Lord Macabre
I must warn you, I have not completed this story.
How do you even pronounce "Lord Macabre?" Is it "Lord Mack-aw-bray?" Or is it "Lord Mack-aw-ber?"
The people at the village told Edlin that it was like any other forest. But now that he’s seen the forest, he thinks this must be the only one they’ve ever seen. They call it the Dark Forest because the area within the forest is comparatively darker to the area around it due to the shade produced by the canopy. To Edlin, it seems darker than normal. It’s a subtle thing. No one else in his party seems to notice. But there is just something off about this forest.
His comrade in arms, Clenchin, hasn’t said anything in response to his complaint that something is off about the forest. Clenchin has an inquisitive look about him, he rarely speaks and always seems intensely focused. But Edlin knows better. Clenchin is dumber than bricks. Clenchin learned to adopt the appearance of a serious, observant and capable hunter when he was young. Despite his lack of intelligence, he is quite capable in survival skills and hunting animals.
Clenchin’s choice of clothing is that of messenger or scout. Durable clothes that resist rips and tears. He has multiple pairs of clothes, as they are likely to be torn in his adventures. A grey cloth shirt and grey linen pants. His small pack holds his clothes. Anything else he needs to survive, he gets from the wild, including his weapon.
Clenchin has a spear or trident or harpoon or something like that. It’s hard to explain. He calls it “Clenchin.” Edlin wonders if Clenchin can say anything besides “Clenchin.” The “Clenchin” is a long branch with the bark cut off so it’s white, carved into a pole. He tied a spearhead carved from a turtle shell to one end of the pole using twine he got from the village and an adhesive made from the melting part of the dinner he caught last night. He has to re-tie and apply adhesive to return the spearhead each time he uses his “Clenchin” in combat. The spearhead falls off after a few strikes. Edlin never has such problems with his sword.
Clenchin carved grooves into the pole of his “Clenchin,” so it would have better grip. He took a racoon skull, and split the jaw into four quadrants. Ignoring teeth, he shaved and sharpened the four mandibles into dagger-like pieces. He attached one on each of the four sides of the pole close to the spearhead. They point the same direction as the spearhead. So it is sort of like a trident in the shape of a chandelier. Or an “x”. The mandible bones need to be replaced even more often than the spearhead.
So when Edlin watched Clenchin walk across the grass in the forest with his “Clenchin” held before him, Edlin knows that Clenchin doesn’t notice the grass. Okay, so maybe he does notice the grass, but he surely doesn’t know how odd that is. There usually isn’t too much grass in the forest because a forest floor is usually covered with leaves. There are virtually no leaves on the ground. Again, nobody notices. Nobody but Edlin. The trees are all old and tall. There are no branches anywhere near arms-reach. The canopy is thick, and there are a ton of ferns and bushes. They almost form hedges. It would be easy to hide in those.
Edlin thinks this is strange. The canopy is so thick. How can anything grow beneath the tree-line? In his experience with forests, there are flowers and weeds and bushes, but they aren’t too much because the mass of leaves chokes anything that tries to grow. But animals live in forests. Animals move around and there would be a space cleared by this movement for something to grow. Also, the canopy of a normal forest is never so thick as in this forest. This is, true to its name, a dark forest.
Clenchin might be dense and dumb, but surely Toralek, their party’s mage, should have noticed the oddities of the forest? Toralek is incredibly intelligent. He is a wizard through and through, but he defies Edlin’s expectations. Edlin expects a wizard to wear a purple robe and purple cone shaped hat and wear a long white beard as wide as a mustache. Instead, Toralek conveys the image of a hiker or traveller. He carries a large leather backpack, a cheap brown hat just to keep the Sun off his face. Instead of a robe, he wears a thick and sturdy leather vest. It’s so hardy, it doubles as armor.
Toralek’s pack only holds the essentials. For a mage, that means books, writing utensils, and lots of measuring tools. He’s got an abacus, a compass (navigation tool), a compass (circle-drawing tool), thermometer, protracters, squares (carpenter’s), measuring line, a yardstick, a ruler. His books fall into two categories: textbooks and notebooks. The textbooks are the ones he uses for reference, so maybe reference book is a better name. Then there are the notebooks that he uses to write down math, usually in distances and solving equations.
