webs of the Dread Spider

You are Heinrich von Falkenstein, a young noble of the Empire. You’re on part
of an expedition deep in the jungles of Lustria, where you seek fabulous
treasures under the guidance of the famed wizard and explorer Gabriel Geier.
He seeks to retrieve a powerful relic from the abandoned temple. Attacked by
lizardmen, the expedition has been in dire peril from the very start. But dire
peril turns to certain death when it turns out Geier is part of a chaos cult
serving a forgotten god. When he betrays you and leaves you for dead in the
temple, you’re going to have to escape the booby-trapped ruin and survive the
perils of the jungle if you hope for revenge. But what is the terrible Dread
Spider that he serves? And can you find out its plan and get back to Altdorf
before it’s too late to stop it?
You help your three remaining bodyguards build a barricade from the remains of the doors. Once
you’ve finished, you lean on the nearest wall wearily. Those Saurus were tough fighters. Thank
Sigmar you’ve got a couple of moments to rest.

On top of the stone stairs that dominate the room, you can see Gabriel reading from his scroll as he
traces the carvings next to the door. They glow with fiery light.

In the corridor to one side, you can just about make out the slim form of Sabina Etticorte, the lovely
Bretonian thief. It looks like she’s examining a statue in the wall down there.

Then suddenly, everything happens at once.

There’s a bang and a grinding noise from the top of the steps.

“Hurry, Heinrich,” shouts the wizard. “I need you to hold down the opening mechanism while I deal
with the second door!”

There’s a scream from the side corridor.

“Help!” yells Sabina.

And another pack of Saurus warriors suddenly crash through the doors. Their bronze axes kill one of
your loyal men and sending the other two reeling.

Who will you help? Sabina, Gabriel or your men?

You fling yourself through the archway as the slab crashes to the ground behind you.

As you get to your feet, you catch your breath in awe.

You must be right inside that broken tower you saw from outside the temple. Golden daylight
streams in from the broken ceiling high above you. Down the far wall, bright green vines have grown
in from above.

But what really makes you gasp is the depth of the room. There’s a sixty metre drop below you, into
murky water. It doesn’t look like there’s any way out down there.

In front of you, a narrow stone bridge crosses the pool. At the far end is a stone altar of some kind,
decorated with carvings of cavorting spiders.

And on top of the altar is an amazing suit of brass armour, standing right in a shaft of light from
above. Gabriel is at the foot of the altar, about to climb up.

“Wait!” you shout running towards him, but it’s too late.

As his foot presses the top of the altar, there’s an ominous click. Another trap!

Then the whole bridge starts shaking and grinding.

What do you do? Run forward or leap back?

Your good steel breastplate drags you straight down to the bottom as you struggle with the straps.
Your lungs are burning. Flashes of light burst behind your eyes. It’s no good; you’ll never get it off in
time!

Then you remember the knife you took from Sabina’s body.

Somehow, you manage to get it free from your belt and slash through the leather straps at your
shoulders.

The breastplate falls away, and you kick up madly towards the surface. As you burst out of the
water, you gasp in a huge breath of sweet air. You’re alive!

But now what?

Gabriel’s betrayal has caught you totally by surprise. Even now, he’ll be making his way back down
river towards your ship, the Tobaro Steel. If he reaches it, he’ll certainly set sail for home at once.

There’s no time to waste. You need to get out of here. Every second is precious.

Where will you look?

Right, along the stone wall underneath the altar?

Left, behind the vines growing down from the hole in the ceiling?

Or take a deep breath and dive back down, in case there’s a way out beneath you somewhere?
You swim down the shadowy tunnel. Finally, you burst into cool air, spluttering and coughing as you
pant for breath. Blindly, you reach out with one hand as you wipe water out of your eyes with the
other.

Your hand clutches at a slimy stone surface. You must still be inside the temple!

Exhausted, you haul yourself out of the water, just in case there are more of those eels down here.

You sit on the floor, dripping and panting for a moment, then look up at your surroundings.

You’re in a long room made from huge stone blocks. Dark passages lead away on either side of you,
left and right. The floor and walls have been carved with more sinister spider web designs.

A pale blue-green glow flickers softly from the far end. There’s another altar back there, similar to
the one above but much smaller. Hanging on the wall behind it is a short brass sword. The weird
light seems to come from behind it, somehow.

What have you stumbled into now?

Do you go to investigate the sword?

Or get out of this haunted place as quickly as possible down the left-hand passage or the right-
hand one?
Slowly, you slide out of the thick river mud, staying as low as possible.

The reeds slither past you as you crawl closer and closer to your target. You’re determined to take it
out before it can raise an alarm. Then you’ll be able to help yourself to that raft!

As carefully and quietly as a trained assassin, you get in behind the scaly blue creature. All the time,
it stays totally motionless, holding its blowpipe to its lips. It doesn’t notice you at all.

Carefully, you pull your knife out and get ready to strike.

Then you realise why it’s been keeping so still.

About a few metres in front of your target, is a huge black cat in a deadly low crouch. Its topaz eyes
seem to glow as it looks straight into your own. They’re hunting each other.

