Realms of Fantasy: Like Flies in a Tangled Web... [Episode 110520]

Nabiki and Ranma looked up as Akane was slowly climbing down with the help of the rope, the weight of her armor making it difficult.  She refused to take it off and let the others bring it down before she’d attempted the descent, arguing that they could need to fight just as soon as they reached the bottom.  But now she was starting to regret it.

She thought her main problem would be that, as Nabiki predicted, the rope was a little short and left a three or four meters gap with the ground.  Her sister and the Drow guide were already at the bottom, having climbed down this part without any trouble (Ranma even saving his levitation power for a future use).  Now they were waiting for her, while Ranko was still at the top.

But Akane wasn’t even reaching that point.  She was stuck in the middle of the descent, her arms shaking from the strain of supporting her body.

“She’s not gonna make it.” Ranma flatly commented.

“Yes...” Nabiki agreed, not letting her concern creep into her voice.  “You’re ready to catch her?”

“Don’t worry.” Ranma nodded.  “I just hope she’s not going to yell or something...”

He glanced shortly in the direction of the large globe of inky darkness he created earlier.  It blocked the view from the clearing where camped the enemy group and the cage of captives.  This prevented Ranma and Co. from being spotted in the shadows of the huge cavern.  The dark clothes worn by the adventurers would have been of no use to hide from the infrared-sensitive eyes of the Drow.  On the other hand, the party couldn’t see if their quarries had moved or not.

Turning back to the cliff, Ranma saw that Akane was slipping, dislodging stones with her feet and generally fumbling.  Reaching her limits, she suddenly let go of the rope — with, to her credit, only a short, startled yelp.  Ranma instantly raised a hand, casting the quickest of all spells... and Akane’s fall slowed, until she was fluttering in the air like a dead leaf.

Ranma finally caught the rather shocked fighter and put her to her feet, just in case a gust of wind would blow her away.  Looking sheepish, Akane mumbled a reluctant “Thank you...” and flexed her sore fingers.

“No problem.” the cocky pigtailed Drow said with a smirk.  He then he made the sign for his sister to come down too.

“I told you, you should have took off the armor first...” Nabiki lectured.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Akane grumbled, readjusting her precious plate mail.  As a warrior, she hated the idea of letting go of the protection... especially in a place as dangerous as this.  It was already bad enough when the Drow guides had her greasing it with dark dye to make the metal less shiny and easy to spot in the darkness.

At the top of the cliff, Ranko untied the rope from around the sturdy mushroom trunk it was secured earlier.  She then let it fall down the ledge for the others to fetch — it could still be useful later.

She then concentrated, calling upon to the natural Drow magic that was her heritage — as opposed to the clerical magic currently denied to her.  They were lucky that neither her nor Ranma had spent enough time at the Surface for loosing those basic powers.  It had made them the perfect candidates for this mission when the party sought guides to hire.  Ranma was still reeling at the thought that he would lose those talents eventually if they made the Surface their permanent home.

Ranko calmly stepped past the edge of the cliff, and began levitating down at a slow pace.

Ranma watched from below, not worried in the slightest... until he felt the familiar tingling of magic surrounding them.

“Wha...” he started, but he had no time to do more.  The sphere of darkness that protected them from view suddenly disappeared, and up there, Ranko began frantically waving her arms... before falling like a stone.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” Ranko screamed — though at this point, discretion wasn’t any longer their main concern.

“SHIT!” Ranma cursed loudly.  He had just used up his feather fall... but anyway, whoever cast that dispel magic probably wouldn’t let him do any other spell.  So, he jumped forward like a tiger, extending arms to catch Ranko just before she’d splatter on the hard, rocky floor.

He managed to do it in the nick of time, but the shock of the impact of his not-so-light sister against his torso sent a jolt through his whole body.  They both tumbled and rolled on the ground, Ranma still doing his best to keep Ranko from harm.  Finally, the two bones-rattled Drow stopped moving, breath chased from their lungs.

This happened so fast that the two Humans were stuck frozen by surprise for a few vital seconds.  Now, Nabiki unsheathed her short sword while Akane brandished her large warhammer, both peering into the darkness of the fungus forest, fruitlessly trying to spot where the attack was coming from.

The next strike gave no more warning, though.  In a flash, hundred of thick strands of some sticky substance surrounded them, as well as the two Drow on the floor.  They found themselves immediately stuck, unable to move their arms, legs, or even their heads.  Akane and Nabiki were lucky enough to have most of their face free of the stuff, but the rest of their bodies was encased in unbreakable silk.  They could see that the web was extending at 45° from the vertical surface of the cliff, to the ground a few feet in front of them.  Everything under this plane was completely immobilized.  Ranma and Ranko, still hugging each other, were now tightly bound.  They couldn’t move either, and could only vaguely see the outside through the many intertwined strands of silk.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!!” Akane yelled, struggling to tear off the clingy stuff.  But even with all her strength, she wasn’t going very far.

“You really have to ask?” Nabiki snapped.  She tried to move her short sword to cut or saw the closest threads, but not with much success either.

