The Weavers
The group stood before Antobury’s Mansion. The iron gate stood open, as did the front door, which was blocked by a great mass of webbing. The windows, too, were completely obscured by webs. Queg waited stoically as Bronson, Nate, and Miranda cast preparatory spells and Sully muttered curses and drew her blade.
After killing the huge spider-demon and chasing off its smaller fellows the party had little trouble climbing down the steep crevice that the abyssal guardian had protected so ferociously. The party reached the bottom and crept along a tunnel which soon lead them to what was clearly a Chitine community. Some quick reconnaissance had resulted in a chitine prisoner. Soon the party had the information they needed. The spiritual leader of the chitines, angry at the original theft of the hastendeath spider, had become enraged when his interrogation of K’Karsh had revealed the existence of Antobury’s museum. K’Karsh and the other surviving kenku were quickly bundled up and hauled back to Freeport by the strongest warriors and priests of the chitine tribe. The next generation of hastendeaths would be born in Antobury’s blasphemous spider-prison and Freeport would be destroyed.
The party snuck into Antobury’s mansion, past shattered displays and broken cages. There was webbing everywhere, covering walls, ceilings, windows, and doors. They soon found themselves entering the large central hall. There they found dozens of human sized bundles wrapped in webbing suspended from the ceiling. The moans and cries for help issuing from the bundles left little doubt that the chitines had collected a first generation of victims for the soon to be born hastendeath spiders. One bundle drew their attention, unlike the others it hung suspended by a long thread which reached nearly to the floor. The black feathers and beaked face visible through the webbing left little down that this was K’Karsh. His muted cries of pain left little doubt that his end was near.
A single chitine wearing a prominent gold holy symbol stood near K’Karsh. Between him and the party stood the immense camel-eating spider and the many legged Chwidencha. As the party moved to attack the chitine held his holy symbol high and called down a column of unholy flame which stared near the ceiling, immediately incinerating several bundles that hung there, and crashing down onto Bronson, Queg, and Sully.
The party sprang into action. Bronson’s repel vermin abjuration sent a carpet of tiny spiders that had been hidden under furniture and amid webs flowing away from him. The spell also drove back the huge camel-eating spider. Miranda cast haste as Queg and Sully moved to attack the C- and Nate dimension doored past the camel-eating spider to threaten the chitine spellcaster.
The C- counter attacked, wounding Sully, but proving unable to pin her amongst its clutching legs. She responded with another series of mighty blows, killing the aberration. The chitine stepped away from Nate and called forth another flame strike, once more striking Bronson, Queg, and Sully with unholy flame.
Bronson, gravely wounded, moved away from the battle to cast cure critical wounds. Queg and Miranda attempted to destroy the kenku’s body with flaming arrows and scorching rays. Nate moved to attack the chitine, landing a pair of strong blows. The chitine responded with a hold person spell, attempting to immobilize the bard. To everyone’s surprise, Nate gathered his will and resisted the enchantment.
With Bronson’s repel vermin spell no longer blocking its way, the camel-eating spider stepped right over Nate and the chitine to move toward Sully. She responded by charging the huge beast and landing a vicious blow, leaving it staggering.
Nate attacked the chitine once more, but the spellcaster dodged aside. The spider-like humanoid turned away, ignoring Nate to call another flame strike down into the center of the party. With a cry of pain Sully fell, her body badly burned by unholy flame.
With a wet tearing sound, hundreds of hastendeath spiders began to tear out of K’Karsh’s burning body. Hedged in on one side by Bronson’s repel vermin, the swarm of spiders turned and flowed over Queg, climbing up and over him, in and out of his clothes, among his bones.
Bronson moved forward to flank the chitine with Nate and, casting harm, reached out to touch the spellcaster. With a single surprised gasp the chitine fell, dead.
Queg, ignoring the ineffectual bites of the hastendeath spiders, and the webs they had begun to wrap around him turned and struck down the camel eating spider with one mighty blow.
The hastendeath spiders, unable to harm the undead ranger, moved on in search of other victims. Their other foes destroyed, the party turned their full might on the lethal arachnids. Miranda, flying struck the swarm with a fireball and harrying it with a flaming sphere. Bronson summoned a pair of fire elementals to assist and soon the hastendeath spiders, not intelligent enough to flee, were all burned away.
The party found Antobury among the men and women in the web bundles. The traumatized scholar had little to say. Over half of the chitine’s hostages had been killed by flame strikes. For the most part, those who remained quietly dispersed.
Nate noticed a kenku despondently looking at K’Karsh’s burnt body. When he encouraged the creature to return to the Rigg he shook his head despondently, “Brother dead, friends dead, why go back? Chuko alone.”
Remembering the kenkus’ acrobatic abilities Nate asked Chuko if he was interested in joining their crew. The bird man considered it, turning his head this way and that to peer at them with his black inscrutable eyes.
“Chucko the pirate. Wark. Wark. Wark. Chuko likes the sound of that! Wark! Chucko the pirate!”
Nate sent their newest crewmember to the docks with a note to Old Pete and gave a bemused smile as he watched the kenku hop and skip his way out of the hall. “Chuko the pirate! Wark! Wark! Wark!”
