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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 327822" data-attributes="member: 1210">Attack of the mist spider[Disclaimer: I lied, nobody dies this time... I'd originally thought that this update would cover more; that's next time.  But yes, one of our heroes does indeed bite the metaphorical bullet very soon.]The problem is, there’s no cleric handy.  Turk never returned to them after going to fetch his boat; but this probably has to do with the fact that almost immediately they were attacked and then hiding.  Horbin’s missing, too; he probably couldn’t find them either after fleeing into the mist.  And where are Bolfol and Clambake?  They thought they heard someone calling in the distance once, but...  that ways days ago.In short, Spukoni, Sith, Krunkshank are alone and lost in the mist, and it’s been a week since the fight.  A week, by the way, is nine days long in Cydra.Cautiously, after edging their way down to the beach again, the three move along, hoping to find someone or something.  What if Turk and the rest have already left with the giant?  What if they’re dead?  The three of them know that they don’t have much chance in this place by themselves. But along they go, since they don’t have a choice, seeking... well... anything or anyone.  And before too long, they stumble across a dwarf, of all things.  “I remember you!” exclaims Krunkshank.  “We met you before!  You’re Stone Phillips!”Indeed; this dwarf has crossed paths with the party once or twice.  He even accompanied them on a brief adventure, but that was far away.  Gloomily, Stone tells his tale: he was on a ship attacked by pirates and only survived by clutching to some driftwood.  The party and Stone get reacquainted, and the do the logical thing- they join forces.  “There’s nasty things in the mist!” Spukoni exclaims.How right he is.The group of four travels a few hours down the rocky beach.  It’s an exhausting walk, between sand and stones and the constant chill.  They are all ill-spirited, fearing more wisdom damage and not having the wisdom to take much of it.  But it isn’t wisdom damage that finds them; it’s constitution damage.They settle in to rest a little way from the beach.  Krunkshank takes the first watch, and the rest settle in to sleep.  A fire helps cut the chill a little.  And then, out the mist, rushing quickly at Krunkshank, comes an almost-silent vaporous looking thing.  In fact, there’s a picture I couldn’t show the pcs at the time here: <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm2_gallery/88268_620_23.jpg." target="_blank">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm2_gallery/88268_620_23.jpg.</a> Krunkshank gives a garbled, surprised shout as the mist monster moves on top of him.  He feels his blood chill further and the mist starts to turn red around him.  Spukoni and Sith sit bolt upright, wakened by their dwarf companion’s cry, and scramble to their feet.  Spukoni gives a great shiver and changes into a multi-tentacled, dripping, abhorrent form- his pseudonatural shape!  Sith pulls out his wand of haste and uses it on himself.  And Krunkshank steps out of the monster and drops a fireball on it.  There is a terrible roar as the flames burst out just next to him- and the monster gives a hissing laugh, seemingly unaffected by it!Then, since it’s already in their midst, the scarlet vapor turns and reaches for Spukoni.  His tentacles lash about as the monster claws at him.  He burbles back a step, then hastes himself and sprouts a field of mirror images.  Sith steps back too, drawing out his chain and tossing a handful of magic missiles at the monster- which also zing off it ineffectively.  Krunkshank, noting the crimson creature’s seeming spell resistance, steps back and casts a spell not on it, but on his axe.Then, as the mist monster slides in towards Sith, all three of them engage it in melee.  Stone finally hears the noise as it squeals before the combined onslaught of Sith’s chain, Spukoni’s tentacle-wielded blade and Krunkshank’s axe. The creature seems to burst like a water balloon, and the red color splatters to the ground as blood while the misty part of the creature seems to evaporate.“What was that?” Stone exclaims. “Something nasty,” says Krunkshank.  “I think we should move our camp.”The party agrees, and they spend the rest of the night in a new location, screened by some of the sickly-looking trees.  The rest of the night they are undisturbed, but in the misty morning they’re not much better off than they were.  But what choice do they have?  Back to the sea shore.That day, while traveling, they meet the mist spider.  Its body looks hairy, but the hair is white and writhes like mist.  Its eyes seem to swirl and change from white to grey to a pale blue color.  Strange filaments seem to extend and retract from the creature’s body almost like hooks.  It barrels down on them, looking very unfriendly, and they can feel an aura sapping their will, blurring their senses, as it advances.“Not good!” shouts Stone.Spukoni tumbles away, then hastes and mirrors himself again.  Sith pulls out his wand of haste and uses it on himself, then casts a shield spell.  Krunkshank takes a step back from the huge monster and unleashes a flame strike on it.And once again, the spell slides off of its spell resistance.Stone is screaming his deity’s curses on the spider as it skitters up to Sith and bites him, its terrible fangs breaking through his shield spell like paper.  He gives a terrible cry as he feels a numbness enter him from a poison, but manages to resist it.  The eldritch master Spukoni fires off a pair of lightning bolts, and one of them sizzles and burns it, but the other just deflects off of its resistance.  Sith lays into it with his diabolical spiked chain, lashing it thrice and dealing terrible damage.  Krunkshank tosses another fireball at it, and again his magic slides off its resistance like oil meeting water.  Cursing creatively in frustration, he pulls his axe out.With another pair of bites, the spider drops Sith into an insensate state.  The chain drops from his senseless fingers as he tumbles to lie on the rocks before it, drooling and mumbling.  Still cursing, Stone invokes an area of darkness and steps up to grab Sith’s body.Seeing the darkness fall, Spukoni takes his best shot with two more lightning bolts and tumbles back.  Krunkshank keeps backing away, once again enchanting the trusty ol’ axe.  And, like most predators that live in the gloom, the mist spider can sense life, and so it takes a big bite out of Stone, who gives a great cry of pain as the venom enters him.  But like Sith the first time, he shrugs it off, heroically healing himself and grabbing Sith and making ready to pull him back.  But the spider’s right there and takes another good bite out of him, and this time Stone feels his wisdom dwindling.  With a cry of frustration, he pulls out a scroll and reads it off (yes, even in the darkness) to summon a fire elemental.The spider, sensing a new target, takes but a moment to devour it.  But it’s enough time for Stone to pull Sith away.  Krunkshank tries firing a searing light into the darkness, more from frustration than anything else, but things are looking better as Stone manages to restore enough wisdom that Sith can stand and fight.  When the mist spider emerges from the darkness a moment later, it finds itself facing Stone, Sith and Krunkshank, all angry and scared and with weapons ready.  The three smack at it, and though it succeeds in biting Stone Phillips again, they destroy it.  With a squeal, it curls up.“Good lord,” chokes Krunkshank, “that thing was tough!”Next time: What happens when you play with a dire bear?  Find out as one of our heroes dies!</blockquote>

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