Ambush the Predator

The tunnel narrowed, walls slick with age, until it broke open into a vast chamber unlike any we’d seen before. Four massive stone pillars rose from the abyss below, spaced out like the points of a compass, each one connected by thick, gleaming strands of spiderweb—tensile and unnatural in their precision—forming treacherous bridges between the stone pillars. The webs quivered faintly with every breath of air, as if they themselves were waiting for the next prey. The center between the four pillars was nothing—an open void, a perfect circle carved by ancient collapse. Down there, in that black drop, lay the Underdark.

That fall was fatal even to the hardiest of beasts.

Good.

The girls stepped up beside me, eyes scanning the space in silence. We stayed low behind a rocky ledge near the entrance, taking in the scene. The webs glistened faintly in the mushroomlight, strung in taut, glistening lines between the cliffs.

Then we saw her.

The Phase Spider Matriarch moved like smoke and shadow—black and blue, ten meters from leg to leg, her segmented body twitching in elegant menace as she paced across the far platform. Two of her smaller kin, still the size of a carriage each, clung to adjacent pillars. Their limbs tapped along the web bridges, testing for vibrations.

And worse—there were eggs. Dozens. Clusters of fat grsan cs clinging to the walls, twitching faintly.

Shadowheart exclaimed, a mix of a whisper and a hiss. “You can’t be serious!”

Karlach rested a hand on her axe and let out a long, dry exhale. “Soldier, You said ‘Adventure,’ not an arachnophobes living nightmare.”

I didn’t answer right away.

Lae’zel stepped forward, shoulders squared, eyes locked on the matriarch. “A true challenge,” she murmured with reverence. Then she turned to me. “Tell me what I must do to win this fight.”

The phrasing struck me.

Not what should we do, or what's the plan—She asked for an order.

I didn’t comment on it, but it sat with me.

[Lae’zel Corruption +2]

“We need to be smart about this" I said, kneeling and drawing a rough map of the chamber in the dirt with a gloved finger. At this point we where under-leveled to take her, but by dragging her into the pit for an easy instakill, we would be able to gain a massive chuck of experience.

Karlach crouched beside me, squinting at the drawing. “I’m assuming we’re not trying to take her head-on?”

“No. We hit first and don’t let her get control.”

Shadowheart knelt opposite me. “What about the hatchlings?”

“Burn them,” I said. “As soon as things kick off, light them up, but save the Fireball for an emergency.”

She nodded once. She didn’t need convincing.

“Lae’zel,” I continued, looking up at her. “You and Karlach take the smaller spiders. If we’re quick, we take them out before they can move. That leaves only the Matriarch.”

Karlach tapped her fingers against her thigh. “You want us to split from the start?”

“You’ll be fine,” I said. “We catch them off guard. They won’t have time to blink.”

“And you?” Shadowheart asked.

“I wait for the Matriarch to be in position,” I said. “There’s a moment—she’ll step close to the center. I hit her then with Both blasts and she falls to her ****.”

Lae’zel raised an eyebrow. “You think knocking her into the abyss will kill her?”

“I think it’s better than testing her poison fangs in a fair fight.”

No one argued.

Karlach exhaled again, then grinned. “Alright. Surprise stab and shove-it-down-the-hole. I can work with that.”

Shadowheart’s lips twitched. “I’ll stay near the rear. Heal when needed. I’ll start to shoot once we begin.”

I gave one last look over the edge. The matriarch was still circling. They hadn’t noticed us yet.

If we did it right, the fight would be over in seconds.

“Get to your Positions,” I said.

And just like that, we moved. Quietly. with purpose.

To ambush the spider in her own web.