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Caves (Spider Lair)

Hrimr, you push the heavy stone door open slowly. You need to throw your sturdy dwarven weight into the push as if feels as if something is binding the door or tethering it somehow. However, with a final audible rip and tearing sound, the door grinds open.

As the party moves into the room, the air that rushes to fill your nostrils is redolent of mold and a sharp acrid chemical stench that irritates you. Before you spans a massive room that is more of a cavern than a worked chamber. At one point it was probably a grand burial tomb, but due to earthquake, sinkholes or some other age-old calamity, most of the room has collapsed away down a vast shaft into the earth. The ceiling has crumbled, walls have peeled away and most of the floor is missing. You stand upon a bridge of stone that was once part of the floor. Directly ahead is another portion of the floor that stands alone like an island in a black sea. Upon its surface sits a giant golden sarcophagus in the same snakeman style seen elsewhere. To the East is yet another bridge of stone that leads to another entranceway that heads deeper into the complex.

What is most startling about this deplorable place are the uncountable sheets, strands and knots of thick white webbing that completely coats the walls and ceiling. The only exception is a large tunnel in the Western side of the cavern and a few patches of stone that are covered in clusters of a purplish-blue mold that sheds an eerie phosphorescence that bathes the area in faint shadowy light.

Incredibly, the webbing even hangs suspended over the dark chasm that looms below you, like some vast snowy carpet, thickly woven, opaque and plush. Sitting on the webbing-floor are a number of glistening pulsating whitish sacs. Hanging from the walls and ceiling are desiccated humanoid forms bound and wrapped in webbing, the occasional skeletal limb hanging outwards like the roots of some evil tree on the surface.

Shaking you from the strange sight of this room is the sudden movement of three large creatures in the gloom. The spine tingling sound of chitin rattling and scraping against stone fills your ears and you now see that you are in the lair of some rather large spiders. Two of the vermin sit below you on the suspended web floor, and measure no smaller than a draft horse. The third is larger than a grizzly bear and is directly before you, perched upon the sarcophagus, and its eyes shed a weird orange light. Thick red hairs cover its otherwise pitch black body and it turns its attention from what looks like a dehydrated and very dead human towards you.

********
Initiative

1 - Arnir (swarms 1 and 2)
2 - DM #1 (H)
3 - Hrimr
4 - Bannock
5 - Alric
6 - DM #2 (L)
7 - Kirio

********

Spider Lair - Round 1

GM: There is some environmental information for this encounter. First, all of the black space on the map is considered to be covered in extremely thick white webbing (so thick that you can’t even see below it) and this web-floor sits 10 feet below you. Second, this means that if you want to move onto the stone island in the middle, or the other bridge (or anywhere else marked by grey stone tiles), you will need to jump. Third, there is webbing all over the stone as well, so running or double moving is risky. Fourth, the sides of stone areas that you’re standing on are very rough unworked stone with hand and footholds and can therefore be climbed. Fifth, the weird fungus that sheds light in the room grants only enough for there to be very dim illumination. This means that the spiders have concealment (25% miss chance). You do not have concealment and the spiders do not have concealment from Hrimr (darkvision). However, if anything is within 20 feet of Arnir or Alric (who have the equivalent of torches active) then the concealment is obviously cancelled out.

 

[fromage67]

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Caves (Shrine)

Hrimr, your dwarven intuition tells you that the switch back stone stairs lead you down about 50 feet from the room above. The stairs end at an archway that takes you into a small circular room that is no more than 30 feet in diameter and only 15 feet high. You enter the room from the West (presumably the pit into which Alric fell sits about 10 feet lower and to the South beyond the wall) and immediately notice the large stone statue of a winged serpent baring its fangs along the Southern wall. Light from Arnir’s spell glimmers against two brilliant green emeralds set into the statue’s eye sockets. At the base of the statue sits a large stone chest, perhaps 10 feet long by 5 feet wide. The walls of the room were likely painted in frescoes at one point, but now only muted colours and stains remain. Also set along the walls are a number of stone shelves that are cluttered with the stubs of old tallow candles now covered in dust and mold. To the North is a short hallway that ends at a cobweb covered stone door.

