Episode 8

After being on the road for some time, the party hunts with Bixx and his Crew to gain some more food for the road ahead. While processing their kills, the party learns that Perin Twofoot and his merchant group attacked the goblins and not the other way around as Perin had them believe. After some discussion and some more traveling, the party reaches a familiar campsite, they take a rest, knowing that they can reach Wharram by the end of tomorrow.

The party wakes to their usual routine. Taman is up exercising and is joined by Lilith and Nok-Nok. The party immediately notices Nok-Nok has grown a full bush of black hair during the night. With Nok-Nok just as surprised as the rest of the party, he attempts to cut it off, but it seems to grow back almost instantly. Giving up, he tears a piece of cloth off of the linen rolls and ties his hair back into a ponytail.

Zaren spends some more time studying the key and it's runic combinations and unlocks another ability of the key. He shares the information with the rest of the party while they start packing up the camp.

Taman brews some coffee and after drinking some of it, he feels much more awake than usual. Lilith asks if she have a bit of the coffee and Taman gives her some. She experiences the same feeling.

The party notices Bixx sitting on the trade wagon fiddling with a piece of parchment, but doesn't pay much attention to it. After everything is packed up and everyone is ready to go, Bixx approaches Nok-Nok and provides him with a map of Baaha as promised as part of the new agreement. Nok-Nok spends some time with the map Zaren has and finds the location of Baaha on the map. He notifies the rest of the party of the town map Bixx provided him with and they spend some time looking at it after which everyone moves to the wagons and the group starts heading towards Wharram.

Along the way, Taman spots some Tealeaf plants and decides to gather a few just in case. Cade spends some time with Bixx to see what else he can learn from him and Bixx provides him with some information on the area. Cade learns that wolves inhabit the cave north of Boulder Pass, there is also an inn near the graveyard to the north east of Crom Lake which is frequented by bandits and he shares some information regarding a burrow in the northern part of the Grasslands which is used by bandits as a means of laying low.

Lilith borrows the book on runes from Zaren which they obtained in the Tanglestrand home and spends most of the journey studying it for more information. She comes across runes which seems familiar to her and heads to Zaren to compare it with the runes on the key. After a short while she explains to Zaren that the combination of runes on the key, matches the combination shown in the book and that it seems to be associated with Darkvision. Zaren makes some notes and thanks her. Lilith returns to her cart and continues studying the book.

Roughly four hour out from Wharram and with the last bright daylight, the Cade notices movement up ahead. Spiders, and lots of them. He immediately gestures for the caravans to stop and they manage to stop 200 feet away without making a noise. The spiders do not notice the party. Stealthily, everyone climbs off the wagons and move in between them to form a plan of dealing with the situation. Eventually they agree, with some objection from Bixx, that they would form a firing line and only engage in melee if the spiders get close enough. Nok-Nok casts invisibility on Cade and he moves closer than the rest, waiting for the spiders to engage before ambushing them from the side. Zaren sends Fellarr out to scout from high above to make sure there are no other surprises and Fellarr finds two more spiders which the party did not notice. Rowan and Jaren cower on the wagons, afraid to join the attack.

With the party in place and still not spotted by the spiders, they let loose a few volley's of arrows. Surprised, the spiders attempt to defend themselves, but the onslaught from group is too much for them to handle. One by one they fall to the group. With the battle won and the path to Wharram cleared, some of the party head back to get the wagons while others stay to see what they can harvest from the corpses of the spiders. The goblins harvest quite a bit of spider meat and they party decides to let them keep all of it. Cade harvests three spider venom sacs.

On returning to the wagons, Nok-Nok notices that Rowan and Jaren are no longer there. Immediately he checks the gold and gems and to his relief, it seems no one has tampered with them. He shares the information and after the party determines which direction they went in, Fellarr is sent to see if he can locate them. Bixx sends Scrap to track them down who quickly reaches Cade who has gone after them. Zaren tells Fellarr to relay information with the ones chasing after Rowan and Jaren. Taman unhitches a horse and sets off after Cade and Scrap to see if he can pick them up to increase their chances. Fellarr sends some images to them of spiders closing in on Rowan and Jaren. A few moments later he sends some more with Rowan taken down and Jaren still running but the spiders are swarming behind him. By the time Taman manages to pick up Cade and Scrap, Fellarr communicates to them that both have been caught by the spiders. They end the pursuit and head back to the caravan.

Taman hitches the horse to it's cart and everyone gets into their spaces, this time with two less. Silently they make their way towards Wharram.

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