The goats were brought back to the city, fed and kept while Amy checked on the patients and so on. Now Amy is wearing clothes she doesn't care if they get webbed. They are disposable, at least in her mind. Her hair has been tightly braided and she's covered her head with a hat and a bandana. "Right, let's bring the goats in, prepare for horror, and see if a little food will make that - thing under there - able to talk or not."

Baaah! Meeeeeh. MEEEEHHH!!! BAAAH! Meeeeh.

The goats are causing only a little trouble, but the largest of the nannies is, alas, looking hungrily at paperwork.

Beeeeeeh. MAaaaaaah. Meeeeeh!!! The goats, even while all on leads, do make a *noise*. But they are at least behaving for the moment, and nothing but a small manger of hay is getting eaten. There is hardly any goat dung in that area, which is well fenced off.

Danielle hms "Ok so I've not seen this humanoid-spider thing in the basement but you said it was chained, correct? Also even in its weakened state it has the power to project it's emotion throughout an entire hospital. We have no idea why it's there, what it's capable of at full strength so I just want to make sure we have some contingency for if it eats , becomes stronger and decides we look like dessert...do we have anywhere to trap it

Oh look. Two of the goats are playing at horn-wrestling.

"it's already trapped, and too hungry to think," Amy points out dryly. "We can just try to kill it without finding out why its there or we can provide it food once and see if it can then talk to us. Would you rather just try to kill the thing that can talk? Without knowing if it's as much stuck here like the rest of us?"

Meeeeeh! Baaaah!

Amy herds the goats towards the basement door, moving to see what now is beyond it. Maybe they can just send in the goats?

The goats do not like being herded - they are goats - but they are fine with being led, and as it turns out one of the goats wants to do that, so... the obstreperous nanny leads them downwards. In the basement, finding nothing to eat but a lot of interesting spider-web patterns, they mill about, bleating and complaining.

Danielle sighs "Ok just let me see what I can sense then...I was just trying to do the hope for the bestprepare for the worst bit" " She follows the goats down the stairs, very slowly

Amy nods her head. "Yeah, I get that. But you were busy and didn't go down there with me, so you didn't see her." Yes, Amy said her. "Gavin also suggested that she might be just a horror, with no redeeming qualities, but how do we know? And the little spiders don't do any harm, they seem to be somehow trying to help. So I am kind of wondering if - maybe she's - I don't know." The door up to the hospital is closed behind them, and then there's leading the goats - c'mon nanny goat, there's hay this way - to the door that had been hidden.

The patterns of webs are like a distorted blotchy Pattern, on the floor, with spiders roofing over a white path and using it to walk on. The goats are, of course, blundering all over it without understanding. It cannot be a coincidence. It looks like that.

The open door does not please any of the goats. They stare at it, then ignore it, continuing to stamp around.

Amy gets a bright idea, gets some hay and tosses it into the open door that leads down to the horror. Hey, maybe they'll start down the path and then the bitey hungry spiders will catch wind of it. Erm, so to speak. "I wonder if we bring hay down there, if the goats will follow us. It's very very webby down there. Took /forever/ to get the web out of my hair and off my skin."

The sound of that terrible moan of hunger echoes down the corridor.

The goats, unaware of the horror beyond, do indeed attempt to eat the hay. Mostly their hooves keep them upright, and the fact that they trample the hay and the webs stick to han instead of them keeps them from sticking to the floor. The few bites of webs they get do not seem to worry them, although they do not eat it on purpose.

Danielle hms "How do we get dinner to cooperate? As she ponders this she reaches out with her magic senses first.

Hunger, of course. She feels hunger. Danielle feels oddly drawn to... something. And one of the goats gets to the end of the hay and continues to move forward.

"I guess we bribe them," Amy says, as she continues to put hay in front of the goats as required. "It is a very strange thing, you know. I just - there's something not right here."

The rest of the feelings that Danielle has are complex, the memories of things she can no longer recall. There is power here but nothing she can *touch*. It all just goes past her somehow.

Most of the goats are eating, but one is marching fowards. It goes forward past the hay. Beyond, there is a funnel shape within the web, leading onward, and it climbs that, and slither-falls down the other side. The others cluster around Amy, demanding food and trying to eat her clothes.

Danielle nods but the nod is an absent thing as she follows the lone goat down the pathway

Well, if the goats will stick with Amy, she can continue to make her way as well. "here now, don't eat that, it's web protection," she protests, throwing hay towards the funnel and following after Danielle and the lone goat.

Danielle gets to see the sad demise of the goat, which walks around a corner and into a room walls in white, where a red-headed woman who looks... like... someone familiar is. Or at least, part of her. The magics that swirl around her are ones that Danielle has seen before, subtle and powerful. Her skin is loke mother of pearl. Her red hair hangs down over a delicate body. Her body is that of a huge, bloated spider, its legs removed. The goat walks up to her, puts its front legs on her, and baahs lovingly into her face. She lunges for it, jaws opening wider than Fio... than ANYBODY's would. Fangs unfold and slip into its neck. The call of the hunger ceases. The goat twitches. The woman's hair falls over the fangs. It took only moments.

The other goats suddenly look at the hay in disdain and one of them looks at Amy as if deciding just *how hard* to butt her.

Amy might be in trouble, she might. She continues forward, since she wants to make sure Danielle is okay. "Come on, goats. If you're not hungry any more, you can at least come see the nice big room, where you have place to play?" It's a thought. She continues forward.