********
South Harbour (Roof of Warehouse)

Lars, you shuffle along the roof, making minimal noise compared to the rain slapping down on the clay. When you reach the window, you are able to peer down into the building.

You can see that there are likely hundreds of wooden crates stacked everywhere inside. Most run along the walls, but there are a few large piles that reach almost up to the ceiling of the warehouse, or run in long aisles between thick wooden pillars. The result is a relatively labyrinthine layout. Towards the front of the building you can see that a closed wooden door leads to a room built within the warehouse – likely an office or something.

Directly below you are three of the cronies that were present with Lowduke that night he was attempting to sell the egg to the noble at the Bronze Trident. They are sitting at a round wooden table, drinking beer from a nearby keg and tossing dice for silver pieces. One oil lantern burns on the table, and a few others sit around on the tops of crates or hang from nails in pillars throughout the building. Though lit, it is still dim and shadowy. Nearby to the table are a few iron cages filled with old hay. You can faintly make out a furred limb, a scaled tail or a clawed paw emerging from the edges of the cages.

GM: Lars, the crane is pretty much a basic rope and pulley secured to a long horizontal beam which is affixed to a vertical beam on a circular base which can be rotated (so that the rope and pulley hangs over the warehouse, the sea, the boardwalk, etc. within its radius) with some elbow grease. Disable device or Knowledge: architecture/engineering would probably allow you to operate/jury rig the machine. However, it looks like its been out of use for some time - Knowledge: architecture/engineering would also tell you its condition.

Disappointed at the presence of the 3 card players below, Lars realizes that burglary will be difficult under the circumstances ... but perhaps not impossible. He inspects the crane, and comes away relatively satisfied that he can operate it after a fashion.

He then turns his attention to the lock securing the skylight. He asks himself it would be easy to open. Then he carefully resumes his scouting, navigating the slightly inclined and slick roof, and making his way towards the front of the building.

OOC: - Questions for the GM: 1) Is the lock on the skylight standard, does it look easily pickable? 2) Will a Sleep spell work through a pane of glass?

 

[digimattic]

Arnir's jaw drops as he lays eyes on the monstrous beasts before him, dimly silhouetted by the soft purple glow. His finger nervously rubs the grip of his bow for a fraction of a second before his jaw hardens in revulsion. Locking eyes on the beast at B8, Arnir uses the power of his enchanted bow to imbue him with power.

His eyes flutter for a moment as he stretches out his hands, and arcs of white hot electricity jump between his spread fingers before a blinding white arc of lightning jumps instantly across the chasm towards the spider

 

[Gregor]

Arnir, your bolt of lightning temporarily blinds the party as it sparks outward with a loud stroke of thunder. Though the creature is able to dodge the full blow of the spell, the charge catches the spider in the abdomen, splitting its chitin and spilling ichor. It hisses and emits a weird wail.

Additionally, the edge of the bolt tears open one of the pulsating sacs sitting on the web-floor. Some of them hiss and pop in the heat of the bolt, spilling ooze, but two small capsules pop open like a freshly cracked egg, spilling veritable carpets of small spiders. Two clumps form into sickening swarms that then begin to roll towards you and the party in a clicking roiling mass (one is able to climb the stone and ends at F5; the other is partly up the stone at E2).

The huge spider on the sarcophagus also hisses loudly and then climbs down the central island of stone to seek cover.

GM: Arnir, these two swarms will go after you on the initiative count.

 

[The Bashar]

Hrimr looks at the spiders with much wonder. He's seen some big ones in his days in the caves of the mountains, but the one in the center is much larger than any he has seen before. He tries to recall what he knows about the various spiders.

He steps to over (to G2) , as he move he draws his warhammer. He then begins to cast a spell.

OOC: Casting Call Lightening. Will do knowledge nature checks on spiders