26 Kythorn
Spiders and ettercaps! None of them speaking, it is a great relief. The forest grows thicker; I walk ahead to check for the web traps, and run back behind Shar-Teel and Ajantis when the creatures who set the trap inevitably see us coming. I will observe that Edwin's new robes have already met with a series of petty disasters, only one of which could possibly have been Imoen's fault.
I-sense-evil-in-this-party-but-also-some-good, Ajantis rabbits on. Well, he jolly well ought to, at least with Imoen and Garrick. Something in me wants to cheer Edwin on at what he says in return to all that...probably the same reason why I don't wish to think about Ajantis' paladin's nobility.
Paladin's nobility, ha. I swear he attempted to sneakily save bits of our meal last night, shuffling some of the candied nuts Imoen bought (or didn't buy) off into one of his waist-pouches when he thought nobody was looking.
We came to the smell of salt in the air, crossing a stream that fed into the Sea of Swords, the sound of crashing waves not far in the distance.
There was a boy. Shar-Teel had her hand on her sword, although he was only standing there, unconcealed.
"Please, let me speak! Before you attack."
"Of course on my honour as a squire we shall hear you out!" Ajantis said, before any of the rest of us could speak.
"Thank you!" the boy sobbed, the tears easy to hear in his voice. "Thank you so much for listening. It's my brother, you see, he went into the Cloakwood, he said to me to wait for him here...
It sounds foolish, but we found the sword Spider's Bane—we thought we could be heroes of the Cloakwood! the boy's story ran. My brother hasn't returned yet...but it's been more than a sevenday, and...my mother would be so shattered if...
"One less foolish male in the world," Shar-Teel sneered; Viconia stood ready to back her up. "Move on."
"Then I am sorry...I am sorry for troubling you..." the boy sniffed.
"This is morally abhorrent! I will aid you in Helm's name!" Ajantis jumped in. He blocked Shar-Teel's path, standing in front of her:
"I remain because I feel it my responsibility to guard the young ladies from your evil path," he lectured. I took a step away from him. "We will find your brother, lad!"
"Yeah, I'm with the paladin," Imoen said. "Hey, maybe if he killed a druid too, we wouldn't have to feel guilty about abandoning him either..."
Garrick spoke up, his voice pitched forcefully, compelling attention. "Spider's Bane is a legendary weapon originally forged by Yeslan the Anvil of the Orothiar dwarves in the Cloakwood," he recited. "It was presented to the Grand Dukes of Baldur's Gate in a ceremony intended to foster goodwill and was wielded by them for a century. The blade was then ironically lost in a fight against ettercaps and spiders that caused the death of the Grand Duke Arragar Belt, as told in the Baldurian Century Saga. It is a weighty two-handed sword enchanted to strike true, and protects the wielder from all magics that would imprison them against movement."
Shar-Teel and Ajantis glared at each other, neither budging. At last she turned her head and spat upon the ground.
"Very well. Witch."
"Yep?"
"Coloured lights. Know that one? When we find the body, send up some. We won't drag it back here."
"My companion means if," Ajantis quickly said to the boy. "If we find him alive, the witch can send white lights...I think that is possible? I know little of magic. Then it shall be my duty to return him."
Imoen stood near the boy. I saw her hand moving; she'd the diamond, releasing it to his cloak. A much better place for it.
"Good luck, lad," she said.
"Please search quickly. His name is Chelak. I saw him going in that direction. Be careful."
"I feel Helm blesses this endeavour." Ajantis laid a hand briefly on the boy's shoulder. "We shall find Chelak."
"Then haste, boy," Shar-Teel said. "And raising false hopes is as foul an action as any," she added quietly. "Skie, start looking."
The light glistened on a trap not a hand's span from Ajantis.
"Ajantis, st..."
Webbing caught us, and three huge spiders raced in. If it were not for Viconia's drow's-immunity...
"March ahead, halfwit."
There is a marking on the bandits' map that resembles a rough spider; the path illustrated is north-west to reach a stream, avoiding that region. I watched for spider-web traps; the shadows of evening deepened.
"That's three you've managed to disarm in fifty steps," Shar-Teel said. "Hunt for where they're thicker." She tapped a tree; some of its branches seemed torn and ragged, and on closer inspection I saw marks on the wood. "See this, city brat? I'm no ranger, but this was cut by a sword. Stupid use of a decent blade. We're closer."
"We shall, as the poor young boy so attempted, find the foul lair of the creatures and purge this evil before we dare rest," Ajantis declared. Edwin glared, but a trailing gold thread of his was caught upon a tree branch; cursing under his breath, he untangled the costume.
Viconia sniffed the air. "I note the stench of surface-orbben, even stronger to the east. Praise Shar's might in sparing us from the spider queen's vengeance."
"Grant praise instead to Helm," Ajantis said. "His justice and goodness are to the foul Shar as potent midday to withering dusk—"
"Silence, ust'dan! The divine Shar has governed the party since the day I joined. She is a goddess of conviction and purpose." Viconia said.
"Your evil temptation may have weakened the vulnerable of this party, but it is clear Helm has sent me to place it upon the right path and redeem it of all that is dark!"
