The Tale of the Spider Queen

Welcome to the Spider's Web

On October 23rd, 2077, the world was set on fire. Untold destruction, death and chaos, occurred within the span of hours. Nations collapsed, land destroyed and ruined for years to come, but many survived in the vaults. Though the vaults were never meant to save anyone.

Years later people started to emerge from these vaults, and if no one did then that meant they died because of the pre-war experiments. But sometimes it wasn't the people inside the vaults that disappeared. Sometimes the people who try to go into the vaults are the ones who disappear, never to be seen by anyone. There was a vault like that, resting in the side of a mountain. Many entered but no one returned, until now. Four people now sat around a campfire, ashamed they didn't go further than the giant vault door before they left. Rumors of long lost treasure brought them here, but what they found scared them off.

In the group there was 3 males and a single female. There was Trash, Cano, and Tatt. The female was named Rosie. She held tightly to a banner, made by hand, that they found near the entrance. It hung from a pole, a crude and jagged one. At its center was a spider, though no one in the group could identify it. To them it was just some bug with too many legs. Above the spider was a crown with 3 points. The two items, the spider and the crown, are black against a grey background. It had torn in places, with evidence of raiders using it for target practice. They were bad shots, not one bullet coming close to the spider.

Trash looks at Cano, saying softly,"What did the sign say?" Rosie keeps her eyes off him. Trash never was good at reading, didn't have the patience to learn. To him it was useless, always saying reading wasn't going to keep you from getting shot. Cano let out a slow sigh,"Now do ya want to learn to read?" Rosie almost laughs at the pure frustration on Trash's face. "Never, now shut up and tell me what it said!" Cano raises his hands a bit to calm Trash,"Hey, hey, it looked like nonsense to me." Tatt lets out a laugh, taunting Trash with that sound alone.

"Anything from before the war seems like nonsense!" Tatt yells between bursts of laughter. He always seemed to get more than enough humor from the people before the war, and he always talked about how they seemed too smart to be that stupid about simple things. One time, though, he said he wondered if there were raider gangs before the war. He didn't laugh then.

Cano looks at Tatt,"Did it look pre-war to you? Looked kinda recent to me." Rosie then holds up the banner,"This doesn't look that old either", she says as she looks at it. "Looked like some sorta marker to me." Tatt shakes his head,"Nah! It's suppos'd to get raiders to waste their bullets on it! Makes 'em easier to fight, you know?" He starts laughing again, overly amused by his own stupid joke. Rosie, Cano and Trash exchange glances. Rosie notices she's the only one that seems worried by it.

To Trash it was annoying, and to Cano it was just nonsense, probably from someone high off jet or psycho. But to Rosie? It was a warning. A warning that they were trespassing, carelessly wandering into someone else's land. But whose land is it?