"I'm certain it may be worth something, but as none of us are a professional arachnid silk harvester I suggest we leave it to the professionals and be on our way."

A small audible shudder escapes Jaga as he look at the oversized spider.

"I agree with Sili, lets just leave it alone and move on."

As no one moves closer to the spider, Sili decides the time for waiting is over. He walks past the spider, keeping his eye on it. He didn't want to be surprised by a zombie arachnid. Or whatever.

... Jack was killed by both undead and spiders. Separately, but still. >.>

Garus walks into the room, eyes the spider thorax and arm, then jams his shortsword (which is the size of some normal longswords) in and cuts around what he thinks is the silk sack.
22:19, Today: teslas, on behalf of Garus, rolled 26 using 1d20+7. Survival to remove silk sack.

Whether by luck or intuition, after he's done, he yanks on the exterior silk glands. Out comes a sack... attached to a few smaller sacks. He cuts off the smaller ones. The sack is soft, and if you touch something to the gland and pull it away a stringy, sticky sludge stretches and extends out of it before hardening about 30 seconds later.

It weighs 1 lb.

Know (nature) would tell you about the substance inside. Craft (alchemy), with a penalty, could also do it with regards to anything to do with alchemy.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:51, Sat 08 Dec 2012.

Mostly in an effort not to get eaten by baby spiders in our sleep...

Zeig checks out the gross spider sacs.
00:00, Today: ZEIG rolled 30 using 1d20+12. craft (alchemy).

ZEIG is surprised at how well the silk is holding up in the sack. Most of the time silk glands of smaller spiders harden after a few days.

The silk sack can be used as a make-shift tanglefoot bag.
-It has a 10% chance to out-right fail.
-The strength DC to break out is 19, not 17.
-The Reflex save DC is 16, not 15.
-It lasts 1d4 minutes instead of 2d4 rounds, before becoming lose enough for the creature to escape.
-It will burn up almost immediately. if it takes any amount of fire damage, it combusts, damaging any creature caught inside for 2d6 fire damage and freeing it.
-It weighs 1lb, not 4lb.

ZEIG guesses the sack will "good" for about another week.

Each week it will have its chance to work reduced by 10% as the silk inside slowly hardens.
This message was last updated by the GM at 05:38, Sat 08 Dec 2012.

The party leaves the village and continues its walk into the darkness. As you leave, only the occasional sound of a drop of water falling from a stalactite to stalagmite is heard behind you.

The path through the cavern leads you to a point where the sides are not visible in any direction. The ceiling is still 30' above you. Forty-five minutes of making your way through the natural tiny stone towers and overhangs, you pass through another brick-lined tunnel.

This one descends at a ten degree angle, leading you downward for a little over twelve minutes. It empties into another huge cavern, with the ceiling only visible to SILI and Garus once again. The worn pathway on the ground leads you through it, until you finally come to more brickwork after another moderately long walk.

Two rows of 5' thick round stone columns built of cut bricks are laid perpendicular to the direction you encounter them. They stretch either direction off into the darkness. Atop them, 15' above the floor, sit different stone icons of spiders, gargoyles, and other threatening shapes. They look inward between the two rows of columns, down onto a brick roadway laid on top of the cavern floor.

The road proceeds onward, left and right, beyond range of vision.

: = brick road
O = stone column with medium-sized effigy on top.
O = stone column with damaged effigy
O = missing effigy

O::O
 ::
 ::
O::O
 ::
 ::       GSZ
O::O      JMD
 ::
 ::
O::O
 ::
 ::
O::O

JAGA's eye catches something odd as he approaches. Garus is quick to confirm it. About one in a dozen of the columns have nothing on them. More interestingly and less obvious, some, maybe one in six, that still possess their statues have the heads of the creatures smashed off. Tiny pieces of rubble lay strewn on the roadway and cavern floor beneath the ones with damage. Know (archi) or Craft (stonework) would allow you to tell how long ago this occurred.

