Update #22: Cloakwood Deaths, part II: Spiders
Our epic journey through Cloakwood Forest shall continue, but first...
...since the last update was decent loot-wise, we go back to FAI to sell some stuff and rest in luxury one more time, before meeting one hell lot of spiders.
I'm not very fond of spiders, to be honest.
Let me say it this way: You certainly won't become a Spider-Man fan after this update.
Entering second Cloakwood area. The one with spiders. Let's put some suitable music in the background...
I like the video too.
The journey is rather long and eventful, which is a good thing, because it lets us relax a bit before we encounter all the spiders.
Wait. Are you going to mention spiders every time you open your mouth today?
Yup. Spiders.
I am going to completely ignore that.
The Codex' area-entry stats. No spiders here. Yet.
Almost immediately, we meet this whiny guy. Unsurprisingly, he tells us about spiders.
Yes. We will bring you your brother's corp- I mean, rescue him, of course. Just you wait.
We move west and... encounter a spider.
I didn't see that coming.
Boom! Chelli... Chelica... Chelicerae-shot...? Fuck. Headshot!
Spiders 0:1 The Codex
A trap. No doubt, set by spiders.
A few steps west, we meet a fuckload of spiders. Luckily, The Codex is hidden in shadows.
I'd rather not fight them. Let's just move on.
On the contrary, I have an idea involving these spiders and a ring of animal friendship.
We retreat a bit and use the ring one of the spiders, to no effect.
Fuck!
The spider is killed.
We move southward, and to out surprise, there's no spiders there, only ettercaps.
That's not much of a change...
Of course, spiderless-ness doesn't last long.
Just passing through, don't mind me.
We pass some more spiders.
And more spiders.
And even more spiders.
This is getting silly.
Since we are hiding and detecting traps at the same time, I was expecting one of these skills to fail at one moment. Of course, they both failed, and one of the spiders noticed us.
Fuck!
I don't feel so good...
It's a phase spider, which means it immediately teleports to The Codex and bites him in the balls. Twice. Our hero is poisoned. We'll have to try our 'heal thyself' technique again.
And it fails, interrupted by the spider, or his poison.
I'm fucked.
You're fucked.
Fucked by a spider.
Death count: 82
Spiders 1:1 The Codex
Reloading.
I just remembered, we were supposed to take the cow-cure from FAI when selling the loot.
Right. I forgot. Also: spiders.
The Codex' hide in shadows is quite reliable in it's unreliability. It fails again at a similar time, and we're forced to duel the same spider.
This is cosmic justice for sure. I'll kill it dead!
We start by trying the ring of animal friendship on the spider. It doesn't work.
Shit!
The Codex is poisoned by the spider again, but this time manages to pull off the self-healing. Cosmic justice indeed.
It probably doesn't matter. I'm about to die anyway.
But no! Cosmic justice interferes one more time and the spider lays dead moments later.
HELL YEAH SWORD!
Spiders 1:2 The Codex
We cast some CLW and try to rest, only to be interrupted by another spider.
Geezus fuck, and I thought those fart things were annoying!
The spider uses standard spider tactic of poisoning our hero with spider poison. We're out of slow poison, so this is goobye, yeah.
I'll see you in hell.
Death count: 83
Spiders 2:2 The Codex
Reloading.
So, this is hell. It's even worse than I imagined. You must be the caretaker?
Very funny. Let's move, we've got spiders to kill.
The second rest attempt is successful. No spiders!
We move on and trigger the spider trap again. We decide to wait it out, since the game cannot be saved while some spells are active. Web is one of these spells.
After that, we want resume our favourite activity: passing spiders while hidden. Unfortunately, these two guard the entrance to Centeol's lair, so they have to be dispatched.
Just fucking great...
We start by trying to charm one of the spiders with the ring of animal friendship (fuck, this is a long name, I will refer to it as RoAF from now). Of course, it doesn't work.
I'm beginning to think that this ring is broken.
I forgot to cast Mirror Image before facing the spider in melee, so The Codex gets poisoned again.
How could we have forgotten that!? 
Slow poison fails. Spider wins.
Death count: 84
Spiders 3:2 The Codex
Reloading.
