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DM: Waylander

Party: Cavendish (Leader, level 5), GarGot (Trailblazer, level 7), Rekbi (Scout, level 9), Jyn (level 7).

Date: 25/07/2021

We formed a party and traveled to the western side of the island in order to find a prison that according to a note other adventurers found holds a very strong spider entity.

Traveling through the portal (to UIF), we found ourselves in the middle of a forest, surrounded by thick fog which prevented us from navigating or knowing where exactly we are. We started heading where we assumed to be west after we gathered some clues about our location from a deer.

It is important to mention that the fog surrounded the whole area around the forest during our journey, and that the forest is full of very large spiderwebs. Just to get some reference, we saw a skeleton of a horse stuck in one of these webs.

The location where we found the stone tower

After traveling for a few hours, we saw a large stone tower: about 100 ft. tall, maybe more. It had green moss and it glowed. There were many spider webs all around this place, and while I was trying to investigate this tower we were attacked by a huge spider. After defeating the spider, we found bodies of feathered humanoids stuck on its web.

The stone tower

These are my findings from the stone tower investigation: It was built a few hundred years ago, and as part of its creation some sort of teleportation spell was used. The tower holds some Abjuration magic, and its purpose is to block magic around it, though I’m not sure how exactly, since I did cast spells right next to it.

Climbing over the tower to inspect the surrounding area, we saw smoke coming from south-west, so we decided to head there first and to investigate the area of the prison later. The smoke came from a small village with some dark wooden houses. The villagers were very afraid and cautious – they entered their houses the moment they saw us, except for a nice old lady called Olga. She invited us into her house and explained the situation around this village.

The location of the village

This is what we’ve learned while staying in this village:

  • The whole area is controlled by half humanoid-half spider creatures who call themselves “Aranea Filii”. They live west to this village.
  • The Aranea Filii visit this village once every moon phase. When they come, they line up all of the villagers and read their minds. If they find information about a stronger individual, one that might be a threat, or one with magical abilities, they take them, never to be seen again.
  • The Aranea Filii are in a war with humanoids who are called “Owlysians”. They are humanoids who look like half-owls. According to Olga they are very strong, but there are very few of them. They live somewhere to the east of this village, though Olga wasn’t sure where exactly.
  • The war between the Aranea Filii and the Owlysians lasts for many years. Each of them follows a divine force. According to Olga, the spider god’s name starts with an “Ar” and ends with a “shni”, or something like that. She wasn’t sure.

So after gathering all of this information we decided to stay in the village and ambush the spiderfolks. There were about 12 of them – some were just huge spiders, and some were half-humanoids half-spiders of different shapes (some with 6 spider legs, some with 4). Some of these spider people were strong magic casters.

We fought them successfully – killing most of them and capturing their priestess. We tried to question her and gather more information about their purpose and about the prison, but after refusing to answer she turned into a disgusting creature, so we had no choice but to kill her.

This is what the priestess turned into

I think there’s much more to investigate in this area: First, we didn’t have a chance to explore the location of the prison. Second, these villagers still need our help. I believe more spider-people will come to terrorize them, and it might get worse, since they know that the villagers had our help. Also, it might be useful to learn more about the Owlysians. Personally, I’m also very interested in investigating this stone tower.