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darkelfshadow · 5 years

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Session Summary - 56

AKA “The Missing Child”

Adventures in Taggeriell

Session 56 (Date: 3rd November 2018)

Players Present:

- Rob (Known as “Oloma”) Human Female.

- Bob (Known as “Sir Krondor) Dwarf Male.

- Travis (Known as “Sir Lee”) Human Male.

- Paul (Known as “Labarett”) Elf Male.

- Arthur (Known as “Gim”) Dwarf Male.

Absent Players

- Clive (Known as “Ignaaz”) Half-elf Male. <Played by Travis>

NPC

- (Known as “Naillae”) Elf Female. <Controlled by DM>

- (Known as “Nac”) Half-elf Male. <Controlled by Rob>

Summary

- Sunday, 21st Abadius in the year 815 (Second Era). Spring.

- The party begin this session, waking up in the upper rooms of the wagon train compound in the city of Afenal.

- After a simple breakfast supplied by the Red Scale Transport Company, Oloma informs the party that she had a dream and as such she has to go over to the bakery they saw yesterday in the central market square.

- Intrigued, the rest of the party follow Oloma over to the central market, which is a bit quieter today as being Sunday all the colourful tents are not up and only half of the permanent shops around the perimeter are open. The party follow Oloma to a shop with several customers coming out, a sign out the front proclaims this to be the “Muldis Bakery”.

- Gim looks at the bakery, “Your dream told you to buy me a loaf a bread and cheese?”

- Oloma ignores the remark and walks inside the bakery, the party following behind. Inside are several customers and two young dark skin ladies serving behind a counter filled with an assortment of breads, sweets and pastries. Gim starts looking around at all the food drooling from his open mouth.

- Ignaaz pulls out his cittern and starts a tune in the small shop, most of the customers ignore him and he gets a stern look from the two serving girls, apparently annoyed that a busker has entered their shop (Failed Performance check). Sir Krondor can see the performance is going badly and he quickly takes out his flute and starts a tune on top of Ignaaz’s playing. Sir Krondor gives it his all, his fingers flying over the holes on the flute and he blows a series of fast notes, a catchy tune, that both compliments the chords of Ignaaz’s simple tune but also transcends it into a masterful piece of music (Successful Performance check). The crowd now starts to clap and cheer and even the two serving girls start to smile and dance. When the song finishes some of the customers throw coins at Sir Krondor, both gold and silver, and then a middle aged woman gives the Dwarf Knight some sweet bread and an even sweeter smile.

- Once the happy customers have finished their business and leave, Oloma speaks to one of the girls and asks to speak to the manager. From a rear door walks out an elderly dark skin woman who introduces her as Mizra.

- Oloma asks if her mother or grand mother was called Vanessa and the confused woman replies that yes, her mother was indeed called Vanessa. When Oloma asks to speak in a private area, Mizra leads the party through the back door, past the kitchens where various items are being prepared and baked and into a rear enclosed courtyard. Sir Krondor is dragging Gim outside and Gim’s hand are covered in flour and jam.

- The party learn that Mizra is the daughter of Vanessa, who in turn was the daughter of Yali Muldis, the serving girl who’s room held the shrine to Pelor in the Manor of the Khudnil that the party received blessings from and also where they found the True Amulet of Pelor. Oloma takes out the letter they found, the letter that Yali wrote to her daughter Vanessa, when she realised that all hope was lost and her death would soon be open her.

- Mizra reads the letter, tears coming down her face, as she finally founds out what happened to her missing mother. Oloma takes out the True Amulet of Pelor and shows it Mizra who exclaims, “Granny Yali’s brooch! I remember seeing that as a young child!”

- Oloma hands over the amulet and says, “I believe Pelor wanted this to be returned to your family, take it.”

- Mizra is overcome with gratitude at the generosity of these strangers and she tries to give something in return, or payment, for what the party has done but Oloma insists that they can not accept any payment for what they have done. In the end, the party accept a simple gift from Mizra, a sack of sweet bread that Gim quickly takes and starts eating like a mad man.

