Richard's hunch asking for a confirmation about the boy's presence has Fost nodnin appreciation.
Foat gripped his blade harder.
Why had they closed the entry with such effort and then become overwhelmed by spiders?
Fost was cautious.
"I wonder if there even is enough space to use your bow."

Brother Loran stood back to allow the fighting men to access the cave.

He racked his brain for all the knowledge he had on spiders, poisons and  possible wounds he might face once they had res ued the boy and his captures

Fost looked around.
"Loran, can you hold the torch ?"
Then Fost advanced slowly and cautiously into the cave, watching the ceiling, too, for spiders were excellent climbers.

Brother Loran took the offered torch and followed behind Fost keeping a distance to allow the fighter room in case he needed to defend himself

"I guess we're about to find out...." Richard replies to Fost, then pulls a torch out of his pack, lights it, and hands it to Loran.

He then nocks an arrow but does not draw the string, yet.

One torch might not shed enough light, so Mikhail tapd his staff on the ground, funneling a small amount of power into the tip in an orange witchlight. "Better safe and well lit then sorry and darkened."

The outside light filtering in and the mage’s witchlight reveals a bend in the chamber about 4 yards in. Against the wall on the right are a number of barrels and cases consistent with supplies. It’s as if the kidnappers had enough time to unload the cart before tying it up (although the basic nature of the knots and the way it was wrapped around the knob of rock in the cave ceiling means securing the cart was probably the shorter task).

OOC: Okay, I’ve set up the cave map in Map 0, as you gents move forward, I’ll move the “spoilers” covers. (The dungeon map was generated using donjon’s fantasy dungeon generator. That’s a good website to use.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:15, Sun 06 Dec 2020.

Fost checked the barrels and crates briefly to look for any identification marks to link to their town.
Afterwards, he moved further around the bend as soon as sufficient light was available

Richard moved somewhat behind Fost maintaining enough distance to support with his bow.  As he moves, he will also examine the room while keeping an eye for hostiles downrange.

Brother Loran held the torch high behind Richard to cast enough light for Fost at the front but not enough to effect his or Richards vision

Mikhail tried to remain closer Fost, letting the Warrior take the lead with enough light for him to see what he wanted to do, provided he was okay with the unnatural steady glow from the quickly conjured witchlight.

Fost immediately recognizes the maker’s mark on the barrels as belonging to Redcliffe’s resident cooper. He also finds a parchment-wrapped pack of unleavened bread that had fallen behind the barrels; a quick inspection shows the bread is starting to go bad (which makes sense, given that it’s been about a week).

The southward corridor continues beyond the mage’s light.

Fost continued onwards down the corridor

The group continues forward, moving carefully down the corridor for about a score yards. As they near a bend, they start to see strands of webbing on the ceiling and walls glinting in the witchlight. The floor, as of yet, doesn't seem covered, but the strands themselves seem cleaned - if the giant spider here is anything like its tinier counterparts, the webs are actively-used.

The cave entrance was a lot deeper than Fost had imagined. That they had heard the men inside at all was next to a wonder. He wondered if it was all a ruse.
"Hey you men, where are you?", he said loudly

The response is less than intelligible as it bounces around the cavern and it seems to come from both ahead and behind the group. The sound is slightly clearer to Brother Loran in the back of the line than it is to Fost up front. Loran thinks he hears, "<something> again?"

Richard (who has, apparently, seen this phenomenon in a cave before), and Mikhail and Loran (by virtue of their academic knowledge), recognize that there must be some crack or vent in the cave structure that connects the entrance with the kidnappers' hiding place...assuming it isn't a ruse, that is.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:59, Fri 29 Jan 2021.

"Burning those webs would ve nice, but we might endanger the prisoners."
So Fost proceeded further into the cave.

Richard's overwatch now covers the ceiling of the cave as well to make sure no spiders drop in on them unexpectedly as he follows the party's advance.

Arrow still nocked and bow ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.

Brother Loran quickly looked through his pouches while thinking back on his natural lore and if he could remember what could be used to melt webbing


OOC

18:43, Today: Brother Loran rolled 10 using 3d6+4 with the AGE System with rolls of {3}, 1, 2.  CUN (Natural Lore).

As most folks are aware, Loran knows that fire does the trick, melting whatever it touches.

From Richard's viewpoint next to the holy brother, the edge of the webs seem unoccupied at the moment.

OOC: Sorry about the delay. On the group 0 map, I included three red lines to mark the beginning of the webbed area.

"If it spreads top quickly it might endanger those captured.", he warned

The group moves forward with greater care, using Loran's torch and Mikhail's Arcane Lance to burn and blast away pockets of webbing that could impede their travel or house spider nests.

They investigate the side areas along the way, finding nothing extraordinary beyond deeper webbing and a few clusters of spiders (that fell quickly to magic and fire). As they approach a southward bend in the passageway that appears like it's opening up into a large chamber, they find something different about the nook directly in front of them.

Where in other areas, even beyond the radius of bright light given out by their sources, the webbing along the walls and ceiling would glint and glisten, giving the adventurers an idea of the contours of each chamber, the area in front of them is darkened, and each man swears something's moving in the shadows...

OOC: So, the area in question is the nook up and to the right of the number 2 on the map. The nook is darkened, and you each see what you think is movement within it.

(Remember, "up" on the map is South. I'm going to try to avoid cardinal directions on the map, as it could be confusing (and, heck, I could confuse myself if I'm not paying enough attention to it). So, I'll try to keep to up, down, left, and right.)

"Careful now.", Fost warned.
"I don't care to have any creature at my back, so we have to rustle it out of its cozy lair."
Fost carefully knelt down to pick up a loose rock.
"Ready ?", he asked
Once confirmed he would hurl the rock into the darkness in hope to spook the spider out.

Richard has his bow drawn as soon as Fost tosses the rock, tracking it, ready for whatever might crawl out of the darkness.

Brother Loran kept the torch high so the others could see better but gripped his staff in the other hand and started to pray to the maker for protection