"So where are you from? Sri, was it?" Draedon spoke up after a moment of the group walking into the depths of the cave. The orc's glowing axe was the only source of light in the otherwise pitch black cave. Ahead of the group, outside the glow of the axe, was Venom, scouting ahead.
"I'm originally from one of the sky nests." The aarokocra replied.
"I see, why did you leave?" Draedon asked.
"I... um... how do I put this to you," she mumbled. "I sorta have the blessing of a god."
"Oh," Draedon smiled. "Me too. I have Tirian's blessing. I was sent from my home cause of a prophecy."
Sri's head perked up. "You were? It was Circe'Hyuk's prophecy that foretold me saving the Jarlends."
"Mine was about saving the Jarlends too." Draedon put an arm around Sri's shoulder. "See Venom, I told you tracking those- what were they called?" He turned to Sri.
"Chitine."
"I told you tracking those chitine would prove useful." Draedon called into the darkness in front of him as he walked.
Several feet beyond the radius of light his axe emitted, Venom stalked among the stalagmites that littered the cave floor. There had been no chitine within the depths of the cave like they had expected, but there was evidence some had been. Mostly more webs and corpses wrapped in webs.
Venom only stopped his trek when the cave opened up. "Wait." He ordered.
Draedon abruptly stopped, causing Karji, who had been walking behind him, to bump his nose on Draedon's armor. "What is-"
"Shh," Venom spouted, arguably louder than Draedon had spoke. "Turn off your axe." He whispered.
Draedon did as he was told and slowly stepped forward, just behind Venom. His eyes widened at what he saw. A temple, half buried in stone, sat in the center of the cavern surrounded head to toe in thick webs, several times larger than the ones they had passed on the way here. The temple may have once been a pyramid in shape, but so many parts of its exterior had crumbled it hardly resembled its former self.
Normally, in a cave so dark his eyes would only allow him to see so far. Even then, only in shades of grey. But due to a light gently radiating within the temple, he could see the entire cavern. The light itself wasn't overly impressive, only about double the size of what a camp fire would give off. But in the absolute darkness of the cave, it might as well have been a small Atlas.
Several chitine were spread throughout the entire cavern, mingling along the webs. Some were even delving into the temple, towards the dull glow of yellow light.
"There seems like hundreds of them." Sri shivered, her feathers reaching out from her skin for a moment before returning to their normal position.
"Odd," Karji noted, stepping next to Draedon's leg. "The chitine hate light. Why are they willingly going towards it?"
"Could the queen be in there?" Venom asked, nodding his head towards the temple.
The gnome shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't see why they'd make their nest right next to a glowing temple. Unless the light show happened after they got here. But if that's the case, I'm not sure why they stuck around."
"Any idea what the glow could be?" Draedon spoke up.
Karji shook his head. "Not a clue. Nothing a chitine did, that's for sure. Unless they tripped a light trap or something in the ruins. But I'm not sure why they'd have a trap like that. Regardless, it still doesn't explain why they are going towards the light."
"I couldn't give a ratfolks ass why they are going towards it." Venom grumbled. "If the queen's in there we'll kill it." He spoke as he began to step into the web-infested cavern.
***
Several massive stalagmites stood far above the groups' heads. Some were nearly 20 feet tall. Webs connected nearly all of them. Every few minutes a group of chitine would walk along the webs above them. Making the group freeze. The only exception was Venom, who kept moving ahead of the rest; picking off alone chitin as they stalked the spaces between the stalagmites.
Venom plunged his dagger into the neck of one of the chitine, holding its mandibles closed to keep the creature from screeching as he dragged it to the floor. A moment later, several chitine crawled on the webs above him, passing over before disappeared behind another spire of rock.
Venom glanced over to where the rest of his group slowly and- relatively- quietly approached. If it hadn't been for a scroll of silence Karji had used, he was sure they all would have been spotted by now solely due to the clanking of Draedon's armor. Even with the spell, Venom was suprised the faint glint of the orc's chainmail didn't alert the chitine. Regardless, he wasn't complaining. The closer they could get to the ruins without being seen, the better.
Venom gestured down the path of stalagmites toward group. Draedon nodded and began whispering something to Sri and Karji that Venom couldn't quite hear. Nonetheless he continued forward.
Three more chitine workers soon had an arrow through their skulls as they fell to the ground. He knelt down to make another vial of the creature's venom when a small chitter made him spin in place and knock an arrow on his bow. Before he could fire the arrow a blot of web struck his mask, obscuring his vision. He quickly tore the webs from his face, but not before the chitine he'd failed to see let out a screech.
