A few of the templars are grumbling under their breath. They clearly want blood. Cullen silences them with an impatient chop of hand and nods to show Dorian he heard his warning. Whether it's his imagination playing tricks on him or not, even Cullen thinks he feels something strange in the area. The hair at the back of his neck is standing up, and there's a chill to the air that feels wrong.

The eerie voice is drawing closer. "Come on, my darlings. Mother hates to wait."

He strains his vision for any movement ahead. What he sees cresting the ridge about thirty yards distant doesn't make sense at first, an enormous, hulking shape, hunched and scurrying. Andraste preserve them all, it's the most monstrous spider he has ever seen, dwarfing the ones they faced on a level of several magnitudes. The tattered white shape in front of it resolves to a pale, thin woman dressed in dirty rags. There seems to be something wrong with her mouth, or it's just filthy. It and her eyes look like little more than holes in the washed out face.

The spider has clearly spotted them. It gathers its legs and leaps with frightening speed and agility, covering half of the distance between them in one go. "Hit it with everything you have!" Cullen yells. No more subtlety now. They can't afford it. Fire, lightning, whatever it takes. There's no sign of the strange woman now, but they don't have the luxury to seek her with this behemoth bearing down on all of them.