At first the spider's tactics with their webs caught the group off guard. That was how they had their first casualty. For the most part everything that had gotten tagged by the web was only hit with one strand. One of the guards with the heavy tower shields was hit by 3 stands. The combined pulling strength of the spiders was enough to pull the guard's shield and the guard attached to it up and towards the spiders pulling him from the ceiling.
Unfortunately for the guard the shield was firmly attached to his arm. Making it so even if he wanted to release the shield he wasn’t able to. So he was pulled off the ground and out of formation. As he was pulled out of the shield wall the spider mass that he was tasked at keeping back found their way around the thick wood and started to sink their fangs and claws into the guard. His heavy metal armor did quite a bit to save him, but with the sheer number of attacks there was little he could do to stop it.
The cuirass did its job well, it blocked almost all of the attacks that landed on his body, but the chainmail shirt underneath didn’t fare quite as well. The spiders hooked barbs at the end of the legs were able to catch onto a link and then tear the shirt apart. The chainmail shirt also didn’t stop the fangs as they punctured right through the chainmail. The small knife-like fangs sank deep into the soft flesh underneath and injected their venom into his veins.
Before he was 10 feet away from the defensive line his once normal body quickly turned into jelly as the ridged bone structure that held it together melted away. By the time the shield made it to where the spiders were dragging it his now structureless body and slid loose of the straps and the body plopped onto the ground where it lay there unable to move.
Meira and Bjorn tried to help the man, as they both cast spells towards the group of spiders that were dragging the man upwards. By the time their spells were on their way the man was already lost.
With a new hole the spiders started to push their way into the gap, a few quickly slipped past the defense and turned towards the shield bearers on either side of the hole. Rushing forward Alaric slammed his body into the hole that was now created by the loss of the shield bearer. His bull rush attack slammed into three of the four spiders that got through and shoved them back through the hole. With a shout he used his new shield to plug the hole.
As the fight continued the guards really showed their training and how it was paying off. Even though their individual strength was less than most of the conscripts their cohesive strength was more than than the conscripts could produce.
Of the 25 guards only 2 of them were profession holders. With the conscripts also having two, they gave the guards a run for their money. One of the guards was a warrior and the other a fighter. Even though Bjorn didn’t quite understand the distinction between the two they were obviously a force to be reckoned with. The warrior seemed to be focused on shields as he was front and center in their formation holding back the largest mass of the spiders.
Even though he was unflagging with his task it wasn’t the only thing he and his shield bearers were doing. Each of them were equipped with short maces or short one handed hammers. Their entire task was to hold the line and to hit at any spider part they could see trying to make their way past the shield wall. Many legs and heads were smashed by the shield wall whenever a spider tried to pry its way past the wall. The warrior was a force that didn’t seem to be stopped. Scattered on the ground around him were the broken limbs of the spiders. He even managed to kill two spiders who had made their way over the wall in front of him. All while not giving up a single step to the onslaught.
The fighter was one of the halberd wielders. He had even more success in killing spiders than the warrior did. His long handled weapon swept in deadly arcs across the walls and the ceiling. Everywhere it looked like a spider was going to make it past his weapon was there to push them back, land a crippling blow, or even land a killing blow.
Even with everyone doing what they could to slow the tide there were just too many to stop and keep out. Spiders were slipping through in ones and twos. Roughly half the time the spiders made it through they tried to launch themselves at Bjorn, Meira, or Alya. Fortunately for them Tayla always intercepted the lunging beast. Her two small hammers weren’t anywhere close to her desired weapons but in the hands of a professed rogue they were deadly. Her speed, agility, and grace was a sight to behold. It was almost beautiful. As she fought it looked like the fight was almost choreographed. She was always exactly where she needed to be to stop the spider’s attack, and yet somehow she was also able to dodge the attack.
The true powerhouse of this fight though was Rickie. The professed barbarian was a pure force of nature. His two handed sword cleaved through the spider indiscriminately. Of all the spiders that made it through their defensive line Rickie was personally responsible for killing over 30% of them. Even though it seemed like folly for the barbarian to fight in such close quarters with his bare chest, somehow he didn’t seem to be affected by the spider’s venom. Time after time the spiders would sink their fangs into Rickie’s flesh. And time after time he seemed to just shrug off the effect and power on fighting. By Bjorn’s estimation Rickie had been bitten nearly as much as the guard who died had.
