Chapter 25 Dungeon Crawl Part II
"Kill it! Kill it with fire!" shrieked the Huntsman
The mage's divine orb of light floated through the air as she and her hound chased after Thaelin's shadow. And away from the swarm of monstrosities behind them.
As Oghma as her witness, she wouldn't look back. She didn't have to. She could hear them. Their hiss gurgled from the toxins leaking from its mouth, its long spear like legs struck the stone floor chasing after the heroes.
When they made their way to the first chamber, Thaelin cowered behind the opening to the dungeon complex. Sweat rolling down his brow and legs wobbling in fright.
"Hastur! Run!"
Near the end of the Snake's tunnel, she turned and gave one look back. From a brief glance she could only see one of the large spiders, but heard more coming from behind it. Many more. The spiders appeared to be almost as tall as her. And couldn't guess how long they would lay or stand. Their overwhelming size gave her an idea. But it was a daring one and one she didn't feel right about doing.
"Freki! Go to the door." She ordered the pup away so she could concoct her plan.
"Hastur! What the hell are you doing? Get out! Fuck this place!"
The cleric unsheathed her blade with a twirl. The mage took her stance. Right foot forward. Left leg bent. Weight placed forward. Eyes locked. Enemy incoming. She licked her lips and made her prayer.
"Oghma. Lord of Wisdom. Grant me the knowledge to drive these foul abominations back to the hellscape they belong. May your light shine and burn away all that corrupts. In your sacred name I pray. With your divine power, guide my strike!"
The spider charged forward. It opened its pincers wide brandishing a disgusting drooling maw. The soulless black eyes reflected the sheer terror that the mage felt. The arachnid raised one of its bone like legs into the air and went for a piercing strike. Its fangs dripped with poison. Saliva pooled on the stone slab floor underneath. The half elf side stepped away and lunged her blade into the skull of the spider. It gave an agonizing hiss when she twisted her diamond shaped blade and lunged harder.
The cleric grit her teeth together. With all her might she pressed hard to thrust the blade into her foe. The creature thrashed around a bit, but collapsed. Relief doused the mage, but her joy was short lived. From behind the dead monster came a volley of more hisses and more bone-like legs pining to taste the flesh of the one who managed to kill one of their own.
From the puncture wound where the half elf's blade impaled and killed the first spider, an ooze of green blood and slime sizzled its way out. The area around the blade began to char and smolder. Hastur ducked around the corner to the pathway. Fearing the full power of Oghma's smite, she curled into a ball.
The last thing she heard before the explosion was the hiss of the spiders, a loud explosion followed by the heat of an inferno. Then the dying squeals of burning spiders. And that dreaded silence. An high pitched ringing took the cleric's ears. Her head felt as though it had cotton stuffed inside. She couldn't think straight. She could only watch as thick black smoke rolled out of the path way. In what seemed like a while she suddenly remembered the spiders. But since there wasn't any sign of them advancing from the hallway, she could only assume she won.
From the smoke plume, Thaelin reemerged into the chamber coughing on the noxious smell of charred chitin and bone.
*ach, ach* "Hast, you okay?"
Covered in soot, the cleric stirred from her cover, coughing from the smoke and disgusting smell. "Y- *ach, ach*-yeah. Yeah. I'm alive."
The ranger swatted the smoky air from his face. "As cool as that was, I really hope you killed all them creepy-crawlers."
The man offered a hand and helped the cleric to her feet. She staggered slightly and when she got her bearings, the panic set in.
"Where is Freki? Where is my sword?"
In a calm voice the man placed a hand on her shoulder. "The dog is fine. He was outside when you literally put the fear of the gods in those spiders." at his feet the little dog came running up to its master.
Hastur scooped the little pup into her arms. The puppy's tongue lapped away a small portion of the soot on her cheek. "What about my sword?" she said creating another orb of light in her hand to guide her way into the smoldering pathway. Buried under a pile of ash and blackened carapace was the still shining bits of steel and polished brass.
To her amazement the blade was in pristine condition. Even after being at the epicenter of such an act of a divine smite, the blade was cold to the touch. The mage gave the sword a flick before returning it to her sheath.
"Should we continue?" she asked in a nervous tone
Thaelin gave an indecisive shrug. The man scratched at his beard and poked his head into the pathway "Hey! Creepy-crawlers! You all dead yet?" with a flamboyant flair, he cupped his ear and listened for any sign of life still coming from within.
"I guess it should be safe."
Once the duo got pass the overwhelming smell of burnt bone and arachnid, they continued on down the hall as they did before. Thaelin took point and disappeared into the dark once again. With a nervous hand, the mage fetched her elven dagger and took shallow steps into the unknown. There were no signs of rats or more giant spiders that she could see, save for the increase of cobwebs along the floor.
Not too long curtains of cobwebs covered the walls and the mage tugged her cloak close so it wouldn't catch any of the disgusting
"HASTUR! HELP ME!"
The cry made the mage nearly leap in fear. Without second thought, the cleric jumped into action. She charged ahead into the darkness clutching her dagger in one hand, and Freki's leash in the other.
At the mouth of the next chamber, her skin crawled fiercely. The whole room was covered in massive strands of spider webs. Clusters cocooned in the webbing littered the dirt floor. And high above hanging spread eagle in the center of a massive web on the cave wall
"Get me the fuck out of this thing!" cried the huntsman.
"Thaelin? How did you get up there?"
"If I knew, don't you think I would have gotten off this damn death trap? Get me down dammit!"
Hastur looked around the cavern and tried to find a quick and easy way of rescuing her comrade "Okay, okay. Just stay there
The ranger furled his terrified brow at the statement "Stay there? Are you kidding me? How fucking cliché? Next I bet you're going to say "How's the weather up there?"
A sly smirk did cross her lips at the thought of it. "Well, now that you mention it, how is the weather up there
"Rainy!" he said spitting a glob of saliva down as it landed at the mage's feet. "Now help me before it turns to a fucking downpour!"
The mage waltzed around the cobwebbed chamber looking for any sign of a way she could climb to cut him loose without getting caught herself. She looked above to the web Thaelin was fastened to and noticed that one of the corners was wrapped around a stalagmite. A sure strike there may cause the whole web-work to collapse.
"Thaelin! I have an idea. Hang on."
Hang on? More cliché puns! I swear when I'm out of this thing I'm going t-
In one precise slash, the mage's sword struck through the thick spider silk and a dozen taught silk cords came undone. Each string plucked into a cacophony of cords snapping followed by the huntsman screams as he fell and struck the rocky wall.
Ouch! Son of a b-, damn it!" on his last thud down landed square on his back and crashed through a web sack of scores of tiny spider hatchlings sprawling out. Each the size of a mouse. The swarm scattered about making for any safe haven they could find from the viscous giants.
"Oh gods! Why me?" he shrieked flailing his arms trying to brush the hatchlings off him "I fucking hate spiders!"
Even Hastur stomped a jig trying to kill as many as she could. Drenched in a cold sweat, the ranger stomped on the last spider that was near. A shiver went all throughout him as he turned to his partner trying to hold in a laugh. She collected herself and gave the man a pursed lipped smile.
"Nice of you to drop by Thaelin." She remarked losing her control over her laughter
"Fuck off! Because of that, you are taking point. Now hurry up so we can get out of this gods forsaken shit heap of a dungeon."