“I’ve been alone since Silas disappeared.” Recalling his friend, a grim demeanor replaced his elation, and he looked me in the eyes. “Let’s clear out this cave, but then I insist we confront Frank.” I gave him a quick nod of agreement and formed a party, inviting Alicia, Nareth, Emera, and Grith.
“Did everyone accept the party invitation?” They all nodded yes. “Ok, let’s get-“
“You’re such a fucking ass, you know that?” Startled, I turned towards Jimmy, who was fuming. “At least tell me you did it on purpose to be funny.”
Hiding the tiniest of smirks, I replied honestly. “Actually, I forgot about you.”
Jimmy gritted his teeth, but some idea must have come to him as he calmed quickly. “If you die in there, I’m gonna teabag you.”
I gave him my best deadpan look. “Same.” A sobering smack to the back of my head prefaced Alicia’s admonishment.
“If you’re done flirting with your boyfriend there, how about we get going? I picked up the Alchemy skill and I am dying to get my hands on some spider eyes, butts, or whatever.” Rubbing my head, I gave Alicia a dirty look, invited Jimmy to the party, and stepped through the threshold. The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was incomparable to anything I’d encountered before, but it wasn’t indescribable. In fact, one word summed it up quite well. Creepy. Somehow, a lair of giant spiders had a smell so unnerving that it sent chills down my spine that were completely unrelated to the ropy webs hanging about the cave or flying towards the group. Wait, what?
“Ambush!” yelled Nareth, drawing his bow and loosing an arrow at one of the three level 10 giant spiders that had attacked us. One was on the floor, but two others were crawling along the webs strewn about the walls and ceiling of the cavern. Panicked, I drew my sword and began chanting “Sheladun Newtunus Protektas” with gestures directed towards Grith, who was fearlessly charging at the spider on the cavern floor. He dodged the thick strand of silk coming from his opponent, but the spider on the wall, sensing an opportunity, quickly shot webbing across his path at ankle level and Grith was sent sprawling. The spider on the ceiling must not have wanted to miss a free meal, as it dropped towards the elven warrior, fangs first. I heard unfamiliar words of power being spoken to my left, and surmised that Emera was preparing to heal Grith.
“Hi-ya!” followed by “Oomph!” summed up Jimmy’s spectacular attack. His flying kick towards the dropping spider would have been amazing, had he not run into my shield as soon as it was completed. Instead, he fell unceremoniously on his ass. I heard a soft giggle to my left as Emera completed her cast, causing a white glow to surround Jimmy, who was wincing and rubbing his behind. I wondered where Alicia was, and she happily announced her location.
“Backstab! Your ass is mine!” Alicia’s twin daggers appeared from nowhere, sinking into the grounded spider. With a terrible “Skree!” it turned to engage her. Nareth had been shooting at the spider on the wall, and thick gobs of ichor fell from its wounds as it raced towards us. I pulled my shield off my back and stepped towards it swinging my shortsword in a deadly arc. I clipped its abdomen, but it ignored me and leaped towards Nareth, knocking him flat. However, Emera was no pushover, and she delivered a powerful kick to it before it could dig its greedy fangs into Nareth’s flesh. The spider was on its back for only a moment, but it was enough time for me to plunge my sword deep into its abdomen. Nareth had also recovered, and he drew his dagger, stabbing into the spider’s head and puncturing its brain.
Our foe dispatched, I turned to see how Alicia, Grith, and Jimmy were doing. Their spiders lay dead and twitching. I heard someone humming a happy tune, and I realized it was Alicia. She was casually dissecting the corpses and stuffing little pieces of nightmare fuel into her backpack.
“Yeah, this! I can use that too. This is awesome.” Her words of elation only rarely punctuated her humming, which I now found to be deeply disturbing. As I approached Alicia, I heard Emera speak more words of power and everyone’s superficial wounds disappeared.
Jimmy was grinning. “Well, that was a shitshow.”
Annoyed, I replied. “Hey, at least the spiders are dead, I don’t think anyone was expecting an ambush.”
Nareth walked up with Emera to join the conversation. “If we had expected it, it wouldn’t have been an ambush.” Puzzled, I looked at him.
