Spider Ghost

Tenebrae - Friday, September 21, 2018, 11:03 AM

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-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* H02: The Felwood *>--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

The hills give way to trees, which grow black instead of green. The Felwood, once a part of the greater world, now stands apart from it. The trunks of its wood stand twisted in the way that trees will twist, yet somehow wrong, somehow off. Here, it's always cold, the weather just "something other" than what it should be.

Overhead, a continual storm brews. A blackened smear cuts the sky directly above the wood, a darkened rift that was never meant to be. Its creation is rumored as an unnatural thing, a crafting of the unnatural creatures that lie within these woods.

Now and then, the city sends out patrols to thin the creatures, and keep them from the main roads. However, travel here is dangerous, risky, and often painful.

The wind is cold and dreary... which is somewhat normal around here. It's the Felwood, not exactly known as a happy place. The turning leaves cling to branches, and rustle in the wind. Unseen eyes watch from hidden places... which again, it's the Felwood, some sort of twisted creature watching you is almost a given. Most of them are pretty small, but the big ones... well, stay alert.

Ga'Elian comes walking along through the forest leading a heavy warhorse by the reins. The warhorse is fully outfitted, but riderless, and has big splotches of dried blood on its black caparison. The ranger clucks at the horse and says, "I'll hand you over to the Arvek stablemaster. He'll take care of you."

Azog is one of the creatures watching from hidden places. Not hidden, himself, but his location is hidden. You wouldn't think that a huge oruch in heavy armor could fit into such a place, just a crease in the terrain. He rises, though, all seven feet of him, and he looks over at Ga'Elian leads the horse by. "Griffon fly away, then?" he asks.

Duncan emerges from a tiny spot of uncovered earth, unusual for the Felwood as it's not covered by grass or brush or the roots of some giant twisted tree. He seems a bit disoriented and looks around. He continues to look until a familiar voice or two draw his attention. Then he forces his way through the undergrowth until he emerges at the side of the trail.

Munch roars. It's a little like a buzzsaw going though sheet metal. It's his Happy Noise. Usually means something is having Violence done upon it. The sounds comes from a bit deeper in the Fel, but once attention is drawn, it's not too hard to pick out the sounds over the rustle of the leaves. A bit like the chopping of wood, but wetter.

Ga'Elian looks over at Azog and says, "Huh? Oh. Yeah, I guess. I mean, trained as this fellow is to not spook, still griffons tend to make horses anxious. Frankly, this fellow has gone though enough stress recently that I didn't want to add a griffon's presence to it. He just needs to get to a good stable."

Azog nods to Ga'Elian. "Is that so? It's been a while since I've ridden, but my last horse was a faithful steed, but slain from under me as I rode. A villainous attack." He jumps at the strange sound, and says to Ga'Elian, "I'm not sure I want to know what that was. But we'd better take a look."

Duncan looks between the two and then steps further onto the trail. "We should investigate," he agrees. "It wouldn't be the first time disaster was averted by the happenstance of having adventurers nearby."

Munch roars again, closer... bit of strain to the sound. Through the trees the metal man can been seen, approaching, slowly, backwards... as a horde of spiders throw themselves upon his weapon. Big spiders, small... well, okay, still big spiders, but not quite so large, and really quite large spiders, all swarming towards the golem, flinging themselves at him, only to be cut down as he continues to back away. If any of the eight legged vermin were to try and cirlce around the metal man, he might be in trouble, but they don't quite seem bright enough... or maybe they're just too.... angry? Driven? Focused? It's hard to tell with spiders.

Ga'Elian nods. Says, "Yeah. I have a guess as to the source of that sound, but it would certainly do to investigate." He nods at Duncan, the turns back to the horse and looks at the animal eye-to-eye as if communicating non-verbally.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls WildEmp: aliased to Ranger+Charisma: (9)+19+1: 29

Azog looks over as Duncan steps out onto the trail, nods agreement. He'll head towards the sound, and when he spots Munch, he turns to ask Ga'Elian, "We're near Alba's farm. Are those hers, or are those wild spiders?" How you can tell, with spiders, is beyond him. But if anyone can work it out, it's Ga'Elian.

Munch continues to fall back, the horde of spiders thinning a bit, the survivors either too wounded to keep up, or maybe getting a clue. The massive blade continues to whirl, keeping the ones still attacking at a distance... but the under growth starts to move. Small spiders, coin sized, pea sized, maybe smaller, hundreds of them, thousands... maybe millions. A vertible carpet of wiggeling legs and snapping mandibles, all heading your way... sorta slowly, they have really tiny legs you know. But, eight of them, so not too slow.

