Nadroc escapes again from his icy cage and find the devils and his party gone. He knows why they had to make this difficult decision, and flipping up his blue cowl, sets out in a new direction to meet back up with his battle fatigued colleagues, Zeek and his men in Magepoint the following week.
When they arrive at the Free City, the Nabiros, wearer of the Champion Belt and Vasco, the famously flying elf are immediately recognized by the City Guards. They are mortified to see their Champion slain and immediately take up his corpse and give him a full military escort to the temple of Kord where Redgar’s now famous funeral was held. Crowds form along the street, throngs gather to see their fallen Champion paraded through the city to the temple. Back arm bands spontaneously crop up all over the city, with stitched likenesses of the Champion Belt marking some of them. City officials, nobles, other Champions begin gathering, paying tribute, and paying for funerary expenses, all wanting to be seen in the company of the great Champion of the games. Swept up by all this attention, Maeron chooses a quiet moment to Speak with Dead to see what Nabiros’ wishes are – should they proceed with the funeral or resurrect him? Nabiros is taken by all this glory and says that he would rather choose to end life like this than die in a cave on some mad mans quest about the coming apocalypse. Vasco and Maeron allow the funeral to proceed and the city is caught in the grip of a major public spectacle, the kind of which they have not seen for some time.
While the debate over the funeral happened inside, out on the street mad man apprehends Yldar by the shoulders, with frightened and crazed looks in his eyes and says ““Have you not heard the dead dragon roar?! Oh, the dragons of the rift and the sins they proclaim!”. Yldar is unable to sensibly communicate with him further, and he walks away into the crowd.
At the Seekers’ lodge, Yldar offers them the Seal of Law in payment for his debts owed in Wind Duke treasure. His fellow Seekers see this Major Artifact as far above and beyond the debts owed and realize the potential and seriousness of these three Seekers. They allow them to have access to the highly secure Seeker’s vaults to store their treasure, and send word to the Seekers group in Magepoint that these are important and serious Seekers to be welcomed and recognized. Maeron and Yldar know, this is a significant new development, akin to delving deeper into a thieves guild, and will surely be a most welcome resource now and in the future. A payment investment very well made.
Worrying to their safety, knowing that the devils have scryed on them again but having resisted revealing their current location, Vasco decides to make the trip to Magepoint as swift as possible. They arrive in short order in at the marvellous small seaside town, whose centre-point is the castle of the archmage himself, a pale blue castle surrounding a tower capped with a vast glittering blue faceted dome, connected to the village by a stone causeway that runs out to a small Island on the Lake of Unknown Depths. On arriving in the town of only 500 people, they find that they are already expected, and are hosted free of charge at the Inn of the All-Seeing Eye. At the Inn, Celeste a beautiful young elvish-looking woman who had originally connected Vasco and his old group with Eligos prior to the Champion games is there, as is, much to Vasco’s surprise, Eligos himself. Eligos explains that he was brought back to life by one of Manzorian’s powerful cleric allies Agath of Thrunch. Eligos has not much more to say other than that he is relieved that at least Vasco made it with a new group to deliver all the important information to the archmage so that these issues be dealt with. Celeste is similarly supportive. Also there is Cymria, Manzorian’s assistant. She asks for the details of their adventure so far and says that she will arrange a meeting as soon as Manzorian is back in town. Meanwhile, the party has time to rest and shop with the towns’ excellent magic and adventuring suppliers.
Later that week, the party is reunited, with Nadroc, Zeek and his cohort arriving in the town. Each day during their wait, Vasco feels he is being scryed but each day he successfully resists being discovered. The party also discover that the town sits on a reservoir of arcane power, and any spell cast, taking 10x the usual length of time, is cast as if empowered by metamagic, but with no extra resources being used. Several days later, Manzorian summons the party to his study, on whose walls hang remarkably accurate pictures of many different places throughout the land.
Manzorian is an impressive figure and gets right to business. After hearing again the party’s story, he then is available for questions. First, about the devils and the fragment of the Rod of Law, he says that it is a very potentially a very powerful artifact. He is pleased that the party has been able to resist giving it to the devils, but is concerned that they will not let up. He offers the party something remarkable: if they give him the Rod to keep in his vaults, he will award each member of the party a single magic item of their choice, each of which being worth up to 40,000 GP. He offers to cast polymorph any object on whatever they choose so it can take the form of their choice. Vasco and the others discuss this, and feel that the danger the Rod fragment poses is too grate and so accept Manzorian’s offer. Their minds are racing as they think of what they are going to choose.
Manzorian then explains what he knows about the Age of Worms.
