26 September 2021
The party
· Kisandra Starlight –Half-Elf Sorceress (Heather)
· Barendil Dawnwood – Elf Ranger (Robert)
· Guillerme don d’Lyonne – Human Paladin (Martin)
· Friar Buck Norris – Human Cleric (Silas)
· Nobby Nobbs – Human (probably) Rogue (Tom)
Moving On
The party stood amid the ruin of their battle with the waves
of ghouls that had attacked them in the miners’ barracks. They now had clear
evidence that the Black Spider had made his way into the mine; the question
was, where was he and what was he doing? Could they secure the Forge of Spells
before he achieved whatever he was trying to do? Only time would tell, and that
time was slipping away based on what Gundren had told them – if they wanted to
get into the Forge, they would have to illuminate the entrance with the light
of the moon at midnight. The time was currently 13.15. Despite their injuries
and fatigue from the fighting so far, they had no time for resting. Barendil
stood by the door leading out of the room towards the west, and the rest of his
companions steeled themselves for whatever lay ahead.
 |
The extent of the party's exploration of
Wave Echo Cave so far |
Enter the Labyrinth
Upon opening the door, Barendil could see a number of
passages ahead, twisting into the darkness. To the north, there was a tunnel
that ended in a rough-hewn rock face, only partially excavated. With the number
of intersections he could see in just the immediate vicinity, this seemed to be
something of a labyrinth. The elf ranger felt totally out of his element; he
was far more used to walking through dappled sunlight in a forest, not
navigating through dank stone passages. He encouraged Nobby to take the lead
and, particularly as the party felt stealth was less of a concern than the time
factor, Buck stepped up to accompany the rogue at the front of the party.
Kisandra and Guillerme walked behind them, with the sorceress keeping a lookout
on the walls in case the leaders missed anything important. Barendil brought up
the rear, confident that his darkvision would help him protect the group from
being ambushed from behind.
 |
The adventurers enter a labyrinth of
passages and unfinished tunnels |
Nobby led the party forwards, using his lantern to illuminate
the way and feeling that something about these tunnels reminded him of the
Shades in Ankh Morpork. He took a turn one way and another, seeming to know
where he was going. However, after a short time they found themselves back at
the door they had just walked through – he had been leading them in circles! As
they walked, the party could hear two distinct sounds. The first was a rhythmic
thumping, a low booming noise that was very faint so it seemed like it was
coming from far away, though the maze of tunnels ahead of them made it impossible
to tell which direction it was coming from. The second noise was a scrabbling,
digging sort of noise, coming from somewhere closer than the other sound,
somewhere towards the west.
As they prepared to head off into the passages again, Guillerme
suggested using his hemp rope to trace their path and avoid turning in circles
again. Nobby dismissed his idea because the rope was only fifty feet long, and
they had clearly walked far further than that. Instead, the rogue pulled the
ghoul ears out of his pockets. He was going to use them as some sort of macabre
breadcrumb trail. Though it made Buck queasy to think of it, no one could deny
that it was a fairly ingenious use of resources. No matter how ingenious it
was, however, Nobby still managed to walk the party round in a circle – the other
way this time. Once they started passing ears on the ground again, they knew
they were back where they started.
The scrabbling noise got slightly louder as they walked.
Buck was eager to take point, magically lighting up his warhammer.
Nobby didn’t seem fussed who led them forwards, so they all fell in line behind
the cleric. Kord must have been guiding him as he strode forwards, managing to
navigate more successfully than Nobby. Walking past more dead-ends, they soon
found themselves within a tunnel that led back to the pit next to the Rockseekers
camp – at least the group had now oriented themselves around this corner of the
mine. Kisandra kept her eyes open but saw nothing of concern or interest on the
rock walls that they passed.
Feeling more comfortable with navigating the passages, Buck
led the party almost directly north, into a passageway that seemed to take them
away from the confusing labyrinth of intersecting tunnels. As they proceeded
onwards, the low booming noise became slightly louder while the scrabbling
noise became fainter and more distant.
The Dark Pool
The tunnel opened out into a larger cavern with a dark,
still pool filling much of the cavern on the western side. Little could be seen
within the pool, while the shore was made up of a thin layer of strange, pale, broken
shells. There was a fishy odour hanging in the air. The party were following
some minecart tracks that entered the cavern from the southern passage where
they had entered and continued towards the eastern side of the chamber where
they ended. Beyond was a set of steps carved into the eastern wall, leading up
and away to the east, while on the northern side of the cavern was a small
stream that sluggishly flowed out of the pool and away to the northeast through
a rock tunnel.
Examining the mining equipment more closely, it was clear
that it was ancient and in disrepair. The adventurers spotted a lone figure
cowering amongst the debris; it was a dwarf, very similar in appearance to
Gundren save that he had a ginger beard. The dwarf looked scared and exhausted.