Spiders started to fall by the half dozen, but it came at a cost. The shield bearer wasn’t the last person to fall on their side. The humanoids were coming out on top. By his estimation so far they were killing 10 spiders for every humanoid that they lost. Unfortunately the spiders had extras to lose. There were still a good 50 spiders on their side of the wind barrier.
The clash of metal and bone exoskeletons made a deafening roar. It came as a surprise when he heard a voice inside his head. “My wind barrier is about to fall. Get yourself ready.” It was Meira's voice. He could hear it clear as if she was whispering into his ear.
“Thank you for buying us time, Meira.” Jenkins' voice came back in a reply. “If you get bit by one of the spiders, drink your health potion immediately. Its healing properties will help counteract the potency of the venom.”
The sound of men assenting echoed through Bjorn’s head. The effect was still a little disorienting. Instead of letting it both him he just continued to draw arrows back and fire them into the crowd of spiders. Looking into the corner of his vision his mana pool was almost to the bottom. Fortunately for him over the last few months he had pushed himself time and time again to the near bottom of his mana pool. As such he was used to the splitting headache that came from his near empty mana pool. Making a snap decision he drew his mana potion and drank it. Once he downed his mana potion he also pulled out a stamina potion and drank that down.
His quickly depleting mana pool and stamina pool started to steadily climb back up. Although it wasn’t overly tiring to continuously draw his bow and fire, he had spent a good portion of his stamina on his level 10 archery perk. As he held the bow at full draw he was able to spend some of his stamina points into his shot. The effect from that was whatever he was aiming at came into sharp focus. When he focused on a spider he was able to zoom in on it, for a lack of a better term. The zoom made it significantly easier to figure out where exactly he wanted to shoot. The perk made each of his arrows significantly more effective, but at the cost of quickly depleting his stamina pool.
A splitting sound sounded through the tunnel as Meira’s air barrier shattered under the combined attacks of the spiders on the other side. A lightning bolt shot through the newly opened tunnel and slammed into the back of the spider host, charring and killing a spider right-out. The remainder of the spider attack poured through the now open tunnel. Meira’s summer storm and barrier spell slowed down and wreaked havoc on the spiders trapped further down the tunnel. The barrier lasted no more than a minute and a half, but it did its job.
Spiders once again came spilling into the open tunnel that the fight was happening in. This second wave wasn’t as large as the first one was, but it would still be enough to overwhelm the defenders if nothing changed. The combined force of the first and second wave was still well over 100 spiders left to fight.
Jenkins' voice cut right through the sound of battle and everyone was able to hear him clearly. “Fall back to the camp. If that host hits us we will crumple and we will be crushed under the weight of the spider's bodies.”
Quickly the whole host started to steadily fall back. Even though they didn’t have far to go it still took almost too long to make it back into the open area that was their camp. The guard and conscript combo didn’t want to give up too much ground too fast just in case the spiders were able to overtake the small armies front lines in their retreat. When they made it into the open cave they spread out creating a small semicircle around the entrance.
Honestly this retreat was a blessing and a curse all at once. They now had more area to fight in, and with their superior armor it played to their advantage. At the same time it also gave the spiders more area to attack the humanoids. They gained Alaric and his fancy new hammer. In the previous configuration he wasn’t able to do much to fight, he was mostly relegated to holding the defensive line. Now with the extra space he was wielding his hammer with deadly efficiency.
As he fought off two spiders all at once he switched the hammer in between its two states fluidly. He would block a spider’s raking attack with his shield while swinging at the other spider with his hammer, slamming into its leg snapping it cleanly off. In the middle of that swing the hammer’s shaft elongated and Alaric gripped the other half of its shaft with his other hand. In an odd looking spinning attack he was able to block one spider, attack the other, and then attack the first spider again all in one fluid motion. The heavy hammer slammed into the spider from the bottom and with a crack sent it flying up into the air. Where its almost dead corpse intercepted a stone that Bjorn had cast at a different spider on the ceiling.
A mental message echoed in Bjorn's head. “Meira, can you cast that lightning ball spell again?” Jenkins asked.
“No, it is on cooldown.”
Jenkins swore mentally, but with the link they apparently shared it came through and everyone could hear it. “What about you Bjorn? Any area spells?”
