Victoria was standing in a vast cavern. Glow stone veins navigated the uneven ceiling far above, though their characteristic warm glow was replaced with a faint purple hue which didn't reach the walls or floor of the cavern. Her auravision refused to activate, and the oppressive darkness loomed all around her. She slowly spun in place for a moment, searching for any landmark with which to orient herself, but found nothing.
On her final spin, she turned to see the body of a massive spider descending from the ceiling on a thick strand of web -- visible despite the darkness as if lit by an unseen light, and bearing the upper half of the Dreamweaver's human body on the top of its thorax. Despite the spider's body facing the floor, the Dreamweaver contorted so that her human torso was almost vertical as she looked down on her disciple.
"What have you brought me?" she asked.
Victoria recounted her memory of the Shark Titan's meeting with the giants, sparing no details as she was uncertain of what exactly the Dreamweaver wanted to hear.
"I see," the Dreamweaver said, lowering her spider body to the floor and disconnecting the strand of web which had held her, "the fool really is going to go after the crown, isn't he? That’s a shame, he'll get himself killed doing that."
"Will you pursue it, as well?" Victoria asked.
The Dreamweaver laughed, "absolutely not. Slow and steady is the path to godhood, child, chasing shortcuts brings only ruin."
Victoria nodded, "I am sorry I couldn't bring you more information.”
"Don't be," the Dreamweaver dismissed her concerns with a wave, "I wasn't expect much from Clement, anyway. All he did was repeat what others said in our meetings, which is what I thought he'd do. My real curiosity was what he plans to do after completing his ascension quest, and that has been answered."
"In that case, I request a favor."
The legs of the spider shuffled as the Dreamweaver abruptly drew nearer, "oh? You only get so many of those, you know."
"It's important. My friend, Iris -- I believe she's become the target of a nightmare."
"Oooh," the titan tapping the tips of her fingers together as if stumbling across a delightful treat, "those are quite delicious."
"She isn't ready for something like this," Victoria continued, "and I don't know how to help her. I was hoping you could do something."
The Dreamweaver appeared to think about it for a moment, "no."
"No?" Victoria grew angry, "what do you mean, no?"
"I mean, no," the Dreamweaver twisted her head and gave her disciple an intense glare, "I cannot help."
"What's the point in having this pact if you won't even help me when I ask?"
"It's a bond, dear, not a pact. Please remember that -- and I didn't say I wouldn't help, I said I cannot. It would be trivial, of course, but I would need to be there physically. Your dreams are the only ones I can enter from such a distance."
"Then tell me how to help her," Victoria pleaded, "I have a Thread of Dreams, I should be able to do something."
"You can't," the Dreamweaver said, seemingly growing bored with the conversation, "you'll need abilities you don't have yet, and knowledge you're not ready for. I suspect your friend will be fine, however."
"Based on what?" Victoria stepped up as if she might challenge her patron.
"I've seen that little one at work," the Dreamweaver said, "in the forest, during the expedition. She is... tenacious. I wouldn't worry."
"I need more than that!" Victoria shouted.
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"No. You don't."
Victoria awoke with a racing heart and heavy breath. Her companions were still asleep, and she guessed it must still be late at night.
______
"You're up early," Eli remarked as he exited the tent.
"Didn't sleep," Iris explained from her seat on a barrel. She kicked her feet where they dangled off the side, and on the ground nearby Littletooth was tearing into his bowl of breakfast.
"The nightmare?" he asked with a grimace.
"I dunno," she shrugged, "maybe. Or maybe I'm just too scared to sleep now that I know about it."
"Maybe Vic had some luck," he suggested.
"I didn't," Victoria said angrily as her ghostly form drifted through the walls of the tent, "she was useless, offered me nothing." Her expression softened and her voice turned apologetic as she spoke to Iris, "we're on our own with this one, I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Iris lied, "I've made it through worse things than a few bad dreams."
