Day 9 (continued)
During the flight from the cavern on the invisible griffin Mathilda, Temerity sings, but due to the wind rushing past, only he can hear himself. Mathilda flies for a while before depositing the team far up in the north at the edge of the mountain range. They find themselves surrounded by mountains on one side and massive black fir trees on the other. The source of the river is nearby. In the distance, they can see lights – static and equidistant. They are a row of torches leading off.
Mathilda tells them that she can go no further and that to fly here is dangerous for her – she could get shot. She drops Temerity and bows to allow the party to disembark. She asks if Temerity is always the way that he is. Theren nods in reply. She offers him advice: talk less and smile more. She flies off southwards.
Even though it is mid-afternoon, it is very cold. Lavender expects to feel a chill, given that she has no cloak, but she is pleasantly cool. Nothing appears out of the ordinary apart from the line of torches, so they agree to follow them. Lavender is the only one that appears to struggle on the journey – it seems that something in the cave has changed her somehow. Theren notices and wants to help her but decides that it wouldn’t be appreciated, so keeps his distance. Temerity plays an inspirational tune on his flute.
They reach a cave. Outside are torches bearing animal skulls – bear and wolf. Lavender examines the skulls and then looks into the cave mouth. Whoever is in there is not trying to stay hidden. Temerity and Theren both assume that these are friendly people, rather than enemies, so they enter the cave, Lavender at point, even though she has no dark vision.
The cave is dark but not too cold. It is broad, wet and damp. Moisture drips from the ceiling. They can see a torch but it is a long way off in the distance. Temerity’s horns get caught on a spider web that makes them glisten and glitter. They continue on, but Lavender is not convinced by the thought of spiders.
They reach a chamber, around 50 feet across, covered with webs and rotten remains. Open spider eggs are evident. Tiny spiders scuttle everywhere. In spite of this, everything seems fine.
Shoots of gooey sticky web shoot out from all sides. Lavender, Orion and Theren are all encircled by them. The webbing is cold and sharp and it restrains them completely. Up on the ceiling is a mammoth spider, surrounded by six smaller, but still sizeable, spiders.
The spider queen is incensed by their presence in her home. Theren tries to squirm free but is completely trapped. Runcible tries to bite through the webbing but cannot. Temerity takes his small dagger and slashes through some, freeing Lavender. She thanks him as he retreats slightly down the passageway to shield himself. The spider queen descends on a silk thread towards Lavender and tries to bite her but it deflects off her shield. One of the lesser spiders also descends and tries to bite her too. Two others launch more webs at her but they miss. Lavender retaliates, slashing at the spider queen. Orion struggles against the webbing and bursts free, leaping over the spider queen.
Runcible tries again to bite through the webbing and this time he succeeds. Theren casts his new spell, Hunger of Hadar. Instead of the insidious black void he was expecting, an orb of iridescent gold appears, kaleidoscopic and fractal. It encompasses four of the lesser spiders who were still on the walls. Theren is stunned at how different his spell appears from what he expected. Lavender can hear voices whispering from within. Temerity is unimpressed, commenting that Theren had promised tentacles with his new spell. Temerity mocks the spider queen and heals Lavender. The spider queen shrugs off Temerity’s mockery and tries to bite Lavender again. The lesser spiders try to move away from the sphere’s influence. One of them nears Orion and tries to attack him but fails. Lavender attacks the spider queen with her sword, hacking off a couple of legs. Orion turns to face the spider that attacked him and launches a flurry of blows at it. The spider is stunned and takes a lot of damage – cracks appear in its carapace.
Having tried to escape the sphere, four of the lesser spiders are now clustered together, so Theren uses Shatter. Two of them take heavy damage, with one exploding and showering the rest with ichor. Runcible flies over to try and finish off the other, but cannot get to it. Temerity tries mocking the spider queen again but again she shrugs it off. She is too focused on Lavender. She bites down hard, piercing Lavender with her fangs. One of the lesser spiders tries again to capture her with its webs, but it fails. Another tries to bite her but misses. A third tries to attack Orion but fails. The remaining ones try to scuttle out of the sphere’s radius, but one of them doesn’t make it out in time, dissolving into golden green goo. Lavender plunges her sword into the spider queen’s mouth, twisting and wrenching it back out. The corpse drops to the floor. He sword is glowing as she strikes but she notices that the glow originates not within the blade, but within her hand. Orion moves away towards one of the lesser spiders, but it is too high on the walls for him to be able to cause much damage.
Theren launches an agonising blast towards a lesser spider, striking it full in the face. Temerity tries mocking the lesser spider by Orion to make it fall off the wall but it doesn’t work. He manoeuvres onto the battlefield and picks up the severed spider legs for use later. The spider on the wall by Orion launches its webs at Lavender and this time succeeds in entangling her. Another bites her whilst she is restrained. Lavender breaks free immediately from the webbing. Orion still struggles to punch the spider by him as it is remains too high.
Theren casts another agonising blast, causing more damage to a lesser spider. Temerity mocks them, dancing around with the spider queen’s severed legs and singing. One of the lesser spiders is so horrified by his display that when it tries to entangle him in its web, it fails. Another tries to attack Lavender but slips in its mother’s entrails. The one on the wall tries to attack Orion, but he takes the hit stoically. Lavender slashes at the one behind her and stabs the blade through its head, causing ichor to erupt from it which freezes almost instantly. Orion attacks the one near him, which is now within reach. He punches a hole straight through its carapace. Theren uses an agonising blast on the final spider, immolating it.
With the spiders gone, the group takes a short rest in the chamber. Temerity uses some of the spider blood to create a magic circle. He casts a spell with Korako in the centre of the circle and synchronises their thoughts. He asks Korako to imagine his ideal bunny friend. Korako is confused and asks if he means a friend that is a bunny, or a friend for himself. Korako explains that he doesn’t want another friend, for he already has Temerity. Perturbed, Temerity tries to read Korako’s thoughts to see what he thinks of besides his nominal owner. However, he discovers that Korako thinks only of Temerity, considers them to be inseparable friends and wants nothing else other than for the two of them to remain together.
Temerity searches in Korako’s eyes. They are glowing green and he thinks he sees a raccoon in there. He is taken aback by Korako’s reaction. Lavender watches the entire proceedings. A green light comes, its source indeterminable. Snuffling begins and a disgruntled chuntering follows. A raccoon crawls out of the webbing wearing a green collar. She looks up at Temerity and then stares at Korako. The raccoon is quite fat and fluffy. Lavender asks about it. Temerity says that he can feel a magical bond forming, but that it doesn’t feel quite right. He nevertheless feels an intense compulsion to care for the raccoon, who reaches out and tentatively pats Korako on the head. The collar states: Chakitika – Wild Wanderer.
During these proceedings, Theren is meditating upon his patron. He gets nothing more than a sensation of gold. He searches for a name but in the jumble of thoughts, nothing seems right. Orion and Lavender remain at guard positions by the two entrances to the chamber whilst the magical happenings are going on. Temerity welcomes Chikatika to the group.