Sickening Slitherers, The Mystery of Molikroth, and a Tooth-filled Trench

## Spider Snake, Spider snake, does whatever a Spider Snake does…wrecks Azurial

* Two of the grim beasts leapt to the prone Paladin and punctured his armour with fangs glistening with venom
* He was immediately knocked out with poison coursing through his veins and wrapped in webbing
* The response from the group was equally savage, a combination of fireballs and a bomb from Breena blasted legs from bodies they should never have been attached to in the first place
* One of the creatures was hexed by Belgaer and lances of eldritch energy lanced into insectoid carapaces as Bayul charged to Azurial, flipped over one of the beasts and pulled the webbed mass to safety
* Leo got the Paladin back on his feet while the others finished the job of putting the unholy slithery crawlers down

* In the aftermath, Breena and Bayul harvested a vial of poison from one of the carcasses while Kunai snapped off a few legs for later carving
* Meanwhile, Lysandre, Azurial and Balgaer took a restful catnap enhanced by Tamsin’s magical prowess

## Pressing onwards (to get out of spider territory ASAP):

* Kunai and Tamsin had a conversation about the secret meeting, though the wizard was not familiar with the name ‘Molikroth’
	+ When this was shared with the group, Leo recognised it as being associated with ‘Mephistopheles', an archdevil of the Nine Hells
	+ Also, something about the nature of the magic relating to what kunai saw in his sister’s eyes when she was being sued as a vessel resonated with Belgaer
	+ Finally, Tamsin realised that the spell she used to escape was dimension door and that she was probably still on the island

* Khiaxi warned the group to follow her footsteps exceptionally carefully through a patch of sinking mud
* On the way across, she suddenly held up her hand as Kunai and Leo also felt vibrations in the ground — “Get to the trees!” she yelled in panic
* Everyone attempted to do just this, as a herd of rampaging feral hogs charged through where they had just been stood
* Unfortunately Lysandre was too slow and he was trampled violently under hoof, while Breena was caught low down on the tree trunk and butted, though still evaded trampling
* Just seconds later an enormous bristled predator bounded past in pursuit and Khiaxi warned them that the ‘Moorbounder’ had probably picked up their scent

## I'm sure it will be a totes restful night...

* In the depths of the night during the second watch, Bayul, Breena and Leo were sat around the fire when, despite his fatigue, Leo heard a suspicious snapping of vegetation
* Bayul decided unwisely to investigate without waking the party and watched as an enormous bristled cat-like beast leapt out of the bushes and attacked him head on
* Two more leapt out, one each at the other two, and Breena fell to a flurry of vicious blows
* Leo healed her back up as the others rushed out of their tents at the commotion and tore into the assailants, one vengeful Paladin out for blood in particular
* After whiffing a couple of crossbow shots, Kunai aimed the final shot carefully and set the bolt directly into its mouth as it went to bite Bayul, jerking it sharply backwards instead
* Breena harvested some of the hard spines from the bodies, Kunai did some harvesting over the course of his watch and Belgaer read the book on marine animals in a

## Day 3:

* Upon wake up, Khiaxi warned that the main obstacle of the day was ‘the trench’
* This was a small valley of murky water filled to the brim with crocodiles and alligators
* To cross this, leo cast water walk upon the entire group while Lysandre cast a major image around them, effectively camouflaging the knot of people into the swampy mass of felled trees and vegetation
* The occasional stumble on the rough terrain made a few limbs fly out of the illusion and about halfway across one of the beefiest of the crocodiles approached with keen and pointed interest, licking its expansive chops
* With their reaction speeds enhanced by Lysandre’s alacrity, Kunai and Lysandre wrecked a couple of the smaller hungry mouths now approaching the group and made it to the far shore
* Azurial used his celestial magnificence to intimidate the biggest croc and , Leo and Tamsin close behind
* Belgaer began to levitate, using height to get out of the reach of the growing number of gnashing teeth
* As the others fired back from the shore, Breena began to head forwards as Bayul charged up behind her, taking a savage reptilian bite on his rump as he went, but picked up Breena and carried her the remaining distance to safety