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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3191673" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 47TIGHT SPACESThere was no time to summon help, so Varo just held his ground and waited.  The spider seemed to have no difficulties with the tight confines of the passage, and shot forward as if hurled by an onager.  It was a frightening, overwhelming sight, but the cleric’s expression remained calm. As the spider reached him, he lifted his mace in a warding position.  The spider shifted and stabbed its fangs down heavily on the haft of the weapon.  One fang gashed Varo’s hand, and he felt a burning pain as venom splashed over the wound. But Varo was made of stern stuff.  He touched the center of the spider’s head with his other hand, releasing the power of Dagos into the creature.  The spider’s body spasmed as the energies of an inflict wounds spell ravaged it, and after a few seconds, it collapsed.  There were several more hot on the heels of the first, but they were slowed by the difficulty in getting past the dead body of their companion. Dar turned back to meet the spider’s charge.  The tunnel was far too crowded to use his primary weapons, but as the first lunged to bite he punched his dagger into its head.  The spider was driven back by the force of the blow, and it crumpled in a bloody heap. A second spider erupted out of the other fork with surprising speed, catching the fighter off guard.  It barreled into him, driving him up against the side of the tunnel, seizing his shoulder in its jaws and stabbing its fangs deep through his armor into his flesh. “Dar!” Talen yelled, moving as fast as he could manage to the fighter’s aid. But even with a spider as large as he was holding onto him, the mercenary was far from finished.  “Get off me, bitch!” he yelled, his blade shining as he yanked it free and stabbed it repeatedly into the second spider’s body.  The creature died messily, and Dar thrust it off him, spouting obscenities as blood oozed from the deep punctures in his shoulder. Allera, caught in the middle between the two battling groups, yelled, “Talen... there’s more behind us!”  The captain turned, and spat a curse.  “Fall back on the last tunnel!” he cried.  “Dar... retreat!”But the fighter was already engaged in killing a third spider that was trying to slide past the body of the first one.  The tunnel was already crowded with bodies and slick with blood, and the stink of the dead creatures was nearly overpowering.  Dar glanced over his shoulder at Talen.  “Go on... I’ll be right behind you.”Talen nodded and retreated back toward the clerics.  As he reached Allera, he said, “The mercenary’s hurt... keep an eye out for him, but let out a yell if something gets past him.”The healer nodded, and squeezed past the captain, moving down the narrow tunnel. Talen returned to find Varo and Aelos facing a spider that was having difficulty getting past the heaped corpses of two of its fellows.  Aelos was trying to keep it at bay with his staff, but it was stronger than he, and its eight legs gave it a superior leverage.  Varo nodded calmly to the captain as he rushed forward to join them, as if they were casual acquaintances meeting on the street.  Talen did not hesitate, thrusting his sword deep into the spider’s head.  The creature expired, sliding to the ground in a sticky mess. “There are more behind,” Varo said, pointing at the three dead spiders.  “But they are having difficulty getting past the blockage.”“That won’t hold them for long,” Talen said. “Dar?” “He’s holding his own at the other end.  The spiders are working with wererats, it would seem.”The priest of Dagos nodded.  “They were waiting for us, in ambush.  It suggests a greater intelligence behind them.”“What about the last tunnel?” Aelos said, poking his staff toward the ascending shaft behind them.  “Well, at least nothing is trying to kill us from that direction,” Talen said.  “We’ll wait for the mercenary.”Another spider began to cram itself through the narrow space around the piled corpses, but Talen was able to kill it before it could get free enough to strike.  The tightly packed bodies made an almost solid barrier, now, but he could hear more of the creatures skittering about in the space beyond.  Allera came back up the tunnel, followed by Dar.  The fighter’s dagger was covered in blood, giving an evil red cast to the light that continued to shine from the blade, but the wounds in his shoulder had closed, and he looked hale enough under the blood and spider guts that covered his armor.  “What word?” Talen asked. “There’s still more of them, but they are blocked for now,” the fighter said.  “I killed another two, which may give the others pause.”“They are mindless vermin,” Allera said.  “Perhaps, but I suspect that there is a mind behind them,” Varo amended.  “If we are going to go, we should get going.”Talen nodded.  “I will take the lead.  Aelos, light the way for me, if you can manage it.  Allera, help him.  Then Varo, and Dar, in the rear.”“Thinking they might follow us up?” the fighter asked.“I wouldn’t wager against it... and if this tunnel doesn’t end up going anywhere, we’ll have to fight our way back down.”“Lead on then, general.”Talen sheathed his sword and crawled up into the tunnel.  The ascent was steep, but the narrowness of the walls and the roughness of the stone made the climb easier than it otherwise might have been.  They quickly found more signs that large creatures had come this way, including several spaces where handholds had been hacked into the stone through brute force.  Dar, bringing up the rear, his dagger tucked into his belt so it could continue to shed light, reported that he could hear the sounds of spiders below them, but that nothing seemed to be pursuing them up the shaft thus far.  The news did not cause them to lower their guard, however. The passage twisted and turned back on itself, continuously ascending.  At no point was it so difficult as to require rope, but they still had to help each other over several spots, with the aged priest Aelos having the most difficulty.Finally the tunnel leveled out into a gentle rise that opened onto what looked like another larger cavern ahead.  Gesturing to the others to be alert, Talen crawled forward to take a look. He had barely stuck his head out of the tunnel when a pair of massive hands locked around his neck, dragging him forward.  The fighter tried to draw his sword, but his fingers had barely closed around the hilt when he was flung bodily into the center of the open space.  Landing hard on the flat stone, a little stunned by the rough treatment, he nevertheless was able to quickly stagger to his feet and whip his magical weapon from its scabbard. The bright glow of the sword revealed a half-dozen ogres standing in a ring around him, looking down at him with hungry expressions.</blockquote>

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