The camp was abuzz with activity as everyone was trying to figure out what to bring and what to leave. Bjorn already knew what he was going to bring so he decided to take his time and try to figure out the venom issue. Walking back over to his now all too familiar alchemy corner he took stock of what he had. There were 2 crates full of dried herbs, there use to be three but he and Alya had used it up. On his way over he had stopped at his tent and retrieved his portable pocket.
He set out a blanket and started to unload all of the herbs he had access to. Handful after handful of herbs came out of his portable pocket and got laid right next to the herbs from the crates. It was a respectable haul. Out of the 40 sum odd herbs he had laid out in front of him he knew uses for a little over half of them. Next he pulled out his vials of venom and set them neatly on his blanket. Finally Bjorn picked one of each of the unknown herbs and set them to the side in a small pile.
Not really knowing where to start he just stood there and stared down at the herbs. A knot of dread settled in his stomach. He knew what he had to do, but he didn’t want to do so. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there trying to work up the courage before he finally started to move.
Instead of walking towards the blanket he turned on his heels and tried to find Meira. It wasn’t overly hard to find her as she was in her tent with Tayla. When he walked over her head slowly swung in his direction, their eyes met briefly and a smile spread across her face. “Hey, what can I do for you?”
Swallowing past the lump in his throat he asked his question. “Hey, I have an idea that might give us an edge in the coming days, but I need your help. Will you come with me please?”
Meira and Tayla exchanged a quick glance. “Of course, whatever you need.” She stood and followed after him. They walked back over to where the blanket was laid out. As they walked she could feel his mood and didn’t speak. Once they stopped in front of the blanket she followed his gaze down. “What do you need my help with?”
Bjorn filled her in on his conversation he had with Jenkins, and how he thinks that there should be a way to weaponize the venom against the spiders. “Yeah, that makes sense. I hadn’t even thought about that, so what is your plan? Where do you start in making such a poison?”
“That is where I need your help. I don’t know enough about the ingredients in front of me, there is a chance that I waste valuable alchemy ingredients while trying to make this poison. So I need more information.”
“Yeah, but how do you get that information? I don’t know anything about the various effects of herbs. I am useless for you in that regard. So I will ask you again, what do you need my help with?”
With a small sigh Bjorn answered. “You see, when I got level 10 in my herb-lore skill the perk I unlocked will give me the information I need. There is a drawback though. I have to ingest the herb to learn of two of its uses. So what I need your help with is healing me if I take any damage.”
Realization spread across her face as she understood what Bjorn intended to do. “No, that is crazy. We have seen what that venom can do if it is localized. You want to drink the venom and let it spread across your entire body. It could melt all of our bones, turning you into a puddle. Is that really worth a small chance to kill spiders easier? You have told me how hard you had to work to come up with a healing potion when you fell off that cliff. Do you really think you have a chance to work out a poison in such a short time?”
“I don’t know, but I think it is worth it. Meira, I am tired of losing every single fight I get in. I want to be of use.” Bjorn stopped speaking and threw his head back looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t see how I can survive this conflict without it. The only two times I fought these spiders I have gotten heavily injured both times. The first time I managed to have the spider land on top of me and sink its claws into my body. And then the second time I somehow found myself in the exact same position. I would have died if it wasn’t for that asshole dwarf teaching you life magic. I don’t want to make all of you save me every single time we have to fight.”
Meira put her hand on Bjorn’s arm. “I understand where you are coming from. You were a soft person, this is a hard world. That combination doesn’t lead to an easy life. But is poisoning yourself the day before we go into a fight really the best way for you to contribute? I don’t think it is. I don’t want to stand here and watch you poison yourself, think about everyone else. Do you think Alaric, Tayla, and myself will fight as well if we don’t have you by our side?”
Bjorn let out a small chuckle. “If anything I think you’ll fight better if you don’t have to watch over me while we fight? Besides I think between my increased regeneration, and a healing potion, and your life magic it won’t matter. Three different sources all healing me, It will probably be enough to make sure that I don’t die, or even be crippled from our attempts.”