- The party leave the bakery, with the elderly Mizra waving fondly to them, and make their way over to the High Quarter and through to the gardened square where the Temple Of The Weave resides. The party once again stand upon the stone dais to reveal the hidden temple above and then one by one jump up to let the magical winds transport them to the tower which sits floating above in the air. Sir Lee summersaults up as he jumps, laughing as he does so, and lands at the base of the tower with a wide childlike smile.

- Once inside Sir Krondor pays for and takes the magical whet stone that he commissioned Ayser to craft for him. The party speak to Ayser about a reward if they can find the thief who stole his gem but Ayser does not wish to offer a reward, stating instead that as the gem as recovered the Weave is appeased.

- Whilst at the temple, Sir Lee throws 500 gold coins into the stone basin as an offering. The coins glow yellow and Sir Lee looks expectantly for a gift to appear but the coins disappear and the stone basin is empty.

- Naillae exclaims, “You just wasted 500 gold coins!”

- Sir Lee turns away, “It is nothing. That is a trifling amount.”

- Naillae replies, “Want to throw a trifling amount of coins my way then?”

- The party leave the temple and make their way over to the Gold Blade Blacksmith. Along the way Nac casts a Sending spell to pass a message to Seanicus, advising where they are. The Cleric waits for a response but none comes.

- Nac speaks, “Seanicus did not respond.”

- Oloma asks, “Did the spell not work? Can he respond later?”

- Nac, seemingly unconcerned speaks, “The spell worked, he chose not to respond or could not respond. He can only reply whilst the is active. I will try again in one weeks time.”

- The party soon arrive at the Gold Blade Blacksmith and speak to Babrak, the master craftsman who runs the smith. He has several apprentices working for him. Once again the only reason Babrak will even see the party is because of the presence of Gim, a member of the prestigious Oglyth Mixnar, the Dwarven Guild of Black Smiths.

- Gim shows a sample of the black dragon scale hide they carved from the defeated Garnifalix in the Black Swamp. Babrak tells the party he can work with dragon scale and after some negotiating with Babrak he agrees to make them two dragon scale shields and a full set of armour, in exchange for keeping the rest of the dragon scale hide and up front payment of 6000 gold coins; which the party pays for in gems. It will take nearly 3 months to craft all the gear but now that Oloma knows the sigil of the teleport circle under the Temple of the Weave she can return here as needed.

- The party ask Babrak if he can work Cold Iron and with a deep laugh he replies he can. Cursing their decision to send the five Cold Iron bars to Lington, they will arrange to have the bars sent back to Winterhaven so they can access them again via the Bag of Sharing.

- Leaving the Blacksmith’s, a bit poorer now, the party leave the High Quarter and head over to the central markets and past their accomodation to find the City Watch Post and City Lockup of Afenal. Entering the sturdy, reinforced barracks the party ask to speak to whom ever is in charge and they are told that the Faris, a title from the Afrandul language meaning Sacred Knight or Captain, will come to see them.

- A tall, distinguished looking dark skin male wearing gold armour and adorned with colourful silk scarfs comes out to meet the party. The party learn this is Faris Fuad and speak to him regarding the theft of the Moon Gem. The Faris does not seem overly concerned with the theft as the item has been recovered and he has other more pressing issues to do with. When the party ask about a possible reward for finding the thief, the Faris tells the party he is not interested in the matter nor will he be offering any reward.

- The party leave the City Watch and head further south into the city, passing the many tall multi storied buildings packed with many people. Though small in size, the city of Afenal has a large population. Eventually the party move into the underbelly of the city. The buildings here are in a poorer state, and the many people wandering the streets appear to be of a less well off class.

- The party make their way to the White Mists Tavern, which they are hoping to find information that could lead to the thief that stole the Moon Gem, as they wish to obtain the Portable Hole.

- Labarett says, “How are we going to approach this?”

- “Yeah, we need a plan or something,” replies Sir Krondor.

- Sir Lee scoffs, “We approach like this!” and he strides boldly to the front door and kicks it in with a solid thrust of his armoured boot and then walks straight in. The door slams against the wall and all conversation stops as everyone turns to look at who has arrived.

