DM: Espada (Pre-Trial DM at the time)
Play by Post
Session Title: Adventurer’s Plight
Date: 07/04/2025. 1000 UTC.
Levels: 1-4
Risk: 5
Dates: 07 April 2025 to 03 May 2025
Party:
Omelette/Merana/Wizard 3, Fighter 1
tiffthatsit/Wynlee/Cleric 3 (Temporary Character)
Calmseeker/Xavier/Druid 4
TheOddity/Shargram/Barbarian 4
Summary:
We followed a dishevelled looking boy that arrived at Port Mirandia in search for help. We did not get many coherent details other than a danger in the Small Folk Forest, which is south of Port Mirandia. The boy gets consumed by spiders that originate from a cave in the Small Folk Forest. We decide to enter the cave to take care of the threat of the spiders. After an ambush by arachnids, I was told by the spiders to turn back. The party agreed to turn back for now. On the way back to town, we helped fix a cart for merchants at the behest of a possible owl spirit.
Day 1:
At the inn of the Potted Plant, a guard introduced us to a boy that had arrived in town not making much sense other than needing help for something. The boy looked pallid and sickly and mumbled things to himself.
“They are waiting in the dark! They are! Those that skitter and crawl waiting for man to fall. Those that watch and creep, waiting for you to sleep, those that take from you everything you are rob your mind of every thought, leave you there to rot.”
-The boy
Suddenly, he began to lead us outside of town. The guard asked us to accompany him, so we did. I say lead, but it was more following him and trying to pursue his tracks.
We travelled to the south of town following the road. We encountered wild boars and that attacked us, but we managed to defeat them without much issues.
By the end of the day, we arrived at a part of the Small Folk Forest that was dark and ominous.
During the night, wolves attacked our campsite, but they were not much of a serious threat, and we won easily.
Day 2:
When morning arrived, we followed the boy’s tracks and discovered the boy lying on his side next to the opening of a cave in the forest.
His body was covered in boils, and he was convulsing. I tried to cast lesser restoration on him to ease his spasms, but Wynlee could discern that the boy would not be able to make it. The boils on his body contained spider sacks that would hatch spiderlings in a matter of minutes.
“I can feel them, the mother calls them.”
-The boy’s last words
In a moment of desperation, Wynlee asked me to burn the boy’s body, and I obliged with a grim determination, casting Create Bonfire on the boy’s body. However, we were slightly late, and while most spiderlings were burned by the fire, Wynlee and I were bitten by spiderlings that managed to latch onto us that were near the body and sank their poisonous fangs into us. Fortunately, we managed to endure the poison.
I performed a simple burial and prayer over the boy’s corpse. Only then did I realise that I never learned the boy’s name…
Wynlee managed to recall some information about these spiders:
They are offshoot of the giant spiders that roam some parts of the Feywild. However it, seems these have been corrupted or perhaps have adapted over time to the more brutal and violent nature of the Island. They lay their eggs into a living host as both protection and food for the spiderlings. They are able to grow to ridiculous sizes given enough time and food, the largest recording having reached gargantuan size.
-What Wynlee could recall about the spiders
After finishing my prayer, I suggested that we should enter the cave and eradicate the threat of the spiders to prevent any more people from getting infested like the boy. The party agreed, and we entered the cave that was covered in webs.
We entered into a vast cavern covered in webs with clusters of eggs scattered around. Likely, they were spider eggs.
While we tried to take a stealthy approach to avoid attracting attention from arachnids, 2 clusters of the eggs burst open, and 2 giant spiders jumped down upon us from the stalactites, and we were caught in a deadly ambush.
- Combat ensued.
- Merana cast Burning Hands.
- Shargram used his claws.
- Wynlee swung her mace.
- I cast Moonbeam and Create Bonfire as well as shooting luminous arrows.
- I noted that the spiders were weak against fire.
After some considerable effort, we managed to thwart the enemy eventually, but the skittering of more spiders could be heard from the cave, and they created sounds like whispers that said something in a language I could not understand. I managed to cast Speak with Animals and understood what the arachnids were saying:
“Only death awaits you, leave my nest while you can.”
-The voice from the caverns (likely from the spider matriarch)
The party agreed to leave for the day considering our tired conditions.
I managed to salvage what I could from the corpses of the spiders we slew. I noticed that the cavern itself seems to be at least in part supported by these webs and without them there may be a cave-in.
Wynlee managed to recall more information about the spiders that she told us later:
Given the egg clusters, the recent disappearances, and the gruesome death of that boy it is clear that these are much more dangerous. Left unchecked these spiders will rapidly build numbers and spread like a plague infecting anything they can with their eggs and spreading their area of influence, this nest is only the beginning to what could become a serious risk for the entire Island.
-What Wynlee recalled further about the giant spiders.
We travelled a little bit before night descended. I gave goodberries to everyone before we began our watches. I gripped my trinket (a fang from an unknown beast) while I kept my watch.
Day 3:
We made our way back to Port Mirandia. On the road back, we encountered a cloaked figure wearing a mask resembling an owl next to a cart that had pulled to the side.
I asked if assistance was acceptable, and the masked figure accepted after some pensive observing. One of the wheels was broken. I cast Mending on the wheel, and Wynlee helped lift the cart to set the wheel back onto it.
The masked figure gave us a small chest in return before transforming into an actual owl and flying off towards the forest. I surmised that it was an owl spirit and thanked it as it left, bowing deeply. The chest held considerable loot. I wondered how the owl spirit came upon the cart.
“I think your people like these types of things. Hopefully, it is as helpful as you are.”
-The owl spirit(?)
Leaving the cart on the side of the road, we continued on our way. A few hours later, we encountered a group of farmers. The leader farmer man asked if he had seen a cart that was taken from them by bandits and goblins. I told him how we had met an owl spirit and fixed the cart. He thanked us for our help and went towards the cart.
With questions about where the spiders had come from and what could be the deeper cause behind this phenomenon swirling in our minds, we managed to make it back to the town of Port Mirandia by the end of the day.