Session 46: Little Workshop of Horrors
General Summary
Waking and returning to the cave complex from the Windward Serpent, the party headed upstairs from the jail into a large central chamber, with a nearby stairway leading up, a stairway across the room leading down, and two holes in the floor, one seemingly above the jail and the other above the hatchery. Some of the walls in the large room were smooth, and the floor was polished, covered with a large number of icons: needles and spools of thread, webs, bones, vials of liquid, severed limbs, and eyes. Shadow decided to take a look at one of the holes, so with a rope around his waist, held by Tamugar, he jumped into the nearest hole, finding himself suspended above the jail. From this vantage point, he spied a book tucked away in an alcove. After being pulled back up, he ran back, retrieved the book, and proceeded to burn everything in the jail. The book was small, with a leather cover; in ornate gold-ink script, its title was "Treasure Chests I Have Locked". The noise from Shadow's incendiary behaviour caught the attention of some of the hybrid spiders. The party was attacked by a female dwarf wielding a longbow and a male dwarf with a greataxe. Belzaphir used magic to cause the male to flee, sending it down the far set of stairs in the central chamber. Eirame's fists made short work of the female, while Tamugar ran to cut off the male's escape. While the party managed to kill it, the noise attracted more spiders in that direction. Meanwhile, a female goblin spider attacked Alden with thrown explosives from above, descending from a hole in the ceiling. When Balzaphir's magic forced the the goblin's retreat, she cackled and invited the party to come to her lab if they wanted to play. With the two dwarf spiders dead and others quickly approaching, the party fled up the staircase near the jail, entering an alchemy lab as the goblin spider was turning a large wheel to slide a metal door shut. The party quickly defeated her and then began to search the room. Shadow seemed intent on burning everything quickly, and burned the spider, leaving only a metal jeweler's eyepiece on a leather cord alone, as it had slipped slightly off her head as she died. He then tried to burn a cauldron full of the liquid form of the plague, but was quickly held back. Eirame and Tamugar got a sample in a vial before allowing Shadow to burn the remainder. Guessing that Shadow was under the influence of the plague himself, given his increased interest in burning things, Doug healed him with Lesser Restoration, and then did the same for Balzaphir, also suspected of being infected as he got very chatty. The lab had alchemy tools and ingredients, and a number of unpleasant liquids rested in vials. Someone, probably the goblin, had been creating explosives on a large table near the door; Tamugar found two intact explosives andtook them. Someone in the lab was also experimenting with fusing bodies together; a couple dwarves, the last two Balzaphir had seen taken from the prison, were dead, strapped to tables, their limbs removed cleanly and precisely. Shadow decided to cast Detect Magic. Well before he finished, the party heard the sound of spiders approaching up the stairs from the central chamber. While Shadow's ritual was being channeled, a voice from aboe, through a hole in the ceiling, called off the spiders in some unknown language, and then spoke in Common to the party directly, saying, "So, you've been destroying my lab and killing my followers. Come to the central chamber; it's time we saw each other face to face, eye to eye."
Rewards Granted
- Eyepiece of Trueseeing
- Two explosives of unknown properties
