A howling roar cut through the halflight - the arachne moved out of its tunnel. It had sent the spawn out, and now intended to join the fight. Iridia spun aroud and started firing in the direction of this new monstrosity, the energy pulses from her pistol sliding off the surface of its head and forelegs. One of the spawn, taking advantage of her being distracted, darted in to sting her in the calf. Jezkirriak noticed it too late - by the time he crushed it to the rough floor with his powerful tail, the poison was already starting to take effect. Desaf quickly calcuated - if he tried to stun the creature and failed, he would not have enough energy left to carry the others out, but if he carried them out now, he might never learn what had happened...but they would be alive. Once again, the group felt a prickling sensation and a tug as they were hauled bodily out of the pit. Jezkirriak, realizing what was happening, wrapped his tail around the drum he had been examining to pull it with them. The arachne, sensing that the invaders might escape, howled and spat a sticky, grey-brown substance at them, catching them in mid-flight. The spawn started to scuttle up the walls of the pit towards the light.

Desaf unceremoniously dumped the group on the soil splattered grass by the pit, and tried to get the creature's spit off his skin. 'It burns!' he hissed. Nil quickly loaded up his Medikit with Biodote, and moved to Iridia, who was going into convulsions. 'Hold her still!' he barked at the other two, but neither moved to help him - the spawn were crawling out of the pit. Jezkirriak grabbed Iridia's pistol and began to fire. 'I hope the big one can't climb,' said Nil, having managed to dose Iridia. 'Let me help you.' He put the Medikit applicator to Desaf's skin. The latter just fired at anything and everything moving near the lip of the pit, blasting the spawn back down into the hole.

The arachne could not climb out. It protested at the invaders into its territory, birthing spawn after spawn to send at them, until it could send no more. They were finally safe.

When the sec-res team from Saderton arrived, Nil was trying to stabilize Iridia's condition. She drifted in and out of conciousness - some element in her cyberweave was worsening her reaction to the poison. Nil himself felt woozy - had he not had the best Biodote money could buy, he wasn't sure if he'd have managed to pull through. Jezkirriak was unscathed, Desaf recuperating. They had looked more closely at the drum, and discovered a serial number on it, engraved into its base. It identified it as a container for fertilizer, produced in Tarsland - a land that had been silent and uncontactable for almost twenty years, a land that most thought had been destroyed. How had the cannister come to be here, in Greyspire? What had caused the explosion? As the sec-res team packed the four of them into a short hop transport, Jezkirriak vowed to find out....

But, to quote Michael Ende, that's another story and shall be told another time.
Now, that was the end of one session of play, one that was intended to be a prelude to a few more games. As such, the intention was to use a straighforward story to introduce the atmosphere of the game, and provide a hook for a more complex adventure, at the same time getting the players used to the rules. The players seemed to enjoy the game, although two of the guys felt the arachne and its spawn were too difficult an opponent - it didn't seem like there was any way to beat them (there was - but don't tell them that). Iridia's player felt the world was easier than she'd expected to get into, but that the hook didn't really fit the character she'd created (I agree - it wasn't logical for her character to be there - I could have tried harder). Generally they wanted to play again, and get to the bottom of the mystery, and we arranged to meet a fortnight later. Mission accomplished!

Okay, it's been nice writing to you all, as usual, but I have to go now.
Take care one and all.
Derek.

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