The Dark Heart

Chapter 1

Road to Redgorge

“Caddie”

Trina’s yelling woke me out of a deep and peaceful slumber. Gods the voice was worse than the shrieking of a Grell. And I had heard an angry Grell up close and personal.

“Caddie, get up I want to go over to Minerva’s and get a new dress”.

Which meant that she did not actually need me she just wanted my gold. Thankfully I was not so stupid to leave it out where she could find it. Rolling over in the bed I glanced out the shuttered window. Bright sunlight bled through the broken slats in the shutters. Well it does appear to be afternoon already, so maybe it was time to get up and get moving. I launched myself from the sheets and stood unsteadily in the center of the room. My belongings were strewn about the room. I had taken the very best room at the Inn. The Drunken Morgoth was not the best Inn in Cauldron but I was looking for a small amount of privacy.
Banging at my door continued unabated.

“I’m up, stop that banging”

I located my jacket and checked for silver in the inner lining. Eight shiny silver coins fell out into the palm of my hand. Guess I must have quit drinking early last night. Come to think of it my head felt remarkably clear. I took four and put them in a purse on the table. I opened the door and Trina bounced into the room. No, really she bounced, practically hopping into the room to whirl around and smile at me.

“Cadfan, let’s go over to Minerva’s and then eat at the Tankard later”

Handing Trina four silver coins I said, “You go on ahead and pick up something nice I need to gather my head”

“No silly we have to do it together. Don’t you want to spend the day with me?” This, of course, meant she felt I had not given her as much money as she thought she deserved. I handed over the remaining silver.

“Get something special today”

Trina looked at me suspiciously. Thought about it for a moment then scooped up the silver.

“Okay, I will see you tonight at the Tankard then”

“Right”

Trina let herself out of the room. I walked over to the door and locked it. Crossing to the table with the water basin I dunked my head into the cold water. Refreshed I pulled on my travel gear. Glancing about the room I stuffed the scattered clothes half-hazard into my backpack. Once all of the gear was packed, I went over to the only neatly placed items in the room. My broadsword and scale armor hung on hooks on the wall near the shuttered window. Pulling them on I passed over to the wall and pried out a wooden board with my dagger. Reaching down into the exposed crawlspace I pulled out two bags that clinked happily with the sound of many coins. They went into the backpack with the rest.



“We’re ready to go Cadfan”

Tenkar the dwarf indicated himself and a younger dwarf seated at the table with a wave of his hand. The noon traffic at the Urchin’s Rest Tavern in Cauldron was light today as I glanced about the Inn careful to make sure none were in earshot.

“What about the rest?”

“Nope.” Tenkar shook his head slightly. “You know Kurgan left for who knows where a week ago.” “I have not been able to track down Camlin or Alton.”

“Well I cannot wait, we will have to hire some guides once we reach Redgorge”, I said.

“Certainly, we can afford it”

“Not the way you spend your gold”, Tenkar said disapprovingly. I raised an eyebrow. It was not like the dwarf to question how others spent their money. That was more Kurgan’s way of doing things.

“Heh, someone has to look out for you now that Kurgan is gone, you daft human.” Tenkar grinned at me. His young, dwarven follower Deakon just looked confused by our conversation.

“You getting all of this Deakon?” I scowled.

Deakon ignored me as he often did. The young orphaned dwarf had been saved by Tenkar deep in the bowls of Jzardirune beneath Cauldron. He hung on every word the older dwarf said.

“According to Tygot this map was given to him by a famous explorer who has since gone missing,” I looked at the map again for the name of the old coot. “Says here his name is Alek Tercival”.

“Now I never heard of him, but he claims to have found a lost civilization in the Umeshti jungles that had lots of wealth.” “Tygot showed me a few items he sold to him and if we can load down a few mules with this stuff we will be set”.

“Well I am game and ready to go and Deakon is going to come along as well at least as far as Redgorge”. I looked at the younger dwarf doubtfully. Tenkar caught my look.

“Don’t worry I will keep him out of trouble”.

“Well it just so happens I want to leave Cauldron today”. I glanced over at an old Halfling standing at the door to the Tavern.

“Are we ready to leave Briley?”

“Yes sir”, said the old Halfling. I could never get much of a conversation out of the old Halfling but he was dependable and minded our belongings and mule without complaint and without stealing. I had been a little surprised that the Halfling had not left with Kurgan.

A few hours later we were on our way out of Cauldron. We had made enough of a name for ourselves in the town that there was a small crowd waiting to wish us on our way at the gate from the town. Mostly cheering and a few catcalls. Tenkar seemed embarrassed by it but I waved back at the crowd happily. Thankfully Trina was still shopping or I would have been sneaking out to the town after dark. No one would be able to say that I had sneaked out on the lady.

Ahead the road to Redgorge descended down a steep slope into a distant valley. It was a steady trek downhill which made the going a little tricky. I glanced up and watched Deakon carefully follow in Tenkar’s footsteps. A little clingy but the young dwarf was keeping up so there was no issue there.
Tenkar stopped suddenly and lifted his right hand indicating we should stop. That usually meant trouble so I got my sword down off the mule and walked up to stand beside Tenkar.

“What is it?”

“Something up ahead behind those rocks,” Tenkar motioned with his hand toward some grey rocks in the distance alongside the trail. Just then a large black beetle the size of a horse crawled out onto the road. Its mandibles clicked as it swung around up and down the path. Then it moved forward. Behind it came two more of the giant horror.

“Let’s keep still and hope they pass”, I whispered.

“Aye”, responded Tenkar. His left hand moved out to motion Deakon behind him.

Another pair of giant beetles appeared on the road ahead dragging an enormous bloated corpse. The smell of rotten flesh began to assail my nose. Gods above, they had a rotting corpse of an immense ogre.
The beetles continued to take no notice of us as they dragged the rotting carcass across the road and into the bushes. We all started breathing again once the sound of their passage faded in the distant forest.

“Good”, I said with a sigh of relief. I glanced at Tenkar who did little more than shrug his massive shoulders at me.

“Now let’s get out of here”, I said.

Tenkar mumbled something to Deakon and motioned for us to move down the road again.

I slipped on some loose gravel on the steep path and recovered before falling. Stopping to brush off my hands I looked around at the mountains. Mountains surrounded us on all sides. In the distance the valley that led to Redgorge shone a muted pink in the distance. The source of the name Redgorge I assumed. Tenkar turned looking at me to see if I was keeping up.

“What,” I said?

Tenkar motioned to say something and then stopped. I heard it too. The low rumble of horses and carts echoed distinctly off the walls of the gully the road was in at this point on the mountain. The sound was coming toward us and rapidly.

“Sounds like a caravan coming,” I said. “Traders – not bad company I hope,” Tenkar returned.

I moved to the side of the pass standing between the path and Briley who was pulling our mule along. Tenkar moved ahead and also moved to the side of the path as a rider on horseback came into view in the distance. Behind the rider was a cloud of dust. Out of the dust marched armed men and a cart pulled by more horses.

“Deak – move before they trample ya,” Tenkar shouted!

I looked over at Deakon who was still standing in the middle of the path apparently unaware of the oncoming traffic. Deakon looked up at Tenkar and hurried over to stand beside me and Briley. The lead horseman came up alongside Tenkar and pulled his horse to a halt.

“Hallo, there”!

I could not place the accent. The man had long black hair streaked with grey. His hand resting comfortably on a sheathed longsword. His wrists were wrapped in the manner of a trained soldier and I could see old scars crisscrossing his hands. This man looked to be an accomplished fighter which was unusual for a caravan guard. Behind him the caravan guards and wagons continued to move toward us.

“You coming from Cauldron”, he inquired?

“That’s right – where are you bound”, I asked.

“Cauldron”.

“We carry urgent goods for the market”. The man looked over our little group and eyed the full packs strapped to the back of our mule. Hundreds of gold and silver coins Tenkar and I had carried out of Jzardirune were in those packs.

“You trading anything – what is your mule carrying”?

“Sorry, we are not traders”, Tenkar quickly said. I stepped away from the mule and rested my hand on the pommel of my sword.

“The mule carries food and clothes for our party”, I said. I glared at the man as his well armed guards past along the road behind us. The man looked over Tenkar and I for a moment then kicked the flanks of the horse and moved forward.

“Well, good day then”.

“Good day to you sir”, I waved at him as he moved past. That was a strange fellow I thought as the last cart wheeled past us on the road. Another armed guard sat in the back of the last cart eyeing us as it went past. They were soon up the road and out of sight.

“That was a strange group”, I opinioned.

“Heh”, grunted Tenkar.

An hour later we were coming to a flatter stretch of the road and the sun was starting to get low in the sky. It was time to start looking for a safe place to camp. The encounter with the heavily armed caravan had me on edge.

“Trouble”, barked Tenkar.

I looked in the direction Tenkar was pointing. Ahead on the road I could see a cloud of flies.

“Something dead ahead”, said Tenkar.

“Deakon and Briley, you stay here with the mule while Tenkar and I check this out,” I ordered. Deakon looked questioningly at Tenkar, “Do it”, he said.

Tenkar and I advanced cautiously with our weapons at ready. After about a hundred steps of walking like this we came upon a scene of murder. Six corpses of men, laborers by the look of them lay tossed down the side of a hill on the edge of the road. There were the signs of some battle by the footprints in the roadside. The men were covered in flies and dark drying blood. There was no point in climbing down to look - they were all, obviously dead.

“Looks like sword and spear wounds,” said Tenkar.

“Yeah, like the weapons on those caravan guards”.

I waved Briley and Deakon up to our position. As they came up, Briley glanced at the corpses and about with some look of concern. Deakon looked to Tenkar.

“Who could have done this – was it goblins”?

“Not likely”, said Tenkar, “They are more brutal”.

“No, I think this is the work of the traders who past us a few hours ago”.

“Likely, they were no traders”.

“Let’s get some distance between us and this carnage”, I said.

I moved up in step with Tenkar.

“What do you think, Tenkar, should we camp well away from the road”?

“No – we will be safe enough, let’s keep our eyes open for some shelter near the road but it is going to be full watches for us tonight”.

I had forgotten how much I hated sleeping out in the wilderness. I was really a town boy at heart. Even when journeying with Tenkar and Kurgan I had always pushed for us to sleep in towns and inns whenever possible. There were not going to be any inns until we got to Redgorge.

“How many days travel to Redgorge”, I asked Tenkar?

Tenkar mused that over for a moment before answering, “Probably two days travel”.

So two nights of sleeping on the dirt. I had purchased a comfortable blanket in Cauldron which was now safely strapped to our mule.

“There”, pointed Tenkar.

“Huh”, I asked?

Then I noted the steep hillside Tenkar was pointing at. There was the low opening of a cave in the side of the hill. Inside the cave was shallow but dry, with the leavings of some old fires near the mouth indicating some other travelers had used the cave in the past. Deakon and I collected some wood for a fire and Briley set up the camp. When Deakon and I came back with armloads of dry wood Tenkar had banked down a low fire at the entrance of the cave.

“Just embers tonight”.

The wind and darkness were coming in quickly but it was still a very warm night so I shrugged my acceptance. After a quick meal I moved to lie down on my outstretched bedroll.

Tenkar glanced my way, nodded and said, “Briley and I will take the first watch”.

I rolled onto my side to face the cave wall and quickly fell asleep.


“Wake up”!

“Hehhh”, I mumbled? I woke from a deep pleasant sleep. I looked up at Tenkar walking back toward the mouth of the cave. It was very dark outside and the wind was hollowing. It did not feel like I had gotten my full shift of sleep. Then I noted Tenkar readying his mace. It looked like he had spotted something. I rolled from the blankets and grabbed my sword to join Tenkar at the front of the cave.

“There”, hissed Riley!

I followed his gesture but could not see anything. Tenkar nodded so I assumed with his dwarf vision he could see whatever Riley was pointing at. I scanned the darkness but I could only see trees bent low by the wind.

“Goblin”, warned Tenkar.

Just then a goblin staggered out of the storm toward the cave. I could just make it out in the dim light. It seemed to become aware of us just as I had become aware of it. Not ten feet from the cave it came to a hesitant stop. To my left Tenkar moved quickly forward his mace held high. Before he could reach it the goblin fell forward into the dirt in front of the cave. Tenkar motioned to club the goblin and then stopped. He leaned forward and grabbed the goblin by its feet dragging it into the cave. The goblins head bounced several times along the rocky ground.

I looked the goblin over more closely. It was covered in filth and rags and had cuts on its arms and legs. A manacle and broken chain was wrapped around one ankle. It lay face down making some kind of awful snuffling sound. I think it was crying?

“What are you planning to do with that thing”, I asked Tenkar?

Tenkar ignored me and starting tying up the goblins hands and feet with a rope from his pack.

“Aaaahhh”, the goblin screamed as the ropes bound its wrists. I could see open wounds rubbing against the rope.

“Scream again and I slit your throat”, menaced Tenkar. Pointedly Tenkar brought his dagger to the goblins throat. It immediately went back to snuffling.

The goblin spoke one garbled word to Tenkar in a high pitched whine. Tenkar gripped the ropes binding the goblins wrists pulling the goblin toward him.

“Fair nuff”, he asked it? The goblin nodded its head.

“How many and how close? Your life depends on truthful answers … I am a priest, I can tell lies”

The goblin took several shuddering breaths then answered Tenkar in the same squeaky voice which I could not understand.

“Heh”, said Tenkar and he pushed the goblin down to the floor of the cave.

“Well”, I asked?

Tenkar turned to me.

“It says it is a slave which escaped a party of orcs in the storm”, he said.

We spent the rest of the night watching the darkness and the goblin. Eventually, the sun began to creep over the horizon and the storm winds ceased to blow.

Tenkar and Briley began packing up the gear onto the mule. The goblin still slept in the back of the cave.

“You know it is going to get away if we leave it here tied up,” Tenkar said to no one in particular. We all stopped packing and contemplated the goblin.

“It will bring its orc masters right onto us if we do not get a head start”, I said.

Tenkar nodded to me. “I am sorry Cadfan I just cannot bring myself to kill it – perhaps you”?

I looked at the pathetic creature sleeping on the floor. It looked like a small bundle of rags. Its sharp teeth were not visible but I had been bitten by goblins before and knew what horrible, evil creatures they were. One quick thrust of the sword to the neck, was it really any different from the dozens I had killed before? Of course it was those had been in battle. I knew if Kurgan was here he would have done it without a moments notice. Leastwise, not that he would let on.

I sighed and shook my head, “Unfortunately, I do not have the mean streak needed to kill him either”.

“Too much death in our past, and much in our future… sometimes you do not want to feed the reaper needlessly”, said Tenkar.

“The morning sky brightens”, urged Deakon from the cave mouth. Well why don’t you do it then I thought as

I looked darkly at Deakon. He stared defiantly back at me.

“Yes I know we need to be going”, I said.

“Cad, will you do the deed? I mean without breaking his neck I hope”, asked Tenkar indicating with his arm that I knock out the goblin.

Okay fine I thought as I walked up behind the bundle of rags. I have done this plenty of times to drunks in bars but never to a goblin. I wrapped one arm around its neck as it slept and quickly pulled the goblin up pressing on its throat. The goblin struggled for a second as if waking and then went limp. I tossed it to the floor of the cave hoping it was truly unconscious.

I turned around and almost ran into Deakon who fell back with a look of open-mouthed surprise on his face. He looked a little pale and out of breath.

“What did you do, did you kill him”, he asked?

“Nothing so smart as that”, I told him.

I walked out of the cave and followed Briley toward the trail ahead. Behind me I could hear Deakon questioning Tenkar.

“Tenkar”?

I heard Tenkar toss some coins on the floor of the cave. He was definitely getting soft that dwarf.