Garus and JAGA converse for a moment, turning in circles and holding their hands up remembering how many times they've turned left and right, or curved. SILI helps them remember.
00:39, Today: teslas rolled 23,13,18 using 1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+3. Survival, team effort, get bearings.
Total: 27

After a couple of minutes, their best guess is that if the group were wanting to head toward the direction of the main entrance above ground, right is the correct choice. No telling where going left would lead, but the group is a fair bit deeper underground than they were previously.

I'll assume you want to head right, but I need to pause here for the time being.

If you guys want to retcon messing with the skeleton, or play with the spider corpse with the arm sticking out from under it some more, now's the time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:48, Sat 08 Dec 2012.

As the group walks down the road toward the direction of the main entrance on the surface, the ratio of missing and damaged effigies on top of the pillars remains constant. Every once in a while Garus or SILI can spot a truly colossal stalactite hanging from the ceiling. The accompanying stalagmite must have been cleared for the roadway long, long ago.

Twenty minutes of walking leads the group to the edge of the cavern. Before you is a massive stone archway supporting a tunnel. It is 30' high at the center, and drops down to only 20' tall on the two sides. It is 30' across, and the stone roadway continues into it taking up the center ten feet.

About fifteen feet into the tunnel, it looks to have undergone some kind of collapse. It is not complete, however. The new hole in the ceiling allows a little under of 10' of clearance from the tall rubble pile below. It'd be a relatively simple ordeal to climb over to the other side, then down it. DC 5 Climb. Top (center) square of the pile is treated as difficult terrain. Know (dungeon) and/or Prof (miner) and/or know (archi).

00:21, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 19 using 1d20+3. know (dungeon).
00:22, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 8 using 1d20+3. know (archi).
SILI, who simply makes things up as he goes along and turns out to be right mostly due to luck, thinks that the cave in might have been caused artificially. He can't date it exactly, but due to the fine dust on some of the rocks guesses it would have had to have been more than a few weeks ago--potentially even years or decades ago.

Marching order over the rubble? (And if you encounter future situations like this I'll keep the same order unless told otherwise.)

☼ = difficult terrain
X = DC 5 climb, sloped 10-20' off of ground level
x = DC 5 climb, sloped 5-10' off of ground level
O = stone pillar (soft corners, these do not continue into the tunnel)
: = brick roadway
grey = what you'd guess is there, but cannot see

::
☼☼☼☼
☼☼☼☼☼☼
xxxxxx
xXXXXx
XXXXXX
X☼☼☼☼X
XXXXXX
xXXXXx
xxxxxx
☼☼☼☼☼☼
☼☼☼☼

--  ::  ---
    ::
   OGJO
    SM
    ZD
   O::O
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 06:37, Sun 09 Dec 2012.

The party resolves to clamber up and over the rubble as a solid unit.

JAGA takes point, holding the lamp. Despite his armor, Garus has little trouble following right behind.

It's a flat-out embarrassing experience for ZEIG, who takes his time with every step like an old woman with a bad hip. DAI is no more graceful, but he is at least somewhat more confident leading to a higher rate of speed--and SILI a little better than that.

MILO skips the first part and directly jumps up to catch SILI after he realizes the point is to climb over the rubble. Gurlop sits on top of the pile with his head cocked a little to the left, as if curious as to why it hasn't occurred to everyone that flying would be much easier.

The other side of the rubble pile looks just as you'd assume. SILI takes a second to stop and look at the hole in the ceiling. He's now entirely sure it was caused by deliberate effort. A natural cave-in wouldn't produce this type of fracturing in the rocks, or so he fucking says. He just likes sounding smart.


This tunnel has torch sconces on the wall every 40', though they are all empty. Twenty minutes of walking, involving two gradual curves, one to the left and one to the right (putting you in the same direction), has it empty out into another grand cavern. A large 20'-wide metal staircase leads down from the tunnel's mouth to the floor ten feet below.

