Episode 6 (part 6): Moretto and the True Tomb

With his hands outstretched, Moretto offers everyone a welcome to his star chamber.  A freaky green light shimmers from a lantern behind the Marquis. Moretto seems genuinely pleased to see these fellow explorers and his old aide Tout.  With a casual gesture which is recognized by Vacso as prestidigitation, Moretto tidies up tiny Tout from the tumble down the river.  Zeek, recognizing that this must be the Ghoul that both the giant shadow spider and the dread wraith guardian had talked about, asked immediately for the Seal of Law.  Moretto gestures back casually to the back the cave that he has made his study, and disparagingly says that he has studied the old relic, and it is worthless.  He offers to trade it to the party for assistance is getting out of the tomb, whose guardians have to date proved a bit too much for Moretto alone.  He is accompanied here by two horrific Morg, who he gestures between the Seal of Law and the party.

Come, he says, lets work together. Vasco is reluctant to bargain for anything.  Moretto tries his charms of Maeron, unwelcomely trying to prestidigitate her unkempt state, but she evades the spell and rejects Morettos false charms.  Yldar, as an act of good faith, agrees to draw Moretto a map of how to get out of the tomb (a map that does not reveal the Elder Ooze who awaits).  This brings Moretto and Zeek eventually agree to have Moretto and the Seal of Law accompany them to the giant adamantium doors beyond which they believe lies the true tomb of Icosiol.  After that, they will go with Moretto out of the tomb.  Vasco decides to see what Moretto is made of and starts to cast detect magic. Moretto, clearly on his guard, counter-spells and wonders aloud about the state of their good company. Finally the tension is broken by a quick exchange between Zeek and Yldar, the later whom takes several precise and definitive shots with his bow.  The battle ensues, the Morg quickly grappling both Zeek and Nabiros and Vasco letting loose an impressive but largely ineffective Yvard's black tentacles. Bursts of energy from Maeron disrupt the unlife, and the party manages to make effective and swift attacks before Moretto can himself effectively retreat or make an offence.  Moretto is again slain, but his writhing soul turns into an incorporeal spectre of himself.  Vasco contains the now made spectre of Moretto in a magic sphere, which allows them enough time to defeat the Morg and equip themselves with Moretto's excellent arsenal.  They all ready for a final battle to Moretto, who when finally let out of Vasco's sphere savagely attacks Tout, bringing him into unlife.  Finally the undead are all dispatched, and disgusted, Nabiros throws the ghouls' chillingly green lantern into the river of blood, Vasco pushing it along with a mage hand.  Hungry for treasure, Zeek protests and tries to go retrieve the lantern, but not before it is swept away into the underdark below.

The party, newly outfitted with Tout's unique amulet of feather falling and Moretto's substantial magic aids, ascends again to the true tomb, resting for another night before entering..  Yldar studies the Seal that night and finds that the words of entry come clearly to his mind.  Eight hours later, he holds the Seal up to the door, speaking the words Aaqa, Icosiol, Pesh, aloud and the mammoth doors swing open.  The room beyond appears bottomless.  Eight huge pillars seemingly float in place.  Clouds of stormy weather crackle and howl below.  Yldar ties a rope to himself and designs to leap from one pillar to the next.  Zeek and Nabiros holding the other end of the rope, the follow Yldar along all the way to the final pillar which, upon landing, ignites a hurricane of wind and lightning upon himself.  Knocked down, Yldar swings like a pendulum, crashing back into the other side.  Dusting himself off, Yldar decides to fly across the room. The flight attracts the chamber's guardians, two hurricane-force air elementals.  The party is thoroughly buffeted by these powerful elementals, but Yldar manages to speak the Seals words again, sealing himself and his friends in the entrance way to the wind elemental's hall.  The rest again, waiting to see if the elementals will be there on their return.  Opening the doors, the elementals have subsided to the storm below, and Yldar resumes his leaps across the pillars to discover how to enter the tomb.  After numerous failed searches, he finally discovers a subtle area of one pillar that the Seal of Law fits perfectly in.  That pillar raises taking Yldar beyond an illusionary ceiling into Icosiol's mausoleum above.  There, three rays burst instantly out of the corner of one room, draining energy, sickening and panicking Yldar, who manages to remove the Seal and letting the pillar down out of the room, where he again is attended to by his friends and recoveres.

