An Attempt to End Them Rightly

The end to this day was even more gruesome than its beginning. The men we ate with not an hour ago may have been cultists, worshipping a deity to throw the world into turmoil, lying, deceiving and possibly ruthless folk. Yet, they shared their abode and their provisions with us strangers and here we were, planning to kill them to the last man. Or rather let them be killed or at least weakened by some giant spiders. It was for the greater good, ridding Fearûn from a threat, hardly anyone knew existed. I try to keep telling this to myself. Sometimes the drastic way may be the right one, the only one forward.
Until a few weeks back, none of us, except maybe for Nysqwen, had known much fighting. From what we were able to tell by their equipment, Favric and his followers well knew how to defend themselves, thus we judged a head on battle as an unwise course of action. It was Archie’s idea, to involve the remaining two giant spiders we had heard about. He said, it would possess a certain ring of irony to have these alleged servants of Lolth being caught up in a fight for their lives with the eight-legs. I must admit, an amusing thought which might even rid us of two problems at once. So, we tried to construct a plan on how to incite them to fight each other. We planned to create a trace of a strong smell of blood between the nets protruding the spiders’ domicile and the hut, the cultists occupied, then rattle the webs, and see what happened, when the predators went for the cultists. Preferably we would find a way to stir the latter from their refuge to initiate a fight.
 
Archie produced three small vials with a reddish liquid, that on his account would exude the requested odour. I was confident in my abilities to bridge the remaining distance with my own trickeries, much as we had done before in our attempt to discourage the wolves from attacking us on the road to Conyberry. And I was pretty sure, if I could make my audience believe to feel the vibrating steps of the troll closing in on the protagonist of my fable, I would also be able to ring hello with the spiders from afar. A word and a blow, a few minutes later Grum, Nysqwen and Archie sought cover in the abandoned house just south of the location of the spiders while I tried my darndest, not to be found in my preparations. First, everything went smooth as Archie’s cheeks but on my way back to our den, I became aware that the stench of blood did not only appeal to spiders. From the brushes in my back emerged one, two, three – six of these ghastly twig blights. But I was not ready to give up on our plan, I ran towards our ruin, slammed the door shut behind me and made the spider webs vibrate as hard as I could fathom.
After what felt like eternity, a set of black eyes and four nauseatingly long legs emerged from the former doorframe of the spider house. And withdrew a few seconds later. The twig blights were still closing in, desperately I tried again to stir the arachnoids into action. The beasts are smarter than I would like to give them credit for, as now we could see them through some fissures in our wall climbing on a tree overlooking their home and watching the surroundings with keen eyes.
If we wanted our plan to have any merit, we had to get these cultists into play. In order to stir them from their home, I saw but one chance. I focussed all my will to block any sounds traversing their house, including their own voices. If that would not make them come running, I would not know what might. And luckily it worked. They emerged from both doors and came running towards us the same moment, the first twig blights arrived on our doorstep. Favric was pointing towards us and shouting something to his fellow men. Archie threw Ori outside to greet the animated plants with a warm welcome, Nysqwen readied her fierce glaive and Grum looked about to turn. All I could think of was to rally the approaching humans towards the spiders next to us, thus I sprinted outside, shouted towards them, proclaiming the beasts were pinning us down in our hideout and rushed back into the safety of the walls. They seemed confused as to what was happening, but it was hard to tell if they actually started angling towards the arachnoids, as all around us battle ensued.
Ori reduced three of the approaching blights to ashes before they could even come close to us, Grum assumed his bear form and rushed outside. My brave friend did not much concern himself with the danger he might find himself in when all foes closed in around us at once, he only seemed to care for protecting us. If you ever wondered, why you should follow his lead, here is part of the reason! I tried to do my part in the battle by providing a rhythm for Nysqwen to guide her through the fight and help her in a situation of need. Then I trained my crossbow on the nearest blight, alas, with all the chaos around me no bolt found its mark. And now the spiders moved. One crawled towards the approaching cultists while the other began to climb along the wall of our hiding spot.
The remaining twig blights were quickly dealt with by Grum, Nysqwen and Archie. This, we figured, was our moment to surprise the dragon cultists and Grum attacked the closest one without warning, almost tearing his leg from the torso of the screaming man. Archie’s staff spewed a ball of fire towards another one. And then, out of nowhere, a female voice cut through the noise.
 