One time, he tried to explain how his magic worked to Chlenchin and Edlin. He started rambling about distance and equations. He needed to know the distance and space of things to solve the equations that would allow him to hit his target. He says that the more he knows, usually measurement-wise, the less he has to solve for in producing his magic. Edlin and Clenchin didn’t dare admit that they had no idea what Toralek was talking about, it didn’t take long for Toralek to realize that his friends were no longer paying attention to him. Now, Toralek doesn’t talk about his magic. Whenever he needs to measure something and anyone asks him an explanation, he just says that it’s for his magic and usually they will comply. Nobody in the party knows precisely why it is necessary, but after hearing how complicated the process is, they know better than to prevent Toralek from getting every bit of information he needs.
Toralek always makes sure that they are never lost. He keeps track of their location via coordinate system. He makes sure to detail their coordinates with excessive precision. It shouldn’t matter that they know exactly where they are on the coordinate system. Could that have something to do with his magic? That’s his usual excuse for his odd activities, but maybe it’s just that, an excuse.
Edlin once thought it was an excuse, maybe magic had nothing to do with what he was talking about, maybe it was just all for show. So one time, Edlin peeked over Toralek’s shoulder while he was reading his textbook. It was filled with equations and numbers. There are a few letters in there too. Not words, just individual letters. It made no sense.
Okay, so Toralek doesn’t seem to find anything strange about this forest. But he rarely pays attention to the important details. He only ever seems to notice details of distance and visual space. While they travel, he will guess how far away an object is, then he will count his steps to see how accurate he was. It doesn’t seem like a fun game, but Edlin has decided that if such an activity keeps Toralek from boredom during their long trips, then it is a good way for Toralek to spend his time.
Edlin still found it weird that no one else seems to notice the lack of fallen trees in the forest, the lack of clearings. How the entire forest looks almost exactly the same. There seems to be no variety in plant life, and there are no animals to be seen or heard. Edlin expected the sound of birds singing and leaves shaking as small mammals skitter away.
“Edlin,” said a feminine voice, “you look concerned. Is something wrong?” Edlin had forgotten about her. There is another member to their party. She is new: they picked her up at the village next to the forest. She’s a healer. Edlin can’t quite remember her name. Probably because they never bothered to ask her for it.
Edlin looks towards the woman in response to her inquiry. He can’t even begin to guess her age. She could be young, she lacked the wrinkles of the withered crones that spew curses with the bubbling brew of a cauldron. At the same time, she lacked the slender and flexible grace of the nymphs that bounce around with endless energy and excitement.
So Edlin, knowing next to nothing about his female party companion, refers to her as “Healer.” He might have worried if that was offensive, but he really doesn’t care what she thinks. “No need to worry, Healer.” Edlin says, “I was just considering how strange this forest is to lack many of the aesthetics I have come to expect in a forest.” Edlin turns away from Healer and returns his attention to the direction of their walking.
Edlin feels like a fool. How could he have forgotten about Healer? She stands out like a light amongst shadows. She wears a long white dress that goes down to the dirt ground. So the bottom is stained brown because it drags behind her. She also wears a ridiculous looking hat. It’s a wide brimmed sombrero, equally white as her dress. Tassels hang down from the edge of the hat, down to just above her nose. So they are not very long tassels at all.
Healer did not bring much with her. It is obvious she isn’t experienced in adventures and didn’t know what to bring. So the only other thing she brought besides her single set of too-fancy clothes is a white parasoul. Though Edlin considered the apparel fancy for an expedition where it was sure to be ruined, the dress was surprisingly plain. As in, the white dress is nothing but white. No patterns. No embroidery. No other shades of color. The tassels on her hat are the most fancy part of her appearance. And those tassels are just rectangular strips of fabric. But Edlin knows she has more fancy gear back at her house. She left her pearl necklace at home, something he noticed her wearing when they first met her. Strange, she had the good sense to leave a fancy pearl necklace at home, but didn’t bother to wear anything appropriate for travel? Is it possible that these are the most plain and hardy clothes that she has?
