Shortly after approaching its Overseer, delivering the message of "hey, some deer wants to talk about the dragons and out of respect for you, I declined and brought it to you," Alpha decided it was time — time to overcompensate some.

In case Pride wholly betrayed it and embellished a tale of emotional vulnerability and, and — weeping.

For whatever odd reason, it'd been putting its more... final Collector-given task off for quite a while. The orthoclase found itself ready to deliver that final blow, albeit a crushing bite to the windpipe or clobbering a skull against the rock, but killing a design with potential use later felt unnecessary (at least, that's how its less-than-moral logic went.)

But, Lessers? It killed those all the time. They held gemstones — and it was never implied that such a thing wouldn't be satisfactory.

It certainly had made an impression across the caves, anyways; it was being recognized before it even made an approach and introduced itself. On one hand, it made avoiding interactions easy, and few got to the actual confrontation part. On the other — don't consider the other. Alpha shook itself.

Hunting.

Currently, it was creeping along in Eridanus's undergrowth, eyes narrowed, keeping the fog beams that were its eyes on the lowest possible setting. The quills couldn't be helped, but maybe there were bioluminescent Lessers they could be passed off as.

Crouched down, making its silhouette as small as possible, Alpha sent a pulse of magic out, sensing for any particular red-tinted reverberations.

... checking for jungle deer instead of what my roll says i didn't make this thread in tunnel k no way—

Aside from the few distant, scattered heartbeats of rabbits, and a herd of deer somewhere rather farther off, there was something... strange in the foliage ahead.

A rather large signature, and yet... its blood did not beat, not exactly. It was just a slow surge, like that of an insect: yet this signature was enormous. It might, should Orthoclase-Alpha put two and two together, rather resemble the giant Silk Spinner it had fought not too long ago--and yet there were hundreds, or even thousands, of similar, tiny red dots all around it, scurrying here and there across its motionless form.

Should Orthoclase-Alpha choose to investigate, it might also scent water ahead...

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Perhaps it should've paid attention to the rabbits and deer - either of those were what it'd come to hunt for.

But, yet... Alpha was a nosy thing and a large, spindly-limbed signature with barely any pulse was worth investigating. It certainly wasn't Titanite, although it wouldn't be surprised if he was surrounded by a thousand bugs and cared not where they went in and out.

At least it was going to be stealthy about it, switching magical gears and slinking through the undergrowth to get a closer look. Shadows flickered across its form, as if barely clinging to it as it stole closer and closer, sniffing here and there - pausing to peer through the brush.

@Game Master Dark

Ahead lay a bend in the creek, past the parted foliage. This bend had, over time, eroded at its far shoreline so that instead of a smooth curve, it was almost a pond: so broad, and so deep, that its waters here were nearly still. At its widest point it was perhaps twenty feet across, and it held a depth of nearly thirty at the deeper points.

The water was full of reeds, and water lilies, choked with their pads and with the tiny spawn of a thousand bugs and fish, all teeming with life. Water spiders came and went in the thousands, chasing the flies that danced a few inches above the surface. A few long, thin, black vines reached down to the water's near-stagnant surface from the trees above-...

...Except, when Alpha raised its eyes, it would see that they weren't vines. They were legs. A massive Water Walker, normally a harmless thing yet this one must have been a dozen feet tall, fifteen wide-... It straddled the water, the tension keeping even its massive size at bay, somehow.

It was, it seemed, waiting motionless for prey.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Stagnant water came to its senses first, rather than the thousands of bugs using this bend as a rest stop and prime real estate. Acidic eyes glanced about to and fro, searching for that larger figure it'd seen before. Crouched, and at this close distance, there wasn't anything but... a massive shadow over the green-laden surface. Alpha looked up and - oh.

The shadows sloughed off rather quickly, magical gears shifting again. It had the element of surprise for the moment, but how best to use it? By the time it ran to the water's edge, surely the spider would simply move away. Alpha could get into the water and chase but, it was certainly not acquainted with going any deeper than its shoulders and hadn't figured out the purpose of its second set of lungs quite yet.

It needed something with... range, to make that first impression.

