Portsmith was last in line following the group of water carriers,his cask sloshing on his shoulder. Something knocked the cask off his shoulder from a darkened area of forest beside the path they were using. Before he could think he had pulled his whistle in one hand and sword it the other. He stabbed blindly in the direction the blow had come from. His sword tip hit something that screamed and chittered back at him. Something struck him in the chest and every thing went dark.
Nymeria heard the whistle and the scream and bolted from chasing cats and rats straight towards it. Jon still at the lake broke into a run. Arya, Thomas and Drena swung down the rope and swarmed down the hill. Caelan at the boats motioned to the knight with him to stand guard and broke into a run, an archer went with him.
Jon pulled up when he saw the cask leaking beside the path,he looked left and right but it was too dark. He started right but then Nymeria came across from that direction and jumped to the right side. A second later she began to growl and snarl and then loosed a howl of confrontation. Arya, Drena and Thomas ran up panting.
The group dropped their heavy bags and Arya unslung the swords on her back. She pulled a torch and lit it, Drena handed over hers as well. She held the two high and pulled her new Needle an stalked into the darkened area. They found Nymeria snarling upwards and saw a sword and whistle on the ground beside a tree. A true nightmare awaited them in the tree branches, six large black eyes glittered down at the. A spider the size of a large water barrel was moving to avoid the torch light. It legs were 6 foot long and ended in terrible looking claws. Caelan ran up and started emptying his quiver into it. Two arrows stuck in it's eyes and it dropped from the tree pulling at them with long front legs. Jon struck it on top of its carapace and the spider's body went hard to the ground. Arya stepped in to hit it but a leg flashed out striking her new bracer, the blow still slashed sideways and the shallow cut burned badly. Drena followed with a blow from her dark cutlass that cut it in half. Smoke rose where the ichor from it's body met the ground. Drena bounded up the tree and cut the captains limp body from the webbing wrapped around him. She helped lower him down gently. Jon and Caelan took the body and they gathered up all the gear and ran for the boats. They could hear many spiders thrashing about in the trees coming towards them.
On deck Brienne heard the distress whistle and ran to the starboard railing. She could see water carriers running towards the boats dumping their water into open barrels.They were jumping on boats afterwards. Then the away teams appeared and she watched Arya throw a torch right and one left into dried palm fronds littered around trees. Two trees burst into flame and it spread sideways quickly. The two that had the captain loaded Portsmith's body onto the sloop and order the vessel away and to return as quickly as possible. They turned to stand their ground with the others. Most of the spiders shied away from the blaze that was spreading but 5 very large, very angry spiders walked out of the woods toward them. Their prey had been stolen and they came to get more back.
Brienne shouted toward shore,"Save them!" and the crewmen around her echoed the cries. They all ran to hoist and haul stuff from the boats so those boats could get back to those stuck on the beach facing death. Caelan and the other archer pin cushioned the spiders as they came on. Nymeria ran wide of them drawing some of them to her. One of the new enemy jumped at Drena and she swung a wide arc cutting it's legs off on one side. Caelan snatched up an oar left on the beach and skewered the floundering beast. Jon and Arya stepped towards and both pierced the one closest to them through it's eyes. It shrieked and skittered away. The two that had chased Nymeria turned back to the trapped team. The group had started wading back into the water but the spiders still came on. The treekin archer peppered the one coming at him, but the creature leaped and struck him full in the chest. As the treekin was dropping Drena sliced the monster in half. She turned on the second coming but Nymeria pulled it away by a back leg. The spider turned to face her and she jumped away. Caelan threw the oar with such velocity that it pierced that spiders shell from behind and it limped off. The last spider closed on Jon and Arya who both stabbed at it. It slashed at Jon catching his arm with a glancing blow and Arya managed to finish it with a slash that took its face off.
More spiders starting coming onto the beach but the sloop was there by then and they lifted the limp treekin onboard and jumped in. Their momentum pushed the sloop away from shore just as a wave of spiders was jumping at them. A cheer arose from the decks.