Her obvious lack of experience originally made Edlin wonder if she really was a healer, or if she just was pretending to be one so she could go on an adventure. Luckily, his doubts were to put to rest before they’d even reached the forest. They had barely left the village on their short walk to the forest when they were mugged by some unsavory fellows from the town. Well, almost mugged. The robbers were not prepared to fight a warrior like Edlin, or a hunter like Clenchin. Toralek didn’t do anything in the battle, it was all over before he could cast a spell. There must have been five thugs in the fight, but they were clearly un-acquainted with battle. Edlin and Clenchin had only gained a few bruises, but the men were cut and bleeding. Some of them would have died from their wounds, but Healer wouldn’t let that happen. She healed them. A crevase in the chest, from Edlin’s sword, closed and sewn shut. Broken bones reknit. They went from dying of fatal injuries to barely bearing more than a few scratches.
Edlin was angry at first, complaining that she was helping the enemy. But Healer made a good case for it. Healer had said, “These aren’t bad people. I know them. They grew up with a rough life. Besides, they aren’t any danger to you anymore. And I doubt they’ll bother you again. Even if they were evil, even if they would come back to fight you again. I can’t just let them die. I’ve known them since I was a child. Not personally, but I’ve seen them around. I can’t imagine myself sitting idly by while they bleed to death.”
Edlin hadn’t known what to say to that. So he let her do her work. But now, She is with them in the forest. Edlin wonders if they can trust her. Sure, she seems nice and trustworthy. But will she heal a wolf that attacks us? Will she help bandits after we’re ambushed? If she wants to help everyone, including those who hurt us, she won’t be much of a healer. She might heal all sides of a battle, causing Edlin and his party to fall to superior numbers. Edlin worried. But, no, surely Healer would be more sensible. Those thugs, she knew them. She wouldn’t show mercy to strangers, would she?
Edlin is worried, but he still pays attention to the oddities of the forest. So he is the first to notice the giant spider. It hangs from a web on the bottom of the canopy. The web stretches between five trees. But it is all at the top of the trees, so it is nowhere near them.
Edlin points out the spider to Toralek and Clenchin. They both know what to do. They don’t even need to communicate a plan. After all, the answer is obvious. The only one who can reach the spider from so far away is Toralek, he is the only one who can attack at range. So Clenchin and Edlin watch the spider as Toralek pulls out a wooden disc that holds a measuring line.
He places the device on the base of the tree nearest to the spider. Then his hands glow with a soft, faint, light-blue light, and the disc starts rolling it’s way up the tree. It leaves a trail of measuring line behind it, so Toralek knows exactly how high up the circle is at all times. The process is slow. Toralek keeps pausing as if reevaluating where the circle is. It is all interrupted by Healer when she asks, “What are you doing?”
They all look at Healer, equally as confused as her. Edlin answers, “Do you see that spider?” She nods, “Yes, what about it?” Edlin sighs, “Well, it’s a monster. If we don’t destroy, it’s going to kill us.”
Healer, looks at the spider for a while. And Toralek looks as if he’s about to continue rolling his measuring line up the tree when Healer speaks again. “The spider sees you. But isn’t doing anything. I don’t think it’s going to attack you. Besides, its web is at the top of trees. The web is meant to capture its prey. Humans don’t generally fly, I doubt it’s going to eat you. And as you aren’t yet threatening it, it won’t attack in self-defense either. I’d think that it’s food is probably birds and bats. You don’t need to waste your time with this spider. It’s not going to attack you.
Edlin is astonished that he is convinced by Healer’s argument. It makes sense. If the spider was truly a danger, it would have attacked them by now. Edlin calls off Clenchin and Toralek and they all continue on their journey. Edlin thinks it is strange that spiders that hunt birds would live in a forest where there don’t seem to be any birds. But the more that Edlin thinks about it, the more it makes sense. There probably are birds in the forest, but they probably are hiding and silent so the spiders don’t find them.
Edlin still notes how the distinct lack of leaves on the ground is unnerving. So the pile of leaves that they find behind some bushes catches him by surprise. The pile is wide, but not very tall. It is a somewhat circle shaped area of leaves. The Healer stops walking, but nobody notices, not even Edlin. “Stop.” Healer Whispers, “That’s a trap.” Edlin knows Healer doesn’t have adventuring experience, but he is intrigued that Edlin would suspect a trap. “What makes you think it’s a trap? Edlin asks. Healer points at the canopy, but there isn’t anything but leaves in this part of the forest canopy. She says, “We saw a giant spider earlier. That one only ate birds. Those leaves could be covering a trap made by a giant spider that lives underground.”
