Session 27 - How Exactly Did All These Spiders Get On Here?
22nd May 2021 - 15:30 - 22:30
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Marpenoth 7. End of session: 1489DR Marpenoth 11
After a long IRL hiatus, we rejoin our "Heroes" on The Emperor of the Waves, seeking a mysterious lockbox that Derrick insisted was potentially going to be useful, though he was quite cagey about why, and for whom he was recovering it. Having ascertained that the lockbox was dropped into the hold, Derrick had quickly dropped down the grate on the top level to be on his own below decks, peering at the hold below - beneath another, rusted, grate. It looked like the hold was flooded, and it was difficult to ascertain any detail down there.
As Derrick peered down the grate into the cargo hold below, he was surprised by a couple of large Wolf Spiders, that had scuttled over the webs to see what the commotion was all about. As the rest of the party looked on from above, Derrick was required to defend himself against attack!
The large Wolf Spiders were very quickly joined by another Ettercap, firing a web from the shadows, but missing, and, soon afterwards, by a number of swarms of spiders that emerged from nearby rooms to join the fight.
Karoshi, above, quickly dropped a torch down, allowing Derrick to see his attackers who were otherwise hiding in the shadows. This helped Derrick take out one of the Wolf Spiders quickly, though he was being damaged considerably by the spiders and the Ettercap. Karoshi dropped down, as did Jaxii, whilst Iwee remained on deck, but did a good job of viciously mocking the spider-kin from above, as well as managing to send the second Wolf Spider and the Ettercap to sleep before they could do more damage.
This left only the spider swarms to deal with, but they came thick and fast, nipping dangerously at all three of the fighters that they faced. Karoshi failed to hit anything, but did still contribute usefully to the fight by Blessing the "heroes", enabling the other two, with the help of Iwee from above, to take down the swarms. When all of the spider swarms were dispatched, Jaxii took care of the sleeping spider and Ettercap, mincing over to them and taking them out with a flick of her sword - a sideways glance at the struggling Derrick showing that she treated the fights as a competition between them just as much as he did. Her frenzied attacks did come at a cost, however, and at the end of the fight, once her rage subsided, she did join Derrick in suffering a level of exhaustion.
Tired and wounded, the group continued their search for the lockbox. Despite the captain's note saying that it had been dropped below, they wanted to check some of the rooms nearby, in case it had already been found and stored somewhere else. This suggestion received many more votes when one of the dead spiders was thrown into the flooded hold below, only to see it quickly torn to shreds by some swarm of carnivorous fish - quippers, they concluded. At that point they *hoped* that the lockbox had already been found and recovered!
Karoshi found some stairs leading upwards and, hoping it led back to fresh air and daylight, ran up to check. He had unfortunately forgotten the layout of the ship, however, and found himself at the top of the stairs, alone, facing another, unexplored, room which just happened to contain another Ettercap and a Giant Spider, poised to attack!
Karoshi threw a javelin, hitting the Ettercap, but in return he became trapped by a launched web attack - he was stuck at the top of the stairs as the Giant Spider approached! Derrick, unable to help due to a stuck Karoshi blocking the path, was unusually quick-thinking, and ran up to the sticky web that bound the paladin and set it alight! Some damage was done to the tiefling, but his fire-resistance made that damage minimal, and he was now free from the web, which rapidly burnt away.
Karoshi had to move in order to let others join in the fight, and, despite managing to kill the Giant Spider, he was taken down by the Ettercap. Iwee rushed in to save her friend and healed him, allowing him to rejoin the fight which was bravely being fought by Derrick and Jaxii. After being shamed in the previous battle by the dragonborn, and worried that Jaxii would take the credit in this one after she managed a critical hit on the Ettercap, Derrick was determined to gain a kill. And he managed it, thrusting his greatsword into the Ettercap and pinning it onto the deck, draining the last of its life from its body.
The room they were in was searched - Iwee found a very decent sextant and grabbed a chart which seemed to show the last voyage of the Emperor of the Waves, and the group made their way back below-decks.