- Inside the large tavern, which is broken into two seperate sections each with four tables, are many patrons. A tall male Elf, serves drinks behind the bar, whilst three serving girls all walk around the premises bringing out drinks and food. There are two empty tables in the main section so the rest of the party follow Sir Lee as he sits down at one in the corner.

- Ignaaz pulls out his cittern and begins to play a tune about the inept City Watch and how they couldn’t catch a fly on street dog, with such skill and passion, that soon he has most of the bar tapping, dancing and laughing. At the end of the song, many of the patrons throw gold and silver coins over, and one of the serving girls tells the party that the first round of drinks are on the house for that performance and brings over mugs of ale for everyone (Successful Performance check).

- After having his drink Ignaaz starts to move around the room, speaking to those who will talk, or listening in to conversations, to get a feel for the crowd. Oloma uses her telepathy to keep track on Ignaaz.

- Ignaaz narrows his search down to a likely table in the corner of the other section of the tavern, where two men dressed in dark robes with hoods drawn over their heads sit and drink.

- Ignaaz sits down and starts up a conversation, trying to convince the pair that he is looking to hire skilled thieves for a job but his demeanour doesn’t convince the criminal thugs of his honesty and they accuse him of being a city watch informant (Failed Deception check). One of the thugs pulls out a dagger, slick with a black shine, and tells Ignaaz to leave now or else.

- Oloma, who has been monitoring the conversation via telepathy, has already told the party that the situation is going bad and as such Labarett and Gim have just arrived in the other section. Gim hangs back a bit whilst Labarett moves towards the seated thug holding the dagger and the Elf Barbarian leans in to say, “Everything all right ….” but he doesn’t finish his sentence as he has to quickly leap back as the slick dagger is immediately thrust towards his face, barely missing (Successful Reflex save).

- Gim throws one hand axe into the table in front of the two thugs and yells, “Ya better rethink your decision lad! You’re out numbered.”

- The hooded figure laughs, “No you are!” as all the patrons in this side of the tavern start to raise.

- Suddenly, Labarett, Gim and Ignaaz find themselves in a full on bar fight, with weapons, as they discover that all the ten patrons in this side of the tavern are in fact together. All the thugs leap up and draw weapons, each has a mace in one hand and a poisoned dagger in the other.

- The fight is quick and brutal. Ignaaz and Labarett get cut with a dagger and their vision blurred as the poison takes hold. Blinded and panicking, Ignaaz casts Thunderwave at the blurred indistinct shapes around him, not realising that one of them is Labarett. The spell forces two of the thugs and Labarett to fly across the room.

- Oloma and Nac start casting spells from their table into the other section of the tavern, whilst Sir Lee and Sir Krondor quickly move over, the Dwarf Knight slicing the edge of his enchanted battle axe Snaidh onto the palm of his hand, drawing blood and causing the weapon to glow red.

- The battle sees Gim surrounded by a bunch of the thugs and he is struggling to deal with them, until Sir Krondor, Sir Lee and Naillae who has snuck up hidden and unaware, all appear to deal with his foes.

- Soon the battle is over and the party stand over the bodies of ten dead thugs. The Elf bar keep, Loftonet, arranges to start getting the bodies pulled out the back and the floors swept of blood. The party quickly search the thugs before they are dragged away but only find a small quantity of gold and silver coins.

- The rest of the patrons in the tavern take little notice in this incident, apparently something of a common occurrence in the White Mists tavern and the party return to their table to continue drinking. Loftonet tries to get the party to donate some money for the clean up and mess they made but Sir Lee tells him to be off and if he doesn’t like it he can go get the City Watch. Sir Krondor can see the bar keep getting angry and tells him to take the weapons and armour and sell those for the trouble, the Elf begrudgingly leaves as he can see he won’t get anything else. As he moves back to the bar, Naillae approaches him and hands over some gold coins and her apologies for her companions behaviour. Naillae, trained city thief that she is, knows it pays to keep on the good side with seedy tavern owners. Loftonet seems appeased now.

