|
Day 8, 1700 years
in the past
Dear Master Zorthaster,
Our foray into the spider's lair ended well, but it was a close
thing. We nearly lost half our party to a gargantuan monster.
The lightning heard from ahead came from Adler, the mage
I dueled recently. He was dying in the next chamber after fighting
several spiders. With his last breath he compelled us to go after
his uncle Dubricus, and gave us a bag of gear that would help us.
This included several magical items that we quickly distributed amongst
our group.
Moving on we discovered a huge room draped in webbing, glowing with
a ghostly white radiance from the light outside. The room was inhabited
by a drider sorcerer that took great delight in launching lightning
bolts at us. He had several other monstrous spiders with him and as
the battle began, a swam of spiders poured out from another passage
and scuttled rapidly toward me. As this was happening a spider fully
25 feet tall emerged from a tunnel in the ceiling. I was busy throwing
fireballs and General Matick's Missiles at the spiders
after I cast Pockall's Invisibility Plus on Xan and Quantoul's
Fastmorph on Oskar. The gargantuan spider was a horrifying foe.
It bit Oskar and he fell. The cat tied into the spider until it too
was badly bitten. This monster's venom sapped a person's strength
but the cat was still strong enough to drag the fallen paladin out
of danger as the mammoth spider turned its attention toward Primula
and Shane. They too were badly mauled and poisoned by the spider.
Fortunately, the drider and the other smaller spiders were dead by
this time and the big monster had been badly hurt thanks to arrows,
spells, swords and the deadly feet of the halfling. It took a few
more arrows and collapsed into a hairy, chitinous tangle of legs.
During the battle I received a sending from Peraus Wands.
He told me that his date estimate was off by a few years and that
the Flametongue Wars were imminent. Beware trolls. He thought he found
the Hlondath Gate. We were to collect soil from near the enemy and
I was to briefly report. He would contact me again soon. My report
told him about our battle with the spiders and discovery of the spelljamming
ship, Adler's relationship to Dubricus, and the death of Adler.
Immediately after the battle I called up a rope trick and we retreated
into the safety of its cramped quarters. We tried to make Oskar
and Primula as comfortable as possible. They were completely helpless,
lacking the strength to even lift a hand. I slept fitfully, dreaming
of swarms of spiders, but awoke refreshed enough to get another
rope trick open as the first dissipated. It was a short piece of
work to move the injured to their new infirmary and we rested as
long as we could bear. The rest of us took turns caring for our
companions as the others carefully recovered some treasure from
the dead drider and explored around a bit. We discovered the remains
of the other members of Tyche's Favored and explored the ruined
ship. It was ripped to shreds. Nothing of value remained. Almost
nothing remained of the helm itself. An arm rest and some upholstery
that may have come from the helm were found, but it was far beyond
repair. A trapped chest in the drider's chamber set us back a bit
as a telescoping spear nearly killed the halfling as it thrust out
of the chest. Xan too suffered a mishap when he tried to remove
the big spider's venom sack. It got him and he was effected by the
terrible drain of strength as were the others. I did manage to extract
a mandible without injury. We are carrying it with us as a trophy.
I think it will be a nice addition in the guild hall back in Daggerfalls.
The next day, Primula had recovered enough strength that, with help,
she could move about enough to pray to Corellon for restorative spells.
As this divine power filled the injured, strength returned rapidly.
Master Wands contacted me again and I reported the outcome of the
battle and the fact that we were spending time recovering. He seemed
impatient for us to be moving on, but we were all agreed that we needed
to be at full strength before confronting Dubricus.
By the afternoon of our sixth day here we were prepared to move out.
It took a while, but we found our way out of the thickest part of
the spider webs. The forest was quiet and we made good time before
we realized that there were strange formations on the forest floor.
They were shallow pits, and there were hundreds of them. Xan examined
them closely and came to the frightening conclusion that they were
troll nests. The ranger discovered tracks of the trolls leading back
to the web lair and found a trap door in the webs that allowed them
to pass through and continue their journey to the north east, back
toward Conifera. We could do little about this for the moment, and
turned back toward Corellon's temple. When Peraus again contacted
me, I reported the troll nests and tracks but had little else to tell
him.
We came into a range of wooded hills and discovered a beautiful valley
with a river, a hanging valley with a waterfall and a cliff that held
a thick, vertical vein of sparkling quartz. The base of this was carved
into a beautiful archway that led into the temple complex. Just as
we were about to enter the temple I was again contacted by Master
Wands. He told us to drop what we were doing, grab the soil near the
enemy and return to Conifera immediately. We were to make all possible
haste.
Several of us grabbed handfulls of dirt and turned from our goal.
It was frustrating to have to turn around after getting so close,
but there was no question about Master Wands' message. There was also
no question that we had to place our trust in the man we came here
to rescue. Back to Conifera we raced. The cat carried both Oskar and
Shane, we tried to keep up. Our route took us back through the secret
passages and trapdoors of the spider lair and back to the stony overlook
where we called to Thorgil. He allowed us passage back to the bridge
via the back road he guarded. Marching through the night, ready to
drop from exhaustion, we staggered into town just after dawn on our
eighth day in the past.
Master Wands was ready for us with a large room at the inn and hot
drinks. We debriefed under the protection of a spell that Master Wands
cast that seemed to suspend the flow of time. He told us that the
Gate he has been searching for, Hlondath's Gate was here in town.
The gate can take us anywhere we want to go as long as we have a sample
of the soil from that location. The gate seems to be powered by heavy
magic and this heavy magic was the reason that Master Wands' time
estimate was off and we ended up arriving just as the Flametounge
wars were occurring. During this war, trolls wipe out Conifera and
the site is not inhabited again for a thousand years.
When Master Wands released his spell, Gilomide arrived and we gave
him a report of the troll nests and tracks. We estimated that the
monsters were at most, two or three days from town. He sent scouts
out and we got down to preparing for the attack. Our first task, however,
was to finish the job of taking down Dubricus. The Hlondath Gate would
get us back there as soon as we were ready to go.
A pack of arcanists arrived under Gilomide's command and gave us each
an elixir that revived us and restored vitality and mental clarity.
Before the elixir I felt like I could sleep for a week. Afterwards
I felt like I had. The spell casters also used a strange glowing silver
liquid and sets of colored lenses to examine the magical items we
had recovered. Using this unusual method, they identified everything
for us and we divided up the loot. I got a headband of intellect and
a wand of hold person. We re-supplied and I picked up 6 pearls
for identify spells as well as a few other necessary mundane
items. Gilomide will be returning shortly to take us to the Hlondath
Gate. From Master Wands' expression I can tell that he is delighted
to be finally given the opportunity to see the gate. I have just the
slightest misgivings. If I didn't trust Peraus as much as I do, I
might wonder if perhaps things were not working out just a little
too conveniently for him at the moment. This "unexpected" crisis gives
him the perfect opportunity to convince the authorities to let him
use the Hlondath Gate. I must put these doubts aside for now and close
this letter. We are again, off to find Dubricus, the evil arcanist
who consorts with Phaerimm. I remain
Your faithful student,
Cedar
|