Q1: Travels Through Space and Time!

[Lev Lafayette]

Having received the woven rope of tongues from the
Arrente man of Australis and clay whorl and spindle
from the sphinxe's of Egypt, the most noble venturers
returned back to the Abyss and took the demonweb
strands to the next gateway to the Prime Material
Plane.

At the third location, a Mayan temple, the sacred bird
of the Hohokam, the Pheonix had been paralyzed and was
about to be eaten by a giant Amazonian bird-eating
spider, far greater in size than anything that had
been seen. This monstrosity was supported by two fire
giants and drow with wicked clubs of wood and obsidian
fragments.

Nevertheless the good were victorious and they rescued
the pheonix and recovered after a day, for Waitabit
had lapsed into unconsciousness from a rock hurled by
a giant.

Continuing onwards the next gate the were taken to an
isolated Grecian temple in the Seleucid Empire. There
many were first charmed by the beauty of deadly and
wicked dryads who protected the Temple of Arachne.
Many Driders burst forth from the temple, ably
assisted by Frost Giants from the chill mountains.

Again however the noble venturers were successful,
although with the beheading of Megan and the explosive
results of Louis being hit by a magical ball of fire
(carrying 17 flasks of oil will do that to you).
Within the temple there was a dimunitive and bound
Titan who, once recovered, gave the party a lamm.
Inside the temple there was an archiac Deck of Many
Things. Adronicus, trusting The Fates, took cards from
the Deck. At first he gained a Wish, which was used to
revive the corpses of Louis and Megan. Then he drew a
card which tore his magical items away. Finally, on
his third card, his spirit became imprisoned in any
unknown prison, leaving an near-empty shell of a
person behind. 

With the character suffering a psychic lobotomy, the
venturers left Adronicus in the care of the Titan who
swore to care for their disabled friend and travelled
to their next location on the Prime Material Plane.

This proved to be fable land of Cathay, the Forbidden
City of Shenyang, under the rule of the Qin dynasty.
Here there was initially some confusion, as the
spiders were on the side of the venturers, not their
opponents! The pholcidae, or daddy-long legs, held in
their possession at their fine silk factory two of the
four shafts that would make the frame of the loom but
had been attacked by Drow and Driders.

The PCs protected the factory when it was attacked
that night and thanks to Lord Pierre's flying carpet
surveillance was able to chase the remaining drow to
their base and recover the shafts. The spiders
informed the PCs that they feared that Arachne, one
establishing control over the weaving industries,
would use her power to unravel the very threads of
space and time themselves, thus destroying everything.
This would indeed be her ultimate revenge against the
Gods.

Thus armed with this new knowledge, the next gate was
taken. Here Sir Duc recognised their old mansion at
Saltmarsh but it had been terribly transformed! Black
smoke poured from chimneys and an unearthly sounds of
metal upon metal came from within. Inside they
witnessed machines that operated with their own daemon
spirits, as slave children worked upon them.

In this instance they were attacked by not only the
most monstrous giant ticks which sucked both blood and
gave disease, but also wicked women assasins who
appeared from the factory, and felled Helene in the
process. Eventually however they were defeated and it
was discovered that the children were both bound to
the evil machines and had their tongues removed by
their captors. Upon freeing the children and smashing
the machines, they were taken to a treadle, the last
component for the world weaving machine. Sir duc
provided the children with an everfull-purse whereas
Tanc realised that none within the party could build a
loom and thus induced two of the children to journey
to hell with them.

Buildin the machine in front of Arachne's spider ship,
they children produced a cloth key. The key fitted
into the slot on the spider ship and the PCs entered.
There they were confronted a force of hill, frost, and
fire giants, along with driders and most terrifying of
all, a Balrog. Nevertheless, despite these opponents
the PCs were also successful in this encounter as they
prepared to take the strange spiral stairs to the
upper level.....

There is now only encounter left; Arachne herself.
This final battle will be conducted at 12 noon this
coming Saturday at my place (1/74 Brighton Rd, Ripponlea)


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