Marines, we are Leaving!

17 & 24 January 2007-

This will have to be the condensed version, since I don't remember exactly where the first week ended and the second week left off.

Having reached the throne room, we had discovered another wounded wasp/demon/thing/whatever, looming menacingly over another one of the weird almost-spiders. We blasted it from range with everything we had, and killed it dead in a hail of arrows, crossbow bolts, a throwing axe, lightning, and a fireball (best to just nuke it from orbit, we all agreed). When we investigated, we discovered that the almost-spider was still alive; and when we healed it, it revealed that it was the queen of the nest, and that they were a race of intelligent, shapeshifting were-spiders, who often took human form and who had lived with the humans in the village for some time. It ends up that they were basically friendly, but that they were stranded from another plane, where the wasp/demons were designed by some of their enemies to kill them. She swore us to secrecy on their true natures, and paid us handsomely for the favor.

We had gathered our treasure, and were headed back to town when we were jumped by a group of human thugs who had been awaiting our return. We had a bad few rounds at first, since they gimped our two scouts, and put our bard out of business; but there were some truly glorious moments, too, like when eBill pulled off a Legolas-like point-blank shot, and put an arrow in the eye of his attacker for maximum damage.

After questioning the survivor (it's truly amazing what answers you can get when you threaten to feed captives to giant spiders- ick!), we discovered that the mayor of the town had sent us to the spider-hole in the hopes that we would kill off the spiders so that he could get their treasure. We also discovered that he had sent the wasp/demons into the spider hole by using some sort of bug-controlling talisman.

We returned to town, and when he appeared and started to accuse us of killing off his henchmen (guilty as charged), our mage caused an illusionary wasp/demon to attack him. In front of a gathering crowd of onlookers, he whipped out his talisman and commanded the illusion to "attack them," a bad idea. Our illusionist had the faux-critter fly off and attack the villagers, instead, panicking them. As it turned out, he couldn't even correct his mistake, because he was immediately mobbed by giant spiders, and nastily killed on the spot. We found out later that the bug-controlling talisman has the unfortunate side-effect of enraging arachnids, which is what had called them to the village in the first place. His sending of the wasp/demons into the spider hole had sent the spiders raging into the town; hence the initial crisis. Our killing of his subordinate thugs was neatly sidestepped by his obviously evil nature and his karmic demise.

We decided to declare an end to major hostilities (and thus our complete victory) and then we sailed for the mainland, hoping to contend once again with bugs the size of- well- bugs.

I for one welcome our new demon-bug overlords.

4 January 2007 --

As we explore the arachnid-filled underground complex, it's starting to look as if this place has been inhabited by more people and bugs than your average undergraduate dorm room. The problem is figuring out the sequence of habitation.

The area is part natural cavern and part man-made labyrinth. It has some passages suitable for people, and others that are fit only for giant bugs. Some rooms are filled floor-to-ceiling with spiderwebs, so we've started to think that the teflon-skinned giant hornet was created specifically to navigate through such an environment. But other rooms are classic Gygaxian dungeonish type stuff, with secret doors and hidden keys and various deathtraps. In short: What the hell?

However, we've made progress of sorts. Thanks to Mike's ellyllon's willingness to go through one of the spider-tunnels, we found one living female adult and a dozen or so children, all of whom have no idea how they ended up there -- and who were quite surprised to learn that they apparently walked in on their own two feet. So they're out of danger now, but we're still at a loss about: 1) who has set up permanent housekeeping here (the spiders, we think), 2) who has invaded and is trying to take over (the teflon hornets, apparently), and 3) who if anyone is controlling both sides. For that matter, who disabled the anti-bug wards that had been protecting the town?

Giant Zombie Bugs? Honest, I Wasn't Surprised!

31 December 2006-

We got together for a special "all-live" session as we celebrated the New Year, and even had the actual Bill and Michael on hand! Despite our universal physical presences, however, we didn't advance the plot much. We cleared out a bunch of rooms full of webbing, which may have been used by the residents to limit the movements of the giant teflon demon-wasp, but found little in them except a potion bottle labelled "antivenin". Sort of an odd thing for a group of spiders to be holding on to. It is also worth noting that we've found a bunch of (dead) giant almost-spiders, that seem just a little... wrong (more wrong, that is, than pony-sized spiders are to begin with). We're not sure where they fit in to this picture, aside from the fact that they were also attacked by the wasp-thing.

While we cleared the webbing, we discovered many tunnels leading from the floor we're already on to lower floors, apparently dug by the spiders, but we haven't explored those yet. Instead, we decided to finish off the level we're on before going deeper, and went looking through the finished hallways instead. We discovered some trick doors, behind one of which was a small group of giant, undead beetles of some sort. I guess, with all the giant bugs around, someone was bound to try it. The only thing remaining is to see if whatever or whoever animated them is still hanging around, since they probably don't spontaneously animate on their own.

On a final note, it appears that this spider-hole was once an underground temple or structure of some sort, and we still have no information on its original inhabitants or purpose. I imagine we'll find out more soon. Probably the hard way.