Heatmonth the 5th, 289 of the 29th age. 7:20 AM. We did not want to spend any extra time here, the stirges in the cracks above could back out at any time. The bridge across the chasm was 60’ long, and about 15’ wide. We drew up to 2 across and then raced across the expanse.
And it was good – until it wasn’t. Asher near the front, and Rhygar near the back were hit with a sticky length of some line and then yanked up and off the bridge, dangling 6’ to the north and 10’ in the air. What the hell?
Shim fired off an innate dancing lights spell, flooding the ceiling with bouncing torches – illuminating a humongous cave fisher half in and out of a hollow of stone up there. Over 7’ long, insectoid, alien looking, it was using its snare like tongue to pull the squire up. We assumed in the gloom that the same was happening to Asher.
Arrows were fired, the cave fisher rocked from the impact. It slid out slightly and after enough damage was done to it, it fell out of the opening – just as Shim shot off a Feather fall spell on Rhygar. Nate extended his trident and we hacked at the line, severing it, the weight breaking it the rest of the way. Rhygar was pulled to safety and brought back onto the bridge.
Eoghan was taking aim at Asher’s Cave Fisher, shooting the beast repeatedly. It was losing its grip when Captain Asher called to Maglubiyet and cast Weighty Chest on his boot – in relation to the Fisher.
Who believed that the Captain and his equipment and shoe weighed well over 900 lbs. It scraped free of the hole and the two of them fell 60 plus feet to the bottom of the gorge where both of them hit, bounced, and stopped moving.
Damn it.
Leaving the rope up here, Connal took 2 flasks of healing and jumped/feather falled to the bottom. He went to the Captain (at -4 now) and administered both potions – bringing him to 0, and then to 2 hp. His near death experience gave him now bugbear eyes and nails, Maglubiyet proud of the fighter cleric and his reckless abandonment of personal safety. (he would be having -4 on all he does for the next 1 and 1/3 days).
We cinched the rope into a harness and Darius and Nate pulled first Captain Asher up and then Connal. The Stirges were still a problem so we went off to the east. We passed the falling water and then eventually a cave – 20’ tall ceiling. There were two passages out of here, both choked with rubble – east and south. Darius took the time to look them both over. 110 cubic yards of stone on the east passage, a bit less on the south. The south one was also a sloped passage going up, so we had the danger of rocks falling on us.
We talked it out and decided to dig east. According to Shim’s notes, it would lead to a chamber with some faint window to the Astral plane maybe but also two chambers of mushrooms (it had myconoids in it in our time.). We split up the digging into 2 sets – and then set to work. Shovels held up pretty well for most of the day, the groups swapping out every 2 or 3 hours to keep everyone fresh. As we dug the rocks free, Darius let the group know we were NOT going to clear the hall, but remove about half the stones to make it easy for us to walk through cramped over as opposed to crawling.
At some point, amidst the mushrooms and fungi, Darius got a face full of Death Cap spores and was snotting and choking fast. Wilhelm got over there, identified the spores, and called on Shakak to remove the disease. It was getting late so we stopped about 6:30, ate, cleaned up, then opened the hut about 8 PM and got to sleep. We awoke the next day on the 6th and got right back to work. Given the presence of the spores, Wilhelm was going to be there for a portion of today's dig, watching for mushrooms or fungi that might be deadly. He did find another set and removed it with care, dumping it down the chasm.
By 12:30 we were just about through the pile when the chasm grew cold and there was something coming . We stopped digging and saw 7 shadows emerge from the pit, circling around to engage the group. Captain Asher called to Maglubiyet and turned two of them, giving the group the chance to fight the other 5. They closed to us but could not hit more than a few times. Connal used his armor of Lathandar to drive one of them back and the party tore into the remaining using magical items, spells, and well placed torches.
At the end of the fight we returned to the passage and finished digging through. The passage beyond had hundreds of colored crystals, and there was a pool here. It looked upon a night sky with different constellations than ours. We did not fuck with it, moving on. The next room had the same, with another pool on the south end. We did not enter. There were 2 passages east that we know in our time led to mushroom chambers and the same seemed to be the case here. 2 caves, north and south – each with dozens and hundreds of edible mushroom types.
But while we were checking it out, from the south a choke creeper attacked the group with a number of long tendril vines. It pulled us off the floor and tried to suffocate us. Those not engaged charged in and hack at the vines around necks. Connal’s ring prevented him from being strangled and the monk closed to the south end of the room where the main body was. Shim called a spell out and got an ogre which he also sent there.
Eoghan had some really good arrow shots, splitting vines and freeing limbs. But it was the group closing on the Choke Creeper and hitting the main body that shifted the tide of the battle very fast. Shim’s unerring new missiles helped as well and the Choke Creeper died at long last.
Healing was dispensed and we looked the area out. The Creeper had a gargantuan Lolthian spider leg in its stomach area, as well as a very very old, like millennia old, dagger. There was discussion on who was going to take it but eventually Connal wrapped the hilt in thong and then tied it to his belt for now. It was 2:30 PM on the 6th and we were going to have to go back and dig out the other passage from what it seemed.
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