Into the castle part 4

    When we last left off the group got into it with a group of 6' diameter spiders. Having slain them but with the casualty of the mage's giant weasel familiar  (which nearly killed the mage himself) they used up the majority of their healing items, scrolls, and spells to bandage themselves up and continue forward. They thought about taking the stairs up but they still have not made really any profit on this excursion and felt they could travel just a bit further before turning back to the city.

    They start following another winding path through the cave network and ultimately came across a group of hostile kobalds. The barb takes one out with a well placed arrow and the mage just barely pulled off knocking the rest out with his sleep spell. The dwarf decides they are too dangerous to keep alive and gets to work cutting some throats but the mage requested to spare one to try charming him into helping them find their way through the caverns and possibly to some hidden loot. The kobald(now known as belkin) failed his save and became the parties guide. He knew of a sword on a large metal object back inside the castle and recommended they go back the way they came and take the stairs up. When asked about the spiders Belkin very wisely noted when he and his group come across spiders, they run away.

    So they clear the steps of the thick webs and the dwarf decides to take point. They head up the stairs and find themselves in another fairly barren room but also full of webs. Thats when the giant spider above the door descends down on a heavy thread and the dwarf just barely has enough time to see it coming down on him fangs flared and dripping with venom. It scored a hit, rolled max damage, and the dwarf failed his saving throw leading to both fangs entering his skull through his eye sockets and filling his brain full of venom before wrapped all of its legs around his now convulsing corpse and pulling him up into its nest.

    The rest of the group terrified but pretty pissed off decide to instead of letting it enjoy its new found meal unleash everything they had left in the way of missile weapons on it scoring 2 heavy hits with arrows from the barbarian, a miss with a stone flung from the clerics sling, and a moderately successful magic missile from the mage. The group wins the next rounds initiative and the barb finishes it off with another salvo of arrows from his bow bringing the vermin crashing to the ground.

    Still horrified by the way their new found comrade had died they decide to collect his possessions for his family putting it in their bag of holding and still hungry for loot decide to follow belkin further into the castle. They found they came out near the throne room and the secret passage they took in their previous time in the castle but belkin was taking them further into unknown territory. It is about this time when a raging orc comes out swinging (terribly too as he fumbled and fell prone in front of the barb) and promptly got his skull caved in with an axe. We then had to cut the game short due to a family emergency however the group is learning quickly that luck will not always be with them and that death really does lurk around every corner if you are not careful.