Sai and hung have learned much due to their understanding of the elvish language from Aryn Feyra’s journal and they find themselves in the small room behind the tapestry of Corellon taking a short rest, before getting back on the road. Malkey, divvies up the inventory in his comfortable new boots. They definitely make him feel like he has a little more hop skip and a jump in his step, and he giggles at the thought of breathing fire as he places the orange-y red potion in his little pack. Hung, is having a harder time than usual getting comfortable while wearing the chain shirt he got from the gnoll yesterday, but eventually he is able to focus on the supple leather braces he put on. They feel good, and seem to give him confidence, 'Maybe now Hung won’t hurt so much,' he thinks. 'Did Malkey just pull a coin out of your ear and put it back? hmmm…'
Sai, takes in the dark beauty of the greatsword on her lap, tracing the spider with her finger; lingering around the circular silver setting where the gem is missing. As she does, she feels a pulling in her gut, and again she feels like she's traveling through time and space … 'Oh no not again…' she thinks, except this time when it stops, it's like she's seeing through the eyes of someone else. Through these eyes, she's in front of a forge fire, she sees the sword held in spider-like fingers, spiders legs are skillfully catching the silk from its abdomen and wrapping the weapon, creating the blade. The creature seems to spit into a tall slender vessel to its left, almost full now with a greenish yellowish liquid. It then sighs with satisfaction, cutting the string silk before saying an incantation, "Gustana du flam." 'Harden with flame' in abyssal; which Sai finds she can understand without issue. She thrusts the blade into the flames and into contact they flare up into a purple blaze. After a moment the spider creature takes it out, still glowing, and douses it in the container by her side. It sizzles for a moment before being pulled out. The spider-like hand run over its creation, then reaches over and in a feminine voice says "Almost finished now" as it plucks a ruby from a crystal bowl of precious gems like a candy dish. The ruby she chose is perfect. She looks at it and says again in abyssal, "Come my loyal minion, I have a job for you. Without you, this can be used against us and he cannot be freed. Hahaha chosen ones," She scoffs and in response, a shadow approaches and is surrounded in purple light as she chants, merging the entity's soul with the gem before neatly placing it in its setting. She picks it up and in the reflection of the blade, Sai can see the creature's red drow eyes. She knows who this is, the last thing she learned about her father before being exiled is that this is who he followed; Lolth. He was doing her work, all of the Children of Malice were. Her concentration is broken and she is again in the little room, safe behind the Corellon tapestry.
They gather up their belongings, Sai seeming a bit more quiet and closed off than before, Malkey addresses Hung, "So when you meditated, what were you focused on?"
"These bracers, they feel very natural to me." Hung replies.
"What about your spear?" Malkey inquires.
"Hung not liking spear lately, there’s a piece of it missing..." hung starts before Malkey interrupts his thought.
"But it was pulsing like the bubble around this place, didn't you want to look into that?" Malkey implores.
"I did, but nothing happened," Hung responds thinking about how he touched the bubble with his spear when the thought occurred to them that they may be similar magick. "Maybe I will do next fire night."
Sai chimes in distractedly, "There’s plenty of time, plus it’s good to have a weapon with range."
"Oh that reminds me, I can make poison weapons now so if you want me to coat any of your equipment with it, let me know."
"Hung will think about that." Hung says.
"In the meantime, we ought to be going, but before we do; I want to pay my respects to the guy in the study and make sure he has passage for the ferryman," Malkey says. "Did you ever find out his name? You guys did a lot of reading in that elvish yesterday. Did that journal tell you of the magick around this place?"
"We have 2 gold left over so that will do for that task. It said something about time was running out ... but nothing in there about how to fix the force field. It looks like everything has been here for a long time. I think it's just old magick, and it's dying." Sai replies.
"His name Aryn Feyra." Hung adds.
They make their way back to the study and find everything exactly as they had left it. Malkey enters first grabbing 2 copper pieces from his pouch and jumping up onto the desk. He really does have to get used to these boots because he misjudged the jump, and almost bumped into the ceiling! Thank goodness it was only his hat that knocked into the stone ceiling and fell off! Hung follows in and picks up Malkey's hat and tries it on. Not a bad fit at all, though maybe not his color.
Malkey lands with a hard thump on the table and right as he was about to say something about that epic jump, the letter on the desk catches his eye. Though it's all in elvish he can read one thing on it. The address:
C.I.
Academy Grounds Way
Rexxentrum, Wildemount
Though the Initials C.I. mean nothing, he knows Academy Grounds Way. he's been there before on guild business with his overseer; the one who usually met with Jenna. He quickly picks it up and holds it out to Sai, not even noticing Hung has his hat, "What does this say? Can you read it please?"
She reads it out loud to Malkey:
She flinches as she says the name Lolth. When she finishes, Malkey with a curious look on his face, takes the letter from her hand and sticks it in his pack.
