Lore/Story Tales Of Wynn, Chapter 4: Spider Cave

Sorry this took so long! I've been busy with school and stuff. Yea.

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@XavierEXE @FlamingPinecone
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IV - Spider Cave


- Archie -
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I woke up the next morning to the sound of a crowd outside. It turns out that there was a group trying to get Girnocet out of jail for a month now, and they were very surprised to see him walk free. Go figure. The others must have heard it too, as Assad was the only one still asleep when I came out of my room. Walter and Marion were studying the map in their books and didn’t see me approach.

I tapped Walter on the shoulder and he jumped. “Oh my goodness, Arch, don’t do that!” He shook his head and showed me the map. “The books gave us two more tasks to do, so I thought we should split up. Marion and I are going down to the Maltic Coastline. In addition, there’s a man named Odofo in Nivla Forest, east of Ragni, who needs our help too. You and Assad are going there.”

At the sound of his name, Assad came bursting through his door. “Alrighty! Let’s do this!” We stared at him. “What? I’m excited to do anything other than go back into that sewer.” At least I could agree with him on that.


***

The entrance to Nivla Forest was intimidating, to say the least. The woods teemed with insects and spiders. A few zombies roamed the path ahead. The canopy of leaves was low, only about 10 meters up, but it was thick with few gaps. Much of the forest was blanketed with darkness.

We came upon an isolated house on the path. The sign on the outside said, “Welcome to Odofo’s Residency!” Inside, an old man tinkered with some glass jars.

Assad knocked on the door. “Sir, do you need some help?” The man stood up and came outside.

“Why, yes, I do! You must be soldiers of Ragni. I’m glad you could come here at this time. You see, there is something I have put off getting for a long time now. For a formula I am about to complete, I need some flowers called Saccharum. Yet, these flowers only grow in a small cave near here, but it’s far too dangerous to go in by myself. That’s where you come in!”

“So, you called on us… to pick flowers?”

“Yes! But there are spiders near the flowers!”

Assad stepped back. “You didn’t mention any spiders before!”

“Bah! You’re brave soldiers, and all that. Just kill the spiders if they come near you! The cave is about 20 meters behind my house. Good luck!

“I never would have agreed to this if I knew there were spiders involved. I didn’t think there could be anything worse than that sewer!” He seemed genuinely anxious to enter it.

“Don’t worry about the spiders, I can take care of them if they become a problem. We just need to get the flower and get out.”

He stared at me again. “You’re right. I guess we have no choice but to go in. But can you go in ahead of me?”

I nodded and started leading the way. The walls of the cave were lined with webs and moss. Before long, a few large spiders roamed the path downward. They were smaller than a human, but much larger than anything we had seen in Fruma. The spiders seemed to ignore our presence and crawled past us. Eventually we reached the bottom of the grotto; I could see a bright purple flower in front of where we were standing.

Assad stepped forward and plucked a few stems. “How much did he say he wanted?” Before I could warn him, a branch snapped below his foot. The spiders around us turned to stare at him - and they realized we were taking their precious flora. One hissed and the others slowly joined in, as they advanced toward us. Assad and I were forced back against a corner, with no way out.

I reached for an arrow. Assad’s hands slipped down to his pocket, where he kept his daggers. “Looks like it won’t be as easy as we thought.” I loaded my bow and let go of the string toward the nearest arachnid. With one down, the rest of the spiders leapt at us.

I stood atop a rock and nocked a few arrows into my bowstring. It was a trick I had learnt at the archery range. I let go, and multiple shots took down a few spiders. Assad stood at the bottom, slashing through legs and mandibles. It was incredible how agile he was in dodging and moving through the swarm, that was now all around us. I started picking them off one by one from my standpoint, but Assad needed help. I jumped down from the boulder and smacked one with the edge of my bow. Suddenly, Assad shouted “Duck!” I quickly fell to the floor, and a spider behind me leapt right into the air where I was standing. I pulled back the string and hit it in the abdomen. The swarm seemed hesitant to attack, seeing how powerful we could be. Eventually the number of them started to dwindle until the only few scuttled away from us.

Assad grinned. “Picking flowers can be cool! I never knew!” I guess he had overcome his arachnophobia quite quickly. We exited the cave and made our way to the house as fast as we could.

Odofo greeted us at the door and thanked us. He took the flowers from my hand and gently laid them on his desk. “Thank you two so much! I can finally get back to work on my potions. Oh, and this is probably in your quest book already, but I have another friend who lives in this forest - his name is Aervix. He really needs some assistance. So if you could go help him…” his voice trailed off.

I looked up, and above the leafy canopy, the sun was still above our heads. We had plenty of time to help someone else before heading back to Ragni. “Of course we would! Anything to help a citizen of the province! That’s just what we do.”

He handed Assad a few emeralds and retreated into his home, muttering about formulas of some sort. I checked my book, then turned to head further into the forest. Where could this other guy be?
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Odofo - @fooooooood
Aervix - @XavierEXE

 

Wait, where's the lore?

 

rip i forgot to actually put it in
EDIT: done

 

Hmm...
I wonder who Aervix could be? c:<
I bet he'll be pretty hard to find, isolated in a house deep in the forest...

 

nah more like 2 sentences into the next chapter
i mean the chapter after the next chapter
or something like that

 

Bump
Love meh pls

 

gonna bump dis