Arthur landed onto the forest floor with a thud, drawing himself up and observing his surroundings. Finding nothing, he sniffed, trying to see if he caught any scents. Many smells hit him, different animals and his environment were taken in. Arthur didn't know where these spiders were, only that they were in this general location. He also didn't know their scent, so he would have to track them the old-fashioned way, with his eyes and ears.

Arthur started forward, constantly searching for webs, or spiders, or caves. He went at a slow and steady pace, not missing any detail. Ten minutes had passed when Arthur spotted a cave tucked in an outcropping, leading down. Arthur approached and the smell of death immediately hit him. With his dark vision, he could also spot webs further down. Looks like he found the place. And once again, Arthur was too big to fit in the entrance.

Luckily, he had magic on his side this time around. After observing his surroundings once more to be sure it was safe, he cast reduce on himself. He shrank to half his size, feeling more agile and less powerful. He went through the entrance, feeling slightly cramped as he descended.

Arthur took in every detail, the stone walls, the normal-sized webs scattered about. When he stopped going down the cave widened, giving him far more breathing room. In front of him was a short hallway, that winded to the right and disappeared out of sight. Arthur's ears perked up as he heard a slight skittering sound above him. He looked up, his blindsight going off at the same time.

He was met with three giant spiders who were attached to the ceiling, which was wider than he realized at first. When he looked up, one spider chittered and jumped at his face from the ceiling. Arthur's gut reaction was to scream but he clamped it down, letting out a brief peep as his instincts took over, sidestepping the spider.

Arthur hated spiders. The other two jumped down as well, one behind and the other to the side, effectively surrounding him. Arthur decided now was the perfect time to- Arthur suddenly felt his size increasing, and he cursed internally as his head was mushed against the ceiling awkwardly. The spiders took this sudden advantage, spraying him with webs from all sides, which didn't accomplish much other than annoying him.

He decided enough was enough. The spider in the back started to bite at his now big tail, which he lashed violently to get rid of the pest. Arthur was going to try his breath weapon for the first time, and he felt it was fitting to kill these things with fire. Arthur called up the flames deep inside himself, which responded with quick and violent movements as they suddenly rushed up Arthur's throat and out his mouth in massive, endless gout of bluish orange flames all around him.

Due to him being in an enclosed space, the fire seemed to rebound around the room before Arthur stopped himself, still with half a tank of his breath weapon. His fire had had absolutely zero effect on him, Maybe warming his scales at the most.

The waft of burnt insects filled his nose as he observed the three roasted spiders in front of him, little more than charred husks. He was immensely pleased with these results, and even now he felt his breath weapon close to full already. He cast reduce on himself again, once more shrinking to half his original size. The smell of the spiders made his stomach rumble in complaint, and he begrudgingly bit into one of the spiders to taste them.

Nothing but char filled his mouth, but it did have the texture of meat. He dug into the spider, eating it in under twenty seconds. He was eating a spider, and was also fine with it. His instincts and new form really made things look like no biggie, whereas if he was human he would have gagged at the thought of eating a giant spider. Times really do change, it seems.

Arthur hurried along, as his mental timer on the reduce spell ticked away. He sped down the corridor, turning right and seeing down another short corridor. The cave opened into a massive room, and as Arthur approached he saw scribblings carved into the smooth stone above the entranceway to the expansion, which he couldn't understand.

He entered the expansion and immediately noticed the ceiling had strange carvings and words in languages he didn't understand. He should really read up on some common languages sometime. This massive room was about the size of his lair, a hundred feet in all directions. The reduce spell wore off at this point.

The room itself contained a big raised pedestal in the middle and a stone altar in front of it, multiple bloodstains splattered across it. Standing atop the pedestal is a female drow elf, who is staring daggers at Arthur. The drow shouts something, and from the lowered part of the room which Arthur didn't notice till now, eight more drow appear, all-male. The elves take in Arthur with widened eyes when they see him. Then they all wear similar looks of anger and hatred.

"What is going on here? I am on a quest from the town of Mirfield-" Arthur was interrupted by a loud, demonic voice coming from the female drow. She shouted to Arthur in a voice dripping with malice,

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"YOU WILL DIE HERE, WYRM. YOU HAVE INTRUDED UPON A TEMPLE OF LOLTH, AND ITS SECRETS!" With a cry, the eight drow drew swords and rushed at Arthur, almost frothing at the mouth. Hmm, lolth? The demon lord of spiders? He would have to get more answers. For now, he would deal with these elves. He decided his breath attack was too destructive, and he might burn something important.

He would finally test out his fireball spell. He cast it quickly, as the drow were almost upon him. The female drow seemed to be watching him with a calculating and hateful gaze. A fireball erupted in their midst, killing five of them in an instant. That didn't seem to deter the other three, as they reached him and stabbed at his front claws.