In the distance, SILI and Garus can see structures. Some of them rather large. You guys have never done anything but wanted to go near things you see, so we'll keep with that pattern. Advancing closer, this is obviously a temple complex or some kind of holy site devoted to what is almost assuredly Lolth.
No real need to roll, because: Know (religion) modifiers:
ZEIG: +12 (+2 Circumstance due to a book he has read)
DAI :  +8
JAGA:  +5
SILI:  +3

Map not to scale. The details below are what you can see from a distance. Moving toward one will obviously give you more, as well as a better map.

Due to the angle of your approach and range of illumination, if there's anything past structure #2, you can't see it yet.

P.........
...5678.9.
..........
.11..222..
.11.3.22..
..........
..........

P =
The party is approaching from this direction.

1 =
Structure with no walls, only a square of thick pillars holding up a massive roof. Inside of it looks to be some kind of giant statue. 15' clearance inside. 60'x60' large, and is raised off the ground by 5', with steps leading up to it.

2 =
Large single-story structure.

3 =
Fountain. You can hear that the water is running inside of it. There is a large statue in the center, humanoid shape, probably.

5-8 =
These appear to be mausoleums of some kind. They are 10x15', with space to walk in between them.

9 = Tall obelisk-like structure.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:20, Mon 10 Dec 2012.

The group makes a lap around the site.

Map not to scale. The details below are what you can see from a distance. Moving toward one will obviously give you more, as well as a better map.

P.........
...5678.9.
..........
.11..222..
.11.3.22..
..........
...444...0
........000
         0
P =
The party is approaching from this direction.

1 =
Structure with no walls, only a square of thick pillars holding up a massive roof. Inside of it looks to be some kind of giant statue. 15' clearance inside. 60'x60' large, and is raised off the ground by 5', with steps leading up to it.

2 =
Large single-story structure. No windows.

3 =
Fountain. You can hear that the water is running inside of it. There is a large statue in the center, humanoid shape, probably.

4 =
A raised platform with ramps on either side. From the back, there is a large statue up top. ZEIG guesses this was probably a main sacrificial shrine.

5-8 =
These appear to be mausoleums of some kind. They are 10x15', with space to walk in between them. Closer inspection as you walk behind them reinforces this.

9 =
Tall obelisk-like structure. It does not look Drow in nature, and nobody in the group has ever heard of drow utilizing obelisks for any kind of symbolic or practical purpose, but then again, nobody has ever seen a drow or been to where they live before this point (except JAGA, but he's not much on history, despite being a part of it).

0 =
another large single-story building symmetrical in shape. No visible doors from the outside edges you walked around.


All in all the circling process takes only nine minutes.

ZEIG gains 10 EXP for making things happen.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:09, Tue 11 Dec 2012.

Start with structure 1 with no walls. Enter, look around, investigate statue. If there is nothing remarkable then move on to check out the fountain. Then look for a door to structure 2 and go about getting inside.

Stop if noticing any signs of life or danger.

ZEIG suggests they start with the nearest large structure. Being the resident expert on drow holy sites, everyone thinks this sounds like a decent enough idea.

Walking up to the square structure you're able to notice it's entirely constructed of stone. Marble. The outside pillars and the sides of the ceiling layer are unadorned and simple, yet masterfully constructed.

Upon stepping by the pillars and underneath the cover, the centerpiece that dominates your attention for the first few moments is a humongous marble spider statue. It is standing on eight legs, like it's ready to pounce on the raised marble altar just in front of it. The bent and rather thin legs themselves don't seem like they should be able support the rest of the massive frame above them. Its set of deep red eyes are made of four giant gemstones and four smaller ones.

The altar is flat and simple, about 3' off of the ground and just large enough for someone to lay down upon it as if it were a bed. On its side facing away from the spider is an engraving of the face of Lolth, horrible and angry.

