Spinner and the Rift

The Spinner’s Prison

DDO wallpaper “Lolth”

It was a Saturday night and I had nothing to do as I waited to run some quests with a guild mate. Everyone from the guild had gone off to do their irl thing (eating, nap, eat during nap, etc.), and I was the first one to return.

I opened our usual chat program, sent messages, and waited. When it was clear that I might wait a while, I figured I might have time run some solo quests on Cannith. I chose my second life Paladin: Citivyr, with whom I have had many fun adventures, and decided on the Lords of Dust Chain on Heroic Hard.

I’d run the first two quests many times solo, but this would be the first I would go into The Spinner’s Prison alone- and it was a prospect I did not relish.

I have faith in my build to survive quite a lot in Heroics, however the fact that I’d always run with others that knew what to do meant that I might as well had entered the quest blindfolded.

The quest began as it always does:

The Spinner of Shadows is affectionate. She loves to Hold you.

Confronted by the nasty big spider-woman hybrid, and are held by her demonic presence. Fear not, that effect is released after her gratuitous monologue.

The point of the quest is to recapture The Spinner of Shadows in her prison constructed by the Silver Flame entity (basically a god). To do this, the Ward Lights need to be re-lit, which can be done by collecting the Ward Crystals that drop after you kill the blue Flame Eaters (spiders).

Citivyr, surrounded by Flame Eaters

The entire quest is a basic back and forth between fighting the Flame Eaters and their protectors- Hezrou demons (elite), Kyber Reavers (normal+) and Jarilith (Hard+)- and fighthing with The Spinner of Shadows. She will need to be brought to the center so that the Silver Flame debuff can allow her to be harmed.

It is an eventuality that you The Spinner will escape, but this time the Flame Eaters will attack in an attempt to consume the Silver Flame. Kill them as they turn blue to expedite Ward Crystal accumulation.

When the crystals have all be gathered and the Wards re-lit,  The Spinner once again is imprisoned, but is obvious that something else is wrong.

Lolth makes her presence known

Our brave heroes once again find themselves unable to move due to a demonic presence. Lolth makes her first appearance in the quest chain, and the heroes find their puny wills immensely overwhelmed.

The two monstrous beings chatter about their plans, and Lolth invites The Spinner to join her in the rift that has formed between Xen’Drik and Faerun, where they can direct their pawns and await the outcome.

The Silver Flame teleports you out of the prison in time, and the quest ends. You stand before the Silver Flame, and you discuss the result of your attempt to recapture The Spinner. You are rewarded for your efforts, regardless of the failure to once again imprison the demoness.

The Silver Flame is not very silver… I’m just sayin.

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Beyond the Rift

Our heroes are asked to follow their adversaries into the Demonweb in order to neutralize the threat. Thus, they enter the rift in an attempt to stop Lolth’s nefarious machinations. The following statements are not in any way meant as criticisms. In fact, so long as I don’t get lost, I find the quest quite enjoyable!

Sir Talksalot, himself: Gandal- I mean Fizba- ummm… Elminster!

This is where they meet a… rather loose lipped non-player character (NPC) named Elminster. This guy can (and will) talk your ear off. You know those long lectures or stories the elderly always used to plague your attention deficiency? Yeah, he makes those look like cliffnotes.

(Okay, this part is definitely a suggestion- and maybe a bit of a criticism- but otherwise… great quest!) Seriously, can we get a “bypass dialog” option on him, or something. For those that want it, I mean. Those that want to listen to him ramble and take forever to walk a short distance may do so by just clicking “continue”.

This is a pretty straight forward run from the beginning of the quest to the finish. Just ensure that anything that stands in your way is obliterated!

However, there’s lots of interesting inhabitants in The Demonweb, such as:

Beyond the Rift: Dretches

Dretches!

And:

Beyond the Rift: Spiders

spiders!

Beyond the Rift: MOAR Dretches!

Let’s not forget Dretches!

Beyond the Rift: Draegloth + Dretches

There’s at least one Draegloth, and the battle with it leads to a portal that allows entry to the next area of the quest: The Rift Beyond.

Beyond the Rift: Earth Elementals

Where you’ll run into Earth Elementals (note the spider)!

Beyond the Rift: Mother of Thousands

Once in a while, there’s even a nice rare for you to kill for loot, like The Mother of Thousands (note that this is also a spider)!

Beyond the Rift: Drow

Oh, and there’s Drow. Some of them are even cowards. Me: “STAND STILL SO I MAY SMITE THEE!” Drow: “NEVAR!”

Beyond the Rift: “IT’S A TRAP!”

Every once in a while, you’ll run into a trap. Anyone else hear Admiral Akbar’s voice in their head when they think or read those words?

No?

Just me, then.

Beyond the Rift: MOAR spiders

Oh, look, moar spiders. It should be obvious by now that I enjoy the amount of spiders one may find in this quest. Also, point of note: I am an Arachnophobe!

Also: spiders

There’s a metric TON of them in this quest, so… yeah. Where did I put my medication?

Did I mention spiders?

Oh, hey… did  I mention the spiders? Cuz… yeah, they’re in there. In case you didn’t get that the first twenty times I mentioned it! 😉

Beyond the Rift: Moar drow.

At the end, you fight a bunch of Drow and their leader. I apologize that I did not get any screenshots of the fight, after all the runs I’d done with a group on Elite, I thought I would be too wrapped up in the battle. Future runs of this quest will be attempted on Elite, as I found Hard did not present much of a challenge.

The final step in the quest is to free some hostages and talk to Ana, their leader. You’ll later come to understand her importance, and she’ll give you plenty more chances to come to her rescue.

Then you get to exit the cavern and out under the sky, where you navigate through the village of Eveningstar to hand the quest in to…

Beyond the Rift: Elminster, the Turn-in Guy.

…this guy.

*Sigh*

Okay, fine. I’ll hand it in and take my rewards, then do whatever I can to avoid any future need to listen to his constant prattle. Thankfully, this time his dialog is more limited than in the Demonweb.

Here I will reiterate what I said at the beginning. I absolutely LOVE this quest chain, and now that I know I can run it from beginning to end, I will certainly be doing so as often as possible!

Thanks to the Devs at Turbine for putting this chain together, and I look forward to future repetitive runs once Citivyr again reaches epic levels!

Thanks for your time and interest in my blog! Please leave comments and thoughts as you will, I enjoy interaction with my readers!