Ch11: The Spider Caves
After we emerged from the basement of the chapel in Wortham, we walked through the town of Wortham, the villagers still not budging as they saw us, mostly because they were busy trying to put the fires out around the town. "I'll help out if you don't mind," I frowned to the people as I summoned a water-type form of Blizzard and made it rain all over the burning houses in Wortham, the village no longer producing intense heat as before. "Oh my! Thank you miss..." said the priest from before, only to be shocked once the flames had completely died out and he saw my face as well as Serena and mom.
"Wait a minute... This whole time, we have been helped by 2 female zombies and a small female imp? I-I'm speechless..." the priest admitted at us. "We'd love to stay and chat, but our group needs to go after the cultists that did this to your village. It's a personal matter for us because they killed one of our best friends," Serena frowned as we began to walk out to the town gates and the villagers just looked at us in bafflement. "How can we ever thank you?" asked a female villager. "How about opening this gate? It looks locked," I frowned. "Fair enough," she giggled as she did that. "Thanks. We'll make the coven pay for destroying your town. You can be sure of that," my mom seethed as we walked out and into the wilderness, making it to the Wortham Bluffs in about 20 seconds and finding the downwards hill that led to the Spider Caves.
"Okay guys. Whatever you do, be careful here..." Serena frowned as she sniffed the air. "I smell spiders. And not the small cute kind. The kind that have been turned gigantic by magic." "Um... giant s-spiders?" mom gulped. "Do you want to save the Stranger or are you going to go back to town?" I frowned at her. "Y-You're right... I mean, what could go wrong?" mom asked as we hesitantly went into the caves and, just like with Leoric's Cathedral, the interior was just a single passageway to the Spider Queen's chamber. The only things that would impede our conquest were the tons of spider webbing in our way, the tons of spiders, and even the fact that the ground below our elevated height was full of toxic bile and dead, sucked-dry corpses.
"Okay, I take it back! A whole lot could go wrong!" mom immediately freaked out as me and Serena bravely moved forward and began slaughtering spiders, their large forms actually proving to be quite delicate, as delicate as the actual thing back home to be honest. "Wow... they barely put up a fight! Nevermind! Let's kill these motherfuckers!" mom exclaimed as she saw how fragile they were and began to enter the fray as well as her zombie dogs, all of us destroying at least 150 different spiders by the time we finally reached a certain part that creeped us all out. A single old guy on the ground with a creepy smile on his face.
"Are you okay, sir?" I asked him with worry. "My mistress has accepted me... come close... feel her loving embrace..." the old hermit gasped as a trio of Spiderlings came out of his chest like the Xenomorph in Alien. "I don't think I want to meet your mistress," I frowned as I blasted the Spiderlings with the disintegrate ray at them as well as the few larger spiders that attacked from above. "Let's go forward. I can smell the large and in charge on ahead," Serena frowned as she sniffed the air with her imp nose, leading us to the Chamber of Aeranae.
"We are not alone in here," Serena frowned as we went around the one thing in the middle and we were met with a completely whole human woman caught in spider webbing. It was Karyna, just as she was depicted in the game. "Please, please help me! It's horrible how she sucks the innards from her victims!... No! NO! It's too late! The Spider Queen is coming!" she exclaimed in pure fear. "Spider Queen?" mom asked, just as a loud screech came from behind us to reveal the Spider Queen repelling from the ceiling... but before the giant spider could even land on the ground, I cast my disintegration ray right through her chest and then on each of her 8 legs. She died and exploded green slime as she fell to the ground.
"Oh my god... do my eyes deceive me?... You're a Nephalem in the flesh!" Karyna exclaimed at us as I scooped some of the poison with a small jar from a nearby satchel and slowly poured it on the edges of the webbing holding up Karyna, all of it disintegrating as she dropped onto her feet and began to shed tears at us. "Thank you, thank you! Now please let's leave this horrible place!" she cried as she led us out of the exit and we were soon met with the daylight once again.
It was then that Karyna finally saw what we all were and her shock was plain as day. "By the gods! The ones who rescued me were a Risen Dead, a Wretched Mother, and an Imp?!" Karyna immediately gawked at us. "Well, just so you know, everyone who saw our group has pretty much exclaimed the same thing," mom admitted with a giggle. "And you can even talk... amazing... what are you doing out here anyway?" Karyna asked.
"Well, we seek a man taken by a coven led by an ugly old hag of a witch under Belial's command," Serena frowned. "The coven? I believe they were taking a man to Leoric's old manor house to the northernmost part of the Highlands... though, you may have trouble reaching there though..." she frowned. "Why would that be?" I asked. "Well, I stole the staff of a powerful Kazrah Shaman, which resulted in them chasing me into the caves and them locking the gates to the road leading there," Karyna frowned.
"No gate will get in our way. We'll demolish it in a single blow," Serena smirked as she let out her claws with a smirk. "Atta girl, Serena," I smirked at her, further shocking Karyna. "An imp that can talk? Now I've seen everything," Karyna gawked. "Hey, how about you take this and go through the caves to Wortham? Since we killed the Queen, the only spiders left are the small ones we didn't kill. They're very fragile to anything fire related, so just one touch of this and they'll crinkle up in a snap," Serena smiled as she handed her a small dagger imbued with fire power. "Thank you very much! I shall be careful the whole way," Karyna smiled as she went back into the caves with her new protection. "Well, now that she's safe, time to go pay Maghda a visit," I smiled to the others as we all went forward into the Highlands. (Hold on Tyreal... We're on our way...)