Chess groaned and rolled over adjusting the shape of the block of wood she was using as a pillow, almost as an afterthought, to better support her head and neck as she shifted trying to regain her sleep. I miss real pillows, and beds, she groused trying the slap-it-into-submission technique which only hurt her hands.
She jostled her bruised leg in the process, and with a grimace, decided to be a little more careful.
Her careful shifting continued for a few minutes before she gave up and turned to study the back of Lynn's head.
The skunk woman had been growing increasingly irritable in the last few days, and Chess was at a loss as to why.
Maybe it's her period coming? Chess contemplated. Wait... where is mine? It's been over a month already hasn't it? She did some quick math on her fingers that left her frowning. Maybe this week?
Or, maybe all the stress and violence are preventing it? She sighed and rubbed at the back of her head while she sat up, disentangling herself from Ashley, careful not to wake her in the process.
Stepping around Dent, she paused to frown down at her daughter for a long moment. She had grown withdrawn again after her injury, and Chess was a little at a loss for how to handle it. I’ll give her some more time before I meddle, she reasoned. The wound has healed but at the same time, it hasn’t. Though she didn’t react like this when she was shot in the leg.
She eased herself down next to Lynn, choosing to stay quiet and, instead, joining Lynn in staring out into the dark tunnel through the narrow slit she'd left in the wall the night before.
"This place makes my fur crawl," Lynn said in a soft voice after a few minutes of companionable silence.
Chess leaned back, propping herself on her hands to study the skunk kin in profile.
She'd pretty much ignored the fact that her companion was an anthropomorphic skunk after the first meeting, too caught up in surviving and the next thing the dungeon required. It was easy to forget when Lynn behaved and sounded so very human most of the time. Only her tail threw off the perception at times.
"I haven't really stopped to think about it much, but it is a strange place. The tunnels are very smooth in most spots except for the odd cavern with stalactites or mushrooms. Is that not normal for dungeons?" Chess asked.
"Tunnels, whether smooth or not, for part of a Rift dive are common enough. But ones that go on for days and weeks?" Lynn shook her head. "That is strange,” she said before falling silent again.
"I am starting to miss the sun," Chess said, unsure where to take the conversation after another long pause.
Lynn only nodded her agreement, still frowning into the distance as the silence stretched further.
"If..." Chess started then sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair.
"If you ever need to talk…" she shrugged and left the statement open.
Not waiting long for a response, she leveraged herself to her feet and moved over to an open space on her platform, and sat down, leaving the skunkkin to her thoughts.
If I can't sleep I may as well work on something, she reasoned rubbing at the edges of the giant bruise on her thigh.
Chess opened her vault, pulling out a pair of wood blocks stacked close to the entrance.
One was made from heavy purple wood she had made from a large club found in the ghoul’s cave. The other was a deep grey which she'd gotten from a shield off one of the recent skeletons. Both were the sturdiest and densest woods she had outside of Ironwood.
She'd wanted to do some experiments to see what would work best for creating a bow from scratch. Sprig had known what the shape required but Chess had to admit that she needed a lot more training to use a bow like Sprig's current form and that it wasn't that great in these tunnels.
A crossbow would be more effective. It was more like aEEEEhmmm what's the word? It was at the tip of her tongue.
“Gah!” She tapped the side of her head a few times, trying to jog her memory but eventually gave up on remembering it with a sigh.
Doesn't matter.
She'd seen more than a few modern crossbows in her life but was unsure if she could replicate them. It’s worth a shot.
First, she drew each block into a long thin stave while arranging the grains so they ran evenly the full length from top to bottom. Then she stood up and, bracing the bottoms by sinking them into the floor an inch, she grabbed the top of one and pulled down.
The deep grey wood flexed easily, coming down a few feet before Chess started hearing crackling sounds in the center. When she let go it only sprang back about halfway and she frowned. It was the lightest and softer of the two kinds of wood.
The purple wood was much better. When she grabbed the top, it took her entire weight to bring it down half the distance of the grey stave and it didn't crackle under the strain. When she let go it sprung back straight. At least as far as she could tell.
Nice, she thought while restoring the grey wood after reforming it into a block.
