Narrator posted:

The night of April 14th, 1439 A.E., Halls of the Spider Temple

Soon after the battle, the city guardsmen arrived, but they were too late. All but a handful of the Smiths of Muirthemne lay dead in their forge. The survivors told of how the robed cultists and their giant spiders had entered their hearth-climbing up from the sewers, and attacking while the smiths slept. The dwarves had tried to mount a defense, but the monstrous spiders were too fast for them. The forge vaults were smashed open and their contents ransacked. Among the missing items were the Tain... and the SunHammer.

Connacht wasted no time. He immediately gathered the guardsmen and marched to the gates of the Spider Temple, demanding that the stolen artifacts be returned immediately. With sanctimonious words, the cultists ignored his request. The enraged guardsmen drew their blades and rushed past Connacht. Suddenly, from the shadowed recesses of the temple, dozens of shapes scuttled and descended upon the guardsmen. The huge spiders took them by complete surprise, laying them low with blinding speed. The cultists ignored the many bodies being dragged back into the shadowy crevices of the temple.

Connacht was shocked. He could not believe that a terror such as this had risen within the city walls. If the cultists realized the true powers of the artifacts stolen from the dwarves, the whole city could be devastated in the fiery holocaust. That night, hundreds of soldiers surrounded the temple grounds, letting nothing enter or leave. In the morning, Connacht planned to lead hundreds more soldiers into the Spider Temple-eradicating the malevolent cultists and their devil spiders therein.



But Connacht was unaware that the surviving Smiths of Muirthemne had plans of their own. Using the same route through the sewers the cultists had used to destroy their forge, the dwarves made their way into the depths of the Spider Temple...