The Pearly Forest were south west of Karlak and technically were part of Brad. However, the presence of the Querk Spiders and other monsters made the ownership of the forest more technical than fact. Spread over hundreds of kilometers, it included lands in both Brad and the Borderlands where the Orc tribes roamed, unchecked.

Still, as dangerous as living next to the forest was, the easy supply of lumber and monster parts for alchemical solutions drove small frontier villages and the farms required for sustenance. Eventually, the forest would be clear-cut to such a point that a new fort and village would spring up and the old one would become just another border village.

It was to one such village that Asin and Daniel had visited before they journeyed into the forest itself. Rather than trek through the wilderness on a wild search for the Querk Spiders and the venom sacs they required, the pair had decided to pay for the information from local hunters. Querk Spiders were dangerous and while their venom sacs were prized, there were significantly easier game to be hunted. As such, it was easier for these hunters to avoid known lairs which gave Adventurers like Asin and Daniel a chance to purchase the map they were even now perusing.

Head bent over the document, Asin and Daniel murmur softly as they follow the scratched together map. Unfortunately, none of the Hunters they had spoken to had a mapping proficiency and the document they held could only be barely considered map through a very broad definition of the term. Twice already the pair had gotten lost in the forest in their search for the first lair, though at least Daniel’s own skill was allowing him to quickly develop an understanding of the layout of their surroundings in his mind. In time, they would certainly be able to navigate the forest significantly easier.

Ears twitching, Asin steps away from Daniel swiftly even as she draws her knife. Turning slowly, her gaze locks to their left and Daniel quickly follows suit after stuffing the map away. Even as he reaches for his mace, a small grey creature bounds forwards on three legs in an attack only to be caught in mid-air by Asin’s blade. It drops bonelessly, but behind it come even more monsters.

“Grey Mus,” Daniel mutters unconsciously as he squats to get a better angle to hit the small, fast moving rodent like creatures. As their name implied, the rodents were grey in colour, each about a hand-span in size with a pair of extremely sharp front teeth. While not dangerous individually, the Grey Mus were aggressive pests that reproduced quickly and were willing to swarm larger prey. Still, attacking two full grown humanoids was unusual.

As Daniel swings at the first Mus that nears him, he is distracted by the loud cracking of a branch further behind the tide of creatures. The targeted Mus does not even stop, fleeing past Daniel as their natural predator in the forest comes barrelling after them.

The Tento Gulo darts outwards, its long brown body hugging the ground as vinelike tentacles topped with stingers lash out, one after the other to carry the unlucky Mus to its maw. Asin, having sent a last dagger into a Mus watches as the unlucky rodent is speared as well and brought to the Gulo’s mouth, her blade still lodged in its body.

The Gulo pauses its pursuit, staring at the two Adventurers, tentacles whipping around itself. Daniel stays crouched down, watching the monster as Asin readies a pair of throwing knives. For a few tense moments, both parties stare at one another before the Gulo slowly backs away, drawing its captured prey to its mouth as it did so.

It is only when the creature is finally gone do both Adventurers relax, chuckling at each other. There was little be gained from fighting the monster - after all, they were not here to gather Gulo parts. Better to keep on task.

As they finally near the location of the first Querk Spider, Asin prods Daniel to take the lead. Now that they are close, her better awareness and perception of the surroundings were important, especially as Querk Spiders were well known for ambushing their prey.

Asin leads Daniel in a circuitous route, skimming around uneven earth and stepping on branches when she is able. Daniel follows her movements precisely, keeping an eye out for additional dangers. It is only after 10 minutes of such walking does Asin come to a stop, pointing down to a particular, non-descript spot. This, then, would be the new lair of the Querk Spider.

The Querk Spider lived in burrows in the ground with small doors. Unfortunately, due to their size and deadliness, the Spiders would often move these burrows to new locations as it attempted to ‘trick’ new prey. They were known to even create false burrows, slowly guiding prey to its real location where it waited, ready to pounce from underneath the ground to bite and inject its venom into its prey. As a precaution, both Adventurers had vials of anti-venom purchased in Karlak from the apothecary but neither looked forward to using it.

As planned, Daniel slowly edges around the corner of the burrow before setting himself. At his signal, Asin walks forward slowly, her tail curled up underneath her body as she readies herself to jump away. When the Spider attacks, it is so fast that Daniel barely sees it move, the trapdoor pushed upwards as the arachnid rears on its legs to sink its fangs into Asin.

Asin jumps back, the yellow-brown hairy stocky arachnid landing where she was. In size, it is only half hers, barely 3 feet long from abdomen to thorax but its strong jaws glisten. Surprise attack failed, the Spider begins to scurry backwards into the safety of its burrow.

