We passed through the valley pretty easily, and made it to the tower itself with no trouble by mid-morning the next day, just as planned. And it wasn’t until we were climbing across the rubble towards the gap in the wall that things got rough. We heard snarls behind us, and realized too late we’d been surrounded. Three small, ragged looking wolves, probably barely older than pups had made a half-circle, trapping us between them and the gap in the wall as they advanced.
We acted on a split-second decision and fell back, moving as fast as we could back towards the opening, where the ground was clearer. The wolves were faster than us, but by the time they caught up we were almost on steady ground. It was my own bad luck that I was the slowest I suppose, and the three were on me before I could get to safety. Lucky for me I’m quick-footed, ‘cause their bites came within inches of my legs. I had my axe out right away of course and managed a good swing, took one of the dogs down with a single slash!
After that was a bit of a blur. I think Chimi and Roban shot another of the wolves with an arrow and a spell. Didn’t take it down, but the thing turned and ran like the wind away from us, leaving the other wolf lunging at me. I should’ve been paying more attention I guess ‘cause it got my leg and sent me toppling backwards. By the time I was back on my feet the mutt was fleeing, two arrows in its side. Good riddance I say, my ankle turned out to be all bloody from its bite when I checked under my pant leg.
It got dark pretty quickly after we climbed through the hole that was our entrance, so Roban conjured up some glowing lights that lit the place like torches and floated ahead of use while we walked. We came to two doors right away, but one led to a room completely filled with debris, so we went for the other. Not pleasant, it was filled with webbing, we were knee-deep in rubble, and a fresh web was practically flung at Chimi the moment she stepped into the room! Well, nobody had thought to be looking at the ceiling I guess, but there was an absolutely enormous spider up in the webs there!
Well Chimi was stuck, struggling against the sticky stuff she’d been tied up in, so I grabbed for one of my smaller axes and flung it. The bug was a little high up, but I’m good at long throws, I picked my aim well, and the axe was lodged in its flesh before you knew it. Not a pretty sight with spider blood dripping down on us from above. Suzume hit it too, with one of her arrows just as the bug was skittering down the wall, going for Chimi.
The thing bit her, and we found out later that she’d been poisoned, which explained why she’d seemed kind of weaker than normal. Fortunately I chopped my big axe right into its back and it only got in one little bite before it died. I made sure to pull my throwing axe out of it after that too. I may have three others, but it’s important to keep yourself well-stocked in situations like these.
Well after that we found the stairs, but they were all stuffed up with rubble, and we couldn’t clear a path even though we tried pulling some of it away. Suzume gave up on that first and went to search the spider’s lair, I wouldn’t think a spider would have treasure, but she said it might have had victims who’d dropped valuable things here. It might have even gotten at Balenar.
The one cocoon big enough to hold a person that we found was actually stuffed with the rotten body of a dog, poor little thing. It was long dead, but Suzume cut off the jewel-encrusted tag from its collar. The name on it read ‘Kita’. Don’t know who Kita’s owner was, but they’re going to have to get a new dog I think.
The first floor was all cleared out of what we could get at by then, so we went back outside. Our only choice was to climb, but fortunately it wasn’t too hard. Suzume got to the top first and ran a rope down for us, Chimi slipped and tumbled back down to the ground on her first attempt going up the rope, but fortunately she didn’t fall from too high and wasn’t hurt. She was able to get up on her second try.
We’d made it into the tower itself finally, no more rubble here. We stopped on the landing here to discuss strategy since there’s two doors we can go into from here. I took the time to scribble down this entry in my journal, but I’m going to have to wrap it up. Seems they’ve decided to flip a copper to choose which door to try.
--Holly Hay, 7 Desnus, 4712 ar.