“The Age of Worms is foretold in a prophecy that speaks of a coming apocalypse, an age of death and writhing doom. Normally such rumours should be dismissed—doomsday prophecies are typically the product of nothing more sinister than madness. This prophecy is different. It can be traced back, through various incarnations in books, tablets, and carvings on walls, for over two thousand years. It does not change in content during this time—it has not evolved through clumsy attempts of fanatics desperate to reword its predictions to support their agendas. “This alone would be enough for it to merit further study. But even more interesting is the fact that in the last few years several of its predictions have actually come true. In one prophecy, it predicts the ‘ruin by fire of a city built in a bowl in the spire’s shadow.’ Just last year, far to the south, the city of Cauldron—built in the caldera of a dormant volcano only a few miles from Kyuss’ one-time home, the Spire of Long Shadows—was nearly destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Other prophecies speak of the recrudescence of the worm-eaten dead, the recovery of potent artificts from ancient tombs, the destructive manifestation of an immense demonic tree in a distant city across the sea, the arrival of a ‘Fane of Scales’ amid a storm of wind and fire, and the cleansing of an evil taint from a city besieged in the past by giants. “These events have all come to pass, and quite recently. In fact, there are only two prophecies remaining to be fulfilled. The first of these mentions the reunification of a tripartite spirit—I assume this is a nod to the goals of the Ebon Triad. The second remaining prophecy reads: ‘And on the eve of the Age of Worms, a hero of the pit shall use his fame to gift a city to the dead.’ I believe this last line may have been speaking of Loris Raknian (certainly a hero from the gladiator’s pit) and his recent attempt to sacrifice thousands at the end of the Champion’s Games. Yes, I’ve heard of this, and I know you played a role in its prevention. It remains to be seen if your actions actually made a difference or not, but it would be foolhardy to assume that those who are trying to fulfil the prophecies will abate their efforts.”
He goes on to discuss the Ebon Triad: “The Ebon Triad seems to be involved, at least on some level, with most of the events associated with these prophecies. Their involvement merits further investigation, although I believe that they may in fact themselves be little more than agents for a larger power—perhaps Kyuss himself Certainly, their goal of unifying Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna into one overgod seems ridiculous, although as far as the Age of Worms prophecies about this tripartite spirit are concerned, it seems that the actual manifestation of an Overgod is not what is being predicted as much as it is predicting the heretical beliefs of the cultists themselves.”
On Kyuss: “Kyuss is an enigma—what we know of him is sparse. We know that he was once a mortal, a powerful priest who ascended to godhood. He ruled a city named Kuluth-Mar far to the south, and was famed for the creation of undead. A former companion of mine, a wizard named Balakarde, made an extensive study of Kyuss and his ways. You might even say he was obsessed with Kyuss”
On Balakarde: “When Balakarde learned Kuluth-Mar was the likely location of Kyuss’ divine apotheosis, he could barely restrain himself. I cautioned him against going to investigate the ruins. One does not simply teleport into an unknown region without doing some research. Yet Balakarde wouldn’t listen. He left immediately, returning two weeks later with a wild look in his eye. He wouldn’t say much of what he’d found there, and before he moved on he asked me to hold on to some of his notes. He promised to return later and tell me more, but that time was short and he had to head north to follow a new lead. He vanished without a trace not long thereafter I intended to try to track him down, but unfortunately, other events con spired to take my attention away. I suspect he is dead now. Or worse:’
On Kuluth-Mar: “The notes Balakarde left with me are unfortunately rather sparse. They confirm that Kuluth-Mar is located in the Arnedio Jungle, far to the south, and estimate that Kyuss ruled the city more than two thousand years ago from a fortress called the Spire of Long Shadows. Balakarde believed that this spire was the site of Kyuss’ ascension to god hood. Kyuss built a ziggurat to serve as the foundation of the Spire of Long Shadows. Balakarde writes how the ziggurat was a powerful magical focus for the ritual that propelled him to divinity. Much of Kyuss’ might has since left the city of Kuluth Mar, but powerful undead servants and lingering touches of Kyuss’ own miasma make the ziggurat a fell and dangerous place. Balakarde visited the ruined city several times, but never penetrated the spire itself I never found the journal pages that described his earlier visits.”
Mazorian concludes that what remains now is for the party to follow in Balakarde’s foot steps and travel to Kuluth-Mar to learn for themselves how Kyuss came to be. Manzorian points out that the best way to know an enemy is to know what made him—and what better place to learn of Kyuss’ history than an expedition to the site of his divine apotheosis? While the party explores the ancient city, Manzorian intends to lead Agath, Eligos, and Celeste in a session of intense research on the Ebon Triad, Kyuss, and the cause of Balakarde’s disappearance. The findings from this research combined with what the party can discover in Kuluth-Mar will show them what steps to take next.
