The session began right where we left off, somewhere in the darkness of the Underdark. And for the first little while, not too much of note happened. We set off through the dark, with myself taking the lead this time (and doing a surprisingly good job – at least, we seemed to be on the right track, though it was kinda difficult to tell) and we didn’t run into anything untoward.
Eventually the tunnels began to become far more spider web heavy. Not long after, we spotted a door. I rang the bell and a pair of goblins came out. They explained that they were guides for the spider-infested area and after some negotiation we hired them to lead us through. With them now taking the lead, we set off once more.
The next person to cause anything interesting to happen was Qiris, when he spotted a chest in the web walls and immediately tried to open it only to get stuck to it because it was a mimic! This was very exciting, because its the first mimic my group has ever encountered (amazing, since its been well over two years now since I joined). Unfortunately for the mimic, we absolutely wrecked it. Qiris managed to get himself free without being hurt, Dorne took a bite but otherwise gave it a good chopping, and after a couple of rounds I nailed it in the eye with a firebolt – doing a mere 1 point of damage, which just so happened to be all it had left.
After harvesting some questionably edible parts from the mimic, we moved on. The webs got even heavier, to the point we could see no rock, just webs, and then suddenly they gave way beneath us. We all fell, getting trapped in the webs spread out across the top of an eighty foot chasm, before the giant spiders moved in.
I was unaware of the spiders, because I dropped my light rock – the only means by which I, Qiris and a couple of others could see. The spiders came in and whiffed their attacks against me, but managed to hit both Dorne and Qiris as they tore themselves free of the restricting webs. They fought back, as did the rest of the group (who also managed to free themselves). I tried to free myself, but failed my check, and as I cast Light again so I could see I was suddenly startled by the realisation there was a giant spider right in front of me.
Following this realisation, everyone else except Dorne managed to climb back up to safety in the initial path. The spiders attacked again, missing me again. Then it came back to my turn, and I made a… small miscalculation. I breathed fire.
Casting Burning Hands, I roared out my flames into the spider in front of me’s face. And the rest of the webs surrounding it in the fifteen foot cone of the spell. Which compromised the entire structure of the webs Dorne and I were in. Which caused us to fall.
I managed to grab hold of some webs, halting my fall safely. Dorne did not, and plummeted eighty feet to the ground below alongside all but one of the spiders. They all went splat, whereas Dorne bounced… and was able to trigger his Relentless Endurance, as the damage was enough to bring him to zero, but thankfully fell shy of killing him instantly.
With Qiris quickly able to finish off the last spider, the rest of the group dropped a rope that a couple of them climbed down. I joined them and we all descended to the bottom of the cavern, filled with relief that Dorne was okay. We also found the remains of a demon down there. No big deal.
Climbing back up to resume out journey, we eventually set down to rest for the ‘night’. The following ‘morning’, we set off once more and soon enough found ourselves leaving the spider webs and entering a complex tunnel system (within a giant stalagmite, we later learned). As we strode through, hoping that this was an end to our journey through the webs, we were surprised by a group of elf-spider people. I tried to negotiate our passage through, but they were having none of it and attacked.
This fight went on for a bit, as they came at us in several waves, but a few notable things happened. I was finally hit – the first time I’ve taken damage in the campaign – and brought down to 1 hit point before Dorne healed me, Dorne was hit enough to trigger his Relentless Endurance and then be knocked unconscious, but I healed him onto his feet using my schmancy new bone flute that I had recently carved and Healing Word (because I’ve multiclassed to Bard), and the leader of the baddies, a more spider-like looking creature, fled as soon as her last minions were dead. We eventually found her praying to an altar and as I tried to convince her to change her evil ways Qiris attacked her and then she killed herself.
After that fight and a little exploration of the tunnels, we decided to use this place to rest again, as it seemed relatively safe, and we ended the session there.
So, that almost went real bad. I’ve never directly caused the death of another PC before (outside of a one-shot) but given my history of bad luck and character death that almost comes as a surprise. Dorne was lucky he’s a half-orc. Still, tragedy was avoided, so we can laugh about it now.
Based on what our guides said, I believe we’ve got a little more time to spend in the spider tunnels before we get through them. But after that, maybe we’ll finally reach our first destination. Who knows? I sure don’t. So, be sure to tune in next week to join me in seeing if we do.