”I don’t think we dwarves can get even close to that jump,” Hagrym grumbles at hearing about how far the group would have to jump to land to safety. ”I can’t get there from here…”
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"Hmm, if the pressure plates only activate the nearest diorama, I don't think I need to get all of them. We'll just keep to the southern plates," Jon muses. "Third time's the charm!" Jon once again runs, hugging the southern wall and sticking to those pressure plates, bypassing the northmost one and starting work on the eastmost diorama.
"Oops," Jon says meekly as the diorama spins up whatever harm it has in store.
The diorama that Jon approaches shows the city of Absalom being destroyed by an earthquake. As Jon tries to disarm the trap, his hand slips at the last possible moment, and he is struck by a ray of sonic energy! His ears bleed, his vision spins, he screams from the pain, and he collapses to the floor, at
With Jon setting off the trap, the pressure plates on the floor stay deactivated so the rest of the party can safely reach the double doors.
Hagrym springs to the side of the injured there and attempts to use his Battle Medicine feat to quickly heal him.
Treat Wounds
Hit points healed
Mac and Pen (hopefully) move to the eastern double doors in case that sonic blast caused some alarm from what is behind the doors. "We might be in danger soon, Grym. You may want to use magic to hep Jon recover."
Jon wakes up upon Grym's administrations and sits up. He digs a handkerchief out of a pocket and tries to clean himself up a bit. "That's the loudest thing I've ever heard, and I work with explosives. Should have known the last device would be a bit trickier. Well, I'm alive, that's something."
Hagrym uses another Heal spell to get Jon as solid as possible.
The party opens the double doors at the end of the trapped hallway to reveal:
This large, low-ceiling room has a cross-shaped table at its center. Ten chairs stand around the table. The walls, floors, and ceilings of the chamber are completely covered with thick layers of webbing. The table in the center displays an illusory map of the city of Absalom as it appeared hundreds of years ago. A 6' tall spider-like humanoid with six eyes, fangs, and vicious claws squats atop the table, delighting in yet another examination of his web-caked illusory city.
As you make your presence known, the spider-creature looks up at the party and speaks in an unknown language that none of you speak: Aklo. He sounds confident and looks at you with disdain. When the creature stops speaking, he appears to be waiting for your response.
"Guys, these web lurker are no friendlies. I don't know, what he was saying, but my guess is, he's trying to trick us into his web traps." Garidan whispers to the party. "We could just leave him be, but I'd rather rid our world of aberrations. Jon, would you do the honor?" Garidan suggest just sticking to ranged attacks for know.
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Penflower has read about this type of creature. He's a bit scared, considering the last time he had an encounter with a spider creature. But he doesn't move. He says "I agree and can also help with some spells." He sheathes his sword and prepares to cast a spell following Jon's attack. He hopes that sheathing his sword will look like a non-aggressive action by him, so that the spider doesn't attack right away.
He says "Mac, get ready, I'll try to pull it towards us after Jon strikes. If it works, it'll be in front of us."
Cast Gravitational Pull on it, 1 action. DC 17.
"Can do," Jon says, pulls his pistol and fires...
Jon fires again.
Initiative:
Jon shoots twice, his first attack is a critical due to the off-guard condition. The Web Lurker takes 19 damage total from Jon.
Round 1: Mac
"We have to take advantage that the creature is surprised."
The cleric lashes out with his blast of divine energy, trying to take the enemy down through Torag’s power.
Divine Lance attack
Damage
Mac hits and Hagrym's attack is a critical for a total of 19 more damage.
Round 1: Web Lurker
The wounded aberration tries to claw, claw, and fang the dwarf in front of him!
Out of the spiderwebs, appear 2 spiders of iridescent hue, who engage the party!
The dream spiders are color coded - yellow and orange respectively.
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Garidan got caught off guard and doesn't remember what these spiders actually are. He tries to pierce the one in his reach anyway.
"Damn. Grym, it got me good," Jon spits, feeling a bit woozy from the venom. Seeing both barrels empty, Jon steps back◆, draws his whip◆, and makes a reloading strike◆ at the spider.
Round 2: Mac
Mac's first blow pierces the web lurker's skull, killing it. His second blow kills the orange dream spider. The wounded yellow spider remains.
Hagrym moves just south of Pen (if you could move me, please GM) and tries to bash the remaining enemy with his hammer.
Attack
Damage
Round 2: Dream Spider
The yellow spider evades the party's attacks and attacks Pen, but misses all three attacks.
Round 3: Mac
Mac tries to end the spider.
His head still a bit cloudy from the venom, Jon fires his pistol◆ at the remaining spider.
Then he steps forward◆ and uses his whip for another reloading strike◆.
Mac's critical attack is sufficient to kill the last dream spider.
During that hour, you search the room for treasure and detect magic and find:
Mesmerizing opal
Five (5) shining sling bullets
Type I necklace of fireballs
"Good job, Mac. Again." Garidan looked at his rather useless spear and shrugged.
"That gem is pretty cool. I once knew a rather dashing fellow who specialized in decieving his enemies. He had one of those and completely bewildered the enemy."
After catching their breath and patching some wounds, Garidan suggest to head back to where they started. "There was a door to the right, right after the stairs that we used to come down..."
"Garidan, I was thinking the southern door from the worm. It seems to the be leading to the SE-SW section that we have not yet explored. We still have yet to meet the Morlock King and the River Drake."
