by Jamie Davis
With a screech like fingernails on a chalkboard, the four spiders leaped forward as one. Each was easily as big as a horse and they were going to be tough to take down.
Cari drew her sword in her left hand while she pulled out one of the pistols. Francesca and Helen both did the same.
All three weapons fired at the same instant.
Cari aimed at the center of the compound eyes stretched across the face of the horrible spider coming right at her. The pistol ball impacted and broke off a large chunk of the spider’s shell before ricocheting off into the darkness. The spider slowed for a few seconds, shaking off the blow, then continued on.
Helen and Francesca had both aimed at the same spider, and they had more luck. At least one of their pistol balls found something vital and the spider flipped over onto its back with its legs scrabbling at the air. It was clearly dying.
The other two spiders drove in at them however and soon all three of them were in a desperate fight for their lives.
Cari knew she had to finish off her spider as quickly as possible and help the others. That was easier said than done, though. Her sword kept bouncing off the spider’s armor. The thin rapier blade just wasn’t heavy enough to pierce the spider’s shell.
Dropping the first pistol to the ground, Cari drew the second. She pulled back the hammer with her other hand and fired it point blank at the spider as she danced around outside its reach.
The lead pistol ball once again missed any gaps in the armored carapace and ricocheted off into the darkness.
Cari drew her dagger. She realized she was going to have to get in close to do what she had to do. The broad, thick dagger blade had much more punch to it than her sword did. If any of her weapons stood a chance of breaking through the armor now, her dagger did.
The spider drove forward at her, swiping at her with both its front legs.
Cari dodged to one side, rolling to the ground and back to her feet as the spider stabbed out with one of its front legs. There were wicked talons at the end of each of the appendages and she didn’t want to think about what would happen if one of them got ahold of her.
Cari jumped back to her feet from her diving roll and dodged in to stab downward at the rear of the spider’s abdomen with her dagger. She’d come up standing between two of the four legs on that side and was out of reach of the talons this close into the beast.
She realized she only had a second or two before she had to dive back out of the way again. It wouldn’t take long for the spider to spin and try to bring its venom-dripping fangs to bear at her.
Cari’s dagger blade skittered along the top of the spider’s tough carapace, but then the blade’s tip reached the joint where one of the legs entered the body. At the crease in the joint the dagger dug in and Cari leaned forward with all her weight pressed against her weapon. She shoved in and down for all she was worth.
The dagger sank in up to the hilt and the long, segmented leg beyond the joint stopped moving. She’d severed something vital and the spider knew it. It screeched and spun around to try and reach the source of its pain.
Cari yanked the dagger free and dove backward just as the spider’s fangs came around at her. She almost made it free but one of the fangs scraped a grazing blow on her lower leg just above the top of her boots. Despite being a minor wound, pain flared in her lower leg. A new message appeared before her eyes.
* * *
Health damage — health -6
Saving throw versus poison successful
* * *
She was right about the fangs; these things were definitely poisonous. They were all going to have to be careful. She didn’t know if any of them had a way to stop or cure poison.
Cari called out to the others. “Be careful, those things are poisonous. Don’t let them get a hold of you.”
As she yelled her warning, the spider forced her to back up as it charged at her. She circled around with her back to the cavern wall so that she could remain inside the dim circle of light. She didn’t want to fight this thing in the dark where it would be in its usual element.
The spider continued to charge in at her and Cari realized it was going to pin her between itself and the cavern wall. Looking to either side, she realized she’d backed into a curved notch in the cavern wall. There was rock to either side of her. She wouldn’t have anywhere to escape if she didn’t think of something.
Taking the only option open to her, Cari ran forward directly at the spider. She bounded upward at the last instant lifting her feet up under her to clear the spider’s attack.
The snapping jaws of the spider’s venomous fangs closed in the air where she had been standing a moment before.
Letting her leap carry her forward, she bounded off the top of the spider’s head with her boot, then ran across the spider’s back and jumped to the ground behind it.
Before the arachnid could spin around, Cari stabbed downward with her dagger. Once again, she tried to find a weak spot in the armored shell.
The spider lurched away from her as the dagger sank into the creature, finding a crevice in the shell with the heavy-duty blade. Cari once again pressed forward with all of her weight, driving the dagger in as far as it would go.
This time the spider screeched again and tried to spin around to get at her. Its movement had slowed down by a noticeable amount after the attack. It was sorely injured now.
Out of the corner of her eye, Cari noticed that Francesca and Helen managed to finish off one of the remaining spiders. They now worked together, fighting the fourth and final spider to face them.
Cari stood her ground, as the spider turned and came at her. The one she faced was the largest of them all but she’d managed to slow it and injure it. She had to finish it off quickly now that it was wounded.