Icosiols' tomb guardian Augerric, a demon tied to this room for eternity, stands invisible, mirror imaged and alert for the party to return.  They all devise a means of ropes to guide them to the rising pillar and ready an offensive against whatever guards the tomb above.  Rising again into the chamber, the three beams disable three members, but Zeek manages to charge forward with his cold iron gnome hooked hammer.  Stunningly, stout Zeek confirms a critical hit in the demon, squelching out over half of his chaotic evil lifeforce in Zeek's single blow.  Yldar lets arrows fly, which the demon merely tears out.  Maeron calls her deity for the blinding power of her Holy Smite.  The demon is drained, blinded and crippled, trying to blast away at the party with its paralytic gaze, eyebolts, unholy longsword and claws.  However, with another Smite of Maeron and second confirmed critical from Zeek, the wicked guardian is forever banished back to the outsiders' realms.  Zeek the demon slayer is born.

Chilled from the fight with the demon, but buoyed with the sight of the tomb, Yldar places the Seal of Law into the hands of an engraving of Icosiol on a floating sarcophagus.  The sarcophagus descends gently to the ground and reveals it's treasures, including a Ring of the Wind Dukes, two crossed sword a lighting Sword and a Sword of Aaqa, and the infamous Rod of Seven Parts.  Icosiol's blessings fall over the party, for his spirit percieves the importance of their position in history, with the struggle to prevent the coming of the Age of Worms.  The blessing is felt perhaps nowhere more than with Vasco, who still carrying the Talisman of the Sphere and Zosiel's silver diadem.  These major artifacts, he knows, are restored to their full capacity.

Knowing that they have the Wind Duke's blessing to acquire these treasures to aid them in preventing the Age of Worms, the party sets about the rest of the tomb to secure anything else that may help them. They find all of the Tomb's traps to not affect them, and all of its guardians, including the Ooze lord, and a a Noble Salamander, the Earl of Coalchester, to be friendly and respectful towards them.  There is not much treasure remaining, however.  Back at the Word of Law trap, the great statue (which weighs over 3 tonnes) is holding a masterwork mithral greatsword, which can be removed with ease.  The statue in the relief golem chamber also weighs over 2,500 lbs, but would be worth 9,500gp to a collector of ancient art.  Back in the ooze lord’s chambre, the four levetating lanterns carved with intricate iconography of Icosiol’s battles weigh 100 lbs each, and worth 800 gp each.

In another small antichamber, they find a crumbled wall with the remains of a Wind Duke talbard, some chain and and what looks like some form of legs sticking out.  Uncovering some of the rubble and the party finds while looks like a kind of machine man, wrapped in chain and clutching a wand.  Zeek recognizes this as an ancient warforged minion, one no doubt created during the ancient battle with the Queen of Chaos.  With uncharactistic curiosity, Nabiros urges Maeron to activate the wand and restore the ancient machine, convinced that like the other tomb's guardians, that this one will recognize Icosiol's blessing.  The ancient creature lurches and finally rises, dusting himself off and presenting himself humbly but nobally to them as Nadroc, an ancient Vaati name that Yldar recognzies as the great Wind Duke architect that is said to have brought these tombs into being.  Nadroc denies being the architect himself, but was indeed one of his amazing creations, given to Icosiol during the final battle.  He came to the tomb on Icosiol's death and lived here for centuries along with the other guardians before getting ambushed by an intruder from the Underdark who collapsed the wall upon him before he could heal himself with his wand.  The intruder, it appears, did not survive the other guardians, and Nadroc doubts his utility here in the tomb.  He asks to accompany the party to the surface world, and unlike the evil Moretto, this request seems genuine.  If the Wind Duke's blessing has been given to the party, the Nadroc wants to aid them in any way possible in their quest.