I am very upset about the fact that I am unable to fight these spiders effectively.
We try to befriend the spider with RoAF again. To no avail.
Maybe they don't count as animals and are just unholy abominations!
We instead opt for despiderification, but this time cast Mirror Image to aid us in the ask.
Spiders 3:3 The Codex
Fuck yeah, sword! Keep it up!
Spiders 3:4 The Codex
WTF? Didn't I just kill you!?
Indeed, our eforts were futile. Spiders guarding Centeol's lair have respawned almost immediately.
This must be some kind of sick joke.
We treat the spider retaliation force with Color-Spray, since two at a time might be too much for The Codex and his two remaining mirror images.
Spiders 3:6 The Codex
Getting ahead of the fuckers. 
Not wanting to rest again before antering the spider queen lair, we are only able to cast Blur for protection. Better than nothing.
The Codex enters while hidden in shadows, so that the situation doesn't turn into a clusterfuck right away. We will now move to a relatively safe spot on the giant spiderweb and try to charm Centeol with Algernon's cloak.
A lot of things happen very fast. We cast Charm on Centeol. It works and she is almost immediately gangraped to death by previously-offscreen sword spiders. After killing her, they (and some other spiders) move on against The Codex.
Okay, whose idea was it to come here anyway?
We try to weaken the spider mob by casting Skull Trap. This is always tricky, as we want to hit as many of them as possible, but set off far enough not to hurt The Codex. Some spell area markers would be useful at moments like this. Suddenly I feel urge to play ToEE.
Try to focus there! Okay?
My calculations are wrong, and The Codex ends up as the most damaged by the Skull Trap. None of the spiders is even close to his score .
We decide torun away retreat outside, only to be ambushed by a sword spider.
We try to charm the spider with the RoAF, but of course it doesn't work.
Death Count: 85
Spiders 4:6 The Codex
Reloading.
I fucking hate spiders.
Second attempt at clearing out spider lair. Hide in shadows fails...
A fucking promising start.
We try to charm Centeol again, while a fuckload of spiders is swarming to gangrape The Codex.
Algernon's cloak fails, but some scripting bug occurs and Centeol doesn't take any action, just sitting there and watching the forced spider group sex. We're not beneath exploiting random bugs, so we continue.
Skull Trap for you, eight-legged freaks!
We cast Skull Trap at a larger distance now. Centeol takes some damage. Spiders get their share of pain too, while The Codex is spared.
When there's only one spider left, we try to charm him with RoAF. No effect.
Surprising.
The spider is killed instead. This victory has cost half of The Codex' HP, so we heal before continuing.
Spiders 4:10 The Codex
We clear the edge of fog of war, only to reveal another spider.
Ettercap.
Whatever.
It's killed, but not without trouble. Ettrcaps don't hit as hard as spiders, but are much faster and more accurate.
I try to save, forgetting that spider-queen is still alive (can't save with hostiles in sight), so we kill her.
Boom! Headshot!
We are a bit careless and reveal a sword spider and an ettercap at the same time.
Not good.
We can't possibly kill them both, so I try charming the spider with RoAF.
I am so dead.
Death count: 86
Spiders 5:10 The Codex
Loading.
Maybe this ass-sucking ring only works on non-hostile animals?
Or maybe giant spiders are outside its scope...
We manage to lure only the ettercap this time. Without his spider friend, it is dispatched surprisingly easily.
Another try at RoAF, although I have pretty much given up hope at it working on the spiders.
Sword spiders are very deadly to characters not protected by a high (or rather: low) AC, such as The Codex. They hit as hard as standard huge spiders (maybe harder) and as fast as ettercaps (maybe faster). We can only hope of defeating it in melee when protected by some spells.
Since we're out of spells and can't rest here, instead we paralyze the spider using the wand.
Spiders 5:11 The Codex
We do the same with the second sword spider. It is quickly killed afterwards.
Spiders 5:12 The Codex
Finally, we're making some progress here!
Time to collect our hard-earned spider-loot.
I think I'm in love.
Yup, definitely. 
Spider's Bane gives The Codex free action status, as well as providing +2 bonus to THAC0 and damage. Very nice.
