The silent standoff was broken by Thisss uttering his distinctive hissing roar, jumping over the pen wall and then racing towards the centre of the barn. How exactly he thought he was going to attack a gigantic spider that was twenty feet above his head was anyone's guess, and his three companions never got the chance to find out. At the instant Thisss arrived underneath the enormous arachnid it let go of the roof, spun around in mid-air, and then landed squarely on top of the giant lizardman, crushing him to the ground.

Chaos ensued. The sheep were bleating in terror and searching desperately for a safe spot in the barn to hide. Thisss was roaring and hissing, trying furiously to throw the spider off while simultaneously looking for a spot to grab on with his mighty jaws. Flem sent his daggers spinning through the air and into the spider's bloated abdomen with no apparent effect. Terri leapt over the pen wall and ran towards the centre of the barn, unsure how she was going to get close enough to hit the spider with her hammer. Aggy didn't move at all but instead roared out "Get down!" at the top of her considerable voice.

Terri and Flem obeyed immediately and seconds later a sizzling bolt of silver energy burst forth from Aggy's hands and shot towards the spider. It was a testament to the spider's excellent eyesight and superb reaction time that it managed to lift its head and even tense itself to spring by the time the magic missile hit. The silvery bolt of energy caught the huge arachnid on the left hand side of its thorax, just beside the head. It then proceeded straight on through the spider's body before exiting via a massive hole in the creature's abdomen.

The terrifying monster was dead even before it collapsed down on top of Thisss, burying him in a tangle of spider body and hairy legs. With Terri's help the giant lizardman managed to heave the lifeless body off to the side before standing up to address the group.

"Dwarf, as the slayer of the beast you of course have the first choice of which organs you wish to feast on. Nonetheless I would appreciate it if you could save the eyes for me." With that Thisss’ own eyes fluttered closed and the giant lizard man fell forwards onto the ground, completely unconscious.

Terri knelt down beside Thisss as Aggy and Flem climbed over the pen's wooden railings. The young cleric searched the green scaly body for any signs of injury but found nothing. She looked up at her companions, her young face a mixture of fear and worry. "I'm not sure what to do. I could call on Avandar to heal him but I don't know what I'd be healing, I'm not sure if it would work."

"I think I might have found the problem," Flem said quietly. He had knelt down near the lizardman's tail and was pointing to a small red spot that was in stark contrast to the rest of Thisss' pale green underbelly. Even as they watched the spot it began to grow in size, its lurid red colour spreading out along the length of Thisss' tail.

"Poison," muttered Aggy, "he must have been stung while he was wrestling with the spider. It doesn't look natural either, some kind of magical effect is pushing it through his body. Well, I guess we now know what the problem is, do you think you can heal it Terri?"

"I'm not sure, Aggs," Terri answered. "None of the training we did this year had anything to do with poison, but I guess there's only one way to find out." The young cleric moved to the lizardman's tail and placed one hand on the puncture wound and the other on her amulet. She then paused and composed herself before saying confidently, "By Avandar's grace I bring healing to your body."

The trio watched apprehensively as the red colour slowly faded back towards the puncture wound. When it had been reduced to about the size of a thumbnail its progress stopped and Terri breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like I haven't managed to heal him completely but that's ok, we can get him back to Gravenhall tomorrow and they'll be able to-"

Terri didn't finish her sentence because the red mark had begun to grow again, albeit at a slower rate than the first time. "Damn it," the young cleric said angrily, "I can heal his body but I can't get rid of the poison. We need to get him back to Gravenhall immediately. Aggy, go and wake Farmer Devon and see if he's got a horse and wagon. If he does then tell him to get it hitched up. If he doesn't then I don't know what the hell we're going to do."

Aggy and Flem went to wake the farmer while Terri remained with Thisss and called on Avandar's healing power every time the red discoloration reached the base of the lizardman's tail. After what seemed like hours Aggy and Flem returned with Farmer Devon following behind them. The farmer stopped short when he saw the spider's carcass while Aggy and Flem ran to Terri's side.

"Sorry that took so long," Aggy apologized, "we had a bit of trouble getting the horse tacked up and onto the wagon. How's our patient doing?"

"Not good," Terri replied. "The poison is moving more slowly now but the colour is more intense. The biggest problem though is that I'm getting tired. I've never done this much healing in such a short amount of time before and it's starting to wear me out."

"Right," said Aggy, "then there's no time to waste. Let's get the big bugger on the wagon and get moving, it's just outside the barn."

Even with four of them it was a challenge to get Thisss on board. He was immensely heavy and his flopping limbs made him unwieldy as well. When the lizardman was finally stowed away Farmer Devon climbed up into the driver's seat and they set off at a moderate pace. Terri urged the farmer to hurry but he insisted that they were already going at Eliza's top speed and if they wanted to get there at all they'd have to let her set the pace.

At the speed they were going Terri estimated it would take the three quarters of an hour to reach Gravenhall, and she was now having to heal Thisss every two to three minutes to keep the poison at bay. The young cleric turned to Aggy who was sitting beside her. "I'm not sure what state I'll be in by the time we reach Gravenhall Aggs. Every time I heal him it's getting harder and harder. If I faint or collapse I'll need you to wake me up, whatever it takes ok?"

Aggy's reply was full of concern. "Alright lass, I'll do my best but I don't really understand what's happening, I thought that the power came from Avandar and that you were just channeling it. It seems to me like you're using your own energy to heal the lizard."

After treating Thisss again Terri slowly replied, "No, I'm not doing any of the healing Aggs. You were right the first time. The reason I'm getting worn out is that it takes a lot of the body's energy to hold itself together when the power is flowing. It feels like swimming against the tide or trying to hold up a brick wall that's falling over. You have to use all your strength just to stay in one place. It's hard to explain but it feels like you're putting in a huge effort just to do nothing. It's not a problem for one healing, or for a second or a third but by the time you hit the fifty mark it gets pretty brutal."

"Alright then lass,” Aggy answered, “try and rest as much as you can and I promise I'll wake you up if I need to."

----------------------------

In the end Terri only fainted once on the way back to Gravenhall. They'd just passed the outskirts of Providence when she suddenly slumped down across Thisss' inert body. The young cleric didn't respond to being shaken gently so Aggy reached into her backpack and brought out the water skin she carried with her. A few splashes down the back of Terri's neck brought the young cleric back to consciousness. However her speech was slow and slurred when she invoked Avandar's name to heal Thisss one more time. When they finally pulled up to the main gate of Gravenhall Aggy stayed with the cart and its occupants while Flem sped through twisting hallways to the infirmary. By the time he arrived back at the cart, followed by four burly men carrying a stretcher, Terri had fainted twice more and the red infection had started to spread up Thisss' scaled back. Before loading the giant lizard onto the stretcher one of the orderlies supported Thisss' head and poured a little black liquid from a glass bottle into his open jaws. Then they were gone, back into the dark confines of Gravenhall leaving Aggy, Flem and the unconscious Terri still in Farmer Devon's cart.

"I don't suppose you'd be amenable to giving us a ride home?" Aggy asked hopefully. Farmer Devon sighed audibly before nodding and turning the cart back towards the darkened streets of Providence.