Now, what can I spare from my ironwood? Arrow shafts, they can be replaced with something else, she allowed. I'll need to make bolts if this works anyway.
She opened her vault and retrieved a handful of her arrows with ironwood shafts, setting all but one aside.
She unscrewed the top and stared at the shaft while gathering her thoughts.
Cams? No, start with the basics. Some sort of trigger mechanism, arms, and body. Something that can fall off and not catch the string in any way for the trigger. She tapped her chin, thinking before opening her vault again and pulling out a small box filled with a tangle of spider silk lines.
“Hey, Lynn,” she said softly, drawing the Kin-woman's attention. “I want to try making a crossbow, do you think you could make me a string or two from some of this heavier spider silk?” she asked.
Lynn nodded mutely before getting up and retrieving the box before returning to her watch.
Chess watched Lynn tie a handful of strands to the haft of her mace, which she set between her feet before she started weaving them.
Okay, Chess told herself, returning to her project.
First, she formed a body with the stirrup, barrel, a forward handle, and a rough shape for the limbs before stopping herself short from removing the excess from the butt with a frown once she had the basic shape of the body close to the ones, she’d seen guys have at the range.
She made sure to reinforce the area where the limbs met the body by swirling, alternating, and increasing the density of the wood there.
It will be stronger if I can make it all one piece, she reasoned.
For a trigger, I need something that falls away but is a little stiff to pull. I don’t want any accidental shots, she reasoned. She opened a square hole in the back of the barrel around where she figured full draw might be and made a small roller in the middle on a peg that had a groove in the bottom and curled lip and flat spot to catch the string near the top. Some of the excess material she used to form a trigger guard.
She flicked the barrel with a finger but it only turned a few revolutions before stopping. Not the greatest.
I wonder if I can make a bearing?
Grabbing an ironwood arrow shaft, she flattened one end into a half-inch disc about a quarter-inch thick, making it as dense as possible by scrambling the grains as much as she could before detaching it from the rest of the shaft.
I can remove material, so.
It was quite simple to remove the excess wood from the inside, creating balls and the housings she needed for them as she went around.
The first one was a complete bust as she had too large a space left once, she was all the way around and some of the balls were misshapen.
The second was a little better with the spacing but the balls were worse than the first. Then it hit her that she was being stupid. I need to draw it out, I can’t just wing this.
The third was much better once she drew lines across the face to get an even spacing and switched to barrels instead of balls by drawing the circles on the face to get the size correct and matching everything on the backside. Then making a thin hollow sleeve that she could push through to make the barrels consistent.
I might as well make ones for the cams if I feel brave enough to try them later, she reasoned.
By the time she finished the third one, she was starting to develop a significant headache from the tiny detail work.
Okay, enough of that for now. She rubbed at her temples and leaned back taking a few long breaths before picking a bearing up and spinning the center in her fingertips. It's not quite right, she determined after watching it for a bit before stopping better than a bushing but not by much.
“What’s the problem?” Lynn asked, drawing Chess’s attention from her pondering.
“I need some sort of lubricant,” Chess muttered, looking up at the looming kin woman. Maybe I’m making this way too complicated?
“Use some of the swathing silk pyth. It won't last for long in this water but it should work until you find something better,” Lynn suggested.
“Huh?” Chess asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Its properties are the closest to what you need from what we’ve found so far.” Lynn shrugged and dropped two tight cords in her lap before returning to her watch.
Chess watched as the Kin-woman started weaving another cord.
Huh. Did I just have a conversation about lube that didn't turn into a joke? she thought. Strange.
“Okay,” Chess said, drawing out the word while staring down at the bearings.
“Wait properties?” she asked Lynn’s back.
“I heard silk pyth is well silky when you drink it, and swathing is the most sought after by tailors.” Lynn shrugged, not turning around.
“Okay,” Chess repeated before deciding not to push Lynn further in her current mood. If it works, it works, I guess.
She picked up the cords Lynn had left her and frowned again. I’m forgetting something. She looked back at the bow. “Oh,” she muttered.
“Hey, Lynn?” Chess said, getting her attention again. “Can you make me two thicker cords that are a few feet long but split into two for the last foot or so?”