As for my previous swords, I'll just leave both brothers here. I'm sure they'll find their own way back to FAI. Bye, guys. Take care.
We leave the lair, only to encounter the sword spider that killed The Codex before.
We don't even bother with RoAF anymore, hitting the spider with wand of paralyzation right away. It is easily dispatched afterwards. Unfortunately, it was the wand's last charge.
It will be remember and missed. 
I just hope we don't meet any more sword spiders, now that we don't have it.
Spiders 5:13 The Codex
We rest to heal from the spider-induced wounds.
Some of them were ettercap-induced. Just saying.
We try some exploring, but quickly have to retreat to the resting spot, chased by a phase spider.
When it comes to these guys, chased = caught.
We hit the spider with wand of frost. 16 damage after a successful save isn't bad, but I still say this wand is severely underpowered.
We also cast Mirror Image to reduce the chance of getting dumbkilled by the spider's poison.
Spiders 5:14 The Codex
Stealth tends to fail us at the worst possible moments. Here, close to two giant spiders.
We lure the spiders to a more suitable defense position, gaining some distance in the process. Also, another web-trap is triggered.
Instead of spiking the spiders with arrows, which would have made sense, I waste the time for another RoAF use attempt. It is as successful as always.
Luckily, giant (as in, not-phase, not-sword) spiders aren't that tough.
Spiders 5:16 The Codex
We risk more stealth (it really likes to fail during the day, working much better at night) and manage to pass another bunch of spiders.
Two more spiders guarding some pointless spot. While we try to pass them, another trap is triggered, but thanks to Spider's Bane we can fart on it.
Stealth works pretty well while we move through some empty part of the map. It only decides to fail at this spot. Perfect timing. But hey, we should look at the bright side. At least there are no spiders here.
I feel so relieved right now I could fly to heaven on my newly-grown angel wings! Except not.
I decide there is sense in trying to defeat the spider-wannabes (yes, I know...) and we begin by skulltrapping them. After that it's a lot of running back and forth, and shooting back, both with arrows and frost wand charges.
It goes reasonably well (we manage to kill one ettercap, others are badly injured/near-death) up until this moment, when some random spider decides to spawn on our retreat route.
This can't be good.
Death count: 87
Spiders 6:16 The Codex
Loading game.
I have no words left. Let's just move on.
Reload takes us back to this spot. Previously empty (emptied by us?) part of the map is now spider-infested.
Boom! Headshot!
We finally show some reason and don't even bother with RoAF anymore. Spider dies.
Looks like I've deleted wrong screenshot here. This pretty little picture developed into something horrible seconds later, when The Codex' stealth skills failed (again, right here) and we ended up being chased by a fuckload of spiders and ettercaps.
We retreat all the way to area entrance spot. Spiders are right behind us.
A fucking lot of spiders. Not mentiong ettercaps.
Somehow, I don't see myself living through this.
Death count: 88
Spiders 7:16 The Codex
Reloading.
I'm done. I don't think I want to fight spiders anymore. Can we do something about it? I would really, really, REALLY welcome that.
We can. Something we should have done fifty fucking spiders ago.
We use the spider-repellant.
I'm not in the mood to even screenshot any more spiders, so here: area completed.
You know what? Your fucking quest sucked ass! I'm glad your brother is dead! I wish you both were!
We don't even get any reward. Fucking spiders.
-----------------------------------------------
Next time: One hell lot less spiders, for sure!
...since the last update was decent loot-wise, we go back to FAI to sell some stuff and rest in luxury one more time, before meeting one hell lot of spiders.
Let me say it this way: You certainly won't become a Spider-Man fan after this update.
Entering second Cloakwood area. The one with spiders. Let's put some suitable music in the background...
The journey is rather long and eventful, which is a good thing, because it lets us relax a bit before we encounter all the spiders.
Yup. Spiders.
The Codex' area-entry stats. No spiders here. Yet.
Almost immediately, we meet this whiny guy. Unsurprisingly, he tells us about spiders.
We move west and... encounter a spider.
Spiders 0:1 The Codex
A trap. No doubt, set by spiders.
A few steps west, we meet a fuckload of spiders. Luckily, The Codex is hidden in shadows.
On the contrary, I have an idea involving these spiders and a ring of animal friendship.