“For the information on the orcs, nothing more”, breathed Tenkar.

“There are more than that on the road we walk lad”, said Tenkar. He continued to instruct the young dwarf but Riley and I had moved out of earshot. Hopefully some of it sinks in I thought as I walked down the trail toward Redgorge.

Another two days travel brought us to the town of Redgorge. The town was an old one built on a peninsula of land created by a bend in a river. Steep rock walls fell away from the town to the riverbed. The town was surrounded by impressive, high walls of dark rock. But as I looked at the walls, I saw areas where the walls had been breached in the past that were not repaired. Obviously the people of Redgorge thought themselves safe from attack or they were foolish.

“Let’s look for a stables and an Inn”, I said as we eagerly walked toward the high gates to the town.

“Aye, I’ve grown accustomed to a bed at night”, admitted Tenkar.

I walked along the street through the city gates. No one stopped us or demanded a toll. Everywhere people returned our stares with the two dwarfs attracting the most attention.

“What are they staring at”, I asked Tenkar?

“Ain’t never seen dwarves before”, he muttered?

We walked into the town square and I looked over a few of the larger buildings to see if one was an Inn. One tall round building of stone looked to be a temple of some sort. The symbol was one I had not encountered before.

Shouldering Tenkar I asked, “Heh recognize that”, I pointed at the temple.

Tenkar squinted his eyes at the building, “ahh, okie… the god of light for some of you humans”.

“Ahhh”, I said. Now did he mean the god was named okie or was he just answering me. Before I could ask Tenkar for my details a familiar figure emerged from the door of an Inn before me.

“Heh”, opinioned Tenkar.

“By Hru’s balls… Alton” I exclaimed! Sure enough there was no mistaking the Halfling ranger and that ugly green cap he insisted on wearing. Alton just beamed at me happily.

“Cadfan you old dog… how have you been?”

“Still free and unmarried”, I assured Alton.

“Well met Alton”, called Tenkar.

“So what brings you to Redgorge”, asked Alton.

“Well it like this Alton… I have this treasure map I picked up in Cauldron”, I started.

“This calls for cakes”, said Alton and he reached into his backpack and pulled out a carefully wrapped bundle. As long as I had known Alton he always had a seemingly bottomless supply of delicious cakes of all types in his pack. It had come in handy on more than one occasion.

“Now tell me about this map”, the Halfling winked at me as he led me into the Inn. . .

Wow... Just... Holy Frickin' Wow!

Great job with the write up

The Dark Heart

Chapter 2

“Tell me about this map.”

So I told him. I told him about Tygot and his shop and about Alek Tercival and the mysterious women. Alton listened with scarcely an interruption. Tenkar sat down as I talked and ordered an ale, when the barmaid came by our table.

“And so we picked up our gear and came here,” I finished.

“Hmmm, not a lot to go on,” Alton removed his cap to scratch his curly hair. “So this was enough to get you and Tenkar to drop everything and travel several days march down here to the edge of the known world?”

“Well… you see, there was this girl,” I started.

“Ahh-hah, say no more,” Alton said with a pained expression waving his hands at me.

“Not to pour cold water on your head, but have you thought this through? There are a lot of preparations to make to lead an expedition into the jungle. Permits to get, porters to hire, boat, food, water proof equipment, tents,” the Halfling ticked off each item with his fingers and continued to mumble off items in his head.

“Luckily for you I happened along.”

“As you know I am an expert on the outdoors – now I am new to Redgorge but I have picked up a few things and I have been meaning to do some exploring hereabouts.”

“Of course Alton, we would never think of going without you,” added Tenkar dourly, rolling his eyes at me.

“And well you shouldn’t,” said the Halfling pointedly ignoring Tenkar’s facial expression, “You town folks would be lost in a day without an experienced tracker.”

“Well we did plan to hire guides,” I protested.

“Pffft!” Alton said. He was clearly unimpressed with my planning abilities.

“Don’t you worry as usual I’ll take care of the details. I know just where to start. Or rather, who to start with, we need to talk to the apothecary,” Alton said dramatically.

“Who?” Tenkar asked. Now, I had a vague idea who Alton meant as my own discussion with the locals while looking for an Inn had directed me to the apothecary. Apparently, he was some old merchant who ventured into the jungle for rare plants, if the stories were true.

“The apothecary, old what’s-his-name,” said Alton. “I don’t know his name but I know he knows the jungle like the back of his grimy hands.” The Halfling smiled and wiped his hands.

“Now… time for dinner.”

#

The apothecaries shop was a small, stone building marked only by a blazon over the door showing a bushel of herbs. Inside, the shop was dark and smelled of the jungle. Dried plants were everywhere, hanging in bunches from the ceiling and on the walls.

Working behind a small wooden counter surrounded by large books was a stooped, old man. He had a fringe of curly, grey hair about his ears. It quickly became apparent he knew all about the jungle. While the dwarf and I wandered about the shop, idly glancing at bundles of herbs, Alton and the apothecary launched into a discussion of the creatures and plants to be found in the jungle.

Eventually, we were drawn back into the conversation as the apothecary detailed what he wanted in return for his help.

“Giant flying spiders?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes, fascinating is it not,” replied the apothecary. He had been relaying the story of a nearby village abandoned, when it was overrun by giant spiders.

“I’ll outfit you and you can use the equipment for your trip deep into the jungles,” he said. “All I ask is that you capture the queen of the spiders in this little village. I have great plans for harvesting the spider silk and selling it. Think of what I could produce with it!”

“Weapons that cannot be dropped in battle?” The apothecary ignored the jibe from Tenkar and continued with scarcely a break for a breath.

“It’s not far! You could take a short trip there and then come back before you even leave for the deeper jungles. After all, everyone knows you should not enter the jungle during the new moon.” The apothecary punctuated his point by waving his finger in Alton’s face.

Alton considered what the apothecary had said. “We would need a cage and a cart or wagon to capture one and bring it back. That would slow us down a lot. Or were we planning on going by boat?”

“Wait a moment here, we are talking about Giant Flying spiders,” I said and looked from Alton to Tenkar. Both shrugged their shoulders.

“Okay, I think travel by boat is definitely the way to go,” I added. I had heard that there were some fishermen in Redgorge who were from the unfortunate village. Surely they could be convinced to help us get there and provide some useful extra hands.

“And Alton,” Tenkar rumbled, “We’ll be bringing it back in pieces, what were you thinking?” Tenkar motioned meaningfully with his axe to make certain Alton got his point.

“Dead? No, no, no… un-huh. Nope. Definitely not dead,” the apothecary’s voice went up several notes as he waved his hand.

“As in us alive, and it dead,” Tenkar added helpfully.

“Dead,” I added to be certain he heard.

“Don’t you see? We need it alive to capture the silk!”

“You want us to catch the queen and deliver her to you alive then? Wonderful,” Alton said darkly.

“Certainly. Dead and there’s no silk,” the apothecary looked at us disapprovingly.

I could see that he was not going to budge on this issue. We needed his help but this easy job for him was starting to sound like it could be a little more difficult. Our abilities did not lend themselves to subduing and capturing creatures. Of late we were more of the plunder and destroy kind of group. I looked over at Alton and Tenkar. Alton just shrugged indicating he was okay with our decision either way.

“No problem, well then pack your bags and bring your nets. You sire have a job to do,” said Tenkar looking at the Apothecary signaling our agreement to the venture. Oh well here we go again. After all how bad could it be it was just a big spider.

Alton and the Apothecary busied themselves putting together a list of equipment we would need for this venture and for the longer trip into the jungle. So, we would be trying to capture a spider. I guess we would throw a bag over it or something. They could be nasty creatures but the biggest spider I had ever seen was only about a foot long. The spider should fit in a bag, which is why I did not understand why they were talking about constructing a cage. I started having a bad feeling about this.

“Alton, just how big is this queen spider?” I asked. Alton turned to the apothecary and asked, “How large are the spiders? Is the queen larger?”

“Well, let’s see…” started the apothecary, “a large spider...” he stopped and scratched his head while looking at the ceiling, “the thorax must be at least 3 feet… and the body three to six feet in size.”
Now that was not going to fit in a bag. I did not want to get eaten by a spider the size of a house.

“Bah! I’ll better then to mush them up and shovel the remains into a bag! I am a priest, not the owner of an animal menagerie!” Tenkar thumped his fist down solidly on a table in anger. The apothecary chose to ignore Tenkar’s outburst and continued describing the queen of the spiders to Alton.

“A large cage is going to be required,” added Alton, “Any way to knock them out to avoid killing them?”

This sounded like a job for a mage. Unfortunately, our company’s mage was currently missing in action. It was just like Camlin to go missing when we needed him the most. Camlin had disappeared a few weeks after our last venture in Cauldron. It was probably nothing to be worried about. Likely, the boy was holed up in a book shop somewhere.

“Hmmm,” the apothecary said while considering the problem. “With the smaller ones, you can usually rub their bellies. I may have something that might work.”

“Rub their bellies as they attack us… yes… this could be difficult for us,” Alton said with a laugh. I set my hand on Tenkar’s arm in case he decided to brain the crazy, old man. This was getting to be a little bit too silly to believe.

“By the way there’s a man in town that may be able to build you a cage – his name is Galaron.”

As we left the shop I turned to Alton, “That man is completely mad, isn’t he? I mean spiders! Oh, and did you ask why we should not be in the jungle during a new moon?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Cadfan?” Alton chuckled as he moved down the street.

#

Galaron turned out to be a young man unhappily apprenticed to the local carpenter.

“Look, those are my terms,” Galaron explained.

“You want to come with us?” Alton said with skepticism, “and what kind of experience to you have?”

“I am a member of the local militia troop; we drill twice a week with the sergeant of the guard who is a retired explorer.” “Great, that does not make you ready for this,” Alton looked the carpenter’s apprentice over.

“Do you have equipment?” I asked. “I have my own weapons and armor,” Galaron said hesitantly, which made me suspect it was not of the best quality.

“We can use extra bodies, if nothing else to carry the stupid cage,” Tenkar stated, “let the lad come along.”

“Fine you’re in,” I said with a sigh. “Oh, and add some supplies for yourself to the bill for the cage and send the entire lot over to the apothecary… he is paying for this venture.”

#

A few days later we were sailing down the river on a small boat manned by two men from the village that had been overrun by the spiders. Galaron had arrived in time with two friends helping to carry an enormous wooden cage onto the boat. I had looked over the cage and it looked sturdy enough. This might just work after all. The boat was owned by Drath and Frisk two men who might have been brothers in their mannerisms but who looked completely unalike. Neither was big on conversation.

“So tell me about the village Frisk,” I started.

Frisk looked at me with his head tilted sideways like I had asked something inappropriate. He was a big, bear of a man with unruly, long brown hair and beard.

“Not much to say,” he grunted and looked away.

“Well how about the name of the village, how many buildings and what about these spiders,” I asked exasperated.

“’bout twenty or so,” he responded.

“Twenty what,” I asked, “Spiders or buildings.”

Frisk thought about this for a moment and then nodded.

“Well?” I asked. “Both,” Frisk shrugged.

“Heh,” Tenkar snorted from his place on the side rail.

I looked down into the swirling water of the river. At this point, almost a day out of Redgorge we had left civilization behind. The trees leaned out further over the water and it was impossible to see more than a few feet into the jungle that crowded the riverbanks. The water was also impenetrable to the eye. It was light brown in color and thick like a soup.

“How safe is the water Drath,” I asked looking over at the other river man who was leaning on the rail and looking out over the river. Drath was slimmer and shorter then Frisk with a swarthier look, dark black hair and a neatly trimmed beard he fussed over constantly.

“I wouldn’t go swimming in it, if I was you. Especially with all that gear you are wearing,” he indicated my scale mail. I shrugged. I had learned it was best to be ready even while we were travelling. It was hot but so far I had managed to survive the heat.

“You’d sink like a stone. Wouldn’t come back up unless a croc swallowed you and spit you out,” he added. Both boat men seemed to take some amusement at this thought.

“Good fishin’,” I asked trying to deflect the line of conversation from making fun of me before Tenkar joined in. I glanced at the dwarf and was relieved to see that he was not paying attention. Tenkar drew a hand across his brow, looked at the dead bugs caught in the sweat on his palm and cursed under his breath.
Alton walked up to Drath and me and added his comments. “Sounds like you might not like what you pulled out with your fishing pole.”

“Hey Ollie are we close to where that women snake is found in the river,” Alton questioned a young man seated on the deck near the stern of boat. The young man was Ollie, an apprentice to the apothecary. As we had been about to set out the apothecary arrived to wish us well and announced Ollie would be coming along to “protect his investment”. Apparently, Tenkar’s comment about selling the spider to the highest bidder had not been appreciated by the apothecary. Ollie looked up and considered our location for a moment. “No, she’s further down.”

“I’ve seen her,” added Drath. “Needed to change my trousers after I saw her gliding through the water. An, I only got one pair.”

Both Frisk and Drath seemed to think that statement was very comical. Perhaps they had used this line on travelers on the river before. Drath seemed offended that we had not laughed at this joke but he continued on anyway. “Fishing can be good, but not everything is worth eating. Some fish are poisonous if you don’t leach them correctly.”

“Heh, heard that said about Dwarven women,” Tenkar added with a serious face.

“Ho, Ho! The dwarf’s funny!”Frisk laughed.

“Oh, you do not know the half of it,” I whispered to Alton while elbowing him in the shoulder. “What did I do?” Alton said whirling to look at me.

Our small riverboat reached the village, which Frisk had told me was named Hava, late in the afternoon. This time of year we could expect sunlight late into the day so we decided to advance toward the village with Alton in the lead as our scout. For all the kidding we did to Alton, he was a seasoned ranger and capable of detecting and following the faintest of trails. I had no worry that he would get us lost even in this impenetrable jungle.

Not far from the village, Alton located one of the paths leading into the village and we thankfully clambered onto it, thankful to be out of the thick bushes of the jungle. I brushed the accumulated spider webs and bugs off my armor in the center of the trail. Looking ahead Alton was motioning for us to be quiet. Alton walked quietly back to the rest of the party, stepping carefully and not making a sound.

“There are tracks ahead,” he said, looked back in the direction of the tracks then turned to us again, “goblin tracks!”

Everyone went quiet. Tenkar silently unlimbered his axe and looked about menacingly. “You don’t think … nah,” he said to no one in particular.

“Strange,” I said. I looked at the rest of our group. Ollie stood a few paces behind me with a silly smile on his face. Galaron had his hood pulled down over his face, probably to keep the branches from hitting him in the face, and he was carefully drawing an old sword from its scabbard. Frisk and Drath glanced nervously over their shoulders as if they were having second thoughts about being here. Deakon stood close to Tenkar and looked a little frightened. Good, that should keep him from doing anything brave, which was usually not a good idea.

“Any spider tracks?” I asked.

“No, just Goblin tracks, and there as plain as day like they were not worried about trying to conceal them. They head off to the south-southwest away from the village, which is just ahead.”

“Want me to go forward further and check them out?” Alton questioned.

Tenkar nodded and started to say something but I did not want to fight goblins in the jungles so I quickly interrupted him. “No I want to check the buildings out first. I’d rather fight in the village then in the jungle.”

Tenkar disagreed, “better on our terms than theirs.”

“Would just hate to have the spiders on one side and goblins on the other if it came to that,” added Alton. I could tell both were in favor of going after the goblins. They were a more familiar foe but in the jungle I thought they would have the advantage. I did not particularly care what the more inexperienced members of our party thought. Perhaps I should heed their advice.

“Look out,” yelled Alton.