The high pitched wail echoed across the stone and spread quickly throughout the cavern. The screech only lasted a second before an arrow lodged itself in the chitins throat. Regardless, several more distance chitters sounded from all around them.
"Fuck." Venom mumbled as he glanced around quickly. His gaze fell on Draedon as he turned around a stalagmite. Venom pointed up as their eyes met. "Up!" He shouted before setting his bow on his back and running towards the side of a stalagmite. He clasped onto the grooves in its stonework and began to climb to its peak.
As he reached the top he spotted a chitine standing on the edge of the stone spire. He simply stabbed its leg with a dagger and used it as leverage to pull himself up while simultaneously tossing the arachnid from the stalagmite.
He stood atop the stalagmite, its top was relatively flat, and it was just wide enough for a few people to stand on its peak.
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Venom quickly spotted two other chitine running across the webs. One fell before it reached the stone platform, but the other got close enough to the assassin to leap towards him.
Before the chitine could reach Venom, a gust of wind struck its side, causing it to fall to the base of the stalagmite.
A moment later, the aarakocra flew up onto the top of the stalagmite in a single flap of her wings. As she landed, she waved her arm towards one of the bridges of webs that connected to the platform. A thin gust of wind cut across the edge of the web like a blade. Immediately, the nearly half-dozen chitine that were crawling on the webs fell to the ground.
"Can ya' fuckin' watch it?" Karji called as one of the chitine fell past him. On the walls of the stalagmite, Karji and Draedon had began climbing to the top.
Karji felt a string of webs attach onto his shoulder and begin to pull. He nearly was sent tumbling backwards off the wall, but managed to keep one hand on the stone. With his free hand, he grabbed the web. His palm began to ember as a line of flame flowed down the web like the fuse of a bomb. As the flame reached the chitine which held it the flame exploded in the chitine's face, consuming its body in flames. A screech echoed through the cavern as the chitine near the explosion covered their eyes at the sudden flash of light.
Draedon was a few feet ahead of Karji, though all he could do when faced with several webs pulling at his back was to shake them off or snap them.
Nonetheless, he finally crested the edge of the stalagmite and pulled himself up. "So much for staying silent." He grunted as he pulled the axe from his back and cleaving an approaching chitine in half.
Venom ducked below a shot of web as he fired another arrow. "Can't help it when we are in a damn nest of something I've never fought before."
"So what do we do now? We can't take on the whole nest like this." Sri shouted as she broke another bridge of webs with a sharp gust."
Just then a short robed mage crested the top of the stalagmite. "The Queen." He shouted. "If the Queen dies or flees, the rest'll-" suddenly a string of webs struck his arm. Karji immediately grabbed hold of the web and sent a stream of flame along it to explode in the face of another chitine. "I'm fuckin' trying to speak!" He turned back to the group before him. "- the rest'll scatter like ants."
At once, the group glanced to the faintly glowing ruins in the center of the cavern. They were half way across the cavern from the center.
"How exactly are we going to get across?" Venom asked, shooting another arrow through the neck of a chitine as it crawled up the stalagmite. "I doubt those webs could hold him." The elf gestured his head to Draedon as he planted his boot into the face of an approaching beast.
"Hey." He shouted.
"I should be able to boost us between the gaps between the stone pillars." Sri shouted. She flapped her wings as a gust of wind gently tossed he to the edge of the stalagmite. "But I'll need everyone to get a running start."
Karji was first, being closest. He leapt off the edge of the stalagmite as Sri made a gesture of throwing something heavy. A large gust of wind caught the gnome just as he began to fall, buffering his drop just enough to drop him rather unceremoniously on his face.
Venom was next. He fired one last arrow before turning and leaping. Once again, a gust of wind carried him along to the next stone surface. Unlike Karji however, Venom stuck and rolled as he hit the ground, coming to a lighter fall as Karji picked himself off the floor.
Finally, there was Draedon. He had more difficulty clearing the gap. While the wind helped, he still managed to barely reach the edge of the top of the stone pillar.
Sri'Blanca had the easiest time getting across; her wings provided all the propulsion she needed.
The process repeated itself nearly four times before they began to get close to the ruins; though with each leap, Kariji landed slightly more steadily.
Venom knelt down to the corpse of a nearby chitine to pull the arrow from its neck before knocking it onto his bow and firing it again at another oncoming chitine.
Behind him, Draedon planted his foot into the chest of a chitine, knocking it back into another behind it and toppling both of the off the edge of the stalagmite.
