DM: Waylander
Party: Barry (6), Dakka Doon (5), Shrieker (9), Kaladin (6), Nog (6), Jyn (8)
Date: 24/08/2021
After my first visit to the UIF portal, at the western side of the island, I was very concerned about the fate of the Willow Silk villagers and therefore organized a party to visit there again.
We arrived at Willow Silk village easily enough, and this time we didn’t see anyone outside – everyone was hiding inside their houses. Talking to Olga, the nice old lady who helped us a lot last time, we found out that the spider people visit the village more often ever since our encounter with them. They also took more people since our last visit. According to Olga, the spider people have a base at the mountain side to the west, but they sometimes take people north-west for some reason.
Since she didn’t have a lot of new information for us, we started traveling west. Without any lead to find the spider people’s base, I decided to look for the temple/prison we heard about a while ago.
We found a cave leading underground, exactly where we thought the temple would be. There was a drow woman inside, wearing a black robe. Her name was Ailesha. According to her, this place is a temple for their spider entity, and it is guarded by an entity called “The Seeker”. She told us that beneath the mountains is a guarded prison that locks the strong entity of the owl-people.
She admitted to be a part of the “Aranea Filii” – the spider people that control over Willow Silk village. She told us a little bit about the history of this place and her people: According to her, a long time ago their people lived quietly in this area. When the owl-people came a war erupted and has been going on ever since. At first, the fight was about control over the land. At some point each side imprisoned the spiritual leader of its rival, and now the sides are fighting to rescue their leaders.
It’s important to mention that in addition to the misery and risk they put the Willow Silk villagers in, Ailesha mentioned her/the Aranea Filii’s interest in human sacrifice, which is very concerning.
We decided to let her go on her way, and then followed her through the forest to see where she’s heading. While following her footprints we noticed that she shapeshifted into a spider. After following the tracks throughout most of the day, we arrived at a new village. There were many spider-like creatures that surrounded that village – they were getting ready to attack it. We fought them and managed to save the villagers. It is important to mention that we didn’t find Ailesha’s body after killing all of them.
After the fight we talked to the mayor of the village, Geoffrey. The Woodwork Silk village, mainly a human and kobold village, is also under the Aranea Filii’s control – they are in charge of providing wooden items, tools and supplies to the spider people. If they fail to provide the spider people’s needs or try to cause any form of trouble, they get punished. After hearing that, Shrieker gave him his woodworker’s tools, hoping to help them improve the village’s productivity. He refused to take the daggers that Shrieker offered him. Geoffrey also mentioned that they haven’t seen any signs of the owls for a while.
After our visit in this village and this adventure in general, I am not entirely sure what should be our next step. According to Geoffrey, interfering with their life and fighting the spider people every now and then will only cause trouble. I think that the only ways we can help them is either by finding the owl people and ask for their help or by offering full protection and send forces to this area, which doesn’t sound like a realistic option. Any small change in this area or an attempt to help will only cause more problems to the villagers. That’s why I think the best step for now would be exploring the eastern area and find the owl people: Hear their side of the story and see if they can provide any help, or what would they suggest in case they can’t help anymore.
Other things we found during our journey but didn’t have time to investigate properly:
