Episode 21 - Spider Infestation

Where we last left off, the battered Galekin Estates stood defiant against the drow assaults. The dwelling bore the deep scars of previous drow attacks. Shattered stone walls, smoldering timbers, and crimson stains of slain spiders, dark elves, and village defenders alike.  The heroes stubbornly refused to yield.

Above, the sky appeared bruised, deepening from a dull grey to a violent purple. A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance, answered by a flash of lightning that clawed across the heavens, promising a storm unlike any other.

Leading the drow assault was the mage Thir-rissa Gallion. Her face of cruel elegance was framed by flowing, snow-white hair. She rode a gargantuan spider, its chitinous legs clicking ominously as it advanced.

Behind her surged a contingent of drow warriors mounted on equally monstrous arachnids, each spider bristling with wicked barbs.

A swirling vortex of water, a summoned elemental, pulsed with an unnatural energy that strengthened in the rain.

The moment initiative was rolled, the drow attacked from all sides.

The southern assault faltered, and the party was a wall of courage against the overwhelming tide. However, their valiant resistance drew the defenders’ attention away, allowing the other drow forces to converge and relentlessly cut down the villagers to the northeast. 

A drow necromancer, Mania Leri-thar,  unleashed magic of her own as the ground trembled, then buckled and fractured as the estate’s foundation crumbled, sending stone and earth cascading into a gaping maw.

Through this newly created breach, a wave of drow warriors and their spider mounts surged into the estate like a black, unstoppable flood.

Now, amidst the chaos of the ongoing battle, the heroes faced a new and unsettling horror: a pervasive spider infestation, with countless arachnids skittering unmolested and threatening to overwhelm and slaughter what remained of the rescued Rybulka villagers holed up in Galekin Estates and fighting for their lives.

We are now at the top of the initiative order.