The panther’s huge muscles tense and you sense the skink getting ready to attack too.

You’ve only got seconds to react!

Push the skink towards the panther?

Kill the skink and get ready to fight the jungle cat?

Or hope that blowpipe takes care of the predator so you can kill the skink?
Santa Myrmidia at last!

You’re not entirely pleased to be back in this den of pirates, but it’s one step up from that damned
jungle.

Probably.

As your raft floats towards the rough wooden piers, you desperately scan the ships there for the
Tobaro Steel.

No sign of it.

You’re too late! Greier must be long gone, and he’s taken your ride home with him. Whatever he’s
got lined up, you’re going to have to work even harder to get back and stop him in time.

Well, at least you’ve still got the jewels you took from the temple. If there’s one thing you’re certain
of, it’s that in this wretched hole, everyone is for hire for the right price.

As you steer into the creaking dock, your bedraggled appearance attracts a fair bit of attention. But
you’ve no time to swap stories with the rum-soaked wretches round the docks. You need a ship, and
that means you need a captain. There are several places you could start looking.

The elegant governor’s mansion on top of the hill?

The Dead Man’s Chest, a dirty-looking inn near the docks?

Or maybe amongst the merchants in the Jade Bazaar?

The door of your cabin creaks softly open. Not quite softly enough – your eyes flick open at the slight
sound.

You must be far out to sea by now. It’s a calm night, though. Your hammock is swaying gently from
side to side, as is the sputtering oil lantern hanging by your bed.

There in the doorway, silhouetted by the weird light of Morrslieb in the sky above him, is Captain
van der Pauers. There’s a sly grin on his bearded face, and he’s already drawn his scimitar.

“Time for an early payday, I reckon,” he whispers to himself.

More treachery. That’ll teach you to trust a merchant from Marienburg!

Your sword is still in its scabbard, resting on your sea chest on the floor. At least he hasn’t realised
you’re awake yet, so you may still be able to turn this around.

There might be time to flip out of your hammock and grab your sword.

The oil lantern is closer, though, you could grab it and fling it at him.

Or keep pretending to be asleep until he’s closer, then surprise him with a swift head butt.
There’s no time to wait around for a gangplank. As soon as your ship touches against the good stone
docks of Altdorf, you leap over the side.

As you rush through the wharves, you spot The Tobaro Steel. It’s here ahead of you, just like the old
man said it would be. Greier must have already made contact with the rest of the Dread Spider cult.

If what you learnt in Santa Myrmidia is true, they’re almost certainly going to give that cursed
breastplate away to someone in a position of power. Then they’ll be under the control of the
cultists.

You’re going to have to try and find out what they intend, but it’s not going to be easy. You’ve got no
money left after the voyage, Altdorf isn’t your home town, and Greier has a good head start on you.

Still, you’ve got a few good ideas.

You could sneak on board the Tobaro Steel and see if you can find some clues there.

Or ask around in the dockland taverns, see if anyone’s seen anything suspicious.

Greier’s a renegade Celestial wizard – maybe if you go to the Celestial College and tell them, they’ll
help you find him?
You knock the final guard out, leaving him unconscious in a pile of his colleagues. You only hope you
can stop Greier’s plan in time, otherwise you’re going to have some pretty awkward explaining to do
later.

Keeping your sword drawn, you rush up the stairs to the organ loft and look down.

The chapel is packed with nobles. Halberdiers line the aisles. The greatest men and women of the
College of Engineers are all here, ready for the presentations of the greatest armour the Empire has
to offer.

The four final candidates are all up at the front. Your father is standing in front of them, ready to try
out each of their offerings.

One has a beautiful helmet, the next a steel gauntlet, the next a set of jousting greaves and finally,
one with an enamelled shield. There’s no sign of the cursed breastplate or of Geier – he must be in
disguise!

The pistol you stole is loaded, but you’ll only get one shot. Who to aim for?

The dark-haired man holding the helmet?

The big blond northerner with the gauntlet?

The Tilean blacksmith with the greaves?

The dwarven smith with the shield?

Or at someone else?
You vault down from the balcony as the crowd flees, screaming.

Unmasked, Greier stands in a corona of dark fire. Your father is sprawled at his feet. You just hope
he’s still alive.

The front few pews are a mess of smouldering wreckage where his blast struck. Amongst them, you
can see the discarded pieces of armour including the cursed breastplate.

“It’s over, Greier,” you shout at him. “Give up now, while you can!”

“I’m but one of a thousand!” he shrieks, his voice distorted by the sheer power he’s controlling. “Cut
one strand, the web still remains!”

He gestures towards you, shoulders hunching, and another bolt of writhing energy arcs forth. You
hurl yourself into the cover of the nearest pews just in time as it burns a long dark streak along the
floor behind you.

The crazed sorcerer immediately starts chanting again. You have to stop him before he unleashes
some fresh horror on you. But how?

If you still have a skink blowpipe, maybe you could take him out from here. Otherwise you’ll have
to either leap up and charge him, or crawl under the pews to try and reach the altar under cover.
Think fast!