“I know for a fact I won’t fight near as well as I could if you aren’t by my side. I can say with a guarantee that the same is true for Alaric and most likely Tayla. Even if you don’t think so. There is something to be said about trust in a fight. I trust all three of you, I trust that you will watch my back. Without that trust I can cast my spells without worry for my safety, That isn’t something that I can do with anyone else here. I know that if anything gets near me all three of you will stop it before it can hurt me.”
“Also don’t sell yourself short.” Meira said. “You did almost as much as Alaric in that fight, and on top of that you did more than most of the guards. Your ranged damage did tons in slowing down the spiders and preventing them from taking many of the openings they made in our lines. Also your magic made a difference as well. Your strengthening light spell seems small, but when it is spread across so many people it is massive. It was the right spell for the right occasion. Just like my summer storm spell. The only reason it did what it did was because of the right spell when the conditions were just right. You killed more spiders than Chase, than 95% of the guards.”
“I still think it is a risk worth taking.”
“You are being blockheaded, you still want to take a chance with your life with no guarantee. You might be right, you might have a chance to survive, but is it worth the risk to your life? I don’t think it is. You are precious to me, I don’t want to lose you.”
“I know. But this is something I have to do. You are asking me not to risk my life to give us a better chance. If we are being honest, I am not that much of a fighter. Sure Alaric has done a great job getting me ready to fight, but my combat usefulness isn’t in the strength of my arm, it is in what I can provide to all of us to prepare for a fight. You asking me not to risk my life is asking me to take a greater risk later.”
This time it was Meira who sighed. “I won’t be able to convince you otherwise will I?”
“No, you can’t.”
“Alright, I will help. I disagree, and I don’t like it. But I can’t stop you, so I will help and heal you.”
“Thank you. I am not going to start with the venom though. That pile there is all herbs. I don't know what their effects are, so that is where I am going to start.”
“Alright, if you need my healing either say so or if you fall to your knees I will take that as confirmation that you need my healing.”
Bjorn knelt down and picked up one of the herbs on top of the pile. Standing up he plucked a small amount off of it and made eye contact with Meira. She gave him a nod and he threw it into his mouth and quickly chewed the small amount and swallowed. The portion he plucked off was barely enough for him to feel it in his mouth. And nothing happened.
Meira looked at him expectantly. “Well?” She asked.
“Nothing, I don’t think it was enough of the herb to be considered a dose.”
“So that means we can’t get away with a small amount of your venom. Did you not know that?”
“Not really, no. So far the only time I have used this perk is when I wasn’t able to do anything in the small valley. At that time I didn’t care, I just ate large mouthfuls at a time.”
“Well shit. Alright, no getting around it, I guess try again.”
Bjorn this time picked up the same herb, it had three distinct stocks that all originated from the still intact roots. It had thin green leaves in clusters of 4 that were offshoots from the main branch. Plucking one of the clusters of leaves he threw it in his mouth, chewed briefly and swallowed. This time a prompt popped up in the middle of his vision.
You have ingested Razor Leaf. You get the faint sense that it would go great into a sharpness potion. It could be used in making a local anesthetic.
Razor Leaf imbues you with a sense of sharpness. Any blade attack you make for the next 10 seconds has increased effect.
“Well? Anything this time?” Meira asked.
“I found out some of the uses of the herb. It can go into a sharpness potion and make a pain killer. I hope they all go this easy.”
They in fact did not go that easily. Of the twenty sum herbs he ate most of them were benign. But there were a few that didn’t go too well. One of them induced vomiting. Luckily for Bjorn he had a bucket nearby he could puke into instead of puking all over his neatly arrayed herbs. He was entirely sure that the herb caused people to puke due to the prompts he got telling him it was one of its effects. If not for that he would have thought that the combination of herbs eaten in quick succession would have caused the puke. After all a large amount of undigested herb ended up coming back up and in the bucket.
