Episode 6 (part 4): the meeting of Seekers

“We must press on to find Moretto!” says Adnan, immediately after the exhausting battle with the Ice Golem tomb guardians. “We must press on now on Spitgob’s quest to save Moretto.” Vasco and Yldar look wearily at each other. “Uh, Adnan, the Wind Dule’s tomb shows more peril at every turn. I think we should rest and face that mad spider head on to get Nabiros back. Our survival depends on his strength!” replies Yldar. “No, the quest, the quest, it demands our full and immediate attention,” raves Adnan, flashing some of his half-mad charm at his colleagues, “so follow me now, down the River of Blood”. Vasco thoughtfully suggests “If I study and rest for several hours, we could soon all walk in the Shadow Plane, infiltrate Spitgob’s layer and get Nabiros back”. “Eight hours is too long for our quest. Down the River!” and Adnan jumps through the ice hole in the floor, into the river, while the two elves resolve to rest without him. Adnan’s footsteps are heard fading quickly into the distance and are gone. The elves take refuge in the nearby time-wasting rooms, preparing their next moves alone.

Meanwhile, several months ago, the Seekers from the city of Dyvers west of Greyhawk, had caught rumours out of the hinterlands of the Cairn Hills. Some group who had previously won the Champion Games and were going to the Free City to defend their title were heard to have had some successful finds in one of the cairns, while other Seekers had been lost for years in those same hills. Upon arriving in the mining town of Diamond Lake, the gnome mercenary Seeker Zeek, his entourage, and scholarly Seeker Maera the cleric of Delleb find that the Champion Aurrek and his friends Kullen and Tirra had indeed found something. Rumours too of another group of local boys had rummaged around in another cairn before disappearing with the wizard Allustan to Mistmarsh. They arrange with Balabar Smenk, still a major landowner in Diamond Lake in spite of his being imprisoned for his dealings with the necromancer Filge, for housing for Zeek’s entourage in some miners’ dorms. The cost is too high and miners’ are evicted to make room, but Zeek accepts the terms. Borran, Zeek’s dwarven booze smuggler co-hort and his artillery men set up base. Zeek and Maera scout off to Whispering Cairn, moving some rubble they find in the door. Zeek finds what he think is a magic portal and by some amazing chance, manages to disable its trap. They enter through the portal and are buffeted by strong winds and smoke, almost choking to death in the first room, Maera and Zeek keep their heads down and dart through to find themselves in a splendid Wind Duke fresco decorated room, only to quickly find a bolt of lightning strike them both and their lives are held in suspended animation for the coming months.

Back in the present day, Vasco and Yldar carefully and quietly move back to the spot were Nabiros was taken and Vasco grabs Yldar’s shoulder and casts Shadow Walk. Their world darkens and the strong smell of rotting food – some kind of decaying meat – surrounds them. Their visibility is obscured, but they grope forward through the spider’s shadow world, built with semi-material forms and increasingly dark spaces. Around a corner they come into a space covered in cobwebs. Vasco tosses a torch into the room and the cobwebs burn away, revealing the source of the stench, a ground covered in treasure and two large piles of silky cobwebs in the corner. Yldar approaches one which when poked feels like a being. Ripping through the cobwebs, reveals the half-orc form of Ubu! Heavily poisoned, paralyzed and sedated by Spitgob for some time, Ubu slowly comes-to, relieved to find his old friend Vasco and his recent acquaintance Yldar standing there. Ubu says that they better hurry, because the crazy spider comes here often to ‘tenderize’ his captives. Vasco tears through the web in the other corner and the tenderized (but less so) Nabiros is recovered. They spend a moment looting part of the gold, gems and other valuables from Spitgob’s layer before Yldar presses them all to return to their spot of entry and out of the shadow realm. Skittering is heard in the hall, followed by a mad “NO NO NO NO NO! from their predator. Vasco quickly puts up a wall of fire which separates them from Flycatcher the shadow spider, and the four retreat. Shadow walk dispelled the group returns to the material plane, but get quite a shock!

Shunted into a round room drenched in a blue glow, the party sees three figures floating suspended in the centre of the room, enveloped in the blue light. The first they recognize immediately as Alustan, Vasco’s old wizard advisor and confidant. Another, a female cleric wearing the armour of the Seekers (Maeron) and a gnome adventurer wearing a Seeker ring are suspended along beside him. Before they can even blink, lighting blasts out of a spike in the centre of the ceiling, directly above the suspended figures, and grounds on each of our heros. Moment after moment the lightning blasts down from the sky. Agile Yldar avoids much of it, hardy Nabiros works on destroying it with his returning axe, hapless Ubu is thrown into the suspended animation field by one of its blasts, and Vasco discharges numerous dispel magic and other attempts against the device. After less than 30 seconds (with lightning striking multiple times in the same places) the sizzling group breaks the lightning rod, clonking on the gnome’s head before they all are released and fall to the floor.

Alustan does not look good. He is unconscious and bleeding. The others are fine though worse for ware. Allustan is quickly healed and recovers his senses. He explains that he had come to the Whispering Cairn with Ubu to discover some magic to help defeat the black dragon Ilthane, and possibly learn more of the important history of the Wind Dukes. Ubu, however, was captured by the shadow spider and Allustan had only made it here until he was trapped. He is glad to see Vasco again, and to meet Nabiros and the Seekers who are traveling now with Vasco, never having liked the cleric Rancik that much, nor trusting Arthur the thief. Allustan, on hearing of the destruction of Diamond Lake and his home, becomes distraught, and desires very much to return home, that this group had surpassed his humble powers, and encourages the group to continue their journey through the tomb of the Wind Dukes to perhaps recover the Rod of Seven Parts, rumored to have been buried along with other fabulous and powerful artifacts that they had used to win the war against Chaos so long ago. On their return with what they find, Allustan says that he will heed the dying request of his old friend Eligos, and arrange for a meeting in Magepoint between the group and the archmage there in order to discuss further the question of the worms.

Yldar is pleased to see his two colleagues, who were the Seekers that had been lost in these hills. None of them have figured out quite who the other two Seekers were that Zeek and Maeron had been keeping their eyes out for, those months ago. Nabiros reminds the group that there is a deadly, mad, shadow spider tracking them like escaped supper, and they look outside a door to see his shadowy mass near and in wait, laughing at the lightning fate his prey are experiencing in the trap room. After a brief, failed negotiation between Zeek and Spitgob, readied for battle, the group throws open the door and let arrows fly. Some of Yldar’s arrows miss and crash into the beautifully decorated frescoes of the Wind Duke chamber, and a terrible earthy crunchy sound emanates from the room. Maeron spots parts of the walls emerging into the room and soon the party finds itself fully engaged with two, phase door walking relief golems, festooned with runes and smashing with powerful fits. Spitgob laughs and disappears again to the plane of shadow, only to return a short while later (preceded by distracting figments of skittering). Blow after blow and one relief golem is finally poked to pieces, and Allustan lets loose his final scorching ray to devastate Spitgob. The other golem continues to hammer on Zeek and Ubu...

Episode 6 (part 3) The Quest of the Mad Spider

Vasco, Nabiros, Andan and Yldar stand at the foot of the ooze lord pondering their options. After some debate – should they disturb the ooze, should they steel the Wind Dukes' lanterns – they decide to simply follow Allustan's tracks through the double doors to the south. Adnan remarks that "I think these Wind Dukes are our kind of people. They have the kind of stuff that could help us on our larger fight". They follow down a long, sloping hallway that takes them below the grade of the ooze lord's silent room and into a large open room where Allustan's tracks are seen going through a large set of blue metal doors. Seeing some iconography of the Wind Dukes on the walls, and statues of twin sword holding Wind Duke guards near the blue metal doors, the party cautiously examines the room. Skittering comes from one corner but nothing is seen. Nabiros and Vasco stay in the hall while Yldar and Adnan investigate. Briefly, a cute, crude, small spider form is seen in the corner that had the noise before it disappears. They continue to examine the room. The skittering is heard again, and Vasco summons a celestial ape who is given free range to crawl around the room and investigate while the two explorers probe more deeply into the room. Suddenly a puff of air chills the back of Vasco and Nabiros' back and a massive spider appears to unfold out of the shadow, and firmly grappling Nabiros. Vasco unleashes a massive cone of cold and Adnan lands a well placed arrow in the spider's eye before he and Nabiros vanish into the shadow.

