As they climbed ashore, Alot said, "Wait, didn't the priestess say something about tossing all their treasure into the cistern?"
"Yes," replied Corvid, "Are you really going to scavenge every last coin from the monastery?"
Alot, slightly embarrassed, defensively replied, "No! Maybe. Look, what if there's some magic glue down there? Let's just check it out."
Corvid said, "All right. Whatever."
The group walked up the path towards the yard within the walls of the hermitage. They stepped through the opening in the wall and into the yard.
To their surprise they heard, "Greetings, warriors!"
Two wet green hags emerged from the cistern. Their long black hair hung over their wrinkled wart-covered faces like a curtain of black weeds. The hag who spoke smiled while the other held her hands up to her face like a schoolgirl to cover her uncontrollable giggling.
Hags of Three, Leave them BeHags of Two - Good on You!
- Cai'luin Manaan, quoting and ancient Sea-Elf proverb
CHAPTER 64
"CAVE OF THE SPIDERS"
The Crew of the Sea Ghost:
- Alot Aname - Neutral Good Warforged Fighter, ancient sentinel of a wizard's fortress, spent several decades deactivated underwater, Captain of the Sea Ghost.
- Avastana "Aella" Kádár - Neutral, Half-Elf Outlander and Storm Sorceress from Ket, daughter of the king of the sea elves, deck sorceress and first mate of the Sea Ghost.
- Craig "Blunderbuss" Oxworth - Lawful Good Dwarven Priest of St. Ogden (Cleric), sailor and shipwright, bosun of the Sea Ghost.
- Cai'luin Manaan - Chaotic Good Sea-Elf Bard, member of the royal family of the tribe of Manaan. Cook of the Sea Ghost.
- Corvid Ravenson - Neutral Good Fallen Aasimar Paladin of Vengeance and Divine Soul Sorcerer, sent to Oerth to avenge those who wronged his angelic "brother", Auric Ravenson. Second mate of the Sea Ghost.
DM Note-
So in between last week's adventure and this week's adventure, I had a chat with Father Craig's player about what to do about Morley Tobe's debt. I told him that Morley was a smuggler that was robbed by some bandits on the road north of Uskarn. Father Craig got the idea to find the bandits and recover the stolen property. So I did a quick search of available level-appropriate adventures and I found the perfect candidate - Cave of the Spiders - a third-edition mini-module available from DM's Guild.
The Sea Hags
The crew of the Sea Ghost drew weapons and prepared to fight but the sea hags made no hostile act. The first sea hag simply sent a smug look towards the second. The second hag responded with another girlish giggle.
Alot confronted the sea hags, "What's your business here?"
The first sea hag said, "We were hungry. We smelled death and came ashore to see what was on the menu. We found blood on the floor but no bodies. We were terribly disappointed. We saw you coming up the hill yesterday morning so we left. We came back this morning. Luckily, your little adventure last night provided plenty of tasty morsels for us to feast upon. We've been eating well since."
The second hag picked up a severed human arm covered in barnacles and blue rot. She took a bite and chewed. She swallowed her grisly portion and nearly choked on her giggles.
Alot pointed his hammer at the first hag, "You cannot stay here. I order you to leave."
The sea hag looked offended, "What? Well! I can tell where we're not wanted. Fine. We'll just gather our belongings and we'll be on our way. Just a tic." She looked at the second hag and nodded towards the bottom of the cistern.
The sea hags submerged themselves and descended to the bottom of the eight foot deep cistern.
Corvid asked through gritted teeth, "Are we just going to let them leave?"
Father Craig replied, "No." He clapped his dwarven hands in prayer to the God of Death. Suddenly the waters of the cistern began to rotate. Father Craig had created a churning whirlpool in the confined space. The hags were spun around and slammed into the sides of the cistern and into each other.
The hags managed to drag themselves out of the cistern. They threw themselves onto the ground on the far side of the pool. Their momentary dizzy bewilderment quickly passed. They stood and bared gruesome fangs and deadly claws. Aella staggered back a step, her face contorted with repulsion and fear.
Alot took flight, the magical wings attached to his ankles propelled him over the cistern to attack the second hag. Her skull and bones were crushed by the repeated blows from his magical hammer.
Corvid sent a magical fire bolt at the hag. Aella followed up with a chaos bolt.
Something invisible slammed into Father Craig. The dwarven priest looked around but could see no attacker. He immediately alerted his companions.
The first hag locked eyes with Aella. Aella stared back, compelled by the hag's magical gaze.
Aella fell to the ground, dead!
Corvid surrounded himself with a vortex of flying blades and ran towards the first hag.
DM Note-
Sword Burst
Conjuration Cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (5-foot radius)
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
You create a momentary circle of spectral blades that sweep around you. All other creatures within 5 feet of you must each succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 force damage.
This spell's damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
This spell's damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
SPELL SAVE DC: 15
The invisible attacker once again slammed into Father Craig.
Father Craig ignored the attacker and prayed for the life of his companion, Aella. She coughed as she miraculously regained life and consciousness.
