The Spider Idol of Undermountan

Now that the map they had of the area of Undermountain they were in and the map they had bought from the one-eyed man were matching up they could continue on their explorations without worrying about getting lost. This was much consolation to them and so it was with renewed confidence that they entered the room with the strange purple light radiating from the ceiling. On both sides of the very long room were carved stone thrones and sitting on the thrones were statues of noble looking human dressed in clothing of a style the nobility favored hundreds of years ago. These statues glowed with a dim golden light with did not blend well with the purple light from the ceiling leading Katrina to question their taste in room decoration. They were all men and some of them bore weapons and armor. At the far end of the room, there was a 20' wide passage that led into darkness.

"This is one weird room" said Timber "so everyone, be on your guard."

It was with great caution and no great speed that the party began to move to the south toward the dark passageway. As they passed abreast of the first of the statues, Pisheo noticed that the statue sitting on the throne changed into a skeletal shape of great age. The body had obviously been plundered and the skull was sitting on the seat of the throne along with much of the rib cage and pelvis. She turned to look at the statue opposite and found that statue too had changed from a noble human in chain mail into a mummified corpse with only the last vestiges of its burial clothing still clinging to the desiccated skin.

"Oh, what's this?" she asked in an almost whining voice as she stopped to look.

"What's what?" asked Timber.

"Look at the statues. They've changed into corpses. That's what".

The rest of the party looked at the statues. Some of them shuddered at the sight of the long dead occupants of the stone thrones.

"We touch NOTHING, we stay WELL AWAY from them, right?" said Timber.

The rest agreed with silent nods and they began moving forward again.

It was the same with the rest of the statues. As the party passed between them, the noble statues changed to disgusting, ancient dead bodies. None of them were intact and most had been rather badly treated as they were being robbed of anything valuable that they had been placed here with.

There were no other openings in the room, so they proceeded to pass by the golden glowing statues. Stopping in the center of the room, Dromar looked down at something he had seen on the floor. It looked like the edge of a piece of paper. He tried to pick it up, but couldn't get his fingers on it. He called Pisheo over and showed it to her. She used one of her lock picks to tease the small scrap of folded paper out of its spot between two of the pieces of paving stone. She opened it and showed it to the party, but none of them could read it. Dromar said it was in the ancient language called Thorass, so they decided to save it and show it to Galranwyn later.

They continued to move through forward until they reached the dark passage at the end of the room. Looking through the darkness, they could see that there was another room beyond, and at the far end of the room there were two points of red light coming from a spot well up toward the ceiling. Silently, Timber instructed Pisheo to check the area in the wide corridor for traps. After a through search which revealed nothing, the party continued onward.

When the passed through the corridor, their light rocks revealed the room beyond. It was not a happy sight. At the end of the room beyond was a great black stone altar. On top of the altar was an enormous idol of a black spider, its crimson eyes were what the party had seen glowing from the corridor. Laying on the alter under the statue was a gray skinned elf, bound and gagged. On either side of her were two black skinned elves dressed in chain mail who were looking back at the party as they approached. One of them was holding a nasty looking adamantite dagger to the throat of the captive.

In guttural and almost unintelligible common tongue the elf with the knife said "Come no closer if you wish her to live. Leave now and your lives will continue. Come closer and you will all die!"

This was, of course, the functional equivalent of waving a red cape at a maddened bull. With loud battle cries, Krom and Dromar charged forward toward the Drow (for so are the black skinned elves called). Some of the other called after them "they will kill her, stop!", but the two warriors had a target in sight and nothing short of their death (including the death of the captive) would quench their lust for blood. Realizing the fighters would not stop, the rest moved into the room as well.

"She dies now!" cried the Drow with the knife and plunged it into the graceful neck of the bound captive. The other drow moved in front of the captive to meet the fighter's charge. As the party moved into the room they could see more clearly. Now, they could see that the captive was bound to the altar with spider web and that long, thick tracers of the same stuff connected the captive to the two forearms of the spider idol that were 30' above the floor. Pulsing, sparkling traces of light seemed to pass along these woven webs to the spider. After a moments hesitation, Kilak began to run toward the coming battle. The rest of the party moved forward more cautiously.

Then the fighters crashed into the two armed drow. With a great yell, Krom swung his mighty two-handed sword with deadly accuracy and it struck the first of the drow in the midsection. For a moment it stayed upright, vainly trying to hold its eviscerated abdomen together, but it fell dead a moment later. A moment later, Dromar sliced one with his long sword, but the strange black armor turned most of the blow. It slashed at Dromar with it's dagger and then again with it's sword, but the nimble gnome dodged one blow and blocked the other.

Before Krom could turn to assist Dromar, Kilak arrived and with both of them attacking the one remaining drow, it was quickly and messily dispatched. The fighters turned to look at the captive and found that despite the wicked wound in it's throat, that it still breathed. About that time, Pisheo, Timber and Neusrat arrived at the alter. Timber quickly moved to the beautiful elf maiden and began to pray for the power to heal her. He didn't notice at first the black spiders moving with lightning speed down the woven webs toward the captive.

