Reincarnated: Lizards ascension

Allelu saw Zutal tense and bring his right hand up to a spider that came out of the walls indent. She wished to help a fellow team member but the greater whole came before the recently joined party member, and she was on a job with her so far never failing one. Allelu backed off as soon as more scuttling came from down the hall to stand with Sofia on her left while Marie and Colbert shot into the darkness with slaves behind them. The screeching was loud but did not reverberate off the walls like it would in a normal tunnel, the way Colberts eldritch blasts illuminated the hallway did not give any confidence to the possible defence of the high ceiling tunnel. Sofia and Allelu blocked the hallway but the spiders could climb above them and there was little they could do to stop it as the spider assault was faster than she would have preferred to come up with a defence plan.

Allelu: "We have to get back, there's too many of them."

*Swoosh*Screeee

*Thud*Zaap

As arrow and eldritch blast hit the enemies trying to drop on top of Allelu, she and Sofia focused on swinging for their lives with their weapons at the wall of dead spiders forming in front of them. Sofia had cast a spell on her wand to make it into a thorned mace that would stick thorns into whatever it hit and poison the creature, while Allelu used her shorter long sword to slice into the spiders without accidentally hitting Sofia. In such close combat the body sized monster slaying sword would be a detriment, as all her hits sliced into the piling up corpses until the momentum left the weapon and it was pulled out of the green and brown mess, torches on the ground illuminated what was in front but the loud scuttling in the darkness felt deafening.

This continued on for a while as the party stepped backwards from the way they came as more of the arachnids with these awful jaws followed, they had to have killed at least fifty but they did not seem deterred. Sofia was to first to fall as her left hand on the staff turned mace got bit into on the bicep, making her use it single handily while she bit into the creatures head with her reptile teeth and tore it off. Ceaseless spiders ran at them and Allelu took a hit for Sofia, a spider was shot in the upper body with an arrow and made it past the building wall, to save her Allelu pushed Sofia back and had the large arachnid fall on top of her and topple over.

Prone and alone Allelu rose only to be bitten in the left arm, the armour held but it restricted her movement, as the knight punched with her right hand she caved in the spiders head and was saved from any more assaults by a single handed Sofia with two slaves backing her up. Colbert kept shooting light into the back of the spider horde that by now had taken over the entire tunnel. After another twenty spiders the party had stopped with their retreating approach and stepped forward. The wall of the brown arachnids was about waist high as once they were prone their appearance was a lot less intimidating.

Brown fur like hairs covered their body, an 'X' shaped mouth along with eight legs, two joints in each leg and round tips covered in more hairs probably allowed the creatures to be able to feel with their legs in the eternal darkness. The large eyes atop their head most likely helped with any light that they came across, although it would be safe to assume that they were rarely used as the spiders had little knowledge on where to attack their prey other than trying to swarm the party. A distinct head, upper body and abdomen could be made out from the spiders with the abdomen having two spinnerets used for making silk.

Although with no silk in this tunnel it would suggest that the spiders still would cocoon any prey that they caught, however their mouth would suggest otherwise, maybe the spinnerets were a recessive body part and could not make silk.

Allelu: "I really hope these spiders have silk otherwise we just wasted our time here."

Sofia: "I didn't take you for an entomologist."

Allelu: "Why wouldn't I know a lot about spiders? Anyway the lack of silk in the tunnel would suggest that they do not use it for finding prey but they could use it to cocoon food, however I worry that it might still be a recessive body part with their teeth made for eating solid food."

Marie: "Wouldn't they still need their silk to make egg sacks to grow their young?"

Allelu: "That is a very good point."

Sofia: "Well, I definitely do not want to ever find such a thing. Already feel all itchy from their hairs."

Colbert: "Don't worry. I am. Knowledgeable. On the woods creatures."

Turning to face the person in the back Allelu can see Colbert bending over with hands on his knees as he wheezes and gulps in air.

Allelu: "Don't be so soft brother, we have not even met a staircase yet."

Colbert: "You know full well why I am tired, as a sorcerer I just overused my magic. So stop making the fat wizard jokes, you know I hate the comparison."

Sofia: "Anyway stop complaining I want to get through this mess and find my familiar."

Marie: "I… Just know that I am here for you Sofia."

Sofia: "Shut up, I have to find it and cast familiar heal on it."

