Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Tides of Homeland Storyhour
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 644" data-attributes="member: 63"><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Chapter Twelve: The First Strand of the Spider's Web</strong></span></p><p></p><p>The party arrives in the town of Milbourne a little after noon, accompanying the merchant caravan that they had earlier in the day saved from an Orcish raiding party. As the caravan leader stops by an outlying farm to negotiate payment so they can set up in an unused field, the new heroes saunter into town to relax.</p><p></p><p>Here's an overview of events and characters to date. If you want to skip to the real stuff, feel free.</p><p></p><p><em>Hera 'Harley' Fyana (Vaneljesti Elvish bard 1/rogue 2), formerly a member of a noble Elvish family, left her home several years ago, and has since then made a living as a performer and part-time courier. Though usually she has to hide that she is an Elf, she is pleasantly surprised that the people of the Haranshire are very open toward Elves, due in no small part to their proximity to the Innenotdarasne Phuurst (homeland of the Innenlesti Elves), and due to the local half-Elven hero, Allarliao Ursdail.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>James T. Rocket (half-Elf fighter 3, badass extraordinaire) is possessed of little backstory, and what little there is he claims would be too boring to listen to. He's trained as a warrior, and met Harley during a simple fair guard job at the Magical Fair in Lyceum, capitol city of the Nozama Empire. But chance he and Harley ended up saving the day, and attracted the interest of a businessman who wanted them to deliver a package to Thurmaster, a town near the north border of the Empire, in a region called the Haranshire.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Nischal Al'emelos, commonly called Nikal (Innenlesti Elvish fighter 4), accompanied Harley and James on their courier trip to the Haranshire. He proved initially useful when the three of them were attacked by brigands, but both James and Harley recognize him as a bit of a lecher and a braggard.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Allarliao Ursdail (half-Tundanesti Elvish fighter 4/ranger 12) is a well-respected hero in the Haranshire, owing to how he and some of his old adventuring companions performed a myriad of minor good deeds like saving people's lives, and eventually gained enough money to set up a keep in the northeast of the area, which has helped keep down raids from wilderness tribes of Orcs, Goblins, and Humans. Few in the area know that he and his fellow adventurers actually thwarted a plan, conceived by alien creatures of the Land Below, to control the mind of every creature on the world. Allar met Harley, James, and Nikal when they delivered some brigands who attacked them to the local Haranshire authorities in the town of Milbourne. He has since become their part-time employer.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Bhurisrava (Innenlesti Elvish Christian cleric 3) is rather quirky and enigmatic, apparently not knowing as much about his religion as he claims. He joined with the group by stumbling upon their conversation in Milbourne's tavern, the Baron of Mutton. When later that night it seemed that Nikal had stolen the package James and Harley were supposed to deliver, Bhurisrava helped them track him down. It eventually turned out that Nikal had just grown weary of Bhur’s rambling, and had ridden off to Thurmaster, hoping to deliver the package and get back to Milbourne before his companions awoke the next morning.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Tauster (Human wizard 9) is an aging fellow, never an adventurer and far too frail now to ever become one. He was the recipient of the package Harley, James, and Nikal were supposed to deliver, but in truth he was simply the middle-man, since the package was meant ultimately for Allar and his companions. The chest they delivered contained a spellbook and research manual originally written by a Dwarvish wizard who was working with those who wanted to take over the world.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Darlakanand (Dwarf wizard 20, deceased) worked with the Illithids, telepathic creatures Allar dubbed Mind-Flayers, in an attempt to develop a powerful spell that could dominate the will of every creature in the world. He was killed by Allar and his companions, five years ago, but the wizard's eight spellbooks were scattered among the remnants of the conspirators. Darlakanand had many notes on manipulating minds and on how to avoid mind-control. Allar wants to destroy all these books so no one could do again what the Illithids attempted, and in the package James and Harley delivered, he had the eighth and final book of Darlakanand.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Jenneleth (human wizard 5/rogue 1) is the young apprentice of Tauster. She was saved from the Illithids seven years ago by Allar and his friends, and now she lives relatively peacefully in her home of the Haranshire, intending to get married in two weeks, on Easter. After Harley, James, and Bhurisrava left Thurmaster against Allar's requests to head out of the Haranshire, Jenneleth accompanied Nikal to Milbourne. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>A pseudolithid drone is the term that best describes a creature that stalked Nikal in an attempt to claim the Book of Darlakanand from him. The creature is a sickening hybrid of a human body with the tentacled biomass of an Illithid. Nikal realized that the thing would kill both him and Jenneleth if it realized they didn't have the book, so he bluffed and ran, trying to lose it in the Thornwood (a large forest between Milbourne and Thurmaster; the road passes around its border). Meanwhile, halfway across the Haranshire, Harley, James, and Bhur's horses were attacked and killed, their saddle-bags scoured through. The three of them pursued the killer, eventually losing its trail but stumbling almost accidentally upon Nikal as he finally fell from exhaustion after being chased by the psuedolithid drone. They managed to kill the drone, and both Bhur and Harley vowed undying disgust toward such hideous-looking creatures.