Osan moves along the left wall, burning webs as he goes. Disgusted by the hanging husks, he pushes a few aside as he makes his way, and causes a few others to fall to the floor. Completely dry, they sound like dry, hollow gourds when they land on the cavern's floor.
Although he's peering intently, the druid notes that the cobwebs are thicker here and he cannot see anything beyond a distance of 10' or so. The place is quite eerie, but no movement is detected.
I guess you're going to fling a single firebeetle gland (one out of the three) if you see anything...to get a better visual range. Is that what you mean?
Osan tosses one of the fire beetle glands further into the Northern tunnel to see what he can, and then moves to the right, seeing if the webs thin in that direction. He takes one of his remaining two fire beetle glands and tosses it ahead of his position to better see what he may be crouching - or crawling - into, and then pick up the gland when he gets to it, and repeat.
He would toss a fire beetle gland both to light up a bit further ahead, and also possibly, to lure a spider or rat into attacking it rather than him for a moment.
Tossing the first firebeetle gland into the northern passage reveals nothing new- no lurking creature is there, and the passage seems to bend in a southeastward direction.
After moving through the other passage a few feet the druid flings a second gland forward, about ten feet away. There, the webs are thickest, and the gland gets stuck in some of the strands. Quivering for a few seconds, the gland illuminates a space that has a slightly higher ceiling- and the darkness stretches upwards in certain spots, as if there are narrow, vertical tunnels going upwards.
Map Spoiler-
T = Tree Roots
x = Osan's Current Position
g = Location of Thrown Gland
Osan waits and watches the second gland he tossed, and if he sees no changes, he moves back and heads toward the first gland that he tossed to explore that tunnel further.
Skittish about proceeding through the main portion of the cavern, Osan backs up and returns to the left-most passage. Retrieving his first beetle gland, the druid sees that this narrow passage also merges into the same area. The webs in the passage seem less dense, but become more thick ten feet ahead. It does not look like the druid can avoid the main section.
There are a couple dessicated giant rat husks hanging here and there, much as before.
Map Spoiler-
T = Tree Roots
x = Osan's Current Location
g = Beetle Gland
Osan resigns himself to pushing through the thicker webs, continuing to use his lamp to burn away the webs as he reaches them.
He does his best to keep next to the wall to his left, continuing to toss the beetle gland ahead and catching up with it and repeating.
Concerned about the holes he saw in the ceiling earlier, he watches above him for any signs of movement.
Sure enough, when the druid moves fully into the main section of the cave he notices a quick, furtive motion up in the shadows ten feet away- as if something had just poked its head out of one of the upside-down holes. Freezing to see if he was imagining it, Osan blinked a few times in the relative darkness...but then he saw in the red light tiny reflections off of hundreds of jewel-like facets. Both human and monstrous spider erupted into motion at the same time...
State actions, roll for initiative and dice if attacking. The thing's cephalothorax is the size of Osan's head, its abdomen the size of a small, filled sack. Arms stretch out five feet each.
The druid whis out his aklys when the spider rushes forward, attempting to strike it in its maw. Missing, Osan shifts and dodges, attempting to interpose his weapon between the angry thing's mouth and his own body- knowing that the spider's primary weapon was its poisonous fangs.
For first level characters I make venoms paralytic or sleep inducing,,,
Bitten, the druid goes limp and is parlayzed. His mind and vision function for a while, so the wilder sees the immense creature wrap him in a silken cocoon. Spinning around like a top, albeit slowly due to his large mass, Osan's mind feels disconnected from his body as he has no sensations of feeling anywhere. Finally, the spider strings the human up for consumption later...
Passing out, Osan come to some time later- in pain, but capable of some motion. His hands and feet are tingling, but he can wiggle them.
Upside down, his head is pounding furiously and he throws up violently. Luckily, once he has disgorged the entire contents of his stomach, the silk that encases his head is somewhat loose and the top portion of his head wallows in vomit rather than the druid choking on the stuff.
Wiggling his fingers, they brush the handle of his dulled silver sickle...
He's been asleep for some time and has regained 2 HP.
Trying to keep his body from swaying if possible, Osan grabs as much of his sickle's handle as he can with his fingers and moves it back and forth against the webs, thankful that he dulled the blade a bit rather than wrapping the blade up entirely, and hoping the rock he scraped it against left some serrations that can grab the web to cut it. As he wiggles the sickle he flexes his legs and torso to tighten the webs and ease the cutting and to test the webs for when they will start to break. At the same time Osan tries to remember the words and gestures for his Invisibility to Animals spell seeing if he can gather the concentration he would need to cast it.
Roll Dex and Str checks. He can make such a combination of checks every turn and, once they both pass, he cuts himself free.
He doesn't have invisibility to animals any longer. He does have animal friendship (V,S,M), however. If/when he frees himself he can attempt that...assuming the spider shows itself.
Osan grips the handle of his sickle and attempts to cut the strands holding him. Gasping in pain, and feeling rather sick, he will avoid cutting the strands that hold him to the ceiling until last...dreading a two foot fall directly upon his head.
Osan struggles in the spiderweb cocoon, managing to reach his sickle enough to have it slowly saw against the webs.
After ten minutes he tries to burst free, but his strength fails him, but at least he did not lose his purchase on his sickle. Dulled though it is, it manages to continue working through the webs, and when he can summon his strength again, he manages to break out of the webs, heave himself up and cut the strands holding his feet to the ceiling in such a manner that he doesn't fall directly on his head.
Osan quickly works to orient himself to where ever it is he now is, and looks for one of the beetle glands and checks for whether he still has his lamp or if it is nearby. Rubbing his ankles and sore limbs, Osan chants the last of his cure minor wounds orisons.
Healing his self somewhat, the druid checks his gear...and it's all there except for the single gland that glows in the middle of the main chamber and the one in the side passage. Doubting it wise to go further into the main area (the spider erupted from a vertical tunnel there), Osan slowly skirts the other direction. He certainly does not see anything worth dawdling for other than dried rat carcasses.
Retrieving his gland in the side passage Osan works his way around a bend and sees it branch left and right.
Traveling through the left tunnel, Osan notices that the amount of cobwebs drops off significantly. Although the ceiling still hangs low, the tunnel broadens considerably (to about 15') and begins to slope downwards. Here and there are recesses that could hide a pouncing spider. The druid has to be careful not to slip, as the floor is slick and has a scree of fine, spherical carbonate minerals coating its surface.
Making his way to the bottom of the sloping passage Osan notes that the passage narrows down to ten feet and makes a quick turn to the right. The floor is especially slippery here and there appears to be a pit stretching eight feet across, with about one foot of possibly stable lip all around. The wilder does see various tracks evident around the pit- resembling those of large squirrels, or possibly the giant rats he observed before, in the spider's den. If he's to jump the slippery-edged pit, Osan thinks it will be dicey...
If you want him to jump across roll a dexterity check at -2, due to the slippery nature of the floor.
Osan edges up to the pit and takes a look over the edge peering to see what he can, and looking to the edges to see if there is a ledge on which he could skirt around the side of the pit. He then swipes his hand across the floor to clear the scree from an area near the pit large enough to allow him to get a better purchase for taking off should he choose to leap the pit.
Clearing away some debris Osan peers down, into the pit.
The pit descends at least five feet, where the surface of some scummy, foetid water shows its surface. Evident to the druid are several rotting rat carcasses. Some of the critters traveling around the pit obviously have no luck and subsequently drown on the cesspool.
Before chancing the leap across the squalid pit, Osan heads back and investigates a bit further down the right passage at the previous fork, looking for another passage leading away from the spider den.