The remaining hag slashed at Corvid ineffectually. Alot moved to attack and crushed the hag under his mighty hammer.
Aella, worried about the presence of an unseen opponent, stood and cast a booming blade spell through her magical trident hoping to damage any potential foe near her.
Father Craig followed up with a prayer that summoned a swirling vortex of spiritual hammers that covered much of the yard between the hermitage and the cistern. Aella covered the remaining area with a magical storm.
Alot flew across the yard to the gap in the wall leading to the rocky beach behind the hermitage. He wished to prevent their unseen opponent from escaping.
Corvid even cast a spell to detect the presence of anyone casting a spell or wielding a magic item but could sense nothing save his companions.
Moments passed with no further attacks.
Eventually, the spells expired and the crew let down their guard. Whatever invisible force they were fighting had fled.
DM Note-
The invisible opponent was an invisible stalker that the sea hags had conjured. Once they were dead, it was free to escape.
They gathered up the loot that the sea hags had scavenged from the hermitage and the cistern - a sack containing 325 gp, a gold paperweight in the shape of a tortoise (100 gp), a silver candelabra stamped with the symbol of the sea god Procan (50 gp), and two potions of greater healing.
They spent the rest of the day exploring the island and spent the night in the hermitage.
On the following day they returned to the Pit of Hatred and Father Craig sealed the rift by repairing the broken seal with prayer.
Return to Uskarn
On the following day the crew took the daily ferry back to Uskarn where they found Janore, the priestess of Procan, and the hermit Barret Gloffrin, two of the three survivors of the original zombie attack on the hermitage. They soon learned that the third survivor, Morley Tobe, had been captured by the merchant and smuggler Davus Raal and was being held against his will. Raal planned to sell Tobe into slavery to recoup on losses incurred when Tobe's smuggler caravan was robbed by bandits on the north road.
They then approached Raal with a proposition. If they could recover the stolen merchandise, would he let Tobe go free? Raal agreed and allowed them to speak with the dwarven smuggler.
Tobe told them that he was robbed by a group of bugbears led by some human bandits near the crossroads to the north.
Davus Raal said he was returning to Nessermouth with Tobe. He'll keep Tobe for a month. If they recover his stolen merchandise, seek him out there. He might also have further work for them.
The crew next approached the bailiff of Uskarn, Feldrin Kane. The bailiff told them that a group of bandits had been raiding merchant traffic along the north road. The kingdom of Nyrond couldn't afford to send soldiers to police the roads so banditry was running rampant. He had heard rumors that the bugbear bandits lived somewhere in the Gnatmarsh swamp southeast of Paducah.
The crew inquired about a possible reward for the bandits. The bailiff said that the custom was to allow those who defeat bandits to keep ten percent of the loot recovered.
Alot said, "Wait, does that ten percent include any taxes we'll have to pay the king of Nyrond?"
Feldrin Kane looked embarrassed, "Well, that is, ah.. yes, you'd have to pay taxes on that. So you'd really get nine percent."
"I KNEW it!"
The Path to Paducah
DM Note-
I asked Father Craig's player, "Its four days to Paducah. How much feed do you buy?"
Alot's player chimed in, "It's a D&D horse. Lets be realistic. Buy just enough for a one-way trip."
The crew set off on their journey north. It was late spring and the weather was good. The road was in poor repair and in many places was little more than a dirt track. They camped along the road. They reached the crossroads late on the third day of their travel. There they found a man hanging in a cage. He had been condemned to live in this cage for ten days by the people of Paducah for petty crimes. He had consumed no food or water for several days and was near death. Father Craig took pity on the man and gave him some water and rations.
They arrived in Paducah late on the fourth day. Paducah was a small village of less than 200 people on the opposite bank of the Duntide river. The village was little more than a general store and an inn serving the river boat and barge traffic plying the Duntide between Nessermouth and Callistor. The land was marshy and prone to flooding so the structures of Paducah were elevated on pilings and connected by wooden gangplanks and rope bridges.
Alot inquired with the locals about any recent bugbear activity. He found a local trapper who claimed to know of the location of a lair occupied by bugbears in the hills to the south. Alot hired the trapper as a guide.
DM Note-
Alot's Player, trying to keep a low profile: “Greetings villager, we are but humble merchant travelers, regular common folk.”
DM (me), incredulously: “Said the robot man in magic armor that looks like a green dragon, accompanied by a pale knight in armor that would make Lancelot from the movie Excalibur blush, himself riding a massive warhorse with glowing purple eyes and a mane and tail made of sublimating violet hate-fire! Did I mention the dwarf wearing a skull mask and the half elf woman wielding a massive trident that marks her as the next in line to be monarch of the sea elves? Yeah! Humble merchant travelers indeed!”
The trapper took them on a journey south through the Gnatmarsh towards a line of hills obscured by trees. The trapper pointed towards a cave on the side of the hill. A steep trail lead up through a scree of rocks and boulders. The cave was once a waterfall where an underground river emerged from the side of the hill. Two bugbears stood guard at the mouth of the cave.