I looked up the trail and saw at least half a dozen huge spiders the size of large dogs hopping toward us along the path. If not for Alton’s warning we would all have been caught flat-foot. I got my sword arm free and swung widely missing a spider leaping toward me. I missed but the spider hopped away toward Galaron avoiding me.

“Ahhh!” I could see Alton cursing as a huge spider dug its claws into his leg. He was surrounded by three spiders that were hopping around him, jumping in and biting and then moving out of his reach. Stepping over toward Alton, I swung and missed one of the spiders. It sensed my presence and turned to bite me on the thigh and I felt a sharp, painful sting as its venom went into my leg. Just then Tenkar jumped toward me a sliced the spider off my leg in two pieces.

“Thanks,” I yelled and turned to crush one of the spiders threatening Alton. I could see that Alton had taken several bites and was slowing. Galaron stamped on one of the spider’s legs and drove his sword into the body, yelling loudly.

I swung widely at the few remaining spiders but missed every time. The spiders continued to leap amongst us and I could not get a good swing at them. Luckily, both Alton and Galaron had better luck and managed to finish off the last of them.

The spiders gone we huddled up and Alton and I sat down to look over our wounds. My calf had a small puncture wound in it that was turning black as I watched. I reached into my pack for one of the healing potions that had been a gift from the Church of St. Cuthbert in Cauldron. Ollie stepped past me on his way to Alton, “Never mind that, Cadfan, I have a salve that will close that wound.”

Tenkar knelled down beside Alton and said a brief prayer to his god and touched Alton’s forehead. There was a sudden burst of light and Alton looked slightly better, but Tenkar did not look pleased. “Here, let me try this on it,” Ollie told him, and proceeded to wipe a smelly brown salve onto Alton’s wounds. “Wow, I feel better already,” Alton marveled and almost immediately jumped up and stretched his injured leg, “as good as new. That stuff is amazing!”

Ollie came over and spread some of the foul smelling stuff on my leg. It felt like fire going on my leg but quickly the pain went away. I looked down, amazed to see the wound closed and pink flesh in its place.

“Seems I’m more warrior then priest,” Tenkar said shaking his head.

Alton gathered his equipment and looked warily into the trees, “they ambushed me pretty good there guys, I should have looked up in the trees. I will know better next time.” I looked up into the trees as well and for the first time I noticed the filaments of some old webs hanging from the branches. I saw movement in the trees and marveled that Alton could make out anything in the trees.

“Alton, take my salve, you need it lad,” Tenkar handed over a jar of the salve the apothecary had prepared for each of us. Alton reached over and took the jar from Tenkar, “Ah, thanks Tenkar, let me know if you would like it back at any time.” Nay lad it is yours now,” Tenkar told him.

“I should have warned you about the jumping spiders. My fault,” Ollie said shaking his head. “Why, did you see them coming,” I assured Ollie. “Don’t beat yourself up we all need to be more alert.”

“I expect that anything hiding in the village has heard us coming now,” I added. “No point in following the goblin tracks now.”

“Yeah, no surprise now,” Galaron said between deep breaths. I looked at the young carpenter. He was breathing deeply and cleaning off his sword which was coated in spider guts. “Looks like you did well,” I told him. Galaron seemed surprised then pleased as he looked down at his sword, “this old sword of mine might be a little rusty but it still cuts just fine!”

Alton moved ahead again along the trail. We all followed closely staying alert. Every motion from the wind in the trees made me grip my sword tighter. After a hundred paces Alton placed his hand up again, motioning us to stop. “Webs,” he hissed.

Moving up alongside Alton I looked out at a large clearing in the jungle. The clearing was obviously artificially created and in the center stood buildings of the village. I could see the buildings were all small affairs constructed of wood. It was difficult to see what condition they were in, or if they were occupied. View of the village buildings was blocked by a thick netting of webs, covering the entire village and the entire clearing. There was no motion or movement in the village, was it deserted?

We huddled up at the edge of the clearing. I poked experimentally at one of the webs near me. It was a little sticky and was the thickness of a thin rope.

“Burn it?” I queried to everyone.

“Heh, I think we would burn down the village if we did that, lad,” Tenkar said to me.

“Maybe we can try burning a small piece,” Alton suggested. Alton reached out with his knife and sliced a two foot long piece of the webbing off, dropping it onto the ground. He squatted down beside it and brought out his flint and steel from his pack. After a few strikes he had brought a flame to his slow match. “It does not burn well at all,” Alton told us. I looked over and could see the webbings were melting slowly as the fire licked away at it. “At this rate it will take forever, to burn down this webbing,” Alton sighed as he said it.

“If there are any spiders here they are going to notice us burning the webs,” Galaron warned with a note of concern in his voice. “I think they would have heard our battle,” opinioned Tenkar.

“Let’s burn a path to the nearest house and check it out!” Alton said excitedly.

“Okay, Frisk, Drath, you two gets some torches and burn your way toward the nearest house there,” Tenkar pointed to a large building not six paces away. Frisk and Drath looked nervously from us to the houses. “Oh, don’t worry I will be standing beside you with my axe at the ready,” Tenkar assured them. The two looked relieved and pulled torches from their packs, Alton lit the torches for them.

“I’ll keep watch over here,” I said as I pointed more toward the center of the village. “I’ll go with you,” Galaron told me and he readied his sword. Tenkar did not appear to hear me as he moved behind Frisk and Drath as the burned their way toward the house. Ollie waved at me as he moved back toward the trail.

”Deakon and I will stay back here and hold the trail,” he said nervously.

I moved toward the center of the village skirting around the webbed canopy. Tenkar continued to move slowly toward the house a dozen paces to my right. Just then I saw movement in the webbing. Looking closely, I could see half a dozen spiders moving along the web straight for Tenkar. These spiders were dark grey in color and a lot larger than the spiders we had just fought.

“Here they come!” I shouted. Galaron whirled in surprise looking at me, and I impatiently pointing in the direction of the oncoming threat.

“What!” Frisk shouted in panic and stopped in his tracks a few paces from the house.

“Spidersss, lots of them and these ones are big,” Galaron shouted. “Okay I see them, everyone stay calm,” Tenkar growled.

“Let’s keep going!” Drath said. He redoubled his efforts at burning the webs blocking access to the house.

The spiders milled about several paces from Tenkar’s little group and Galaron and I. They seemed confused and did not advance. I wonder if they are afraid of fire I thought. Or perhaps they are trying to figure out how big a threat we are. I hope they are not thinking about going for reinforcements. I glanced quickly at the jungle but noticed nothing. I was making myself nervous like a novice fighter.

“I’ve almost made it!” Frisk yelled.

“They are advancing,” Galaron said resolutely as he prepared himself for the onslaught.

“No, not yet there still holding their ground,, I said checking out the situation. The spiders still moved about in the web, obviously aware of us but they seemed unsure of their next move.

Galaron started yelling and I turned to look at him, “What?” I yelled.

“Shaking the tar out of the web so yall can check out the house, the rest of us be ready!” Galaron starting shaking the web with his hand then he started banging on strands with the flat of his sword. I watched the spiders closely but they still were not advancing on us.

“There is nothing inside,” Alton shouted as he emerged from the house. “I didn’t get a real good look but it looks empty.”

As Alton shouted the spiders began dropping down from the web to the ground. Four of them moved rapidly across ground toward Galaron and me. I could hear Tenkar shouting in the distance as he moved around the back of the house. “Into the building, we can fight from the doorway!”

I hesitated for a few moments as I considered whether I wanted to be trapped in a building surrounded by spiders. Too late. Before I could make up my mind it was clear the spiders would be on me before I could reach the shelter of the house. I took a few steps forward to come up on Galaron’s right flank. Two spiders reared up toward Galaron and I saw one strike him hard in the chest.

“Oww!”

Before I could move in to help they were on me. One spider the size of a pony swiped at me with two tentacles that I pushed aside with my sword. I hacked at it several times but my blows seemed to bounce off its tough, furry skin. It looked like I would have to stab at it. As one moved in to bite me I stabbed at the eyes and missed but buried my sword half way up its length into the round center of the spider. Foul smelling, yellow fluid poured from the wound and covered my arm. The spider moved off to one side but still moved quickly. Another spider moved into attack me and bit me in the arm. I could feel poison pumping into my arm.

“Get off!” I cursed and pushed the spider. I looked over to Galaron for help and saw the carpenter was down with a spider on top of him. “Galaron?”

“Aaaargh,” Frisk leaped into the fray, bravely swinging his hatchet at the spider sitting on Galaron. I pushed the spider near me back and moved toward Galaron, who was not moving. Then there was a thud on my back and a sharp pain as I felt the wounded spider I had forgotten about bite me in the back. Things stated getting cloudy and the dirt came up to slam into my face.

This was not going well.

I took some artistic license with the text this time. Hopefully, I have captured the spirit of your characters. I found the fight sequence tricky to write as I could not remember all of the moves. But then fight scenes are boring if they are dragged out anyway.

tegeus

CHAPTER 3

I woke up several days later. I had disjointed memories of being carried down the jungle path and lying in the bottom of the boat but I did not come completely awake for several days. I wanted to stay asleep but there was a sharp pain in my leg which kept building and building, which I knew would go away once I woke up. Then I woke up and found myself in a strange bed, covered in sweat and sore in every muscle in my body, especially those in my right leg.

I let out a noise somewhere between a gasp and a sob and looked through bleary eyes about the room. If I had known Tenkar was standing a few feet away looking at me I would have put on more of a brave face.

“Stop your blubbering lad, and be glad you’re alive,” he admonished me. Then he grinned at me. “Don’t worry lad, nothing is missing and you’ll be up in no time”.

“Whaaat gahbin?” I slurred.

“Well,” Tenkar said apparently understanding me. “You and I both were knocked out by the spiders. Galaron is gone; the spiders dragged him off, and were back in Redgorge-recovering.”

“We’re lucky, that lad Deakon and old Olli dragged us out of there by our bootstraps.”

“Alton?”

“Alton got himself out of there in time. He has got to be one of the most sensible Halflings I have ever met,” Tenkar mused with a smile.

I tried to get up but I felt like a giant had dropped a boulder on me. Craning my neck painfully I could see my legs were covered with bruises where the spiders had poisoned me.

“You rest for a few more days Cadfan. You cannot expect to be as tough as a Dwarf,” Tenkar laughed and left the room as I blacked out from the effort of trying to lift myself up.

#
A few days later, still sore but more or less recovered I was back in the Whispering Dove Inn sharing a beer with Alton and Tenkar.

“Heh, I hear no one has seen them since we made it back to Redgorge,” Tenkar said. I had been drifting off letting the beer take away the last of the pain in my right leg. “What, who is gone?”

“Wake up Cadfan,” Tenkar said, “Drath and Frisk have left town. Can’t really blame them.”

“It is going to make it hard to get help from the locals,” opinioned Alton looking around at the half empty taproom.

Alton and Tenkar were already busy planning our next move and it looked like it included spiders. I thought about it and decided I wanted to finish the job as well. But I figured I had better make sure we were all in agreement. My recklessness had led to our defeat at the village in the jungle.

“So are we all in agreement that we have some unfinished business with those spiders,” I looked meaningfully at Tenkar and Alton. Both Alton and Tenkar nodded affirmation.

“I very much want to recover Galaron’s body, no one should be left with those creatures,” Alton said.

“Aye, we got hit hard last time,” Tenkar said.

So we were committed. Hopefully this would not be a foolish move on our part. We did not have a nearby friendly Temple of Healing here in Redgorge so we needed to be careful. The last trip had been a near disaster. We needed more bodies, cadavers as Tenkar called them.

“Okay,” I said, “the first thing we need to do is get some help!”

“Not much to chose from,” Tenkar said looking around the Inn. I joined his gaze. There was a disreputable looking fellow at the bar talking to the serving girl. Other than him the Inn was full only with local merchants eating their meals. There were no obvious candidates for adventure amongst them. I looked down at the drink and thoughtfully swirled it about. Perhaps we could head back to Cauldron and put up some handbills?

“Look, I am going to go talk to that fellow at the bar,” Alton said, “He might fit what we are looking for.”
Tenkar shook his head, “Hopefully, Alton does not scare the lad off. We need the bodies.” I noticed Tenkar brighten and look to the door of the Inn. “Ahh, Deakon.”

I turned, and stood to greet the young Dwarf. “Deakon, I understand I owe you my life.” The young, Dwarf acknowledged my greeting and shook his head, “No Cadfan, it was more Ollie than I who you need to thank.” The young Dwarf seemed sincere in his humility. He impressed me more everyday on this venture. Sitting back down I noted a human priest seated alone by near the fireplace. Pointing out the human to Tenkar I raised my eyebrows in question.

“Perhaps,” said Tenkar.

“Guys, this is Leo,” said Alton as he came back to our table with a tall, thin human dressed in leathers. He had the darkened skin of a local but the look of an adventurer. “Well met stranger,” I told him. Leo tipped an imaginary hat to the table and all of us returned the salute.

“So Leo, you may have heard of us-we have a little venture we would like to talk over with you.” Alton jumped in and offered Leo a drink apparently nervous I would scare the stranger off.
Leo laughed easily, “Well, I heard you went out, met with some spiders, and had a slight difference of opinion that resulted in a … rather nasty outcome.” Leo smiled at us. Well that guy certainly seemed to have the necessary confidence.

“Yes, well let us not dwell on that slight misfortune,” I said rubbing my leg which picked that moment to shoot some pain up my side. “The important thing is that it is a well paying venture,” I said assessing what would motivate Leo to join us.

Leo sat down at the table and leaned forward on his elbows, “Indeed? The well paying bit definitely perks ones interest.” He had an interesting gleam in his eye. This man would bear keeping an eye upon but he could be just what we were looking for.

“Well there is this old guy here in town that is paying us to capture a little spider,” I said. Shrugging my shoulders, “really, nothing could be simpler.” With that Tenkar snorted or perhaps swallowed some ale down the wrong passage. I gave him my sternest look.

“Sure, simple,” Leo said looking at us. Apparently sizing us up and not finding us wanting he agreed to join the group. ”Right, I’m in!”

“When do we leave,” asked Leo. I thought it over. Still not enough sword arms for this venture. I looked quizzically at Tenkar and Alton. Alton sighed and got up, “Okay, I will look for some more.”

Alton returned to the table with a man that looked like a young priest and another who was a mage or sage of some sort.

“Guys, this is Galin Stormlarge,” he said indicating the priest. We all nodded our head and the young priest mumbled something under his breath. “And this gentlemen is,” he started.

“I can do my own introductions,” the man said with authority, tossing back a hooded robe to reveal pale skin and long, white hair.

“Zorovar! Master of the Mystic Arts,” he said grandly.

“Can either of you handle a sword?” I asked. Neither spoke. “Heh!” said Tenkar obviously not as easily impressed as Alton.

“Okay, well listen closely.”

#

“Greetings Suribar, Ollie well met!” Alton called out to the two as we entered the old apothecary shop. So Suribar was his name. I wondered if I had known before and just forgotten after my latest near death experience.

“Good to see you all up and about,” Suribar said. “And I see you have brought some company?” He indicated Zorovar, Leo and Galin in a wave of his hand.

“Yes we have some reinforcements,” Alton explained.

“Hmmm,” Suribar mused. “Well Ollie has mixed up something interesting for you.”

“Great,” I said putting an arm around Suribar’s shoulder I steered him to the back of the apothecary’s shop.

“Look, old man we are going to need some help. The spiders were a lot tougher than you had indicated”.

“Are you sure you can trust this riff-raff,” Suribar whispered to me. “No, but we will find our soon enough’” I indicated. “Now what have you come up with to help us?”

“Okay,” he indicated some jars Ollie was showing to the rest of the company, “We have some toxins and repellants brewed up that might knock some of the spiders out.”

