The Triad

Zenithral drops the lit stone, and as one the three take the plunge…

It immediately feels as though they have entered another world.

To their own eyes they seem almost to be staying still in midair as a kaleidoscope of light and shadow whirls by them almost too fast to make note of. Twisted arachnid forms hiss, fleeing the light of Zenithral’s stone. As the demonic spiders skitter along webbed strands to their dark holes, the companions catch glimpses of humanoid teeth dripping inky, black venom.

There are corpses as well. Desiccated and dry, they hang here and there from webs. In one nightmarish flash, Alalla thinks she sees Erevain’s face among the dead, withered and mummified as she once saw it in the tunnels beneath the Spine of the World. But no, they are but his kin, elves both fair and dark consigned to death in this pit. From the shriveled mouths gaping in silent, forever-long screams, it is enough to wonder if their spirits linger, unable to escape this dark place.

A practically solid wall of thick webbing suddenly rushes up to meet them, anchored firmly about the sides of the pit. The lit stone falls straight through the webs, and the heroes are left in darkness as they hit the sticky mass. With their light source gone, they can hear scuttling and hissing as spider-things leave their hiding places. From above and below, from every side comes a tide of bulbous bodies with too many legs and too-human teeth.

Zenithral rolls to one side, magically unaffected by the webs, and slices a hole in the webbed stuff with his shortsword, ready to slip through and continue the fall. Alalla, similarly warded, starts to follow suit when she notices Halla. The druid struggles for breath, a strand of webbing wrapped around her throat. The strand suddenly goes taut, and Halla is nearly dragged into one of the many holes that line the sides of the pit. A flash of bright flame holds the encroaching demon spiders back, and then Alalla’s burning sword shears through web snaring Halla. With the druid free, the group makes their way through the hole Zenithral cut, and they continue their fall just before the monstrous arachnids reach them.

But now the only light is the flickering fire from Alalla’s enchanted longsword. Far below, Zenithral’s lit stone has fallen out of sight. The whirling, gut-wrenching fall continues, but this time all the more disorienting for not having a light source ahead of the group. Before Zenithral can magically light up another object, the walls around them abruptly vanish, and the companions feel that they are falling through a much larger space than the pit.

Throughout the fall, just in case, Zenithral has kept track of the passing time. With the sudden change in surroundings and knowing that they have been falling for nearly two minutes (not counting their brief time caught by webbing), he casts his feather fall spell. Immediately the three heroes’ fall is slowed to a much more comfortable descent. As the wind in their ears dies, however, they become aware of another sound… an deafeningly loud drone, as if from hundreds of thousands of cicadas. The three companions feel their senses dulled as the drone reverberates uncomfortably through their minds, and realize, looking at one another, that they can’t hear anything else, not even the speech of their friends.

A few moments later the floor rises up to greet them. Well, perhaps not quite the floor. It seems to be a large island of rough stone perhaps 80 feet in diameter, the edges sloping and then dropping away to even lower depths. They land on uneven footing, but can’t help but feel some relief and no longer falling. However, they wonder when the last time, if ever, a living mortal set foot in this place hidden away by the Spider Queen.

The companions spread out around the edges of the plateau to see if they can discern what kind of beast the Beast might be, and where its head is, if it has one. The plateau itself seems to be circular, with about a 40 foot radius. Peeking over the lip at various intervals, they find a total of three of the enormous scaly legs, and no obvious head. Perhaps rather than a turtle, Ityak-Ortheel resembles a giant mushroom with a tripod of stalks...

With the terrible buzz ringing in their ears, they don’t notice the approaching chasme demons until nearly too late. Three of the repulsive monsters light on Ityak-Ortheel’s back. They close in on Alalla, her sword’s flames reflected in their faceted eyes. This close, their clacking drone is overwhelming. Vaguely human mouths open wide, and a long needle-like proboscis extends from each. The demons attack!