As the sun rose, Olvir and Song thanked Strikes as Thunder for her tutelage and bade her farewell as she shifted into a large, jungle parrot and took flight. They headed back to Jadespike to meet Caelan who was unsure if the Lunars had been off hunting or indeed been up all night. Song explained what they’d been up to and showed off her moonsilver tattoos, explaining in simple terms what they represented. He raised an eyebrow, thinking they’d be a little obvious, and she showed him the Charm she and Olvir had practiced as they faded from sight.
A little relieved Caelan wondered aloud about Strikes as Thunder; if she’d told the truth about the Realm, her age and the threats which faced us. He felt strongly that as leaders we had a responsibility not only to tell the truth to our followers but to discover that truth for ourselves, and since Strikes as Thunder had told us much he questioned not only her motives but her accuracy. Song suggested that, regardless of whether he saw truth in her words, he wait a little while before taking on the Realm... just as Van-Oris appeared and plaintively appealed to all of us not to think of such a thing until we’d at least built some airships first.
He’d been off exploring, it seemed, as he had the exciting news that there were Essence spiders less than a day’s travel to the west of Jadespike. Since we’d need some Essence spider silk for airship sails was keen for us to go and investigate. He’d made deals with Essence spiders before, he told us, and the notion was enough for us to plan an expedition for the day and we headed out after breakfast after Olvir had selected a suit of jade armour from the armoury.
Van Oris led the way as we travelled on horseback. Song talked to Van-Oris about Vanileth, Yu-Shan and mysteries of ages past, though he was singularly focused and she found the best way to get information from him was to relate her questions tangentially to airships which led to discussions on how exactly we could build it. It transpired also that while Van-Oris had indeed had dealings with Essence spiders before... it had only been the once, and not with these spiders... and indeed had never met them. He’d scouted them out while dematerialised. We rolled our eyes at that bit of information and as we got closer, Olvir recognised the region as one he’d overflown before and where he’d seen movement. We paused at the edge of their territory, tying up the horses and treading carefully to where Van-Oris had told us they’d nested and approached cautiously – well, two of us did. Olvir decided the best approach would be to announce our presence and shifted into his ape form to beat his chest and let out a reverberating bellow. Song had already seen the dematerialised Wood Spider emerge from a cave hidden by hanging vines to investigate the intruders but at Olvir’s bellow it scuttled towards us and materialised to speak, challenging us. Song, with a respectful tone, introduced each of us, naming our Celestial patrons and explained our presence – we understood the value of the silk the spiders spun and wished to trade for it. It eyed us suspiciously (and for a spider, that’s a lot of eyes) but bade us follow it into the cave. Caelan didn’t fancy that and suggested he stay outside and thus the two Lunars stepped into the murky gloom. Webbing covered the walls leaving only a small space for us to step through cautiously where at the end of the cavern we discovered the Essence spiders clustered together, brittle sounding whispers echoing along fine strands of silk. Song opened negotiations and while the spiders discussed it amongst themselves Olvir listened to their chatter; they had acknowledged us and that we were something different but didn’t consider us too highly, and were wary of giving away any of their precious silk. But as he responded to something they said the chittering whispers went suddenly silent.
How much silk did we want, one spider asked? Song told them that, were things to go well, we’d want much... but for now, merely enough for a garment’s worth. They weren’t interested in jade but if we could provide them with food enough for a season – some 30 head of deer or its equivalent - then they’d honour the deal. We agreed and headed outside into the sun to tell Caelan and Van-Oris.
It seemed to us that hunting would be the quickest way to catch enough for the spiders though Caelan realised it would still take a few days. To check out our options we separated, Song and Olvir taking to the air and Caelan scouting on horseback under the canopy to see what our options might be. He found a watering hole and realised it would be a good place to lie in wait for prey – the muddy tracks around it showed it to be a popular locale. Song had found a horse and foal not too far away and, keen to get in some practice with her hatchets, took them both down. The spiders had said they favoured young, fresh food – it would be something suited to their palates, she hoped. Olvir however had his sights set on much larger prey and sure enough as he circled high in kite form spotted the tyrant lizard he’d seen the other day in roughly the same area. When we met up, he extolled the challenge of bringing down such a beast. Song wasn’t entirely convinced it would be so simple, Exalted we may be but a tyrant lizard would be a formidable foe – and did we want to risk injury? Her arguments fell on deaf ears as Caelan was swayed by the thought of hunting such a creature and with their minds made up Song shook her head and went along with them – hoping their confidence wouldn’t lead to folly.
It took a few hours to track it, locate it and stalk the great beast but as we positioned ourselves to strike, a sense of calm draped itself around our shoulders. Moving as one, Caelan and Song struck, the Solar running along the edge of a branch in defiance of gravity and bringing his daiklaive in a sweeping arc slashing across the beast’s throat, and the Lunar hidden in the underbrush and hurling both torment hatchets in sweeping, opposed arcs to slice the vital muscles in each leg. As the tyrant lizard howled in pain and fury, Olvir dropped from a tree overhead and wrapped his great ape arms around the beast’s skull, the power of his attack forcing it to the ground where he crushed its skull against the earth. It went still, and with it, the sounds from the forest. We gathered to look at our prize. Song was surprised, relieved and quietly impressed at the skill we had when working together and said as much as she bent to take a few fangs as trophies. As she went on to gather scales and a few other parts which would make valuable trades or alchemical ingredients, Olvir and Caelan pondered how we’d move the immense bulk back to the spiders – we’d not really considered what to do with it after killing it – but it now presented a rather large problem.
After dismissing a few options and realising that despite Olvir’s strength he couldn’t haul the whole creature by himself, we yoked the horses either side of Olvir, and with Song and Caelan providing additional support together, slowly dragged it back to the cave of the spiders.