Falco thinks they may be getting close to trouble, so says, "That's good thinking--two folks to look ahead. Just keep your wits about you."

He slings his shield down over his left arm and readies his spear in the other in case trouble shows itself. It didn't hurt to be ready.

Dynlor raises his eyebrow when seeing some of his companions wanting to look at the face of danger so boldly. Imitating Falco, he puts his mace in his hand, ready for anything.

The parry moves ahead on the road, Ash and Reea about 100 yards ahead of the others.  After about an hour, as the sun is nearly reaching the noon mark, Reea and Ash see glistening in the sun webbing stretched thinly across the road.  This is at the narrowest point between road and river and the webs stretch across between two trees, one on the river bank and another on the edge of the forest.  In the forest there are more webs strung among several trees, all connected and there are two six-foot long black spiders, a red hourglass shape on their abdomens, sitting on either side of the road.  They have not moved to attack, yet.

---

Neither side is surprised.  You have the initiative.  Actions?  They are AC6 and about 20 feet away.

When Reea saw the webs across the road glistening in the sun, she froze in her tracks, her stomach beginning to do flipflops. Seeing the ugly, black creatures, she started to move backwards, her widened eyes staring at the beasts.

"Spiders. Why did it have to be spiders?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:51, Sun 20 June 2021.

Reea continued backing away, slowly, not turning her back on the spiders or making sudden movements, though she carefully placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Seeing Reea act strangely, Dynlor looks around and almost drops his mace seeing the menacing giant spiders. He is prompt to recover his countenance, though, and takes a combat stance while progressing slowly. He will not attack before seeing someone else do it, friend of foe.

With Falco being 100 yards behind the forward party, and the giant spiders being off to the side of the road in the woods, Falco only knows that the scouting group has suddenly stopped moving and seem on guard. Perhaps they heard or spotted something off in the woods.

Either way, it seems a good idea to be on guard. He's unsure if he should stop so as not to make any noise, or cautiously advance forward since the scouting group hasn't motioned to them or called out either way.

His soldier's intuition urges him forward though, so he cautiously and quietly advances towards the scouting group to support them, while keeping his spear and shield on guard and his eyes and ears open for trouble.


[Falco moves forward 60 yards to reduce the gap between him and the scouting group down to 40 yards]

Reea continued her retreat, unable to take her eyes off the monstrous arachnids.  She hated tiny spiders; they had eight legs and hair, but she never imagined there could be some so big, even in her worst nightmares.

Reea didn't know how long she had been moving, but when she sensed something behind her, she spun around, ready to fight.

"Falco!"  Without looking away, she pointed back up the road.

"Sp-sp-spiders! Big spiders!"  She was starting to breath heavily.

"Big Spiders, you say!?" Falco says answers. "The size of dogs, or the size of horses?! How many, lass?!"

He calls out to Dynlor, "Fall back, young Dynlor! Everyone, regroup and form up! Prepare to defend yourselves!"

Although he was content to never rise up in the ranks, he had some soldiering and knew the basics of group fighting.

"Huge!"  Reea held up her arms, trying to form a big circle.  "Two.  Black.  Really big!"  She plopped onto the ground, trying to catch her breath.

Dynlor does as instructed, not wanting to face the enemy alone and not reassured by the stance of his fighter party mate.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:19, Sat 03 July 2021.

"On you feet, lass!" Falco says to Reea, "Now is not the time for napping." He says, "If we only had an archer or two..." His voice trails off.

After a moment, he suggests, "We should fall back along the road. Perhaps we can go around through the woods to the North." Falco slowly falls back as he encourages the others to do the same.

Reea listened to Falco, getting up and following him, a slight whimper escaping her lips. Forcing herself to look back up the road, she wanted to make sure the horrible creatures were staying away.

"I'm not an archer but I do have a sling," Ash says, holding up his weapon (such as it is.) "Think that would help?"

To Ash, Falco replies, "It might. Keep your sling handy, friend. The fiends may yet rush at us."

Falco cautiously falls back one step at a time while keeping in formation with the others in their adventuring party. He is thankful the pair of giant spiders seems reluctant to pursue them.

Once there appears to be a safe separation between them and the eight-legged monsters, the ragged spearman says, "Let us trek Northward into the woods, friends. Be sure to keep your wits about you. There is no telling what other foul beasts we may yet encounter."

