Session Report: The Black Spider
General Summary
The Black Spider greeted the party as they stood in the doorway to his lair, a dwarven temple deep inside the recently uncovered Wave Echo Cave, and formally introduced himself to them as Nezznar. Stepping into the room, Dymera noticed two giant spiders hiding behind the pillars to the back of the room and warned the party of their presence. The Spider was also tended to by a pair of bugbears, who were studying a map on a nearby table at the time. Finally face to face with the Black Spider, Boston Bornes was visibly enraged, which the Spider noticed. He was aware of each member of the Hat Gang, as his agents had been gathering intel on them over the past few months, although claimed to be barely familiar with Boston.
Although Thokk and Elarnya readied their weapons, the party decided it was a good idea to keep him talking. The Spider expressed his desire to create "an empire on the surface," claiming he would become the first drow to ever achieve this. As he explained this, Boston identified the symbol of Vhaeraun attached to his belt. Dymera asked why she had never heard of Nezznar before, if he was supposedly so powerful, a question which the Black Spider found amusing.
Thokk eventually became bored and initiated combat with a shot from his crossbow. Nezznar responded by opening a flask on his belt, out of which poured a liquified farastu, a type of demodand, and tried to entangle the party in a magical web. Jensen quickly stripped Nezznar of his magical armour and took out the spiders with a well placed fireball. Dymera made short work of the bugbears with her burning hands, but was attacked by the farastu, which dragged her towards the rest of the party, placing all of them within range of another of Nezznar's webs. The party continued to attack Nezznar, destroying his webs.
Alerted by the noise, Nezznar's guards, a bugbear ripper and an apparent drow warrior named Vhalak, joined the fight. The bugbear overpowered Dymera with relative ease, and the drow targeted Boston. The demodand shifted its focus towards Thokk and Elarnya, dragging the pair towards Nezznar so he could ensnare them in another of his webs.
Using her greataxe, Elarnya felled the demodand, slicing his head off and collecting its obsidian triangle once it turned to goo. The Black Spider, at this point, had retreated to the far corner of the temple and had been drinking healing potions and shielding himself from attacks. After regaining enough of his vitality, he drank a different potion from his belt, which caused him to take on a somewhat spider-like appearance, allowing him to climb one of the pillars with ease and attack the party with magic from a safe distance.
At the same time, the ripper defeated both Dymera and Droop, when Jensen came to their aid with his healing magic, he was also defeated by the bugbear assassin. Whilst Vhalak dueled with Thokk, trying to push him over, Boston focused on the Spider, who was climbing across the temple ceiling. When Elarnya was finally able to take down the bugbear, the newly revived Jensen focused on healing himself and his allies, just in time as Nezznar descends from the ceiling and slung a lightning bolt towards Jensen, Boston, and Dymera. Realizing the Spider was still at full strength, Jensen produced Boston's ring, hoping that "Evil Boston" could turn the tide against him.
While Evil Boston faced down his nemesis, Vhalak finally succeeded in pushing Thokk to the ground, stabbing him with his longsword. The anchorite was able to recover, however, and retaliated by hitting the drow with a devastating, empowered thunderwave. The blast tore much of the flesh off of Vhalak, although not so much to completely mutilate the corpse, revealing the guard had been a doppelganger.
A quick poison spray from Nezznar nearly downed Evil Boston, but he hung on and retaliated with an attack of his own, bloodying the drow. Elarnya landed a few hits, and Thokk blinded him with his crossbow. Nezznar attempted to escape by turning invisible, but Evil Boston was too quick to react, thrusting the dragon slayer into the air where the Black Spider stood, mortally wounding him. The drow became visible as he bled out and Evil Boston pinned the dying elf to the floor, then began to stomp on his chest until he died. He then picked up the corpse, propped it up on the Spider's throne, and pulled out his heart, which he threw onto the floor and crushed beneath his boot.
As Jensen worked to identify the Black Spider's equipment, Thokk found a locked door and asked Dymera to open it. Behind the door was a cell where Gundren Rockseeker was imprisoned. After reuniting Gundren with Nundro, the party left the dwarves to comfort each other after the death of their brother, allowing them to examine the Spider's notes. Jensen in particular took notice of the several locations within Icewind Dale that were marked on the map.
The group's attention was quickly brought to more urgent matters, as even with the ring removed, Evil Boston was unable to revert back to his more agreeable counterpart. Although distressing, Evil Boston appeared less hostile than usual, having completed his goal, and the party, at Gundren's suggestion, decided to rest up in case they encountered any more of the Black Spider's operatives.
"If you're so powerful, how come I've never heard of you before?"
"In my line of work, infamy does not often equate to power, a fact you should know well."
In-Game Date
16th of Hammer 1492 DR
16th of Hammer 1492 DR
Report Date
05 Jan 2024
Related Characters
Vhalak
