It's the first Charday of Charder, about mid-morning. We're still under the tower, in the room where we killed the ghouls. We quickly look in each crypt and see nothing other than bones and trash and such. As we look around, we notice that what Goldpetal tripped on was not really trash, but actually a mostly-eaten dead smuggler.
Chuck searches the truly gruesome dead body and finds 20 silver and 6 gold. Paks and Fergus suggest making a more thorough search of the crypt. Chuck goes upstairs to check on the the prisoners and Miriel rests while everyone else searches. In the toe of the boot of the dead smuggler, Stone finds a blue gem. We also find that one of the bones on the floor is actually a scroll tube.
Paks suggests that Miriel reconsecrate the crypt, but she says she has not progressed that far in her studies.
Upstairs, Chuck finds the prisoners still asking to be let go, while the sorceress Delonia remains asleep.
As Chuck comes back down, Miriel suggests opening the other door. We all head over to check out the other room, with Stone in the lead and Miriel hanging behind in the first room. Stone attempts to open the door, but it's quite stuck. Goldpetal helps and the door opens onto a 10ft wide corridor that goes down 40 feet.
Every 5 feet on the left hand side are cells with rusty, broken bars. Goldpetal shoots a sling down the hall and hits the wall, but nothing else happens. Stone explores the first 5x10 cell, finding nothing but bones and ancient trash; the cells have clearly not been used for many decades. In the second cell we find a skeleton, in the third nothing, in the fourth, another skeleton. Paks draws her weapon facing the skeleton in the second cell, but does not enter. Losing interest in this, Stone steps into the fourth cell and walks up to the skeleton, which stands up and attacks.
The skeleton Paks is facing also stands up and comes out to attack, but misses. Two skeletons come out of the last cell and attack Goldpetal, who is standing next to Stone. One of them hits, and Goldpetal staggers. Fergus hits one of them and it shatters. The blow continues through, but misses the other. Goldpetal tries to hit and misses. Paks hits hers and shatters it. Stone punches his, hitting with both fists, and it explodes into dust; he catches the skull and tosses it against the wall. Chuck just stands there while Miriel moves across the base of the stairs to see what's going on.
The remaining skeleton goes after Goldpetal and slashes him with one claw, which knocks Goldpetal unconscious. Fergus steps around Goldpetal and swings, but misses. Paks moves over and swings wildly at the skeleton, missing and almost flinging her sword aside. Stone tries to punch it, but misses. Chuck tries to shoot, but his arrow flies off into a cell. The skeleton claws Fergus, leaving horrible bleeding wounds. Fergus slumps to the ground. Paks swings again and misses. Stone punches and finally lands a powerful blow, shattering it into dust.
Miriel comes over and heals Fergus, who comes back to consciousness. Stone gives the other healing potion to Goldpetal, who looks great.
We search all the cells, smashing bones as we go, except for Miriel, who rests to regain her magic. Finding nothing in the cells, Paks and Goldpetal search all the walls on both sides, knocking on the doors of the crypts, but find nothing.
We head upstairs and Miriel suggests taking the smugglers back to town. The prisoners keep arguing to be let go. As we head towards town, it starts to rain, it's muddy, and the smugglers are uncooperative, so we get back to town well after dark (and dinner!), cold, tired, hungry, and muddy.
As we reach the Laughing Ogre inn, Randall and Reginald, Fox's adopted sons and assistants, come running out to meet us. These red-headed teenagers, 14 and 15 years old, never miss an opportunity to follow us around, asking questions about our adventures and providing us with a great deal more hero-worship than we deserve. Their older sister Rian, also adopted by Fox, works at the inn as a waitress.
Fox comes out just after his sons and sends us with the prisoners to the stable area, not wanting us to drag them through the bar and inn. Fox sends Reginald for Grilliam and Randal for Constable Lamarak. While we wait, Stone and Chuck go into the inn to get something to eat. Paks stays with the prisoners until Lamarak shows up, with a big club and two men at arms. Grilliam arrives, also bringing two assistants.