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Roth VanMuren (human barbarian 3) heard the clamor of their fight with the drone, and came out of his forest cabin to find the source. He offered shelter to them for the night, and the next morning agreed to help them get through the forest as quickly as possible so they could make their way back to Thurmaster. Everyone realized that the drone was after the book for some reason, and they just wanted to make sure Tauster and Allar were safe. Roth's a big, dirty man who likes ale and dogs, takes poor of his equipment, and wears only a loincloth and chainmail.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Inzeldrin (old green Dragon) makes her lair in the Shreiken Mire, to the south of Thurmaster, east of the Thornwood. She had an agreement with the people of the Haranshire to protect them from danger if they paid monthly tribute in the form of cattle or sheep. Apparently her payment this month was not sent, and she sought out Allar. Instead she found Bhurisrava, James, Harley, and Roth, waiting with Tauster for Allar to show up. Inzeldrin doesn't like them much, but her human form is sexy and dark, so Roth likes her.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The night after the drone attack, as the party waited with Tauster for Allar to return from wherever he'd gone off to, Tauster's home was attacked by a group of thieves, one of whom was magically disguised as Allar. They stole the book of Darlakanand, nearly killed James, and escaped into the Thornwood. The next morning, when Allar returned, they were suspicious, but eventually everyone but Bhurisrava realized that the Allar the night before had been a fake.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Thereafter they tried to track down the thieves through the Thornwood, but failed. Allar went to contact some allies of his around the Haranshire, leaving the party in Thurmaster, but they overhead a group of men discussing a treasure hunt. Harley stole their treasure map while the men slept in a drunken stupor, and they set off to find treasure. Instead they found one member of the other group trapped in a wyvern lair. They killed the wyverns, found the gear of Dwarf (but no body), then brought the rescued man back to Milbourne so he could heal. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>In Milbourne they talked to the only Dwarf who lives in the area, who goes by the name Old Grizzler. The gear they found belonged to Grizzler’s nephew, and after a day of remembering the heroism of living and dead, Grizzler thanked the party by giving each of them a magical dagger that once belonged to him and his adventuring companions decades earlier. Roth, hung-over, had to stay in Milbourne, but the rest of the party (Harley, James, and Bhurisrava) set out before the day was done, heading to a forest near the wyvern lair, where the stolen treasure map said they could find treasure. And find treasure they did, after dealing with a hoaxed ghost and through much digging in the muck.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Upon returning to Milbourne the next evening, Allar found them and dragged them to help him. A merchant caravan was to be arriving in the Haranshire in less than a day, and Allar wanted to make sure the caravan would be safe from any attacks by raiders. They camped for the night nearby the Eelhold, a dam full of Goblins. The next morning they left the dam Goblins and linked up with the caravan just in time to protect them from thirty attacking Orcs.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Victorious Elrad (Human wizard 3 [water elementalist]) and Arin Mir’tey (Human wizard 3 [wild necromancer]) were both guards of the caravan, and they assisted the party in fighting off the Orcs. Arin doss not like the party very much, and considers them to not be serious enough, but Vic is a relaxed guy who fits in perfectly with Harley, James, and Bhur.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>(wow, this is a long recap)</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The party rested and healed after the fight at the Eelhold, seeing a malevolent water elemental that seems native to the dam. They also met Shiraz (Human ranger 6/swanmay 6), a friend of Allar’s who occasionally borrows a magical ring from the local Goblin shaman, using it to control the water elemental so it doesn’t get too violent.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>And here we are.</em></p><p></p><p>Allar lets the caravan go on ahead. He just wants to check out a hunch and make certain that the Orcs weren’t working with the same people who stole the Book of Darlakanand, and so he plans to follow the tracks of the raiding party back to their source. Bhurisrava, still paranoid over the whole ‘fake-Allar’ incident a couple days earlier, insists that he wants to go along and ‘help’ Allar. Allar grudgingly obliges, and asks the rest of the party to keep their eyes open when they get back to Milbourne until he gets back. He says it might be up to two days before he’s back to Milbourne.</p><p></p><p>Once they get to the Baron of Mutton, the tavern in Milbourne, Harley, James, Victorious, and Arin Mir’tey sit and have lunch. After a very short conversation, Arin decides he’s going to head off. He leaves the tavern, apparently to go talk to the caravan master so he can get paid and leave. </p><p></p><p>They do not lament his departure.</p><p></p><p>James and Harley tell Vic what they’ve been up to for the past few weeks, and Vic tells them about his own travels and training. Harley tells Vic about their conversation with Old Grizzler, and James complains that he misses the taste of Dwarven ale. Vic smiles, puts a finger to James’s mug, and when James takes another sip, he shakes his head from momentary dizziness, then quietly forces himself not to cough at the intensity of the drink.</p><p></p><p>Having displayed his usefulness to the party, Harley and James invite him to tag along with them on future adventures. </p><p></p><p>They mill around the tavern, Harley making an effort to ask if anyone’s seen anything, but it’s a few hours before they get any leads. A local tanner and businessman comes in and gets a drink, complaining to the bartender. His woe is that he traveled for a couple hours to visit Kuiper, one of the area’s respected and well-known rangers. Kuiper, Harley learns, owns a farm on the southern edge of the Churnette River, which runs between Milbourne and Thurmaster. Milbourne is on the north side of the river, and the southern bank is overgrown with thorny trees, so the tanner had brought a wagon of commissioned leathers and goods to drop off to Kuiper, expecting to be able to get a ride over the river on Kuiper’s personal ferry. Since Kuiper wasn’t waiting for him like he was supposed to, the tanner had to leave his wagon alone and swim across the river to go get the ranger.