by Ghostwheel » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:00 pm
Our night had been uneventful. That is good considering the monster that Azaar defeated the previous evening. The cool night air lent itself to a good night's sleep and when it was my turn for the watch, it allowed me to hear an elf coming close to the camp. Wow, either it's a once in a lifetime with a noisy elf, or I'm starting to hear better. Gotta be a noisy elf!
He checked out ok but a little unwary of what turned out to be following his path. Another spider. Luckily this one wasn't near the monster from last night and we dispatched it fairly easily. Our new freind joined our rag tag group at least for a while. He was unsure of the direction he had come and we were happy for the extra help.
Following the trail we came to an opening in the forrest. Carefully, we approached the center of the clearing and found a funnel web going straight down. Pilin told us that the web was not meant for capture, but for climbing. Hmmm, me climbing in this plate would be interesting. I convinced the group to tie off as the webs we could see further down in the hole had a more ominous appearance to them. We made it to the ledge without incident. Discovering the retractable bridge that might come in handy later, we moved into the North cavern. A flash of my torch revealed to those of us without the gift of night vision a stone chimera which Pilin said was once a living creature. Please don't wake up and find us here. It seems he had done so before as the ground in front of the statue was littered with the remains of townsfolk.
The walls, ceilings and floors were covered in webs. We have found our target. We must hurry before more of the townsfolk end up as victims to these vicious spiders. One thought did cross my mind...why not turn the place into a blast furnace and burn the spiders out. As I was working out the mechanics, battle broke out fromthe room ahead. Pilin yelled to watch out for the stingers. This should end well. As I made my way to the battleground, another statue was very familiar. As I brought my faith to bear on him, our friend became able to move again. The dead Arenea in the corner shed new light on the situation with the spiderkillers. This would seem to be an assult on the normally freindly shapeshifters. I could do nothing for this one, he was too far gone for my ability.
Moving further into the chambers, another Arenea was still alive and had several eggs laid within his body. I was able to remove them and revive him from the horrible fate that may have been his. He was grateful and asked us to help save the colony. A bit of questioning helped us to understand the spiderkiller wasps don't normally attack this way and the guards were overrun before they could sound any alarm other than to get their children to safety.
We had to hurry to save his queen. She was holed up in the main chamber and a couple of the wasps were making egg runs on her. We managed to defeat them and after a couple attempts I removed their foul spawn and revived her like I did to her servant. She was grateful as well and then asked us to help escort her children back to the town. This seemed a bit outrageous and we explained what was going on at the town and it may not be a good idea to escort more spiders into that situation even though we knew they wouldn't harm more villagers. It didn't sound like a great plan, but then again our plans never do seem to get less complicated.
Following the directions from the queen spider, we found what could only be the food source she had described to us. The restrained Hydra. It appeared to be asleep even thought none of the spider clan could tell us when the last time was when it was sedated. And to add to the enjoyment, we had to traverse webs to get past it. Here's where I will wake up the Hydra and the party will die, I thought to myself. Sure enough as I started to test the webs, down I went. Thank the Lord for our sturdy Dwarven friend. He was saving me from what I now saw as a swarm of rats in the water below. And just as I had feared, the Hydra woke up.
I had a wonderful view of the battle from my dangling perspective. The diversion from our new found friend was enough to get the party past the Hydra. I was helped back to solid ground by my friends. Sorry for the trouble, but you do know how good I am at balance.
The children were found. Their guardian was untrusting of us, can't blame her, but did finally relent when we spoke the name of the queen and explained our roles. But rest was needed and despite her surprise that the Hydra was active and her urgency to leave, we rested. Depleted we would only get all of them and us killed. I am not looking forward to the journey out if we have to pass by that Hydra again...
Buckle up Bonehead. 'Cause you're goin' for a ride!