Hide

The floor line seems like the best bet, so you run along the side of the cavern, ducking into a corner and pressing your back against the wall, holding your breath. Just as you make your way around the corner and up against the wall, you hear the skittering footsteps of the drider's legs, and she bursts out of the entrance and into the cavern. You can barely see her out of the corner of your eye, as she looks around the cave, down at the pool, and then fixes her gaze on the other exit. Her bulbous rear seems to pulse twice before shooting out a line of web, which quickly fixes itself to the ceiling. In one smooth motion, she throws herself off of the edge, and swings across the cavern in the blink of an eye, disappearing around the corner. It's quite certain in your mind that she would have caught you if you had attempted to run, but it seems that she's gone for now, at least.

You push off from the wall, gaze shifting towards the brackish water below, briefly considered heading further down due to the tantalizing thoughts of artifacts that time may have forgotten at its shores. Shaking your head and ignoring the idea, worried the drider could return, you decide to head back to the room that you originally were almost caught by the half-spider.

You walk back through the twisting tunnels, past the well room, and into the furthest room you'd been in so far. It's how you left it- two exits on the far wall, impassible metal doors. The mirror stands on the wall, and the table and chair as well in an opposite corner. Above the table are the noted various cabinets.

By now, the drider's sure to have realize she had lost you, and is potentially headed back your way. You feel like you don't have much time, either to find the key or to hide. Thinking that the cabinets are the best bet, you throw them open and begin digging through- they're absolutely packed with all different kinds of bags and packages, many of which stick out to you. You see chunks of meat in bags of red liquid, plant-like herbs in small jars, boxes of spices, all in a wide variety of colors and shapes. You're more than certain that most of it is edible.

The wooden cabinet next to it is even stranger- it's clear that this was where the more exotic ingredients were stored. A bag of eyeballs stares back at you when you immediately open the cabinet, and a quick glance shows other animal body parts- cow tongues, bug shells, stingers of some sort, and even a few bags of what looks like hair. On the top shelf, several large glass containers hold liquids of different colors and opacity. A few appear to be blood, some are brightly colored, and there's a few that are significantly opaque and different shades of white.

Nothing stands out as something that would help in the immediate moment, and you don't see any sort of key. From the hallway behind you, however, comes the unmistakable sound of the drider's clacking footsteps.