Handling Night Terrors

Gardakhan wakes covered in sweat, his body shaking in fear and the memory of pain not quite real. It has been over a week since it began. Each night he is plagued by nightmares, and he is not the only one. His entire tribe has been beset over the last couple of days. Gardakhan's master, Indruk, communded with the spirits after several who had the dreams began becoming weaker after each dream. Even Gardakhan feels his magical powers being drained. Indruk tells him that as an awoken shaman who has yet to master himself and his spirit gift Gardakhan is more open and sensitive to the threat. Though making it hard on Gardakhan it will aid him in tracking the evil to its source.

Indruk is now too old to track the threat but his great power can shield the tribe for the nest month as Gardakhan is sent to follow his dreams to find and fight the evil at its source. As the attacks only happen when the goblins are asleep Indruk tells Gardakhan that if he can find and face the source directly he should have no problem fighting and defeating it. Having communed with the spirits Indruk suspects that a malevolent force has taken refuge in a cave known to be to focus of ancient magics.

Having made his preparations Gardakhan says farewell to his master and tribe setting of to the cave as the sun begins to set so he can follow the spirit attack to its source.

Gardakhan makes his way to the cave taking head of his teachers council not the head strait there. Both so as not to leave a trail for foolish and curious youngling to follow in the morning and also to avoid the hunter in the dreams should it have a physical form yet to be discovered. Reaching the small concealed opening he one of his teachers familiars there. The spirit beckons for Gardakhan to follow and slips into the cave, slowly leading the way into its depth. After several minutes the spirit touches Gardakhan on the cheek temporarily giving him the gift of spirit sight so see in the dark before quickly retreating the way they came, returning to help in the defense of the village.

Alone now Gardakhan must make decisions on how to proceeded. The pitch black of the cave will slow his movement as all actions must be slow and deliberate. Should he light a torch, continue in the dark, or call on the spirits for light. More importantly he has reached the first fork in the tunnels, which way to go?

With his torch lit Gardakhan searches the cave for any traces and is only mildly surprised to not find any traces of tracks larger than those of a serpent and some rodents. Some spirits are known top "ride" animal if they require a physical form to travel. Other can move freely while some are trapped to a specific location and can only project their powers.

Confident this spirit must have traveled from elsewhere he casts out his senses and feels a trace of a chilling and dark presence from one of the passageways. Moving carefully down that passage he winds his way deeper into the earth. Aster several minutes the cave begins showing signs of artificial modification. Gardakhan definitely sees traces where something, r more likely someone, changed the shape of sections of the tunnel to allow easier passage. The changes show no tool marks but the way the some is shaped seems oddly regular though he guesses whomever did it tried to make the stone look like what they thought was natural stone.

Having descended well over a hundred feet below the surface above and at least a quarter mile into the cave he pauses as his torchlight reveals a flash or something white ahead. With a slight suspicious Gardakhan douses his torch and is greeted with the sight of dim outlines of the nearby rocks. I will Some of the rocks have tiny traces of luminescent fungus. I will The glow barely makes the rock within 10 feet discernable but it does give enough light to move quicker than a crawl. I will Looking back Gardakhan has a moment of unease as he notes that a slightly brighter trail can be seen where the heat of the torch causes the glow to slightly brighten. I will If the spirit has already left the cave when it comes back it may notice this and be aware of Gardakhan presence.

Now without his torch lit he moves closer to where he saw something bright on the cave floor. I will As he gets close he can see a square section of the floor is covered in strange tiles. I will The tiles do not glow from the fungus but are so polished and smooth that they reflect even the fungus dim glow. I will This is what he sees. As he studies the tiles they suddenly begin emitting light and humming. Both be the light and sound increase in intensity.

Gardakhan's toe touches the tile and he easily feels the tingle of accumulating magic before his digit is lightly repulses. Roll a Save test (2d6) or be knocked prone, losing 1 action, by the magic field Stumbling back he feels the magic pulled from all of the tiles to the center of the area and form a line that begins stretching into a circular portal....

The portal collapses leaving behind a small and weak looking spiderlike figure. Upon seeing Garkakhan it hisses My favorite morsels comes to save me the trouble of the hunt. Hsssssss But I do enjoy the hunt so will have to punish you little food!
As it talks Gardakhan feels a building pressure and the small figure begins growing until it is twice the size of Darkakhan.
Cower and flee most delectable morsel! If you amuse me I will take you quickly so you feel no pain. Displease me and you will Suffer!
By the end the creatures voice is booming in Garkakhan's head.
Roll another test. If you fail then you suffer from fear and have disadvantage on rolls while you can see the creature.

The fire sprite continues it assault as the spider back away to the far side of the tiled floor hissing and screaming in your mind as it releases another wave of it's magic making it's form ripple and blur as it begins to fade from your sight.

The spider fades from sight and taunts you telepathically Now you shall suffer. I The hunter has found a worthy prey to play with.
However as it does this the sprite, I who shaced after the spider, I releases a blinding flare of light and you see a faint flicker a few feet from where the spider vanished.

The spider is now somewhere beyond the tile floor, I a 4x4 grid of 5' tiles, I and barely visible from moment to moment as the fire sprites glow struggles to burn off its concealing cloak of shadow magic.

As you reach about the middle of the tiles the spider suddenly appears in the air He he he it giggles at you With you out of the way it is only a mater of time before that old fool falls. It would have been so sweet to feast on your mana and dreams but maybe this is better.
You feel the spider channel magic into the tiles around you and they begin to hum and glow as they quickly shift to a new pattern before a field rises up from the tiles and with a flash the room changes.

As the portal fades its diminishing light reveals you are clearly in another cave. Looking down the tiles have another pattern than the one you saw first in the caves or later changed to under the spiders control to send you here.