“Might?” I questioned. Suribar shrugged his shoulders indicating that they were certainly untried. Well, we would have to find out for ourselves. I was not very trusting of his concoctions so I let other members of our little company take all that were available. I would trust in my old sword for protection.

#

The next day found us again on the river. This time a troop of eight on a river boat owned by a Halfling named Lyzasser. Alton had been hard pressed to find anyone who would take us on after the tales of our previous trip had made the rounds. The locals had taken to calling us bad luck. But eventually, an old retired riverboat captain named Herman had directed us to Lyzasser. The Halfling was middle-aged but with hard calluses’ on his hand and feet, sun-burnt skin, and had eyes that had seen everything. The negotiations went fairly quickly since his demands were high but not unfair and Suribar was paying the fare. Once Ollie had paid the Halfling we all got on board and headed downstream again for the village.

“What time of day will we arrive?” I asked Lyzasser.

“About shortly before mid-day,” he said taking his pipe out and looking at the sky. “It’s going to rain long and hard, sure you want to be in the jungle in this?”

“I don’t think it makes a difference to the spiders,” I said.

Shortly after our conversation it started to rain. It was a warm, thick rain with large raindrops. The sounds of the jungle seemed muted, taken over by the constant thrumming of rain hitting the trees and the water. I found it not unpleasant to stand in but some of our numbers were less taken with the rain. Both Tenkar and Zorovar tried to take cover under a tarp.

“We are here,” Lyzasser flatly stated and pulled the boat into the shore. Ollie and Leo tied the boat up while the rest of us started unloading our gear including a number of large nets.

Lyzasser checked the moorings and then looked over our preparations. “I think I’ll stay here and soak up the rain if you don’t mind,” he said. I looked over at the Halfling. “Sure. Keep an eye open for trouble. We cannot afford to have anyone stay back with you.” The Halfling nodded at my comment and placed a nasty hooked spear on the beam rail of the boat where it would be in easy reach.

“Okay everyone I should remind you that we came across goblin tracks on the way to the village last time so everyone stay alert,” I said. “Yeah, and this time I will make sure we don’t get ambushed by spiders coming out of the trees,” Alton said as he ducked into the brush to scout ahead.

“So, heat, humidity, rain, hazy and spiders”, Leo mumbled as I came up alongside him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “I have a good feeling about this!” he added with a happy smile. More for my benefit than anything else I thought.

We moved along the trail to the village in two’s. The path to the village had become a small creek with all of the rainfall. Leafs and twigs made like boats and rushed madly along in the water. The rain kept up a steady beat which was slightly less soaking in the jungle than it had been on the river. Still the sound drowned out all else including our conversation. We advanced cautiously toward the village in silence.

Eventually we came to the clearing and Alton came skipping back from his scouting foray to our front.

“All is quiet in the village guys. The webs are still there but I don’t see any spiders.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s move forward.”

The village appeared abandoned from the edge of the clearing. We stood talking in hushed tones as we considered what to do next.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked. I had no real desire to take the lead this time. My decision making in the last set-to had not been very good. I looked around. Tenkar and Alton were considering my remark. Leo was fingering the feathers on the end of an arrow. Zorovar was huddled up near Ollie looking very wet and miserable. Galin was considering the village apparently deep in thought.

“Are we certain the Queen is in this village,” Galin asked me. “No were not, but there were giant spiders in the village. At least they were here last time,” I answered.

“Frontal approach works for me,” said Alton.

“Okay than I guess we start searching the buildings one at a time just like we did last time,” I said.

Alton and Leo moved forward under the webs and entered the first building. The rest of us formed a rough semi-circle outside the building with our eyes on the village. Galin’s eyes wandered into the jungle. “What is it Galin,” I hissed.

“I thought I saw something out there.”

I looked into the trees but saw nothing. Probably the cleric just had nerves. The rain started to drop off in its intensity and some of the sun began to break through into the clearing. Alton and Leo exited from the second building they had searched. “Nothing,” Leo said.

All of us were starting to get jumpy. The spiders should have attacked us by now. Had they moved on to somewhere deeper in the jungle? How would we follow them?

“I hear something!” Zorovar shouted.

“Where?” Several of us shouted at once.

“Above me in the tree line,” Zorovar said pointing up into the forest. Following his arm I saw nothing at first and then a brown-skinned figure scramble out of a tree. It was sort of reptilian and small.

“Kobold!” Tenkar cursed. “No!” I said. Kobolds were the sneaky lowlifes on the world. We had met are fill of them in the north.

“What is he up to?” questioned Tenkar. “Not normal behavior. Maybe he wants to parlay?”

It did not sound very likely to me from what I knew of kobolds. All agreed that they were nasty, evil creatures. The other members of our Company looked equally doubtful. However, Tenkar was unfazed and advanced with his hands out and free of weapons. “We mean you no harm,” he said with as much sincerity as he could muster.

The kobold took a step out from the tree. It was a pitiful creature of skin and bones with a reptilian face. A loincloth was all it was wearing and it was clutching a wooden stick. Just then it screeched something and flung the stick which was actually apparently a spear at Tenkar. The spear landed in a muddy puddle at the foot of the dwarf spraying him with muddy water.

The Kobold was gone.

The Dark Heart
Chapter 5

“Where did it go?” Galin scanned the forest looking for the goblin but it was gone. He looked at me and I shrugged at his question. A few moments ago the kobold had thrown a spear at Tenkar splashing him with mud. Now it was nowhere to be seen. I realized that the kobold had probably gone to find more of his friends. We had better get into the village and fast.

Tenkar brushed mud off his trousers roughly straightened up gestured toward the village. His intent was clear. Now we had to increase our pace and get into some cover before the kobolds returned.

“Well now what?” said Leo, the tall, dark human rested his hands on his hips as he gestured toward the village? “Should we burn the webs?”

“Will burning attract more spiders?” Galin asked anxiously.

“They do not burn very well, they sort of melt,” I said. “Argh,” grunted Galin. I looked at the village. There were two buildings quite close to us but they were completely covered in thick, grey webbing. The buildings were little more than thatched huts on stilts with short ladders leading up to a door. Getting to them looked to be impassible and I knew from our last visit to the village that the webs were hard to remove. We could hack away for half the day just to get to an empty hut. Perhaps we would be better served to circle the village and look for an opening.

“Why don’t we pass through the jungle and avoid these webs?” asked Olli. Normally I would have agreed but we had kobolds and possibly goblins waiting to ambush us in the jungle.

“Well, anything to avoid these webs,” Leo said and tossed a stone at one of the huts. The stone stopped and got stuck in a web before striking the hut. Everyone looked nervously at the huts. It looked like our minds were made up. Better to battle kobolds in the jungle I guess.

“Okay, then who should go first,” Olli said as he took a few steps to the back of our group. “Alton, usually leads,” I said nodding toward the Halfling. Alton was on one knee examining some marks in the sand of the clearing. He looked up at me and nodded. Nothing more needed to be said. He got up and started into the jungle. “I’ll come right behind Alton,” I said, “the rest of you stay close.” We quickly formed up into a column of twos and skirted the edge of the jungle clearing circling the village.

Alton moved cautiously through the jungle. After only a few paces he stopped at some tracks at the base of a tree. He held up one hand and we all stopped. I looked back; our company was spread out for at least ten paces behind me with Zorovar bringing up the rear of our little group. Swinging at an incessantly buzzing fly in my face I stepped a few paces toward the village and into the sunlight to keep the flies at bay. In the sun the jungle was almost pleasant.

“Squelch”, I heard a strange noise.

“Look out Kobolds!” yelled Galin. I felt a sticky rope hit my leg; dumbly I looked down just as my feet were pulled out from under me. A sticky, spider web entangled my feet there was a jerk on the end of the web and I was pulled several paces along the ground toward the nearest village hut.

I could not reach my sword but my dagger was strapped right across my lap. I reached for it and cut the sticky webbing. Behind me I could heard Tenkar give a battle cry and crash through the jungle. Ahead of me scrabbling toward me along the webbing were half a dozen huge, blue spiders. The nearest leaped and landed almost on top of me. I jumped to my feet took a step backward and reached for my sword.

Galin ran into view on my left and swung his mace at the spider before it could reach me. It skittered back out of the range of his swing piling into two more spiders behind it. I stepped closer to Galin as the two of us faced the onrushing spiders. Two of the spiders reared and spit a strand of web at each of us but we were ready now and they missed. The webs were unusual ending in a loop and the spiders swiftly retracted the strands.

Risking a quick glance back, I could see the rest of the company was fighting kobolds under the branches of the jungle. There looked to be at least six of the little beasts. Kobolds working with spiders just did not make sense. The spiders would naturally consider the kobolds food and the kobolds were not the type to work with something that could eat them. It must have just been poor luck on our part to encounter both of them at once.

“Looks like we’re on our own here,” I said to Galin. Galin nodded and swung at the nearest spider crushing it with his huge mace. I swung at another spider and missed but it did not miss me and bit down hard into my thigh, purple poison squirting from the wound. I could feel a burning sensation in my leg and I fumbled for the anti-venom Suribar had given me. Shoving the spider back with a wild one-handed swing I grasped the vial of anti-venom and drank it down. Tossing it aside I got back into the fight. Three spiders were now around Galin but he looked to have avoided a bite so far.

Just then a yellow egg flew over my head and landed amongst the spiders, breaking and sending up a cloud of yellow gas. The four spiders attacking us skittered about in confusion. Two, flipped over with their legs jerking spasmodically. Galin moved in and quickly finished them off with swift powerful strokes with his mace. The remaining two spiders fled into the village. Looking around I saw Alton behind me who wiped his hands and smiled at me. Alton had volunteered to carry the poison eggs that Suribar had concocted for us. It looked like we had our proof that they worked well.

The two spiders scuttled away from us at a quick pace but arrows thudded into one of them directed by Leo from the edge of one of the huts. The spider went down and ceased moving. The other spider was well away and under the cover of the impenetrable webbing covering the village. I had more important things to worry about like my companions in the jungle fighting the kobold ambush. I turned to enter the jungle but paused as Olli and Zorovar emerged out of breath, Olli’s sword dripping with blood. Behind them came Deakon and Tenkar looking none the worse for wear.

“No troubles lads, the kobolds are down or running!” he said with a smile.

Leo jogged over to Galin and I with his bow at ready looking to get another shot at the retreating spider but it was gone from sight. He turned and looked at the nearby hut which looked to be accessible with some careful maneuvering.

“I’ll check out the hut here, you guys watch my back,” Leo said and ran up the ladder into the small hut. I looked about; everyone looked to be doing okay. Tenkar and Olli had a few cuts but nothing major. It looked like I again had taken the brunt of it. “How do I end up in front all the time,” I muttered.

“I told you to wait!” Alton said without sympathy. “How’s the leg?” he asked. Looking down at the torn trouser leg I could see that the wound was not bad. “Not bad, I took the anti-venom and since I am still alive I guess it works. I owe Suribar my life for that,” I said and pounded my chest to show that I was well and whole. Olli looked carefully at my leg while I stood but seemed satisfied that I was indeed not about to fall over.

Leo emerged from the hut with a wooden box in one hand. “I found a few trinkets and this interesting box,” he said. He looked at the bodies of the large blue spiders. “So, do you think we have killed the queen?”
I was pretty sure that was not the case but I looked to Olli with a questioning glance. Olli bent to examine the mashed corpses of the spiders. “No, not big enough I think,” he said.

“How much bigger to you expect this queen spider will be Olli?” Alton asked as he gently poked at one of the spiders with a stick he had picked up. “Ohh, at least big enough to swallow a Halfling whole…” he said with a smile.

“Woah, not funny,” Alton said.

Leo opened the box and pulled out a rolled up piece of rolled up paper. “I can’t read this at all,” he said and handed the paper over to Galin. A frown crossed Galin’s face as he unrolled the paper and looked it over,
“No I can’t read it either.”

“Give it to me,” Zorovar said impatiently. Leo shrugged and gestured to Zorovar. Galin looked at the paper again then unhappily handed it to the mage.

“You can’t read it because the writing is magic,” Zorovar stated.

“So can you read it then?” Galin asked.

Zorovar studied the paper some more, “No,” he said reluctantly. “Perhaps with some study,” he added. “I will hang onto it,” and with that the mage put the paper carefully into his pack. Leo raised his eyebrows as if to question the move by the mage then shrugged and said nothing.

“Okay then, moving on,” Leo waved Alton ahead. Alton checked that we were all ready and then moved forward along the back of a long hut. I set out to follow him, this time giving him some distance to get ahead of me. Galin finished cleaning spider bits off of his mace and walked up alongside me.

Alton edged along the back of the large hut carefully avoiding the spider webs. Then he moved forward toward a smaller hut closer to the center of the village. This time I kept well back from Alton waiting at the edge of the long hut. Looking toward Alton I could see him stop and check the ground in front of a smaller hut a few paces from the jungle’s edge.

“Stand fast, there’s something odd up ahead,” Alton called out. I looked at the hut seeing nothing out of place. There were some vines hanging limply from the hut and extending along the ground toward the jungle. Nothing looked out of place.

Alton turned and looked at me waving me over, “Come here and take a look at this Cad. Step gently though.” I looked at the ground carefully. Nothing was visible except a few light footprints left by the Halfling. There was nothing that I could see to be worried about.

“There is something unnatural about this,” Alton said. “Okay,” I said looking around as I came up behind Alton, “What?”

Alton looked at me with a pained expression on his face. “There is a hut here with large vines coming out of it lying on the ground. It doesn’t look right to me.”

There was a crunch of a foot on gravel behind me and I turned to see Galin walking gingerly toward me. The rest of the company was bunched up in a group behind the large hut. “What do we have here?” asked Galin. I shrugged and looked carefully at the ground in front of the hut. The ground in front of the hut looked disturbed. Like someone had brushed over it to remove tracks or something.

“Maybe we should go around it?” suggested Galin.

“Very strange,” Alton whispered, “I don’t see how we can really go around the vines though unless we head right back into the jungle,” Alton said pointing at how far the vines went across the open sand of the clearing. Certainly we had run into our share of surprises from the spiders and this could be another. I waved at Olli who stared blankly back at me from ten paces away. “Olli get over here and look at this,” I hissed. Olli sighed, gripped his sword tightly and came forward to stand beside me.

“What do you make of that?” I said pointing my sword at the disturbed area of ground near Alton as Olli came to stand beside me. Alton walked carefully forward into the sandy area barely making an impression in the ground with his footsteps.

“Well,” Olli said.

The entire clearing erupted in a spray of sand, the vines went taught and the ground three paces in diameter collapsed into a huge hole. As sand poured into the pit an enormous, furry blue-black spider easily three paces in width came charging out of the hole toward Alton. The Halfling stumbled at the edge of the pit, righted himself and attempted to scramble backward as the spider erupted out of the pit stabbing at the Halfling with its huge pincers. I could see the spider grab Alton and lift him up in its pincers before he twisted free and landed on the ground.

Lying on the ground, Alton groped in his pack. For a brief ridiculous moment I thought he planned to throw one of his cakes at the spider. But he emerged with a white egg in his hand and threw it under the spider. White smoke emerged from the egg which seemed to briefly disorient the spider. Alton had a chance to scramble free but he remained on the ground clutching his side. He looked to be hurt badly.

Galin recovered from the surprise of the sudden attack first and raced forward swinging his mace, Tenkar rushed by me with his mace held high. I started out of my open mouthed shock and moved forward as well aiming a blow at one of the spider’s many legs. The spider moved its legs rapidly and I missed with my sword.

