After Kivan joined them, the Troupe have made their way back to the Cloakwood. On their return to the Iron Throne’s mine, they must once again face the perils that lie within. Two seek their vengeance, but all seek a way to end Tazok’s grip on the Sword Coast.
23 Eleasias 1368
In spite of Breagar’s hesitations, we make our way into the Cloakwood. Here on the outer edge we are accosted by tasloi once again.
Our arrows have more range than their spears, but I get in close and a spear manages to pass by my shield.
Breagar’s axe cleaves through the tasloi. It returns to his hand and I watch as it hits the remaining tasloi in quick succession.
After the slaughter I take the opportunity to heal my wounds.
We keep moving and I take care to go past the hunter’s cabin. Seniyad has taken residence here, though he and his druids prefer to sleep outside. He is straight to the point when he sees us.
Seniyad: I urge you to look for Beador and Maretha, if you are friends to the druids of the Cloakwood.
They’re still missing. We can only hope they are still alive in the hands of the Shadow Druids. We promise to keep looking and move past the home. As we do so, I catch one of Breagar’s lessons in Dwarvish.
Breagar: …and always remember. Put the predicate first and the qualifiers last. Now translate this: “Imoen, hit the orc with the axe in the head!”
Imoen: Hm… wait a moment…
Imoen, ged ork nos nyr?
Breagar: Hrmph. Well, almost.
Imoen: You see, I can do it!
Aegon, I speak dwarvish!
Breagar: Don’t get cocky, girl. You’ve just scratched the surface.
Imoen: Whatever, let’s continue! What next?
Breagar sighs.
Breagar: Fine. If you want to emphasise a statement…
I’m impressed by both of them. The angry dwarf is a surprisingly good teacher, and Imoen is learning fast. At this rate she’ll be fluent in a tenday.
We find Verr’Sza guarding the first bridge across a river. The rakshasha tries not to show it, but I could swear he is excited to see me. He wishes us well on our quest for vengeance.
On the other side of the bridge we encounter more tasloi. They are quick with their spears again, forcing me to heal as the others take them out at range.
I suggest we keep moving before more tasloi show up. It won’t be long before we leave their territory. But we know what awaits us next as we move deeper into the woods. We need to pass the spiders and their sea of webs again.
24 Eleasias 1368
We travel for hours through the dense forest, the whole time listening to Imoen and Breagar talk in broken Dwarvish. The sun disappears below the trees ahead, clouding the path in darkness. We follow the Sun, travelling west until the early morning.
We hear the rush of a waterfall, the sign that we are entering ettin territory. I tell the others to keep an eye out for spiders and, more importantly, webs. As we descend the cliff past the waterfall, small spiders drop from the trees and start to crawl into the gaps in our armour. Then we hear the chittering cries of their huge cousins, and a sizeable number of them emerge from the shadows.
Breagar and I hold them off. He cleaves through them with his Battle Axe, while I smash them with Bashrik’s Hammer. One of the spiders sinks its mandibles into Breagar’s arm and he cries Buzzurk! as the pain starts rushing up his arm.
Poison in his veins. Imoen throws him an Elixir of Health, which he happily imbibes. Now back to full health, he keeps his distance and hurls his Throwing Axe at the poisonous creatures.
Luckily, they have laid no web traps. The last spider takes a bolt from Kieria’s Light Crossbow of Speed. We pause only for a moment to catch our breath. We have to keep moving. These won’t be the last of the spiders in this part of the Cloakwood, so we don’t want to stay in one place for too long.
We make our way to the lair where we found Chelak’s corpse. Our mission is vengeance, but Tiber cannot get vengeance for his brother’s death. So we will get it for him. Whatever that creature was that lived inside shall face our arrows.
On our way a single giant spider gets the drop on us. This one is smaller than the others, though it moves faster.
Breagar’s Throwing Axe embeds into its carapace, but not before it bites my leg. As I stumble back I fall right into a web trap. I can’t pull myself out. The webs catch my legs, my arms, my face. I can’t move and I can feel the spiders venom coursing through my blood.
I keep trying to move my arm. But it’s in vain Everything hurts. I can feel my heart beating faster and faster. I’m struggling to breathe. Is this another vision or am I actually going to die this time? I give up trying to struggle. I close my eyes. It’s time.
My eyes open again. Dynaheir is stood over me. She tells me she knows a thing or two about poisons and was able to stop it reaching my heart.
I’m the only priest here, so the rest of my recovery falls upon myself. I use what divine magic I have left to heal my wounds. I’m having some doubts after this encounter, but I still think we can take out the creature at the heart of these spider-infested trees.
As we approach the structure where the creature lives we are attacked by another spider. I hear Kivan’s arrow whistle past my ear, and it strikes with such force it sends the spider flying back.
I can see that the fight ahead will be deadly. We will need to prepare. I hand out Potions of Speed to everyone before we enter to face the creature.