Seeing the frenzied attacks coming from a mile away, he lifted himself up and smashed back down on two with his weight and force combined. Their heads cracked into the floor viciously, and they stayed down. The third he smacked with his tail, intentionally letting him live as they were knocked to the ground in a daze.

A giant spider replaced the female drow in an instant, darker and tougher looking than the spiders he burnt from the entrance of the cave. They jumped to the ground silently, drawing themselves up and screeching angrily at Arthur's much larger form. A demonic voice spoke out even though the spider didn't have a mouth, saying, "YOU WILL PAY FOR THE DESECRATION-" Arthur cast a fireball in their face, interrupting their speech. He never knew why people in dnd games let the villain talk, he was an adamant believer in shutting them up.

He felt a stab of amusement at the indignant screech that followed, the spider coming out of the fire in a flurry of movement towards him, looking less singed than he would like. He cast another fireball, which hit them again. They once again came out of the fire looking only a bit more singed than before.

They were on him now, a frenzy of bites aimed at him, which he managed to dodge, the many ones he didn't manage to dodge not managing to get past his tough as metal scales. He swung his tail at them, which the spider dodged graciously, attacking his split-second open guard with a bite attack, managing to dig through the cracks of his scales and doing damage to him. The spider jumped back with a laughing hiss aimed at him.

Arthur however barely noticed. His mind seemed to temporarily shut down that he just took damage. Then a sudden, explosive feeling of rage burst within Arthur's mind. He, an ancient red dragon just took damage from this INSECT?! With a roar of pure rage that made the spider hesitate, Arthur used his presence magic to strike fear into the insect's mind. His eyes blazed with fire and his nostrils seemed to pour out smoke. He advanced quickly onto the petrified insect, casting reduce on them at the same time. The filthy insect shrank to half its size, an appropriate size for a filthy spider.

Arthur mercilessly tore into their tough body, biting down and letting his mouth heat up to deal extra damage. He ripped off their legs in one bite. Black blood spewed everywhere as the insect let out a shriek. Arthur crunched the legs before spitting them out, and shouted, "YOU WILL DIE AS ALL OTHERS HAVE INSECT!"

Arthur tore into their eyes, simultaneously biting onto the other legs. He tore deeper and deeper into their head, And at the same time tore more legs off with his bite and spitting them out, before going back in. The spider's pained shrieks quieted down but Arthur didn't notice, he only knew to rip and tear at this insect who had harmed him.

With a suddenness as ice-cold water being dumped onto your head, Arthur realized what he was doing, and stopped himself. He felt his insatiable rage ebbing away out of his mind as he asserted control of his emotions. He looked to the spider, who was somehow still alive, barely breathing. It would die any second now he idly thought.

Arthur looked around at the mess he made, disgusted at himself for losing control and brutalizing this creature. The spider suddenly turned into a pillar of yellow slime and a single glazed-over eye at the top of its form replaced the spider. He realized what this was, a yochlol. A demon.

He had killed a demon? Nice, he thought. A yochlol served directly under Lolth, the spider goddess. He supposed the yochlol was sent to guard this temple with its life. His thoughts turned to the possible loot in this place and his dnd nerd inside him almost drooled. There was probably a lot of gold here!

His thoughts turning to happier thoughts, he heard a groan behind him. Oh yes, it was the drow he spared. He had done that to ask them questions. He turned to them, going over there quickly and picking them up by the waist. His nostrils flared up once more with smoke as he attempted to intimidate the drow, growling out, "Where is the gold in this place? TELL ME!" The drow looked ready to pass out from fear, having witnessed Arthur's brutality, flinching heavily and saying in common,

"P-please! The donations are in the chest below the pedestal, Lolth spare me!" He dropped them and smacked their head lightly with his tail, knocking the drow out. He walked over to the pedestal, ripping it upwards and being rewarded with a large metal chest. Arthur grasped it with both claws and heaved it up easily. He shook it like a piggybank, hearing clattering noises he was satisfied and set it aside.

Arthur looked over to the lowered floor of the place, which he hadn't observed yet. A marble statue of lolth was surrounded by unlit candles. There were also multiple valuable gems scattered around the statue, mostly rubies and emeralds. He counted twenty of them in total.

He ripped open the locked chest with brute force, golden coins seeming to glitter at Arthur. He placed all of the gems inside the chest and closed it again, although the lock was wrecked. He also spotted books that were behind the pedestal, but they seemed to be just purely about Lolth. He decided to skip over those, and picked up his chest with one hand, and meandered over to the corpse of the yochlol. If he took its eye, could he gain some sort of reward for it at Mirfield? He decided to take it.

Arthur ripped the eye out with a squelch, wincing at the Gorey scene. He placed the body part into the chest. He walked over to the drow and pondered on what to do. He wanted to bring the drow to Mirfield, but he didn't really have room to carry them.

What should he do here, Arthur pondered.