They came up to another sharp bend in the tunnel, and again Morgan took point to peer around it.

After another short stretch of tunnel, it widened out into another chamber filled with large web cocoons the size of a person. The cocoons were fixed to the floor with more of the gooey web, and Morgan noticed a metallic glint on the floor by one of them in the middle of the chamber.

He turned back to the party and waved them forwards, before turning to enter the space.

They started to inspect the cocoons, and Lauren waved the party back to the entrance as she readied a blade to slice into one. She peered around to the group, and when no one objected, she cut downwards, slicing an opening.

A desiccated human form lay within, and she stepped back, trying not to retch at the macabre sight.

“What the hell?” she gagged. Dillan walked up and cast an appraising eye at the corpse. “Well, whoever this was has been long dead.” He held his hand out, his leather glove lightly touching the body.

“He was a character, of course. Marten, he was called. A guard or a solider I think.” A small pile of equipment appeared, cascading down from where he touched the body to clank onto the floor.

“There’s a full set of armour here. Morgan?”

Morgan walked up to the pile, sorting through it. A battered chainmail shirt, a helmet and a short sword lay amongst the ratty cloth under layers looted from the dead guard. He pulled the chainmail on over his homespun shirt and stowed his goblin sword in favour of the lighter short sword. With helmet in hand, he turned to the rest of the group. “I guess we should open up more of these cocoons.” He suggested.

Lauren grimaced. “I guess we should. Whatever happened to dispensing loot with a good old chest, eh. No, in this game you loot mouldy month-old bodies to get your fix.”

She cheered up a bit at the next cocoon. A wizened goblin had dropped a crude crossbow and a handful of bolts. She turned to the group, “I never knew I wanted one of these. But I do. Mind if I take it?”

Everyone shrugged at the same time.

Dillan laughed, “Sure, take it.”

The party slowly made their way around the chamber, looting the dozen cocoons. Most contained goblin corpses, but another couple of humans were found and all dropped a handful of coin. By the time it was done, they shared out just over 16 gold and a healthy pile of loot sat by the entrance to the chamber. A dozen goblin weapons, and a crude bow sat on a thick smattering of metal plates and leather scraps. One of the human corpses was a hunter, and though their bow was inferior to the one Lana carried, they dropped a quiver of high-quality arrows that she took. The other dead human was another solider and carried a hefty boar spear that Chris swapped his own out for.

Dillan looked down at the heaped pile of loot that the party stood around. “We’re not going to be able to take this all now. We’ll have to come back for it. Perhaps it’ll even take two trips to town.”

“At least we won’t be hurting for cash after this.” Said Elaine.

Everyone grinned.

“Out of interest,” asked Lauren, “how many of the spider bits have we got in total, Dillan?”

Dillan spaced out for a second as he checked his inventory before responding, “We’ve picked up 116 juvenile poison glands, for whatever that’s worth, along with 7 of the larger ones and 3 of the spinneret glands.”

Lauren grinned widely. “I messaged a merchant friend down in Dilianar to check the prices for us. So,” She paused a moment for dramatic effect, “The small sacks sell for 20 silver each, the large ones for a 2 gold and 75 silver, and the spinneret glands go for 6 gold each. Apparently, no one likes to fight large spiders to get the stuff, so its costly.”

The group stood dumbly while they tried to do the calculations.

Chris was the first to break the silence. “So, 116 times 20 is... 2320. 7 times 275 is 1925 for 4245, plus 1800 for 6045. Just over 60 gold. Not including this pile here.”

Morgan whistled appreciatively. “I wonder if there’s a boss somewhere. I wonder what that’d drop.”

Dillan nodded. “Well, shall we go find it?”

Morgan replied, “I still haven’t found any of this Silkbloom stuff so I must go on.”

Lana patted him on the back, “So far so good, I’m sure it’s just round the next corner. We’re with you.”

The party once again set off deeper into the dark tunnel, treading softly as their torchlight flickered from the damp walls. The walls started to widen, and the ceiling rose up as they delved, until they stood in a huge cave. There was a body of water to one side, perhaps 20 meters across, though it didn’t look deep. A luminous moss faintly lit the water from within. In the centre of the space, a thin pillar of rock stood, looking as though it held up the caverns high ceiling. Dillan’s lamp pierced the gloom to illuminate the back of the large space. It was riddled with smaller tunnels leading in different directions.

The group stood, trying to look around the cavern for a moment, though the light from the torches didn’t reach the walls of the ceiling. After a hesitant moment, they started to head in towards the back and the multiple tunnels.

