The thing in the crypt



Notes just now. Need to use template!

Gold Border The thing in the crypt

In the crypt beneath the Silken Chapel, sorrow-spiders are hatching from human eyeballs...

(unlocked with Dangerous 73)

Storylet says The thing in the crypt Who made this storylet?

In the crypt beneath the Silken Chapel, sorrow-spiders are hatching from human eyeballs.

Mission says You need to know!

Is it the sorrow-spiders themselves that are laying eggs in the eyes? Is it something even worse? Someone is going to have to find out. You, specifically.

Goes to The spider-council

You return to the chapel's crypt, and this time the spiders on duty let you pass as you make it clear you are staying away from their eye-eggs. You wander down sticky, webbed tunnels that extend much farther than the old crypt. Just how many spiders are there down here? How many eyeballs have been taken over the years?

You find the beast in a vast dark space of tumbled basalt columns tangled in silk - a temple in an earlier city, perhaps. It fills the darkness with its own corrupt and nacreous glow. It can only be the horror they speak of in the Medusa's Head... a spider-council. You were half expecting a giant spider. This is... something else. A dozen big spiders fused together like softened wax figures. Legs run into thoraxes. Eyes sit next to spinnerets. All studded with fangs like chitinous jewellery. It must weigh as much as a rhinoceros.

Lesser spiders approach with a sidling, respectful gait, bringing eyeballs to its multiple ovipositors. Ten mouths hiss these words at you...

'Good evening. May we compliment you on your charming eyes?' You've gained a new quality: Arachnologist at 1. http://images.echobazaar.failbettergames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/spiderflorencesmall.png

Then you can do The spider-council

The spider-council regards you with a hundred eyes...

(unlocked with Arachnologist 1) http://images.echobazaar.failbettergames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/council.png

 Leads to The spider-council Who made this storylet?

The spider-council regards you with a hundred eyes. Ten inhuman mouths intone, 'Now then. Have your eyes been blessed with the Correspondence?'

Appropriately perhaps, its tones are silken. Pleasant, even. Contralto. You could close your eyes and imagine you're at a salon with wine and delicious crackers. Don't close your eyes, though.

Options Run away!

Horrible thing! Run away! Burn the Silken Chapel! http://images.echobazaar.failbettergames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/running.png

Talk your way out

'Yes indeed! I know all about the Correspondence!' http://images.echobazaar.failbettergames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/lips.png

Kill the horrid thing

Can such a beast be killed? You aim to find out. The eyes of the Neath depend on you!

(A high-risk challenge for your Dangerous quality. (Dangerous at 74) http://images.echobazaar.failbettergames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/council.png