Alton started yelling in pain and anger as the spider picked him up with its pincers again. I could see greenish poison pumping into Alton’s side from the spider’s pincers. Galin jumped to the edge of the pit and struck a solid blow to the back of the spider’s head with his mace. It was enough for the creature to screech and release Alton than turn toward Galin. Tenkar slid down the edge of the pit slope and delivered a powerful blow to the spider’s body and it reared up and collapsed falling back on Alton, no longer moving.

Sighing in relief I looked about. Zorovar had moved rapidly and now stood on the edge of the pit. “Sorry guys, I could not get a clear path to use burning hands on it,” he said.

“Help!” we all heard muffled by the spider body.

“We better move it quick before he suffocates,” Leo said as he jumped down into the pit and starting sliding the spider’s remains off of Alton. Tenkar moved to help and soon the two had Alton out from under the spider.

Alton’s face looked very pale as Tenkar pulled him up out of the pit and laid him down. “Here drink some of this,” Tenkar said as he offered Alton one of our few remaining healing potions.

“You okay Alton,” I asked stupidly.

“I have been bitten and poisoned again Cad,” Alton returned morosely. His head lolled to one side as Olli came up and started to examine the wound in Alton’s side. Olli looked up at us with a worried expression. Taking off his pack he brought out some anti-venom and helped Alton drink it holding his head up.

“It burns!” Alton gasped and started choking on the liquid.

“Hold on Alton, let it do its work,” Olli encouraged him.
“Olli, I can’t feel my legs!” Alton said with worry in his voice. “Is that bad?”

Olli looked over at Tenkar and shook his head.”Do we have anymore anti-venom,” he asked looking about. I had already used all of mine. None of the others immediately answered.

“Well I have one dose left but I was saving it,” Alton choked and coughed then gurgled and spit up some black blood.

“Take it before you die, you fool,” Olli said. “It’s in my pouch,” Alton indicated fumbling with shaky hands at his belt pouch. “Here lad I’ll help,” Tenkar said and pulled the anti-venom out of the pouch giving it to the Halfling. Alton drank down the potion and lay back on the ground.

I looked anxiously at Olli. He looked back to Alton pinching at the wound to remove some of the poison. Alton yelled out in pain but stayed conscious.

Looking about I realized now would be a very bad time for another attack. We all had our attention on Alton. Leo, who had been guarding our flank walked up to take a look at Alton lying on the ground. Olli pressed his ear to Alton’s chest. “I think it is working. He is going to be alright,” he declared.

“Great! But I still can’t feel my legs. This is most discouraging,” Alton said as he sat up. I could see that the color was flushed back into this face and he no longer looked to be at death’s door. Olli busied himself bandaging the physical wounds Alton had in his side.

Leo looked down at Alton and growled, “We gonna have to carry you now?” He snorted and then walked away to the edge of the pit apparently satisfied that the Halfling was going to make it. Leo slid down the side of the pit to stand by Tenkar. The dwarf had already moved down into the pit and was examining the low tunnel that extended under the hut. Motioning to the dwarf the two crouched down and made their way carefully under the hut.

Deakon and Zorovar both came over to stand at the edge of the pit and look curiously down at the dead spider. Tenkar and Leo moved out of sight down the tunnel.

Alton pulled his pack off opened it up and pulled out one of his carefully wrapped cakes. “So it is starting to get dark, what are we going to do now fellows?” He asked and then bit into one of the cakes with a happy sigh.

Guys I waited a little too long before writing up this chapter so I could not remember all of the actions clearly. Who hit what in the combat and what effect the eggs actually had. Was that parchment magical? Can't remember. Post your corrections here, and I hope I have not incorrectly represented your character's actions.

tegeus

Chapter 6

“You’re going back?”

I nodded and glanced at the Halfling. Lyzasser had one eyebrow raised as he looked at me. At my nod he shrugged his shoulders and starting preparing for the day. We had dragged Alton back to the boat yesterday before the sun went down. Olli’s concoctions had done the trick and Alton declared he was ready to go this morning. The debate on whether to return to the village had been brief, we were going back.

Looking up I could see that the weather was not going to cooperate. The morning brought a driving rainstorm and most of our group huddled under the awning set up in the center of the boat. I stood out in the rain letting it soak me to the skin. We would all be wet soon enough in the jungle. There was no place to shelter from the rain from here to the village.
We did decide that we needed a guard back at the boat now that we had raised the ire of the local kobolds along with the spiders. Leo volunteered to stay with Lyzasser. Tenkar instructed Deakon to stay with the boat with Leo over the younger Dwarf's protests.

Lyzasser moved out into the clearing where the boat was moored checking the snares and tripwires he had set up to protect the mooring. As he moved about puffs of pipe smoke followed him as he worked on a fresh pipe.

Shortly after sunrise Alton led the way off down the path to the village once again. I watched him carefully. He walked a little stiffly but otherwise the affects of the spider poison seemed to have worn off. Alton stopped, motioned for quiet and scanned the jungles. After a brief pause he motioned us forward.

“How are you feeling Alton?” I asked.
“A little numb, but at least I can stand up again, thanks for asking,” Alton said with a wry smile.
“Anyone has an idea for a new plan once we reach the village,” I asked looking about at everyone.
“Not until we find a more promising clue amongst the rubble,” opinioned Zorovar. Everyone else remained quiet. Alton looked at me and shrugged and set out again. Soon the familiar clearing of the village came into sight. The webs swaying over the huts glistened with light reflecting off of the rainwater soaking them. There was no movement in the village. It looked completely deserted. I was not fooled by the quiet.

Alton came back to where Zorovar, Tenkar and I were standing on the edge of the clearing, “Shall we approach the buildings or skirt further around?” Alton asked. I looked over the village again. It was a long walk around to the south side of the village following our previous route. I was getting impatient with finding this spider queen. It was time to try a different route.
“Let’s try working our way around the edge to the east,” I said.

There were no objections so Alton moved off to scout in front of us and we followed four or five paces behind the silent Halfling. After a few paces Alton raised his hand and pointed to the edge of the jungle. I could make out three boats resting under the boughs of the trees. The area around the boats was dark in the driving rain; anything could be hiding amongst them.
I motioned to Alton waving him forward.

“I guess Leo should have come to cover him,” I grumbled to Tenkar indicating the Halfling carefully advancing on the boats.
“We’ll be ready, lad,” Tenkar assured me and tapped Zorovar on the shoulder to let him know what was happening.
At the edge of the jungle, Alton disappeared in amongst the boats. The rain continued to pour down on the jungle with a dull roar. The normal jungle noises were strangely muted. After a few breaths Alton reappeared and made his way back to stand by me, I relaxed my grip on my sword.

“Just simple fishing boats full of gear,” Alton said.
Zorovar’s head jerked up with interest, “Gear? Boating and fishing gear?”
“Hmmm I need a new pole,” Olli whispered as he joined us.
“Yeah, just ordinary fishing junk,” Alton said impatiently. “If you want a new fishing pole we can get it later.”
“Right, let’s start moving toward those huts,” I said as I pointed at two large huts to the east.

Alton nodded and moved toward one of the large huts. Stepping carefully between the webs he moved up to the hut and slipped inside. I came up close to the webs but did not try to follow the much smaller Halfling. Looking about in the twilight caused by the dark, overcast clouds I noted that the rain looked like it was beginning to slacken.
Alton came out of the hut carrying a long, wooden pole. He tossed the pole to Olli. “Here you are Ollie,” he said. Olli looked over the fishing pole, smiled and gripped it tightly. “Why thank you Alton… this looks quite acceptable, may even find a fish or two.”
By the look Alton gave Olli I got the feeling he was kidding Olli but the apothecary seemed intent on carrying the fishing pole around with him. I was not about to begrudge him, he had been a dependable party member and had saved my skin a few times.
Galin looked at Olli in disbelief then back to Alton, “What else is in there, Alton?”
“Just a storage hut full of nets and fishing gear,” the Halfling said. “Shall we continue on?”
“Let’s go. Don’t like standing here in my wet boats,” said Tenkar squishing his boats to punctuate the statement. The dwarf was soaked to the skin and looked pale and miserable.
“I agree, let’s go on,” Galin said and stood up following Alton to the east.

Alton moved up to another shed. “Whew,” he said, “It’s full of rotting fish!” I moved up near Alton and looked into the open-sided shed. It was full of what was likely the village supply of fish. Apparently it had been several days since it was stored here and it was well into rot.
The hut was the furthest north and east hut in the village. From here our path led back to the south as we slowly circled the village. Alton started out in front again. Ahead I could make out a large palm with a lot of stones in the ground circling it. It had the look of a cemetery to my eyes. The ever present thick webbing that covered the entire village was a little thinner here.
“Graves” I said?
“”Maybe a cooking pit or something,” said Galin.
“I can squeeze through the webs and take a look,” offered Alton. “Go ahead, I will cover you,” Galin said and moved to stand near Alton.
“I am going to have a look… be ready to pull me through. They don’t look like any grave markers I have ever seen, but they do look organized in their placement,” Alton said then moved under a low hanging web and moved in toward the strange stones.
The Halfling moved closer to the stones paused and called back, “I think it is just a garden, all gone wild.” Olli looked up in interest and moved closer to get a better look. “The webs are blocking the sun, so it is in pretty sorry shape. Nothing useful here anymore,” Alton said. Olli shook his head sadly, “This garden has been withering for weeks… whatever was growing here, has long left this garden behind.” He puffed away at his pipe sadly and moved away.

Alton moved toward us carefully slipping through the webbing. Part way through the webs he stopped motionless. I moved forward to help free the Halfling but he shook his head and moved through the webs to join us.
“Quiet, I am sure I saw something move in the shadows of the jungle behind you,” Alton hissed. “I want to take a closer look.”
“Right, let’s move on,” I said loudly and as calmly as I could. As the five of us continued to the south Alton lingered behind and slipped silently into the jungle.
“Yell if you need help,” Tenkar whispered in the direction of the missing Halfling.
I moved toward a small hut not completely covered in spider webs which sat on the edge of the village and the edge of the ruins of the garden. Once in the shadow on the huts walls we all stopped. Silently as possible I eased my sword out of its scabbard and waited.
“Shouldn’t someone go along with him?” Galin questioned, nervously hefting his mace.
“We’d just make a lot of noise,” I said. “He can manage better on his own.” “Didn’t we just have to carry him back to the boat yesterday?” Zorovar asked. “He’ll be fine,” I scoffed.
“Perhaps we should be going in there?” Zorovar said looking to Galin. Galin looked at me then stepped quickly into the jungle. Tenkar made a motion to follow. “Hold it, not everyone!” I said with some exasperation. From some distance away we could here Galin calling out Alton’s name. The rain had finally come to a stop and the regular jungle noises muted the call somewhat.
“Alright, I am going to,” Zorovar said and stepped toward the jungle. Just then Alton and Galin reappeared on the edge of the clearing.
“Find anything?” I asked.
“Where did you go? We were worried about you?” Galin said to Alton as they walked up to the hut.
“Damn you and your cakes, why didn’t you answer lad?” Tenkar demanded.

Alton seemed surprised by all of the worry. “Hey I was only gone for a moment. But I was right; kobolds were watching us from just in the jungle to the east. They are still out there. “
“Damn!” I swore. With the kobolds in the jungle in numbers they were bound to attack us at just the moment we were attacked by more spiders. We needed to face one threat at a time. It looked like it was time to end the kobold threat and fight them in the jungle.
“Do we chase the kobolds into the jungle or continue on?” I asked.
“Why don’t we reason with them and try to enlist their help against the spiders?” asked Zorovar. I choked back a laugh at that suggestion. Kobolds were vicious little beasts that we killed like vermin back home in Brecon. There was no parlay asked or given.
To my surprise Tenkar got a thoughtful look on his face. “What, you are not taking this idea seriously are you Tenkar?” I demanded. “Killing is not always the answer Cadfan,” the Dwarf replied. “Perhaps we could enlist their help.”
“How do we know they are not working with the spiders,” I asked.
“Well… that does seem unlikely,” offered Olli in an uncertain voice. “If we had something to offer them in trade they might entertain our offer.”
“Right, and which of you can write in kobold,” I asked pointedly. That brought everyone to a pause. I glanced up at the sky. The sun was starting to show a little through the clouds but it was still overcast making the day darker than normal.

“Pictures!” Galin said.
I looked up; Galin had a look of triumph on his face. “What?” I asked.
“I can draw them a picture of what we want them to do!” Galin said excitedly and began digging in his pack. He pulled out a sheet of parchment and a charcoal stick.
“So what do we offer them?” Galin asked.
What indeed. This idea was just hare-brained enough that it might work. If nothing else it might puzzle the kobolds into confusion for a few hours. But we needed something to offer the kobolds like food. We only had just enough food for ourselves but I knew where there was a lot of food that might appeal to the kobolds.
“We give them the village’s supply of fish,” I said smacking my fist into my hand. Tenkar nodded in appreciation. Galin nodded and quickly scrawled out a crude drawing on the parchment showing the kobolds and our group fighting spiders and the kobolds receiving a reward of fish.
“Here, Alton. Take it back to the tree where you spotted the kobold standing,” Galin said handing the parchment to Alton. “One of them is bound to pick it up.”
Alton shrugged and took the offered note and disappeared into the jungle at a trot.
“Hopefully, he does not run into any trouble,” I said under my breath. It would be ironic if Alton had to fight kobolds to deliver a peace offering to them.

Galin looked at the village while we waited. “I think we can get in under the web here, maybe we should head into the center of the village.” The dim sunlight was raising steam from the wet webs which sagged over the entire village. The webs were especially slack over the nearby hut on the edge of the garden. It looked like we could indeed sneak under the webbing.
Tenkar looked intently into the jungle. “He is taking an awful long time again…”

After a short wait Alton emerged none the worse for wear from the jungle.
“Alton, how did it go?” Galin asked excitedly.
The Halfling carefully walked around the ruined garden and joined us in the shadow of the hut.
“Alright, the note is placed,” he said. “I had a harder time following the path this time and ended up at a small cave with a boar outside. Luckily, she didn’t notice me.”
“Such as it is, let us move on… we will only know if the kobolds will help us when we fight the spiders,” Galin said. “It is up to the kobolds now,” added Alton.
I shouldered my pack and drew my sword again. Galin’s note could not hurt us I reasoned. Now it was time to get moving before it got dark. I stopped as a strange, sweet smell wafted to my nose. From the look on Alton’s face I was not the only one who smelled it.
“Hmmm, Cakes!” Alton laughed and looked about with surprise.
“What is that smell?” asked Galin.
“I say it smells like honey,” said Alton, “hmmm, honey would be lovely on a cake. Let’s find the honey.” Alton ducked under the webs and headed toward the center of the village. “C’mon even Cadfan can fit under the webs here, let’s go,” he added.

I dropped to my knees and scurried under the lowest hanging webs. Now we were in the center of the village and completely under the webs. The last time I had been under the webs we got ambushed by spiders dropping from the web. I watched the webs carefully but I did not see any spiders or any movement. To my right was the door to the small hut we had sheltered behind. Ahead was a fenced in enclosure and between it and the hut was a wooden grate covering a pit.
“Look at that strange tree,” Alton exclaimed and pointed behind me. Rising in the center of the village in the middle of a deep, stone cistern stood a tall, straight palm tree. The tree did not resemble any type of palm I had seen before.
“The smell of honey is coming from that tree,” Alton said looking at the palm in wonder. I looked at the tree again looking for the source of the smell but could not see anything.
“Let’s check in the hut first,” Tenkar said. Reluctantly Alton turned back to the hut beside us, climbed onto the porch and opened the door. “Hmmm, lots and lots of bottles, and herbs and stuff.”
“Really?” Olli looked up interested. “Don’t touch anything Alton, let me look at it.” Olli walked quickly into the hut with Alton followed closely by Zorovar. “Don’t break anything, Alton,” I could hear Olli say.
Alton came out of the hut tired of looking at the bottles. “Did they find anything?” I asked. Alton looked back at the hut and said, “There are a lot of bottles, they are bound to find something interesting.”