</p><p></p><p>When he reached the other side, he hiked through Kuiper’s farmland to the man’s house, but when he got there no one would answer the door. He couldn’t see anything through the windows, and there was a smell of rot in the air. The tanner said he got a nervous feeling being there, like a lot of eyes were watching him. He left quickly, hoping maybe Allar would be here to go check it out.</p><p></p><p>Harley, James, and Vic decide they should probably take the risk and check out what’s going on, and the tanner commends them on their bravery. However, since they’re still a little wobbly after being beaten up in the Orc raid earlier, they’re in no shape to go now. The town’s healer, a priest named Lafayer, is out of town, visiting the eastern edge of the Haranshire to bless a newly built bridge, so without magical healing available, they decide to rest for the remainder of the day and set out early the next morning. James always gets up early and wakes up Harley with him, so she secretly hopes that if they go out to the farm and come back quickly, she might be able to claim weariness from traveling and garner herself an extra few hours of sleep at the inn.</p><p></p><p>While they relax, Harley gives Vic a quick tour of Milbourne, introducing him (and in many cases, herself) to local dignitaries and notables, including Old Grizzler, who isn’t too pleased with Vic’s use of magic to create Dwarven ale. He claims its almost sacrilege, but he’ll forgive it because Victorious is an easy guy to get along with. James comes along on the tour as well, claiming it’s good business sense to learn who he might have to work with or for in the future. However, even with the combined efforts of Harley’s curiosity, Vic’s charm, and James’s canny entrepeneurship, the only real news they hear is that the local caravan’s arrival is meant to coincidence with the upcoming Springtide/Easter festival (a mixture of Elvish and Christian religious celebrations), and that Tauster’s apprentice, Jenneleth, will be getting married soon. </p><p></p><p>Vic swings by the caravan as it’s setting up shop (it will only be there for the next few days), and gets paid by the caravan master. Arin Mir’tey apparently got paid and has already left, on foot, which, again, no one cares about. The caravan master is saddened to hear that Vic will be staying with his new friends and not going with the caravan when it moves on to the next town, but Vic makes the parting friendly by enchanting the man’s favorite flagon so any water put into it will always be pure. It will only last for one year, but it pleases the man a great deal to have his own personal magic item.</p><p></p><p>They shop through the caravan for a while, but decide to come back later if they get more money. Vic has his eye on a particularly interesting panther that is being kept in a too-small cell. To help out the cat, he risks getting bitten on the hand to reach into the cage and give the panther’s water bowl the same enchantment as the caravan master’s mug.</p><p></p><p>Nothing particularly interesting happens for the rest of the day, so they round out the evening with Harley timidly putting on a performance for the Baron of Mutton. She normally works with a partner to do a magic show, but she has to adlib by performing tricks on willing customers. For the first time in several months, she doesn’t steal from anyone in the audience, and ponders that choice as she goes to bed. </p><p></p><p>The next morning . . . well, toward the end of that night, when the sky is still dark, James apparently detects when it would be most appropriate to wake up Harley, managing to stir her from a nightmare where the Illithid drone’s weapon had been eating its way through her arm toward her thoat. Disturbed, for once she’s pleased that James woke her up, and they rouse Vic too. Vic sleeps like a cat, apparently hearing them as they try to wake him up, but not paying attention. After a little effort, though, they get him up, then go get their horses and ride for Kuiper’s farm. On horseback, Vic seems to fall asleep sitting up, but he tells them that he’s collecting energy for his spells.</p><p></p><p>They reach the spot of the river nearest to the farm just as the sun is beginning to rise, and can see the ferry docked about forty feet away. Vic disrobes to his chest and swims out, then guides the boat back so they can all take their horses across. Without his heavy cloaks, he’s actually fairly well-muscled, with darkly tanned skin. Once they reach the opposite shore, Vic puts his shirt and cloak back on, now completely dry, skin, clothes, hair, mustache-goatee and all.</p><p></p><p>They guide their horses through Kuiper’s farm fields, following a well-worn path between patches of carrots and lettuce, and some areas of fallow grass. In the distance they can vaguely make out the dark shape of a set of buildings. The sun sheds light, a breeze gusts, and glittering dew fills the air, accompanied by the stench of decay.</p><p></p><p>As they approach the first building, which appears to be a normal house, Harley notices something glittering in the air between the house and a barn. When they take a few steps to look closer, they can see nothing. Shrugging, they go back to the main house and force the door open. It’s a heavy door, and it looks like it has already been smashed at by somebody. It only budges slightly even though the handle is unlocked, so James finally shrugs in frustration and smashes in the window. He brushes away the glass and climbs inside awkwardly, having a hard time because of his chainmail. Harley and Vic hear James groan out, “Eww,” and then after a moment the door opens from inside, creaking loudly. They can see the decomposing body of a man lying beside a hastily built barricade of furniture. A sword lies beside him, but is cracked down the middle, useless.</p><p></p><p>Only a moment after the door screeches open, they hear a heavy thudding, then an odd, soft noise, like the rustling of branches in the breeze. Vic takes a step back and looks around curiously, then waves for the others come out and back him up. </p><p></p><p>“I heard something behind the barn.”</p><p></p><p>James is about to ask for more time because he sees two stab wounds in the chest of the dead man, but Vic heads on already, expecting the others to be right after him. He walks forward slowly, between the barn and the house, listening carefully to the rustling around the corner. He hears something shift, and is about to cast a defensive spell when Harley shouts out, “Vic, stop!”