She waited until it charged right up at her and lunged forward with her dagger, stabbing deep into the spider’s gaping maw, jerking her arm to the side and letting go of her weapon just as the spider’s venomous jaws closed. The fangs missed her skin by a fraction of an inch.
The dagger, now sunk to its hilt in the creature’s face, had already done its lethal damage. It must’ve pierced all the way to the spider’s tiny brain because, within a few seconds, it dropped to the ground and went still.
* * *
10,500 experience awarded
* * *
Cari reached in and retrieved her dagger, then turned around to help her friends. Helen and Francesca had things well in hand, with their spiders. With a single thrust of her cutlass, Helen finished the final spider.
Cari called out to Percy. “Bring me the lantern.”
Percy ran over from the doorway to bring Cari the lantern.
Jaycee stepped up the look out the door and sucked in a gasp of what must’ve been a cross between excitement and fear. The little girl saw the spiders and covered her eyes with both hands, though Cari could see her peeking out from between her fingers.
Cari didn’t know why, but the image of the little girl peeking at the battle’s aftermath through the gaps between her fingers brought a smile to her face. Jaycee was a child, after all, and sometimes children did funny things. It helped to relax the tension of the desperate battle fought in the eerie, silent darkness of the cavern.
She took the lantern from Percy when he got to her side and walked a broad perimeter around the outside of the hut. Looking in the dust where the spiders had been. Cari looked and listened carefully but neither saw nor heard any signs there were any more of the creatures out there.
She returned to the others and handed the lantern back to Percy. “It looks like these were the only ones. I have to think there aren’t too many more like them around since these would’ve had quite a territory to cover to feed themselves down here.”
“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get back to sleep at this point no matter what you say, Cari.” Helen shuddered as she cleaned the black goo of the spider’s guts off her cutlass blade.
“That’s all
right, it’s your turn to be on guard anyway,” Francesca said. “I’m ready to get some sleep.”
“All right, let’s head back inside and close the door. We can try and settle in again to get whatever sleep we can. Helen, you take the rest of the watch. Wake us when you think it’s morning. We’ll have some breakfast and get back on the path.”
Everyone headed back into the hut, but it took all of them a while to settle down. The quiet conversations continued for nearly an hour about the fight and who might have lived down here with such creatures nearby. Soon, however, exhaustion from their flight into the mountains and down into these tunnels took over. Helen stood by the door, carving a design with her belt knife on a piece of spider shell she’d harvested. She remained awake and on guard for any further dangers while the others drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 12
The following morning came too fast. It was only a few hours after the fight with the spiders when Cari woke up and saw Helen tending the small camp stove in the center of the hut. She was heating up some tea.
“I’ll have some of that.”
Helen smiled, poured her some tea into a tin cup, and handed it to Cari.
Cari sipped at the plain black tea, wishing for some cream or even honey to sweeten it. When they were on the road like this, it was hard to find things like that. She’s gotten used to having it when on board a ship.
“Hopefully we don’t run into any more spiders,” Percy said sitting up from his bedroll and stretching his arms. “Those things looked nasty.”
“They were nasty,” Cari said. “We’re just lucky no one got poisoned.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure what I would’ve done if someone had,” Helen said. She had been the healer for Cari and her crew before she became the first mate. Helen knew what she was talking about. It forced Cari to remember to be cautious with getting into any fights down here in these tunnels. They wouldn’t be able to stop in the next town and try to purchase some healing potions while they were down here.
Francesca came in from outside. She must’ve been tending to some personal needs.
“Did you find someplace we can use as a latrine?” Cari asked the woman as she set the lantern she carried down by the door.
“There’s a fissure, in the ground about ten yards to the right after you leave the door. There didn’t seem to be anything down there when I looked into it.” Francesca chuckled as she continued. “Certainly nothing complained when I went to the bathroom in it.”
“Good,” Cari said. “We can all take a turn using it. Let’s finish our breakfast and get moving again. I’d like to get away from those dead spider carcasses. They’re likely to draw scavengers and I’m not sure I want to find out what kind of creature scavenges in a place like this.”
“I second that,” Helen said.
The group gathered their gear after having a brief breakfast of the remaining cheese and some of the jerky. They’d finished off the venison they brought with them the night before. They were down to the trail rations they managed to gather together from the ship before they left.
“We’ll continue moving along the side of the cavern, keeping the wall to our right. My hope is to find an exit roughly opposite where we entered. That should take us on a continued path towards the other side of the mountains.”
“How can you even get a handle on which direction you’re going?” Helen asked. “I have no idea where we are down here.”
“I’m not sure where I’m going either,” Cari said. “I’m just trying to trust the process.”
Helen frowned at that but left it alone.
Once they all shouldered their packs again, they left the tiny hut in the small village behind them. They continued their path walking around the outskirts of the cavern to the right. As they went farther and farther, they encountered more and more buildings until Cari realized they were entering what amounted to an underground city.
