Following the southwest passage that they had not yet explored the Mothers found a short offshoot cave that seemed abandoned off the main tunnel. After they had assured themselves that it contained nothing of interest, they proceeded into a larger cavern. In the dim extremes of their light, they could make out two creatures scuttling along the walls and ceiling of this large cave. The creatures were part spider, part drow; the torso of a drow extending from each of the spider creatures abdomen.
Siosiann moved out from the crowd and fired a lightning bolt at the nearest creature. Although sorely wounded the spider-thing did not fall. Kurtalla reacted with revulsion at seeing the creatures he called driders, but they were too far away for his blades, so he hefted his bow and loosed an arrow at the nearest one, he seemed to know how to hurt them effectively. It reacted by sending a lightning bolt back through the Mothers hurting two of them because, although Kurtalla was in the path of the bolt, he managed to deftly evade it. Fonesca considered using a Wall of Ice to hurt her foes, but coming to a new understanding of the workings of magical matters, she decided that the spell was not for her and cast a Cone of Cold instead, moving forward to try and get both driders in the cone. This worked well and the closest one fell while the other still remained. Jito cast a Mirror Image. Gaspode finished off the last one with his own bow shot.
The Mothers approached the corpses to ensure there was no life left in them and to see if they had any worthwhile equipment. Their bows and other weapons did not seem to be of interest, but Kurtalla searched in the refuse strewn area to the southwest and found potions and scrolls in sealed tubes. The Mothers then went through the cavern to the north, realising that it completed a circuit of caverns. While on their way through, Gaspode nearly fell into a very deep pit that had been concealed by some kind of illusion. The spikes on the bottom looked vicious, even from sixty feet above. When they realised that their only further path lay through the sinkhole by the wall of stone, the party decided that they needed to rest.
They returned to the empty cavern that they found between the driders and the giant spiders. Here they set up camp and watches. The fifth watch was disturbed by the arrival of a group of drow, accompanied by a wraith spider and a very odd creature. It was shaped like a drow, but it appeared as if the creatures skin had been completely flayed, leaving the muscles and sinews exposed and oozing blood. This did not affect the creatures strength, however, as it pummelled Gaspode with its fists while he was still trying to react to the intruders presence. The Mothers are rousing themselves to respond to this threat.