Session 14 - But a dragonhide shield would match my armor...

SWAG proceeded to the altar in the spider chamber, carefully walking around the floor webbing. The altar glowed green, which Quintavian discerned to be a strong divination aura. Carrack removed 300 gp and a pair of bracers from the altar, prompting a warning from the magical statue on the altar.

SWAG then added some money to the altar's pile of gold, and the altar stated a prophesy about the Luminous Order. SWAG then gathered up all the treasure, prompting the same initial warning from the altar. Red and Quintavian departed for deep contemplation, while the rest of SWAG ventured on.

While rounding a corner, Carrack, on lizardback, heard whispering around the bend. Carrack snuck up and caught a planned drow ambush. A pitched battle ensued, and the drow were defeated by magic missiles and weapon attacks. SWAG the returned to the altar, hearing more prophecies about a person touched by the wind and a son (or sun?) that would reveal an alliance on the full moon. SWAG noted that tonight would be a full moon.

SWAG moved on, retracing their steps to the northeast, again hearing whispers behind a closed door. SWAG stormed in on two wererats behind a toppled table, with hand crossbows trained at the door. Petra reacted first, leaping into the room and attempting to bull rush the table into the wererats. The bull rush failed, but Petra lept the table to fight the wererats. Thelonius fired magic missiles, which hit a magic shield and were negated. Meanwhile, Carrack the Dragonslayer saw a small black dragon hiding in the next room and engaged it in battle.

Petra and Erlwyn battled the wererats, with most of their attacks failing to injure the wererats. Meanwhile, Carrack continued battling the acid spitting menace. Thelonius charged a shocking grasp, but couldn't seem to touch the wererats before he was hit and fell unconscious. Petra critically hit the wererats while Erlwyn fired silver arrows, eventually killing them. At that moment, Carrack's lizard fled the dragon battle from a magical fear effect.

The group then joined together and engaged the dragon, knocking it down. A yuan-ti halfblood then appeared out of nowhere, and parlayed a truce, stating that he too had fought and killed drow and wished them gone. SWAG agreed to leave and attack the drow and the yuan-ti agreed to end the battle. SWAG searched the wererats and found a note reading, "Sumberton sewers."

5 Spiders Down, 9,995 To Go

After battling the drow, SWAG gained hit points for their new 4th level but put off training until more of the evil could be purged from the area. The group also welcomed newcomer Thelonious (a monk/sorcerer) who stumbled upon the band of adventurers.

SWAG rested overnight in the drow barracks and awoke the next morning on Planting 18 for some good ole fashioned zombie killin'. One zombie got the jump on Petra with a critical hit, but SWAG then dispatched the two drow zombies and ventured toward the huge fiendish spider for a rematch.

At the entrance room, SWAG encountered a quaggoth who defended the room (to his death). SWAG then went on toward the spider's lair.

In the hallway near the spider lair, the group was surprised by a sudden onslight of thousands of spiders dropping from the dark ceiling overhead. The swarms crawled all over the group, scurrying under armor and clothes and biting repeatedly with poison. Quintavian and Erlwyn succumbed to the poision, while Thelonius was overwhelmed with nausea from the spider swarm in his undergarments.

Carrack threw oil, and later wine, on the spiders and set them aflame, while Quintavian threw acid splashes and Petra and Thelonius also tried to burn them. Red hacked at the spiders, killing 5 or 6 of the 10,000 spiders each turn. After a lengthy, pitched battle, the spider swarms were finally destroyed.

The group then prepared for battle and stormed the lair of the huge fiendish spider. It tried web and bite attacks, but SWAG was ready. With magic missiles penetrating its spell resistance 1/2 the time and Red hacking away, the spider fell. Now what lies on the mysterious, green glowing altar at the other end of the spider's lair?

Spiked Chain Menace/On to 4th level

SWAG searched the Bell Chamber wererats and found one holding a note that said only two mysterious words. The group pondered for a moment or two and then moved on. In a nearby room, the group encountered two hobgoblin monks and a spellcasting drow. The drow read a fireball scroll, knocking out Quintavian and injuring a few other SWAGians. The group fought their way past the monks and drow, defeating two of them while the monk escaped to the south and activated a flaming demon gate to cover his retreat.

SWAG gave chase, with Erlwyn disabling the flaming gate. The group found some barracks, and Erlwyn was surprised when a gargoyle in one of the barracks sprang to life and attacked. It looked singed from flames. The gargoyle resisted damage from most of the non-magic attacks, but was finally defeated by Quintavian's spells and Petra's magic longsword. The gargoyle had a satchel with a drow travel spellbook in it.

SWAG then opened the door to more barracks, and found the monk that had fled along with two more drow. The drow peppered SWAG with some sort of sleep spell that knocked out Carrack and Erlwyn and a fireball scroll that severely wounded Quintavian, collapsing her to the ground. Red and Petra led the charge, but the drow spiked chain attacks repeatedly knocked their weapons to the ground. The drow urged SWAG's surrender. SWAG declined. After a lengthy battle, the enemies were defeated. One of the drow spiked chain had a small magical crystal attached to it.

Erlwyn and Carrack left to file a briefing report with the university and identify some of the treasure. The rest of SWAG pondered their next move. All gained enough experience to reach 4th level.