The 18th of Vor, 1329 Avard: Beaten but not broken, Zap and Ethos sought healing aid in the Wolves' Den, where Zap had trained the past six months. After having much of their strength restored, the two resumed their search for the hooded mage that used spiders, and who was protected by the Scorpions.

The remainder of the Scorpions had gone to ground or fled, but the proof the two had obtained that they were still in the city gave credence to their story about a spidery mage helping the Scorpions – and put them on better footing with the Lord Reeve.

Operating out of Kelerin's Manor, the two began a systematic search of bird vendors throughout the city.

One false lead took them to the merchant master Geladine's manor. Convinced that something was not quite right with the way the master merchant's sons behaved, two two asked more pointed questions of the servants. It turned out that Master Geladine himself had been 'away on business' for the past two days. This seemed proof enough to Zap and Ethos that Master Geladine and the hooded mage were one and the same.

Enlisting the aid of Norion, and Hrothgar, and their dark friend Bjarne, the group sought to infiltrate Geladine's manor to find the lair of the spiders, and bring down the hooded mage.

Unfortunately, their recon became a battle of sorts, and the Guard were called in in force to deal with the situation – by the Geladines, no less. No sign of giant spiders was found anywhere on the premises – although as the guard arrived, Ethos spied a dark figure dropping the curtains back into place within the manor.

The Guard placed Bjarne, Hrothgar, Norion, and Zap in jail for 'disturbing the peace', 'breaking and entering', 'attempted murder', and 'destruction of private property'.

Around noon of the next day, the Lord Count had an audience with the group. He said that the Lord Reeve had investigated their claims thoroughly, and had found no giant spiders or mage-related interests in Geladine's manor. The Lord Count fined all of them a considerable sum of money, and ordered them to also pay Master Geladine a large compensation. The Lord Count found them guilty on all charges, save one: 'attempted murder'. Master Geladine himself disputed that claim, and by his presence, Zap realized that the hooded mage was definitely not Master Geladine.

Zap, Bjarne, and Hrothgar returned to Kelerin's Manor only to discover Ethos and Tor webbed into place, the manor stripped of all possessions, and a dire warning: Both Tor and Ethos had been tattooed with the same tattoo as that of the Scorpions themselves.

The Scorpions – and the hooded mage – obviously wanted to discredit Zap and Ethos, and they were doing it very effectively.

That night, they watched a game of Siege being played at the Whiskey tavern, as Zap riled up the dwarves and prepared them to do battle with Master Geladine. Calling in every favor he had, the young human hoped to storm the manor again, and catch the Scorpions by surprise. The game of Siege ended, with the tomanths leaving in disgust because there was no broth available. Zap left thinking that the next night, they would catch the Scorpions once and for all.

The next day, it dawned on Ethos where to find the hooded mage. The tomanths were a strange species of lizard-men, and chicken did much the same for them as alcohol did for humans. The chicken broth they drank at the Whiskey was how they tallied the winners and the losers of the games of Siege. Zap and Ethos raced back to the Whiskey, and spoke with the owner, discovering that he hadn't had chickens in several days because his usual vendor hadn't come into town.

Making use of their connections, the two of them quickly determined where the chicken rancher lived, and they returned to Kelerin's Manor to enlist the aid of Bjarne and Hrothgar.

The four of them raced for the Vinlands, a small village just southeast of their city of Kashin. The nearby Vinlands was the agricultural hub that helped feed Kashin, and it did not take the four long to find the home of the chicken rancher that dealt with the Whiskey.

The ranch was seemingly empty, save for four riding horses tethered out back. Splitting up, Bjarne and Hrothgar went one way around the house, and Zap and Ethos approached the front.

Battle erupted, as archers fired out of the windows, and giant spiders crawled out of the windows to the walls and the roof, spitting webs everywhere. Inside the house, the mantras of a spell-caster could be heard, ominous in their seeming calm.

Bjarne and Hrothgar were led into the barn, which was a trap. Bjarne managed to cut himself free, but Hrothgar was trapped under the roof and cocooned by spiders.

Zap managed to wound an archer, while Ethos called upon Whalin's aid. Whalin answered with a swarm of great bats that swirled about the monstrous spiders, distracting them, and slowly tearing them apart with their small teeth and talons. The spiders, commanded by their master, held their fire down on the interlopers.

Bjarne, heavily wounded, managed to kill one of the archers, even as Ethos returned fire with archery of his own to anther of the Scorpions.

The hooded mage, seeing how the battle was going to fare, fled even as Zap and Bjarne were cocooned by the onslaught of the spiders' webbings.

Ethos' arrows proved particularly powerful against the spiders, even as he narrowed his concentration with the bats. The bats began tearing the spiders apart, buying the elven cleric time to cut first Zap, and then Bjarne, free of their webbing.

Ethos let fly one last shot at a great range, trying to catch the mage fleeing on horseback. His arrow managed to catch the mage in the shoulder, but the wounded figure stayed in the saddle, and urged his horse on even faster.

Zap's training at the War College kicked in, and his heavy crossbow was up before he thought. A click on the crossbow echoed in the near silence, and the young warrior turned to help free Hrothgar without even looking at where his bolt had flown: straight into the heart of the hooded mage.

* * *

The Lord Reeve and his men went through the chicken rancher's home and the remains of the barn, searching for clues. From all they could tell, the hooded mage – a skeletal man known as Armod d'Arsture – must have been one of the right-hand men of the Scorpion himself.

The spiders were a part of the mage's menagerie, and because he couldn't just leave them behind, he had had to flee the city more slowly, taking his time. Luckily, Zap and Ethos had caught onto him, and figured out where they had gone – but only by luck.

Wounded, hurting, and in some pain, they all returned to Kashin. -so ends the 20th of Vor, 1329 Avard.

Wow. Brent and Ramon wandered all over Kashin looking for clues, when they were right there in front of them the whole time. C'est les vis: such is life. I couldn't believe that Zap had landed in jail for the second time in a row! Their hare-brained leap onto Geladine as the hooded mage had me rolling on the inside. I could tell that they were enjoying themselves, despite their crappy rolls. But, they rolled well enough to keep them out of the spiders' webbing, because if they had both gone down, that would have been the end of them.

At the very end, Ethos' last shot, and Zap's last shot, had been masterful rolls. It was as though they were saving all their luck for the final battle. And Armod almost got away, too! Damn! Oh, well. So much for using him as a recurring villain. No worries, though, because Kelerain is still out there.

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