Leaving Canton, the party heads south. Morvion knows that to the south, his brethren participate in a hunt occasionally for a dreaded Banshee Spider. He has interacted with some elves from those tribes, yet never actually been to their villages.
As banshee spiders do not live this far north, Morvion knows little about what a Banshee spider is, how dangerous they are, etc. This is just word of mouth he is working with. However, he knows that south is the direction the party must travel if banshee blood is what they must have.
The first hurdle is actually crossing the Zygarosse. No easy task. It is almost 30 miles of jungle trek just to arrive at the river’s edge (4 days travel).
Once there – Morvion knows the custom. There is a tribe which lives on the opposite shore. A decent campfire with some smoke signals at high noon summons the tribe’s canoeists. Morvion actually knows and recognizes the first to arrive, greeting him as a brother. (Morvion goes by a different name when greeting this elf) Greetings and a few items are exchanged and given for the ride across, and for the first time – most of your party is in lands south of the mighty Zygarosse.
This really seems somewhat anti-climatic walking onto the south shore. Back home – the south shore represents terror, nightmare, and death to all the children in their nighttime tales. Only the bravest dare venture south of Chrailis into the marshes. However, these are not marshes – just more jungle.
Asking about Banshee spiders, the tribe points south.
Going to the next tribe (the furthest Morvion has ever traveled south, even during his youth), they point yet further south. However, they now give a name to the town. Kerlostra Sharlanna Civedis. Civedis is somewhat difficult to pronounce and Morvion makes a point to keep correcting everyone till they get it right. It is sih vee dis with a hard accent on the 'sih' sound and the 'vee' said really fast.
While Morvion has heard of Kerlostra (just Kerlostra, he’s never heard it referred to with the other two names) he has never been there. And the Civedis in the title actually means something – it’s a meeting place for many tribes when danger imperils all elves. Morvion didn’t realize that such a place existed, however he is convinced that his translation can mean nothing else. (Elvish is a language where words are created from base ideas and merely adding an 'ik' to the end of the word can dramatically change that words meaning)
Trekking further they go past two other tribal territories (which overlapped) when they are approached by a female elf. She is quite young for an elf, almost an adolescent, and introduces herself as J’Arbee. She is from Kerlostra and guides them the rest of the way there.
There they are met by the Captain of the Guard – Carmla. She is decked out in vibrantly colored lacquered armor. If it wasn’t for her three guards (Dres, Bones, Danderik) behind her similarly displaying bright reds, greens, and yellows, Carmla would be a sight to behold. The four of them together look like a small flock of the brightly multi-colored birds which call out in the jungle tops.
Asking as to their purpose, the party replies they are hunting a Banshee spider and wish to participate in the ritual. J’Arbee perks up that this – she is really interested.
As it turns out, as young as J’Arbee is, she really is quite accomplished. She claims she is the best archer of the four tribes. She is wanting the title Master of the Hunt so she can lead hunting parties herself. To get this title, one of the challenges is to lead the hunt for a Banshee spider. She insists that she has located the first Banshee spider seen in at least five years.
Agreeing to allow the party to talk further with the town elders, they are allowed up to the middle levels of the village. While Morvion keeps quiet, he notices that not only is this village bigger than any he has encountered before, there are several buildings (almost 20 of them) on the ground. Odd for an elf village. Most elf villages, if they have a ground structure, have one maybe two at the most.
Ascending into the village is also something new for everyone. The circling ramp only goes halfway up around its tree, then stops at a platform. Stepping out onto the platform, they are levitated another 150’ up into the trees. Powerful magics indeed. From what the party has seen, even when magic like this is available, elves tend not to flaunt their abilities.
It is here they meet the village Shaman – Mugan Daras. He insists they call him Grasswinder (a type of bird). They also meet Cheddy, a straw figure about 2’ high with a porcelain face. He is the companion construct of Grasswinder. (They will later find out that Cheddy used to be squirrel monkey. He was mortally wounded, and unable to save him, Grasswinder was able to move his spirit into a nearby straw doll. He had learned this trick from his sister. She was also mortally wounded and rather than face death, she transferred herself into a wooden stick figure toy. Supposedly she is somewhere around the village researching how to move her spirit back into a living vessel, however, none of the party ever encounters her.)
He is wearing a robe of bird feathers and is covered in green tattoos shaped in sharply angled runes. His demeanor is one of an amazed child half the time. He is not in full control of his emotions (although he never gets angry) and is often inappropriately exuberant about the most banal of topics. It's obvious that he partakes of various narcotics frequently. On the topic of Canton, he gets very sad and actually starts crying when he learns that Morvion is from the town.
