The Parliament of Spiders

[Telcontar]

  i'm hazy on the details or I would chine in.

Summary: one of the other spiders, the Charles I not keen on the Parliament variety, has ensorceled the Elder River Daughter. We, the party, have come to the Parliament to find out where Chucky 1 is so that we can go there and deal with it using the principle of my enemy of my enemy is my friend? But they parliament knows where he is and we dont.

Is that about right? 

[Eclecticon]

My apologies for the lack of clarity.  Yes - Tylquin the Weaver, whose name has come up periodically but who has never appeared before, is the spider you're looking for.  And it's not so much that Tylquin hates the Parliament - more that spiders are a fratricidal lot at the best of times and who knows?  Maybe she preys on them as much as anything else.  So it's possible that with a little convincing, the gathered ones might see no good reason not to point you in her direction. 

[Telcontar]

"Great Spider, we have come to speak to you about another of your close kin. Tylquin the Weaver."

Hathcyn soeaks the name of the great spider and seeks to gain some insight from the great beast before him or the assembled spiders and thralls. So reaction to the name alone that may give them a clue as to how the beast is considered by this throng.

Ooc: social skills are not the best so I am going to try and read the crowd.
Insight

Rolled 1d12 : 1, total 1

Rolled 3d6 : 6, 5, 5, total 16

[Eclecticon]

Sarquin's enormous head inclines toward Hathcyn, but if she is peturbed by his failure to answer her question, her motionless eyes do not show it.  Pieces of long-dead prey rain from her mouth, but the answer to the Longspear's question comes instead from above and behind him and his companions. 

   WHOOOOOO SSSSSSPEEEEAAAAKSSSS THE NAAAAAME OF MY SSSSSIIIIISSSSSSTERRRRR?

Esgalwen and Grimbeorn, watching for attack from behind as much as they listen to the conversation, see a horde of spiders scuttle away from a hole in the web like water rippling away from a dropped stone.  From the hole, wyrdlight casting his carapace into dark and awful iridescence, emerges the dreadful and familiar sight of Tauler, who once slept upon the ruined Millfort.  Spiders scurry over and under each other in their haste to move from his path, crying out in awe and terror: 

  The Hunter!  The Hunter!

In the midst of the companions, Radagast grimaces and tightens his grip upon his staff.  Despair is plain upon Arbogast's countenance as he recalls the desperate struggle against this creature, from which only the providence of the great eagles delivered them alive.  No hope is there of such an intervention in this place. 

Hathcyn, though, is undaunted as the second of the great spiders takes his place upon one of the throne-webs, his enormous body seeming slight only next to the bulk of Sarquin.  His gaze, and the pricking of his ears, remains focused squarely on those spiders who have settled about the Mother of All, for they chitter and gossip like courtiers.  Clearly, the name of Tylquin is not spoken here an that a war of words might break forth. 

   YOOOOOUUUUUU SSSSSEEEEEEEK HERRRRRR IIINNNNN VAAAAAAIIIINNNNN. 
   MYYYYYYY SSSIIIISSSSTERRRR WILLLLL NOOOOOT COOOMMMMME. 
   HERRRRRR  HEEEAAAARRRRRRT IIIIISSSSSS BOOOUUUGHT BYYYYY THE ENNNNNSSSSSLAAAAVVVVEERRRRR.


Hathcyn's great success has bumped your total successes up to four, but the appearance of Tauler, who absolutely remembers you guys, just dropped the Tolerance down two points (i.e. to two).  Tread carefully...

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn had met none of these spiders before, that fact alone gave him a sliver of courage in the face of these terrible beasts. His ignorance of them and his pride perhaps shielded his mind from accepting the terrible danger he was in. An idea took shape in his mind. Perhaps these three spiders were the opposite number to the River Daughters? Three spiders and three sisters. Was this the work of Fate, a balance to Arda, did it mean anything at all? The idea gave the foxling the germ of an idea and perhaps a lever to move the spiders.

"We seek to redeem one who has been enslaved as well, the River Daughter. So she too may again take her rightful place with her sisters."

[Eclecticon]

Who are you trying to sway here?  If Hathcyn's playing to the spiders' peanut gallery, you can do an Inspire roll.  If he's trying to play on the sympathies of the larger pair, it'll be Persuade. 

[Telcontar]

I was  kinda hoping someone else had some skill here and was prepping the objective. But I did Open his mouth. Inspire it is....

Rolled 1d12 : 7, total 7

Rolled 3d6 : 6, 2, 6, total 14

[Eclecticon]

See how easy that was, guys?  That's another three successes! 

