We've all listened to these bedtime stories when we were kids. "Boy Who Cried Spider", "Little Red Battle Helmet", "The Dwarf Princess and The Spider", and so on. Every time I went out with my friends, being just a very young dwarfling, my dad often said: "Don't go anywhere near to the Harken Forest, there are eight-legged monsters there, just waiting to suck all the blood from young, suculent dwarflings!" I always thought that those stories and sayings were just, well, fairytales (spidertales, perhaps?).
Who would have thought that I would actually see some of these tales come true. Well, almost.
We decided that it was time to save Tarim, the herb-gatherer who got missing somewhere near Deklo Grove in the Harken Forest threee days ago. And so we went there, not knowing whether the man was still alive. We are the brave heroes of Dalelands after all!
As we went into the forest... guess what happened first. Yes, we got lost. I won't pretend that I knew anything about the forest, so I asked Wic about where we should go, since she and the Border Guards sometimes visited the area by the forest. Wic was convinced that she knew the right way to Deklo Grove. So we followed her. And followed. And followed. And followed. Strange, I always thought that the Deklo Grove was only about one hours walk from the edge of the forest... and not three... Anyway, when walking through the magnificent old forest, I kept admiring all the Gozreh's creations, the beauty of trees, the fine colors of moss and grass, the wonderful creatures we encountered. Harken Forest thrived with life, even the birds were singing praises to Gozreh, the Goddess of Nature. And while we walked, Eric sung us songs and told the tales about the forest. Ancient treants were supposed to live there, as well as elves, of course. I thought I could even smell their perfumes there...
And then we finally found Deklo Grove. And Tarim - he was hanging from a tree in the middle of the grove, covered with some strange white substance which strangely reminded me of a spiders' cocoon... That's when the big, hairy, enormous, terrifying spiders came! I can tell you, they didn't look anything like the spiders I would usually put into my brother's bed when we were children! Yuck.
We didn't waste the time. Wic quickly started firing off arrows with her bow, Illorath took out his sword, Willem started his prayes, Eric started singing louder (can singing scare off spiders?) and I took out my urgrosh. The fight begun. Wic shot one of the two spiders right in the eye - he was dead on the spot! I helped Ilorath to finish off the second one. I must say that this elf is not that bad when it comes to fighting, he certainly has a potential. I wonder if he could fight as well with a dwarven battleaxe.
The spider were killed, so I went to save poor Tarim. Gozreh teaches us to protect all the living creatures (mind you, giant spiders are unnatural and Gozreh has no mercy for abominations!), so I ran as fast as I could to free him. He looked like he would die at any moment. No wonder, being stranded in a cocoon for three days, without any food... I managed to free him, luckily, but I was so concentrated on saving him that I didn't notice what was happening to my friends - untill it was almost too late.
It turned out that the spiders had a mother. She was a giant, furious beast, almost twice as big as her children (both killed - and that made her even more angry! we have a special word for that in our dwarven tongue: "förbannad" - sounds furiously, doesn't it?). I saw a big red shape on her back - I wonder if it was the sign of Asmodeus, this evil god could create such foul creatures and be happy with sending them as a menace to the people living in Dalelands.
I ran back to my friends to help them fight the monster. I attacked the spider mother when I was winded after all that running - and that was my biggest error. I didn't reach her, but she attacked me back, I fel to the ground, almost fainted, feeling the poison in my veins... everything went black, I felt dizzy.... I'm not quite sure what happened afterwards, I know that I tried to get up and fight again, the world was literally dancing in front of me. I had even trouble holding the balance. Then I heard a shout "Victory!", I think it was Ilorath. I felt someone telling me to drink something (it was Will with his vial with antidote for spider bites). Slowly I started feeling better, even tough I was still as weak as a baby elf.
When we returned to the village with Tarim, his wife was overwhelmed with happiness. My friends were running around with their errands, I just sat by the inn and rested. One spider bite more and I would be saying hello to my Goddess in her realm.
In the afternoon we went to Alduvan, the famous Mage who lives in our village. We wanted to sell him spider parts and other ingredients for his magical mixtures. He promised to help us and give some of his specialities, but... the old fart started whining that first he wants a tower wall repaired and then - his roof mended (what roof?! the only leftovers of his hay roof were rotten through, we could clearly see the sky above us! I wonder how he manages to sleep there when it rains.) Eh, those filthy mages. He says the "hole", which I call "the lack of roofing", helps him to make astronomical observations. Yeah, right. But he wants to get rid of it anyway, lots of drafts and such. Then he wants to have his little barn and fence mended and his tower cleaned up. I will not waste precious space on my parchment to write about the filth I saw there. Let's just say he has problems with grasping the concept of emptying his chamber pot, washing his dishes after each meal - and putting them away (He leaves a plate on his laboratory table, covers it with lots of parchments and magical ingredients and on the next day he puts another plate with a piece of roasted chicken and a lonely mouldy turnip on top of it - and the cycle starts all over again. When Ilorath saw it first, he almost got a heart attack. It's good that he didn't see my brother's room... Those elves are so fragile.)
Where was I. Ah. I tried to convince Tarim's wife and other village women to clean up at Alduvan's place, but they only screamed in terror and some of them shut the door in my face. When I think of it, I gather that they may have been cleaning there once or twice already before. Poor souls. I have no heart to harass them more. I talked with the local carpenter and the stonemason - he agreed on fixing the mage's house but it would cost 50 gold coins altogether. 50 GC! What an outrage! It's almost the price a dwarven artisan would charge! Unheard of! Even though these are hard times with the war and Iron Circle menace, but still. 50 GC for a stupid fence, roof and fixing a wall! COME ON HUMANS! WHEN WILL YOU FINALLY ADMIT THAT YOUR CRAFTSMEN ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO OUR DWARVEN STONE AND WOOD ARTISTS?!
Sigh.
I almost forgot to write that something really strange happened as well. Talia the priestes of Sarenrae was complaining about a thief who stole something from her temple. It turned out to be the halfling we met the other day at the inn.
At the same time, it turned out that we finally are sure who is spying for Iron Circle - a rich citizen called Adamelus who has been living here in Anthar for last two years. He and his family are strange folks, they keep to themselves... Ilorath said that he would go and investigate the matter. He was to observe their house throughout the night, because we heard a rumor that Adamelus and his son like to disappear somewhere late in the evenings. Suspicious! I wanted to join Ilorath but I was too tired after being poisoned by the spider. Which is now a dead spider, HA! I went to bed instead, but I kept wondering what the morning would bring... Good night!
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