Explorer of Edregon

Vin stared at the runic spiderweb that had just spoken to them, wondering what the correct move was here. With Whispering Wind under his own belt, he was no stranger to speaking at a distance via magic. But somehow he got the distinct vibe that they weren't just being listened to, but being watched as well.

"Uh, hello?" Vin tried, waving stupidly at the talking web. "Sorry for cutting through so many of your webs. I hope we didn't mess anything up."

"Oh, it's no problem at all!" The voice spoke through the web, sounding oddly chipper in Vin's opinion. "Always good practice to put them up again! Anyway, what brings you lot to the Aernae Forest? Looking for a merger? Hoping to trade? Just here to chat?"

"Honestly, we're just sort of wandering about at the moment," Vin admitted, the overly excited voice catching him off guard. It felt incredibly out of place this deep inside the creepy forest. "Do you have a town or anything we could visit?"

"Of course! My apologies, you must have had a rather rough time trying to make your way through the wild forest like that! If you turn to your right and venture about a quarter mile in that direction, you'll find one of the paths we have set up. Just follow the glowing webs once you get there!"

The magical signature he'd picked up on faded from the runic spiderweb, and Vin turned to find near identical looks of confusion on his friends' faces.

"So… Should we follow his instructions?" Vin asked, sounding less sure of himself than ever before.

"I mean, he seemed nice enough," Alka shrugged.

"Are the two of you mad?" Scule asked, looking between them both like they'd lost their minds. "You do realize anyone that lives in a freaky place like this and sounds that happy has to be totally insane, right? I don't know about you guys, but I prefer my innards don't get turned into outards."

"I think we should check it out," Shia said, still analyzing the runic spiderweb they'd stumbled upon. "The fact that they somehow wove these spiderwebs into a functioning rune is absolutely blowing my mind. If they've managed to train spiders somehow into weaving magic for them, I need to know how it's done. This could completely change how the Druids of the Sacred Forest perform magic!"

Vin briefly wondered what it would be like to field an army of trained spiders capable of weaving together complicated runic structures, and he quickly understood why Shia was getting so excited. He couldn't say he liked the idea of being followed around by a few hundred spiders, but the extra magical help would be pretty cool.

"Guess that's that then," Alka said, ignoring Scule's strained noises as she turned and began walking in the direction they'd been instructed to go. "Let me know if you guys see any other webs I should avoid cutting, otherwise, I'm going to keep carving a path."

Now that he knew what to look for, Vin managed to pick out a handful of other similar runes placed here and there throughout the dense forest as they made their way to the supposed path. Seeing as they all contained the 'sound' rune he'd recognized, he wondered if their sole purpose was to catch other people like them just wandering through the forest and help direct them to the prepared paths.

It was either a surprisingly kind gesture, or shepherding them into a prepared kill zone.

Vin hoped it was the former.

Due to the dense foliage, lack of light, and industrial strength cobwebs they had to maneuver around, it took them far longer to make it to the path than Vin would have expected. Even so, the moment they broke out of the creepy forest and found themselves standing on a well-lit and maintained path, Vin was happy they'd decided to trust the mysterious voice.

Paved with smooth rocks that kept the thick trees at bay, the path was wide enough for all of them to walk side by side if they so chose. There were spiderwebs running high along each side that were lit up like warm Christmas lights, brightly illuminating the path in both directions and transforming the freaky, dark forest into an enjoyable walk.

"Well, this is way better than blindly forcing our way through the dark forest," Vin chuckled, following the path deeper into the forest. "Though I suppose we should still keep our wits about us."

"At least you still have a shred of common sense," Scule muttered, already looking every which way in watch of traps.

"Honestly, I thought you'd put up more of a fight," Vin admitted, raising an eyebrow at the worried petian. "You caved rather quickly this time around."

"Lucky for you guys, I ended up picking up Trap Sense for my level 25 passive a bit ago," Scule explained, looking a bit smug. "Should work similar to your threat detection where if one of you guys is about to trigger a trap, I'll get an early warning and can hopefully stop you lumbering oafs. So long as whoever designed it isn't a much higher level than I am."

"Dare I ask if that pick was inspired by a certain deadly Trapper we're friends with?" Alka asked teasingly.

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"She certainly was a factor," Scule muttered. "But nah, I picked it up before her crazy trap that took down the divine warrior. Though witnessing that horrifying trap work so successfully sure made me glad I did."

As much as Vin enjoyed Alice's company, he couldn't really blame Scule for being worried. The more he witnessed Alice's traps in action, the more scary the Trapper became. And now that she was supposedly working with actual explosives courtesy of Myers?

It made sense to try and stay on her good side.

Their conversation stalled as everyone focused on making sure they weren't walking directly into an ambush. Vin took the lead because of his divine boon's protection, and seeing as her body was pretty much indestructible, Alka picked up the rear. With Shia and his high focus attributes, Scule's new Trap Sense passive, and Reginald's sensitive nose sticking out of his pocket, Vin felt pretty good about their ability to pick up on anything before it surprised them.