He informs them that the Chief is away, visiting another tribe. (Again they will learn later that he is on a mission further south to negotiate with a rather militant tribe of Lizard Men. Supposedly this tribe now masses over 200 lizards and could almost be referred to as an army.) His 2nd in command is Vilikek. He is an older elf, very stern in actions and words. It is obvious that he holds some disdain for Morvion’s village, making rude comments about how it has fallen, an untested shaman was leading it, etc. At the time of this writing, none of the party knows why – and Morvion holds his tongue. There are matters more pressing than the slight of some old elf at this particular moment. The concept of honor isn’t as important to elves – it takes ego and a sense of importance – to have one’s honor insulted. Most elves have more important things to do than run around like citified humans worried about what others think of them. No one else seems to share Vilikek’s opinion. Everyone else views the loss of Morvion’s village with sadness.
Agreeing to the allow the hunt, Vilikek departs. He is not seen again, in fact, he seems to hold his distance.
If there is a banshee spider loose, no one is safe. They can attack anywhere, any time. And outside of powerful magics, there are no defenses. Grasswinder states that a powerful witch has been summoned who knows the proper spells for hunting a banshee spider as they are beyond his ability.
In the meantime, the party must go through a lengthy purification ceremony so the spells will work and take hold. With that, the ceremony begins in earnest. Overall, it takes almost two weeks for the ceremony to be finished, involving multiple emulsions and foul tasting concoctions, a lengthy stay in a sweathouse, eating various types of fungi, being painted in strange pastes, burial in specially prepared soil, and finally travel through a mystical cave (which none of the party ever could find again).
All this to remove ‘the taint’ of Chrailis. Once completed, they are told that their deaths represented their body giving up the connection it had with Chrailis. In the process, they all feel like they have lost something like there is a slight void in the back of their consciousness where something warm and comforting resided.
And as soon as this is done, Anchion the Witch (actually a high level druid which everyone refers to as a witch) begins the ritual. Anchion is an older elf (possibly 300 at least) with sky blue hair and a creeper vine as her companion.
She states the purpose and sequence of the hunt. The first part requires the use of a powerful silence spell (spellcraft puts this spell at 5th level – a kind of super Silence). The constant wail of a banshee spider liquifies bones almost immediately, resulting in near instant death. A regular silence spell, even enhanced, will not block the wail. With the silence cast, the party heads in the direction where J’arbee believes the banshee spider to live.
She is being aided by two of her closest friends, two 15’ tall forest giants named Kever and Clobb. While they speak elven fluently, they speak slowly and seem not to be the brightest. However, when it comes to tracking and wood lore it is quickly apparent that these two are masters of their craft.
Leading them on, they come to a place where they are certain the spider will be. Setting a trap by tying a goat to a fixed location (and injuring it in the process much to Aja’s dismay) they wait. With it bleating in fear and pain, it takes it only about an hour to lure in the spider.
The goat falls dead almost immediately when the spider attacks, crumpling into a mass of blood and skin. The spider then makes a mighty jump from almost 40’ away and starts feeding on the goat. Quickly charging in, the party and giants attack the spider. During the battle, which is over quickly, the group is attacked in turn by four howlers, creatures resembling large wolves but having dark coals for eyes and instead of hair, covered in long quills similar to that of a porcupine.
After the battle, Anchion explains that the howlers are not from this world (though they are now native to these jungles) – they are demonic in origin and are immune to the wail of a banshee spider. As such, they have been known to follow a banshee spider around as scavengers looking for leftovers. When the party attacked their food provider, they likely sought to protect the spider. She states this is one of the risks of hunting banshee spiders, though it has been over a century since howlers interfered on a hunt. On that hunt, the hunting party lost several members. You guys were lucky today, she says.
She also says that the spider, while corporeally dead, won’t stay that way long. The giants head out to locate the actual lair and return. Leading the party to the small hole in the ground, the giants say – return here. They then lead everyone back to the kill of the banshee spider. Anchion has set up camp. There is no time to spare. She has them all enter a tent with a bed pad set up for each of them.
She hands each person a phylactery on a cord with the directions to wear it as they fall asleep, for they are going to the Lucid Veil to fight the real spider. She explains that by eating the spiders heart, they will in turn cause the phylacteries to fill up with the ethereal blood of a banshee spider. (Interesting note: upon later examination of the phylactery, it is not glass. It is made of clear wood – the tree rings are barely visible in the light.) Aja asks Morvion if he knows of a ‘Glass’ tree? He says yes, but she isn’t convinced he is telling the truth.
Anchion then has each of them drink whereupon they each fall asleep. When they wake, the battle is done, the party was victorious.
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Author's Notes
Events occur late in the summer, 920th Year of Her Prominence. (1228 AC) The events happen from Ja Si'Unas 14th to Saylo 8th, spanning roughly 34 days. The trip from Canton to Kerlostra takes around 18 days, then the purification process takes another two weeks.