Edlin nodded. “That would explain why there are leaves here, especially given that they are the only leaves we’ve seen on the ground. It doesn’t tell us why we haven’t been seeing leaves, but those leaves, you’re right, they’re hiding something.” Then the Healer says, “We should go around, give it a lot of room so the spider inside doesn’t hear us.” So that’s what Edlin and his gang decide to do. Though, what people plan to do and what actually happens does not always line up perfectly.
Edlin thinks he has given the trap enough space, but soon after they start walking again, a giant brown spider bursts from beneath the leaves. It begins to run towards them. Or rather, it skitters. It’s still fast, but “run” isn’t the right word to describe its movement.
Edlin figures he weighs more than the spider, so charges at it. The Spider hesitates, not expecting its prey to come to it, but then it continues towards the party. Edlin leaps and crashes into the spider. He hopes he can crush it with his weight and momentum. But they land in the leaf pile. Edlin looks up. No, this isn’t a leaf pile. This is a leaf pit.
They’re twenty-feet down a hole. Edlin sees that the spider has managed to escape his grapple and hang above him on the wall. Edlin thinks about getting his sword out and hacking away the arachnid, but the hole is only five feet in diameter. He can’t possible manuever a sword in his such a narrow space. He can’t really stand. The bottom of the pit is full of leaves. He isn’t even on the bottom really. There is such a massive pile of leaves stocked in this hole. That, though his feet sink deep, he can’t reach the ground.
The leaves are able to support Edlin’s weight better than he thinks is logical. Though, they are in a container, and are sticky from webbing and the residue of the spider’s past meals, and from having been pushed together for so long as to make almost a solid surface. Though, it’s not solid enough to keep Edlin’s legs from sinking in.
Edlin realizes that he cannot defeat this spider on his own. His sword is useless in these confines. He cannot move around due to tight spaces and trapped legs. He also can’t really reach the spider as it dangles above him just out of reach. “Help!”, Edlin yells. “Somebody do something.” Toralek, Clenchin and Healer all lean over the side of the pit and look down. Toralek calls, “How deep is it?” Edlin replies, “I don’t know. Just do something.” Toralek shakes his head, “Sorry, but I can’t do anything if I don’t know how deep it is.”
The spider shakes as it feels the vibrations from above it. It’s a cowardly creature. It hunts with traps, not with strength. It must not be too confident in its ability to take on multiple people at once. So the spider crawls down closer towards Edlin. Edlin waves his sword at the spider but his arms and sword keep getting stuck on the wall. This isn’t a fair fight. How can he fight if he can barely move around down here?
Edlin calls out, “Someone, help!” Finally, Clenchin jumps into action, falling into the hole with his “Clenchin” pointing directly down towards the spider, which he lands on. His spearhead thrust down through the spider. Clenchin falls off the spider and hits the side of the pit. The spider is pushed down from the wall, but it skitters back up the wall, even though it now has Clenchin’s “Clenchin” stuck in the top of its abdomen.
Clenchin gets up and thrashes about in a slightly successful attempt to move himself about the leaf pile pit. He manages to reach Edlin, whom he climbs on top of, causing Edlin to sink further into the leaf pile, so now the leaves are just below his shoulders, so his arms lay on top of the leaves. Clenchin climbs onto Edlin and reaches upwards toward the spider. This causes the spider to crawl further upward toward the top of the pit.
But it gets too close to the top of the pit. Toralek lightly pokes the spider with his measuring staff. His hands glow lightly orange. The end of the staff glows lightly orange and the carapace of the spider begins smoking. The spider skitters away from Toralek, but stays in the pit near the top. But since, the spider was briefly distracted by Toralek, it was surprised when Clenchin jumped up from Edlin’s shoulders to grab its legs. Clenchin’s weight pulled the spider back down into the pit. Clenchin grabbed his “Clenchin” from the Spider and stabbed the spider’s underside. Soon, the spider legs curled together to make it a ball shaped corpse.
Clenchin helps Edlin climb onto the spider’s corpse so they can reach the top of the pit and climb out. When Edlin gets out of the pit, the examines himself for any wounds he may have. There is a gash on his arm from when he grappled the spider into the pit. Some sharp part of the spider’s body must have cut him.
“Hey, Healer,” Edlin says, “I’m injured. I need you to heal me.” Healer walks over to him and asks, “Where are you hurt?” Edlin gestures at the gash on his arm. The Healer laughs. “That’s barely an inch long. And it’s not deep at all. You don’t need healing.” Edlin frowns. Why won’t Healer heal him? That’s what they hired her for.
