The murderhoboes
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
Stonemaul, half-orc holy warrior
What they did
Thrognar mutters, "This place is strange. One minute I'm fighting four armed dog demons, the next I'm standing knee deep in Dretch with no idea how I got here."
Polly says, "According to Zaber everything is explained by mushrooms."
Thrognar scoffs. "I haven't touched the things since seminary school."
Polly asks, "So where we gonna go? The dretches seem really dead"
We go to the east. That hallway widens out to a much bigger cavern with a high ceiling. The air smells better here, but it also feels hotter. The cavern loops around a bend ahead, and a small plateau in the middle of the floor sweeps upward dramatically off to the side. It looks like it leads to a tunnel. A great stone pillar stands more or less in the middle of the floor. It's a natural pillar, not carved, and it goes all the way up from the floor to the ceiling.
To the east I see a big beast on the ceiling. That beast lurking above is a spider as seen in the worst nightmares. Bigger than three horses, its legs clack on the stone as it eerily moves across the ceiling toward us. Venom drizzles in a rancid rain from its jaws, and eight glowing beads of hunger eye us mercilessly.
I am the only one catches a glimpse of this spider right away, though I hiss to the others to look up. Polly says to me, "I bet your going to say just because its big it isn't nature?"
I keep looking up at it. "Even Nature gets hungry. And we're food. So it's be hunter or prey, and I intend to be hunter." And Thrognar says it isn't nature, but a fell beast from the depths of hell.
I fly to the other side of the spider, but it flips off the ceiling and dives down at the others. The cavern shakes as the spider hits home, knocking people like pinballs. Polly, Stonemaul, Garreth, and Logan get out of the way, but Thrognar and Val do not. Thrognar goes flying into a cavern wall, but Val dies right away.
Polly tries to shoot the spider's eyes then flies to Garreth's reach for safety. One of the arrows does hit the eye, but somehow, it looks like it can still see. Garreth sneers at the spider but focuses inward, stepping back and giving a "Bring it" gesture. Thrognar and Stonemaul, like Garreth, step and focus on their inner strength. Logan bites its foot, but that doesn't seem to hurt the spider at all. I fly onto the back of the spider and grab it. Bleu, standing in back, yells, "It's a bebilith!" Thrognar yells, "Aim at it's thorax! A little to the right! And watch out for it's backside. It poops webs. And keep it's claws away from your armor." However, the spider poops one of those webs at Thrognar, pinning him to the wall. It tries to claw and bite Polly, but Garreth blocks its blows with Scalemar.
Bleu casts Great Haste on Garreth, and he starts chopping at the spider. It doesn't even try to get out of the way, and one of the blows does seem to slow it down. Polly keeps peppering its eyes with arrows, which again do not blind it. Thrognar can't wiggle his way out, so he shouts at me to go for the thorax. I put my knife into the innards of the spider twice, while Logan again bites its foot, though again the spider does not notice. Stonemaul hits it in the skull four times. For some reason, the spider spits its web at Logan, but he gets out of the way. It also tries to brush me off, but I hold on. And it tries to claw and bite at Garreth, but he parries.
This isn't the spider's day.
Polly keeps shooting the spider in the eyes, which don't seem to hurt it that much. Garreth keeps pounding at the spider's chest. I call it a "Lazy Lob!" as I stab it in the skull, and Thrognar yells for Stonemaul to likewise go for the skull. Stonemaul's sword pounds its skull, and those blows hurt it so much that it lashes back in rage. It pounces on Stonemaul, Garreth, Polly, and Bleu, but they all get out of the way. Garreth lets out a last barrage of blows to the spider's brain, and it slumps down, dead at last.
Garreth glares at the creature. "You killed are new wizard. Those aren't free, you know."
Stonemaul points to Val. "Gods saw fit to largely keep 'im intact." They didn't feel the same about the spider, and Logan runs up to eat the entrails.
I climb off the spider and point at Garreth. "You killed my mount, man!"
Garreth sighs. "Zaber, you were never riding that out of the dungeon, nor were we ever going to take it out of this demon trap.
I wag his finger at Garreth. "Never say never, G."
Garreth points at the brains oozing out. "Never."
Polly takes four of the spider's fangs and I fill nine vials of its poison. At Garreth's behest, I start looking at the webbing on the ceiling for loot. Sure enough, I find a silver long spear marked with celestial looking glyphs with stylized wing motifs as well as some money. Polly says that the spear is magic. Garreth asks Bleu to find out what it does.
Bleu sighs and casts Analyze Magic. "This is a Seraphic Lance, it is forged of Celestial Silver and counts as blessed, and is both fine and balanced. It aids in valorous advance and strengthens the heart of its wielder"
We load Val's body into the Bag of Holding then go back to Cillamar.
Other stuff
Val's player is going to make a new character who can better withstand taking 140 HP in one hit.
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