Falco keeps his spear and shield at the ready as he ventures North of the road and into the near woods. He cautiously looks about and pauses to listen every now and again.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:41, Sun 11 July 2021.

Reea watched Falco stride into the woods. She looked at the others, then back to Falco.

"Wait! shouldn't we talk about this first?"

Falco had been nice to her and she didn't want something bad to happen to him.

When Reea calls out to him, Falco pauses and looks back her way. He turns around and walks back over beside her and says with a perplexed look on his face as he rests the butt of his spear against the ground, "What? You want to risk life and limb against the giant spiders now? I doubt they have any wealth to plunder lest we get lucky at someone else's misfortune."

"What? You want to risk life and limb against the giant spiders now? I doubt they have any wealth to plunder lest we get lucky at someone else's misfortune."

Reea wrinkled her nose at the mention of the spiders.

"No, I want to stay far away from them, but you can't go into the forest alone." Reea sighed. "I'll go with you." She looked at the others. "Anyone else?"

"I will join..." answers Dynlor hesitantly "... but aren't we going towards even greater dangers?"

He keeps his weapon in hand, uneasy.

Falco looks at Dynlor and replies, "Possibly, there might be."

He continues, "The way I see it, we only have two sensible choices. Either we cautiously press Northeast on into the woods and hope we get lucky, or we return to the Keep empty-handed and seek out other like-minded folk to join us before we venture forth again."

He shifts his weight onto his spear, using it like a walking stick to support himself, and adds, "I do not know about you youngsters, but my coin purse is feeling awfully light. I need to get ahold of me some coin soon. What shall we do, then, eh?"

Dynlor ponders the words of the man with spear for a while, then says: "I guess you are right. Let's press on for now!"

As Simon walks Eastward down the road, he considers his recent weeks.

At his master's urging, he had ventured forth to get a more practical perspective of life outside his master's home. The trip had, fortunately, been uneventful...or rather, it had been until he had encountered an Elf. Certainly that man was the first of the Elven folk he had ever encountered before. He didn't know much about him yet other than that he too practiced the arcane art, but he was sure he would get more opportunities to learn about the Elf and his people given time with him.

Even more strange, they had come upon a jester, or at least that's what Simon had took him to be. Though perhaps he was a different sort of entertainer. Either way, it was an unusual encounter. Simon has expected farmers out traveling intent to sell their harvest or pick up supplies, or perhaps wandering merchants trying to sell their wears.

Like many other travelers, he had stayed overnight at the inn inside the Keep. It was safer for a lone traveler like himself than camping out in the woods all alone. After all, you never knew what sort of creature might stumble into your camp attracted by the light or smell of a cooking fire.

He had heard from the men-at-arms about a place of discover called 'the Caves of Chaos'. Certainly not a place he would want to explore on his own from the sound of it, but the same men-at-arms had mentioned another group having set out of the keep that very morning towards these caves. So he sought to catch up to them, if he could.

And up ahead, there they seem to be. Or rather, it might be them. The men-at-arms hadn't really given him any details about them to look for. They appeared to be resting alongside the road and having a discussion about something. Either way, it seemed best not to startle them by coming up on them without notice.

He raises his right hand and calls out, "What ho, fair friends!?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:44, Sat 17 July 2021.

Itinerant and penniless Gyp wandered the road in the hope of coin or food. His sad face was in contrast to his gay motley of red and gold. There was little hope of food off the skinny Simon, he didn't look like he was eating enough himself. Same could be seen of the elf and Gyp wasn't sure he was ready to nibble on the elvish fare of dandelion seeds and toadstools quite yet. So he plodded on in search of better companionship.

As Simon's calling to another group of travellers Gyp managed a weak wave of his hand in greeting as his belly rumbled loudly again in protest of not being fed.

While the little band was discussing what to do, Reea saw more people coming down the road.  One called out a greeting.

Reea smiled.  More new friends!

After leaving the temple where she had been raised, Jori had travelled many days searching for adventure.  The guards at the keep she saw, told her about a small group that had left earlier that day.  Quickening her pace, she found them on the road.  It seemed they were talking about something.  She stopped far enough away to not be a threat, but close enough to hear much of what they were saying.

OOC: I'm the Reea player.  Jori is my second character.