Along the cavern wall by the water Morgan spotted some bunches of odd egg-shaped plants, lit dimly by the moss that shone from the pool. He walked towards them, identifying them as he moved closer.

[Identify – Silkblossom]

[Harvestable resource : Harvesting]

With a small sigh of relief, he walked up to the plants and started to harvest. As he worked, he called out to the others, “Give me a second guys, I’ve finally found some Silkblossom.” The team responded with a small cheer. A few minutes later, and he had just over a hundred of the seedpods he required. With a smile on his face, he moved back to the rest of the party.

Elaine turned to the group, “So, which tunnel do we go down? There are six different entrances that I can see.”

“The leftmost tunnel.” Said Chris, instantly.

Elaine raised her eyebrow at him before responding, “What makes you so sure?”

Chris shrugged. “It's an old surveyors' trick. And my grandma once told me about hedge mazes... It doesn’t matter. Anyway, if you consistently stick to the left, you won’t get lost, and can properly map an area. That’s the logic anyway.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The party thought about it for a moment. “Well, it’s a good a reason as any.” Remarked Dillan, and with that the group moved towards the leftmost tunnel.

Lana paused mid stride as they reached the middle of the cavern, near the pillar. “Wait. Can you hear that?”

The party froze in their tracks, ears straining to hear whatever had stopped the elf. Morgan could hear a faint dripping from somewhere, but that had been there all along.

“I don’t hear anything.” He whispered.

Lana frowned. “I swear I heard some movement from behind us.” She whispered back.

Lauren started to walk back towards the entrance they’d come in from, and Dillan shone his light around the cavern, lighting up the walls with sweeping arcs.

Lauren had reached halfway between the entrance and the pillar, a good thirty meters from the rest of the party, when she stopped abruptly.

She screamed, and Dillan bought his light around just in time to see a spider the size of a boulder leaping from a large crack in the rock above the entrance.

The giant arachnid sailed through the air for a moment before landing on top of Lauren, her scream cutting off abruptly. A sickly crunch reverberated through the cavern.

[Lauren, your party member, has died.]

“Lauren! No!” screamed Lana as she drew her bow. Morgan watched dumbly as the fast-firing archer let loose arrow after arrow at the large target. The arrows hit cleanly, each striking an eye the size of a dinner plate before bouncing off with no effect. He turned to see the rest of the party shaking themselves from their shocked state.

“What do we do?” called Elaine.

Dillan was the first to answer. “Form up here on Harl, stay loose, don’t stand too close.”

The huge spider reared up on its hind legs, chittering a bellowing challenge that echoed around the chamber.

Morgan, running to fall into place beside Chris, took a moment to identify the creature.

[Identify – Spid## Matriarch: Level E]

[Race - Arachnid/Arachnid/Arach##d]

[HP - 1/1]

[SP - 1/1]

[MP - 1/1]

Morgan blinked away the information before trying again, with the same result.

“Something’s not right here.” He said to the group.

“It’s immune to my arrows!” Lana cried out; the despair clear in her tone.

The spider started to charge towards them, covering the ground with inhuman speed.

“Scatter!” cried out Dillan, and the group split in two, diving to either side of the spiders projected path. Harl narrowly avoided being crushed, but the arachnid caught him with a massive limb, tossing the lumberjack hard into the pillar at the centre of the room. He hit it so hard that a small chunk fell from the pillar, and he bounced to land in the shallow water of the pool, his torch extinguishing with a hiss. His body disappeared with a dull flash, leaving a pile of equipment stacked in the shallow water.

[Harl, your party member, has died]

Dillan used his burst of speed, charging the matriarch. He dodged a spearing limb and jumped off another, landing on top of the huge spider. He evoked a skill with a cry of “Sunder!” and tried to drive his daggers into the back of the creature’s head. The blades skittered off as if he had tried to stab a slab of rock. The spider reared back and shook itself, dislodging the runner and sending him arching through the air to crash into Morgan.

“That should have worked. We can’t take this monster; we need to get out of here!” called Dillan, as he got to his feet.

The spider turned to charge again. Chris threw his vine shield like a discuss at the monster, distracting the creature from the larger mob of players.

“Get Dillan and Morgan out of here!” the spearman shouted. The spider started to stalk towards Chris, who was backing up to draw it further away.

Lana started to sprint for the tunnel, but her quick movement was sensed by the spider, and it span, leaping towards the running elf. Terror gave her a burst of speed, but the spider easily caught up and impaled her with a meaty limb. She screamed in agony as she was pinned to the floor. Morgan instinctively backed away as he saw her health bar in the party interface drop sharply to under a quarter and then continue to fall quickly until it was depleted.

