Fafnir's Journal Entry 5

Well, we didn’t die yet... but it was close! After setting off through the woods in search of Gildean’s companions, we soon came across a strange sight... An elf trying to beat up a giant spider with a stick! (yes, you read that correctly — a stick.) After the spider had been taken care of, we learned that his name is Valon and he is a bard. He claims that the stick he carries around is actually a sword and try as we might, we could not convince him otherwise. He proceeded to ‘show’ us that it was a sword by cutting through the spider, but he didn’t fool me.... after all, I AM an Illusionist! I did ‘detect magic’ on Valon, and the stick is actually magical... but regardless of that, it is still a stick!

While we were arguing (or “discussing” as some like to call it) the nature of the stick, Ghelt and Trap had continued on in search of the missing adventurers. We (Drusilia and myself) decided to let Valon continue with his crazy beliefs, and with Valon joining us, followed behind Trap and Ghelt.

As we were just starting to catch up, we heard the sounds of a struggle! The two of them had been attacked by a gang of spiders and goblin-spider-thingies. (hereafter, I will refer to these as spider-goblins... although I do not know their true name).

I used a color spray to disorient several of them as we charged into battle! Even as we were dispatching the creatures, they continued to wrap Ghelt and Trap in spider silk and drag them away! Things were looking grim. Next thing I know, Valon began to sing. Something about his song bolstered our spirits, and we were soon able to slay the remaining foes, freeing our companions. Valon then attempted to set the forest aflame by lighting the spider’s webs on fire! Luckily the flames extinguished quickly!

To be honest, at this point I was starting to wonder about the wisdom of continuing... we were all in not-so-great shape, and both Drusilia and Ghelt had no healing abilities left for the day. In the end, we decided we must continue on, as Gildean’s companions were certainly worse off than us. (Oh yeah, Trap’s pet rock ‘spike’ also died in this encounter — apparently the strategy of “throw it at the enemy” was not such a good idea on Trap’s part.)

We soon found ourselves at a large crevasse. The tracks seemed to lead downward, rather than across to the other side. We lowered a rope and continued on.

Coming to a crossroads in the caverns, we were attacked by even more spiders and spider-goblins! They came at us from two directions at once! For the longest while, I was nothing more than an observer, as Ghelt, Drusilia, Trap, and Valon (with his stick!) fought the creatures. We were making some progress, when Valon took a hit that knocked him to the ground! While Drusilia pulled him to safety, I made an attempt at fighting off the advancing creatures with my club.

I was certainly receiving more damage than I was dealing out, when Ghelt came to my rescue after having finished off the creatures she had been fighting in the other corridor. [This is starting to become a habit.... I think I need to acquire a crossbow of some sort, so that I can help in the fighting, while keeping myself at a distance where ‘rescuing’ is not required! Maybe when we get back to town...]

With the spiders dead, we searched the corridors they had come from.... nothing but spider-web filled rooms. Some of my companions wanted to set these on fire as well, but luckily they came to their senses, and decided to wait until after we had found the people we were searching for!

This left one corridor remaining to be searched. Proceeding cautiously, we followed the corridor into a room. No sooner had we entered than a humanoid spider appeared from a hole near the ceiling. Even though we had been fighting similar things for the past hour, this one seemed different — there was the glint of evil intelligence in its eyes!

We began attacking it with our missile weapons. We got a couple hits in, but then the thing cast some kind of shielding spell that rebuffed most of our attacks! Seeing that only those that had weapons stronger than I could be of use here, I attempted to sneak down a corridor I had noticed on the other side of the room. (I hope this doesn’t seem cowardly, but I was not being of ANY use, and I was fervently hoping to find the captives we were searching for.)

In any case, I had no sooner entered the passageway, when I received a Magic Missile in the back! Luckily I made it around the corner and into a chamber with three man-sized coccoons in it, before more missiles could follow!

Momentarily, the rest of the party joined me, having somehow defeated the big spider. Cutting the coccoons open, we found that they did indeed contain the missing adventurers. And they are still alive! (although they do appear to be suffering from the same poison as Gildean.) We also found, stashed in the back of the room, all of their equipment, and a locked box, which did not seem to be part of their gear.

After speaking to one of the weakened adventurer’s, Ghelt and Drusilia drank some potions to remove the evil curse they have been suffering with. Meanwhile Trap examined the lockbox...

Trap managed to get the locked box open.... and he only set off the needle trap twice! (The name ‘trap’ is making more sense to me every day I know him.) Inside we found, amongst other things, a couple of scrolls, a wand, and some sort of cloak. When we have the time, we will need to investigate these items further, as they look as if they may be magical!

Meanwhile, as Ghelt has pointed out, our first order of business is to get these people out of this pit, and also to get back to Gildean before he is dragged off by a pack of wolves or something. We will be doing that as soon as we bind our wounds and think of a way to pull the wounded up the crevasse. I suspect that will involve a lot of strenuous lifting for the stronger members of our party. (I thought of suggesting a chicken-powered pulley system before remembering that we have no chickens.... we could always go with weasel power, but Fingers doesn’t seem up to the task.... oh well.)

In any case, it looks like everyone is ready to get moving, so I will end this entry here.

~= Fafnir Flamebrewer =~
Planting 10, 592 CY