The next morning, we gathered our equipment, sharpened our weapons and set out into the swamp, led by Malachite’s expert eye and the sharp nose of Clive the hulking ape. We slogged through the deep mud and brackish water for hours on end, and a little after noon came to a clearing just raised slightly from the swamp. Standing by a tree were two figures. We closed on them, and became nervous – there were two lizardmen standing, utterly immobile.
The lizardmen were made of grey stone; reminiscent of that which we had seen a few days earlier when we rescued the small girl. One was plainly in a state of shock, whilst the other was in the process of raising its hands up to its eyes. There was no moss on either statue. We moved away swiftly, but just as we were pushing back into the swamp water, Malachite announced that the trail split.
“The two back there on the island are not part of the group we were tracking,” he announced. “Half head off to the east, and half go west.”
We discussed briefly, and followed the eastern trail.
.oOo.
After another hour’s trudging through the thick mud, Malachite stopped our march again. “Webs”, he announced. He was right. The entire area of swampland before us was cloaked in a thick forest of cobwebs, some of which was almost half a inch thick. Malachite poked them with a stick, and then declared that the spider which had strung them together must be between 20 and 30 feet across.
Seconds later, we heard movement. All of our heads (except Igmut’s), turned in the same direction at the sound of many heavy movements. Flynne crept out into the web-coated bushes, and returned to tell us that there was a central thick area of webs, which had a lizardman strung up in it. We moved towards this site, but as we set off, 2 positively huge spiders, each perhaps 15 feet in width rushed out towards us, biting at Clive and Igmut.
The teeth dripped venom as the snapped within inches of Igmut’s armoured form, but the other one’s poison made the massive ape sag at the knees with its potency. Endo’s familiar swarm of tiny spirits clustered around the spider attacking Igmut, pulling at as-yet unseen injuries, before Flynne splashed through the swamp to hack a terrible wound in the creature’s hindquarters. Igmut, benefiting from the bolstering powers of my song, managed to cleave off one of the spider’s legs with his massive sword.
From close to Clive and ‘his’ spider, there were a series of watery howls. I looked across, and could see the heads of several wolves just above the swamp-water, snapping at the spider to no avail. Then the spiders snapped back; but both massive sets of jaws slammed shut off-target. We breathed a sigh of relief and then returned to the brawl.
Flynne’s enchanted longsword sliced upwards once again, and the spider’s guts spilled out into the slime, and then the enraged Clive tore into the second arachnid, which slumped under the punishment of so many injuries.
Just as we were ready to celebrate, there was a creaking cracking noise. We turned slowly, as a heavy bog-oak tree was torn in half, crashing to the floor under the weight of a two-foot thick hairy leg. We looked up… and up…
.oOo.
15 feet above our heads, and perilously close to Endo, there was an even larger spider. Its colossal body held a number of large black eyes which twinkled at us as ropes of venomous saliva dripped hissing into the mud at its feet. From behind me, Malachite chanted, and a bolt of lighting slammed down from the clear sky, slightly scorching the creature’s back, and filling the air around us with the stench of burning hair and ozone.
Clutching his metamagic rod of swiftness, Endo blinked out a rapid spell, and the hurtled away from the creature at massive speed, pausing only to fling a second spell at the creature’s eyes. For an instant, we could see the milky white film of blindness swirling in the black eyes, but then the creature blinked, and the darkness returned.
Hissing, the spider then darted forwards, twisting as it ran to shoot a thick stream of webs at Clive, sticking easily to his fur and entangling him in its strands. Flynne fired a shot off; the arrow breaking off as it struck the target. The spider cleaved down a summoned wolf with one limb before scuttling forwards, being bitten by a second wolf as it went; then more of the webbing shot out of its glands, this time gluing Igmut’s spear even tighter into his hand, and making his movement massively more difficult. Endo fired spells, Malachite began a second summoning spell, as the rest of us fired a barrage of arrows, bolts and slingstones at the beast, all to no great effect.
Endo’s next spell was one of haste, followed up by firing another spell at the creature – his enfeebling ray of darkness shot clear over the creature and dissipated in the sky above. Despite our best efforts, however, the beast closed with Clive the ape, and the 8 foot wide jaws gaped and closed around the ape’s shoulders. Clive was practically brought to the floor in a single bite, and the venom reduced him to the strength of a child in an instant.
My crossbow sang, striking a couple of times to a minimal effect, then Igmut shambled forwards, still encased in thick webs, stabbing upwards with his spear. Ichor poured from the two terrible wounds, but the creature stayed upright.
Over the next few seconds, more lightning slammed down from the sky, move wolves appeared from nowhere around the spider, biting out at it, but it was still alive, and its mandibles slashed downwards, tearing into Clive’s chest, snapping ribs as though they were twigs. As blood fountained upwards, we could see the beating heart of the brave ape. It pulsed once, twice, and then was still.
I raised my crossbow, sighted, and fired. The bolt flew true, through the ichor-stained maw, and up into the creature’s head. With a mighty crash, the titanic spider crashed to the floor.
.oOo.
Over the next couple of hours, Clive was placed on a pyre, before we turned to the massive corpse. Malachite’s knife sliced expertly at it, and we took a number of bottles of the powerful venom. Then we returned to our plans. After a few minutes, there was a choking noise from behind us. We turned back to the massive corpse, and saw Flynne, frothing at the mouth, collapsing on the floor in convulsions. He was surrounded by arrows, many of which had dark venom on the tips. He had clearly been dipping his arrows in the frothing liquid before falling prey to the poison himself.
A while later, he was partly restored through the use of Igmut’s magics, and together we crept to the area where Flynne had seen the captured lizardman. When we arrived, the figure was clearly dead.
