Hexblade's Lost Mine of Phandelver - Main Thread

Quote from Paradox42 >>

At Arvel's words, Ethan looks up at the trees and webbing, seemingly considering setting everything on fire.

"Maybe we should set it all on fire..."

Ethan doesn't seem to be thinking straight.

 

 "Please don't. We're going to get through this, Etan. The cliffs are just ahead."

Edgar perception: 7

The map Tarja is following indicates that they should skirt around the cliffs to the left to find the castle where Gundren is being held.  As the party begins to ascend into rockier terrain they reach a wall of stone at which time Krikket reports there may indeed be a path between cliffs shortly to their left as they had hoped.  A moment later he reports that his limited vision may also be seeing a cave there, a circle of blackness amidst the otherwise moonlit stone.  He also reports seeing increased spider web density in the their path, however.

'We need to move in force towards the cave up ahead, no sense in scouting out the path and splitting the party - we need to push on to find a place to camp for the night.'  Zeke's tone is forceful and brooks no quarrel.  He shakes loose his blade into its full length and sets out at a bruising pace towards the small cave set into the cliffs, relying on his Darkvision to spot any threats headed their way.

At Arvel's claim that the cliffs are not far ahead, Ethan seems to relax, ever so slightly.

"Right, ok, sorry."

Ethan refrains from starting any fires in the tree's, as the group continue on.

As the group comes upon the cliffs, Ethan puts the rock wall behind him.

Ethan nods agreement at Zeke's suggested course of action.

"Yeah that sounds good, we should be able to defend ourselves from there."

"But..." Elra quietly objects. "Spider webs... giant spiders...," she keeps moving, but her feet seems to be dragging.

If the cave is uninhabited, that seems like a cozy resting spot. At least there we can be protected on most sides, instead of being out here in the open. Hopefully we can get to it safely.

I can try to peer in and see what's there. If I can, I'll try and find us a safe path.

Tarja takes a bit of her mistletoe and a sprig or spruce and raises them to the fire. As they burn, a veil of shadows and silence radiate outwards. Finally, she crouches down and assumes the form of one of the spiders, her torch and equipment vanishing into her spider form - except for her Ring of Evasion, which stays on the tip of one of her pedipalps. Thus prepared, she heads out into the darkness.

Zeke nods slightly as Tarja's spider form scurries ahead of the main group.  He'll make sure the rest of the party stays close on her heels - well within the cone of darkness she created to help them make it safely to the cave up ahead. 

He can feel the fear radiating off of Elra, Ethan and Fae.  He can feel nothing from Arvel, but that no longer surprises him - the charlatan is a master at masking his true self.  Zeke worries about how they will react to monsters dropping out of the trees above them, or worse, if one of them is taken up into the trees to be mummified and eaten.  He needs to get them to the cave where he can set up a defensive position and give them all something to focus on to channel their fear into action.  Ethan will be able to fortify their location, Elra can help protect them with the blessings of her god and Fae's light will make them all feel comfortable once they get settled in.  And all of that is assuming nothing worse lurks in the cave....

Tarja transforms and silently moves in through the canyon.  She quickly discerns that this place is infested with evidence of spider activity, and death.  Large, thick webs stretch down close to the ground while strangling the few, now dead trees that litter the canyon floor.  In the webs are more than half a dozen humanoid sized cocoons.  As Tarja continues to move deeper into the canyon she spots the cave at the north end and a pile of bones from various creatures outside it.  Slinking over rough, rocky ground and between trees and webs the druid's spider form seems not to have attracted any notice thus far until she almost touches the large web covering half of the cave mouth.  As she enters she feels a gentle jolt from the ring of evasion that causes an action akin to a reflex as she pulls a leg away from the web, just having avoided touching it with the aid of her magical ward.  Slipping into the darkness her spider eyes see a cavern created from falling rubble from the cliffs on each side of this canyon.  The space is roughly 30 feet wide and deep and has a massive web in one corner and extending back to the web she had to crawl under to enter.  Up in the far corner of the web is a massive spider that Tarja deems to be potentially quite old.  The spider is adorned with a large, white egg sack on its rear quarters and its lidless eyes wait in the darkness while the spider rests.  Tarja is confident that she seems not to have disturbed this massive spider by not touching the webs, but thinks that any light from her companions behind could wake her.