Nobby decided he should be the one to go and talk to him. Oddly, no one
questioned this.
 |
A dwarf, resembling Gundren but with a
ginger beard, cowers amongst ancient,
discarded mining equipment |
Nobby approached the dwarf, carefully keeping as far away
from the water as possible – he’d had a bath not more than six months ago, he
wasn’t due another one for a while.
“Wotcha mate,” said Nobby amiably, “First things first.
These shiny things around you. They worth anything?”
“Oh, no, not really,” replied the dwarf warily. “Who are you
and what are you doing here?”
Nobby felt concerned about the dwarf, he hadn’t been keen to
talk about mining or money. He was clearly in a bad way.
“We’re here on behalf of another dwarf, goes by the name of
Rockseeker,” said the rogue.
The dwarf immediately brightened up at this, pleased to hear
that Gundren was alright and had sent help for him and his brothers. He relayed
to Nobby that the pair had been set upon by the Black Spider and his minions –
there was nothing they could do. They were miners, not warriors, after all. The
terrifying beasts had taken his brother hostage; it was a miracle that he had
managed to escape alive.
Kisandra was listening with interest. Something niggled in
her mind, however; was this truly the dwarf they were looking for? They had
encountered a doppelganger once already – could the Black Spider have more
working for him? She peered intently at the dwarf, using all her magical
intuition, but couldn’t discern one way or another whether this was an imposter.
He just looked like a dwarf. Meanwhile, Nobby was continuing to talk to him,
trying to put his fears to rest.
“Don’t you worry my lad; you’ve got some warriors here with
you now!” said Nobby with confidence. “We’ve come here on behalf of your
brother, we’ll help save your mine and, well, we’re pretty terrifying as well
to be honest.”
The dwarf nodded, looking comforted.
“There’s a lot of people interested in getting this mine up
and running, and into the right hands – that’s yours and your brothers,”
continued Nobby, “so any information you can share with us would be helpful. We’re
here to save you! How does that sit with you?”
The rest of the party didn’t think they’d ever heard Nobby
talk for so long or so eloquently, and it certainly seemed to have an effect on
the dwarf who visibly relaxed and seemed to appear more trusting. He told Nobby
that his name was Tharden and it was Nundro that had been taken. He felt
terrible that he had abandoned his post at the entrance to the mine, but it had
been terrible trying to keep away from all the monsters down here. He was
incredibly glad that Gundren had sent someone to help.
“I don’t suppose Gundren told you about the information we
each took?” asked Tharden. “Each of us took a piece of information to help open
the Forge of Spells – we figured it was safer to keep it separate. As Gundren
isn’t with you, I assume he told you what it was that he knew?”
Nobby began to confirm that he had before Kisandra cut him
off.
“For safekeeping, we’ll be keeping that to ourselves for
now,” the sorceress said firmly.
“I think we should pool our information,” said Tharden. “We’ve
already lost Nundro, we need to work together and make sure we all know as much
as possible.”
Barendil and Guillerme both scoffed at that; neither were
buying the dwarf’s story. Nobby turned when he heard them and told Tharden that
he should go first.
“Well, what I read,” began the miner, “was quite cryptic.
But is said ‘always ensure that the hawk looks up.’ What did Gundren say
to you?”
“He said always make sure the hawk looks down,” said
Barendil sarcastically.
Guillerme said that they should ask him why he wanted to
know so badly. Kisandra decided that she should use her Detect Thoughts spell
to check the veracity of the dwarf’s information, and whether he was
trustworthy. The rest of the party agreed that it was worth depleting her
limited magical energies to confirm whether or not this truly was Gundren’s
brother, and whether or not they could trust him. It may leave them more
vulnerable in the future, but it could be critical if it turned out that this
dwarf was not what he seemed.
Kisandra summoned the magic to herself. She stared at the
dwarf’s eyes, focusing her mind on his. As she began to focus on his mind, she
could feel him focusing straight back on hers. She didn’t like the feeling. Just
before she broke the gaze, his eyes flashed yellow, and his skin suddenly
turned inside out – he was a doppelganger! The creature was now revealed, and
it turned to run, pulling out a stoppered flask as it went and draining the
contents. It immediately vanished from view.
 |
It wasn't Tharden Rockseeker,
it was a doppelganger! |
Kisandra’s instinct had been right, and she had been able to
reveal the doppelganger for what it was. Unfortunately, the invisibility potion
it had drunk now made it difficult to follow. There had been no splashing
noises, so the party assumed it hadn’t gone into the dark pool; likewise, it
was unlikely to have been able to push past them to head south, without them
noticing. In all likelihood, it had fled to the northeast, unless it was still
hiding in the cavern with them. Guillerme suggested forming a chain by holding
hands with each other and sweeping up the cavern to double check that the
creature really had left. The party agreed and they completely satisfied
themselves that the doppelganger was no longer in this cavern. The only problem
was the length of time that it took to perform this careful search – the grains
of sand in the hourglass had been falling steadily during the search and the
party’s earlier missteps in the labyrinth. It was now just after 14.00.