Daniel is moving however, jumping forwards from its side and lashing out at its abdomen with Perin’s Blow. The monster is too fast though and instead of smashing the creature into the air, he smashes a leg. This barely slows the Spider down and before the Adventurers are able to attack again, it has pulled its trapdoor covering over its burrow. As Daniel reaches over to pull against it, Asin barks out a “No”.

“Ba’al’s Vomit,” Daniel curses, stepping back and away from the trapdoor. They have no way of knowing if the monster will attack again and the trapdoors were reinforced with the creature’s silk. It would be pointless to attempt to shatter it without enchanted weapons. “I’m sorry Asin. I should have been there faster.”

Asin nods jerkily, getting her own breathing under control. The Spider was fast! Leading Daniel, the pair move away a distance from the lair. It was unlikely the Spider would come out again today.

Hours later, Daniel huffs as another Spider slides away safe beneath its trapdoor. He walks away disconsolately while Asin picks herself off the forest floor, wiping away mud and leaves from her toned buttocks.

“This isn’t working,” Daniel says and Asin can only give a short nod. In a day and a half they had only found three such Spiders and had failed to kill two of the three. Of the third, Daniel’s attacks had been so strong that he had accidentally crushed the venom sac.

Disconsolately, the pair stare at where the Spider continues to hide away. “Let’s take a break for now.”

Asin can only nod and lets Daniel lead them away a short distance to a nearby stream where they set-up for lunch. The pair are quiet as they consider their plans, attempting to see what they can do to change their tactics. At this rate, it would take weeks before they could gather those three venom sacs.

A day later, the pair crouch down in front of a new Spider’s lair. Daniel moves to the side once more, crouching down while Asin gently prods their bait. It had taken them the better part of yesterday and this morning to find their bait, though they had been lucky enough to capture three of the split-horned rabbits at once. Now, one of the rabbits had a rope tied around its body and Asin is prodding it, forcing it to head towards the Spider’s trapdoor.

There is no warning as the trapdoor is pushed aside and the Spider lunges, fangs spearing the unlucky rabbit. Poison is pumped into the grey, squirming creature and the rabbit’s struggles slow-down. As the Spider begins to skitter backwards into its burrow, Asin is hauling on the rope that has been looped around a nearby tree, taking up the slack. The Spider jerks to a half, half-in the hole as Asin strains against the monster.

Before the Spider can release the rabbit and escape their trap, Daniel has rushed forwards. Rather than targeting the Spider this time though, he aims his attack at the trapdoor the Spider still holds with two of its legs. Triggering Perin’s Blow, he smashes the trapdoor in the side, ripping it free from the Spider’s grip and sending it flying into the distance. Without its trapdoor, the Spider spins to attack Daniel, the rabbit dropped and forgotten.

Daniel catches the attack high on his shield, sinking low and letting his knees absorb the shock before he triggers a Shield Bash, slamming the Spider into the air. As it lands, he takes a careful step to the side and crushes a leg, his mace cracking the spindly, hairy appendage.

Asin is scrambling forwards as well, ducking low so that she can slice at both legs on her side with her knives. She scores cuts against both, damaging the legs but as the creature spins again, she finds herself quickly coated with spider silk that the Querk Spider uses to defend itself, spewing it forth from its spinnerets. The silk is sticky and tough, restricting her movements and she grunts in pain as she attempts to escape.

Seeing his companion in danger, Daniel lays into the Spider, forcing the monster to pay attention to him as he works on the creature’s legs. Staying close, he pushes against the creature and bashes its jaw when it attempts to push the young Adventurer aside, forcing the monster to give him its legs. Another leg is crippled and then a third soon after, the monster unable to move as fast anymore. As it scrambles aside, attempting to escape now, Daniel darts around to mash the monster’s other legs, leaving the creature chittering in anger.

Smiling grimly, Daniel ducks back to look over to his friend. At first, he coughs and then he finally has to giggle a little. To escape, Asin has had to cut off the affected fur, chopping around the silk where it has entangled itself on her body and around her clothing. The random patches of uneven fur and gaping holes around her cloak and shirt makes Daniel grin, an action that makes Asin hiss at him.

Snarling, she stalks right past him, careful to avoid the remaining silk to attack the monster. Drawn back to the task at hand, Daniel works on crushing the abdomen to put an end to the monster, careful to avoid the head where the glands lie.

Crippled, the monster is no longer a threat and quickly dies. Asin proceeds immediately to carefully cutting up the monster, working to extract the glands without damaging it. She chuffs in anger, shaking the cuts from it and staring at the gland she accidentally nicked, tossing it aside before attempting to extract the second. This is more successful and Asin purrs happily, her tail waving absently behind.