Amidst the many discoveries in her scouting thus far Tarja noticed two more things of interest.  One was a glint of something shiny on the bodies held within two of the cocoons near the cave mouth.  The other was what she swore almost sounded like...someone snoring.  She heard it in the canyon but no longer does from within the cave.

As Zeke leads the rest of the party towards the cave he notices many of the same things about the canyon, the trees, the webs, and the cocoons but does not notice the snoring.

*If everyone is continuing to follow Tarja and Zeke please give me Stealth checks and Dexterity saves (the latter mostly being used for climbing into the cave while avoiding the web there).  We'll do these as group checks so as not to auto-fail the group just based on a large volume of rolls.  If you don't add the +10 from Pass Without Trace I will, so no worries on how you format it.  Perception checks are also optional at this time, mostly just if you are curious to know if your character perceived everything Tarja's good roll did.

Per the description please mark off one use of Tarja's Ring of Evasion.  Otherwise you guys had some great rolls so that worked out well!

Also placement on the map is not set in stone, I just wanted the icons on there.  Happy to move the rest up right behind Zeke or wherever everyone would like.

Stealth: 13

DEX Save: 2

Think I owe a Dex check - have a Stealth check in my earlier post #1346 

 Zeke keeps his blade out and treads carefully, ready to move forward to support Tarja if she runs into any trouble at all.  He looks back to make sure the rest of the party is following closely and carefully.  Zeke won't enter the cave at this stage, not until he's sure everyone else is safely inside and nothing is coming at them from behind....

(By the way, I said Dex save to be generous since that might include Proficiency, but I'll also allow Acrobatics for the same reason.  That should be the same or better as anyones straight DEX check, I believe, but you can look at it that way too if you like.  This is assuming people are entering the cave with Tarja.)

DEX Save: 21

Stealth check: 28 (disadvantage from armor, advantage from boots, so straight roll; +10 from Pass Without Trace; +1 from necklace)

(I would think that Zeke and the others would be a little closer, so Zeke can spring into action in any direction, if the group is attacked.)

Confirming Fae and Ethan have light out...?  Anyone else?

Stealth: 16

Dex Save: 19

(Also, Elra's not holding any light. She's too scared to expose any part of her body to the spiders.)

Tarja tries to gesture at everyone to keep their lights off as they approach the cave following her lead.

Unfortunately, since she is currently in spider form AND shrouded in magical shadows, this is unlikely to have any effect.

Noticing her party members begin to proceed with the utmost caution, Fae would pause. She'd study her stealthier companions steps, trying to set to memory their steps. The divine wizard would pocket her glow stones as she takes a deep breath to steady herself. Edgar would hug himself into Fae's bun.

Fae would blink, her eyes now black. She'd follow the path she memorized to get to her friends.

Stealth: 21

Dex Save: Portent 17

The wizard would blink again to return her eyes back to her violet pupils.

Fae still can't see squat. As tempting as it was to pull out her stones again, she'd instead think about attempting a different approach at 'seeing'.

Arvel reaches out with his thick cloak and quickly snuffs out Ethan’s torch. As the artificer turns in protest, the charlatan holds a finger firmly against his lips. Ssh!

Ethan panics for a moment, but starts to calm as he sees that Arvel and everyone else are attempting to sneak.

Ethan pops his small light stone device off his armor and wraps it in some cloth, to dim it down to just enough light, that he can only just see the ground beneath him.

Ethan does not look happy, as he attempts to make his way, and not get lost.

Every few feet, Ethan jerks his head one way or the other, responding to real or imagined sounds.

Occasionally a shiver will run down Ethan's whole body.

The party moves through the cavern with impressive stealth, aided by magically shifting shadows and muffled sound.  Just before putting out their lights Ethan and Fae see slight movement up in the trees but all goes quiet again as the darkness takes hold.  Staying close to those with darkvision they follow along between the dead trees, webs, various bodies in cocoons and piles of bone.  Slipping past the web covering part of the cave mouth Zeke's wing catches a thread but he is able to slowly ease it back into place and as he watches there are no reactions from the giant spider or any others in connected webs.

The group now stands in this relatively small, dark cavern while up close and personal with the massive spider with the egg sack.  It's lidless eyes stare at the group, but Tarja has now discerned that the spider is in a resting state, likely awaiting stimulation from light or movement of food on the web network.  She also knows that it will not rest forever and could attack at any second.