Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Session 98

July 8, 2024

Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Ambros	Cleric level 4	Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Foxglove	Thief level 4	A willowy human, long hair ties in a pony tail, looks a bit dangerous and dainty at the same time.
Darius	Cleric level 4	Follower of Dacron, God of Craftsmen.
Rorik	Fighter level 3	A fighter.
Bob the Dwarf	Dwarf level 3	Midget with big beard in search of an adventure.
Happy	Halfling level 3	Short, very happy looking halfling. Hair covers his eyes and he is nothing but smiles.

Meadowlark 6th, Airday

An ugly, child-sized creature hung still in the north-east corner. It was up high, by the ceiling, leaning against the wall with its feet and a pair of arms. Another pair of arms was covering its hideous face. Arms had four joints.

Rorik stood still, observing the creature. He subtly signalled to other adventures something is amiss. Hideous child ignored FoxGlove's communication attempts. It slowly crawled sideways along the wall until it stopped just above the dragon door.

Then it suddenly leaned forward, revealing to full extent its atrocious facial features, and jerked out coats stuffed in dragon's nostrils. Rorik shot it dead before the first puffs of blue haze dropped to the ground.

The thief climbed up the side of the dragon door and inspected the monster up close. Face was relatively human. Its eyes were elongated and almond-like. Two large mandibles protruded out of its mouth. Its body was covered in armour made of some webbed and sticky material.

FoxGlove gingerly pulled out a shortsword that hung by the creature's hip. It too was sticky and made from webbed material. Then he stuffed the cloaks back into the dragon's nostrils.

Forcing the north-east doors open led the party into a corridor blocked by dense, thick strands of pearl-gray webbing. After careful deliberation, FoxGlove and Rorik began cutting through the web. They were slow and methodical, taking care not to get entangled or stuck. Up close they observed that the webs were coated in some oily substance.

Cutting through the rope was promptly rewarded by receiving two javelins to the face. Rorik shielded himself and then charged forth to face the daring assailants. He crashed against two four feet tall monsters, very similar but a bit sturdier than the one he killed earlier. Both were had dark, lanky black hair, four arms, and were dressed in webbed armours. Each held a sword, a shield, and a javelin, with fourth hand free.

Small monsters barely stood a chance against mighty Rorik and pious Ambros. Rest of the party splintered north, down the corridor with several doors. They were, of course, promptly flanked from both sides.

Bob received several javelins to his face and body, imitating a hedgehog. A number of four-armed spiderfolk spilt out of the west doors, filling the corridor. Alas, the adventurers were still mightier and slew them in droves.

Darius cast Light on the figure he deemed to be the leader. He came to such conclusion after seeing one of the four-armed creatures directing others. The monster screamed and wailed. Then it threw itself backwards and begun crawling up the wall.

“Murderers!” it cried in broken Common.

“Butchers!” it protested in anguish.

“Killers!” it spat in disgust.

“Huh?” adventurers wondered and chased the fleeing creatures.

With all doors shut, they now focused on the blinded one. It was soon brought back down to the ground and beaten mercilessly.

“I yield! What do you want?!” it cried, dropping its sword and shield.

“Why did you call us killers?!” Ambros demanded.

Such inquiry utterly confused the monster.

“You burst in our lair and start killing us! Killers!”

“Yeah, just kill him.” could be heard in the background.

Unhappy with the creature's answer, the blade was raised for coup de grace.

“Enough!” in well spoken Common could be heard from darkness up north.

“You came into my home, slew my children, maimed my champion, and are caused senseless destruction! Speak! What is it you want!”

Similar, but slightly larger and much better dressed, four-armed creature hung by the darkness at the edge of the adventurers' torchlight.

Soon they learned this is a lair of spiderfolk driven from below by “glowing hunters.” They've been slowly exterminated, and have now holed up here. Since they've been denied returned to the netherlands, they have been forced to come to the surface and hunt for food—cattle, goats, birds...

“We would like to help. How can we find these glowing hunters?”

“They will find you! All you need to do is step out of the mist through south doors. Beware the glowing chambers! Do not go into them! You must draw them out, else you will be doomed! And remember, remember this well! Should any one of you fall to the Glowing Hunter, then make sure to chop up the body without any further delay!”

Not much else of use was learned, and party retreated out of the spiderfolk's lair without further violence.

Happy promptly fell into previously discovered pit trap that has reset itself. Then he was drawn out and he almost fell into thus undiscovered pit trap.

Without ideas on how to reach doors that have a ten feet wide and long pit trap, the party decided to focus on bloated doors on the west side. There they found an abandoned guard room with attached weapon storage. Ransacking both yielded 13 gold pieces, 36 copper pieces, six yellowed, ivory charms carved to resemble grinning skulls, three long-swords, five daggers, one spear, and one two-handed sword. Each weapon bears a carved skull in its pommel or shaft.

Then they returned to the dragon door and played a bit with it. Having agitated it enough, the dragon sneezed with such great force that both cloaks exploded out of the nostrils, followed by thick, voluminous stream of green gas. Everyone who inhaled heaves and coughed, spitting a bit of blood.

And thus the party decided to retreat for the day and report their findings to Tagoler at the Castle of the Wode. They carried Happy to prevent him from falling in any new and old pit traps.

Meadowlark 9th, Fireday

“This is all news to me! Worrying news, at that! Listen, you offered help before. Special help, that is. Now, what would be really helpful is if you could go back and find my guys. It's been a while and no one here expects you to find them alive. But if you could recover their corpses then we would both have an idea where and why they perished, and we would give them a chance to rest closer to their families.”

“They were five men. Cahaidh, rotund and with long brown hair; Eamhur, with lop-eared ears; Eithrael, with long arms and nails; Domnel, with crooked teeth and thinning hair; and Lochey who always looked like a kid despite being in his forties. All had standard equipment consisting of handaxe, dagger, spear, leather armour, shield, and backpack with supplies.”

“These weapons you recovered look impressive! Well balanced! I wish I had such good weapons to equip my people with... Old Crus at Ironburg, just north-west of here, would surely know more about their provenance. Just tell him I sent you. That should grant you an audience with him.”