12 Pharast 4707
This plains area rolls along, gently rising and falling, the knee-high grasses thick and green. A light rain falls across the grasslands, carried along by a northerly wind. The spring flowers continue to blossom, their petals weighed down by the rain.
Suddenly, you crest a rise and find a sight quite unlike the rest of the surrounding plains. There is a large area strewn with bones in a roughly circular pattern. Deer, boar, elk, and a few human skeletons litter the area.
Talia wraps her traveling cloak tightly around herself as she rides along, grumbling silently to herself. Soon, she's soaked, and a peculiar, unpleasant smell arises from Noleski, her horse, as they ride along. Sighing, she resigns herself to a long day in the saddle, hoping the group can find these radishes and get them back to Svetlana in time for nightfall and a warm bath.
Lulled into her own thoughts by the incessant rain, the woman almost misses the bones when they first ride upon it. Bringing her horse to an abrupt stop, Talia scans the area, looking around quickly for signs of threats. "What could have done this? A great wild beast? A nightmare of children's tales, like an ogre?"
Gripping Noleski's reigns tightly, Talia wishes she would have spent more of her youth learning to ride and less play-dueling.
"Be careful, whatever did this can still be around! Stay behind, and be prepared."
She dismounts and starts toward the bone circle, carefully, but filled with curiosity, her Greataxe ready.
"If i' is a ogre i' is a invisible one on a chain. But yew are right doesn't look like any nature creature I know of." Dregan dismounts and takes his, Magna's and anyone else's horses away and ties them to a tree? or rock? before coming back stringing his bow and notching an arrow.
Sighing, Talia dismounts and gives the reigns of Noleski over to Dregan. Drawing her scorpion whip, Talia keeps about ten feet behind Magna, moving forward cautiously...
Gavriil's mouth was ground down from a smile to a thin white line from all the days in the saddle and nights on the cold ground. And the rain! He had spent nights in the rain before, but never day-in and day-out. He had always had some cover from the rain. His legs were sore from the ridding, his back was sore from laying on the ground, and he was soaked to the bone. All in all he was just about fed up with the expedition already.
He pulled up his horse with the others and dismounted with them. He nods to Magna and says, "You don't have to tell me twice." He slowly draws his rapier next to Talia and says to her, Don't worry, our resident wall of iron has us safely in her hands."
"Hey, Naralesh, keep an eye out will ya! he calls to the wizard, stifling a laugh, before keeping an eye out himself.
Well, this doesn't bode well, thinks the elf as he dismounts from his horse. Nora clings tightly to his shoulder as he ties Susan with the other horses.
He murmurs softly as his left hand traces a triangular sigil in the air. "Incanath aperis."
There are no magic auras, and you do not see anything untoward.
The circle of bones is approximately 60' in diameter.
"No magical auras..." says Naralesh, bending to examine some of the bones. "An animal or similar large beast did this. You can see teeth marks on some of the bones. Most likely a local predator... mind the horses." he says, turning to look at them.
Dregan will stay back with the horses, an arrow 'ready' to shoot at any aggressive creatures.
"For a natural predator sure it eats a lot... "
Magna keeps moving in front of the others, alert, axe in hand.
The horses are not spooked, but they certainly aren't moving forward any more. Magna crosses the bare, treeless ground towards the center of the 'circle'. Suddenly a black and red shape explodes out of the ground in front of her. It is a hunting spider, the size of a small horse. The horses rear and try to bolt, rearing and neighing in fear.
The spider attacks Magna, sinking its fangs in her leg before darting back to its hole.
Talia reaches into her belt pouch and removes a small pat of butter, wrapped in parchment paper. Rubbing the butter between her fingers, she draws a line of it across her cheeks while speaking in a syllabic cadencec, and then gestures at the ground around the spider hole - which gets coated in a slick black layer. "Wait for it to come to us! If it falls prone, shoot it while it lays."
Dregan moves away from the horses slightly. Either the the rope holding them to the tree or rock will hold them or if he didn't find something to tie them off too he knew he didn't have the strength to hold 7 horses, he'd just have to track them down later and hope not too many met with grizzly ends.