Grilliam casually cures all of us while he asks for and receives our story. Saraya tells him the entire story, embellishing a bit, so that it is more exciting and heroic than we would have imagined. We show him everything we brought back: the parchments, the chest (with vials and ledger), the blue gem, the carved bone skull, the bag of gold, and the symbol of Enkili. Chuck also pulls out the gold ring he brought back last time, but Grilliam waves it away.
After a quick inspection, Grilliam says that the vials look like poison, so he sends an assistant for the apothecary. He says he'll take a look at the other items later, as the prisoners should be questioned now. The spellcaster is awake (Stone made sure she stayed unconscious during the trip back), but gagged so that she cannot speak the words of any spells. Now that we're all in the stables watching her, Grilliam says he'll remove the gag, but the guards and fighters should keep their bows ready, and if she says anything that even appears to be a spell they should shoot her right away.
Grilliam: What were you doing in the tower?
Delonia: We were just camping out, not doing anything wrong. I don't know why you're bothering us.
Grilliam: (Angry) Don't lie to a priest of Hedrada!
Delonia goes white; she's heard about the questioning methods of the priests of Hedrada.
Delonia: I wasn't lying...
Grilliam: What you deserve, so shall you receive.
Grilliam puts his hand on Delonia's head, clearly casting a spell.
Grilliam: You shall reap the reward of prevaricators.
Delonia: Really, we weren't doing anything wrong...
As she speaks, her face swells up and her swollen tongue pushes out of her mouth.
Grilliam: I warned you. Every time you lie your tongue will betray you from now on. If you continue to lie, you may choke to death. It is not a pleasant way to die.
The smugglers look aghast. Delonia's tongue shrinks back to a normal size after a few minutes, and he continues to question her for a while, but she refuses to say anything more.
Eventually Grilliam says he'll take her away to try to learn something from her, and that we should rest. Meanwhile, the apothecary will study the vials we brought back.
As everyone else leaves, we head into the inn for dinner. Fox sits with us, while Rian serves another delicious meal. Fox seems gratifyingly impressed with us. Over the meal, we talk more about ourselves.
Miriel, a half-elf cleric. She was found wandering the moors near the town of Lave as a small child, with her twin sister. She was raised by the innkeeper, taught to cook and brew ale. She also studied at the temple of Madriel. After her sister left home, she went to stay at the temple for further study. She was on her way to HealCon 150AV (after victory) in the caravan that was attacked.
Paks, a human fighter. Rather quiet and reserved. She ran away from home at 17 and joined a mercenary company, where she was employed for the past few years. She reached the rank of squad leader before she left the company. She was working as a guard on the caravan when it was attacked. She's still wearing the caravan uniform, and might want to go shopping for clothes tomorrow.
Stone, a very young half-orc. He's 5'5", 160lbs, wearing peasant clothes, and carrying a nice sack with a basket on top. He's got very nice boots. He's an Exemplar of Hedrada, though not very accomplished. He enjoys fighting (primarily with his fists) and eating, in both orders. Duh.
Goldpetal, very short (4'11") and thin; looks breakable. He doesn't say much about himself other than that he is a druid, but from what he has said, he seems to remember parts of the war; we get the impression that his parents might have died in the great war, or perhaps in the druid war.
Fergus, a big manly man (6'2", 220lbs) with a big manly sword. His people were nomadic farming people living in a town north of the blood basin. After his clan was destroyed, he left to seek family members; he was on his way to see one when the caravan was attacked.
Chuck the Younger, a man, 5'8". He was an apprentice of the Vigil who was travelling with the caravan; his master Steve was killed by the eeeevil rat men. He doesn't talk much about himself. He does his own thing, and he'll search any corpse, any time.