Dromar, who was looking up at the spider idol saw them and shouted "Spiders! Look out spiders are coming!"

The next moment it seemed to be raining spiders as big as your clenched fist. The landed on the captive and on some of the fighters. Pisheo and Neusrat began stabbing at them being careful not to stab themselves, each other or the captive in their hurry to spit the eight-legged nasties. Krom and Kilak joined in the spider stabbing too.

The familiar warm glow of a healing spell lit Timbers hands where he touched the captive. The wound in her throat disappeared leaving only the faintest of pink scars. Her eyes fluttered, opened and rolled listless and unseeing in their sockets.

No one noticed that Dromar had begun to encant until he shouted "Fire in the Hole!"

Timber cried "No Dromar, don't do it" but of course it was far too late by then.

A ball of fire enveloped the idol. It had been placed far enough up the high ceiling so that it's effects were spent in the air and only a blast of intense but non-damaging heat reached those who fought at the foot of the idol. Many of the spiders were not so lucky. A second rain of spiders fell but this time the spiders were smoking and lifeless. The rope like strands of web were burning and fell harmlessly to the alter. The sparkling light went out. More than a dozen of the spiders lay on the floor with their legs curled closely on their bellies.

But there were still a number of the spiders jumping and biting at the party. The Pisheo and the fighters continued to stab at them, but there were a lot of them. Although Krom and Kilak were bitten, they suffered no ill effects other than a small puncture wound.

Seeing several of them scurrying toward him on the floor, Dromar placed his hands together with the fingers outspread toward them and said "Whoosh". A jet of flame came from the fingers and enveloped two of the creeping spiders. They ceased moving and began burning.

Timber said "She's not responding." Then, he held his holy symbol before him and prayed "O wonderful goddess of the forests, give me the power to rid this poor girl from the poison that threatens her life." A faint twinkle of energy spread from his hand to envelop the body of the captive elf woman, but it didn't seem to help her much. Although conscious, she remained unable to focus on anything that transpired around her.

As Timber tried to rouse the woman, the rest continued to eliminate the few remaining spiders. A few managed to reach the relative safety of the darker corners of the room, but Dromar followed after them and dispatched them with his sword. All was quiet once again. The fighters carefully cleared what remained of the binding webs away from the comely elf and Timber helped her into a sitting position. As he comforted the poor woman, the rest began to search the dead drow and the hideous idol that was their god.

Dromar began walking around the pedestal the idol sat on and inspected the stone carefully. It was made from a single cut piece of obsidean. In the center of the back near the floor was a strange indentation. Dromar called Pisheo over to look at it and she found it was a small hole. After searching for traps she carefully put her finger in the hole and felt around until she found a button. She pushed the button and a section of the obsidian pivoted outward about 3". Together she and Dromar lifted the bottom and it swung upward. Behind it was a small room about ten feet square. In the center of the room was a chair and directly in front of the chair was a piece of metal pipe which looked like the flue of a iron stove. A small section was turned toward the chair, but the rest of it went straight up into the obsidian. The two of them inspected the rest of the tiny room, but found nothing interesting.

Meanwhile, Neusrat had climbed up the pedestal and from there onto the back of the statue of the spider. He skinnied himself across the back until he could lean out over the things large head. He looked carefully at the red, glowing eyes. They were great gems! He pulled his dagger out and began to pry one of the gems from its socket.

Suddenly, the gem exploded! Neusrat only just managed to hold on to the body of the spider and prevent a long fall to the floor. Even so, his face was burned and blackened.

"Are you all right?" asked Timber.

"What?" replied Neusrat more that a little deafened by the blast.

"Shit" said Timber and motioned to Neusrat to come down. Neusrat carefully climbed down and went over to Timber who cast a spell of healing which removed most of the wounds Neusrat had received. It still smarted like anything though. Neusrat sat down with his back on the pedestal and stayed there occasionally shaking his head negatively.

There was little plunder to be had from the drow outside of their strange black metal weapons. After a half and hour of searching they all thought they had found all that was in the room.

During this time, Timber had continued to speak with the still confused Moon Elf. Gradually she came around. Even though she was still vague and had no idea where she was, she was able to tell something about herself and how she had got into this terrible predicament. With many a stop and many a sigh she told Timber that her name was Maith Slenderbow. She and her family were fletchers who had come from the High Forest to sell their wares in the market place of Waterdeep and take in the festival. Her parents had sent her off from their barrow at the market to get them something to drink. As she was passing through a secluded alley, she had been abducted and remembered nothing until her rescue. Even after a half an hour, it was all she could do to stand unsteadily and shuffle forward if led.

Confidant that they had saved the life of Maith Slenderbow and interrupted an unspeakable religious rite to the spider god, the players of Local 509 decided that they would stop at this satisfying spot and resume their adventures another time.