Along Came a Spider

Back in the Forge of Spells, Bob watched as his companions disappeared into the darkness of the starry cavern. "So, how should we pass the time, brother?" he asked Alec. Alec looked up from where he was working the Sword of Trevelyan in the green flame of the Forge of Spells. "Sorry, what?" Bob smiled. He took a closer look at the Forge of Spells as his brother worked. He took note of three shadows seared into the floor around the Forge of Spells. One of them looked human, the second was smaller and wider - probably dwarven, while the third was shorter and slimmer than the second one - most likely a gnome. All three had their arms outstretched, as though casting a spell, or warding off destruction. The three scorched shapes were arrayed around the Forge like three points on a compass, but the fourth point - south, Bob reckoned - was empty. "Something strange happened here," Bob said, tapping a toe on the empty space before the Forge. "I will check that noise out," Radegast said, immediately moving to the north instead of the western passage. She hopped down into the stone channel and crept into the tunnel, bending almost double to keep from scraping her head on the rocky ceiling. Theryn leaned painfully on his staff. "I will go back and rouse the Trevelyan brothers," he said. "we might need reinforcements." Moving silently, she saw how the tunnel came to an abrupt end at the edge of what looked like another large cavern. She could hear the sound of digging - metal scraping on stone - and the rush of water. She crept back to the smelter cavern. "I don't think we want to go that way," she said. Still in bear form, Erwen grunted and moved to the mouth of the western passage. Varien joined the druid. The far end of the western corridor was choked with bones. They could see the spindly forms of two snarling ghouls throwing themselves energetically against what looked like a crude barricade made up of tables, chairs, and bedframes. Beyond the barricade they could barely make out a number of brutish humanoid figures who were poking javelins through the debris to stab at the ghouls, who took no notice of the wounds that were opening up on their grey flesh with every jab. Varien's expression hardened. "Lorelei shall be avenged," he whispered, and ran full-bore into the corridor, swinging Talon at the exposed back of the first ghoul within reach. Radegast, shoulder to shoulder with the paladin, stabbed at the second ghoul, impaling it on the end of her rapier. She then twisted out of the way daintily as Erwen-Bear and Who stormed the corridor, a sharp-toothed mass of fur and feathers that rolled over the ghouls, who were turned into a fine pink mist by their mouths and claws. Radegast took a grappling hook from her belt and swung it, catching it firmly in a tangle of debris atop the barricade, and put the other end of the rope in Who's mouth. Slapping the owlbear's flank with her shield, she shouted "Take it away, Who!" Who obliged by running full-tilt back into the smelter cavern. the rope pulled taut and suddenly the barricade came apart in a shower of splinters. Who dragged the morass of wood away, hooting and roaring with glee. Four bugbears stood agape in the space where the barricade had sat moments before. "Oh, shi-" Varien had time to say. Then he threw his shield up to block the first heavy morningstar blow. Plugging the gap, the hardy bugbears struck repeatedly at Erwen-Bear, who shook off each of their blows to his shaggy hide with a grunt. Varien stabbed Talon at the nearest bugbear. Radegast cast cure wounds on Erwen-Bear and granted him bardic inspiration . Erwen-Bear roared with delight. Xylon stepped up and cast burning hands into the next chamber. Fire blossomed from his outstretched hands and rolled over the bugbears. Radegast shouted "My dead grandmother could swing a mace better than that, you oaf!" "Don't encourage them!" Varien shouted as he took a ringing blow from the bugbear's morningstar. He grunted as a second bugbear smacked him with its weapon. Erwen-Bear leapt into the fray, biting one of the bugbears. Xylon cast burning hands again. One of the bugbears ran out of the room to the west. Through the sheet of flame strode a bugbear who looked like he had been around the block a few times - he wore heavier armor than his compatriots. Unfazed by the flames, he swung his tree-trunk sized morningstar, first dazing Varien, and then knocking Erwen-Bear right out of wildshape. "Ha ha ha," the bugbear shouted. "I have cut you down to size, cub!" Erwen picked himself off the floor, spit out a mouthful of fur, and cast heat metal on the heavy pauldrons the bugbear sported. The metal began to glow, and