One of them does go for her. The others begin to nip and butt at each other, and one slips off the hay path and backs against the webbing to one side, ending up partly stuck, and angry, and bleating loudly.

Danielle freezes for a moment and then back up just a little but still in sight of the the thing. Well aware that things change and obviously things have, she does something singularly odd as she hears the bleatcommotioon behind her She bows. "pardon me a moment your highness "and attempts to turn to help amy

The funnel that lets out into the last bit of the corridor has a steep slope in it - Amethyst has a choice of letting the goat run down and chase her, or of trying to get sideways on a spidery slope.

"Ow," is Amy's reaction as she gets headbutted. "Hey, you miserable goat. Fine, stay here." Bah. No not Baaaahhhhh. She grumbles as she tries to get out of the way of the goat, simply running for it. And hopefully not going tumbling right into spider lady's hands.

Amethyst runs past Danielle, and the goat decides that it now has a better target! Danielle is not, after all, running away.

Danielle blinks as shees amy running her direction and does a fast pivot around the corner and into the larger room

And now of course Amy can see the goat here being sucked dry of blood, twitching a little. A glorious fall of red hair disguises the worst of the details, thank heavens.

The goat follows them both...

Amethyst rolls with advantage -1 at difficulty 15, using no talents or gifts.
The result is a success.

The floor of this room is slightly spongy, like the webs are over the abyss, and not solid rock.

Amethyst takes a 50:50 chance. The result is: Fail

Danielle rolls with advantage -1 at difficulty 15, using no talents or gifts.
The result is a failure.

Amy winces a bit, and pales, but she stands her ground. she moves out of the door way as she comes in behind Danielle. "Goats headbutt," is her comment. In case Danielle forgot somehow. "I - hope that helps." The words are heartfelt.

The goat chases after Danielle, bouncing on the soft, resistive flooring.

Danielle nods , focusing her atention on the incoming goat and opts to try to make a stand and headbutt back "Magic don't fail me now" she says making a fist

Amy swallows and then turns to watch the goat and Danielle, while keeping an eye on the spider. And trying to keep an eye on the floor for dark shadows.

Amethyst rolls with advantage -1 at difficulty 10, using no talents or gifts.
The result is a success.

Danielle rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 15, using occult, sorcery.
The result is a success.

Indeed, under the floor there are dark shapes. They are not moving, however; they hang waiting at the far side of the white floor, like the most hideous fruit that could be imagined. Best not to think about the ripening process.

The burst of magic - of magic made into pure force - that Danielle brings to bear is suddenly so easy. The strands of making slide together flawlessly, and there is a *thud* as it hits the goat, which stops in its tracks and falls over, stunned. Its eyes stay open, but roll in the sockets. That was... easy. And it felt good.

Amy catches sight of the dark shapes and shudders a bit. "We really need to clean this place up," is her comment. "Danielle, you okay?" That's the first thing. Then the goat gets a bit of its own medicine, and she smiles just a touch. "Nice trick that."

Danielle stands and flexes at the ubexpected easy of what has here to for been a struggle a reaching a grasping "I'm great.. There's something stronger her. Perhaps I fed off her magic. Did the fog d this? "she wonders aloud, raising her voice

The goat falls from the spider-centaur's maw. There is a little sob of satisfaction, almost a whimper.

Amy has to shrug, looking at Danielle, at that question. "I don't know," she replies honestly. Then her attention goes back to the spider woman. "Hey there. Are you - able to speak?" she asks.

Filinia says, "Hungry," comes the murmured reply, but this time it is just a murmur, like a sleepy child saying the thing."

"Hungry," comes the murmured reply, but this time it is just a murmur, like a sleepy child saying the thing.

"Of course you are still, but a little less, maybe?" Amy offers. hopefully. "Who are you?"

"Foood.... please..." It whimpers more, looks at Amy with big green eyes. There is no trace of blood on its face.

Amy wrinkles her nose, but at least that is clear, and in words. "There's another goat," she says simply. Course it's not in range, and somewhat stunned from Danielle's Moment of Power. Amy steps forward to goat number two, and sees if she can move it closer to the poor spider woman. "Why are you here?" she asks.

"Hungry," is the only reply, even after the second goat has come round, succumbed to the strange attraction, and been devoured. Still, the voice is stronger now, with some hint of asking rather than begging.

"Okay, I'm sure you are hungry, very much so. And we've got you some food, right? Can you work with me a little bit?" Amy asks. She looks to see where the rest of the goats are, the other three somewhere in the webs right?

She pokes her head around the corner to see if the goats will come try to headbutt her.

Naturally, after a while, a goat comes to try its luck...

Poor goat, as Amy ducks back into the room, and that brings it into view of spider woman. "We can try to get more," she adds, "Though supplies aren't always too easy to get. But - please, who are you?"

Four goats later - one is very stuck in the webbing outside - the woman has filled out a little, her emaciated appearence lessening as if merely digesting the goats is beneath her; she just got muscle mass by draining them. The larger spiders under the webbing indicate that it is time to go, by starting to move forward when no more goats appear. Then the woman says a thing she did not say before, although it is unclear whether it is to the spiders or to Amethyst, or to the watching Danielle. "Web. Spin."

Given the indication that it's time to go, Amy lets Danielle know. "time to go - the spiders are antsy. Web. Spin, hmm? I am not sure how helpful that is, but it's more than just hungry and feed me." Thus the two take their leave, quick as they can manage through those webs.