Episode 16.5: Interlude I

*Alternate name: "Bad Dad and the Berry Boys"*

Kika, Ridley Elderstone and Milla Kramer head to the Fountain Square memorial after their show match victory against the Brazen Bulldogs while Fan Brightgrass *(player absent)* heads back to the Ticklish Spider. Kika picks a blue flower from the memorial and presses it into a journal she carries. Milla sits by the fountain and screams when she notices a spider nearby. She squishes it with her journal.

Milla asks if target practice is still on the table, and Kika and Ridley immediately agree to help her learn to wield her weapon outside town. She tells them that the name of her new weapon is Destiny and, with coaching from Kika and magical targets created by Ridley, learns to aim correctly. When Ridley expresses awe at the weapon's beam, Milla tells him and Kika about the loss of her parents to a metal sphere.

After a few more shots, a terrified man emerges from the forest, pursued by three giant spiders. Kika tames one, and the party slays the other two. The man introduces himself as **Marlin Haines**, and tells them he was out picking berries with his brother **Cole** when they accidentally ran into a spider nest. He then appears to notice his brother's absence, and exclaims that the spiders must have taken him. Kika's spider friend leads the party to a cave that appears to house spiders. She asks the spider to go tell the other spiders that the party is not their enemy.

Kika stealths ahead into the cave with Bose. Ridley gets impatient and follows. Milla, too, follows, concerned about the presence of spiders outside, and Marlin makes up the final member of the group. Kika casts *Pass without Trace* on the five of them and they proceed further into the cave until they discover a large cavern with cocooned victims webbed to the far wall.

Kika proceeds to free the cocooned victims while Ridley, Milla and Bose keep watch on the various tunnels leading to and from the cavern. Kika reveals the first victim's face and is surprised to find it's Marlin. The Marlin with the party reveals himself to be an **aranea** - a giant spider - and Kika attacks him immediately. Countless giant spiders rush towards the cavern from the tunnels.

The aranea explains that he is seeking justice for murdered spiderlings, like the one Milla squished earlier, and refers to them as his "children." Kika argues with him about the logical consistency of sacrificing spiders to attack the party while considering the death of a spider dire enough to earn a death sentence for the one responsible. The party nicknames the aranea "Bad Dad."

The party frees the surviving cocooned victims while fighting off the spiders and Bad Dad. Kika tames a second spider, "spider friend two," and spider friend one arrives in time to distract Bad Dad from attacking Milla and Kika. When the two survivors - the real Marlin Haines and his brother Cole ("the berry boys") - are freed, Ridley finishes Bad Dad with a *Magic Missile* to the face and the party flees. Spider friend one is slain in combat with another spider. Ridley *Fireballs* the horde of remaining spiders before running. Milla collapses the entrance to the cave with a shot from *Destiny*.

The party returns to Armaster. Ridley, afraid of nightmares about the spiders, goes on a walk. "When we come back here, there better be a statue of us," he exclaims. Milla and Kika agree they are not statue people and head back to the Ticklish Spider. Kika barricades the door. Ridley eventually returns, having walked off his fight-or-flight adrenaline, and everyone goes to sleep.