"Southern door sounds good to me," Jon says after the hour of rest, some TLC, and reloading both barrels of his pistol.
Hagrym was huffing and puffing after that last scrum. ”We are do that, but let’s not get dug in too deep if we can help it. I’ve got one healing spell left today, plus that wand of course,” he says to keep the others in the loop.
"I did just load the last of my infused ammunition," Jon admits, hearing Grym. He pats his pistol to emphasize the point. "I'll be reloading from my backup ammo from this point today. Grym's right. We shouldn't entrench ourselves much more deeply in here until we've had a good night's sleep and I can craft more ammo. And finish healing from that damn spider bite."
You proceed to the dead worm chamber, avoiding the center light and proceed south to reveal:
This five-foot-wide hallway features three alcoves along each side. Stone sarcophagi stand upright within each.
As you move down the hallway, a female wispy looking shadowy creature emerges from one of the sarcophagi, phasing through the cover. It looks like it was female in life, dressed in noble garb. It moves to toward you, as if seeking to quench your vitality and the light!
Round 1: Shadowy Creature
Garidan ◆ knows what a Shadow is and uses its incorporealty to quickly ◆ pass through it. A cold shiver runs through him. He then attacks the shadow trying to reflect some light from his lantern while ineffectively piercing it.
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Hagrym’s hand goes to his holy symbol as he calls on Torag to damage this undead beast.
Cast Vitality Lash.
Attack
Damage vitality damage with a base 18 Fort save
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Round 1: Mac
Following Garidan's lead, Mac moves through Pen's square, through the insubstantial shadow, to end on the other side, in a flanking position.
x2 +
At first sight, Jon draws his pistol◇ and strides forward◇ to behind Pen.
Jon takes aim and fires◆ at the shadowy creature.
Then he draws◆ one of his ghost charge bombs and lobs it at the shadow creature◆.
Mac lands a critical on the shadow, inflicting 30 damage and then another strike inflicting another 6 damage. Jon's bullet fails to harm the shadow, but his ghostly charge inflicts 7 damage, destroying the shadowy undead!
You head south and find a solid wall, but Mac senses a secret door. You proceed to reveal:
While it’s apparent that this large room was originally a kitchen, the furnishings have been rebuilt and repositioned to create an improvised shrine. The western end of the hall, where a large fireplace for cooking food once stood, now serves as an altar of sorts. Looming over a human corpse is a towering statue in a feminine shape made of bones, covered in sheets of moldering cloth and hanging moss. A bare spot on the room’s north wall has been decorated with mud and blood to depict the same feminine form as the statue.
You recognize the statue as a crude depiction of Belcorra. Two double doors lead east and there is a door in the NW corner.
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Penflower is horrified at the sight of the room. He moves carefully and says "How likely is it that this corpse starts moving and swings at us?" He goes on slowly towards the body so that the others can accompany him and poke the corpse with the tip of his sword so that it gets impaled in case it tries to move.
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Mac accompanies Pen to have a closer look at the corpse to see if it is really dead and if human, if the party can identify it.
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"Knowing this place, Pen, more likely than not. Let's not drop our guards," Jon says warily. He turns on his arcane sense to detect magic in the room.
Hagrym nodded, yet again impressed by the violence handed out by his mates. ”Now that’s handing out some pain,” he exclaims.
As the group moved into the next room, the cleric holds his shield at the ready, expecting more undead hijinks to occur.
As you get closer to the corpse, you realize that the body is that of a human man with a bird tattoo on his right shoulder that marks him as a member of the Osprey Club. You presume that you have found the corpse of the missing thief. It does not spring to life and is quite dead. However, among a few of the valuable offerings made around the base of the statue, you find:
Bloodstone worth 10 gp
Softly glowing +1 weapon potency rune
Sickly green fear gem
Nothing else is of note. Again, there are two double doors leading east and there is a door in the NW corner.
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"Let's check out the single door at the NW corner," Jon says.
At seeing the Osprey club member, the cleric asks the group how they wanted to proceed. ”I think it’d be for the best to take this poor fella back to town when we leave. The group would probably appreciate the certainty of what happened to him. At least they could give him last rites and a proper burial.”
With that being said, he follows the group suggestion at heading to the NW door.
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You head through the NW door to find a pantry.
Only a few fragments of the shelving that once lined the walls of this pantry remain today.
You search the room but find nothing of interest. Two doors lead out of this room, one east and one west. You try the eastern door and it leads to a staircase leading down to the lower level. The western door leads to a passageway with stairs leading down 10' to some ruined rowboats. There is also a room to the south. You try the door leading south but it is locked. You can try 2 thievery checks to unlock the door or an Athletics check to force the door open.
Mac forces the door open and you find:
The walls of this octagonal chamber are adorned with swirling runes carved into the stone and then filled with dull, silvery metal. The floor is polished smooth, as is the ceiling ten feet above.
The silvery metal and runes leads Pen to believe that this is some sort of teleportation chamber. However, it appears that a ritual spell is required to awaken the latent energy in the room. However, Pen is sure that he is unaware of the spell required and it is certainly not in his spell book.
You continue your foray west down the flight of stairs to find:
At the north end of this small cave, the mouth of a swampy, flooded cavern yawns. A few ruined rowboats lie in heaps on the floor of this cavern, strewn next to tangled coils of rope.
After 10' north, there is a flooded underwater passage. To the south, is a narrow 4' wide tunnel.