- The party stay in the tavern for a while and rest, discussing what to do next. After an hour, they leave the tavern and walk over a short distance to a building with a red wooden sign out the front, with gold letters proclaiming, “The Red Silk.” The party remember that this is the brothel that the gambler Laurens de Marie owns. The party attempt to gain entry into the premises, via a solid looking iron bound wooden door, but can not convince the large guard who speaks to the party through a small spy window in the door to let them in. Ignaaz tries to convince the guard that he is there to collect the weeks takings and the guard tells the Bard to go away and closes shut the spy window (Failed Deception check).

- The party decide to return to the caravan lodging and spend the rest of the day resting. Evening comes and the party get to sleep.

- Moonday, 1st Calistril in the year 815 (Second Era). Spring.

- The morning comes and sees the party sharing breakfast with Brumohn, Leda and the rest of the wagon guards. Downstairs the wagons are getting prepared and ready for the coming journey. Two deliveries arrive at the compound. Oloma receives a package that contains the shawl she ordered from Wadia’s Fine Clothes and a cart arrives that has a several crates of healing supplies that Sir Lee arranged so that they can be taken to Sabi to help with the sickness they have been hearing about. The healing supplies are placed onto the Red Scale Company wagon.

- A short time later, once all the wagons are in position, Brumohn walks down the caravan making last minute checks. The party look across and see the Cultist wagons are ready and see some of the leering faces of the Cultists. They have not forgotten their mission, to learn where the Cultists are taking the stolen treasure to.

- The trip begins and the caravan leaves Afenal, heading south west in the arid hills. The sunny day sees the caravan fall into the same routine as always, stopping occasionally for breaks and then finally stopping at evening to make camp. For the first time on the trip, things go to plan and nothing unexpected happens. Days and nights pass, with the wagon train always pressing onwards, at night the party share drinks and tales with some of the other wagon passengers.

- Fireday, 5th Calistril in the year 815 (Second Era). Spring.

- Nothing much happens until the fifth day of the journey when just after the midday lunch break the party see two of the wagon passengers, Geppert and Oli, walking around frantically calling out. With them is one of the sons, Tomas who has blood on his face and a torn red shirt, and their daughter Mary.

- Brumohn, Leda and the party move over to the family to see what is wrong and are told that their sons Gery and Tomas had been playing around the nearby hills during the lunch break but now Grey has gone missing and Tomas has turned up with scratches and blood over his arms and face, half of his red shirt torn off and with absolutely no memory or idea of what happened to him. The young child appears confused.

- Brumohn starts to arrange search parties. Brumohn, Leda, Eldkin, Orvustia and Tyjit will head in one direction and start to search, whilst the party search another direction. Sulesdeg will remain at the caravan on guard in case the boy wanders back.

- Ignaaz asks if he can borrow the spy glass from Brumohn as he will fly up and begin searching a wide area. The search starts and Ignaaz is flying high up looking for any signs or tracks, using the spy glass. Labarett performs the Ritual of Speak to Animals and then starts to try to find any animals around. At first he can only find some birds but speaking to them reveals little. After a short time he sees a camel a few hills away and slowly approaches it, talking to it to calm it. Labarett speaks to the camel and luckily the animal did see a little one walking past. Labarett mounts the camel whilst the rest of the party mount up on their horses and follow the camel as he leads them to where he saw the little one walking.

- After ten minutes the party can see a small outcrop of boulders, just one among many similar outcrops scattered over the terrain, but this one has a visible scrap of red cotton on one of the rocks.

- Labarett points at the red cloth, “Over there! The boy had half of his red shirt torn. That must be where he went.”

- Sir Krondor looks at the ground and can see two sets of tracks of small feet heading towards those boulders and one set walking back but the set walking back appears to wander around as if the person was confused or disorientated (Successful Survival check).

- The party approach, with Sir Lee in front with his face covered in a wet cloth, as he suspects gas or some other hazard. When the party move towards the boulders they see a hole in the ground, large enough for an adult to enter, that descends down a bending and twisting tunnel into the ground.