Puking was one of the more mild reactions. One made him feel like there were things crawling underneath his skin. One of the herbs had a calming effect and increased hunger when smoked. It was nice to know that even the Eld had essentially weed. The worst herb reversed the growth of his fingernails. It was excruciating to feel his nails pull back into his skin and expose the sensitive flesh underneath.
Finally they were down to just one left to do. With trepidation Bjorn picked up the final vial. This entire experience had not been a pleasant one. So far Meira had seen Bjorn in several different situations he would rather her not. But he was still glad to have her present while he did this. Her presence had a calming effect on him.
“Alright, are you ready?” he asked.
“I still advise against this course of action, but yes I am ready.”
Nodding Bjorn pulled a vial from his belt and pulled the cork from the vial, up ending the health potion it slid down his throat and the warming sensation quickly spread through his body.
You have ingested a healing potion. You will regain 153 hp over the next 37 seconds.
With out hesitation he pulled the cork on the vial of venom and drank its contents. For a second nothing happened. Pain shot through his entire body after a few seconds. It felt like every inch of the inside of his body was on fire. It was a weird feeling. Logic should dictate that you can’t actually feel pain because bones shouldn’t have nerve endings. Logic would be wrong in this case, as bones actually do have nerve endings. Every inch of his body burned with pain, it felt like each of his bones had been set on fire somehow inside his body.
Bjorn was able to ignore a certain amount of pain thanks to his increased pain tolerance, but what he was feeling now was enough to overwhelm it. The reduction of 20% was not enough to allow him to maintain any sense of his surroundings. Faintly his saw a golden glow off in the distance before the pain overwhelmed his mind and it retreated to safety, and everything faded to black.
When he finally came to, he did so with a jolt. Sitting up he looked around him and saw Rickie and one of the new guards standing around him. Meira was kneeling next to him in the middle of casting her single life spell. His sudden response startled her and she lost her concentration on the spell letting it fade. Looking at her briefly he missed the tears that had been streaming down her face.
“What happened?” Bjorn asked.
“After you drank the venom you were fine for a few seconds. Then your entire body tensed up and you fell to your knees. Your face was locked into a silent scream for several seconds before you went limp and fell to the ground the rest of the way. As soon as your body tensed up I started casting my healing spell. When you fell to the ground you caught the attention of Rickie and Mary. I reassured them they couldn’t do anything and then I cast weak slow heal as often as I could on you. As you lay there, your body twitched occasionally.”
Rickie looked down on Bjorn. “That was stupid, but I am glad to see you are alive.”
Bjorn did a quick once over of his body, the pain he had felt was gone. Testing his arms and legs he moved them slowly checking for pain, when none came he started to move them faster. Once he was satisfied he pushed himself to his feet. Standing there he checked and did a few stretches.
“I seem to be fully fine. The pain is gone, and I seem to be at full health. Meira you are a lifesaver.” He turned his smile onto her.
The smile quickly faded as he saw her stormy expression, she stood and took a single step forward. Her fist came flying at Bjorn and struck him solidly on the jaw. Knocking him to the ground once again. He looked up at her in shock, that was the first time he noticed her wet face.
“Don’t ever do that again. Actually I will never help you do that ever again, I thought I lost you when you fell to the ground. Your eyes had rolled up into the back of your skull and you were unresponsive.”
“Meira. I-”
“Stop, don’t say another word. You may not care about your life but there are many of us who do so.” As she said that last part her voice raised in volume until she shouted the last part. She kicked out landing solidly on his leg before she stormed off.
Looking up at the other two they watched her storm off slack jawed. Rickie looked down at Bjorn. “She let you off easy. She was not happy, through her tears she said that if you didn’t die from this she would kill you herself. I saw how powerful she is, she is a woman I wouldn’t want mad at me.”
“Should I go after her?” Bjorn asked.
Mary the guard just shook her head. “No, she just needs some time to cool off. Leave her to it, she will eventually come around. If you go after her you will just do more damage than good.”
Bjorn sat there defeated. “How long was I out?”