A cackling, eerie-sounding laugh echoed from the forest, not putting anybody’s mind any at ease.  Slowly crawling from underneath the shadows of the giant mushrooms, appeared the nightmarish shape of a black, hairy spider, taller than a pony and heavier than an ox.

Perched atop the monster was the most gnarled, wizened, shortened Drow woman that any of them had ever seen, or even dreamed of.  Her black skin was more wrinkled than an old prune, giving her face some disturbing likeness to a skull.  The long white hair flowing behind her back, and the regal dark green robe inlaid with gold and jewels she was wearing, didn’t reduce her frightening appearance.  The most disquieting of her features were certainly her eyes, though.  The small pupils within two wide, white saucer cups were rather chilling to cross, even for a split-second.  The Drow matriarch was appraising the captives with an amused smirk.

“AAAH!! A mummy!” Akane blurted out.  She was a brave fighter most of the time, but undeads really terrified her.

“No, I think that’s rather a lich...” Nabiki pointed out, before quickly regretting it.

*CLONK!* *CLONK!*

The short staff carried by the crone suddenly extended, and clonked both Humans on top of the head.  “Quiet, Troll baits!” ordered the old woman.

She then guided her spider steed closer to the two Drow prisoners.  A touch of her staff and the webbing surrounding Ranma and Ranko’s heads parted.  The rest of their bodies was still tied up, though.  “Well, well... what have we here?”

They twins stared, seriously nauseated by the sight.  And I’m not talking about the spider.  They’ve heard about very ancient Drow shrinking and withering after many centuries of abusing the power of magic, but they would never have thought it could get so far.

Ranko and her brother, of course, had immediately tried to break free, but the strands were definitely too resistant.  Ranma tried to think of a spell that could get them out of the predicament, but with his arms stuck his options were limited.  The only thing that came to his mind was some fire spell to burn the web, but they would likely end up being roasted along before they could get away.

“Don’t bother struggling, youngsters.  This is no ordinary spiderweb spell.  I’ve reinforced it by summoning some of the strongest variety of real web from a giant spider.”

Ranma groaned.  That explained why his and Ranko’s magic resistance hadn’t helped them — the web wasn’t a purely magical construction.  Very clever.  That old ghoul certainly was a very crafty and superior opponent.  Just their luck to run right into her clawed hands.

“Now tell me, children,” Cologne asked in the Drow language, “why have you trespassed on our rightful territory?  Are you spies for that Vhaeraun party?” .

“We ain’t with the Bastard’s bootlickers, you dried up Jermlaine!” barked Ranko.

“Shhhhh...” Ranma tried to shush his sister.  Better not saying a thing than risking giving the mummy anything she could find useful.

“Fine.  Your accent already tells me you’re not from these parts, girl.  But if you don’t want to talk, we’ll make you.  That’s what torture chambers are for, aren’t they?”

Akane shuddered at these words.  She also didn’t like the way that horrid spider was looking at them with its compound eyes.  Nor how the venom was dripping from its enormous chelicerae... it looked like the beast was drooling in expectation of devouring them.

The spider-riding Matriarch was soon joined by the lead Drow of the guards, who reverently bowed before her high priestess.  “Honored Great-Grandmother, did the trap work well?”

“See by yourself, Shampoo.  Two more pale-faces from the Surface, and much more importantly, two foreign Drow.  I’m pretty sure they’ll have interesting stories to tell.”

“It’s a good catch, indeed....”  The younger Drow smirked as she leaned toward the twins to get a better look.  Ranma gulped as he stared up at the shapely Dark-Elven girl towering above them.  From higher up on the cliff, he could only guess about her figure, but now that she was so close he could see just how gorgeous and curvy was her black-skinned body.  Not that he wasn’t used to it; most Drow females liked to flaunt their bounties and tease mercilessly the lowly males with what they couldn’t touch.  But this one... she had to be the bigger-breasted Elf that ever caught his eyes.  He didn’t know it was even possible.  And it was painfully obvious given how small was her top.  Never before he would have qualified a piece of chain mail as “flimsy”, but that was the effect it gave.  Heck, this babe must have an even bigger rack than Ranko....

“Ouch!”

Ranma winced.  His sister couldn’t move much, but she still managed to pinch him hard.  They weren’t telepathic twins by any length, but it was easy for Ranko to guess what he was thinking right now.  And she didn’t like it.  Nor she liked the way that Drow bimbo was eyeing her brother... and licking her lips.  Unless that particular house was cannibalistic on top of ordinary evildoings, this could only mean one thing....

“Stop daydreaming, Shampoo, you have work to do.  Get a second cage here to lock those four and carry them to the slave pits with the first batch.”

The old crone didn’t mention to her great-granddaughter that she should be careful about them keeping a weapon or casting a spell.  She taught Shampoo herself; she expected her descendant to know her job.  To stay on the safe side, the wizened old woman kept an eye on the captured adventurers at all time.

“I’m warning you,” she said while calling a small flame above her hand, “any funny stuff, and I’m putting you on fire.  That webbing burn very, very well and fast.”

The captives sweatdropped.  Their hopes of running for freedom at the first opportunity were dwindling, to be finally crushed when more Drow arrived, all armed to the teeth.  Soon, a cage on a cart was brought on the scene, pulled by a pair of draft giant spiders.