The Realm of the Spider

After taking shelter, we forayed onwards deeper into the cave. Jarek, crippled and in pain, protested but understood there was nothing else but to continue through.
 
As the cave continued deeper, we began to see more and more webbing (from spiders). Soon, it became thick enough to impede travel (difficult terrain) and glowed a pale blue color. Suddenly, a rumble from behind us at the cave entrance startled all of us (an avalanche covered the cave entrance with snow).
 
Seeing the webbing growing too thick, we stopped for a rest. Bee, determined, began to mold earth around and through the webs to make a makeshift tunnel. It took some time (a half hour), but we avoided much of the glowing webbing as Bee tunneled into a cavern. There, we took another breath.
 

The underground city

 
The cavern Bee found for us was huge, and after a dropoff we could see unmistakable buildings and structures in the distance. Below us, the "floor" was about sixty feet beneath, and fearlessly Bee began the climb downwards, forming the rock to help her lower safely. She fell the last ten feet or so, but was otherwise okay.
 
It was a pain, but we all got to the ground safely. Heading towards the stone buildings, we eventually came close enough to see that they were all ruined, covered in cobwebs. We had to travel through the webbing as we did, and whatever eldritch magic contained within them came to surface. Mental pain and screams of the undead wracked anyone who touched them for too long, and Jarek and Milo were incapacitated by the noises.
 

Many-limbed foes

 
Once they had awoken, and the trek continued, we crept through the cobwebbed ruins not long before a voice wafted through the streets, as if the breath of the wind itself. "Who.... are.... you?"
and "Peace... I know... that word" were as much as any of us could make out before it threatened us.
 
And then larger-than-horse-sized tarantulas crawled through the door and the ceiling. When Bee and Milo tried to use magic, their spells and abilities seemed to fail. One of the gigantic spiders fired webbing at Sera, and the same death screams rendered her momentarily paralyzed in fear. We fought them off, sans magic, and Sera investigated their remains -- perhaps the creatures are innately antimagical?
 
Tiberius felt a chill in the air, and realized the web itself was unholy. Jarek prayed as the two deliberated, and the Lord of Light called Jarek to another building in the area: a library. More spiders ambushed us in the library, and the party fought as I tried to prepare magic to read the book. Bee panicked, and I threw my holy book to her to finish the casting of detect magic as he ran to confront the giant spiders. Kajura leapt into action, and though she missed her attack Saldar's light from Jarek's outstretched hand decimated the spider in one burst of light. "They are unholy!"
 
Things calm once again, Jarek opened the journal as Saldar directed -- no magic was in its pages, thank god. The volume as from a miner's perspective, as their company discovered the cavern and a stench within. They unearthed "something terrible", something that affected their minds similar to the eldritch webbing (to us). This "something terrible" called/calls itself the "Old One", and is "trapped here guarding" something. It killed so many members of the mining company. The last ravings of the journal-writer talked about "their souls are in the webs", and ranting about the end of everything.
 
Taking a short break, Bee re-prepared locate object, which pulled us farther through the ruins back into the underground cave network. Thank Saldar we have fewer spiders to deal with.
 

Deeper still

The caves were quiet, and we didn't encounter any creatures before we came across a gigantic drop in teh earth, a hole that was maybe a hundred feet deep. After dropping a bright (light) rock down the hole, we saw both the mountain of bones at the bottom and the massive spider (larger than all others) that dwelt there.
 
We saw the portal behind the spider (far beneath us) before Sera felt it. Turning to her, there was some unclear thoughts before the spider creature -- larger than houses -- spoke. It wanted our help, and Sera seemed to unspokenly agree. First, it extended a leg for her to climb down to it, then more unspoken conversation followed by Sera: "Oh, in that case, then yes I accept."
 

Realm of Eustcious

Sera just made some unspoken pact with the gigantic spider creature (the "Old One"), who told her the portal nearby led to Eustacious. With many questions running through all of our minds -- is this where the Heart of Ma'ar is? -- we followed Sera through.
 
The realm of Eustcious was both serene and chaotic. We found ourselves on a beach, but the skies were black and red in the maelstrom of a storm. A mountain nearby roiled and boiled with magma and ash. The entire plane seemed ready to end, but the air was still strangely calm and serene.