Nazzeth was bleeding out.

“Should we heal him?” Mercarri yelled.

Lilvari took a quick glance at the arrows protruding from Nazzeth’s body before focusing her attention back on the beast hanging from the vaulted ceiling. “I mean, you can. But he’s just going to get shot at and go down again anyway.”

The group looked at each other and shrugged. There was logic in that.

Lilvari uttered a few arcane words and sent a blast of Eldritch energy towards the half drow / half spider. The shot sailed wide. She swore under her breath. “Why don’t you come down here and fight instead of letting your little friends do all the work?” The creature just leered at her.

Dare turned to the spiders near his feet. Instead of swatting at them with his sword, Talon, he dropped to the ground and started rolling back and forth. In a matter of moments, he’d squashed most of them into a sticky paste. Now there wasn’t only feces smeared all over his armor but spider guts as well.

“I guess we’ll just keep killing all your friends,” Lilvari said, hoping to coax the monster closer.

It just sneered at her. “No matter,” it spat. “I’ll get more.” It fired a quick succession of arrows at both Lilvari and Dare. Some hit their mark.

Nazzeth still lay unconscious, sprawled on the damp, mossy floor while the others fought both the monster and its underlings. Using Shit Hammer, Mercarri was able to flatten heaps of them, covering them in a layer of drippy excrement. Mystic called upon old magic and pointed her hands in the monster’s direction. A dim light shone down from the vaulted ceiling above the monster but then intensified into a blinding beam. The monster cried out in pain. It was quick to volley more arrows in her direction, striking true. The pain left her unable to hold the spell, and the moonbeam faded away.

A swarm of about two dozen spiders started crawling over Nazzeth’s face. Mystic looked over in time to see them start biting. She pointed at the spiders, shooting rays of frost from her fingertips. They scattered, but it was too late. They’d done their damage. Nazzeth’s face was swollen and full of bites. What breath he had left was barely a wheeze.

“How about now?” she asked. “I don’t think he’s going to be alive much longer.”

Lilvari sighed. “Up to you,” she said, hurling more blasts of arcane energy towards the monster.

Mystic whispered to herself, and as soon as she was through with the incantation, Nazzeth bolted upright and immediately screamed. Staring wide-eyed at his chest, he pulled the arrows free one by one.

As more spiders swarms fell, Team Ramrod focused more and more of their attention on the half drow monster hanging from the ceiling. All took heavy fire from it, but with the swarms of spiders out of the way and Nazzeth back in action, Team Ramrod slowly wore the monster down. They all landed hits and when needed, Mercarri used her cleric abilities to heal her companions. After a time, the monster was barely able to keep to the ceiling. Several of its legs hung lifelessly from its body. Others had been blown completely apart. Blood as well as shit from being slammed with Mercarri’s hammer ran from it down to the floor in rivulets.

Mercarri ushered Shit Hammer forth one more time and as soon as it struck, she cast Sacred Flame beneath the monster. The light started as a flicker but soon raged into a radiant inferno. The waste that covered the monster started sizzling and then hardening — encasing the monster in a shell of shit. With one final cry, it fell to the ground, dead.

The party looked around for more threats, but there were none. They did it. They slayed The Beast of the Warrens. Mystic turned towards the breeze of fresh air that came from the tunnel across the room. She followed it while Lilvari and Nazzeth took another look into the pit that was filled with bodies. Not only did they find the bodies of the missing guards but of several giant spiders as well — all crushed and cracked. Nazzeth wanted a better look.

He cast Levitate on himself and, once floating, pulled himself down along the wall of the pit. As he moved the bodies aside, he felt a draft of air. He continued digging until he found the source — a tunnel. He followed it for a time before returning. It led to a cave system. They’d have to come back and search it more thoroughly later.

Meanwhile, Mercarri decided to investigate the cocooned bodies leaning against the far wall. There were three in all. As she got closer, she noticed that one of them wasn’t completely covered. His head stuck out. It was a halfling with dark brown hair… and he was still breathing.

Quickly she cut him free. He sank to the ground. Though he wasn’t dead, he was certainly unconscious. Instead of healing him, she thought it better to search him first. In a breast pocket she found a note and a vial full of the same red granules that Dare had been addicted to: The Sight. She handed the vial to Lilvari who tucked it away in her haversack. The note, Mercarri read aloud.

“Errich,

This vial of The Sight is destined for Phandalin — a new location where I’m hoping to stir up some interest. Go there. Find buyers. Make sure to get the pricing right so we have repeat buyers.

— The Gentleman.”

“We need to take him with us to the Chief Speaker,” Lilvari said. Everyone agreed. From what they understood, The Sight was a growing problem in town. Dare, who had been hacking off the head and a leg from the monster as proof of its death, came over to bind the hands and feet of the halfling. He then slung him over his back.

Team Ramrod, so far, had had a pretty good day. They killed the beast that plagued the sewers, and they might have found a lead to the source of the drug that gripped Helmshold. Though smelling strongly of shit and piss and whatever else was floating down here, they were feeling pretty good.