GM SpiderBeard's Age of Ashes (Inactive)

Game Master Barvo Delancy

”Maybe fire?”

Deciding not to leave any uh, web, unburned you head to the western cavern to check it out.

The corners of this cavern are filled with thick strands of spider webs. In the center of the western wall, a pouch of thick webbing trembles in occasional vibration. A thin stream of minerals drips slowly from the center of the ceiling, slicking the floor here and creating treacherous footing.

Doesn't one of our casters have some fire they can use. If not, Raff will use a torch to cautiously set fire to the webbing.

Bards don't really have "fire" as a thing we can do. The Occult list is more enchantment and illusion, with any evocation likely being shadow-based, sonic-based, or force-based. If Omari has Produce Flame as a cantrip, however, she could do it.

Varook tries to get a better look at what is wiggling in the pouch of thick webs. He keeps his distance as he looks it over.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

I have produce flame, but it isnt memorized. =)

As Raff holds up the torch to the webbing, there's a sudden shriek from up in the webs.

"WAIT! WE CAN TALK!" the voice is chittery and high-pitched. "Stop with the fire!"

A creature reveals itself on the roof, clinging to the webs. It is a bizarre specimen with an oblong body covered in a viscous slime. Of its many legs, four are sharply jointed and pour upwards.

It peers at the group with its alien eyes. "I'm Balka. Hi."

Raff backs away a bit, but keeps the torch at the ready. "Greetings. I'm called Raff. What are you and what are you doing here?"

What's the roll for this?
Society +6
Nature +7

Aramil stops and says, ”Er, hi, um, Balka. It’s...nice to meet you?”

Society and Occultism both at +7.

Varook looks at the weird creature (did it come from the wriggling area of the webs, or somewhere else?)

"Hello there beastie! Come into the light and let's talk!"

Lenna’s mouth drops open in surprise, then she giggles, ”Balka? You surprised us! Let’s talk!”

She will study what she can see of the creature and designate it as her prey, just in case.

You all look at this weird spiderish thing and it waggles one of its backwards-bendy legs at you. It's odd-looking to say the least.

"I... well, I will be fair. I wanted to eat you so very badly, but you have fire and you seem to have killed everyone else here. So perhaps that was an unwise move. These are my spiders."

Balka pokes a threat on the spiderweb and the pouch of webbing vibrates. "They will hatch soon, it will be glorious. It is hard to wait! ooh..."

Her eyes twitch a little. "It is best we are not enemies. You can leave me be. I have treasures for you if you leave and we do not fight - I don't need them. There are more lovely spiders deep in the caves but they are unpleasant, some strange spider lady controls them. Be wary!"

"While your honesty is refreshing, I must wonder, if we leave you to your whims, will you and Your spiders be threat to the area?"

Knowledge check for what Balka is?

Sorry lost in an edit but you have no clue what it is. Never heard of it.

"Well, I will be truthful - if somebody comes into my lair I will eat them because that's what I do. My spiders... well, they do what they want. I just like to collect them, sometimes eat them too. It's a thing we have. But we will still be happier if we do not fight. I smell many fresh bodies nearby, that will be enough for me."

"Your answer was not very comforting. I just heard you say that you might be a danger to me and those I love. Give us a reason to not remove you as a threat right now."

"Where are these treasures that you offer us? I too would rather not fight...we should gather the items offered by Balka and leave it alone."

The halfling keeps an eye on the webs for any other movement.

How far is the cave from the town?

"It would seem if the lair was farther from town, it would be easier to come to an agreement."

"Honestly. As long as they don't eat people, I don't see why we can't come to a peaceful resolution." Omari looks to Balka . "Can you commit to not eating any innocent people that stumble through here?"

Aramil remained silent. He didn't know what this creature was, but he didn't know if it understood how to keep a promise, and they might have to come back and deal with it if it didn't.

The cave is a half-day's walk from the town.

The creature looks at Omari with its strange eyes. "But spelunkers are my favorite food. It would be cruel indeed for me to swera to not eat them. I will not eat you and we can be at peace then, wouldn't that be nice?"

"I think we have an accord for now, but we may need to revisit our agreement once we discover the elf mage, Voz's interest in these caves as well as the spider woman's intentions."

Omari seems taken aback at the creatures comment. "I.... I don't think that is ok. But... You are not doing active evil at the moment... What if you warn them to leave your home first on pain of death, and then if they refuse you defend your home?"

Annnd site was done during posting hours yesterday sigh.

The creature stares at Omari for a moment and chitters. "Fine, that will do. I have enough spiders."

Okay, going to push it.

With the creature dealt with and some sort of strange detente arrived at, it generously lets you access to the remains of the last person it ate. On the unfortunate soul you find the following.

- +1 suit of splint mail
- +1 returning striking starknife

Bidding farewell you are left to find a place to rest.

Unless I hear otherwise, you're napping in the forts the mercenaries were using. Go ahead and rest up and we'll resume with shiny new hit points.

With the agreement with Balka, the mercenary fort works for Raff.

Can we switch the +1 from the armor to someone else's armor?

Yep! It takes 1 day of downtime to transfer a rune, and costs 10% of the rune's cost. 16 gold in this case.

As they are resting that night Omari speaks up. "When we next get a free day I would like to transfer the runes from that starknife to my weapon. I could do the one on the armor as well if no one wishes to wear splint mail."

"What about the one on the rapier and the leather armor? Is anyone going to use either of those? Oh, and the scrolls - can any of you read those?"

Returning sounds very cool. I would only put it on a dagger that I don't expect to use often, so I have no wish to claim it. While I would love to see what my crazy-lucky bow does with a striking rune, I'm not going to get in someone else's way if they want it - having our front line dealing out more damage to reduce what they have to takes makes a lot of sense to me. What do we have, two basic weapon runes, two striking runes, a returning weapon rune, and two basic armor runes to hand out?