[Lana, your party member, has died.]

Another pile of equipment was left where a living, breathing person had been before. Dillan whispered from close behind to Morgan. “We’ve got to get you out. I know you can’t afford to die here.”

Morgan nodded dumbly, eyes still fixed on the pile of equipment that had been Lana. He heard a thwack of wood on stone that broke his focus and he swivelled to see Chris on the far side of the space, slamming his spears butt into the cavern floor.

“Come at me you freak! I’m not afraid of you!” he bellowed at the giant arachnid. The spider turned to him and leapt, crossing most of the distance with the jump, before lunging forward. Chris dived to one side, narrowly avoiding being crushed by a searching limb as he drove his spear up at the mass of the creature. The spear skittered uselessly off its side. Dillan used the distraction to grab Morgan by the arm and pulled him towards the exit. Morgan cast his eyes back to Chris, who was readying himself for another attack.

“Come on, we’ve got to go. But gently.” Whispered Dillan as he tugged Morgan along.

The pair made it a few more steps before a notification appeared in their vision.

[Chris, your party member, has died.]

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Elaine, hugging the wall as she also moved towards the way out.

“Come on, we’re close.” Urged Dillan. He was about to say something else before the words died on his lips as the spider leapt over them to stand before the entrance to the cavern.

Morgan heard a curse from Elaine somewhere to his left. The spider lunged, and Dillan used a burst of speed to throw himself and Morgan out of the way as a limb chipped a chunk of stone from the floor.

Morgan, running out of options, tried a last desperate move. He ran towards the spider as it reset is position from the lunge, fumbling out the Bag of Cats from under his shirt. He pointed the opening towards the spider's head and opened it up.

“Cover its eyes!” he shouted as the cats flew out of the bag like a blast from a shotgun, propelling them straight into the spiders' face. “Distract it! Blind it!” he cried to them, “I’ll summon you back when we’re in the tunnel.”

The flying beasts landed on the arachnid’s large head, each cat clinging on for dear life as the spider shook itself to try and clear its vision. The cats draped themselves over its bulbous eyes, ineffectively scratching and biting at whatever they could reach.

“Come on!” he shouted to Dillan and Elaine, but the large spider was still blocking the route out. Although it was partially blinded, the skittering legs were still a lethal blockage. Elaine started to run back to the centre of the cavern.

Morgan watched her go, realising that she was going to be the next to sacrifice themselves to get him and Dillan out. He pulled Dillan to the side of the chamber. The sound of metal on stone rang through the chamber as Elaine struck her pick against the central column. The thrashing spider heard the noise and stilled for a moment, before leaping towards Elaine.

He saw two of the cats dislodged by the leap. Trip teleported back on to the spider from mid-air, but Luna hit the ground hard and was swept aside by a giant limb. The small grey cat slid to crash into the central pillar, losing most of her health bar.

Morgan stalled at the entrance, readying the bag of cats to recall the beasts, but he didn’t have a clear line of sight on Luna. If he opened it now, she’d fly right into the writhing mass of legs, probably killing her instantly. Morgan cursed.

“Get out.” He said to Dillan. “I’ll be right behind you.”

He moved back into the cavern, following the wall to try and get a better angle to recall the cats. The spider was focused on Elaine, who was using the pillar as cover. Five cats still clung to the monsters' head, while Luna, incensed at the damage she’d taken was yowling at the spider, preparing to leap.

In the next few seconds, several things seemed to happen at once. The spider lunged at Elaine, who was cursing at it from behind the pillar. Luna leapt at the spider, missing whatever she’d been aiming at to land cleanly in its chittering maw. Then the spider hit the pillar with such force that the other five cats were flung off deeper into the cavern, and the pillar crumbled.

Morgan was sprinting towards the scene, logic thrown to the wind by the desire to protect his charges when the ceiling collapsed.

With wide eyes, he saw countless tonnes of rocky debris fall, starting at the pillar and continuing down the length of the cavern. He caught a glimpse of Elaine dashing towards the back of the space before his vision was obscured by a cloud of dust. He was hit by a falling rock, driving him to the ground. Laced with pain and despair, he curled up in the foetal position and waited for death. As he lay, unmoving as the debris continued to fall, messages flashed behind his eyelids.

[Luna – 1 damage to Spid## Matriarch]

[A companion has killed Spid## Matriarch - Level E +000XP]

[Your companion Luna has died]