She had a woman’s face, with red eyes, and long white hair that fell around a woman’s upper body, but below the waist it changed into the abdomen and legs of a massive black spider. One look at her, and Tahir could tell she was a spirit. She practically emanated spiritual energy in an almost tangible way to him, though he’d need to cast soul sight to confirm, he even got an idea of her level of power, that being around tier three. He took a step back, looking up at her with wide eyes, and she returned the look with a predatory grin, before her attention switched quickly to Namilah, as the priestess quickly gathered divine energy and blasted her with a rapidly cast spell.

  “Oho! You look familiar.” The Spirit said. When the smoke cleared away, she had backed away on the stack of crates, and held several strands of web in her hands. Some of it had burned away, but Tahir couldn’t believe they blocked Namilah’s spell. With a yell, Namilah lept up onto the crates with an aura empowered leap. With a flick of her wrist, her staff appeared in her hands, and she immediately charged it with divine energy as well. The spirit continued to dodge away, and conjure web strands out of nowhere to defend against Namilah’s rapid assault.

  Tahir heard shouting from elsewhere in the warehouse, and cursed. With their cover thoroughly blown, he decided to cast the soul sight spell to try to get an idea of what this spirit was, and possibly who had summoned her. Other than that, Tahir didn’t know whether or not to fight the spirit with Namilah or run interference to let her do it herself. Once he cast the spell, he climbed up to the stack of crates himself, and got a good look at the warehouse. He could spot Shukri running toward them, several men running from the opposite side, and the spirit, finally outlined within his soul sight, giving off a heavy fiendish aura that confirmed his suspicions that she was summoned at tier three.

  They needed to leave, but Namilah still went after the half-spider spirit. Tahir had a guess as to why, but he’d have to confirm it with her later. Taking a deep breath, he cast the soulflame spell on his sword, watching it erupt in a silvery fire. He rushed in to join Namilah in her fight, hoping to take it out quickly to hopefully bring Namilah back to her senses. As Tahir moved to cut the spirit in half after she dodged away from Namilah yet again, she brought up her hand, holding a strand of web between each finger, and those strands blocked his sword briefly. Enough to stop the momentum before the magical fire burned them away.

  At that point, the spirit turned her attention back to Tahir. With a flick of her wrist, and a flare of spiritual energy according to Tahir’s soul sight, she created more strands of webbing, flicking them out in front of her to block Tahir’s followup strike. This time, they completely blocked his sword, and didn’t burn away from the soul flame at all. The spirit seemed to take joy in Tahir’s shocked expression, and brought another strand-filled hand toward him. Unsure of what exactly she could do with those threads, he lept back, but felt one of them brush against his clothes and nearly cut through like a thin blade, only to be blocked by his aura shield.

  Namilah came soon after, rejoining the fight with another flurry of staff strikes and bursts of divine energy, all dodged or blocked by the surprisingly agile spirit. After a moment, Tahir realized the spirit was stalling them. Several of the men Tahir heard running toward them from the opposite end of the warehouse had reached them, as had Shukri. As he looked over them, something else caught Tahir’s attention. One of them, who walked back with a slower pace, had the same spiritual energy emanating as the spirit fighting Namilah. Tahir took the time to memorize his face and appearance, that of an older looking human man with salt and pepper hair, before he brought his attention back to the fight in front of him.

  Shukri climbed up and stood beside him, spear at the ready, but he held his hand out to stop her from joining in the fight. “Hey! This place is going to be flooded with spirits soon, we have to go!” He called to Namilah, hesitant to actually call her name out and reveal it to everyone in the warehouse.

  One of Namilah’s ears flicked in his direction, which made him guess that she’d heard him, but the spirit seemed to as well. “Oh? You can’t leave yet! The party’s just getting started.” The spirit said. As Namilah began to move back, the spirit waved both of her arms, sending several strands of web flying toward Namilah. She brushed most of them away with her staff, but some of them connected, and immediately wrapped around one of Namilah’s arms and legs, stopping her as if they’d been tied by a thick rope connecting back to the spirit.

  Nearby, other flashes of spirit energy appeared in Tahir’s periphery. Some of the men from earlier were summoning spirits. They needed to get out of here, now. Sheathing his sword, he took Shukri’s free hand and leapt toward Namilah. With another flick of her wrist, the spirit sent more stands flying toward the two of them, but Shukri swiped with her spear, sending a wave of aura flying from it and cutting the strands before they could even reach. After nearly crashing into Namilah, Tahir decided not to even try cutting or even touching the strands binding her, and wrapped his arm around her waist. He glanced at the nearest window, taking a deep breath and focusing in before beginning to cast the spell. He glanced toward the spirit, who tugged on the threads she held attached to Namilah, and he held his ground to keep her next to him instead of letting her be pulled away.

