Chapter 33: Spiders
The southwestern part of Cloakwood bordered on the sea. It was a rocky region, littered with rivers and waterfalls, and the trees grew in dense clusters with wide stretches of grass or pebbly sand between them. The sound of waves crashing against the jagged cliffs that made up most of the shoreline could be heard from quite a distance; when they had tried to find a better path along the shore, the noise had been almost deafening. Ember and Imoen had tried to see Candlekeep across the sea, but haze on the horizon and the glaring sunlight made it impossible to tell if their old home could possibly be seen from there.
The area was crawling with spiders.
They had not seen a single wolf since crossing the first major river in the forest, and with every hour that passed, they encountered larger and more vicious spiders than before. By the time they reached the second large Cloakwood river, even the smaller woodland creatures were scarce.
"They don't look much like spiders," Imoen said, pointing across the river. A young man - barely sixteen, by the look of him - was standing on the far bank, holding the reins of a brown horse and stroking its muzzle, apparently trying to calm the animal down.
They crossed the river at a shallow point nearby. As they approached, the horse neighed nervously, alerting its owner. There was a frightened look on the boy's face as he looked up, but it almost immediately turned to relief. "He... hello travelers, I'm Tiber," he said. "Are you adventurers?"
Ember smiled at him. "That we are," she said.
"Could... could I take up some of your time?" Tiber said plaintively. "I would be very grateful if you would just listen to... if you would just help me!" The last part was blurted out in a higher pitched voice.
"What is it that troubles you?" Kivan asked.
"It's my brother, you see," Tiber said. "He and I came here to clear the woods of the spiders that infest it. I know it sounds foolish... but my brother had found the sword 'Spider's Bane'! It was created to kill spiders! We thought we could become famous... the heroes of Cloakwood, and all that." Tiber sighed heavily. "The horse would go no further, so Chelak continued alone. It's been more than a week, and he has not returned."
"Minsc understands, for Boo has explained it to him!" Minsc said. "We will turn every rock till we find your brother!"
"You will?" Tiber cried. "Oh thank you! Thank you! I... I know it is much to ask. He's taller than me and has brown hair and wears light blue."
"We'll do our best to find him," Ember said. "don't worry."
"I'll wait here for you. Thank you so much! Please... be careful."
---
"Why anyone would want to hunt this vermin on purpose is utterly beyond me," Edwin said. "(The foolishness!)"
"Hey, he wanted to be a hero," Imoen said. She was crouching in front of an almost invisible strand of silk that crossed the open space ahead of them. "Haven't you ever done something foolhardy just so you could tell the tale later? There, it's clear," she said, and cut the strand with her dagger. The strand burst apart as if it had been under great tension, but nothing else happened; Imoen had secured it to the ground at both ends before cutting it.
"I prefer to let my greatness speak for itself," Edwin said. "(Foolishness does not make a hero; it makes a fool. She should know that!)"
Behind them, Kivan put an arrow through the head of an ettercap. "Be quiet," he said. "There are more about." As if on command, a pair of spiders materialized in their midst. One of them appeared right next to Ember; its carapace was a vivid green. Before she could react, it bit her shoulder.
"Phase spiders!" Kivan cried.
"A sword spider, too! Only heroes should have swords!" Minsc bellowed, and charged at a spider Ember could not see. She slashed clumsily at the phase spider that had bitten her. The creature vanished and reappeared several feet away. It seemed to be laughing at her. Imagining things, Ember thought irritably; her entire body was burning with the spider's venom, and her vision was swimming. Can't fight like this. She stumbled towards a tree and leaned against it, trying to hold her sword steady as she pressed her hand to her shoulder. Fire rushed through her, but instead of healing her, it seemed to burn the poison out of her. Her thoughts and gaze clear, she was ready with her sword when the spider appeared next to her again.
On the far side of the green field, Minsc was hacking away at a large, black spider that moved faster than any she had seen so far. The others were preoccupied with the other phase spider; as Ember watched, Edwin fired a volley of magic missiles at it, only to have them course through thin air when the spider shifted three feet sideways. Minsc is alone, though. Ember ran towards the giant ranger.
Just as Ember reached Minsc, someone stepped out of the woods and fired an arrow at the sword spider. It struck the creature's belly without doing too much damage, but it was enough to distract the spider; it hissed and turned slightly towards its new attacker. Ember slashed at the spider, driving it a few steps away. To her horror, she saw that there were sharp edges on its legs; it had cut large gashes in Minsc's armor with them. She grabbed the ranger's arm and squeezed till she felt the fire flow into him. Minsc straightened up, roared with fury, and chopped the spider in half.
The stranger joined them in killing the remaining phase spider. When it lay quivering on the ground, the stranger bowed before them. "Hail, friends! It is refreshing to find other people in this wood," he said in a deep voice. Ember noticed that he shared Kivan's height, build and pointed ears, but the similarities ended there; there was a broad smile on the stranger's face that she'd never expect to see on Kivan, and his clothes had patches of vibrant colour.
"Who are you?" Kivan asked.
"My name is Coran," he said, looking more at Ember and Imoen than at Kivan, "and it is my deepest pleasure to meet you."
"Hello, Coran!" Minsc said cheerfully.
"We seek a boy who came to hunt spiders a week ago. Have you seen him?" Kivan asked.
Coran frowned. "No, I have seen no boys," he said, then grinned broadly. "What I have seen is the spiders' lair, or so I believe; a vast dome of spider silk! I could take you to it, if you wish."
"Lead the way," Kivan said.