</p><p></p><p>Victorious whirls to see what Harley is warning about, and just then stumbles one more step into the nearly invisible web stretched between the two buildings. In the shadow of the barn, no sunlight sparkles on the dew on the long strands. With his back turned, he can’t see the source of the noise behind him, but Harley screams as a heavy beating thunders closer. Panicking, Vic lunged forward, slipping out of the sleeves of his cloak. He falls to the ground just as a dark shadow flies over him, and something smashes him in the shoulders, tearing through the back of his shirt but missing his flesh. He rolls onto his back so he can see what just attacked him, and the huge form overhead backpedals a few steps, tilting its body down so that eight giant black eyes reflect his face back to him.</p><p></p><p>Vic tries to scramble away, but the spider slams down one of its legs onto his chest, pinning him to the ground. The creature, easily fifteen feet across, is far too heavy for Vic to budge, so he pulls out his dagger and tries to stab at the hairy limb.</p><p></p><p>Harley calls for James’s help and throws one of her daggers at the arachnid’s face. The blade hits it bluntly, only bothering it slightly. James, however, sprints out of the house and lunges at the creature, slashing heavily with his sword at the leg pinning Vic. The spider, huge as it is, stands barely six feet high, so as it lunges at James, it’s forelegs seem to form a cage around him. It lashes out with its biting mandibles, tearing through some of the links in James’s chainmail, but not seriously hurting him. However, at the same moment it tramples over Vic, and he groans in pain, struggling to clamber free.</p><p></p><p>Harley breaks into a run, away from the fight, and James calls her a coward as he tries to jam a gauntleted fist into the spider’s many eyes. Between the two buildings, there’s very little room, so Vic crouches warily between the ever-scrambling spider legs as he casts a spell. From each palm he sprays out two lines of water, gushing and impacting into the spider’s side. In pain, the spider almost inadverdently trips Vic by trying to rush away. It smashes into James, trying to knock him over. He lets himself fall, then raggedly gouges his longsword through the chitin on the spider’s abdomen. Ignoring the ichor dribbling onto his face, he shoves with the end of his blade, digging into the creature deeper. </p><p></p><p>A bizarre screech comes from the monster, seeming to seep out of its body in all directions, and then it springs away, leaping into the air. Vic pulls James to his feet and they both turn to see the giant spider land heavily atop Kuiper’s house, denting the roof. They hear Harley scream in surprise, and it is then that they realize that Harley had been climbing onto the roof of the house to get a better angle of attack.</p><p></p><p>James to Vic, “Can you get me on the roof?”</p><p></p><p>Vic to James, “Heh. <em>I</em> can’t get on the roof by myself.”</p><p></p><p>James is about to try to clamber onto the top of the building when Harley flies overhead, making a running jump to the roof of the barn. The other roof is higher, so she grabs onto the eaves with one hand, driving her turquoise-hilted dagger into the wood with the other. She tries to clamber upward, but then the spider follows her, a massive shadow passing overhead, crashing onto the barn’s roof thunderously.</p><p></p><p>Harley groans and pulls herself high enough to fling Ricochet one handed. True to form, the chakram whirls harmlessly high, and in frustration Harley kicks off from the wall. She lands gracefully, but her face shows how shaken she is. She starts to point upward in shock at where she had just been (she had been hanging about twenty-five feet up) when James shoves her aside and falls to the ground, holding his sword upright. A shadow falls over them, and Harley kicks away furiously as the monster lands to attack again. James misses just barely with what would have been a crippling blow, and the spider lashes out with its bite at his face. The poisoned fangs scrape across his cheek, and James rolls away, having to force down the pain. </p><p></p><p>Vic shouts, “James, get clear. Harley, get its attention. I need to get in to cast a spell.”</p><p></p><p>Before he finishes talking, James swings his sword in an arc at a leg, cutting off the last segment. The spider rears slightly and he sprints out from under it, while Harley ducks and weaves in closer, vaulting over the wide legs like hurdles as she makes her way toward it’s face. The spider tries to spin to bite her, but she plants a hand on its hairy back and jumps up, tumbling across its own body as it spins. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Vic casts his spell and crawls in, grimacing as legs pound into him. Once he’s inside the cage beneath its abdomen, though, he rolls onto his back and aims his blow. Overhead, Harley drives the blade into the joint of a leg, while underneath Vic thrusts his hand, glowing with arcane energy, into the arachnid’s wound. </p><p></p><p>Again the monster shrieks, and Harley leaps away in surprise, tumbling clear of its reach. James, his face gashed nastily, hacks off one leg with a vicious swing, then pulls Vic clear. The spider staggers away, hissing and rustling, then collapses beside the barn, going limp. James delivers a killing blow, thrusting his sword into its face.</p><p></p><p>Harley runs closer to check on the wounds to James’s face, and asks, “Vic, what the heck did you do to it?”</p><p></p><p>Victorious smiles victoriously, wiping his hand clean with his robes, which still hang in the remnants of a web. As he wipes his hand, the robes smolder slightly as if burning. </p><p></p><p>“I metamorphosed its own blood into acid,” Vic says smugly. “Melted it from the inside.”</p><p></p><p>James and Vic have a brief argument over whether spiders really have blood, while Harley tries to bandage the wound on James’s cheek. Shaking her head, she tells them that she can’t do much for it, and that it might have been poisoned. James shrugs, saying without concern that he does feel a little sick. Since Bhurisrava is off being paranoid with Allar, they’ll have to find another healer. Unfortunately, the healer at Milbourne has headed east to the bridge-blessing ceremony. Vic says he can delay the poison a little, but that their only safe course of action is to go find the other priest.