Walking into Spiderwebs

[Richard Jackson]

Early evening. 

A gnome sat alone, wrapped in a travelling cloak and unnoticed in a quiet corner of the Lakeside Inn. Many folk from the valley had gathered at the inn, as they had done on previous occasions, eagerly waiting for news of the travelling adventurers who were expected to return that day. The gnome paid them no heed, and sipped her third drink of the afternoon slowly and in silence.

Would Jabble Firespinner and the others make it back alive this time? It would serve the blathering idiot right if he got himself killed. Or no, not killed - maimed enough not to go out adventuring again would probably do...

Tenena's thoughts were interrupted as the answer to her question came bursting in through the door. The five adventurers - Jabble, Bran, Taika, Tagariel and Birel - came pouring in, babbling excitedly all at once:

"What a place! All that power and what it could do!"
"Still don't really know how it works!
"When all that water came through, can't believe we drained the swamp!"
"Lost for gods know how many years!"
"Those abandoned huts - where did the people go!"
"But the Spiders! So many spiders! Humongous, they were!"
"That one nearly ate you!"
"And that thing you did with the statues! That was awesome. What happened with your face!"

Great, just great, thought Tenena. She slunk further back into an alcove. None of them are making the slightest sense, and he'll be unbearable after this.

Several rounds of drinks were offered up to the returning heroes. The old farmer, Gunter, pressed a tankard into Dramble's hands. He took a swig then set it down, drew out his pipes and a candle from his travelling pack, and began to play. Not many people could conjure up thilling adventures from a tune on the pan pipes, the silent observer mused, but if anyone can, Jabble can.

…..

"As you know, we decided to honour our fallen comrades by carrying on their search," Dramble began, settling into his usual routine. "We passed the Falls of Ardun without incident this time. As we reached the bottom, Tagariel produced a magical owl - of all things!" An owl hoot was heard in the rafters up ahead. "We reached the edge of the mysterious, silent forest midway through the first day. We started to explore and found barely a trace of life, just a few insects."

"Moving further in, we found what looked like it had once been a path, but overgrown for some time (we reckoned at least ten years). We followed it, singing a jaunty tune!" 

Which he proceded to play.

"The path led to a clearing containing three dilapidated cottages (human-sized). Looking around, they seemed to have been abandoned in a hurry. There were no people, but they had left their belongings behind - even their books! A table was still laid and the skeleton of a dog lay at the foot of a bed."

We pressed on through the woods, and Bran spotted something up ahead a split second before I did. It was a spiderweb strung between two trees. But we grew nervous at the thought of the spider that must have spun it. The webbing was as thick as yarn! The desiccated remains of small birds and rodents were trapped in it. I guess we knew why there weren't many signs of life. Birel found a gold ring with teeth marked on it. Possibly all that was left of even bigger prey..."

The audience huddled together in the safety of the warm tavern, as the lights began to dim and the shadows on the walls appeared to grow longer. The small, cloaked figure in the corner snorted quietly to herself, apparently unimpressed.

"We wanted to press on before it grew dark." 

The storyteller's voice grew more ominous. 

"The spiderwebs became fresher and more frequent the further on we pressed, but turning back was not an option for us. Tagariel's owl spotted a stone wall far off, so we headed for that in the hope of finding shelter for the night. It turned out to be a truly enormous building. Or the remains of one anyway. It must have been 150 feet on its shorter sides, and at least 200 feet on the others. Through a broken archway, we could see six hexagonal towers - we had found the place we were seeking!"

"It was surrounded on two sides by sodden ground, giving way to a swamp and a waterfall. On the dry side to the south was a stone hut, where we decided to camp for the night. We were glad we did. What a night! We were continuously woken by lots and lots and lots of creatures skittering past and over our hiding place." 

An eldritch skittering filled the inn, causing several patrons to look around them and shudder.

"The noises only died away as dawn approached. The coast seemed clear, so we ventured inside. Well, if we didn't already suspect this place was connected to the others on the dwarves' map, we certainly did now! There were strange tools in that hut, similar to those we found in the hillside temple. An unfamiliar glyph was marked on the fallen capstone of the entrance arch. But at the base of each of the pillars were more familiar glyphs, just like those the other party had found at En Tra Ta Shan! Based on my friend Sariel's account, we speculated that they might be the numbers 1 to 6."

