Middle Earth FA64 D&D Game: Seventh Adventure – The Ruins of Old Hatha

Ceol waits, swords in hand, until after Deor's fireball goes off. "Let us make certain that we keep as many of these as possible off of our archers and spellcasters."

Rorimac grins at the sound of Gil-Gandel's song and wonders if he can reword something he heard from long ago when an invisible hobbit rescued some dwarves from some Giant Spiders.

Mulligan flies as quickly as she can back to the roof, trying to stay out of the way of any arrow fire or Deor's spealls. For some reason picking up large rocks (for a hobbit) and dropping them from twenty foot above the creatures does have some appeal.

Deor's Fireball goes off with an explosive combustion of the central nest and the total annihilation of the small spiders. The webs break and burn away too swiftly to catch fire so only an area slight bigger than the fireball is destroyed.

A huge spider falls to the ground, it is easily 6' across its hideous bulbous body and it scuttles away from the party but not before a small rain of arrows strike it. It flees around the far end of the left building.

I think that one will be back later on.

Shall I go for the next contact web then?

Only if Deor has more of those coming. :)

Sir Thoroncir waits patiently for a spider, any spider, to come within arm's reach.

The comm lines are largely gone now that the central nest if completely gone. The fireball was incredibly effective against these monsters though the big spider did move away. It might be time for a new plan.

"I think its time for the fly to hunt the spider instead of the other way round. Let's see if Folca and I can't track it down and let us know where it has gone."

Attercop, in the city
Attercop, where could you be
Hiding here or hiding there
To be found, no matter where

Mulligan turns invisible again and flies off to find the Giant Spider.

I hope you guys aren't waiting for me to lure that Spider back are you??

Just locating it will probably suffice, I suspect.

Folca flying faster then the Hobbit sees the spider retreats into a building to the north of the left building of the courtyard. The buildings southern corner comes close the the left buildings northern corner. There are webs between them of course. Mulligan misses this retreat but Deor relays it to the party of course.

Mulligan does see the building Folca circles is only lightly webbed.

Well I think it's time we bring the fight to the spider.

Everyone back down to the ground.

"Do we want a frontal assault, or should we try to surround it?" says Ithilneth. "I think that whatever hole it has retreated to is probably its final defense."

"We can't be sure of that," Thoroncir says. "It may go into tunnels that pass beneath the city, for all we know. But by all means, let us follow and slay it, if we may."

"I agree, let us hunt this beast down. But, we should be wary. It may have retreated to its lair, and may have unpleasant surprises there for us."

Fireballs from here on out will be particularly taxing to my spell count for the day, but I can patch together one or two more.

I think we are going to have to dig out this evil creature.

If everyone starts heading across there, I'll take a closer look at our Arachnid Smaug and then let everyone know what may be in store. I hope not be the final fly caught by that Shelob-alike.

Mind the webs. Or perhaps, light some torches and burn the webs as you come across them.

Let us delve into this quickly as possible without stumbling upon any traps. I think we all want to finish this before nightfall.

Of course, if possible. Normal marching order to the threshold of the monstrous spider's lair?

Assuredly. Let's be on our way.

The party heads out to go after the giant spider. They follow through the door the spider ducked into. The Dwarves chop through the webs so the tall folk won't need to duck. The party moves with some caution and have swift but successful fights against 6 smaller spiders with bodies only a foot wide. It appears the big spider has fled below. Fresh and sticky webs bar the stairs just below the first landing.

Does the party cut through and pursue or head back out?

Well, instead of backing out or cutting through, how about burning through. They certainly seem to be affected by it, so a little bit of lantern oil might go a long way.

Ok then, in absence of any contradiction, Mulligan sets light to the webs.

Worth a try, although I don't know how well they'll burn. Sir Thoroncir suggests to Theogrim that they maintain vigilance all around, as the spider, driven by the flames or smoke, might use an underground passage to attack the party from another direction.

The flames do not light easily but a Deor produces his little magical toy Dragon and has it fly about and flame the webs. They light up and begin to burn away.

After about 5 minutes the party could start advancing. Deor can keep the Dragon flying if the party likes.

Let us advance.

Useful toy (as if we didn't know). Onwards!

"Sweet. If the building is like the last one we went down there should be an area for it to hide in, but hopefully no escape for it. There might also be some undead down there as well."

Mulligan floats off in advance of the party to see what is down below.

The party descends the stairs and come to another web barrier that the toy dragon makes short work of.

Mulligan moves ahead again and finds a door that has been broken down recently and stuck back up with a little web. Rorimac notices a little colorless liquid on the floor and recognizes it as spider blood. The door is easily pushed down and on the other side is an injured giant spider and several ghoulish creatures.

Bitur and Gwaelur were up front to push open the door and the monstrous spider leaps at them. It takes them by surprise and Gwaelur is stabbed though a small opening and only feebly hits the spider with his shield but is overborne.

Bitur strikes down hard with his axe and more colorless blood flows out. He bashes the front left leg with his shield and the leg buckles.

Thoroncir swiftly strikes but his blades skids of the tough hide.

Gilraen raises her bauble and commands the ghouls, “Be at peace.” The ghouls drop to the ground apparently no longer animated but still stinking horribly. Thoroncir finds his self retching and Rorimac is overcome by the smell and backs off. Mulligan toughs it out and could work over the spider to strike it from behind and perhaps underneath.