- The party decide the missing boy must be down there and after shouting out his name fails to make him appear, they begin to climb down the tunnel one by one. Sir Lee goes down first, followed by Labarett, Naillae and then Ignaaz. Just as Nac is about to climb down, having put away his shield and weapon, as Gim and Sir Krondor stand by on guard, the ground erupts around them on the surface as two giant scorpions appear and attack immediately. One of the creatures leaps towards Nac and other leaps towards Sir Krondor. The scorpion’s large mandibles snap out and their large poisonous tails flicks around trying to sting a victim.

- The party down below can hear the battle above and begin to climb back out. Luckily, the two Dwarves above, though getting hit by the stingers of the scorpions, are not succumbing to the poison thanks to their Dwarven Resilience and by some fluke Nac does not get hit by the stinger that keeps striking towards him.

- Gim cuts off one of the legs (Critical Hit) of one scorpion but soon Sir Krondor, Gim and Nac find themselves clamped by the mandibles of the beasts.

- Slowly the rest of the party make their way out, Ignaaz uses a Levitate spell to help get him up faster and Naillae moves up the tunnel with no trouble thanks to her training in Second Storey Work. Labarett too manages to quickly get back up thanks to his unbelievable speed but the others are finding it hard to get back up.

- Now with three others above to help, the two scorpions are on the defensive. Sir Krondor has had enough he slams down his battle axe on the head of one scorpion, splitting it open killing it, then rolls over to the over scorpion and cuts open the underside of the creature, toppling it over dead.

- Gim walks over to Sir Krondor and the two cousins slap hands smiling. Sir Krondor looks at the others and can hear the others frantically trying to climb up the tunnel and says, “What’s the panic? Gim and I had the situation in hand.”

- Once again the party descend down into the tunnel and find themselves in a series of cavern passageways. Labarett can see footsteps in the ground and some blood. Sir Krondor tells the party that there is something weird about the cavern passageways, they are too straight and they do not appear natural but also do not appear to be carved out (Successful Stone Cunning check).

- Sir Lee is forced to light a lantern and hang it from his belt to see as the cavern is dark. The party move forward, randomly choosing which of the multiple passageways to head down. Oloma stops to examine one of the many bends and as she is touching the stone she senses it is vibrating. The vibrations get suddenly more violent and she leaps back just in time as the rock explodes and large monstrous creature appears. At the same moment another rock wall near Ignaaz explodes as a second creature appears.

- The party now face two Umber Hulks! The surprised party look at the two creatures, who’s large red eyes stare out, the gaze affecting some the party. Sir Krondor, Ignaaz and Naillae immediately fall under the effect of the gaze and are now confused and out of control (Failed Charisma save).

- The battle is hectic as the party are either forced to look at and attack the Umber Hulks and risk falling under the effect of the gaze, or shutting their eyes and blindly fighting. Oloma closes her eyes and uses her psionics to enhance her other senses so that she can still fight effectively. Sir Lee tries to move forward to fight but he too falls to the gaze of the creatures and then starts to randomly attack, striking towards members of the party. Likewise, Naillae who is also confused, plunges her rapier into Nac (Critical Hit) badly wounding him. Labarett too soon finds himself under the effect of the gaze too.

- Nac covers his eyes with his shield and then casts Spirit Guardians around him to fight instead. The battle rages on, with half the party confused, until one of the Umber Hulks is killed. With this break in the battle, Ignaaz manages to regain control of himself and then starts to forcefully and unbelievably drag away Labarett and then Sir Krondor (Successful Strength checks) until each in turn is far enough away to break the power of the gaze and return to their own control.

- Now the battle is on the upper and the party press their advantage and soon the last Umber Hulk is killed by Labarett. The party look around, they are badly hurt and lucky to be alive.

- Labarett speaks, “That explains the confused boy. The gaze effect of the Umber Hulk would be stronger on a young child and made him lose his memory of the incident.”

- Naillae adds, “But surely the other lad must be dead. We should turn back.”

- Sir Lee shouts, “Here! A small belt! He may have wandered off confused further down this passageway. We have to continue.”