Cave of the Spiders
Alot and Corvid led the charge up the steep path through the scree towards the cave. The bugbears responded by hurling javelins at the oncoming intruders. Aella created a magical ice storm at the mouth of the cave.
DM Note-
One of the opponents they DIDN'T see had just cast Mirror Image, only to immediately lose the images to the ice storm. And nobody even knew it! Bah!
Although, re-reading the spell now, it says "A duplicate can be destroyed only by an attack that hits it. It ignores all other damage and Effects." So it looks like an area effect attack wouldn't have affected the duplicates after all.
Alot reached the cave mouth and finished off the two shivering frozen bugbears. To his shock, just inside the cave, he saw a human bandit lying frozen on the ground. As the ice thawed, the body began to convulse as if bladders were inflated and deflated under the skin. Extra spider-like limbs grew from its torso and the body took on the appearance of a human-spider hybrid - or rather, a large spider with a few vaguely human traits.
DM Note-
Aella's player said, "Like a Spider Centaur?"
And I replied, "No, that would be a drider. This is more like a giant spider with vaguely human-shaped arms but still looks like a spider."
The Webbed Room
The crew pressed forward into the cave. To the left was a side chamber, forty feet wide, filled with spider webs. A massive spider, the size of a water buffalo, crawled along the webbing on the side the wall.
Alot charged into the room, narrowly avoiding a falling net of webbing triggered by a silken trip-wire. He took flight and crushed the giant spider with two mighty blows from his magical hammer.
A thick stream of silk was fired at Alot from a previously unseen wall within the room but missed. Corvid ran in, avoided the falling spider web, and cast a fire-bolt spell at the new attacker - a human-sized spider-human hybrid known as an ettercap. Another giant spider lurked nearby.
Aella stepped into the room and was immobilized by the falling net of web silk. She used the last remaining bead on her necklace of fireballs against the ettercap and giant spider. The room exploded in a burst of flame which cleared the entire left wall of the cavern of spider web and killed the giant spider. Alot then made quick work of the remaining ettercap.
The team used minor fire spells to clear the room of remaining spider-webs.
The Pit
The crew pressed deeper into the cave, following the ancient path of the old underground riverbed. The path was clear and showed frequent use. Up ahead the path widened and a deep bit yawned before them. The pit smelled of feces and rotting meat. Alot deduced that the bugbears used this pit as a trash heap and outhouse. They carefully avoided it and continued.
On the other side of the pit they heard the sound of bugbears working in a large underground chamber. They cautiously advanced.
The Platform
The crew rounded the corner and saw a deep shaft, roughly forty feet in diameter. The staff descended from high overhead and continued hundreds of feet into the earth - the dry remnants of what was once an ancient waterfall. On the opposite side of shaft was a series of wooden platforms supported by timber pilings and iron braces driven into the stone walls. A crane facilitated the lowering and raising of barrels, bags of cargo, and crates of stolen merchandise down to other platforms farther down. Ladders allowed transit from lower to upper platforms. Several bugbears were working moving contraband on the platform. A human bandit looked over them from a higher platform.
The human overseer noticed the arrival of the intruders and called out an alarm. The bugbears dropped their crates and picked up nearby weapons.
Alot flew across the chasm using his winged grieves and landed on the upper platform next to the human. The human responded by casting an invisibility spell and disappearing!
Corvid attacked the bugbears with magical scorching rays.
Father Craig prayed for a guiding bolt which struck and killed on of the bugbears. Aella followed with a magical ray of frost.
Suddenly a giant spider the size of a water buffalo but with human limbs appeared out of thin air and tried to bite Alot. The venomous mouth parts were unable to pierce Alot's invulnerable armor.
Alot smashed the giant spider-hybrid with his magical hammer while the others made quick work of the bugbears with ranged magic attacks.
Once the platform was pacified, Alot laid down a long gangplank for the others to cross the chasm.
The Shaft
Corvid looked down and saw the dark shape of a bugbear standing on the platform below. Alot said, "I can fly but you all might be vulnerable climbing down this rope ladder."
Corvid said, "Don't worry about it. Jump."
Aella said, "That's sixty feet!"
"Don't worry. Trust me. Jump."
They jumped.
Corvid cast a magic spell and the crew descended slowly through the air.
The bugbear beneath them called out the alarm.
Th crew landed on the platform and made short work of the bugbear. They heard more coming from the passage across the rope bridge and a handful rushed out to face them on the bridge.
The new bugbears were quickly beaten back and they retreated into the passage behind them. The crew followed them into a chamber used as storage for supplies and an adjoining chamber covered in pallets that served as sleeping quarters.
Alot, Corvid, Aella, and Father Craig soon dispatched the bugbears waiting for them. Two remained, grievously wounded, who threw down their weapons and surrendered.
Alot sighed, "Well? Are we taking prisoners?"
Corvid glared at Alot, "Yes. Of course we are!"
To Be Continued...
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