“Sure,” Lynn said with a nod.
Chess pulled out the group's pyth collection and removed roughly a tenth of the swathing silk pyth before pouring it into a small bowl she created from an arrow. Stirring with her finger, she mixed in just enough water for it to dissolve fully before stopping.
Neat, she thought after rubbing some of it between two fingers. It had turned out just as Lynn had predicted, silky, almost like a silicone lubricant.
I can definitely make this work.
After adding a spout to her small bowl and using a wafer of ironwood to seal one side of a bearing she filled the small bearing with the pyth-water.
She let it sink in until it was full then sealed the open side with another wafer of wood before being startled by the sudden appearance of a system window.
Congratulations on your new creation!
As the first person to create this item, you have the privilege of naming it.
Please speak its name.
“It’s a sealed barrel bearing?” Chess said.
Please confirm: Sealed barrel bearing.
“Yes,” Chess confirmed and the window disappeared.
Steam Forging +5 For inventing a new mechanical device for the first time.
“What was that?” Lynn asked.
“I’m not sure? It asked me to name it?” Chess said looking up at the Kin-woman who had turned to face her and holding out the completed bearing.
Lynn got up and approached to take it from Chess, turning it about to study it. “What is it?”
“A sealed bearing. I thought that best considering the lube is water-soluble,” Chess explained.
“What does it do?” Lynn asked, frowning down at it.
“Here,” Chess said, taking it back before pressing the middle between thumb and forefinger and spinning the outside run before shrugging.
“Do you know what this means?” Lynn asked, her voice rising with excitement as she took it back and tried it herself.
“Clearly not,” Chess said. Though it begs the question what else can I ‘invent’? Also, how do they have steam forging as a skill but not bearings? Unless it's because it’s sealed? I’ll have to try some other variations when I have more time.
“You just got a creator boon!” Lynn said with a sharp smile.
“Really?” Chess asked. “Is that good?”
“It means a very good experience bump, a profession perk, and some free skill points with your next weekly review,” Lynn explained with a smile.
“Cool,” Chess flipped her bottom lip out and nodded in appreciation. Huh, just like earth. All that matters is being first. Though it’s a little underwhelming, and I have to wait for my perk; what the hell.
Lynn fell silent and contemplative again so Chess took the bearing back from her after a moment and returned to her project.
The rest of her project went surprisingly fast. She split the limbs in two using the excess to strengthen each side and increase the density while keeping the grains uniform, running from the tip to where they sunk into the burl she created near the stirrup.
Then she formed two oval-shaped solid cams from ironwood arrow shafts, sinking her new bearings into the center and slipping it onto an ironwood peg she used to span between the two halves of each limb. She used a stick with marks on it to make sure the thicknesses and distances were equal on both sides of the bow.
The trigger she formed from a bit more ironwood. Clicking and spinning it a few times before adjusting it a bit until she was happy with the force it took to release it. One of the final things she did was create the rest for the bolt and the slit through the body side for the cords.
After Lynn dropped off the new silk cords and she strung her new bow, she hit her first real hiccup.
She couldn’t loosen the tension in the limbs to hook the cords on then return the strength to anywhere near what it was. She could sense in the wood that it wasn’t even a quarter what it was before she had strung it.
The tensioned areas refused to be changed by her magic.
It appears there is a limit to the force it can be under while I work it, she determined after a bit more fiddling. It also means I won't be able to use other wood to do the same thing. Hmm.
After unstringing it again and reinforcing the limbs again, she got to work building herself a vice. She made a pair of wooden block clamps that she sunk half of into her platform by making a handful of wooden bolts and threading them through one block and attaching another to the end.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Setting the bow into the improvised vice she started switching from side to side tightening them with the lever she added to the end of each bolt until it was tight enough to string.
She had to remove the cords and strings a few times to adjust the limbs and body until it sat straight and true.
I should hold off firing it until everyone is awake, she reasoned while itching to do otherwise.
The whole project took nearly an hour as far as Chess could guess and left her with a low-grade headache.
She bent forwards to rub at her temples.
“Done?” Asked Lynn.
