It took an hour before the first true attack came, but the party had been on edge ever since Elarma discovered the command web. A pack of deer and a pack of wolves charged fearlessly right into the dome of swirling wind, in spite of the tiny shards of ice shredding their skin and fur and they came right for the group.

They were truly pitiful creatures, their matted and patchy fur revealed strange blackened veins and undulating flesh. Their eyes were hollow and without any true spark of life. And the animals fought in a strange and almost automata-like fashion. The Light Tamers formed their usual formation and met the charging deer head on and were almost swept of their feet by the charging weight meeting their shields, as the Deer were more than happy to gore themselves on their extended swords and ram into the shields.

Heraclius and his men along with the hunters formed up a similar formation as they stabbed at the charging wolves while the hunters launched arrows into them. Listig rushed over to aid them by spraying with their metal container and holding up a small flame which suddenly caused a steady stream of fire to ignite the fur of a wolf. Crabs busied himself by attacking one of the gored deer and smacking it with his bone club, leaving traces of necrotic energy worming their way through its flesh with every strike.

Elarma herself couldnt contribute much as she had to maintain the Dome and that was a steady drain on her resources. Mariam remained by her side in case any of the thralls would attack her. Mariam let out a curse as she spotted something that Elarma had not noticed and dragged her back.

"Damnit! The ground!"

A veritable horde of beetles, centipedes, worms, and other tiny creatures erupted from the ground and launched themselves like a tidal wave at the assembled party. Loud zapping sounds filled the air as the magic in the charms worked to burn the tiny invaders as they pushed against the wards. A directed assault like this would drain the wards of their power in no time, and that was obvious to even the non-magicians in the group. Locals and Adventurers alike screamed as the wave pressed against them, and then Listig suddenly appeared by the hole in the ground and shouted.

"Ice to meet you!"

They then poured a smoking and clear liquid into the hole from a large container that they suddenly held and glanced over to Elarma.

"Esteemed leader could you deal with the ones that are swarming?"

Listig asked innocently before they turned their concentration pouring the liquid into the entry point and Elarma gulped before nodding, and she began to blow air loudly down at the ground where the invaders were still swarming. And with it a small gust of wind came out of her mouth and started blowing them away like a "leafblower" as Listig had once described it. The wind sent the tiny terrors flying into her dome which promptly sent them out like a strange type of fountain. As her magic began to work through the countless attackers they seemingly exploded as clouds of spores filled the air.

Coughing and spluttering could be heard as the spores entered their lungs, Elarma was spared due to the nature of the spell was working caused the spores to be blown away from her.

"Elrgh! Erg- Poison!"

A male voice shouted but the brown cloud filling the air made it impossible for Elarma to tell who it came from. Next she heard a loud thud as Mariam sank down on one knee as she was wracked with a coughing fit, until Listig once again appeared this time with a white cloth mask covering their face and with another pair in hand. They elegantly placed the mask over her face and turned to Elarma.

"Always remember to wear protection, it's important in many contexts. But still blow this away would you?"

Elarma could only shrug and indicate the spell she was presently channeling, which eventually did manage to clear the air of the spore cloud. When the air cleared all the attackers were dead, but most of the party were on their knees trying to vomit and or cough out the spores while one of the Bodyguards held their hand out and mumbled out several rapid incantations.

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Golden light suddenly enveloped the group and the spores that were on the ground suddenly burned away as the glorious halo of light passed over them. The magic seemed to have a rejuvenating effect in addition to the cleansing because the people rose up shortly after it had passed and Heraclius gave a wicked grin to the Adventurers.

"What? Did you think that I did not come prepared. Magnus here is a rejuvenation specialist and should be more than capable to keep us safe, or am I wrong?"

"Not wrong per say Sire, but this infection felt...nasty. I would not recommend that we test it unecessarily."

"We have had our first true Skirmish with this foe, but don't underestimate it noble Baron."

Crabs snorted as he gestured with the conjured bone club at the result of the battle.

"This enemy is not a simple Thrall-Maker Spider. Whatever it is, this thing is clever enough to use distractions and contingency plans. I am going to make the assumption that unlike a Thrall-Maker it is actually capable of watching us through its web. That or the orders it gives are sophisticated enough to include adaptations to potential enemy strategies."

"I think you are right, the damned thing is testing us."

Henry of the Light Tamers chimed in as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"We are going to have to be vary of the ground, it must have realized that sending the small ones at the wind dome is pointless."

Mariams melodious voice joined the discussion as she pointed to where the cold smoke still rose out of the hole. That caused Elarma to glance towards Listig and arch an eyebrow.

"What manner of concotion was that?"

"Oh, you know...just some liquid nitrogen. Nothing that dramatic, but damned hard to replicate if you aren't me."

They grinned with their eyes after having shuffled their feet with a mock innocent voice and then spread their arms wide. The Cat-Kin still wore their face cloth unlike Mariam.

"Which is why y'all should be so glad to have me. I totally saved our asses there. Still I am going to have to work on some kind of filtration mask."

Their eyes went blank as they began to glance around in a manner that the Hornstalkers had learned was when Listig was pondering yet another outlandish scheme or "gadget". At which point it was best to leave them alone. Elarma did exactly that as she returned her attention to the tactical discussion.

"We have to avoid overtaxing your mage, my man knows a few spells meant to deal with the ground. We aren't ideally suited for it, but that should at least give us some warning before a tunneling attack comes at us again."

Heraclius busily lectured the assembled crowd before pointing back out to the forest.

"The enemy is cleverer than we anticipated, but that makes our goal clearer. We need to track it down and kill it, if we kill the spider then the web will unravel given time. Going back and bringing more troops would be a mistake because we wouldn't be able to cover them all, especially when we are going after it on its turf. No, a small team like this is our best chance to end the threat, but we should be ready to retreat so here is what we do if we get separated."

Heraclius had an almost eager gleem in his eyes as he continued his planning, but Elarma did not feel confident as he spoke. Something about this situation felt...wrong and no matter how experienced the man was, she didn't think that his plan was going to work out nearly as well as he thought. But she said nothing, it was not the time or place to make waves...at least not yet.