As the Undead Knight determinedly advances toward the river hungering for revenge as well as the blood and flesh of the Horseman, the ground surprisingly bursts open on either side of Cel, and from the flanking earthen, web-glued trapdoors in the ground, emerges a pair of big-assed, dark brown spiders [8' and 12' diameter, think Shelob] one to either side of the Ghast.  Both spiders attack the surprised Undead, and sink fangs into the dead flesh [dmg 3 & 4 hps] of their prey, injecting their poison.  Being Undead, however, the spiders' venom does no harm to the Ghastly Knight.  Between the spiders there ensues a tug of war over Celebril, who immediately gets pulled free of the right spider's grasp, and drug back toward the opening into the ground and the lair of the left spider.

The flying claws and sharps fangs of the Ghast cleanly miss the big, hairy brute of a Spider as it continues jerking him further and further into the depths of its underground lair.  Behind the spider-dragged knight came the other spider seeking to contest the theft of its prey.  As the pre-dawn gray light started to vanish from sight inside the earthen tunnel, the giant spider dragging the knight spits him out, and starts chittering in a manner one could almost construe as disgust.  It starts wiping off its mandibles with its front legs trying to get the foul taste of rotted undead flesh out of its mouth, and hisses in disappointment at the Elf for not being a warm, living, juicy critter to suck all the tasty blood and soft tissues out of it.  Something Cel could probably identify with as a ghast, and his own need for some warm blood and flesh to satiate his own hunger.  The other spider, hearing the other spider's chittering and understanding it, hisses in disappointment that their prospective early morning meal was nothing but a rotting, dead walking corpse, and starts wobbling back out of the tunnel.  Had the Undead Knight not been distracted by the tantalizing smell of Horseman blood, he/it probably would've detected the smell of old death and decay coming from the corpses that hung wrapped in webs deeper inside the tunnels, and avoided being surprised by the eight-legged monstrosities.  The giant spider which grabbed Cel starts hissing at the walking corpse and raising its front legs threateningly at him/it to drive him/it out its lair.

As Cel crawls backward toward the opening to the surface, the giant spider, hissing and threatening with its front legs, follows after the Ghast, ensuring the foul-tasting dead thing left it's lair.  The Undead Knight makes it clear of the entrance to the spider's lair into the pre-dawn forest.  The other spider was just disappearing back into its tunnel closing up the camoflauged doors as he emerged.  Once clear of the tunnel entrance, the spider that had dragged him in there also closes up the doors of its earthen lair once more to lay in wait for its next unsuspecting victim. 

Cel was free of the spiders, and now knew of a very special place for turning the table on would be hunters who thought to ... track him down.  The former Elven Knight comes out of the hills and forest onto the bank of the small river running south-southwest toward the Village of Elmshade.  The direction upstream is unremarkable with forest vegetation and hills on both sides.  The direction downstream from which the subtle scents of the blood came more strongly was a small island around which the river flowed.  A small, humble, wooden bridge leads out to the island and what appears to be white jagged stones remnants of what use to be a Holy Shrine to Mielikki that was destroyed in a battle between the Shadoweir and the now recently killed Lita Starfire with a Cat Lord.  The mandolin the Cat Lord was playing blew up when struck by an arrow Hi'el fired into it, and pretty much destroyed the entire Shrine. 

The area around the spiders' lair is indelibly etched upon the Ghast's mind, and the landmarks easily recognized should the need to ever return to this spot arise.  Though, innocent enough in appearance to fool some animals and the untrained eyes of wanderers in the forest, anyone with tracking skills or a Ranger might detect the tale-tell disturbances in the earth vicinity the hidden trapdoors to pinpoint their presence.  The venture along the side of the river is quiet and uneventful, no one or nothing is about in the pre-dawn twilight, and the smell of blood though not fresh as in recently spilled fresh still leads him on, beckoning him to the island and the ruined shrine.

Cel watches the 'people' for several hours as they do all sorts of activities associated with fishing... baiting hooks, casting into the stream, moving to better spots, reeling in their catches etc.  The beast creatures talk among themselves out of ear-shot of the Ghast without much fear or caution as though comfortably safe in this place at the river.  Despite their different appearances, it is easy to tell which of the creatures, as repulsive and disgusting a mental picture there might ever be, seem close or intimately social... the wasp wench and the ferret dude...  the scaly lass and the doggy dude.  Of course, being Undead, such things don't rightly bother the Ghast Knight anymore.  The creepy critter will probably, maybe except the wasp lady, taste just as good as fresh human... or Horseman for that matter.

Another great thing about being an Undead Knight dressed in field plate mail is you don't need air and you don't have to worry about drowning when you're sneaking up on your prey underwater.  Cel burst forth from the edge of the river easily surprising all the bizarre 'people' fishing from the bank, getting immediate attacks.  The Ghast emerges from the river closest to the ferret man with the scaly wench and jackal dude just next to him [10'].  Further away is the batman [20'], and furthest distant is the wasp gal [40'].

In the surprise round of attack, Cel immediately takes out the Ferret Man and the Jackal Dude with successful claw and bite attacks, leaving them lying paralyzed on the stream bank.  Once the shock of the Ghast's attack wears off, the Snake Girl immediately retalliates, shooting a yellow stream of venom from her open mouth at the Undead Knight, splattering his field plate armor with her poison juices.  Wasp Wench, seeing the dire straights of her friends, takes off into the air, her wings creating an angry buzzing noise as she flies toward the battle.  The Ghast leaps on the Venom-shooting Wench, and rips her apart with a claw and bite, paralyzing her also.  While dealing the Scaly Gal, Bug Girl covers the distance between them, and tries to help her friends, diving down on the Undead Knight.  Wasp Wench misses with her stinger attack.  Batman seeing how quickly his comrades have been slaughtered by the stinky Ghast, chooses the better part of valor, and yells "RUN!!!" fleeing into the forest.  Cel turns his attention on Bug Girl, and rips one claw across her throat, killing her before she can make another move.  While the urge to chase down and kill the batman was strong in the Ghast, the prey he'd already brought down down was sufficient to appease those desires.  The Ghast turns to the task at hand, and all except for the Jackal Dude, kills the other Beast People.  Leaving their bodies to rot in the daylight along the bank and latter arise as Ghasts, the Undead Knight carries the still living Dog Man over his shoulder back toward the Ruins.  Arriving at the Ruins where he'd departed from and finding the Minions of Orcus absent, Cel of course is confused, but soon finds well-trod trails through the scrub vegetation of many creatures.  Following the tracks, the Ghast soon rejoins the Army of Orcus, and brings into the temple the sacrifice of the Jackal Man as ordered.