Episode 47: Spider Climb

== Episode summary ==
Still in the illusion from last episode, the party run through the woods and ... hit the wall. Well, those who failed their saved do, for 1d6 damage, also being disoriented for one minute. Also, the magical darkness has gone, meaning that all of the party's light sources are effective once more.
Nobody can find the cause of the illusion, but with a natural 20 on his knowledge: religion check, Black finds that everybody who failed their save has one doom charge. The party tie themselves together with a length of rope from Little One's pack so that they won't be separated by future illusions.
The Party continue through the mountain until they reach a bridge across a chasm. The chasm is criss-crossed by spider webs and there is another bridge some distance down. The find the path spell instructs Black to cross the bridge, but Angel checks underneath first with spiderclimb, finding a mysterious band of glowing purple runes. Mora can't decipher them, but does discover a greater glyph of warding which will release a cloudkill if the other runes are tampered with. Draven flies down to inspect them and immediately loses his power of flight (that's what the runes do). Thankfully, he's still on a rope and Black pulls him up.
The party fly across the bridge and find a door, which can be opened by activating a rune on the lower bridge. Little One tries to smash through it with Elder Mountain Hammer, but it's magically toughened stone, so it would take a while. While Little One continues his vendetta against masonry, Angel scouts down into the pit with her spiderclimb and discovers that about 20 feet below the lower bridge is a layer of magical darkness. Meanwhile, Little One's sixth Elder Mountain Hammer destroys the door, regarding him with a torrent of water and ... another door.
Angel finds an archway at either end of the lower bridge. Through the closer one is a chamber containing the rune. Sadly, only the caster of find the path gets told how to activate it, so Black needs to come down. Without flying.
Draven makes some rope with a Minor Creation spell and the whole party climb down. Find the path tells Black that the rune is activated with a magic missile spell, which Draven casts with a temporary scroll. However, before the party can return to the door, they are surrounded by magical darkness and are dragged into a new illusion (Angel, Mora and Draven pass, Black and Little One fail; everybody who saved previously gets +4).
They take the same role as in the previous illusion, but this time they are an adult, who has recently saved his village from the Drow and driven off the human collaborators, at the cost of an arm. He has also grafted a bone arm on, becoming a partial lich. He has also reanimated one of the drow as an undead, although the shaman will have to perform the rite soon or they'll be reanimated through some unspoken ambient force.
They roll another round of saves (all pass except Little One). The Shaman suggests that the illusion's protagonist and the village go their separate ways (another round of saves, all pass), with the village travelling to "the vampire lands" and the shaman hiding them from Swayne's notice somehow. The shaman claims that this is because the Drow will hunt down the protagonist but it is really because the village is terrified of the new lich.
The protagonist wanders off into the woods, where he is attacked by Ralph. He easily kills him with negative energy, then reanimates him as a skeleton. Angel misses this bit, however, as she made all of her saves and so woke up a round earlier, when the giant spider attacked.
Draven fires at the spider, then Angel attacks, bloodying it and causing it to flee. However, the next spider to arise has glowing red eyes, and Black's knowledge: the planes check reveals it to be half-fiendish. It also has spellcasting ability, attacking the party with horrid wilting.
[Insert battle description here]
With the spiders dead, the party destroy its eggs (which were hidden under the magical darkness) and continue through the door.