Grinning, Daniel holds out the enchanted storage pouch for Asin who carefully stores the gland in it. Even enchanted, the gland would only be good for seven days, but without it, the entire venom would degrade within a day. Still, Daniel cannot help but grin, spotting the bare spot on her tail where Asin had to rip the silk off.

“That’s one,” Daniel says and Asin nods. She would need to be more careful on the next Spider. It wasn’t as if she carried that many sets of clothing.

“Are you done laughing?” Daniel grimaces, tugging at the silk that binds him down. Two Spiders, one sac and a day later, Daniel is caught in spider silk. His shield is stuck to his body, his legs webbed together and he’s lying on the ground, able to roll only a short distance back and forth.

“That’ll be a silver for each,” the shopkeeper smiles, pointing to the set of dissolution potions on the counter.

“A silver!” Daniel chokes. “They only cost 20 coppers in Karlak!”

“True, true.”

“So, 20 silvers right?”

“In Karlak. It’s a silver each here,” the shopkeeper smiles again. “You taking them or not?”

“Aaarrggghh!” fishing the six silvers out, Daniel snatches up the potions after paying. They had used the two potions they had bought already and they were already wasting half-a-day traveling back just to get these potions. They couldn’t afford to waste more time.

“… face!” clawing at his face, Daniel coughs and rolls on the ground as the Spider, having spun aside and sprayed Daniel when he first attacked scrambles away for the nearest tree, dragging the young Adventurer along the ground. He scrambles for his pouch as he bumps over a root, struggling for breath through the corner of his mouth. Hand closing on the potion, he gets ready to pour it over the spider silk.

As the Spider reaches the nearest tree, a blurring blue wreathed dagger pierces its body. Too aerodynamic to pin the creature, it still makes the Spider jerk in its forward momentum long enough for Daniel to pour the potion over the silk. It immediately begins to dissolve as Daniel struggles with the web and breathing.

Asin does not stop, tossing knife after knife at the Spider. Angered, the Spider spins around and the chelicerae enclose on either side of his leg. Only one fang actually pierces through, sliding past the armour and injecting poison into his body. Even as Asin sinks another knife into its body and Daniel smashes against it, it does not let go, pumping more and more venom into Daniel. As it dies, Daniel is finally able to tear the last of the silk from his face and use both hands to pull its jaws apart.

Asin scrambles over, handing him a potion to combat the paralysis that rushes through Daniel’s body. Shivering, Daniel curls up on his side and vomits half the contents of his stomach up. Once Asin has checked with Daniel that he will be fine, she drags the body away, working on the Spider to locate its sac. She grimaces, finding one crushed and the other only half-full. Putting it aside, she mentally does the math. Today was the fourth day since they first managed to get their first sac. Another day and it would rot, so they either had to get one today or risk not having enough. Grimacing, she watches Daniel for a moment who continues to shiver before she hurries over to check on their bait. Only one last rabbit left before they had to find more live bait.

This was going to be tough.

“Last chance,” Asin points, holding up both the map and the rabbit. Having gone through the vast majority of the easy to get to lairs, the pair would either have to revisit old lairs or journey deeper. Daniel grimaces, nodding, running a hand through his hair and finding it catching a bit. He grimaces, pulling out his boot knife to cut the glob of silk out, tossing it aside after yanking even more skin off.

“Then we better get this right,” Daniel growls, rolling his wrist and mace. Days of tramping through the forest, hunting down Spiders that might or might still be in the locations marked on the map, trapping and dragging live animals and then brief minutes of scrambling, fighting and sometimes, winning has made the Adventurer short-tempered. So much work for so little gain. No wonder most Adventurers charged such a high rate for these sacs - it wasn’t difficult so much as annoying.

Flank, rabbit, charge and smash. Everything this time works smoothly, the Spider caught out and its trapdoor sent spinning away. Asin ducks in close this time and works on the back leg, one after the other while Daniel works on distracting the Spider. He mostly blocks, attacking only once in a while when he has a clear shot, too wary to lash out aggressively.

The monster crippled, Daniel grins and stretches when Asin hisses. He spins around, his eyes widening as he spots the pack of wolves behind him. They let out a little growl and Daniel slowly edges around the monster towards Asin who has a pair of daggers held out. The wolves snarl again, slowly pacing forwards as they drive the pair away from the Spider. Neither Adventurer wants to start this fight though - they are outnumbered and tired.

Once they are a distance away, the two look at each other as they slide their backpacks on and begin jogging away. Silence lingers for a time as they put distance between them and the pack before a curse fly’s out finally.

“Ba’al’s vomit!”