We're pretty tired since we didn't get a good night's sleep, but we decide to divide up the loot before we go to bed. We brought back:
Miriel does a detect magic on everything, but nothing seems to be magical.
Paks opens the bag of gold and finds 150 gold. We see that the ring is very finely wrought, with rats running around it. The rat skull has the same sort of carving work, old and intricate. Fox says the ring and skull are obviously Slitheren (rat men) art.
Chuck grabs the scroll case and opens it. There's a scroll in it which is clearly magic, not very powerful, and divine, but not good or evil. Miriel studies the scroll, using her years of religious training, and determines that it's a scroll of bless. She suggests that she take it; Chuck says he wants it, but she points out that he can't use it.
Paks says she already got a sword and doesn't really need anything else. Chuck asks for the holy symbol. Goldpetal takes the (empty) bag and asks for the blue gem. Stone says that's fine. Stone takes the carved rat skull. Miriel takes the dagger. Paks takes the silver ring.
Saraya has been performing up on the stage, but comes over to get her share of the loot. The crowd is clearly sorry to see her go, and the house bard is looking quite impressed.
Everyone but Fergus taks 27 gold, 5 silver. Paks suggests keeping the rest for a slush fund. Everyone agrees, and Miriel says Paks can hold it, to which everyone also agrees. We then head off to bed.
The next morning as we're having breakfast we hear Fox talking to Rian, asking where here brothers are, as he has not seen them since the previous night. Neither has she.
After breakfast, we go to the temple of Hedrada, moving quickly through the rituals of entry. Stone puts 10 gold into the temple donations box as we pass.
Grilliam congratulates and thanks us, paying us with 20 platinum pieces, at which Fergus looks dubious, having never seen platinum money before. Grilliam explains the currency in Vesh, but Fergus still dubious, and the rest of us try to explain it to him. As we argue about the currency, Grilliam says "You guys are doing a great job. If you'd like to be my investigators, I'll give you 10 more platinum up-front." Most of us begin to discuss this, but Saraya thanks him, takes her share of the payment, and leaves, saying that the one adventure had been more than enough for her.
Goldpetal asks what the investigation would entail. Grilliam answers that he wants us to find out who is on either side of the delivery: where does the stuff come from and who is picking it up. Miriel says that she's interested, but needs to go talk to her priestess first. Stone wants to talk to the high priest of Hedrada. Fergus isn't sure if he wants to stay or continue on his journey.
Spalier the apothecary comes in with his report on the vials we found. He says it's all poisons produced by a tribe of rat men who focus on the production of poisons and potions. The black vials are an inhalation poison, the amber are injury poisons, and the green are ingestion poisons. They are all deadly, extremely powerful, and extremely rare. He says he doesn't even know who would want this stuff, but it would be very expensive, probably a couple hundred gold each. At this, Stone immediately suggests selling it for the huge profit, but Grilliam sternly points out that this is contraband and we agreed to turn it in before we went on the mission.
Spalier says it's actually not all poisons; the glowing emerald potions are glitter ink, for inscribing scrolls. The white potions are neutralize poison potions. Grilliam says we can keep both, so we acquire 12 vials of glitter ink and 2 of neutralize poison.
Paks asks about purchasing potions of healing; Spalier says come on by the shop. Miriel says we'll be back with a decision, except for Stone who accepts immediately.
We all split up to do our errands in the town; Paks asks Fergus to come with her.
Chuck tries to connect with Jim the Vigil, but no one seems to know where he is. This takes most of the day. Chuck stops by the shop and gets more rope, then browses the selection of weapons and armor.
Miriel goes to the temple of Madriel. She speaks to Verenia in her small office in the small, pretty temple. Since Verenia had previously mentioned her future, she asks for more information about her future direction.
Virinia pours water into a bowl for a divination spell. After some contemplation, she says that Miriel's fate is here in the town, that she should stay in the town as she is now on the right path. "Madriel shines on you, my child."
