Tag: giant spiders

#Lore24 – Entry #316 – Fantasy Month IV #11 – The Heroes of Vindinium and the Journey to the Ruins

From the journal of Angeliqua “Goldeneyes” Cartacustos

As it happened, I was back in Vindinium when the heroes returned, sampling some of the local cooking and chatting with one of the town’s hunters about the geography around the town when the call came from one of the watchtowers that the adventuring party had been spotted coming along the road.  I hastily finished my lunch and the conversation and headed toward the westward gate which connected to the road leading deeper into the Wildlands to await their arrival.  I hoped that I wasn’t fidgeting too much, for the cage, plug, piercings had been particularly active today, and my changed anatomy was particularly sensitive and engorged inside its tiny enclosure.  How Lady Armenia expected me to perform in my expected role in surveying these ruins with these distractions remained a mystery.

The party rode through the gates without much in the way of fanfare, rather a series of friendly greetings and waves from friendly villagers and the handful of soldiers on watch duty.  They made their way quickly toward the town’s tavern, the Drunken Hog, without even pausing to clear off the dust from the road.  They had the look of seasoned adventurers about them, their gear worn but well-cared for, sporting a handful of scrapes and bruises that hadn’t yet been healed by their healer, friendly banter between themselves, that sort of thing.  I decided to give them a little time to settled down from their trip before I introduced myself.

After about half an hour, I made my way into the tavern, drawing their eyes immediately as I came inside.  The drakonae with them leaned in, whispering something to the dusk elf arcanist, who nodded affirmatively and whispered something back, and made some quick movements with his fingers, to which the purple-haired dawn elf nodded, flashing a rather hungry grin by way.  As I would come to learn, the drakonae was their scout, going by the name Shassk Darkscale, certainly an apt name given his pitch black scales.  The arcanist was Ellisar Chaeynor, dressed in common explorer’s clothes, his stark white hair tied back in a short tail, bore several charms about his person, along with a pair of wands upon his belt, as well as his staff, which, to my chagrin, was a Staff of Many Bindings.  The dawn elf, a remarkably beautiful man, whom I very nearly assumed a woman at first, had long purple hair, a lascivious smirk, and wore pants so tight that could only marvel at how he fit into them at all given the roundness of his rear and wideness of his hips (a most remarkable feature of his, I must admit); I knew at once he could be trouble, for he was not shy about his attraction toward me.  This was Korvalis Nightrunner.

The two women amongst the party were no less remarkable.  The first had given me a start when I’d first witnessed her riding into town, for she was very nearly the exact opposite of Lady Armenia.  She was a mazoku, named Gresilda Nazaria and bearing the holy symbol of Erisaya, her skin a deep blue color, hair of gold, her horns curling around the sides of her head, her eyes bright amber shade, and upon seeing her out of her armor, she tended to wear white and other brighter colors, if not so fine as what Lady Armenia wore.  The other woman came in a moment later, nearly having to duck to enter from the rear entrance from the stables, for she was well over six-feet tall and possessed of a huge, muscular build and a wild mane of fiery red hair, her tattoos indicating that she was of the barbaric tribes that roamed the northern reaches on the edges of the Empire, though she bore herself as much more civilized than her initial appearance would indicate, her speech decidedly that of a lifelong citizen of the Empire.  This was Risai Morningstar.

I introduced myself and began telling them of my reason for approaching, and they bid me to sit at their table, and we spoke for some time while they enjoyed drink and food, though I did not press them too hard on the details of the ruins they had found.  That we would save for that evening, after they had had time to rest and recover, for they had been invited to dine with Commander Asselin and Lady Armenia to discuss the coming exploration.  They seemed a little suspicious of me, understandably so, for I was indeed an outside among them, but friendly enough, though Shassk and Risai weren’t the most conversational amongst us.

I would have plenty of time to get to know them better on our journey to the ruins.  Following our discussions at dinner that night, they would resupply the following day and set out in the early morning the day after, with myself traveling with them this time.  Thankfully the night before we set out, Lady Armenia removed the accursed plug from me, even if she didn’t remove the other pieces of my “protection”.  She did give me the dildo I had both practiced my oral abilities upon and had used upon me, though, “just in case food is scarce” she said.  I was no less frustrated than I had been, of course, and would be greatly more so once I had experienced riding on horseback with my new anatomy; how men manage to do this at all is beyond me.

With my gear and equipment ready, I joined the party and we set off; the journey to the ruins would take about four days, assuming we didn’t run into any trouble.  In spite of their work so far, there were still plenty of tribals out there looking for blood, as well as a multitude of bandit groups who were still out roaming out there, many disaffected former citizens of the Empire, some supposedly former soldiers who had once fought in the Res’Taringal rebellion and went into exile, others from the elvish-held lands beyond the Wildlands and beyond.  I would learn that there were signs of cult activity in the area as well, for they had encountered at least one instance of a ritual sacrifice in the wilderness, and several people had gone missing from Vindinium.  Worse, perhaps, there was at least one party of adventurers who had come into the region and turned bandit and may be interested in the ruins as well.  No shortage of dangers to be wary of, certainly.

