In a world of magic and mayhem, where ferrets fly and trees talk, three unlikely heroes find their fates entangled with a deadly mystery.
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Tallon is a scoundrel-an elf/human hybrid ranger who leaves a trail of chaos in his wake. With only his w...
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Content Warning: The image attached to the rumor is a little scary. Kristi's husband called it low-key terrifying.
Kristi: Not my best battle map, but it's my first attempt at one. 💫
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Ben stared up at the wall of eyes. The eyes stared back at him. Then a long, jointed leg moved, extending a hairy toe towards his face in a gesture that might very well have been curiosity.
The air left his lungs in a scream. The eyes drew back in equal fright, and then an awful sound of skittering and scraping filled the room, as if many chitinous bodies moved at once.
Fann broke out in a ferocious spate of barking, and Sprout issued a shrill but fearsome shriek. Ben clapped his hands to his ears and shut his eyes, praying to the four he was dreaming and would wake up safe in his own bed back in Ballsdeep, where the largest spider was the size of a copper coin—which was plenty large enough, thank you very much.
Maisie clenched her jaw and drew her dagger from its sheath. Ben's high-pitched scream and Fann's echoing barks had mostly done the trick. The spiders had fled in terror. That is, all except for one.
The spider queen was easily twice the size of the others. Several of her many eyes were milky white, and battle scars marked her huge, hairy body. Her multi-jointed legs moved slowly as she crawled across the web and lowered herself from a silvery silken thread.
"Ben!"
Ben's eyes flew open. A nightmare creature stared back at him, suspended in air. Mandibles the size of small daggers twitching up and down with independent motion.
"Aaaah!" In a move born purely of instinct, Ben thrust the burning end of his small torch towards the spider's double row of eyes.
The monstrous arachnid hissed as sparks singed the bristly hairs on its head, swiping at the air with claw-tipped forelimbs and dropping to the ground.
Snarling, Fann lunged and snapped at one of the spider's legs, but the creature's chitinous exoskeleton defied the wolf's teeth. Irritated more than injured, it flicked its clawed leg at Fann, forcing him to retreat.
Ben tried to retreat as well, but his foot caught on the uneven floor and he fell. Attracted by the vibrations made by the noise, the spider turned and rushed him, sinking its fangs into his shoulder before he had a chance to react.
Ben screamed and thrashed. A wild kick connected with the spider, sending it flying off him to land on its back.
"Ben!" Maisie whipped the pair of curved blades from their sheathes on her belt as the spider righted itself and rounded on him again. Taking advantage of its distraction, she dodged between the wiry legs and plunged the twin blades into the parchment-thin flesh of its huge abdomen, slicing it open.
