Session 24 - The One Where Carro Kept Dodging

22nd Oct 2021 19:15 - 22:30

In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 29 - Eleasias 29

Our "Heroes" need to rest for a short while after a difficult battle with spiders, big and small. Luckily they are not disturbed during their rest, and after resting they search around the messy captain's cabin. TC digs out a small pouch of rubies from the mud in front of the strange altar to a still unidentified Goddess. Carro and Kandi rummage through the old captain's desk and find the captains log.

Reading through the log, the final entry seems much more detailed than the others. Between them they work out that it was written in some hidden code - when translated, the captain was telling of their imminent capture by Bree, who he explained was a drow, and had a pet will-o-wisp. They suspected they would be taken as slaves or killed. The code also mentions that the lockbox, which the party were looking for, had been dropped into the cargo hold.

Reacting to this information, and still feeling a little battered, the party look for the quickest way to get to the cargo hold. The hatch in the main deck is opened relatively easily and leads to the deck below, though the ladder looked a little old and weak. Beneath this grating, on the deck below, was a further iron grating that they surmise leads into the cargo hold.

Conscious that more creatures could be around on the lower deck, the group prepare for imminent attack, while TC leans over the hatch and peers into the deck below, using his Mage Hand to move a torch around. The grate proves too heavy for the mage hand to lift, but the use of the torch reveals that this part of the lower deck is covered in cobwebs. TC also spots a large spider moving in the shadows.

With the others prepare to launch an attack on anything coming up the hatch, TC is lowered down by rope held by Mahtis and launches an Eldritch Blast at the large spider that he saw. It missed, but the spider is alerted to TCs presence and scuttles towards him.

The planning of our "Heroes" proved, on this occasion, to be very useful. TC's burning of the webs around the hatch slows down the approaching spider enough to enable Mahtis to pull TC out onto the top deck, where he can prepare for the incoming attack. As the large wolf spider emerges, it is immediately taken down by a crossbow bolt from Kandi and an arrow from Carro. When a second large wolf spider appears at the hatch, Mahtis' frostbite is able to fire into it.

With such good preparation, the battle that ensued was easier than it could have been. The two large wolf spiders are quickly joined by two swarms of spiders and an ettercap, which manage to briefly snag Mahtis in a web. With Carro engulfed by a swarm of spiders, and unable to easily switch his weapon to a melee one, he decides to dodge rather than fire his weapon at close range, or to fire at the more distant monsters that are busy attacking the other party members. The rest of the party duly note Carro's lack of aid.

Despite the planning, the battle is still not easy, and the ettercap and spider swarms all do some damage to the "Heroes" before they finally fall - TC's swishing of Dragonsboon at last making contact for significant damage on multiple occasions, and Kandi somehow manages to embarrass the swarms of spiders with some vicious mocking.

The second spider battle is over, but the party is once again battered. They decide to rest up again, despite it being only a few minutes since finishing their previous rest. However, with their two daily rests now used up, and only a few hours before their ship may leave without them, they are keen to get the lockbox as quickly as possible.

TC once again heads to the lower deck. They then spend a while discussing what to do next, before Carro is lowered down, avoiding the dodgy ladder by being lowered by Mahtis, and steadied by TC below. Unfortunately both Mahtis and TC mess up their simple jobs, and Carro is dropped to the deck below, landing loudly and heavily. As he dusts himself off, TC is slightly surprised to find a swarm of spiders emerging from a nearby door and heading towards him!

Mahtis drops down to the lower deck to help out, and Kandi supplies some more vicious mocking from above, and between them all they do manage to quickly take down the spider swarm without making too much noise. Kandi lowers himself down to join them on the lower deck.

With no further creatures appearing immediately, the group set to work on opening the hatch to the cargo hold. Between them, TC and Mahtis manage to pry open the rusted grate, though not before making a racket on their first, failed, attempt. Looking into the now accessible cargo hold, TC finds that it is pretty flooded, with water coming up to about a foot below the grate. He can just make out some boxes and crates piled up at the bottom of the hold, but there is no immediate sign of a lockbox. Mage hand is able to go into the water, but is not strong enough to root around very much, and only serves to stir up a lot of silt, making it harder to see anything down there.

Unsure of what to do next, TC uses his Divine Sense to see if there are any undead, fiends or celestial creatures nearby. He manages to sense something behind the fore door and the feeling has a definite fiendish aura about it.

And so we leave our "Heroes", running a little low on abilities and spells and wondering how they will go about recovering the lockbox from wherever it may be - if it's in the hold still, then there may be other things in the water below; if it has been recovered by something else in the meantime - where could it be? And how can they get it without getting involved in another dangerous and potentially fatal battle? Even if they do recover it quickly, should they spend some time trying to get more 'stuff' from this wreck, and possibly finding out more about what is going on here? And why are there so many spiders on this ship?