The party, all except for Ani, awoke after their long rest. They found the stone they had picked up from the giant toad glowing and found that when placed with a character lost to the aether, they received a protective barrier. After placing Ani on the cart, the party decided to continue scouting out the ruins of Conyberry in the daylight. Determined to also find something useful for the party, Alexander investigated the building to the north east directly from the well. In doing so he encroached on a group of rats nesting and shuffling around a Giant Rat. He used his ability "Speak With Animals" to determine what they were saying. The giant rat was commanding the smaller rats to find it food. As they sniffed the air, they caught Alexander's scent. He attempted to flee before they could get to him, but seeing that he wouldn't make it back to the party in time he yelled for help. The giant rat leapt over the smaller rats to get to Alexander, but before it could, he cast Eldritch Blast on it, and sent it back ten feet. It gave him a tiny bit of breathing room. The party rushed from the cart to his aide and the battle against the rats began. The party fought diligently against the rats. While they were small, the group was able to dwindle the rat numbers down. The giant rat was felled first by beheading with a greataxe, while the smaller rats were picked off with dagger blows and thrown hand axes. The party slayed the group of rats, all while taking a bit of damage.
Breathing a sigh of relief that it was over, a couple of the party members felt a bit more confident, more powerful. (200 EXP to the party for defeating the giant rat and 10 rats.) Back in the house, Alexander investigated every nook and cranny. He was lucky when he knocked on a mostly destroyed book shelf and found that the wood had been embrittled enough that it crumbled inward to a crude safe cut into the stone wall. As he reached in, he pulled out a folded up cloth, well preserved by the lack of fire entering the stone cutout. As he unfolded the cloth, a necklace was revealed. Without the ability to discern if they were magical items or not, they were brought to the group to see if anything could be gleaned about them. Miss Coco used her skill in Arcana to determine what the items were. The cloth was actually a Cloak of Billowing, and the necklace a Necklace of Fireballs. Coco convinced Alexander that she would make use of the cloak, and so he gifted it to her while saving the necklace for himself. MamaBunny and Coco returned to the cart to rest while Alexander, Stout, and Perseus continued treasure hunting through the burned ruins. Moving north of the house with the rats, they rummaged through but found only burned belongings, including books that crumbled when touched. They continued in a counter clockwise direction on the outskirts of the village's buildings, still finding no more treasure.
When they reached the west side of the village, they started moving south. At the second ruin, they enter the house and head for the farthest room in the back. In the room they find a hairy, balled up creature that seems to either not notice them, or not care they are there. Alexander's curiosity gets the better of him, and he approaches it. It senses the movement and slowly uncurls its eight hairy legs from underneath its body. A giant spider, five feet tall, looms over the three adventurers. Stout freaks out, and attempts to pull Alexander away, however is unsuccessful and she herself is pulled by Perseus out of the house. The two retreat to the cart, hoping that Alexander won't be far behind.
With "Speak to Animals" still active, he speaks to the spider. It isn't hostile, and Alexander wishes to befriend it. As they talk, Alexander learns that the spider was once a pet of a villager. When the orcs attacked and burned the village, the Giant Spider had been out hunting its meal. When it returned, its "human" was nowhere to be found. Instead the village was destroyed, and the Giant Spider fell into a depression. Its human was kind, and cared for it. Without its human, all it had left was to simply survive, not to live its life. Alexander attempted to talk the spider into joining them and taking vengeance on the orcs nearby, but the spider explained that killing orcs wouldn't bring their human back, and chooses to live a life free of violence except to eat and defend itself. Alexander tried to tell it that it would be safer with them than staying in a destroyed village, but the spider wasn't interested. As an attempt to intimidate it, Alexander tried to tell it that if it stayed, bad humans might come and try to kill it, but while the message was received, it wasn't the way he was hoping. The Giant Spider agreed that Conyberry wasn't the right place for it, and that it was going to retreat to the forest to live out its remaining days away from the violent tendencies of humans and orcs alike. As it turned to leave through a hole in the roof, Alexander tried one last thing and Commanded the spider to wait. As it halted, it asked why. Alexander pleaded with the spider to let it meet the party and see that not all humans were bad. It agreed and he shot an Eldritch Blast into the air through the house's roof to call attention to the area. The party rushed to see if Alexander had been eaten by the spider, or if he was still alive. He positioned himself in the doorway to the room to protect the spider. He told the party all about the Giant Spider's sad story, and that he thought they could help it. Through diligent translating, the party was able to convince the spider that its best chances of survival was with them, however it only agreed to go with them on the condition that they embark on a quest to discover the fate of its human. They happily agreed, and a deal was struck.
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Froggy Tea Party Presents: Dragon of Icespire Peak
AvventuraA D&D Campaign for new players!
