Continuation from previous, the party wander through the sewers eastward, as the man-made sewer bricks give way to a…

Continuation from previous, the party wander through the sewers eastward, as the man-made sewer bricks give way to a more broken, uneven terrain. The sewer trench becomes an underground stream. They continue onward until they notice that the natural ceiling is beginning to show root tips. After a while longer, the roots are thick and slowing progress.

Taran decides to stop, pull a small trench shovel from his Adventuring Gear, and dig upward. Akra hoists him up to dig further and soon they break the surface. Taran crawls out doing his best risen dead impression, just in case any undead are around, but he is alone.

Using rope, the other two join him, and they decide to make camp. Nothing happened overnight, so they continue into the forest and soon notice that things seem extraordinarily colorful and vibrant. Discerning Realities, they see that some plants move. They see an Ent (different from Tolkien in that they don’t just get up and walk quickly – movement is verrrry slow aside from moving branches and the like), and in the distance that the forest grows darker due to thick webbing in the treetops.

Zahara goes and speaks to the Ent, against Taran’s advice, and learns a little about the spider menace and a Spider Queen, who has captured the water Nymph that guards the forest’s stream. The Ent asks her not to harm the forest in her efforts, as he realizes she is a Pyromancer. She agrees and also scratches an itch for him with her staff, then they press onward.

Reaching the edge of the webbing, they decide to scout the area. One spider pokes through the upper webbing as they are deciding what to do, and slowly lowers toward them. Taran decides to talk to it, asking if it could show them where the stream is and the location of the Nymph. The spider hisses that it can, grabs him by his clothing and begins hoisting him up into the webbing, hissing sarcastically, can you see it? (Conversely, he can from up there – the Nymph is bound in a cocoon and stuck to the wall). Taran then draws an arrow from his quiver that he’d dosed with golden root when they made camp. He uses it to just scratch the spider’s leg and of course he is the first creature the spider sees, so the spider now sees Taran as an ally.

Taran asks his new ally if he and his friends could be taken to the Spider Queen, so they can bring tribute to her. They arrive, with Taran riding his spider ally, and the Queen comes out of a wall of webbing. Taran realizes the golden root effect will be lost soon when he proves himself not an ally, so plunges his rapier through his steed and kills him. Quickly he tells her that this spider was conspiring against her and they were sent to aid her. She asks why Dara’keth (the Lich King of the undead front) would send the living to aid her, and he uses his thief move to lie about his alignment, saying he is evil, essentially. She believes him but wonders why he is in the company of one bearing the symbol of the Platinum Dragon? Zahara steps in, saying they are in disguise in the village, trying to blend with the good people as spies…

…then she goes on to say that she is Zahara Flameborn, perhaps the Queen had heard of her. She had, but because Dara’keth warned her of the Wizard. Suddenly they are under attack as the Queen morphs into a Dryder/Ettin sort of creature and five spiders lower from the ceiling of web. Zahara casts Fountsin of Flame around the Queen (injuring her badly), which also sets fire to the surrounding webbing. Taran bolts to the Nymph, trusting Akra and Zahara to hold the spiders off, so Akra Defends him while Zahara unleashes a fireball over 4 of the five spiders, leaving 1 HP on each. The uninjured spider jumps on Zahara’s back but cannot get through her armor with its bite.

Akra goes on the offensive with the Queen and ends up pinned to the ground by one spider leg, while she keeps her attention on Taran. Taran is pouring a healing potion in the Nymph’s mouth and is bitten by the Queen but not poisoned. Her focus on Taran allows Akra to get free, attacking her from behind and finishing her off. Zahara backs into the fire, Defying Danger of getting burned, and burns the spider on her back and killing it. She mops up the fleeing spiders (1 HP left each) while the Nymph is tended to.

The Nymph purifies the stream, Taran harvests poison from the Queen, and everyone rests there after being rewarded by the Nymph with a useful magic item.

Now they focus on the town again, having restored the town’s water supply and had a healthy drink of their own…