A run-in with spiders (solo)

[LycorisX]

Vindlyn did not like forests. She did not like swamps for that matter either, or jungles, or anywhere really were lots of messy and chaotic nature made its home. People had invented cities for a reason. A reason she was beginning to appreciate more and more as she walked further into the Brokenthorn Forest. A place that was most definitively filled with all manner of messy nature.
She did unfortunate enough see the necessity of being her however. No matter how much of an annoyance sleeping on the ground was. Her magic was not strong enough (at the moment anyway) for her to relay on it exclusively. That meant fighting with a sword and, if push came to show, knives. She was rather fair at sword fighting if she could say so herself, but so was many other and she was nothing more than average strong and fast. Not something that could be said for some of the opponents she had run into. She needed an edge, and it just so happened that she had come across a lovely receipt for a very effective poison who could easily be made in large quantities, according to her book anyway. Excellent so far but the prime ingredients for this poison could only be obtained here, in Brokenthorn Forest. Sure, she could probably have bought it somewhere but as much as she disliked nature, she disliked to waste her hard-earned gold when there was cheaper alternatives so she bit her teeth together and went ahead.

[LycorisX]

So far, her journey had been uneventful. When she had asked around for information about this forest many had warned her about the creatures living there, especially the Neverscale Crawlers, creatures crawling up from the ocean to wreak havoc and eat adventures gruesomely. They were also happy to inform her about how the unnamed river that ran through the forest and that was a prime ambush point for some of the more nasty creatures in the area. Of course, it was also at the river that was the rare type of lily she was after were to be found. Lovely how things turned out.

[LycorisX]

The sky was beginning to darkening as Vindlyn began nearing the river. Not liking the thought of meeting whatever hungry nastiest were sure to be there waiting for her she set up camp half an hour away from it. Despite her utter disdain for anything nature she all too often came into contact with it on her searches, nobody ever set up abandoned ruins within walking distance from major cities unfortunately. Therefore, she had taught herself over time the basic of wilderness survival enough to, in fact, survive it.
She would never for the life of her understand why but as it happened it were actually several people in the world capable of enjoying the outdoor life, and several more sane souls that had to put up with it like her, so it was plenty of material on the subject available.
She put up a small fire, ate her food and went to sleep trying not to think too hard about the bed in the last tavern she had visited. Or the food. The night sky was clear at least and she lulled herself into sleep while looking up and trying to recall the names of the various star constellations.

[LycorisX]

When she awoke later she felt an unexplainable sense of dread. She had just enough time to wonder if not she had been having nightmare when she heard something rustling in the trees around her. At once she got up and grabbed for her sword but as her hand clenched around the blade something landed on her leg. She kicked out but whatever it was clung to her and she felt a sharp stab of pain. The rustling in the trees continued. She manager to rip off the creature on her leg, it was a spider, larger than her hand and from the pain in her legs she knew it had bitten her. Disgusted she threw it into the glowing embers of her fire.
Around her she could her several heavy shapes landing from up in the trees. She made a ball of glowing light and was revolted at the sight of several spiders, large as dogs, looking at her with fist sized gleaming eyes. There was at least four of them, which she could see anyway; she could still her rustling in the trees.
They appeared to momentarily have stopped up due to the sudden light but were now steadily advancing at her. She held out her rapier and prepared an ice spike in her left hand. The first spider ran up to her, brandishing is long and poison dripping fangs. She threw the ice spike directly at it and it died at once. She felt dizzy, like she had not slept in days. Another spider neared her and she slashed out at it, ripping out several of its many, terrifyingly soulless eyes.
The other spiders retired slightly, spooked no doubt by her show of resistance. It was five of them alive now with the one that she had wounded. Undoubtedly, the best course would be to run away, but her leg was steadily becoming numb. Those parts of it that she could feel throbbing in a dull ache. The small spiders bit had poisoned her and the poison was working very fast. She tried to call up the spell for mental manipulation, make the spiders even more afraid so they would run away. She was unable to gather up enough mental energy however due to the growing dizziness. Animals were usually easier than people were but these spiders were the prime predators of the region and unaccustomed to fear. They were merely wary by her display of resistance, and now that they could sense that she was wounded they were beginning to move purposely towards her.
Unable to summon any more ice spikes she instead lashed out with her sword at the approaching spiders but her swings laced power and was unable to penetrate the thick exoskeleton of the spiders. She manager to kill just one with a lucky thrust through the eyes before they overran her. The last thing she felt before everything went black was something much larger than the small spider from before biting her and the sensation of being dragged across the ground.

