Clash with Mordia

I eyed the ugly monster as it skittered about, circling me as it looked for an opening in which to pounce. Not like I could do much even if the thing did attack, as my right hand (along with my gun) was stuck to my side with sticky spider’s web. In my left hand I held my short sword, its blade all but useless due to the webbing stuck to it.

“Why do you resist, little one?” The beast asked, its voice sounding like a sick old woman on her deathbed. The giant spider continued to scrabble around in circles, forcing me to pivot facing it lest it gets behind me. I took great care not to trip and fall off the steep stairs I was standing on.

“Give up now and Mordia will make your end quick,” the spider spoke again.

“Not a very tempting offer, that,” I told it.

Mordia hissed in anger, its mandibles shaking.

I continued to try to pry my gun hand loose from the web, but the damn silk was too strong. No matter how much effort I put into it, the limb would not budge. It was stuck fast and I had no way of getting it loose. Wait… my knife! If I could draw that then I could cut through this web. But how do I do that with Big Ugly here watching?

The spider hissed and began to crawl towards me, causing me to take a step back. I noticed our position and cursed. My back was facing towards the apex of the pyramid while Mordia blocked the way down, all but cutting me off from escape.

I continued to back away from the monster, taking care not to trip on the steep steps, all the while it kept up with me, its large form looming below me like some deep black pit ready to swallow me up.

“No escape, no escape, no escape for you,” it taunted.

I glared at the oncoming monstrosity, knowing it was right.

One of its forelegs had gotten a bit too close to me for my liking, so I lashed out with the sword in my left hand. The web-covered blade smacked against the hard exoskeleton before bouncing off, the blow sending a pulse of pain up my arm.

Despite the lack of damage, Mordia seemed to feel the hit, as it screeched and backed away from me.

“It hurts! It hurts! Vile lizardman has hurt Mordia!” cried out the spider as it skittered about below me. “Mordia, in turn, will hurt him!”

From its maw spurted ropes of white webbing. I swiftly leaped to the right, rolling across the stone steps before stopping in a squat. The webbing had missed, but Mordia wasn’t done. It spat out more of the sticky web, causing me to dodge out of the way again.

Mordia hissed in anger as I continued to evade its webs. I didn’t even have to roll away from it either; a simple step away to the right or left kept me from getting splattered. Its web attack was good for a surprise, but when you know it’s coming it was easy enough to avoid.

The giant spider hissed, then began to scurry swiftly towards me like an oncoming locomotive. Now, I’m no coward, but at that instance, every fiber of my being was yelling at me to run. I’ve faced down charging bulls and runaway horses, but never in my life has something so damn big came screaming at me.

I don’t know how I did it, but at the last moment I managed to calm my nerves long enough to jump out of the way. I was just a little bit too late as one of Mordia’s legs clipped me in the side. The blow was hard and it sent me flying back onto the web-covered stone.

Mordia then lashed out with one of its large forelegs, its tip aiming to pierce me through. I dodged to the side and it missed me by inches. I took to rewarding Mordia’s failure with an attack of my own: I slashed at the leg with all my might.

There was a loud crack followed by a loud wail of pain. It backed away once more, though this time it held the injured leg up as it retreated. I could see greenish blood dripping from the wounded limb.

“You hurt Mordia again!” cried the spider in anguish.

“Yeah, and you’ll get an even bigger beating if you keep thish up!” I told it with all the fervor I could manage. I rubbed at my side where the spider had hit me; nothing seemed broken, but it still hurt like hell.

Mordia hissed, then began another charge. I was ready for it this time and managed to slide under the giant beast right as it dashed over me. I jabbed up with my sword and I felt its tip penetrate something soft.

The spider screamed and leaped away, spinning in the air before it crashed down onto its back on the hard stone steps. Sadly, it had taken my sword along with it, and I could see the blade still stuck in Mordia’s underbelly. The spider squealed and shrieked, its eight legs flailing about in agony. Three of the legs came together and tried to pry out the sword from its body, but the large limbs could not find purchase on the weapon.

While Mordia was busy, I reached down to my belt and drew my knife. I then began to slice through the webbing constraining my right arm. It took a bit of work, but eventually, I managed to free the stuck limb.

That was when the monster managed to pry the sword out of its belly. It then heaved itself right-side up, its body crashing loudly onto the stone as it did so. Mordia glared at me with its eight black eyes, then let out a wordless bellow of rage. It began to rush me again, this time intent on killing me outright.

I didn’t give the ugly creature a chance. I dropped my knife and stood up, drawing my revolver as I did so. As the monstrous spider charged towards me, I fanned the hammer of the gun all the while pulling the trigger. Loud gunshots echoed across the walls of the vast cavern as I emptied the cylinder into the thing.

The bullets pierced Mordia’s tough hide, causing spatters of green blood to erupt from the entry points. The spider screamed, then collapsed, coming to a dead stop just a few feet in front of me. I waited a few moments to see if it would rise up again, but it remained still. A few of its legs twitched, but other than that, the giant beast was dead.

I sighed, then reholstered my gun.

That was crazy. A giant talking spider. Now I’ve seen everything.

I took a brief respite to calm my nerves and tend to my injuries. I also reloaded my revolver, keeping an eye out in case Mordia wasn’t the only giant spider around the temple. With everything tended to, I continued my hike up the pyramid.