</p><p></p><p>James rests, a magically-conjured ball of ice held to his cheek to slow the blood flow. Meanwhile, Vic and Harley search the area, finding a ball of spider eggs inside the barn. They’re a few days from hatching, so after making sure there’s nothing valuable, Harley sets it on fire. Vic starts digging a grave for Kuiper, but when they realize that James is having a hard time standing up straight, he stops and devotes what little magical energy he has left to slow the progress of the poison. Deciding to risk having any clues be destroyed while they’re gone, they rig a travois to carry James’s armor, and then leave the farm, flames engulfing hundreds of unhatched monsters behind them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 644, member: 63"] [size=3][b]Chapter Twelve: The First Strand of the Spider's Web[/b][/size] The party arrives in the town of Milbourne a little after noon, accompanying the merchant caravan that they had earlier in the day saved from an Orcish raiding party. As the caravan leader stops by an outlying farm to negotiate payment so they can set up in an unused field, the new heroes saunter into town to relax. Here's an overview of events and characters to date. If you want to skip to the real stuff, feel free. [i]Hera 'Harley' Fyana (Vaneljesti Elvish bard 1/rogue 2), formerly a member of a noble Elvish family, left her home several years ago, and has since then made a living as a performer and part-time courier. Though usually she has to hide that she is an Elf, she is pleasantly surprised that the people of the Haranshire are very open toward Elves, due in no small part to their proximity to the Innenotdarasne Phuurst (homeland of the Innenlesti Elves), and due to the local half-Elven hero, Allarliao Ursdail. James T. Rocket (half-Elf fighter 3, badass extraordinaire) is possessed of little backstory, and what little there is he claims would be too boring to listen to. He's trained as a warrior, and met Harley during a simple fair guard job at the Magical Fair in Lyceum, capitol city of the Nozama Empire. But chance he and Harley ended up saving the day, and attracted the interest of a businessman who wanted them to deliver a package to Thurmaster, a town near the north border of the Empire, in a region called the Haranshire. Nischal Al'emelos, commonly called Nikal (Innenlesti Elvish fighter 4), accompanied Harley and James on their courier trip to the Haranshire. He proved initially useful when the three of them were attacked by brigands, but both James and Harley recognize him as a bit of a lecher and a braggard. Allarliao Ursdail (half-Tundanesti Elvish fighter 4/ranger 12) is a well-respected hero in the Haranshire, owing to how he and some of his old adventuring companions performed a myriad of minor good deeds like saving people's lives, and eventually gained enough money to set up a keep in the northeast of the area, which has helped keep down raids from wilderness tribes of Orcs, Goblins, and Humans. Few in the area know that he and his fellow adventurers actually thwarted a plan, conceived by alien creatures of the Land Below, to control the mind of every creature on the world. Allar met Harley, James, and Nikal when they delivered some brigands who attacked them to the local Haranshire authorities in the town of Milbourne. He has since become their part-time employer. Bhurisrava (Innenlesti Elvish Christian cleric 3) is rather quirky and enigmatic, apparently not knowing as much about his religion as he claims. He joined with the group by stumbling upon their conversation in Milbourne's tavern, the Baron of Mutton. When later that night it seemed that Nikal had stolen the package James and Harley were supposed to deliver, Bhurisrava helped them track him down. It eventually turned out that Nikal had just grown weary of Bhur’s rambling, and had ridden off to Thurmaster, hoping to deliver the package and get back to Milbourne before his companions awoke the next morning. Tauster (Human wizard 9) is an aging fellow, never an adventurer and far too frail now to ever become one. He was the recipient of the package Harley, James, and Nikal were supposed to deliver, but in truth he was simply the middle-man, since the package was meant ultimately for Allar and his companions. The chest they delivered contained a spellbook and research manual originally written by a Dwarvish wizard who was working with those who wanted to take over the world. Darlakanand (Dwarf wizard 20, deceased) worked with the Illithids, telepathic creatures Allar dubbed Mind-Flayers, in an attempt to develop a powerful spell that could dominate the will of every creature in the world. He was killed by Allar and his companions, five years ago, but the wizard's eight spellbooks were scattered among the remnants of the conspirators. Darlakanand had many notes on manipulating minds and on how to avoid mind-control. Allar wants to destroy all these books so no one could do again what the Illithids attempted, and in the package James and Harley delivered, he had the eighth and final book of Darlakanand. Jenneleth (human wizard 5/rogue 1) is the young apprentice of Tauster. She was saved from the Illithids seven years ago by Allar and his friends, and now she lives relatively peacefully in her home of the Haranshire, intending to get married in two weeks, on Easter. After Harley, James, and Bhurisrava left Thurmaster against Allar's requests to head out of the Haranshire, Jenneleth accompanied Nikal to Milbourne. A pseudolithid drone is the term that best describes a creature that stalked Nikal in an attempt to claim the Book of Darlakanand from him. The creature is a sickening hybrid of a human body with the tentacled biomass of an Illithid. Nikal realized that the thing would kill both him and Jenneleth if it realized they didn't have the book, so he bluffed and ran, trying to lose it in the Thornwood (a large forest between Milbourne and Thurmaster; the road passes around its border). Meanwhile, halfway across the Haranshire, Harley, James, and Bhur's horses were attacked and killed, their saddle-bags scoured through. The three of them pursued the killer, eventually losing its trail but stumbling almost accidentally upon Nikal as he finally fell from exhaustion after being chased by the psuedolithid drone. They managed to kill the drone, and both Bhur and Harley vowed undying disgust toward such hideous-looking creatures. Roth VanMuren (human barbarian 3) heard the