The buildings were now much larger than the single-story hut in which they’d stayed the night. Most had two or three stories now. After traveling forward, Cari found herself walking down what amounted to a main thoroughfare with buildings and homes freestanding on the left of her in the open cavern and others stacking up like stairs leading up to the ceiling on the right, all built right into the wall of the cavern. It must’ve been magnificent living down here when this city was inhabited.
Cari reminded herself that something had driven the residents away from here at some point. Perhaps it was just the fact that the trade route through the mountain died out as other routes were discovered. She hoped that was all it was.
They continued moving along until Cari felt her stomach rumble. She decided it was time for them to stop and take a break for lunch. She looked for a good place to rest and spotted a sort of open courtyard in the street ahead with what might have been an old fountain in the center of it.
As the others took off their packs and sat down to take a break, Helen walked over to the fountain. It was a square stone pedestal that stood about four feet high in the center of a broad stone basin about ten feet across. She grabbed a stone lever sticking out of the side of the pedestal.
“I wonder?” Helen said as she lifted the handle and pumped it up and down a few times. She smiled when crystal clear water flowed out of the pedestal to splash into the basin below. “Looks like we found a source of freshwater boss.”
“Great,” Cari said. “Everybody, make sure you refill your canteens.”
The party ate their lunch, listening to the silence around them in the cavern. The only noise they heard was the occasional drip of water in the distance and sometimes the sound of a chirp that might have been an insect or another cavern denizen. How far away and how big it might be, Cari wasn’t sure.
Getting packed up again, they continued on around the cavern’s perimeter until they reached what must have been the center of the city. A broad avenue, lined with tall buildings stretched out to their left into the darkness of the cavern’s center. To the right, the street ended in a flight of magnificent stairs leading upward to what must be the central palace or perhaps a government building for this underground community.
Cari pointed up the stairs. “I wonder what’s up there? It might lead to an exit or somewhere we can spend the night again. It might be a good idea to check.”
“I’m game, Captain,” Francesca said. “It might be interesting to find out more about the people who lived down here once upon a time.”
“Helen?” Cari asked.
“We’ll need to camp again, soon. This is as good a place as any to find a safe place for the night.”
“Good, it’s settled then. Let’s check out what’s up these stairs.”
The group started climbing up the broad staircase. There were several landings or ledges in the cavern wall along the way the top. At each of the ledges, there was a small plaza of sorts with doors opening to the left and right into buildings along each side of the staircase.
The stairway continued upward, though it narrowed as it went higher towards the top. This led to Cari to think that perhaps whoever was in charge of this city either lived or governed from that point in the tavern. When the city was inhabited and lit up below, it must have been a spectacular sight from this vantage point.
They continued upward, pausing at each landing to look around for a moment before continuing on. At one point, Helen glanced inside one of the doorways off to the side of the landing plaza and smiled as she took the spare lantern and went inside for a moment.
“Helen, what do you think you’re doing?” Cari asked. “We need to stick together.” A few seconds later Helen emerged holding a cask of some sort. It was small, made of wood bound with iron hoops.
“I think this is lamp oil. I thought I smelled some as I passed the doorway. A few of the casks had been broached and spilled on the floor, probably as the iron hoops rusted. This one was still intact. We can refill our lamp supply from it.”
“That is good news. Good work,
Helen.” Cari said. She and the others joined Helen at the edge of the stairway and refilled the flasks they’d been using to carry lamp oil from the ship. With a replenished supply, they should be good for several more days.
Once the cask was emptied of the lamp oil it contained, Cari and the others continued upward, climbing to the top and final landing that looked out over the city below. Turning about, Cari saw two large metal-bound doors set in the wall of the cavern itself. Cari started towards them. “Shall we see if we can open these doors?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, ma’am,” Francesca said. “Perhaps there is something sacred or special kept in there. It certainly sits in a place of honor for the city.”
“We’ll just have a look around. We won’t touch or desecrate anything.”
Cari pressed against one of the doors. It moved a fraction of an inch, then stopped. She put her shoulder against it and leaned into it while she pushed with her legs. With a grinding screech, the door slid open about twelve more inches.
“Helen, Francesca, come here and help me push. Let’s see if we can open this a little bit more.”
The three women pushed together against the massive door and it moved again, but only about another twelve inches or so. Beyond that, they could make no more progress. “I guess that’s far enough. We can squeeze through in single file.”
Cari took the lantern from Percy and held it in front of her as she slid sideways through the narrow opening between the double doors. The glittering walls all around her drew her eyes as the light of her lantern reflected off the facets of a thousand individual gems covering the walls. The worked stone around her was covered in elaborate stone carvings and inscriptions. Each of the inscriptions and scenes carved into the rock was accented with semi-precious gemstones and clear reflective crystals of various sizes. They all bounced the light from her lantern back at her.