Enola Yarn – blogpost 27

The mutated drow that I cannot see throws a giant rock at Farryn. Luckily, the stone breaks when it hits Gronds’ shield. Before Farryn can sigh of relief, I see another stone being hurled at him through the darkness. It misses, but nearly. “I can’t see it, I can’t see it!” Farryn yells. He turns around and walks away into the darkness to find the mutated drow. Valentine and Zeph also walk out of sight. “THERE IS ANOTHER ONE!” I hear a couple of seconds later from Valentine. I run towards her but still cannot see the target. Where could they be?

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” I yell towards Valentine. “In the right and left corner in front of you.” She responds. I aim a firebolt to the right corner Valentine’s pointing at. Suddenly, a giant creature appears in front of me. It is close enough so I can see it. But before I can interpret the situation, it throws a giant rock at me. In a reflex, I cast shield. The rock turns to gravel when it touches the magical surface. Valentine attacks the mutated drow, and I hurl a chromatic orb at it. From the corner of my eye, I can see the other mutated drow as well – occupied by Farryn. I choose to take cover, so I run back in the direction I came from and hide behind the wall. Fortunately, I can still see my party: Farryn and Grond taking on the drow in the south, and Valentine (with her magic sword Taerulei) and Zeph fighting the other one near me.

As I’m watching Zeph and Valentine, Valentine grows in size. Zeph is performing his magic. I shoot a firebolt in the meantime. When Valentine is done growing, she slashes the drow with her sword and slays it. Okay, so I don’t have to attack that one anymore: I switch my target. I shoot a firebolt at the next mutated drow where Farryn is busy. I’m still staying behind when Valentine and Zeph gang up on the drow together with Grond and Farryn. Valentines’ sword is blinking in the dim light… The drow growls and drops to the floor – dead. I run towards them.

When I am closer, I see Valentine shrink, but flying as well. She doesn’t fly often, but now she has weird-looking black wings, and she’s still looking like me – so that’s odd. I choose not to ask any questions.

Up close, the mutated drow look really damaged. Like, really mutated. Its skin is awfully misformed. I take a step back and investigate our surroundings. The hall is empty and decorated with carved-out stone spider webs. We walk further into another hallway. We see moonlight above a pretty statue. I stay a bit back, but Zeph flies face-first into the light – a moonbeam. Valentine feels the light with her hand, both she and Zeph get scorched by the moonbeam.

After the initial shock, Valentine takes out Tearulei. Apparently, the sword told her he wanted to behold the statue. The statue is a carving of Elistraee. It is quite beautiful. Valentine gives Tearulei to the statue, it fits perfectly in Eilistraees’ hand. Suddenly, we hear a click, and the statue moves. The door behind her opens…

We move through the door. The hallway behind it is cleaner, greener, and more well preserved than other hallways we’ve seen. It seems more royal in some way. The party is trying to be stealthy, but I’m still talking about the statue and how awesome it was to see it move. We enter a new hall. The hall has a balcony above it, supported by pillars that look like spider legs. Farryn and I find stairs leading to the balcony and ascend. Farryn and I are talking loudly while walking and investigating the upper level. “HI!!!” I shout to Valentine and Zeph, who are still downstairs.

Nothing is moving here, but on the other side of the balcony we see a giant statue – it is half-drow, half-spider. I follow Farryn to investigate. I have NO idea what this statue is, nor what kind of magic it might have. Out of curiosity, Farryn opens a door close to us.

With a horrible grinding sound, the statue of the spider-drow comes loose from its base. It starts walking. This is bad; this is REALLY bad. All hell breaks loose. I try to hide, Farryn is closer at the moment. I hear him mumble: “Guys… I have a BAD feeling about this.” I shoot my firebolt, but the statue comes closer. It attacks Farryn with a kind of web that is other-dimensional. As Farryn breaks free, he walks away. I’m still standing at the door – now alone. As soon as I realize that, I choose to flee as well. I first attack with a firebolt and use misty step to transport myself downstairs. Zeph and Valentine were already upstairs but at a safer distance. From this distance, I can see the statue is of a Lolth. It is now crawling over the balustrades, closer to Farryn. I hit the Lolth again, now critically: a couple of small rocks fall down. Zeph tries to protect Farryn, but I still hear Grond growl, so that wasn’t enough I’m afraid. I hope everyone is still okay… Zeph also shoots some arrows, but they bounce off and fall down at my feet.

Lastly, I see the light of a firebolt (from Valentine) and hear rock crack. A big piece of stone falls down – luckily missing me. I walk upstairs, thinking the statue is destroyed. Everyone is okay, and the statue is not moving anymore. “What a STUPID statue,” Valentine says, kicking a stone on the ground. Zeph sculpts the rock and takes off its face and puts it over his own, imitating the statue. That is too much – what an odd fairy. I don’t get the humor in this. The fight could’ve resulted in our demise!

Farryn quickly checks the room behind the door that set off the Lolth. Behind it, we see a natural cave and a couple of armored Troglodytes. Valentine really wants to rest before we continue our way. We close the door and take a rest. I attune with the wand of the War Mage, and Zeph plays a song on his flute. Besides that sound, it is eerily quiet here – it doesn’t feel right – ominous, even.