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Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)


Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Not really. There's another big colony a couple dozen miles from here, and a few smaller ones scattered around. They're harmless as long as you don't accidentally stumble into the web." Jason says, stopping for a moment as his words trail off: "Although this one is supposed to be a couple hundred meters left from here..."
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Could it be a new colony?" Natalie asked, eyeing the clump of gigantic spiders. "You're not lost are you?"
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"They don't - they're not supposed to form this quickly." Jason answers, frowning. "Would be the first time I've gotten lost in this forest for a long time. Do you want to see the other colony or do we keep going?"

Mat looks at the colony, muttering to himself and picks up a stick, breaking it so it's as long as his arm and tries to gauge the size of the web. "About twenty feet across, I'd say. That's a lot of spiders."
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Well... If it's only a short detour, lets go check the other one. Maybe something forcibly displaced it," Natalie suggested. She nodded to Mat's approximation, shivering slightly. "So many, and they're so big... What do they even eat?"
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

Jason takes Natalie to the site of the former colony. The web is still there, though badly damaged and apparently abandoned: it looks like something big crashed through it. Unlike the other one, this one is near the ground, and as evidenced by the large number of insects and birds, some of which are still moving, it was probably abandoned days ago. There are still several blackened stains on the ground, which Jason is quick to spot. Kneeling down, he pokes one of them with a finger and breaks off a piece of it. "Blood. I'd say something big fell through the web and hurt itself in the process. It's a wonder it didn't get stuck for good, though."
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Must have been something big then... I'm guessing that nothing you'd normally find around here would be big enough to cause this kind of damage and just walk away?" Natalie said, frowning. Eyeing the blood stain, she tries to follow its path, and if she could she would ask; "Think you can try and track it?"
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"A bear? The adults don't normally climb trees, though." Jason replies, eyeing the damage. "Must be at least a day old. Two or three days I'd say, since it takes a while for the spiders to migrate and build a new web. I can try tracking it, but it's going to be tricky. Seems to be headed towards the mine."

There's no trail of blood, but for 200 yards Jason follows the tracks - a broken branch here, torn undergrowth here, a strange footprint on soft clay as they cross a small stream - until they come to a large tree, with bark punctured by large claws in several places going up. "I don't think we're going to follow it any further. Unless you feel like climbing." Jason says, looking up.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Must have been one of the things we're looking for," Natalie muttered speculatively, a hand planted on her hips once they'd followed the trail. She went to examine the claw marks leading up the tree, frowning. "Bears around here don't climb, right? Lets keep heading towards the mine."
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

The thick canopy makes it easy to lose track of the sun, but it has been at least an hour more before they arrive at the mine. There are several large webs, all without inhabitants, near the entrance. In fact, the entire forest seems quieter near the mine. There are remains of several rotting houses nearby, all covered by the forest by now, but the mine entrance remains clear of vegetation.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Hmmm.... This place has been abandoned a while looks like... Alright.... Lets see here.... Mat, keep a lookout. Jason, find us someplace to camp. Not too far, but not too close either. Try not to get farther than a hundred meters from the mine entrance if you can, and make it somewhere secluded," Natalie instructed after taking a moment to peer around, looking for someplace to set up her jars.

Ultimately, she would climb onto one of the abandoned buildings that had line of sight to the mine entrance and hide the jar somewhere that it could see but would be mostly hidden from sight, at least from the ground. The other she set near a tree in some bushes, making sure that it could see while being covered enough that the moonlight wouldn't glint off of it. With her spy jars placed, Natalie would meander over to the mine entrance, scanning her gaze over the webs present briefly before peering into the dark. She was tempted to summon an orb of light to help illuminate the thing a bit and get a better look, but that might alert what lay within to her presence.

Unless something else happened, Natalie would wait for Jason to return and lead them to where they would set up for observation. It was going to be a long night and she was going to need some coffee to get through it, but otherwise she would have Mat set up the mirror and recast her spell and begin looking through the eyes, making sure to test it thoroughly before night fell in full. That was assuming, of course, that their guide returned in a timely manner...
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

Mat keeps watch while Jason nods and slips away, vanishing out of sight almost immediately. The wooden construction is slippery with mould and as Natalie gets on the roof, her foot goes right through the rotting thatch. Covering the jar with thatch she almost slips and falls on her way down. The other jar she hides in a bush where it can see whatever would come out of the entrance.

As she peeks into the entrance, Natalie can hear a faint moaning sound just at the edge of her hearing.

