Scribe Notes - Vol. 9: The Black Spider

If you haven't already done so, be sure to read the previous posts in the Scribe Notes series for the complete back story!

We rode back to Wave Echo Cave in the morning. It was much how we left it: dark, ominous, and full of all manner of monsters.

Another of those jellies descended from the ceiling. Despite our best efforts to freeze the thing it still managed to clobber poor Ava. Figuring fire might be a better approach, I launched a firebolt at it. Poor Thaelin attempted to follow suit, but only burned himself in the process. A frustrated Ava hacked the thing to pieces.

Our old hiding hole was patched up. Voices on the other side. I used a series of cantrips to lure them out and away from us. We split a group of four and flanked them. Trym assassinated one with an arrow before anyone even heard a whisper. We made short work of the beasts, even when reinforcements arrived. It seems everyone's experience has served them well.

We approached a set of double doors. On the other side, we finally found Nundro. Ava saw to his health while I examined the documents on the table. My curiosity let the drow get the drop on me. Learning from my previous lesson, I managed to cast shield to block his magic missile. But he called a group of spiders to his aide, and our wizards' duel began.

We engaged in magical combat while my friends attempted to manage the spiders. The coward blinded me and fled into the darkness. Trym and Thaelin both summoned animal companions to deal with the arachnids. When the drow reappeared, I hurled a fireball over his shoulder. In his arrogance, he had believed I missed with a firebolt. When the flames exploded outward they took him entirely by surprise, fully engulfing him in the flames. We dispatched the spiders and three bugbears burst into the room...

Thaelin convinced them they had little worth fighting for and healed Nundro. His peculiar staff of black metal confirmed our suspicions as to his identity, by way of it's ornamentation - a large, Black Spider. We set the it aside for further inspection later, and upon deciding a rest was in order, secured ourselves in the room that had (until we dispatched his jailers) been Nundro's cell; an opportunity I used to review the documents we had claimed from Nezznar, The Black Spider's desk.

Scribe Notes - Vol. 7: The Flaming Skull

If you haven't already done so, be sure to read the previous posts in the Scribe Notes series for the complete back story!

After a short rest everyone was ready to proceed. We thought it best to investigate the door the bugbears had barricaded. Listening at the door hinted only at the sound of distant crashing waves.

Actually on the other side... a zombie. Trym knocked half the creature's head off before any of us knew it was there. I don't know how it kept walking. Thaelin froze the undead monstrosity solid with an expertly executed spell. One is lucky to have such exceptional travel companions!

Past the zombie was some wooden machinery. The room was scorched. Blast marks on the wall. A great magical battle happened here. Corpses of all races litter the floor. A flaming skull rounded the blast furnace and screamed most hideously at us. Trym's arrow skipped off it's crown and both Thaelin and I struggled to come up with an appropriate spell to handle the abomination. Ava, spryly in her panic, downed the white potion we had found in the previous room. She described the results to me later. Sounds like a Vitality Potion.

We lobbed all manner of attack at the skull but it merely shrugged off our attacks. In fact, Thaelin's ice attack reflected back into poor Ava, damaging her further. I hurled a bevy of magic bolts into the skull, only to have them bounce back at me... I was knocked unconscious. In a haze I recall Ava drinking potions... many of them. Trym... dashing forward... Thaelin prodding me... he looked confused... the skull... blurry... Ava unleashes a mighty ax blow... the skull... shatters. Trym's pouring a potion down my throat to awaken me. Thaelin lays a healing touch upon me to get me on my feet. I took my last potion to regain my senses, only to see Ava holding two zombies at bay. Exceptional travel companions indeed. My lapse in judgement for not casting shield nearly cost me my life...

The wand luckily still had charges and I used it to launch a counter attack. We dispatched the remaining zombies and investigated the room. A stair case led to ghouls. We marked the area and had Trym scout further. The cave looked complicated and we decided to back track a bit. Trym most stealthily scouted several passages, spotting a drow in a room ahead. We thought this to be the Black Spider and decided to take the drow captive.

We sneaked in on it, and I hurled a brilliant acid arrow. Ava tackled him with such force I thought she might tear him in half. I warned him to yield but he spat in my face, so I delivered a shock, coupled with a wallop to his face, courtesy of Ava. Thaelin dealt with the drow's bugbear companions with a wall of thick fog, and quickly thinking to pull up the ropes. We subdued the bugbears. The "drow" was another doppelganger. No shortage of frustration in this cave...