Play Report #2 - The Sky Fell

See the initial set up here.

  After recovering in the nearby town (not the closest village! We needed resupply as well as healing) we returned to the mine complex.

  While investigating a previously-ignored spur we encountered a troglodyte chief and two sub-chiefs - the two half-orcs (the wife and I, in a fun game) formed the front line with the secondary fighters in the second rank with spears/military forks. It was a tough fight, but we prevailed. My cleric/fighter had to rotate out of the front to get healed up!



  We continued on and encountered a large group of kobolds. We called on them to surrender, but they attacked fiercely. In a few rounds the sole survivor heeded my calls and surrendered. I made him an offer - I would use a rope to hobble him so he couldn't run. If he cooperated with us and didn't try to flee I'd pay him as a porter and put in a good word with the reeve. He said he'd do it.

  We continued exploring the side passages we had previously ignored, but found little, so we pressed deeper into the delving.

  In a rough bit Wallach sensed a hidden door. We opened it to find 4 kobolds huddled in a small niche, effectively. Again I called on them to surrender and, like before, they fought instead. They fought to the death, even the unarmed ones. The kobold porter told us he didn't recognize them - the trogs had taken slaves of many kobold tribes and refused to allow them to wander or mingle.

  Eventually we found a large cavern. Torvald scouted invisibly and saw a set of stairs reaching up with a massive spider-thing atop it. We split into groups so that the half-orcs would charge for melee and the rest would hang back for missiles and spells.
  I took the hobble off the porter and told him that if we fell he was to run for his life but if he stayed until we won I'd give him a silver.

  We charged in, yelling, both throwing clubs in the round as we closed and both hitting. This was good as we obviously interrupted the thing as it was casting a spell! The other three unloaded with bows, axes, and invective. The wife and I got 1 round of hitting it (she hit, hard, I missed) and it did a charge effect, knocking us both down for 2 h.p. as it rushed the squishy party members! Ferenar, with more h.p. and a better A.C., threw himself in front of the onrushing terror, but he and Wallach took damage - another blow to either would kill them.
  The wife struck it it from behind ( a miss) and I rushed to the front to distract it and attacked for middling damage. Wallach, Ferenar, and Torvald all kept up the missile fire, which had been very effective, as I took its main attention again.The Wife moved to join me with all of us hitting again.
  This was the fourth round with all of us hitting multiple times (Son #2 never missed it!) and it was looking un daunted.
  I hit it again. Torvald, Ferenar, and Wallach hit it again.
  Then it hit Ferenar, who went down at 0 hits.
  Then it bit me.
  And I failed a poison save and went down, thrashing.
  The wife then hit a telling blow for maximum damage with her two-hander. The spider went down.
  Torvald gave me a poison antidote he had, so I was up in just 2 rounds, still with H.P. and spells.
  At the same time Wallach healed Ferenar, so he was alive but out of the fight for a day or five.

  The loot was solid - a coffer of 6 potion bottles, enchanted splint mail, two enchanted medium shields, bracers, a dagger, and a scimitar.
  I got the scimitar - the famed Ghoulbreaker, a +1 scimitar, +4 vs. Undead. it has an intelligence and a few special abilities.
 
  The kobold stuck around for the fight and even helped tend to my character when he was down. So I slipped him a gold.

  In town we all spoke well of the kobold to the reeve so he is only going to do servitude for a while.

  We divvied the loot and everyone leveled - we were all close to begin with, but that was nice.

  The adventure was great and now we are highly motivated to learn the origins of the silver spiders from Mars!