Q1: Travels Through Space and Time!

[Lev Lafayette]

I completely neglected to mention that the in the old
Saltmarsh mansion the PCs discovered some printed text
that indicated that the year was 1848 AD.

The following constituted news items:

# February 2 - Mexican–American War: The Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the war and ceding
to the United States virtually all of what is today
the southwest of that country.

# February 8 - Revolution in Rome leads to the
foundation of the second Roman Republic, soon to be
led by Giuseppe Mazzini, though it would last only
four months.

# February 21 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish
The Communist Manifesto.

# February 22 - In Paris, revolt erupts against the
king Louis Philippe. Two days later he abdicates,
leading to the Second Republic.

--- Lev Lafayette <lev_lafayette at yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> 
> 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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