clamor of their fight with the drone, and came out of his forest cabin to find the source. He offered shelter to them for the night, and the next morning agreed to help them get through the forest as quickly as possible so they could make their way back to Thurmaster. Everyone realized that the drone was after the book for some reason, and they just wanted to make sure Tauster and Allar were safe. Roth's a big, dirty man who likes ale and dogs, takes poor of his equipment, and wears only a loincloth and chainmail. Inzeldrin (old green Dragon) makes her lair in the Shreiken Mire, to the south of Thurmaster, east of the Thornwood. She had an agreement with the people of the Haranshire to protect them from danger if they paid monthly tribute in the form of cattle or sheep. Apparently her payment this month was not sent, and she sought out Allar. Instead she found Bhurisrava, James, Harley, and Roth, waiting with Tauster for Allar to show up. Inzeldrin doesn't like them much, but her human form is sexy and dark, so Roth likes her. The night after the drone attack, as the party waited with Tauster for Allar to return from wherever he'd gone off to, Tauster's home was attacked by a group of thieves, one of whom was magically disguised as Allar. They stole the book of Darlakanand, nearly killed James, and escaped into the Thornwood. The next morning, when Allar returned, they were suspicious, but eventually everyone but Bhurisrava realized that the Allar the night before had been a fake. Thereafter they tried to track down the thieves through the Thornwood, but failed. Allar went to contact some allies of his around the Haranshire, leaving the party in Thurmaster, but they overhead a group of men discussing a treasure hunt. Harley stole their treasure map while the men slept in a drunken stupor, and they set off to find treasure. Instead they found one member of the other group trapped in a wyvern lair. They killed the wyverns, found the gear of Dwarf (but no body), then brought the rescued man back to Milbourne so he could heal. In Milbourne they talked to the only Dwarf who lives in the area, who goes by the name Old Grizzler. The gear they found belonged to Grizzler’s nephew, and after a day of remembering the heroism of living and dead, Grizzler thanked the party by giving each of them a magical dagger that once belonged to him and his adventuring companions decades earlier. Roth, hung-over, had to stay in Milbourne, but the rest of the party (Harley, James, and Bhurisrava) set out before the day was done, heading to a forest near the wyvern lair, where the stolen treasure map said they could find treasure. And find treasure they did, after dealing with a hoaxed ghost and through much digging in the muck. Upon returning to Milbourne the next evening, Allar found them and dragged them to help him. A merchant caravan was to be arriving in the Haranshire in less than a day, and Allar wanted to make sure the caravan would be safe from any attacks by raiders. They camped for the night nearby the Eelhold, a dam full of Goblins. The next morning they left the dam Goblins and linked up with the caravan just in time to protect them from thirty attacking Orcs. Victorious Elrad (Human wizard 3 [water elementalist]) and Arin Mir’tey (Human wizard 3 [wild necromancer]) were both guards of the caravan, and they assisted the party in fighting off the Orcs. Arin doss not like the party very much, and considers them to not be serious enough, but Vic is a relaxed guy who fits in perfectly with Harley, James, and Bhur. (wow, this is a long recap) The party rested and healed after the fight at the Eelhold, seeing a malevolent water elemental that seems native to the dam. They also met Shiraz (Human ranger 6/swanmay 6), a friend of Allar’s who occasionally borrows a magical ring from the local Goblin shaman, using it to control the water elemental so it doesn’t get too violent. And here we are.[/i] Allar lets the caravan go on ahead. He just wants to check out a hunch and make certain that the Orcs weren’t working with the same people who stole the Book of Darlakanand, and so he plans to follow the tracks of the raiding party back to their source. Bhurisrava, still paranoid over the whole ‘fake-Allar’ incident a couple days earlier, insists that he wants to go along and ‘help’ Allar. Allar grudgingly obliges, and asks the rest of the party to keep their eyes open when they get back to Milbourne until he gets back. He says it might be up to two days before he’s back to Milbourne. Once they get to the Baron of Mutton, the tavern in Milbourne, Harley, James, Victorious, and Arin Mir’tey sit and have lunch. After a very short conversation, Arin decides he’s going to head off. He leaves the tavern, apparently to go talk to the caravan master so he can get paid and leave. They do not lament his departure. James and Harley tell Vic what they’ve been up to for the past few weeks, and Vic tells them about his own travels and training. Harley tells Vic about their conversation with Old Grizzler, and James complains that he misses the taste of Dwarven ale. Vic smiles, puts a finger to James’s mug, and when James takes another sip, he shakes his head from momentary dizziness, then quietly forces himself not to cough at the intensity of the drink. Having displayed his usefulness to the party, Harley and James invite him to tag along with them on future adventures. They mill around the tavern, Harley making an effort to ask if anyone’s seen anything, but it’s a few hours before they get any leads. A local tanner and businessman comes in and gets a drink, complaining to the bartender. His woe is that he traveled for a couple hours to visit Kuiper, one of the area’s respected and well-known rangers. Kuiper, Harley learns, owns a farm on the southern edge of the Churnette River, which runs between Milbourne and Thurmaster. Milbourne is on the north side of the river, and the southern bank is overgrown with thorny trees, so the tanner had brought a wagon of commissioned leathers and goods to drop off to Kuiper, expecting to be able to get a ride over the river on Kuiper’s personal ferry. Since Kuiper wasn’t waiting for him like he was supposed to, the tanner had to leave his wagon alone and swim across the river to go get the ranger. When he reached the other side, he hiked through Kuiper’s farmland to the man’s house, but when he got there no one would answer the door. He couldn’t see anything through the windows, and there was a smell of rot in the air. The tanner said he got a nervous feeling