Quills rattled as it reached for magic, wrapped a mental meaty fist around its lapels, and the orthoclase exploded from the underbrush with a roar. Dust swirled around it, sharpening into a slicing whirlwind. Alpha pushed its radius as far as it'd go, trudging into the shallower waters so not so many of the shards would wind up embedded in the tree trunks behind it. It braced itself, either for the impact of a spider with a sliced-up leg or a spider descending on it for assault.

@Game Master Dark

GIANT WATER WALKER: 91/100 HP

The slashing shards did not reach the spider's torso where it perched some ten feet off the center of the deeper water. They did, however, lash straight into its thin and fragile legs. There were horrible cracking sounds as a few of the glass shards peeled away chitin, crashing off its limbs, and then abruptly one leg gave way entirely.

The entire Walker Walker came crashing down sideways, limbs flailing, smashing into the water with a splash.

And then seven remaining long and spindly legs burst forth, grabbing for Orthoclase-Alpha, an impossibly strong hydraulic grip threatening to slowly drag it into the depths.

The other thousand water walkers began to scurry to and fro--and then all rushed for Alpha... covering every square inch of its body, in the water and out.

The Water Walker is attempting to drag Orthoclase-Alpha deeper. Orthoclase-Alpha will need to roll a 6, or higher, to resist.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Down, down, down - !

The orthoclase gave a startled growl as limbs darted for it, wrapping around in a powerful grapple. Things were crawling all over it, and it had to try incredibly hard to brace itself against the ground rather than squirm and try to kick off the spiderlings. Deal with the big problem first.

Alpha wrenched itself around in the iron grip, aiming to get an arm free to grip at those legs, bite them, tear them apart, something. It was up to its chin in the water now, and the tiny spiders trying to get into its nostrils was making it hard to get that climatic last breath in.

@Game Master Dark

GIANT WATER WALKER: 91/100 HP

The tiny spiders--thousands of them--swarmed Orthoclase-Alpha. They aimed to burrow into any orifice they could reach. Any gap in its carapace. Any nostril, or eye, or ear, or gill...

The larger spider, however, wavered as it lost its grip, temporarily unbalanced; Orthoclase-Alpha had a chance, albeit a brief one, to inflict some damage if it wished--or to attempt to be rid of the tiny spiders, somehow.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

The larger of the spiders - it's main goal for killing, mostly - drifted away a little, balance lost. Alpha dug its claws into the sandy soil, taking a massive gulp of air (and tiny spiders) before its head invariably slipped under the surface from the shallow slope and it basically sitting.

It stood, the light above already too distant to just jump up to for another breath (swimming? Don't know her.) Pivoting on the spot, aiming to claw its way back to open air, it squirmed, shaking itself with the spiders and starting to slide further in. The orthoclase's nostrils flared, and it snapped after the lost pockets of air. Instinct hadn't kicked in yet, and panic was rising. It was heavy, sinking and - it couldn't get traction and these stupid spiders were getting everywhere.

A growl, muffled by the water, rumbled from its throat. Reaching again for magic, Alpha focused on its claws, giving them a longer, hooked edge - and inadvertently the rest of its body, what with the eight thousand legs scurrying and burrowing into it.

Chitin crept over it, thickening and expanding. It stole mobility and made it yet more difficult to haul itself up, but damn if it didn't try.

It was getting hard without breathing properly, though, even if instinct was begging it to just take a trust fall and breathe.

@Game Master Dark

The tiny swarm was, at least in part, caught up by the swelling keratin. Those trapped in between closing armor plates struggled, their highly-irritating little hairs probably causing a lot of overall itching but little damage. Even the myriad tiny bites over Alpha's hide, in between the plates at first, caused no real damage; they seemed to have no venom.

The rest, however, still swarmed its eyes, mouth and nostrils; anywhere that armor hadn't closed they remained, struggling to get a way in. They were pouring, now, hundreds, in for its airways. Gnawing at its gills. Its eardrums, if it had them--any soft tissue.

And now, the larger spider, having regained its balance, struck: the spider silk with which it would normally weave an underwater nest lashed out, twisted by two long forelimbs, a practiced predatory motion attempting to ensare the powerful Orthoclase in its wrap.

Like a burrito, but infinitely more spidery.

Orthoclase-Alpha must roll a 4 or higher to avoid being partially entangled in very thick spidersilk.

@Orthoclase-Alpha