Chat Summary for 25 February, 2000

We started right were we left off last week, with the party standing above the beetle nest after killing nine of the large beetles.

As most of the party started to discuss what to do next Matar simply crawled down into one of the nearby tunnels. Xaveus quickly joined him. Castinar sent Hunter down after the pair to watch. Matar and Xaveus passed two "rooms" and many side tunnels before they found a larger tunnel heading down deeper into the ground. They also felt heat coming up from that long tunnel, so with Matar in the lead they started down it. At about this time Katrina tied three 50’ ropes together and started in after the two.

Matar descended for several hundred feet before hearing noise ahead of him. During the descent he also detected a faint orange glow from up ahead, but it wasn’t enough to see by. Xaveus told him he could see waves of heat coming up from below as well. Matar threw a light stone down the tunnel to illuminate what was making the noise. He discovered two normal beetles and one of the soft ones. The soft one picked his light stone up and headed down the tunnel. The other two beetles followed, so Matar tagged along behind them with Xaveus right on his heels.

After emerging into an area where the tunnels were natural Matar and Xaveus discovered the beetle nest. It was a large cavern shaped somewhat like a bean, but with a narrow connection between the two lobes. The two found themselves just outside the left lobe. Matar only caught a quick glance of the area before he pulled back, but he did see that the floor was literally covered in beetles and that the orange glow was coming from the other lobe.

Xaveus then volunteered to slip inside the rock and peek out the other side to see what was over in the right hand lobe. Matar agreed so the dwarf slid into the rock. While he was gone Katrina, having followed Hunter’s directions, caught up with the other two. Matar and Katrina waited nervously for Xaveus to return. When he did, the dwarf told them that the cavern on the right hand side had two levels. The upper level held several of the soft shelled beetles and numerous mounds of something. But it was what was in the lower area that interested everybody. Guarded by seven more of the larger beetles was the beetle queen. She looked much like one of the larger beetles without the mandibles, but instead of a normal abdomen she had a huge, watery, translucent bag a hundred feet long and about ten feet in diameter. Inside the bag along the top was a long tube of glowing orange that gave off the light and heat. The lower part of the tube was filled with small round balls, which Castinar later speculated were eggs.

After receiving this information Matar decided it was time to head back up and brief the party. Once at the surface Xaveus repeated his story to everybody. Some felt the party should just leave then, but others suggested they should take Amber down there to do one last scan for journal pages and try to detect any magic while they were at it.

The same three returned again, this time accompanied by Sane and Amber. On the way down through the tunnels Amber scanned all over with her Locate Object spell, but didn’t sense anything. When the group arrived outside the nest Amber continued to scan while Sane tried to sneak forward to get a first hand look at the queen. However, he slipped slightly and alerted the beetles to his presence. They started forward so Sane quickly retreated and then had the others pull back as well.

After stopping further back in the tunnel Sane decided he needed a levitate spell. Nobody there could provide him with one, so Kat returned to the surface and had Ari, Nikki and Diana accompany her back down into the tunnels. Once the spell casters arrived the group moved back close to the nest where Ari cast Levitate on Sane. Sane cast Detect Magic and then floated into the room to get a better look at what was going on.

The cavern itself was not much of a surprise, although Sane did notice two more exits in the left hand lobe. He also got a better look into the upper layer of the right hand lobe. He believed that the mounds up there were also eggs. But what really interested him was what was on the floor. He estimated there were at least 300 of the smaller beetles down there. He also counted seven of the larger one and about fifty of the soft-shelled kind. Curiously, about half of the soft shelled ones were gathered near the queen’s head, as if having a conversation.

Sane scanned the area with his spell. The only things that glowed with magic were the light stones the party used to distract the guard beetles and the long glowing tube inside the queen. Sane returned to where the party was and they discussed their options. Again, several wanted to attack the beetles so that they could explore the caves better, but this time the side that supported just leaving won out. So the whole group headed back up to the surface and left the cavern.

After moving several miles down the tunnel, still heading south, the party stopped and camped for the night. The next day they started forward again, with Sane and Castinar doing their leapfrog scouting.

Towards the late "afternoon" Sane discovered another cavern. He cautiously entered, discovering that there were two caverns that split off of the main tunnel. He went into the cavern on the right and, sticking to the wall, started forward, moving as silently as he could. As usual, he was also invisible.

After moving about a thousand feet along the wall he found a tunnel. He then continued along and after only another four hundred feet or so detected something rather unusual - the smell of bacon. He slipped forward again only a short distance before he heard something off to his left, in the cavern itself. He then move away from the wall and walked towards that sound, hearing several other sounds in the process. He finally made it into infravision range of the source of the sound and discovered that it was a huge snake, several feet in diameter.

He then was able to zero in on the source of a strange rustling sound to his left. Moving in that direction his luck finally gave out on him and he stepped on something that cracked just as the source of the sound came into view. It was a long tongue flicking in and out of what looked like a huge crocodile head about 10’ off the ground. When Sane made the noise the head quickly zeroed in on his position.

Deciding it was time to leave Sane turned and started to retreat as quickly but quietly as he could. But then it was the monster’s turn to be a little lucky. It lunged forward and managed to get its huge jaws around Sane. Clamping down hard it lifted Sane high into the air. The only thing that saved Sane was his stoneskin.

Sane tried to communicate with the creature, claiming that he was sent by Inzeldrin, but the creature ignored him. It kept biting down, trying to "crack" Sane’s shell. Both of Sane’s arms were trapped by the jaws, so he couldn’t cast many of his spells. After several rounds of this the creature pulled itself into a circle and threw Sane down into the center of the circle. As he landed Sane noticed that the "snake" had many small legs all along the side of it’s body.

The kenku quickly rose and tried to take off and fly out of the snake’s embrace. But once again the monster was fairly lucky and it managed to snap Sane out of mid-air and throw him to the ground once again. This time the fall hurt, and Sane realized that his stoneskin had finally worn off. He was in trouble.

As Sane fell again he noticed that the snake needed to uncurl to attack him in the air. This gave him an idea. He created a Spectral Force image of himself which jumped up into the air and attacked the monster’s head. As he suspected, the monster lunged after the illusion, giving him the space he needed to jump up himself and start flying to safety. The monster noticed his departure, but kept attacking the illusion.

Sane was able to fly to safety, although when he found the tunnel back to the party once again he was a little confused since he appeared to be in the left hand cavern now. Shaken and slobbery Sane quickly returned to where the party awaited to report on his near-death experience.

That’s where we stopped. Sane, please post what you say to the party (if you haven’t done already) and everybody feel free to press on from there.

BTW, no, nobody knows IC what this creature might be.

The combat map has been updated showing the parts of the cavern that Sane explored. We’re back to a 50’ grid on this map.

Questions? If not, feel free to discuss the situation.

Saif