they could both hear and smell the bugbear's hair burning away. The bugbear stared at his glowing armor with a wry smile, but didn't move to remove the heated armor. "Take that!" Varien shouted, stabbing the bugbear. Xylon's fire bolt took out one of the bugbears. The bugbear roared and swung at Erwen, missing him once but connecting on the backswing. Xylon's fire bolt missed. "We're back, baby!" Bob shouted as he, Alec and Theryn stepped into the corridor. Bob cast Ray of Frost , which missed. "Crap," Bob said. Radegast bobbed and weaved into the melee, hitting the bugbear chief with her rapier. "ALEC TREVELYANNNNNNN!" shouted Alec, who loped up and ran the bugbear leader clean through, finishing him off. "So, what was the trouble?" he said, looking around. Xylon set the remaining bugbear bodies on fire. "Don’t want them rising as undead later." Varien nodded. "Perhaps we should rest and regroup at the Forge of Spells," Xylon said. "It is more defensible than this room." They returned to the Forge and barricaded the doors. Xylon cast alarm in several locations on the way back. Erwen donned a set of children's clothes he had taken from the prison in Tresendar Manor. Two hours passed. As Xylon meditated, he felt a mental ping as one of his alarm spells was activated. He turned to the rest of the party, kicking a dozing Varien. “They are coming,” he said. “From the west.” “Then we shall meet them,” Theryn said. “Also, uh, in the west. I guess.” “I will scout ahead,” Erwen said. “I want to try something.” He scampered away before anyone could stop him. “Wait!” Theryn said. “We can’t let him go in there by himself!” He dashed after the druid. Radegast picked up her bow and followed. The Halfling, wearing his children’s ensemble, tousled up his hair and tried to walk as young Carp did, swinging his arms to the rhythm of a campfire song he could barely recall from his youth. He walked back into the smelter cavern, eyes peeled for trouble. He saw trouble right away. A half-dozen shadowy figures were making their way through the cavern. Two bugbears inspected the still-smoking frame of the wooden waterwheel. One of the bugbears spied Erwen and growled. “Hi!” Erwen said cheerfully, waving. “Have you seen my dad?” “No,” the bugbear said, lips curling away from his rotting teeth in a grin. “But I have laid eyes on my lunch!” A voice echoed loudly in the chamber. “Found someone, have you?” said a sarcasm-oiled, Drow-accented figure somewhere to the west. “Yeah, some kind of child-thing,” the bugbear said. “Bring him to me,’” the voice said, dripping with cool cruelty. The bugbear grunted and dashed towards Erwen. Radegast eased her way into the cavern, keeping near to the wall of the cave. She crept behind the waterwheel apparatus. She could see a pair of male drow standing at the western edge of the smelter room, surveying the area as the bugbears picked their way through the remains of the vicious battle that had taken place hours before, laid over the bones of the far more ancient battle that had destroyed Wave Echo Cave. Plucking ever-so-lightly on her lute, the bard cast detect thoughts on the imperious-looking drow who had called out moments before. I really should have hired better help , the drow was saying to himself. Alas, compromises have to be made if I am to discover the location of the Forge of Spells. The bugbear charged at Erwen, who stood his ground, sucking his thumb like he imagined boy-children did. Just as the humanoid’s beefy hands grabbed hold of him, he wildshaped into bear form. “What the,” the bugbear shouted as the Halfling’s shape blurred and stretched before him. He had been holding the small druid around the waist only an instant before. Now, his hands were clasped around the shaggy leg of a very angry brown bear. “This isn’t fair,” the bugbear said as Erwen-Bear stared down at him, growling. Erwen-Bear roared. Three bugbears joined the fray, swinging their morningstars at Erwen-Bear in an effort to save their companion. Erwen-Bear shrugged off blow after blow. Varien rushed into the cavern and cast eldritch blast at the first available target, and missed. “Aha!” the drow shouted in cold mirth. “The elusive adventurers have arrived! So good of you to join us!” Theryn vaulted towards the bugbears and swung his quarterstaff, missing by an inch. His balance thrown off, his additional kick failed to connect. His distraction was warranted – he recognized one of the drow as the mounted foe he had traded blows with that night in Phandalin before the party took on the Redbrand thugs below Tresendar Manor. Who bounded in after the monk, biting one of the bugbears with a beak attack. Bob cast guiding bolt but missed. The