We retreat a bit and use the ring one of the spiders, to no effect.
The spider is killed.
We move southward, and to out surprise, there's no spiders there, only ettercaps.
Of course, spiderless-ness doesn't last long.
We pass some more spiders.
And more spiders.
And even more spiders.
Since we are hiding and detecting traps at the same time, I was expecting one of these skills to fail at one moment. Of course, they both failed, and one of the spiders noticed us.
It's a phase spider, which means it immediately teleports to The Codex and bites him in the balls. Twice. Our hero is poisoned. We'll have to try our 'heal thyself' technique again.
And it fails, interrupted by the spider, or his poison.
You're fucked.
Fucked by a spider.
Death count: 82
Spiders 1:1 The Codex
Reloading.
Right. I forgot. Also: spiders.
The Codex' hide in shadows is quite reliable in it's unreliability. It fails again at a similar time, and we're forced to duel the same spider.
We start by trying the ring of animal friendship on the spider. It doesn't work.
The Codex is poisoned by the spider again, but this time manages to pull off the self-healing. Cosmic justice indeed.
But no! Cosmic justice interferes one more time and the spider lays dead moments later.
Spiders 1:2 The Codex
We cast some CLW and try to rest, only to be interrupted by another spider.
The spider uses standard spider tactic of poisoning our hero with spider poison. We're out of slow poison, so this is goobye, yeah.
Death count: 83
Spiders 2:2 The Codex
Reloading.
Very funny. Let's move, we've got spiders to kill.
The second rest attempt is successful. No spiders!
We move on and trigger the spider trap again. We decide to wait it out, since the game cannot be saved while some spells are active. Web is one of these spells.
After that, we want resume our favourite activity: passing spiders while hidden. Unfortunately, these two guard the entrance to Centeol's lair, so they have to be dispatched.
We start by trying to charm one of the spiders with the ring of animal friendship (fuck, this is a long name, I will refer to it as RoAF from now). Of course, it doesn't work.
I forgot to cast Mirror Image before facing the spider in melee, so The Codex gets poisoned again.
Slow poison fails. Spider wins.
Death count: 84
Spiders 3:2 The Codex
Reloading.
We try to befriend the spider with RoAF again. To no avail.
We instead opt for despiderification, but this time cast Mirror Image to aid us in the ask.
Spiders 3:3 The Codex
Spiders 3:4 The Codex
Indeed, our eforts were futile. Spiders guarding Centeol's lair have respawned almost immediately.
We treat the spider retaliation force with Color-Spray, since two at a time might be too much for The Codex and his two remaining mirror images.
Spiders 3:6 The Codex
Not wanting to rest again before antering the spider queen lair, we are only able to cast Blur for protection. Better than nothing.
The Codex enters while hidden in shadows, so that the situation doesn't turn into a clusterfuck right away. We will now move to a relatively safe spot on the giant spiderweb and try to charm Centeol with Algernon's cloak.
A lot of things happen very fast. We cast Charm on Centeol. It works and she is almost immediately gangraped to death by previously-offscreen sword spiders. After killing her, they (and some other spiders) move on against The Codex.
We try to weaken the spider mob by casting Skull Trap. This is always tricky, as we want to hit as many of them as possible, but set off far enough not to hurt The Codex. Some spell area markers would be useful at moments like this. Suddenly I feel urge to play ToEE.
My calculations are wrong, and The Codex ends up as the most damaged by the Skull Trap. None of the spiders is even close to his score .
We decide to
We try to charm the spider with the RoAF, but of course it doesn't work.
Death Count: 85
Spiders 4:6 The Codex
Reloading.
Second attempt at clearing out spider lair. Hide in shadows fails...
We try to charm Centeol again, while a fuckload of spiders is swarming to gangrape The Codex.
Algernon's cloak fails, but some scripting bug occurs and Centeol doesn't take any action, just sitting there and watching the forced spider group sex. We're not beneath exploiting random bugs, so we continue.
We cast Skull Trap at a larger distance now. Centeol takes some damage. Spiders get their share of pain too, while The Codex is spared.
When there's only one spider left, we try to charm him with RoAF. No effect.
