A common household spider EGG?!
<< Continued from here.
Origins of the Plot
In the previous thread, winston was brought a number of animals all the wrong size and he found a Sizestone in them (a new well document here). He then established that he could not fix that problem so set off to investigate the source of the problem.
This thread is inspired by both the following Rebirth Events that follow:
Also references the Web Well as detailed in the wiki.
This thread is inspired by both the following Rebirth Events that follow:
- Size Matters: Size matters right? Well when you try to ride your poney to find it the size of a mouse, YES! Minor fractures appear in random locations across Scalvaris as creature begin changing size, small becomes big and big becomes small. For whatever reason, nothing already 'big' become bigger, or small becomes smaller, but for a single trial there are reports of the shocking phenomenon for all walks of life.
- Spiders: Throughout Ashan spiders become more prevalent across Scalvoris. People in houses notice more of the eight-legged critters and by mid-afternoon on the 8th it becomes apparent that there are lots more spiders and many more of the non-house / unusual variety everywhere. This is great news for those who collect silk, but not so fun for arachnophobes. Also, prevalence of spider-bites increase and there's a shortage of antidotes by mid-Ashan unless some enterprising soul does something.
Also references the Web Well as detailed in the wiki.
Starr
, had made their way to the clearing that had been used to breed the cattle by some nearby farming families.The area looked far from enticing, covered in giant webbing and even the occasional pod, presumably filled with some poor creature-made-spider-lunch.
The ferret popped his head carefully up out of the bush beside the huntress as they all surveyed the area.
"Yuh say dem all gan?"
Starr nodded.
"Yes. But they keep popping up, like there's nothing there one minute and next, poof, another giant creature."
"We need to be cearful."
The ferret nodded. He was in no doubt about this fact and gently began to move forward.
"Me will goh in, yuh stay 'ere."
his rainbow armour
, making him look like a ludicrous rainbow-coloured, foot-tall ninja."What? No! Not like THAT!"
"Lets clear the area first."
But the ferret shook his head.
"Noh, me want tuh see what's going an. Me jost gonna see where dese ting's es coming fram. Tell yuh wat..."
"Ef yuh cun see meh... Me won't goh."
And with that,
he activated his armour
and set off into the grass and bushes, scampering and silently darting towards the barn that had been overrun with webbing. Sure enough, Winston had gone but a few feet before he vanished into a tuft of undergrowth and seemed to disappear from sight. The woman sighed. "Bloody ferret. Gonna get me fired..."
As he moved forward, he brought
Joe
into himself, using his Songforged ability to meld with his Diri and share in his abilities."Oh-kay, Joe. Let's see what we can see."
himself to his surroundings and focus on any sources of magic he could detect
."Nothing yet."
"Looks like de barn es de centa af et."
"Can't tell from here, but it certainly looks like it's been overrun. There's webs EVERYwhere."
"Cool, back we go then, to let Starr and Vega know?"
Winston smiled as he set off towards the barn.
"Nice try, Joe."
"Well, it was worth a try."
Just before the webbing got so dense it was a serious threat, Winston stopped and began to listen for any activity... Nothing but the breeze disturbed his senses...
"Seems safe. Lets nat take any risks though a."
As long as things didn't get any hairier than this, it was going to be a walk in the park... but Starr had said the spiders kept re-appearing, so he remained vigilant as he pressed forward.
Every window and door had bebbing over it and not thin wispy stuff that you get in your garden shed after a season of rest, no. This was thick, strong and in a few places he could see blobs that had been coiled up into bundles that were four to 5 times his size, just hanging there, motionless.
Doing his best to avoid disturbing the webbing, he settled just outside the door, where he could peer in without needing to risk getting tangled up in the stuff. Here he waited, secretly watching for his quarry.
He waited for what felt like a break or more before he picked up something from inside. There was a flash in his peripheral awareness of magic. It was close, it had to be, for Joe's senses only worked over a short distance. He remained stock still as he waited for something else to happen. Then it did! Walking out from behind the wall, on the other side of which he sat, was a giant eight legged beast. It was nothing like the one he had bumped into in the caverns below Sweetwine, but no less daunting. He fortified himself and stealled his nerves as it passed, its movements quick and staccato as it moved over the webbing without issue.
