First thing we knew, someone hurled a lance just past Ezekiel’s head. He threw up his arms in a warding gesture, and a hundred bright, disembodied swords started spinning and flashing across the top of the stairs. A giant spider jumped out of thin air above our heads, and while we tried to fend off their monstrous fangs, Ezekiel yelled to everyone to back up.

Next thing I knew, the quiver on my back was spilling over with snakes, all coiling and slithering and biting. Which is something I did not need in my psyche. I don’t know which of them bit me – the snakes or the spiders.

It’s a fascinating sensation, to feel your muscles seize up, and your heart seize up, and watch the world fade to grey as your eyes seize up…but again, not a feeling I really needed to add to my memory bank.

The one good thing is they didn’t hit my quiver of magic arrows…and I guess the other good thing is Mikael was standing right behind me, and chose to purify my body before he went after the snakes…so I appreciate that.

Somehow, no one actually listened to Ezekiel. Lydia used her staff to levitate over our trio’s heads: Heiron, Mikael, and me. Either she or Raven threw a fireball.

At some point, Ezekiel dropped the barrier, and he and the paladins charged over the crest of the stairs, while the earth elemental that was still active surged through the wall to join them.

Heiron and I were slower, as we had to hack our way through snakes. When we finally emerged from the stairs, the elemental was tied up in some kind of spider string, and piles of dead drow lay on all sides.

Ezekiel smashed his mace on the ground, and the last of the snakes still clinging to me dropped to the ground. Heiron and Mikael said my bites were still swollen and purple, but while they fussed over me I could finally draw an arrow without getting a handful of snake – so I finally drove back the teleporting spider.

At least one drow was still shouting somewhere, while some things that looked like gargoyles, but based on a drow pattern, and also partly transparent, were swiping at Lydia. I wasn’t sure arrows would work on them (and I was still a little shaken up), so Tressarian and I went to support Master Oaklock in defending Lydia.

Next thing I knew, Lydia’s magic lion was running around, and Clatrial made the spirit-things get out of there just by showing them her shield. Ezekiel and Aliana were chasing drow all over the place, the gargoyles were here and there, and Raven went by in a blur. I think my appendages were still a little numb, so I took the opportunity to sip a healing potion.

Finally, the elemental broke out of the web, and helped Agnar mop up the last of the enemies. We took a moment to search the bodies for anything meaningful. A couple of the drow had spider broaches, and there were a couple lances that glowed strangely…the paladins spent much time turning them over and peering at them and testing the heft. I guess paladins have a thing for lances, but these felt off somehow.

Finally, Ez told us to follow him upstairs, and then spread out to search the upper floors. Naturally this made me nervous, but we hadn’t heard anyone since we finished the battle. Hadn’t heard a sound, except what we were making.

We made a sweep of the upper floors, which were mostly living quarters. A few private suites, and couple barracks or bunk-rooms. Clatriel found some weapons she said were poisoned, and flung them across the room (fortunately without hitting anyone).

The top floor had the most richly furnished quarters, with silver-woven hangings on the walls and embroidered rugs…unfortunately, the patterns on the rugs were such that I didn’t feel clean walking across them. Crystal dishes sat out on the tables, full of various alcohols and mind-altering substances (Mikael took a professional look at them, and declared them “not healthy”).

The bedroom of the high priestress had a couple curious things. One was a rune formed from platinum on top of a table, that glowed both magic and Evil. Some jewelry next to it was safe, though…I’m not sure we ever figured out what it was for.

The other thing was a secret door to a treasure room. But blocking the treasure room was a tiny torture room, and a man pretty much out of his mind. He’s a massive Bakluni man, and Ezekiel and Raven had quite some trouble trying to help him.

First, they tried just talking and healing his minor wounds, but he tried to tackle Ezekiel. They tried showing him the dead high priestess, but he just embraced her – then squashed her head like an egg.

I’m not sure why they thought unchaining him would be a good idea. At least they had Mikael stand by with the rope of entangling in case it got dangerous, but then they just let him run around the apartments shredding the sheets on the bed, cracking open the bureau, ripping the light fixtures off the wall…all while Clatrial and I were supposed to stand by “keep him from running off or getting into trouble”. Maybe Ez overdosed on the gem of seeing again…he did give it to Aliana to help him and Raven search the four invisible chests in the treasure room.

Finally, the big man gobbled up some of the white crystals in the dishes in the anteroom, and passed out cold, before anyone got hurt.

Aliana and Raven came up the stairs to join us (there’s a statue for teleporting to the basement), and the others joined us with the treasure haul: a pile of scrolls and parchments, assorted coins and jewelry, and most fascinating of all: a talisman wrapped up in a square of silk that was printed with strange symbols. The talisman had the rune for “law” printed on it, and Ezekiel said it felt very comfortable in his hand – just “right” somehow. He passed it around, and most of us agreed…except Mikael and Master Oaklock.

Ezekiel spread out the silk to try puzzling out the symbols, but it didn’t make much sense until he set the amulet down on the silk. Then the writing actually swirled and reformed itself in what looked like Elvish letters, but everyone assured me was not Elvish.

Lydia used magic to read it, and we tried to take notes as she read out loud.

[Separate sheet of scribbled notes placed between the pages:]

There are many ways to reach Lolth

Planeshift: step one…(actually none of those words Lydia used made sense, but Ez took furious notes. She also pulled out the necklace we got from the squid-face men and compared it to some of the directions.)

Astral projection: caution! Traveling near the Spider Queen’s lair can leave a traveler “snared.” Something about something sticky??

Finally: you could just walk through the amber pillar/pool on the main floor of the temple, and that makes the wall behind the braziers a portal.

Lydia and Ez agreed any drow would have trouble handling the amulet, so the information on the silk square was essentially encoded against them. I thought most deities wanted followers to find them (I suppose that isn’t true for the introvert deities), but we decided it could be like a test of devotion…or a prank.

Ezekiel got all fired up to face Her (for real this time), but Lydia has already used her Haste spell today. That’s a big part of Ez’s strategy, I guess, so they talked it over and finally decided she could sit on a quiet corner and study for several hours, and be able to cast it again before we let too much more grass grow under our feet (though down here it would probably be moss or fungus).

The rest of us scattered to search the slain – except Heiron, of course, who was making sure nothing snuck up on Lydia so she could focus. (It’s awful; there’s no sound here at all. No breeze moving curtains, no timbers creaking as they age, no insects buzzing – though I guess that’s only appropriate. And we should be grateful to be away from the hair-raising clamor of the city…but it still feels odd.)

Ezekiel busied himself with the big man. Somehow, the stranger revived and found his way downstairs, where he started ripping apart the drow bodies and smashing them against the walls and generally making a mess. Ez had to use a high-tier healing spell before he finally calmed down, and then they sat and talked for a bit. His name’s Kazak, from one of the barbarian tribes, and he came here with a party to “do business” with the drow.. but it ended very badly somehow. Ezekiel and Agnar said he could wait for us down in the tunnel by the riverbank…if all goes well, he’ll be hidden from enemies there, and we can pick him up to see him safely out when we’re done with our business. Or, if we never return, he can try his luck on the boats and avoid the guards on the bridge. It’s dangerous either way, but at least he has options…and he has stopped the maniacal violence, so that’s nice. He still makes my back tingle.

The whole thing makes my spine tingle. Agnar tried to get a rise out of Clatriel, and she didn’t even respond, so you know it’s bad. Ezekiel says he has a plan, though. We’ll see how many times it has to change before we’re done.

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Read the previous entry here.