The spider is killed instead. This victory has cost half of The Codex' HP, so we heal before continuing.
Spiders 4:10 The Codex
We clear the edge of fog of war, only to reveal another spider.
Whatever.
It's killed, but not without trouble. Ettrcaps don't hit as hard as spiders, but are much faster and more accurate.
I try to save, forgetting that spider-queen is still alive (can't save with hostiles in sight), so we kill her.
We are a bit careless and reveal a sword spider and an ettercap at the same time.
We can't possibly kill them both, so I try charming the spider with RoAF.
Death count: 86
Spiders 5:10 The Codex
Loading.
Or maybe giant spiders are outside its scope...
We manage to lure only the ettercap this time. Without his spider friend, it is dispatched surprisingly easily.
Another try at RoAF, although I have pretty much given up hope at it working on the spiders.
Sword spiders are very deadly to characters not protected by a high (or rather: low) AC, such as The Codex. They hit as hard as standard huge spiders (maybe harder) and as fast as ettercaps (maybe faster). We can only hope of defeating it in melee when protected by some spells.
Since we're out of spells and can't rest here, instead we paralyze the spider using the wand.
Spiders 5:11 The Codex
We do the same with the second sword spider. It is quickly killed afterwards.
Spiders 5:12 The Codex
Time to collect our hard-earned spider-loot.
Spider's Bane gives The Codex free action status, as well as providing +2 bonus to THAC0 and damage. Very nice.
We leave the lair, only to encounter the sword spider that killed The Codex before.
We don't even bother with RoAF anymore, hitting the spider with wand of paralyzation right away. It is easily dispatched afterwards. Unfortunately, it was the wand's last charge.
I just hope we don't meet any more sword spiders, now that we don't have it.
Spiders 5:13 The Codex
We rest to heal from the spider-induced wounds.
We try some exploring, but quickly have to retreat to the resting spot, chased by a phase spider.
We hit the spider with wand of frost. 16 damage after a successful save isn't bad, but I still say this wand is severely underpowered.
We also cast Mirror Image to reduce the chance of getting dumbkilled by the spider's poison.
Spiders 5:14 The Codex
Stealth tends to fail us at the worst possible moments. Here, close to two giant spiders.
We lure the spiders to a more suitable defense position, gaining some distance in the process. Also, another web-trap is triggered.
Instead of spiking the spiders with arrows, which would have made sense, I waste the time for another RoAF use attempt. It is as successful as always.
Luckily, giant (as in, not-phase, not-sword) spiders aren't that tough.
Spiders 5:16 The Codex
We risk more stealth (it really likes to fail during the day, working much better at night) and manage to pass another bunch of spiders.
Two more spiders guarding some pointless spot. While we try to pass them, another trap is triggered, but thanks to Spider's Bane we can fart on it.
Stealth works pretty well while we move through some empty part of the map. It only decides to fail at this spot. Perfect timing. But hey, we should look at the bright side. At least there are no spiders here.
I decide there is sense in trying to defeat the spider-wannabes (yes, I know...) and we begin by skulltrapping them. After that it's a lot of running back and forth, and shooting back, both with arrows and frost wand charges.
It goes reasonably well (we manage to kill one ettercap, others are badly injured/near-death) up until this moment, when some random spider decides to spawn on our retreat route.
Death count: 87
Spiders 6:16 The Codex
Loading game.
Reload takes us back to this spot. Previously empty (emptied by us?) part of the map is now spider-infested.
We finally show some reason and don't even bother with RoAF anymore. Spider dies.
Looks like I've deleted wrong screenshot here. This pretty little picture developed into something horrible seconds later, when The Codex' stealth skills failed (again, right here) and we ended up being chased by a fuckload of spiders and ettercaps.
We retreat all the way to area entrance spot. Spiders are right behind us.
A fucking lot of spiders. Not mentiong ettercaps.
Death count: 88
Spiders 7:16 The Codex
Reloading.
We can. Something we should have done fifty fucking spiders ago.
We use the spider-repellant.
I'm not in the mood to even screenshot any more spiders, so here: area completed.
We don't even get any reward. Fucking spiders.
-----------------------------------------------
Next time: One hell lot less spiders, for sure!
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