The Queen turned her head to one side, as if confused by your words. After a long pause she said, "Why should you fight? I do not understand your question. You helped one of us, which makes you an enemy of the eight legs. They attacked us without reason and have killed every Voice of the Colony we've sent to them. And why would we turn against you and your kind? You have not harmed us, so there is no reason to harm you. What can we do to prove our intentions?" The chamber came alive with the chattering of the other ants, though disconcerting, it didn't seem threatening.
Piers furrowed his brow, studying the Ant Queen.
Turning to the others he said, "The least we can do is deal with the aggressors. If they are as violent as the Queen claims then the spiders will try to attack us on sight. The Queen and her people, while inexperienced in social matters that extend beyond their hive, seem to be at least willing to learn. If we bring a representative to the Council perhaps they would be willing to ally themselves with us."
Doran looks at Makepiece. "They said 'Voice of the Hive'; that says to me ambassador, envoy, messenger. Rather than 'dealing' with 'em, I say we ask if we can act as Voices to the spiders; see if we can get 'em to listen to us. If we can, then let's send word for the Council to send a talky-fellow along after us to make the peace here while we do our thing with saving the world."
Terra stands back while they talk. the Captain having made clear where her place belongs the previous night.
sent you a PM
The Queen seemed to mull things over for what seemed like hours, all of waiting with baited breath. Then she spoke, "That will do then. You shall be our Voice and try to talk to the Eight Legs. I wish you luck then."
It was at this point, the you noticed Terra was missing. Just then, Ki came into the chamber. The Queen spoke up in outrage, "You let her go alone?!" Quickly she added, "Your larva has gone to see the Eight Legs. Hurry, before it's too late." On that order you're hoisted by some of the ants and taken to the surface. They indicate the way you need to go and you begin running.
Reaching the edge of the Spider's domain, you see freshly killed spiders in what appears to be a trail. Following it, you come to a clearing and see a truly unexpected sight. Terra, kneeling over Morbak's body, and not more than a few feet away, is the biggest spider you've seen so far. It's most certainly dead with two Crossbow bolts in it's main eyes. The question is, what happened?
The entire trip to the surface, Piers could be heard cursing Terra in full and eloquent Barsav. His native tongue seemed to have a thousand ways to say some ironic variation or derivation of 'damn her eyes'. On the surface, He drew his greatsword and set off at a run, not bothering to make sure the others were keeping up with him. He did not slow down at the sight of the dead spiders.
When he finally came on to the scene of Morbak's death, he leveled the sword at Terra.
"You have ten seconds to explain yourself, kid," he said, venom dripping from his voice.
Doran swears lustily in draconic as Terra is found missing. Ready to sprint off himself to find her, he is barely convinced the ride atop an ant will be quicker; he spends the journey encouraging it to scuttle faster, to little avail.
Arriving at the surface at the clearing, Doran barely breaks his stride, and shoves Makepiece's sword hand away. "Spread out and cover the clearing, there could be more, we can deal with subtleties after we are safe!" he barks out to everyone. He runs up to Terra and bends over, panting, as he examines her and Morbak closely.
Terra just looks at the Captain. If he believes I did this...
the ground rumbles as she seems to be getting angry at the sword in her face
I have been ordered around and shunned and pushed aside long enough. lower your sword. I wanted to prove my worth to you, that I am not some dead weight. I came here to do something, to prove I have value, and I found this! Her tone is not of fear, she is standing her ground. she stares directly at the captain. her eyes glazed over and a small stream of blood flows as though her eyes were bleeding. an old wound has opened up.
you can sense that its not the captain she sees but its as if she sees someone else.
the ground rumbles, more rocks all around her start to shake as they come to the surface.
Lower your weapon....Please
Looking over the Half-Orc's body, you see his Double-Crossbow in his hand, pointed towards the big spider. There also appeared to be a nasty, gaping, puncture wound in his side, indicating a spider bite. And in a nearby pocket, partially red with his blood, was a letter addressed to the Captain.
Doran would find his attempt to move Piers' sword met with steady resistance.
