(Writer: Bolt) The adventurers stood side by side, and walked into the large chamber. It was as large as a king’s hall, and with a throne on the far end to boot. In fact, upon closer examination, it appeared this was a room. Torches burned in wall sconces, and the floor was clean and smooth. After a few more steps, a huge brown and orange spider dropped down on the throne.
And then it was suddenly a woman with a crown. The group blinked.
"Welcome," she said, without the slightest hint of hospitality. "I’m afraid you’ve come too far. However, I am in a gracious mood right now and think you can go. Leave these woods immediately."
Hopp fumed. She took an angry step forward, and another large spider dropped down in front of the queen, this one striped red like the one they had previously encountered. Hopp stopped. "Just who do you think you are? Stupid empire, these are my woods, you get out!"
The Queen glared. "You know this is part of the Empire? IN that case, I don’t think you can leave."
Bolt winced. "Ah, Hopp..."
Yet another two spiders dropped down, both with dull green hairs. Tyric flung shards of ice at the queen, but she gestured and they fell. The first spider turned into a human. She chanted and a wall of fire sprang up around the heroes.
"Oh no, "Bolt said with mock fear and fired his crossbow through the flames, hitting one of the spiders. Silverleaf doused the fire, but the two spiders immediately charged forward. This wasn’t quite the simple battle they had been growing used to.
(Writer: Hopp) Two more spiders fell from aloft. They morphed into humans. Two others quickly joined them, landing with a soft thud. Two men and two women stood in front of the adventurers. One of them spoke out. "Katila, stop! This isn’t necessary!"
The Queen turned to face the woman. "Alita! Who are you to contradict me?" Katila opened her palm and let a sticky glob of web fly at Alita. She missed, but barely.
"Spiders, spiders, spiders…." Hopp chanted, raising her staff, "What do spiders not like?"
"Humans." Baele ginned. The kind that steps on spiders."
"Exactly!" Hopp brought the staff down with a swish. An enormous foot popped out of thin air and descended down on to the Weaver that hadn’t morphed yet. The foot then disappeared, leaving the gory remains of the squished arachnid. Tyric grimaced, but also flashed back a grin.
"One down, seven to go!" Bolt shouted and loaded his crossbow and took aim. Alita blew a blast of swirling water at the same target. The group turned to her in shock. The others by Alita were attacking the other Weavers as well.
"Insubordinance!" Queen Katila screeched! "I will not tolerate a mutiny!" She stood angrily and glared. A wave of blackness pulsed off her, momentarily stunning everyone, including her loyal troops.
"She’s really mad now, isn’t she?" Bolt shook his head, trying to clear the dark from his eyes. "She can’t control her power, she’s so mad."
Alita was motioning to the adventurers. "Come here! Hurry!"
The group glanced at each other, then ran to the weaver woman’s side. One of the men quickly put up a wind shield. Silverleaf added a reinforcement. The other man spread his hands and shot a spring of clear water at the hysteric Queen. The other two had reverted to spider from and were thrashing their legs about in a pain for the pulses were intensifying in strength.
(Writer: Tyric) Silverleaf knew the shields weren’t going to hold much longer. He was, in fact, amazed that they had lasted that long in the first place. After setting up his barrier of wind, he had eventually merged it with the other shield, but not even their combined power could hold long against the chaotic magic. Suddenly, several things happened at once. Silverleaf, as well as Erith, the other Weaver holding the shield up, felt a shift in the spell pattern and they suddenly found themselves flying through the air towards the jagged cavern walls. Baele, in soldier mode, saw them in the corner of her eye and formed an energy net to catch them, not very gracefully though.
"It won’t be a comfy landing, but they’ll still be in one piece," she thought. She checked them for major injuries- both were a little bit dazed from the backlash, but nothing serious.