Believing the doppelganger to be gone for good, Kisandra
decided to have a closer look in the dark pool of water on the western side of
the cavern. Guillerme came too to poke around in the water with his glaive. While
they did that, Barendil ran up the stairs on the east wall. He could see a door
directly in front of him and a corridor leading north with another set of steps
leading upwards. There was no sign of the doppelganger and no indication of
where it had gone – if it had gone through the door then it would have had
plenty of time to get through and close it quietly while the party were beach
combing. The elf decided to stay where he was and keep watch, however, in case
the doppelganger raised an alarm and brought back help.
Splashing in the shallow water, Kisandra and Guillerme could
wade out a good ten feet or so before the water started to become deeper.
Guillerme kept poking his glaive, noting that the water towards the middle of
the pool was certainly deeper than 10 feet. There were a number of old
skeletons in the water, partially buried in the silt, still clutching rusted
old weapons and wearing corroded armour. Guillerme saw nothing of particular
interest, not even a potential rapier for Barendil. He did look to the north,
however, and see that the stream that was slowly flowing out through that wall
looked easily traversable – it was only a couple of feet deep and there was a
gap of about 2 or 3 feet between the surface of the water and the rough, rocky
ceiling of the tunnel. He gave one more futile poke of his glaive into the
water before turning and splashing back towards the shore, dejected.
As Guillerme turned, his foot caught on a skeleton and
Kisandra noticed a glint of light beneath the surface of the water. She bent
down and discovered one old human skeleton that had two platinum rings on the finger
bones of one hand whilst the other clutched something shiny. She retrieved the
items and immediately felt a thrum of power from the interesting object – it appeared
to be a wand of some sort. She waded back to shore and handed the platinum rings
to Nobby (he should be able to get a good price for them back in a town), while
she studied the wand she had found. By concentrating herself entirely on the
magical signature of the wand, she was able to divine that it was a Wand of
Magic Missiles – a great prize!
Though she debated whether it would be useful for one of the
non-magic users of the party to wield, ultimately everyone agreed that she was
by far the most qualified to use the wand. She gratefully put it in her belt
and the party returned to the matter at hand – deciding which way to proceed.
 |
Kisandra finds a great prize in a
dark pool within Wave Echo Cave |
After a lengthy discussion, it was eventually decided that
Barendil would scout up the small stream that left through the tunnel in the
northern wall. Guillerme would keep him tethered by a rope, in case he needed
assistance, while Nobby positioned himself up the stairs to provide a lookout. Kisandra
remained central so she could communicate with silent Messages, with Buck close
at hand to assist where he was needed.
Positioning himself within the shadow of the doorframe opposite
the stairs so he could provide a lookout without being seen so easily, Nobby took
the opportunity to listen at the door. Beyond the door, he could hear gruff
voices talking in a guttural language that he couldn’t understand. It was,
however, familiar to him as he had heard it numerous times on their adventures;
it was the Goblin tongue.
Barendil waded in the water, rope tied tightly round his
waist, and ducked to enter the small tunnel. He moved with cautious grace,
barely rippling the water. The rope became taught as he reached a bend in the
tunnel, fortunately giving him just enough leeway to be able to see ahead and into
another cavern, this one bigger than the last. Ahead of him, the stream
continued its lazy flow to the edge of a rift, where it fell down some 20 feet
to the chasm floor before continuing to flow northwards and out through another
tunnel. The rift itself bisects the cavern. There are several ropes tied onto
iron stakes along the western edge of the rift. A single bugbear was standing,
looking towards the east just to the north of the stream. He seemed to be on guard,
and he hadn’t noticed Barendil in the stream some 40 feet behind him.
Once he had relayed all this back to Kisandra, Barendil was
most irritated by her suggestion that he return to the party so they could deal
with the bugbear together. He was an experienced ranger; he could sneak up and
take out a lone sentry by himself! After a furious exchange of whispers, the
elf eventually relented. He agreed to draw his bow to keep the bugbear covered
while the rest of the party walked up the corridor and attacked. Satisfied at
her planning of events, Kisandra beckoned Guillerme back out of the water. But
there was one factor she hadn’t taken account of. Nobby. The rogue had taken
the time to don his beaver suit and was merrily splashing into the water so he
could go and join Mr. Barendil. By the time she noticed, it was too late. Luckily,
Nobby managed to control his splashing by the time he entered the tunnel, and
he waded the rest of the way almost as silently as Barendil had.