"The towers were 30 feet high and 15 feet across. We noticed one of them had a hole broken in, about two thirds of the way up. Birel and Bran both decided to climb and investigate. Bran being the more nimble, he got purchase and reported seeing mill-like machinery and a red glow inside the hole. But wait... that wasn't all he saw! A giant spider had made the hole its lair - and spotted our hero!"

More gasps. Dramble gestured towards the candle and conjured a large spider shape in its flames.  Several people recoiled.  A young halfling leaned closer, staring at in in fascination.

"Bran slid quickly down the column and we sprang into action. Tagariel made an awesome shot - lining up his crossbow as he ran towards the danger. And just as he rounded the corner, he let loose. A single bolt right between its many eyes! He killed the spider stone dead!"

Oh, come on! thought Tenena. A wizard who's a crack shot with a crossbow? Now he's just being ridiculous. Not even a highly trained fighter could make that kind of shot! I need another drink...

"Well, we checked that the rest of the place was safe (no more holes with giant spiders lurking in them!) as Birel went to have another look at the column. She climbed inside and found a magical red bolt, like the other magical bolts we found, but it lay 6 feet below a giant spiderweb and could not be reached. But there were spiral stairs in the corner of the building, leading down..."

…..

The gnome in the corner got up and ordered herself a fourth drink. Other than the barman, she was noticed by only one other. Dramble was still in full flow, regaling the others with an elaborate description of the lower level and some sort of mechanism with all sorts of valves and pipes leading to each of the six towers. The grin never left his cheeks, but for just a split second, it no longer reached all the way to his eyes.

Gunter thought he saw a brief flicker of emotions cross the storyteller's face, but they were too quick to follow. Surprise? Hope? Sorrow? He worried about the little gnome. He'd been understandably morose after returning from his first adventure and seemed more like his old self tonight, but what was this?  Before he could ask, Dramble shook his head, took another swig from his tankard and continued his story, as if nothing had changed. The fire was sparkling in his eyes once more as he resumed:

"...oh yes, and a galley running round the room on two sides. We checked the coast was clear then I lit a torch for those of us who cannot see so well in the dark. The big, tempting lever was tempting, but we managed to resist pulling it (for now). Instead, we went through a door and found a room with an elaborate table like ones we'd found in other places. The globe lights on the wall also looked familiar, but were inert. There were crystals which activated some sort of elaborate mechanism on the table, conjuring up a vision of the place as it once was. The six pillars all glowed red with power, and those curious, six-fingered, blue giants moved about at work."

"Then we saw a second vision, of a figure slumped in a chair. Two of those magical bolts - yellow and blue - were set into the arms of the chair. Two of those blue, stone statues were walking around. We made our way up to the gallery, an found skeletons of two of the six-fingered giants. They had clearly been laying there for a very long time. One of them was wearing a magical ring, which I pocketed. A little further on, we found one of the stone statues lying on the ground."

"Bran opened a door and we were suddenly attacked by a giant spider! It was even more enormous than the one we'd encountered before! Fortunately it was so large that it struggled to come at us through the doorway. While Taika and Bran fought it back (Bran smacking it with two axes at once - so cool!), Birel shot an icy blast at it and I made the flames from the dropped torch engulf it."

"Oooh"s and "ahhh"s accompanied Dramble's description as he described the battle.

"It retreated back from whence it came and Tagariel finished it off with some sort of mystical ray. In the room where it had come from were three of the magical red bolts, held in its web. We took those to bring back to the Valley. There was a hold in the ground, which we left, choosing the safer route down the stairs instead."

"It was just as well we did. As we crept around the darkened chamber on the lowest level, we heard chittering noises coming from the far corner. The hexagonal columns continued down to this level. There were pipes running to them on the ceiling and a large, circular metal door like that of a vault on the west wall. It was slightly ajar but there was no time to investigate before three spiders were upon us!"

"They were slightly smaller than one we had just faced, but they moved like lightning! Luckily, I had an answer for that, and blasted one with actual lightning from across the room! Bran and Taika bravely charged in and fought two of them head on. Tagariel and Biren joined me in using our magical abilities to blast them with our power from a distance. Bran killed one but suffered a vicious bite from another which nearly killed him! Luckily we managed to finish them off."

