Express Route to The Black Spider

Having been taken off guard by the oozes previously the group decided to take a short rest and Donnie managed to mend some of the weakened points of Grok and Kuro’s gear that was damaged by the Black Pudding.

After that Aellora was sent to scout around the tunnels where the Oozes attacked them and she mostly just found that the tunnels were a bit of a maze, and seemed empty now.  The group then proceeded to make their way northward in the mine while Kuro marked where they had come from with some chalk.

Eventually the tunnel opened up into a cavern that had a small underground lake that flowed out of the chamber in the north.  As he is known to do Bubbles detected magic and found that down in the water there seemed to be a couple of magic items.

Bubbles swam down to investigate and found a couple of dead human bodies one of which had a shield and the other had a wand.  He tried to retrieve the want himself, but found that it was held firmly in the grip of the corpse.  He then tied a rope to it and gave the end to Grok who with a mighty tug retrieved not only the wand, but also the hand it was clutched in.  but then suddenly from the bodies came a pair of ghosts who attacked everyone.

One ghost managed to possess Jass while the other attempted to possess Kuro, but Kuro held it out.  Under control of the ghost Jass turned on the party and attacked them, and they had little option but to fight back.  Grok attempted to gain control of the ghost possessing Jass, but failed.

The group tried to bargain with the ghosts to let them go, but they were out for vengeance on those who had disturbed their slumber and stole their belongings, and were not satisfied with the offerings that were made.

The second ghost was left vulnerable to the attacks of everyone without a living host to control, but fought as well as it could.  As it got close to losing its grasp to our plain of existence, it managed to possess Grok.

Luckily Donnie thought to attempt to ward off the Ghosts and drove the one possessing Grok out.  The Ghost possessing Jass managed to hold onto control over Jass.  The Ghost who was possessing Grok was slain in it’s attempt to flee from Donnie, but Jass had to be fought until her physical form fell before the Ghost was left without a host.

The Spirit fought for a while longer before seeing that this battle was a fool’s errand and instead vanished from sight and seemingly this plain of existence.  After some patching up of wounds the shield was retrieved from the pool as well and after a bit of debate Jass took the shield that had a reflective surface with depictions of many battle etched into it.

With Jass in bad shape and most of the others being pretty exhausted everyone decided it would be best to get a bit of sleep and get their strength back.  During the rest Jass spent some time familiarizing herself with the shield that seemed to bond with her and as she did so all of the images faded off of it and the shield was revealed to be a Shield of Heroic Memories.  A shield that would remember foes that it fought with its owner and give them a bonus in combat.  Bubbles kept the wand that turned out to be a Wand of Magic Missiles.

In what they guessed to be the early morning (seeing how as Donnie woke up with a beard), everyone set out.  Bubbles sent out his familiar in the form of a bat to follow where the water was flowing to.  He found a chamber that had several Bugbears working with a Dwarf

Bubbles passed this information on and everyone gathered in for a nearby hallway ready to ambush these Bugbears.  Upon entering the room Jass noticed that the Dwarf was Nundro which infuriated her because it seemed that he was working with the Black Spider.

Donnie tried to hit on Nundro to get him to surrender, but this bearded human woman hitting on him while her friends slaughtered all of the Bugbears around him confused him and he took off running down a hall.  Bubbles and Donnie gave chase as did the others once all of the Bugbears were dead.

As Nundro reached the end of the hall and Bubbles turned the corner to see where Nundro was going he saw a room at the end of a hall where a Drow was working at a table.  Nundro began to flee up to an alter with a giant statue of Dumathoin.  At the moment that Bubbles’ familiar entered the room it was caught in a web that suddenly blocked off the entrance.

Upon reaching the room Zinda turned into a Giant spider and tried to make her way into the room and began to fight off the Giant Spiders belonging to the Black Spider.  The Spiders’ webbing got destroyed opening up the room for anyone to enter and Jass immediately charged after Nundro.

Aellora shot some arrows at the Black Spider and found that he seemed to have some means of protection from such attacks as he seemed to have lightning fast reflexes that allowed him to nearly catch her arrows

As the fight waged on, Donnie cast silence to try to prevent the Black spider for casting any spells, but he managed to get out of the zone of silence and vanished from sight.

While The Black Spider was invisible many of the party member focused on taking out the spiders and Donnie and Bubbles used their Spiritual Weapon and Flaming Sphear respectively to hunt for the Black Spider, but ultimately it was Donnie bumping into him that caused him to be found.

The Black spider found himself surrounded and beaten within an inch of his life as suddenly the ground began to rumble and a strange voice of a woman filled the room accusing the Black Spider of failing her and suddenly his form began to change.  His lower body morphed into that of a spider while his upper body remained the same.  Lolth had cursed the Black Spider to become a Drider for his failure.

In his new form the black spider made a few attacks on the ground before deciding that he should climb up onto the ceiling and take ranged attacks with his Longbow.

Meanwhile, Jass was still battling Nundro, who was getting weaker and she noticed that his form was wavering slightly, and she thought that this might not actually be Nundro and decided to let go of any reservations she might have still had and really tear into him.  Donnie also sent her Spiritual weapon to assist in the battle.  Eventually, Jass decapitated Nundro revealing that he was in fact another Doppleganger.

Grok decided that since he couldn’t reach the Black spider on the roof that he would try to piss it off enough that it would attack him head on, and he started to wreck up things on the desk.  This plan did work and soon the Drider came to attack him.

Bubbles also came over to the desk to do battle with the Drider, and when Grok delivered the killing blow with Raptor the spiked beak came inches away from also stabbing Bubbles, and Grok tore the Drider in two.

With the immediate threat dealt with everyone began to investigate the scene finding that the Black Spider had a magic Staff and Gloves of Missile Snaring.  They also found a key that opened a door they walked past on their way to his chamber that held the real Nundro.

Nundro revealed that he has been held captive and tortured since shortly after Gundren left to get supplies.  He also mentioned that recently Nezznar (the real name of the Black Spider) started working with a necromancer, and Grok felt the strong presence of undead creatures to the south of where they were.

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