Miriel asks if she should take the job, and Virinia says yes, this is the work that both gods wish her to do. She asks about acquiring healing artifacts, but Virinia says they are far too rare and expensive. Virinia does offer 2 excellent potions of healing (1d8 + 2) at cost (60gp vs 100 retail).
She pleads poverty and manages to acquire the potions for slightly below cost, but Verenia hints that she should donate to Madriel quite soon. Miriel asks if she can help out around the temple, and also come there to study. She is told that she is welcome to study, and that there is a wedding she can help officiate at later in the week.
Stone goes shopping and orders a nice pair of boots, which will take a couple of days to make.
Goldpetal sells the blue stone for 40 gold. He asks about a druid priest, but doesn't pursue it, as he is already getting funny looks from the townspeople for being a wood elf druid - followers of Denev are not very popular. He goes to the weapons shop to buy a composite shortbow.
Paks and Fergus walk around town. Paks considers switching to the bastard sword as her main weapon, as it is a master work. She stops at the apothecary to pick up healing potions, but they which cost 65 gold each, so she says she'll think about it. She stops at the tailor to order a new outfit.
Chuck sells the 4 not very good daggers for 2 gold, which he spends on two potion cases. He prices and tries on some chain shirts, but they make so much noise when he moves that he decides against them.
After a long day of shopping, we converge back at the inn for another fabulous meal. As we eat, Fox asks if we've seen Randall or Reginald. Chuck says yes, we saw them last night. Fox just shakes his head at this. Then he says he's getting worried, as no one has seen them since the previous night. We say that we were all around the town today and none of us saw them.
Fox is increasingly distraught; he tells us a long involved story of how he adopted the three children after their parents were killed by rat men, tells the long story of how he adopted all three. We are sympathetic, but not sure how to help.
Miriel asks for contributions towards the cost of the healing potions; Paks, Chuck, Stone, and Goldpetal all chip in. As they're giving her the money, Randall comes in, exhausted and beaten up.
We ask what happened. He tells us that they heard our story and decided to go check out the tower themselves. They got down there and camped out near the woods. While napping, they were accosted by strange goblins, who grabbed them and tried to drag them into the woods. Randall fought them off and ran away, but Reginald was taken prisoner. Goldpetal asks how many goblins, but Randall doesn't know; it was dark and he just has the impression of lots of goblin hands and some goblin voices. Goldpetal asks if there were spiders; Randall says no, but they weren't exactly normal goblins; what he could see of them looked strange, leathery, and distorted.
Randall says they were camped near the eaves of the forest, right by the tower. Fox asks us to please go rescue Reginald. Stone marches into the kitchen to grab cheese and bread, causing the cook some surprise, then heads straight out the door and down the road, walking.
As the rest of us are considering how to go, one of the other patrons of the inn who was sitting nearby comes over and offers to help. She is a tall woman, wearing only a bikini and a gold-embroidered cloak. She has magnificent red hair, but is otherwise rather loud and unattractive. She introduces herself as Brunhilde Hassenpfeffer; she's been hearing about us and listening to us and wants to join in our adventures.
We're a little dubious, but willing to let her come. She offers to provide light, gestures and we have light. After much discussion of how and whether to make use of the horses, Fergus rides with Goldpetal, Miriel rides with Paks, Brunhilde and Chuck ride alone, and Stone keeps up on foot.
Even with the horses, it takes us about five hours to reach the area where Reginald was taken, so it's the middle of the night when we draw near to the place. Before we reach the spot, Paks stops us, so that we can assess the situation before walking into it. Chuck asks for some light, but Fergus says no, as it would reveal us more than revealing anything to us. Goldpetal studies the ground for tracks while Brunhilde sends Fledermaus, her bat familiar, to look for any large creatures in the area. When he returns, they converse in high squeaks for a moment and she tells us there are no large creatures in the area.