drow’s slimmer companion backed into the darkness of the western tunnel and disappeared. One of the bugbears followed. Radegast, still concealed, cast minor illusion on the furnace and bellows. A voice boomed in the smelter cavern. The pure shall be refined in me and imbued with fire , the voice said in Common, repeating itself in dwarven and orcish. The violent and the thief shall be extinguished and gathered up as dross as I have before. Radegast concentrated on the detect thoughts spell. Whatever, the drow thought to himself. The booming voice certainly had an effect on the bugbears, who backed away from the furnace even as the melee continued. Xylon cast burning hands, torching two bugbears and scorching a third, who continued to fight. Suddenly, there was a stirring in the pile of bones that was scattered across the ground, mixed in with the corpses of the zombies the party had slain in an earlier fight. With a flash of green flame, the tiny skull, which Varien had shattered only hours before, rocketed skyward into the middle of the cavern. “I’m back, bitches!” the flameskull cackled with glee. Okay then, Radegast heard the drow’s thoughts. Perhaps there’s something to this after all. Varien breathed an unspeakable oath under his breath. Erwen-Bear bit one of his attackers, but missed with his claws. Bob was incredulous. Did Radegast just summon an undead creature back from the dead? The drow shouted “Magic Missile!” and pointed at Xylon. Three darts of glowing force rocketed out from his fingertips and arced through the cavern towards the elven wizard. Xylon cast shield , nullifying the effects of the magic missiles . Damn , the drow thought. Varien summoned all the divine energy he could and struck the flameskull with an overhead swing of his sword, knocking its jaw askew and sending it spinning. A bugbear struck Who with a damaging blow of his morningstar. In a rage, Who snapped his beak at the humanoid but found himself with a mouthful of Erwen-Bear instead. Erwen cringed and dropped out of wildshape, hanging from Who’s clenched jaws. The owlbear spat Erwen out, howling disconsolately. “I am ready to resurrect you!” Bob shouted to Erwen-Bear. “I’m fine!” Erwen said, wiping owlbear saliva from his tunic. Bob turned his attention on the drow wizard, casting magic missile . The darts impacted against an invisible force field as the drow cast shield in response to Bob’s attack. Bob cast firebolt as a follow-up against one of the bugbears that had gotten too close for comfort. Xylon was about to cast a spell when he heard something in the chamber to the south. It was the sound of a woman. Crying. Screaming his name. “Xylon, please!’ the voice echoed. “Please save me Xylon!” Xylon felt a chill stab his heart and loins. It was Elsa’s voice. “Elsa?” the wizard called. “Xylon, help me!” The flameskull got itself back under control and floating up towards the soot-stained ceiling of the cavern. It began to inhale dramatically. “Let’s see how you like…this!” It screeched. It opened its jaw and a glowing yellow ball of fire shot out straight down towards the flagstone floor of the cavern. As it did so, it grew in size and intensity. The orb struck the surface of the cavern and blossomed into a seething ball of fire that washed over adventurer and bugbear alike, living flames searching every nook and cranny in a heartbeat. There was a tremendous boom within the cavern and a blast of heat seethed across the room in all directions. The fireball’s effect was devastating. Xylon didn’t see it coming. Flames washed over him, burning and searing his flesh. He pitched sideways, unconscious. Erwen felt his clothes catching fire, followed by the hair on his toes. It was the last thing he felt before darkness consumed him. Flames licked around Varien’s shield, searing him, but the paladin held his ground. Theryn, Bob, Alec and Radegast were burned but remained standing. The bugbears were severely burned as well. Even the drow took a glancing blow. As a stunned silence replaced the sound of fighting in the smelter cavern, a voice echoed from the south. “Xylon?” it asked plaintively. “Are you there, Xylon?” The bard snuffed out the flames that played over her clothing and glared at the drow. Casting dissonant whispers , Radegast filled the drow’s mind with suggestive imagery of autophagia, with haunting repetitive variations on the word flesh. The drow shook his head as if to clear the mental maelstrom. Who in the Nine Hells is doing that ? He thought, holding his hands to his head. I must head back to that besotted temple and prepare for battle . The drow turned on his heels and fled. “The Forge is the other way, idiot!” Radegast shouted, enraged. Theryn