Chapter 77

From a hill above Hagsmist forest, Kazhimyr, Dravien, and Ravezio scout a lone guard at the warded boundary to the mortal lands. Ravezio incapacitates the guard with his corrosive spit, and the trio slip into the trees. Using a scroll from Dolion, Dravien speaks the passage-chant and they breach the shimmering ward.

Inside the dim, mist-laden deadlands, they find Zevander’s sword, Venetox, and follow a thunderous screech to a vast rotting tree guarded by a dragonlike, feathered beast with scaled legs and a toothed beak. The creature appears to recognize the sword and agitates toward the tree, prompting Kazhimyr to lead the others inside despite Dravien’s misgivings.

They descend a lit stairwell into a cavern tangled with webs and discover a web-cocooned corpse. When Kazhimyr kills the animated body, swarms of black spiders pour out, confirming an infestation. Pressing on, they trigger a mass descent of spiders—some enormous, others small—forcing each man to fight alone: Dravien with steel, Kazhimyr with freezing mist, and Ravezio with blood that repels the creatures.

As the onslaught intensifies, Kazhimyr confronts a larger spider bearing a human face within its carapace. While retreating, he slips through a collapsing patch of earth and plummets into a lower root-walled chamber. Disoriented but alive, he rises to find a solitary door identical to the one from his troubling dream, signaling a fated convergence and a deeper threat beneath the tree.