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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 3635636" data-attributes="member: 5675">As we stood at the bottom of the steep slope staring into the room beyond, Flynne squinted slightly before raising his bow and firing flaming-yet-ice encrusted arrows into the stone-lined chamber.Suddenly, the air in the room rippled slightly as shadows condensed and coalesced into solidity. 2 more of the massive shadowy spiders appeared in the room in reaction to Flynne’s fire. The first twisted; a sheet of thick viscous webbing sprang up in the entrance to the room. The second charged across the room, up one wall and was finally suspended from the ceiling out of our reach whilst snapping at us with its long barbed leg which clanged off Igmut’s metal shoulder-plates.Flynne and I backed gingerly down the corridor; he firing his bow whilst I struck up a song of encouragement. As we backed away, another thick spray of webbing was sprayed through the corridor. The pale substance slid uselessly from Igmut’s magic-enhanced frame but wreathed and coiled over Endo and Maynard sticking them to the floor in an instant.Turning, Igmut cast a spell and stretched to touch Maynard. The monk shuddered and twisted – in an instant he broke free of the worst of the webbing and began to pull his way free of the rest. Despite still being trapped in the thick webbing, Endo chanted and gestured in the direction of the two spiders. A vast bang echoed through the room when, with a flash, a bolt of electricity leapt between the two massive spiders causing them both to writhe and twist in the energies. Endo was unable to pull his way through the tremendous mass of webbing on him, whilst his raven familiar flopped in the white tendrils unable to escape. Freed from the webs, Maynard threw a series of shuriken towards the thick body of the spider on the ceiling. The shuriken flew awkwardly and most of them caught in the web or slammed into the doorframe. Only one of the four shuriken actually struke home and sliced a long thin wound across one of the spider’s many limbs. In response, the spider dropped from the ceiling and bit savagely at Igmut. The teeth slammed shut over the top edge of Igmut’s hastily braced shield before the spider snarled; poison dripping to the flagstones. I cast a spell of speed which helped Flynne fire a huge sequence of arrows at the closer of the two spiders. The second spider responded by firing a thick single strand of webs across the room. The webbing slammed into Maynard’s chest at which point the spider twisted and started to haul him into the room. Maynard’s muscles strained in his efforts to avoid being pulled into the spider’s grasp before Igmut’s blade flashed in the corridor and the webbing strand fell in two pieces. Igmut’s second blow crashed into the torso of the nearer spider, as he yelled into its face,“Stop killing us! We just look friend!”“Intruders,” rasped the spider in sudden reply. “You fired first. Evil raiders. We had done nothing. We only defend the tomb.”There was a moment’s sheepish silence as we all slowly turned to look at Flynne. With a supreme effort of will, the elf somehow restrained himself from firing another salvo into the teeth of the closest spider.“We give you one chance,” said the closest spider. “Drop your weapons.”Slowly, gradually, we backed away from outright conflict. First Igmut sheathed his sword before Maynard gestured widely as though to show that his deadly hands were clearly unarmed. “This is Blackleg,” gestured the more wounded of the two spiders at his fellow. “I am called Flycatcher. There are others of our brethren within easy contact. We know that you have slain Walker Across The Threshold.”Properly nervous at the suggestion that there might be three more of these deadly beasts stalking the corridors invisibly nearby, we were suddenly more than willing to listen. “We guard this level. The first level,” the massive shadow spiders explained. “Beneath us are other layers of Icosiel’s resting place. Other guardians. And… others. “Many miles beneath us lies the underdark, and within it lies a people known as the White Kingdom. A people comprised of the living dead; known as ‘true ghouls’. One of these creatures has escaped his fellows, and now resides in the layers beneath us. This ‘Moretto’ has become bold and now raids that which we protect. He has come through the cavern; past the river of blood and stole the Seal of Law from its restingplace. It must be recovered.”“Curious,” I interjected. Why have you not recovered this Seal yourself?”“We cannot,” replied the spider. “We are bound to this layer, yet must protect that which lies within it.”“Hmmm,” I mused. “Tell me, Flycatcher. Would you recognise the wizard who we seek?”“We are willing to compact with you,” said the massive spider after a moment’s pause. “We shall allow you to look for the wizard who entered our domain if you recover the seal and bring us the head of Moretto.”