"Hung learned new things not really of ancient times at monastery, but Lolth was bad, don’t worship her. Good she is locked behind Divine Gate. Lolth is not good." Hung remarks.
Sai flinches again at the name, "Yeah ... I know." she says uncomfortably. "Seems to be a theme..." she adds surreptitiously under her breath.
"Rough morning?" Malkey asks noticing the change in her demeanor from just an hour or so before. "You got a cool sword though right?" he says trying to cheer her up a bit before pausing, "Did you have one of those ... you know ... moments when holding it?"
"Perhaps," she starts. "Fine, if I'm going to keep having these visions, I'm going to have to let you guys know I guess. A long time ago, I was trying to find my father. Let's just say it didn't lead me to the best of places or circumstances. I found out he worked for the Children of Malice. I don't know how involved he was, I was still investigating that. But chances are, we're getting mixed up in really bad forces here. It's feels like a milennium since I've seen my father. He's probably dead by now for all I know. Ever since I came out of the lake I can't believe it’s only been ten years that I was in that other realm It felt as though I'd been there forever. But here, a lot has changed, and a lot hasn’t." She finishes, looking down at the hilt of her sword.
"Right, but what does that have to do with the sword?" Malkey asks, confused.
"Her aesthetic is what you would cal ... spidery? When I was looking at the sword it was like I was looking through her red drow eyes, and I bet if we do find what goes here," she points to the vacant setting, "it'll be a ruby, a bright red one. I think it was Lolth that made this sword. She had said something too, in abyssal and I understood it. 'Come my loyal minion, I have a job for you. Without you, this can be used against us and he cannot be freed. Hahaha chosen ones, we'll see.'
Remembering his reading from yesterday, Hung holds up the journal. "He had said he was removing gems from weapons."
"Would you please talk out loud about elf shit! This is very uncomfortable for me!" Malkey yells exasperatedly.
"Ok, ok," Sai holds her hand out as hung gives her the journal. She reads some key passages to him and Malkey is able to gather that he was a mage choesen by Corellon during the Calamity and the uprising. Corellon tasked him to collect the Arms of the Betrayers, release the captured souls inside, and prepare them for their final battle over evil and good. He also had to protect them with magic strong enough that only those in the prophecy will be able to wield them awake. The guy says he's got 3 of them ready in this way. So far he's pried off the magical bonds within the decorative gems on the weapons to reduce their hold and release the trapped beings within, but their still hanging on...
"Whaaaaaat?" Malkey exclaims as his jaw drops. "So then," he eyes Sai up and down, "when you were hanging out with the sword back there, ... did it make you wanna kill Hung or anything?"
"No! Not at all!" Sai asserted.
Malkey finally placess the 2 copper pieces on Aryn's eyes, and they all turn to leave, discussing how it's a shame they can't do anything to fortify the magick around this place. As Malkey exits he stops a moment at the hearthstone and the doors, they seem to be in good order, but they all notice the magickal bubble either protecting or providing illusion for this place was no longer blinking; it was no longer there at all. Sai hears a chittering sound but can't see anything, the courtyard looks the same. As Sai's echo comes from behind her it shares with her telepathically as she points, 'They are from our realm, and they have something captured back there.'
'Who's they?' Sai thinks; pausing and looking around in confusion.
Right at that moment, two massive spider blinks into existence before them. Malkey is able to scramble out of the way, singeing one with a firebolt and commanding Nutbag to "crop dust" the other. Sai charges the advancing monstrosities, telling her echo to get into a more advantageous position behind the creature. Hung runs through the doorway finally setting eyes on what's happening and without hesitation, grabs the chain shirt on his chest and in a feat of strength like no other; rips it off his body sending ringlets scattering, some even clattering off of Sai before jumping into the fray himself. He lets loose his spear at the leading spider and right before it rings true Hung sees it transmute into a lightning bolt for a moment. It pierces the spider's abdomen, tearing the flesh as the force of the throw and gravity causes it to clatter to the ground. With a squeal, the monster pulls back showing the gaping wound now oozing black ichor. Then in the next instant, it was gone, as if it just disappeared, confused he goes to get his spear. At that moment, the fangs of one of the monsters sinks its fangs into Sai. She pulls back and grits her teeth through the pain but the spider wasn't able to pump in the poison to its full effect thank goodness.
Finding herself on the ground and looking around, a black dragonborn takes in her surroundings, 'Where the fuck am I' she thinks to herself noticing the turquoise hue of the landscape. Then she sees the spider in front of her. Following its gaze she sees, 'is that people?' she can barely see or hear them but they're there, 'have I been drugged?' and feels that she is wrapped tight in the webbing, this one must be guarding her. Thinking quickly she purses her lips and aims down along the center of the webbing that has her, spewing a stream of acid which quickly melts the web and frees her. Getting up on her knees she reaches out and grabs the spider with a shocking grasp! It squeals as it recoils from the pain of the electric shock and comes down hard filling her veins with poison. She hears her heartbeat grow louder as her vision fades, succumbing to the toxins; she falls to the ground.
