Borjnen and Borun Bewebbed?

Borjnen rejoins Borun, and they are soon joined by the spiders, for that's what the eyes belonged to. Well, one big spider and a lot of smaller ones. There's still one clear route back to the magic cottage.

However, you aren't sure if you can outrun the giant spider in the trees. It's probably not as swift on the ground.


Jak Attack

Jak has no problem getting away from the huge spider, but it seems as if being invisible doesn't keep it from tracking you. As you take up a stance in a small clearing, it zeroes in on you and heads straight for you.


Cottage Clearing

At first, those still at the cottage don't see anything, but then the forest floor seems to ripple and move as hundreds of spiders of various size slowly approach the clearing.

It's the six glowing eyes up in the forest canopy that are worrisome. If they belong to a spider, it's huge!

In reply to Azurak the Blue (msg # 47):

A giant spider! Borun thought. It's an animal so it must be afraid of fire, right?

Borun wished that he hadn't skipped Fireball practice at the Academy. But wait! A fire elemental might work. Borun traced the arcane gestures in the air with his hand while calling the beast from its elemental plane.

Initiative: 25

Full round: casting Summon Monster V - Large fire elemental

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/...lls/s/summon-monster

Dropping the light at his feet, where it splutters out, jak lets out a sigh, and turns to meet the spider in the dying light.

"This is your fault, you know... Should have let me be."

In that moment, several tiny, projectiles, nigh invisible in the gloom, streak towards the spider, aimed precisely for the creature's eyes.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:48, Sat 06 June 2015.

Only Jak's first three attacks strike the creature, but they still do 89 points of damage!


The huge spider is now enraged, and closes the 30-foot gap in almost one stride. It strikes at Jak with its slavering jaws.

04:07, Mon 08 June 2015: Azurak the Blue rolled 20,14 using 1d20+10,1d20+10 ((10,4)). Spider bite, spider sting. Does the bite hit?

04:13, Mon 08 June 2015: Azurak the Blue rolled 10 using 2d6+6 ((1,3)). Spider bite damage.

Leaping back a fraction too slow, The spider's teeth tear long gashes into Jak's trademark coat, as it's maw snaps closed where Jak was. Pirouetting  on the balls of his feet as he breaks free, Jak uses the momentary distraction of his jacket whirling out behind him to launch another volley at the thing's eyes.

Only Jak's last attack hits this time, but it is a critical, doing 46 points of damage. That's more than it can tolerate, and though it doesn't kill it, it drives it off.

With the spiders on the ground and the huge on in the trees he realized if the fighting started it be awhile yo clear everything out, especially if the huge one stayed out of reach. With his axe at the ready Borjnen keeps his eyes peeled for a rock large enough to do some damage. If it didn't want to come maybe some coercion.

Once having had a pet tarantula in her youth, it wasn't from any phobia of spiders that had her draw her bow and begin firing at the swarm of arachnids. These were abominations to the natural order of things, products of the darkness whose grip on the Mirkwood was slowly tightening.

At the last second, she realizes that the smaller spiders wouldn't attack on their own without the controlling influence of the monstrous spider in the trees above. She directs her arrows to the big one.

18:27, Fri 12 June 2015: Sky Sheer'enn rolled 42,12,32,20,25,11 using 1d20+23 1st shot,1d10+10 1st damage,1d20+23 2nd shot,1d10+10 2nd damage,1d20+18 3rd shot,1d10+10 3rd danage ((19,2,9,10,7,1)).

I think that's at least 2 hits!

She suddenly realizes her friends are out there in the woods alone! Not that she doesn't think Borun and Borjnen can't take care of themselves, but against the darkness, it's safer and better not to stand alone! She dashes off in the direction they went, calling out their names, with Nightbreeze running by her side.

"BORUN! BORJNEN! Where are you?"

"Sky no!" Anira called out to the woman who was heading straight for the swarm of spiders.  Looking quickly to Radagast, she quickly speaks.  "It's like they are all waiting for something ..." she whisper-hissed, wondering if he was thinking the same thing and what he might suspect.  She thought of attacking the large one in the trees but held off for now in case something even bigger came along.

"It's the cottage," Radagast replies to Anira. "It's too big for one of them to take on, though they might attack anyone when they get hungry."