I reached the apex, as well as the covered platform that Mordia had sprung out from. I drew my gun as I approached the opening, still dark due to lack of light. I slowly crept closer until I was at the entrance, then quickly entered, gun leading the way. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the shadows.

The sight that met me was somewhat grisly. I found myself in a cozy little alcove, all the walls covered in webbing. At the corners of the room were waist-high piles of bones. From the large skulls in the pile, I surmised that most of them belonged to troglodytes, though there was the occasional human and lizardman skull in there as well.

“Well that thing was eating well,” I muttered to myself as I continued looking around, searching for something interesting. Aside from the bones and the webs, there was nothing else inside the room. What a bust; I almost get myself eaten by a giant spider, and for what? Absolutely nothing.

I growled and angrily kicked at one of the piles. Bones scattered everywhere, each piece clattering loudly in the empty room. I was about to leave when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was shiny, coming from inside the pile of bones I had just busted open. I reached down and picked the thing up. It was a silver ring with gold trim, and it had a small green stone embedded in its side.

You have found the ring called

Archer’s Grace

When worn, your speed

And accuracy with bows or any

Ranged weapon will

Greatly increase.

Well, that sounded useful. A magic ring. And one that, according to the blue box, will help me with my aim. I quickly shoved the thing on my finger, only mildly surprised that it was a perfect fit. (It’s magic, of course it would fit!) I then waited for the sudden onrush of power, or maybe some bright lights, or even a loud noise to show whether the damn ring was working or not. But, nope. I got nothing.

I checked the rest of the bone piles in the room and found nothing as interesting as the ring. There were a few bits of rotting clothing and armor, some gold pieces, broken weapons, and some troglodyte jewelry made of wood and bones depicting a giant spider. I guess these trogs worshipped Moria even though she ate them. Weird.

I kept the gold, then tossed the rest.

I exited Moria’s gloomy nest and stood outside, taking a long breath of fresh air. I looked up at the crack in the ceiling and up into the sky. Judging from the light, it was about late afternoon. It’ll be dark soon, and I really don’t want to be around this place in the dark. If things like Moria lurked around during the day, then who knew what the hell could be out at night.

Before leaving though, I have to find the others. Just where in the world did those two disappear off to?

I began to descend the pyramid using the same steep set of stairs that I had used to get up. I soon approached Mordia’s corpse and moved around the bulky mass, making sure not to step on any of its long, spindly legs. I was almost past the obstruction when I heard a clicking noise behind me.

I swiftly whirled around only to get splattered by sticky webbing in the chest. I saw Mordia, who was very much alive, begin to rise, blood still dripping from its many wounds. It spat more webs at me and I managed to avoid one before the rest struck me in the back and side.

Moria screeched as it continued to spit, rising up partly, supported by three legs. The rest hung down, useless and unmoving.

“Dammit!” I shouted as I used all my strength to try to break open the strings of silk that had begun to cover me, but like before the effort proved most futile. My arms were both immobilized, as were my legs. One of the webs smacked me right in the side of the head, hard, and caused me to trip. I stumbled down the steep stairs, rolling over and over as I fell down each step. Thankfully, lizardmen are a hardy bunch, so the fall didn’t injure me much. Not so thankfully, the rolling caused me to pick up more and more of the webbing that had covered the stairs, increasing my confinement. By the time I came to a stop around the middle of the pyramid, I was rolled up like a carpet.

I spat out some web that had gotten into my mouth, then looked around. Above me, I could see Mordia scrabbling with all of its strength to get to me. It was using its working legs to drag itself down the stairs, screeching and snarling to itself as it approached.

I struggled once more, but again I was stuck. Neither my arms nor legs could move. I could flick my tail around, but that’s about it.

Is this how I die? Again? I wondered if after being chomped by Moria, I would wake up a few minutes later in a body that wasn’t mine, in a place that wasn’t home.

Somehow, as I stared at that oncoming monster, as I peered into its eight black, rage-filled eyes, I knew that if I died here, that would be the end of things for me.

Hell would be my final destination.

Moria was now less than ten feet away. It loomed over me like a mad storm, all fury and no mercy. I could tell that it was horribly wounded, probably dying, and using the last of its strength to kill me. But at that moment such insights did not matter. Wounded or not, Moria was still deadly.

The giant spider came within biting range, ready to rip me apart with its sharp, venom-dripping mandibles, when all of the sudden it screeched and reared back. I looked up and saw that two arrows had embedded themselves into its body. Moria shrieked and wailed, more in surprise than actual pain.

Then a figure stepped forth from outside my view and rushed towards the monster. I recognized the red plate armor he wore; it was the same armor as the man that had led the ambush outside the ruin. The armored figure leaped up into the air, raising a massive mace over his head, then plowed downwards towards Mordia.

“Die monster!” he shouted as he swung down with all his might. The weapon crushed Mordia’s head into mush, silencing the spider’s loud screeches. The headless monster collapsed onto the stone steps, finally dead.

Still stuck in my cocoon, I furiously wiggled around, trying to make my escape. As soon as I did I saw two more forms climbing up the stairs, bows and arrows at the ready. It looked like they were all that remained of the army of archers that had ambushed us earlier.

“Finally,” the red-armored man strode up to my prone body and looked down. “You’re a hard one to get a hold of.” He reached up and unlatched his helmet, then took it off. His heavily scarred face smiled down at me. “But we have you. Finally.”

I opened my mouth to retort with something brazenly insulting, but the man’s foot swiftly lashed out and connected against my skull.

Then everything went black.