Kahan, unsure of what Tahldar was doing, attempted to smash any of the spiders near him with his mace, or his boot, whichever looked like it would work better.

Leo continues to swipe at the nearest spiders as he is able and if possible lead his spiders toward where the flame strike is going but if not find some high ground and hold them off.

Tahldar's plan works wonders. As the others step back to worry about any spiders getting through, Tahldar's sphere of flame wipes out the spiders in its path. He then continues moving it forward and it kills the remaining rats and spiders erupting from within. He turns it to the humanoids lurching from the back with the same result.

Borimer begins swiping at the spiders, taking out 3 of them.

Shae climbs on top of the rearmost stone coffin altar. It moves slightly beneath her feet, but she compensates and gets her balance, casting flame strike. Like Tahldar, it has a great effect, wiping out the spiders and the remaining rat.

You are not sure how Fingas is doing, but you hear him yelling, "Take that! And that!" from below.

Remaining monsters:

Borimer: 5 spiders, 1 rat, 1 humanoid
Fingas: 8 spiders

Kahan turns his attention to Fingas below. "Do you have a torch you can use? Fire does a very nice job of killing the spiders!" he suggests, lighting and tossing him a torch if he doesn't have one.

Shae will run over to help Borimer, fighting whichever creature is closest to her (hopefully getting a bonus for attacking from behind).

Glad to see the ball of flame make quick work of the spiders, the mage decides to move on.  Hearing Fingas's cries he's half tempted to help him, but from the sound of battle to the north he knows Borimer must need his help too.  And Geebo lay that way somewhere and needs his help asap.

OOC:  I will send the flaming sphere north to help Borimer and Shae.  I will follow close behind the flaming sphere and direct it as I go.

Shae jumps down and runs after Borimer, striking and knocking down the humanoid zombie like creature. Spiders roll forth from the body.

Borimer takes down two spiders.

With the flaming sphere coming, Shae jumps forward toward Borimer out of the way, and the sphere bowls over the remaining creatures, taking them down.

Fingas calls up, "I pushed them over the edge of the cliff. Almost bit me, they did. But I single handedly defeated eight giant spiders. I shall have Batmus write an epic ballad about this day."

"Are they actually dead? You should make sure, in case they climb back up and attack you while you're busy bragging," Kahan comments down to Fingas. "Or you could just scream like an old woman again, that would surely scare them off," he chuckled as he goes to check on the others.

As Kahan crosses over where the big webs used to be, he looks up in the crevasse and sees something large, with even longer, larger legs, crawling down from above, still cloaked in shadows.

Leo follows and tries to see if there is anything in the crevices.  He will climb up if necessary to see something.

Tahldar follows Kahan, sending his ball of flame in front of him.

"Um, Tahldar? Can that ball climb walls?" Kahan asks as he hurries through the tunnels to meet up with the others, turning and drawing his mace once again as if to say they weren't quite done yet.

Leo steps inside the darkness, climbs a few steps up the wall by wedging his legs on either side, and sees the same thing that Kahan and Tahldar are now seeing from several feet below him, which is now showing up more clearly in the light of Tahldar's fiery orb.

Making its way down the crevice on the north side is a very large spider. It has long, spindly legs and its body is the size of a horse. It is now squeezing that body and pulling its way down with the eight legs that are each ten feet long and not much thicker than a sword's blade.

Upon seeing Leo, it makes two sudden and speed defying movements. (Surprise.) First, its sticky, large webs fire out at Leo with exacting precision. Leo is hit and stuck in place by the web. Second, it lunges forward so fast that Leo jumps in fright to see the spider right in front of him leaning in to bite. (Critical hit.) (10 dmg. Saving throw failed.) It sinks its stinger deep into his shoulder, and he cries out in pain and struggles, but is unable to move. (Leo is now poisoned...)

Everyone else sees the sudden lunge of the spider and rush toward the central area to assist.

Leo is about 8 feet off the ground with the spider directly over him in the central web  above 23A.

This message was last edited by the GM at 11:38, Tue 25 Aug 2020.

Tahldar hates spiders and this one especially.  It's easily the largest he's ever seen!

OOC:  Tahldar will cast  a lightning bolt on the spider. Damage is 26 (kinda lousy).  Save is -3...
18:07, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 26 using 10d6.  Lightning bolt spider.

Leo's head starts to spin and begins wondering do androids dream of electric sheep?
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:31, Wed 26 Aug 2020.

OOC: You can make a strength check at -2 each round to try to free an arm or leg.

(The webs are also flammable, but that might be painful, which is something the others might want to keep in mind when playing with fire around here. The webs also absorb electricity...we shall see if that comes into play.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:41, Wed 26 Aug 2020.

Kahan will cast a spell with the hopes of not burning Leo to death.

Leo attempts to free himself.

<08:13, Today: Leogold Silvershaper rolled 13 using 1d20-2.  strength roll.>

Shae will throw her spear at the large spider and then recall it.

Leo struggles but cannot free himself.

Borimer is pulling out his bow and arrows.

The spider snaps out with its maw to bite Leo, but Leo twists aside and dodges the bite.

Both Tahldar and Kahan hurt the spider, and Shae's spear hits directly. The combination of damage from lightning, fire and spear make the spider jump back on the web. It scrambles up into whatever alcove it came from, leaving you (at least temporarily) alone, with Leo in the web.

"We need to get him loose and heal him if need be." Taldar says to the group.

"Borimer can you get him out?" he asks as he gingerly makes his way closer to Leo.

OOC:  I would to see if Borimer can cut him out of the webs rather than burn them and hurt Leo further.

It takes a few minutes but Borimer cuts Leo loose, leaving him sticky with residue. In the meantime, the spider does not reappear from above.

"You hurt?" Tahldars asks Leo after his harrowing experience with the enormous spider.

Shae quickly pushes through to where Borimer had gone to see if they can track down Geebo and the doppleganger.

The party reconvenes and moves from 23A to where Borimer had gone, marked 23C.

This area has some rock pillars throughout the room. There is a path to the south and another to the west.

The entire northeastern and eastern wall are filled with large (6'x3'x3') wooden cages. The walls themselves are somewhat porous with 3 foot wide tunnels extending inward. In a few of the cages you see giant rats. You realize you are looking at a giant rat trap where your foe had captured rats and fed them to the spider (or set them loose on Fingas). Other than the rats, you see little of value.