“When did you become a smartass? Is Jimmy rubbing off on you?” Jimmy opened his mouth to answer, but Alicia cut him off.
“Jimmy’s just a dick, I’m the smartass.” Surprisingly, Grith joined in.
“New as I am to thinking, I’m almost certain that none of you are smart.” Grith paused for emphasis. “And you all are asses.”
Emera nodded emphatically, agreeing as we all laughed hard enough to rid us of our collective asses. When we recovered, Alicia spoke up again. “It’s not just spider butts I can use for alchemy. Elf and human work just as well.” Alicia wore her patented smirk. “So you’d best watch your asses.” It seemed like the whole world rolled its eyes, and Alicia led us deeper into the cave. It was getting darker as we got further from the entrance, but patches of glowing fungus were growing along the walls and ceiling, casting an eerie light. Suddenly, Alicia stopped, staring at the floor in front of us.
“I don’t really see anything, but that.” She pointed at the ground. “Is a trap.”
We all backed away, and I asked. “Can’t you disarm it?”
Alicia shook her head, “No, all I can do is set it off.”
Anticipating something nasty, I cast earth force shield on Grith and myself, and we stood in front of the rest of the group, keeping a good distance away from the trap. After my mana recovered, Alicia picked up a stone and tossed it at the trap. It landed with a clatter, but when it rolled into the area she’d indicated before, it stuck. We only had a moment to wonder what it was before an enormous spider burst out of the cavern floor, sending bits of rock and webbing in all directions. Surprisingly, a couple of the stones hit our shields despite the distance, draining them slightly. I only had a moment to examine the spider, and was shocked to see that it was a level 16 trapdoor spider. It ran towards us on six legs, and at the ends of the two in front were wickedly sharp talons, with which it powerfully stabbed at me and Grith.
I was ready this time, and I allowed its chitinous talon to strike my magical shield while I thrust my steel one into its dripping maw, performing a shield bash. It winced, seemingly taken aback that something could harm it, but otherwise was unaffected. The important part of my job was done, though, as its beady eyes focused their malevolence on me while Alicia sneaked around behind it. Suddenly, a shout came from behind me.
“Hi-ya!” yelled Jimmy, flying foot-first at the monstrous arachnid. I had the presence of mind to duck, and Jimmy connected with the spider’s face. He landed wearing a smug look, but didn’t notice the spider’s twin talons being raised above him. Thinking quickly, I lashed out with psionic energy. A crimson, whiplike rope of power erupted from my head and sliced into my enemy. It seemed to pass right through the spider’s head ineffectually, but it was dazed by my attack.
“Backstab!” shouted Alicia, and I decided not to waste any time either.
I shouted “Sheladun Newtunus Roketos!” The color drained away from my vision as my mana dropped by 15 points with each completed word. Nareth’s arrows flew quickly into the dazed spider’s face, and Grith rent a furrow into its thorax. Inspiration took me, and when my cast completed I thrust my sword into the weakened area. I heard the “splorch” of the spider’s insides being scrambled, and with a horrible screech it came to its senses, bringing its talons down on the unarmored Jimmy. He was too busy pummeling at its mandibles with his fists to notice the danger, and his form shattered under the devastating blow. The psionic feedback of his consciousness slamming back into my head sent me to my knees with a tremendous, piercing headache.
“Help!” Came a muffled call from behind the spider. Alicia had been stabbing at it from behind, and it predic
tably shot a giant gob of web at her, trapping her to the floor. Grith had the spider’s attention and was expertly blocking the spider’s talons with his shield and parrying with his sword. As Nareth ran around the spider to free Alicia, I heard a voice in my head.
Jimmy: Get up you idiot! Who’s going to save us if we all die in here?
Shrugging off the worst of the headache, I regained my feet and took my place beside Grith. My bravery was rewarded with a talon to the thigh, the spider’s well-aimed strike bypassing my greaves. That single hit took 30% of my health! Gritting my teeth, I slashed at its foreleg with my sword, scoring the chitin but not penetrating it. Emera finished casting a spell that I hadn’t heard, and my health returned just as another talon flashed out, crippling Grith’s sword arm. He doggedly raised his shield and spat in the monster’s face, his other arm hanging uselessly at his side. I didn’t know spiders could sneer, but this one did as it jutted forward, sticking its fanged pedipalps through his boiled leather armor and into his chest. Grith resisted the poison for a moment, and then fell. It turned its gaze on me, and with a feeling of both dread and duty I prepared to withstand its attacks for as long as possible. Emera ran up to Grith, putting a hand on his arm and muttering words of power.