Kisandra shrugged as her, Buck and Guillerme walked up the
stairs and turned to their right. There was another set of steps leading down
into the large cavern that Barendil had scouted out. She Messaged Barendil to
let him know that Nobby was on his way and that the rest of them were in
position. The bugbear sentry was still unaware.
Barendil was surprised when the massive beaver touched him
lightly on the arm. Kisandra had conveniently forgot to warn him of Nobby’s
wardrobe change. Nobby whispered into Barendil’s beautiful ear that, if he kept
the bugbear covered with his bow, then Nobby could show him how they did sneak
assassinations back in Ankh Morpork. Well, a version of it anyway.
Leaning into the character, Nobby stretched out on his belly
and half paddled, half crawled through the stream towards his quarry. The
slight noise he made as he did so caused the bugbear to look around itself, but
it couldn’t pinpoint where the sound had come from. Nobby crept closer and
closer, taking a breath to submerge himself as fully as he could in the shallow
stream for the last few feet. Then, he rose up out of the water, his beaver fur
dripping and murder in his eyes, and he plunged his rapier into the bugbear’s spine.
This vicious strike killed the beast outright, and it toppled forward with a
surprised look on its face before thumping into the ground at the bottom of the
chasm. The rest of the party looked on in stunned silence; it didn’t seem that
Kisandra’s careful planning would be required after all.
Are You Not Entertained?
Nobby was revelling in his assassination skills at the top of
the chasm. He knew he could have been head of the Assassin’s Guild with moves
like that. When he looked about himself, he found that he could now see to the
bottom of the chasm properly. Below him stood a series of ancient pillars, some
intact and some crumbling. Standing amid the ruins were three bugbears and a
doppelganger. He couldn’t tell if the doppelganger was the same one that they
had just chased off – it was rather difficult to tell them apart, which was sort
of the point when they could look like anyone! The monsters had all turned at
the sound of their companion thudding into the ground, and they now raised
their gazes up to see Nobby standing there triumphantly. No matter, he thought,
all they can see is a giant beaver – they won’t know what to make of it! This
wasn’t quite the case, however, for while Nobby thought he had fully captured
the look and character of a beaver, to anyone else he just looked like a maniac
in a beaver suit. So, while Nobby stood thinking about how clever and safe he
was, the bugbears and doppelganger below began to run towards the ropes at the
bottom of the ravine.
 |
Bugbears and a Doppelganger investigating an
ancient site at the bottom of a chasm |
Barendil splashed out of the stream to see what Nobby was
looking at. As he neared the precipice, he spied the enemies below and
immediately took aim with his longbow. Unfortunately, the string was soaking
wet and slippery from his aquatic scouting and so the arrow slipped and flew
wide, clattering against the pillars behind the doppelganger. The elf growled
in annoyance.
Beaver Boy realised that he wasn’t quite as camouflaged as
he thought he was, so he moved to one of the ropes that the monsters were
rushing towards and prepared himself to cut it as they were climbing up. He
considered gnawing the rope like a true beaver but thought better of it and
drew out a knife, though he did at least hold the blade between his teeth like
some beaver pirate…
Seeing Barendil shooting down into the ravine showed
Kisandra that there were more enemies to deal with, so perhaps her strategy
wasn’t completely wasted. She rushed towards the edge and saw the same
doppelganger that the ranger had shot at, quickly deciding to cast a Witch Bolt
at the fiend. The arcing lightning only caught the creature a glancing blow,
but it was still enough to establish a connection between the sorceress’s
fingers and the target so that she could continue to cause more pain to it over
time.
As Buck came up beside Kisandra, he noticed that the bugbears
and doppelganger were still in close proximity to one another. He rubbed his
hands in glee as he knew he could cast his favourite spell, Shatter, and encompass
them all in the thunderous wave. As he cast the spell, Buck further empowered
it with the power of Kord, maximising the potency of the magical attack. All
four enemies were knocked sideways by the spell, but the doppelganger and one
of the bugbears looked to have been affected more by it as they clutched their
heads in pain. Two of the pillars next to them began to crack from the magical thunderclap,
looking like they might fall down should they take another hit like that.
The doppelganger recovered from Buck’s assault and led the
charge towards the ropes. He directed the bugbears to start climbing as he
followed up behind one of them. Nobby saw his chance and sawed furiously at the
rope in front of him. The two bugbears were climbing as quickly as they could,
but Nobby was quicker and suddenly the two monsters found themselves falling
back down towards the ravine floor. The bugbear who had been hurt more seriously
by Buck’s Shatter spell was killed by the fall, while the other remained alive
but prone as he tried to recover from the harsh landing.