“Yeah, I think,” Chess said, proffering the bow to the woman with a wince.
“It looks almost dwarven to me,” Lynn said, flipping the bow around to take it all in. “It’s lighter than it looks too,” she added with appreciation.
“It’s a lot like one I saw back home. I’m sure I’m missing a few things,” Chess said with a shrug.
“It’s nice all the same,” Lynn reassured her.
“I’m going back to sleep if I can. I may have pushed too hard,” she said while still rubbing at her temples.
“You can tell me what you think is wrong or missing with it when I wake,” Chess said before snuggling back up with her daughter and trying to get some shuteye.
“Alright,” Lynn agreed, still busy studying the bow between glances out at the dark tunnel beyond the wall.
I just made myself a purple crossbow, didn’t I? Chess facepalmed as she studied the ceiling while getting settled.
It didn’t take long for Chess to find sleep.
----------------------------------------
Lynn handed her the crossbow when Chess had gathered herself in the morning.
“The biggest problem I can see with this is you are the only person I know that can fix it. But for you?” She shrugged. “It’s beautiful but still has the limitations of a crossbow, namely rate of fire. That and you need to make something to draw it with. As it is, you may be able to do it by hand, but it takes a lot of effort. I only did it once, and I worried about my back. I suggest a belt hook and some hooked lines so you can use your legs to draw it,” Lynn said.
Ashley sorted through the few enchanted items they found the day before while the others got ready. She had pocketed the small items as they went at Lynn’s insistence the day before. Most of the larger items, a half dozen mining picks, a few unenchanted spears, and other rusted armor Chess had stored and thought little of since.
“Anything good?” Chess asked her.
Ashley shrugged and smiled. “Not really, another pin almost identical to Lynn’s and a few more beads, all of them with mining bonuses.”
“Want me to store them?” Chess asked.
“Yeah,” Ashley said, passing them back to Chess who put them in a small box in her vault.
Chess could feel her impatience grow alongside the skunk-kin’s the longer they were stuck down here, and she rubbed at her aching leg.
“Do you want me to heal that?” Ashley asked.
“Only if Lynn thinks it’s a good idea. I can handle another day of swimming if we need,” Chess allowed.
“No, get it out of the way now,” Lynn said.
“Praise Freya!” Chess joked, giving her daughter a smile as she moved to hover her hands over Chess’s injured leg. The spell flashed and Chess sighed in relief.
“Thanks, kiddo,” Chess said, giving her daughter a small side hug.
“You should test fire your new bow, then dismantle this platform so we can get on with our day,” Lynn said from where she and Mikel were preparing a breakfast of fish and berries.
Chess retrieved one of the extra lines Lynn had made from her vault and got to work adding a hook on either end which she could loop over her mace hook and use to draw the crossbow. She tested it a few times, finding that she liked Lynn's idea.
After shortening a handful of the arrows into bolts that better fit the bow and removing a fin from the back, she made a few practice tips.
She drew a small circle on her wooden wall with her magic increasing the thickness of it and the surrounding area significantly before backing up and making sure everyone was behind her. It was only about ten feet but she figured it would still give her a small idea of its accuracy.
She lined it up, sighting down the center of the arrow, and pulled the trigger. The first shot was well left and high buried near the edge of her reinforced area, she frowned before trying twice more with similar results. They’d all buried themselves a few inches into the solid wood.
I forgot sights, she reasoned before adding a simple standing sight to the back of the bow.
With the sights, she was much better and after adjusting them a bit she put a handful into the fist-sized circle. I’ll have to improve it later, Chess determined.
She built a sling for the crossbow from the last cord before storing it and the bolts in her vault.
After a quick meal, she got to work demolishing her wall and platform and storing the wood.
It was less than an hour later that she found herself swimming again.
The morning was much like the day before only they didn’t encounter many skeletons. The three they did dispatch only took minutes before they continued.
Mikel led again, and the Muskrat-kin stayed close to the party, often looking back to make sure they were keeping up when they weren’t fighting. His skill with the catchpole was improving with each skeleton.
Dent took the second position as a sort of a meatless meat shield that Mikel could hide behind if needed.
