Season 2 Episode 10 - Spiders, Dogs, and a Good Book maheva and feng switch out Issah to tackle the command spider ship using the Spirit Step ritual (50 minutes; religion/arcane dc20) sneaking onto the top of FriendFell by climbing the ether strands leads them to phase spiders that take a beating before running through their own webbing to retreat. the troops are eating barbecue yak when the two heroes arrive.. some 40 grunts and a few officers. no one seems to notice the two walking onto the command ship until they find two Black Poodles leashed to the admiral's quarters' door. feng takes a few minutes to ritual a conversation with the two dogs who describe Bloody Poodle the Vampire as their master on loan to the admiral. stepping into the admiral's quarters they find both ship log and personal journal of the admiral... a clever Banishment from Maheva onto a willing Feng drops him into the prime plane long enough to grab the books before Maheva cancels the banishment, fetching Feng back to the Ether. Books in hand, they get some distance before perusing the light reading.. Ship log indicates activity beginning with orders to occupy Blood Crescent prior to the mass exodus of the citizens to Rotting Blade. mostly navigational information, received orders, personnel rosters, and inventory corrections. personal journal reads back a few years of the admiral's time in the navy. a lot of personal opinions about various crew, locations, encounters. the journal changed from rather insightful retrospection to ridiculous poetry prior to settling on FriendFell... the subject matter is obviously referring to Bloody Poodle and has the same tone as Mad Falconer's private diaries. The two books coincide in describing the landing of the breached carrier ship, occupation of FriendFell, but no indication of the specific reason why they are at FriendFell. most recent entries from yesterday reveal that the troops have been hunted by phase spiders, and that the admiral, shaman and commandos are searching for the spiders' nest to change the creatures from predators to allied resources. having encountered the phase spiders on the way in... it's decided them aligning with the Droaam military under Bloody Poodle's influence is a bad idea. Next course of action: catch the admiral and shaman before they are able to reunite with the bulk of their soldiers with new phase spider allies.