“No.” Was all he was able to say before the flood gates opened and the spider horde finally came flying out of the tunnel mouth. Over a hundred of the bone white spiders came out of the tunnel and immediately went on the offensive.
There hasn't been much time to fully prepare for the spider onslaught. The lack of time led to everything turning to chaos as humanoids clashed with spiders. The three to one odds weren't in their favor but the humanoids weren't immediately lost.
They had a few things that balanced out the fight. The first thing was their gear. Almost every single one of the humanoids were clad in heavy armor that did much to lessen the damage that they took. The guards doubly so, as their standard armor they were assigned was almost perfectly suited for this combat. The plate mail chest pieces were the perfect defense against both the slashing and the piercing attacks of the spider's claws and fangs. The chainmail shirts protected against the slashing from the claws all while not limiting their movement.
The second thing that helped tip the scales in their favor was their 4 profession wielders. The two guards worked as a team and their teamwork was a force multiplier. Each alone was enough to take on and kill multiple spiders each. But together the spiders didn't stand a chance. Rickie was almost a one man army. The pure physical strength he wielded was enough to easily crush each spider. Add to that the sheer number of spiders he didn't have to try hard to kill a spider. Each one of his reckless attacks didn't have much accuracy as he gave that up to do more damage. And to top it off he seemed to be immune to the spider's venom. Even though Tayla wasn't a conventional fighter her dexterity based build made her a menace to the group of attacking spiders.
The third thing was their magic casters. By this time Meira had already burned through her prodigious mana pool and had drunk the strongest mana potion they were able to get their hands on. Her lightning bolts and ice shards each wrecked havoc everywhere they landed. Her healing magic was surprisingly effective as well. Whenever she saw someone get bit or cut badly she would cast her only healing spell. It didn’t immediately fix the issue but it often turned a dire situation into a more manageable one. Bjorn had saved just enough mana to cast another one of his new spells. When the spiders were almost to the opening Bjorn began casting his first dark spell.
The 1 second cast time passed in a blip. The somehow dark light but not light enshrouded his hand briefly before condensing on his palm. Throwing forward his palm a shroud of darkness sprung forward encasing the entire entrance of the tunnel in a cone devoid of light. The 9 mana cost ended up draining his MP to the near bottom of his pool, leaving him with 16 mana left. The darkness effect didn’t last long but it was effective.
When the spiders slammed into the brief area of pure darkness it disoriented the ones in the lead and let the ones behind ram into them, slowing down and confusing the charge. With the sheer numbers of the charge the disoriented ones still got pushed through into the cavern. Instead when they were pushed into the cavern they took a few seconds to reorient themselves before attacking.
The last thing that the humanoids had going for them were Bjorn’s and Alya’s potions. Many of the defenders were only on their feet and still fighting thanks to their potions. Many of them drank their healing potions almost immediately when they got bit. It led to limbs that would have been useless from the bites instead becoming just a minor injury. The affected area then actually had the bone underneath become almost brittle. The weak bone structure was still preferable to complete uselessness. The stamina potions also played a large role, as many of the humanoids had skills that drained their stamina.
But even with all of their advantages the sheer number of bone white spiders was almost overwhelming and the fight quickly broke down into chaos. The rough semi circle quickly turned into small pockets of defenders trying desperately not to die. One such pocket had Bjorn, Meira, Alya, Chase, and Alaric in it. The initially had Rickie as well but during the fight he very quickly waded through the horde and fought on his own.
Bjorn quickly abandoned his bow and magic for his sword to help defend the two ranged fighters. They backed up to one of the corners and had the two girls against the wall with the other three forming a rough circle around the girls. As they retreated backwards and Bjorn was switching his fighting style he cast his last spell for the fight. He recast barkskin, but this time he targeted himself. The reduced movement speed would suck but in this target rich environment he figured the added natural armor would offset any benefit he would gain from having an additional 5% movement speed. In such a fight he was guaranteed to take hits.
The room they were in was spacious, it had 15 feet ceilings and plenty of room for 35 people to live and each have their own personal space, kind of. What was nice during the wait now was more of a liability. The space gave the spiders plenty of room to attack from whatever angle they wanted to.
“Meira, Alya, we will protect you from anything on the ground, your job is to make sure nothing comes at us from above.” Chase said as he set himself up in the most exposed position. Alaric had a wall and chase on either side of him, and Bjorn had the same.
