Log 11/08

[Theylan]

There was a light fog, well I guess it was more of a settling morning mist, heavy below the chest. Sort of like the dwarf, ha. The rest was refreshing but I don’t think the bard has become used to the elven dream like state I help him attain. He awakes a little jumpy every time and then insists on getting some “real sleepâ€

[Ghostwheel]

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...

[Just Rob]

Wandering through the forest, it was a good thing that no one else was around for my pride would not allow me to acknowledge that I wasn't sure where I was. I obviously need to spend a little more time in my reading cartography, for the map left much to be desired. Imagine my surprise to find that another group was wandering in the area that appeard pretty well armed and after a brief standoff, was welcome to the idea of having a brilliant mage accompany them since they were short on those familiar with the arcane arts.

The forest was literally crawling with spiders. We gradually made our way to a cavern that was filled with spider webs, with two landings below that we could lower ourselves to. Since this appeared to be similar to what I have on my treasure map, I was only too willing to decend into the abyss. To make the long story short, we found a new (to me) kind of spider called a Grey Spider that is part human, part spider. Their base had been attacked by wasp-like creatures that lay their eggs in the spiders which are eventually consumed by the parasitic creatures. We fought our way down to the main chamber where the queen was and through our timely interference we managed to save the queen and take down the insects. She then told of her colony's children who were being held elsewhere in the complex and needed rescue. Other than a webbed hydra held as a guard dog over the place where her children were held, she said we shouldn't have much difficulty. The universe loves to spin irony almost as much as spiders love to spin web.

The party was not as quiet as it should be and managed to wake the sedated hydra and face its attacks. My magic talents were employed to their maximum to get the party safely past the beast without facing its full fury. However, all the constant battling left me low on effective spells, so I needed to rest after we made it to the chamber where to children and their guardian were. They wanted to go immediately, but I prevailed upon them to let us stay and rest so we could face whatever other adversities we might encounter better prepared. I believe there will yet be other nasties to deal with in this underground cavern.