Duncan has disconnected.

Azog grimaces at the onslaught of spiders. His weapons are fine against the huge ones. The tiny ones, not so much. He prods Ga'ELian, who seems to have gone frozen with shock. "Snap out of it, man!"

Ga'Elian drops the horse's reins and shakes his head. Heaving a little sigh, he says to Azog, "I don't /think/ those are Alba's, but I really couldn't say whether she'd agree. Anyway, let's see what Munch is up to this time.

Munch roars again, louder, but of course he's also a lot closer. The sound is interrupted part way by a wet, choking, spew of green ichor vomiting forth from the golem's mouth, hurling several meters from the golem. It sizzles as it hits the trees, and the noise it makes as it hits a swam of tiny spiders... well... it's not a noise most people soon forget. Thousands of tiny legs twich and spasm as they start to melt. The wind brings the sharp acidic scent to your nose and eyes.

That's done it. What few spiders remain are headed the other direction. Most aren't making it far, being in rather poor condition, but none seem to be after Munch any more. The metal man is still backing towards you, but a bit more carefully about what he's moving towards rather than focused on what he's moving away from.

"So..... that happened."

Azog eyes Ga'Elian, "I can -see- what's up. Munch has bitten off more than he can chew." Perhaps a poor choice of words. Or perhaps more true than he realizes. But with the ranger telling him they're not Alba's spiders, Azog will draw steel, ready his shield, and wade into the fray to try and take the pressure off Munch. Two swords are better than one and all that. But now the spiders are in retreat, so clearly Azog's advance deterred them. "And don't come back!" he calls.

Ga'Elian looks both disgusted at the acid spewed by Munch, and relieved to no long have need of dealing with bothersome spiders. The spell that he was about to cast, being unnecessary now, he says. "I suppose that's one way to get rid of a spider infestation. How are you, Munch? Did you try to solve the problem at its source by attacking their colony, their queen?"

Munch buzzes, and shakes his head. "Heck if I know what's going on. Heard were some bandits making a hideout further in, was going to look for them when the swarm of little ones started at me. They weren't nearly so bunched up then. Then the bigger ones started comming at me, and it just sorta blew up. I might maybe have been able to stay on it, but I wasn't sure how many there were. Not all my tricks last for long."

"WHY?! WHY NO DIE?! HATE!! HAAATE!!"

The voice is nasal and high pitched, and... oddly echos, as if shouted though a pipe. It's source... unseen, at first, but mists of the Fel seem to gather, forming a translucent blob about ten feet into the air.

"Die! Die! Die! Just die! Kiiiiillll yooooou!"

Azog is about to reply when that strange voice is heard. "Someone doesn't like you," he tells Munch, perhaps unnecessarily as he looks around for the source.

Ga'Elian looks for the source of the voice, too, but returns to the horse and takes the reins back. He nods at Azog's statement, adding, "Maybe whoever keeps dumping spiders on you will finally reveal who they are and why they're doing it." He rolls his eyes and says, "Oh, what could it hurt?" and casts the spell anyway.

GAME: Ga'Elian casts Repel Vermin. Caster Level: 19 DC: 16

The translucent blob condenses further, body, legs... head, kinda... more or less arms... no hands, just long claws. Lots of eyes. Very angry eyes. Kinda glowing red, which is slightly less disconcerting than the grey-blue skin that also glows a little. It's pretty clearly a ghost. The ghost of an ettercap, to be specific.

"Send many kill! Kill you! But why? Why no die? DIE! Die! Die! Die! HHHHHATE!!"

Munch blinks at the hovering figure, then perks a little. "Oh! Hey! I remember you now! I totally killed you! Okay, that explains a lot."

This specific ettercap, by the way, looks to be a runt. About 4 foot tall.

Azog looks back and forth between the ghost and Munch. Munch killed it? "That explains a bit," he says. BUt not everything, so he doesn't put his sword away. But he does pause to listen.

Ga'Elian listens, too, but also draws his bow out of his quiver, then an arrow, which he nocks. He makes no attempt to hide this either, and then raises the bow to take aim at the ghost, drawing the string back.

"HAAATE!!"

It's face deforming in rage (not sure if that's a ghost thing or if all ettercaps look like that) the ghost swoops towards Munch, charging at the metal man the way the spiders did just a few moments before. The spindly legs and arms fade as the translucent mass slams into the golem... and passes though. Incorperal, you know. Still, the force of undead rage rocks the golem back, and the corrupting touch ages the golem by decades, leaving him old and.... and.... well, pretty much the same, really. Artifical people seldom have to worry aobut getting old, just wearing out.