“Deal”, we all agreed.After a brief discussion, we learned that Allustan had entered the complex using a series of brief transportation and invisibility magics to get past the spiders before going up a short flight of stairs into the Wind Duke’s antechamber.We agreed that we would follow him after a few hours rest so that we could recover and prepare ourselves for the chase.Before we rested, I entered a state of communion with the spirits of bards past. As I knelt toying with the frets of my lute, I began to hum an entirely unfamiliar refrain.The Warrior of Pesh, Lying in state,Within Chamber of Whispers,Dark shall he wait.A rest without dreaming,His reward well-earned,Sphere-wielder, oath-maker,Angel unburned.This leader unparalleled,Glorious Icosiel,‘Neath nest of Shadows,This defeater of hell.His tomb now lies buried,Beside gemstone shores,Whilst one of the seven,Lies beyond dark doors.This weapon of ages,Broken in ages gone,Lies guarded alongside,The angel’s deep tomb.The Earl of Coalchester,Bound by elemental oaths,Now guards his old foeman,And his treasure trove. .oOo.We awoke, refreshed, and pushed open the heavy door indicated by the shadow spiders. Within there was a well-crafted statue beneath a shaft of bright light. The statue was that of a sword-armed Wind Duke with one hand over its gemstone eyes. Around the walls were graven images of auran servants who bowed towards this central figure. I mimicked them and muttered something suitably ingratiating in auran, but to my immense relief nothing significant happened.Looking at the room through my Clair de Lunettes, I could see something powerfully magical on either side of the room, which I directed Endo’s attention to.“Stop!” We all froze at Endo’s command; which seemed to be directed towards Flynne who was already approaching the statue’s sapphire eyes with a dagger outstretched. “These two are golems,” explained Endo. “Guardian spirits concealed within the frieze. If the thing they are guarding is disturbed, they could climb out of the wall and wreak terrible vengeance on any thief.”Flynne’s dagger mysteriously disappeared as he headed towards the other exit to this chamber..oOo.The next room was roughly circular with a set of stairs on the far side. The room was filled with a flickering blue light and a fresh breeze. At the centre of the room stood a massive green gemstone beneath a long needle of grey stone. Within the gemstone was a humanoid figure. We had found Allustan.I immediately stepped into the room, when there was a sudden crash of lightning from the long grey stone point. I felt an agonising stab of pain across my chest before the entire room faded to green..oOo.The next thing that I could remember was an appalling stench of ozone as the green gem collapsed from around myself and Allustan. My comrades charged into the room, snatched us both up and we all ran down the stairs.Once there, we discussed what had happened. Allustan explained that he had been attacked by a dragon, and had fled into the Whispering Cairn. Utterly outmatched by the dragon’s fury, he had hoped to find some tool sufficient to help him combat it before being trapped within the gemstone. We told him of what we had learned about the Worms from Eligos within the Free Cities.“This is beyond my powers,” muttered the wizard. “You should discuss this with my master Manzurian the Archmage. Return to my home once you have completed your compact with these spiders, and I shall give you instructions how to reach Mage-Point where he resides.”Unfurling a scroll from his belt, Allustan read briefly, and then disappeared..oOo.At the base of the stairs where we were left was a 40 foot drop at the base of which was a scarlet ringed mosaic on the floor. Metal rungs in the wall led down to the floor, where we could see two narrow corridors leading away from the mosaic. Flynne and Maynard both crept down the ladder. Nearing the bottom, Flynne threw himself away into one of the two corridors making sure to avoid the large mosaic. Igmut then called upon the powers of his Boots of Spider-Climbing before walking casually down the wall and hanging up-side down near Flynne. Maynard simply stepped onto the scarlet mosaic, and that was the last that I saw of him..oOo.A foot-thick metal panel slammed into place at the top of the ladder-space locking Endo and I away from the others. Dimly, we could hear the muffled sound of rushing water beneath us. In a moment of cavalier disregard for our safety, Endo cast a spell and flung us both through a dark doorway into the lightless space below. I clung for dear-life to the metal rungs whilst the sound of raging waters a few feet beneath my feet filled the cavern with tremendous noise. Scrabbling for the catch on my pack, I removed a couple of sunrods and struck them against the wall. They burst into light which was suddenly blinding in the small shaft. Beneath Endo and I, I could see thick opaque red-coloured waters running in a torrent through one of the narrow corridors before it changed direction and poured off down the second. I dropped one of the sunrods, and within an instant the fast flow of the waters whisked the glowing light away from us. A few feet above me, Endo clutched at a golden charm bracelet at his wrist, removing a tiny golden grappling iron and a miniature coil of golden rope. Muttering to them, they attached smoothly, and grew to ‘normal’ size where he affixed the hook to one of the ladder-rungs and dropped the remainder of the rope down into the churning waters beneath us. In an instant, partly holding the rope and partly still sticking to the wall, Igmut hauled himself out of the maelstrom and started to haul on the rope.Endo chanted and began to change. He warped and grew into the form of a massive squid, squeezing past me to drop into the furious waters. I tried to help Igmut haul in our friends on the rope, but when we raised the last of it out it was empty. A red surge came from within the water as one of Endo’s massive squid-tentacles burst from the surface, flinging a yelling Flynne upwards through the shaft before it disappeared beneath the surface again. Flynne inscribed an almost perfect arc in the air before me, snatching vainly at the ladder before falling back towards the red water once again. An instant before he hit the surface, Igmut grabbed him firmly by the forearm and hauled him back on the ladder, as Endo-the-Squid dove back under the water and swam away with the current.As to Maynard, he was missing within the churning waters.</blockquote>

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