As the other rope was unguarded, the doppelganger and final
bugbear crested the precipice with no resistance. No sooner had they reached
the top than Guillerme came charging at them with a skip and a hop, thrusting
his glaive at the doppelganger. He was too busy focusing on his prancing feet
so failed to hit the monster, but his momentum carried him forwards and he
ended up struggling with it at the edge of the drop. The paladin was able to
overpower the wiry doppelganger and throw the creature over the edge, where it fell
to land heavily next to the three bugbears that were also lying on the ground;
two of the bugbears were corpses, but one remained alive. The doppelganger was
stunned but still breathing, so Barendil leaned over the edge and shot an arrow
down after it, which hit it firmly in the leg.
Nobby looked down at the doppelganger. The creature was in a
bad way. All of Nobby’s natural inclinations were to get down the ravine as
quickly as possible to take advantage of its position and kick it whilst it was
down, but Kisandra reminded him that her Witch Bolt was still in effect, so she
felt confident that she was going to be able to finish it off. He nodded – so that
explained the crackling energy arcing between her fingers and the doppelganger!
Turning, Nobby decided that what he really wanted to do was do what Guillerme
had done, but better, and throw something off a cliff. He ran towards the
bugbear with a manic grin on his face but tripped on his beaver tail, stumbling
forwards with his arms waving out in the air. The hulking brute of a bugbear
saw him coming and grabbed him round the waist, throwing him over its shoulder
in some sort of wrestling suplex that saw Nobby go flying out into the air and
falling down, down, down. As the wind whistled past his ears, he reflected that
at least he was going to be down with the doppelganger. That moment of
cheerfulness was soon replaced by pain as he thudded into the rocky ground and
lay there with his head spinning.
The bugbear was guffawing to itself when Buck ran over to
attack it. The cleric was much more cautious than Nobby had been, meaning he
was unable to bring his axe to bear but he was able to wrestle the brute and
throw it off the edge of the ravine. He hadn’t quite considered the fact that
Nobby had yet to get up and move from his prone position at the base of the
cliff but, luckily for the rogue, the huge form of the bugbear landed just next
to him. He sighed with relief; that would have been seriously painful, and the
sort of dumb luck that would normally have befallen Guillerme. Looking to his
side, he could see that the bugbear had been killed by the fall, so that was
something.
Nobby wasn’t out of the woods yet, however. The doppelganger
stood up and ordered the one remaining bugbear to cover its escape; the brute
was too stupid and too eager for violence to do anything else anyway. As the
doppelganger ran towards the eastern edge of the ravine, past the pillars, the
final bugbear stomped over to give Nobby a kicking. The beast kicked him right
in the goolies, causing him to yelp in pain. He couldn’t believe that his own
special move was being used against him!
Meanwhile, the doppelganger had started to climb a rope on
the eastern side of the chasm. Barendil could now see that there was a passage
leading out of the cavern to the east, which was clearly where the monster was heading
to try and make its escape. The arcing energy from Kisandra’s fingers
spluttered and died as the enemy was now too far away from her; she wouldn’t be
killing it with a Witch Bolt this time. Guillerme looked down at Nobby being
beaten by the bugbear. He would have climbed down to heal the rogue, but he had
no more divine healing energy to spare, so instead he drew out his crossbow to
shoot at the bugbear. The paladin missed his target, and narrowly missed
hitting Nobby. To make up for it he cast a Shield of Faith on the rogue to
protect him from any more errant crossbow bolts that might fly his way while he
was down in the ravine…
Barendil stepped forwards with purpose, slowly raising his
bow and exhaling as he loosed an arrow. The shaft flew straight and true, all
the way across the chasm and buried itself into the back of the doppelganger’s
head as it was trying to scramble up the rope. Its dead hands lost their grip
and the creature fell backwards into the chasm where it lay sprawled on the ground.
The ranger did a little victory dance, pleased that he had managed to recover
his aim that had deserted him when they first entered this dark, dank mine. He
then looked down cheerfully at Nobby, who was trying to scramble to his feet
with the single remaining bugbear trying to squish him.
“Let’s just watch!” laughed Barendil, “what could me more
entertaining than watching a massive beaver running around, fighting a bugbear that’s
chasing it? And we’ve got the best seats in the house!”
Nobby heard the challenge from up above and gritted his
teeth. He figured he could deal with this monster, and maybe impress Mr.
Barendil as well. Scrambling to his feet, he ducked under the bugbear’s
outstretched arms and ran towards the pillars, where he hid behind one of the ones
Buck had damaged with his Shatter spell. Nobby put his back to it and started
trying to rock it back and forth, hoping to drop the ancient masonry on the
bugbear’s head.