Vasco recognizes this as a shadow plane walking spider and they all briefly consider what to do. Then he reappears, this time in front of the blue metal doors. He announced himself as Flycatcher, and offers “their friends” as for a ransom of 20,000gp and the party defeating someone who he alternately calls the Marquis of the River, and Moreto. A long, scattered, negotiation between Adnan and Flycatcher follows, revealing something of the shadow spider's madness, he referring to himself by a number of odd titles and names. He does promise that he has not eaten their friends yet, and reveals that Moreto is a nasty ghoul who, with his undead minions, has stolen artifacts of the Wind Dukes. He projects another cartoon-like image showing the group what the Marquis of the River looks like. Flycatcher want to protect these artifacts and does not want them removed from the tomb. In his negotiations, Flycatcher drops the 20,000gp ransom and just says to restore the Wind Dukes treasures and their friends will be returned. Adnan thinks that Flycatcher appears slightly insane, but sincere. The shadow spider disappears into the shadow again and the party takes on the quest, following Moreto who has gone down the river.

Following the shadow spider's direction to the river, they leave Allustan's trail and head through doors to the north and into a cavern with river, red as blood, smelling of iron ore, over which a badly eroded stone bridge crosses into an iron gatehouse. Adnan drinks a fly potion and whisks over the river to the gatehouse side. Vasco stands at the doors, and Yldar deftly crosses the slippery, sloping bridge, but at the other side is suddenly flanked by two Xorn, who attack. Adnan helps with a bludgening shield, as Yldar feels ineffective trying to pierce and slash at these stone creatures with his rapier Vasco casts a wall of acid around his friends, helping by etching and eroding the Xorn, but the whole party is quickly surrounded byfour more creatures, fluidly moving between earth and surface. After the battle drags on, with Xorn trying to bullrush the quick-footed Yldar off the bridge into the water, Adnan tries to broker some peace. The Xorn spokes-creature responds that they are defending their territory and insists that the party leave the way they came. Vasco doesn't hear the conversation and lets powerful magic missiles fly and the battle rages again. Finally the party manage to crush the relentless Xorn and move on to the gatehouse.

Yldar spends several hours trying to pick locks and open doors and find that the entire gatehouse appears to be built as some kind of ancient facade to waste time. Yldar thinks to head back and ask more of the shadow spider, but Vasco slips in the river, though is saved by quickly thrown ropes. The shadow spider is nowhere to be found, so the party decides to carry on down the river.

Enlarged by Vasco's spell, they are able to wade and bob through a few dead end branches of the river. On the second dead end, they find part of the river has frozen solid and Adnan spots on the ceiling frozen ice that leads to another chamber. His mithral sword cuts through the ice and Adnan pulls himself through the ceiling into a very long freezing cold room covered in a red icy floor. Adnan's magic golem charm alerts him to the presence of golems just as two large statues at either end of the room burst with blasts of ice shards and move in to flank and attack. Empowered by the charm, aided by Yldar and hastened by Vasco, Adnan destroys the golems. They are left exhausted and wondering what lies beyond the doors in this freezing room.

Nabiros, meanwhile, trapped on the plane of shadow and in the company of another, is having a most unpleasant time. Though Spitgob kept his word; he has not eaten them yet!

Episode 6 (part 2): Into the Cairn

The fog of the battle with Ilthane is still wearing off as the party has regrouped in the Whispering Cairn. Andan having entered a quieter space, shares with the group that he sussed a message from the final breaths of Ilthane and they plummeted to her death. In Common interspersed with an unintelligible draconic, she had gurgled a hateful, spiteful message that “Dragotha was not thwarted in his plans to bring on the age of worms by Andan’s friends’. Just because they stopped the coming of the age of worms in the free city does not change anything. Dragotha will destroy you all and the age of worms will come!” Vasco and Naboros puzzled over what it was they may have stopped, but Andan realizes, having read the Apostolistic Scrolls in becoming a Wormhunter, that a mass sacrifice was the intent of the creation of the Apostle of Kyuss. Vasco had heard the name Dragotha, but only a kids story, a simple myth, of an ancient undead dragon from way beyond the legendary White Plume Mountain. Vasco never had an inkling that there was any literal truth to those kinds of stories. Ilthane puts this into considerable doubt.

Having chatted about kids fables and, the party decides to rest before they proceed, giving Vasco a chance to recover his spells. They hear wolves and the sounds of creatures outside, but are not disturbed until late in the rest when another swarm of acid beetles arrives in the room. They are exactly the same type encountered in the Whispering Cairn months ago when they had first visited it, but were much more insignificant a problem for the 11th level party. When the resting was done, Andan looks at the gelatinous portal through which what they presume are Allustan’s tracks proceed, and walks through himself. Those left in the room see a terrible flashing of his body, his lifeforce blinking in and out four times. Andan makes it through the portal, but collapses on the other side, having suffered 4 levels of energy drain. Yldar examines the portal, realizes it is trapped and manages to disable it, a blue glow blinking briefly, coalescing in the a bright magic blue sphere of energy before snuffing out. The others move through the portal without harm and help Andan to his feet.

They arrive an a room thick with smoke, noisy air holes hissing the smoke around in the room. Suddenly, as the party moves forward, the smoke takes form and six demon-like creatures take shape from the smoke, clawing and biting at the party. All engage a vigorous battle, slashing and piercing these forms until they take gaseous form. Vasco lights a fireball at the back of the room, sucking several of them into its dark, smoky heat. Andan ingests part of one which had taken gaseous form and it rips and claws at him from inside his lungs. Persistent slashing by Yldar and Naboros dissipates the creatures, which in Auran were calling out ‘hungry, hungry, the Wind Dukes never feed us!” before their demise.

Moving out the noisy gallery into a great hall with pillers and frescos, Yldar is struck with awe in this chamber which, according to the runes he deciphers, marks the great general Icosiol, who had led the wind duke armies to defeat the Queen of Choas at the Battle of Pesh. As he reads these ruins, ‘Icosiol’ appears to be a magic word that disables several magic traps that flash off in a similar blue magic glow as the portal had. The Battle of Pesh was a pyrrhic one, where many great generals were lost, including the great Wind Duke General Icosiol, but not before he had beaten the Queen of Choas and her lackey Miska the Wolf spider with the Rod of Law. Vasco recalls his history from the other area of the tomb, and this rod had broken in the seven parts during this battle.

They follow Allustan’s tracks through another set of doors, Yldar carefully moving along to check for traps. He finds and disables one magic trap, but is unsuccessful on another. His ghostly, Chaotic life-aura dissipates from his body as he is instantly killed, crumpling on the floor. Andan, the paladin, enters the trapped area to pick-up his slain friend, but does not trigger the trap. They look in the gallery at a fine, massage granite statue of a Wind Duke in the centre of the hall, but Vasco detects magic and suggests that it has the same aura as a number of trapped areas. The Wind Duke is holding a very fine looking sword in one hand and a balance of justice in the other. The party is fascinated by the statue, but avoid it. The shadow walk back to the free city and seek to bring Yldar back from the dead and restore the level he lost in the process. This is costly and needs the help of the church. Andan convinces his colleagues at the church of Heironeous to perform the rights after making them interested in the story of how the champions of the free city games managed to help avoid a mass sacrifice (though many in the church hold doubts, as his stories sound too familiar of those of a few of the mad men in the streets of the free city). To acquire additional help to finance the cost of raising the dead, they find some of the Seekers in the free city, who offer the cash for the spells on the conditions that the equivalent value of artifacts be brought to them from the Cairn where Yldar had died. Andan and Nabiros agree, though Vasco, who didn’t join them at the seekers, felt extremely hesitant about this deal when they explained it to him, having the emotional memory of the package from Rancick still fresh in his mind. The party replaces their potions from those spoiled by the dragon, and a few simple wands, add some potions of undetectable alignment before deciding to quickly return.

The party shadow walks back to the cairn, and after defeating more acid beetles and disabling the trap that had re-set itself on the portal and uttering the power word “Icosiol” in the Gallery, return to the area of the statue. Yldar tries to disable the trap again, but unfortunately is killed again, instantly! Vasco, not wanting any more deals, puts up half the GP to bring Yldar back, shadow-walking to the free city with the corpse, and wiping out the stored wealth of Yldar for the other half. Shadow walking again to the cairn. They enter unmolested, deciding this time to simply follow Allustan’s tracks and avoid any traps.

