The Parliament of Spiders

[tomcat]

Okay, here is my Awe roll to make her introduction... she has two traits that might wrap into this: Adventurous and Old Lore. Not sure what that will gain her, but I bring them to your attention, Paul.

TN 14 awe 3d

1d12 : 8, total 8
Rolled 3d6 : 6, 4, 3, total 13

[tomcat]

Oooohh... that is a good roll for a 21 success

[tomcat]

What did we house rule for our game? That only the Interaction phase of tests go to evaluate the outcome of the encounter?

I personally think that is how it should be, but you are driving the game, Paul. Otherwise, between Arbogast, Hathcyn and Esgalwen we have 3 great successes which equate to 6 successes in this Encounter. Of course, due to the dark nature of where we are and who we are dealing with, you may also have increased the success counts for the varied levels Encounter success.

[GandalfOfBorg]

  Grimbeorn will put in his  if needed, but is looking for the Wizard to chime in before him.

[Eclecticon]

Assuming we are still using 1e encounter rules, here is an Insight roll...

Good call, Doug.  Let' have some more of those:
Arbogast

1d12 : 9, total 9
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 4, total 10

Grimbeorn

1d12 : 2, total 2
Rolled 3d6 : 2, 2, 4, total 8

Hathcyn

1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 3d6 : 2, 1, 5, total 8

What did we house rule for our game? That only the Interaction phase of tests go to evaluate the outcome of the encounter?

I personally think that is how it should be, but you are driving the game, Paul.

That's been my position for some time.  I'll let you know when I start tallying successes and failures, though you'll likely be able to guess in any case. 

Grimbeorn will put in his  if needed, but is looking for the Wizard to chime in before him.

Don't look too long - Radagast is concentrating on protecting you guys and isn't likely to be doing a lot of talking. 

[Eclecticon]

That's a great success for Arbogast, netting two bonus dice, failure for Grimbeorn (though he can use Spider Lore for an auto-success) and a simple success for Hathcyn.  I'm awarding AP for Esgalwen's Awe roll (her Insight was a basic success, she already has one AP in Perception and I don't see any of her traits helping), Hathcyn's Insight (tagging 'Wary') and his Awe. 

[Telcontar]

  paul, you dont get enough credit for your book keeping in this game. Thanks.

[Eclecticon]

The nearby webs rustle with the movement of hundreds of legs as the spiders move to take their places, the implicit promise of safe conduct clear enough that Radagast opens his eyes and leans for a moment on his staff.  The effort of restraining the beasts' hunger has clearly drained him far more than the journey hitherto, but after a few moments he blinks his eyes and says "Yes, yes, let us get on."  Warily, ranged about the wizard like an honour guard, the companions enter the great hall of the spiders. 

As they do so, the Man that took the gem makes straight for one of the hanging bundles.  Taking forth a knife crudely formed from stone, he slices through the webs that encircle it.  As the mud-clad thrall continues to cut, opening up the belly of the dead form within to make of it a grisly storing-place, an arm, and clearly that of a large and thick-set orc, tumbles forth.  Esgalwen alone marks the scar that it bears, now putrid with rot, and wonders whether it might not be one that she herself inflicted years ago and miles away. 

No time is there to ponder the matter, though, for the remaining men and women, each as abject and filthy as the next, usher them toward the centre of the clearing with shoves and grunts.  Above them, they now make out three vast webs hanging, bathed in the wyrdlight, among the arches and domes of the spiders' palace: three thrones for what can only be the overlords of this stygian realm. 


Matt, if you want to do an Awe roll for Grimbeorn's introduction, now's the time.  There's no need for dialogue if you don't want to play it that way, just an action that indicates that he's not just here as a hanger-on. 

