Tahldar begins burning the webs. They seem slightly flammable, and the flame and smoke picks up.

This appears to draw the attention from something above. You see dark movement from about 20 feet above the webs inside the narrow corridor.

You can't tell how far up the crack in the rocks above go, but they are about 3 feet wide and go up into darkness above--perhaps extending 50 feet or more up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:46, Tue 11 Aug 2020.

Borimer moves forward to investigate the sound.

"Now might be a good time for a fireball," Kahan mentions as he takes a step back from the webs and draws his mace and shield. "That's likely one big spider, possibly with her children, judging by the size of these webs," he adds warily.

Tahldar shrugs and begins to cast.

OOC:  I will cast fireball.  I will try to catch as much of the upper area as I can.  And of course avoid blasting the party.

08:38, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 37 using 10d6.  Fireball.

Leo draws his weapon and looks for anything that approaches.

Tahldar casts fireball up into the dark crevasse above your heads. The darkness is lit up in the blast as the fireball streaks upward in an explosion. In that brief instant of light, you see a thousand eyes peering down at you. Then the bodies begin to drop.

You jump back out of the way.

Five humanoid (now burnt to a crisp) bodies flop to the ground. They appear to be dead for a moment, but then begin to move in awkward jerks. Other remains also fall to the ground--skeletal masses, bones, and the like--and you see that most of these appear to be giant rats. About ten of the rats appear to be in the early stages of decomposition.

Also falling are hundreds of small spiders about the size of your hand. They were the thousand eyes you saw as the bodies fell.

The five humanoid corpses and ten giant rat corpses begin to move and rise in jerky articulations at the joints. They all seem sticky and covered in webs. You may have just awakened something and accidentally hatched these spiders.

That said, the spiders that flop to the ground appear to be permanently dead. It is the crispy fried bodies of the humans and rats that appear to be rising to their feet to attack.



Meanwhile, Borimer is exploring the northeast area... (PM)

Despite being a druid, Shae has a phobia of spiders from a childhood incident. She instantly is paralyzed with fear at seeing the spiders, but relaxes upon seeing that they seem to be dead from the fireball and focuses her attention on the zombie like creatures now approaching.

If she has room, she will run quickly to the east to catch up with Borimer. If she does not have room, she will step back into the room with the coffins and give more space for combat. "We shouldn't fight in a confined space," she says.

To Shae's point, the 23A area is about 8 feet to a side. Tahldar is considered in the front (at the base of the web on the map) since he just cast a spell. Shae, Kahan and Leo are also in that small alcove area. It is tight quarters for anything requiring any sort of swing or AoE.

The zombie creatures are spread throughout the web area, so Shae's path is blocked without pushing past a zombie humanoid and two rats and giving an attack of opportunity.


23B (as Shae suggests) is a possibly fallback, as well as the ledge at 22C--if you want a bigger space. The zombies will lumber forward and follow, with the rat zombies being bigger than the humanoid ones.

NOTE: These are not true "undead" creatures, as your characters can probably tell. Something else is animating them.

Shae says to Tahldar, "I hate to have you waste spells, but maybe one more fireball or lightning or something would take care of these guys while they're still vulnerable in the corridor area." She then backs up into the coffin room.

"Shae, you're a druid, can you control these spiders? It appears they have somehow animated these bodies from within," Kahan asks as he backs up to a more open area.

"Fall back!" Tahldar says taking charge.  "This place has animated them, and will keep animating them over and over."

"Kahan turn them if you can!" he adds as he scrambles for a plan.

OOC:  If Kahan can turn the zombies then great.  I believe at his level he should be able to destroy zombies rather than turn them.

I would like us to fall back to 22C.  If the zombies are not turned, or if only some are:  I want to have Borimer cover the corridor between 23A and 22C.  Have him stand by the hall from 22C to 23A, just around the east corner in 22C and attack the undead as they come through.  Then the rest of us drag the temporarily downed zombies as we are able and toss them over the cliff to the west.  I would assume taking turns in pairs.

Kahan doesn't necessarily think Tahldar is right, but he shrugs and attempts to turn the corpses all the same.

Shae says to Kahan, "Spiders are my Achilles Heel. I had a traumatic experience and have a deep seated fear of them."