Opening the door to the next room reveals a large gallery, illuminated by wonderfully decorated chandeliers, with wall frescos all around, and black on the floor of the room and a large black sphere hanging from the ceiling. Yldar is curious about the frescos and chandeliers and examines them closely. They depict scenes from the Battle of Pesh and evoke images of the talisman of the sphere that Vasco has from the Zosiel’s tomb, battles with a horned, eye-covered demon, beholders, vrocks, ghouls and others Yldar is able to interpret some of the ruins as command words to handle the Seal of Law which is depicted in scenes in this and the pillar gallery room. Just before stepping into the middle of the room, Yldar realizes that the surface of the floor is slightly off, and that it is actually the body of a massive ooze! Vasco now sees it too, and proclaims that it must be a lord of oozes, a gargantuan 20x20 elder ooze that would be a relentless and ruthless foe to disturb. The party decides to avoid the now-calm ooze and continue to follow Allustan’s tracks through the next doors.

Episode 6 (part 1): Return to Diamond Lake

Along with the loot from Racknain, Adnan, the paladin has a bundle of notes and observations that catalogue what Eligos has learned of the Age of Worms. The bundle was kept in a small coffer in a shelf of Eligos's study. Importantly, a note on the top of the bundle, addressed to Allustan of Diamond Lake, reads:

"My dear friend Allustan -- what your adventurers have stumbled into sickens me to my soul. Every new leaf I turn reveals an even darker secret. Here are my notes. You must take them to our one-time master -- although I fear that even he may be ill-equipped for what writhes in all of our futures. Until then..." The note is not finished. Much of the contents of the other notes is what Eligos told the group just before the Champion Games.

Having heeded Eligos’ final note, Vasco, Nabiros and their new colleague Adnan band together and decide to head to Diamond Lake. They send a final night in the Free City, Nabiros enjoying all the attention of the many fans and followers of their victory in the Champion Games. They purchase potions and scrolls before Shadow Walking to Diamond Lake, destined for the Observatory.

When they arrive, they find the observatory has been pulverized and charred. Looking beyond into the town, they find a community in the throws of emergency recovery from some terrible tragedy. They walk into town, seeing several destroyed buildings and the charred city square, and find Allustan’s house in a ruin. In the garden of Allustan’s house they meet a clever elf, who claims to be a kind of archaeologists (and indeed wears the signet ring of the Seekers), who claims to be looking for Ubu, someone he has not seen since before the devastation. Ubu, who had recently returned to the city, despondent about something terrible that had happened in the Mistmarsh, and had met him at the Ferrel Dog, where they chatted very briefly about an interesting ruin called the Whispering Cairn. Yldar the elf had head that Ubu and Allustan had known each other, so he was looking to see if Ubu had shown up here. Vasco makes the connections with his old parties past, and a new party of four is formed to find Allustan and Ubu and perhaps return to the Whispering Cairn.

They go to Ferrel Dog where they meet miners that they knew, who explained the devastation of the black dragon in recent days, and that he had been looking for Allustan, torturing people until some half-orc had, in exchange for the lives of a bunch of wounded locals, told it that Allustan had gone to the Whispering Cairn. The dragon had left several days ago, but the town has been worred about it returning ever since. The group goes to the Church of St. Cuthbert, where a great many poor and wounded have gathered, seeking healing and the advice of Jierian Wierus, the cleric of the church who had been preaching to the croud the virtues of self-flagellation to rid themselves of their pains and terrors, including those that the dragon has brought. Adnan unleashes a burst of healing amongst the wounded, who see it as devine confirmation of their flagilation efforts. The church’s acolyte Hameneezer is helpful, but is unable to provide any of the kinds of powerful magic potions that they party had come hoping to find. After their experience in the Free City, Diamond Lake is really feeling like a small town.

The party decides to destroy the dragon and find Allustan at the Whispering Cairn. They find their old shack unmolested, with signs of someone, they suspect Ubu, having recently used it. He is nowhere to be found however, and the party spends the night providing Vasco the time to prepare his spells. Just before dusk, they set out to the Whispering Cairn to find the dragon.

Yldar goes invisible and sneaks slightly ahead of the party, but is seen by Ilthane the Black who executes an ambush attack of acid. Ilthane takes to the air, where Vasco and the dragon then engage in a battle of tailslaps, bits, fireballs, cones of cold, with mostly unsuccessful vollies of arrows coming from the ground. Eventually Vasco draws the battle to the ground, and the party has the chance to more directly engage, slowing the dragon with a newly sticky tanglefoot bag, and suffering effects of his fear aura, acid breath, bites, claws and tails. Finally, the battle draws near the end and Ilthane withdraws, calculating the timing of his retreat from these clearly powerful foes too late. The hastened paladin, using a potion of fly, pursues and finally kills the dragon, the two falling from the sky together.

Dusting themselves off from the battle, the party enters the Whispering Cairn where Nabiros picks up the tracks of a human who has obviously fairly recently restored one crumbled passageway. Vasco looks through and sees what he thinks might be a magic black seal portal in a chamber that had been blocked by rubble when he was first here with Ubu, Rancik and Arthur. This must be the path that Allustan took, Nabiros figures.

Episode 5-6 Transition: End of the Champion Games - (briding the 2 year game hiatus)

Having returned from the Shrine of Kyuss empty-handed, the party prepares for the final battle in the Champion Games. Rancik, Arthur, Vasco and Nabiros have to fight Auric’s warband. Auric (the buffed up fighter the party had seen back in their first days in Diamond Lake), Khellek (Auric’s gangly wizard friend) and three particularly tough flesh golems, do intense and clever battle. Auric and the ‘Leatherworks’ battle the party in full frontal assult, with Auric taking on Rancik head-to-head, while Arthur and Nabiros working their way around and through the flesh golems. Khellek, at 40 feet above the floor of the games, blasts the party with fireballs, rays of enfeeblement, magic missiles, confusion and fear, but Vasco counter-spells and uses his own lightning bolt and web to put an end to him. Rancik lets Auric live, though just barely at -9. Tirra (the last of Auric’s warband) looks on from the crowd during the fight, and rushes out to help Auric and the dead Khellek at the end of the fight. She feigns public humiliation at the defeat, but the party remember that she, like them, will get a share of the winnings the Thieves’ Guild had bet against Auric.

Almost the entire Free City gathered here to watch the game. The crowd explodes into chaos. 18,000 souls rise to their feet cheering Rancik and his band, chanting each of their names over and over. Vasco watches Racknain (the former gladiator and currently the head of the city arena and the games themselves) and sees that he looks dumbfounded at Auric’s defeat but quickly recovers. He leaves the arena (and the city). Talabir Welik (the game’s moderators) hands out the Champion's Belt and the cash prize.

The party only partially revels in the victory. Arthur, suffered great damage (also going into the negatives from toe-to-toe combat with the flesh golems, announces soon after the game that he is taking his winnings and leaving the group and entering into the thickness of the Thieves Guild. Rancik is summoned to the big temple of Wee Jas immediately after the games, and reports there the next day, sending an odd message by an acolyte from the temple that he is bound up with the consequences of power, fate and death and though can not continue, urges Vasco and Nabiros to carry on, reminding them of his vision and the importance these issues of Kyuss. Enclosed in a package is Zosiel’s diadem of wisdom (+2), which Vasco carefully and respectfully receives, shares Rancik’s intuition that this, like Vasco's mysterious talismain, is magic from the cairn of the Wind Dukes that may somehow be important, not something to be locked up in a temple or magic shop.

Vasco and Nabiros the next, heavy in their hearts from the departure of their two adventuring friends, go to the home of the slain Eligos, who had given them so much help in the Free City to date. How was he murdered, and why? There, they meet an interesting new ally, an 11th level paladin who was a very close friend of Eligos and who was deeply saddened by Eligos’ murder. The paladin had just come from an encounter with Racknain, whom he had successfully challenged fleeing the city. Before letting the weasily Racknain and his murderous guard Okoral flee, he seized from them some items that he found they had taken from the Shrine of Kyuss that Eligos told him the Diamond Lakers had penetrated. There are several of the things that had been cleared out the night before.

- Apostolic Scrolls, which the paladin had been reviewing
- the powerfully warded trunk, which the paladin had a cleric friend cast dispel evil on. The paladin said that the dead zombie corpse of a young woman had been trapped inside, along with the following:
- three aquamarines worth 500gp each
- seven blocks of exotic incense worth 200gp each
- potion of cure moderate wounds
- scroll of death ward
- two scrolls of ethereal jaunt
- three doses of dust of tracelessness
- two blocks of incense of meditation
- want of restoration (36 charges)
- a Muryland’s spoon
- three vials of oil of gentle repose, two of which now contain a Kyuss worm

End of Champion Games Treasure:
GP: Thieves Guild - 7,500 gp
wager from first day battle - 7500 gp
winnings from first day battle - 1500gp, bronze trophy (100gp)
winnings from second day battle: - 5000gp, silver trophy (500gp)
winnings from third battle: - 10,000gp, gold trophy (1000 gp)
winning the Champion Games - 20,000gp, Champion’s Belt (2000gp)

Vasco: manages to pocket’s the two rings off Khellek’s deceased fingers: ring of protection +1, silver Seeker ring work 200 gp, and makes a bundle of his three wands (wand of glitterdust (3 charges), wand of mage armor (CL5, 15 charges), wand of scorching ray (CL 8, 35 charges)).
Nabiros: boldly take’s Auric’s gauntlets of ogre power right off Auric’s unconscious body, holding them high in the air after his defeat.

