Queen of the Demonweb Pits

'We shall serve you, children! We have a body in your temple again. We shall return to Oerth! We shall make your people safe, and then reward the faithful. Yes…' Lolth's voice bubbled like a chorus of elven girls. 'You have done well. Now tell me: the vampire pool-have you found it?'

A priestess-scarred, burned, and downcast-failed to meet her goddess eye to eye.

'N-no, your magnificence.'

Lolth glared, and the room seemed suddenly icy cold.

'Why not?'

One priestess licked her lips in fright. 'W-we have no w-workers, Magnificence. No sorcerers! There are only a few hundred left. The collapse of the city-'

'No matter. No matter.' Lolth did not care to hear excuses and depression. Oerth was coming into her grasp! 'You will have sorcerers, and an earth elemental. Search! Uncover the pool!'

'Yes, your Magnificence.'

The palace lurched as it crossed a ridge. At the palace's feet, Lolth spied capering flocks of harpies harrying her enemies. The demon queen gave an indulgent little smile.

'Yes. Dig. First-the pool. Then make tunnels. We will need accommodation for the assistants we shall be sending you.'

'Assistants, Magnificence?' The priestesses looked at one another anxiously. The surviving drow were barely scraping an existence in the underdark by eating scraps scavenged from the ruins. 'How-how many assistants?'

Lolth drew in a long, slow breath as she looked across her armies celebrating in the rubble below. There were spider beings and demons, undead legions and foul, slithering things taken from a dozen other worlds. On other planes, Lolth had army after army-hidden forces that lay in wait as their mistress matured her evil plans.

The two drow risked a glance at their goddess.

'Magnificence? H-how many assistants will you send?'

Lolth turned to face the miserable priests, and gave a seething smile.

'Millions.'

The Demon Queen breathed raggedly, excited by the vision of revenge, of glory-of power! It was time to show the cosmos that Lolth was a force to be feared! She would unveil all her hidden pieces in a wild blaze of glory! She would strip a hundred worlds of their hidden troops and mass them all into a single tidal wave. Oerth would fall-obliterated and enslaved. A whole demon world would be made. The throne on which Lolth sat would be worshiped. The other tanar'ri lords would bow-sweet vengeance for the mockery Lolth had suffered since her defeat!

A whole world taken. A new era would dawn. Lolth would become queen of the tanar'ri, mounted on a throne built from Oerth's rotting dead.

But before it began, there was a little time for fun. Lolth let it settle deliciously in her mind, and then spoke to her secretary with a voice that shimmered like a chorus of angels.

'Have the pilots take us back to the Demonweb. Take us home. Summon the commanders from each and every world to a conference in eight hours' time.'

Lolth's long, serpentine secretary wrote notes upon three separate tablets at once, her six hands busy and her face in a frown. Orders were spoken. At the rods and wheels that controlled the spider palace, sleek succubi went to work. The palace poised, one huge spider foot hovering in mid air-then the juggernaut slowly began to turn. Its footfalls clashed like titanic cymbals as the metal monster trod slowly away, crushing the corpses of conquest underneath its feet.

Lolth savored the delicious smell of burning flesh caught in the breeze, and then turned, her violet eyes seething with delight.

'Now-let's get on with this, shall we?'

The demonic secretary gave an annoyed glare at her mistress, tucking a writing stylus behind one long ear. Of all Lolth's minions, only her secretary never showed fear-only an air of martyrdom and overwork that Lolth found extremely amusing.

'Magnificence, if we concentrate forces, we must find a way to feed them.'

'Details, details!' The future was blooming like a flower, and Lolth danced with delight! 'We're on our way at last! Think of it! Universal conquest! Cosmic domination! There are worlds to obliterate, slaves to conquer, enemies to destroy-orgiastic rites slithering in oceans of human blood!'

The secretary scowled. 'Are you well, Magnificence?'

'Oh, I feel like a little girl!' Lolth paused mid-pirouette. 'Have the cook send one up!'

Unamused, the secretary licked the end of her pencil and took notes on a pad.

'Magnificence? May I ask again about supplies for the troops?'

'We will live off the land! Oerth is rich. Find a pointless little city and invade it, then we'll use its populace as our supplies. We can let the monsters have their fun!' Lolth heaved a happy sigh as she contemplated the magnificence of her revenge. 'We must enjoy ourselves, you sour little serpent.'

The demonic queen turned, laid a hand upon her two high priestesses from Oerth, and smiled.

'Search. Find me the vampire pool again, and we shall reward you. Your kingdom will be returned to you a thousand fold!'

Lolth felt her palace walking the grounds of an alien world and sensed her legions and her armies like a fine-tuned instrument beneath her hands. She had the means to take her revenge at last. She had the power. She had the will.

The world of Oerth had mocked her, and it would die…

2

In theory, they were still heading for Hommlet.

They marched through a range of dusty, tree-smothered hills on a day that seemed eerily hushed and still. In the lead walked the Justicar-huge, shaven headed, and grim in his armor of black dragon scales. Draped over his head and back was Cinders, a grinning sentient hell hound pelt that wagged his tail in eternal glee. Jutting through the Justicar's belt was a magical sword named Benelux. Despite its wolf skull pommel, the blade was talkative, prissy, and prim. Even when silent, the sword managed to radiate an impression that it approved of none of the current goings-on.

Behind Jus was Henry-eighteen years old, tall, skinny, and apparently made up mostly of elbows and knees. His blond hair framed a face smattered with freckles. A fine shirt of elven mail, threaded with green chords to keep it silent, betrayed an occasional sparkle beneath his cloak. He carried a sword, and a hefty magical crossbow sloped over his shoulders as he kept up with the Justicar stride-for-stride, bravely trying not to look tired.

Henry snuck sly glances at the happy female sphinx who walked beside him. Enid was larger than a lion-a shy, pretty creature with freckles on her nose, white feathers on her wings, her hair plaited in a thousand braids. Her big paws padded amiably in the dust, and her weaving tail cast its shadow onto the dappled light of the road. Riding on her back was a large badger who perpetually scribbled notes in a dog-eared journal. Polk the teamster, reincarnated as a lovable woodland beast, was, if anything, even more annoying than he had ever been.

Flitting madly from one end of the party to the other, dressed in a costume so sleek it was outlawed on six outer planes, Escalla the faerie was having a busy day. Full of energy, the little creature held a stick, flew level with Jus's head, and waved her hands in the air.

'All right pooch! Are you concentrating?' Escalla hovered above the roadway, paused, then threw a stick down the road. 'Fetch the stick! Go on! Fetch!'

The stick hit the ground a dozen yards ahead. Escalla looked happily from the stick to Cinders where he rode draped across the Justicar's helm. She whooshed her hands forward, trying to will the hell hound into a run. 'Go on! Fetch!'

Marching tirelessly along the road, the Justicar decided neither to ask nor comment. Henry looked from one of his friends to the other. Polk was busy trying to put his chronicles into heroic rhyme, and Enid was carrying