"Can we not have one night of peace?!" Kiera yelled, disturbed by the skittering noises coming from all around them now.

Sounding as though a thousand tiny feet were tap dancing on the other side of the walls, the noises of something crawling through the walls got louder and louder as whatever was inside moved closer to them. Suddenly, a ceiling tile fell through above them and a spider the size of a terrier landed on the ground, scrabbling to get its legs under it. It had landed wrong and broken two legs on one side, so it had difficulty getting up.

A shriek sounded from the middle of the group, and everyone turned to see DeeDee standing up on the toes of one foot while trying quite literally to climb on top of Graham. Surprised by her sudden weight, Graham toppled forward, landing on his chest. DeeDee proceeded to actually stand on his back while clutching her hands to her chest, squeezing her eyes shut, and violently shaking her head back and forth.

"EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!! Get it away, get it away, GET IT AWAY!!!!!" Deedee screamed while dancing around on Graham's back.

"Could you, please stop river dancing on my back," Graham grunted out in between stomping on his back.

"I hate spiders! You know this!" DeeDee protested, now appearing to be on the verge of tears.

"I can't kill it with you using me like a trampoline," Graham barely got out through gasps for air.

Realizing his situation, DeeDee stopped and hopped off Graham's back.

"Oh! I'm so sorry baby. I didn't mean to keep you from killing it. Look it's right over there, over there, yeah that one, ok, yeah kill it. Kill it, baby. KILL it. Okay? Thanks, love you bye!" DeeDee spat out the words at a hundred miles an hour.

Everyone but Graham stared wide-eyed at DeeDee in complete shock at her display. Graham walked forward shaking his head.

"Happens all the time. She does this with the little ones too. These will just need a bigger boot." Graham said chuckling slightly at the thought of a huge boot smooshing this spider.

Graham reached the spider as it tried to bite him by raising its front two feet in the air and waving three-inch-long fangs at him. Not hesitating for a moment, Graham took one long step and brought his battle axe down in an overhead chop, splitting the spider in two. The moment this spider died, all the skittering sounds stopped. Complete silence reigned for a long moment while the party heard nothing but their increasing heartbeats.

Suddenly, a screeching noise began to come from the walls where the skittering had been coming from.

"I think we fucked up," James whispered, fear radiating from him.

The screeching turned to clawing at the walls and ceiling tiles. The tiles gave way first, and a dozen spiders dropped from the ceiling into the adventurers in the lobby. Yells, screams, and screeches could be heard in a cacophony of mass confusion. Men and women both began to attack the creatures with extreme prejudice.

Just as the ones from the ceiling were killed, the walls gave way and hundreds of spiders began to run toward the group. Not waiting for the melee combat, Tom began shooting Eldritch Blasts at the spiders. Other magic users followed Tom's lead and began casting spells at the spiders before they could reach the party.

Spiders were set ablaze, frozen, smashed with rocks, exploded, and poisoned as they came toward Tom and the others. When they met, they began to jump back and forth to dodge attacks and then climb onto the adventurers to try to bite at the gaps between armor. Some of the fighters smashed themselves together like frat boys to squash the spiders. Others would pull them off a friend and crush or stab them.

One overzealous mage shot an ice spell at a spider on his warrior friend's back and froze the spider to his armor, causing the man to tip over backward from the weight of the ice and get turtled on a round piece of ice from which he could not turn over. His arms and legs flailed about, but he was stuck.

Some of the other fighters were bitten and some began to faint or bend over to begin vomiting violently from the effects of the venom running through them. Clerics began to work on healing and cleansing those who were affected, but if they didn't kill them all soon, they would just continue to envenomate people.

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Tom activated his newest Tattoo and moved through the party crushing as many spiders as he could. The power-sapping from the spiders infused him so that his bars were all full and then lost the rest to the ether. As he moved through the group, spiders began to get weaker or die from the draining. A cheer went up from the group as they rallied to kill the remaining spiders.

