More Words, Deeper Hole

Yeah, yeah, I am late.



This session featured two battles in the vicinity of the library the Drow are using as guard post for the main road into town.

The first combat was relatively straight-forward; the Drow were not particularly on guard and the party (the usual PCs and two Elf archers acting as guides) managed to get fairly close without being noticed - not bad given how dismal the group's stealth rolls are (well, the two scouts are probably sneaky). A pitched battle followed, during which the Drow - minions for the most part - were overwhelmed in fairly short order.

At least one of the scouts was hurt but I don't think he died.

There were two interesting developments; the second was that when the cleric used his (encounter?) abilities, a previously unseen special effect involving glorious lights and heavenly choirs and a general healing effect manifested. The first, and Quinn got a lot of stick over this, was that every time Quinn used his encounter powers, a cloud of hungry mouths appeared to attack the target and anyone adjacent to the target. Taking a close look at the cloud gave Puk SAN damage; not bad considering D&D has no SAN rating. The clear utility of this new phenomena, apparently a side-effect of whatever the Drow are up to, was ignored in the rush to urge Quinn to stop dabbling in forces beyond human ken. Philistines.

Webbing near one of the doors of the library was a warning sign that the group should proceed with caution; Quinn suggested just tossing in some alchemists fire to burn the place but this idea was rejected (both because it would be a cultural crime and because the smoke could warn the other Drow that there was trouble). Skeet, Quinn's familiar, took a look through some of the library windows but some truly dismal perception rolls meant that not much was seen.

Skeet flew inside to get a better look and was promptly consumed by a cloud of spiders.

[Some discussion of the effect Skeet's many deaths have on Quinn, from whose soul Skeet is constructed (and reconstructed. And reconstructed) occurred at this point; Quinn is certain the whole thing is no more debilitating than bargaining with eldrich forces turned out to be. The others agree but not in a supportive way]

There were two clouds of spiders and two buffalo-sized big spiders, all of whom had their own annoying abilities and none of whom were minions. Despite this, the party finally whittled the spiders down and prevailed, although not without taking significant damage; the poison clouds two of the spiders had were particularly irksome.