Heavy Metal: Flesh For The Spider Queen Part 9: My Empire Of Dirt

NOVEMBER 14, 2016 / DREADPIRATESITE

I have no fucking clue what happened this session man. This session….I'm still in shock it sooooo did not go the way I expected. Basically some really unexpected bad luck and worse rolls resulted in tragedy. But tragedy does breed good drama in terms of story telling and even beyond that we managed to turn things around in favor of the party and push forward to some exciting adventure with some shocking revelations. Basically I have no idea how I got from the beginning of this session to the end of it. The game at this point in and out of game is off the fucking rails. Chaos reigns! Earthquakes! Volcanoes! The Dead rising from the grave! We're talking human sacrifices! Dogs and Cats living together! Mass Hysteria!

Where we last left off the party had made it to the bazaar of Szith Morcane where Flutterbudgets had unsuccessfully attempted to by food from the racist duergar. Tired from the days violence and wishing to recoup his strength and spells after a sudden wave of tiredness, Flutterbudgets decided to rest in a nearby cave within the bazaar he created a coffin with his stone shape powers and wished the rest of the party luck promising to catch up.

In the meantime, the Animal, Psycho Helmet, Larala, and Granitos press on.

Leaving the bazaar they return to the spider web and use it to find another cave that Larala confirms will lead to Maerymida. There they found the drow commoner district of Szith Morcane where the low class drow and bugbear serfs go about their business in giant mushroom houses in fear of both their new Kiranselee worshiping masters and their undead hordes. Psycho Helmet tries to get some information out of a drow blacksmith but he is busy, untrusting, and doesn't have much information to give.

Psycho Helmet and his team began to explore the village and discovered a field near a large lake where they finally discovered exactly what a rothe is. It is a large wildebeast-yak pack animal that many races of Faerun including the drow raise as cattle for meat.

Unfortunately for the party and in particular, me, they were too busy checking Larala's map by the lake to notice that the Rothe as well as the drow citizens have been keeping their distance from the lake, at least about 10 feet. And we decided to walk right up to the shore and not notice the massive armored tentacles that were rising up…

When I first heard about the City Of The Spider Queen campaign book, my friends who told me about it told me about how there was this awesome monster in this underground lake that told killed their character and kicked the parties ass. I filed that information somewhere in my brain for later. But I wasn't able to recall it until it was way to late and I came face to face with the sonofabitch. In this lake there is not one but two giant arachnoid octopuses. This creature is basically a giant octopus from the 3.5 Monster Manual with the Arachnoid creature template from the City Of The Spider Queen campaign book. It is basically a monster mutant alien creature that is one part giant octopus mollusk and another part arachnid spider. These tentacled bug monsters gain 4 extra limbs from their template and a poisonous bite, meaning this creature has 12 limbs and can attack 13 times a round! And there are two of them! That's 26 attacks per round! The Animal didn't stand a chance….

The Bug Octopi unleashed their tentacles on the party starting with the Animal. The only one spared was Psycho Helmet who they could not strike do to his incoporeal nature. But worst of all they struct the Animal over and over again with their tentacles, grappled him, and crushed him squeezing the life out of him. He died roaring defiantly in his werewolf form before they snapped his spine in two and pulled him apart fighting over him. Larala and Granitos were in bad shape too from the assault. Psycho Helmet had little choice but to teleport them all to the Astral Plane to escape. They returned to the Underdark near the lake but at safe distance to watch in horror as the powerful creatures devoured their friend.

The team rested with Psycho Helmet and Granitos vowing revenge. Their sleep was interrupted by a drow raiding party that came storming through the drow commoner village demanding information from the serfs about who slaughter soldiers in the barracks. The entire team was able to hide except for Psycho Helmet who got caught trying to shape shift to escape. The raiding party consisted of drow soldiers and a mage as well as two feral Quth-Maren. It was commanded by Velina T'sarran, one of Irae's nieces and a cleric of Kiranselee. She called to their side an abominable undead that was in the area a zombie of a Balsalm, one of the Blessed Children, a beautiful heavenly spirit of an unborn person that can be found on the celestial planes….and it has become an infectious zombie. So terrible, twisted, and powerful is this blight that it has turned one so pure into a monster.

Psycho Helmet's team struck and struck hard decimating the raiding party. Larala in particular sliced into Velina recognizing her and her place in the cult, eager to collect her skin in revenger. With Velina near death blasted Larala with a slay living spell….Larala too fell in battle. In revenge Psycho Helmet psychically crushed Velina's mind killing her and dispatching the rest of her forces.

