[color=fff200][h1]Jack[/h1][/color]
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Jack sat in the corner of the Silver Piglet, downing his (tenth) pint of beer. He was trying to drown out the absolute disaster of the last expedition. How the bloody hell did they miss that a rogue mage was active in the area?
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[h2]Flashback - One Week Ago[/h2]
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You know, there are probably worse situations to be in than being hung upside down over a magically mutated spider monster, but in the moment other thoughts don't seem to come to mind. The only saving grace was that the one controlling the beast fell into the typical villain pitfall of monologuing.

What was it about these guys and monologues? I mean, here it was probably understandable, the crazed lunatic had probably not had any interaction with people for some time. That tends to happen when you breed spiders that eat people.

He had been caught unaware as he was exploring the temple. Apparently the Spider Mage Bittertooth had chosen to make the remote place his lair. He was completely overwhelmed by the organised arachnids and captured.

While Jack was thinking about this, and ignoring the monologue, he was working away at the spider silk keeping him trapped. Just a little more and... there.

"And furthermore, those League bastards who called me crazy will... [i]WHAM[/i]" The Mage was interrupted by a flying kick to the face, courtesy of a now free catman.

[color=fff200]"Sorry, but I'm not really in the mood to deal with the ravings of a lunatic."[/color]

The mage grabbed his jaw and pulled it back into place. "You dare injure the mighty Bittertooth? DEATHFANG, KILL HIM!"

Oh right, the giant spider. Jack completely forgot about that for a second. Summoning his Shadow Blade, he launched into combat with the monster. Despite the cutting power of his weapon, the creature's carapace was like steel. Fortunately the arachnomancer was merely cheerimg on his creation, so could be put out of mind.

The only real weak spot was the creature's eyes, but he would be damned if he was getting near that. After dodging for a solid minute, he decided to use a Chill Touch to at least partially blind the beast. In his mind, one of the lines from his studies came to mind.

[i]"If you cannot break the stone, let it break itself."[/i]

Translation, use the enemies strengths against it. Jumping on the back of the spider, he grabbed it's head and forced it to charge to try and get him off. While he was at it, he finished the job of blinding the creature to put his plan into full effect. The arachnomancer saw what he was doing, but when he tried to heal the creature Chill Touch prevented it.

It took a couple of tries, and some major damage to the walls, but he finally managed to get the giant spider to crush its master. As he did so, the creature and it's brethren let out a sickening scream, as they began to fall apart. As Jack was on top of the giant spider, this naturally meant he got covered in the guts of it.

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Even with Prestidigitation, it took five tries to remove the smell of spider guts from his clothing. Fortunately the rest of the mission was simple, and he retrieved the Cursed Blade Skulltaker. He also made a note to kick the arse of the region's scout for missing the fact that a bloody Raid Class threat was in the temple. If the creatures hadn't been linked to their creator, he'd have been in deep shit.