“At least half an hour, I was attracted by the golden glow that shone periodically over here as she healed you.” Rickie stepped towards Bjorn and held out his hand. They clasped hands and Rickie pulled Bjorn back to his feet. “Was it worth it?”
Checking his prompts he would have to say it was worth it.
You have ingested venom of the snatcher spider. Your bones begin to melt, over the next 5 minutes your bones will turn from their solid state to a liquid. You get the feeling that this venom could be used in a bone melting poison. You get the feeling that snatcher spider venom could be used in a spider bane poison.
The life attuned energies that are coursing through your body have helped counteract the effects of the venom and the melting process has slowed. Now instead of your bones turning into a liquid they will instead become brittle.
The continued healing energies that have poured into your body have helped mitigate even more of the effects of the venom. Instead of your bones becoming brittle they will enter a weakened state.
Your body already has an unusually high life attuned energies that course through it at all times. Because of this instead of your bones entering a weakened state your constitution has counteracted the effects of the snatcher spider venom.
In one of the most idiotic moves I have ever seen you have negated most of the effects of the snatcher spider venom you have gained a 10% poison resistance. You will take 10% less damage from any source of poison or venom. The negative effects of poisons and venoms will be reduced by 10%. This is not a suggestion to try it again.
A smile crossed Bjorn’s face as he continued to read his prompts. “Stop smiling like that. It is creepy.” Rickie said.
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“Huh? Oh, sorry. Yes it was worth it. Meira will get over it and I now have a lead on brewing a potion. Also as an added benefit I also gained 10% poison resistance. So yeah I would say it was worth it.”
“Really? Increased poison resistance?” Mary asked. “If all I have to do to get the resistance is drink this venom and survive it might actually be worth it.”
Bjorn immediately shook his head. “No, it isn't worth it for you. It was a a freak accident that allowed me to gain the poison resistance. A while ago someone tried to poison me and a rare life attuned orb saved me from dying. That event increased my health regeneration which is actually what allowed me to get the resistance. On top of that the pain I felt before passing out was almost too much to bear. I highly suggest not following in my footsteps.” It didn’t take Mary long to agree that Bjorn was right, it wouldn’t likely be worth it.
All the talk about resistance made Bjorn remember something he wanted to ask Rickie. “Hey Rickie, I could have sworn I saw several spiders bite you in that fight. How is it that you aren’t affected by the venom?”
He laughed. “That is a rude question. But you are right, the spiders had no effect on me because of one of my abilities. It is called Poisoners Constitution, which I think is a ridiculous name. It grants me complete immunity to Poison damage, It also grants me complete immunity to the effects of poisons and venoms.”
“That sounds like an awesome ability.” Mary said, looking slightly crestfallen. “My abilities kind of suck. One gives me an increased sense of smell, the other gives me increased skill gain with water based skills, which the only one I have ever found was swimming. So I can smell good and swim well. Tell me how that is useful?”
Rickie scratched his head. “I can’t say honestly.”
“Exactly!”
“Ahem.” Bjorn cleared his throat to get their attention. “I have a poison to try to make, would you kindly leave me to it?”
Taking the barely veiled dismissal they both left, leaving Bjorn by himself to try and work on making a spider bane poison. With a few new leads thanks to his session of ingesting herbs he got to work.
The next morning everyone woke up early and nerves were frayed as they got ready for the fight which was to come. Everyone was a little antsy as they started to form up.
Alaric walked over to where Bjorn was standing by himself a little off from the main group. Meira had become a very popular figure in camp, once it became known that she had access to life magic almost everyone welcomed her and were friendly to her. Her good looks and friendly attitude quickly made her liked by all. There had even been a few of the guards guys and girls who made a pass at her, all of which were quickly shot down.
By contrast Bjorn was the weird antisocial alchemist who didn’t really interact with anyone. So even though he wished he could go and apologize to Meira he stayed at the edge of the pack. “She is sorry.” Alaric said.
“What?”
“She is sorry that she punched you.”
“Ah.”
