April 10, 2039

Dropping all bravado, Mack quickly scanned the group. “Shoot! Is anyone else poisoned?” Mark raised his hand and winced as his poison dropped him to 40% health.

Mack’s hands glowed green as he looked the group over again. Mark was enveloped with a green light and then Mack’s hands started glowing green again. When the spell finished, Mark’s health jumped up to full.

“Sorry about your friend. I didn’t think about the poison. So, can anyone tell me where you all found a level 5 spider in this play pen?” Mack pointed his bat at the dead spider.

William spoke up first. “We all got an armor buff from a passing druid. Since she was a friend of Lexen, we decided to help him with a few of his quests while we farmed some xp and crafting materials. We found a new type of spider in this cave. We were going to head out, when we saw a body all wrapped up in webs. I thought it was a rescue quest. That is what came out of the cocoon when we cut it open.”

Mark suddenly straightened up. “The nook! If we lost Kari for this, we should at least check to see if there is any good loot for him.”

Mack kneeled down next to the spider. “Nothing much on this one. 4 spider silk and a weak spider venom.” He walked over and handed the drops to Aaron.

“I think I found something!” Mark yelled out from the nook. Everyone came over and looked at what got his attention. Most of the cocoon had burned away from the fire attacks. What they thought was the back actually was a shield about the same dimensions as a man’s back. There was another spider silk underneath it. William added this to the groups collection.

The shield was rectangular. It was roughly two feet wide and three feet tall. The shield’s front was black with silver spider web patterns. When he examined it, Aaron saw the information appear in a pop up.

Shield of the web lurker. This shield has been empowered by the essence of a web lurker by being used as a base for it’s cocoon. 10 armor. +10 hit points. +2 dexterity.

“Not bad for a play pen drop, but a level 5 is pretty powerful for this area. You said that this shield and the spider are both new?” Mack asked the group. William pointed to his brother and Karion. “We have hunted in here before and there has always only been the one type. That one makes three types of spiders in here today.”

Mack seemed very interested. “I know you said you need to go, but do you mind if I look around?” William held up his hand for a few moments, then nodded. “Dad said that’s fine, but we need to make it up at the end of the shift. He also said to make sure to bring Karion’s stuff.”

Splitting off, the Dragonkin were able to kill another spider. It was a much slower process without Karion. Aaron was able to hold most of the spider’s attention and dropped to just under half health for it.

Mack stopped over and healed the ground and cured Aaron and Mark of poison. Mack’s dog, Sirius, was taking down a spider while he stopped to help. “Lex, use the shield. It doesn’t matter if you are still figuring out who’s it is. You can always give it to the other guy if that’s what you all decide.”

The next spider that they fought went smoother with Aaron using the shield. He was able to block about half of the hits and got block up to level 1.

Mack came back over to the group and took care of the injuries and poison. “That’s the last of the regular spiders. I found two more of the body shaped cocoons.

The group walked over to another nook with a cocoon in it. “All you need to do is cut it open and the spider comes out.”

Mack looked a bit embarrassed. “Umm, I don’t do skinning or any other trade skills really.” Aaron laughed at his brother. “That’s exactly why I called you over here. I’m going to introduce you to their parents and make an honest worker out of you yet. Time to turn away from your murder hobo ways. I’ll open them. You and Siri take them down.”

Aaron pulled out his skinning knife and knelt next to the spider. The lines that appeared on the cocoon was quite a bit more complex than the rat he had first got his skill on. He carefully and slowly followed the lines. As soon as he finished the lines, the spider’s leg burst out of the cocoon and slashed into Aaron. That one hit took 30% of Aaron’ hit points.

“Fass!” Mack pointed at the spider as Aaron pushed away. Siri lunged forward and chomped on the leg as it pulled back. With a twist of her head. There was a large crack. As the spider pulled itself out, one of its legs was limp.

Mack shot it point blank with his crossbow as Siri grabbed another leg and shook it violently until it cracked. Mack pulled his bat free and lept at the spider. He swung the bat over his shoulder and crashed it into the spider. The spider dropped and twitched a few times.

“Why hasn’t Karion come back for his stuff? My friends list shows that he’s still online.” Aaron asked Mack as the brothers were looting the rest of the spiders.

“It’s kind of a death penalty. I think it’s to make it so that a big PvP match could have a winner. If you die, you end up in a library.” Mack laughed at Aaron’s expression. “Really. A library. It’s a really nice library. You can’t do anything violent there and you are stuck there for 30 minutes. You also can not send or receive messages. You can access your bank. They have shops there. You can even do a few off the quieter trade skills. Most people just take off their headsets and go grab a bite to eat.”

William called out to Mack as he checked out the cocoon. “The cocoon had 10 spider silks in it and this dagger.”

Fang of the web lurker. This dagger has been empowered by the essence of a web lurker by being used as a base for it’s cocoon. 7 damage. +2 dexterity. Mild spider venom on successful strikes.

Mack looked the dagger over. “Not a bad place at all for you all to gear up. Looks like a rogue dagger if I ever saw one.” He tossed the dagger over to Mark.

On the next cocoon, Aaron was able to position the shield, so that it blocked the strike when the spider lashed out. Siri and Mack made short work of the last spider. Aaron was pleased to see that this got him to level 2 in block.

William checked the cocoon again and cheered as he pulled up a jacket. “I think I’m in love! This is better than the quest armor I got from the city.” He shared the stats on the jacket. The jacket looked like a grey winter coat. Upon closer inspection, the material was actually very dense spider webs.

Web lurker gambeson. This armor has been empowered by the essence of a web lurker by being used as a base for it’s cocoon. 4 armor. +2 intelligence. +1 wisdom.

They finished looting the last of the spiders and killed two that had respawned on the way out of the cave. Mark had grabbed Karion’s body and it turned into a large duffel bag with Karion’s name on it.

Aaron stared at the duffel bag. William answered the question before he could ask. “A team member can bring your body back to what you designate as a safe location. They can’t take anything from it. If they try to take it the wrong direction, it will simply fall off of them. This lets you help a friend out and not make them run into that spider cave naked to get their stuff.”

As they walked, they talked about loot. William was looking through his bag at all the stuff they had looted in the last hour and a half. “So, Lexen has the bug meat he needs. We didn’t get all the rat meat. We all got a shiny new toy. Lex, you can keep the shield. Kari only uses two handed weapons. I’ll go sell all the other stuff and we split the cash. The question I have is the silk. We ended up with sixty of them. I can use them for crafting.”

“I need 20 for my quest. I’m ok if you keep the rest.” “Thanks.” William handed him the 20 spider silks. I will run to town and sell this stuff meet me at the store. Come give me a hand Mark” The two brothers walked towards the city gates.

When he got the spider silks, the pop up appeared in front of Aaron. Now both of his quests had a checkmark next to the collection piece and only needed to be turned in.

Supplies for a cloak. You have gathered the materials requested for Sub-commander Avel. See him for your reward.