The commotion caused most of the serfs to flee and caught the attention of a drow overseer who Granitos promptly attacked to keep him from calling for reinforcements. Fortunately Tasitus, tiefling paladin of Raziel had finally reunited with the party to lend a hand. They quickly incapacitated the overseer. Psycho Helmet scanned his mind for information and blanked it of the events he had just seen. They then took a key of his that lead to a nearby gate that took them out of Szith Morcane into the Deeper Wastes of The Underdark.

They traveled for hours in the Underdark before coming upon Stone Giant territory. They managed to befriend the Stone Giant guards and their pet dire bear. The stone giant's told them that the path to Maerymida is beyond a great Lake of Shadows that touches their shores. They explained the conquering drow army from Maerymida indeed passed through here and brought their zombie hordes with them. The stone giants have no love of the drow so they wished the party well warning them that the lake is the domain of a demonic kraken and it's kuo toa worshippers. Using Psycho Helmet's telekinesis and flight the party flew over the lake.

While flying over the lake they were eventually spotted by an entire kuo toan army that popped up to the surface to deal with them. They did not attack outright to so the group tried to talk to them. Tasitus attempted to make piece with them by talking to them but they could not understand him so his words sounded like jibberish. Eventually kuo toas grew bored and swam away.

….Millenium Falcon Jimminy JuJu! BOOM!

They continued on and finally ran a foul of the hungry Fiendish Kraken! The creature chased after them as they soared through the air it's tentacles reaching out towards them. It was immune to Tasitus's lightening spell and finally knocked them out of the air with it's own spells which summoned hurricane force wins. Tasitus tried chopping at it as he fell to the water but only wound up losing his magic sword. Fearing what happened the last time he ran into a giant octopus Psycho Helmet teleported them all to the Astral Plane to escape.

However upon arriving on the Astral Plane they made a shocking discovery…a huge floating form the size of a planet upon closer inspection they discovered it was a massive dead spider with the torso of a beautiful drow woman…..they had found the murder corpse of Lolth, the drow goddess! The Queen of Spiders floated before them stone dead from a massive stab wound in her chest caused by some kind of giant dagger!

Pyscho Helmet now had both the proof and explanation of what was happening to the drow clerics. Kiranselee had somehow physically murdered Lolth prior to her invasion. Tasitus correctly concluded that since they were in the presence of a dead god that valuable resources would be on or near it. He successfully took Lolth's divine unholy dagger for himself. Due to it's unholy nature it weakens him if he uses it but he can still use it and it is a powerful magic blade. Near her body were glowing floating orbs that were in fact divinity sparks, small particles of divine power. Flowing from her chest wound was liquid god's blood and naturally her flesh was gods flesh. All 3 are extraordinary value able resources and can bestow great power in the right hands and he was going to find away to salvage them. Psycho Helmet meanwhile wanted to find some way to resurrect the dead goddess so she could aid them in their campaign against Kiranselee.

Divine Spark

Meanwhile Flutterbudgets took a rest in his coffin and slept for two days. He had unpleasant dreams as his body was wracked with pain. His bloodlust, the beast within all vampires which they struggle to control began to tax his mind and sanity as he soon found himself craving not just blood…..but also flesh…

And it will only get crazier from here…

With party members dropping like flies, dogged at every turn by terrible monsters, and their vampire leader beginning to turn into a zombie, things look bad for the Heavy Metal Team. With the discovery of Lolth's body they may have the edge they need to win the day, but soon they will learn the vengeful scorn of Dorina T'sarran, vampire princess. Her and her drow warriors will not stop until they are dead and the surface is theirs. And will it be enough to stop her mother's goddess, the White Banshee Kiranselee? Or will the dead goddesses' passion leave Faerun ravaged and cold? And are the Animal and Larala dead forever? Or will they will be embraced by the goddess and return to their party as vengeful dead?

Dorina T'sarran

Kiranselee

Drow Army Of The White Banshee

Will Lolth Be Restored?

As gods die, the world is soon to follow…..

Zombie Flutterbudgets

And even the dead themselves die….

And the world will know the vengenance….

….of those who have returned from the Undiscovered Country….

Tune in next time for the next chapter of Heavy Metal: Flesh For The Spider Queen! Kill The King! Kill the King and take his Crown!

Edward "Dreadpirate" Peeler