DM note: The GP needs to be split 4 ways (Arthur, Rancik, Nabiros, Vasco) but the magic can be split 2-ways between Vasco and Nabiros, with the 2 new players coming to the field with their own magic.

Episode 5: The Champion Games

The night after emerging from the Sodden Hold, having defeated Zargog the evil mind flayer, the party are invited by Pollard (an elder elven manservant) to Eligos’ (an older human dignitary and friend of Allustan) house for a grand supper and where the significance of the Kyuss finds is now firmly revealed, and he strongly advises them to keep the Relics fo the Wind Duke Relics. Eligos agrees to destroy the evil magic from the mind flayer’s layer.

Eligos stresses the following:
- all of the information brought him from the Sodden Hold, the Mistmarsh, the Dourstone Mine, and the Whispering Cairn point to the involvement of a minor deity called Kyuss.
- the worm-invested undead are the most notorious (and the least dangerous) of Kyuss’ spawn. Their presence in the region, combined with the discovery of the various worms, indicates that the cult of Kyuss is certainly becoming more active in the area. Spawn of Kyuss are especially dangerous in that they are horrifically fecund.
- the cult of Kyuss has traditionally been small, often consisting of single priests who live double lives as upstanding citizens. Recent evidence suggests that the Ebon Triad may have involved the smaller (but older) cult of Kyuss in its schemes.
- tales of the Age of Worms itself are as old as anything. Often known by other names (the End Times, The Dar Age...) The Age of Worms is an ancient set of prophecies that speak of a transformation of the world, of a time when life gives way to something else. These prophecies are recorded int certain rare texts, including the Apostolic Scrools, and are inscribed on the walls of ancient ruins across the world.
- with Racknain now having purchased the Apostolic Scrolls, it is a dark time. They are reputed to have been penned by Kyuss himself and detail the creation of the ulgurstasta, huge undead creature capable of consuming the living and regurgitating them as undead.
- the party should investigate Racknain’s interest in these scrolls, even though he is powerful. If the group can recover the scrolls and what Racknain is trying to do with them, all the better.

They discuss the link between Racknain and the party (the assassination) and between him and the Apolostilc Scrolls (Kyuss’s massive creature) and agree to enter into he games, sponsored by Ekaym, (who the group is introduced to through Eligos’ friend Celeste) in order to investigate Racknain further and find out why he might have purchased such an awful, powerful text, and why he may have a link to their evil-doings with Kyuss.

The Party is then met by Celeste the next day, who introduces them to Eyakem, who becomes their manager and licence holder for the games. They have 2 days to rest and to sort out their shopping, research, spells and so on, and then the games will begin.

Rancik is visited by Zen’jil, Wee Jas’ planer Ally, and is given the lands.

Rancik’s team rents Building 15 in the Midnight Muddle area of town from the estate of Mistress Crump, who had recently died. He attempts to bring a lesser planner ally to the team for assistance during the champion games. The Good hound archon refused to fight anything but evil creatures. He hires a large entourage of en to work his affairs.

The ‘Diamond Lakers’ wager2500 gp on themselves at 1:3 odds for the first battle with 10 different bookies. The party encounters Tirra (the thief from Auric’s warband) at the Free City dinner and agree to take the Thieves Guild wager on the final battle, giving 2500gp for a potential return of 7500, and with Arthur entering into the Thieves Guild.

The party is led to the stadium’s under-complex and given a room where the basic rules of the games are explained. Vasco does a detect thoughts on the guards and finds that they are concerned with keeping the ‘champions’ under control. The first battle of the games, the Diamond Lakers team up with Karish the charming Janni, and end up winning a slot in the next day’s battle. Eyakem reveals that he is sponsoring them in the games because he wants them to help investigate his sister who disappeared a year ago when she was with Racknain, the Free City mayor. He offers 1200gp of healing magic a day and agrees with Rancik to shoot straight, gather information about other contestants, and to be a contact to the surface while the games are going on. Rancik manages to get a celestial dire bear to help them in their games.

Bear left behind, the party slips out of the under-complex and explores the tunnels below where ghouls were rumored to have been plugged out by Racknain. They break the stone plug with dwarven silenced axes and fight the ghast convention beyond. The party continues on, finding 4 ochre jellies (dispatched by fireballs and scorching rays), exploring the under-sewer system with scrolls of water breathing. In these sewers they discover an area that leads up to a Spawn of Kyuss, confirming the connection between the city and the evil Kyuss worms. The party defeats the spawn with nobody being 'wormed', Arthur burning them all. A secret door in the spawn room, warded by a dangerous glyph into another set of chambers.

The party explores a old pump room and head into the old battle temple where they they engage 6 Kyuss spawn and a Mohrg with fireballs.

A massive battle ensues with the evil cleric Bozal, who summons a scorpion, a fire mephit,a dire bat and a lemure. Vasco's web and tangle foot bag hamper his mobility to deliver touch spells, slings and arrows finally subduing him, they bring him manacled and holy symbol-less. Here, the party reaches level 10.

In the Temple of Kyuss the party grilled Bozal, who merely dismissed them with prophesies of the age of worms to come. Rancik dispatched Bozal with his Wee Jas dagger, keeping his head. They pressed into Bozal's room and found the chest and they command the zombie. Rancik commands the zombie to open the chest and she becomes trapped. They realize that it is Eykam's lost sister. Bozals' room also reveals a note:

My wise colleague Ghaerleth Axom:

Your plans in brining the vision of the Ebon Triad from the Silver Hills to Brindinford are masterful and intreaguing. You may need some support. Please find enclosed these three rare deep red rubies, which should find impressive market value, as a contribution from other devine visionaries here in the Free City.

Bozal

The group investigates the scroll, Rancik trying to turn it thre times to no avail. They destroy the alter, but the scroll is suspended.

Rancik sends 2 earth elementals beyond the scroll-lit door and only one comes back reporting that they were blocked. The party then moves on towards the a chamber where they discover a terrible ooze demon. He blasts them with cold and then the party mostly retreats, Rancik being separated from the group by a wall of life and is then hit by panic from the demon and hides. The party fights the demon and finally kills him, but Rancik's loyal dwarf Valgrind being overcome with cold during the battle. They retreat back to the under-complex to rest up.

In the morning, before their scheduled next match, they keep investigating the Shrine of Kyuss. They discover through the tunnel in the water pump room the Sphere of Force that protects the Apostle of Kyuss, both Arthur and Nabiros taking energy-drain from it. Rancik weakens the sphere by trying to turn it, and communes with his god to try to learn the nature of the sphere.

The party defaces the Kyuss mural in the demon chamber and put a sack over the scrolls and the arcane mark of Vasco in the room with the scrolls.

They spend some further time enquiring and puzzling over the warded chest, but do not figure out a way to overcome the warded lock trap.

When they return from the first excursion from to the shrine of Kyuss, they find their bear dead. Rancik gives notes to Eykam to take to the churches of Heroneous, Wee Jas and Kord to inform them of the evils below the temple. The party bets 250 gp on themselves through Eykam, paying 2:1 on the win of the 2nd round. They win 5000gp after the battle with the dwarven fighters in Pitchblade.

The party creates an illusion at night and escape the under-complex to head back down to the shrine of Kyuss. Eykam had not returned with the wand of cancellation that the group had hoped for. Rancik finally succeeds dispelling and turning the sphere of force and the party engages the gigantic apostle of Kyuss, a massive undead ugulartrata that was gaining strength in his sphere. The party takes much HP and constitution damage from necromatic acid and slamming tendrils, but prevail. They try to install a magic light source at the top of the shaft that Ugly was forming in, which Nabiors finds is right on the floor of the galadiaor field. Thought they make a small hole, they are unable to successful install a magic light stone.

After Ugly is destroyed, the party sneaks back into their galadiator cell to rest, having had a very brief, tense, charged exchange with Khellek and Auric and the lead guard. They prepare to battle Madtooth the next day.