“I keep expecting more spiders. Maybe a giant one. I think the stories back home have ruined me,” Chess observed into one of the long silences the group often fell into now as they traveled.
The cave had been surprisingly empty apart from water and now the occasional sad-looking strands of old silk hanging from the ceiling.
“Don’t say things like that! You’ll tempt the gods. This place is dangerous enough without their meddling,” Lynn warned, turning to glare at Chess.
“Okay, okay, sheesh,” Chess said, raising her hands then pressing her lips together in a firm line. Some things are universal it seems, she mused.
“How about a song? All we’ve run into lately is skellies,” Chess asked while looking down on the water that had sunk to only ankle deep.
“Please!” Ashley enthused, breaking her previous silence. She had said little all day other than orders to Dent. “Something happy,” she added more quietly.
Well, I’ve seen Despicable Me more than enough times. Chess chuckled softly to herself then summoned her guitar, spending a couple of dozen minutes playing the cords and mentally translating the words.
She was interrupted by the appearance of yet another skeleton that was waiting for them on the first stretch of dry-tunnel they’d seen all day.
After seeing that the others had it well in hand without her, Chess launched into the roughly translated rendition of Happy, by Pharrell Williams. Stamping her Thump enhanced foot for the beat.
The song served its intended purpose, lifting her and everyone's moods a little. More so when Ashley begged her to play it a few more times so that she could get the clapping right after Chess taught her the rhythm.
So it was that when they rounded yet another curve that opened on an eerily familiar cavern that everyone was smiling.
"Huh," Chess breathed into the sudden silence.
They looked down on a wide slice of a room covered in familiar mushrooms and mosses. With a big water-filled pool in the center.
"It's not the same; your plants are missing," Lynn said while taking a step back.
“It looks awfully close,” Chess countered.
"It's not green," Ashley added.
“The air is fine, our voices haven’t changed,” Chess said, stopping Lynn and whistling to draw Mikel's attention before waving him to return. He had walked a half dozen steps inside.
“Still, let's be careful,” Lynn said, nodding at Ashley who hefted her spear and shifted her shield to her arm from her back, mirroring the Kin-woman before ordering Dent forward.
Chess let her guitar dissipate and summoned her vault to remove her new toy and a handful of bolts which she stuffed into her belt.
She slung the bow onto her back after copying the others and advancing with her shield and hammer.
The group pressed forward one slow step at a time.
Chess, like the others, first drank in the sight of the large basin in the center. The surface seemed to sparkle with an inner radiance. She noted another difference in that this one was nearly full.
She shook her head to dispel the effect, forcing herself to take a better look around.
When she looked up her breath caught.
"Guy's," Chess said, taking a sliding step backward.
“This is definitely not the same cavern,” she added with an audible gulp once she could get a breath.
“What?” Lynn asked.
“Look up,” Chess said with dread. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Lynn glanced back then followed Chess's gaze before coming to a stop herself. “Oh,” she articulated.
Long strands of silk hung from the stalactites above. Their gossamer lengths disappearing into the stalagmites and mushrooms below. Some even disappeared into the surface of the pool now that Chess was looking for them.
Chess swore she could see fast shadows moving between the stalactites and tightened her grip on her hammer.
"Back up, slowly," Lynn said, matching action to her words. "Back to the tunnel, we don't stand a chance in the open," she said, in a calm voice. Then in a bare whisper that Chess barely caught. "A little of that help, Milady, if you would?"
"Here they come," Ashley warned as the shadows above intensified. She said something to Mikel in his own tongue then commanded Dent to back up before they all quickened their back step.
Chess was surprised they made it to the tunnel entrance before she caught sight of the first foe. As she feared, familiar spiders swarmed around the pillars, and for the first time, she noticed them on the floor also.
Thankfully it wasn't a giant queen like she feared but more of the same size they already fought.
"There's way more than last time," Ashley said in a quavering voice.
"Bow then blocks," Lynn said conversationally to Chess while holding out her hand in a gimme gesture.
Chess froze for only a second before passing the kin-woman her crossbow and the handful of bolts from her belt then started to summon her vault.