Still keen on finding the lockbox without having to brave the infested waters below, the group walk up to one of the locked doors. Derrick hears some chanting coming from the room beyond. Having spent the last couple of hours fighting spiders and ettercaps who had no desire to negotiate, and finding, and destroying, altars to an evil spider-queen, the group decide to knock on the door and announce their presence to whoever was beyond. Derrick volunteers to do the groups' bidding - a decision he later comes to regret when the rest of the group blame him mercilessly for doing exactly what they suggested.
There is no answer to the call, though the chanting does stop. As the group then proceed to discuss their next steps, something that maybe they ought to have done before alerting others to their presence, Iwee is sure she spotted a large, somewhat translucent, spider appear in the darkness further down the corridor and then disappear again.
This presses the group into action, though they still hadn't really settled upon a plan. Derrick pushes open the door, with Iwee next to him to react to anything they may encounter, whilst Karoshi and Jaxii protect their rear from strange, disappearing spiders.
Derrick and Iwee are suddenly faced with a large, fiery ball, that pushes out of the now open door and burns both Iwee and Derrick as they try to jump out of the way. And then it all kicks off.
The translucent spider reappears and attacks Jaxii, damaging her significantly before she has a chance to rage. Meanwhile a Giant Spider emerges from the room beyond the orb, avoiding the fiery globe by crawling along the ceiling and attacking Derrick, but, luckily for him, missing. The group struggle with the spider that seems to be able to disappear with annoying regularity, a Giant Spider that can attack from above, and a glowing orb that is able to move into Iwee and Derrick each turn to cause damage. Derrick decides to run into the room beyond to face whatever is in there, taking more damage from the globe as he does so.
Derrick is faced with another Giant Spider, and a staff-wielding half-orc, who challenges Derrick and suggests they surrender and leave immediately. Derrick, despite prospects not looking great for the group, rejects the kind offer, in Derrick's usual impolite style, and attacks the half-orc.
The half-orc is not well armoured, and Derrick manages to score some good hits on him, though not before he takes significant damage himself, both from the orb which burns him every turn, and from shattering ice knives that fly from the half-orc's hands and blast into Derrick's body.
Jaxii is meanwhile getting sorely beaten by the strange, disappearing spider, despite help from Karoshi, who has imbued his weapon with glowing, magical energy. Iwee is doing her best to injure the other Giant Spiders, and the half-orc when she is able to see him, as well as passing her healing potion to Jaxii just in time for the dragonborn to quaff it and survive another hit from the spider. A very injured Derrick eventually manages to take the half-orc down, and follows this up by splattering the remains of the Giant Spider over the walls of the room - subtlety is definitely not a hallmark of Derrick's style.
Jaxii meanwhile is able to take down the other Giant Spider out in the corridor, but is taken down herself by the disappearing spider, which proceeds to go after Derrick. As Iwee stabilises Jaxii after a failed death save, Derrick does manage to take down the translucent spider when it next appears, and the group breathes a sigh of relief that they just about managed to survive another battle, though Derrick and Karoshi are both on a level of exhaustion, and Jaxii is now on two levels of exhaustion.
The room they are in seems to be set up for some kind of ritual - there are bloody runes on the floor, which Karoshi is sure is related to Lolth in some way, as well as two cocoons hanging from the ceiling, with lots of little spiders running all over them. Despite being in a very evil looking place, with runic symbols written in blood, and being warned by Derrick that past experience tells him NOT TO TOUCH the cocoons, the group decide to rest FOR THREE HOURS in this room. Long enough to recover some health, and for Jaxii to awaken from her unconscious slumber and heal a little. Luckily they are undisturbed during this time, and they are even more fortunate that the unnerving surroundings did not prevent them from getting the benefits of a rest. They also find a crate containing a few goodies, including a potion of heroism and a potion of water breathing.
After the strange rest, the group feel healthy enough, just, to check out the rear room on this level, finding a kitchen of sorts but more importantly a ladder - somewhat rotten - leading into the flooded hold below.
Abandoning their thoughts that the lockbox may be in one of the unexplored rooms, they hatch a plan to descend into the flooded cargo hold to find the box. Seemingly forgetting that the Captain's journal said he had dropped the lockbox down the grate, they decide to tempt the carnivorous fish with dead body parts in the grate area, and instead descend down the rear of the ship to look for the box. After agreeing that Derrick is best placed to go down, they tie a rope around him and prepare to lower him down. Just as he is about to drink the potion of water breathing, Jaxii points out that Derrick has no darkvision, and will not be able to see anything down there! D'oh! New plan: Karoshi will go down instead.