“You got it.” Was Meira’s only response as she started casting her healing spell on Alaric. Once again the effects were wondrous. The dwarf had taken a long gash along his right side during that last fight. Alaric’s resilience was impressive, as even with the long gash he wasn’t letting it show that it bothered him. Meira’s spell started to fix that issue though.
As he watched Alaric’s side which was rent open and was pouring blood started to slowly knit itself back together. It was happening fast enough that Bjorn could see it happening in real time. Alaric tilted his shoulders to the side making the injured side slightly shorter. “That itches.” He said scrunching up his nose.
That was all the time they had before they were set upon by the spiders. It was hectic, Chase and Alaric did their best to fight off the spiders while trying to kill them. All Bjorn was focused on was not dying, he didn’t even really care about trying to kill the spiders. He used his sword and his fist to try and keep them at a distance which worked surprisingly well. The extra reach he had with the sword kept the spiders on the defensive. He was honestly thankful that the spiders had below average intelligence. If they had been smarter they would have realized that all they had to do was charge Bjorn and he would have been easily overwhelmed.
While Bjorn was at a standstill with two of the spiders Chase and Alaric were proving their worth as they were able to not only fend off the large creatures but even get decent damage against them. Chase was surprisingly adept at fighting against large numbers of opponents. Although Bjorn hadn’t really seen him fight more than one person he was able to match Alaric evenly when they spared. He knew exactly what to do with his shield and how to position himself as he fought. He effortlessly flowed in between attacking and defending all while facing against the larger number of spiders.
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For the moment they held out and it looked like they were going to be just fine, when a few things went wrong all at once. One spider larger than the rest came barreling through the spiders attacking the small group. Instead of trying to fight Chase fairly it slammed into his shield bearing both of them to the ground. Watching Chase fall to the ground distracted Alya from the spider she was shooting her crossbow at, which had been dangerously close to making to them over the ceiling. It quickly crossed the remaining distance and dropped into the middle of the small group. At the same time webbing shot out of the crowd and hit Bjorn’s free arm. The web immediately pulled tight and the force surprised Bjorn and pulled him off his feet causing him to crash to the ground.
Making a split second gamble, Meira started to cast a spell again, a spell with a long casting time. Alaric saw Chase fall but not Bjorn. Trusting in the man to handle his situation Alaric continued to fight off his spiders and occasionally he would throw an attack at the ones trying to push into the gap that Chase falling made. The spider who fell into their midst turned on Alya and lunged at her. And finally the spiders who were attacking Bjorn fell on top of him raking him with the barbs on the bottom of their legs.
It was the first time during this entire fight that Bjorn had taken damage. The pair of spiders quickly and efficiently cut long lacerations into Bjorn. Their powerful legs cutting through the toughened leather that made up the ringmail. Their legs found the spaces in between the rings sewed into his mostly leather armor. The combined toughness of his armor and his barkskin is the only thing that saved his life.
Bjorn was so distracted with him trying to protect himself from the spiders that he lost track of the fight. The combined weight of the two spiders was too much for Bjorn to handle and he was struggling to push them off to little success. All while they continued to rake their hooks across Bjorn’s skin. One thing he was able to do was stop them from biting him. He was able to get one arm underneath the section where the spider's head met its sternum and was keeping its gnashing mandibles away from his body. The other spider was trying to get to Bjorn’s throat but the first spider's body was in the way stopping it.
With his free hand he reached into his portable pocket and pulled out a dagger. With the close proximity he pointed the tip of the dagger towards the sternum of the spider and stabbed upwards. The trust was stopped by the heavy bone plating on the spider. Pulling his hand back to stab he was starting to grow weak. His health bar was quickly dropping as both of the spider's claws kept digging into his skin.
With a yell he stabbed the dagger forward again this time trying to put as much force as he could into the blow. Again the dagger was stopped by the armor. The sense of weakness quickly grew as Bjorn felt the strength leave his body. His health pool continued to plummet, and was starting to near the bottom. But regardless he struggled on.
Suddenly the weight on Bjorn was lessened as Chase grabbed ahold of the spider on top of Bjorn with two hands and heaved, throwing it away. The spider flew a few feet and slammed into something in the air stopping its momentum and dropping to the ground.
With all the new real estate the second spider lunged towards Bjorn’s throat. Too weak to stop it he resigned himself to death. Chase didn’t care about what Bjorn had decided to do, and he brought his mace against the spider sweeping it aside as well. Moving forward he brought the mace down on the first spider crushing it. He then made quick work of the second spider.