Madtooth is defeated in 4 unlikely rounds,with Rancik single handedly(literally) doing 70-100hp of damage each round. Something was out of balance with the powers he was channelling, and Rancik is left with an intense feeling of discord with Wee Jas.

Ekaym, the sponsor of the Diamond Lakers, returns and announces that Eligos and Pollard have been murdered.

That night, the party returns to the shrine of kyuss, being very dangerously ambushed by the pitchblade dwarves on the way. They discover that everything has been cleaned up, scrolls gone, Kyuss visages gone, the corpse of the Apostle of Kyuss gone, the Kyuss coffins gone, the hole in the ceiling that Nabiros had made mended. They rest again to prepare for their final battle with Auric's warband.

Vasco, who knows that Racknain must have seen the arcane mark of Vasco on the Shrine of Kyuss, sends him a feather token with the message 'justice'.

Episode 4: Hall of Harsh Reflections

After the battle at Mistmarsh, the party heads to the Free City (see the players guide the DM created here) seeking Eligos, a learned sage and old friend of their patron Allustan, bringing numerous artifacts from the Whispering Cairn, clues to the cult’s plan, and a host of questions. They meet Eligos and his elderly manservant Pollard and have a number of questions for him:

- what is the extent of thepower of the diadem of Zosiel (wisdom +2)
- what is the relationship between the ancient war of the wind dukes and the resurgance of the worms?
- is there a way to stop the worms?
- is there a mother-worm, source of all worms?
- what is Kyuss?
- what is the relationship between Ilthane the Black Dragon and the worms?

Eligos says he will try to answer these questions, but it will take time a research. He has friends, including a very good friend who is a powerful paladin, who can help look into these things.

The party checks in a the Crooked Inn, meeting Redgar, a fighter of Kord, who joins their party. They spend three days in the free city, full of adventure. Redgar brought Rancik and Aurthur to hear the Madman Rainbarrel, raving about the worms and undead dragons, and go on to Hog’s temple, where Arthur tried to steal something. A strange attack of killer diseased spiders happened to the party after a dense and distrustful exchange with Hog. Redgar’s armor super-eroded and Arthur got diseased with red ache. On the third day, the party encountered a chimera in a parade in the street, which Arthur netted and Vasco used evard’s black tenticles to subdue while Redgar impaled it. These violent encounters ended up with the city watch coming to them, helpful, but doing a very full investigations. Vasco writes a letter to the city officials calling for a Mistmarsh truce with the lizardfolk.

Each night the fun and friendly Tarquin asks the party for tales of their day and celebrate with drank and singing. Rancik was suspicious about the dark bottles from Ilthane the Black Dragon’s Kobalds, and took them for a bardic check which turned out OK. A comedic performer poured the contents of one potion out, revealing it to be contaminated with a worm. All the potions are given to Eligos to check over.

The party went to the Blueberry Theater and learned a bit through comedy and satire about Racknain , the city lord in charge of the Champion Games. They visited the spa and got 24 hours of fortitude. After the party went to bed, a stir in the Inn occurs, and Arthur (who had pinched an emerald off a noble) was accused of stabbing Tarquin the friendly bar keep in cold blood. A huge brawl starts against Arthur, Rancik heals the stabbed Tarquin, who is grateful but mistrustful of the party and espeically Arthur. The city guard apprehends the group.

On the way to the cells, the group is manacled, with Vasco and Arthur locked up in once cell, Redgar and Rancik in another. Arthus is pulled away by the guards, bet unconscious. He comes back and is revived by Vasco and escapes. Hidden dobbleganger guards fool Arthur, attacking the party and putting them back in their cells. Redgar escapes and lets the others out. A huge battle ends with all guards dead, other prisoners escaped and the party united with the gear and rewards.

The party explores a room with a mimic in the building where they are locked up. A goofly long battle with the mimics was ended with summoned apes and spiritual weapons. Arthur and Redgar head down the water shaft along with a summoned squid and have an almost fatal (to Arthur) battle with a giant octopus. Redgar finally defeats it and Arthus is healed by Rancik and Vasco. Vasco has a magic missile not go off at the bottom of the shaft. The party, after coming out of the Octopus Layer, sleeps uneventfully. On recovery, with Vasco at the leads the party enters a new room that has much of the floor in ruins and quite far beneath, rusted spears and broken swords poking out of the water below. Detect magic does not work for Vasco in this room, though Rancik’s detect magic works, just before Rancik is hit hard by invisible stalkers. Arthur and Redgar are killed in battle with the stalkers, with Vasco joining in the battle, shooting arrows at Arthur.

Vasco follows Rancik, who has retreated to the corner of a cell to drink a potion of invisibility and cast Air Walk to retreat. He makes it out alive and Vasco does a coup de gras on Redgar. Rancik returns to Eligos’ mansion, seeking advice. He gets a loan from Pollard of 27,000 gp to do a true restore on Arthur from a toe nail. He meets Malleus the monk at Eligos’ palice, and Eligos shared information about the Spawn of Kyuss, which are medium undead whose writhing undead worms may enter into the body of anyone struck by their slam attack, burrowing into the flesh of the target and making its way to the brain. A remove curse or remove disease will destroy the worm, or dispel evil or neutralize poison will delay its effects for 10d6 minutes. Those who do not make it become Spawn of Kyuss or zombies.

The new party of Rancik, Arthur and Malleus prepare, based form Tarquin’s lodge, for rebattle, and agree to summon an ally from another plane, a formian task master and they hire 7 level 1 fighters to work as backup. The new group storms the Sodden Hold, hilling 2 doppleganger guards ad engaging the invisible stalkers in the rotten floor room. One is dispatched and the formian task master controls the other’s mind. Rancik ensures that Redgar and Arthur’s bodies rest respectfully in a cell.

The party storms through the lower levels of Sodden Hold, pounding through doppleganger undead, devious pit traps, illusory walls. The party discovers a room with 4 Vascos all bound up. 2 escape their bonds and start to plead with the party. Rancik gives an ultimatum and the third Vasco breaks the bonds and knocks the real vasco uncoouncious. A battle ensues with all dopplegangers defeated.

The party, now reunited, works throught the mirror maze, dealing fatal attacks to three dopplegangers, with final one saying on his death “Our gang leader Telarkin shall crush you all!”. The party is left in the maze considering their next options.

The party enters into Telarkin’s hold, where they find Allustan, who casts powerful spells against the party. When the combat comes closer, Allustan morphs into their old friend Ubu the barbarian, who rages. Malleus takes damage but Arthur’s arrows and Rancik’s spiritual weapon finally slay him. The room’s traps are sprung and Telarkin’s treasure, including several special looking gems, costumes, and magic, is recovered. So was an assassination note from Zyrxog which reads “I have a task for you, thrall. Meet me at the sewer junction beneat the cold forge and I will give you the details. There are some troublesome small minds that must be removed.”

On exit, the party meets Zyrxog the mind flayer and his 2 drow thrall who are all waiting to ambus them. The drow die in battle, but the mind flayer mind blasts everyone and plane shifts away. Out of the Sodden Hold, the party reveals all to the city guard, clearing Arthur’s and their own good names. Vasco comes to realize that the special gems are actually mind clones, but resists reading what he thinks is Arthur’s mind clone. He keeps them on his person.

Rancik organizes a large funeral for Redgar. The following description of this great funeral was a point of much discussion and fanfare amongst DM’s on the Paizo website:

First a bit of background. The fighter died a hero, trying to save two others from near death. The party elf wizard had been absconded by the dopplegangers and was out of the picture. The Rogue, Cleric, Fighter and doppleganger elf-wiz had just come back from a very serious entanglement with the giant octopus. The ‘elfs’ spells had ‘failed’ during the octopus fight, and the party asked him to try it out a simple detect magic in the Stalker’s room, which they had not yet been in. The tricky doppleganger muttered the password and failed the spell. The cleric came in and managed to get off the detect magic before being thumped hard by the Invisible Stalkers. A round of attacks ensued with the Stalkers only attacking the rogue and cleric at first. At last, the conspiring dop-elf-wizard turned on the party, sneak attacking the rogue, doing serious damage. Everyone was completely surprised. A massive battle followed, with the rogue and fighter dropping completely dead and the cleric, below 10 HP and almost out of spells, doing a very hasty, invisible, flying retreat out of Sodden Hold. He was not followed. He had, fortunately taken bits from each player early in the Campaign and was able to borrow from Pollard (Eligos’ assistant) the funds for a resurrection for the rogue (who he always spars with, but hopes to redeem). Alas, there were not enough funds for the fighter, so he was lost in battle. The party regrouped, went in and saved the real elf wizard and got thoroughly spooked by the mind flayer foreshadow experience.

