No matter where you go, there you are.
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=~
We returned to town, and I bought myself some clothing as quickly as possible. After I was clothed again, I took the Rod of Absorbtion that I had collected and traveled to the carnival to trade it in for some (hopefully better) armor. I found some magical mithrial armor and a magical mithrial shield, which I traded the rod for. I know the armor and shield will make it a little more difficult to cast spells, but the protection is well worth the sacrifice.
We then returned to the Everston Estate, after we realized that Jacob was still looking in the direction that Aramil had been taken. Drusilia, Ghelt and Fafnir realized that there was another tunnel that we had neglected to check. We traveled back to the estate, and down into the catacombs, this time to a deadend. Drusilia explained to us that the temple had been under attack, and that the tunnel had been collapsed so that the Duergar attackers could not easily attack.
Ghelt went to work trying to clear a crawlspace through the tunnel, and Drusilia began to check out a door blocked by a seal of Pelor. She touched her holy symbol to it, and there was a bright flash of light. When my eyes cleared, poor Drusilia’s holy symbol looked as if it had been left in a fire for a few days! Fafnir realized that the door was guarded by a disintigrate spell, and anyone who touched it would be fried!
A long string of Dwarven curses got my attention, and we realized ghelt had broken through. Not to another side, but through the floor! We quickly caught up with her and found ourselves in a chamber filled with webs and cocoons. We were attacked by several large spiders, and easily dispatched them. Drusilia cast a Daylight spell and a skulking white creature on the other side of the room yelp in fear and scurried away from us as quickly as possible. We gave chase, leaving Pockets to cut the victims in the cocoons free.
After a few seconds, we heard Pockets yell for help, I thought that we must have missed a few spiders. Fafnir and Ghelt rushed back to help, and Drusilia and I heard them yelling for help. We realized the there was a BAD THING attacking them and hurried back.
Fafnir and Ghelt were trapped in a Web and Drusilia tried walking through it and got stuck. I began hacking at it as best I could, and I made good progress, and managed to free Drusilia, before my sword got caught in a web. I lost my balance trying to pull the sword free and got stuck myself. Drusilia moved forward, and her light spell lit up the chamber that had been enveloped by an inky black Darkness.
To my horror we were facing a Drider, and outcast from the Drow Society, cursed to have the torso head and arms of a dark elf and the abdomen and legs of a spider. It disappeared soon after Drusilia lit up the room appering to attack, then dissappearing again. Fortunately, Drusilia managed to kill it with a well placed Flame Strike.
We searched its body and found a letter instructing Kalanaar (the Drider) to steal the heart and to contact the agents of Durll, who apparently is an old nemesis of our party(?).
We then started of through the tunnels, after the white creature...
Dearest Grun,
We’re taking a brief break before finally preparing to hunt down the creature that’s been attacking our village. I must say we’ve taken the long way about it!
We left the lake under the mansion, and returned to town. Valon immediately went to buy new clothing and armor, to the amusement of the townsfolk, while I asked Father for help digging (he was fine with that). Drusilia quizzed him about the local cellars, stonework, and possible secret passages (he didn’t know of anything odd). Naturally, at this point “Pockets” came in and said the toad had started looking around toward the old mansion! It also looked pretty sick, but we decided to follow it one more time!
Thsi time, we watched the toad the whole way. It began looking straight down before we got to the Estate, so I pondered for a bit.. and realized that we were standing above the caved-in portion of the catacombs, where the previous inhabitants had tried to stop attacks from duergar. We reentered the tunnels and reached the spot in no time. Sure enough, the toad stared at the collapsed tunnel avidly.. so “Pockets” began yanking rocks away! He quit that fast when the ceiling started to creak.
While the others began to hunt for furniture and wood to shore up the passage, I began to carefully tunnel my way in. It took a while, so the others decided to check out the door down the hallway - the one we left alone the first time because it has Drusilia’s holy symbol on it. They ought to have left it alone this time, too! Drusilia’s beautiful new holy symbol got zapped by some power in the door, and looks pretty beat-up, now!
I’d started to make some real headway when the floor collapsed under me. I’d just turned down an offer from “Pockets” to tie a rope to me in case something happened, too! Moradin must have a message in that.. but to retuirn to my story, I slid down the new passage and fell into yet another catacomb about twenty feet below. I’d just noticed one exit to the place when “Pockets” arrived and handed me a torch. The others climbed down by rope, although “Pockets” could not seem to call his dog. Poor puppy, always in trouble!
Miracle of miracles, the toad actually looked toward the one exit tunnel, so we followed it. We entered a big roomful of crypts and cobwebs, and we could see cocoons of various sizes in the webs! Finally, we thought we might have found Aramil - but as we stepped into the room, giant spiders attacked! In the middle of that, Drusilia turned on her big bright light and across the room, we finally saw a large white humanoid creature throw up its arms and run from the brightness!
We quickly killed the giant spiders and “Pockets” stayed with the toad for a guide to find Aramil, while the rest of us took off down the corridor after the white creature. We didn’t get far. Fafnir and I turned around at the first scream from behind! As we neared the room, unfortunately, all we got was a glimpse of a huge spider-humanoid dryder attacking “Pockets” in the corner, when the space we were in was suddenly filled with sticky webs! At least Fafnir could cast spells at the thing but all I could do was struggle and holler for the other elves, who were soon fighting their way through the sticky stuff from behind us.
Suddenly, the whole place went black. Even I couldn’t see! Fafnir lightning bolted the room twice and heard something hit the floor, and we all kept struggling forward against the webs. It was awful! Finally, I got free - in the dark. I listened for the creature, but got an earful of swearing in multiple lanuages from behind me.. and the dryder hit. I swung wildly in the dark, making some contact and hoping the others got free soon.. sure enough, Drusilia’s light soon drove the darkness back. What a sight!
Poor “Pockets” was laid out on the floor, burned and unmoving from lightning bolts. Aramil was half-unwrapped but also unable to move in the corner. And the dryder was hanging above me from the wall! As soon as the light hit it - it disappeared! As the others got into the room, it reappeared, attacking Fafnir, and went invisible again! Finally, Drusilia’s spells killed the thing and we were able to help our comrades. I used the new wand of curing on “Pockets” as the fastest and strongest thing to use - thank Moradin, he got up! We then did a fair amount of stabbing on everyone, and freed Aramil. Lucky guy was the only one left alive of all the wrapped bodies; we’ve found the missing villagers and a few others, too. Bless them!
Drusilia searched the dryder’s body, took the creature’s greatsword, and found a pouch with some treasure and a letter. The letter is troubling - apparently we’re being hunted; evil creatures know we have the Heart, and of course, they want it! We need to get to the Temple and get the thing destroyed! First, however, we must destroy the white monster. We’re healed and ready - off we go!
With love,
Ghelt