"You want to prove your worth? Then prove it. You set out to make me an enemy from day one, threatened me, and proceeded to be less vocal than some horses I've known. I told you once I don't care what kind of baggage you've got unless it gets in the way. Well guess what? It's getting in the way." He looked at Morbak's corpse and back at Terra before coming to a decision.
"Sort out your priorities or one of us ain't going to remain on this damn expedition," he lowered his sword and shouldered it so he could take a look at Morbak's remains. A mix of emotions played out over his face.
Doran pulls out the letter from Morbak's pocket, checks it, and passes it to the captain. He turns and rests a hand on Terra's shoulder as he looks into her eyes. "Terra... I value you. Calm now." He gives a reassuring smile.
With his cloak of energy once again protecting him Nebari silently walks over and examines Terra's wounds disregarding any protests. Once he has made sure her wounds put her in no danger and that he has done all he can he checks the orc's body to confirm his death. The look on Nebari's face tells that his thoughts are elsewhere.
After the examination Nebari faces Piers. "We'll burry your friend first but before we proceed any further you and I are going to have a talk." Without waiting for a response he steps aside.
Alaeron shakes his head at the escalating situation before Terra, the Captain, Nebari and Doran.
He moves and stands between all of them and gives them all a stern look. "This is hardly the time to argue and go off on our own. We are a team chosen by the Council to oversee a task of such importance that the world rests on our shoulders! We're going to resolve the issue between the spiders and the ants, and get the artifact from within that tower! After that you can have a go at each other, not before! Put aside your differences and let's accomplish the task at hand before we get surprised for the dozenth time!"
- Morbak
"Talk and walk," Piers said to Nebari, standing up from the corpse of his former subordinate. He thrust his sword into the earth and hefted his dead friend over a shoulder before reclaiming his blade. He was not burying Morbak here and he certainly was not leaving the corpse unattended.
Piers' movements seemed strangely calm and methodical, as if the rage over Morbak's needless death somehow cooled and focussed his thoughts.
Terra calms herself. the ground stop moving, she relaxes her arms.
I'm sorry Captain. You don't and probably never did have to deal with what I am going through.
Terra starts to walk as Piers leads the way. The other night, when those people attacked our camp. They were after me. You said you didn't care what baggage I had as long as it doesn't interfere with our mission. well no matter what, it will interfere. she pulls out the poster from her pocket and hands it to the Captain.
This is why I was unsure about you when we met, and why I acted the way I did. I tried to tell you many times but you didn't seem interested. as long as this is out there I pose a liability. I'm sorry about your friend, I was worried he was after me, 5000 gold is hefty sum
One of the smaller spiders, a few feet from Terra, twitched and a weak voice emanated from it. "Make........ it............ stop............ The.............. pain."
"Five thousand gold ain't enough for a person's life. Bring a murderer to justice, sure, wrangle a bandit or two? Fine. Some kid? Not even close."
Piers stopped when he heard the spider and laid his friend's remains down before kneeling next to the wounded creature.
"I'll make the pain stop," he said calmly, "Just tell me why your people attacked the ants."
"King....... ordered....... it....... Said....... scouts....... trying....... to....... steal....... his.......................... worblydorfs." With that, the spider convulsed, then fell silent and still.
Doran makes a fist and punches the ground hard as he closes his eyes tight, sitting there for a moment, surrounded by death. Then he quickly stands up, opens his eyes, and focuses. He walks over to the captain. "We still need to speak to the spiders; we are 'Voices of the Hive', for better or worse. We should bathe, do you know if there is a river nearby? Insects speak with scent, if we're covered in ant-smell it'll do nothing for making them trust us." He looks around. "Bury your friend or take him with us, just hurry... the only thing between peace and us getting dragged into this conflict is how quickly we can get to the Spider King."
"He is getting sent to his family for a proper burial. I've left too many under my command to rot in fields as it is," Piers said, hefting Morbak's remains yet again.
"Alaeron, will bathing help?"
Alaeron taps the side of his chin for a moment, thinking on the matter.