EDIT: I overlooked a +1 dagger, so that's either another rune or a magic weapon that literally anyone should be proficient with.

I nominate Varook for an armor rune and at least a basic weapon rune, if not a striking rune. I think he's been losing out in the magic swag sweepstakes and now's an opportunity to get him caught up in a big way.

Varook is our front line. I think he should get some boosts.

Do you want to spend the downtime now or head to the next part of the chapter?

Weapons or armour would be nice, or something that will increase my damage....that would be awesome!!

Varook grunts at the talk of 'moving magic' and 're-enchanting' items. This is all far beyond him.

All sounds good...as long as it helps us stay alive, I am all for it! Now if I had something to help me hit a little harder against some of these beasties....

The discussion tab makes me feel like we went back to town for some downtime.

You decide that there's no pressing need to explore the tunnel and instead make your way back to Breachhill to get some well-needed rest and relaxation. You check in on the goblins and your worg puppies, all of whom seeming to be doing well and living in relative peace at the Citadel, which the goblins are busy cleaning up.

Back in town, you get some well-earned rest and importantly, time to start transferring magical runes between weapons and armour.

While in town, Raff exchanges his longspear for a bo staff.

After a few days of rest, relaxation, & runes you all make your way back to the cave, giving the weird creature plenty of space before you begin exploring the long tunnel that leads - presumably - to the caverns beneath the citadel and the aiudara called Alseta's Ring.

The walk takes several miles, and as you move through it you see several bodies of giant spiders, giant centipedes, and other minor cave threats that Voz was likely slaying in an attempt to get through the tunnel. Finally, it reaches a wide cavern.

Although the tunnel opens wide into a sprawling cavern here, it seems even more claustrophobic, for viscous spiderwebs crisscross nearly every inch of the place. Along the northern wall, several human-sized lumps in the webs are thickly wrapped in silk webbing, while the entire floor is covered in sticky goop.

Map is updated.

Lenna moves up to stand beside Raff. She looks at the spiderwebs surrounding them. She says, "Erevel, lend me a hand!" and a ghostly graceful hand appears before her. She looks at Raff and asks, "I could tug at one of the webs to see if anything responds..."

◆◆ Activate Hand of the Mage

"More like, see how long it takes for something to happen, but still, it is a good idea."

Just waiting a bit for everyone else to weigh in with their suggestions and/or plans.

Aramil nods. ”Sounds like a plan to me.”

Lenna grasps the withered hand at her neck which by now she's grown sort of used to and is a great conversation piece at parties.

As the web jingles she sees very large spiders move about in the room, trying to sight whatever prey has been caught. Six spiders show in total, which seem too focused on the sensation in the web to notice in the party.

Lenna and Raff stop before entering the room any further. The floor is also covered in web and looks to be a little difficult to get around in.

Lenna reaches out with her eldritch hand, grabbing a strand of webbing about 25' away and tugging gently. She waits, then tugs again, and trying to imitate what she imagines a captured creature would react to the realization that it was caught, she twists and yanks frantically for a moment, then stops completely. She will continue the charade, refreshing the hand as necessary, until something happens or the others decide it's not going to.

Ninja'd! But I like my post, too, so I will keep it.

Once the hand has been manifested, she can maintain it with a single concentrate action, correct? So she could ready and fire her bow at a spider with her other two actions?

"It appears to have worked. Should we open fire?"

"Balka said there was a spider woman near. We could call out for her. We may find another ally, if you can call Balka an ally."

”Oh, yes, good idea.”

She calls out, ”Hello? Do you know Balka?”

As you call out there's a moment and the noise attracts the spiders, who start swarming over their webs to get to you!

Varook, Lenna, and Omari are up! The spiders don't seem interested in parlay. Just eating halflings.

Omari moves into range and strikes the nearest spider.

◆Stride
◆Stride
◆Strike

Strike: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21
Damage: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (5, 2) + 4 = 11

Varook, seeing that talk is not going to work, moves forward with Omari and also strikes at one of the creatures.

◆Stride
◆Stride
◆Strike

Attack (Intimidating Strike): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23
Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Your blow not only wounds creatures but also shatters their confidence. Make a melee Strike. If you hit and deal damage, the target is frightened 1, or frightened 2 on a critical hit.

"Looks like we're going to need some fire!"

She releases her old on the amulet and brings her bow up as she takes a couple steps forward to shoot around Varook.n She marks the yellow spider as her Prey and opens fire with a Hunted Shot.

First attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 2 Possible Critical: 1d8 + 1d10 ⇒ (8) + (9) = 17

Second attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

◆ Stride
◆ Hunt Prey
◆ Hunted Shot

Note this is DIFFICULT terrain everyone. So you can close distance but you do not have the movement to successfully land a strike.

While Omari and Varook close distance, Lenna quickly fires a bow, killing one of the spiders in a single shot while missing her second shot. The spiders move with astonishing space, almost instantly in place as they leap across the web to land at Omari and Varook!

Omari is bitten viciously while Varook a little less so and both are horribly affected by the poison of their bites.

Meanwhile a web suddenly flies across the room, coating Lenna and sticking her in place! Not too much of an issue considering she's using a bow.

Omari is critted for 15 damage (4 poison) and is flat-footed.

Varook takes 8 damage (5 poison) but critfails his poison save and is clumsy 1 and flat-footed 1!

Lenna is immobilized unless she makes a DC 17 escape check.

EVERYONE IS UP reminder the room is difficult terrain. Omari and Varook must make second fort saves or the poison gets worse.