At Akron's Table

[Liqcrys]

Jof smiled at the old dwarf. She slid the clay tankard of ale across the rough wooden table, making sure that not a drop was spilled. The tavern was quiet in the late morning sun, Akron seemed to be the only customer.  Jof stretched her legs out to recline on an empty seat in the heat of the morning.

"Well old-timer, I didn't doubt you from the start, but even your warnings didn't quite convey what was inside that mountain. 'Spider-people' you said and its damn true that the place was full of them. But I must have missed the part where you said there was a cult of spider people worshipping a gods damn spider from the pits of hell!  You were wise not to come, we barely made it out of there alive!"

Jof shifted in her chair, searching for a more comfortable spot in the humble wooden chair and trying to relax.
"It started out well enough. The elves seemed to know what to expect going up the mountainside, but for some reason they balked at the front door to the caves. I think they would have stood there all day trying to figure out how to proceed. I just lit a torch and started into the caves before I died of boredom."

Jof gave the dwarf a knowing half-smile,"You know the bloody pointy-ears aren't in any hurry. You live for hundreds of years and it apparently makes you incapable of making quick decisions,...excepting the dwarves and gnomes of course. Maybe because you live closer to the regular folks you're not so blind to the demands of time." She gave a shrug and continued.
"Well anyway, once we got into the caves it didn't actually seem to bad. Sure, we were probably going to be eaten by spiders at any moment, but at least we knew where we were going. The place was creepy as all hells, you had that right for sure. Those spiders have been eating anything they can catch apparently. We came across more than one of the goblin-kin who had obviously been a spider's meal, and the webs were everywhere."

"We went down some sort of 'fire pit', a terrible climb, and eventually would up at an old, old stonework bridge. Those caves must go everywhere. I couldn't even see the bottom of the chasm (it worries me a little about what else is down there). Well that weird elf," Jof snorted, "she looked at the bridge and could tell that the spiders were watching it. But no sooner does she say, 'hey, don't step there' then that crazy plainsman just stomps straight out into their webs."
The fighter stopped a moment, sipping at her ale, watching the old dwarf to gauge his reactions.
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to get the picture out of my mind of the swarms of spiders flowing over his whole body. I've known a few plainsmen in my time as a guard, and they're never known for their subtlety, but this Maru is a whole other level of crazy. By the time we beat off all those spider swarms he was bit top to bottom, and more than a little woozy. That female elf fell off the edge of the bridge, she only survived because she got caught up in the spider webs under the structure. Fortunately I had my rope handy and pulled her up."

"Well after beating off those spiders and finally getting across the bridge we come to these huge doors with obviously occult symbols on them. I knew it wasn't going to get any better, but by that point going back was just as much a problem as going forward. So on we went."
"We follow the tunnels along and we find this room with a,..." Jof seemed to struggle for the words, but continued, "...a pool? I don't really know what it was. It was like a pool of stars. Anyway, I'm leading these folks into this weird room, knowing no good can come of a pool that looks like water, but definitely is not water, you know what I mean? That quiet wizard, you know the one, that elf warriors lover? He sends out his strange bird to go look at that pool. As soon as the bird's beak touches the surface of whatever the hells was in that pool, it disappears. The elf-wizard really took it hard, seemed like he wasn't expecting THAT to happen. So now we know that there's something definitely dangerous in the room. While we're all puzzling over what happened to that bird, all of a sudden these giant pale spiders start appearing out of nowhere, attacking us. As we're fighting them off, the Dragon clan warrior and the plainsman both fall into the pool and just disappear. So now I'm really starting to worry, cause without them I just don't know how we're going to do this, oh and also, we're getting attacked by disappearing spiders."

"To make a long story slightly less long, we fight off the bloody spiders, felt like it took hours. As we're fighting off the last one, the warrior and the plainsman come flying out of the pool, only a little worse for wear. I'm not really sure what happened to them in the pool, as there wasn't any time to talk. We knew that time was running short for those Harvest Brides, and had to keep moving."

