Not your common household spider!
Origins of the Plot
This thread is inspired by both the following Rebirth Events that follow:
Finally, I checked with Peg for permission to have the Size wells found inside the creatures.
- 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.
Finally, I checked with Peg for permission to have the Size wells found inside the creatures.
"Attuning fork..."
Cho
to provide the device. The young man grabbed it and handed it diligently to the master ensorceller as they proceeded to work the well.The apprentice wiped a bead of sweat from his brow as they worked. The heat in the forge was often oppressive and taking the time needed to ensure things were done right was often a challenge. Totrial was no different as both master and apprentice
loomed over the circle of refinement
."Chalk...
"Jost a littal mar..."
It was a process they were both growing accustomed to. The wells were weak in comparison to some they had worked, but nonetheless, all cation was taken to ensure this meant there were fewer accidents, rather than more.
Several breaks passed as they concluded the final refinements, ready for the wells to be crafted into their final form... The Shield for Woe. It was going to be a work of mastery and would take some time to complete, but these wells were going to form the base materials for it cap[abilities and the ferret was happy to finally have them in hand.
Having packed away the equipment for the trial and grabbed some well-deserved sustenance, they sat outside chest and enjoyed a rest. It was a few bits before there was a disturbance in the distance as a group of people approached with a box and what appeared to be a giant mouse, dead and slung over a cart being pulled by an oxen. Recognizing one of the women as
one of the settlement's regular hunters, Starr
, the ferret gave they a hearty wave in welcome."Is that a mouse?"
Winston stood as it became clear they were heading in his direction.
"Looks like."
"Blimey, it's huge!"
"'ello dere!"
"Dat's quite de redent yuh gat dere, Starr. Dis tuhnight's dinna?"
The woman chuckled, it was a dry sound of a serious individual as she placed the box down before the alchemist with a shrug.
"Well, sure I guess. The, uhhh, 'bigger' problem is that this is not the only issue..."
Peering in, he was faced with the sight of half a dozen farm animals, pigs, cows and even a horse.
"Dem's nat gonna feed many peepal."
"Wat's goin' an?!
Her eye bulged in a 'god knows' kind of way as she replied.
"I was rather hoping YOU could tell ME that."
The ferret looked down at the creatures again, a look of wonderous curiosity upon his face.
"These are not the 'bigger' problem either..."
"...These are the tame ones. The mouse was found this morning, dead before we eventually ran into what killed it."
"There's giant spiders praying on anything that moves. A fair few snakes and other things to for that matter. It's no joke Winston."
He furrowed his brow. This was indeed a problem.
"Vega es aware?"
The woman blew air through her lips as if the question were preposterous.
"Of course. The hunters are securing the camp and surrounding areas, but we need to try and work out what is causing this and if it's going to be permanent or not."
The ferret nodded in agreement.
"Jost checking."
"Oh-key... Guess we start wid dat one..."
"Tell me everyt'ing. Donn't leave anyt'ing out. Doh dey poop? Doh dey eat? Doh dem do anyt'ing else dem shud nat?"
Over the next few bits, the group discussed what was known about the creatures, which was that apart from the fact they were no longer the size they should be, they were in face no different than usual.
Between them, Winston and
Joe
looked the creature over in exacting detail. Winston's medical knowledge was very limited in truth, but as far as butchery and magery was concerned, he had plenty to offer. "There's definitely 'something' in there. It's not like the mouse itself is magic... but here, somewhere in THERE, there is something."
"Guess we open et op den."
Between them all, they managed to move the creature, it's dead weight proving a challenge to manipulate easily, over and got it ready.
Winston had cut apart countless cows pigs and even the occasional exotic beast, but never a mouse. Not yet anyway. He started cutting, pealing the skin and carefully removing parts of the creature to expose more of it's innards.
Exactly what a lot of it did and how they works was not his specialty, but how to get to it and what to cook it with for the best possible flavor was second nature.
Starr assisted, offering the ferret a few tips as they went with regards to the skinning, which to be far, was a solid Hunting and Field Craft skill he was always happy to learn more about.
Baffled he looked at what they could see. Aside from it's size, even on the inside, nothing seemed amiss.
"There!, There, above the squishing looking red thing."
Star looked at the floating head incredulously and then back and the big, squishy, red mess.
"Oh, right, yeah, uh. To the right of the round bluish thingy, by the long white bits."
"Here? By the ribs?"
Joe nodded and Winston cut. Both concentrating carefully to ensure they didn't accidentally expose something they shouldn't.
As the fleshy innards parted in the path of the blade, Winston's eye bulged in surprise.
"Dat's... Dat's a WELL."
"Et's a SIZE well, like de ones we found under Saiore's Dream, Joe. Yeah. Oh-key. Me guess dat makes sense."
"Lets get dis out an' intuh a containa far latta."
Smokie
appeared from Chest and held a small unassuming box beneath the well as the ferret cut the last strand of flesh holding it in place.It fell, with a wet 'thud', into the box and the Diri of usefulness carried it to one side. Taking a deep breath of relief, the master chef stepped away from the mouse, half expecting it to instantly start to shrink in size... It did not. He shook his head in mild disbelief.
"Well, that didn't fix anything."
The ferret nodded thoughtfully before cleaning himself up and turning to
Chest
for some more equipment. "Right, next op. Cun yuh get all de animals outta de box an' put dem an de floor?"
The woman nodded and with a slight shrug, acquiesced to the request, laying out each of the creatures carefully on the ground.
Meanwhile, Winston summoned a Moonglass well from his pack and a range of different bits of equipment to help with the refinement process.
"Dis es gonna take a while. Yuh might want to build dem a pan ar something... Like wid rocks?"
Continued here >>
All template credit, love and admiration goes to Kisaik