Victoria forced a faint smile, and then sighed, "does anyone else feel like killing something?"
"Definitely," Eli said.
"Please," Iris groaned.
"I heard there's a spider problem in the mines," Eli suggested.
"I'm in," Victoria answered quickly, "killing spiders would be perfect right now."
After breakfast, and when Autumn had finished cleaning up her cooking station, the party plus Adan set off towards the mines. They decided not to take the path through the caves, instead returning through the cracked passageway in the marble to the large chamber which housed many of the gargoyles, and from there they made their way down another cracked passageway which led them to another series of caves. These were clearly well traveled, with glow stone lanterns bolted into the stone to provide light where natural glow stone veins were absent.
The caves eventually deposited them into a large cavern, well lit by large chunks of glow stone which lay about leaning against walls or stacked in piles. On the far side of the cavern was the mouth of a large tunnel lined with metal tracks, which bore large stone carts that delivered freshly mined ores to the cavern. The ores were then separated by gargoyles into three major piles -- glow stone, silver ore, and plain marble rocks.
The silver ore was then processed on site. It was first melted in large crucibles, and then separated from the slag and once again melted to repeat the process and purify the metal. Finally, it was cast into ingots within large stone molds, which were then left to cool before being stacked in a large, pyramid-shaped pile.
It only took a little bit of asking around before the party was introduced to the foreman, who promptly gave them a quest to clear out a particularly infested series of tunnels. They accompanied a team of gargoyle miners down into the mines until they grew near to the infested area. At that point, the miners held back while the adventurers went in to do the dirty work.
The cave spiders were large, their bodies were roughly the size of a gargoyle's torso while their legs extended out several feet in either direction. They lacked any sort of venom significant to the adventurers, however, and the physical damage of their bites was dangerous if untreated but also trivial for Titus to heal. The foreman had explained that the spiders' venom was particularly adapted to gargoyles, their prey of choice, but would be harmless to most other creatures.
The party spent several hours in the caves, cutting down spiders, waiting for more to flood into the cave, and then cutting down more. Whenever the flow of spiders ceased for more than a few moments, they informed the miners it was save to move in, and moved on to the next tunnel or chamber. Adan's new palm lights proved useful for navigating through dark tunnels, though were of little use in combat as his hands were too busy fighting.
Victoria took an uncharacteristic approach to combat, drawing her rarely used sword and using her spectral form to flank unsuspecting spiders before shifting to her physical form and promptly delivering critical blows. Autumn -- clad in dark marble armor that molded smoothly to the shape of her body and allowed much greater movement than her usual stone armors -- joined Titus in the front lines, where they smashed and tore through the swarming spiders whose bites were too weak to penetrate their armor.
Eli stayed behind the group, picking off spiders from the ceiling and far walls with bolts from his staff, while Adan flashed around the room and punched through spider heads or stomped them into the ground.
Iris perhaps had the most fun out of all of them, as her new great sword effortlessly crushed the soft bodies of the spiders. She blipped around the cave, whirling in circles as the heavy sword threatened to take on a mind of its own. Soon, however, she had gotten used to it, and was letting the nearly unmanageable weight carry her into her next movements and attacks. Despite her efforts to keep track, she quickly lost count of how many spiders she killed, and finished each encounter with a spinning head and wavering stance.
After a few hours, they finally reached a dead end and ran out of spiders to kill. All but Victoria and Eli were covered in blue-ish purple spider guts, and their goop-filled boots squished with each step as the tired party trudged back to the foreman for their reward.
In the end, they gained a pittance of coin that – after splitting six ways -- was barely worth the washing they would need to do, but the battles had been fun and spirits were high. Iris was particularly filled with excitement, as the gratuitous murder combined with the completion of a quest had offered her a significant chunk of experience.
IRIS ORION
Hero Rank, Level 12
Experience Points: 8402 / 11,340
Progress to next level: 74.09%