Kisandra looked aghast at Barendil’s callousness. Though she
was often at odds with Nobby, she couldn’t leave one of her party members to
fend for themselves like that. She cast a Fire Bolt, but it went wide. Whether
that was due to Barendil nudging her elbow or just the fact she was feeling
tired, who could tell. Either way, the bugbear was unscathed.
Buck looked at the others, asking if they were really going
to leave Nobby to deal with the situation on his own. Kisandra and Barendil
clearly had very different views on that question, and the cleric was torn. He
didn’t want to abandon his companion, but then again, Kord was all about the
sport. Finally, he made a decision, and flipped a gold coin towards Barendil.
“I reckon he’s up to the task, one gold says Nobby takes the
beast out,” declared Buck.
Barendil caught the gold piece but replied that there wasn’t
really a bet as his money was on Nobby as well! He would have put two gold on
the wiry little rogue. Buck laughed and surreptitiously cast Bless on Nobby,
just to give him a little edge in the combat, though he didn’t really want the
elf noticing.
“Ooo hoo, good sport!” said the cleric.
The bugbear took the bait and ran towards Nobby, who was
still straining against the pillar. As the brute ran in, Nobby managed to tip
the broken pillar which crashed to the ground. With surprising agility, the
bugbear dove out of the way of the falling masonry, rolling to the side and
continuing his charge towards Nobby. The watching crowd winced as the bugbear
rose to its feet and smashed a mace into Nobby, knocking him sideways. The
rogue’s plan had almost worked; if it wasn’t for the bugbear’s uncanny reflexes,
it would have been reduced to a red smear underneath the pillar. As it was,
Nobby was in trouble.
Guillerme couldn’t take it anymore. Though he may have the
most reasons out of any of the party to dislike the little man, his conscience
meant he couldn’t go along with this cruel behaviour. It was awful. He decided he
needed to get down to Nobby as quickly as possible. Rope climbing wasn’t fast
enough, so he leaped out into the air like a graceful swan. Then fell the
twenty feet to the base of the ravine, smacking into the ground among the dead
bodies of the bugbears who had already suffered the effects of the fall.
Barendil couldn’t do much for laughing. He couldn’t believe
what he had just seen Guillerme do. Of all the stupid things he had done, that
had to be the stupidest. The elf decided to move to the northwest of the cavern
to watch the stairs that led down to where they were currently standing – he didn’t
want to risk any other enemies coming down those stairs and disturbing the
entertainment, he’d not laughed so hard in decades!
Down in the makeshift arena, Nobby shifted in the dust and
balanced on the balls of his feet. He sprang forward, viciously stabbing his
rapier into the bugbear’s chest and repeatedly bringing the blade down as the
monster fell backwards, crashing to the ground. The rogue stood and looked up
at the crowd on the crest, looking down and judging him. He held his arms out
to his sides as he yelled up at them.
“DO I NOT ENTERTAIN YOU?!”
The Black Spider
In the aftermath of Nobby’s victory, he busied himself
collecting ears while the others congratulated him. Buck felt pleased, knowing
that really it was Kord’s blessing that gave him the win. Barendil was still
chuckling to himself.
Again, the party had to agree a way forward. More injuries
had been suffered, but still they knew they needed to continue as time was
running short. They debated about the doppelganger. Barendil suggested it was
the same one they had encountered, impersonating Tharden Rockseeker, and he
thought it was significant that it was trying to escape to the east. Kisandra
disagreed, suggesting that the eastern route was the only way to escape, given
that the party were standing at the western entrance to the cavern. She instead
thought they should head up the corridor that Barendil had been looking at, in
the northwest of the cavern, as the bugbear on sentry duty had been looking towards
the east – perhaps guarding whatever was in the west.
Ultimately, they didn’t know what was so special about these
pillars in this cavern or what the bugbears and doppelganger were doing, but
they didn’t have long to make a decision and they all agreed that Kisandra’s
reasoning made sense. They took just enough time for Barendil to cast Cure
Wounds on Nobby and then headed to the northwest corridor. The time was now
14.30.
As the rest of the party ascended the steps, Buck said that
he was going to take the corridor that led out from the southwest corner of the
cavern, expecting that the two corridors would join up and perhaps advancing
via two directions would be beneficial. Kisandra disagreed. Vehemently.
“NO, NO, NO!” she began, “we are NOT splitting the party!”
Buck didn’t put up
much of a fight – she was quite adamant. Kisandra had visions of them walking
into different rooms, being separated and preyed upon by various monsters.
Guillerme quietly said that he agreed with Buck, but when she looked over he
quickly shut his mouth. Nobody wanted to argue against Kisandra.
