“We must press on to find Moretto!” says Adnan, immediately after the exhausting battle with the Ice Golem tomb guardians. “We must press on now on Spitgob’s quest to save Moretto.” Vasco and Yldar look wearily at each other. “Uh, Adnan, the Wind Dule’s tomb shows more peril at every turn. I think we should rest and face that mad spider head on to get Nabiros back. Our survival depends on his strength!” replies Yldar. “No, the quest, the quest, it demands our full and immediate attention,” raves Adnan, flashing some of his half-mad charm at his colleagues, “so follow me now, down the River of Blood”. Vasco thoughtfully suggests “If I study and rest for several hours, we could soon all walk in the Shadow Plane, infiltrate Spitgob’s layer and get Nabiros back”. “Eight hours is too long for our quest. Down the River!” and Adnan jumps through the ice hole in the floor, into the river, while the two elves resolve to rest without him. Adnan’s footsteps are heard fading quickly into the distance and are gone. The elves take refuge in the nearby time-wasting rooms, preparing their next moves alone.
Meanwhile, several months ago, the Seekers from the city of Dyvers west of Greyhawk, had caught rumours out of the hinterlands of the Cairn Hills. Some group who had previously won the Champion Games and were going to the Free City to defend their title were heard to have had some successful finds in one of the cairns, while other Seekers had been lost for years in those same hills. Upon arriving in the mining town of Diamond Lake, the gnome mercenary Seeker Zeek, his entourage, and scholarly Seeker Maera the cleric of Delleb find that the Champion Aurrek and his friends Kullen and Tirra had indeed found something. Rumours too of another group of local boys had rummaged around in another cairn before disappearing with the wizard Allustan to Mistmarsh. They arrange with Balabar Smenk, still a major landowner in Diamond Lake in spite of his being imprisoned for his dealings with the necromancer Filge, for housing for Zeek’s entourage in some miners’ dorms. The cost is too high and miners’ are evicted to make room, but Zeek accepts the terms. Borran, Zeek’s dwarven booze smuggler co-hort and his artillery men set up base. Zeek and Maera scout off to Whispering Cairn, moving some rubble they find in the door. Zeek finds what he think is a magic portal and by some amazing chance, manages to disable its trap. They enter through the portal and are buffeted by strong winds and smoke, almost choking to death in the first room, Maera and Zeek keep their heads down and dart through to find themselves in a splendid Wind Duke fresco decorated room, only to quickly find a bolt of lightning strike them both and their lives are held in suspended animation for the coming months.
Back in the present day, Vasco and Yldar carefully and quietly move back to the spot were Nabiros was taken and Vasco grabs Yldar’s shoulder and casts Shadow Walk. Their world darkens and the strong smell of rotting food – some kind of decaying meat – surrounds them. Their visibility is obscured, but they grope forward through the spider’s shadow world, built with semi-material forms and increasingly dark spaces. Around a corner they come into a space covered in cobwebs. Vasco tosses a torch into the room and the cobwebs burn away, revealing the source of the stench, a ground covered in treasure and two large piles of silky cobwebs in the corner. Yldar approaches one which when poked feels like a being. Ripping through the cobwebs, reveals the half-orc form of Ubu! Heavily poisoned, paralyzed and sedated by Spitgob for some time, Ubu slowly comes-to, relieved to find his old friend Vasco and his recent acquaintance Yldar standing there. Ubu says that they better hurry, because the crazy spider comes here often to ‘tenderize’ his captives. Vasco tears through the web in the other corner and the tenderized (but less so) Nabiros is recovered. They spend a moment looting part of the gold, gems and other valuables from Spitgob’s layer before Yldar presses them all to return to their spot of entry and out of the shadow realm. Skittering is heard in the hall, followed by a mad “NO NO NO NO NO! from their predator. Vasco quickly puts up a wall of fire which separates them from Flycatcher the shadow spider, and the four retreat. Shadow walk dispelled the group returns to the material plane, but get quite a shock!
Shunted into a round room drenched in a blue glow, the party sees three figures floating suspended in the centre of the room, enveloped in the blue light. The first they recognize immediately as Alustan, Vasco’s old wizard advisor and confidant. Another, a female cleric wearing the armour of the Seekers (Maeron) and a gnome adventurer wearing a Seeker ring are suspended along beside him. Before they can even blink, lighting blasts out of a spike in the centre of the ceiling, directly above the suspended figures, and grounds on each of our heros. Moment after moment the lightning blasts down from the sky. Agile Yldar avoids much of it, hardy Nabiros works on destroying it with his returning axe, hapless Ubu is thrown into the suspended animation field by one of its blasts, and Vasco discharges numerous dispel magic and other attempts against the device. After less than 30 seconds (with lightning striking multiple times in the same places) the sizzling group breaks the lightning rod, clonking on the gnome’s head before they all are released and fall to the floor.
Alustan does not look good. He is unconscious and bleeding. The others are fine though worse for ware. Allustan is quickly healed and recovers his senses. He explains that he had come to the Whispering Cairn with Ubu to discover some magic to help defeat the black dragon Ilthane, and possibly learn more of the important history of the Wind Dukes. Ubu, however, was captured by the shadow spider and Allustan had only made it here until he was trapped. He is glad to see Vasco again, and to meet Nabiros and the Seekers who are traveling now with Vasco, never having liked the cleric Rancik that much, nor trusting Arthur the thief. Allustan, on hearing of the destruction of Diamond Lake and his home, becomes distraught, and desires very much to return home, that this group had surpassed his humble powers, and encourages the group to continue their journey through the tomb of the Wind Dukes to perhaps recover the Rod of Seven Parts, rumored to have been buried along with other fabulous and powerful artifacts that they had used to win the war against Chaos so long ago. On their return with what they find, Allustan says that he will heed the dying request of his old friend Eligos, and arrange for a meeting in Magepoint between the group and the archmage there in order to discuss further the question of the worms.
Yldar is pleased to see his two colleagues, who were the Seekers that had been lost in these hills. None of them have figured out quite who the other two Seekers were that Zeek and Maeron had been keeping their eyes out for, those months ago. Nabiros reminds the group that there is a deadly, mad, shadow spider tracking them like escaped supper, and they look outside a door to see his shadowy mass near and in wait, laughing at the lightning fate his prey are experiencing in the trap room. After a brief, failed negotiation between Zeek and Spitgob, readied for battle, the group throws open the door and let arrows fly. Some of Yldar’s arrows miss and crash into the beautifully decorated frescoes of the Wind Duke chamber, and a terrible earthy crunchy sound emanates from the room. Maeron spots parts of the walls emerging into the room and soon the party finds itself fully engaged with two, phase door walking relief golems, festooned with runes and smashing with powerful fits. Spitgob laughs and disappears again to the plane of shadow, only to return a short while later (preceded by distracting figments of skittering). Blow after blow and one relief golem is finally poked to pieces, and Allustan lets loose his final scorching ray to devastate Spitgob. The other golem continues to hammer on Zeek and Ubu...