Shae continues to fall back to the coffin room, ready to attack but panicked because her one phobia has just surfaced.

Kahan attempts to turn the zombies as Tahldar calls out for Borimer to guard the east exit.

The turning is totally unsuccessful. These do not appear to be actual undead, but something animated from within.

You fall back to 22C, except Borimer and Shae, who are at the east 23A and the coffin room (23B) respectively. The zombies appear to be trailing after those who went south. The rats are faster than the humanoids and will reach you momentarily.

OOC: As I understand it, Tahldar's idea is to try to sweep them off the edge down to where Fingas is at (22A) area. Borimer cannot cross from east 23A to the center 23A due to the animated creatures blocking the way, so he has to stay at the east 23A unless he rushes them from behind.

Tahldar quickly rolls through his array of spells and he finds himself wanting.  He doesn't have any type of wind spell and is reluctant to cast a spell anyway.  He knows the psionicist is right around the corner and he'll need all the magic he has.

Bearing his sharp bracers, he decides to join the fray and use a martial attack.  Which is rare for the mage.  In fact he can't remember the last time he took a physical swing at something.

OOC:  Hit an AC10 on a rat for 6pts.

20:23, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 7 using 1d20+3.  Bracer attack.
20:27, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 6 using 1d4+3.  Rat damage.

Kahan likewise steps up and takes a swing at whatever is closest to him with his mace.

OOC: Slight backtrack: Kahan's glyph of warding had been set off when Dalharen's body was thrown over the ledge.

Now, you see the zombie like creatures break up as follows:

1 humanoid and 2 rats go toward Borimer;
2 rats go toward Shae;
6 rats and 4 humanoids go toward the rest of the group.

The rats are faster and reach you first. Tahldar, Kahan, and Leo all strike out at the rats...

Miraculously, in a comedy of errors, each of you miss the rats, and all of the rats miss you in the melee. However, one rat (critical miss) gets swept off the edge to where Fingas waits below.

You hear a frightened screech as he screams out in fright, "Ahhhh! More giants rats! They're raining from the sky!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:57, Mon 17 Aug 2020.

Shae also resorts to melee with her ancestral spear, going after whichever is closest.

Tahldar is disappointed he missed, but tries again.

OOC  I hit an AC1 for 5 pts on a rat.

08:38, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 16,5 using d20+3,d4+3.  Attack.

OOC: I have Tahldar at THAC0 of 17, then +3 magic attack bracer bonus, means 14 THAC0. So he hits up to AC-2 on this one. These giant rats are AC6.

Not sure if you are trying to push the rats/humanoids off the cliff still. If so, an additional attack roll at -5 would be needed too succeed. This is in addition to your other attack, but provides an attack of opportunity if you fail (also at -5 for your opponent).

Leo pulls his dagger and goes for the closest critter.

Kahan swings at another rat, hoping to make contact this time.

From below, Fingas is still complaining. "Give a guy some warning next time." He seems to draw his sword to attack the rat below.

This time around, everyone hits...Tahldar, Kahan, Leo, Shae and Borimer--and even Fingas. The result is almost universally the same.

The rats that are hit take only a small amount of damage before falling over on their sides and seeming to shake in a death twitching, but then the spiders within are loosed. Spiders about 6 inches long burst from the corpses. Each contains about 10 such spiders, which then begin swarming toward you.

You now find yourself surrounded by the following count of fist sized spiders:

Leo, Kahan, Tahldar: 24 spiders, 3 rats, 4 humanoids
Borimer: 8 spiders, 1 rat, 1 humanoid
Shae: 1 rat, 3 spiders
Fingas: 10 spiders.

You hear Fingas yell up in both fear and warning, "There are spiders inside the rats! Inside them!"

Shae is deathly afraid of spiders and jumps on a nearby coffin lid farthest from the entrance and intruding creatures to gain height advantage. As she goes, she begins casting, and flame strike leaves her hands, directed at the 5 foot radius of those closest to her without hitting herself.

"Blast!" Tahldar says at the arrival of more spiders.  Switching back to magic, he begins to cast.

OOC:  I will cast a flaming sphere.  It will last for 10 rounds and is a 3' sphere.  I will post the spell in the Comment thread.  I will try to catch as many spiders and other creatures I can as I sweep the ball of flame around the battle field (and not catch party members).