Having nowhere else to go from the throne room, we backtracked to where we fought the ogre spider, and searched through there.
Kaz discovered a secret door that lead to a hallway that went north and south.. From there we went south, with
Kaz sneaking along ahead to scout. The hall stretched some forty feet or so to a spacious room. Unfortunately, the enemies were expecting us, and launched an ambush. As the enemies attacked
Kaz, we attempted to pour out from the cramped secret passage. I needed to get into the open so the Spiders could see my banner. When I finally squeezed past, I started singing:
Sits like a man,
But he smiles like a reptile,
She loves him, she loves him but,
Just for a short while,
She'll scratch in the sand,
Won't let go his hand
He says he's a beautician,
And sells you nutrition,
And keeps all your dead hair,
For making up underwear,
Poor little Greenie...
Kaz was able to defend against the onslaught, and our Spiders rushed forth.
Soraka emerged from the secret passage, and shouted: “Weegwegwallow!” As we fought the mites, who threw several darts, two giant spiders crawled through the webs on the ceiling, and sprayed down their webs.
Boris and
Milah made short work of them, though. It looked like we were winning the day, when suddenly a mist appeared. The Spiders could not see me, I had to advance.
Soraka fearlessly ran into the fog, crying a new battle cry: “WOMBATATEMYBREAKFAST!!!” I was a little concerned, I wondered if
Soraka was trying to take my job, and inspire the Spiders on her own. As I emerged on the other side of the cloud, the mites lay dead. We searched the bodies, and took what little they had in the way of valuables. They seemed to be rather poor, though.
There was an exit leading to the west, but I wanted to back north to see if the hallway linked up to the other areas we had already mapped out. I was correct, but we also discovered a loose flagstone.
Kaz pulled it open, revealing a cavity in the floor. As he did so, several small spiders poured out of the cavity. It was a spider swarm!
Kaz moved away before the swarm could envelop him, but Pig and
Boris were not so lucky.
Soraka yelled “WEEGUM-WAGUM”, and pulled an oil flask out of her backpack. I knew the swarm was quite deadly, but I needed to stay close enough to aid my allies. I began to sing:
See these tears so blue,
An ageless heart,
That can never mend,
These tears can never dry,
A judgement made,
Can never bend...
Ne-Los cast a Burning Hands spell on the swarm, burning some of the bugs away. Then I blasted it with a Chord of Shards, dispersing the swarm, and destroying most of them. Looking in the cavity, we found a bag where (presumably) the mites kept the bulk of their treasure. We gathered up the coins, and went back to the mite's common room, then headed west.
The hallway stretched on for a while, then ended in a staircase leading down. Yet another level beneath The Crow! We descended down the stairs and found ourselves in an area with lots of spider webs. We could go south or west. We could hear something stirring to the west, so we decided to go that way. We came to an intersection from which halls spread in the four cardinal directions. Along the west, north, and south halls there were several doors, to small chambers or cells most likely. We were about to investigate, when four ogre spiders crept down the passage to attack. We were just barely able to create a choke point before they set upon us! In the face of such deadly opposition, I had to sing one of my best songs:
Ziggy played guitar,
jamming good with Wierd and Gilly,
And The Spiders from Mars.
He played it left hand,
but made it too far,
Became the special man,
Then we were
Ziggy's Band.
Ziggy really sang,
Screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo
Like some cat from Tian,
he could lick 'em by smiling
He could leave 'em to hang
He came on so loaded man,
Well-hung and snow white tan.
(This was where we left off)