Lynn handed her spear to Mikel who dropped his pole and moved to stand behind and between Ashley and Lynn. Dent's bulk took the far left.
Lynn cocked the crossbow, carefully slotted a bolt, and took aim at the spiders above.
Her first shot clattered among the stalactites knocking off some chips of crystal and mushrooms.
The slowly advancing spiders ignored it.
"Breath," Lynn said softly as she reloaded.
Chess waited for her to take a second shot before asking "Where?"
"What are they waiting for?" Ashley asked, shifting from foot to foot.
"They’re pack hunters," Lynn said, before taking her second shot, this one rewarded with a crunching sound, then. "Start at the side. Narrow the entrance. Only help if we call for it," Lynn advised Chess who started casting her vault spell again while placing the blocks on Ashley's side.
The tunnel was already fairly narrow where they stood. Perhaps about 8 ft wide by 9 tall before it soared out and up into the cavern.
Chess watched Lynn's third shot take a leg off one spider before plowing into another behind it. As one, the spiders paused before the wave slowly started moving again. Wow, decent power.
"I don't have enough to fill this hole with solid blocks," Chess warned as she placed two more blocks atop the first.
"I don't like this," Ashley said, shifting from foot to foot.
"It's not about liking, it's about living. You can do this; you've already proven it." Lynn shook her head then fired a fourth round, hitting a spider that had come out in front of the cluster. It fell to the floor below with a crunch. "This isn't the best environment for them to fight in. We don't need to block it, only limit them."
“Right,” Ashley said. Chess could hear her daughter swallowing her fear.
"Still terrifying," Chess muttered her agreement and continued to summon blocks. She placed 5 and 6 before Lynn spoke again.
"More bolts," Lynn demanded after another thunk and crunching sound.
Chess pulled out the small crate of bolts and another block, sliding the crate to bump into Mikel's foot while taking a moment to flow her 7 blocks together then so they gripped the floor and wall as best she could manage in a few seconds before returning to her summoning.
When she had blocks 8 and 9, in hand the horde finally attacked. That took entirely too long.
“Freya’s tits, here they come,” Chess observed as the cluster surged forwards en mass.
“More blocks!” Lynn ordered, dropping the crossbow and kicking it behind her a foot with her heel. She repositioned her shield and took up her mace just in time to meet the charge.
“You got it, boss,” Chess quipped as the spell finished again and she pulled another pair out, placing them on the others.
The four weathered the first charge with aplomb. Lynn and Ashely worked efficiently to bash legs and bodies that came into reach while Mikel skewered any arachnids that tried to sneak over their heads with an efficiency that showed he was very familiar with spears. Dent simply took up space that prevented the spiders from getting around him.
The only hiccup was when one of Mikels' kills landed on Lynn’s head, knocking her to her knees but Ashley managed to pick up the slack while she regained her feet.
Less than one cast of inventory later the spiders backed off leaving almost a dozen of their brethren twitching at the feet of the trio.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to help?” Chess asked while placing blocks 10 and 11.
“Yes, I’m sure. We need to narrow it down so only one or two of us can hold this entrance,” Lynn said between deep breaths.
“Or they will simply tire us out,” Lynn added while retrieving the bow and loading it.
“Right,” Chess said. “Oh damn,” she added when out of nowhere lines of silk appeared, latching onto the bodies of the spiders in front of them before the bodies were drawn back from the tunnel entrance.
“That’s new,” Lynn agreed, taking a shot at one of the pullers; burying a bolt in the center of its cluster of eyes.
“Nice shot,” Chess said between summonings.
“Look,” Ashley said pointing towards the pool with a shaky finger. “More are coming up from the pool.”
“Damn, okay,” Lynn said then took another shot which took out yet another spider that got close before looking around again.
“Well, I don’t think running is a good idea; we’ve been pushing all day. They’re likely to run us down,” Lynn said with a sigh before taking yet another shot with the crossbow.
They weren’t given more time to contemplate as the spiders tried again.
This time the majority of the horde stayed on the ceiling with only a few attacking Lynn and Ashley on the ground. The ceiling cluster packed in tight and came on as one.
“Chess,” Lynn said firmly. “Charm.”
