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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1228253" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks for the bump, and welcome to the story, QM. * * * * * Chapter 77Dannel’s shot hit the spider-man, although the missile caught the creature in the fleshy part of its shoulder, rather than square in its heart as the elf had intended.  The beast, along with its companion still within the darkness of the far corridor, elected however to withdraw rather than advance into the room to attack.  Mole fired her crossbow after them, but it was doubtful that she hit anything through the screening webs and darkness.  Keeping an eye on the exit where the two creatures had vanished, the companions turned to help Arun free himself from the enfolding webbing.  The dwarf sputtered and protested as they cut him free, cursing as he tugged persistent strands from his face and the cracks and crevices of his armor.  This was one case where not having a beard was proving an advantage, Zenna thought.Illewyn moved forward and laid hands upon the dwarf, calling upon the power of Helm to purge some of the lingering effects of the spider venom from the dwarf’s body.  Zenna suspected that the paladin was still weakened somewhat, but she knew that Arun would never admit to such.  Still, the dwarf was at least somewhat gracious, nodding to the cleric in gratitude as he took up his hammer.  “Bah, I’m starting to think this is all just a big trap,” he growled, trying in vain to shake off some of the lingering threads that hung from his shield.  “That blasted wizard might have doubled back on us... why would he come into this nest of vermin?”Zenna nodded—it was a sound point—but Dannel, still focused on the far exit, another arrow fitted to his bow, shook his head.  “Those creatures... ettercaps, they are called.  They’re intelligent, not mindless hunters like the spiders.  I suspect that the mage might have had an arrangement with them; it’s pushing the bounds of credibility to expect that this cult would lair in such close proximity to such creatures otherwise.”“I can do no more against the bites of the spiders this day,” Illewyn reported.  “We should be cautious.”  Zenna moved deeper into the room, away from the dark exit to their left, careful lest she step into one of the stickier areas of webbing.  After waiting a moment to verify that no more spiders were hiding in the tangle of webs in the rear of the room, she opened her mind to the power of the Weave, reciting the simple trigger phrases of a minor cantrip. “What are you doing?” Mole asked her.Zenna didn’t respond at first, concentrating to focus the power of her spell as she scanned the room.  The others turned to watch her as she finished her sweep.  “I am checking for magical auras,” she said.  “To see if our invisible friend was lurking nearby.”“Ah, that’s a good idea,” the gnome said.  “Although I’m actually sort of glad he’s not,” she said, rubbing her chest where the lingering memory of the halfling’s magic missiles remained. Zenna nodded, but her attention was drawn to a faint resonance that she detected with her spell.  She started in that direction, pausing as she stepped into a patch of webs that tugged at her boot annoyingly. “Careful, Zenna,” Dannel said, from where he was covering Arun.  The dwarf had moved to the mouth of the corridor where the ettercaps had retreated, scanning for any ambushes.  “There might be more little spiders in the webs.”“Did you find something?” Mole said, hopping lightly across the strands of webbing to where Zenna had paused before an unsightly clump of tangled webs that formed a ball of sorts about a foot across.  “There’s a magical aura coming from within there,” Zenna reported.  Mole needed no further encouragement; drawing her dagger she went to work on the bulb of webs.  Her little cry of glee reported her success, and soon she was stuffing handfuls of coins into her magical haversack, pausing every now and again to bend and grab one that skittered away onto the carpet of webs.  “We can worry about the loot later,” Dannel persisted.  “We can’t give our enemy time to prepare.”“I’ll just be a second,” Mole insisted.  She found something else in the cache and handed it absently to Zenna.  It was a slender wand of polished wood; the tiefling examined it with fascination, sensing the magic pulsing within it even without the aid of her spell.  Closing her eyes, she focused her perceptions upon it, trying to draw out the secret of its power. “It’s not like they don’t already know we’re here, and that we’re coming,” the gnome went on.  Having secured the treasure, she slipped her pack back on and took her crossbow again, traveling lightly in small hops across the sea of webs to where the others waited.  Zenna followed behind, having tucked the wand into a pocket of her cloak.  Grimly, they pressed on. The rough corridor continued for a few dozen paces before opening up into yet another natural cavern similarly choked with webbing.  A wider entrance, perhaps opening onto another chamber beyond, was visible on the far side of the place.  While the entire room was covered  in webs, they formed a more or less flat expanse in the center, like a intricate and plush carpet laid over the hard stone of the floor.  Seeing no immediate foes, Arun started forward, before Dannel grasped him on the shoulder.  “If I were a canny defender, I would lay a trap in the center of this room, the easiest route of approach,” he warned.  The dwarf nodded, and the two split up, moving around the edges of the room, prodding ahead for any surprises.  Zenna and Mole covered them with their crossbows, while Illewyn, who had not brought a missile weapon, held her mace tightly and muttered the words of a prayer.  The faintest stirring amidst the webs that curtained the far exit was their only warning. “Incoming!” Mole cried in warning, at the same time that Dannel, who had seen it too, stepped back and drew his longbow.  With his low-light vision he could clearly mark the ettercap half-hidden among the webs, but as he released his boot slid on a slick strand of webbing, and his shot went awry.  A pair of web-nets shot out from the creatures’ vantage, targeting the elf and dwarf.  Dannel, recovering quickly from his misstep, smoothly dodged back and avoided the cast.  Arun, predictably, was completely snared.  But the others were not idle during those moments, and both Mole and Zenna hit with shots that sank with a meaty thud into the body of one of the ettercaps, mere inches apart.  The creature, already wounded by Dannel’s arrow earlier, released a ear-rattling screech and staggered backward, into the chamber beyond.  The second creature, apparently eager to avoid a similar fate, joined it before the two women could reload.  Dannel sent an arrow after it as it withdrew, but there was no indication that he scored a hit.  Illewyn had already moved to assist Arun, whose curses formed an unbroken string of syllables in Dwarven as he struggled to extricate himself for the second time from a prison of sticky webs.  The paladin now looked quite a sight, with white strands covering his armor and shield, and pasted over his helm and dangling from his hair.  He looked about ready to charge full on into the chamber where the ettercaps had disappeared, but once more Dannel forestalled him. “Let me be,” Arun said.  “I’ve got me a score to settle with them blasted bugs.”“Let us not abandon caution,” Dannel said softly.  “I sense that a dire confrontation looms ahead.”He did not know just how right he was. Wary of another ambush, the companions moved slowly to the exit.  Arun in the lead, clanking slightly with every movement, Dannel with a ready arrow just behind, Zenna and Mole side by side with crossbows pointing in every direction at once, and Illewyn bringing up the rear.The third and final chamber in the complex of webbed caverns was somewhat larger than the first two, with a ceiling that rose as high as twenty feet above the floor.  Every nook and cranny was filled with webbing, tendrils of which dangled down from the uneven ceiling, stirring in the faintest hint of a breeze that likely drifted in through the web-choked cracks and crevices in the walls. “You were fools to follow me here,” came a voice from somewhere across the room, its source impossible to discern with precision.  “Hand over the wands, and maybe we can talk,” Zenna offered. “No, I don’t think so,” came the voice.  “In fact, I think you’re quite about to die.”Forms moved in the webs along the edges of the rooms, resolving into the outlines of the ettercaps they had faced earlier.  But then their attention was drawn to something... big that shifted high along the far wall, near the ceiling.  As Illewyn came into the room, the light from her holy symbol drove back the shadows, revealing more details of the form. Zenna drew in a startled breath, and she wasn’t the only one. “By the gods,” Illewyn whispered, her face suddenly white.</blockquote>

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