- The party are forced to wait whilst Nac casts the long Ritual of the Prayer of Healing, as most of the party are in dire need of healing. Once the spell is done and the party are somewhat healed, they continue along the passageway that the belt was located on. It bends around a few times, and the party are forced to climb up a series of large rocks and boulders that form a natural set of “steps” that found the party now at a higher level and closer to the surface.

- Sir Lee shouts out loudly to call to the boy, his voice echoing around the caverns. There is no response from the boy but Gim hears movement ahead and speaks, “Well, your shout got something’s attention. I heard something moving and then it stopped. Be on guard.”

- As the passageway narrows the party is forced to go into single file, with Sir Krondor leading the way, his cousin Gim behind him.

- Suddenly three giant spiders leap out at the front of the party attacking Sir Krondor. Sir Krondor and Gim start slashing at the foes and they are quickly dropped. Pushing ahead the party round a bend to see the beginning of a large cavern filled with spider webs everywhere. A small hole in the ground can be seen.

- Oloma uses her psionics to create an invisible Wandering Eye and commands its forward into the hole to see what lays within. She sees a series of tunnels, crisscrossing underneath the cavern, and it is filled with hundreds of giant spiders.

- She pulls the Wandering Eye back and then sends it forth into the cavern. She sees that it is a massive cavern, with more holes around it. One of the holes is quite large. She scans the far side of the cavern and sees in one alcove a pile of bones and dead bodies. One small body, the size of child, is covered in webbing and looks new. Just to the side of this alcove there is a hole in the cavern wall and some sun light shinning done; another entrance into the cavern!

- She sends the eye into the larger hole. Below are more hidden tunnels filled and to her horror she sees just one spider, a huge spider, that dwarves all the others.

- Oloma leaves her Wandering Eye on the large spider and then tells the party all that she has seen.

- Sir Krondor speaks, “This is suicide. We walk in there and we will be attacked by an unending swarm of giant spiders, lead by one gigantic spider. How are we supposed to get to the boy and back again!”

- Sir Lee speaks, “Yes, I remember my father telling me about a cave of giant spiders he and his men cleared out. As soon as he enter the webbed area they’ll know we are here.”

- Oloma adds, “It’s worse than that. I’ve read in some books that they use that webbing to know exactly where a creature is as it walks across their lair. You would need to be able to walk so smoothly and slowly to avoid that detection that it would be nearly impossible for the average person to do it.”

- Labarett sighs, “What we need is someway to get to the other side undetected and get the boy out. Oloma saw another exit on the far side, could we descend that, bypass all the webbing and get the boy out that way?”

- Naillae looks hard at Labarett but before she can say anything, Sir Lee snaps, “We don’t know where or how to get to the other entrance. We’re here. We deal with it! Prepare yourselves for battle, we go in now!”

- Labarett, Sir Lee, Oloma, Nac and Naillae all take out vials of antitoxin and drink it, to help protect themselves against poison for the next hour. Gim and Sir Krondor, with their Dwarven Resilience don’t need to but Ignaaz does not have any antitoxin so must go without and be careful. Gim pours a vial of Bladefire upon the blade of his great axe, igniting it in flames.

- The party decide to close off one of the smaller holes and approach the first one. Nac quickly pours two oil flasks down the first hole, in response the sound of moving feet from the hole can be heard. Labarett goes to light a torch and throw it down but realises he doesn’t have a torch. Three giant spiders leap out of the hole and battle starts as the party fight them off as Labarett frantically searches for another fire source. Oloma teleports herself over to the side of the hole and sends a beam of psionic fire energy down into it. The oil ignites and flames start to burn and loud screeching can now be heard from below.

- From the other smaller holes giant spiders start to appear in never ending numbers, leaping towards the party.

- Sir Krondor yells a battle cry as he slices his hand agains the blade of Snaidh to enchant it’s power and make it glow red.

- The party is dispatching the foes easily enough but the supply of the spiders appears endless. They have to fight hard and push ahead for every foot, constantly fighting for their lives. They are taking many wounds from the spiders but luckily the antitoxin is proving effective at preventing getting poisoned.