"So this one is waiting for the others... at least two more, I think; possibly three. She may be disappointed. I can't get a good sense of the others, but I believe Jak has dealt with one already."

"Sky does not attack foolishly, as some warriors do, trusting to their strength of arm and martial skill to win the day. She will find the Dwarves and bring them back."

"Alas, the magick that would be most effective against them is fire, but it can be equally detrimental to the forest. Those magicks are not in my repertoire, except to light my pipe."

He promptly pulls his pipe out from somewhere in his shaggy beard. He holds up his index finger, and a small flame appears at the tip. He promptly uses it to light his pipe, although Anira is pretty sure the pipe was already lit.

"We shall wait for another moment or two, and then take the battle to the spiders. If we are unsuccessful in our assault, we shall then have room to retreat to the cottage."

Brushing himself off, Jak mutters a short good luck charm to himself, drawing a card without looking from one of his many decks, and tucking it away in his breast pocket. Then he stalks quietly back to his woodpile, gathering the firewood once again, and beginning to retrace his steps back to the cabin, his task made somewhat more difficult by the dark.

Anira grimaced but didn't call out again to Sky.  She had to hope they wouldn't swarm her and that Radagast was right in that she would find the dwarves and bring them back to safety.  "I have a couple of things but one would definiteyl damage a bit of the forest.  I will use it only if necessary.  The other ... if the smaller ones swarm us I will have no choice but perhaps the fire will not spread."  With a muttered word, her rapier's blade was engulfed in fire and she held it so that it might lead the lost ones back as well as perhaps give the spiders a bit more pause.

Standing inside the hut she could hear what Anira and Radagast were saying but she had no spell that would produce fire to defend them but if she could change the elemental nature of her spells she might be able to aid in some way.

Thinking of the right spell she stopped for a moment.

"If they come toward the hut I can send a lightening bolt at them to slow them down.  It may singe the trees but they are strong.

Since Jak went in a different direction than the two Dwarves, he doesn't pass Sky when she heads out after them.


The presence of the cottage seems to intimidate the one huge spider near it, so it is waiting for its sisters to arrive.


Since Jak drove off one of them, that one will not be arriving any time soon.


Borun and Borjnen back together, waiting for the huge spider and its swarm of smaller spiders to attack, though some of the smaller ones are still the size of dogs.

Since the only threat the two Dwarves seem to pose is a thrown rock, the huge spider advances to attack. It stalks forward a bit, down across branches, before making a sudden rush at the end. It attacks Borun with its mandibles and bite, and its stinger is able to strike forward between its legs at Borjnen.

Huge spider's attacks on Borun: 04:48, Tue 16 June 2015: Azurak the Blue rolled 36 left mandible attack,18 left mandible damage,41 right mandible attack,19 right mandible damage,29 bite attack,15bite damage using 1d20+23,1d10+10,1d20+23,1d10+10,1d20+18,1d10+10 ((13,8,18,9,11,5)).

First and second attacks should be a hit for 18 and 19 points of damage to Borun. If the bite hits, that's another 15 points.


Huge spider's sting on Borjnen: 04:58, Tue 16 June 2015: Azurak the Blue rolled 17 using 1d20+5 ((12)).

That's a miss. It's use to attacking weaker prey, so its at a disadvantage by trying to attack Borjnen that way.

The rest of the spider swarm will attack next round.

Sky uses her knowledge of nature to tell if she knows anything about these particular vermin?

Today: Sky Sheer'enn rolled 21 using 1d20+17 with rolls of 4. nature.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:12, Tue 16 June 2015.

At first, Sky's concern was whether her spell could and would affect a creature that size, but at the last second, she realizes that the spider... all spiders and insects... aren't animals at all, but vermin.

Vermin, of course, is a broad category for spiders, insects and all the creepy-crawlie things that occur naturally in Nature. Sages have debated for centuries just what the distinction between vermin and animals is, without coming to any kind of agreement. It usually gets down to 'I know vermin when I see it' approach. On the other hand, the empirical data can't be argued with: magic that affects animals does not affect vermin, and magic that affects vermin doesn't affect animals.

So Sky is pretty sure her Charm Animals spell would have no affect on the spider.

As the beast's stinger glanced  off his breastplate easily Borjnen could tell he wasn't really its focus. And if he wasn't that meant Borun was. With a veritable roar he began his own assault against the creature. It made a mistake, and now it would pay for it.