Azog is, you know, not sure what to do about this. He's pretty sure he just kills people who oppose him, so he suggests to Munch, "Perhaps you haven't killed him hard enough?"

Ga'Elian tries to 'kill him hard enough.' He taps his heels, says, "You're mine." Then fires a hail of no less than seven arrows at the ghost as it emerges from Munch's backside.

The blob of ghost starts to reform, only to be ripped apart by a hail of arrows. "....jerk."

Munch whirls, grabbing for his axe... but the ghost is quite dead... well, re-dead? Disappated. Gone. "...huh. Okay... so... were those like, extra special arrows? Because I think ghosts come back? I only delt wiht some miners once. They were't the angry type, just sad. Well, mostly, they'd attracted some nasty ghosts. We kileld those ones, gave the sad ones a burial. Pretty sure that was the end of it."

Azog nods as Ga'Elian shoots the ghost. He sheaths his sword and stows his shield on his back. Ga'Elian's solution seems about right to him. "Well, that's fixed," he agrees.

Ga'Elian shakes his head, "Only for now. Ghosts are tenacious things. It'll probably be back in a few days. For some reason the only way to really lay a ghost to rest is to resolve its unfinished business."

Munch buzzes. "Yeah. Which I'm pretty sure it's a vengeful sort of ghost. But I guess I can try saying I'm sorry? I mean, I'm pretty sure it tried to kill me first, so I'm not too sorry, but I guess a little."

Azog says, "Yeah, if it's unfinished business was bad, then finishing it would be a bad thing."

Ga'Elian nods. "If the unfinished business that kept it as a ghost was your permanent deactivation, then I'd say you have a problem. Perhaps in lieu of giving it peace that way, you could send flowers to its mother or make a donation to the ettercap's favorite charity?" He smirks.

Munch blinks with a soft click. "....do ettercaps even have mothers?"

Azog can only shrug. "I used to think everything had a mother, but then ...." he eyes Munch. "Perhaps that's a metaphor in any event?"

Ga'Elian laughs. "Sure it has, just like spiders have a queen that lays the egg they emerge from. But that was a facetious remark, anyway. I think the gesture would bot confuse and attract unwanted attention even if you did manage to succeed at it. I really don't know what to advise. Maybe a Vardaman witch might be more useful on this question? Anyway, I need to get this guy to a stable, and his master's sword to the Daeusites." He opens the flap of his haversack and struggles to withdraw an adamantine greatsword that'a even longer than he is tall.

Munch eyes the blade with idle curiousity, but nods. "And if the ghost was the sorce of the spiders, then i've got a few days spider free to try and find an answer... or at least drop by the junkyard and say hello without attracting anything across the way."

Azog suggests, "Avoiding this area," he eyes the path towards Alba's spider farm, "might help with that also."

Ga'Elian chuckles, "Yes all around." As he rests the sword's tip on the ground, his arm extended upward to hold the hilt, he says, "Long story short, the late owner of this fine blade was the rider of this horse until I killed him. Well, I was tracking him when he attacked me. He lost. Anyway, where I tracked him from was the forge of the smith he commissioned to make it for him, whom he had murdered with it. The smith had documents at his office that indicated that this bears the Unholy, Celestial Bane, Wounding, and Keen enchantments. I figured it would be of great interest to the Daeusites."

Munch nods. "Might ask Alba for advice, but yeah, best not to get too close." Turning focus to the blade, the metal man considers a few moments. "That's bad, yeah? We could break it. Make sure it doesn't fall into wrong hands, or whatever."

Azog's eyes widen, and he says after a moment, "What sort of insane smith would make such a sword for /anyone/? Or was the smith already in service to evil? Anyhow, I don't think any smith could put /all/ those enchantments on it, so you'll need to find an evil priest, too. Unholy's tricky for mundanes."

Ga'Elian shrugs. He says, "We /could/ break it, I guess, but as it's adamantine, that won't be easy to do. As for the enchanting, I know that what you say makes sense, Azog, but that information wasn't readily available. Perhaps it can be tracked down. I figured I'd let the Daeusites determine what to do with the sword at least."

Munch buzzes softly. "...I've broken adamantine before." He's tempted to take this as a challenge. "But yeah, the Brightblades should have a look at it. Maybe they can flip it around, put it to good use somehow. Anyway, I'm gonna head to Clunks. Might be worried about me if he remembers I'm missing."