[GandalfOfBorg]

   Sorry, previous roll was screwed up

Awe -  1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 5d6 : 1, 3, 1, 5, 5, total 15

[GandalfOfBorg]

His ancient hatred, stewing and simmering beneath the surface, is kept in check with the driving need of their errand.  Being in this place alone is enough to set his hackles straight notwithstanding the memories of the loss of his mother and the injury the Fellowship has endured by these creatures and cousins.  The presence of the man alone radiates his power.

[Eclecticon]

Neat.  for the Awe roll.

[Eclecticon]

A whispering of webs surrounds the company as the spiders assume their watching-places and their thralls cower and withdraw from sight into the silk-shrouded gloom.  The speaker spider who admitted them (or is it perhaps another whose form is the same?) now ascends the thick strands with evident ease until it perches upon a branch, long since dead and denuded and now held up only by the webs themselves.  Its mouth-parts rasp and its hairy legs rub upon each other, the sound eerie and terrible to Mannish ears but serving somehow, by means of the waxing Shadow within the companions' hearts, to convey its meaning. 

   The Web-Folk are gathered!  The Parliament commences! 
   Cease your chatter, for the Great Ones come!

And so it is, for the moment it has spoken the sound of something crashing through the upper boughs reaches the forest floor.  Louder and closer it comes, as the hundreds, perhaps thousands of gathered spiders huddle, still and silent.  Then, with a crack like the breaking of a spine that shivers an ancient branch from its trunk and sends it toppling into the cradle of webs, a monstrosity that could only come of Mirkwood's depths enters the clearing.  Impossibly huge, its abdomen bulges, pus oozing from wounds in its side where its skin is not stretched taught across unseen things that writhe and squirm beneath.  Its legs, almost comically small, struggle to move it and lesser spiders left trailing in its wake now struggle to assist it, heaving its bulk along as it lurches toward the central web. 

A coldness seizes the bellies of the Fellowship, and Grimbeorn's more than any for many are the fearful tales he has heard of this creature.  For Sarquin did the Elves name her when first the children of Shelob came in force to Greenwood the Great, and about her all the lesser spiders now chitter and shriek in their adoration. 

   Mother!  Mother of all!  Mother of All!

Settling at last into her web-couch, she turns her cold and lifeless eyes at last upon the Fellowship of the Helm.  She burbles in the tongue of the spiders, her voice as deep as those of her offspring are shrill.

   What are these?  Too fresh are they to be morsels for my belly.

The speaker replies.   

   Emissaries are they, come to beg your favour.

   Then speak, for I hunger.

With a sound like the teeth chattering in a hundred white and empty skulls, all eyes turn to watch the companions. 

[Eclecticon]

As when they were surrounded mere minutes before, the first words are spoken by Arbogast.  "Folk of the dark wood," he calls out, seeking to be heard in the farthest reaches of the spiders' hall, "long have you sought to prey upon our kind, and in return have known the torment of fire as it consumes your webs, and felt the bite of steel in your very bodies!" 

There is a stirring among the audience, and here and there comes a rattling hiss of displeasure.  Sarquin, however, shows no reaction, stirring herself only to begin lifting one of the silk-enshrouded bodies, her mouth-parts visibly quivering in anticipation. 

"But fear not," the Fire-watcher continues, "for we come for no such purpose, but to remove a point of contention between your kind and ours.  A treasure of our folk has been taken by one of your kind, and we seek only its return." 


Arbogast will open with an Inspire roll (TN 14, as are all interaction rolls for this Encounter):

1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 4d6 : 1, 4, 6, 3, total 14

[Eclecticon]

That's a nice, solid opener!  That's two successes on the board. 

The Tolerance for this sequence, by the way, is four (half the highest Valour, plus one for offering a gem).  Best not to exceed it. 

[Eclecticon]

Sarquin moves forward and down her web, until she hangs like a malign judgement above the heads of the company.  Raising the dead morsel to her mouth, she manages somehow to begin consuming it even as her voice rumbles forth. 

   What is this precious thing?


Anyone else who wants their character to speak up can do so, otherwise I'll have Arbogast keep doing the talking.