Barendil nipped up the steps as quickly as he could, with
the others following close behind. They walked past a door on their right, but
up ahead the corridor opened into a large room. A large room, with double doors
on the southern wall – roughly where one would expect the southern corridor to intersect
with the room. Kisandra was livid as it looked like someone could have taken
the alternative path and ended up here with everyone else, but she didn’t have
time to dwell on that. Her attention was fully occupied by what she saw ahead.
 |
The party's exploration of the
northwest of Wave Echo Cave |
Within this large chamber stood a raised platform, flanked
by eight tall pillars, some of which had flaming torches attached to them. At
one end of the dais stood a huge golden statue of a bearded figure holding a
massive warhammer. Standing in front of the statue were two bugbears and a
number of spiders of various sizes. In the middle of the throng stood a
striking figure with dark, obsidian skin and long, flowing white hair over his
billowing crimson cloak. He was holding a long quarterstaff in one hand and a
wicked blade in the other. This was clearly a dark elf; an evil drow from the
Underdark. Surely, this was the Black Spider that they had been looking for.
 |
The Black Spider and his Minions
arrayed on the raised platform |
Nobby decided to take action before anyone else. He was
still wearing his beaver suit, but he hiked up the legs to make sure his flashy
blue dragonskin boots were on display. He marched forwards with an unusual gait,
as he was trying to hold up his beaver trousers, and he stood looking at the
creatures on the raised platform with an imperious gaze, as if he owned them
all.
“BEHOLD!” he shouted, “the Black Spider is here! I am the
Black Spider, your Lord. You work for ME!”
Nobby stood there proudly as his booming proclamation echoed
around the chamber. The drow turned slowly to look at him, a wry smile curling
his lip, and replied in quiet tones that were still easily heard by all in the
party.
“Well, I can see what sort of… person… you are,” he mused. “Of
course, I am the Black Spider. Welcome. I’m surprised you are here so
soon. I suppose I will have to deal with you myself.”
 |
| The Black Spider |
The quiet, relaxed tones that the drow employed would have
unnerved most people, but Nobby just wouldn’t let it go.
“You’ve done a good job here, pretending to be the Black Spider
and all,” said the rogue with a generous nod. “But you can knock it off now,
with all the boys around – I’m the real leader. Come on.”
Barendil had had enough of this and elbowed Nobby in the
head before drawing his bow to fire at the drow, a dark reflection of Barendil
himself. He whispered the Hail of Thorns incantation that would cause his
arrows to explode with deadly projectiles upon impact, keen to inflict as much
damage to his enemies as quickly as possible while they were still milling
about on the dais. The arrow flew straight and true before smacking into the
Black Spider and spraying thorns in all directions. The bugbears and two of the
spiders were close enough to be peppered by the exploding shot, though it did
little more than anger them. The Black Spider rose from where he had been
crouching and protecting himself from the thorns with his cloak, and he ordered
his minions to attack.
Before they could get closer, Nobby ran forwards and threw a
bag of caltrops on the stairs between two of the pillars. He figured that should
help give the party some sort of advantage, after he had failed to convert any
of the minions to following his lordship. After doing this he scurried back to
the relative safety of his companions, hiding behind Buck.
Ignoring Nobby, Friar Buck cast his favourite spell once more.
He lacked the energy to empower it, but he targeted the Black Spider and managed
to hit him, both bugbears and three of the spiders with the thunderous waves of
damage. Two of the spiders were slaughtered by the magical force, while the
rest of the foes were shaken but stood their ground.
With the caltrops littering the stairs, Guillerme felt cautious
about ascending the steps. He decided to Bless his companions, Kisandra,
Barendil and Nobby to maximise their chances of hitting the enemy with their
ranged weapons before striding forwards to stand before them as a bulwark
against the enemy. His teamwork was much appreciated by his companions.
Kisandra stepped forwards to make the Black Spider pay for
all the trouble he had caused the adventurers over the past weeks. She summoned
fiery magical energy to herself and threw three Scorching Rays at the drow. One
of them caught him a glancing blow, while another blasted him fully in the
chest. His magical defences could not protect him and he dropped to one knee, coughing.
That had stung. He did look up in time, however, to see Barendil drawing his
bow for another shot. The Black Spider threw up a magical Shield in time to
deflect the arrow, preventing the elf from hitting him again.
So far, the adventurers had been acting almost with
impunity. Now, the Black Spider and his minions retaliated. The first act that
the drow took was to cast Invisibility on himself, and he immediately vanished
from view. His quiet tones echoed out from somewhere in the gloom.
“So rash. So rash. You don’t even really know what it is you
have come to find, do you?” he asked, before continuing in a tone of soft lament.
“You could have learned so much, if you were not so quick to attack.”