“Meira drop the air barrier.” Chase’s voice cut through the darkness that was starting to overtake Bjorn. “I have 40 seconds left on this potion and I want to make the most of it.”
Bjorn’s mind started to wander, the lack of oxygen it was getting causing him to almost forget the situation he was in. His momentary confusion didn't last long as Meira cast her weak slow heal spell on Bjorn before returning her attention to the fight going on around them.
The healing magic was nothing short of a miracle as his lacerations began to knit themselves back together.
You have been affected by the spell weak slow heal. You will regain 20 health over the next 20 seconds.
The spell weak slow heal has had a stabilizing effect on your condition, the health loss from your bleeding effect has dropped from 8 per second to 1 every 4 seconds.
The switch from about to bleed out to will slowly bleed out was enough to bring Bjorn back to the present situation. Digging into the pouch on his belt he felt a prick on his finger. Pushing through the stabbing sensation he fumbled around until his hand closed on a round piece of glass. Pulling it free he briefly saw red and he pulled the cork with his teeth and let the liquid inside pour into his mouth.
You have drank a healing potion, you will gain 97 health back over the next 30 seconds.
The magical properties is his healing potion started immediately working on returning his body to full health. A few things became clear to Bjorn immediately as his vision cleared up.
The first thing was most of the red he had seen on the vial was his own blood. It ran in streaks down the outside of the vial in his hand eventually pooling on the bottom and then dripped off onto the ground. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the blood originated from his hand. His hand itself had several deep gashes that were letting the blood flow freely. At several places on his hand he had glass shards sticking out of the cuts.
Resigning himself to investigate later his first priority was to remove the glass, which he did, wincing each time a shard was removed. Every time he removed a shard the area it was just in began to itch as his hand started to knit itself back together with the healing magic coursing through his body.
The next thing he noticed was the two spiders that had gotten the better of him laying on the ground at his feet dead. Each with a different section of their bodies crushed by extreme force.
Then he looked up from their corpses and he saw very few spiders remaining. There were almost equal numbers of spiders and humanoids facing off against each other. As he watched the spiders started to retreat and clump up near the entrance they had attacked from. Once they collected they collectively turned and ran back the way they came. During their collection and then retreat the humanoids had managed to catch and kill almost half of the remaining number.
They had won.
It was a messy and bloody battle. At all points during the fight every single one of the humanoids were either attacked, pressed, bit, or wounded by a spider. In the end most of the humanoids were bloody and weary, but they had won. Over the last ten minutes the defenders were able to either kill or push back the attacking spiders. They paid dearly for their attempts though. As less then 15 of the original attack force escaped back down the tunnel.
On the defenders side they paid dearly as well. Of the 25 guards only 14 remained, sadly Jenkins was among the living on the guards side. Bente was likely dead as his head hung awkwardly off to the side of his body where it lay against the wall with two vicious looking bite marks in his neck.
When Rypley saw this he was distraught and before anyone knew what was happening or what he was doing Rypley had removed his helmet and drew his knife. Sticking it up to his throat he pushed into his neck and pulled sideways, viciously slitting his own throat. His body fell to the side and was quickly bleeding out.
Tayla stood next to the dying man and seeing the light starting to leave his eyes she knelt down and in one fluid motion drew the thin knife that was still sheathed on her thigh. She plunged the tip of the knife into his eye socket. A thick, clear, jelly-like fluid spilled out of his eye socket and dripped onto her hand as she had plunged the knife all the way up to the hilt in his eye socket.
The rapid chain of events surprised all who were standing there. It was Bjorn, Laurel, and two of the guards. Alya was also there, but she wasn’t really standing there. When the spider made it through to the back lines it had latched onto Alya’s leg, and injected it with venom. It then bit down on her several times continuously injecting its venom into her leg. After the fight they brought her with them as they were exploring the camp. They set her against the wall before Rypley killed himself. Because of that her leg was sitting at an awkward angle underneath her body with her right knee touching her butt cheek.
“What was that?” Bjorn asked rather aggressively to Tayla.
