Episode 15: Wee bit of a sticky situation

Last episode our wandering band of misfits had gotten through several puzzles, the final one solved by our tiny gunslinger Vohn. Opening that door led us into a worked stone area, so we resumed our cautious approach of Malek/Meghan in front, rest of the party following. Paul is once again hanging out with Lutor.

Cautiously wandering forward, as it is clear we are in drow territory, we find two rooms on either side of the hall. Each room has a chest in it. Meghan took up a guard position while Malek, Thonk, and Fizzledorp contemplated the chests. After much back and forth and experimenting, it was determined that the chests were illusions. Thonk got to cast his spell "mage hand" though, that's always amusing. Basically he uses this mechanical hand that shoots out and grabs something and brings it back to him ... by shouting "MAGE HAND!".

This is, however, when the phase spiders arrived. Two popped in, nommed on I believe Meghan and Malek, and phased back out. That's annoying, its hard to react to something that keeps phasing between planes and we have no way of going with them to their plane. But since they phased back out we continued forward a little bit.

And then they phased back in to attack us. This time we were able to fight back. Again, this fight happened too long ago to remember all the details but Meghan was in front fighting them in humanoid form, so scimitar and shield. Malek started his spell-arrow tricks. Vohn was shooting with his gun. And Thonk waded in to smash with his "mage staff".

One of the spell-arrow tricks that Malek did caused ice to form, holding all creatures in place. This held the two spiders ... and Meghan. She kept slashing away though. Eventually we got one killed, and Thonk with a mighty massive smash, over killed the second spider. Completely covering Meghan in gooey, gooshy, spider guts.

After standing there for a hot minute, covered in this dripping spider goo, Meghan turned towards the party with that clearly disgruntled glare and stated "Clearly, we need to work on our team work some more."

Thonk though, he had a bit of a coming apart. All the color drained from Thonk's face and then he dashes over to a corner and starts dry heaving. "Sorry ... hork ... I ... hork ... just have a thing about spiders. And these were big spiders. Big, invisible, spiders. I may have put too much force into that last blow. I just wanted to make sure it was really, really, dead."

Malek also chimes in with "Wow, I'm so sorry about that... That's never happened before. I think I got a little scared, if I'm honest with myself. That thing came out of nowhere and hit me. When I hit back, I think I put a little more of myself into it than I have before. Certainly never expected that you would get hurt. Are you OK?"

Fizzledorp, being the paladin, promptly healed Meghan and responds with "Well, she isn't wounded anymore."

After another moment or two, Meghan takes a deep sigh and responds "Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit ... gooey ... at this point. But, yeah, we need to not freeze the front line fighters to the ground while fighting. Also, someone want to check on Thonk? He seems to be in distress."

Fizzledorp then walks up to Thonk -- a man 2x plus some his height -- and offers him a hug. Thonk paused a moment then accepted. "Well done my friend. You killed that spider well." Thonk responds with "Nobody warned me that they were so ... juicy."

Vohn then decides a little levity was in order. He walks up to Meghan and quietly, playfully, says "You know, if these types of things keep happening to you, you have to start to look at the common denominator ... and it's not me ... it's you!" Meghan just stares down at him for a moment, almost cracks a smile but lets out a chuckle: "Draki, I am a common denominator, by doing my part in defeating our enemies. Now, if we can just figure out how as a team to do this without adding to my risk, I'd be much appreciative." She almost looks like she's about to hug Vohn but stops herself with a shake. "I've got to remember to keep create water on hand with this group."

Vohn scampers over to Lutor and asks for a bottle of whiskey, something Lutor usually has in great abundance, and takes it over to Meghan "Look, I have created water!" He laughs, takes a small drink, and hands the bottle to Meghan. She proceeds to make that giggling choking sound someone makes when you try to smother a laugh with a cough and responds with "Thank you draki, I shall pass. I prefer to keep my mind clear in case Feronia has an urgent message for us. The water was for washing after ... " and she kinda waves at her disreputable appearance of hardening spider goo.