"We go through some more tunnels and passages until we come to this gigantic cavern, it must've been 300 yards across, and again, we couldn't even see the bottom of the cavern. Webs were everywhere, and there in the middle of the cavern we see the Harvest Brides, all trussed up like the Harvest Meal (which, in some ways was very appropriate). Some sort of weird spider-person priest was doing a ritual around them. Cut to the chase, it looked very bad. Those girls were obviously in trouble, if they were even still alive. So I head down the nearest corridor, thinking that choosing any corridor is better than no corridor, and gods damn it again, we run straight into one of the spider-peoples' guards. Bastard hits me with some sort of spell, knocks me to the floor. Fortunately by the time I'd gotten back up the rest of the group had killed all the spiders swarming in the corridor. But of course, one of the damn elves had disappeared, dragged off by one of the spider people!"
"This was about the time where I started to hear this voice in my head. 'Come to me, come to me' this voice kept calling. A seductive voice, it was hard to resist. But the Brides' welfare was our main concern. There was a virtual labyrinth of tunnels in that cavern, all web filled. The plainsman's wolf (still not sure where the devil that came from and where it went) took us to a couple of dead ends, but eventually we found Darria and that female elf (Nixie's her name) all trussed up and ready to eat. We beat off the spiders in the room, keeping them away from the two ladies (well, one lady and an elf). Both of them were knocked out cold by spider venom, so we had to throw them over our shoulders, still looking for a way deeper into the center of the cavern. Eventually we wandered right back to our starting point. It was getting frustrating, able to see our objective (the brides) so close and yet unable to reach them. We must have sat there for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get to those helpless ladies. Finally I just gave up and shouted back to that invisible voice, 'All right, here I am, the last Harvest Bride, let me and my companions come to you!' And for gods's sake, that worked."

Jof shook her head at the memory. A regretful smile crossing her face. She noticed Acron's empty tankard and motioned to the tavern owner to keep the drink coming. She took a large swig of ale from her own tankard and continued.
"So now we've got a clear path to this altar, the Harvest Brides are right in front of us. We're 60' from the altar and two spider-people start walking towards us. Definitely the guard type. Ready to take me to the last empty slab and do whatever nightmare they had concocted. But I've always had a pretty good smile, especially when things are very dangerous. So I flash my pearly whites, hoping agains hope that they're not too suspicious. That half-elf, Bailey, somehow disguises himself like a spider-person. I about soiled myself when he took my arm and I looked to see what I thought was a spider-folk. Anyway, we're now walking together down the bridge toward these two guards, trying the old 'I've brought the prisoner' fake-guard routine. The luck of the gods must have been with us, 'cause I flash a smile, make a couple of friendly gestures and next thing you know these two spider-person guards are acting like old friends. I motioned them off back down the corridor and they passed right through our group like we were all just guests at the Emperor's Grand Ball. Well now me and Bailey (that half-elf I mentioned) have got a clear path right to the brides. We walk right up to the high priest (or whatever it was) like I'm ready to take my place as a sacrifice. We get right next to him and then pulled our blades. That's when all hell broke loose."

Jof took a large swig of ale and swallowed heavily,"I'm trying to stab this high priest, Bailey's attacking his assistant, and the rest of the group is moving as fast as they can up this narrow causeway to the altar. That's when we notice this 'thing', this large, white, fleshy tube descending from the ceiling. That 'thing' sought out a Harvest Bride, stuck itself right into her belly and began injecting something into her flesh. Well now we know that it was laying eggs, but at the time I didn't know what was going on. So now we've got all kinds of problems, and they're only made worse by the fact that that 'thing' was attached to the biggest, ugliest spider I've ever seen, and its still injecting itself into every Harvest Bride it can find."
Jof paused, thinking for a moment.

"Akron, I'd love to say that this was my brightest shining moment, but in reality I spent the rest of the fight getting knocked around. A huge pile of web fell on me, pinning me to the floor just as the plainsman came up to attack that priest. By the time I freed myself from all that stickiness I got hit by some sort of concussion, and got knocked senseless."
"Based on what I've gleaned from everyone else, that Dragon clan warrior started fighting that huge spider. Say what else you will about elves (and I'll say it for you if you can't), those honor-bound bastards don't often step away from a fight, no matter the odds. The half-elf and plainsman fought with that priest and his assistant while the elf magician lobbed his spells in from a safe distance (there's the elf honor I was expecting). I guess at one point the elf warrior got confused somehow and tried to attack the half-elf, Bailey, but by that time the fight was almost over. All I know for sure is that I woke up to Bailey pouring some of that giant bee honey in my mouth. I was groggy, but felt firm enough to help haul the brides out of there. It was a hell of run, I kept expecting to be overwhelmed by swarms of spiders at any moment, but somehow we made it out of there and back to Meadstead."

Jof nudged Akron. She finally noticed that her audience had fallen asleep somewhere in the middle of her story. She stood up and moved to the door. On the way out she tossed the innkeep several small coins, "Give him a drink and a meal when he wakes. And I'd advise you to listen to him, he may be the wisest person in this town." Jof walked out the door and into the mid-morning light.