Now, before going to search for the mind flayer, the cleric has the idea to sell the 19,000 GP assets of the fighter and hold a big public funeral. He’s contacted some performers from the Blueberry theatre (detailed in the Dragon wormfood article, with which they had a very funny bardic lore experience sorting out Ilthane’s tainted dark vial potions) to re-enact the scenes of the fighter’s life. He contacted the church of Heironeous to organize a big public funeral march procession, and the church of Kord to obtain appropriate miliary-like funerary goods (monuments, tombstone, coffin drapery, etc). Of course, there are also his own diety's interests in death he has long respected. Because they had made contacts with city officials, handing Telekin over with all the revealing papers, there is expected quite a crowd of public officials and others. All of this is in the heavy backdrop of whipping up the public for a new set of potential heros for the champion games.

The funeral was held for our hero last night. The streets of Midnight Muddle started to fill, with the members of the Blueberry Theatre moving through the quarter telling people to watch for the parade of a great fallen fighter. The city guard kept close watch on the crowds, providing assurance and assistance to the procession that was assembling. While fellow fighters and old associates from the temple of Kord made the final preparations and adornments of the caskets, dawning their finest armour and marching with polished swords, acolytes of Heironeous, always vocal and popular with the public, made preparations for lively, praiseful services. Quietly in the background, the party cleric, a solitary follower of Wee Jas felt satisfied. This was to be a signal of unity of gods in honour of a mysterious death.

The funeral procession began, and as it did, on-lookers were surprised to find that not just the local crowd were assembled. In their ranks city official, prominent business people, minor nobles, were all standing in tribute. The actors of the Blueberry Theatre recounted on a street stage the major strokes of the fallen fighters life, drawing applause and awe at the feats of a life of just under 40 years. Then, after the body was laid to rest with the crisp traditions of Kord striking contrast with the effervescent sermons of Heironeous, a spontaneous series of speeches ensued. A few of the prominent city folks used the forum to clear their names from the deceit of the dopplegangers. More however, focussed on the Champion Games, inciting the crowd to see and experience heros like this one life and fall by their skill, resources and temperament. By the end, many gathered built intense anticipation for the games (others spat cynically, quietly at the whole foolish games-loving lot). On the lips of everyone was the idea of hoping to see the fallen heros comrades compete in the games.

Then the debts were called in. Kord Temple officials detailed 1300gp of finery and services. The city administrators required 900gp for closing the streets and providing the safety of the city guard . Heironeous acolytes took the cleric quietly aside, demanding a shocking 5000gp for their part of the event. And the actors troop, having done an impressive work which really glued the event together, did not leave before collecting their 4586gp fee.

After dealing with all the concerns of the funeral, the party researches about mind flayers at the library. They also learn from a reference book that a place called the Cold Forge has a possible entrance to the sewers below. The party goes there and after a rude and surely conversation with the owner found the tunnels. The party couldn’t make track checks and after an hour floundering was attacked by gricks. They went out and hired a 5th level ranger gnoll to help. Slinking through the sewars and attacked by carrion crawler and a huge gelatinous cube, they finally make it to Zyrxog’s layer, the gnoll leaving. Shriekers let out an alarm and drow ambush the party. Vasco’s fireball kills yellow bold, shriekers and drow (making the group sick from fungus).

The party meeting Fassash, a spirit naga who they negotiate with, but not offering enough for passage. Vasco and Rancik aggressively hit her with lightning bolt and dispell invisibility, with Malleus eventually killing her.

The party turns around to find six more drow readied for battle, with their cleric leader saying “you have defeated old Fassash, but the line through which you want to pass is drawn here”. Vasco casts web and a huge entangled, silenced, deeper darkness’ed melee ensued. Finally, after grueling combat, the party ends the battle with the drow cleric and her acolytes with Rancik’s summoned apes crushing them at the end.

Pressing on a glyph of warding blasts the party with Acid and three Octopins – medium terrestrial invertebrates with powerful crab-like claws. Another challenging battle with these, but they are eventually dispatched. Vasco’s unseen servant unbarred the door to the Mind Flayer’s inner layer, and from a distance, Rancik and Vasco used force spells and lightning to blast the stone brain (which was revealed as a nasty dominate person trap) to pieces.

The party, now accompanied by 5 zombies commanded by Rancik, walk into Zyrxog’s Sanctum, encountering his pet, a large, advanced octopin. He walks out of the pool and starts clipping zombies. Arthur and Malleus move in for close combat. Thrashing and ripping at those who damage it, the advanced octopin strikes Malleus with two claws, doing major damage. Malleus is grotesquely rended in two by the creature before the parties horrified eyes. Arthur’s sneak attack finally kills the beast. 9th level is attained.

The party regroups and alarms the first octopin chambre. 2 dwarves Huan and Nabiros come in, led by the gnoll ranger. A tense meeting, but the party is reformed with the new dwarven friends. They check out Zyrxog’s library and research notes, and become worried about there being more giant mollusks. Arthur sneaks through a viewing pool and catches Zyrxog unaware. A huge ranged battle follows with magic not working against Zyrxog, but hard weapon being quite efficient. The mind flayer gets off a couple of good lightning bolts, but his psionics are not successful. Finally Arthur kills him, and the room is cleared of 2 more octopins, and a large stash of bizarre treasure if found, including some evil magic books and items, and 4 beholder eye-stalks. The party finish exploring Zyrxog’s private chamber, recovering his treasure and a ledger of recent business transactions in rare and dangerous items with patrons throughout the Free City, including payments for the sale of an ancient relic listed as the Apostolic Scrolls to Loris Raknain, director of the Free City Arena, and a note that Racknain paid Zyrxog to assassinate the party.

The party takes the first day back to sell the common items, make inquires as to legalities of certain magic items, where Rancik gets thrown out of the magic shop for trying to sell outlawed items. They go to the library to hand over Z’s book of 100 demon names and maps of the Free City Underground (Vasco), sells the petrified pseudo-dragon (Arthur), rests and eats (Nabiros).

Episode 3: The Encounter at Blackwall Keep

The party visits their powerful wizard friend and patron Allustan, who tells them that he has completed his study of the artifacts they found in the Whispering Cairn. The glyphs, he believes, are in an ancient dialect of Auran, the language of elemental air. He explains that some of the tombs in the Cairn Hills are thought to contain the graves of the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, great and valorous beings of flesh and air who served Law in the primordial times before history. The Wind Dukes battled an evil entity know as the Queen of Chaos, defeating her with an artifact which shattered and is now known as the Rod of Seven Parts. Even children know of this legendary battle on the Fields of Pesh, thought be some to lie in the distant north. All of these clues have Allustan greatly interested in the Whispering Cairn, but before he can visit, he tells the party about a message he got from an old battle-mage lady friend of his, Marzena. She is stationed at the northern edge of Mistmarsh in Blackwall Keep. She reports hearing about strange green worms in the cairn Hills. Allustan asks the party to accompany him to the Blackwall Keep to see if he can find out more from Marzena.

The party travels on horeseback with Allustan to Blackwall Keep. There, a siege is under way, with lizardfolk and the people in the keep in full battle. Allustan uses his scroll of teleport to quickly go get reinforcements, and the party rushes into battle to aid the people of the Keep. Vasco, using fly, provides amazing ariel support and an effective web spell and lightning bolt to even the odds, though not before some of the lizardfolk broke into the keep with the sounds of blood screams from the low-level soldiers inside. The battle ended badly for the lizardfolk, where all but the leader, their druid and a few that they helped escape fell. In an initially failed dialogue after the battle, the leader gets killed by a summoned ape, but Shesht the druid negotiates a peace through Arthur.

The guards, with only 10 left standing, work with the party barbarian Ubu, and Arthur to repair the keep. Vasco mends the door and Hammond, one of the guards, is given alchemists’ fire while Duncan, another guard, is given arrows and continual light stones. The party resolves to head into the swamp and re-cover the captured guards and deal with the wicked lizardfolk king. Shesht described how to get to the layer and revealed the lizardfolk lair door in exchange for her life.

The party made good survival and track checks and have expeditiously followed the lizard folk into the swamp. There, a viper attacked Rancik in his sleep and a huge spider attacked Rancik from behind. The party defeated the spider before he ate Rancik and now plans to rest for the night, 1 mile from the lizardfolk lair, though their sleep is interrupted by an attack by ghouls, which Rancik ends up commanding.