Looking up to the ceiling you can see that it's engraved like some kind of huge spider web. The relief appears to only be a few inches deep, leaving few places for anything but the tiniest of creatures to hide.

s = stairs, 45° angle, DC 12 Balance to run/charge over them, or just a DC 20 Jump check to ignore them during such movement.
O = pillar, 6' thick, hard corners due to thickness
. = marble temple floor
= = altar
X = massive spider statue, facing toward altar

  ssssssssssssss
  sO.O.O..O.O.Os
  s............s
  sO...MDJ....Os
  s....SZG.....s
  sO..........Os
  s.....==.....s
  s....XXXX....s
  sO...XXXX...Os
  s....XXXX....s
  sO...XXXX...Os
  s............s
  sO.O.O..O.O.Os
  ssssssssssssss

Keep in mind this is a perfectly square structure, despite rpol's formatting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:28, Tue 11 Dec 2012.

"Drow are notorious for having pretty things make horrible traps. Still, those rubies look pretty nice..."

Anybody got an appraise check on 'em? See if they're worth the potential trouble?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:24, Wed 12 Dec 2012.

They aren't. If we had a thief to do the sneaky stuff that'd be fine, but we don't so we shouldn't play Ocean's 5.

Hahaha, fair enough.

Moving out to check out the fountain to the east, then checking building 2?

DAI frowns at the rubies. "Oh come on...that's just not fair, they could just as likely be completely unguarded and we won't know until someone's got a few new holes in their lungs..." He shrugs it off and leaves, spider silk was one thing, possibly sacred rubies from a giant spider statue? Another entirely.

When they head outside and begin moving towards the larger structure, DAI can't help but stop and stare at the fountain. "...is it powered by magic? I can't imagine it would keep running like this otherwise..."

OOC: If I still have any Detect Magic I'll scan the fountain- and hell everything else we walked by, like the spider statue. If I do not have any left, then I'll just cast another and ask scan everything while we walk around.

DAI focuses Detect Magic onto the massive spider statue, but cannot sense anything.

As the party leaves to check out the fountain, he continues to focus on his spell. Oddly enough, the stairs of the shrine are enchanted. He pauses and tries to glean some information.

22:16, Today: teslas, on behalf of DAI, rolled 27 using 1d20+14. Spellcraft.
Whatever it is is a permanent enhancement effect. It is of a spell and spell type utterly unknown to DAI. After a few rounds he's confident that it's some type of ward spell to keep creatures from crossing the threshold into the temple. Despite this, the party seems completely unhindered by it, having felt none of its effects while entering and none of them while leaving. DAI hops back and forth across the stairs a few more times to be sure he can't feel anything, and does not.


The fountain is also made of marble, though the streaks through it are nearly as dark as obsidian. If it were placed outside in the sunlight, with the previous temple as a backdrop, it'd probably be a beautiful sight of contrast... aside from what it depicts.

Standing 20' tall is a strikingly beautiful drow woman, clothed only enough as to hide a few inches of skin (what any decent human, elf, or giant mother would still call naked) holding aloft the severed head of an elven male. His body below is covered in thousands upon millions of intricately crafted spiders ranging from barely perceivable to nearly a foot in diameter. The elf's face is tense and wracked with pain, as if still in the lingering few seconds of consciousness when one is beheaded.

From the wound of the severed head and neck jets of water are spewing forth and running down into the basin of the fountain. The water is clear and has no odor--usually a good sign. DAI does not detect any magic from the fountain itself, nor the water, but he is aware that all of the marble and stone could easily block any magical effect underneath it causing the water to cycle through the structure, if that is how it is made to function.


22:28, Today: teslas rolled 17,13 using 1d20+11,1d20+7. Know (nobility), SILI, DAI.
SILI (forgot to put it in the roll) gains a +2 synergy to the check from 5 ranks in know(history). Due to ZEIG's ranks and the scene depicted here, he can also assist.
22:30, Today: teslas, on behalf of ZEIG, rolled 11 using 1d20+10. 5 ranks Know (history) to synergy/assist.
Total: 23
22:38, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 17 using 1d20+11. Know (local).
This is obviously a depiction of Lady Thryllith, what some consider the first true dark elf and the progenitor of one of the strongest family lines in drow culture. SILI explains that her features are not totally drow, and are very nearly elven--a subtle difference the rest of you would have a hard time observing. Although the line declined in power hundreds of years ago, a bit over half of all Lolth priests would still claim to be of her lineage in some way or form. SILI's poetic side kicks in, and he suggests the usage of the light marble with dark streaks might signify the beginning of the transition into darkness.

