Emerald Spire 04.0 - The Spider Cellars

After a night of rest, Kormon, Marin and Amara bought an array of cheap weapons and set out towards the Spire once again. When they reached the glen and approached the ruins, Kormon called out, asking for the chief. Instead of Grulk, however, the robed shaman Skizzertz answered instead, flanked as always by Clanky. A negotiation with the prideful shaman lead to the weapons being accepted for "two entrances and exits, and no booby traps". Though they were obviously displeased with the rate of exchange, the three allowed themselves to be led to the stairway. When they stood in front of the looming crystal in the stairwell once more, Amara inspected the engraving at their request. She recognized it as an Arcane Mark, but the symbol it represented she couldn't quite place, though it seemed to be at the tip of her memory.
Heading into the basement, they learned that Amara was rather afraid of spiders. Deciding to avoid the rooms they already knew to be full of arachnids, they went through the hidden door into the laboratory-like room instead. Further investigation found nothing, but the bodies twitched curiously when disturbed, despite still not seeming to be undead. 
Following the next hidden door, they found a room filled with stone sarcophagi. A frightening illusion of hundred of eyes triggered when they approached one, but nothing moved to intercept them. Kormon and Marin argued about opening the caskets, but eventually agreed to leave them for the time being. Following the path before them, they explored a small hallway with a collapsed wall and ceiling. A long-dead body that they pulled out from under the rubble appeared to have once been a servant of Fierna, but it held nothing of value and was obviously not one of the people they were looking for. A nearby alcove had a trapdoor set in the floor, and they attempted to trigger it from a distance to see what lay beneath: a drop into a spiked floor, and a gigantic moon spider that lay in wait for prey to impale itself. The arachnid did not seem to be bothering to come out of the hole, so they left it be. Before they left, they noticed a hole in the ceiling near where the floor had collapsed. Hoisting Amara up on their shoulders, she crawled in and found a forgotten stash of supplies: salted food, water and a climbing rope. The group shrugged, gratefully took the supplies, and carried on.
One of the nearby rooms was filled with spider webs, and was summarily ignored for the alternative, which held little more than a dead moon spider and a wardrobe. Marin could hear a crying voice coming from within it, so moved to investigate. As he touched the closet, it collapsed and a powerful zombie rushed out and attacked him. Kormon dashed forwards and dismembered the undead, but not before Marin was hurt by its strikes. As he staggered back, the performer set off a trap, harming himself further as a weighted net crashed onto him from through a fake ceiling. With the traps and zombie neutralized, they found there was nothing in the room besides another door.
Moving into the next room, they found a strange ceiling and raised platform that held a chest. Kormon's sharp eyes caught the trap, and after determining that there was no way to open the chest without dropping the false ceiling on them, as none of them were trained in the dismantling of mechanical devices, they decided to move on.
This room led to another hallway, containing a pit trap and a large iron grate; they left the room without entering it properly, as they had little reason to want to jump over a trapdoor to reach an inevitably locked gate. Luckily, the room with the chest also contained a hidden door that they had spotted, and this led to a small hallway. On the far side, the door opened into a huge audience room with a ratty tapestry hanging on the far wall. A table of fine adventurers' wares was laid out not far from them, and three undead skeletons guarded the front of the room; one of was seated on a stately chair, while the other two stood at its side. Retreating to cast some protective spells, the three returned to see that something had closed the door they had left open; pushing it aside once more, they saw that the skeletons had shifted their gazes towards them, rather than pointed at the front of the room as they had been. A voice called out, ordering them to identify themselves and their purpose for trespassing. Kormon engaged the voice in conversation, letting Amara notice that the skeleton in the chair didn't seem to be moving or responding like it was the one talking. With that knowledge, Kormon moved into the room properly, walking towards the center. Meanwhile, Marin quietly shifted along the wall to look behind the tapestry. There, he saw another undead, this one dressed in robes like the body they had found under the rubble. It was watching Kormon through a hole in the tapestry and was the one speaking to him.
Kormon kept the undeads' attention, particularly the speaker, who had called himself Gorloth. In particular, it seemed interested in Kormon's purpose and whether or not Kormon was a wizard. They mentioned that they worked for Zdislav, the master of the Spire. The undead's overall affect was strange, particularly when Kormon questioned his motives: it often stopped and stuttered, and seemed easily confused. When Gorloth declared that he couldn't allow anyone to progress down the stairs, Marin dashed forwards and took him by surprise, punching him solidly in the head. Gorloth retreated, commanding the skeletons to attack. The three skeletons were destroyed handily by Kormon, Amara and Marin, but Gorloth had ran through yet another hidden corridor, fleeing into the dungeon.
Category:Emerald Spire