Karoshi drinks the potion and heads down the ladder while Iwee and Derrick feed the quippers down the grate and keep them busy. The plan seems to be working! Unfortunately Karoshi reaches the end of his rope and just spots what could be the lockbox - in the area beneath the grating where Iwee and Derrick are busy luring the quippers with bloodied bodies of vanquished foes! Damn.
Karoshi heads back and the group quickly swap places. Iwee and Derrick try to lure the quippers, which are busy feasting on the bait they had just been heaving down the grate, to the rear of the boat, whilst Karoshi prepares to jump down the grating hatch to retrieve the lockbox. With the time on his water breathing potion rapidly running out, it’s now or never - Karoshi jumps in and frantically looks around for the lockbox.
It takes him a while to find it, unsurprisingly due to his exhausted state, and unfortunately not all the quippers have been lured away, since there is still some spider flesh and blood in this area. The quippers attack Karoshi as he searches for the lockbox, and start to bite chunks out of him! Just as he is about to give up and return before all his flesh is stripped from his body, he spots the box and grabs it. As he swims for the surface, with the help of Jaxii pulling him on the rope, the quippers still snap around him. With no ladder here it is down to Jaxii's raw strength to pull him up and she just about manages it, despite her exhaustion, before the quippers get another attack in. They've done it! Retrieved the lockbox. Karoshi lies in a pool of his own blood and rank seawater.
The group take the sensible decision to just leave the ship now. They grab the box, hiding it in the half-orc's cloak, and put the half-orc's nice looking boots into a crate just in case they needed to explain what "treasure" they retrieved from the ship, and they beckon the row-boat over and manage to make their way back to the Evening Mist, relieved.
At this point Derrick shares with the group all the information about the Radiant Sisters that he received from "his contacts" in Neverwinter.
Back on the Evening Mist the group take the opportunity to rest. They are all knackered, out of spells and low on health. But they are safe. Or so it seemed.
As they rested, Pirate Captain Bree attacked the Evening Mist. Using a decoy ship, the crew were all focussed on the starboard side of the ship whilst the attack actually came from the port side. Iwee saw through the deception, but didn't spot the boarding until it was too late. Faced with a large number of pirates boarding the ship, Captain Ironfist surrendered. A little too easily, according to our "Heroes", and First Mate Hawkeye was none too impressed either. But with half the crew already tossing their weapons down, and more pirates boarding, it looked a hopeless cause to fight their way out of this one. So the group surrendered and, along with the rest of the crew, were tied up and placed in the lower decks.
And they remained in this way for the next three days, treated poorly and unable to rest properly. In fact they all took a further level of exhaustion, putting Jaxii on three levels, Derrick and Karoshi on two and Iwee on one level of exhaustion. All their equipment and money was taken from them, other than a purse of gold that Iwee had hidden down her sock (unknown to the rest of the group, other than Karoshi who she had told).
Iwee did manage to somewhat befriend one of the pirates who was tasked with feeding the captives - a dwarf named "Gums". Gums explained that they were being taken to Shadow Isle, to be locked up and sold on as slaves. He had no idea where they were likely to be sold on to - that wasn't his department - but did hint that not all slaves tended to survive long after (or even before) being sold. When asked about a possible alternative to slavery, he did mention that "The Gauntlet" was an option, but didn't really elaborate about it much, except to say that it provided some entertainment to the pirates, and not everyone who undertook it survived - hence the entertainment. He also said that to undertake The Gauntlet, you needed a Sponsor - which was not something that was offered very often due to the risk towards the Sponsor if you failed. You also needed to be convincing that you wanted to actually become a pirate, as The Gauntlet seems to be one way of entering the pirate life. He did not give any more information, other than to state that there was NO dental plan as a pirate.
And so we leave our "Heroes" as they travel, bound and exhausted, towards a slavers' isle in order to be sold on as slaves to owners unknown. What will await them on the Isle?