>>8181276
always thought the crypt fiends looked cute

am I the only one?

>>8181309


No my friend.

SPIDERS!

The floor is now spiders

>>8181309
(:3

I am Weaver, son of Weaver, and I shall weave for you today a tale of our alliance with the Ant Kingdom.

Long have our kingdoms held to a truce, woven by our ancestors, in which each pledged to wage no war against the other, and to take food not from among the other's people. We kept out of each other's way, further, as we did compete somewhat for our resources. Because ours is a people who love the outdoors and the sunshine, who hunt for sport, and the Ant delight in architecture and in fortifications, and who have no sport in their lives, we have little in common.

Yet that that time we had not faced our true enemy, the Wasp fiefdoms.

>>8183065
Previously the people of the Wasp were known only from legends, occasional sightings, and if truth must be told, occasional disappearances. It was not until my second year as a full Weaver that they made themselves known in force.

They made with us a pact, a pact to keep themselves fed, it was; that every year, in every household, the youth largest and most lovely would be taken by them, by the Wasp, and used for some unspeakable rite. If we did not comply, they said, they would simply swoop down and take whom they pleased, by force if necessary.

Halfway through my third year as Weaver, a new King of our Spider Kingdom arose who did not know the Wasp, and he said: What is this pact, but death for us and our people? He rejected the pact, and said so. He lured the Wasp emissary into his throne room, where the guards caught her in a net and bound her tight, breaking her stinger; and the king then cut off her head. The guards marched the headless body back out to the gate of the city, whereupon it continued walking, heedless; the head, the king had mounted above the gate, for any later Wasp to see.

>>8183083
The wrath of the Wasp chieftain was terrible to hear, for she let out a scream of rage that shook the very threads of our kingdom.

"You were fools to agree to the pact to begin with," she said, "for even with the pact, we have not ceased to prey upon you from the shadows; and with additional bodies from you, we have grown numerous and waxed mighty upon the land. Now shall you feel the full might of the Wasp!"

The King's court trembled, but the King, afraid as he was, had courage in his hearts. Diplomats were sent to other kingdoms which might aid the Spider Kingdom in her hour of need: to the Dog Kingdom, the Bird Kingdom, and the Ant Kingdom.

The ambassador to the Dog Kingdom returned lame, and mad; he rarely spoke of the journey, except to scream, "The nostrils! The tongue!" in a voice most terrible and most wretched to hear. The ambassador to the Bird Kingdom did not return at all. The only one who came back unharmed was the ambassador to the Ant Kingdom, and he said: the situation is grave.

~uguu~

>>8183090
The Ant people, he said, bear a grudge against us; for although the Wasp does prey upon them too, we are known to the Ant as a nation of wastrels, of tricksters, occasionally of thieves who disguise themselves as Ant folk, then steal into the houses of the Ant to take their beasts or their children. And for this reason they did not commit to aid us against the Wasp.

And the King was aggrieved, and put upon his flesh sackcloth and ashes, for this was very true; the gang of robbers who lived in the east of the Kingdom did sorely try his patience, but they had the allegience of the local Arbitrators and could not be budged without a full deployment of the Royal Guard, which would have invited a counter-deployment of Ant-warriors, and thus would have begun a war. How foolish, in retrospect! How perfect, hindsight! But there was nothing to do but prepare for war against the Wasp.

Glittering and resplendent were the Spider hosts, arrayed on the field. Slingers, Jumpers, Battle-Weavers, even a platoon of armored Diggers, fearsome in close quarters, waited for the arrival of the Wasp.

And they had not long to wait, for soon, a droning hum filled the air. It continued for a time, creating some fear and panic in the ranks, as the Wasp warriors knew it would; for this they did to weaken the morale of our troops before arriving, terrible and barbarous, on the field. And so they were - they fell from the sky and drew blood.

>>8183115
The Ant people, he said, bear a grudge against us; for although the Wasp does prey upon them too, we are known to the Ant as a nation of wastrels, of tricksters, occasionally of thieves who disguise themselves as Ant folk, then steal into the houses of the Ant to take their beasts or their children. And for this reason they did not commit to aid us against the Wasp.

And the King was aggrieved, and put upon his flesh sackcloth and ashes, for this was very true; the gang of robbers who lived in the east of the Kingdom did sorely try his patience, but they had the allegience of the local Arbitrators and could not be budged without a full deployment of the Royal Guard, which would have invited a counter-deployment of Ant-warriors, and thus would have begun a war. How foolish, in retrospect! How perfect, hindsight! But there was nothing to do but prepare for war against the Wasp.