Were she to stay and wait, Jason returns in a few minutes, ready to guide her and Mat to the campsite, some 80 meters uphill, well beyond the sight of anyone on the mine and at a flat albeit rocky spot, surrounded by bushes.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

Natalie went still as she heard the moaning, trying to listen better. Once she was sure that it wasn't just her hearing things, she would glance back at Mat, and then creep forward into the mine entrance, being careful to avoid the webs. As the darkness grew thick, she would try to use magic to enhance her vision to avoid conjuring a light, but if that didn't work would summon an orb of light instead. She would proceed with extreme care, making sure to watch both the floor and the ceiling, looking for webs or lines and trying to keep in cover. If she could, she would try to find the source of the moaning, but if she met a split in the path or something difficult or dangerous to pass she would opt to turn back to the entrance.

If she returned unmolested, she would set up her mirror spell again and wait, just as planned.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

The mine entrance itself is free of webs, but the light fades quickly, leaving Natalie in the dark. Though she doesn't know a spell of true dark vision, Natalie manages a trickle of magic into her eyes with a pair of basic runes. After a moment of dizziness, she can see the walls and the floor, albeit her vision is blurry and lacking in colours. The tunnel continues a good fifty meters, gently sloping downwards until she arrives to a chamber perhaps fifteen meters across. Multiple smaller tunnels branch out from the main one, which continues ever downwards in a straight line. In the middle of the chamber Natalie can see a woman's figure, her feet attached to the ceiling two and half meters above the rough and uneven floor, and her back turned towards Natalie. She doesn't seem to have heard her coming, and every now and then she lets out a loud moan.
 
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Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

At the end of the tunnel, Natalie carefully crept forward and peeked around. She couldn't see well, only vague shapes and the like, but the spell allowed her to view a woman in what seemed to be a central chamber in the mines, with numerous side paths branching off from the main one. There she found the source of the moans, a woman, though she couldn't have described her given the lack of color or detail she was forced to use. She was suspended from the ceiling seemingly upside down, and Natalie couldn't tell what was being done to her to cause the noises she was emitting.

For a moment she stood in indecision, not sure what to do, but then steeled herself inwardly. This was what she'd come to find out, and while helping the locals was a secondary goal to acquiring samples... If she could ascertain what was happening here, it might give her an idea of what she was dealing with. And, to do that, she would need to be able to see. Closing her eyes, Natalie mentally prepared herself and then unleashed another bit of magic, creating a bright flare of light and launching it into the room, letting her eyes adjust for a second before opening them and trying to get a better look at what was going on.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

The bright light reveals a barren chamber with roughly hewn floor and walls, as well as the pale woman who seems to be stuck to the ceiling by some kind of webbing that also binds her arms to her sides. With the light Natalie can also see a bulbous figure in one of the tunnels, half-man half spider, with skin as black as obsidian and elven ears. In his hands he carries a net and a trident, though right now he seems to be at least partially blinded by the bright light. Another tunnel seems to contain a trio of squat, draconic figures with no wings. They are yapping excitedly.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

Still rubbing light from her eyes, Natalie takes in the scene and decides that discretion may, in fact, be the better part of valor. A half-man half-spider, armed, along with a group of minions is a bit beyond her ability to handle, symbiote or no, and so she elects to head back down the tunnel, retracing her steps as best she can while leaving the blinding light where it was for as long as possible.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

Drider 10 vs 9
Natalie: HP 5/5 Entangled: -1 to attack and defence rolls
Drider: HP ?/? Partially blinded, -2 to attack rolls
As Natalie turns to flee, the drider hurls the net at her and pulls the line tight, catching her arm and head in it and stopping her on her tracks. Almost mockingly, he starts walking closer. "Ah, the arrogance of humans never ceases to be entertaining. Breaking your pride will be quite fun."
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Yeaaah well.... You're ugly!" Natalie snapped back, letting the artificial symbiote she'd had grafted to her slide over most of her skin, enhancing her strength. Grabbing the net by the arm it had entangled and muttering a spell, she planted her feet and sent a shock of electricity down through it towards the creature holding it, hoping to give herself an opening she could use to free herself from the net.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

Natalie: 19 vs 6
Drider: 19 vs 16
Natalie: 4/5
Drider: ?/?, -2 to attack rolls
The shock doesn't seem to faze the drider, but the enhanced strength granted by the symbiote definitely does, and he gives the rope enough slack for Natalie to pull herself free. She manages a couple steps forward before he catches up with a magnificent leap. The light Natalie conjured flickers as he swings the trident, its butt connecting with Natalie's side. "I'd like to learn how you did that trick, mageling. You're stronger than you look."

The kobolds are still yapping with themselves, and they start following the drider - at a safe distance.
 
Re: Where a god goes, men can follow(natalie/Tassadar)

"Gah!" Recoiling in on herself as she was hit in the side, Natalie stumbled back, feigning more pain than she actually felt. "And I'd like you... On my dissection table!" She said through gritted teeth, waving her hand and making it crackle with electricity again, feigning another spell, only to suddenly lunge forward with all her enhanced might, trying to dart under his polearm and slam her elbow into the drider's humanoid face.
 
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