being there, like a lot of eyes were watching him. He left quickly, hoping maybe Allar would be here to go check it out. Harley, James, and Vic decide they should probably take the risk and check out what’s going on, and the tanner commends them on their bravery. However, since they’re still a little wobbly after being beaten up in the Orc raid earlier, they’re in no shape to go now. The town’s healer, a priest named Lafayer, is out of town, visiting the eastern edge of the Haranshire to bless a newly built bridge, so without magical healing available, they decide to rest for the remainder of the day and set out early the next morning. James always gets up early and wakes up Harley with him, so she secretly hopes that if they go out to the farm and come back quickly, she might be able to claim weariness from traveling and garner herself an extra few hours of sleep at the inn. While they relax, Harley gives Vic a quick tour of Milbourne, introducing him (and in many cases, herself) to local dignitaries and notables, including Old Grizzler, who isn’t too pleased with Vic’s use of magic to create Dwarven ale. He claims its almost sacrilege, but he’ll forgive it because Victorious is an easy guy to get along with. James comes along on the tour as well, claiming it’s good business sense to learn who he might have to work with or for in the future. However, even with the combined efforts of Harley’s curiosity, Vic’s charm, and James’s canny entrepeneurship, the only real news they hear is that the local caravan’s arrival is meant to coincidence with the upcoming Springtide/Easter festival (a mixture of Elvish and Christian religious celebrations), and that Tauster’s apprentice, Jenneleth, will be getting married soon. Vic swings by the caravan as it’s setting up shop (it will only be there for the next few days), and gets paid by the caravan master. Arin Mir’tey apparently got paid and has already left, on foot, which, again, no one cares about. The caravan master is saddened to hear that Vic will be staying with his new friends and not going with the caravan when it moves on to the next town, but Vic makes the parting friendly by enchanting the man’s favorite flagon so any water put into it will always be pure. It will only last for one year, but it pleases the man a great deal to have his own personal magic item. They shop through the caravan for a while, but decide to come back later if they get more money. Vic has his eye on a particularly interesting panther that is being kept in a too-small cell. To help out the cat, he risks getting bitten on the hand to reach into the cage and give the panther’s water bowl the same enchantment as the caravan master’s mug. Nothing particularly interesting happens for the rest of the day, so they round out the evening with Harley timidly putting on a performance for the Baron of Mutton. She normally works with a partner to do a magic show, but she has to adlib by performing tricks on willing customers. For the first time in several months, she doesn’t steal from anyone in the audience, and ponders that choice as she goes to bed. The next morning . . . well, toward the end of that night, when the sky is still dark, James apparently detects when it would be most appropriate to wake up Harley, managing to stir her from a nightmare where the Illithid drone’s weapon had been eating its way through her arm toward her thoat. Disturbed, for once she’s pleased that James woke her up, and they rouse Vic too. Vic sleeps like a cat, apparently hearing them as they try to wake him up, but not paying attention. After a little effort, though, they get him up, then go get their horses and ride for Kuiper’s farm. On horseback, Vic seems to fall asleep sitting up, but he tells them that he’s collecting energy for his spells. They reach the spot of the river nearest to the farm just as the sun is beginning to rise, and can see the ferry docked about forty feet away. Vic disrobes to his chest and swims out, then guides the boat back so they can all take their horses across. Without his heavy cloaks, he’s actually fairly well-muscled, with darkly tanned skin. Once they reach the opposite shore, Vic puts his shirt and cloak back on, now completely dry, skin, clothes, hair, mustache-goatee and all. They guide their horses through Kuiper’s farm fields, following a well-worn path between patches of carrots and lettuce, and some areas of fallow grass. In the distance they can vaguely make out the dark shape of a set of buildings. The sun sheds light, a breeze gusts, and glittering dew fills the air, accompanied by the stench of decay. As they approach the first building, which appears to be a normal house, Harley notices something glittering in the air between the house and a barn. When they take a few steps to look closer, they can see nothing. Shrugging, they go back to the main house and force the door open. It’s a heavy door, and it looks like it has already been smashed at by somebody. It only budges slightly even though the handle is unlocked, so James finally shrugs in frustration and smashes in the window. He brushes away the glass and climbs inside awkwardly, having a hard time because of his chainmail. Harley and Vic hear James groan out, “Eww,” and then after a moment the door opens from inside, creaking loudly. They can see the decomposing body of a man lying beside a hastily built barricade of furniture. A sword lies beside him, but is cracked down the middle, useless. Only a moment after the door screeches open, they hear a heavy thudding, then an odd, soft noise, like the rustling of branches in the breeze. Vic takes a step back and looks around curiously, then waves for the others come out and back him up. “I heard something behind the barn.” James is about to ask for more time because he sees two stab wounds in the chest of the dead man, but Vic heads on already, expecting the others to be right after him. He walks forward slowly, between the barn and the house, listening carefully to the rustling around the corner. He hears something shift, and is about to cast a defensive spell when Harley shouts out, “Vic, stop!” Victorious whirls to see what Harley is warning about, and just then stumbles one more step into the nearly invisible web stretched between the two buildings. In the shadow of the barn, no sunlight sparkles on the dew on the long strands. With his back turned, he can’t see the source of the noise behind him, but Harley screams as a heavy beating thunders closer. Panicking, Vic lunged forward, slipping out of the sleeves