"We rested and recovered before moving on. I studied the magic ring I'd picked up and discerned that it gave its wearer the ability of Mage Hand. As I can already do that..." 

Dramble demonstrated, a spectral hand forming in the centre of the group. It waved at each of the patrons in turn (including the figure in the corner, who scowled and turned her head away). 

"...I passed the ring to Birel and showed her how to use it. We had a magical arm wrestle!"

…..

"Behind the vault door was a tunnel leading down into a network of caves. There were webs strung everywhere. We backed off, leaving the spiers' den well alone.At the back of the room, we found the two statues and the chair with the magic bolts we had seen in the vision. The statues stood immobile, arms crossed over their chests. And this is where Tagariel did this really cool thing. He sat in the chair and his face disappeared! And it reappeared on one of the statues, which moved! He could control it! And speak through it and everything!"

"It seemed he could only control one statue at a time, but his mind could leap back out again by crossing the statues arms. Well, now we had a giant statue at our command, we could explore the caves beyond the vault door. It was a very good thing we didn't decide to venture down there ourselves. After a few minutes, Tagariel brought his mind back and told us what he had seen. The place was a warren of tunnels leading off to all sides and up above, with spiders everywhere. We could quickly have been surrounded and eaten!"

"Navigating by a trickle of water on the ground, stone-Tagariel-statue had made his way to a vast chamber, filled with hundreds upon hundreds of the giant spiders. He made the other statue - the one still in the room with us - go over and test the stone door, ready to slam it shut if the spiders should come swarming up towards us. Then his mind returned to the statue below."

"We all stood around feeling on edge, the hairs on the back of our necks raised. After what felt like a very long time, the statue returned. It hurriedly closed the door and, one-by-one, the two statues leaned their weight against it. Tagariel's mind returned to his body and he told us the rest of what had happened below."

"The spiders in the chamber looked like they were tending to a giant Spider Queen, 50 feet large! Now, I'm as keen for adventure as anyone, but I'm glad I wasn't there to see that. Tagariel brought the statue back to us, encountering a spider on the way that regarded it with curiosity, but nothing more. Obviously statues are not good to eat!"

"Satisfied we were as safe as we could be from the spider nest, we ascended to the level with the mechanism we found earlier. We experimented and, as we expected, the lever caused water to flow into the system, and the valves released it to each of the hexagonal columns (although we didn't dare try the damaged one, lest the unrestrained forces accidentally destroy the entire place). The whole columns glowed bright red as their mills spun into life!" 

The candle flame on the table grew, reaching up to the ceiling and beginning to spin, turning a rich crimson as it did so.

"It was a powerful evocation magic that activated the lights in the place and, according to the console in front of the chair, a third statue! Tagariel jumped his mind into it and discovered that it was the statue I'd seen previously at the hillside temple far way! The lights were glowing there too! Clearly this is powerful magic, to channel energy over such distances, although it took time for our wizard's mind to travel that far. We reckon the machines may power something all the way over at En Tra Ta Shan as well (I must go there and find out - I still haven't been!)."

"Returning up top, we found so much water had poured through the machines that we had drained the swamp! We closed the valves and returned the mills to their resting state. Darkness was coming so we camped once again in the small storage hut, although this time we were undisturbed by the chittering of spiders. Sealing the door to their caves seemed to have contained them for now. We awoked feeling refreshed early this morning."

As Dramble finished narrating the day's journey back to the Valley, Tenena finished her drink and slipped away (this time completely unnoticed). She turned things over in her mind as she skirted the lake and made her way back to the Feygrove. Things could not carry on like this. It was time to make some changes...

[Richard Jackson]

A couple of diagrams from Dramble's notes:

- the glyph we found on the capstone to the broken stone arch (which, now I look at it again, looks an awful lot like waves of power radiating out from the symbol for "6". Hmmm...)

- representative diagram of the lower hall, showing the machinery and the symbols marked on each of the columns

[Rory Cullen]

"A wizard who's a crack shot with a crossbow? Now he's just being ridiculous"

 Yeah, total Mary Sue character. He's probably a brilliant swordsman as well. And stealthy. And has great hair. And has an awesome magic owl buddy that's named after an obscure Harry Potter character.

Hey, wait a goddamn minute...

R.