The Silk Manor

*"I will not allow our family name to fall away into dust. No, ours shall be a legacy preserved. The name 'Silk' will be one of opulence, and ring not only in the ears of starving peasants, but shall force the nobility to grind their teeth in fits of envious wanting." -Excerpt from the Diary of Arthur Silk, the last Lord of The Silk Manor*

## The Golden Spinner's Gate

The Antiquarians have been very interested in delving into the Silk Manor and discovering what it was that caused the Silk family to meet their untimely end. The manor sits far west in The Nekarian Empire, and looks out across the ocean from its clifftop and lonely perch. The winding carriage road that leads up towards the manor is gated off by a heavy metal gate, which some believe to be solid gold. The gate is designed to look like a massive spider web, which is appropriate, since the Silk's fortune was made by spinning spider's thread into the softest silk imaginable.

## Forest Road

Once through the gate, visitors would have been forced to take the road up through the forest. And as they passed through the forest, they would pass beneath the canopy of trees saturated in the webs of spiders. And as they grew deeper into the forest, the webs would grow more and more prevalent. Blocking the way through the trees on either side of the road, forcing carriages to squeeze through the strands along the dirt road. But the spiders who occupied these webs never seemed to be around, for even though you could see webbing as far as they eye allowed, you'd never see a living spider.

And eventually the forest road would end and you'd be deposited in front of the large and grandiose manor of the Silk family.

## Silks

But getting to the manor was never an issue, even if the forest road was a bit creepy. Guests had flocked to the manor to discover the secrets of the craftsmen who made such luxurious silks and fabrics. And the Silks, desperate to attain power and riches, but fearful of those coming to steal their power, would acquiesce.

Everything seemed to be going well for Arthur Silk, until the untimely death of his wife and children. While out delivering freshly woven silks to a distributing merchant, Arthur returned home to an empty and ransacked manor. Everything had been overturned in the search of the family's wealth. His pretty young wife lay across a broken loom, her dress ripped and skirt hiked up. The tears and makeup hardened to her cheeks and multiple stab wounds darted across her chest. The instrument of such lacerations left sticking from her heart, dying her silken dress red. Arthur's young son lay in the corner of the same room, his face hollow and slack, facing towards his mother. He hadn't had the relief of being stabbed to death, but instead was covered in bruises and most of his bones were broken. From the bulge in his eyes, and the blood on his neck and fingernails, the final blow that did it snapped his windpipe and choked him to death as he was forced to witness the rape and murder of his beloved and gentle mother. The boy's twin sister was missing from the manor, and despite Arthur searching to see if she had hidden somewhere, he could not find her within the grounds of the manor, or along the forest road.

## The Spiders of the Forest Road

What Arthur couldn't possibly have known, was that none of the brigands who had broken apart his family had made it out of the woods that night. For after witnessing the loss of their beloved Lady of the house, the house spiders quickly took to their webs and rushed to the woods to get help. By the time the house spiders got to the tree line, they knew it was already too late. But the twin daughter, Lady Luciell 'Lucy' Silk, who had hidden under a table in the foyer, let forth a wailing scream of panic as she was dragged by her hair from her hiding place.

And this was all that was needed to spur action in the forest that night. A crawling black carpet descended from the walls and ceiling as billions of spiders rushed into the manor to rescue Lady Luciell. Swarming across the man attacking her, biting and tearing at his flesh. Crawling into his eyes, mouth, ears, and nose. Devouring him down to bone, and doing the same to those who they caught inside the manor.

The brigands fled in absolute horror, but met their untimely end along the forest road. Running into silken webbed traps, wrapping up and binding their limbs. The gossamer cascaded down hills between trees, camouflaged with sticky webbing. And they were subsequently devoured by the masses of spiders.

The spiders, who had been spurred to action by a noble cause, had lost themselves to the violence and vengeance of their own broken hearts. And with their peaceful lives destroyed, they swore revenge against humans who could never seem to let good things lie, and always had to muck about in businessed not their own.

And their newly adopted daughter, Lady Lucy, would ironically be the one to help them attain their revenge.

## Arthur

Rape and murder by brigands and bandits is, unfortunately, not wholly uncommon. Many lives of decent folk have been ruined by those lacking basic decency, and people are left to wallow in their grief and hope to one day be able to move on. And as previously stated, he did not find Luciell remaining on the property, nor did he find any brigand remains. Leaving him to believe that she had been absconded with and the bandits escaped from his clutches.

But Arthur never did.

Arthur began to spend more and more time within the webbed trees of his property. Sitting on the forest floor and talking to the spiders that lived in the webs. Madness took hold of him, and silk fabric and clothing began to stop leaving the manor. It is said that a merchant who knew him very well once found him along the forest road, curled into a ball and weeping, while sitting in a particular thick web that acted like a hammock. And all across the web and his body were tiny spiders that seemed to sit still, listening to the wailing grief of a man who had lost. The merchant left him without even a word spoken between them. For he didn't know what to say to that bizarre sight.

## Lady Luciell 'Lucy' Silk

Her new caretakers began to groom her for their vicious plans. Being as intelligent as they were, they began to teach her how to entrap. And soon Lady Lucy was bringing guests and people onto the forest road for various reasons and lies. But the end result would always be the same. They would be murdered and consumed by the mass of spider living within the Silk's forest. Dragged into the dark, never to be seen again.

But it was the rallying cry for help from the Antiquarian Guild by Lady Lucy that changed everything. An adventurous magister was captured when he arrived to try and help the damsel who was no as in distress as she'd led him to believe. Wrapped in a cocoon of web, the magister would spend the last decade of his life teaching everything he knew about magic to his captors. And in turn, Lady Lucy began to grasp how to dip herself into the pull of Diaseeth.

But the darkness in the hearts of the spiders had also fed to the darkness within her own heart. And the magics she drew from Diaseeth were as black as her newfound family. And she began to practice her dark magics with the spiders. Enlarging them, even furthering their intellect, and even beginning to teach some of them to use magic themselves.

And so, it was Lady Lucy who created the first of the Great Spiders. Massive and intelligent, these spiders bred rapidly and crossed the entire world of Antiok. Taking up refuge in the dark places of the world, hoping to enact revenge for a long since forgotten and repaid slight against them.

## The Manor as it is Today

No longer needing to lure people to the manor grounds, Lady Lucy fell into living among her family of great spiders. But the spiders were no longer idle. Larger than a horse, they had no problem now simply laying siege and setting traps for people in nearby towns and villages. Their intellect making them extremely dangerous even to the knights of the realm.

And so within the manor ground, the spiders began to amass treasure and armor. Loot that they could not eat, but knew of its value. The manor has never fallen into disrepair. And the lanterns at the Golden Spinner's Gate, up the forest road, and within the windows of the manor have never been extinguished.

A dark place, made evil by black magics and horrific murders beyond counting. The name of the Silk Manor sends shivers up the spines of most Nekarians. And the Antiquarians dare not tread there.

Lady Luciell can still be seen from the gate, dressed in white silks, walking through the forest. And some stories say you can even still hear the wailing sobs of Arthur for his young wife and son...