They stood in silence as they watched everyone making any last minute preparations they wanted. “Was it worth it?” Alaric said.
“I think so. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did get a benefit from drinking the venom.”
“Well that is something at least.” They fell back into silence.
People continued to file into the clearing before the tunnel slowly. When Jenkins made his way into the small clearing he surveyed the collecting force. His eyes fell on Bjorn and narrowed slightly.
Making a beeline for Bjorn he pulled up short. “I could have sworn I said leave behind everything that isn’t necessary for this combat, so why do you have a bag attached to your hip?”
Bjorn glared back at Jenkins. “This isn’t a regular bag, this is what is known as a portable pocket. This portable pocket holds many items that are useful for our upcoming fight.” Bjorn reached into the pocket and pulled out his bow. “This pocket is a space folding item. It holds my weapons, my arrows, my potions, and various other useful items.” He put the bow back into the bag. “As an added bonus the potions aren’t truly inside the bag so If I get hit the potions won’t break like they did in our last fight.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I have some heavier items that are bulky and would go great in there.”
“I am sorry, but no. This is my personal item, it is soul bound to me so only I can use it. Don’t even think about trying to take it from me, it would be useless to you. And on top of that, the bag folds space, it doesn’t decrease the weight of the items that are stored inside.” To punctuate his words Bjorn removed the bag and held it out for Jenkins to feel it.
When Jenkins took a hold of it his arm sagged slightly at the surprising weight to what looked like an empty leather bag. “Very well, you are right. I shouldn’t try and take it from you, I do have a few things that would be useful in there, but seeing how I don’t have one it is pointless.” Jenkins turned and went off to harass one of the other guards.
“That guy is a bit of a cunt.” Alaric said.
His words brought a full bellied laugh out of Bjorn. His laugh was loud and carried across the space; it was one of the pure joyous laughs that are all too rare. Upon hearing his laugh Meira looked over to where he was standing and she excused herself from the conversation she was having. She started to make her way over to where Bjorn and Alaric were standing.
“That's my que, good luck my friend.” Alaric said as he made his way off into the crowd.
Meira made her way over to where Bjorn was now standing by himself. She moved and stood right next to Bjorn facing the group the same way he was. Standing there for a moment Bjorn was scared to say anything because of her outburst last time they talked.
She was the one who broke the tension. She placed her head on his shoulder. “I am sorry I hit you. You just made me so angry. I was worried for so long that we had lost you. I don’t think I could have handled that, so when I saw you jump up and act so cavalier it made me angry. Before I knew what I was doing I had struck you. I am sorry. If you want to be angry I will accept whatever you decide to do.”
“Hey, stop it. You have nothing to apologize for. You had and still have every right to be angry at me. You are right, I was being too cavalier with my life. I am sorry. I am the only one who should be sorry.”
One moment stretched into two. “I forgive you.” she said.
It wasn’t long before everyone had gathered and formed up to make their way down the tunnel. “Bjorn!” Jenkins called from his spot in the middle of the column. Bjorn made his way over. “Out of everyone here you have had the most experience with traps. I hadn’t thought of the fact that the spiders might have set traps until James said so just a few seconds ago. If I had thought of it I wouldn’t have sent Laurel back up to the surface. You are our best option now, would you be willing to play scout for us?”
Bjorn barely had to think before he had his answer. “Yes, I will do that. I would request Tayla join me though, and together the two of us will range ahead.”
Jenkins nodded. “We leave in 5 minutes, you and Tayla should head out now.”
Bjorn made his way back to where Tayla stood near the back of the pack and did a little side gesture with his head indicating the way forward. Without question she walked forward to join Bjorn and together the two made their way through the group again. As Bjorn passed Meira, Rickie, Chase, and Alaric they each made their small gesture in solidarity.
Together the two of them made their way forward and down the empty tunnel. As they passed the guards at the front they passed Bjorn a light stone, they offered one to Tayla and she declined. Walking forward in the dark Bjorn had his eyes peeled for any tall tale signs of a trap. “Why did you decide to not take the light?” Bjorn asked.