The newcomer was asking who was in the hut while across the meadow in front of us a shimmering white light resembling a lance with a winged head appeared behind one of the cultists and took the man’s life quicker than any of us could react. Any sentient living being in this forsaken town could only be better than spiders, undead, twig blights or cultists. If the calling entity furthermore attacked the cultists, this could only be someone worth speaking to. Archie and I exchanged approving glances and so I answered her. Any further communication however was interrupted by the second spider entering our building through the open window frame. Up close and personal, the beast was even more disgusting than from our short glimpse when it peeked out of their lair. Its hairy body with four too many limbs moved far too quickly as it struck straight for our youngest companion. It near broke my heart to see Archie faced with such a monstrosity and the pain that flickered on his face. But Nysqwen was quick to react, I have never seen her swing her weapon with such ferocity, and severed four of the spider’s legs in a single blow. I shot another bolt at the spider yet could only tickle the fell creature. To my surprise, Archie did not seem as badly hurt as I believed on first glance, his oversized armour certainly did its job. I knew him to be in safe hands with the strongest dragonborn I know of and decided to help Grum in his brave stand alone against possibly five cultists, a spider and in the worst case the ominous woman.
 
But when I stepped outside, I quickly could see I was coming too late to make any difference in the outcome of the fight. Grum must have slain three cultist all by himself, their shattered bodies lining out a crimson trail leading behind two trees where I could hear Favric’s laugh and the dark growling of my friend. North of me stood the newcomer. She was clad in shining metal armour from head to toe, blond, almost white hair lining the beautiful, darkly hued features of a half-elven face. She was skewering the other spider with her light lance. The remaining two cultists lay a few feet away from her, likely suffering a similar fate to the beast.
After ridding herself of her attacker, the woman approached me, asking for my name. Simultaneously I heard Grum’s growl turn quickly from a bear to his own to a wolf’s snarl and the fleeing feet of a human. I excused myself to the woman, ran south to gain line of sight with what was happening behind the trees. There was Favric trying to flee, followed by a great grey wolf. I collected my last reserves, focussing on Rattlepike’s old lyra within my hands and sent forth a few notes of power. Amidst his flight, Favric toppled, slithered a few feet through the grass and was sleeping soundly, letting forth soft snores. From inside our hut, the death squeal of the last arachnoid signalled an end to our fight. Only now I could turn my fullest attention to the woman in plate.
 
She introduced herself as Kyla Grave, a cleric following the doctrines of the Raven Queen, a goddess aspected with life and its ultimate end in the moment of dying. A rather dark premise, I mustered, but I can understand the notion of death being an inevitable part to life. Some scholars I even heard musing that only death would lend meaning to life for eternity is a notion that would render any excitements dull and lacklustre. And I admit, there is a certain element of truth in these thoughts. Kyla continued that apart from seeking to eradicate the undead in Thundertree, as the Raven Queen took issue with those eluding the eternal slumber, she was here on behest of a vision she had witnessed in her dreams a few weeks past. A vision, in which she had seen myself and my companions being intertwined with the impending doom of Faerûn. A vision, allegedly sent by her goddess, she followed suit immediately to figure out what was going on. A vision that was accompanied by others, showing her pictures of drows conducting dark rituals in a crystalline cave, others talking to another half-elf in a forest. And whatever the meaning behind all that was, she was determined to figure it out.
 