“Maybe I don’t need healing,” Edlin admits, “But I don’t see any reason you can’t heal me?” Healer smiles and shakes her head. “I can’t heal every little wound. I only have limited supply of healing power. And it doesn’t regenerate over time, like Toralek’s magic. I’ll eventually need to return home to get some more.” Edlin didn’t know anything about healing power. Nor did he know that it was any different from Toralek’s magic. In fact, he didn’t even know that Toralek’s power had a limit in how much it could be used, or that Toralek regenerates more power over time.
“But I’ll heal you,” Healer says. “What?” Edlin asks, “Why?” Healer points at the spider’s corpse and then at Clenchin’s “Clenchin,” which is coated in a thick viscous liquid from the insides of the spider. “It was venomous,” Healer says, “I need to neutralized any poisons that may be inside of you.” Then, without any further explanation, Healer places her finger on Edlin’s arm-wound. Then she pushes her finger hard on the wound. “Ouch!” Edlin exclaims, while trying to pull his arm away. But Healer holds his arm tight with her other hand. Eldin’s arm-wound is beginning to bleed a little more than the trickle of blood it had before. Edlin feels a surge of stinging pain race up his arm, into his shoulder and then throughout his whole body. He opens his mouth to scream, but the pain is already gone when his shouts leave his mouth.
Edlin turns to face her, an expression of shock and confusion on his face. He’s so stunned, he can only mouth his question. “Why?” Healer says, guessing his question. “I had to reach your insides,” Healer says, “Your cut wasn’t large enough for me to get into your guts and bloodstream. Without an easy entrance to your body, I had to force my power through. This is another reason why I usually only heal severe wounds. Those usually are large enough that healing isn’t so painful.”
Edlin doesn’t really understand. He’s hearing her words, but it’s kind of hard to put together their meaning. He just nods his head and hopes that she will stop talking. “Just… don’t do that again,” Edlin says. Healer shakes her head, “I can’t promise that you won’t be poisoned again” Healer pulls her finger out of Edlin’s arm. The finger is red all the way to the knuckle. Edlin isn’t queasy, but something about blood on a woman with a long white dress, hat and parasol, kind of disturbs him.
“You should wipe your hands in the dirt or something,” Edlin suggests, “You don’t want to stain your white clothes.” Healer laughs. She says, “I don’t care if these clothes get dirty. I knew what I was getting into when I joined you on this adventure. These clothes are not going to be white by the time we’re done, that’s for sure.” Edlin isn’t sure he understands. Why would she bring such clothes if she knew they would get dirty? These clothes really must be the most plain things she has.
“Clenchin,” Healer says, “You were in the pit with the spider too. Come here so I can neutralize any poisons you might have.” Clenchin backs away. He doesn’t want to experience whatever Edlin just went through. Clenchin briefly pats down all of his body, then looks at his hands. Edlin doesn’t know what he is trying to do or see, but after looking at his hands, Clenchin takes his “Clenchin” and rubs it against the ground to get the sticky spider guts off of it. But the whole spear just breaks in two, leaving him holding the dry shaft.
Healer examines Clenchin from a distance. “You’re right,” She says, “You didn’t even get scratched. There’s no way the spider could have injected its venom into you.
Clenchin sighs in relief. Then he runs to the pit to collect sticks and craft another Clenchin from the corpse of the spider. Edlin, Toralek and Healer continue walking. Clenchin catches up a few hours later. And they travel for nearly the rest of the day. They pass by a few more piles of leaves, but give these piles a massive amount of space, so that they can’t even see the leaves when they pass by because they are just so far away.
Eventually they come across a large pile of leaves. But these aren’t the tightly packed leaf piles of the spiders. These are leaf piles naturally formed from the falling of leaves from trees, when these leaves are never gathered. There are some downed trees in this area too. Edlin finds this strange given that this is the only place in the forest that seems to have the natural signs of leaves and fallen trees that forests usually have. Upon further examination, Edlin realizes that this large area with leaves and fallen trees is circular in shape. The demarcation of this area and the leafless ground is sharp.
Strange. He had assumed that the lack of leaves and fallen trees must have been because of the Ground spiders that lay traps of deep pits full of leaves.