Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventures “Vault of the Drow” and “City of Spiders”

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.

Read the previous entry here.

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventures “Vault of the Drow” and “City of Spiders”

North of the city lies the Noble Gate. The guards let us through when we showed them the mithril sword token. The road rises to a plateau overlooking the city, where the lights glow and flash with miriad colors in the eternal night…so that, at any other time, or for any other place, one might call it beautiful.

According to our directions, we followed the road north-east (what I suppose, somewhere far above in the sun-graced lands, would be north-east). We dodged a company of drow riding those strange, otherworldly horse-things, but they didn’t even spare us a glance…and we made it safely to the turn-off. We passed the gate of an estate emblazoned with a mace symbol, so that must be the seat of House Despana. No one seemed to notice our passage, and finally the road descended into a narrow ravine.

I don’t know if the original cliffs were cut by hands or natural forces, but now they are carved with such scenes as I could not describe, even if I wanted to. Such demonic faces, and such exhibitions of hatred, cruelty, and selfishness I have never seen, even in the Temple of Elemental Evil…and now I’m working very hard to repress them. As of now, if Ezekiel wants to kill the Spider Queen for all time, I’ll back him all the way.

Finally, the walls opened up to either side, and I could raise my head to see the dark plain we’d entered, and the pagoda of black stone directly before us. A red glow bathed the scene, but there were no lamps or stars or even fungi that seemed to be the source. Like the Temple, perhaps it was simply magic.

We paused a decent distance from the structure, and Mikael summoned his two earth elementals. I figure it was about noon, in places where that means anything, when we approached the temple of Lolth.

The building consists of five layers, stacked on top of each other. It’s possible each layer is a floor inside, though there were no lit windows to tell for sure. Semi-circular steps lead up to the front entrance, and the steps are carved to resemble webs…as though one were entering a snarl of spider nests.

In the entry hall, the floor and support pillars are all black and white, I suppose some kind of stone, and gauzy hangings drape the gaps between the pillars…shifting eerily in the draft when we walk by. We avoided stepping on the runes inlaid on the floor, and stayed away from the purple candles that stay lit, it seems, forever…like the drow priestesses had in the giant hold. Ezekiel has not found it necessary to explain their function.

Ezekiel uncovered his shield, and its cold, white light seemed almost homey, it’s been so long since we could use them. He and Aliana picked their way into the room first, checking for anything suspicious. We followed at a safe distance (much to Clatriel’s annoyance), but nothing jumped us.

Ezekiel took a moment to examine the two altars – one on each side of a broad corridor, leading straight onward. Each held a single gold dish; in a friendlier church, I might think they were for donations to the poor.

Advancing down the corridor, we saw something that made our spines shiver and our muscles tense. A huge spider – almost centaur size – sat on a glowing, amber-colored circle…almost like a pool. Instead of a spider head, it had a head like a female drow, and the eyes watched us as we approached. As we got closer, the circle rose up from the floor and revealed itself to be the top of some kind of pillar – all translucent and honey-colored, with the spider sitting atop, leering at us. By the time we stepped into the room, the pillar was halfway to the ceiling.

Ezekiel and Aliana took Agnar with them to scout the room, and Ez obviously assumed the spider was an illusion, given how casual he was about it. On the opposite wall was a mural, flanked by smoking braziers, and hallways opened up to either side.

Raven, Heiron, and I went to check the west hallway. At the first door we opened, drow immediately started shooting crossbow bolts at us. For untouchable foreigners in the sanctum of their goddess, I suppose it’s no less than we could expect of them. Mikael heard the noise and came with one of his elementals, though from the clamor it seems Ezekiel and the others found more people to fight in the eastern corridor.

While Ezekiel had hinted at wanting to use his official position to try a diplomatic approach with Lolth, now we were fighting…straight out, white and black, kill or be killed. After so much compromise, and subterfuge, and feigned cordiallity, it felt so freeing, so wholesome.

Mikael summoned insects, and a thousand tiny spiders swarmed one of the drow. Lydia shot bolts of light from her staff. When the drow were finally dead, I recovered what arrows I could.

Some of us guarded the exits for anyone who might have heard the commotion, and the rest of us quickly searched the bodies. The drow were all warriors, it seems – with chainmail and sharp weapons. The giant spider still sat atop its pillar, laughing at us and making rude gestures, but it hadn’t interfered in the battle at all…so it seems Ezekiel’s instinct was correct: that an authority figure of this importance would not be sitting, as it were, in the foyer of her lair.

Heiron forced open the second door in the west hallway, and we discovered an assortment of prisoners – two humans, a dwarf, and eight or so humanoids of different kinds. Ezekiel looked them over, and left them on their own (not feeling a responsibility to see them to safety).

Meanwhile, Mikael and I secured a door on the far side of the room where we fought drow. It looks to be some kind of conference room, but they didn’t leave curious-looking papers about.

When we met back up in the main foyer, after securing the rest of this floor, Ezekiel said he was sure the mural wall, between the braziers, had some kind of significance. The smoke from the braziers was behaving strangely – not bouncing off the wall, but almost seeming to drift through it…as though the wall were an illusion. Usually, if something is an illusion, you can look at it different ways until your brain catches an inconsistency, and then it clicks – and it’s obviously not really there. That didn’t happen with the wall.

