The Dangers of Civilization
Game Master
sunshadow21
The Western Trade Route runs through the Midrealms to the city of Cliffsgate and the Haven of Belauth. Being a settled region, This region should be perfectly safe for a group of up and coming stars, right?
By the time you all have your weapons and armor on, the crowd outside the tavern has grown a bit, and there are even so torches lit, so Morbak could have made out a few more details. The panic level has only increased; there are now signs of battle in the few upstairs windows that still have lights in them, though the shadows make it hard to see precisely who is fighting who, and many of the people gathered outside have injuries that are being tended to. The front door has been barred shut, and people are trying to board up the windows as well.
Zhiyo will be human form to make talking to them easier.
Zhiyo looks for who ever seems to be taking charge and if finding such a person will ask them what they know about whats going on.
Zhiyo is also listening to what he can hear from inside.
Perception:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
No one really seems to be in charge as you walk up, and most people are so drunk and/or panicked that they don't even react to the presence of the paladin as being problematic. This is the first warning sign you have that something really, really bad is going on in there. A few people try to answer the question, but the only word that you can make out consistently is "spiders." And indeed looking inside the windows that are being hastily covered into the common room, you can see a lot of spiders just in that room, and now that you are closer, you can see that some of the shadows in the few rooms upstairs that still have lights are very spiderlike. Crispin, looking around for other ways, realizes that the back door to the kitchen seems to be quiet, at least for now.
The group is able to get around back without much difficulty, and it quickly becomes clear that whoever built this building really didn't care about quality construction. The front didn't exactly look promising, but back here, it becomes apparent how little effort they really put into it. The kitchen door is closed, and the shoddy construction makes it a bit of a challenge to open, but you are able to get it open and see a short hallway that ends with a open door that seems to open up to the common room. A shabby looking kitchen is on one side, and a combination of storage and sleeping quarters appear to be on the other. You don't have much time to get ad detailed look because the hallway is filled with several swarms of panicked, desperate spiders who all start to move toward the open door.
Map should be coming this afternoon. You all have one action you can take to prepare.
Zhiyo gets the idea that the spiders are running away from something, and he is happy to let them so he grabs Morbak and drags him out from the door by the collar to give the spiders a clear path, "Morbak! They are running, let them. You need your strength to kill whatever they are running away from, and what ever that is must be a doozy. What do you hate vermin for anyway? They are big bugs, not evil or anything."
Zhiyo grabs Morbak by the ear and pulls him away from the door, "Everyone, give them a clear path to cover. If they want to run let them, besides we might want to save our energy for whatever they are running from." CMB:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
Morbak eyes seem to stop glowing red. "I'm fine, you can let go now Zhiyo. I believe I have something to keep that swarm off of us." Reaches into his right pouch and pulls out four viles of a pasty white substance. "This should keep the swarms off of us." He hands three of them to Zhiyo, Crispin, and Sritaro. "Ha'el, use your bombs to keep them from you."
The party backs off as the swarms bounce around the walls for a round or two before finally finding the door and disappearing out into the surrounding darkness. You now have a chance to enter the tavern where there are no immediate spiders in the back hallway or kitchen, but you can see more of them in the common room, both swarms and larger individual spiders, though none seem to be larger than small size. You can also hear noises down the stairs, and can guess there are more spiders down there.
We're still technically in combat, so keep your actions somewhat limited, but I'm not going to measure specific rounds, so you can post in any order, as this is more of a running chaotic mess than a easily defined battle.
The party heads downstairs, and after dealing with the dozen or so spiders wandering around down there, they discover a couple things of interest. First is the office of the owner that is filled with anything and everything related to The Tower. Clearly, the man is convinced that something of great value is hidden away in it, and is determined to be the one to find it. Second is the tunnel going down that appears to be the source of the spiders.
With the spiders themselves, Morbak in particular notices that the level and strength of the poison in the spiders is strange. In all cases, it's understrength compared to normal, and in some cases, it doesn't seem to have even developed enough strength to be noticeable. In addition, the bodies of the spiders suggest that the maturation process was not normal. It's hard to say precisely what caused these strange mutations, but it seems as if someone has tried to speed up the aging process, with mixed results.
