Session #21: Deeper into the Green Creek Mines

Session #21: Deeper into the Green Creek Mines

23 Memun 530

Regrouping after the battle with the infected manticores, the Deputies pushed deeper into the Green Creek Mines, following the trail left by the wights in hopes of finding their lair. As they advanced, the tunnel split into several branching passages. The wights’ tracks led south, but the Deputies were unsettled by the thick sheets of spider webbing choking the eastern path, and by a natural-looking opening in the rock to the southwest. While the others debated the wisdom of burning or disturbing the webs, Imaranger slipped away to scout the southwest passage alone.

When he had gone just to the edge of his darkvision from the rest of the group, he saw the air shimmer both ahead of and behind him as three large spiders phased into view. Before his companions could close the distance, the creatures struck, repeatedly biting him with venomous fangs. Imaranger collapsed, poisoned and paralyzed, just as the others arrived. As quickly as they had appeared, the spiders vanished again in that same strange, rippling shimmer.

Cordoch restored Imaranger with lay on hands, and Twig followed with further healing magic to steady him. The Deputies waited tensely for the spiders to reappear, but the ambushers did not return. With the immediate threat seemingly passed, Fourth-Knife turned his summoned flame blade on the eastern webbing, and in short order the thick spider webs were burned away.

With the webs destroyed and no more sign of the spiders, the Deputies committed to the southern passage, following the wights’ tracks. As the tunnel narrowed, they were forced into a single-file march. Imaranger had just joked about being struck by a lightning bolt spell when Hubris stepped onto a section of floor that flared into a glowing arcane sigil. A crackling stroke of lightning tore through the line, dropping Alaric unconscious and injuring several others. Suffering Succotash, drawing on his arcane studies, recognized the effect as a glyph of warding laid directly across their route.

Twig cast detect magic and moved toward the front, quickly locating a second glyph further along. Forewarned, Suffering Succotash dispelled it before it could trigger. Soon the tight passage opened into a chamber, where Cordoch sensed the presence of undead lurking just beyond the party’s light. As the Deputies advanced into the room, Cordoch charged forward to engage the enemies, unknowingly stepping onto a third glyph. This one unleashed a fireball, but Cordoch managed to shield himself from the worst of the blast. In the aftermath of the explosion, the remaining skeletons stood their ground and were swiftly cut down by the Deputies.

Pressing on with renewed caution, Twig detected a fourth glyph ahead. The Deputies carefully positioned themselves, and this time Alaric deliberately triggered the trap at range with one of his elemental spells. The glyph erupted in another fireball, catching Imaranger and Cordoch in the blast. Cordoch again raised his shield in time, but Imaranger was badly scorched. From his place at the front, Imaranger saw, at the edge of his darkvision, another knot of skeletons waiting in the darkness. As the Deputies moved forward to engage, the undead archers loosed a volley and struck Twig, dropping him unconscious. Fourth-Knife rushed to his side and used healing magic to bring him back to fighting shape, while the rest of the Deputies waded into the melee and destroyed the skeletons.

When this second group of five skeletons had been dispatched, Cordoch could still feel the oppressive presence of more undead further ahead in the blackness of the mine. It was at this tense moment, with unseen enemies gathering in the dark, that Session #21 came to an end.