Wraithblood: The Elixir, Episode 14a

“Nasser,” you say. “Wait.”

Azaces glares at you, but Nasser stops, eyebrows raised.

“Samnirdamnus gave me a warning,” you say. “He says there’s something dangerous in that open alcove.”

Azaces snorts. “A foolish warning. The only unlocked alcove down here? Are the wraithblood hallucinations getting you, little girl? Here, I will show you that the alcove is empty.”

He steps towards the darkened alcove, but Nasser stops him.

“Don’t be an idiot,” says Nasser. He reaches up, takes one of the pale-glowing Alchemists’ lanterns from their chains, and points it into the alcove.

And there’s nothing in the alcove at all. Lots of cobwebs in the corner, thick, ropy sheets of them, accompanied by a peculiar and unpleasant odor, like rotten meat lying in wet dust. Yet other than that, the alcove is empty.

Then Nasser shifts the lantern, and you see a misshapen, hideous thing hanging from the ceiling. It’s a spider the size of a large dog, with the head of a beautiful woman. Albeit a beautiful woman with three-inch fangs jutting from her jaw, green slime dribbling from her lips, and eyes that shine with a faint blue glow, the trademark of Alchemical manipulation.

“Master!” shrieks the thing, sobbing. “Do you not find me beautiful any longer? Master! Master!”

“The Living Flame preserve us!” says Azaces, raising his bow. “A daevagoth!”  A ‘daevagoth’ is the Anshani term for a creature or human altered by alchemy or sorcery.

“Master!” weeps the daevagoth, her face contorted with grief. “If I slay the intruders, Master, will you love me again?”

Azaces fires his bow, but the daevagoth is faster. The spider-creature drops from the ceiling and leaps upon Khaenset, driving him to the ground. Khaenset’s face shows no expression, none at all, as the daevagoth’s serrated pincers sink into his neck.

Azaces lines up another arrow, and Nasser draws his scimitar, and you try to calculate a plan of action. You could try to use the paralytic on your wrist blades or crossbow darts, but it is entirely possible that the daevagoth’s physiology has been so altered that the drug will not work. Alternately, you still have the little bottles of acid you took from the Strigosti trapbox containing Samnirdamnus’s totem, and that could distract the daevagoth long enough for Nasser or Azaces to land a killing blow.

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