A monstrous shriek sounded from the back of the hotel, as though a pterodactyl was flying at the building. Everyone, including the spiders, froze for a moment. A smashing sound, followed by a second that broke in the back wall of the hotel, brought a seven-foot-tall spider into the room. DeeDee fainted.

"Ho-ly shit," Tom spoke softly in complete disbelief at what he was seeing.

Rearing up its front two legs, the spider shrieked again, this time everyone had to cover their ears from the deafening noise. Venom droplets dangled from the ends of its fangs like huge purple grapes. It swung its legs down in feints, challenging anyone to get close to it to find out what it could do.

"Defenders! To the front, shields ready! Magic users, light this motherfucker up!" Derek cried out to the parties.

Everyone sprang into action, those with defense skills raced to get in between the giant spider and everyone else. Once they were in front, they moved together to form a shield wall. Spellcasters began to unleash every imaginable spell loose on the monstrosity. The spider screamed in pain and rage that the miserable creatures before it would dare to cause it harm. Leaping forward, the spider attacked the shield wall.

Its legs scrabbled against the outsides of the shields, and its fangs scratched the metal leaving grooves and sticky purple venom drops on them. The wall held though. Other fighters moved to brace the ones holding the spider's weight. Moving its arms to the edges of the shields, the spider ripped the men away from each other and began tossing them left and right while it tried to make for the spellcasters.

Just as it was able to make a hole in the shield wall large enough for it to crawl through, Tom jumped out in front of it with his greatsword ready. The spider stopped momentarily, confused by this one small creature's audacity. Just as it was about to leap at Tom a shot rang out from the other end of the hotel lobby. A bullet ripped through the air, just above everyone's heads, and slammed into the spider's face, blowing half of its head apart.

Falling to the floor in a slightly forward motion from its attempt to jump, the spider went silent and completely still after a few leg spasms. Everyone was silent, standing completely still as they waited to see what would happen next. When everything remained silent and nothing moved, a collective sigh was released. That was the exact moment one of the terrier-sized spiders decided to make a break for it by climbing out from under a dead spider and sprinting for the exit.

Several distinctly female screams came from the direction where only one female was currently standing, and six shots, along with three fireballs, an ice spike, and a lightning bolt were all fired simultaneously at the motion. This left nothing but a blackened smear that was vaguely spider-shaped on the rug on the tile floor.

Absolutely everyone was still again. For an even longer period of time. Once again a collective sigh was released. This time nothing moved from the dead piles.

"What the fuck was that?!" Chris swore loudly.

People began coming out of their rooms at this. They looked around to ensure that the coast was clear and began asking others what had happened. After bringing everyone up to speed, which required telling the story about seven times as more people came downstairs, the party assured people that they were prepared for anything that came. They took this in good faith and went back to their rooms.

"Well, we can't fucking sleep in this battle zone. Where do we go now?" Kiera asked.

"I'm sure they have a conference room and some other areas where we can lay in," Zach replied. "I'll go ahead and look for them now."

He took off down the hall to see what other rooms there were. Everyone gathered up what they could from the lobby and when Zach reported back, they moved into smaller rooms. No one was left without a space to sleep, and they finally did get some rest. No more creatures attacked while they slept.

Later that evening, everyone woke up and gathered together outside to have a meal. Large stew pots were set over campfires where soup was being made to be shared. Ingredients were brought to those with cooking skills and they prepared the meals for everyone. Bards and others sang songs, while many shared some beers they had raided from one of the warehouse shopping centers. Everyone was getting along well and working to help others where they could.

Tom was immensely pleased to see the people working so hard to help everyone. A huge concern had been if people would actually be a part of the guild or if he would have to send them away. This sight gave him hope for the integrations.

"So are we driving through the night from now on?" Kedron asked Tom, handing him a beer.

"Only until we reach Decatur. Once we are there we will stay an extra day to get us back on the right sleep cycle. At this pace, we should be there by morning or early afternoon." Tom replied, accepting the drink and taking a swig.

"If they'll let us stay that long," Kedron said, speaking the fear that they were all feeling.

"Yeah, if they let us," Tom repeated looking down at the floor in shame.