"Darkness comes to all things. Yield to her, and Shar shall spare you countless torments!"
"The stench of evil clings to you in the most vile manner. Helm give me strength against this vile heretic!" Ajantis was not trying to conceal his yelling; Viconia's voice had also risen high.
"In the Underdark you would be fodder for the Kuo Toa, iblith!"
"In the name of Helm you would be purged, evil one!"
"If you wish to die, surface scum, I am pleased to assist!"
"By Helm, I sm—!"
Shar-Teel had suddenly turned; punched Viconia to the ground; elbowed Ajantis tightly against a tree with her other hand, and prisoned him there.
"...smite...you..." he wheezed.
"The day I meet a god who gives a crap is the day I pick up knitting needles," she said. "Your impudence will get you killed, boy."
"Don't kill him!" Garrick and I joined Imoen in chorus. Edwin rolled his eyes.
"You are ilharess, matron to this party," Viconia breathed, nursing a bleeding nose. "We shall obey."
Shar-Teel's evil scowl only deepened. "Don't plaster your lips to my arse and pretend you wouldn't stab us in the back."
"One does what lies in one's own interests." Viconia smiled, I thought, beneath her hand.
"I—do—not accept your leadership." Ajantis struggled to say.
She released him. "Asking for my sword ticking your innards, boy?" She left her back open, her head turned from him; Ajantis could have attacked then, gained the advantage he'd need by stabbing her in the back. But her contempt was right. "Waste of my time. Get ahead with those traps, Skie."
Faint whispers continued from the rear of the party:
"...someone's headed to the Wall of the Permanently Cranky...Helm...saved from the Underdark...Shar...sponsored a squire...vile unbeliever...crude freethinker..."
"I think they're really starting to bond," I whispered to Imoen.
There were, of course, spiders. Including the ones with swords for legs. Anchev is probably worse.
Spider blood and fluid coated us; Imoen least thanks to quick tree-climbing, Shar-Teel's and Ajantis' armour utterly black with the substance. A teleporting spider tried to tear through the spellcasters. So many antidotes needed.
Seven more web-traps; we saw the structure, covered with grey webs, slightly too regular in shape to be natural. Rotting wood and vegetation were moulded together into a rough, thick dome. The only visible entrance to it was a small, dark hole set on low ground. It would have been easy to miss if not for the rough path that seemed to lead to it, turned-over dirt and faint brown-coloured stains, as though many things had been dragged along it and inside that waiting mouth.
"Widen it with that blade of yours, girl."
"The stench of evil clings to that sword in a most vile manner," Ajantis said.
Varscona's enchantment; I stood back from the webbing and let the sword cut through the thin strands. Aberration-web; Shar's-sword. When it was wide enough for Shar-Teel and Ajantis to get through we were ready.
"Got antidote potions, everyone?" Imoen said determinedly. "Let's squash us some bugs."
"Arachnids. (And I know she's plagiarising from somewhere.) Curse these damned robes!" Edwin called in place of a battlecry.
It was dark; my ring could not disguise that fact. Shar-Teel burst through, Ajantis not far behind:
"Helm, give me strength!"
That certainly got the enemies' attention. Sword spiders, from ceiling and walls, leaping for us. A swarming mass. In the centre of that gloom was a bloated pile of...something. It spoke, a horrible cracking half-noise from the middle of all that distorted flesh:
"...ssspiders...kill them all..."
I stood with the casters; an ettercap, breaking past Shar-Teel, rushed for them.
"Darn stupid torn-up cloak—" I heard Imoen muttering; Edwin and Garrick hit the ettercap at the same time, their spells flaring bright red on its hide. I stabbed at it:
(Shar-Teel Sarevok Damon kill)
It moved. Heavy claws swung my way, the creature's nails coated in grime; I twisted back.
"Shar—" My ettercap cringed, but did not fall at Viconia's cry. A brief enough distraction; Varscona opened its shoulder, blood that iced into a hundred crystals at the very point the blade struck. A giant spider joined it.
Of course Imoen and the paladin would never leave the prospect of a missing brother. The ettercap's claws raced down my shoulder, and the pain was almost enough to run from. The wound burned; and that is the sign of poison, a thousand green darts striking in the bloodstream. With my right hand I took the flask from my belt, a practiced move, and gulped desperately; the poison continues to hurt, and you wonder if the antidote has failed and you will die after all.
The ettercap slashed again; I ducked away. Just an ettercap. Just one ettercap. Viconia laughed softly, and behind the spider she brought down a reddened hand on it, a reversal of healing. It lashed out its legs in pain. Then she darted behind me; the spider's sharp legs caught on my sleeve, though did not pierce.
...my sspiders—to my prissson— The bloated thing had, perhaps, once been female. Its skin was underground-pale in its folds of flesh; its features sunk into its face like unformed clay.
I parried the next strike of the ettercap's claws. Its hands moved up; that was an opening, and I stabbed into its chest. It squealed; bled that dark stuff. Only an ettercap. Bleeding badly; it fell. Varscona swept to the spiders around it.
