Fiction | Game | Medium Adventurers League ⚔️

Spiders of the Feyglades Forest

The start of a MAL quest

This is part of a story that works as an interactive game. You’ll want to have a notepad and dice at the ready! Click here for the beginning of the Medium Adventurers League, and find a reminder of the rules here. You can also return to the Guild Hall, or go back to the inn for a rest.

To play this quest, your character needs to have at least one day's rations (preferably more), and a healing potion is also recommended!

You set out from the Adventurers League headquarters, ready for another quest. The note this time was short but stark:

We woodcutters make our living in the Feyglades, but recently, giant spiders have been attacking. Please help! We can afford to pay for each spider killed.

You check your map. The easiest and safest way to go to the Feyglades is to follow the road to the city known as The Bastion, and then head inland. But there is a much shorter route through the light forest and foothills on the western flank of the Trollkiller Mountains.

That is the way you decide to take. Well, you’re an adventurer, after all!

And fortunately, the route is safe and unremarkable at first. There is a path that comes and goes, getting clearer when it cuts through grassy hill valleys, and becoming harder to follow as it rises up slopes or moves through muddy gulches.

You do your best to keep on the trail, knowing that it will be safer to do so. The weather is fair, and by the early afternoon, you settle on a fallen tree to eat your rations…

Remove one day’s rations from your character sheet.

However, you have barely taken the last bite when an undead bear bounds out from a nearby thicket, and attacks!

(Here is a link to a dice-rolling app!).

Combat encounter: Undead bear.
Challenge rating: Medium (roll 15+).

Roll using brawn or magic. Roll brawn at +2 if you use a silver weapon (but remember to remove any bonus from your usual weapon).

If you succeed, you hit the bear. It's tough; you need to hit three times to kill it.
If you fail, you are slashed by its claws. Subtract 1 from health.

You can flee back to the headquarters or to the inn, and return another day.

If you are killed, click here. Otherwise, read on below.

As the bones of the vile creature collapse to the ground, you catch your breath. What evil spellcaster could have animated such a beast? And how did it get loose?

Clearly, this area is more dangerous than you realized.

You notice that there are several intact claws among the debris of bones and sinew, and decide to pick them up.

Roll 1d20. The result is the number of intact bear claws you can add to your character sheet.

With that, you move on through the foothills.

By late afternoon, you are getting close. The great green mass of the Feyglades can be seen ahead. However, in order to progress before it gets dark, you are going to have to somehow pass an area of cliffs with a waterfall.

You pause, considering your options, then eventually decide that clambering up would be the best option. Fortunately there is a large splash pool at the foot of the falls, and you think (or hope) that falling would not be fatal…

Encounter: Scaling the falls.
Challenge rating: Medium (roll 16+).
Roll using a combination of brawn and wits. Roll at +2 if you have a rope that is at least 20 feet long.

If you succeed, you scale halfway up. You must succeed twice in a row.

If you fail from the starting point, you slip harmlessly back to the starting position, and can try again.

However, if you succeed once and then fail, you fall from halfway up. Take one point of damage to health as you bounce off the rocks and then land in the water. Then try again.

It's too late to make it safely back to headquarters now. If you are killed, click here. But if you make it to the top, read on.

At last, you make it to the top, and to your surprise, you meet a logging road very soon as you progress. It runs east-west; the eastern route leads towards The Bastion, so you presume that the logging work must happen to the west.

That is the way you choose.

It is now starting to get dark, and your senses are on high alert. Roll on the following table:

Roll 1d20 on the following chart to determine whether you encounter anything on the forest path!

***

1: A vast spider leaps out! Follow the instructions for "spider (large) attack" at the foot of this page.

2-6: A spider the size of a dog drops from a branch and attacks! Follow the instructions for "spider (medium) attack" at the foot of this page.

7: You notice a group of strange red fungi, and on closer inspection, realize that they are of a type that are sold at the Adventurers League Headquarters. You gather some - add Red 'shroom (x5) to your character sheet.

8-9: You find a discarded set of rations, and decide that they are safe to eat. Add rations (x1) to your character sheet.

10-11: You find a shield. If you use it, you can add +1 to health (you can only use a maximum of one shield at a time).

12-13: You spot something glinting among the trees. On investigating, you find 10 silver pieces! Add these to your character sheet.

14-15: You disturb a flock of birds, which fly past you and give you a fright. Worse, you are splattered with bird droppings. Subtract -1 from charm for your next encounter.

16–20: You proceed without noticing anything very much, humming a happy tune to yourself.

The Forest Camp

At last, you reach the forest camp — a circular clearing with a pond in the center and several makeshift shelters. Four woodcutters are just preparing to put away their tools for the night. All of them look tired, and scared.

“Greetings,” you say cheerfully. “I’m an adventurer, and I’m here to deal with your spider problem.”

They look at each other doubtfully, and then a pair walk forward, a man and a woman, both with medium-brown skin and jet black hair. “Welcome,” says the woman. “But we had hoped for a group of you. There are a lot of those damn bugs.”

“They just suddenly started bothering you?” you ask, glancing around at the woodcutters, and then at the trees.

“Yes,” says the man. He has a very deep, mournful voice. “This is a new threat to me, in all my years working here. They must have been driven from some other evil place.”

“Or bred by some demon to plague us,” adds the woman.

“Perhaps, perhaps,” you say. “But it’s getting late. Do you have somewhere I can stay for the night?”

When they look skeptical again, you decide to convince them of your bravery and exploits…

Encounter: Friends with the woodcutters?
Challenge rating: Easy (roll 10+).
Roll using charm.

If you succeed, add +1 to reputation. The woodcutters take you to their home, feed you well, wash your clothes, and give you a spare bed to sleep in. If you are poisoned, they provide an antidote.

If you fail, subtract 1 from reputation. You have an uncomfortable, near-sleepless night in the lee of one of the forest shelters. Roll 1d20; on an odd number, you are disturbed by a spider during the night. Play the encounter "Encounter: Spider (medium) attack", and count any damage after resetting your health from the night's rest. 

Either way, click here to see what happens in the morning.

(Only engage in the following encounters if you were instructed to do so in the commands earlier).

Encounter: Spider (medium) attack.

Challenge rating: Easy (roll 10+).
Roll using brawn or magic.

If you succeed, you hit and kill the spider. Take one spider stinger as a trophy (mark this on your character sheet).  Go back up to read "The Forest Camp" above.

If you fail, you are hit. Subtract 1 from health each time you are hit.

If you are killed, click here.

Encounter: Spider (large) attack.

Challenge rating: Medium (roll 15+).
Roll using brawn or magic.

If you succeed, you hit the spider. It's a tough beast; you need to hit it three times.

If you fail, you are hit. Subtract 1 from health each time you are hit. Then roll 1d20. If you roll 1–5, you are poisoned.

If poisoned, next time you rest, you do not recover any points of health, and can only do so via healing potions.

If you kill the spider, take one spider stinger as a trophy (mark this on your character sheet).  Go back up to read "The Forest Camp" above.

If you are killed, click here.

Thanks for reading — and playing! ⚔️

New to Medium? Consider signing up, so that you can enjoy unlimited quests like this one, as well as millions of other cool articles and stories! If you use my referral link by clicking here, it won’t cost you anything more, but I get a fraction of the subscription fee. Thank you! 🎲