Stone, who has excellent dark vision, inspects the area of the campsite and sees nothing. Chuck looks for tracks. We see campsite, where the boys lit a fire; all around the area a goblin prints, Goldpetal can't even estimate how many there might have been. Chuck checks the perimiter and sees marks of dragging. He thinks there might have been anywhere from eight to twenty goblins. The tracks go straight into the woods, and would be very easy to follow.
We tie up the horses. Fergus points out that goblins can see at night. Stone points out that this means we'll need light, since most of us can't. Paks suggests using a hooded lantern to illuminate only the path, so as not to completely destroy our night vision. We discuss whether or not spiders would approach the light; Goldpetal says they would be repelled by fire, and suggests carrying torches.
Stone and Paks tire of the discussion and head into the woods. Miriel follows. Goldpetal, having good night vision, moves to the front. Miriel offers to carry the lantern, so as to free the others for carrying their weapons. Brunhilde is behind her and Chuck brings up the rear. Paks asks Brunhilde to send Fledermaus out ahead, which she agrees to do, and he flies about 100 yards ahead.
Everywhere we look in the woods we see spiders. Little ones, tarantula sized ones, basketball sized ones like the ones that attacked us before. They all stay away from the light, which shines on hundreds of eyeballs. It is very spooky; even Fledermaus feels it, and he is so unhappy being any distance from us that Brunhilde lets him come back and settle on her shoulder.
Fergus argues again that we should discuss what we're doing before moving on. The rest of us say that we follow the gods, and it therefore follows that we hate titan spawn, and we have to rescue the child, so there is really nothing to discuss. The argument continues.
Goldpetal is in front, tracking. After about an hour and a half, the woods we are moving through have become very close and dense. Off in the distance we can see a hill, not very clearly. Goldpetal suddenly stops at a 20-ft wall of web. We bump into each other, but there is no major disaster. Goldpetal passes a whisper back that we should back up.
Upon inspection, we see that the web is almost like a wall, a pretty solid mass that extends off in both directions, and cuts off the path. Apparently, the goblins climbed the trees at this point, as there is clearly no way through the web.
Fergus suggests hacking the web. Brunhilde suggests getting out weapons. Stone climbs the tree and sees many trees, and a clearing with a small campfire; the web is a wall around a goblin enclave.
He sees the goblins, which are very strange-looking, even though he's seen many many goblins before; they have four feet, four arms, and eight eyes - they almost seem to be a mix of spiders and goblins, though none of us have ever heard of such a cross-breeding.
The fifteen goblins are praying to an idol, with a goblin shaman leading the prayer. The enclave does not contain any structures, but there are several large trees. The goblins are very intent on their worship. Stone climbs back down quietly and reports all this to us.
Paks suggests climbing the trees to fire on them. Miriel offers to bless everyone. Fergus warns us about being attacked from below while in the tress, and also argues that we should not attack the goblins if they don't have the boy, but no one listens to him, as it seems obvious that they do, since we followed the tracks of his being dragged to this point.
Fergus grows impatient, and asks Madriel to sell him a torch, which he takes and leaves. Chuck says "Fergus you fool!", but no one tries to stop him.
The rest of us agree to circle around closer to the goblins, who are at the other side of the clearing from where we reached the web wall. Goldpetal plans to cast an entanglement to slow the goblins down. Stone stays behind to get the goblins from the rear. The rest of us circle around, and all climb trees on the other side of the circle of web. Stone watches the goblins with bow drawn, but they are still intent on their ritual and do not seem to hear us moving near them.
The shaman chants in an unintelligible language while the other goblins genuflect and murmur their chant. Goldpetal prepares his spell while Miriel prepares her. The rest have their weapons ready to fire when the spell takes effect.
