Cereidh looks relieved. "Good, thank you."
They continue to follow the drag marks.
Findegil and Cereidh slowly follows the drag marks at the pace of a human in the dark.
"Aye Anar, hopefully we will reach him before any harm befalls him."
Krogen curses under his breath as he lets another arrow fly
Findegil, Cereidh and Anar continue to slowly follow the drag marks at the pace of a human in the dark. A second hour passes and still going deeper into the dark forest.
Cereidh sincerely wishes that their campsite is safe, at least.
May we find Baldor alive.
The spider hisses at Krogen. "I'll suck the marrow from your bones for that, archer." The giant spider closes on Krogen and stings him.
Mal drops his bow and draws his shortsword. To Belgo's surprise, the wild hobbit gets closer to the monstrosity between the hairy legs and strikes with his blade into its body spraying ichor.
After a third hour deeper into the dark forest, Findegil, Cereidh and Anar find the drag marks have led to an ancient castle. The castle stands on a low hill lit by moonlight amid a sea of dark trees.
It’s anybody guess if it was Elves or Men who built this castle, but it has fallen into ruin. No trace remains of the defensive walls or outbuildings; all that remains are a single round tower and part of what must have once been the keep. The keep has crumbled and collapsed in on itself, leaving only one corner still standing as an L-shaped wall. Both tower and wall are covered in a dense shroud of cobwebs, and web-strands run between tower and wall.
Hanging from the very top of the wall is a wriggling bundle of webbing. It must be Baldor. There is no sign of any spiders at first glance, but there are any number of places where they could be hiding. The only sound is the occasional thump as Baldor wrestles and struggles against his bonds.
To get to Baldor, the company needs to climb the wall, or else the still-intact spiral staircase in the tower and then clamber across the webbing to the top of the wall. The wall is thirty feet high and is tricky to climb, as you must be careful to avoid getting stuck on the cobwebs.
The spiral staircase in the tower is mostly intact, so you can easily make their way up to the top. From there, you can see a ‘bridge’ of spider-webs running from the tower to the top of the wall.
The giant spider laughs at Krogen when he slumps to the ground succumbing to the poison. "Got you, archer. You're next, little stinger." The giant spider crawls away from Mal to try to attack him.
As the giant spider tries to back away, Mal kills the giant spider with second stab.
Mal stabs the spider a few more times to make certain that it's dead, then runs over to Krogen to check his vitals.
"Whew. Ee lives." Mal wipes the ichor from his blade and sheathes his blade. He collects and stows his bow, too. He motions to Belgo to help comfortably position Krogen on a bedroll near the campfire.
It takes awhile for the ponies to stop screaming.
Cereidh pales and stares grimly up the tower. "Somehow I expect the inhabitants won't oblige us by all being away at dinner parties." She looks at her companions. "I think it might be best I climb up, quiet as I can, and try to retrieve him. Unless you are particularly light on your feet within that armor, Sir Knight?"
"I will climb to reach him."
Findegil sheaths his sword, and begins to climb, torch held in one hand.
Findegil leaves his torch with Anar, because he needs to hands to climb the wall using the moonlight to see. When he reaches Baldor, Findegil can drag the wriggling bundle of webbing to the top of the wall and then cut Baldor loose.
Cereidh readies her bow and keeps a weather eye on the shadows around Findegil.
Findegil heaves...
Findegil fumbles the wriggling bundle causing the strands of webbing to obviously vibrate.
The knight can try again to drag the wriggling bundle to the top of the wall and then cut Baldor loose.
Findegil tries for a stronger grasp on the bundle...
Findegil pulls the wriggling bundle on to the wall and starts to cut Baldor free.
"Intruder taking our feast." A giant spider appears to you at the top of the wall. It casts a web toward the knight attempting to double its meal. The knight deflects the strands.
Cereidh makes a quick lunge towards the wall () and fires her bow at the giant spider.
Findegil draws his longsword, and says:
"Not at all, spider. You shall have a meal this night. Of finest Gondor steel!"
