Chapter 1: Twisted Business

While hunting in the Kryptgarden Forest, Gog, Puck, and Tibur encountered a Dryad."'The woman looks at you with dull green eyes, and frowns. She begins to speak, and her voice is dry and crackling, like the sound of dozens of fallen leaves being stepped upon in unison. “I have been tasked to deliver a message to creatures of power and honor. You will suffice. A spider-shepherd has come to this forest and captured a dragon named Estival. He begs your aid.” The dryad turns around to the northwest and points up to the top of a forested hill, covered with cobwebs. “That is where he is trapped. If you have love of justice or love of treasure in your hearts, Estival entreats you to save him.”" They reunited with their companions, hiding the cart and their supplies in a ditch. No longer encumbered with the beasts of burden, they journeyed deeper into the forest until they discovered the spider infested cave. The first cavern within the cave was littered with the corpses of the spider's prey, animals mostly, but humanoids as well. Verrick took a shot in the dark, searching the bodies of the dead for any trace of the Trifold. Fortune favored him, and he found a dead half-elf whose face he remembered, clutching a silver coin. No sooner had he captured the prize, when his fortunes turned, and a giant spider attacked. While her companions did battle, Elerra discovered a small Red Dragon and four small Blue Dragons trapped in the Spider's webs. She strove to free them, but was herself attacked by more of the creatures, as well as a strange Shepard of the Spiders. The party emerged victorious, slaying the monsters and liberating the Red Dragon Estival. Searching through the Spider's leavings, Verrick found his lost ancestral blade, the Dawn Bringer Anguirel Elsan. Elerra squirreled away a sack of spider eggs, hiding it from her companions.