They carefully made their way down the path like that, and sure enough, not so much as a single one of the weird critters they'd spotted deep in the forest ended up showing their face. Vin could only assume there were more runic spiderwebs lining the path out of sight that kept the animals and insects away somehow, because the stone path looked practically sterile from how clean it was.

After following the path another few miles into the fragment, Vin walked around a large tree and froze as he spotted a smiling face a good fifty feet further down the path happily waving at him.

The man had neatly trimmed hair and wore a delicate looking white shirt that draped along his arms. His smile was wide and infectious, and he looked genuinely happy to see Vin if the excited waving was any indication.

He also had six large, solid black eyes dotting his face, and the body of a monstrous spider attached to him where his legs should have been.

"You lot finally made it!" The man called out, his two frontmost spider legs also raising up and waving at Vin as well. "Thank goodness! I was worried when you tripped the warning rune. Normally we catch people and direct them to the path long before they get so deep into the woods!"

New magical beast discovered! 2,000 exp gained.

While Vin was busy staring at the half-human, half-spider magical beast with his jaw dropped, his friends finally rounded the tree as well, each having a different reaction upon spotting the strange being.

Shia's eyes widened with curiosity as she immediately began tapping her chin, clearly wondering about the being's unique biology. Scule's eyes also widened, though distinctly with fear as he no doubt envisioned all the different ways a spider being could possibly kill them.

Reginald gave the man a curious nod, and Alka merely grunted, seemingly unimpressed one way or the other.

"My name is Kark!" The excited stranger called out, still waving his two human arms and two front spider legs. "Do you mind if I come closer? I figured what with the whole Edregon situation and all this might be your first time meeting a merider, and I didn't want to scare you or anything!"

"Sure!" Vin called out, finally snapping himself out of his shock at seeing some sort of spider-based centaur. Before he could ask anything else, his breath caught as Kark stopped waving and scuttled forward. The merider was fast, and his eight legs carried him across the fifty foot distance in the blink of an eye.

"It's lovely to meet you!" Kark grinned, stopping before them and bending down at the waist in order to bring his face closer to Vin's. Only now did Vin realize Kark stood at least eight or nine feet tall, and he had small fangs jutting out of the side of his mouth. "Can I ask what your preferred method of greeting is? The last thing I'd want to do is assume and unintentionally anger any of you!"

"A handshake is fine," Vin said, blinking dumbly. Kark seemed to have only one setting, and that was 'overly friendly.' If anyone else had acted or spoke in such a manner, he would have assumed he was being mocked. But for whatever reason, it came off as purely genuine when Kark did it.

"Wonderful, always a fan of shaking appendages!" Kark grinned, shaking each of their hands in turn and nodding as they introduced themselves. When he got to Scule, he offered a finger, and cocked his head as if curious about the petain. "I must say, I've never seen a race quite as small as yours before. Apologies, but if you are here for a merger, I don't think we will be able to accommodate you."

"Don't worry, whatever a merger is, I ain't here for that," Scule shivered, managing to shake Kark's finger at the very least.

"Not a problem at all, I just wanted to let you know now so that you wouldn't be let down later!"

Scuttling a few steps back, Kark lowered his spider abdomen to the ground to bring himself closer to their height. "Now that introductions are out of the way, what can I do for you fine folks? I'm happy to lead you back to the village if you are interested, but if you just came to chat that's fine too!"

"To be honest, we originally came here because I'm working on a map for the surrounding fragments," Vin explained, pulling out his journal and flipping over to the large map he'd been slowly putting together. "...but since arriving, we've grown curious about your web-based runes."

"Is there any way you could show us how you make them?" Shia butted in, stepping forward eagerly. Vin looked at the Druid, surprised to see just how excited she was about this. In fact, he didn't think he'd seen her quite so energetic since she'd discovered her master was still alive.

"As much as I'd love to show you myself, while I can do a little rune work here and there, I'll admit I'm not the most skilled in the art!" Kark said, laughing as if the statement was the funniest thing in the world. "I'm just the one in charge of maintaining the paths and basic runes around the forest. But if you don't mind coming back to the village with me, I'd be happy to introduce you to some of our actually skilled runeweavers! Each and every one of them is quite talented, and I'm sure they'd be happy to give you a demonstration!"

Glancing at his friends, Vin received an eager nod from Shia, a hesitant look from Scule, and an indifferent shrug from Alka. After a moment, Reginald poked his head out of Vin's pocket, giving him an eager nod as well. Seeing as Vin was just as curious as Shia, that made the answer an easy one.

"If you wouldn't mind Kark, we'd love to get a look at your village," he said, ignoring the heavy sigh from Scule.

"Splendid!" Kark said, his two front spider limbs rubbing together happily.

"I promise you, you won't be disappointed!"