The party finally takes leave of the tomb through the black seal portal.  Back at the entrance to the Whispering Cairn, they survey the damage left by the battle with the dragon in the landscape around the tomb.  First Zeek and Maeron want to check up on the followers that they had left there some indeterminant time ago.  Tney find them outside of town, near one of the mine operations.  It has been three seaons (nearly a year) since Zeek and Maeron became trapped in the tomb, and all but the two most loyal of Zeek's men have left Diamond Lake.  The two men remaining have been making a small business of Zeek's assets, having set up a business relationship with one of the new mine managers who had taken up where Balabar Smenk left off.  They seem only slightly pleased to see you and feel that there are prospects here, particularly in rebuilding the town, providing fortification and defence service.  They seem to have been doing quite well without you in your absence.


The party enters Diamond Lake itself to discuss the next moves with Allustan, who has been home attempting to recover from the Ilthane's savage attack.  Allustan is understandably morose and depressed about the turn of events. The recovery of the Rod of Seven Parts fragment and the other Wind Duke treasures brightens his mood a bit, but even these mighty treasures can’t fix his ruined home, the lives lost to llthane’s attack, or the seemingly unstoppable advance of the Age of Worms.  There is only one more thing he can do to aid the party. He can show them the way to his one-time mentor, the archmage Manzorian, as Eligos had suggested in his final note. Allustan encourages to take what they know to Manzorian’s home to the north in the coastal village of Magepoint.  Allustan himselfretreats into his studies, in search of further information, and begins to strengthen his home with wardings and magical fortifications. A great darkness is close at hand, and the wizard fears what is to come.

Episode 6 (part 5): Plummeting down the River of Blood

Harnessing himself up to a rope, Zeek peers down the precipice, raising one eyebrow and smiling.  Fingering his ring of feather-falling he says “Just lower me down so I can have a look, two tugs and you can pull me back up”.   Down he goes getting soaked by the mist and then grazing into the swift waterfall as he manoeuvers himself around a slight bend.  Down, down, down, 175 feet before he sees the waterfall pooling into a small underground lake.  He holds his lantern towards the water and his gaze is returned by a hundred small white crabs, attracted by the light of his lantern.  Hearing a second waterfall, the river descends here further than Zeek is willing to go, and shortly after two short tugs, Zeek strips naked and warms himself by a small fire that the party had built in the antechamber of the Inevitable’s room.  “Time to rest and prepare our magic,” Vasco wisely and quietly leads the group, “we need not rush down the river quite yet”.

Hours later, the party is ready to descend again.  During the rest Nabiros and Zeek had spliced 300 feet of rope together to aid the descent, securing it to a piton at the crest of the waterfall.  Vasco flying, Maeron and Zeek with rings of feather falling, Nabiros and Yldar on the rope, the party descends down the 175 feet to where Zeek had been eyed by the crabs.  Vasco flies around the subterranean caverns for a moment to scout out passages other than through the lake or down the second waterfall, and is brushed by a familiar wind and then rattled to the bone by an even more familiar sound.  Three magnificent Wind Warriors magnetically float out of one of the passages and clang their twin ancient longswords together with a sonic blast.  Shortly, three more appear from below, precisely firing a crossbow, the others joining their brothers-in-arms with sonic blasts.  Yldar and Zeek take the plunge into the lake to put themselves in more defensible position, while Maeron and Nabiros wrap themselves tightly to the rope with hopes to do battle suspended above the blood red waters. 