- As the cavern splits around to the left and right, Gim and Sir Krondor hold off the left side and Labarett and Sir Lee hold off the other side.

- Nac and Oloma are both getting ready to rush forward when they see a gap in the spiders. Oloma shouts, “We’re moving too slow! We need to push through to the other side!”

- Ignaaz is back with Naillae, as the Bard is providing cover spells. Nac turns back to ask Naillae something and then sees the Elf Rogue running away from the battle and back where the party came from. Nac shouts, “That dam Thief just abandoned us!”

- Sir Lee shouts, “Forgot that coward! We don’t need her!”

- Ignaaz looks at the fast running back of Naillae as she disappears from view and his gut tightens in fear.

- The party can see more spiders appearing from the other holes, they are getting swarmed and are barely able to dispatch the foes quick enough not to get overrun. Two giant spiders leap over the front line of the party and start attacking them from the rear.

- Ignaaz has to rush forward and help protect the back of the front line of the party. The spiders are quickly dispatched but not before Ignaaz, in a building panic, miscasts a spell that results in an arcane backfire. The Bard won’t be able to cast any spells until a short rest (Spell Fumble). The Bard pulls out his long sword but he holds it like he is holding a snake, not a figure that inspires confidence.

- The giant spiders keep coming without pause.

- Sir Lee shouts, “We have to do something! We can’t stay here all day, eventually we will fall!” As he turns to swing his sword one of the giant spiders shots a large web at him that covers the Knight, forcing him to stop attacking and try to rip the webbing off himself.

- Oloma goes to help the Knight but he snaps, “No! I’ve got this! Go ahead get the boy before it’s too late! We’re running out of time!”

- Nac and Oloma sees a gap in the spiders and rush forward to the side of the cavern. A group of giant spiders appear and are blasted into oblivion by the pair. Labarett sees his chance, strikes a against his Anarchic long sword as he runs through the gap created by Nac and Oloma to the next hole. He starts to pour oil down the hole.

- Oloma looks around the cavern. More and more spiders are coming. The party are struggling badly. She dismisses her Wandering Eye and instead summons a powerful psionic protection on the party, an Aura of Victory, envelopes them. She yells at Labarett, “Hurry! Light the oil!”

- Labarett goes to light it but he has not seen the large slowly moving shape coming out from the larger hole behind him.

- Suddenly two harpoon like fangs shoot out and it hit Labarett from behind, impaling him. He is pulled away from the hole and out of sight of the rest of the party, yelling in utter agony as he does so. The large Harpoon Spider has joined the fight, having appeared at the large hole. As it drags Labarett to it’s mouth it bites into the Barbarian who thankfully does not succumb to the deadly poison.

- The battle rages on and unknown to the party, a dark hidden figure descends from the other side of the cavern, through the hole where a tiny amount of sunlight beams. The dark figure moves silently, slowly, with such careful and deliberate movements as to not make their position known by the webs or combatants fighting each other. The hidden figure moves through the cavern keeping to the edges, now only twenty feet from the large Harpoon Spider, and watches as Labarett fights for his life. The figure does not stop but continues moving slowly and carefully, with the grace and skill of one trained in the arts of stealth. Hidden within the shadows, Naillae takes a deep breath, to calm herself. Sweat pours off her, she can see her friends fighting for their lives but she knows she has to move on, she has to concentrate on keeping her movements slow and steady to remain hidden. To get here she has run at full speed out back out of the cavern, climbing back to the surface and then running forward over the arid sands where she hoped to find the second entrance, which through luck was in the next outcrop of boulders. She quickly looped a rope around one boulder to drop down into the hole, to hopefully help her get a body out later, and made her way into the darkness. Her Elven eyes picked out details in the pitch black, all the while listening to the sounds of the battle and knowing that the only way to save her friends was to risk her life to get to the boy.

- Meanwhile the battle raged on. Nac and Oloma were now holding the line on one side of the cavern whilst Gim, Sir Krondor and Sir Lee held the other. Ignaaz was swinging his long sword around but without his spells he was proving of little value to the fight and soon found himself severely injured and near death.