of his cloak. He falls to the ground just as a dark shadow flies over him, and something smashes him in the shoulders, tearing through the back of his shirt but missing his flesh. He rolls onto his back so he can see what just attacked him, and the huge form overhead backpedals a few steps, tilting its body down so that eight giant black eyes reflect his face back to him. Vic tries to scramble away, but the spider slams down one of its legs onto his chest, pinning him to the ground. The creature, easily fifteen feet across, is far too heavy for Vic to budge, so he pulls out his dagger and tries to stab at the hairy limb. Harley calls for James’s help and throws one of her daggers at the arachnid’s face. The blade hits it bluntly, only bothering it slightly. James, however, sprints out of the house and lunges at the creature, slashing heavily with his sword at the leg pinning Vic. The spider, huge as it is, stands barely six feet high, so as it lunges at James, it’s forelegs seem to form a cage around him. It lashes out with its biting mandibles, tearing through some of the links in James’s chainmail, but not seriously hurting him. However, at the same moment it tramples over Vic, and he groans in pain, struggling to clamber free. Harley breaks into a run, away from the fight, and James calls her a coward as he tries to jam a gauntleted fist into the spider’s many eyes. Between the two buildings, there’s very little room, so Vic crouches warily between the ever-scrambling spider legs as he casts a spell. From each palm he sprays out two lines of water, gushing and impacting into the spider’s side. In pain, the spider almost inadverdently trips Vic by trying to rush away. It smashes into James, trying to knock him over. He lets himself fall, then raggedly gouges his longsword through the chitin on the spider’s abdomen. Ignoring the ichor dribbling onto his face, he shoves with the end of his blade, digging into the creature deeper. A bizarre screech comes from the monster, seeming to seep out of its body in all directions, and then it springs away, leaping into the air. Vic pulls James to his feet and they both turn to see the giant spider land heavily atop Kuiper’s house, denting the roof. They hear Harley scream in surprise, and it is then that they realize that Harley had been climbing onto the roof of the house to get a better angle of attack. James to Vic, “Can you get me on the roof?” Vic to James, “Heh. [i]I[/i] can’t get on the roof by myself.” James is about to try to clamber onto the top of the building when Harley flies overhead, making a running jump to the roof of the barn. The other roof is higher, so she grabs onto the eaves with one hand, driving her turquoise-hilted dagger into the wood with the other. She tries to clamber upward, but then the spider follows her, a massive shadow passing overhead, crashing onto the barn’s roof thunderously. Harley groans and pulls herself high enough to fling Ricochet one handed. True to form, the chakram whirls harmlessly high, and in frustration Harley kicks off from the wall. She lands gracefully, but her face shows how shaken she is. She starts to point upward in shock at where she had just been (she had been hanging about twenty-five feet up) when James shoves her aside and falls to the ground, holding his sword upright. A shadow falls over them, and Harley kicks away furiously as the monster lands to attack again. James misses just barely with what would have been a crippling blow, and the spider lashes out with its bite at his face. The poisoned fangs scrape across his cheek, and James rolls away, having to force down the pain. Vic shouts, “James, get clear. Harley, get its attention. I need to get in to cast a spell.” Before he finishes talking, James swings his sword in an arc at a leg, cutting off the last segment. The spider rears slightly and he sprints out from under it, while Harley ducks and weaves in closer, vaulting over the wide legs like hurdles as she makes her way toward it’s face. The spider tries to spin to bite her, but she plants a hand on its hairy back and jumps up, tumbling across its own body as it spins. Meanwhile, Vic casts his spell and crawls in, grimacing as legs pound into him. Once he’s inside the cage beneath its abdomen, though, he rolls onto his back and aims his blow. Overhead, Harley drives the blade into the joint of a leg, while underneath Vic thrusts his hand, glowing with arcane energy, into the arachnid’s wound. Again the monster shrieks, and Harley leaps away in surprise, tumbling clear of its reach. James, his face gashed nastily, hacks off one leg with a vicious swing, then pulls Vic clear. The spider staggers away, hissing and rustling, then collapses beside the barn, going limp. James delivers a killing blow, thrusting his sword into its face. Harley runs closer to check on the wounds to James’s face, and asks, “Vic, what the heck did you do to it?” Victorious smiles victoriously, wiping his hand clean with his robes, which still hang in the remnants of a web. As he wipes his hand, the robes smolder slightly as if burning. “I metamorphosed its own blood into acid,” Vic says smugly. “Melted it from the inside.” James and Vic have a brief argument over whether spiders really have blood, while Harley tries to bandage the wound on James’s cheek. Shaking her head, she tells them that she can’t do much for it, and that it might have been poisoned. James shrugs, saying without concern that he does feel a little sick. Since Bhurisrava is off being paranoid with Allar, they’ll have to find another healer. Unfortunately, the healer at Milbourne has headed east to the bridge-blessing ceremony. Vic says he can delay the poison a little, but that their only safe course of action is to go find the other priest. James rests, a magically-conjured ball of ice held to his cheek to slow the blood flow. Meanwhile, Vic and Harley search the area, finding a ball of spider eggs inside the barn. They’re a few days from hatching, so after making sure there’s nothing valuable, Harley sets it on fire. Vic starts digging a grave for Kuiper, but when they realize that James is having a hard time standing up straight, he stops and devotes what little magical energy he has left to slow the progress of the poison. Deciding to risk having any clues be destroyed while they’re gone, they rig a travois to carry James’s armor, and then leave the farm, flames engulfing hundreds of unhatched monsters behind them. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Tides of Homeland Storyhour
Top