Miriel blesses everyone in range just before Goldpetal casts the entanglement. The goblins stop their rituation and say WTF?! Half are entangled. Everyone starts shooting. Chuck's arrow goes straight into the fire. Stone shoots at the goblin closest to him and misses. Paks shoots at the shaman and misses. Miriel throws an enchanted stone at the nearest goblin and misses. Brunhilde shoots a magic missile at the shaman, who shouts and seems very annoyed; he turns around and shouts to the other goblins: "Bad people! Attacking us!" He starts waving his arms, and suddenly a huge web shoots out of his rear towards Paks.
Chuck and Paks are trapped in the web. One goblin tries to throw two darts through the web at Goldpetal and misses. Another throws two darts at Chuck and misses. Two each throws two darts at Paks and miss. Three more throw at Chuck and miss. All the rest of the goblins are now entangled, except the shaman. The original entangled goblins try to escape, but do not succeed. It's all a big mess.
Goldpetal starts climbing down his tree, moving extremely slowly due to the web. Chuck breaks out of the grip of the web and tries to move beyond the area that is full of web. Stone shoots at the goblin in the rear and misses. Paks tries to break out of the web and comes close, but remains entangled. Brunhilde shoots a magic missile at the shaman. Miriel slings another rock and misses.
The shaman remains unentangled. Shouts: "Why are you attacking us?" Chuck: "Where's the boy?" Shaman: "He's present, present, present!" The shaman points to the hill behind us with all four arms. He heads for one of the trees behind the goblins and climbs up inside the tree, popping out on top.
Most of the goblins break free. Goldpetal briefly gets stuck in the web, as does Chuck. Stone shoots at the rear goblin and kills it. Paks tries to break free again. Brunhilde shoots another magic missile at the shaman. Paks: "All we want is the boy!"
Miriel hits a goblin with a magic stone and kills it. Shaman: "Man boy up there! Leave us alone!" The shaman pulls out vial and sucks it down. Brunhilde is discouraged, as he has clearly healed himself of much of the damage she did with the magic missles.
One of the unentangled goblins runs for a tree and hides in it. More are entangled, unentanged, and entangled again. Now most are entangled. Everything seems to be moving in slow motion, between the spell and the web.
Goldpetal is still stuck coming down the tree, as is Chuck. Stone shoots at another rear goblin and misses. Paks attempts to break free, meanwhile asking if goblins are lawful? Goldpetal replies "They're unnatural!" Paks: "Shaman, are you a goblin of honor?" The shaman clearly doesn't understand the question. Brunhilde climbs down from her tree. Miriel hits a goblin with a rock, but it isn't killed outright. Shaman: "Stop attacking us, bad people over there, leave us alone!" He moves his hands, casting another spell. The two dead goblin corpses shrivel up and he looks stronger. The goblin that got under cover of the trees runs for it, leaving the area as quickly as possible.
Goldpetal is still stuck, Chuck moves down the tree a bit. Stone shoots at the same rear goblin and misses. Paks tries to break free and fails. Brunhilde reaches the web and starts pulling Goldpetal out. Miriel slings a bullet and misses. Shaman: People that way (gestures up the hill). The shaman casts another spell, and a dense mist covers the majority of the clearing.
Two more goblins break free and run; of the rest, all but one are entangled. Stone jumps down from his tree and runs around the circle. Brunhilde pulls Goldpetal out of the web, but Paks is still stuck. Miriel tries to go in to help but fails. We have no idea what the goblins are doing in the mist.
Goldpetal moves out of the webbed area and climbs a tree, not having seen the mist. Chuck moves further down his tree. Stone arrives and tries to get in to get Paks out. Paks fails to break free, meanwhile watches past the mist to see if she can see any goblins escaping. Brunhilde and Miriel move into the webbed area to help Paks.
>From in the mist we hear the shaman: "Go away. Leave us alone, we won't attack you. We'll stay here in the mist."
Goldpetal swears and drops back down and starts moving through the woods, around the webbed area.
Paks: Hey shaman, we only want the boy.
Shaman: Truce yes, truce. Good people, sorry about boy. Nice present, nice present.