Alaeron shakes his head, "These spiders appear to be relying on sight, our smell won't factor in. They will see us for what we are..."
Alaeron's sentence trails off, quickly draws his bow and heads towards the muffled cry.
Doran raises an eyebrow and steps between Terra and the sound to face the cry. He spreads his hands, ready to cast, as he waits.
Terra, still a bit shaken from the confrontation with Piers. stays close to Doran. not so much for protection but its noce to know someone will stand with her for a change.
Terra put a hand on Dorn's shoulder. {b]Thank you for the gesture but I don't always need protecting. stand beside me not in front of me.[/b]
"Got a survivor over here!" He yells to the party. He grabs out the knife from his waist and begins to try to cut free the webbed individual
Erast looks over his shoulder at Terra for a single moment and nods, giving a quick grin. "I quite agree." He steps back and to the side, next to Terra. "Now, let's go help." He quickly walks toward Alaeron.
Cutting away the webbing reveals a being that looks like a well fit adolescent boy, only with small curled horns on his head and goat legs covered in stark white fur. After pulling him to his feet, he says, "Thanks friend. I thought I'd die for sure after last night."
Alaeron looks at the individual closely, "Name's Alaeron, I apologize for asking, but are you a satyr?"
Taking a deep breath and shaking his head, the fey responds, "I'm a Faun. Why do people keep confusing us." He then looks down and exclaims, "Oh."
"I am sorry for my question, I have met many fey, but never a satyr or faun, only heard stories from my father..." Alaeron begins to feel sad and lonely as he thinks of Lomas, his adopted father.
Doran blinks. "Whoa... Err, hi." He nods to the fellow. "How'd you get tied up with that spider?"
Terra follows Doran.
What is it? another spider? the vibrations do not seem to indicate eight legs. thier impact is to distict and solid. spiders tread softly, almost undetectable. A am feeling hooves, what is it?
terra is concentrating on getting a feel for what the person is.
"Another Fey," Piers said, trusting the others to get the faun freed. He takes the opportunity to pull out a traveling blanket and stitch Morbak inside of it, creating a make-shift body-bag.
The faun looked at the young pair and the Ranger and replied, "That big one there got a hold of me five days ago and dragged me here to this creepy place. At first I was confused as to why it didn't just kill me. Then I got really scrambled when it started talking to me and barking orders at the other spiders. What in the Nine Hells is going on around here?"
"Long Story... but your free to go now. We have business that I don't think you want to be part of..."
wait, please Terra says before he leaves.
can you tell us what these spiders were talking about? Terra looks at the fey but she seesm to be staring right through him.
"About what? The Worblydofs? I think the big one was referring to these." The Faun indicated a large, neatly piled group of stones next to the cocoons. "From what I could tell, he was utterly insane. The thing babbled insesently, to things that weren't there. Not to mention the paranoia about various things trying to steal his 'worblydorfs.' Hells, yesterday morning, he was accusing the leaves of attempting the theft."
After a pause, he continued, "Then the Half-Orc showed up. The Spider King then put him on 'trial.' He just stood there listening. And when the charges were finished, he pulled his crossbow and fired. The Spider King screamed in pain, then fell to the ground dead. Seconds later, all the others began to die in horrible agony. Then the screams stopped, and everything went black. When I awoke, you were here."
Nebari stood quietly while the faun spoke, he wondered if they were just wasting time with the creature. Now that the spiders were dead they could travel unimpeded, but a quick glance at the fallen Orc quickly squashed that idea so the Aasimar refocused his thoughts toward the fey's tale.
Doran's eyes open wide with astonishment as his jaw drops at the story. "....whoa." Recovering himself, he thinks hard about the possible consequences.
Piers finishes stitching the blanket closed and looks to the others.
"So the King of the Spiders is dead and not by our hand. Perhaps their lack of a pre-existing social structure meant that his mind was over-taxed by the new processes. Something for you lot to puzzle over, I suppose," he finished gesturing to his more magically inclined companions.
"Shall we return to the Queen then? Only one path forward remains."