After heading back to town, so that Ghelt could begin her excavation, She soon came to her senses, and decided that we should once more try to have Jacob lead us to Aramil. Jacob led us right back to the Everston estate. One of us came to the realization that there was another tunnel that might prove to be the correct one... the old collapsed tunnel we had found when we originally explored the catacombs under the estate!

Once we got to the cave-in, Jacob was getting very excited... we were finally on the right track! Ghelt began to dig, but was making very slow progress. She seemed to think that the passage was not safe to dig in, and by the amount of dirt that was falling all around us, I think she was right.

Drusilia, pockets, and I decided to go check out the seal of Pelor we had found... it was right around the corner, and we were hoping it might be protecting another passageway. Drusilia examined the seal, and proclaimed it to be safe. Thinking that her holy symbol might work as a key, she walked up to the door and proceeded to press her symbol to the center of the door with an audible “thunk.” The “thunk” was followed by a flash of light! After my eyes re-adjusted, I saw Drusilia sitting on the floor holding a charred holy symbol, with a dazed expression on her face.... apparently she had been wrong about what the seal on the door was for. Closer examination be Pockets and me revealed the door was actually warded with a Disintegrate spell! Kind of a nasty trick for a “Good” god, if you ask me.

In any case, we came running back to the “excavation” when we heard what sounded like a cave-in, followed by a string of dwarven curses. It seems that Ghelt found a way past the tunnel blockage — breaking through the floor into the passage beneath it! We all followed after her.

Again following Jacob, we proceeded into another chamber which was filled with webs and cocoons. We weren’t there long before some very large spiders attacked us. No sooner had we dispatched them, than we noticed a strange humanoid creature with long white arms standing on the other side of the room. As soon as our light hit the creature, it let out a scream and ran down a corridor.

We were torn between chasing the creature (which was obviously the one who had been plagueing the town) and trying to free Aramil, who was certainly in one of the cocoons in this chamber. Pockets took the Sword of Pelor and began to hack at one of the cocoons. He told the rest of us to chase after the beast while he freed Aramil. The rest of us immediately began to chase after it.

We had just rounded a bend in the passageway, when we heard Pockets yell for help! Running back to see what was happening, I saw pockets being attacked by a creature that appeared to be half-spider and half dark-elf! (Which I later learned was a drider.) At that point I yelled for the rest of the party to return as well.... this creature was obviously a more immediate threat than the pathetic white-armed thing.

As Ghelt and I began to move into the room, the drider cast Web on us, trapping us in the hall. He then redirected his attention on Pockets. Luckily, Pockets had a potion of Gaseous Form, which he drank just then, and began to float away, toward the edge of the room.

Not being able to attack Pockets, and seeing that his web had not prevented me from casting spells, the drider then filled the room with a globe of Darkness. Unfortunately for us, Drusilia was stuck further back in the web, which blocked her Daylight from counteracting it!

Not seeing any other option, I let loose with a lightning bolt directly through the room in front of us.... knowing that Pockets was out of the way, I figured that the only target was the evil creature we were facing. I followed this up with another, more powerful, lightning bolt. After firing the second bolt, I heard a loud “thud!,” which I hoped was the creature. Figuring our work was done, I began hacking through the web to get into the room. Ghelt had been doing this already, and was slightly ahead of me entering the darkness.

I hadn’t been in the darkness more than a few seconds when I heard the sounds of combat behind me! Were there more creatures facing us?! Unfortunately, I could do nothing to help, surrounded in darkness as I was. I urged Drusilia to hurry as she was struggling through the webs.

Once Drusilia made it close enough to dispel the Darkness, I was dismayed to see that the drider was still alive! Apparently the loud “thud!” had been Pockets hitting the floor! Oops. I guess he didn’t have the sense to stay away from the creature once he was in gaseous form. I will have to explain to him a little bit about tactics. Particularly that when there is a large creature facing the party, and you aren’t actively fighting it, you should stay as far away as possible.... even more so when you know “THE MAGE CAN’T SEE WHERE YOU ARE!!.” Thankfully, he appeared to be doing OK, even though he was unconscious, so I turned my attention back to the drider... only to find that he had disappeared. Damn.

Well, this continued for a while... the drider would appear, attack, and disappear before we could hurt him. Eventually though, Drusilia was able to break through the web, and was lucky enought to finally hit him with a flame strike. That finished him off, and we were able to free Aramil and heal Pockets.

In searching the drider’s corpse, we found a note that he was carrying. It contained instructions telling him to retrieve the Heart of Nerull, and to deliver it to our old nemesis Durll. It would appear that we are not yet done dealing with him.

In any case, we still had to hunt down the white-armed creature, so we quickly headed off after it...

~=Fafnir Flamebrewer=~

Posted by Dave on August 10, 2003, 11:59 | Fafnir’s Journal