Session 8

> *"I demand compensation. You have ruined that which I have built and enjoyed"* - **The Entity**
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## Returns

### Location(s)

* Val Royeaux
	+ Formari Outpost
	+ Lady Aveline's
	+ Spider Caverns

### Characters

BalbusCaspar

Kynedrin

Saidra

Vay

**Now with a clear plan in mind, the group takes a day to relax, shop and enjoy their surroundings. Supplies, information and additional prophecies are received as friends old and new are encountered, while Vay and Caspar help each other train. Setting off for the Spider Caverns in the morning, the group learns more about the complex, its denizens and something else...**

## Session

### Strange Architecture

Deciding to head right down these newfound tunnels, Balbus continued to lead the way through the winding caverns until they came to T-junction. Seeing a modicum of light cresting from the right pathway, he made his way down there until he emerged into daylight. Looking around, he saw that this was one of the many honeycomb entrances they had disregarded on their previous venture and quickly turned around. Passing it off as a fruitless adventure, he lead the group down the left tunnel that continued to arch slowly upwards for a few minutes more.

As they made their way further down this path, the architecture style changed from the relatively simplistic, almost Dwarven, form of the main chamber into something completely different and alien to the party. To all but Caspar that was, as he noted it growing distinctively more Nevarran in depiction the further they went. Symbols and crests of noble houses or general iconographies of his home; particularly some that matched those he had seen on the Cathedral in his home town, made him very curious and he snatched a page from Saidra, before taking some stones from the floor to trace over these symbols.

The tunnel then opened up into a smaller version of the main chamber, with a similarly dark and intimidatingly high ceiling. There was only one statue in this room however, and it was the centrepiece. A man contorted into a vision of agony and pain, yet carried with pride, as countless arrows appeared to pepper his body. Immediately drawn to this, Caspar took a few steps forward before stopping just short of a very well concealed web the stretched across the entrance way. Breathing a thankful sigh, he tried to cut the web only to instead get caught within it regardless. Vay tried to help, but it took Kynedrin to fully slice the webbing in half as the group muttered that they had lost whatever element of surprise they may have had now.

Nothing moves initially, so the group continued. Casting a glance over the statue, Caspar pieced the clues together to determine that this was the fabled Lord Hector of Nevarra. Struggling to recall the tale, Saidra piped to relay that he was a supporter of the Prophet Andraste that gave his life for hers when she was betrayed by Maferath. Shielding her from an ambush in his keep, he was pierced with innumerable arrows that spelt his death and subsequent martyrdom. Taking all of this in, he suggests to the party that there is likely one of these rooms for each of them here, each a microcosm of a culture that followed the Prophet, before the familiar skittering sound of spiders rang out.

Six spiders dropped from the ceiling, and the Party rapidly formed up, Caspar yelling "Back to back!". Vay pushed forth to try and kill one of them, though his rapier failed to pierce the tough hide of the beast. Unable to hide behind their armoured companions, Balbus and Saidra found themselves suffering the first personal damage since Halamshiral, until Caspar somehow managed to taunt the Spider attacking Saidra to attack him instead. Kynedrin had made short work of the Spider attacking him, unleashing his newly purchased throwing axes upon the the poor critter. As each of the four found immediate purchase, it let out a screech before contorting in death throes. He then turned and went to engage the spider attacking Balbus, which had since been frozen, but was warned away as the old man unleashed a torrent of flame and then lightning that coursed through its body and rendered it no longer among the living. Caspar made short work of his spiders as well, cleaving the head from one before flipping the second one completely over onto its back. During this, however, they had managed to land several damaging blows on the valiant warrior, sinking their fangs into his leg and arm. As the venom pulsed through his body, he felt sluggish, but was still able to strike true with his blows. The one he had taunted also joined the fray but met the same fate. Vay, in desperation over failing to do much damage, drew his dagger instead and plunged it brutally into the head of the beast in front of him. As it flailed its forearms to try and pull the blade out, mandibles striking several blows to the Elf's chest, he pushed through the pain and carved through the spider's head until he felt nothing but goo and liquid. The further he went, the more the legs went limp until eventually the legs began to curl under the now thoroughly deceased spider.

Taking a moment to recover, and retrieve weapons, Vay began to cut a mandible off of each of the critters as proof of their deaths for the bounty. Meanwhile, Caspar began to look around the room for anything that might be of use to somebody wanting to know the history of this place. Discovering that many blades and shields littered the chamber, likely from other victims of the caverns, he picked up an ancient shield that bore a heraldry he didn't recognise and placed it across his backpack.

Approaching the statue, Saidra tapped into her newly developed powers to try and sense something about the area. Remembering what it was like to dream into the Fade, she tried to reach out in a similar way, and was granted with a very faint vision into the past. Numerous ghostly figures appeared in the chamber, which appeared much newer and pristine than presently, all performing some form of pilgrimage. They would wait in line before approaching the statue and offer something to it, as an air of revelry and faith permeating her senses. Snapping back to reality, and buoyed by this display of her powers, she tried to sense what else may linger in these caverns. Reaching back across the original crossroads, she felt many familiar dots of energy as she deduced that there were likely many more spiders left throughout the complex. However, that wasn't what interested her, as there was also a significant presence emanating from the central chamber that felt like nothing she had ever felt. Taking a moment to rest and figure out a plan, they decided that if all went well in the main chamber they would then clear out the other tunnels to at least diminish the numbers in the nest, before returning to town. They pushed on...

### A New Threat

As they crested into the main complex, they discovered it to be in the exact same state as they had left it. The statues that lined the chamber were unaltered, Maferath and the Black Divine still facing the walls. One still bore the webs of the Queen Spider, whose headless corpse had begun to decay not far from the archway.

To the rest of the party, it seemed like nothing had changed. However, Saidra didn't trust it due to how strong the attraction was from her earlier spell. Scoping out the room, scanning the massive expanse, she tapped into the same powers and was immediately drawn to a floating mass in the centre of the room, present far above the group. Nobody else seemed to notice it, bar Balbus eventually, though her unease spoke volumes and caused the others to get suspicious. When she mentioned she saw a Shade, what was previously just a pair of rags twisted to face her, the head snapping around first before the 'body' followed suit. Caspar had begun to investigate the now-empty rune slot, while Vay felt a familiar twinge in the back of his head that saw a wave of unease spread over him, like it would on a dark empty street. Gliding down from its place, causing Vay to instinctively back away as the unease grew, Saidra demanded to know what it, and its purpose, was.

A guttural laughter began to roll through her mind. A deep, ethereal voice explained that it had spent years working on the spiders the group had encountered. It spoke of taking its time observing the shrine, the effort it had made to eventually cross through the veil, breaking through the wards of the complex that had long grown weak. It expressed outrage at the party's actions, the now wasted years spent corrupting and twisting what were presumably regular cave spiders into mutated horrors, sporting maws and magical capabilities. It did not immediately lash out however, instead asking Saidra as to her intentions.

Her interest piqued, Saidra asked what it offered, only for it to demand compensation for their reckless invasion and slaughter of its 'children'. Feigning sadness, and already enraged at her failure to cast spells in the Nevarran tunnels, she threw a burst of magical energy straight into its form. Reeling back for a moment, its form slowly became corporeal and thus visible to the rest of the party, who quickly drew their weapons. Cackling under its breath once more, it remarked how interesting the incidence was, before summoning four more ethereal entities out of seemingly nothing...