Galen Cobb entered the hall, watched for a while as the party cut down the last of the web bundles. He walked over to Nate, taking a long pull on a flask as he approached. “My job here is probably over,” he observed, gesturing around the destroyed hall, “Got any room on the Albers?” He took another long pull. “I was a good sailor once.”
Nate sighed, “Sure. Welcome aboard.”
* * * * *
The next morning the temple of Aster saw not one, but two miracles. At the height of the day’s services Sully’s body was laid on the altar. Bronson spoke a prayer in a strong, confident voice. The onlookers were momentarily deafened by the sound of angels, echoing celestial voices singing what sounded strikingly like a dirge. Just as it seemed that mortal ears could take no more, Sully’s eyes open and the sound of her first breath echoed through the completely silent chamber.
Sully had mere minutes to reacquaint herself with mortality when Bronson repeated his miracle, this time placing the skull of Bonny Bill on the altar and producing a scroll that he had carefully safeguarded since finding it during the party’s journey beyond Hell’s Triangle. Again the angels sang, but this time their mournful melody accompanied the recreation of a mortal’s physical form. First bones appeared out of thin air, a whole skeleton growing away from the skull. Then muscles appeared, and organs, a heart already beginning to beat, lungs already filling, ropey veins spreading out like a rapidly expanding web, and skin – unscarred - without blemish or wound. Hair grew, color spread, and William Teach, dead nearly seven years, opened his eyes.
The first face he saw was beaming with joy, “Sully? What happened?” He reached out, touched her face. “Steve. He killed me.”
Sully’s eyes were full of tears. She could not speak.
* * * * *
A day later the Albers sailed. She had lost a crewman. Miranda, still swatting at unseen bugs, had chosen to retire from adventuring, to join the service of Aster instead. She would be missed, but the Albers was not short handed. Chuko took to work in the rigging with enthusiasm and skill. Cobb was competent, but perpetually drunk. No one could figure out where he was hiding alcohol aboard. The crew largely avoided their sickly new crewmate.
As Freeport slipped out of sight Sully stood in the bow, one arm around Bonny Bill, silently watching the waves with a contented smile on her face. Nate stood near the stern, giving instructions to young Dirt at the wheel. At his side stood Marcus Vale. The wizard had appeared amongst the crew no ceremony and little explanation. Nate, eager to have his father’s old friend aboard and glad to have a new ship’s mage so soon, did not press him.
The sun shone bright the day the Albers left Freeport for the last time, but there were storm clouds on the horizon.
The group stood before Antobury’s Mansion. The iron gate stood open, as did the front door, which was blocked by a great mass of webbing. The windows, too, were completely obscured by webs. Queg waited stoically as Bronson, Nate, and Miranda cast preparatory spells and Sully muttered curses and drew her blade.
After killing the huge spider-demon and chasing off its smaller fellows the party had little trouble climbing down the steep crevice that the abyssal guardian had protected so ferociously. The party reached the bottom and crept along a tunnel which soon lead them to what was clearly a Chitine community. Some quick reconnaissance had resulted in a chitine prisoner. Soon the party had the information they needed. The spiritual leader of the chitines, angry at the original theft of the hastendeath spider, had become enraged when his interrogation of K’Karsh had revealed the existence of Antobury’s museum. K’Karsh and the other surviving kenku were quickly bundled up and hauled back to Freeport by the strongest warriors and priests of the chitine tribe. The next generation of hastendeaths would be born in Antobury’s blasphemous spider-prison and Freeport would be destroyed.
* * * * *
The party snuck into Antobury’s mansion, past shattered displays and broken cages. There was webbing everywhere, covering walls, ceilings, windows, and doors. They soon found themselves entering the large central hall. There they found dozens of human sized bundles wrapped in webbing suspended from the ceiling. The moans and cries for help issuing from the bundles left little doubt that the chitines had collected a first generation of victims for the soon to be born hastendeath spiders. One bundle drew their attention, unlike the others it hung suspended by a long thread which reached nearly to the floor. The black feathers and beaked face visible through the webbing left little down that this was K’Karsh. His muted cries of pain left little doubt that his end was near.
A single chitine wearing a prominent gold holy symbol stood near K’Karsh. Between him and the party stood the immense camel-eating spider and the many legged Chwidencha. As the party moved to attack the chitine held his holy symbol high and called down a column of unholy flame which stared near the ceiling, immediately incinerating several bundles that hung there, and crashing down onto Bronson, Queg, and Sully.
The party sprang into action. Bronson’s repel vermin abjuration sent a carpet of tiny spiders that had been hidden under furniture and amid webs flowing away from him. The spell also drove back the huge camel-eating spider. Miranda cast haste as Queg and Sully moved to attack the C- and Nate dimension doored past the camel-eating spider to threaten the chitine spellcaster.
The C- counter attacked, wounding Sully, but proving unable to pin her amongst its clutching legs. She responded with another series of mighty blows, killing the aberration. The chitine stepped away from Nate and called forth another flame strike, once more striking Bronson, Queg, and Sully with unholy flame.
