The War of the Spider
By Kree Morlain

Kree recites:
"The Spider's web is thick and dark, to get too close is to be pulled in and left to dangle until she sees fit to feast..."
Kree recites:
"This was a phrase often used to taunt me in the face of the lady's minions."
Kree recites:
"And one I would come to know too well..."
Kree recites:
"But let me begin at the beginning."
.........
Kree recites:
"Over the years, at various times I have struck up in long battles with foul and nefarious enemies. No greater war I have personally seen then that with Arachne, spider goddess and master of the temple not far the town of Wehnimer's Landing."
Kree recites:
"It was some eight years ago, when I first arrived in the north that I heard word of the temple."
Kree recites:
"At that time, the trails had recently been discovered, and the likes of Dagmar Istarii and Valeria Deering were said to be trying their hand in this dark place. The menace was great, and the stories told of how priests were so strong, they could sit and tend themselves while their enemies strove desperately to dispatch them."
Kree recites:
"Being young at the time, I stayed away, but knowing one day I too might walk down the dark corridors of the temple. And finally that day did come."
Kree recites:
"It was about that time that I struck up with a young Sorcerer by the name of Thalior Farthor. A likeable fellow, though a bit eccentric at times, we often found ourselves alone in the temple, hunting the priests and acolytes and hounding them to no end."
Kree recites:
"So fierce was our determination, that the priests began to hold sessions of prayer to their goddess, asking that she help them in banishing us from her temple forever. But we were undaunted and time and again led charges to wash the foul walls clean."
Kree recites:
"But slowly we learned that Arachne was not one to take lightly. Strange and enraged creatures, born of her hate and wrath often rose up to attack us within her walls, and often it was us that lay cold on the stone floors beneath us."
Kree recites:
"Defacing her walls, setting fire to her alters, flooding her chambers...we did it all, as the war increased in both intensity and viciousness."
Kree recites:
"Soon it was not enough for her to wait for her chance to take us when we appeared, and we began to see dark spiders and priests coming down off of the mine road to steal off towards the gates of the landing themselves...."
Kree recites:
"Generally, we were proud of our achievements, until the day the priestess made a pact with a dark lich of the old monastery up by the lake, and together they set off to commit an unspeakable act that haunts me to this day."
Kree recites:
"Resting comfortable in the town square as we often did, one evening I was suddenly set upon by a very large, very strong gorilla."
Kree recites:
"Yes, a gorilla..."
Kree recites:
"Odd I do not discount, but a gorilla none the less, capable of picking you up and tossing you two blocks down the road if he wished."
Kree recites:
"Which is exactly what it did to me. Stunning me from behind, it tossed me down the street, and began to follow as my fellow adventurers blinked and stood to take levy of the situation."
Kree recites:
"Quickly, it snatched me up and began a long careful retreat with me, out of the landing, south along the wall and towards the old bridge."
Kree recites:
"Continuing over the bridge, it ignored the bank, instead winding its way to a dark and old path I think we all know well. The graveyard trail."
Kree recites:
"As we stole through the forest, the gorilla eluded our pursuers and tossed me over the gates off the graveyard like a sack of fruit."
Kree recites:
"Quickly it scampered over, and dragged me to the far corner where a Spider Priest and Monastic Lich stood ready."
Kree recites:
"It seemed they controlled this poor animal, forcing it to do its bidding for them."
Kree recites:
"And with a dark word, they sent it back to harry the others, giving the two time to work their plan to the end."
Kree recites:
"The Lich was preparing something, which I could not see as I continued to lay dormant from the incredible force of the gorilla, and it was the priest that made their intentions clear."
Kree recites:
"Suddenly seizing up, the priest was channeling his master, who spoke to me in an icy whisper."
Kree recites:
"You who have plagued my halls for so long, you have long become almost one of my own I know you so well...So tonight I give you a gift...she said in wry tongue."
Kree recites:
"Tonight, I will give you my own blood, so that you will forever be contaminated by the thing you hate so much. And with that, the Lich produced a small vial with a sharp needle at the end. Filled inside was the blood of Arachne herself, dark and green, pulsing with an unspeakable evil like nothing I have ever seen..."
Kree recites:
"And as I struggled, strained desperately to get away before such a poison could be injected into me, The priest lunged forward and dispensed the full vial into my body. Seeping through me, a haze of green clouded my vision, and I began to see Arachne all around me."
Kree recites:
"The laughter rings in my ears to this day, while her contamination leaves my insides chilled. That same dark and ugly stench of her temple I feel inside me, and of that I will never be free. Perhaps in that act, Arachne proved what Gods are gods and elves are not..."
Kree recites:
"So gentle nobles, take care with who you pick your battles, remember that not all roads end in victory."