As we began the slow process of picking through the spiders’ nest, another of the massive creatures appeared, picking its way delicately across the webbing. A barrage of missile fore hurtled at the creature, including a pinpoint shot from Flynne who was still incredibly accurate despite being as weak as a newborn. He was so accurate, in fact, that I cast a spell of invisibility on him, allowing his next shot to be placed so well that the spider squealed in agony.
The creature skittered across the webbing and bit me in the shoulder. Blazing agony flared across my arm and chest, and I could feel my strength being sapped away by the creatures’ terrible venom. My eyes blurred, but I could still see Igmut’s sword cleaving the creature into two massive parts. The half-orc then turned to me, and helped minimise any further effects of the poison. We then returned to the nest, picking out any items of interest from the mess.
.oOo.
We were so weakened as a group that we decided it would be best to take some time to recover. Over the course of the next day, we could see Malachite talking to small animals, birds and other creatures, before stroking a large crocodile under the chin and crooning to it. He was followed by the creature that evening when he strolled back into the camp looking grimly determined.
The next morning, Igmut and Malachite cast a series of spells on Flynne and I, returning our strength to normal. Clive’s pyre was lit, and we set out following Malachite for several hours. The trail wound out of the swamp up a slight rise, up a hillock clustered in mangaroo branches. As we walked the slope, Flynne halted us. He put one finger to his lips to silence us, and the pointed down at the floor. Concealed behind one cluster of branches was a dark opening in the hill. We had found the entrance to the lizardman lair.
.oOo.
The lair itself was thick with the branches of the mangaroo bush, woven together to form floors, walls and even the ceilings of the dark tunnels. The air within was humid, damp and musty.
Flynne sneaked into the tunnel, clutching an arrowhead lit by Igmut’s prayer to Kord. He returned in moments and beckoned us into the darkness. We paced down into the low hill, reaching a crossroads which would have been completely dark were it not for the lights we carried. We followed the tunnel to our left, after Igmut’s determination that the writings in his ‘Big Book of Kord’ saying “…and you shall stand to the left of the mighty” meant that we should take the left path in any option. “Left is the path of Champions!”
The tunnel was twisted and winding, and smelt of bat guano. Flynne’s reports came swiftly that there was something large perched in the darkness – a large perversion of the female form with red wings, hair and claws. Gripping our weapons tightly, we continued down the corridor.
The instant I saw the figures on their perches, I recalled something about what they were and what they could do – but the details escaped me. Desperately, I struck up the chords of ‘The Song of the Harpy’ which spoke of the beasts and of their many powers. Even as I began to strum my lute, Flynne fired his first shot at one of two of the creatures within the room.
The other bird-woman began an eerie song, snaring the senses and drawing Igmut and Flynne closer to them. I could see their weapons lowering, but then realised the true secret to my chant. I raised my voice slightly, and changed tempo, and ‘The Song of the Harpy’ picked up on the enemy’s tempting song, perfectly harmonising, twisting around the magics of the harpy’s enchantment and neutralising them.
.oOo.
As the scrawnier of the two creatures swooped off her perch to strike at ‘Mr Punch’ the crocodile with a club, the other clung with her feet, drew a heavy longbow and fired a series of arrows at Igmut. 3 long shafts slammed into his chest, and dark blood that welled at the wounds was instantly frozen with some icy magic from the arrows. With a heavy metallic crash, the formerly healthy half-orc collapsed to the floor from his injuries. Seconds later, the roots which made up the ceiling began to twist and writhe, as Malachite’s spell of entangling tried to pin her in place.
As I bent to tip a potion down Igmut’s throat, Endo cast a spell over my head. His magic failed to take effect on the bow-wielding harpy. Seeing this, he raised the metamagic rod once again, and a second spell flashed out in the darkness. This also struck the harpy, who tore through it with her heavy claws.
Even as Igmut stood and cast a powerful spell of healing to restore himself to some semblance of health, the bow-wielding harpy nocked three more arrows and fired smoothly at Flynne. The arrows smacked with pinpoint accuracy into his head and neck, and my elf friend collapsed to the floor.
Again I stepped forwards, casting a healing spell on Flynne, who rolled to his knees and, still bleeding heavily, fired at the harpy with an arrow stained with the lethal snake venom. It smacked into her, but the poison didn’t take effect.
As yet more spells slammed into her, and the smaller harpy was slain, the remaining bird-woman drew the bow once again, firing three shots at Endo this time. The wizard was struck in the hip, shoulder, and then the third arrow slammed home into his eyeball, and it was his turn to crash to the floor.
Igmut wheeled away from the combat, stepped over to Endo and tore the arrow from his eye, before casting yet another of his most powerful healing spells, returning Endo to the land of the living. My own spells to attack the harpy were completely ineffectual.
Malachite was busy casting as well, as lightning crashed down from the room’s ceiling into the harpy for some slight charring, and a series of eagles appeared, circling around the room and clawing at her. Running low on options, Endo again cast his spell of hasting, hoping that it would give us time
Gingerly, from his knees, Flynne drew and fired 2 more of his poisoned arrows, which bit deeply into her torso. She stiffened, and was immediately gripped and tied by the writhing roots.
The ancient elven tradition of the piñata was brought into effect, and our enemy was slain.
As we straightened, we could hear the pounding of lizardfolk feet coming at us from all directions. We looked at one another, nervously.
----------------------
Questions –
1. Do basilisks hibernate?
2. What’s the value of 4 doses of a DC 28, 2d6 Strength loss poison? (DMG p.296 for a starting point)
3. How scary are harpies? (Particularly missile-fire optimised harpies of doom who hit every single person they shoot at with at least one critical?)
4. How grateful were the party that we had a bard with us to neutralise the song of charming? Losing Igmut and Flynne to that thing in the first round would’ve been… well, calamitous is probably putting it mildly!