Bronson, gravely wounded, moved away from the battle to cast cure critical wounds. Queg and Miranda attempted to destroy the kenku’s body with flaming arrows and scorching rays. Nate moved to attack the chitine, landing a pair of strong blows. The chitine responded with a hold person spell, attempting to immobilize the bard. To everyone’s surprise, Nate gathered his will and resisted the enchantment.
With Bronson’s repel vermin spell no longer blocking its way, the camel-eating spider stepped right over Nate and the chitine to move toward Sully. She responded by charging the huge beast and landing a vicious blow, leaving it staggering.
Nate attacked the chitine once more, but the spellcaster dodged aside. The spider-like humanoid turned away, ignoring Nate to call another flame strike down into the center of the party. With a cry of pain Sully fell, her body badly burned by unholy flame.
With a wet tearing sound, hundreds of hastendeath spiders began to tear out of K’Karsh’s burning body. Hedged in on one side by Bronson’s repel vermin, the swarm of spiders turned and flowed over Queg, climbing up and over him, in and out of his clothes, among his bones.
Bronson moved forward to flank the chitine with Nate and, casting harm, reached out to touch the spellcaster. With a single surprised gasp the chitine fell, dead.
Queg, ignoring the ineffectual bites of the hastendeath spiders, and the webs they had begun to wrap around him turned and struck down the camel eating spider with one mighty blow.
The hastendeath spiders, unable to harm the undead ranger, moved on in search of other victims. Their other foes destroyed, the party turned their full might on the lethal arachnids. Miranda, flying struck the swarm with a fireball and harrying it with a flaming sphere. Bronson summoned a pair of fire elementals to assist and soon the hastendeath spiders, not intelligent enough to flee, were all burned away.
The party found Antobury among the men and women in the web bundles. The traumatized scholar had little to say. Over half of the chitine’s hostages had been killed by flame strikes. For the most part, those who remained quietly dispersed.
Nate noticed a kenku despondently looking at K’Karsh’s burnt body. When he encouraged the creature to return to the Rigg he shook his head despondently, “Brother dead, friends dead, why go back? Chuko alone.”
Remembering the kenkus’ acrobatic abilities Nate asked Chuko if he was interested in joining their crew. The bird man considered it, turning his head this way and that to peer at them with his black inscrutable eyes.
“Chucko the pirate. Wark. Wark. Wark. Chuko likes the sound of that! Wark! Chucko the pirate!”
Nate sent their newest crewmember to the docks with a note to Old Pete and gave a bemused smile as he watched the kenku hop and skip his way out of the hall. “Chuko the pirate! Wark! Wark! Wark!”
Galen Cobb entered the hall, watched for a while as the party cut down the last of the web bundles. He walked over to Nate, taking a long pull on a flask as he approached. “My job here is probably over,” he observed, gesturing around the destroyed hall, “Got any room on the Albers?” He took another long pull. “I was a good sailor once.”
Nate sighed, “Sure. Welcome aboard.”
* * * * *
The next morning the temple of Aster saw not one, but two miracles. At the height of the day’s services Sully’s body was laid on the altar. Bronson spoke a prayer in a strong, confident voice. The onlookers were momentarily deafened by the sound of angels, echoing celestial voices singing what sounded strikingly like a dirge. Just as it seemed that mortal ears could take no more, Sully’s eyes open and the sound of her first breath echoed through the completely silent chamber.
Sully had mere minutes to reacquaint herself with mortality when Bronson repeated his miracle, this time placing the skull of Bonny Bill on the altar and producing a scroll that he had carefully safeguarded since finding it during the party’s journey beyond Hell’s Triangle. Again the angels sang, but this time their mournful melody accompanied the recreation of a mortal’s physical form. First bones appeared out of thin air, a whole skeleton growing away from the skull. Then muscles appeared, and organs, a heart already beginning to beat, lungs already filling, ropey veins spreading out like a rapidly expanding web, and skin – unscarred - without blemish or wound. Hair grew, color spread, and William Teach, dead nearly seven years, opened his eyes.
The first face he saw was beaming with joy, “Sully? What happened?” He reached out, touched her face. “Steve. He killed me.”
Sully’s eyes were full of tears. She could not speak.
* * * * *
A day later the Albers sailed. She had lost a crewman. Miranda, still swatting at unseen bugs, had chosen to retire from adventuring, to join the service of Aster instead. She would be missed, but the Albers was not short handed. Chuko took to work in the rigging with enthusiasm and skill. Cobb was competent, but perpetually drunk. No one could figure out where he was hiding alcohol aboard. The crew largely avoided their sickly new crewmate.
As Freeport slipped out of sight Sully stood in the bow, one arm around Bonny Bill, silently watching the waves with a contented smile on her face. Nate stood near the stern, giving instructions to young Dirt at the wheel. At his side stood Marcus Vale. The wizard had appeared amongst the crew no ceremony and little explanation. Nate, eager to have his father’s old friend aboard and glad to have a new ship’s mage so soon, did not press him.
The sun shone bright the day the Albers left Freeport for the last time, but there were storm clouds on the horizon.
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