Back to the deep dark and the cocoon covered cavern we find the party stuck in strands in a web. This Monday night is more discussing the multiple options to get to the same path – a final confrontation between the heroes and the Lord of the Pit . Employing the ‘all roads lead to Rome’ approach we can see a few options leading us to where we want to be. But there is a warning with this as it can feel like the power is taken away from the players and replaced with strings. So let’s sit back grab a coffee and let’s roll into this weeks adventure!
Strands in a Web
345MoStIAWe
Avoiding the Ambush
The party looked down at the twitching bodies of the ettercaps and driders as they scraped off the webs from their skin and gear. Luckily they had heard the creatures coming down the path around the same time that they realised that the spiders weren’t real. But the wounds and pain that they had caused definitely were.
Leaving the pile of corpses they moved towards the entrance to the cavern. Something in here must have sent the creatures to ambush them and orchestrated the phantasmic spiders to attack them. Something powerful. A Thrum of power could be felt coming from below much like at the Ice Spire and well of souls. Somewhere here they may find the answer to what Andrasa had investigated. A seal for a great calamity if what they have learnt so far was to be believed. But unlike the Spire where the giant defended a crumbling statue and the undead were drawn to the out of control Well of Souls. Here the energy was under control and it was growing, thriving in the dark.
Something was amiss here. A puppeteer worked the strings of fate and they were dangerously close to being caught in the web. But they could tell that the Pit of infinite darkness that lay at the bottom of the cavern was being fed energy, souls from the captives in the cocoons and they had to stop it by any means.
The cavern before them was still impossibly dark but they could make out what was near them. Bridges made from webs led to cocoons where the captives were calling from. They had seen some of the spiders using them and they were certain they had seen something larger, bigger lurking around these platforms. Moving forward they looked at how they could make it across and after a tense moment the web-bridges were proven to support their weight, at least for now.
As they scouted the bases of the giant cocoon-like structures they found human sized cocoons stuck to the base and familiar faces of the drow, duergar and svirfneblin, deep gnomes, staring back at them. Some of the captives were alert and pleaded to be let out but some were not so. Some were barely holding on to consciousness and upon further inspection, barely holding onto life. Something was draining their life essence here and as they moved across the captives the familiar faces of Viktira, Morali and Qistra all appeared. Viktira, Morali and Qistra all appeared. Viktira was barely conscious and she looked gaunt however Morali and Qistra had a lot of fight left in them.
Something moved in the dark. A presence like a thousand silent bats moving through the cavern in a swarm. Something that made the vampire form the carrion swamp feel like a stubborn teenager stomping its foot in impatience. This was ancient and dark and without a doubt – the one pulling the strings and the caller of the shots here. But it watched and waited. A presence that dwarfed what they had faced so far hovered just outside of their vision, something made of smoke and shadow itself.
Dragged away in silken bonds
The party were conscious throughout the entire ordeal. Their weapons and a few items were bound to their sides but their backpacks were left somewhere where they were captured. The ettercaps were ruthless ambushers and almost like a trained squad of assassins they had lunged forward and garrotted the party with a silken rope. A drider hung near by and watched the ettercaps bind each of the party, but it looked down at them like they were subjects of interest rather than threats. Like its eyes were not its own. Clearly the ambush and the illusionary spiders were party of a plan by a more powerful entity. One that was calling all the shots and pulling all the strings.
The party were conscious throughout the entire ordeal. Their weapons and a few items were bound to their sides but their backpacks were left somewhere where they were captured. The ettercaps were ruthless ambushers and almost like a trained squad of assassins they had lunged forward and garrotted the party with a silken rope. A drider hung nearby and watched the ettercaps bind each of the party, but it looked down at them like they were subjects of interest rather than threats. Like its eyes were not its own. Clearly the ambush and the illusionary spiders were part of a plan by a more powerful entity. One that was calling all the shots and pulling all the strings.
As they moved across the silken walkways the ettercaps hauled the party members one by one, dumping them on jagged rocks at the edge of one of the web-bridges. As the party lay there in the dark a rock or discarded blade jabbed into their side painfully, deep enough to hit armour and cut skin. But it also cuts at their web bindings.
A potential opportunity for an escape, a glimmer of hope but when was the right moment to use it. As the party member was then picked up and carried across the web bridge the cocoon came into better sight. Rows of people; drow, duergar, deep gnome (or svirfneblin), and some surface races were bound and lined up against what appeared to be giant cocoons suspended by webs throughout the cavern.
Each person was conscious, some were in pain and making noise but others were listless, barely holding onto whatever drove them to fight. But the party didn’t have long to notice Viktira, Morali and Qistra all appeared before them lined up against the wall before they were unceremoniously discarded a few cocoons down from them.
A presence hung about them like the sensation of a thousand cicadas buzzing in a muggy evening, the presence was almost over bearing and a shape. A large mass of darkness given a monstrous form moved somewhere nearby. Something that dwarfed driders and made Ettercaps look like mice. The puppet master had revealed itself and it studied them for a moment before disappearing back into the voice beyond.
A fun one tonight. Regardless of the outcome there is always room for moving the story forward and this week is evident in that. So don’t forget to come back for more content as we move forward with this adventure and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 
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