It looks like the paint is standing out from the wall, like you should be able to trace the spiderwebs with your finger, stretching into a night sky with faint stars, and feel the texture of their intertwining. But you can’t. After much buffing and preparation, Ezekiel and Raven both investigated the wall…and found it nothing more than flat plaster. It must be a – an optical illusion, do they call it? Where the street vendors paint faces that seem to watch you as you walk by? Anyway, Tressarian said the wall was magical somehow (but not Evil), but we couldn’t figure out what to do with it.

That left two possibilities: upstairs, or downstairs. We chose down.

I mentioned the glow in the air that surrounded us when we first entered this dark valley. It continued into the temple (mitigated, of course, by our shields of continual light), but when we headed down the staircase, the air seemed to turn from red to grey. The walls were decorated with frescoes – this time of spiders eating people, and demons dragging people to unspeakable fates. I…I cannot describe the feeling of walking down those stairs. After all we’d seen, all we’d been through, there was something else there, too. A feeling of something terrible, right around the corner. I always think of the undead elf in the Temple of Elemental Evil…every time I get this sensation of otherworldly horror, that’s the memory that washes over me.

Large-ish spiders jumped out of the shadows on the ceiling to attack us, but frankly they felt more like a distraction from what was actually ahead. Finally, we reached the bottom, and picked one of two directions down the corridor.

The hall ended in what I could best describe as an anteroom…two large, silver cages stood against one wall, flanking a stone altar, inlaid with ivory and silver. It traced designs of webs, and skeletons…mostly human or demihuman, I think, which makes sense when the hollow carved along the top of the altar was roughly man-shaped. You can make arguments for sacrificing animals to your god or goddess (maybe not good ones, but arguments) – but Evil never stops there. They always hunger for perversion, for murdering humans and human-likes.

Speaking of which, one of the cages held a victim. A male drow in scyvvies sat with a glazed expression. When Raven unlocked the cage and Ezekiel gave him minor healing, he didn’t react – just kept staring, like he was poisoned or drugged. Ez said there was a puncture wound on his neck.

The only way to continue this path was through a hallway choked with spiderwebs. Mikael told his elementals to clear it, and we followed at a safe distance. Smart? Stupid? Lucky? Who knows.

We entered a large, circular room – fouled with old blood, and “cluttered” with spider silk. Facing us stood a huge, black spider – just like the one upstairs – with a drow face, leering and snarling at us.

We charged – Raven, with a blur of movement; Ezekiel, while chugging a potion; Aliana, with a running flip off the elemental’s back, like a rainbow made of pure silver. The spider-lady clapped her hands, and a large, armored creature appeared…Raven called it a “humanoid armadillo,” but I’m not entirely sure what that means.

Lydia chanted. Clatriel bolted up the middle of the group, sword directed at the demoness’ heart (she’s had a rough couple weeks, and I think she was excited to finally have something to fight again). The summoned back-up beast didn’t seem to notice normal arrows, but it sure bellowed for magic arrows and Agnar’s magic sword.

The whole thing was over in a matter of seconds. As Aliana lopped off the spider-lady’s head, the whole figure dropped to the ground and vanished like snow on a bright, spring day (except snow doesn’t usually smell like an outhouse burning down). Where she had stood, sat a platinum “egg,” probably about the size of Heiron’s two hands.

While Ezekiel examined the egg, he gave the gem of seeing to Master Oaklock (on the rare chance he might need it) and told him to find any secret doors. Heiron and I headed out to search the other end of the hallway, since Lydia told us our reactions and speed were enhanced for a brief time.

The hallway circled around to a bank of cells, some of which housed undead and were not properly locked. They were faster than zombies, but I guess that’s not saying much; and I don’t think they were ghouls, since they didn’t paralyze me when they clawed at me. Whatever they were, they certainly seemed to move in slow motion compared to the rest of us – so I backed out of melee range and held them off with arrows. By that time, Mikael had arrived with his elementals, and we finished them off together.

Master Oaklock had found a secret door from the circular room to the cells, but it only opened one way. We released some actual prisoners – mostly humans, and a kua’toa or two – and Ezekiel healed their minor wounds.

It’s strange; a prison shouldn’t be a place one feels comfortable in, but anywhere seems better than that disgusting circular room, with the mysterious blood stains, and the man-shaped altar just outside the entrance. Perhaps it was the release that “something finally happened,” perhaps it was actually the avatar emanating Evil, but the temple felt much less “tense.” Perhaps we were just coasting on the adrehneline of successfully killing something…perhaps that’s something we’ll never completely out-grow.

Master Oaklock showed us a secret door that led us down a much more rough-hewn tunnel until it reached the shore of a subterranean river, in a dark cavern. Two galleys waited at the shore, apparently manned by undead rowers…but Ezekiel put a stop to that quick enough. Lydia said the water looked the same as that of the Pitchy Flow, under the bridge we crossed at the border of the city. I wouldn’t venture an opinion, since we couldn’t see the other water as close, and the lighting situations are very different, but it could line up.

With the downstairs thoroughly explored, we headed up the stairs back to the main floor…and found that the rest of the temple attendants had noticed us.

[to be continued]

Find the previous entry here.