- Sir Lee, seeing the Bard gravely wounded, shouted at him, “For Gods sake man, if you can’t pull your weight then get out! I don’t want to have to risk my life to save yours if your drop.”

- Ignaaz looks around at the battle. The spiders are never ending. The scream of agony from Labarett is still in his hears. He looks at his long sword. Without his magic he is no good to the party, more a liability than a help, he starts to move backwards towards the entrance. He runs back to the bend and then stops to look back at his friends fighting for their lives. He hears another loud scream of agony again from Labarett, and with a tear runs away from his friends hoping that he will see them again soon. He runs away from the battle and to safety.

- On the far side of the cavern, Labarett has been lifted up by the Harpoon Spider and skewered onto large spikes on its back. The Elf Barbarian is screaming in agony.

- Nac summons Spirit Guardians around him and shouts to Oloma, “Close that other hole now!”

- Surrounded by giant spiders she teleports herself to the nearest hole and sends a psionic beam of fire into it which ignites the oil Labarett poured there. It erupts into fire, with the screams of the giants spiders caught in the fire.

- Gim drops to one knee and yells out as one of the spiders guts him (Critical Hit - bleeding wound for 4 rounds). Sir Krondor leaps towards him and kills the spider attacking him, he can see his cousin is badly wounded, blood pours from his stomach like a fountain.

- Sir Lee starts yelling and swinging his sword to and through killing the spiders around him (Critical hits). He yells at the two Dwarves, “Go now! I’ll hold the line. Help Labarett!”

- The two Dwarves start to run forward as Sir Lee moves towards more giant spiders that appear from the last small hole. Labarett, bloody and skewered, refuses to succumb. With super human strength and resolve he pushes and lifts himself off the spikes, screaming with agonising pain as he does so, until he springs off to fall onto the ground (Successful Strength check). Gim and Sir Krondor arrive now and engage the Harpoon Spider which leaps towards them.

- The dark hidden figure of Naillae now carrying the small webbed body she has recovered from the alcove, moves unseen near Labarett and whispers, “I have the boy, hope is not lost. I need the large spider moved away from the second exit. Labarett, I need your strength now to save the boy.”

- Labarett looks up, his bloody face almost unrecognisable, and lifts himself up with a painful sigh, “Then you shall have it!”

- He raises up and runs towards the Harpoon Spider shouting, “Naillae has the boy! Buy her time to get out!”

- Hearing this the two Dwarf cousins start to attack the Harpoon Spider too and it moves away from the second entrance. Sir Krondor shouts as he swings his battle axe, “I knew Naillae would not abandon us!”

- The three warriors, Sir Krondor, Gim, and Labarett fight the large spider in close combat, whilst Sir Lee fights back the giant spiders still coming from the last hole. Nac and Oloma fight off and clean up the last remaining giant spiders that got out before the second hole was closed off.

- The party know they have to give Naillae time to get the boy out, she sneaks back to the second entrance and ties the rope around the small webbed body. She easily and quickly climbs out, and then pulls the body up behind her.

- Sir Krondor sees the body raise up the second entrance and yells, “She’s done it! The boy is saved! We’ve done it!”

- The proclamation seems to give Labarett renewed strength. With one final swing, Labarett, bloody and near death, swings his Anarchic long sword, now with flames licking down it and with a purple glow from the necrotic power of the weapon, into the Harpoon Spider and kills it. The spider screeches in a loud death scream and drops to the ground. As it does, the remaining other giant spiders all flee back into the last open hole and vanish.

- The battle is over and the party are victorious, just.

XP Allocation

Group - Combined (This is equally divided by the number of players who were involved)

Quests (Only quests that are completed or rendered undoable, during this session, are shown here)

- Family Closure (Muldis) Letter & Amulet = 2000 + 2000 XP

Creatures Overcome

- Criminal Thugs = 1000 XP

- Giant Scorpions = 1400 XP

- Umber Hulks = 3600 XP

- Giant Spiders = 4200 XP

- Harpoon Spider = 2900 XP

Individual (This is only given to that person and is not divided amongst all players)