Elendil hastily lights one of the improvised torches as Med dashes off to the north, followed by the cleric and the lantern.
Med passes along a very short hallway and glances around the next room. It is forty feet from east to west, and about twenty feet wide. The walls are mostly obscured by huge, grayish spider webs, but on the eastern end of the room he can just make out the banister of what must be a staircase leading up and to the south. The ceiling is only about eight feet high in here. On it are three--no, five--of the largest spiders he has ever seen. Each has a fat, hairy body about a foot across with legs spanning twice that far. They are moving towards the stairs, but as Brother Landrau comes in behind Med with the light, they turn around and come directly at the two men with a frightful speed.
Med is on the verge of hurling a dart when he hears a loud and very strange voice coming from behind him. It is recognizable as Talia, but the speech is made up of a series of chittering hisses that couldn’t possibly be made by a human mouth. Med sees the spiders freeze.
Back in the big room., things fall into silence after Talia’s speech and there is a long, eerie pause. Then Elendil sees two spiders emerge over the railing. Finally, one of them speaks.
Ben: In the name of efficient gaming, I’m going to take the liberty of translating this on Talia’s behalf.
“The food talked,” the first spider hisses. “Why can the food talk?”
“It says it means no harm, but Akarr is already killed,” the second spider says.
Med sees the five spiders in the north room vanish up the stairs.
“Gragor should be summoned”, chirps a third spider as it creeps out on the balcony. “This is unusual food.”
Suddenly there are several more spiders spread out along the railing, the ceiling above it, and the wall below it.
“Gragor”, they howl. “Gragor!”
A minute later, as Talia is beginning to feel the spell fading, a new spider emerges. It is indistinguishable from the others, but as it appears, they all scurry to form ranks around it.
“The King of Spiders wants no business with men,” it shouts. “Leave the armored one to us and begone!”
The hair rises on the back of Talia’s neck. The spell had ended, but she’d understood it anyway. She glances at Elendil, whose eyes are round with surprise. He murmurs, “Did that spider just speak Ercacian?”
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