Sky can identify the huge spider as a Gorgoroth spider, and most of the larger ones are probably the same, but she doesn't know if they qualify as 'unnatural' spiders or not. It is possible that they were 'created' by Morgoth, but there is also rumor that they are even older than Morgoth.

Other than their extraordinary size, they are known to have a poisonous abdominal stinger, and their bite is also poisonous.


Borun summoned a large fire elemental, and it attacks the huge spider.

The spider had dropped to the ground to attack Borjnen, so Bjornen was now able to bull rush the huge spider, plus attack with his axe. The axe attack doesn't hit, but the bull rushes do, delivering 91 points of damage.

All he could hit was the legs, but the eight-legged freak can't be knocked prone or backwards.

That's whent he fire elemental attack. It manages to hit and do enough fire damage to kill the huge spider.

The rest of the spiders seem frozen in place for a moment, but then, without the controlling intellect, they suddenly flee back into the forest.


Back at the cottage, two things occur nearly simultaneously. First, you see a flash of light through the trees, which you quickly identify as fire!

Secondly, the huge spider and all the smaller spiders move forward to attack.

Radagast and Anira have a chance to act first.

There seemed to be a lot going on outside and she moved to the doorway to get a view of what was happening.

When she spotted the spiders she thought for a moment.

This message was deleted by the player at 11:12, Tue 23 June 2015.

As the giant spider's corpse crumpled to the ground, Borun was relieved to see that Borjnen was uninjured.

"Let's go back to the cottage," Borun suggested. "There might be more of those things around."

He had little in his repertoire of magic at the moment, so he momentarily chose to leave the huge spider to his allies. The little vermin could be dealth with relatively easily.

He raised his arms in a wide embracing gesture. As he did so, a powerful gust of wind began from where he stood and blew forward, sweeping up the smaller spiders. All the little ones would be scattered throughout the woods, individually becoming prey to other creatures--birds and bugs and snakes and frogs.

That still left a dozen dog-sized spiders, and the huge one.

"Ho! Keepers of Kelvar and Olvar! Do not let the size of Shibak frighten you! Attack! Slay the foul creature of Morgoth's breeding!" he shouted out to his companions above the roar of his windstorm.

While Radagast focused on the small spiders, Anira's grim countenance focused on the largest of them all, the one her mentor called Shibak.  When it was within 40 feet of them, a coruscating ray shot from her free hand and blasted (hopefully) into the giant spider.

---

21:20, Today: Anira rolled 32 using 1d20+13 with rolls of 19. Ranged Touch Attack.
21:21, Today: Anira rolled 11 using 1d6+5 with rolls of 6. Strength Damage.

Shibak must make a Fortitude saving throw, DC 16 I believe.  If she fails, she takes 11 points of strength damage.  If she succeeds, she takes 5 points of strength damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:40, Wed 01 July 2015.

Shibak continues to advance, but is brought up abruptly by Anira's ray.

03:58, Fri 03 July 2015: Azurak the Blue rolled 23 using 1d20+8 (15)) Fortitutde save.

Although it's not as effective as it could have been, it does affect the huge spider in a way that it's never felt before.

It seems to sense that its two sisters are dead or fled, and Borun, Borjnen and Sky arrive back at the cottage just about then.

That's more than the spider wants to deal with. It scurries back up into foliage of the trees and soon vanishes from sight. The rest of the spiders flee after her, though this is uncertain if it is because she directed them, or that with her direction gone, they have no organization.

"Well done! Well done, indeed!" Radagast calls out to everyone. "We've driven off the threat for now. Our numbers and strength were not anticipated, I've no dobut, though I am not convinced that this was a directed attack."

"I've been sensing the presence of the spiders for some time now, but had not been able to hang a name on them. Now I have!"

"They are not Shelob's kin, but related nonetheless, perhaps drawn south by the shadow of Mordor."

"We've sent the darkness to bay. It will take some time for it to return. We will be safe till morning. Everyone into the cottage! Get some rest if you can. We leave at dawn's early light to meet up with the others at the Bight. We need to travel fast... get ahead of this creeping miasma."


Once all of the others have moved into Anira's magical cottage, Radagast makes a quick trip around it, reinforcing it with his own wards. And then he retires into the cottage with everyone else.