They approached the lair, but were seen by the sentinels. Three lined up and Vasco let go a lighting bolt, searing them and blasting the hidden door open. 2 harpies have their nest here and charm all but Rancik, who challenged them with spiritual weapon and sonic boom. Ubu snapped out and critical hit one harpy and sling shotted another. Vasco, charmed the whole time, took quite a bit of abuse from flyby harpy attacks.

The Party gets into the lair and a chase is on, with some lizardfolk being captured, others being kills and others escaping to warn others in the layer. A lizardfolk lieutenant challenges them, raging Vasco into the negatives just as Ubu strikes another one of his soldier lizardfolk dead.

When this lizardfolk falls, green worms writhe out of his flesh and die on the floor. The battle is instantly halted with all aghast at the sight of the worms. The lieutenant who raged returns to get the lizardfolk shaman battle ensues with the lieutenant and his mate with Arthur taking heavy damage. The lieutenant and his mate are finally killed by Vasco’s lightning bolt

While the party was looting his magic armor, the Shaman and her followers show up to negotiate peace. The party agrees to challenge the evil Lizardfolk King and to take a Mistmarsh Truce pact to the Free City. The Shaman doesn’t know much about the ways of civilized folk, but believes that if the party can get them to agree in writing to leave the tribe alone, they’ll honor it. The party goes to the King’s chamber (who had been warned of the impending attack so fled) and the Kings captives, including Allusten’s friend Marzena, were revived.

Arthur, invisible, sought out the King after Vasco detected his thoughts. A battle begun and the King with the last of the lizardfolk holding true to him, were taken down. The Shaman returned and explained the history of the loss of the loss of eggs whose hatchlings were, and the promise from the black dragon’s of ‘guards’, who she does not trust. About two years ago, a sudden blight of ravenous green worms ate through the entire clutches of lizardfolk hatchlings in numerous tribes throughout the Mistmarsh. With an entire generation wiped out, many tribes fell into desperation and depravity. A black dragon Ilthane seemed visited the tribes, knowing much about the green worms that plagued the lizardfolk, telling them that the magic users from the Free City were responsible. Ilthane graciously offered to guard the tribe’s clutch of eggs until they regained their foothold in the Mistmarsh. Their eggs are set in a special chamber which Ilthane herself sometimes guards, and at times leaves other little dragonfolk to guard.

The party presses into the tunnels where the eggs are hiding, but manage to take down the powerful Kobald egg gards. One of the guards is captured and explains that his men are Ilthane’s superior slaves and that the one dragon egg amongst them is one of Ilthane’s own, being left here as a token of trust for the lizardfolk king.

Arthur manages to lightly move about the chambre, recovering 4 dark vials, and the dragon egg. He drops it once, but it only very lightly cracks, then drops it again and green worms pour out, infecting six lizardfolk hatchlings. Little undead spawnlings, writhing with a wormy infection, show a tough battle before being killed, and the party manages to contain the contamination of the worms. The party takes the treasure and heads back, finding a few more of the lizardfolk loyal to their king were waiting in ambush with their friend Otyugh. A huge battle ended with the lizardfolk all perishing other than the shaman and her snake, who escape into the swamp.

The party reaches level 7 and head back to the keep and then from the Mistmarsh to Diamond Lake. Ubu decides to stay and protect the lizard clutch, knowing that Ilthane the dragon will be back and that other predators of the swamp might also take advantage of the unprotected eggs. Vasco is disturbed by Rancik who had privately cast a glyph on one of the lizard druid’s personal effects, cursing it with wisdom damage.

All this time, back at the keep, there was a battle inside the walls as a consequence of a strangely powerful zombie that they had locked up in the keep and had not told the party about. One of the soldiers had turned into a wormy zombie spawn after having defeated the original zombie. They had just held on long enough for the reinforcements from Diamond Lake to arrive. All together, there are three wormy, powerful zombies in the basement when the party arrives back at the keep, which they have to battle to restore order in the outpost.

Leaving Ubu behind in the Mistmarsh, Marzena, Vasco, Arthur and Rancik return to Diamon Lake to see Allustan. Marzena tells Allustan what she knows, confirming that these strange zombies are increasing in number through the Cairn Hills. Allustan tells the group about an old friend in the Free City, a sage named Eligos who knows a great deal. The sage may be able to determine what sort of threat the green worms represent to the region and how it can be countered. Rancik reports to the Wee Jas temple about all the activities of the Mistmarsh.

Episode 2: The Three Faces of Evil

After sorting out their affairs from the Whispering Cairn, the party heads back to visit Allustan to enquire about the Dourstone Mine, which they learned is connected to the corrupt mine manager Balabar Smenk. Allustan has studied the evidence of strange undead creatures infested with tiny green worms in the hills south of Diamond Lake. Allustan figures that there is a temple beneath the Dourstone Mine that should be infiltrated through elevators within the mine itself. Balabar Smenk might be just the person to link the party up with the mine and ultimately the temple.

Smenk agrees to help, saying that he is terrified of the cultists. He has offered to raise the tombstones for the farm and to give the deed to the observatory if the party defeats the cultists that have infiltrated his mine. The bartender at the Feral Dog is told by Smenk to be decent to the party and Smenk has paid full price for the owlbear that the party has captured. Kullen, the town thug, and Rancik have developed an ‘understanding’ because of the defeat of Filge, who they both hated.

Six miners have agreed to help smuggle the party to the new elevator in the mine, with the promise of some gold in exchange. The party enters the mine with death and destruction in their wake. They killed eight human guards for being Hextor Cultists (evidenced by their undershirts) on the way in. Once down the elevator that the miners helped them in, they quickly dispatch two tiefling guards, though not quickly enough to prevent warning to be sounded. There is a large pool of dark liquid near the elevator, which Vasco and Ubu throw the bodies of the deceased tieflings into, the splash super-naturally chilling them to the point of taking damage to dexterity.

The party makes its way through the citadel of Hextor, overcoming its skeleton and tiefling guards, cult fanatics and mascot dire boar. They look into the Battle Temple of Hextor to see clerics, zombies and tieflings readied for battle. Vasco uses his unseen servant to close the brass doors, giving the party a moment to summon its resources to do battle. The doors swing open and the party does a drag out battle willing all but the cleric Theldrick, who is unconscious but stable, and bound and gagged with no holy symbol. Theldrick made a speech about the Invincible One and Hextor and is grilled by the party. He reveals little other than the identity of the Ebon Triad’s three churches: Hextor, Vecna, and Erythnul, and that Grallak Kur of Erythnul is cowardly and sneaky. Arthur, in frustration, slits Theldrick’s throat. The party gets a copy of Theldrick’s record of the Ebon Triad’s progress in the mines, a significant excerpt of which is pictured here. The party reaches level 4.

The party enters into the Erythnul caves looking for Grallak Kur, and first encounters two rooms of grey monsters of the underdark (grimlocks) and two frightful cat-monsters (krenshars). Though all but Vasco were ‘frightened’ all the creatures were vanquished. Rancik and Arthur dive down into the cavern to the tunnels clogged with stealthy chokers. After Arthur takes repeated choking damage, the two manage to kill them off. Ubu and Vasco enter into a tunnel and are clobbered by a raging grey underdark barbarian. They lure her into the choker tunnels where she is defeated, though not before putting Ubu into unconsciousness. The party makes it across a rope bridge after battling three more grimlocks to the death. A great battle in a cliff chamber ensues, with Vasco, the weakest looking in the party, being knocked unconscious by another barbarian grimlock. Those standing prevail over the party, helped by a skeleton commanded by Rancik. Rancik now commanding zombies as a kind of ‘meat shield’, push further into the grimlock’s hold, finding the wild looking Grallak Kur (whose has grotesquely sewen preserved eyes of a beholder into his empty eyesockets, and branded the holy symbol of Erythnul onto his chest). Ubu forces Grallak off a cliff where he is subdued but kept alive. The party reaches level 5, resting in a Grallak’s chamber which Rancik sets his commanded skeleton and zombies to guard. The next day Grallak is questioned, but refuses to talk. He falls completely silent once Arthur mentions Theldrick’s death. Grallak carries scrolls that summarize his latest visions. The party reads through them with one passage standing out: “At last the will of the Ebon Triad be done. With the return of greaty Kyuss, the Age of Worms is finally upon us!”.