She pulled her dagger free of the corpse and wiped it on Rypley’s clothes. “He took his own life, I just hastened his end. He wasn’t going to be able to survive that cut. All I did was make sure he died instead of suffering. Besides, it would be a shame to let all of his experience go to waste. So I made the call.” She replied to Bjorn’s accusatory tone with ice in her voice. “If you have an issue with that we can talk about it later.” She turned on her heels and walked back towards the largest clump of the dead.
The conscripts came out lucky as they only had the two losses. For the most part the guard had taken the brunt of the attack. Of the remaining 14 guards 3 of them were wounded enough to where they would be useless in a fight. With Bente and Rypley also dead that brought their fighting force down to 19 of 35 to start. Further Alya’s leg was useless so she also wouldn’t be much use in a fight, and lastly laurel was useless in a fight to begin with, so they only had 17 of the 35 that started the fight left.
Thanks for the war party Bjorn was able to keep an eye on how people fared during the fight. Of the initial 10 in the war party 6 of them remained alive.
Once the dead had been counted and the spiders started getting removed from the fighting area they set up the guard rotation again. This time they set the guard detail up at the elbow in the tunnel. They stole a few of the magical lights from around the camp and set them up illuminating the tunnel.
Even though everyone was dead tired, work still had to be done. They put 4 of the healthiest survivors on guard duty. The next 4 had orders to sleep and they would be the backup guards. The remaining 9 were dedicated to piling up the dead, both their companions and the spiders.
It was draining work, both physically and emotionally. It was difficult to cut off their emotions and move their dead friends. That was why for the first time Jenkins had none of the conscripts on guard duty. It was the only mercy he could give to his platoon.
He had only two of his guards help handle the dead. Jenkins also regained a small amount of Bjorns respect. He didn't shirk on his duties, up until this point he had been coordinating the camp and hadn't even pulled a single guard shift. But when manpower was low he spent his time helping.
Between Jenkins' help, his two guards, and the 6 remaining conscripts they were able to clear all of the dead from the camp and from the tunnel up to the checkpoint. It took them several hours to do so. Their total count was 129 dead spiders and 13 dead humanoids. A good number of the dead spiders were actually in the tunnel where Meira had locked them in with her spell. Of the 129 dead 33 of them were found by the spell's effective area.
Although he didn't want to, it would be foolish to leave items on the dead. Alaric, Rickie, Chase, Jenkins, and Meira all were able to convince Bjorn to take some of the gear off of Rypley. The hob-goblin's size and stature was close enough to Bjorn that it would fit reasonably well. So Bjorn took Rypley’s padded undershirt, his breastplate, his greaves and finally his shield.
High Steel Breastplate
Rarity: Common
Weight: 9 lbs.
Durability: 263/297
Defense: 11-12 (12-13 max)
A well crafted high steel breastplate.
High Steel Greaves
Rarity: Common
Weight: 2 lbs.
Durability: 197/213
Defense: 7-9
A pair of well crafted high steel greaves.
Wrought Iron Shield
Rarity: Common
Weight: 10.6 lbs.
Durability: 169/221
Defense: 5-7 (7-9 max)
A shield made out of the normally soft wrought iron. Made for trapping attackers' weapons.
For the moment all of the gear ended up in his portable pocket, which was near full. Another mystery Bjorn wanted solved was where the broken glass came from. Upon closer inspection all but two vials in his potion pouch broke. When the spider pulled him off his feet and onto the ground he must have landed on the pouch. It was made out of thick milled leather which explained how he didn’t get stabbed. The milled leather made it pliable enough that it was able to change shape and keep the potions from running into each other. But with its thickness the leather was tough enough to hold up to the glass shards.
Needless to say the potions that were formally in the pouch were lost. The potions itself were coating the front of Bjorn’s armor as the small leather pouch was not water tight. Around 40 percent of his total potion stock was in that pouch. The rest were inside his portable pocket. With a sigh he removed the leather pouch and let it drop to the ground. The next time he walked over to collect a body the pouch was gone.
Once they were done removing all the bodies they awoke the 4 guards that were sleeping and set them to the watch. Gathering the four other guards, everyone slowly and silently made their way into their tents. Normally there was some talking as they went about their day. Not today it was dead silent as everyone made their way to bed. Most took their armor off and set it on the ground, still covered in blood, viscera, and grim from the fighting.
Collectively those not on watch all fell asleep over the span of 5 minutes. Even though sleep was fast to take them, it was not a restful night. Nightmares of what they saw and did plagued everyone in camp.
