Trapped in Lolth's Grasp

Guppy collected his short sword and prepared for the journey. "It will cost you 50 gold pieces," he explained. "The guild controls the doors to the tunnel. It is a standard charge that all treasure hunters must pay."

We paid him the gold and followed him to a platform. As we stood on the platform, the platform began to fall into the earth. It was a slow, steady fall, but the sensation was still unnerving.

After a while, the platform stopped. We walked off and headed into a passageway on the side. After following the passageway for some time, we found another platform, which also descended when we stood on it.

After that platform stopped, we made our to way to a corridor. As we walked further, we found a number of alcoves where merchants were selling goods to the treasure hunters headed down. "This is your last chance to get torches!" "Rope! Get your rope!"

Fortunately, Bran had collected more than enough rope from the caravan of merchants that we had found massacred earlier.

Finally, we reached a metal door. 6 guards stood watch there. Guppy showed the guards his guild badge.

"Can I see your badge?" Tiny asked eagerly.

Guppy sighed. "No. You're in a guild town. You must follow the guild rules."

We went through the door, and Guppy led us through a low tunnel that led into the mines. We saw Servitor Animata digging through the earth, as if searching for something.

Guppy led us through more tunnels, down winding paths. It almost seemed as though Guppy were trying to obscure our path so that we would not remember our way through. Kale map our journey for future reference.

"Why are we going this long, roundabout way?" asked Garg. "Why not just take us directly there?"

"Look," said Guppy impatiently, "I found these places, and I take my clients to them. Don't you try to steal my places and sell them to other guides!"

"The thought had never crossed my mind."

We went down 3 or 4 more levels, through complicated passages. Along the way, we only found Servitor Animata, digging away.

We finally reached a small building. We stood on its platform, and the platform descended into the ruins of the school.

In the front of the school, we saw some dust and footprints, perhaps from creatures from long ago. No one had visited the school for a while.

"When you brought other groups of treasure hunters down here, how many groups died?" asked Tiny.

"Only 2 groups," Guppy replied. "Not everyone died."

In the middle of the school was a play yard. The ground was decorated with lines for some sort of sporting activity. On either side of the play yard were doors that led to classrooms.

In each classroom, there was a lectern in front and some benches in back. Doors directly connected each classroom with the one before it and the one after it.

Along the walls, there were words carved in and pictures above the words. The words were simple, like "Sword", "House", and "Food", as were the pictures above them.

"Uh, Guppy, this isn't the kind of school where we'd find the literature we're looking for," Kale pointed out.

As he spoke, he was suddenly surrounded by an unearthly aura. From the door to the next classroom, we saw a group of dark elves. They held wands that shot at me. In a matter of moments, I was quickly bloodied, poisoned, and enveloped in the same dark aura. The poison made me weak and kept eating at me.

I scurried into a corner, while Garg moved into the next classroom to confront the dark elves. They began to shoot him with the poison as well, but Kale was able to use his mystical orb to transfer the poison to another dark elf.

As Firinne and Carlagnios followed Garg into the next classroom, more dark elves appeared in the doorway to the center of the school. Tiny blinded one of them, and Bran quickly dispatched that dark elf to its maker.

The dark elves continued to shoot at us, weakening us with poison. But Tiny sacrificed some of his life energies to heal all of us in a glowing stream of life.

Kale summoned a cloud of a terrible stench in the next classroom, trapping some of the dark elves in it. And Carlangnios pulled the elves all toward him and brought down a rain of steel upon them, killing one.

One of the dark elves in the next room cast a terrible spell. She shrieked that we would not be able to escape Lolth's Grasp, and the floor in the next room was suddenly covered with ghostly spiders. Firinne, Carlagnios, and Garg were trapped and could not make their way through these spiders.

Ryn teleported himself in Firnne's place, moving her out of Lolth's Grasp. He struck at another dark elf and teleported back to safety.

Carlagnios scrambled out of Lolth's Grasp but Garg was still trapped inside. The dark elven spellcaster summoned a cloud of darkess to prevent us from seeing Garg, as he was being attacked. Tiny called out to Garg to give him strength, and Garg was able to escape Lolth's Grasp as well.

The dark elven spellcaster decided to escape, but Ryn struck her down before she could escape. Bran and Firinne bloodied another dark elf, who finally decided to run away. Tiny was able to heal the rest of us.

After the battle, we found over a thousand gold pieces on the dark elves. Bran also found one of their wands intact. He could use it to fire a poisoned projectile at an enemy. It was quite a brutal weapon.

It was then that Tiny noticed an absence in our party. "Guppy is missing," he announced. We searched the school but could not find him. Now, we were lost in the mines without a guide.