Prayer: Detect Magic
In the swirling chaos of the Abyss, Lolth, the Queen of Spiders, rests on her infinite web of deceit and power. The screams of the damned and the chittering of countless arachnids provide a relaxing ambience. Suddenly, a familiar voice tugs at the edge of her consciousness - a prayer, a request for power from a daughter on the surface world far above.
Lolth's multifaceted eyes narrow, focusing on the mortal realm. She sees Niaelo, her faithful priestess, standing inside a dark structure of metal unlike anything in the Underdark. The priestess's thoughts flicker through Lolth's mind: Iron Massif, beskar, a promise to a thrall named Beskar. How quaint.
With a lazy wave of one of her pedipalps, Lolth grants the request. She observes as Niaelo's eyes glow with eldritch power, scanning the strange metal construct before her. The priestess's brow furrows in confusion - no magic registers to her enhanced senses. Instead, Lolth sees through her chosen's eyes a maze of metal pathways, strange glowing panels, and devices beyond comprehension.
Beskar moves with purpose through the room, searching for something. The other mortals stumble about, clearly out of their depth.
Prayer: Eldritch Blast
Lolth sees Niaelo and her companions again, in a new chamber of the metal construct. Two fallen kobolds lie nearby, their bodies marked by strange, cauterized wounds. The rhythmic clank of metal feet fills the air. Two massive constructs are visible in the doorway, their forms a bizarre fusion of humanoid shape and arcane machinery.
Lolth channels her dark power through her daughter. The priestess's hands crackle with eldritch energy as she hurls blasts of shadowy flame at the constructs. The dark fire sears their metallic shells, leaving scorch marks where it impacts.
Prayer: Faerie Fire
Ah, the same scene and daughter. A spray of eerie, spider-silk-like strands erupts from Niaelo's fingertips, coating one of the constructs in a web of ghostly illumination. Its vulnerabilities are now clearly visible to anyone who wishes it harm.
The spell holds and battle rages on. Lolth watches metallic rockets of impossible power streak across the chamber, the explosion blasting Niaelo to the ground. Her daughter survives, but the scene fades as her focus breaks.
Prayer: Summon Shadowspawn
Lolth's mandibles click in amusement. She weaves darkness and malice into a corporeal form. Through Niaelo's eyes, she watches as a shadow spider materializes – a pitch-black arachnid taller than her priestess, its eight eyes gleaming with hunger.
The newly summoned child skitters forward, its mere presence sending a group of kobolds fleeing in terror. How delightful. As the kobolds disappear, Niaelo commands the shadow spider to follow, its form melding with the darkness as they move deeper into the metal labyrinth.
Prayer: Hunger of the Spider Queen
A new scene unfolds. Three more of the mechanical monstrosities - "battle droids," Niaelo's mind supplies - engage the group. Her daughter’s faithful companion, Elli, lies splattered on the ground.
Niaelo's prayer continues and Lolth answers. A sphere of absolute darkness engulfs the droids, filled with the chittering of a thousand spectral spiders. The goddess watches with satisfaction as confusion reigns among the metal beings, their strange energy weapons firing blindly into the void. Within the darkness, Lolth senses her power at work. Ghostly spider mandibles materialize, biting and tearing at the droids' metal shells.
Prayer: Find Familiar
Oh right, Lolth muses, little Elli has fallen. Again. The goddess recalls the faithful spider’s previous demise, a flicker of amusement crossing her features. With a wave of her spinnerets, she weaves the essence of Elli back into existence.
Through Niaelo's eyes, Lolth watches as wisps of shadow coalesce, taking the form of the familiar spider. Elli materializes, her eight eyes blinking as if awakening from a deep slumber. Lolth senses relief and warmth from Niaelo. How quaint, this attachment to a servant. Perhaps this time, it will learn to avoid being crushed by metal hands.
Prayer: Detect Magic
A familiar prayer draws Lolth’s attention. They’ve come upon a room filled with strange devices, blinking lights, and incomprehensible symbols. Beskar seems to understand more than the others, explaining concepts foreign to Lolth's ears - "captain's log," "alien," "Wookie."
Niaelo's enhanced senses sweep the room, searching for any trace of magic. Yet again, she finds nothing arcane in nature. Instead, Lolth sees a prison of technology rather than spellcraft. C’Nut suggests a captive - this "Wookie," has escaped.
As the spell fades, Lolth briefly contemplates this new information. A hunter, his prey, and one of those metal constructs, all fled before the crash.
Prayer: Thunderstep
Lolth's mandibles click in eager approval as she observes the scene unfolding before her daughter. A chamber filled with kobold cultists, huddled before a preaching shaman holding a bizarre metal object. Nearby, an ogre stands frozen, paralyzed by some arcane trinket wielded by the wizard Chet.
Niaelo is at the edge of the kobold gathering, sprinting momentum carrying her forward to the middle of the group. Lolth smirks at the requested spell.
In a deafening explosion of sound and fury, Lolth's power manifests. The thunderous boom reverberates through the rock chamber, the shockwave ripping outward from Niaelo's body. In an instant, all eight kobold cultists are obliterated, unable to withstand the devastating force.
As the thunder fades, Lolth sees Niaelo standing unharmed and out of sight away from the carnage, teleported safely away. Cries of anguish from her daughter’s companions bring smiles to both their lips. A cruel trick.
Lolth reclines in her abyssal throne, savoring the echoes of devastation. This excursion into a realm of metal and technology has been entertaining. And it appears the thrall Beskar has found the beskar he sought after all. A capable servant indeed.