Sensing that there'll be little chance of a good bowshot, Ithilneth draws her melee weapons and enters the fray.

Thoroncir holds his breath, fighting off nausea, and tries to jab rather than hack at the tough hide of the giant loathsome spider.

Deor will hold back- normally, he would use a Web here, but they probably will not work well on a Spider, and he wants to conserve spells.

Ceol will advance, if there is room, and stab at the spider with his swords.

Bitur will keep hacking away at the spider and hopefully keep it distracted enough to allow others to flank it.

Mulligan will fly over the top of the spider, hopefully distracted by Bitur and Gwaelur and will double back underneath to get to the soft underbelly.

Once there, take a deep breath, drive a dagger in and pull hard backwards. That should get its attention.

Ithilneth makes good use of her new Elven Short Sword and strikes a blow through the monstrosity's hide. It shrieks in pain.
Ceol follows with two blows to the legs, destroying the front two right legs. The beast collapses on top of Gwaelur.
Bitur follows with another blow to the left leg and severs it.
Mulligan gets one quick shot at a blow underneath and throws herself backwards fast as the spider drops to the ground but her trusty sword comes away covered in translucent ooze.
Theogrim strikes true with his two handed sword at the head and the spider is bleeding profusely where he struck. One eye he also crushed.

Gil-Gandel and Prestolwen have arrows ready and notched and will strike if the spider rises up for a clear shot.

Drinoleth stands ready and watches the party’s back and Redward looks for a chance to help. Rorimac is retching and feels terrible. Sala is also overcome by the smell. Drinoleth is rummaging for some suitable herbs to help them.

Having escaped to behind the Giant Spider, Mulligan goes for the back legs.

"I'm gonna need a bath after this."

Thoroncir will go in for another attack, stabbing wherever he thinks it will do the most good, or slashing at any joints or carapace junctures.

Ceol presses his attack, trying to strike at any vital spot.

The spider stumbles forward and the party continues to chop at it. The legs and eyes are especially vulnerable and going fast. Bitur begins chopping the head itself though and the spider is soon deceased. Their is spider blood everywhere and that horrible stench. It might be best to retreat from the building.

"Hooray! Let's hope the sun and water readily cleans this stink," complains Ithilneth as she heads out.

"Well, I don't know if this was the presence the stories tell about or not--though it definitely fits the rumors of foul stench we heard about. I think it should be a bit easier to finish investigating the town now, however."

Thoroncir, still queasy, tries not to stagger too obviously as he leaves the building, and looks around once in the sunlight to make sure no foe is about to take advantage of the current loose order of the party. He pulls off his helmet, taking deep but calm breaths, before asking Gilraen if she is all right.

Hold on.

Before we all go running off to get a breath of fresh air, we still need to extract Gwaelur from under that Spider Corpse and if you think I am going anywhere without a quick look around, well I can hold my nose for a little while longer.

Although a couple of people to check we are safe for the moment is not a bad idea.

Bitur had best have a look to see if the cellar is in imminent danger of collapse. People who are already feeling ill should evacuate. Glinras protects me from poison, so if I'm in no distress for now I can have a quick look round, though the stench certainly offends my nostrils.

I will examine the building to make sure it's not likely to fall on our heads anytime in the next few minutes with all the close-quarters combat that went on. If so, I'll aid in the extraction of Gwaelur and help everyone get out as fast as possible. Otherwise after extracting Gwaelur, I'll help look around.

Rorimac decides that making sure the outside is safe is a good idea as there is nothing left in his stomach to bring up.

Surprisingly for an empty-stomached hobbit, he doesn't feel hungry at all.

Bitur reports, the building is safe enough. Something is preserving this building beyond the fairly dry conditions.
Gwaelur is extracted from beneath the spider and Gilraen casts Neutralize Poison and then begins to heal him. He still comes out of it quite woozy.

He is brought outside where Drinoleth examines him more carefully.

In the meantime Mulligan takes a quick look but finds the smell in the room overpowering. It appears to be empty of valuables but there is an old stone slab of a door on the far side of the room. Mulligan really feels the need to get out though. Bitur finds the smell nearly as bad. He believes the door could be pride open with some effort but that it is not moving easily.

Drinoleth discovers the Gwaelur is running a fever. In general Dwarves running a bit cooler than humans but Gwaelur is quite hot. "I fear Gwaelur suffers from a fast acting disease along with the poison. I have little to help him."

Gilraen, "I can help him tomorrow but with this news we best consider pulling back to attend to him."

His head now cleared, Thoroncir is very concerned to learn of Gwaelur's condition. The knight-errant listens to Mulligan and Gilraen and suggests, "If it pleases our Elf-captain, then, let us withdraw from the city overnight to a good defensible position, along with our horses and other beasts. The stone slab can wait for the morrow."

He kneels down, clasps Gwaelur's hand and bids him be strong.

A compassionate gesture, but perhaps the wrong knight for the job, as I have heard that the hands of the holy knights can be as potent as a King's. Assuredly we should withdraw if Gilraen says so - I never contradict our Healer on matters within her purview, and it must be a potent sickness indeed to give any son of Durin pause, and twice over if it be Gwaelur the hardy. Form up, move out, and perhaps we should rig up something to carry Gwaelur; there are contrivances that a horse can draw well over rough ground.