“I leveled up again, and I spent my new talent points on a talent called night vision. It makes it so that I see in normal color when in lights, and then in shades of green and black outside of that. As long as there is some light that is. I haven’t had a chance to test it but the talent says that it doesn’t work if there isn’t light in some form.”
“That is awesome. I need to get myself a profession. We have something like that back on earth but everyone can use it. But it has drawbacks in comparison to yours.”
Bjorn could hear the confusion in her voice. “What do you mean? How can your world have something similar? As far as I understand it your world didn’t have any types of magic or skills or levels whatsoever.”
“That is true. Do you remember how I told you about something called technology? That is how.”
“Oh yeah. That was the thing that is like magic but based on physical things in the world. Which is why you are so concerned with how the world works.”
“Exactly. I am not entirely sure how exactly it works, but from what I understand there are multiple types of light that you are able to see and not see. The spectrum of light you can’t see is significantly wider than what you can see. Well they found a way to build a tool that lets you see those spectrums of light. So if you have that tool you are able to see in the dark as long as there is a small amount of light, but you are only able to see in shades of greens and black like your talent. But it still isn’t anywhere as good as yours. You see too much light can overload that tool and you can lose your vision for a while.”
They continued to move forward. “Yeah that does sound like a downside. It was actually very disorientating at first when I picked up the talent.”
“So what is the cost of that skill? Like does it cost you stamina or mana to keep it going?”
“Hmm? Oh, it doesn’t actually cost me anything, it cost me 15 talent points to purchase, now it seems like I will have it forever.” They made it to where they had set up their traps. “Now shush, I don’t know if these spiders can hear but I think it would be best if we proceed in silence. The main group should only be 4 or 5 minutes behind us.”
Nodding Bjorn shut up and surveyed where their traps had made a massacre of the spider's force. After a moment they continued. Bjorn had a thought and put his hand out stopping Tayla. Reaching into his pouch he pulled out a potion he and Alya brewed before they came down here.
Danger sense potion
Rarity: uncommon
Weight: .5 lbs.
Durability: 2/2
Duration: 8.16 hours
When under the effects of this potion gain a “6th sense” as it were about danger. Making you more sensitive to hidden dangers directed at you. It also makes you more likely to spot traps, high-lighting them in orange when spotted.
Pulling the cork he drank the sickly orange liquid. Almost immediately nothing at all happened. Looking around the tunnel it looked the exact same as it had before he drank his potion. Trusting the prompts he continued forward in the warzone that was where the traps had been set. All over he saw the remnants of the traps. There would be an arrow here, or shards of broken glass from the acid traps, or there were stones that were scorched black from the electricity that ran through them.
One thing that was unsettling was the fact that there were no bodies left behind. They had gotten confirmation that the traps worked exactly as intended and had killed several spiders based on the levels that Laurel gained. That means at some point the spiders came and collected the bodies of their fallen brethren. Still they moved forward through the trap zone. All around him he could see the wire that he and Laurel had set up. But as he looked at them it was obvious that they had all been sprung.
Vibrant neon orange flashed into existence in front of where Tayla stood. “Stop!” Bjorn called in an urgent whisper. As soon as he did she paused exactly where she had been weight perfectly balanced, she hadn’t made so much as a move as she stopped in place. “Take two steps back, there is a trap there.”
After she complied Bjorn overtook her and took a look at the trip wire which had been set up against one of the walls. The way that Tayla had been walking she would have brushed right into it. “This one was Laruel’s doing.” Bjorn said as he dropped down to where the trap had been set. Reaching into his bag he pulled out two thin small metal hooks, one was a straight piece of metal that had a hook on the end the other was a slightly zig zagged in shape being turned up at the end. It was a set of tools given to him by Laurel.
As he mentally played the set up method in his head he stared at the trap. According to Laurel if you know how the trap was set up it was a lot easier to disable the trap. That is of course if you actually spotted the trap before it killed or maimed you.