“Right!” Chess agreed, taking a few steps back, and because the song was fresh in her mind, she launched into Happy again, aiming her Charm for the front row of spiders.
The song sounded a little flat without an instrument to back it up.
This time she froze a handful of arachnids in place with her music. However, their brethren were quick to climb over and around them pressing the attack.
Chess did her best by plastering a smile on her face and singing at the top of her lungs doing her best to push back against their wills as Mikel did his best to keep the few that made it past the other two, off her. Still, she was forced to dodge a few that got around the others and tried to drop on her from above. This is a terrible song for this.
Drawing her hammer, she took to punctuating her works with blows from her hammer on the few in reach. Hitting where the claps should’ve been in the song when she could.
As quickly as it started, it was over, and it took the others only moments to dispatch her remaining enthralled foes as the bulk of their foes backed off once again.
I’m the fucking rhythm section, bitches. Chess thought as she pulped the last one with her hammer. I changed my mind; this is a great song for this! she thought with a small chuckle.
“Blocks,” Lynn reminded her after she’d stood catching her breath for a few moments.
“Yeah,” Chess agreed and got back to her task as Lynn took up the crossbow again; doing her best to deter the spiders by taking out any that showed themselves.
She got to her 27th skull-block before the spiders rushed them again.
This time they paused a dozen feet from the party and shot a flurry of silk lines that attached to Ashley's, Dent's, and Lynn’s shields and legs before turning and burning. Ashley shrugged out of her shields strap, letting it fly off with the spiders. Dent managed to keep his shield by the simple fact he was pulled into the bit of wall Chess had already created and the lines lost their purchase on him and his shield.
“Knives!” Lynn ordered letting her shield go and drew her blade to slash at the silk cords where they were attached to her legs.
Ashley followed suit but was still pulled from her feet and dragged a few feet cursing before Mikel advanced and helped her free with his spear. He defended her as she got back to her feet and rejoined Lynn.
Chess gritted her teeth in impotence and kept summoning blocks.
“They’ll try that again,” Lynn said, returning to the crossbow. “We need to change the plan. Use the remaining blocks to make a waist-high wall across so they can’t target our legs.”
Chess noted that there were only half a dozen bolts left in the crate.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to make more bolts instead?” She asked.
“Yes, do that but after you’re done with the wall,” Lynn said.
The spiders gave them a few more summonings before they tried again. A simple rush this time.
The fight fell into a rhythm with the spiders alternating through the same techniques and sometimes braving Lynn’s arrows to pull the building pile of dead and injured out of the way.
“Is it just me or do they seem uncomfortably intelligent?” Chess asked while placing blocks 33 and 35 in front of her daughter. Only 19 left to go.
“No more than a pack of Mire-wolves.” Lynn shook her head in disagreement. “If they were truly intelligent, they would leave and wait us out.”
“Slow and steady will win us this fight,” Lynn advised them after the next push.
This time they tried to simply overwhelm the group again but Chess’s charm spell froze eight of them directly over the wall and stunted the advance and allowed the group to kill almost two dozen of them.
“How many bloody spiders are there!” Chess complained as she dragged a few of the bodies that had fallen behind her half-built wall out of the way.
“Hundreds could easily hide in this cave,” Lynn said. “It probably depends on how many fish are in these tunnels.”
With a sigh Chess placed the last block, completing her makeshift fortification. On the left she’d closed the tunnel off by two feet, matching it with a one-foot pillar on the right. After making a three-foot wall in front of the others, she added a header so the spiders had to come lower to get past. This she made by using a bit of her wooden gem magic to flow the wood into any divots and cracks in the ceiling and dovetailing it to the adjacent block. She stacked two in the center of the wall to form a merlon so someone could turn sideways into it to avoid the silk lines.
That left her with five solid blocks to make bolts.
“Good,” Lynn said when it was complete. She retrieved her mace from Mikel, leaning it against the wall before returning to her target practice with the bow.
The attacks had grown less frequent as the wall neared completion and now the spiders gave them their first real reprieve.
“Ashley, you can take a break. Please tell Mikel you’ll spell him in a bit, have Dent fill your place,” Lynn advised.