Galin moved off toward the wooden grate in the ground. “Guys check out this pit.” Alton and I walked over to stand near Galin. The wooden grate was locked with a metal latch and covered a pit in the ground. The pit was only about my height in depth and looked to be full of garbage and leaves.
“Maybe we should search it,” Galin said and began fiddling with the latch.
“I think it is a prison for the village, we should leave it alone,” I said. Galin looked at the pit with renewed interest, but nodded in agreement. “Okay, let’s take a look at this odd tree… I don’t like the looks of it.”

Leaving Olli and Zorovar exploring the hut the four of us approached the palm. The palm rose at least 60 feet out of the cistern, its trunk at least five feet in diameter. Stranger still was the cistern in which it was planted. As we walked closer I could see that the cistern was actually a deep pit in the ground. The strange palm apparently grew out of the bottom of the pit. As we walked closer, the smell of honey grew stronger and I could see more clearly into the pit, the bottom of which was clogged with spider webs.
“Beware giant bees lads,” said Tenkar.
“Be careful, I don’t like that large tree, something could be hiding in the top,” cautioned Galin. He slowed three paces from the tree and readied his mace.
Alton seemed less concerned, “It’s a palm tree, so hiding would be difficult, but the size and the honey smell are indeed troubling. It really is a wonderful palm!”
The smell of honey was indeed clearly coming from the top of the palm. The fronds, and husks at the top were large enough to hide a beehive or something worse.
“We should ask Olli if there is a spider that uses the scent of honey,” I said.
“Hey Olli, having fun?” Alton called out to the hut.
“Well… yes… so much here to study,” Olli answered. “I found some interesting things; some may help with wounds and some other things of course…”
“Are there any spiders that use the scent of honey to trick their prey?” Alton asked. “Hmm,” Olli mused and strode out of the hut to look at the palm, “well, the spiders from around here certainly would not like it… more like a defense mechanism of some kind.” He pondered this for a moment than went back into the hut.
“They don’t like it?” Alton asked. “Why are they here than,” he asked no one in particular.

Olli and Zorovar joined the rest of us over in the clearing around the enigmatic palm. Both were carrying a number of herbs and bottles found in the hut. Olli sat down and started arranging his new finds in his pack.
“So… what do you think Olli?” Alton asked pointing at the palm. Olli paused, sniffing the air and his expression grew quizzical as if just noticing the honey smell for the first time.
“Perhaps it is some kind of honey-producing palm. It would not be real honey but some kind of sap that smells of honey. The leaves might be soaking in this oil or sap.” Turning to the group he asked, “Perhaps you could get me a sample?”
“I didn’t bring my ten foot pole,” I said as I backed away from the palm. There was something creepy about this palm.
“You could use my fishing pole,” Olli suggested helpfully. Zorovar took Olli’s fishing pole and looked at it. “You have no line, Olli. How do you plan to reach sixty feet in the air?”
“Right,” Olli said shaking his head, “That won’t work.”
Galin strode up to the edge of the cistern reached over to the palm and started shaking the trunk. The palm shook back and forth. “Perhaps I can shake a leaf loose,” he said.
I looked up hopefully. All of the leaves seemed firmly attached at the crown of the palm. As I watched at dark shape moved at the top of the palm.
“Look out,” I yelled. Gasps of warning also came from Alton and Tenkar. Galin leaped back from the palm and looked upward. “What was that, guys?”
“I couldn’t see anything,” Alton said, “just movement.”
“Someone shoot it with an arrow,” I said as I had a good suspicion what was behind the movement. “There is a spider in the top of that tree,” I said firmly and readied my sword. Looking around I realized that Leo had the only bow in the group. There was no way my spear was going to reach the top of the palm.
“Let’s not be so hasty, Cadfan.” Alton said looking up at the palm. He moved closer to the palm and I saw movement again. “There, again… it moved!” I yelled.
“Heh, it is just scared of us,” Tenkar laughed.
“Hello tree! Can you understand me?” yelled Alton cupping his hands to his face. He waited expectantly than turned and looked at us questioningly. “Please flap a leaf if you can hear me.”
“Are you talking to a tree Alton?” I said shaking my head. “I am certain there is a spider up in there.”

“Why don’t I throw a rock at it?” I said to the group. Alton heard me and stood frustrated with his hands on his hips. “No, I will use my sling. I can throw a rock a lot further,” he said. Alton readied a stone in his sling and looked at the palm carefully. Swinging the sling overhead he let go the stone which flew up, missed the palm and disappeared into the village.
“Just getting my range,” he muttered angrily. Alton spread his feet and swung the sling over his head again taking careful aim. The stone flew through the air and struck the palm trunk well below the crown, then rebounded back towards us.
“I better ready my shield,” Tenkar grumbled as he took cover. The Halfling shot him a dirty look and fired at the palm again striking the leaves at the top. A moment after the stone struck a huge blue spider erupted from the top of the palm looking around than disappeared back into cover.
“Damn, you were right Cadfan,” Galin swore.

“Okay, now I mean business,” Alton said and fired another stone at the palm hitting the leaves at the top again. The spider again appeared and ducked back into cover. On the next solid hit the spider did not show itself.
“I think it had too much cover, we will never get it out of there this way,” I said. Alton nodded and put away his sling. I took my trusty spear out of my pack and looked at the palm. The leaves were probably just within my range but I doubted I could get enough muscle behind a throw straight up to do any damage. I shoved the spear point in the dirt to have it ready.
“We could try smoking it out,” I said. “Hmmm,” Alton mused and looked around for dry wood. “That’s not a bad idea, perhaps just a fire at the base of the tree,” added Zorovar.
“Back to the smoking huts to look for material?” Alton said wearily. While Zorovar and I watched the palm warily, the rest hurried over to the hut with the smoked fish and came back with piles of firewood. “We cannot just throw it in the cistern,” Galin said looking doubtfully down into the deep pit in the ground. Alton dropped his load of wood onto the ground.
“We can start a fire slightly upwind and smoke the top of the palm!” Zorovar said and raised a finger to the air to check the wind direction. “About 5 paces to the west of the palm should do it.”

Tenkar arranged the wood in a large pile and started a fire; soon we had fire and smoke leaping toward the palm.
“Please take care not to actually burn the tree,” Alton said. “Just be ready with your sling Alton and don’t worry about the tree,” I said.

The smoke and ash blew up into the air toward the top of the tree. Zorovar’s calculations were correct and soon the crown of the palm was enveloped in black smoke. After a minute the fronds started to shake and then the huge spider leaped out of the palm onto the many webs over the village making a scramble to the north. It was huge, at least ten feet in length. The webs strained under the weight of the huge spider. Yelling we all took after it, I flung my spear and missed while Alton fired with his sling and struck it.
“Fire away Alton!” I yelled.
The spider shifted directions as a web strand broke beneath it. Then without warning it tumbled 20 feet to the ground striking the side of a hut and falling into the dirt in front of us.

Yelling Galin and I ran forward to attack. I swung at the bulbous center of the spider and it danced out of the way. Galin swung and struck a leg weakly. Tenkar rushed up and swung and missed the spider as well. The spider rushed forward at me a bit down on my leg, to close to be hit with my sword I pushed at its head with my free hand feeling its coarse haired head in my hand. I felt a sharp sting on my leg as Galin stuck it from behind. The spider spun and moved toward Galin.
Looking down I could see a gash on my leg with mingled blood and venom spreading over my tunic. I could feel the poison burning in my leg. Well, hopefully the anti-venom I took earlier in the day was working I thought and advanced grimly after the spider.
The spider struck Galin and dragged him to the ground. Tenkar struck it in the head with a solid blow and I stabbed and struck it in the middle. The spider staggered backward from Galin who slumped to the ground.
“Olli, check on Galin,” I yelled and saw the apothecary nod and run toward the stricken cleric.
The spider dragged itself toward Tenkar who retreated slowly, waving at it to get its attention. As it turned it exposed its entire open side to me and I did not wait, slashing deeply with my sword. The spider thrashed almost dragging the sword from my hand. It pulled away from us but then curled up in a ball and stopped moving.

“Phew,” Tenkar said and rested his hands on his hips. “I thought you were not going to get the opening there for a moment, Cadfan.”
“Bravely, played Tenkar,” I said and nodded to the Dwarf who had provided the bait.
“Olli, how is Galin. I have some anti-venom if you need it,” I said worriedly. Olli shook his head and continued to clean the wound on Galin’s hip. “No need, he will pull through,” he said. I looked down at Galin. He was motionless and looked dead and his skin was a pasty grey colour.
“Or you sure Olli,” I asked.
“I am sure,” he said,”I am getting to be an expert on spider bites. He won’t be able to move for a day and he needs more treatment but he will survive.”
“We need to get back to the boat,” Alton said and pointed at the darkening sky. It was late afternoon and I had no desire to get caught out in the open after dark.
Tenkar and I picked up Galin between us and Alton lead the way back to the boat.

#

“Their coming,” Deakon called out from the boat. I looked up and saw Leo and Deakon waiting from the ramp onto the boat. Soon, Lyzasser’s head popped up smoking away at his pipe. He pulled the pipe out and knocked it on the boards. “I see you have met with some adventures again.”

The Dark Heart
Chapter 7: Descent

“So I see you have met with some adventure…”
Lyzasser’s words hung in the air the next morning. The night had been almost bearable in its coolness for the first time since we arrived in the Ameshti jungles. As if to give strength to Lyzasser’s incredulity at our stubbornness, Galin had clung on through the night and now Olli felt certain he would pull through. The fight within his body against the spider poison had drained him of his endurance and left him lying weakly on a bed of blankets on the deck of the boat. When we discussed our plans Galin voted to continue on against the spiders. On this day he would be remaining at the boat with Olli staying with him to administer healing salves.
To bolster our numbers Tenkar relented and agreed that his ward Deakon would join us today as we ventured into the spider-infested village once more. I glanced out into the jungles. They looked wet from yesterday’s rains but it actually did not feel too hot this morning.

“Perfect weather for killing spiders,” I thought to myself. “At least we will be comfortable if we have to run for it,” said Alton coming up alongside me on the rail of the boat. I nodded to the Halfling who seemed completely recovered from his own bout with spider poisoning.

As we geared up and headed into the jungle we could see the remains of a struggle just outside the perimeter that Lyzasser had set up around our landing point. Crushed and chopped up giant centipedes lay dead and scattered though out the tall grasses on the edge of the clearing. No obvious tracks were visible.
“Look there,” Zorovar pointed at a tall tree. Following his gaze I could see a piece of parchment pinned to the tree with a dart. Alton walked over and pulled it down. He looked over the parchment closely and then handed it to Zorovar.

“Looks like we have our answer from the kobolds,” he said without conviction. “What do they say?” I asked. “I have no idea,” shrugged Alton.

“Zorovar?” I asked. The mage looked up from the note and shook his head. “It is hard to say.” Zorovar puzzled over the note for a few more moments then silently handed it to me. It was the same piece of parchment that Galin had drawn up a day ago. Now wet and dirty from its time lying on the jungle floor. A new inscription had been added in one corner of the parchment. I had to assume it had been added by a Kobold in answer to our message. Unfortunately, the kobold artist was not particularly gifted. A figure held a spear pointed down at another shorter figure. This one could be assumed to be a kobold as it was a shorter figure with sharp teeth and pointed ears.

“Okay, I do not get there answer,” I said, “It looks like a man throwing a spear at a Kobold?” Leo leaned on my shoulder and looked at the parchment. I turned it toward him to give him a better look.

“That’s the note you left?” he smirked, “My grandfather could draw more clearly and he has been dead for the past decade!”
“It has pointy teeth,” Leo continued, pointing at one of the figures in the drawing, “Do we know anyone with pointy teeth?”
“I kind of assumed that was a kobold,” I said.

I handed the limp parchment to Tenkar who looked it over and shook his head, “Aye, I am confused too” he said then pocketed the parchment.

“Well there is no point in worrying about it, let’s get moving,” I indicated and pointed in the general direction of the village in the jungle. We drudged along the familiar path to the village. Only our own tracks from the day before were visible on the path. As we approached the web-shrouded village, Alton called a halt.

He nodded, “So which way this time?”
“I am partial to going straight for the palm tree in the center,” I said.

“I think we should go around in the same direction as last time,” Alton said. Zorovar and Tenkar nodded in agreement. “Okay, then,” I said and indicated Alton should lead the way.

Alton led the way along the north side of the village stopping near the hut with the dried fish in it. “Should we open the doors and close the deal with the kobolds,” he asked. I thought about it. It would not hurt but it probably would be a pointless gesture. “We don’t know that we have a deal.” I said. Alton nodded and moved ahead again turning south along the edge of the jungle.

Before reaching the ruins of the garden he stopped and raised his hand. We all stopped and waited. There were some rustling noises coming from the tree on the edge of the garden. Alton turned with a look of concern on his face and indicated with both hands that we should turn back.

“What?” I asked.
“Spiders!” Alton whispered as he joined us. I glanced back and saw brightly coloured spiders, the likes of which I had not seen before, emerge from the jungle. More spiders raced down the side of the tree to join them. As I watched, incredibly the two groups of spiders attacked each other.

Zorovar stopped in front of me looking back. “Hey, they are fighting amongst themselves!”
“Who cares, keep moving!” I yelled back and followed Alton into the supply hut we had investigated earlier. The rest of our group soon followed. Alton stood on a crate and looked out an open window. “There still at it. Looks like too opposing groups of spiders.” Alton and Leo continued to relay what was happening while the rest of us looked about the hut. It was cluttered with ropes, firewood, cloaks and debris.

“Hey Alton did you notice these cloaks earlier?” asked Zorovar. He picked up one of the heavy, brown coloured clocks and tried it on. Alton turned from the window and looked. “Ahhh, no I don’t remember seeing them last time. But I was in a hurry.”

Zorovar lifted his arms with the cloak on. “Strange, it is all padded for some reason.” I looked over at him as he indicated the padding inside the heavy cloak. “It is really hot; I am going to take it off.”
Leo looked in from the doorway as he stood just outside the hut. “Maybe there useful against spiders?”
Tenkar laughed at that suggestion and I had to smile. The cloaks were one mystery we were not likely going to solve. Alton picked up a Halfling sized cloak, looking at it. “I am going to take one with me.”

“What about the spiders,” I indicated. “Not to worry the fighting is over. One group went back into the jungle.” I got up and looked out the window. The spiders from the tree were dragging the dead spiders back up into their tree. This way around the village was looking decidedly dangerous.
“Maybe these cloaks are for fishing and they help you float,” Alton opinioned. “Well we’ll through you in and find out,” I said in jest. “A good idea,” Alton said seriously, “But let’s wait until tomorrow.” He packed the cloak away in his pack.
I shook my head at the crazy Halfling.

“I think we need to go straight under the webs and head for the center,” I said.
“Why? What is at the center of the village?” Leo asked.
“A big, huge magic palm tree,” Alton said. “What?” Leo said, obviously not believing the Halfling. “He might be right. It is a large, strange tree, no doubt,” I said. “We don’t want to go around by that battle we just saw so let’s go under the webs right here,” I said indicating the webs between the huts.
“Under it let’s go,” Alton said and slipped between and under the edge of the web canopy coming up on the other side. The rest of us followed and walked between the huts to the center of the village. On other side

I could see into huts empty of anything but small domestic items. As we came around to the cistern with the palm growing out of it I noticed that the remains of the spider we had killed was gone.
“Whoa!” Leo exclaimed. “That is one big palm.”
“Hey, Cad the spider remains are gone,” Alton said grimly looking at the spot where we had defeated the huge spider. I nodded indicating I had also noticed the clean-up. It seemed that the spiders were still about and active in the area.
“Well we checked every hut in this village now so the spider queen must be down in the hole,” I said with a point at the cistern.