“Hey nice lockpick set.” Tayla said. “I always knew that Laurel was a high class woman.”
With a snort Bjorn replied. “I don’t know if I would call having multiple sets of lockpicks being any sort of high class anything.”
“You have a set of lockpicks.”
“I know what I said.” Bjorn shot back. “Now stop distracting me.”
She complied and left Bjorn to his work. Taking his lockpicks he followed down to where Laurel had set the trap and how she had deftly wrapped the wire around the triggering mechanism before pulling out a small metal pin and letting it drop to the floor. After a minute of searching he wasn’t able to find the pin, it had either rolled into one of the cracks on the stone floor or it had rolled off when it landed. Sighing he returned his attention to the triggering mechanism. The wire wrapped around it so that if tension was applied to the wire it would rotate the trigger and set off the trap.
Taking the pick side of his lockpick he inserted it into a small hole and used that pick to hold the mechanism in place. Using the tensioner rod side of his pick he deftly inserted it into the trap right next to the trigger and used it to bend the small metal flap that was holding onto the wire up so he was able to release the wire. After it was done he pulled on the wire and it came free. With the trap successfully disarmed he let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding and relaxed.
“Boom!” Tayla's voice came, surprisingly close to his right ear.
Surprised, he jerked back. His mind first went to the trap and went off. Then the rational part of his mind took over and he realized that Tayla had scared him to get a rise out of him. Angry he turned towards her, but she was already with her back against the wall doubled over as she was laughing at Bjorn’s reaction.
“Not funny.” Bjorn said.
“I beg to differ.”
“What if the trap had gone off?”
“It wasn’t going to go off. I watched you disarm it, I waited for your lockpicks to be pulled back out of the trap before I did that. Stop being a sour puss.”
Grumbling, he turned back to the trap and started to collect the damn thing. With it disarmed partially he was still careful while retrieving it. The trap can’t ever be fully disarmed without the pin. So Bjorn very gingerly put the trap into his portable pocket for later use. As he was retrieving his wire he noticed the blinking icon that showed him he got new notification.
Congratulations you have learned a new skill: Trap Disarm. There are many things in this world that want nothing more than to harm you by hitting you with a trap. You have started your journey today on not letting that happen.
“By the way, you're an ass.” Bjorn said as he stood and started walking down the tunnel again.
“Oh come on! It wasn’t that bad.” Tayla called after him as she started to follow after him down the tunnel.
They ended up following the tunnel for about half an hour when light could be seen in the tunnel ahead. Upon seeing the glow from ahead they slowed to a crawl and made eye contact. Nodding Tayla dropped into stealth and slinked ahead, leaving Bjorn by himself.
It was only a few minutes before she reappeared right next to Bjorn, scaring him. “Gah! Don’t do that, you know you should drop your stealth before you get to me.”
“Stop your whining, there are people up ahead. I think we should go back and report what we found.”
Nodding in agreement Bjorn and Tayla started to make their way back down the tunnel trying to find the column. It took a surprising amount of time to catch back up with them. As it turned out the rest of their force had been moving slow. When their light came into view Jenkins' voice barked a quick order and everyone fell into a defensive stance. When they saw it was their scouts, everyone let down their guard.
“Bjorn, Tayla, stop where you are.” His voice echoed out once again. They complied. “Now walk slowly towards us. Almost there. And stop. Just to make sure you haven’t been attacked by any spiders, strip down.”
“Is that really necessary?” Bjorn asked.
Tayla on the other hand had no qualms with the order and quickly and deftly removed every single article of clothing she was wearing including her tight leather armor. She stood there proudly in her birthday suit not bothered whatsoever at being looked at and even ogled by many present. She did a short little spin to get the column a view of her from every angle. “If you wanted to see me naked Jenkins all you had to ask.” She called back with a slight flush in her cheeks.
The commander was at a loss for words temporarily. “Uh, yeah. That is good enough, if she hasn’t been infected you probably haven’t been as well. You don’t have to strip down Bjorn. Also Tayla put some clothes back on.”
