Episode 04: The Spider & the Goblin Queen

General Summary

The party kills a spider, defeats a queen, and gets some loot!

The Giant Spider

The group enters the sticky web covered lair. With the last of his tremorsense, Gundar knows exactly where the spider is. Veoric and Laszlo use the element of surprise to burn a path through the webs that Gundar chargers down.

Fists, fire, arrows and insults prove mildly effective, but the huge war spider gets in a solid trample, endangering the crew. Laszlo heals and Taela pulls her her sword to go to work.

During the fight, Tugbug pitched in by jumping on the spider and attempting to ride it. In the end, Laszlo's mental assault give an opening for Gyrosphinx to put the beast down.

Taela buchers the beast, recovering its poison glands and enough chitin to make armor. A search of the lair produces odd coinage, some magic items, and a few potions from previous victims.

Gyrosphix says "Mission accomplished" and his clockwork chest opens up, revealing a charm of heroism.

The party takes a shrot rest in a small burial chamber.

The Throne of the Goblin Queen

After a quick rest, they sneak above ground to Queen Wargnuts' encampment. They discover the queen and her cohorts carousing. Scouting reveals an elevated outcropping over the court. The party gets into position and Veoric opens with a lasso of lightning. But he loses concentration when peppered with arrows.

Laszlo puts the queen to sleep with the soothing sounds of his bagpipe, leaving her unable to act. Taela rains down arrows and Gundar performs his bouncing beer barrel butt maneuver.

The surprised goblins perform sub-optimally, forgetting to wake up their queen. Instead they focus on fighting their enemy. Laszlo suggests that a sniper should kill himself for his failure. The sniper obliges spectacularly.

Veoric makes a joke, causing the last goblin to laugh uncontrollably and fall off the outcropping.

The beacon finders loot the queens throne and her ragged treasures. They take her crown, goblet, and several barrels of Red Claw. They reserve two barrels for sale/weapons. The other two are given to Veoric and Taela for a post mission soiree.

Return to Stew's Brews

They make their way back to Stew who is excited to have Tugbug back. Tugbub reports that he was disappointed by the Queen and her court's recalcitrance. He resolves to stay on as Stew's apprentice potion maker.

Ryper the Myconid is happy with the results of his bath. It produces a potion of invulnerability, and four healing potions so each member takes one. Veoric negotiates regular baths for Ryper at Stew's in exchange for a the occasional potion.

An effort is made to secure access to Stew's portals to the Zone, Midgard, and Mount Celestia. Stew is happy to give access, but a method of interplanar communication is needed for Stew to activate them.

Veoric studies the portal key in detail with a magical monocle in hopes of recreating it in the future, but doing so is currently beyond his ken. The portal is taken, and the beacons are returned to the guild. Rewards are paid, and their success recorded in the guild logs.