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| Supraesophageal ganglion(5), Subesophageal ganglion(31) (source) |
Last episode: The heroes made a dramatic entrance and barely defeat the insect creatures that lay waiting below.
This cavern contains four exits: the ceiling, two tunnels to the west, and one tunnel to the east.
The cleric attempts to anchor a rope back to the hole in the ceiling using a detached leg from the insect creature. The attempt fails, clattering against the cavern ceiling or not embedding deep enough to support a person. The party laments the lack of teleporting assassins or a clement dwarf upstairs.
The heroes talk at length about setting up camp to lick their wounds. There is concern against setting up camp against the bare rock wall, as the insect creatures are capable of burrowing through rock. Surveying the area, they find large beams of half-rotted, half-petrified wood. The remains of some tower-like foundation litter the area. The bard finds no loot. The party agrees to build a little fort and take watch. The rest lasts for ten hours and passes without incident.
The party travels through the northern-most west exit. The tunnel is coated in a mild slime which irritates the skin, but otherwise appears harmless. Travelling about eighty feet, there is a T-junction. The party decides to use the old "hand on wall" approach and sticks to the left wall.
The party approaches a small cavity with a low ceiling, perhaps sixty feet across? Something like that. In the centre were a few humanoid corpses surrounded by the insectoid creatures. The bard bravely rolls around in the slime to blend in. The party deals the first strike.
The bard leads with his abstract sonic attacks. The fighter fumbles early in the battle, his whip flying across the room from his buttery fingers. As a result, the fighter spends the majority of the battle punching thoraxes (thoraces?), eventually moving onto more obscure anatomical features as the other sites transform to mushy patches of ichor. The subesophageal ganglion was punched at one point. The warlord also joins in the fray. The cleric hangs back as support artillery, as does the mage. At one point the bard realizes he doesn't have any armour.
The battle progresses handily, our warriors handily containing and dispatching most of the enemies. One dives into the rock face and escapes. There is a sneak attack from the rear: an insect latches onto the mage, riding him for the rest of the battle like a cowboy on a frail glass bronco. The mage's numerous escape attempts fail, and his cries for help are largely ignored by the rest of the party (who are busy crushing thorax elsewhere). The insect which escaped into the rock reappears, opening up a new tunnel next to the mage.
One of the corpses reveals itself to be alive and crawls towards an exit. The bard loots the other corpses in the middle of the battle. The rest of the party turns back to the mage, as they have run out of thoraxes to pulverize. At this point the mage is losing consciousness and has used up another charge of the fulgurating wand. The mage finally escapes from the first insect and flees, confident that the fighter will intercept. Alas, the insect just jumps over and latches onto him again. With a little help from his friends, the remaining insects are dispatched.
The cavern now has six tunnel exits: two created during the battle (which end up looping on itself), one the party entered from, and three others. The corpses found were goblin-like, dressed as the goblins found at the Circle's villa. On his person are pouches: one contains gunpowder, there is also a scroll found written in unknown language. At the bottom of the scroll is a familiar seal of the House of Five Blades (or was it Swords? The one that jerk Colter is with.).
Rather than pursue the escaped corpse immediately, the party takes a ten minute break to rest. Continuing the "hand on left wall" trick, the party follows the next exit and find themselves in the first crypt room (the one with the pile-of-skulls centrepiece). A trail of blood leads to the goblin which crawled away. He is dead and pouches are ripped from his body. Footsteps are heard travelling away; the party pursues to the brazier room, but finds no one. Frustrated, the party runs screaming from one place to the next. At this point, it's kind of a blur, really.
