D&D: Side Campaign 1 Log - Pt 1

Original Four Characters
Nirreh – Elf Ranger (Me)
Thoradin – Dwarf Fighter
Plainsrunner – Razorclaw Seeker
Kristoph – Human Paladin

Later Characters
Brute - Minotaur Barbarian
Lemartes - Human Invoker (Me)
Hana - Deva Shaman
Furyheart - Longtooth Warden

So for this campaign, most of it was randomized. I don’t know exactly how the rolls worked, since currently, we’re not supposed to know. Our DM had a pre-built map and an encounter chart though. Pretty much whenever we moved to a new room, our DM would roll to see what was in there. Our DM would first roll to see if it was an encounter. If it was, he would then roll to see how difficult it was 6 being the easiest, 1 being the hardest.

The story is that we were an adventuring party, and we arrived into a town. After staying for a while, we heard stories of corpses walking around in the graveyard at night, which had the townspeople all pretty scared. So we headed over to the graveyard at night, and when we arrived, we were ambushed and overwhelmed by a swarm of spiders and knocked unconscious. We then all woke up cocooned in their lair.

Sorry, I don't have any notes from Saturday. The only real notable thing that happened was that we met Arachnia, the Broodmother, when we entered the big room to the far right on the map above. She basically told us that we were going to die down here, and I ended up mouthing off, yelling about how we were going to kill her and all of her friends. She didn't like that and sent the following encounter the next time we played...

Sunday
-Hanged Ones + Praetorian Spider were sent from Broodqueen during our extended rest

Encounter 1
Praetorian Spider x1
Hanged One x8

Encounter 2
Phase Spider x1 
Mindwarp Spider x1
Rot Spider Swarm x1

-Mindwarp Spider mind controlled the Guard, who attacked, but missed Plainsrunner.

-I got bit by Phase Spider, and contracted something

-I tried to use Parting Strike, but the Phase Spider teleported me back in front of him, and I failed my saving throw, so I was knocked unconscious.

-Phase Spider botched, which made him fuck up and teleport outside of the room

-Guard dies, and the Mindwarp Spider tries to mind control Kristoph, but fails

-Thoradin also contracted something, and failed the saving throw, falling unconscious

-Kristoph went into dying state from Phase Spider bite; Plainsrunner botched First Aid check, and injured Kristoph more. I finally stabilized Kristoph.

-Plainsrunner also went incapacitated from Rot Spider Swarm damage, but I stabilize him

-Thoradin also went incapacitated from Rot Spider Swarm damage, but I failed to stabilize him once, and then succeeded

-With only the Mindwarp Spider left, a vision of the Broodqueen invaded my mind, and said, “I’ve had my fun, don’t you forget whose lair you’re in next time and mouth off to your superiors.” The Mindwarp Spider then disappeared.

-After the last spider was killed, the Noble broke out of his catatonic funk, and thanked us for saving him. Being irritated after watching my whole group come VERY close to death, I told the Noble to fuck off. He then gave my reward to Plainsrunner, because I was being a dick. He also gave Kristoph a reward.

Encounter 3
Darkmantle Spider x1
Phase Spider x3

Encounter 4
Shadow Spider x1
Living Spidermolt x3

-Find a Noble wrapped in a cocoon… except that it turns out to be two Poltergeists

Encounter 5
Poltergeist x2
Acid Spider x2

-An Acid Spider ate Thoradin’s Warhammer, and a second spider almost ate his armor.

-We move to another room, and there’s a Noble, cornered by Spidermolts

Encounter 6
Living Spidermolt x4

Encounter 7
Darkmantle Spider x1
Rot Spider Swarm x3

-Darkmantle Spider ate the noble while we were taking an extended rest.

-Plainsrunner went to dying state from Swarm damage

-Kristoph went to dying state from Swarm damage

-Thoradin also went to dying state from Swarm damage

- I also went to dying state from Swarm damage

-Kristoph critically saves from dying and surges back to life. He hides in a corner and tries to pray to Avandra for help,but ultimately fails. Plainsrunners and myself (Nirreh) die, while Thoradin and Kristoph are captured and cocooned in the starting room.


Monday

-While Kristoph and Thoradin were awake in cocoons, they noticed a familiar voice, Arachnia. The Broodqueen continues to taunt them, “I see those Rot Spider Swarms were very effective, two of your original party have perished. I suppose I shall show you how the swarms are made.” And Arachnia disappears, laughing.

-My new character, Lemartes - Human Invoker, woke up in the cocoon room, along with everyone else. A Minotaur Barbarian by the name of Brute has taken the place of Plainsrunner

-We break each other out of our cocoons and hear faint zombie moaning. Upon looking in the direction of the moaning, we notice the zombified corpses of Nirreh and Plainsrunner slowly shambling towards them.

Encounter 1
Nirreh’s Corpse x1
Plainsrunner Corpse x1

-As we “killed” each corpse, a Rot Hatchling Swarm burst through the corpse’s flesh

-Moving to the room below, Arachnia’s voice echoes through the chamber, “I see you managed to escape my little trap. I hope you don’t mind, but I set up another one for you. Kill them my pets!”

