Operation Parameters
| Date |
1492 DR, 9 Eleint
(19/01/2022)
|
| Soldiers |
Aujirgix, Aceso, Riton, Tide |
| Status |
|
| Casualties |
|
Objective
The purpose of the mission was to go and provide support to the southern Horsian output as they required. We learned at the start of the mission that we needed to go investigate the spiders and their webs that have been appearing and causing trouble for them.
Observations
There is a gnome called Barnabus P Barnaby, who will lie about everything, will demand your items and money, and will try to steal from you.
The smaller spiders are not aggressive, unless you disturb their web
The smaller spider’s webs are highly flammable, and can be burned if it’s a damp day
The smaller spider’s webs grow a few feet in 10 minutes; faster that should seem possible, but no magic was detected on the spiders or webs
The larger spider’s webs are thicker, and more defined, in the trees.
The “victim” in the trees wearing Horsian armor was a Shar cleric in disguise, and was working with the spiders at minimum
As far as we could tell, the webs didn’t seem to get any thicker if were to continue further than the large spider nest we eliminated, but there were still webs as far as we could see further along
In the end we cleared up about 10 clusters of webs from the smaller spider variants and learned that are susceptible to fire and are aggressive if the web is disturbed. We also dispatched of a much larger spider and its minions and captured a cleric of Shar who feigned being a victim of the spiders.
Follow up
As we left, we already saw several new clusters of the little spider’s webs starting to grow, so we still need to go back, find their source, potentially its purpose, and then eliminate it. On top of this, we should continue to push further in, and see if we can eliminate any other large spider nests in the area.
The Horsians may be able to obtain information from the captured Shar cleric, which could be actionable to help eliminate the spiders or open other opportunities
Find out the purpose and backstory of the one Barnabus P Barnaby.
Preparation Details
Operation Details
-> Weather Fog and moist kind of day
Command received word from the Horsians:
infested with spiders
seeking assistance with the issue.
Basically, "follow the spiders".
Two different sightings:
large spiders, aggressive
weird phenomena, where MANY small spiders cover an entire area in webs... not aggressive in any way; unsure of their purpose
multiple types of spiders have been reported
The gate was wide open as we left... so we decided to close the gate.
The road is well established to the Horsian outpost. Not too difficult to make your way down there. Fog makes it a little more difficult, but not too bad.
An hour into the journey, we noticed off to the side of the road, what appears to be a sort of figure. 100-150 feet in the distance. Half concealed in the bushes.
Tide sent his owl to scout
Riton approaches through the bush, and sneaks up behind him
- with the fog, would need to get real close
- appears to be a gnome; crouching
- middle age
- no visible weapons
- across his belt, bandoleer - weird contraptions, bobbles, vials of weird colors, hand off his belt.
- Riton tries to get real close to him, but the gnome notices him
"What are doing here? You ruined it!?! This is fine... this is fine, I can do this"
"put your hands up... empty your pockets"
- Riton told him “No"
"or else!!!!"
- Riton tries to grapple him... he runs... Riton catches up and grapples him.
Barnabus P Barnaby
- claimed famous highway man
- asked "why are you trying to steal us"
- "cause you have nice things and I want them"
- based on questioning... where he lied for every answer EXCEPT his name (Aceso saw threw all his lies)
- not working for anyone
- full intention to try to rob us even if we let him go
- he actually did steal the glove he had on
- trust nothing, he says... almost all of it are lies... and he will try to steal your stuff
- in the end Barnabus stole one item - a rabbit's foot from Riton
As we prepared to set off, we would notice what looks like a bit of a trampled foot path (attempted to be concealed)
- Riton makes a notch in the tree, so we can spot it on the back... to deal with him
Fairly easy track down to the outpost a few hours longer before we saw the Horsian output.
tied up our horses
CMDR Bradley was busy according to the soldiers in the area -- said not to bother him
Talked to Dave, one of the soldiers, who said just to leave the horses.
