Once everyone got online, we started at the top of round 4.  The crab thing continued to climb back into the fight.  It rolled poorly and only gained 15 feet however, it was still closer than we had expected.  The hope was to finish off the toad before it got there.  However, it dropped TerStegan in one round and then dropped Oakwood in the next round after he tried to help.  Fortunately, Briscoe healed TerStegan between the two and TerStegan went from out to the highest hit points.  It seemed to crit more than we hit and that persistent acid damage is particularly dangerous to the dying.  The crab came up right next to Clarisa who had fired a full round of Force Barrage rather than move the previous round.  But now, she had nothing she could do without taking a Reactive Strike.  She elected to Step off the edge, cast Gentle Landing half way down once she was beyond its reach and cast Fly once she safely reached the bottom.  A most impressive exit.  Around then, the toad went down. 

We then turned on the crab.  It did less damage but had reach and reactive strike and free grabs.  It successfully hit and grabbed TerStegan, knocking him out again.  And then paralyze him with some goo.  Again, Briscoe was able to heal him.  There was debate on what his Free Action spell from Otari’s key would get him.  A guaranteed escape but not immunity from being grabbed was the ruling.  And then Oakwood finally hit it and took it out.  Brian rolled randomly and it fell off the edge, taking TerStegan with it.  More debate.  Brian ruled that the key did protect him from the paralysis so he was able to grab an edge and not fall.  He then used his new Spider Slippers to climb down as Clarisa was flying up.  Everyone wanted to get a short rest but TerStegan was supercharged with a bunch of effects that would be expiring soon.  So, he wanted to keep fighting while they were still up.

At the bottom, he saw the Mouther but not the spider.  The Mouther did not seem to be moving or gibbering.  Oakwood did a bit of healing on himself and then used Cat Fall to get to the bottom too.  He wasn’t in any shape to start a new fight but didn’t want TerStegan to be alone.  Clarisa hoovered down there too but the other two stayed at the top as they didn’t have anything to avoid taking the stairs again.  TerStegan checked out the Mouther and it was dead.  Poisoned by the spider? He also noted that many of the stasis chambers were busted but couldn’t see them all.  Was it four or maybe more? Dare we hope they were killing each other? And the south end was full of webs.  Was that the spider we saw or the super spider Xeelie’s research said would kill us all? Finally, some of his stuff expired and he agreed to come back up.  We decided to go home since many daily powers had been used up.  Now that most of us had casting archetypes with once a day spells, long rests are much more popular.

We needed a long rest but TerStegan was eager to go to town.  After some debate, Briscoe did a group treat wounds first.  TerStegan took the girls with him and went to visit Vandy at the temple/library.  There he made a grand show of donating 25 gp of his hard-earned cash to her.  It had something to do with that new ring of his.  Was he motivated or compelled? The girls made jokes but offered no help.  We got that long rest and debated what to do next.  We could fight more of the prisoner monsters but the possibility of an unbeatable foe made that less desirable.  Plus facing that undead hag again which had likely reset by now.  There was the big door that we thought we could now open with the completed pentagram key.  But that was likely the boss battle of the level or the gateway to the next level.  We wanted to finish off this level first.  There was the secret door that might lead around to behind the trapped room we avoided several sessions ago.  But to get there, we’d have to go into the stasis cell room.  We could get into the observation room and see what was loose in there and maybe be safe if it was too much.

However, Brian pointed out that there were stairs on the previous level that might lead to an area on this level we hadn’t been too yet.  (It’s hard to navigate the maps when you can only see bits of them at a time.)  We went that way and found a wide hallway with 3 cell doors down it.  There were empty shackles on the wall.  Once TerStegan took a step in, two invisible Wisps “appeared.”  Luckily, in Xeelie’s lantern light, they were only hidden.  It was the usual problem.  They were immune to magic, hidden or invisible, high AC, etc.  TerStegan and Xeelie did all the damage.  Oakwood put up Trees to protect them.  Briscoe and Clarisa tried to use Needle Darts but once they finally hit, they did nothing.  Once again, Dave argued that the attacking needles were not magic, just propelled by magical means.  No different than a magic crossbow.  And once again, they were denied by the system.  The Wisps were taken out without much fuss however, other than excluding 3 of us.  That lantern made a big difference.  At that point, it was past midnight and we stopped.  TerStegan took a peek into one of the cells and saw that wanted Tiefling, hanging upside-down in chains.  So, we’ll have to figure that out next time.