Glittering and resplendent were the Spider hosts, arrayed on the field. Slingers, Jumpers, Battle-Weavers, even a platoon of armored Diggers, fearsome in close quarters, waited for the arrival of the Wasp.

And they had not long to wait, for soon, a droning hum filled the air. It continued for a time, creating some fear and panic in the ranks, as the Wasp warriors knew it would; for this they did to weaken the morale of our troops before arriving, terrible and barbarous, on the field. And so they were - they fell from the sky and drew blood.

>>8183122
Soon, the field was littered with the immobile bodies of the fallen; not all dead, but those wounded were paralyzed by venom, and sometimes late-coming Wasps would take their bodies and fly away with them, probably to enact their disgusting rite; and we who did not fight said prayers for their souls, for their lives were lost to us. One surgeon said those dead were better off than those wounded but living, for the bodies of the dead would not be taken by the Wasp and desecrated; therefore he suggested to grant to the wounded who could not be healed a merciful death. It would have embittered my soul had anyone heeded his words.

And we thought our kingdom lost; for the Royal Guard were themselves fighting desperately to protect their charge, and the King himself, a Slinger, was swinging his silken weapon with strength and valor, but rarely landing a blow against his more agile foes. But then a clarion was heard over the noise of the battle, a note made by no Wasp or Spider herald. The battle stopped, as all who fought were overcome by surprise.

Then all looked to the east, where stood a mighty army of Ant warriors, upright of body and strong of limb, their bladed shovels gleaming in the sunlight against their dark-brown skin. And with them were their cavalry, mounted upon sleek grey mice, bearing wicked spears and bows which have terrified many a Spider general in the past.

>>8183130
The lead warrior lowered her horn, and shouted, in a voice that carried to all present:

"In the name of Queen Myrmia and Spider, King of Spiders! Death to the Wasps! Glory to Queen Myrmia!"

And they charged.

It was an awesome and terrible sight. The Ant is no larger than you or me, and many are smaller, yet she is many times our strength. Often I saw a single Ant warrior swing her blade and cut completely through a Wasp enemy, and where two or more Ants caught a Wasp, the butchery was distressing to behold, even to my jaded eye. And although the Wasps were by far more lethal than even the mightiest Ant, the numbers of the latter were without end. More and more of them poured onto the field, until even the Wasp Chieftain herself was besieged and her consort was being brutally dismantled by half a dozen Ants.

The Chieftain then called to her surviving barbarians, and shouted for a truce. This was offered. And the Chieftain then landed, with her people sitting in trees at the far end of the field; she herself approached, bare-handed, her banner furled as a symbol of defeat, to speak with the King.

>>8183141
She was granted an audience, and the King shocked all who looked upon the scene by bowing to her as she bowed to him, as though they were equals in station rather than civilized king and uncultured barbarian; but the King is gracious. It was almost his undoing, as the Wasp Chieftain then unsheathed her stinger and made as though to run him through, but her blow never landed.

Rather, it penetrated the body of the Ant Herald, who had selflessly stepped into the path of the Wasp's attack. And though she bled, she grasped the Chieftain's stinger where it penetrated her, preventing the Wasp from escaping; and she held up her shovel, and with one blow drove it cleanly through the Wasp's chest, cleaving her in two.

The Wasp horde then murmured in dismay, and flew about, not knowing what to do, but were banished when a joint army of Ant and Spider warriors approached them; the winged barbarians flew off, hurling curses but drawing no blood.

>>8183145
Before the King, the Ant Herald lay, her body slowly stiffening. Though the wound itself was not a killing wound, the venom had entered her blood to paralyze her and she would soon die, unable to breathe. And the King knelt, and made the holy sign of the Web over her, and picked up her trembling body, cradling her in his arms; and as she twitched and shuddered in her last moments, he said, to her as much as to his court: "Thus do the Ant people defend their allies and make war upon their enemies."

I find it hard to read the expressions of the Ant, but I believe the poor Herald died with a smile upon her face.

>>8183150
Since that day, our kingdoms have had a formal alliance, a contract of mutual defense, as well as of mutually beneficial trade; for we are by nature hunters and weavers, while they are by nature farmers and masons - neither complete without the help of the other. Our predators have never returned since that day, either. Our young never need fear the depredations of the Wasp, boldly or from the shadows. And where once our kingdoms survived, now they thrive, becoming wealthy and powerful. Never have we looked back.

>>8183186
It's time for bed now, little ones. Come, I've made for you new blankets out of my finest silk.

Bravo story teller