We made our way south through some trails.
- Riton leading
- Tide using his Owl to search for webs/spiders
Fog seemed to get heavier in this area.
- walk for 20 minutes before you'd spot an old camp site
- horrible ripped and torn camp site
- humanoid footsteps but can't tell how old they are -- all are just passing through.
Searched the area
- shoved in the corner is a half torn apart leather satchel
- 7 copper
- a book that is water logged; ink bleeding
- printed on the cover is a blue handprint
- Aujirgix: holy text of bane
- killed a few of his followers
- he takes the book, and tries to open it
- the cover opens... but pages are stuck together...
- he can't make out much... we can deal with it when we get back to camp
Riton climbed a tree and scouted
- spotted the edges of what might be spider webs 300 feet ahead of us
- move stealthy toward the webs
30 foot radius on the left is covered in cob webs
- looking at them... you see flickers of movement... 100s of these little spiders building on them.
forest condition:
- it's a little moist/damp for the most part
- everything is at least a little damp
Aujirgix
- pokes it with a stick and shakes
- many little spiders rush him, and bite him
- uses a torch. spiders shy away - web lights on fire.
- web burns very quickly... before anything else has a chance to catch on fire.
We quickly burned the entire clump... but there wasn't anything in the center.
- nothing of note... really
Riton climbed a tree and scouted again
- another 2 clumps ahead
make our way to the web cluster
Riton collected some web and spiders from the web into a vial.
- Aceso would carry the vial of spiders and web
burned the cluster
made our way to the next cluster
- Aceso decided to ritually cast detect magic
- no magic involved
- Aujirgix investigated the area to look for holes/burrows leading into the ground
in the 10 minutes... it grew a couple feet!
- that means these patches must have grown in the last hour!
- we need to push on fast if we want to find the source
We would encounter a handful more of these clusters... some up to 40-50 feet
- keep burning them and moving forward
- continue on for half an hour
We hear in the distance... screaming
- Riton and Aujirgix rush ahead
- Aceso and Tide not nearly as fast, but eventually caught up
- sounds like a humanoid man... as we got closer - cries for help
- start to notice the spider webs, but these are different.
- these are more defined... scattered in trees
- see the man about 20 seconds later; Horsian armor
- pure terror
- didn't know if the spiders were near by
- these don't burn nearly as well
- notice something is just off about him... his skin is pallid and clammy... cheeks sunken... doesn’t look healthy
- bit on the leg
movement behind Aujirgix
- spider scuttles out and attempts to bite him
Big spider + 3 little spiders
- turns out the Horsa soldier is with the spiders
- Riton is killed outright
- a long drawn-out fight...
Aujirgix
- took this "fake" soldier hostage
- holy symbol of Shar on him (cleric of Shar likely)
- Aceso revivified Riton
As far as you can tell, it doesn't seem to get any thicker if we were to go further
- not 100% sure if this was the source of the spiders or not
2 more of the spider web clusters spawned since we left
- we burned them
Returned to Horsian’s southern outpost w/ hostage
Horsa
- Explained to foot soldiers, but it was over their pay grade
- went and got CMDR Bradley
CMDR Bradley came out and we explained it again
- he swiftly took the hostage, and brought him to his tent
- we couldn't get any information from him
Wooden Wall / Encampments / Future Encampments
- there is a couple of these wooden walls now...
- doesn't know what their purpose
- blocking their way south / kind of annoying...
- no real info outside of that.
Black Tar
- one of their buddies saw, nasty shit
- the guy who saw it was not at camp
Got back to the marked tree where the gnome stole Riton's item
- Aceso went with Riton down the path
- Tide and Aujirgix stayed with the horses
- found a clearing, with 3 tents
- 1 had a body falling out of it
- Riton traded 50G for his rabbit’s food after several attempts at intimidation
- able to recover a half-plate from the body
- return backed to the horses
Made our way back to the fort
PVT Zorky is back, but wouldn't tell us where he was
