An Emergency Rescue: Relar Rumasti's Report

We entered the cave at approximately Noon, having traveled overnight toward the caves. Upon entering, we immediately spooted the remains of some... creature that has been dessicated. Alongside him was the decapitated remains of Welkin. Poor sod. I didn't like him much, but he didn't deserve this.

At the top of the cave was some webbing, and it was shaking. Odd, considering that we were not in a relatively windy locale. We backed off immediately, so that we could attempt to determine the best course of action. Roy did throw his torch up towards the webbing, in an attempts to lure the creatures out. Upon that failing, we decided to continue onward. As we continued onward, Jeremiah spotted some... corpses. Golin's description seemed to be quite accurate. Their wounds were indicative of combat with our compatriots who were captured earlier. As my allies scouted the northern paths, I glanced into a southern passage. And as I glanced down there, one of the creatures looked back at me. So, I fell back, alerting my comrades of the imminent threat to our south.

And so the battle began.

As the creature rushed us, Roy threw a handaxe into the chest of this... thing, and it connected. Unfortunately, that only pissed the thing off. And another popped up behind Jeremiah, as he was being attacked by the first one. I attempted to shoot the creature in the skull, but the shot went wide and bounced off of the shoulder of Jeremiah. It was... unfortunate. But, none the less, the fight continued. Jeremiah cast some strange spell, and it wounded the creature, and it raised one of its arms to its ear. Jeremiah was the focus of the creatures, unfortunately, as they spun quickly, attacking with each of their arms. Thankfully, Jarion landed a perfect shot to the side of one of the creature's skull, killing it instantly. However, in the midst of the action, Jeremiah fell to the furious attacks of the creatures, henceforth refered to as 'Chitterers'. Immeral looped around beside me, and we shot simultaneoulsy at the creature. Unfortunately, it was more afraid of my arrow than it was of Immeral's Arcance blast. It dodged away from my arrow, directly into the blast. After that, Roy cleaned it up. After killing the two and mending some of Jeremiah's wounds, we continued onward. We discovered some... symbol to a God of some sort, included in this account is a drawing of it. We saw the slain, dessicated bodies of some of the miners, and blood trails leading further into the cave, obviously indicative of the Chitterers dragging away our compatriots.

And so a fight ensued, as two Chitterers fell beside Roy, who was leading the charge. One slashed at him multiple times, with most of the hits bouncing off of his chainmail. And a second attempted to knock him to the floor, although Roy shoved it off immediately. Due to a combined attack from Roy and Jarion, the tackler was destroyed near-instantly. The second was eviscerated by the combined efforts of Jayne and Immeral. We found a mining pick on one of the miners, some sort of family heirloom. We grabbed that, as Jayne grabbed the lantern. I grabbed the oil, in case of needing it. And so we advanced forward. Jeremiah spotted some Chitterers up on the ceiling, and we advanced, ready to attack, while Immeral cast a spell of sleep on the Chitterers' approximate location. And multiple swarms of spiders descended upon us, swarming us quickly. Our initial burst of attacks didn't do much, with it being relatively hard to hit an amorphous swarm.

As they swarmed us, the ensuing melee was terrifying, as Immeral was attacked. The spiders nearest to Jayne had a much harder time, as they were dissipated by her mighty halberd. But that was not enough to keep Roy safe. One of the swarms brought Roy down instantly, swarming over his body and biting him innummerable times. In a fit of rage, I drew back my bow and nearly disspersed the entirety of the spiders that brought Roy down. After that... things went horridly immediately. Roy bled out instantly, as one of the spiders had bit an artery. Immeral fled and I was swarmed immediately, and the spiders nearly killed me instantly, I was unable to fight them off quickly. The last I remember before falling unconsious, Jeremiah saved my life, by sealing my wounds.

I came to on the outside of the cave, where we were wrapping our wounds and recovering, preparing to venture back in. I heard that the swarms were slain, and that the bodies of our comrades were found, cocooned. And so we ventured back in. The Chitterer that was guarding them had left, however. Soon enough, it descened upon us, and began conversing with Immeral, speaking in a language I know not, but they appeared to be... negotiating. When negotiations broke down, we fired upon it immediately. My shot hit it in the abdomen, piercing deep, as Jeremiah hit it on the opposite side. Jarion shot it again, after his first shot went wide, his second shot hit it in one of the arms. Immediately after, it stabbed Immeral in the throat, clearly insulted. Jeremiah terrified the Chitterer Chieftain, and caused it to be in quite a bit of pain. It fled, allowing Jayne to stabilize Immeral's wounds, causing him to no longer bleed out, although something was coursing within his veins, causing his a lot of pain and discomfort. I lit an arrow ablaze, shooting at it. While it did not hit the Chieftain, it lit the area around it up with light. Jarion shot it once more, and Jeremiah distracted it in melee. This allowed me to maneuver and shoot the spider in one of its multitude of eyes. After it was slain, I found some of the mushrooms that were needed. In doing so, I stepped on the eggs of some of the Chitterers. This obviously infuriated all of the Chitterers, and forced us to depart immediately. We will return to grab that body to study, and to clear out the rest of the mines. But, for now. We lived. We got Phalanx and the others out alive.

And we lived to tell the tale.

Somehow.