These words hung in the air as the drow’s pet spiders crawled
forwards to attack. They ignored Nobby’s caltrops as they could simply climb up
the pillars and round where the trap had been laid. One tried and failed to
bite Barendil while one of the largest spiders spat a sticky web at the elf,
which flew over his shoulder and hit the wall behind. A second giant spider
spat its own sticky webbing down at Kisandra from the side of a pillar, hitting
the sorceress and trapping her within a cocoon of sticky white strands. She
found herself unable to move.
The bugbears ran forwards. One stepped on a caltrop, stopping
where he was to dig the painful metal spike out of his foot, but the other
leapt down the stairs and charged straight at Guillerme. It was unable to land
a blow on the paladin, so Nobby ran up behind it to stab it in the back. The bugbear
crumpled down into a heap as Nobby pierced something vital, then the rogue
snuck round to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Guillerme to face the spiders
that were scuttling towards them.
Buck cast Shield of Faith on himself before charging in to
engage one of the spiders, slicing one of its legs off with his magical axe. Showing
some uncharacteristic attention to detail, Guillerme called out to the rest of
the party that they should try to keep the Black Spider alive (if they could
find him!) before he moved forwards to hit the bugbear on the stairs with his
glaive. The beast was still hopping on one foot, trying to remove the caltrop,
and Guillerme mercilessly cut him down with one almighty sweep of his weapon.
To his left, Kisandra was struggling to try and escape from
the web that she was stuck in. She wasn’t strong enough to free herself. Meanwhile,
Barendil was distracted by the small spider at his feet, so he was unable to effectively
aim his bow at one of the larger spiders that was crawling over the pillars. He
huffed in frustration and then heard the Black Spider talking to them again
from somewhere in the room. The dark elf’s voice was slightly fainter and more
distant this time.
“You really are quite formidable. I wish we could have had
longer to chat. Oh well,” sighed the drow, “I shall leave you to my minions.”
With that, the double
doors at the far end of the chamber opened and closed. It appeared that the
villain had made his escape – if only one of the adventurers had been present
at those double doors, perhaps they could have kept him trapped within the
room!
It was no good dwelling on past decisions, though, as there
were still foes to face. A giant spider spat a sticky web at Barendil that
engulfed the ranger, holding him fast while the smaller spider at his feet tried
to bite him. The little spider’s fangs weren’t big enough, however. Two other
spiders attacked Buck and Kisandra, but likewise they were unable to sink their
chittering claws into either of their targets.
Nobby leapt onto the back of one of the giant spiders,
stabbing his rapier down repeatedly until the arachnid had collapsed to the ground.
Not only was he Nobby Ghoulslayer; it seemed that he was the Spiderslayer as
well! Buck followed suit, attacking and killing the spider that was harassing Kisandra.
It was only a small one, but every little counts! A third spider was killed in
quick succession, this time by Guillerme slashing at it with his glaive. There
were not many of the drow’s minions left in the room.
Kisandra remained stuck in the web, unable to free herself,
but Barendil’s anger fuelled his strength and he ripped himself free with a
roar. No sooner was he out of the web then he was attacked by the spider that
had spat the sticky strands at him. The eight-legged monster bit deep into his
shoulder, causing a deep wound and then pumping venom into the elf. Barendil’s
roar of strength turned into a wail of pain as the poison coursed around his
body. Not even his elven constitution could protect him from the spider venom.
A smug comment from Guillerme along the lines of how ‘following
a true and righteous path would mean you’d be immune to poisoning’ did nothing
to lighten Barendil’s mood. Captain Smugpants did follow his unhelpful comment
up with a solid glaive strike on the beast, which was somewhat more useful.
Kisandra finally tore her way out of the sticky webbing,
somewhat annoyed that nobody had come to her aid when she was trapped. On the
plus side, almost all the spiders were dead, and Barendil was moving forwards
with his sword drawn to attack the final one. A smile flickered across the elf’s
face when he heard Guillerme thinking out loud, realising that it was disease
that his paladin training protected him from, not poisoning… Barendil was
fairly certain that the human would have been significantly less bold in his attacks
against the spiders if he had realised that he was just as vulnerable as the
rest of them were to their bites.
Barendil cut and thrust at the spider, slicing it with his
magical longsword. The spider recoiled from the attack and turned to bite
Guillerme, seeming to read the ranger’s thoughts. The paladin yelped in pain as
the fangs bit deep, the yelp turning to a scream as the poison took effect. He
was certainly not immune to its effects. Nobby crept forwards, wondering
whether anyone needed any poison being sucked out of any wounds, but deciding
it was more sensible to just kill the spider. The Spiderslayer lived up to his
name and killed the beast.
There were no more minions left alive in the chamber, and
there was no sign of the Black Spider. The party took a collective breath and
prepared to look for any clues that might help with their next steps towards
the Forge of Spells. It was 14.40 and the clock was ticking.
 |
The exploration of Wave Echo Cave
by the end of Session 22 |