Team History Is Cool! auto-succeeds this one, especially after Zeign had read his book.
The scene taking place probably isn't any particular event in specific, but the story goes that when Thryllith left her homeland she took the heads of fourteen elven nobles with her. If this story is true, who those nobles were has been purposefully obscured in elven history, your main source of information on drow culture. With the paranoia of an enemy kingdom nearby declining now that they've begun to lose contact, some historians in Elfheim are beginning to be much more curious about the history of the schism. Perhaps bringing some information on the story from the other side back to them would be appreciated, if the party can find anything of the sort.

The statue itself bears no inscription or markings. The sculptor(s) must have thought the scene would speak for itself for all who looked upon it.

100 EXP.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:09, Thu 13 Dec 2012.

Right around the end of the discussion about the fountain, someone in the group catches a figure moving toward the party out of the corner of their eye.

Once everyone turns to look, the figure stops. Judging by the way it was moving, a best guess would make it a humanoid around 5'11-ish tall. It is hard to tell, however, as the figure is covered entirely by heavy brown and black robes which look to have been sewn together from several sets of robes of very fine quality. The robes are quite long and drag the ground several, several inches behind the person. The ends are tattered and dirty.

The hood of the robes droops down, covering its face entirely. The head is slumped downward and if it could see anything at all it would only be a small area of the ground beneath it.

A clear male voice speaks out, "Humans... and half-breeds?" It sounds as if he's forcing a confused inflection on his voice, else it might have otherwise have been a flat and emotionless statement.

F = fountain and statue base, difficult terrain, water also present
T = statue of Lady Thryllith, decapitated elven male body, and mound of spiders, 7-20' tall
? = humanoid figure in robes

..................|
................?.|  edge of structure #2
..................|
..................|----
......................
.....................
....................
......M.............
.....SJZGD.........
..................
......FFFF.......
.....FTTTTF.....
.....FTTTTF.....
......FFFF......
................
................
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:57, Thu 13 Dec 2012.

"Yes. My name is Silivrentoliel. Can't believe I spelled that right without looking. Would you tell us your name?"

14:13, Today: SILI rolled 34 using 1d20+23 with rolls of 11. Diplomacy.

Zeig watches the robed creature intently while Sili takes the fore.

"No, but only because I do not wish to hear it spoken."

The figure stands, unconditionally motionless.

"Silivrentoliel. An elven name for a half-breed, of Elfheim?" The man's tone remains completely flat until the end of the sentence. "Elfheim" has a tinge of disgust to it.

"And your half-cousins beside you?"

Sili remains polite. He's heard worse. He's probably said worse. "I am indeed from Elfheim. These are Zeig, Dai, Jaga and the large one is Garus. If you do not wish to give us your name, perhaps you would give us something else to call you?"

"No, not necessary. I am the only one. If there were two or more of us, names may have been convenient. There is not."

He takes another step forward. A long metal staff with a gloved hand attached to it rotates from behind him into view. His drooped head and the rest of his body don't move at all when this occurs. Atop the staff rests a metal orb. The markings on it resemble the front of a closed eye... until it opens and beings looking at the group of you. It spends a half-second on each of you, then darts to the next, then the next, until it starts the process over again and continues to repeat it.

"Why come here?"

"Ultimately? To save the world, but right now we're trying to help sate one old fool's lust for revenge so he'll help us wake up another old fool, which will make a bunch of old fools indebted to us, which will make us one step closer to saving the world." DAI gave a bit of a shrug and a sigh, the whole thing sounded almost humorous when he went over it in his head.

"We're looking for a crown, at the moment. Have you seen one around here?"