The entangling field disappears, the mist clears, and we see goblins peeking out from the hollowed out trees, watching us.
Goblins: Go away people! Bye, bye, bye...
Paks: Shaman, to seal deal, present. She pulls out 10 copper and throws it over the web wall.
Shaman: Ooh ooh! Shiny coins! (Grabs the coins) Nice people, nice people, go away. Bye-bye people...
Stone: How about if we give you a platinum piece and kill the rest of you?
Goblins: Go away...
We start to leave, moving towards the path we can see that leads up the hill. Fledermaus checks out the top of the hill and warns us of a big spooky cave that he wouldn't go in. (A cave a bat wouldn't go in?) The hill is clear of trees. We walk up the trail, which is covered with footprints, and reach the big cave at the top of the path. We look in and see an enormous number of webs inside. The passage in is about 20 feet, and Stone sees the boy, about 40 feet in, wrapped in webs. It looks like he's been left as an offering, but we do not know to what.
The strands of the webs that we can see are the biggest we've ever seen, more like thick ropes. The way in is relatively clear of webs. Brunhilde offers to cast dancing lights inside so we can see better. Stone suggests sneaking in and grabbing the child. He also points out that we can cast light on swords, then sheathe them, pulling them out when light is needed.
Eventually, Chuck and Stone plan to sneak in with magically lighted weapons and grab the boy. The rest of us ready weapons, and Brunhilde holds a torch ready to light and toss in, once Chuck and Stone are safely out with the boy.
Stone goes in the lead; he makes it to the boy picks him up, then turns around. From above the entrance drops a BF spider, blocking the passage out. Stone drops the boy.
Paks charges down the hall to hack at the spider from behind, but her sword bounces off its thick hide. Brunhilde runs up and hits it with her quarterstaff, leaving a big bruise. Miriel charges with her short spear and misses. Chuck hits at it with both swords and misses. The spider bites at Chuck and misses as Chuck jumps away. Goldpetal shoots his bow and hits the spider in the rear. Stone steps around Chuck and starts punching at it, to no effect.
Paks hits it hard with her sword. Brunhilde runs around past the spider into the cave. Miriel hits the spider with her short spear; it screams and drips black ichor. Chuck hits again with both swords and hits hard with his longsword. The spider is majorly pissed at Chuck and bites him. Chuck looks a little weaker. Goldpetal shoots and misses, grazing Miriel. Stone punches hard and the spider reels a bit.
Paks misses badly, hitting the ground with her sword. Brunhilde runs around the spider to get to the boy. Miriel strikes and misses again. Chuck swings both swords at the spider, but misses The spider goes after Chuck again and hits him; he goes down bleeding, and looks very weak. Goldpetal is changing weapons. Stone punches the spider to no effect.
Paks swings at the spider and hits. Brunhilde runs over to Chuck and drags him out of the way. Miriel misses. The spider goes after Stone and bites him; he goes down and looks weak. Goldpetal calls upon his god and smites the spider. The god smiles upon him, and he critically hits the spider, killing it!
Brunhilde calls to Miriel that there are injured; Miriel heals both back into good shape. Brunhilde checks the child for poison; to no one's surprise, he is poisoned, but seems to be stable. Stone picks up the child and walks out; Goldpetal follows. Miriel stops at the mouth of the cave to watch the outside. Stone sees the goblins watching us from the trees outside.
Chuck, Paks, and Brunhilde search the cave, but they find only webs, junk, old bones, eaten people, eaten goblins, and sucked-out goblin husks. Paks does a more thorough search while Miriel and Brunhilde rest. Paks finds 80 gold, 2 violet gems, and, on one dead husk, a scroll, rolled up and tied. In a corner behind a rock, Chuck finds, under a lot of junk, a sheathed dagger. Something about it fascinates him; he pulls it out a little from its beautifully-carved sheath and it shines very brightly. He re-sheathes it and puts it in his pack.