Session 31: A Giant Spider, a Fountain of Pestilence and Jossel's Room

Blaze is paralyzed after being bitten by a giant spider, the party discovers a fountain of pestilence, and finds the former quarters of a cleric named Jossel.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our May 29, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to JoJo for the screen shots.

Continued from: Still Rats & Zombies

Date: May 20, 3517

The Mouth of Doom, Level 3.

11:40 AM
The door to the storeroom opened easily; which suggested someone was in there recently. There were rotted bags of grain, jugs of wine that are now vinegar, broken barrels; Blaze and Breena were in the room looking in the barrels. Beneddar was standing in the hallway.

As Blaze stepped into the southeastern corner of room, she found a giant jumping spider in front of her. The spider bit Blaze and paralyzed her. Beneddar, hearing a scream, ran into the room to investigate. Breena cast witch bolt on the spider and hit.

Elron stepped into the room, but couldn’t see the spider hidden behind the barrels. Sinis moved into the room and couldn’t see it either. Lark, in the hallway, moved to the door and guarded the hallway behind us. Beneddar moved closer to see it and cast Toll the Dead on the hairy beast.

The spider turned toward Breena and threw a blob of web at her, pinning her to the floor. She pulled loose without breaking her concentration on the witch bolt, and killed the spider with the bolt.

 
Breena ran to Blaze, who was lying on the floor, paralyzed. Breena yelled, “someone needs to heal Blaze!”

Parahelia ran over to heal her from the paralysis. Once Blaze could move again, Parahelia healed her physical injuries, so that she was back to normal once more.

We searched the room more carefully again and in addition to the grain, wine, broken barrels, and giant jumping spider, found 12,104 cp; a silver plate, a box of spices; a bag with 245 sp. Sadly, no gold. It looked like someone had already looted the room and left the copper pieces behind. Beneddar sliced the spider open in case it swallowed something; nope, just entrails.

Elron, looking at the box of copper pieces, put debris on it to hide it.  We’ll come back through here and pick it up later.

Blaze, back in the lead, went east down the hallway, passed two 10-ft by 10-ft alcoves on the north side, and found an octagonal room with a mural of five men.  The last man had black paint on his left hand; the others were not defaced. There were doors on the north and east walls of the octagonal room. The mural was on the SW corner, and there’s a large bloodstain in the middle of the floor. Going back to the alcoves, Lark determined that there was solid rock on all sides.

Checking the 13-ft ceiling, it was cracked and moldy. Sinis checked for secret doors in the western alcove, but didn’t find any.

In the octagonal room, Elron went to the north door and checked for traps and found that it was locked. He then went to the east door and he and Beneddar checked for traps and found none. The eastern door was also locked.

There was a mural on the south walls. It seems to be a memorial; five men in white robes; the last figure’s left hand was covered with black paint, the others did not.

The atmosphere was warm, humid, icky; even more so than where we had been before.

When Artie unlocked the north door, he noticed the door was warmer than the ambient temperature. The door opened inward, with the hinges on the right side. Elron opened it carefully. As he opened it, a heavy stench rolled out of the room. In the center of room was a seething puddle of putrescence that made our eyes water; it’s corroded into the floor. On the north wall, there is a corroded area where it seems to be coming from. I think we found the Fountain of Pestilence. Elron, Blaze, and Breena looked in; there’s a cave in the back and flooding out of the cave was the oozing puddle.

We could see a door on the east wall closer towards the back wall; we decided not to go in. Elron closed the door. Blaze made the point that this is a good reason to not let Lark ‘open’ all the doors with his sword; sometimes we will want to close the doors again.

Sinis went back to the store room and got a jug of vinegar.

Artie checked the east door in the octagonal room for traps; no trap, but it was locked and swollen shut. Artie unlocked it, and Elron forced the door open; it swung inward. It was an empty room with 2 doors on the east and south walls. A few small holes were drilled into the north wall, 3 sets of 3 arranged in a triangle, five feet up, ¼-inch diameter holes. We expected darts from the holes and sent Breena in. Blaze threw her ball at the far wall and got no reaction. Breena rolled the iron kettle across the floor to trigger any pressure plates. Beneddar used mage hand and rolled it around the floor, still no reaction.

The south door suddenly burst open and the biggest, meanest giant rat we had ever seen entered the room; it’s 10-ft across, oozing boils, its eyes red and intelligent, with only a few patches of fur left on its pale skin. It definitely looked like it visited the fountain next door. It moved up to the door we just opened and attacked Elron. Artie moved down to the south wall away from it. Elron moved back. We were all bunched up at the door… the one the rat was trying to charge through.

Artie cast fire bolt, but missed. Blaze moved back and cast witch bolt, and hit with lightning arcing across the room to the doorway.

Beneddar stepped back and cast Toll the Dead, which didn’t seem to affect it. Sinis moved back and cast his own witch bolt and hit, killing the beast.

Blaze levitated it and Beneddar used mage hand to move it to the door to the Fountain of Pestilence, and put it in the ooze. Breena stepped into the room, and looked through the south door where it came from. The southern room was empty except for huge rat droppings and rubbish. Moving into the room with the holes in the wall, we approached the door on the east wall; the door was swollen shut and locked. Beneddar checked for traps and found none.

Elron tried his lock picks on it and unlocked it, pushing it open. There was a rotted bed, nightstand, wooden chest, and 3 pictures on the nightstand. Lark, back in the other room, was tapping on the north wall. The holes were not deep; he said that they were mounts for torch sconces, removed or never completed.  

Breena looked at the pictures; all were charcoal sketches of different women’s faces, all young and attractive.

There was a wooden chest under the bedframe. Blaze moved the frame out of the way for Artie. Artie checked the lid on the chest; it had been pried open. Artie opened it with mage hand; it had mostly rotted cloth inside.

Someone suggested we check for secret doors and Sinis disagreed. He said that we hadn’t opened the other door in the area and we could be wasting our time looking for a secret door in a wall we might be able to reach by just walking around and opening a door.  Elron agreed.

Blaze, Breena and Beneddar disagreed and started checking for secret doors in the bedroom. Blaze checked on the east wall, Beneddar on the south wall, and Breena searched the north wall. Breena found a latch on the baseboard, she slid it aside and a hidden door popped open.

Inside this hidden room was an earthenware jar containing five golden rings with the inscription, “to my one and only.”

In one corner was a leather bag of gold with 500gp inside.

On a shelf in the back was a silver-headed mace. Nearby was an earring with an obsidian sphere dangling from it with “Rappan Athuk” inscribed on it. Also on the shelf were four scrolls, three red and one purple.

The three red scrolls were tied together with a parchment note that said, “Jossel, if you plan on continuing your activities with the young ladies of the various villages where you are assigned, the High Priest suggests that you might need these.” They were scrolls of lesser restoration.

The purple scroll was a scroll of greater restoration. Usable by anyone who could read common.

The last is what we needed to heal Beneddar and the reason we were on the third level instead of the second.

Elron said that we should save it until we exited the dungeon, remarking that Beneddar might get injured again or someone else might need it more before we were done. Could we get it copied?

Paraselene replied, “No, clerical scrolls need to be created from scratch.”

This enraged Beneddar who had been feeling ill ever since he had been hit with the poison dart. He told Elron that since he didn’t even want to look for secret doors, he shouldn’t have a say in the matter and said, “I am not sure I even want to adventure with this party anymore!”

Continued in Session 32 - The Ochre Jelly