Encounter 2
Mindwarp Spider x1
Dire Vampspider x2
Otyugh x2

Encounter 3
Phase Spider x4

-Phase Spider crit Thoradin and knocked him unconscious, eventually saves

-Kristoph and I get knocked unconscious, eventually save

-So we ended our session after totally getting disease fucked. The Fighter got to the final stage of Filth Fever and can't regen health at all. The Berserker failed a save against Meanloc Disease and ran towards the Broodqueen's lair and jumped down the hole, so he's fucked.

-Chasing after Brute, the Berserker, Kristoph grabs him, but Brute breaks free and jumps down the hole. Passing an arcana check, we know that we only have two days to save Brute, otherwise he dies.

-Perception check to look down the hole, we notice that there is a force field covering the hole. Upon poking the force field, we find that we can’t get through. Since we’ve explored every room, except for one more passage, we go there and south of it, we find an exit with sunlight shining through. Deciding that it would be better to try and find Thoradin some help, rather than go find Brute, we head towards the exit. We come across 4 Carrion Swarms eating a corpse. Hesitating on what we should do, a group of spiders appear behind us.


Tuesday

Encounter 1
Carrion Swarm x4 (eating a corpse)
Ettercap Webspinner x1
Tangler Spider x1
Shadow Spider x1

-Once all of the spiders except the Tangler were dead, it grabbed Thoradin and started dragging him off. Luckily we killed it before it dragged Thoradin away into the dark.

-We exit the cave to find Thoradin a disease cleanser. Kristoph doesn’t have enough gold to afford the healing, so he haggles with a merchant to sell his old armor. After getting enough money, Kristoph is cleansed of his diseases also.

-Tired and exhausted, we decide to take an extended rest in an inn.

-After the rest, we decide to look for more adventurers to go with us back to the spider caves. We don’t find anyone willing to go, but we do hear about a female shaman that was interested in the caves. Upon more listening, we found out that she had left for the caves a few days ago.

-We entered the spider cave again to hopefully run into the Shaman and to finally dispose of Arachnia. Upon entering the cave, we hear panting, and we see a female Deva Shaman running towards us, “Run!” she yells. Behind her, there are 2 giant hordes of zombies and some spiders chasing after her.

Encounter 2
Zombie Throng x2
Mindwarp Spider x1
Tangler Spider x1
Adolescent Tomb Spider x1

-The Mindwarp Spider got a crit roll for mindcontrol on Kristoph, whom cleaved Hana, the Shaman, knocking her unconscious. I stabilized her next turn though.

-After the battle, Hana awakens and is very angry with us, especially Kristoph, since he whomped her near to death. She yells at Kristoph for his blunder, even though it was the Mindwarp Spider’s fault, and doesn’t trust us enough to stay. So, Hana storms off out of the cave.

-Chasing after her, we leave the cave, but we are unable to find her, and none of the townsfolk know where she could have gone. In the center of town, we ask more people if they’d seen her, but one woman mistakes Kristoph’s question as an insult and slaps him for 4 damage.

-We then come across the mayor, and ask him if he knows of any people who would help us. He mentions a tribe of shifters north of town.

-We head to the shifter tribe, and greet the chieftain. We inform him of what has happened. He mentions that he met Plainsrunner before he was captured, since being a fellow shifter, Plainsrunner stopped by the tribe before heading to town. The chieftain is saddened by the news that Plainsrunner is dead, and inquires if we are heading back to the cave to avenge Plainsrunner’s death. We tell him that that is one of our aims, alongside saving the town from the horrors. The chieftain joins our party, and we head back to the graveyard and enter the spider cave once more.

-We take Furyheart, the chieftain, to the room with the hole in the ground. We tell him of the barrier, and I try to break the barrier with an Avenging Light, but I end up blinding Thoradin and myself.

Left room with the oval is the giant hole. The room on the right with all the branches
is the room after we go down the hole.

-Furyheart hears noise coming from the hole, “Hide!” Only Furyheart manages to successfully stealth. An Ettercap Praetorian riding a Blade Spider emerges from the hole. They appear to be some sort of royal guard, the Ettercap points towards the hole that it just came from and then skitters back down. The familiar voice of Arachnia echoes through the room, “Come into my parlor.”

-I botch my roll to climb down and end up falling down the hole, but Furyheart grabs me

-Once we get to the bottom, we're in a room that has a bunch of tunnels that branch off. It seems to be some sort of transport nexus that the spiders use to travel around.

-We enter into the second tunnel on the left, and make another left (the room with the tokens in the picture above.) We come across another noble in a cocoon, and I remember something about a special noble down here. We break the noble out of the cocoon and he turns out to the King’s Nephew. Arachnia's voice echoes through the room,  “I will not let you take him, you die here! Brute, after them!”

Encounter 3
Zombie Throng x1
Tomb Spider Broodswarm x1
Adolescent Tomb Spider x2

-Furyheart falls unconscious from the Zombie Throng, but uses his Bear’s Endurance feat to get back up and healing surge

-Kristoph falls unconscious from the Zombie Throng

-Thoradin falls unconscious from the Zombie Throng

-Kristoph crit saves against death saving throw, gets back up and healing surges


To be continued...
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