Winston watched as the creature stepped on the webbing without getting stuck, wondering what allowed this to happen and, of course, how he might master it for himself.
That might be a quandary for another trial however, as now he had a spider, he sadly did NOT have any deeper understanding of how.
"Remember what Starr said about not dying, OK?"
"We won't learn anything from here. We need in there."
Looking up, he saw the roof, which was in pretty terrible condition.
"Let's see what's op dere shall we?"
Weightlessness Chew
and used the wall of the barn to climb himself up into the air.The exterior of the barn was not greatly covered in web and as he made his way to the roof, he gently floated, using the tiles of the roof to anchor himself, over to the top of the eves.
He was but half way there before he picked up a vivid source of magic...
"Wow, Joe. That's strong. Is that... Is that a FRACTURE?"
The diri gave a telepathic shrug.
"You're the expert chief."
Pulling himself down to peer through a gap in the roof, he spotted a mass of web and just beyond it, what looked like a glimmering minor fracture. A broad grin spread across the ferrets face.
"Well, dat's a result."
He moved and spotted the leg of the spider, still a short distance from where it had been but moments before, apparently still unaware of his presence.
Grabbing his
Looky Hoop
from his bag, he started to peer through the roof itself to gather as much informationa bout what was inside as he could. There were several desiccated husks inside the barn and just on the other side of the roof, beside the bundle of webbing closest to the top most corner of the fracture, was a small collection of egg-like... "...WELLS! Bot wat are dem?"
They were oval, white with black streaks over its entire surface and stuck to the webbing.
"Me gonna get some af dem."
"Winston, easy does it. That thing is still in there."
"Exactly. Et's in THERE. Nat out 'ere. Dis es jost a small hole. Et cannat get outta 'ere and anyway, me es keepin' an eye an et ova dere. Et's prabably waiting for me tuh get stock."
It was after all, only a wooden roof tile and it eventually gave way to his efforts. Freezing for a moment, he watched for movement in the spider, but it remained motionless, presumably waiting for its prey, Winston, to become trapped.
Taking a knife from his pack, he set about gently plucking the small spherical orbs from their resting ground amidst the web. The stuff was horrid. As it cut, there was residue that almost 'sucked' itself to his blade and as he pulled on the well, it all but stuck itself to the ferret's hand.
Freezing again, he checked the spider... There was a nagging feeling forming in the back of his mind as he peered down at the creature... it was definitely still not moving... He continued to harvest the wells, one after the other, through the small hole.
Well number four was just being cut from the barn roof when something caught his attention. Turning slightly to see the heary abdomen of the very large, very close, giant spider, winston yelped.
"What the...?!!"
Glancing down in disbelief, whatever it was he was looking at inside the barn, was in fact still there, but it was NOT the spider! Or at the very least, not THIS one as it moved swiftly forward at it's prey.
Winston scurried backwards, trying desperately to fetch a smoke pellet from his belt-pouch.
"Crap-crap-crap-crap-crap..."
out a Tornado from his hand
at the creature. It stopped, bracing against the gust as it threatened to blow it off the roof.Using this time, he opened his pouch and grabbed a handful of pellets and as the creature recovered and shot forwards again, Winston let loose the pellets, like a spread or shot across it and the roof, producing great clouds of glittering, rainbow colored smoke. Wasting no further time, he leaped into the air, away from the rooftop, floating under the force of the leap and leaving the rapidly fading cloud of smoke, spider and barn behind.
"Oh my IMMORTALS, Winston. That was close!"
"Yeah. Hunting spiders appears to be sometin' dat me nat very gud at."
"Well, just be glad that Spiders don't play fetch."
"Yeah, dat wud suck. Me tink me should add some flight capabilities to dis suit... And per'aps spider web walking."
Retrieving a bag of flour from his pack, he used it as ballast to stop himself continuing to bounce aimlessly across the field.
"OOOooooorrrrr... You could avoid situations that required these things and live a life of calm contemplative reflection."
The two companions jested on their journey back to the group of hunters to report what they had found. The Presence of the Fracture could be yet another 'effect' rather than a cause, but if it was not still here tomorrow and the spiders were, then that would answer that.
In the meantime, he set about exploring his new wells, wonder glazing over his expression as he did...
All template credit, love and admiration goes to Kisaik