Karji muttered something under his breath as his hand exploded into embers. He thrust the hand down the side of the stone pillar as a wave of fire washed over several chitine as they climbed up the stalagmite.
Sri stayed in the air above the group, occasionally waving her arms, causing a gust of wind to knock chitine off their feet.
A moment later, the group jumped to the next stalagmite. Finally, they were nearly to the ruins.
They no longer had to use Sri's aid to jump from stalagmite to stalagmite, but there was still about 100 feet of stone and chitine between them and the entrance to the ruins.
"Venom, how many arrows do you have left?" Draedon asked, healing a small wound on his shoulder with a ray of golden light coming from his palm.
"About a dozen, why?" The assassin retorted.
"Oh, it just seemed like you fired far more arrows then you had."
"I tend to pick up my arrows as I go. Then again, I also entered this cave with over 30."
Draedon just nodded. "Do you have backup weapon in the case you run out of arrows?"
Venom moved his cloak aside with his hand, revealing his dagger on one side of his hip, and a shortsword he'd gotten from one of the men who'd ambushed him in the cave on his right. "This isn't my first time, orc."
"Enough bickering, both of ya'. We still got some chitine to kill." Karji said, gesturing passed the two adventurers to the ruins.
Venom and Draedon turned to see a chitine, nearly twice the size of the rest- only slightly taller than Venom- wielding a spiked club made of stone. Four other chitine surrounded it.
The chitine turned to the group as they approached the ruins. A few deep clicking sounds came from its mandibles as it began to stomp forward.
Venom was the first to act. He quickly shot an arrow into the chest of a chitine as it had began to run around the group in an attempt to flank them.
A bolt of fire struck another of the chitine, curtesy of Karji.
The large chitine rushed forward, swinging its stone club, only for the weapon to be knocked aside by Draedon's axe. The Paladin followed up by slamming the shaft of his axe into the chitine's chest, causing the beast to stumble back. He then repositioned the axe in his hands before swinging down, cleaving into its shoulder.
The chitine grabbed the shaft of the axe with one of its hands and pried it off itself before swinging its club again. This time, however, it struck Draedon cleanly in his side. Nonetheless, the orc swung again. The blade of his axe came down in an arc across the chitin's chest.
While the two clashed, Sri had flown up above the chaos, dodging a spray of web by one of the chitine. The feathers beneath her arm that acted as her wings began to crackle with blue static. She brought her arms together as a bolt of lightning streamed continuously from her palms. She slowly turned herself on the air as the constant flow of lightning arced across three chitine, tearing apart their flesh and turning them into charred husks. When she finally pulled her arms apart the crackling static didn't stop, instead it pulsed out from her, bringing a handful of feathers across her body with them and scattering them about the field.
Sri frowned at the bald patches she would have until the next bright. "Could be worse I suppose."
Venom's attention shifted from Sri as her beam of lightning subsided. He quickly tore a string of webs off his shoulder before reaching for an arrow in his quiver and fired it at the creature holding the strand. The arrow collided between the chitine's six eyes.
He reached back for another arrow to knock in his bow, but only grasped air. "Shit." He mumbled as he quickly grasped the handle of one of his daggers and flung it at an oncoming chitine as it leapt at him; both its stone dagger held high. The blade struck the creature's neck. Venom grasped the dagger as the chitine fell passed him before dashing towards the chitine he'd last killed with his bow to harvest the arrow lodged in its head.
"Eat flames ya' fuckin' insects!" Karji shouted as four spears of flames shot from his fingertips. Each one struck the chest of a separate chitine, charing their skin. All but one of them fell immediately, however the survivor got no further than a few steps when a bolt of flame struck its back, finally bringing it down.
Draedon planted his boot onto the large chitine's wound causing it was nearly flung onto its back. The chitine managed to block on of Draedon's axe swings before being struck in the mandibles by the shaft of the orc's weapon. Finally, Draedon swung his axe onto the leg of the chitine, bringing it to one knee, before whirling his axe around and completely beheading the creature.
At the death of the largest chitine, the ones swarming them suddenly fled. Scurrying into the shadows and into small holes in the ruins.
The group looked around silently. Draedon wiped the blood from his axe blade. Karji dusted the ash from his robes. Venom pulled another arrow from a corpse. And Sri gently fell to the group among them.
"Well, that was one royal guard." Karji stated. "Most queens are guarded by at least three."
Draedon turned to the ruins. "Then I suggest we all get ready. Let's go kill the queen."