And with that, he charges, holding the spider back with his blade!
"Intruders taking our meal!" The giant spider screams in pain. It closes to sting the knight on top of the wall.
Another giant spider arrives on top of the wall and casts its web at Findegil, and thankfully misses.
There are two spiders now in the encounter.
Spider 1 moved next to Findegil and melee attacked him with his stinger. Same as Krogen.
Spider 2 cast a second web, which is ranged. Does that web cast get disadvantage? It missed anyway.
Rocking on the balls of her feet in anxiety that she might have to catch a falling man in armor, Cereidh again shoots at the spider engaging Findegil.
Findegil has gone stiff and fallen to the stone.
"Shadow take - every spider on those walls," Cereidh mutters to herself.
When Findegil slumps to the top of the wall, another figure appears on the wall. The old man has sparse, white wispy hair and wears rags. His body is scarred, rail-thin body. Wielding a hunting spear, he converges on the spiders. As he passes Baldor, he kicks him off the wall. The bundle of webbing bounces a bit at the foot of the wall. When he gets to the Gondor knight, he kicks his body off the wall, too. Anar breaks Findegil's fall. The knight's sword sticks into the ground next to the dwarf.
"You! We will take you this time, old man" The giant spider screams in rage.
The second giant spider closes in on the old man and stings him.
A third giant spider arrives and casts his web at the old man retraining him.
Cereidh wastes a precious moment staring with narrowed eyes at the old man - surely he's not some unlucky but brave human? She thought she knew most of the mysteries of this Wood ...
Keenly tempted to stay and fight alongside this new mystery, but aware, being of an older people, that there were some things in the world to whom her attempt at heroism would be the impotent and distracting flailing of a child, she slings her bow over her shoulder and darts forward to grab Baldor carelessly.
"Broadanvil! Grab the Knight; I suspect this is not some careless bystander, and unlike Baldor he's not under the obligation of my Lord's hospitality. Much as I'd like to stay."
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Lays paralyzed at the camp. the thoughts of his childhood runs thru his head. The fascination with plants and nature. How he spend his days in the libraries learning all he could. none of it prepared him for this...Gandalf would have a lesson for him out this, what is it? maybe if Krogen thinks hard enough he well figure it out.
Findegil grows frustrated rapidly at his entombment in his own body. His mood suffers.
You awake refreshed. The paralysis of the spider venom wore off of Krogen and Findegil last night, allowing them a restful night's sleep.
Anar and Cereidh recount a desparate run the forest with a host of brown hairy spiders scuttling after them. The giant spiders move with unnatural speed, leaping from tree to tree and trailing strands of webbing like fishing lures as they try to snare the companions.
Baldor is still confused after drinking from the Enchanted Stream, but even in his witless state, he recognizes that he is better off with these strange companions than as a spider’s supper. After several minutes’ running, the characters arrive back at the clearing, where they meet Belgo and the ponies. The spiders do not dare cross the path.
Baldor recovers most of his memories after a few hours’ rest and conversation with his son. He seems unsteady and wary for the rest of the journey. He tells the characters that he thought that he was back in Esgaroth when Smaug attacked, and relates the tale of how his wife Hilla was lost when the dragon fell on Lake-town. Baldor was able to carry his young son out of the flames, but never saw Hilla again.
As you break your fast, it is the first time that all of you are capable of speech.
Cereidh is quiet and troubled as Baldor relates the loss of his wife, the grief of mortality still new and distant to her.
She congratulates him on his bravery saving his son, however.
(Earlier, she apologized to Findegil with an impish smirk for the indignity of his having fallen off to the tower, and congratulated Mal in earnest, trying transparently to cover her own guilt, for his defense of the camp.)
A crease deepens between her brows as she looks between Baldor and Belgo. Eventually, she finds an excuse to get up and ask Findegil for help fetching firewood.
If he should agree, she pauses the moment they're out of range of the flickering firelight and asks quietly, "Sir Knight, do you perchance have siblings?"