[Telcontar]

  that was a nail biter! Not sure how to interpret that result so I'll need a LM narration assist.

Knock on wood: being married has really made big gains for Hathcyn's fortune so far. Let's see how long it lasts.

[Eclecticon]

Okay, more narration coming soon, but it's late here and I'm knackered.  Watch this space.

[Eclecticon]

From the assembled mass of spiders comes a great hissing, a roar of whispers as each beast turns to its neighbours and begins to argue the matter without heed of order or, it seems, the continued presence of the Fellowship.  Snatches of their chaotic council drift down to the floor of the forest:

  What shall we...
  Can we truly know...
  Enslaver's foes...
  Deceits of the Weaver...
  Light of sweet gems...

Amid the mulch and mold, Radagast's face eases and his breathing is at once deeper.  "They hunger for us no longer," he remarks with evident relief. 

The two great spiders in their web-thrones, however, appear utterly unmoved.  Without further word, Tauler turns his back on the companions and ascends the strands into the high branches, his lesser kin barely ceasing their chatter as they scuttle out of his path, until he is vanished from the sight of those below.  Sarquin, her legs already raising another bundled morsel to her mouth, barely shifts herself to once again address the companions.

   You amuse my children greatly.  You may go.

"What is this?" cries Arbogast, despair winning out over prudence.  "We have not what we sought, and great have been our toils in reaching this place!"  The Fire-watcher had not thought that his heart could sink further, but to leave this place now, without further inkling of where, in the black vastness of Mirkwood, Tylquin might be found, is a crushing defeat, no matter that the spiders seem content to allow them to leave in peace.   

   You may go.

As Sarquin repeats herself, Radagast's face also falls, his bushy eyebrows sinking like the ears of a beaten cur.  The plan devised by he and Arbogast, it seems, lies in ruin.  To Grimbeorn, however, a new insight is made plain.  Across the many days and miles that lie between the hillside council of the Fellowship and this moment has he wondered what purpose the Parliament of Spiders might serve, for the lore of Men and Elves has long held that no law do the spiders know save that of hunger and death.  Yet in the moments betwixt these, it seems, there is some custom among them, and a love of contention by words instead of venom and fang.   This, then, is the reason for its existence: not to enable the rule of a shared realm but to permit the demonstration of mastery over the minds of lessers.  Such a tale as this, he thinks, would win great renown among the lore-keepers, had I only the words to tell it!

Esgalwen and Hathcyn, meanwhile, have marked the reappearance of the filth-clad thralls who now shuffle and stumble toward them, their arms already waving in crude but unmistakable gestures of dismissal.  "We must leave," the Ranger whispers, her urgency plain in her tone. 

"No," Arbogast pleads. 

"She is right," the Longspear adds.  "We'll get nothing more from them, and should count ourselves fortunate to have what we do." 

"And what is that, then?" 

"The other big one, he said that our quarry's heart was bought.  By who else could he mean but the Dark Lord of the south?  We know that the spiders desire the light of gems.  Perhaps, when we return to daylit lands, we might learn where such things have been bought, or stolen, and from there we may trace the messengers who deliver her payment!"

"As fleet your mind as your feet, Longspear!" Radagast commends him.  "Come, they are right.  Hope yet remains, and we dare not tarry here". 


I'll move the story on in a bit, but as usual feel free to add in any reactions or other matters. 

Also: for Hathcyn's Inspire roll. 

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn grimaced at the thralls as they approached. His demeanor was clear that he would not allow one of the base brutes to touch him.

"This is a sight and a place I wish to never see again. If tales are ever told of the Wolfslayer's coming here even Tate will be challenged to find the words to describe the horrors of this place or the abject baseness of men who live here. Of all the horrors I expected to see here to know that men serve these things is the greatest of them all."

[GandalfOfBorg]

"Such is our lot for not only the gift of death was given to Men, but our doom of true choice -- a choice that may lead to the Light or Shadow.  Begrudge not their choice but pity them and their lot," whispered Grimbeorn in a strained, hushed voice.

[Telcontar]

  are we following council rules here?

[Eclecticon]

I haven't been able to familiarise myself with the new subsystems in time, so I'm just using the encounter rules from the first edition.

EDIT: I just worked out a minute ago that you probably meant this question about the interaction with Tauler.  Short answer: no.  There's some RP opportunity, and you're welcome to make rolls if you really want to, but he's already decided what he wants from you.  He's trying to convince you to do something for him.