The group rushed down the scorpion tunnel to rescue Janlynn and Tetsuo, quickly finishing off the monster. Our assailants were either dead or fled and Tetsuo and Janlynn were revived and their wounds tended to. It was agreed that we felt strong enough to continue and Nim moved to investigate the webbed up tunnel.
Nim detected a couple of creatures hiding above, just inside the web tunnel. He noticed a Hag at the end of the tunnel and fired off a crossbow bolt with good effect and she could be heard screeching in pain. Nim smiled in satisfaction as he came back to the group telling them what he had scouted out. Finally, we had found our quarry, and were one step closer to ending their horrible control over our dreams.
Ready to take on the hag and her minions, we moved to fight our way down the tunnel. The pair of creatures clinging to the walls and ceilings were horrible creatures of the Underdark. They were humanoid as far as limbs went, but their bulbous heads had spider like mandibles and eyes, and they fired globs of webbing from their behinds at us. Akkiir found himself webbed to the floor by one of the creatures. The hag at the end of the tunnel cast some sort of transmutative spell upon Nim. He could feel himself fighting off the effects as his body started to transform into something else. Luckily Nim won that contest and retreated around the corner with his normal form still intact. Akkir was freed from the webbing and retreated as well.
With a hag at the end of the tunnel casting spells and two strange spider creatures just inside the tunnel waiting to pounce, our group needed a few moments to come up with a plan. Wanting to battle against one front at a time, I suggested taking one of the monstrous scorpion bodies and pushing it ahead of us down the tunnel so that we could block attacks from the hag and concentrate on the other creatures first.
Uphir and Tetsuo hefted one of the chitinous bodies, dragging it into the tunnel. At first they had to tip the scorpion on it's side, struggling to make it through the five foot opening. From there they could tip it back down and progress through the tunnel. The strong webs allowed them to rest the body against them so that they could attack the creatures above.
No sooner had we began to attack than the hag cast a devastating bolt of lightning down the hall. The scorpion body did little to protect them from the power and force of the blast of lightning. It arced through the bodies of my friends, severely wounding them, and dropping Tetsuo to the floor unconscious. A hasty retreat was called and Tetsuo was pulled back around the corner by the others. Lightning Bolts!! Egads!
We debated our next move, and tended to Tetsuo. I cast an illusion to try and trick the hag into thinking that we were in the tunnel again - hoping that they would waste another lighting bolt on nothing. They did not take the bait, so it was decided that we needed to move ahead as quickly as we could, pushing the scorpion corpse along ahead of us. The spider creatures fired more webbing at us and realizing we were pushing the scorpion further and further down the corridor, they rushed to stay ahead of us on the ceiling, some fifteen feet overhead.
We did not make it as far as we had hoped before the hag sent another lightning bolt down the tunnel at the group. This was just as devastating as the first and set us to retreat, dropping Uphir to the floor in the process. It is always a shock of dismay and fear I feel whenever I see Uphir stumble in battle, for she is the mightiest of creatures I have even witnessed. We managed to scramble back away from the tunnel, as close to death as I had ever seen. Uphir would be fine, but she was severely wounded. We decided our only course was to retreat back up into the windmill and lick our wounds with at least a short rest.
I played soothing songs to my friends and wove the notes together with the web of feywild energy that blankets the universe, adding some little healing to my friends recuperation. During our rest it was time once again to turn to our strange, bottled tadpole. He was somewhat distressed about all of the lighting bolts being hurled at us and thought we could leave him behind if we were going to try that again.
Nim began bargaining with the being and indicated that we would return it to it's nest again if it would give us some information. It really wanted a donation of blood, but decided that would suffice. At Akkiir's suggestion it was agreed that it would answer five questions for us and we would return it to it's nest.
Question 1: Are the hags controlling our dreams? Basically his answer was yes.
Question 2: How have your abilities been used by the hags against us? He was spying on us during our approach to the Mill and communicating with the hags.
Question 3: Name any specific weaknesses of the Hags? The only weakness he spoke of was that when they are defeated they are slow to rebuild their coven. (Not very helpful, really)
Question 4: Where is the sword of Light? He knew nothing of any sword of light.
Question 5: Have you been in contact with the hags since we found him? No.
Not as helpful as we were hoping. If Janlynn had her way she would destroy this creature and does not approve of communicating with it, let alone making deals with it. She suspects that the being is evil in nature, but has not yet used her magic to determine it for sure. We returned Snelb to his place in the attic, unsure if we will have need of him in the future or not.
Comments