“But why, you were the one to tell me to take them off.” Tayla complained. Even though she complained about having to put her clothes back on she did so without hesitation.
Clearing his throat Jenkins called out once again. “Report.”
“We came across a crossroad and there were people that had set up a defensive wall about 20 minutes up this tunnel. I didn’t get a great look at them but they looked to be dressed the exact same way as you all are dressed.” Tayla said as she was pulling on her clothes. She spoke under her breath just loud enough that only Bjorn could hear. “I should probably find some clothes that are just as easy to put on as they are to take off.”
“Hmm, I haven’t heard of there being anyone that should meet us, and where the spiders are set up should be a large room. Go ahead and join up, we will go and investigate.”
The column made its way forward again, splitting apart and absorbing Bjorn and Tayla as he held her clothes and armor so that she could get them back on. As many of the guards passed them they gave Tayla a sideways glance. A few of their gazes lingered on her body as they passed.
When Meira made it to where the two were standing, Tayla mostly dressed, she wrapped her knuckles on the side of her head. “You just couldn’t help yourself could you. You just had to get naked in front of everyone down here.”
She gave Meira a sly smile. “What can I say, I enjoyed it.”
“Gross.” was all Meira had to say in response, she rolled her eyes and started walking to keep up with the column.
What had taken Bjorn and Tayla 20 minutes to cross while being careful, it took the column half an hour. When the lights came into view once again Bjorn cast his simple light spell and cast it to his max distance, as Jenkins had asked him to.
Voices echoed through the tunnel. “Sir! A weird light just sprang to life in the tunnel and traveled for a bit before stopping.”
Muffled words could be heard.
“I don’t know, I told you everything I know so far.” More voices. “Well if you want to go check it out, be my guest sir. I think I will stay here, where it is safe.”
Jenkins ordered them to start advancing. They came within 300 feet of where the other humanoids were set up. Tayla was spot on, their way forward was blocked by a contingent of guards in the exact same uniform as what the majority of their force wore.
“State your name and your rank.” An orc guard called out. Based on his size and gear he was most likely the leader of their group.
“My name is Corporal Jenkins, I was tasked with defending one of the tunnels and stopping the spiders from making it around and attacking the rear of our forces.”
“Well I’ll be. Stand down.” He called to his troops who lowered their weapons. “It is good to see you, Jenkins.” The orc took off his helmet.
“Gulnag, it is good to see you!” The two commanders both walked out from their groups and clasped each other's wrists.
It didn’t take them long to get the story out of Gulnag and his troops. They were stationed on one of the other tunnels, and they had received orders to make their way forward. When they came to a fork in the tunnel they didn’t know what exactly to do so they stopped and set up preparing to defend against both tunnels. Once Jenkins' cohort joined they knew the proper way forward.
With both forces combined their numbers swelled to 78. With both groups having the same standing orders they decided it was best to take the last way forward. Both groups quickly formed back up, merging into one unit. They sent Bjorn and Tayla to scout ahead once again. Two of Gulnag’s men joined them in their scouting mission.
This time instead of ranging far ahead they stayed in view of the column. That way they would hopefully be able to retreat if need be, or come forward and provide support to the scouts if need be. The combined force made good time, it helped that the tunnel was wide enough for 8 to walk side by side.
The 4 scouts combined efforts was enough to give the group confidence that they weren’t going to be walking into a trap. It was the sound of combat that reached them before anything else. Voices of shouted orders came echoing down the tunnel. They were mixed with the chittering and clicking noises that the spiders made as they fought.
As soon as the sounds could be made out the scouts rejoined the group. They then started moving forward carefully. The tunnel curved and finally gave them a view of the battlefield. It looked like absolute chaos from where they stood. Based on the sea of spiders they saw they were just in time to smash into the spiders from two different sides. Being the hammer to the rest of the army's anvil.
As they moved into position one of the shield bearer’s heavy boots came down on something soft and webs came shooting out of the tunnel trapping the soldiers in place.