[LycorisX]

She awoke feeling terrible but very, very thankful to be alive. She was entwined in a mass of hard but also sticky ropes. Spider web. She was bundled into a cocoon of spider web up to her head, leaving her room to breathe but not to actually move.
So I survived just so the spiders could have me as a fresh snack later, how lovely. She thought darkly. She very much doubted they would be considerable enough to bite her into unconsciousness before they started eating her.
She tried wiggling, testing the bonds of her confinement. She was not planning on ending up as anyone’s lunch, now or ever. Her head was throbbing and her legs had fallen asleep it seemed but she felt otherwise surprisingly healthy. Whatever was in the spider’s poison it was not for killing the prey but rather leave it alive and unable to fight back as they were tied up in the web. A rather effective mechanism, specially geared towards catching and keeping the prey alive to be eaten later…
She shook her head. She would much rather be thinking about the fascinating behavior of giant spiders when they wasn’t out there somewhere close and planning a dinner party with her as the main course.
Wiggling prove inefficient in breaking her bones and she raced her brain for other ides. She still had her sword, surprisingly enough. It was clenched in her hand but largely unmovable. She also still wore her knives but they too were unreachable in her current confinement. She was in short helpless to move… But her headache were beginning to clear and she could feel her magic returning.
Figuring that anything so sticky must contain some form of liquid, she began lowering the temperature around her.
It did not have any noticeable effect at first, but as she continued to maintain the effect she could feel the ropelike web threads binding her begin to stiffen. When it was cold enough that she was beginning to have frosty breath she could feel the slim like stickiness of the web cocoon turn to a grayish ice. Turning to ice and as such becoming a whole lot more brittle.
It was still a too thick layer too simply break thorough of course. However, without the cocoon sticking to her she could wiggle around until she had some minimal movement. Trapped in a very tight barrel rather than submerged in thick mud you could say. She was not able to move her sword arm well enough to make a different but her left arm had been trapped right at her side, allowing her to move it so that she could grab hold of one of her knifes.

[LycorisX]

It took her no small among of tricky maneuvering but she finally got her knife in position to start hacking, or at least rasping, at the frozen web. What felt like hours later she finally managed to make a crack in the frozen web big enough for her hand to stick through and she began freeing her left arm.
Hope none of the spiders is going to come for dinner.
She thought, right before a rustling sound was to be heard from the busses and one of the gigantic spiders came crawling towards her. Of course.
She concentrated about her mind magic, even looked the monster right into its creepy, creepy eyes even if she had never figured out if that worked with animals as well, and tried to steer it away.
Not hungry, you are not hungry at all.She projected at it, calling forth a feeling of satisfaction. This time it did work, the gigantic spifder stopped out. After a somewhat nerve-wracking second that it merely stood there, t turned around and went back the way it came.
Vindlyn let out a shaky breath and went back to work.

[LycorisX]

When she was done hacking away at the web her left arm felt like wobbling jelly but she could move it and her sword arm freely. She brook out her legs as well and left her prison shaky from the lack of movement the last four hours or so.
She began noticing her environment; she was in some sort of forest glen covered in webs. She could see several smaller cocoons with what looked like gigantic rattails sticking out of them. Their food storage then, that made sense.
She wasted a couple of minutes stretching her legs until they felt like she could actually walk on them. Luckily, this time no inconvenient spiders showed up and soon she was ready to complete her escape.

[LycorisX]

She walked away from the spider den quickly but carefully. Alert for any spiders catching up with her on her way out. As her luck had been going she doubted she would manager to get away this easily.
Her cynical predictions proved true; as she reached a small stream at the outskirt of the spider den a truly gigantic spider approached her. It was twice as big as the spiders that had attacked her the night before; its long and hairy legs were thicker than her upper arms and its body as big as a pony and its eight, shining eyes were as large as dinner plates.
She smirked as it approached her, alone. This time she was not poisoned, she had her magic at her fingertips and standing beside a source of water she could throw twice as many ice spikes. This was certainly going to be interesting…

[LycorisX]

The gigantic spider was running towards her. She waited until the last second and threw an ice spike directly into one of its eyes. It stopped up but did not fall over; she took the opportunity to move around it.
It swatted out at her with one of its many legs. She dodged it and slashed at it with her sword.
Swatting me as an insect eh?
She thought amused and sent another ice spike into its eyes. It staggered back, two of its eyes now blind and one of its legs hurt.
Still I suppose you are not actually an insect.
The gigantic spider were now trying to lung forward and bite her with its nasty, poisonous fangs. She jumped back and started dropping the temperature around it until frost started appearing and it slowed down, then lunged forward herself and made a cut at its front leg.
It was definitively reeling now.
“Not so fun when it is you that being made useless is it?” she said to it. It did not bother answering her by other means than lunging at her again.

[LycorisX]

She dodged around the now slowed gigantic spider and threw another ice spike into the side of its body. The spider staggered and then collapsed on the ground, its lags twitching uselessly. She jumped up at it and drove her sword through its head. It gave a final shiver then fell still.
She got off the spider corpse. Shaking a bit with leftover adrenalin. She took two long, calming breaths and warily looked around. Nothing. No other spiders seemed to have noticed the fight, or if they had seemed to have assumed that the outcome was a given.
She turned her attention towards the giant spider she had just killed. Its remaining eyes stared dead out at her, not with much change from when it was alive. Its fangs were still dripping in that fascinating poison that been so effective against her. Perhaps she did not need to heed for the river to get herself some poison…
It took some time but she eventually manager to cut inn to the monster’s poison glands and fill some of the empty vials she had brought with her. She could not wait to get back into town and experiment with the stuff.

OOC: Done.
Loot option: Five vials of non-lethal spider venom that can be applied to weapons and make the target first dizzy then knock them out for an hour after a few minutes if they get a large enough dose. Effect last when applied to a weapon for about three attacks.