“Thanks,” Ashley said in relief before joining Chess by sliding down the wall onto her butt with a groan.
Chess rubbed at her temples and sat down with her back to the two-foot section on the left and took out her arrow making kit, the unconverted ironwood arrows, and spare arrowheads and got to work. First, she made shafts for the arrowheads she’d made after she’d converted Sprig, passing each one to Mikel who had taken up loading the bow for the skunk-kin before making new bolts from scratch. Converting the old ironwood shafts to heads and making bolts out of what she had otherwise.
Occasionally, she had to get up and use her hammer to assist in repelling bigger pushes but the whole thing soon turned into a well-oiled machine. With one or two people resting while the others fought.
“How many do you think we’ve killed so far?” Ashley asked as she used a catchpole to drag a few bodies over the wall for Lynn to shove further down the tunnel behind them as she stood ready for the next attack. She’d procured Chess’s shield at one point giving it to dent so he had two. Then Chess had made a brace that went around behind Dent so the mass of the wall could lend him support. There was a better idea there, but Chess couldn’t bring it to the fore of her mind.
“Too many,” Chess said, looking at the impressive pile they’d collected behind them. As she looked, she caught Mikel sneaking a snack from one of the fresh spider legs. He waved at her, and she just shook her head.
“Well over a hundred,” Lynn said with a shrug.
“Might be a nest. We don’t know how they reproduce; they could be like bees for all we know but more likely they care for the young as a group,” Lynn explained.
“Pack hunters generally do that,” Chess agreed, thinking of wolves and lions. Though they also sometimes eat each other.
The fight continued like this for well over an hour, and despite the respites, they were all aching from rubbery limbs and bruises from the few foes that managed to land blows on exposed flesh.
Chess stood, dusting off her hands after making the final bolt she had the material for without taking from the wall and took up her hammer. They had a few dozen in the crate now. Lynn had been spending them consistently. The low-grade headache she’d gotten earlier had progressed into an eye squinting throbbing in her temples.
“My turn,” Chess said, reaching for the crossbow.
“No, I’m used to it now. We can’t afford to waste bolts,” Lynn countered.
“Okay, my turn at the front then,” she reasoned, pulling Ashley back and taking her place.
She was just in time to meet a small rush of a handful of spiders which she laid into with her hammer, forgoing her magic because her head still throbbed.
She stood and fought the waves for a while before Mikel spelled her and she returned to her spot behind the wall. We need a real break; this won't work if they keep coming forever.
“Shit, I’m an idiot, we have a crossbow, and...” Chess said and slapped her forehead before forcing herself to her feet again.
She waited for the next wave to be finished and the bodies to be dragged through and out of the way before she started thinning the blocks around the hole and flowing the wood into a lattice that filled it with squares that a spider's body couldn't fit through.
“What are you doing?” Lynn asked.
“These guys are only so strong, and they don’t have the mass to move my wall with it wedged in like it is,” Chess explained as she started extracting skulls from the wall as she thinned it further, placing the extra wood to the side in now smaller blocks. She left only about an inch of thickness on the whole front but made studs and backward braces for support.
“If there is a way around, they’ll eventually come from behind,” Lynn pointed out.
“I have an idea for that also,” Chess reassured her. “I’ll have enough wood now for another wall,” she added with a smile and started to pass Lynn skulls.
It took her less time than she thought to finish stripping what she could from the first wall and moving to build one behind them leaving her only a couple blocks of wood. She made sure one was the same purple wood she had made her bow from.
She finished not a moment too soon as they heard the skittering of spider legs deeper in the tunnel behind them.
They all stood back to watch the spiders crawling all over the face of her walls for a minute.
“This is quite the pickle, eh?” Chess asked, looking from one wall to the other. “Good call on the attack from behind.”
“That may be an understatement,” Lynn said then nodded.
“What are we gonna do?” Ashley asked in a strained voice.
“Why? Kill them all of course,” Chess said dryly. “Now,” she said, pulling Mikels stack of wood out of her vault. “Ask Mikel if he’s fine with us using this for arrows.” Chess gave them all a wide smile and did her best to ignore the insistent throbbing in her temples.