  As he began to see the shapes of other spirits physically appearing around him, the spell tried to complete, but Tahir found himself meeting some resistance from the half-spider spirit. Likely due to some residual magic in the threads she used to try to pull Namilah away. He felt the resistance, but it didn’t feel nearly as strong as when he and Neremyn teleported Neveroth out of the lich’s epic magic. As a pair of clawed hands grabbed onto the crate they all stood on to pull their owner over, he pushed past the resistance. teleporting with Shukri and Namilah, bringing all three of them tripping over themselves outside of the warehouse. Hearing the commotion they caused even from outside, they scrambled to their feet and made a break for it before anyone inside the warehouse could realize that they were still close by.

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  He called to Neremyn to start heading to their secondary meeting spot, since the first seemed too close after they’d been spotted. Seconds later, a magical flare shot up into the air before bursting in a soundless flash. Assuming Hasio and Merui had gotten out, they’d know to head to the secondary spot as well.

  The three of them ran, mostly silent other than their panting, moving through the dark alleyways. Tahir could see in the dark exceptionally well at the moment, due to his bond with Neremyn, and he’d have gotten lost very quickly otherwise. Still, he rushed along behind Shukri and Namilah, making it to their secondary meetup spot, a small storehouse that stood unoccupied, after running along for a while. They made their way in, and found Theo, Meti, and Neremyn waiting for them, looking like they’d just gotten there themselves.

  “Hey! What happened? Is everyone okay?” Theo asked.

  “Where are Hasio and Merui?” Meti asked.

  “I never saw either of them, which is probably good news.” Tahir answered. He was about to explain what had happened, but Shukri cut him off.

  “We were doing fine and following the plan when someone started a fight with one of the spirits like a mad dog!”

  Namilah glared at her, teeth bared and sharp canines showing prominently. Tahir didn’t know if she was going to reply or come to blows with Shukri there and then, but he stepped between them and held out a hand in Shukri’s direction. “Hold on, it’s not her fault. That spirit seemed to already know we were there. Something to do with the webs she had all around the warehouse. She probably knew as soon as we got in.” He explained. That seemed to calm Shukri somewhat, so Tahir turned to Namilah. “As for you- that spirit, she’s the one who attacked your father, isn’t she?”

  Namilah’s eyes widened briefly , but narrowed again as she nodded. “Yes. I only caught a glimpse of her as she retreated, and caught that she was spirit through my divine sense. I hadn’t expected to run into her so quickly, and I felt like I could end her before too much time had passed.”

  “You might have been able to, but it wouldn’t have been easy.” Tahir described the feeling of her web slicing into his aura shield, like a thin steel wire, and how the spirit was likely stalling Namilah so she could wait for the rest of the warehouse workers to arrive. “Still, that spirit seems bothersome to deal with. Divine magic seemed to work alright, but being able to block blades with webbing and make them fire resistant, sharp, and entangling, on top of the spirit herself being fast and strong is going to be difficult to get around.”

  “Sounds like the kind of thing we deal with on a regular basis.” Everyone’s head turned as Hasio entered and spoke, followed by Merui behind him.

  “Apologies for being late, by the time we got back out of the warehouse, they were already combing the block and surroundings looking for us. Now, I only caught a glimpse of the spirit of the subsequent fight, were they really so difficult to deal with?”

  Tahir got the two of them up to speed, letting them know in particular that the spirit’s web probably alerted her to their presence. “Namilah and I were able to find the materials we were looking for, though. They were moving a new batch inside when we were found.”

  “Well, that’s some good news.” Merui replied. “It also means that all of those crates will be out of the warehouse before we can bring an audit or a raid, but the places they’ll be able to move them to without attracting a lot of attention are scarce. We also saw no trace of any planar crossing, so we have to assume wherever the crates go, they’ll be in the same place. All in all, not the worst reconnaissance attempt.”

  “Oh, I also managed to get a look at who the spider spirit’s summoner was.” Tahir added, giving a brief description of the older man.

  “Hmm. Doesn’t ring any bells, but I’ll try to do a check and see if we have a record of anyone with that description. Not likely, but possible. In any case, this little assignment has concluded for the moment. I’ll have to do a bit more digging to find where they’re going to move supplies, but now that I know they have them, I can call for a more formal raid to try to stop these attacks in the city. When the time comes, I’ll call upon you then if you’d still like to help, and of course, your payment should be along within the next couple of days.”

  “Before you leave,” Namilah began, turning to Tahir. “I would like to thank you for not leaving me behind. I’m not knowledgeable about teleportation magic, but I did feel that spirit trying to keep me there with her web. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you decided to simply let me be and left with Shukri.”

  “Don’t mention it.” Tahir replied. “I didn’t dare think of the alternative, and I’ll make sure to find a way to deal with that spirit - hopefully before we encounter it again.”

  Once they made sure the coast was clear, the two groups bid each other farewell for the time being, and split off. Tahir and company made their way back to their lodging, and after going over the events again, and confirming that Theo, Meti, and Neremyn didn’t see anything other than what Neremyn saw through Tahir’s eyes. After that, they went to bed, leaving discussion on whether or not they would continue going through the ruins in the meantime for the next day.