Moving on to the temple of Vecna, the party weaves its way through a labrynth of secret doors, guarded by birdmen (Kenku) and dire weasels. The party is at first drawn away from their final destination, the temple of Vecna, by fear of Theldrick’s voice. They follow the last Kenku into the outer chamber of the temple. This place was created thousands of years ago when Vecna was still a living mortal being. Green energy of arcane and divine power pulsate within pillars of the outer temple, and strange bulges in the walls reveal themselves to be human eyes when spells are cast by Vasco. Two wizard guards and an Allip are successfully overcome before the party quickly approaches the inner temple. The Faceless One, a wizard, is well prepared with lightning bolts, flaming spheres and a summoned huge monstrous centipede. The allip attacks Rancik several times before he is dispatched by Arthur’s magic sword. The party prevails. They find a codebook in the temple which helps them read another document seized from Theldrick. Its contents is revealed in the scroll pictured here.

They try to sleep off their battle with the Faceless One only to find three hours later the soul of the Faceless One floating away. The party rushes out of the temple into the elevator room (which is where the soul of the Faceless One was headed) to see a massive hellish entity slowly rising up, with three souls (Grallak, Theldrick, and the Faceless One, swirling above the pool prior it its emerging. It is 10 feet tall with six arms and grey skin, bulging with arcane power. Ubu and Arthur, enlarged, flank the Ebon Aspect, while Vasco fires successive magic missiles at it. Arthur nets him and Rancik’s commanded zombies finally dispatch the evil creature.

Everyone needs to rest before they emerge from the mine. They cast silence on a sling stone and invisibility on each of the members, and pass out of the mine into a heavily guarded and closed compound with 12 dwarven guards and 20 Garrison Soldiers. Smenk has set a trap. On the way out, one of the Dwarfs discovers the silence field and sounds the alarm on the basis of magic in the compound. Rancik and Arthur escape over the wall, but a garrison guard trips over Vasco on the wall and a pursuit of Vasco and Ubu ensues. Finally dropping a bag of loot, Ubu makes it over the fence, just before being apprehended. The rest rush to Allustan’s house to find him away. His servant keeps them comfortably hidden in the garden for two days, and the criminality of Smenk and Dourstone is revealed to Sheriff Neff. Rancik leads a discussion of ‘justice’ with Neff, who keeps their 5,000gp bail money in exchange for no murder charges from when they broke into the mine (Neff is not convinced that everyone killed were cultists).

Dourstone and Smenk are arrested and jailed, with their properties seized by the town. The townsfolk are uncomfortable with the party because no one really knows who Smenk and Dourstone may still have in their pockets. Allustan seems pre-occupied with matters afar, and says that he wants to spend some time soon talking wit the group

Episode 1: The Whispering Cairn

Four unlikely people meet.

Vasco an elven wizard from across the lake, skilled with boats.
Ubu a half-orc barbarian, local to the town, going no-where.
Arthur a local rogue, tricky but not too experienced.
Rancik, a cleric of Wee-Jas, dark, very serious about the law, lawful neutral in the truest sense

A trio of adventurers from the Free City: Auric, Khellek and Tirra, have spoken openly about their intent to raid the empty Stirgenest Cairn, braggery which has spread throughout the small lakeside mining town of Diamond Lake.

Ubu and Arthur meet and discuss these rumours, and talk about how they are unimpressed with the vein efforts of these braggarts, and dream of exploring some cairns of their own. They meet Rancik, who reluctantly expresses interest and Vasco who is all too interested in getting involved in something more interesting than scrubbing decks.

They agree to met at a small shack outside of town to check out another cairn that one of the group had heard about — the Whispering Cairn – to explore it for unknown adventure. The Whispering Cairn is about 10 minutes east of their little shack, with a wide monolith-lined portal partially obscured by underbrush and boulders framing the entrance. They make their way in and see an unusual arcane glyph about the size of a man’s head carved into the baseplate of a support platform of a shattered arcane apparatus. Vasco figures that the glyphs on this broken mirror are transportation-related and in an ancient language of Vaati, which some unorthodox scholars consider the original written form of Auran, the language of air elemental. The party proceeds down the main hall of the whispering cairn, breaking through a pack of wolves and finding a gallery with seven distinctively coloured lanterns which they learn to operate for going up and down shafts.

They enter the lair of the labourers, overcoming a giant beetles and its swarm of acid beetles, an unusual fatigue, a ghoul and water elemental. Find masterwork leather armour emblazoned with an eight-pointed symbol and a similar silver ring on a corpse in the fatiguing room. After resting, the party ascends from the Cairn and heads to Diamond Lake for 2 days. They meet a sage Allustan and ask him to identify the symbol on the armour and the ring, and provide sketches of several of the ancient glyphs and artifacts they encounter, enquiring as to their significance. The party reaches level 2.

They return and explore the lair of the architect, doing a strange battle with a strangling aberration and an earth elemental who the party can not communicate with. They retrieve more treasure from the Cairn and return to the Diamond Lake to see Allustan, who teaches them about the Wind Dukes, and invites them back to share more information. Wind Dukes of Aaqa lived thousands of years ago, long before the rise of human civilization. They lived for centuries in stalemate with the Queen of Chaos and her demon ally Miska the Wolf-Spider. When Miska and legions sieged the Wind Duke’s territory, the Aaqans routed elemental armies to battle them. Seven great Wind Duke warriors withdrew from the conflict and made a plan to destroy Miska. They sought out a great weapon, the fabled Rod of Law. They returned to war on the volcanic fields of Pesh and plunged the Rod of Law into Miska. A great planar rift erupted, shattering the rod into seven pieces, scattering them across the land. Those few Wind Dukes who survived the battle were buried their dead in great tombs. Allustan surmises that the Whispering Cairn may be somehow connected to these ancient Wind Dukes of Aaqa.

The party heads back to the Whispering Cairn to look through the final areas and collect some of the treasure they had not yet recovered. They cleverly work through tiny tunnel with a powerful wind trap and enters an trapped chamber of iron spheres, a grick, and the ghost of Alastair Land, a young boy who has been here for decades, who asks the group to intestate his farmstead, and rebury the bones of his family. In exchange, he will trigger the trap and let the group pass.

The group heads back and finds the farm near their shack. They end up doing battle with a wounded Owlbear who is there and find her baby, which Vasco ends up protecting and keeping in their shack. Rancik, absolutely offended by this desecration strongly wants to know the answers to who has done this to these graves. The party goes to town and bribes Kullen, a bouncer at the bar, to reveal information about necromancer Filge, who they connect to the open graves, and go off to investigate his observatory. They leave the baby owlbear in a stable for 2 days. On the steps of the observatory, expecting to find Filge inside, the party wants to recover the Land family bones and return them to their graves. They sneak inside from the rooftop and engage Filge and his undead minions in a ranged battle, not even talking to him before they overcome and kill him. They find some of Filge’s odd possessions, a note from “S” informing Filge about Green worms and unkillable zombies that cultists in the Dourstone Mine have brought to town, a small green worm suspended in a flask, and most of the Land family bones, which they return and re-bury in the grave.

The party visits Allustan again, where he describes the significance of the glyphs and fescos in the lobby of the cairn as being connected to the Wind Dukes. He also identifies the symbol on the armor and ring as being of The Seekers, an archaeological and scholarly society that operates in the area. Rancik as given Allustan the worm and asks for help to learn about it. Allustan is interested and has said it will take some time to study.

They return to the mine and enter a massive chamber with walls covered with enormous bas-relief vistas. Each vista portrays a scene from the life of the Wind Duke Zosiel, which Allustan had identified for the party from a previous glyph. When a character approaches one of the murals, smoke breaths from valves in the walls in ways that make the images on the walls come alive. The story told is the story of the defeat of the Queen of Chaos by the Wind Dukes, one of them showing the Rod of Law being used, others with rod fragments being presented to Vaati superiors. In this true tomb, when Ubu approaches the central walkway, two tall humanoid creatures step out on a column of air, wielding twin swords and wearing ceremonial armour. The silently attack, their clanging swords piercing sonic attacks, but the party manages to defeat them. After the battle, they enter the final resting place of the Wind Duke Zosiel, recovering from his grave a diadem of wisdom bearing Zosiel’s personal glyph, demonic looking black horns with red tips, and a metal box containing a talisman.

Back from the Cairn, Allustan identifies the treasure, particularly the talisman of the sphere, which controls a black globe that was depicted in the cairn that Allustan surmises is a powerful sphere of annihilation that had been used in the Battle of Pesh. Allustan says that these spheres were holes in the continuity of the multiverse, and than anything they touched were destroyed utterly. Allustan urges Vasco to keep this valuable minor artifact, saying with a wink that one must always be prepared.

The party stays at their shack, considering what to do about the Dourstone Mine mentioned in Filge’s note, and the connection to Smenk, the note’s author.