Malkey sends more firebolts flying through the air and little Nutbags poison sprays; one down. The other spider appears behind Hung who feels his flesh pierced by the beast, the poison starting to flow through his veins, his vision closes in but Babushka comes to help him, 'Get up Hung, get up!'. He pulls the last of his last strength together to remain standing to face his foe and triumphantly wielding his quarterstaff; 2 down. All that's left is the spider that had been guarding the mysterious figure that is still stuck on the ethereal plane. Sai and Hung are looking rough but with Malkey and Nutbag's help, they are able to finally claim victory as the last of the spiders' legs stop twitching and Sai's echo pulls the figure from their current ethereal resting spot.
Breathing heavily, they take a brief moment. Sai lays back exhausted, hung sees the echo and the body of a dragonborn, and starts stumbling towards it when he feels Nutbag land on his shoulder and fill him with a bit of life energy.
"It sure has been a long day." Sai reflects.
"Spiders," Hung gasps still catching his breath. "They're big, and show up right behind us."
"You know, I rely on you two to do the heavy-hitting." Malkey says as approaches them completely unscathed.
"We're still here, spiders are dead." Sai asserts.
"You're supposed to be the muscle, that's all I'm saying." Malkey states.
"Well, there's muscle, and then there's muscle fatigue." Sai notes, rubbing her arm.
"What's that?" Hung aks pointing.
"A dragonborn" Malkey declares and they start heading to it.
"Sure explains the roaring we heard." Sai points out.
The black dragonborn lays on the ground, she is still breathing but even when Nutbag tries to cure her wounds, it doesn't seem to help. Malkey casts detect magic and sees the amulet that she is wearing as well as something in her bag is throwing off some magical vibes. He reaches into her pack to see as Sai interject, "She's not dead remember... I think we should wake her up."
"That's why I'm not taking it," Malkey claps back. "I'm just trying to get a sense of who she is or what she is." He pulls out a leatherbound book with vinelike designs on the cover and a gem like the one on the amulet she wears. "Oh, I think I do have something. I'm gonna rub my lotion up on her." He grabs the keoughtom's ointment out of his pack and massages it into the puncture wounds left by the spider. The dragonborn awakes, looking up at the three strangers. "See I told you my hands are that good, she clearly liked it!"
"How are you feeling, you ok?" Sai asks empathetically.
"help meI'm ok, what the hell just happened to me!?!" The stranger implores emphatically.
"I would like to know that too, but apparently you were with these giant spiders," Sai replies.
"Where are we?" She asks.
"... Outside ..." Sai responds outstretching her hands to her surroundings.
Malkey readches out his and and introduces himself. She shakes his hand and wipes the residual greasy ointment back onto him. Sai introduces herself through her echo.
"Nice to meet you all, I'm," she pauses for a second, thinking. "G, and thank you, I remember seeing you trying to help me. I'm sorry, but what are these things? I didn't see them, but I saw their webs when I was sitting in the apple tree and then ... well i guess I blacked out."
"What do they want with you?" Sai questions.
"I have no idea." G offers her hand to Hung, "Hi, I'm G; how are you?"
"I'm Hung." Hung utters weakly.
"He really is." Malkey adds.
"I'm gonna sit down." Hung says and sinks to the ground still not feeling very well. Malkey comes behind him and puts some more of the ointment on his hands and massages Hung's shoulders until he starts to feel more like himself, then on the sly Malkey tries the ointment on his scaly eczema patches with a little hope, only to find it does nothing.
"These didn't work either," Hung groans looking at his new bracers.
Sai looks over at G, "We're heading up north to Alfield as our next stop, is that where you're heading?"
"I'm generally a loner, just doing my own thing..." G starts.
"Does G stand for anyting," Malkey interrupts.
G thinks for a moment...why can't she remember, "I'm sure it does, but I'll have to get back to you on that." she responds. Malkey looks at her quizzically trying to gain insight but she probably just hit her head or something.
"I don't mean to criticize what you've been doing, but if giant phase spiders are kidnapping you, do you want to at least come with us?
"I have a bigger question, spiders are the mascot for Lolth, is there reason? I think we should read more of the book." Hung voices, looking at his friends.
Malkey goes closer to G and says, "My friends are quite trusting, and on behalf of keeping them safe, what kind of magic do you cast?"
"Conjuration magic …. She says slowly, a little taken aback. "I like to conjure things."
"And you don’t pull things through other realms on a regular?" Malkey checks.
"No, do you?" G asks looking at him just as curiously.
"No." He replies, then smirks as menacingly as he can. "So it sounds like you're coming with us if you’d like. JI’llust know if you come after us i’ll kill ya; just so we’re clear."
"Oh I understand," she says as she stands up, her over 6' form now towering over Malkey.
Hung pulls out the journal for him and Sai and they start heading down the road towards Alfield, leaving the once hidden temple of Corellon behind.
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