Entry 4
We have decided to enter the caverns once again and seek our doom in the bowels of the earth. At least we exhibited the marginal sense to explore in a direction that the fell drider was unlikely to take: a series of small caverns separated by exceedingly narrow passageways, the third of which had razor blades embedded in its edge. After smashing out these blades, we squeezed through several more of these narrow points, and drew near to yet another cave full of bats, as the smell and texture underfoot presaged. Bah. After passing this point we came to a great void of a cavern, so large that the beams from our lanterns reached not its sides or top, and revealed only a mass of thick webbing below. As our group felt somewhat miltant about spiders by this point in our travels, a torch was let down, and the webs, slow to catch at first, did go up in a massive firestorm, illuminating briefly the full extent of the cave as it raged across the floor wiping clean all that lived below, leaving naught but great gouts of smoke to be seen. At this point we did retreat for the time being as the smoke did begin to draw down the tunnel that we arrived from.
As we turned away from this now-smoldering cavern, we did hear a sound echoing down the stone tunnelways towards us: the sound of metal clashing on metal. As we drew closer, we found yet another cavern, at the end of which was the hideous drider-beast, smashing some arcane machine with a great hammer. As yet unseen, we crept toward it, determined to take it unawares and put this foul thing out of our misery. The ever-so-nimble thief Al Ferac launched the first volley of Greek Fire against the foe as it finally noted our presence, and flushed with his success did let slip his second throw, igniting himself quite nicely. Luckily for him the drider soon had other matters to concern him, as I unleashed the mighty spell of my own devising, the Fist of Nubis. A great whirling blue fist did streak forth from my out-thrust blade, and struck the foolishly unimpressed drider with such great concussive force that, dazed, it slumped long enough for the screaming dwarf to complete his charge and bury his axe in its bloated body some few times and end its miserable existence.
The remains of the arcane mechanism were a puzzlement, but as best as I could make out a moving belt of some sort did take in objects of some sort in one end, subject them to the effects of a wand thrust into the centre of the machine, and unceremoniously dump them into a holding pen upon the other side. Given that the pen was filled with the tracks of raging gibberlings, and that the wand upon closer inspection did appear to induce a change of form upon its victim, we deduced that this was a mechanism for the production of gibberlings. Why the drider was destroying this we know not. However, there were in the same room some number of burial mounds, which upon inspection (for we noted that two such mounds were now emptied) contained (cunningly trapped) corpses of Dark Elves. Whilst we puzzled over this, from a hole there burrowed out a massively long centipede-related creature, a Carrion Crawler, which no doubt had been feeding upon the contents of these shallow burial mounds. At this juncture I did decide to test the efficacy of the wand which we had removed from the machine, but it responded not. Better, I suppose, to have had it fail at that juncture than at one more critical, for the worm-like beast was no match for our various and diverse weaponry. At the last I was able to identify the boots of the drow and the sword wielded by the drider (upon which was engraved the runes "We Bite Deeply") as being enchanted, but yet by such enchantments as would unravel if the items were exposed to the sun or separated too long from the ill-understood radiations of the Underdark. Nevertheless, we retained these things for now.
There was little else of consequence to be explored; we found a room which to some in our party was apparently heaped high with treasure, whilst to the rest (including of course of myself) the treasure was but mere illusion, save only a few coins of copper and a single band of gold. What this room's purpose was I know not for when others did enter the room, there was apparently no effect upon them. At last I convinced the others that the goods in the room were in fact a magical trick, yet we did recover the ring, which was engraved with words to the effect that it would empower the wearer to see those things magically hidden from sight. I am rather a bit sceptical that this ring is indeed what it claims to be and for the time keep it for further investigation. Beyond this room was a small area ensorceled into perpetual darkness, about which we could discover nought save its limited extent, the presence of some sort of column or obstruction in its centre, and the apparent lack of further exits. Exploring a downwards-sloping tunnel yielded only a small pool of water fed by an underground stream with some few silvers in it; after recovering this small change we (for reasons I understand not) partially blocked the stream, raising the water level in this small area significantly and precipating a quick retreat.
Shortly we did return to the Twisted Tower, en route cheered by those who had so astutely noted the absence of gibberlings that night. Therein did we collect our promised reward, a useful sum given the gold-grubbing tendencies of this primitive society, and decided to winter in Shadowdale before setting out upon spring for the nearby town of Daggerdale, wherein several bases of resistance to incursions by the dark Zhentillar forces do exist.