jumped and struck the flameskull with his quarterstaff, spending some of his ki energy to launch a flurry of blows against the undead creature. Bob rushed to Xylon’s side, pulling a healer’s kit out to stabilize the wizard. Nearby, Erwen’s body smouldered. One of the bugbears, still aflame, swung at Who with his Morningstar and missed. Who’s beak attack against the humanoid also failed to connect. Alec got to his feet, brushing cinders from his armor. “The Sword of Trevelyan will set things right once more!” he shouted. He swung his greatsword at the Flameskull, cleaving through it, and with the force of the swing he pushed forward and drove the sword deep into the bugbear’s guts. Both flameskull and bugbear fell to the ground, lifeless. Theryn grabbed a healing kit from Bob and used it to stabilize Erwen. Bob cast a twinned healing word on Erwen and Xylon. Then he uncorked a healing potion and used it on himself. The remaining bugbear swung at Alec but missed. Xylon sat bolt upright. “Elsa,” he breathed, scrambling to his feet, running to the south. “Seriously?” Bob asked Xylon’s retreating back. Erwen got to his feet, wildshaped into a brown bear, and savagely slaughtered the remaining bugbear. Who began feasting on the humanoid’s exposed entrails. Varien kicked at the shards of the flameskull. “That’s twice we’ve destroyed you, undead menace.” He thought for a moment. “I know a way to banish you from this plane permanently.” He searched through his pockets and found a flask of holy water. He sprinkled it over the pieces of the flameskull. In an instant there was a flash of holy light, and the skull shards shriveled and curled like burning paper, crumbling away to nothing. “What should we do?” Bob asked. Varien pointed in the direction of the fleeing drow. “We press on, of course!” He and Theryn ran to the west. “But what about Xylon?” Bob said. “Darn it!” He turned and followed after Xylon. Xylon rushed into the southern chamber, which was the meadhall the group had explored the previous day. Writhing on the stone table was the lithe form of Elsa, and a bugbear stood over her threateningly. “Xylon please,” Elsa said through her tears. “They kidnapped me and dragged me here against my will! Oh, save me!” Radegast rushed into the room, bow and arrow at the ready. She shifted her detect thoughts spell to the woman. Come closer Xylon, just a little closer. Radegast brought up her bow and aimed at the woman. “He’s mine, you bitch!” “What?” Xylon said. “What?” Bob said from behind Radegast. “What?” Elsa said. Radegast let loose with an arrow, striking the tabletop between Elsa’s kicking legs. Elsa froze and stared at Radegast, then Xylon. “Stop!” Bob shouted. “In the name of Sune! Before you kill Elsa!” The sorcerer-cleric broke out into an elaborate dance in the style of his homeland. “What?” the bugbear standing over Elsa said. Elsa took advantage of the situation. With a snarl, she jumped up and off the table, a knife suddenly flashing in her hand as she threw herself at Xylon. “Whoa!” Bob shouted as he moonwalked past the table. Elsa’s blade bounced off Xylon’s prepared shield spell. “How could you betray me like this?” Xylon said with a hint of sadness. His shield flared as Elsa tried to stab him again. Xylon looked down at her blade. “I may be a lecherous rake, but I am nobody’s fool.” Debatable, Radegast heard Elsa think. Xylon cast chromatic orb and launched it at the blade-swinging barmaid. “One cold turn deserves another, Elsa!” The orb struck Elsa, sending a rime of frost over her features. Elsa screeched. Her features suddenly twisted into the shape of the drow who had been standing next to the wizard. The drow from Phandalin. “What the hell?” Xylon said. “You want to talk cold?” the drow hissed in a rage. “Your touch couldn’t light the fires of lust in my loins. You once penetrated me, but now it is my turn to penetrate you!” “Wait, what?” Xylon’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Wait, what?” Bob stopped dancing. He laughed. “I knew it from the moment I first laid eyes on her! She was way too into you!” “Shut up, Bob,” Xylon said as the Elsa-Drow tried stabbing him again to no avail. “Well then,” Radegast said. “My work here is done.” She bolted back into the smelter cavern, intent on following Varien and Theryn. “She’s such a coward!” Bob said through gritted teeth. Alec readied his weapon, squaring off against the bugbear. With a roar, Erwen-Bear pounced on the Elsa-Drow, tearing at her flesh with his teeth and claws. The bugbear lashed out with his mace and clocked Alec with a solid blow that loosened his teeth. The knight went down on one knee as the bugbear laughed heartily. “No!” Bob