We would encounter a perhaps two dozen orcs, an armed raiding party, during our travels, which, thanks to Shassk’s expertise, we were able to ambush, leaving only the three or four who ran off alive.  There were other dangers along the way as well, for we encountered a pack of rather ravenous wolves, came dangerously close to some giant spiders that had found their way out of a section of woods to hunt, and even a rare fire-breathing drake that had attacked us from the skies, looking for food.  I held my own during these encounters, and though I was hardly as attuned to the surroundings as the rest of the party, I would quickly learn their ways and work with them as we went. 

A severe thunderstorm struck late on the third day, delaying our travel by a day while we waited for it to pass, but soon enough we would arrive at the site of the ruins, and my work would begin.

#Lore24 – Entry #252 – Fantasy Month III #9 – The Confessor Arrives

As Told by Larissa no Synstralia de’Cordova, Confessor of Yurisaya

“The chill you feel in the air is my growing displeasure, captain.  Have we not discussed the fine art of interrogation many times previously?  Why is it that you have so little to offer in your report?  No, don’t bother to try to explain yourself.  I know exactly why you’ve failed to yield satisfactory results.  You’ve failed to gain their trust, failed to empathize with them in the slightest.  You’ve taken an adversarial tone immediately, trying to bully them into telling you what you wish to know.  I personally have trouble with empathy, for I have little in the way of emotion, but I have other methods that I may need to resort to now that you’ve put them in such a terrible disposition towards us.

It is the truth I seek, captain, nothing more, nothing less.  If I must result to torture I will, but I doubt it will come to that.  As unreasonable as you paint them, the fact that at least two of them are believers in the Dark Lady’s ways will smooth things, and the Erisayan champion will be easily enough dealt with, once she’s made to see reason.  For you see, finding common ground is key to getting the information one desires, and I’m certain I an do that, though you’ve undoubtedly made my work more difficult.

No, your presence won’t be required, captain.  I’ll salvage your interrogation, and you’ll simply owe my order a favor down the line.  See, I’m quite reasonable, aren’t I?  I trust you’ve at least made certain that the druid is contained in a cell that has no easy exits for small pests?  It would be most unfortunate for you, captain, should I step into their cell to find them missing before I’ve had a chance to question them.  Most unfortunate indeed.  You may go; the truth of this matter will be revealed, of this I am certain.  Is that doubt I see?  Or is that suspicion?  You think because I share faith with some of these prisoners that I will be merciful?  Might I suggest you improve your knowledge of Yurisaya’s ways?  I can offer you a first-hand experience if you so desire, one you certainly will not forget as you did with your interrogation techniques.”

#Lore24 – Entry #251 – Fantasy Month III #8 – A Wilderness Misadventure

As Told by Siduri Tamboura, Warrior for Hire

“You call this food?  It’s hog slop at best, and that’s being generous.  Thought you wanted details?  You’re not being very inviting.  I told you, you want the dirt, you’re going to have to offer something in return.  I don’t work for free unless I get to take it out of someone’s ass!  You heard me right, just like I was doing with Eri and Hatae and that box.  What, not into the hard kind of love?  Heh, whatever.

Fine, I’ll consider this worth a little more detail, but unless you start coughing up some real food, you’ll get nothing else from me.  You want to know about our little jaunt through the Canorath Wood?  It was a comedy of errors.  Oh, that first day went fine enough, aside from miss champion of Erisaya recounting her previous adventures along the way.  Problem with elves is that they talk too damn much about their too damn long lives!  That’s one reason I really enjoy it when I get to play rough with them, you see. 

Well, it turned to shit on the second day.  Now, Eri would swear the woods had changed after a certain point, old paths were missing, even some old church or something wasn’t where she thought it was, whatever, but my opinion is she was just lost and didn’t want to fess up for it.  You know how elves are, haughty bastards.  I’d make sure she paid up for that mistake later, but we stuck to our westward course as best we could and pushed through some rough terrain, making for the high ground so we could see where it was we were going.  Wound up going right through a damn giant spider’s nest, and after that fiasco, we wound up stumbling into a den of kobolds.  Less said about those little bastards the better.  Took us a couple tries, but we managed to escape and left them with a good bloody mess for the survivors.

Wound up stumbling into some more friendly territory a couple days later, some druid circle or whatever deep in the woods.  The fact that they didn’t attack us on sight was refreshing.  But, that’s all you’re getting out of me.  Come back with better food or offer up that ass of yours so I can work off my frustrations and we’ll talk more.  Fine, run off then, little man!  You aren’t worthy of me anyway!”