Allelu: "Okay, let us just walk atop the corpses. I will follow behind you while we also try to find my lost sword in this mess."

*Hmph

Sofia turns away in a huff and climbs atop the pile of spider bodies with her right hand, the left being cradled close to her body.

The walk is short as they had not walked too far from where Zutal got ambushed, once they reached the back of the spider path Allelu carefully placed her torch against a wall and went to the pile of corpses to help Sofia with moving corpses. The bodies were heavy but the druid and knight were able to drag out enough of them to find Sofias familiar.

Zutal was barely alive, being a lizard most definitely saved him here as being cold blooded resulted in a slower blood flow which prevented severe blood loss. His right hand was hanging on by the bone attached to his shoulder, a chunk of scales was missing from his head and his thighs were missing a lot of flesh. However the internal organs were protected by his limbs so his chances of death were low with a couple healing potions or familiar heals. This is what happened as Sofia used both of her familiar heals to stop the blood loss, however the scales and most of the missing flesh could not come back, leaving Zutal looking like a zombie with bone showing on his arms and legs while not bleeding.

Colbert: "Damn, that looks super nasty. I guess we are staying in the hobgoblin village over winter."

Not too happy about her brothers snarky remarks she decided to make a quick reply.

Allelu: "Shut up, we have enough healing potions to get Zutal back in rough working order."

Marie was just behind Colbert with his two slaves somewhere in the back with their torch lights shining as they attempted to cross the rough terrain made from spider corpses.

Marie: "It would severely decrease our healing supplies, however I can say little to disagree as we need this place explored and be gone quickly with the humans also being around here and interested. Makes me question whether we should still collect the silk."

Colbert: "You think the spiders were a trap."

Marie: "Then how did they make it past here without triggering the swarm?"

Colbert: "Could be deception to get us to explore the area first."

Marie: "Ahh, it matters little now. If we leave then the corpses will decay and attract who know what the next time we try to pass through here. However, if we advance we have the humans potentially in front of us with even more traps. Here is what we will do, since we are on the quest to explore the temple we will heal Zutal to a well enough feeling, followed up by getting everyone to gather spider silk. This should help with Zutals arms and getting him adjusted after losing so much of himself, then when we do set off Allelu will be up front since Zutal might be meantally scarred or most likely not have all of his scales hardened."

Colbert: "Now I do appreciate the fervour to complete my…"

Marie: "Not now Colbert, we decided about this in the idle room so let us stick to plan."

Allelu had grabbed her backpack and taken out four healing potions, with this most of the damage should be gone, however the whole group would only have 6 more potions left, with Colbert owning two.

Colbert: "If only I still had my servant, he was a competent fighter and would have helped a lot in this fight. Real shame how he died."

Allelu: "And he was under you leadership, which is why we are currently still all alive by not following it."

Colbert: "Hey, I don't see you being in charge of the group."

Allelu: "That is because I am still too young and I am learning from someone more experienced on how to lead an adventurer party. However for someone much older than me is it not shameful to perform so poorly."

Colbert: " Well they were slaves, so their equipment was trash, and I am only half a century older than you so I am not that old. Not that old when compared to your much older party leader."

Marie: "Hey, what is that supposed to mean, I am still a young and beautiful wood elf. Most of my life is still ahead of me."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I 

I awoke to a squabble between our group and Colbert. It would have been interesting to listen in but I was too busy thinking about the wrongness of my body. It did not feel like there were ants under my scales, but it definitely felt as though some sort of emptiness existed there and it felt as though the emptiness under my scales was inhabited by a lot of small fish that swam under my skin with me feeling everything. I felt like a water balloon had replaced a part of my arm and legs, and when I tried to sit up I felt as though my arm would have a piece of it fall out as I placed my left hand over the right bicep to keep it in place.

Sofia: "How are you feeling?"

Zutal: "I feel as though parts of my body are made from wet cotton, cotton that was just stuffed under my scales to make it seem as though my arms and legs still have muscles under them but every time I move it feels like it will change or shift positions."

Sofia: "Yes the feeling of strangeness will last for at least a month, this is not a simple wound as you were close to death and lost a lot of yourself. I do have more bad news, we will continue to travel further down the temple and your only way of getting accustomed to the new feeling will be through dismantling the spiders, the same ones that ate you. Hope you are not too psychologically damaged by recent events."