Inside the cavern made of webs we see spiders crawling everywhere. Many of them already dropping on us from above or crawling up our legs. A few large spiders take notice of us. In the middle of the cavern is the creature again. It looks as if it could once have been human, but it has mutated so much it is barely recognisable. Random growths covered with folds of fat. Boils all over its skin, some of which have burst, pus oozing out onto its foul-smelling flesh. The creature hisses as it speaks.
Centeol: Kill the meat, my pets.
Breagar: Bah! Vile brood, we will wipe you from the face of this world!
Centeol: You will suffer, nothing else!
Aegon: Hey, wait! We’ve come here… to… benefit from your divine wisdom. Let us speak.
Centeol: You’ve come here to learn from my infinite wissssdom. Sssspeak quickly!
Aegon: Could you tell us about the Iron Throne?
Centeol: I know nothing of this “Iron Throne.” You sshall now all die!
I launch a barrage of Magic Missiles at the beast, and it responds in kind. A large spider with sword-like forelegs closes in and starts stabbing at Imoen. Breagar speaks words that sound more divine than Dwarvish, and a glowing hammer manifests in his hand.
The beast’s magic is proving to be powerful. It hits me with more Magic Missiles and I am close to death once again. Meanwhile, Imoen consumes a Potion of Firebreath and breathes on the sword spider. It starts to burn from the inside out.
I see another barrage of Magic Missiles heading my way. I can’t avoid them. I desperately gulp down an Elixir of Health.
The beast’s missiles hit me and I drop the potion into the webs below. I look up again and see a Missile going straight to my face and…
I’m alive and healthy again. Another vision? Now? We shouldn’t have come in here.
I get my bearings as quick as I can. The creature has just finished its speech. We’re about to fight. The sword spider scuttles toward Imoen, just as in my vision. This time I need to kill the beast before it can kill me. I conjure up a Fireball, hoping to burn the webs. Unfortunately, I catch myself in the flames as well.
Then the spiders stop, and I think I see fear in the creatures eyes. It calls out to us.
Centeol: Wait… I will not resist. Kill me, but first I want to tell you of my curse – to get it off my chest.
My curse – that is all I remember now. I used to be beautiful and powerful.
An exotic sorceress, with many powers at my command, and suitors at my door. But I only had eyes for one man, Jon Irenicus. He was a great and powerful wizard, the only man worthy of my affections, or so I thought. Though I lusted for Jon, he cared little for me, for he had another to whom he was married, Lady Tanova.
Aegon: Please, go on, that’s quite a story!
Centeol: So I plotted and schemed, and finally came up with a plan to rid the world of Tanova. When the deed was done, and Tanova lay dead, I was exultant, but not for long. Jon went mad with fury, and using his powerful magics, divined the identity of his wife’s murderer.
He arrived at my tower, and I allowed him entry, desirous to finally consummate our love. Jon disabled me with his spells, and then he cursed me to this body, and set spiders to feed me and keep me alive. So you see, if you were my friend, you would kill me.
After telling her tale, she slouches, unmoving. She wants to die, and we would meet her request. But the spiders move again. They won’t stop protecting her even if she doesn’t want them to.
Breagar takes out the spider I am fighting with his Spiritual Hammer. I take advantage of the space and start drinking potions to recover my health. I watch as a second spider crawls toward Imoen. She drinks a Potion of Firebreath, and the sword spider burns to death when she breaths it back out.
She pivots her blade to the second spider cutting open its carapace. It manages to bite her wrist before it dies. Imoen drops her sword and holding the wound with her other hand. Her faces turns pale as I rush to give her an Elixir of Health. She reaches out to take it, then collapses to the ground.
She’s dead. My childhood friend is dead. I know we can bring her back, but seeing her… corpse…
Breagar throws his axe to the ground and screams.
I think of my father. He died and I couldn’t bring him back. What if I can’t bring her back either?
I turn to the miserable creature. We came here for vengeance. Vengeance will be had. I walk steadfast toward her. Breagar picks up his axe and follows me. I’m about to yell when I see the webs behind her move. We haven’t killed all the spiders yet!
I instil Horror in the ettins, and they try to escape back into the webs. The spiders rush Breagar, and start weaving webs around him. One of the spiders bites him. His swearing is muffled when the webs wrap around his face.
I summon gibberlings to the fight. Dynaheir prepares her Magic Missiles. We have to kill these spiders before they finish the job.
Dynaheir’s spell strikes true, killing one of the spiders. Breagar falls silent as he disappears into the webs. The remaining spiders turn to the gibberlings and start trying to wrap them as well.
While they are distracted by the gibberlings, we sink arrows into them. They manage to kill all three of my summons, but they are riddled with arrows. Before they can reach us, Kieria delivers a killing blow with her crossbow.
The ettercaps are still trying to flee, making it easy for Kivan to pick them off. I rush over to the webs where Breagar was buried. I pull out my knife and carefully cut him free. He is cold and stiff. He isn’t breathing.
He’s dead.
I lift Bashrik’s Hammer and face the creature once more.
Time for some vengeance.