The underground chamber fills with the deafening force of the ancient Wind Warriors otherwise silent defence of their general burial complex.  Crackling and searing magic from Maeron and Vasco reply in their defence, Yldar letting precise arrows piece through the timeless Wind Warrior armour.  Nabiros and Maeron are soon engaged at close range by the Wind Warrors who deftly work to dislodge and dispatch them from their rope perch. With Maeron, they nearly succeed, after plummeting into the lake, they bring her to her knees on a rocky precipice of the lake below.  Zeek and Yldar step forward while Maeron recovers, while Nabiros now flanked by two floating tomb defenders, remarkably withstands an extended parley.  Finally, after a long battle, the elemental force that animates the Wind Warriors is dispatched, their armour and fantastic swords crumbling to an ancient dust lost to the rushing waters of the lake below.  The party had taken a lot of damage, and was weary from the battle.

Vasco, invisible and flying, continues to scout down the waterfall.  He sees held up in a small outcrop a halfling adventurer, stranded but sustained by ioun stones buzzing around his head.  Vasco reports this and the overall contour of the waterfall below to the party, who agree to meet with the halfling.  As it turns out, Tout is an 8th level bard who had been captured by a noble but terrible ghoul named Moreto some months ago. He was adventuring with his party in the underdark when he was taken captive by some plotting, well spoken, charming, lantern carrying ghouls.  The rest of his party was brutally dispatched but he was dragged along with them through various horrors of the underdark. He was surprised that they spoke occasionally of their deity the Lord of Rot and Shadow and their nation deep within the underdark called the White Kingdom.  Perhaps he was meant to learn this special lore and pass on his bardic knowledge another day.  There was gossip being passed around by one of the ghouls Moreto, about the arrogance and irrelevance of some other noble ghoul from the White Kingdom.  He was clearly planning something big.  Moreto had recently been travelling with only a small entourage of terrible, commanded undead, and was moving quickly with the halfling bard through the underdark.  Moreto had stranded him here, flippantly promising to return but had not in quite some time.  Tout and Moreto had been travelling up the River of Blood when Tout tumbled and amulet of feather-falling which unluckily tore off his neck.  The only reason he is alive is that his ioun stones keep him nourished, but he has been unable to pass through the water below and winds above.  He has healed him self and is, other than being amulet-less, was fully charged.  He was more than happy to help the party find Moreto and ultimately escape his extended tour of the underdark back to the surface world.

The party explores a side tunnel before descending the river much further.  The channel leads to a set of stairs and a secret door.  The door, which is unlocked and un-trapped, lead to another set of 50' tall, adamantine plated stone doors which are inscribed with ancient Wind Duke runes indicating this is the final resting place of General Icosiol, who is best not disturbed, and his enemies best left sleeping.  Not being able to open the door by any conventional means, the party continues down the River of Blood, seeking Moreto and the Seal of Law that he has stolen. Perhaps this is an element of the key.

Arranging ropes and rings, and recovering Tout’s amulet of feather falling from a basin of water below, the party continues down.  Battered by the rushing waters, drenched by the spray and mist, the rope gets slippery and several of the party loose their grip and tumble down.  Maeron falls nearly 200 feet and barely survives with her life.  Yldar and Nabiros also fall, but with less life threatening consequences.  The River of Blood finally levels out in chamber glowing with an odd, green, almost starry light.  There they find the noble Moreto, with arms open, welcoming and greeting them, thanking them for having rescued Tout from his awkward perch.

Episode 6 (part 4): Deftly avoiding the River of Blood

Dispatching the second relief golem with little consequence of humour, the party decides to return to the hall where they were originally engaged on the quest of to retrieve the Wind Duke treasure stolen by the ghoul Moretto, they look into an additional room for more clues.  They discover a antechamber with a old, small alter to a Wind Duke, and an image of a door painted on a wall.  Yldar investigates and notices that beside a small statue of a Wind Duke is a place less dusty which looks as if it had held some other object.  At that moment, Yldar hears the murmurings of what sounds like an old soldier complaining of the foot soldiers who were thieves.  from the wall where the door was painted emerged a large wraith, its red eyes beading down at Yldar who quickly escapes the room.  The dread wraith follows the party into the main hall and they battle, with Maeron flattening the wraith with her channeled energy, and it being finished by the the hooked hammer of the Zeek the gnome.