He focuses on the spider (Ranger focus swift action) and releases two arrows in succession (Rapid shot)
(assuming spider is far enough away from Magna to avoid firing into combat, if it isn't take another 4 off)
(assuming spider is far enough away from Magna to avoid firing into combat, if it isn't take another 4 off)
"I will summon us aid." says the elf, his sudden step back showing a momentary fear not reflected in his tone of voice. Shrugging off his armored coat, he produces a tiny cloth bag and a little candle from a pouch. Gesturing with his hand and chanting words in a cadence which builds upon itself for several seconds, he begins to cast a spell.
"Inimitas valorum existanti...
Inimitas celestum existanti..."
[ooc]Sorry about that. Misunderstood, I thought it had retreated but not gone back into its hole.[ooc]
Dregan lets out rope and waits for the horses to come back down from their rear before tightening it again and staring them down.
The spider bursts from its hole once again, but this time it hits Talia's grease and skids into a heap at Magna's feet!
The horses pull away from Dregan, and as the spider re-emerges, bolt.
Gavriil blinked twice when he saw the spider bolt out of it's hole and bite Magna before scurrying it's ugly hind end back into its hole. He even blinked twice, just to make sure what he had seen was real. He had heard of monstrous beasts in his life, and knew they were real, but the only monster he had ever really faced was a brute of an ugly mercenary who had been going after the same girl in the tavern as him. He would have one that fight too if the brute hadn't decided on using his muscles to pummel Gavriil instead of charm on the lady. But that was no real monster.
His moment of hesitation had cost him, though. The others, including eight-legged-ugly, had already sprung into action. He didn't wait any longer. He rushed forward to the side of the spider and stabbed at its rear thorax with his rapier, a little too afraid to hit it face to face. Please don't turn this way. Please don't turn this way
Even while feeling weak by the poison, Magna unleashes against the spider with her Greataxe.
"Don't let it get away!"
Naralesh finishes his spell with an emphatic shout, and the sound of a distant trumpet accompanies a radiant eagle with silvery plumage materializing from the air above the spider. It tears into the prone arachnid's flesh with both its beak and sharp talons.
With his spell cast, Naralesh draws his bow.
As the spider stumbles, Talia snaps her scorpion whip behind her head and then snaps it again, forward this time, at the creature. "Nice, Gavriil, stab it again!"
Gavriil stabs at the huge beast, green ichor spilling out over his hand. Squealing in pain, it turns towards, trying to gain its footing on Talia's grease. Magna's swing goes wide as the eagle descends and begins pulling tufts of fur from the creature's back. Talia's whip cuts a wicked gash in its flank.
Bugger, hopefully they will stick together, but given most of them have only travelled together for few days they might spend days tracking them down. At least that knight's horse look trained for battle it probably wouldn't go far.
He focuses on the spider (Ranger focus swift action) and releases two arrows in succession (Rapid shot)
(assuming firing into combat, if not take add 4 to result. Note it might be get extra ac from being prone)
(assuming firing into combat, if not take add 4 to result. Note it might be get extra ac from being prone)
Dregan's arrow fall well wide as he over compensates to make sure he misses Magna
The spider attempts to stand, but despite having eight legs, can find no purchase on the greasy ground.
Gavriil sees the creature attempting to turn towards him and stabs his rapier at the creature again, saying, "Oh no you don't!"
He then follows it up with another piercing stab to the creature.
Magna gets advantage of the spider trying to stand up, and lets her Greataxe fly towards it.
Then she turns around, and tries a sideways hit to divide the spider in two.
Dregan adjust slightly and waits for a gap in the fighting and then releases two arrows again.
(assuming firing into combat, if not take add 4 to result. Note it might be get extra ac from being prone and or cover)
(assuming firing into combat, if not take add 4 to result. Note it might be get extra ac from being prone and or cover)
Again Dregan's arrows fall well wide. This is much easier when I'm the predator doing the attacking not being attacked.