rushed towards his brother, sliding across the floor with a flourish and casting spare the dying . Then he turned and cast magic missile, sending darts flying at the Elsa-Drow. Enraged by this turn of events, Xylon cast another chromatic orb , this one blazing with fire. As it detonated against the Elsa-Drow, her screeching intensified until it lost all pretense of humanity. The wail hurt Xylon’s ears, but if his eyes could have taken damage and what he beheld in front of him, it would have been critical. Elsa’s face was now superimposed upon the body of the drow, its mouth stretched wider than any human mouth could go. As Xylon watched, the drow’s body changed into an approximation of Elsa’s comely form, only with a hideously stretched drow face continuing to scream. Then, the body shifted to a grey, featureless form, with Elsa’s arms and legs, then back to the drow. The creature’s knife clattered to the floor as it twisted and jerked in rage-fueled spasms. It let go of Xylon and slumped to the floor, assuming the now-familiar shape of a doppelganger, smoke curling from its now sightless eyes. “Oh, that’s not right,” Bob said, feeling nauseated. Then a shadow fell over him. He looked up just in time to meet the bugbear’s morning star face to face. Bob was knocked on his behind, and felt woozy and concussed. He had cast shield at the last second, but the bugbear’s aim had been too good. The bugbear stood over him, preparing a killing blow. There was a flash of feathers as Who dove onto the bugbear, tearing the humanoid limb from limb. “Good owlbear. Good boy,” Bob said weakly. Varien rushed into the corridor, coming to an intersection. He looked back and forth wildly, searching for a trace of the drow’s escape route. He decided to charge forward, where he could see the reflective patterns of water shading the wall of the tunnel. He walked down a half-flight of stone steps. A still pool filled much of the cavern he had just entered. The water was dark, revealing little of what might lie within. The shore of the pool consisted of a thin layer of broken shells from strange, pale mussels, and a fishy smell hung heavy in the air. A passage led south to what looked like dwarven mining tunnels. A sluggish stream flowed out of the cave to the northeast in a low tunnel that looked like it had been eroded by centuries’ worth of running water. Varien chewed his lip indecisively. Then he was struck with inspiration. Picking up a rock, he cast light upon it and tossed it into the pool. The rock sank, far deeper than Varien would have suspected given the stillness of the water. At least twenty feet down, it settled on the bottom of the pool, casting a faint light around it. Varien thought he could make out a humanoid shape resting at the bottom of the pool, ten feet from shore and about ten feet underwater. He waded into the water, gasping at the coldness, took a deep breath, and plunged in. His armor helped him sink to the bottom of the pool rapidly enough. He stomped over to the shape. Sure enough, it was a human – or what was left of one. A skeletal form lay on its back at the bottom of the pool, arms outstretched to either side. It was wearing a set of waterlogged robes that were remarkably well-preserved, though several black-shafted arrows protruded from the body, having perforated the man’s outerwear. Varien bent down and gathered up the remains, using his boots of striding and springing to help stomp up the sloping surface back to the edge of the pool. He exhaled a lungful of bubbles just as he broke the surface, and saw Theryn standing at the entrance of the cavern, searching for signs of life. Varien held the bundle of bones and robes tight, laying the remains out on the ground as gingerly as he could. He checked the body over. There wasn’t much left of the corpse – just bones, hair and tendons – but gripped tightly in the bony claw of the corpse’s right hand was a wand. “Hello, what’s this?” Varien pried the wand loose. He turned it over in his hands and noted a stylized “M” in the shape of a lightning bolt engraved on the shaft. His eyes were then drawn to the two heavy platinum rings on the skeleton’s other hand. “Hello again!” he said, pleased with his discovery. Theryn looked around. “Judging by the state of your new friend, nobody’s been in this chamber for a long, long time.” Varien agreed. The two mounted the steps just in time to see Radegast approach. As Bob knelt to minister to his unconscious brother, Xylon stood over the body of the doppelganger. “How long. Has she been. A doppelganger?” He said quietly, doing a mental inventory of each of his encounters with Elsa. He then shivered with revulsion. “I need to take a bath.”