The lair was not far away; in less than half an hour, they were all staring at the large dome made of cobwebs and tree branches. "A horrible waste of silk," Edwin said.
"How do we get inside?" Ember asked.
"I think I see a doorway over there. See the faint dark line?" Imoen said, gesturing towards a spot on the side of the dome where the silk had a slightly different look.
"Ah, your eyes are as sharp as they are lovely!" Coran said.
"Thank you, I picked them out myself," Imoen said, sharing a bemused glance with Ember. Behind them, Edwin muttered quietly.
With a combined effort, Ember, Kivan and Minsc managed to pry open the silken hatchway. A tunnel, tall enough that only Minsc had to crouch, led inside. The walls had a faint glow, which Kivan told them was caused by certain insects and fungi. They entered the tunnel and followed it past a couple turns into the main chamber of the lair.
An immensely bloated woman sat in the middle of the lair, surrounded by ettercaps and giant spiders of all kinds. "Kill the meat, my pets," she said in a gargling, hollow voice. The spiders immediately obeyed, hissing and chittering as they moved towards Ember and her friends.
"Stay back!" Edwin shouted. He raised the wand of fire and activated it, sending a ball of flame at the center of the room. It hit the woman and blossomed outwards, engulfing the spiders.
"Eddie?" Imoen said nervously, but the red wizard was preoccupied with casting a spell and didn't heed her. The wall of flames rushed towards them, only to boil away to nothing a foot or two before it reached them. The floor was smouldering in a few spots, but the dome itself was otherwise unharmed.
"You could have warned us, Edwin," Ember panted, leaning against the dome wall.
Edwin finished casting his spell; the air in the middle of the dome filled with noxious fumes, knocking out most of the injured spiders. "I did," he said with a smug grin.
Clearing out the nest was now a simple task. Ember cut down any creature that managed to hobble within their reach, while the rest of them skewered the spiders with arrows. By the time the stinking cloud had dissipated, the spiders and their mistress were all dead. An inspection of the dome revealed several small chambers; most of them held wolves and deer and other animals, all meticulously wrapped in silk, but in one of them they found the figure of a man, his large sword wrapped tightly to his side. They lifted him out of the chamber - the body was unnaturally light - and cut away enough of the strands to reveal a sunken yet boyish face and a blue tunic.
"I fear it is our lost Chelak," Kivan said.
"I think so, too," Imoen said unhappily. The boy's sword lay in her lap. "This is 'Spider's Bane'."
---
"Chelak!" Tiber cried when he saw his brother's body in Minsc's arms. "Oh, Chelak. How will I ever tell Mother? I should have stopped this stupid idea. Such a waste... such a waste. You can keep the damn sword," he told Minsc, "it's been more of a curse than anything else."
"Minsc will use it to teach a lesson of justice to the spiders we meet," Minsc said.
"I thank you for bringing my brother's body," Tiber said somberly. "I shall take him home now." He helped Minsc strap his dead brother to the horse, thanked them again, and rode away to the east.
"Poor boy," Imoen said.
"Which of them? The living or the dead?" Ember asked.
"Both, I guess," Imoen replied. "Poor boys," she sighed.
They camped that night by the riverbank. Minsc caught a couple fish - with Boo's assistance, or so he claimed - and Kivan made a small, smokeless fire to cook them on. The smell of roasting fish was tantalizing.
"Why are you in the woods with no friends?" Minsc asked as he handed Coran a morsel of fish.
"Why indeed? I wouldn't mind returning to the big city, but I have yet to collect my bounty. I'd share the reward with the lot of you, if you would help hasten the hunt. You interested in hearing more?" Coran said.
Ember froze. Another bounty hunter? "Yes, tell us more," she said in as pleasant a tone as she could manage. Her friends had all stopped eating.
"Good, I'm glad you're smart enough to recognize opportunity when it comes knocking," Coran said, seemingly oblivious to the change of mood around him. "The deal is this: I've been hired out by the mayor of Beregost to hunt down a great winged dragon that's been plaguing the caravan routes as well as the few farmers that live in these woods. He's offered two thousand gold for its head. Now before you get cold feet, let me allay your fears. The only descriptions of the beast have always mentioned its deadly barbed tail. From what I know about dragons they don't have barbs on their tails - that's something unique to wyverns. So all we have to do is find this wyvern's nest and kill it. Our only worries are if it has friends over for dinner!" He looked around expectantly. "So what is your decision, yea or nay?"
Ember sighed quietly with relief. I guess they can't all be coming for me. "Sounds like another 'foul beast' to me," she said, remembering the druids' warning.
"Yep," Imoen said.
"We have another task we must attend to," Kivan said, "but it is folly for one man alone to hunt wyverns, no matter how good the cause. We shall aid you."
"Minsc and Boo will teach the wyverns to not be evil bandits!" Minsc exclaimed.
"Very well then," Coran said. "We shall all travel together in the morning, and collect the heads of those soon to be sorry wyverns!"
"(Another fool.) I cannot wait," Edwin grumbled.
---
Before they all retired to their bedrolls, Ember pulled Kivan aside. "I discovered a third gift today," she told him quietly. "I can neutralize poison."
Kivan frowned. "Have there been anymore of those dreams?"
"No," Ember said, choosing not to tell him how she'd dreamed of washing her bloody hands on both nights since then. The voice isn't in that dream, after all.
"Let me know if you have another dream, or if you discover another gift. It is still not certain that they are linked, but the likelihood is great," Kivan told her. Ember agreed to do so, and bid him goodnight.
She then spent a third night trying to wash blood off her hands.