Yldar returns to the alter and pockets the small Wind Duke statue, and hands the wraith's former magic armour to Zeek, then the party debates if they should continue by returning to the river of blood or head through the room that had held Maeron, Zeek, Alustan and Ubu to see what is beyond. While Alustan and Ubu take their leave of the party (being advised to avoid the ooze on their way out), the group decides to return to the globe sphere hall and see what lies beyond.  Down some stairs Yldar sees that a set of rungs must be climbed to go 40 feet down to a tiled mosaic floor below.  Rightfully suspicious of traps, he finds that the whole floor is a pressure plate and after a hair-raising failure, manages to disable it.  The party follows him down, and find a secret door that leads to a waterfall precipice of the River of Blood.  After chatter about rings of feather falling and fly spells, Vasco asks why they would ever want to go down such an incredibly treacherous drop.  On that note, they decide to return upriver and revisit the icy hall that led Adnan to quit the party.


Moving swiftly and confidently through the tomb now, the party re-enters the River of Blood at the Xorn bridge.  Ridding themselves of their armour the party, who are other than the elves very short - need to swim even where it is only 5 feet deep.  Maeron is momentary caught up in a current and swept down towards the main channel of the River that links to the Waterfall but is grabbed by Yldar and brought to the side channel that leads to underneath the ice hall.  Maeron again has a feeling of dread as two huge, oozing, undead (15'x15') blood clots surround them, blocking their entrence to the shallower waters.  Zeek, on being slammed by a tendril of blood, sees some of his own blood pour from his body, animate in the river and merge with the huge clot.  Horrified, the party uses its magic and slashing weapons to reduce the undead clot to cell-less fluid.

They find that the hole that Vasco, Yldar and Adnan had made in the ceiling is still open, and the party re-enters the ice hall, seeing the shattered ice golems' remains.  The look into a small room, and find a strange 15' diameter pool of snow and ice, somehow churning.  Zeek, at first uninterested, decides to test the pool, sticking his hand in and sustains damage from the terrible cold.  Yldar, remembering some of the history of the war with the Wind Duke, recalls that alliances were made with elemental weirds to gain access to prophecies to help defeat the Queen of Chaos.

The party enters the final chamber of the ice hall, Yldar and Zeek proceeding carefully along into a chamber with six statues, five of which having small statuettes of resplendent Vaati architecture, floating just above their cupped hands, the hall filled with more soft winds.  Suddenly, before the rest of the party enters the room, the sixth statue triggers a switch and lets off a blast of negative energy on Zeek, draining 4 levels from him.  The statue, now clearly an animate machine, explains how he is charged with upholding the law, and that the tomb robbery and desecration will be dealt with by death.  The impressive machine, a Kolyurt Inevitable, seemingly at will fires spells at the party, who try desperately to break through iron portcullises that the Inevitable had brought down between them.

During the battle, The Inevitable politely explains how their latest desecration was of the tomb of Sionsiar, a snow weird that Icosiol had formed a bond with during the final battles with the Queen of Chaos, who was interred in Icosiol's tomb upon her death.

Curtains of acid from Vasco, scorching rays from Yldar, and blow after blow from the Zeek and Nabiros weaken the Inevitable, who seemed to keep healing himself.  Finally he is dispatched, and the party collapse exhausted in his room, Yldar pocketing the 5 statuettes of Vaati architecture.  They see that this room only leads back to the very same waterfall that they had tried to avoid.  Indeed, the mad spider seems to be right.  If the powerful artifacts of the Wind Dukes are to be retrieved, and the actual tomb of Icosiol is to be found, they must devise a way to descend further into the River of Blood.

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.