“What now Tenkar?” Deakon asked.
“Now I think we climb down into the whole lad,” Tenkar said and peered over the edge into the hole. “I can’t see if anything is down there.”
Alton took a torch out his pack and struck a spark on his flint to light it. The torch burned fitfully and put off a lot of smoke, likely damp from the time in the jungle.
“Who wants to watch this drop,” he grinned. We all moved forward to watch and Alton tossed the torch into the cistern. The fire flickered as the torch dropped into the darkness. The walls of the cistern were lit briefly and then the torch stuck the bottom at least twenty feet down and bounced back up five feet before dropping back down and coming to a rest.
“That’s odd, it seems to have bounced!” Alton said. The Halfling scratched his head then pulled another torch out of his pack. “Well let’s see what a second torch does.” He lit another torch and tossed it to the other side of the cistern. The torch bounced off the cistern wall and fell a good twenty-five feet before hitting the bottom and going out.

“Perhaps I can affect the situation with a little arcane fire,” Zorovar mused. I turned to the mage, “No we just climb down, save your magic.”

“You could end up like a worm on a hook,” Zorovar suggested. “Perhaps someone else has tried this and never returned,” he just shrugged his shoulders. “But then I have been known to be wrong on an occasion or cowardly.”
Leo started rummaging in his pack, producing a battered storm lantern. “Hey break out one of those ropes, I have an idea,” he said. “We can tie my lantern to a rope and dangle it down in the hole.”
Tenkar turned away from the cistern and addressed the group, “This is the closest thing we have come to so far to tunnels, why don’t we just lower me down.”

“No, I like Leo’s idea,” I said, “At least we should give it a try.”
Tenkar nodded and helped Leo with tying the rope. Leo lit the lantern and lowered it over the side of the cistern. We all turned our backs on the jungle and watched the lantern descend lighting the darkness of the cistern. As it neared the bottom we could see the floor of the cistern was actually thickly covered with webs. On either side of the cistern was a ledge in front of dark openings.

“Look there, ledges and I think a tunnel as well,” Alton said.
“I think a tunnel calls for dwarven eyes, lower me down into this hole,” Tenkar said.

“Or I could go, I am lighter,” Alton said.
After a brief conversation we decided it would be best if Alton was the one to descend into the cistern. Tenkar and Leo grabbed the rope and lowered away while, Deakon and Zorovar peered intently over the side of the cistern. I drew my sword and watched the jungle wary for attack.
“Lower away,” Alton said and dropped over the side of the pit. I kept my eyes on the jungle and scanned the village quickly. Everything was quiet accept for the occasional grunt of exertion from Leo. Now would be a bad time for the spiders or the kobolds to attack.

“The ropes gone slack, I think he has moved into the tunnel,” Leo said. So far it looked like Alton was staying out of trouble. Just then I heard a yell from Alton echoing up the cistern.
“Get him out of there!” Zorovar yelled. Tenkar and Leo gripped the rope and stated to pull it up.

“No, wait!” Alton yelled up to us.

Zorovar leaned over the cistern to catch more of what the Halfling was yelling at us. “He says he was startled by some statue in the tunnel. He thought it was real at first.”
“He wants us to swing him over to the tunnel,” Zorovar said. Tenkar and Leo grunted and started swinging the rope to get the Halfling over the ledge in front of the tunnel.
We all heard a rumbling noise from below. Zorovar and Deakon leaned over the cistern edge. The rope had gone slack so Tenkar and Leo peered over as well. I stopped watching the jungles and came over to the edge. As we waited, straining to hear, from out of the darkness came Alton voice echoing up the shaft.
“There is some kind of stone figure but something is moving behind it and it just roared! Either get down here or get me out of here!”

I ran over and grabbed the end of the rope Tenkar was holding.

“Pull him up!” Zorovar yelled from the other side of the cistern. I started pulling and Leo and Tenkar pulled along with me on the rope which ascended rapidly up out of the cistern.
“Ouch!” Alton yelled as he shot out of the cistern and landed in a heap on the ground. He looked none the worse for wear with a few scrapes and bumps. Alton sat up and brushed off the sleeves of his tunic.

“Next time more than one of us is going down at the same time!” Alton sputtered. We all clamored at Alton to let us know what happened in the cistern. “There was a stone figure in the tunnel. It startled me at first. But it was just a statue of a frightened villager. Then just past the figure I saw a huge, winged beast that roared and came toward me,” Alton said breathlessly.

“And then,” Tenkar asked.
“And then I got out of there as fast as possible!” the Halfling said. Tenkar let out a low chuckle or maybe it was a snort. Alton whirled and looked at the dwarf but his face was again controlled.
“Well, next time I am not the only one going down!” Alton said with conviction. The Halfling got up fully and brushed off the remaining dirt. He lingered over a rip in his tunic pushing his fingers through the fabric.
“Alright,” I said, “this time let’s drop a bunch of ropes over the side and descend together.” Zorovar and Leo nodded in agreement. “Probably on the other side of the cistern,” I added. Looking at the cistern’s edge I could see that there were four holes that would take posts that we could tie ropes off onto.
“We are going to need more rope,” I said.

“I have rope back at the boat,” Alton said. “No. We have some closer,” I said. “Alton go back to the hut with the fishing supplies and gather up as much rope as you can find and some stout poles we can use in these holes to tie them off,” I said indicating the four strange post holes around the edge of the cistern. Two of the holes were over the ledge at the bottom of the right hand side of the cistern so we could avoid the side with the creature. I had a bad feeling in the back of my mind what sort of creature this was. It was one that could turn a villager to stone.

“Okay, who is with me, Leo?” Alton asked Leo. “Sure,” Leo said with a nod, “Make sure nothing, big, ugly and scary comes up the hole while we’re gone.” He picked up his pack and put it on. “I don’t wanna miss out on the fun,” he said with a smile.

Alton and Leo moved off quickly under the webs to the hut with the fishing supplies on the north side of the village. I waited for their return at the edge of the cistern. There was no movement and no more sound coming from the depths of the hole in the ground.

Alton and Leo soon returned with several long lengths of rope piled up in their packs. They dumped it on the ground at the edge of the cistern and we picked up the four lengths that looked the most durable. I pushed wooden poles into each of the emplacements and we started tying off ropes to each of the posts. Once it was done we dropped the four ropes into the cistern. Two ropes on each side.
“Why put ropes on that side if we are going to go down on the other side,” Deakon asked Tenkar. “In case we need to get out in a hurry, lad. You don’t want to have to wait for someone to scramble up ahead of you!” Tenkar said.

“Okay who is going first?” Alton asked. We all took stock of one another and it was decided that as the best climber Leo would go and Tenkar would join him. The dwarf seemed anxious to get underground and out of the stifling heat of the jungle. The two grasped the ropes and descended out of sight.
“Zorovar, you and I are up next,” I said to the mage. He nodded and tightened his pack straps.
I looked down into the darkness. The ropes had stopped jerking about so it appeared Leo and Tenkar had reached the bottom.

“East corridor is a dead end. Goes in 20, 25 paces,” Leo called back up. “Might be a secret door, but it does not look promising,” I heard Tenkar yell.
“Should we come down?” I called. There was no answer, so I shrugged and grabbed and rope checking to make sure Zorovar was following on the other rope. The mage was mumbling something under his breath. Then he pulled a charm out of a pocket and kissed it before grasping the rope and swinging awkwardly over into the cistern. “Here we go,” he muttered and descended.

I followed closely on the other rope keeping an eye on the descending mage who seemed to be doing fine. The walls of the cistern were dryer then I had expected. Once I had dropped out of the direct sunlight I was greeted by a refreshing drop in temperature. The ropes creaking loudly were the only sound as we descended. Leo had lit his lantern and stood on the ledge so I could clearly see the huge trunk of the palm and the bed of webbing covering the bottom of the cistern. The webs were covered with dirt and palm fronds making them an impenetrable block to the bottom of the cistern.
Leo held the bottom of Zorovar’s rope and helped the mage onto the ledge while I hopped down the finally few feet to stand beside them.

“Where is Tenkar?” I asked. “He’s gone into the tunnel to scout ahead,” Leo pointed into the darkness in front of us. I looked off into the darkness. There was no sign of the dwarf.
The ropes started moving again as Deakon and Alton began clambering down to join us. Tenkar came out of the darkness of the tunnel. “Anything?” asked Leo.

“Looks like we have a side passage heading north,” the dwarf said. “Good!” Alton called out from above. “Then we don’t have to face that beast in the tunnel,” he said as he joined us on the ledge.
“I’ve been thinking,” I said, “I think it is a basilisk and that statue is a victim!”

“Well than we should go this way,” Alton said and moved off down the tunnel. “Let me check this tunnel out for signs,” he added.
“What are you looking for, food crumbs,” laughed Leo.
“I just want to check if anyone has come this way recently,” Alton replied. He moved off ahead in the darkness examining the floor of the corridor with his keen sight.
“Anything Alton,” I said as I moved with the rest of the group to catch up with the Halfling. I heard a twang like a bow being loosened and then there was the roar of a cave in. A huge cloud of dust blanketed us and spread down the corridor. Leo raised a finger pointing at the ceiling, “Watch out rocks,” he said half-heartedly.

Alton emerged from the cloud of dust, caked in grey powder. “Yeah thanks, Leo. You have been most helpful.” He shook himself like a wet dog and great heaps of dirt flew off. “I think I stepped on a trap. I felt a stone shift under my foot right before the rocks tumbled down.”
I looked through the clearing cloud of debris. The opening for the tunnel in the wall of the corridor was still clear. If anything it looked a little wider now. Any chance of surprise or spotting tracks on the floor was of course gone now. There was nothing to do now but push on.

“Maybe Tenkar should lead?” I asked. Alton looked at Tenkar. “I am good with traps up above in the forests and jungles but down here I am at a bit of a disadvantage,” Alton said.
“I might be able to notice something suspicious in stonework, but traps? I am not so sure,” Tenkar said. He readied his axe as if to attack any offending traps in the tunnel.
“I have keen eyes. I can lead the way,” Leo offered. “Works for me, thanks Leo,” Alton said. I looked questioningly at Leo and Tenkar but did not object. Leo moved up and pushed some of the fallen debris aside and stepped into the tunnel. The tunnel was narrow and apparently of natural formation, widened by tools. It would be single file going forward.

“I’ll come last,” I declared and looked behind at the cistern. Light flowed into the corridor from the cistern. Soon we would be in darkness.
“Damn, right you will,” Zorovar said as he hurried past me. “This wizard is not going to end up as spider bait!”
Alton, Tenkar and Deakon followed Leo into the tunnel. Zorovar and I were the last to enter. Soon the only light we had was that provided by Leo’s lantern at the front of our group. I had to sheath my weapons and keep my hands out in front feeling the walls to avoid falling or running into something.

The tunnel stretched out for hundreds of yards on a fairly level pace. Occasional cracks and crevices lead off from the path but nothing wide enough for a Halfling to slip through. We walked along in silence the only noise the occasional slip and fall of one of the clumsy humans. Down here in the dark, Tenkar and Deakon were in their element and moved silently and confidently.

Leo called out from ahead, “It’s nice for a change of pace, less spider webs.. uh oh.” In front of me Zorovar stopped suddenly and I bumped into his pack. “What is it,” I whispered.
“No one move,” I heard Leo say from somewhere up in front. After an interminable delay Leo spoke again. “There’s a tripwire here a foot above the floor. I put a cloth underneath it. Make sure you step over the cloth!”

I shuffled forward and stopped again to allow Zorovar to step over a white cloth resting on the floor of the tunnel. On my turn I stepped high over the cloth. I could not see the tripwire but thankfully my feet encountered no resistance. Once over the tripwire I realized we had entered a large, natural cavern. The light from Leo’s lantern shone out illuminating the walls and floor. It looked to be about 15 paces across. The rest of the group had spread out and were busy exploring the cavern.

Alton stood in the center of the cavern looking up. I followed his gaze and saw nothing but inky darkness. “What is it Alton?”
“There is an opening in the ceiling, about twenty feet above our heads,” he said. I walked over to stand beside Alton and looked up. I still could not see anything. Tenkar moved over to stand alongside us as well and he looked up.

“Heh,” the dwarf mumbled.
“Lads, that hole has been widened. And there are ledges along the sides.” I looked harder but I still could not see anything. I did hear movement from above. I could hear a sort of skittering sound.
“I can hear something moving up there,” I said.

Everyone joined us under the hole as we all looked up. There was no purchase, no steps or handholds to get up to the hole.
“Let’s leave, I don’t see any way for us to get up there,” I said. Leo shone the lantern over our heads, I just could make out the shaft and the ledges the keener eyed Tenkar had seen. “Back the way we came?” asked Leo. I nodded without looking down.
“Let’s go then,” Tenkar said. Apparently the dwarf was also eager to be out of the strange cavern.
“Watch the wire again. I don’t wanna be killed on the way out of here,” Leo reminded us.

It was a quicker retracing our route as we did not expect danger and I think we were all looking forward to seeing the sun again. Soon Leo called out in relief, “Were here!” We were back in the corridor leading to the cistern. The sun was still casting its light into the cistern so apparently it was still not too late in the day to continue exploring.

“Well do we deal with that winged thing or do we go back up to the village?” Alton asked the group. I thought the obvious next step was to confront the basilisk. I looked about and apparently everyone else was thinking the same thing. As a group we were not done yet.

“Do you guys still have the invisibility potions?” Zorovar asked. I reached into my belt pouch and showed the crystal vial to Zorovar. Alton also produced a vial from his pouch. The potions were a gift from the apothecary back in town.

“Good. I have a plan,” Zorovar said, “But I will need your potion Cadfan.” I handed the potion over to Zorovar and Alton moved to do the same. But the mage held up his hand. “No. Keep it Alton,” he said, “You’re part of my plan as well.” Alton eyed the mage with some suspicion. “Let me guess. I am the bait?” he said. “Something like that,” Zorovar said with a smile.
“I’ll try to knock this fellow out with a sleep spell while you distract him,” he said. Alton seemed to accept the plan as he drew his sword and stepped gingerly out onto the webs. The webs held his weight easily without even swaying. He moved across rapidly to the other side and stood on the ledge.

“Well if he can make it…” Leo said and he stepped lightly out onto the webs as well. They held and Leo moved across to join Alton. “Ahh… it’s holding, but a little shaky. Come across one at a time.”
I nodded and stepped out onto the webs to join them. The webs gave a little under my feet like the rotten roof of a smoke house back in Brecon. Hopefully, they held I smiled recalling falling through a roof one summer. I shook my head to concentrate on the present and stepped carefully one foot over the next. At the middle I clutched onto the palm before stepping out again. The webs held and were surprisingly not sticky unlike the webs we had encountered earlier in the village. Once I made the ledge I turned and pressed my back against the stone of the cistern. Looking across I waved Zorovar over. He made it without incident followed by the two dwarves. Once we were all gathered on the ledge, Alton turned and said,

“Zorovar let’s get in there. I’ll get behind it and throw something and then you cast on it.”
Zorovar nodded and unstopped the vial of potion. I grabbed his arm to stop him. “Once you cast I think the potion well fail and you will be visible.” Zorovar nodded and drank the potion down. Almost instantly he vanished from sight. I turned to look for Alton but he had also already vanished.