I was taken aback by this revelation. Could one of the drows in her vision be the one we know as the ‘black spider’? Who was this half-elf? I will have to ask Kyla more about her, I have an ill feeling about this. And most importantly, what has all of this to do with us?! Three weeks ago, I was a simple bard in the bland streets of Neverwinter, now I should be caught up with the demise of this world? That was much to process at once.
The others now joined in around us, Grum dragging the still sleeping Favric and quickly binding his hands behind his back. They introduced themselves as well while Kyla repeated her story. The expression on their faces resembled my thoughts. We in turn told Kyla about our mission to find Gundren in a goblin stronghold. She offered to join our quest, should we be prepared to first help her clean out the remaining undead in Thundertree, to which we happily agreed. The cleric seemed to know quite well how to defend herself, a powerful ally would be a great help with what lay before us, although her rushed departure upon her vision without any clue other than my name and the name of the village of Thundertree said much about her attitude to first act and then ask questions. Before we will eventually reach Cragmaw castle, there will be a few days’ time to get to know her a little better. Maybe then we can have a sophisticated judgement regarding her intentions.
During our conversation, Favric had awoken again and was furious at his captivity. He tried to escape both through robbing away, trying to plea, command, and reason. But we stayed determined, not to let go of him. People with such foul intentions had to be dealt with. Kyla was the first to simply wanting to slaughter the man but Archie, Grum, Nysqwen and I rejected, as none of us wanted to slay a bound captive in cold blood. Thus, we carried him back to Reidoth, wondering if the old druid might find any worth in the man.
 
He did not. He seemed to be of the same conviction as Kyla, the man would best serve dead. Desperately Favric tried to command Nysqwen once more to set him free. His words must have been intertwined with some kind of fell magic, as she obeyed his words. The moment his shackles dropped however, Kyla spoke one brief word of power, killing the man where he knelt. The shock on Archie’s face mirrored my own. True, the cultist was our enemy and about to escape. Yet he still was our captive, unarmed and mostly defeated. Granted, I would not have known what else to do with him either, but this felt like cold blooded murder. Maybe it was the right thing to do, I still have not quite found my piece with this though. Her rushed actions may bring Kyla into quite some trouble someday. We will have to keep an eye on her for the time being, until she has earned herself the trust we hold in such high regard in our group.
In the silence that followed Favric’s death, I recognised how weary I was from the battles of the day. The same was apparent for my friends. Reluctantly we decided, our departure would have to wait until the next day, similar to the purging of the remaining undead in Thundertree. After her surprising slaying moments earlier, it was quite amusing to see the shock on Kyla’s face when she heard that there was a dragon occupying the old tower on the hill and our intent to deal with him once we found Gundren. While I fear that encounter as well, her expression in that moment was priceless!
 
The remaining evening, Grum and I spent searching through the spiders’ and the cultists’ lairs for any useful items for our further travels. Indeed, we found some rations in the house Favric and his men, accompanied with three diamonds. They likely intended to bribe the dragon with these, now they might serve to feed us for a couple of years. In the webs of our second destination we found the gruesome remainders of a sucked corpse in an old cocoon. I could not bear the sight for long, yet Grum found a small vial on his body containing a healing potion.
While we were searching, Nysqwen and Kyla went about to give a cremation burial to the slain men. Kyla insisted it was important to her and her goddess to give these people a proper final rest to give a proper, respectful end to their lives. This act softened my views on her somewhat. She might be quick to act and not too hesitant in killing those she disagreed with, but this respectful gesture attested to a caring mind after all. Never judge a person too quickly, Morthos, they might surprise you, ere you know it!
We all spent the night in the now abandoned house of the cultists, standing guard in turn. As Kyla offered to take the first watch, we others quickly fell asleep. Only to be awakened by here panicked, hushed voice soon after. And before she had time to explain, there was a sudden rushing outside the windows, like a strong wind emerging not fifty paces distant from us and lifting into the air. Kyla had seen the dragon land in our place of battle against the cultists and rushed to awaken us. As we peered outside, nothing could be seen, nor heard anymore. The beast was gone. Alert, we went back to try and get some rest. Now it is my watch and the night is quiet. No unexpected visits anymore, hopefully this will last to the morning. We will have to make good time to catch up with our delay in helping Grum’s old friend!