Predictably, the spider lanced out at me with its talons, but just as I was about to block, it froze. Nareth had freed Alicia, and they stood to either side of the spider with their daggers sticking deep into its abdomen. Each of the spider’s eight eyes showed fear for a moment before the light went out of them, and its legs curled inwards while ichor slowly seeped from its many wounds. Emera finished her chant, and a bright white light flashed into existence, centered on Grith.
Chapter 12: Spider Queen’s Lair
Grith’s eyes opened wide and he inhaled sharply. I looked to Emera, asking. “What ability is that? I thought he was dead.”
She replied, smiling as she helped Grith to his feet. “It’s called Revive. Healers gain access to it at level ten.”
Nareth cut in immediately. “How long can someone have been dead for that ability to work?” His eyes showed a mixture of hope and anger as he remembered his fallen friend.
Emera stared distantly for a moment, her eyes flicking through something unseen. “It doesn’t look like there’s a limit, only a cooldown of one hour before I can use it again.”
Nareth turned to me with a look of determination and excitement. “Let’s clear out this dungeon and find Frank. That bastard will tell me what he did with Silas, one way or another.”
We began walking around the spider’s trap, and Alicia’s excited voice called out from beneath us. “Loot! Wait a minute guys there’s loot down here!” I looked into the pit and saw that Alicia was cutting into the cocooned remains of the spider’s previous victims.
“How exactly are you going to get up out of there?” I asked sardonically.
Her muttered reply barely reached our ears. “Doesn’t matter. Loot.” In the end we were lucky that she had a length of rope with her, which she tossed up to us and we used to pull her out. She had bits of animal bone and webbing stuck in her hair, but she was smiling as she handed each of us two gold pieces. Everyone except Jimmy, that is, who grudgingly accepted that not having a permanent body or a real inventory made it a bad idea to give him things. “Oh, there’s this too.” She held up a ring woven of bone, chitin, and silk, revealing its stats.
Trapdoor Spider’s Ring: Creates a hidden trap that, when triggered, will summon a CLVL (10) trapdoor spider allied with the caster. Usable 1x/day, costs CLVL x10 (100) mana.
That was an amazing find! The only potential problem is that anyone who wore it would need to completely drain their mana to set the trap. Also, the cost scaled with level, so in order for it to be useful to someone they’d need to put an extra point into intelligence. I still wasn’t sure how much, if at all, attributes increased each level, so I checked the info for my class.
Battle Mage: Gains 1 point of Str and Int per level, with 3 extra points to distribute. Gains 3% mastery with all known words and 0.5 points of proficiency with all combat related skills, plus 7% mastery and 1.5 points of proficiency to distribute.
Alicia already had familiarity with traps and didn’t use mana during combat, so we had her wear the ring for now. The trapdoor spider had given me enough experience to get me nearly halfway to level 11, and I was looking forward to reaching it and gaining mastery in the force word, as well as hitting 5 points of proficiency with swordcasting, which should unlock a new ability. Alicia was holding up her hand and admiring her new acquisition. “This thing looks so cool, and it actually feels spidery.” I shivered with unease, and beckoned her to lead the way.
Further into the cave both the webbing and glowing mushrooms increased in density, casting strange shadows along the floor and wall. Alicia halted suddenly, turning to us with a finger to her lips, telling us to remain silent. She went into a crouch, creeping forward and soon she blended in so well that I could barely see her. Ever so slowly, her daggers appeared from the darkness, until she left the shadows, stabbing an unseen enemy. She beckoned us forward and we saw a dead spider leaking ichor from two entry wounds in its hideous face.
She turned to us, looking smug as a sports star who’d just wiped the floor with their opponent. “I just got a new ability, Assassinate, and I just had to try it out. Isn’t it awesome?’
