Chapter 5.29 is the thirty-first chapter of Volume 5, and chapter 9 of Book 8, Blood of Liscor.
tl;dr[]
Shield spider wave in Liscor's dungeon. Horns and Silver Swords make it out to the Antinium tunnels.
Synopsis[]
Numbtongue secretly practices the guitar while Erin and Lyonette discuss the bar brawl. The conversation turns to Erin’s aura and how it didn’t work, and Lyonette teaches her to consciously use it. As she does so she’s able to shrug Erin’s aura off, the only one present able to do so.
Drassi arrives, telling them about the Shield Spider nest the gold teams discovered. Erin rushes to organise, having learned lessons from the Face-Eater Moths attack and is confident Liscor did as well.
Griffon Hunt and the Halfseekers quickly short-stop the corridor leading to the nest, then organise a more thorough response. Typhenous casts a tier 5 spell that obliterates many of the spiders. The adventurers are merry with the results, until Halrac discovers a sizeable portion fled into the dungeon farther below. Messages are sent to Liscor and the silver teams.
The mage guild is crowded with leadership and spectators. Everyone is eager for responses. They get informed of the successful suppression and subsequent warning. No one warns the Horns or Silver Swords.
The silver teams are still engaged with the Raskghar and dismiss the warning, busy as the are. The fighting turns atritious, but instead of retreating Gemhammer and the Pride of Kelia push for the artefacts on the Raskghar. Then the monsters suddenly retreat. One of the almost dead cave goblins mutters ‘wave’, and upon hearing that the masked adventurer makes wild, panicked motions before running off. Then they see a wall of Shield Spiders rush at them and the teams retreat up the rift, but they would be too slow were it not for the ropes suddenly dropping from above.
The Horns of Hammerad and Silver Swords are at odds with each other, the latter having shown they are atrocious at dungeon delving. They compromise on leaving the dungeon and reevaluating their co-working when the rolling mass of Shield Spiders is detected. Quickly the teams realise that their retreat will be too slow and Falene insists on casting a temporary magical defense, with support from Pisces and Ceria, buying seconds for minutes. When the barriers break Falene suffers backlash and is being carried as they all run. Still, they wouldn’t make it were it not Ksmvr throwing the monster lure he’d been rummaging for into a corridor. The Shield Spiders rush past the teams. The Horns suggest following the monster stampede’s path as all traps will have been triggered. The teams do that and, after some conspiratorial looks within the Horns, discover a break in the dungeon leading to a kill zone made and manned by Antinium.
The leaders of Liscor confer with each other and the Walled Cities about this discovery and question the motive of the Antinium. Pisces, under the guise of selling secrets, cleverly directs their focus to consider this motive to be a grand treasure hidden somewhere in the dungeon. He is then paid and dismissed. Ceria is revealed to have been part of that plan. Yvlon and Ksmvr give their belated agreement, considering this will increase their chances of Calruz being discovered.
Characters[]
- Headscratcher
- Badarrow
- Shorthilt
- Rabbiteater
- Numbtongue
- Lyonette du Marquin
- Erin Solstice
- Mrsha
- Apista
- Drassi
- Zevara Sunderscale
- Olesm Swifttail
- Ilvriss Gemscale
- Halrac Everam
- Jelaqua Ivirith
- Moore
- Typhenous
- Revi
- Seborn
- Liscorian Army’s 4th Company
- Embria Grasstongue
- [Captain] Halliss
- Unnamed [Captain]
- Gemhammer
- [Gem Mage]
- Earlia
- Timgal
- Raskghar
- Enchanted Archer Raskghar
- Enchanted Armored Raskghar
- The Pride of Kelia
- Nailren
- Cuska (Identity Revealed)
- Toren
- Cave Goblins
- Ceria Springwalker
- Ylawes Byres
- Falene Skystrall
- Dawil Ironbreaker
- Yvlon Byres
- Pisces
- Ksmvr
- Belgrade
Locations[]
- The Wandering Inn
- Liscor
- Mage’s Guild
- Watch Barracks
- Liscor's Dungeon
- Liscor's Antinium Hive
Creatures[]
- Shield Spiders
- Undead Cave Goblin
- Enchanted Suits of Armor
Items[]
- Phoenixflame Arrow
- Heartflame Breastplate
- Lightningstrike Arrow
- Enchanted Leather Ball