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Ok here is the background.
I changed the old outcast Ettercap woman in HTBM to an outcast Princess of the Ettercaps. She has been outcast because the Ettercap peoples on the Isle have be fragmented into 4 warring tribes and she must return with an amulet of rulership to unite the tribes. A tomb lies below the ruins that is warded against Ettercaps and vermin, which has some Osirion Mummys in it (from Gamemastery's Entombed with the Pharoahs) including Big Blue Dragon. She asks the party to help her get the amulet to end the Ettercap bloodshed. As part of her reward, she gives a 12" cord of spidersilk cable that when broken will signal her that the party needs her people's help....I figure the party will use it when the community of Farshore is in danger. I also figure the ettercaps, brought together under her rule, are gonna try to band together with the Farshore colony to try to garner trade and start the path forward to further populate the Isle.
I plan on the reinforcements to be several huge spiders, 1 dozen large spiders, a gargantuan spider, a bunch of medium sized spiders and around 20 ettercap warriors.
How do I get them to Farshore's Island from the IOD?
Some thoughts I had:
Have a couple of the medium sized ones skitter across the water from IOD to Farshore isle, trailing some webbing behind them and constructing a quick webbing bridge.
Flying spiders. They send silk strands into the air and float across when the wind takes them.
?????
I need something at least semi-believable but I can't figure out what exactly to do.
Help
FH
odd idea - I guess you are actually refering to the Aranea encountered before the Dark Pass in HtbM ?
Here are some ideas - have them capture ensnare some Olmani tribesman and either have the row some outrigger canoes across (with the spiders aboard) or use these as hostages to have tribesmen row them. Ok, that is "not nice" but would be effective, and probaly the solution with the highest probability of working without major "advanced techniques"
Alternatively, there are spiders travelling with some sort of spiderweb-parasail in "meatworld" ( ithink your post mentioned something like those ), so I guess you could extrapolate from that and have them "kite-fly" across. Would be highly visible though (consider how much a swarm of parachute or larger skysails/-kites would be ), and you would need appropriate wind conditions too. A bit too much of a coincidence if such condition s occur right there and then when the invasion fleet starts.
Of course, having access to tremendously strong "rope" and both intelligence and locals to learn from by observation, have them drag and tie together a bunch of logs, rope together a raft (or sea-turtles ) and sail these across with "kite-sails". Bit of a stretch, but...
Have the princess be a capable caster with Charm Monster and some way to give instructions to animals/beasts, and have her charm a Roc or other large aerial predator. Latch the spiders onto his claws with spidersilk and turn him into an air transport (ther sould be considerable problems with bird ---> spider = food and the likelihood of that huge flier actuyll making his will save...
Or consider some underdark tunnels leading from the Isle's shore to Temura. Such tunnels are mentioned and indicated on the "Lightless Depths" map, and are descibed as being full of vermin..... spiders ?
But these would open up a known and apperantly saveconection from Temuar to the Isle's Underdark free to be exploited by characters.
And btw, have you actually considered how the (probably less world-wise ) colonists of Farshore would react to a force of gaint predatory spiders suddenly turning up pre-battle or even worse i mid-fight ? Would they _really_ trust those predators, espcially one's of a sort most humans have a deep-seated involuntary revulsion towards ?
Sounds less than believable to me....
Five (3) ideas Fakey:
The areanea are intelligent, so a spider herder would not be out of the question. The arachnaherd would know to build a raft (how much rope can a spider carry O:) and might also be carrying a letter from the queen, with his duties to aid in the fight of farshore.
Carry your spiders in a jar. If you forget to put holes in the lid, they will survive for most of a day. OK it would be a huge jar, but that is not your question.
There are spiders (in Australia or New Zealand I believe) that live under water. They, in short, survive by trapping air in the hairs of their bodies to breath while underwater. They have to surface every so often to trap more air, but it is possible. hmmm I should probably find a link to that episode of nature eh...
Breathing sacks made of silk. Trap enough air in a bladder of silk to walk across the bottom. (dangerous precedence, but since you are past SWW probably not a big one). (do not try this in the Styx.
Swing. It works for spider-man, no matter where the tallest building (tree) is in relation to the swing. It works. I saw it myself once when I lived in New York.
Fly. On a fly. Like they did with the seagulls in James and the Giant Peach. It works. I saw it myself once when I lived in New York.
yeah most of these assumes an intelligent presence. and Arachnaherd is a cool word, even if I did make it up myself. oh, and I never lived in New York.
I would have the errercaps send an expeditionary force to Temute ahead of time. They would lair in the jungles, and they might like the place so much that its a separate task to make them move out again. Not only does this overcome the suspension of disbelief on how they could possibly get there in time for the pirate raid; it also presents the players with a nice little conflict on how to split Temute once the war is over. Or perhaps the errercaps can even become a part of Farshore?
Then again, my players very much enjoy such diplomatic wrangling.