Quick battle summary of the basement (still getting settled into new job, so I'm going to hit fast forward a bit)
Zhiyo takes 3 damage, and needs a DC 12 Fort save or take 1d2 ⇒ 1 STR damage
Morbak is uninjured, killing the spiders faster than they can hit him
Sritaro takes 4 damage, and needs 2 DC 12 Fort saves, or take 1d2 ⇒ 2 STR damage (save 1) and 1d2 ⇒ 2 STR damage (save 2)
Twitchy takes 2 points of damage
Crispin takes 2 points of damage
Looking through the office, the only real thing of importance you find is the notes on the cave system he's found underneath that he believes ultimately leads to the underground entrance of the tower.
Fort Save 1: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21 Fort Save 2: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29
Heh, waste of a 20, but glad I didn't botch either of those rolls. That'd be embarrassing 0_0
Panting after the frantic combat, Sritaro once again places his hand upon his chest as it glows briefly with a warm light, repairing some of the damage.
Lay on Hands :1d6 ⇒ 4
"Anything of ussse Zhiyo?" He then turns to the rest of a group as a whole. "And does anyone else require aid? I ssstill have some of Pelina's energy to tend to any wounds as well as my medical kit."
Finding nothing else of interest here, the party turns to explore the source of the spider infestation, rapidly finding themselves in a somewhat complex cave system that seems to cover a pretty decent area.
I need a couple of survival checks at +2 because of the notes that Zhiyo found.
The group starts out confidant they can find the source, but than you hit a section that takes a bit of exploration to get through, causing you to encounter some more spiders that you have to hack through.
Zhiyo takes 3 damage from 2 hits and needs a DC 12 Fort save to avoid 1 point of STR damage
Morbak takes 7 damage from 3 hits and needs 2 DC 12 Fort saves to avoid 2 STR damage (save 1) and 1 STR damage (save 2)
Sritaro takes no further hits
Twitchy takes no further hits
Crispin takes 3 points of damage and needs a DC 12 Fort save to avoid 1 STR damage
All told, you plowed through a couple of dozen spiders
Eventually, the group picks the right tunnel back up, and finds themselves looking into a small cave that just makes Morbak's eyes go red with anger. Almost every surface of the cave is covered in spider eggs, some of which appear to be already hatched, others not. Only a small path on the other side of the cave coming out of the only other humanoid sized entrance and a amall area in the middle around a pedestal is not covered by spider eggs. There is only one spider left in the cave at the moment, but it is large sized, and trying desperately to find an opening it's size that would let it escape the cave. On the pedestal, Morbak recognizes an orb of vermin repellent keyed to spiders; these orbs are designed repel and scare away keyed vermin. Fairly common in the mines he used to work in, they were typically used to secure key rooms and tunnels, though they are less common in the Confederacy. Normally such orbs had a fairly small radius of effect, due to the high cost of making a larger radius, but this one seems to be being amplified by the pillar, causing the area of effect to be significantly larger.
What do you do now? You do not currently have a clear path to the pillar, and the large spider is almost certain to attack you as soon as you enter the cave.
Sorry guys. I'm running a summer camp for jr programmers and engineers using the Lego Mindstorms kits. Its been hogging up most of my time the last few days. I will do my best to stay on top of things but my attendance will be spotty for the next little while.
Twitchy suggests we set up a distraction to draw the beasts attention away then maybe we can grab that orb to remove it.
Seeing the number of wounds Morbak takes, Sritaro charges holy energy into his armored hand and presses it against his religious brethren.
Lay on Hands on Morbak: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Fire!
Assuming Morbak shares his knowledge of the orb, otherwise Zhiyo suggests being ready to attack.
"Cover you faces, the webs will burn fast and hard so be ready to sprint to the orb." Zhiyo uses burning hands to ignite the webs and sacks in the way and around the entrance.
It takes a bit for the fire to really catch, but once it does, it burns for a while and acridic smelling and tasting smoke fills the air. Finally, after some time, and many cries of death and pain from the remaining spider and various hatchlings, the air clears, and you are left with silence and a cave void of life.
The orb seems to be loosely attached to the pedestal. You don't think it would be very hard for someone with the arcane knowledge to safely remove it, though you would have to find some other power source for it, as it does not appear to have an internal power source.