I nodded, but a feeling of unease overtook me as I asked. “Why was there only one spider?”
Her face fell. “Shit.” That was all the warning we got, as the mushrooms around us moved, and new enemies revealed themselves. There were three level 10 spore spiders, as well as two level 12 shadow spiders. I surmised that if Alicia hadn’t spotted and assassinated one of the shadow spiders, we would have been in terrible shape. One of the shadow spiders was heading for Emera, but I moved quickly to intercept it with a shield bash. Grith wisely got the attention of the other shadow spider with a furious slash, while Alicia, Nareth, and Jimmy each faced off against a spore spider. My shield bash had temporarily stunned the shadow spider, and I didn’t feel like playing around. As quickly and carefully as I could I recited the words “Sheladun Newtunus Protektas R-“. Unfortunately, before I could finish the Word for bolt, the shadow spider recovered and used an ability of its own. Impossibly, one of its taloned legs lanced towards me from the shadows. Before it could impale me, the earth force shield I’d unintentionally cast surrounded me, stopping its attack. It looked surprised that its attack had been foiled, and I stabbed my sword into its face, destroying two of its eyes before glancing off its hardened skull. It winced in pain, bringing its forelegs up protectively to cover itself. I wasted no time slashing at its jointed limbs, this time finding the right spot and cutting through one of its legs, sending a spew of ichor towards the wall. Crippled and panicked, it attempted to flee. Enough of my mana had recovered from casting the shield that I could fulfill my original intention. “Sheladun Newtunus Protektas Roketos!” The earth force shield bolt roared from the end of my sword, slamming the spider into the cavern wall with a sickening crunch. As it fell lifeless to the floor, I surveyed my companions, now fighting in a world of grey since my mana was spent.
Jimmy must be much more effective against weaker targets, as his own spider lay crumpled and he was helping Grith with the last shadow spider. Alicia and Nareth weren’t faring so well, and they seemed to be coughing and scratching at themselves inbetween attacks. I saw one of the remaining spore spiders release a puff of glowing green smoke at Nareth, and realized that Jimmy’s crystalline body was probably immune to their toxic attacks.
“Go help Nareth and Alicia!” I shouted at Jimmy, flanking the remaining shadow spider and drawing its attention with a stab to the abdomen. Grith looked relieved. He was at 50% health, wounded but combat effective. Jimmy ran to assist against the spore spiders while Grith’s target turned to me, sensing a dangerous and healthy foe. I taunted it, saying “I’ll kill you as easily as I did the other!” A look of com
prehension crossed its malevolent façade, almost as if it understood what I’d said. It reared up on its back legs, leaping powerfully over us and skittering deeper into the cave. I tried to cast a spell after it, but it moved quickly and was out of sight before I could finish. With our opponent’s cowardly departure, we ran up to assist the others with the spore spiders, quickly dispatching them with our overwhelming numbers.
Emera cast another spell, the words sounding slightly different, and the effects of the spore spiders’ toxin was relieved. Alicia was busily separating the dead spiders from their asses and whatever else was useful, while the rest of us sat against the wall and recovered.
I spoke up. “Is it just me, or do those spiders seem somehow intelligent?”
Grith replied, nodding cautiously. “Something’s different about them, usually monsters don’t flee.”
Emera followed up with. “They’d have to have some intelligence to set up ambushes in groups. I wonder how far that intelligence goes.”
Nareth looked thoughtful. “Even the spiders in the forest who attacked us didn’t kill us. They just paralyzed us and wrapped us up. Maybe they had something in mind for us other than being food?”
Jimmy rolled his eyes. “Who cares? Kill them and get stronger. That’s the point of all of this.” He stopped, gesturing around at nothing in particular. “Isn’t it?”
Alicia walked up, having finished her butchery. “Normally I’d say yes.” She paused, looking thoughtful. “But what if we can get even better stuff by figuring out what’s going on? You know, like their intentions.” That gave us all food for thought. If the spiders were intelligent and had their own goals, maybe we could talk to them and avoid killing them all. Alicia got our attention again. “Sitting around on our alchemical components isn’t going to do any good. Let’s see what’s at the end, and if it talks, we can think about not killing it.”
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