Leo stepped into the corridor and shone the lantern forward. In the light we could see a very lifelike statue of a fleeing villager caught in the pose of running toward us. There was a look of terror on his face. Somewhere ahead was the creature and our two invisible friends. Ahead I heard a loud, rumbling roar come down the tunnel. Perhaps it could smell that we were here.

“That… isn’t a good sign,” Leo whispered as he pointed at the statue.

Tenkar and I rushed forward to help and I stumbled against something in the corridor. Looking down I could see nothing. Tenkar also seemed to have been stopped. “I think I just kicked Alton,” the dwarf said. I felt ahead with my hands but whatever or whoever had been there had moved on. Tenkar moved ahead. Behind me the light from the lantern shone into the corridor. Leo must be right behind me with the lantern held high I thought.

“Somnus!” I heard shouted from my right. Tenkar groaned and fell to the floor. His axe fell from his limp hands and bounced across the floor. Ahead and herd another thump of someone hitting the floor. To my right Zorovar appeared out of thin air a look to triumph on his face as he looked toward the beast.

Leo yelled something and shone the lantern over my shoulder. Rising up in the light from the lantern was a huge, grey beast with three heads and flapping wings. The spell had not affected it. I held up my sword and braced for the attack but the creature held back, roaring and flapping its wings clumsily. There was something stiff about its movements, like it was injured. Thinking that it was cowed by our appearance and perhaps I could scare it, I yelled a challenge and moved forward cautiously.

The huge beast stood its ground and let out another rumbling roar like stones rolled along a floor. Like stone I thought then looked more closely at the clumsy, stiffly moving wings that repeated the same two flapping motions. The heads stood frozen and the eyes of the beast were dull. Cursing under my breath I stepped forward and sheathed my sword.

“It’s a fake!” I yelled with disgust.

“Are you sure,” Zorovar called out. I walked the last five paces up to the stone beast and tapped it on the flanks with a dagger. The beast rang out with a sold stone sound. “Pretty sure,” I said and turned my back on it. Leo stepped forward slowly. He stepped over the sleeping dwarf and moved up shining the lantern. In the bright light it was now clear that it was just a large, cleverly designed statue with moving wings. After a few moments it stopped moving. Apparently it was triggered by our presence in the corridor.

“Zorovar, can you wake up Tenkar,” I said indicating the loudly snoring dwarf. Zorovar leaned down and slapped the dwarf in the face twice before his eyes fluttered open.
“Who hit me,” demanded the dwarf. “Zorovar did. It was all for naught,” I said pointing at the motionless beast. Tenkar rolled to his knees and cast his eyes at the beast, “Damn!”

I looked around at everyone. We were one short. “Everyone, look around for Alton. He’s taking a nap here somewhere,” I said angrily.

I have gotten behind on posting our exploits. As you may have noted writing is not something I am particularly talented at and I have found it more of a chore as we went on. But with the chapter closing and are group moving on I wanted to at least finish off this story. So without further off topic conversation I gave you the final chapter of The Dark Heart!

_________________________

Cadfan leaned back from the table enjoying the taste of the ale as is settled in his stomach. After weeks in the jungle covered in bug bites and menaced by giant spiders this was the life. Most of the cuts and bruises had healed with a good few nights rest in a bed.
“Where did it come from?” asked the fat merchant from Cauldron sitting across from Cadfan.
“How did you do it?” another curious local merchant asked. Cadfan looked about the table, Alton had apparently dozed off, Tenkar was over by the bar and Leo and Zorovar were no where around. He was the center of attention just as he liked it. It was time to give the paying public a good tale.
“Well...,” Cadfan mused thoughtfully while looking meaningfully at his empty flagon. The merchant took the hint and purchased another flagon from the passing barmaid. Cadfan gave a quick accounting of how the adventurers had located the caves beneath the well in the center of the village and their encounter with the fake dragon.
“After our misadventure with the false beast we explored a few rooms full of crates and sacks of rotting flour and the like. Then we entered a more natural cave full of spider-webs,” Cadfan explained.
“And the Spider Queen was there,” the merchant asked eagerly.
“No, no you are getting ahead of the story. First we had to fight past her guards,” Cadfan explained.
“Guards?”
“Yes, picture hundreds of spiders the size of dogs swarming out of the ground, it was touch and go there for a while,” Cadfan said his thoughts going back to that terrible battle...

##

Alton picked his way carefully through the webs along the south wall of the cavern. Reaching the corpse suspended among the webbing he carefully cut it away from the webs with his shortsword.
“It’s Galin!” he said turning to us.
“Look out, spiders!” Leo cried out.
As I watched dozens of dark, black spiders the size of attack dogs swarmed into the cave through the western opening. Tenkar stood firm for a moment and then was knocked to the dirt floor covered in spiders. Alton went down next and Leo ran back toward the entrance.
I grimly walked forward, planted me feet on squirming spiders and began to swing my broadsword crushing spiders with every blow making my way toward the fallen dwarf.

“Hold on. That’s not what happened at all!”

Cadfan was rudely pulled out of the moment as the merchant turned to Leo who had walked up behind the storyteller.
“I suppose you can tell it better,” Cadfan snorted.
“I sure can, if I recall it was my use of fire which saved the day,” Leo asserted.
“Don’t forget my magic cat,” Alton added sleepily.
“Magic Cat?” the merchant asked looking to the sleepy Halfling.
Cadfan waved them off angrily. “Okay, okay, I was just trying to make the story more interesting!”
“Where was I,” Cadfan added and launched again into his tale...

Dozens of black spiders swarmed into the darkened chamber. Leo retreated quickly out of their reach but Tenkar and I were overwhelmed with spiders. Both of us stood our ground and hacked desperately at the spiders.
A yellow egg sailed over my shoulder and burst in a cloud of dust. Alton had thrown the repellent egg but missed the spiders which now simply avoided the area where it had landed.
“Look out!” Leo yelled and hurled a burning flask of oil at the south wall. The flask shattered and spread flaming oil all over the cave wall and floor catching several spiders in its area. The spiders thrashed about on fire then went still.
From the corner of my eye I could see Alton move up beside me and swing with his sword and break it on the stone floor. Cursing the Halfling moved back out of the way and reached into his pack. He pulled out a small ball and threw it at the floor near the dwarf. Suddenly, a black cat appeared at the Dwarves feet where the ball had been.
“What the hell!” I yelled.
“She’s here to help Cad! Don’t kill her!” Alton shouted.
Turning back to the spiders I swung my sword and killed another spider in a single blow. The remaining spiders were chased out of the cave through the exit to the west by the cat which promptly vanished.
Leo lowered his bow and checked himself for wounds, “At least we know they’re here now. And they truly don’t like fire.”
Tenkar pulled himself to his feet. He began chanting a prayer to regain his health. The dwarf was covered with scratches and bites but appeared ready to move on.
“Not a scratch,” I said with a laugh indicating my good luck in the most recent battle to the dwarf. Tenkar looked me up and down and snorted, “There’s still plenty of time.”
Looking at the cave entrance before us I motioned to Leo and Alton to move up to the exit from the cave. Beyond was a much larger cavern. Leo stopped and gave Alton a sword to replace his broken one.
“What about Galin,” Alton asked.
“Poor fellow, as a matter of fact, my father and his were good friends. They worked together, them blacksmithing, my father touching up their wares with silver. Always a friendly little competition. His father is going to be heartbroken,” Leo said quietly.

I stepped into the cavern and was about to ask for more light when I saw a horrifying sight before us. My comments were swallowed up as I made a choking sound. Before us was a huge cavern dominated by a truly enormous spider. This was obviously the Queen of the spiders. She looked to be fully, 10 feet high and 20 feet in diameter. Her fangs were the size of longswords and dripped with green ichor.
“You still have that stunning egg, Alton?” I asked and looked anxiously at the Halfling. Alton swallowed and looked wide-eyed at the monstrous spider before him. He clutched his pack in his hand fumbling with the straps as he reached into it.
“Oh yeah, one repellent egg and one toxic egg,” he said grimly, “I also have the spider lasso thing we got in town.”
“Well I think we are going to need it,” I shouted. Time to buy some time for Alton I thought and I moved bravely forward to challenge the spider-queen. The spider noticed the intrusion and slowly disengaged itself from the webbing. Eight long legs set themselves on the cavern floor and the spider moved forward with surprising speed. It moved forward and was atop of me in mere moments. I swung my sword at it but it brushed the blow aside with a seemingly armour-plated leg.
From my left Leo lit a pot of oil and threw it at the spider queen but again a leg brushed it aside and it burst open in flames right at my feet. I was forced to jump aside to avoid the flames and it took me out of the path of the oncoming spider. The queen continued past me and bore down on Alton, Leo and Tenkar at the entrance to the cavern.
Alton finally pulled an egg from his backpack and hurled it at the spider queen. She ignored it as she swung a hind leg at me but I ducked and it whistled over my head. The egg struck her in the middle of the thorax and released a cloud of yellow gas. Within moments the spider rolled on its back and curled its legs up around its body protectively. Soon it was not moving at all.
Leo quickly dropped his backpack to the ground and pulled out a large net. “Here use this we’ll be able to restrain it easier in this,” he shouted to us, “We need to tie up the spider with everything we got. The idea of this thing waking up suddenly doesn’t make me comfortable.”
We quickly went about restraining the spider, covering it with nets and tying them securely with ropes. Carefully they tied the spider’s legs tightly to its body. I walked about the spider carefully checking and tightening each knot in the ropes.
“It’s waking up!” Alton shouted and everyone leaped back from the spider as it struggled weakly in the ropes. The nets and ropes seemed to hold and the spiders fangs were unable to open and strike.
Grabbing the loose ropes we started dragging the spider from the chamber. At the exit it got stuck and Leo was forced to put on some gloves and push while we pulled it through the opening.
Alton stopped to look over the cavern, “There are a few bodies hung up in the webbing and some boxes. Check them later?”
“We can come back, we need to get this thing in a cage immediately!” I shouted at the Halfling.
After dragging and pushing the spider for a hundred feet of caves we finally reached the well.
“How are we going to get big and scary up the shaft,” I said tiredly. My arms and back ached from the strain of dragging the spider. The spider was awake but after a brief fit of thrashing about seemed to be conserving its strength and was no loner testing the ropes that held it. It had not made things easy for us, expanding to plug every narrow point in the caves so we had to strain to drag it through. Now a new challenge awaited us. Getting the spider up the well shaft was going to require a lot of work.

“Alton, what’s going on?” The adventurers looked up and saw Zorovar peering over the top of the shaft.
“We have the queen captures and tied up, but she is waking up. Can you do your magicky thing and put her back to sleep?” Alton asked. Zorovar chanted a spell and cast it at the spider but it seemed to have no effect and the spider resumed its thrashing. I raised my sword threateningly near the mult-eyed head of the spider hoping to cow it but it seemed to ignore me.
“Everyone get up top and drop some ropes so I can tie off the nets,” I said looking around at the situation. Leo stopped and looked tiredly up the shaft then looked at me. “Want me up top or down here?”
We would definitely need Tenkar and Leo up top as the strongest two of our group so I responded,“I think we are going to need your muscles up top Leo.”
Leo muttered something under his breath but grabbed a rope and began ascending the shaft behind Tenkar and Alton.
Taking the ropes tossed down from above I carefully made them secure to the nets holding the spider-queen. Once I had everything secure I called up for the hauling to begin. The ropes strained and the spider started moving up the shaft. I followed at a safe distance on the side of the shaft checking the strength of the knots holding the net together. Suddenly, one rope failed or slipped from the hands of one of the haulers above and the spider was let go without warning. I turned and hugged the shaft wall as the spider plummeted past me dangerously close. I continued to hold onto to the side of the shaft as I heard a loud splash from far below.
“Ohh, crap!” I shouted and looked below. A huge hole in the webs at the bottom of the shaft marked where the spider had disappeared to. Splashing sounds could be heard echoing up the shaft. Apparently there was water at the bottom of the well shaft.
Alton called down, “Sounds like she got wet... and now she is super-pissed.”
“Is everyone okay down there? Aside from the spider that is?” called Leo.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Send down a lantern on a rope,” I responded. Leo sent a lantern down attached to the end of a long rope. The lantern was already lit so I climbed down to the webs and then carefully lowered the lantern through the hole the spider had made in them. A good 40 to 50 feet below I could see the spider struggling on the surface of water which filled the well. Surprisingly, the spider looked unharmed and the ropes appeared to have held. How long the spider could stay above the water was another question.

I called up to the others to let them know the situation and to suggest that they climb down to help rescue the prize from the bottom of the well. There was some discussion at the top and then I could see Alton and Olli climbing down to join me.
Alton crawled out on the webs and leaned dangerously out over the opening in the webs. “I can see the spider. She is thrashing about and is floating somewhat,” he said.
After a quick discussion on what to do next, Alton volunteered to climb down and get the ropes used for hauling the spider up the shaft. He slid down the rope holding the lantern until he was right above the spider floating in the water.
“Don’t get too close, just grab a couple of ropes,” I shouted to Alton from the safety of the webs high above. Alton nodded and got to work grabbing the all of the loose ropes he could reach. Tying the ropes to his belt he climbed back up to the webbing to stand beside Olli and I.
The three of us grabbed the ropes and with much straining started pulling the spider up out of the water and onto the webbing. As soon as it reached the webbing the spider made a new, concerted effort to break free and some of the ropes were apparently loosened by the fall. Alton leaped onto the back of the spider and held some of the ropes together. Following Alton’s lead I rushed forward and began retying the knots and pulling them tight.
“Hurry up Cad!!” Alton shouted desperately, “I cannot hold her much longer!”
Once I finished securing the knots and signalled to Alton and the Halfling quickly leaped off of the spider. Looking over at him I could see Alton was okay but exhausted lying on the stone ledge.
Now it was time to try again. Once he had his wind back Alton led the climb back out to the jungle carrying the ropes. Olli and I also joined him. All of us then grabbed the ropes and pulled the spider up the well and out into the ground level of the jungle.
One the spider was secure out of the well we all stopped and took a breather. The spider was also apparently exhausted as it sat motionless in the nets. The jungle around us was becoming dark and alive with noise. After a brief argument on what to do next we decided not to make camp next to a giant spider. Instead we would drag it immediately to the boat.
“Maybe a few of us should stay behind to guard the site?” Alton asked. After a quick discussion it was decided we could always return the next day and we began dragging the spider off to the boat.

##

“And that was about it,” Cadfan told the merchant and the crowd of townspeople who had crowded around the table to hear the tale. Even the barmaids had stopped serving and joined the crowd. The innkeeper came over and motioned for the barmaids to get back to work.
“We travelled back to town without any real incident,” Cadfan finished.
“So you just left the contents of the spider-queen’s lair unopened,” a young townsperson added with a look of interest in his eyes.
Leo quickly chimed in, “No, of course not. We went back the next day and carried everything out while we left the spider safely in a cage on the boat!”
“You left out the best part,Oba!” Leo said with a laugh. Alton echoed Leo sleepily, “Oba, Oba”.
“Hmm, what is this about Cadfan?” the merchant asked with a look of interest. Cadfan patted his stomach, than got up from the table. “Ask Leo, I have told my tale, and now it is time for supper.”
The crowd turned and looked at Leo with interest.
Leo looked into his empty flagon pointedly and one of the merchants called out, “Barmaid, fill this man’s drink.”
Leo turned to the crowd.
“So, during my watch that night, we were approached by two canoes which were carrying primitive, savage Halflings!” he said with flourish.
“Hey, watch it,” Alton said coming fully awake.
“Don’t worry I won’t leave out your part,” added Leo as he launched into the tale.