Shar-Teel and Ajantis fought a row of the spiders with metallic-coloured legs, vicious swords. Edwin cast again, a longer spell this time. Spiders—all their limbs—Varscona's ice across them hurt them. Kill them to pass. Edwin's spell swept over me, equally cold; and one fled. That gave Varscona a chance to put down one spider, slashing across its eight black eyes and down. Imoen cast, missiles that burned a sword spider; and then there was only one standing between Shar-Teel and that bloated figure in the centre of the cave. Ajantis caught sword-legs on his shield.
One more spider; block it. I spun away from the fangs. Shar-Teel was nearly... Her sword swept through the sword spider's body.
The figure spoke directly to her. "Beware, human...I warned...you cannot sslay—"
A sense of something in the air like a trap set by magic; Ajantis crying something. I'd my own chance to bring the sword's point under the thorax of the spider I fought—try to kill it—
Shar-Teel didn't hesitate. She moved, and that heavy blade would have bisected the thing. But everything went white. It all happened at once: pale bars that came into existence around the bloated woman; Shar-Teel's body flying backwards; the clang, her armour hitting the wall, the second noise when she fell to the ground and didn't move. There was white fog that crossed the ground of the cavern, encompassing our calves and feet, and the dead creatures within it began to twitch.
The ettercap I had killed rose. Its eyes glowed white and its body was coated with the fog's paleness. Dead sword spiders slowly returned to their legs around Shar-Teel's body. Ajantis went to her, and his shield forced one away from biting her; but they came even though he slashed at them.
Varscona sliced through the bodies, and iced with cold they came ever onward. Already dead.
"...My prissson, foolsss. Jon thought it mercy to be ssso easssy, you sssee..."
The white bars were rooted around the prisoner, from ground to roof of the cavern. They spared her from death at our hands, and in the cage she waited for us to die.
Edwin cast; missiles from his hands burned the flesh of the dead ettercap before me, and did nothing at all. Garrick's song was a dirge, the mourning for us— The ettercap's cold claws, the spider's carved fangs, lurched slowly to my skin. I moved aside, but sooner or later they would find. The fog lay steady over the ground.
Imoen whispered.
"It's a lock," she repeated. "It's a lock. It's a lock. And I'm going to pick it."
Varscona left lines of ice over the ettercap's dead flesh. I spun away from the spiders once more. Imoen chanted: she summoned a large pink hand.
"(A simple cantrip! —I would strategically retreat—)" Edwin muttered. Ajantis cried out, defending Shar-Teel, blood on his leg below an armour-joint. The dead could easily make alive things bleed.
Imoen's mage's hand reached to the ceiling of the cave. It shook the roof; just above the bars.
"'S changed, y'see, since the casting," she whispered. "Anchored to where the ground used to be. I'm picking it." Her hand moved the ceiling; the bars of the prison shook—
I could only try to defend against the spiders. The pink hand set rocks shaking, the cave ceiling unstable. Edwin also cast:
"(A pathetic apprentice's cantrip! My own are far more effective—)"
His mage hand was reddish, and slightly larger than Imoen's. It did the same: above and shaking the white bars, and then the rocks came crashing to the ground—
Ajantis braced himself against the wall and by Shar-Teel. The casters were near the entrance of the cave, away from the worst of it; rocks fell and smashed into the creatures. I stepped back; a pointed stone fell to crush the skull of the ettercap I fought, which still stood. It was moving still; the fog held—
There was no clear shot, but we held magical arrows—sheathe Varscona, draw bow. She had to be killed.
Three arrows through the falling rocks, seeking aim; on the third the body began to convulse, an arrow spread with poison in its own right.
"That's it," Imoen said. "Keys to the spell—"
I saw the fog melt like mist. Only dead in here with us, and we lived. Ajantis bent down and methodically cast upon Shar-Teel, healing her by paladin's hands.
Imoen stepped over the fallen rocks, nimble as a fox; I heard her pained cry.
"He's...I think he's here..."
A large two-handed sword that shimmered with enchantment. A heavy silver ring engraved by elaborate runic design. An opal-studded bracelet. Four copper pieces. The body of a boy with green-coloured lips, spiderweb covering it...
For a moment, unbidden, a sight half a dream rose before the eyes; blue hands that drained poison instead of red hands that froze enemies as the dead. But that was gone. Tiber's brother was dead.
Blood-red light rose high into the air outside the spider cave, Imoen's voice hoarse and low.
—
27 Kythorn
Almost halfway. The map shows the line of a river to follow, shows a bridge to bypass, sketched out between cave-like markings of landscape. To the north-west to circuit thick forest and deeper gorge; to the east along the river and another bridge. Then further to the east as the Chionthar continues; and there the Cloakwood Mines are marked. We have traversed the land from the west of the Friendly Arm, up to the rocky promontory to the sea; have reached the river where once more the trees grow thickly and horses cannot pass for that reason rather than the harsh pebbles of the cliffs of the Sea of Swords. It is easy to decipher the route; we have killed four spiders today. It will not be long before we reach the mines of Sarevok Anchev.