Defeating the Spider-Queen

A great threat has descended on the town of Archet as Iornaith, the spider-queen, has come on a quest to end the life of Atli Spider-bane. Refusing to let this happen, Katethein and I take on tasks for the injured dwarf so he can heal as we defend the town from the spider-queen’s invasion.

After the Battle of Archet Kat and I offered our help in restoring the town and assisting the residents. Burying the dead and fighting off diseased animals quickly gave way to a more pressing threat…spiders. Cal Sprigley’s farm had been overrun by the creatures and Kat and I had to fight a bunch of them in order to get Cal and his wife some of the belongings they had left on the farm. But there seemed to be more to the infestation.

Facing Off Against the Spider-Queen

Speaking with Atli Spider-bane confirmed my thoughts about the spiders that were on the East Path to town. Apparently some hunters blocked off a cave where the spiders seemed to be coming from and that most likely prompted them to show up in the Sprigley Farm cellar. Atli sent his cousin Bali to verify this narrative but he hasn’t returned and the Dwarf is getting worried. Bali can take care of himself but those spiders were pretty large.

Sadly, upon exploring the area around the East Gate, Kat and I found poor Bali. He’d been attacked by the spiders and overwhelmed. Judging by the number of spider corpses around, he put up a valiant fight but ultimately succumbed to their numbers.

Examining his effects, Kat found a journal which indicated that he’s been exploring the cave here by the East Gate, but there were several pages missing. It seems the spiders had moved the rock that was blocking it but had also dug through from here to the Sprigley Farm cellar. They obviously had something nefarious in mind. If I could find the missing pages perhaps they would provide insight into their plans.

Sure enough, the journal pages point to a spider-queen that apparently has been hunting for Atli Spider-bane for a while. They ambushed Bali to lure the Dwarf into rash behavior but instead of allowing him to attack the queen in his injured state, Kat and I volunteered to take on the task.

We headed into the cave and sought out this spider-queen who goes by the name of Iornaith.

After following the many twists and turns of the cave and fighting hordes of spiders, Kat and I found the entrance to the farmhouse on Sprigley’s Farm and it was heavily defended by the spiders. This must be where the queen was.

Sure enough, Iornaith was there and she had a bunch of defenders. With Kat’s Warden Gambits we were able to get through the defenders unscathed even though they clearly had more numbers than we did. And when we confronted the spider-queen the healing provided by her Persevere Gambit really came in handy. We were able to finish off Iornaith with barely a scratch. With the spider dispatched, we took her head to Atli to show him that his nemesis was slain.

Having killed the queen, the rest of the spiders should disperse soon enough and things can get back to normal around Archet. But as I get back into town, Jon Brackenbrook mentions that a stranger came through the village looking for the “Hero of Archet” and that could only mean Kat. He said he had information about Amdir and that we should meet with him in the town of Combe to the South.

Seeing that we had done all we could in Archet, Kat and I took off for Combe at first light.

Daily Ramble 244.3 | Gaming – LOTRO – Defeating the Spider-Queen