The spider takes two solid hits from Gavriil and Magna. It rolls over on its back, legs curling up in the air.
Looking around, only the warhorse has remained in its place, the rest have scattered. Two can be seen at the top of a nearby rise, but the others are out of sight.
Talia breathing comes ragged and uneven as she rears her whip-arm back to strike at the vermin again, when the spider rolls over and curls up. Standing for a few seconds, arm raised, her breathing regulates and the woman is aware that she's really, really warm, despite the cool spring weather. Lowering her whip arm, she looks around to see everyone's alive and upright, and smiles as she dismisses the grease spell with a flick of her hand and a short, happy syllable - until she notices the horses, or more specifically the lack of them. Balls! Half my worldly possessions were on that damned horse!
Kicking the spider in frustration, Talia says, to no one in particular, pointing to the horses on the rise, "Could someone that's a damned better woodsman than myself wrangle the horses that are left?" Sighing, the noblewoman casts light on the tip of her scorpion whip and kneeling down, grabs the end of the spider's hole and threads the whip into the hole to see what is down there...
Magna runs to her horse and darts out to find and recover the rest of the horses.
There is the gleam of silver and gold from the bottom of the spider hole. It's a 25' deep shaft, but the webbing all around the sides makes it look like it would be an easy climb down.
Talia lets the whip dangle down its full 15' length, and sighing, is about to pull it up when she notices the glint of metal even further down. Reeling the whip back up, the noblewoman ties her nonlethal whip around her waist, and gives the handle to Gavriil. "If I get attacked, pull me up." Dismissing her light spell and then casting it again on the back of her hand, Talia makes her way slowly and deliberately down the spider-hole...
Talia will ask Gavriil to drop his hold on the whip when she gets down about 15', figuring if nothing has attacked her yet there's nothing to attack her.
Talia hits the ground with a bump, scattering some loose bones. The lair of the spider is remarkably clean, with the exception of one partially decomposed body. It is (was) a man dressed for traveling. He has leather armor and a shortsword. In a small pouch is 10gp. He wears a familiar looking amulet around his neck - a stylized stag's head.
Perhaps more interesting is the piece of paper tucked into his boot. It bears the simple drawing of a claw-shaped tree atop an otherwise barren hill. There is an 'X' scrawled in blood at the tree's base.
Gavriil wiped his blade clean with the hem of his shirt while caught his breath. He looked to the other with a smile on his face and said, "Well, that was fun, eh?" He ignored the fact that the horses were gone. He didn't have the skills to track the beasts he didn't like across the countryside. Instead, he moved towards the hole with Talia. He nodded to her when she offered the end of the whip to lower her in. As she descended into the darkness he said, "Try not to get eaten."
Dregan waits for a moment to see if another spider attacks before setting out after the horses. He'll start by following Magna to the two still in sight.
Once he has caught one of the horses he'll ride off tracking the rest.
While helping Dregan Magna finds to round up the horses is an easy task.
Naralesh watches in bemusement as Talia climbs down into the lair of a giant spider only moments after fighting the creature. "Be careful, Talia..." Seeing that she remains safe, he looks around. "What a prolific hunter... This creature must have had a profound effect on the surrounding ecosystem. We have made this area much safer by its destruction."
It doesn't take too long to gather the stray horses. In the end, after an hour or so of searching and wrangling, all of your animals are gathered up and brought back.
The Trading Post is due north. To the North-Northwest, a the dark green tangle of a forest looms in the distance. To the South and Southeast, you can see the land begin to roll in a steady hill country.
A light rain begins to fall...
"I say we go back to Leventon's, to check on them, and prepare to go after the bandits..."
"We promised tha misses some turnips, we should find 'em first an' brin' 'em back" Dregan says with little enthusiasm, obviously tired from rounding the horses up.
"Turnips? Do you really worry about those when the bandits are loose?"
"No" says Dregan says flatly "But I reckon we should keep our word an' its tha right fn' t' do what we can fer tha Levetons. Besides they can't be an' all far from 'ere."