When Bjorn next awoke the camp was still quiet. His body ached as he slowly made his way onto his feet. Stretching and yawning he took a look at his disgusting armor. Then he looked at Alaric’s armor, which was even worse. Not only did his chainmail shirt have several holes in it, it also was covered in more strange liquids than he was entirely comfortable with.
With another yawn he picked up his armor from where it sat on the ground and started heading towards the channel their camp was situated around. They had been getting their fresh water from an underground spring a few hundred feet up the tunnel. The connecting tunnel and large room they were situated in was probably built with this spring in mind. Bjorn didn’t truly care for the reason that the cave was built, just that it was built.
Leaving camp and heading for the spring he quickly scooped up a barrel and walked the distance to the spring. Once there he dipped his bucket into the small fountain that had been built into a small alcove in the wall and started to clean himself, his weapons, and his new armor that was coated in Rypley’s blood.
The mundane motions of dipping a rag into the water then washing the blood and filth off was calming. Even though he was dead tired he still slept fitfully. Yesterday was Bjorn’s first time in a larger scale battle. In all of his fights in the Eld nothing has prepared him for what he saw.
In the moment when he saw Sain get pulled out of the shield wall and was unceremoniously killed Bjorn felt fear. Up until that point he had been feeling almost untouchable. In the middle of 34 other heavily armored people ready to kill whatever came his way he felt safe. That illusion was quickly dispelled and fear began to set in. Every time he saw another one of his allies fall never to get back up again a sense of dread built. He hadn't realized how intense it was getting due to being in combat and adrenaline coursing through his body helping him ignore it.
Last night when he stopped for the day that sense of dread came in full force and made it hard to sleep. Each time he closed his eyes he could see the great dane sized spider's head mere inches away from his face. When exhaustion took him he was plagued by nightmares of being torn apart, or being unable to move as they started to take over his body. The final dream he had before he just gave up on sleep was of the spiders injecting their venom and then pupating his body, only he was still alive as the spider inside of him moved his body for him.
His dreams and thoughts of them plagued his mind as he went through the motions of cleaning up and doing minor repairs where he could. Once he was finished with his gear he cast purify water on the bucket before heading back into camp.
Placing his gear next to the tent he entered it and found Alaric still asleep. Next to his bed was all of Alaric's gear. Bending down he quietly took Alaric’s gear and made his way slowly out of camp again. He then repeated the process he had done with his own armor, only for Alaric’s. The entire process took longer this time as cleaning chainmail is surprisingly difficult to do. He didn't have the required materials to fix the holes in Alaric's chainmail so he just cleaned it for now. The hammer was a surprise though, as the handle was completely clean. Just to make sure he increased and decreased the size multiple times and each time the long handle was spotless.
When he made his way back into camp with Alaric’s gear there were a few signs of life in camp. A few of the members of the little force were up and moving about. Depositing Alaric’s gear Bjorn stood and made his way back into camp, he saw someone he wanted to talk to.
Tayla was kneeling on the group in front of the tent she and Meira shared with her back to Bjorn. As he neared she spoke to him. “What do you want, Bjorn?” she was talking in the same icy tone she had used with him the day before, she also hadn't turned around to see who was approaching her.
Instead of replying he dropped to his knees behind her and wrapped his arms around her. When she felt his arms wrap around her she tensed up. Bjorn could feel her tight body ready to spring into action.
“I am sorry. You were right to do what you did. I was in the wrong, I shouldn't have talked to you the way I did. You didn't deserve that, you were providing mercy. Emotions were running rampant through my body, I haven't ever seen so many of the people I know die so fast.”
He could feel her tense body relax in his arms. “I forgive you.” Was all she said as she leaned her head back against his chest. They stayed like that for a few minutes before she pulled away. “It would be best for Meira to not see us like this, she normally isn't a jealous person, but I think she would kill me if she saw you holding me like that.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Bjorn asked.
She turned and gave him a look he wasn't able to identify what it meant. “It's nothing.” She then took something from the bag in front of her and stood and started walking off. When she got a few feet away from him she turned back and threw a small bar of soap up into the air, letting its simple arch land right back into her hand. “I am going to go clean myself, if you want you can clean my front for me. I'll need your firm hands to clean my breasts.” Her normal sly, flirtatious, impish grin returned to her face.
Bjorn's mind was reeling at Tayla's words. “What did you mean though?” He called out to her retreating back.