Game session 27 of the Age of Worms is in the books. Present party members included Aker Cruven (litorian ritual warrior), Eol Seregon (half-elf hexblade), Grot Bloodtunneler (shield dwarf warmain), Lyrin Sinbal (simian warmage), and Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric).
The game began with the party finding Sodden Hold in the Dock Ward. After examining the building for a few minutes, they tried their key in the front door and found it unlocked the entry. The group discovered a room full of barrels, crates and chests piled about. Three closed doors appeared to lead from the room, and a catwalk overlooked the far wall. Once inside, the party was attacked by a trio of mimics disguised as crates and barrels. The gang quickly discovered that mimic glue is impossible to resist and several of the team was stuck fast. Grot remained mobile and laboriously hammered away at the shapeshifters, peeling his hammer free after each blow. Aker tore into the creatures with his razor fangs while Eol cursed two of them with his hexblade vexings. Enraged by the audacity of the mimics to grapple him, Morak went into a rage and struggled furiously in an effort to free himself. From the doorway, spellslinging Lyrin peppered the monsters with magic missiles. Despite taking a beating, the team eventually killed all of the mimics. There was some concern at the amount of resources Sodden Hold had already depleted when Morak burned charge after charge from his healing wands in order to revitalize his allies and self.
Once the mimics were slain, the group examined two small rooms, including a cluttered office and a room with a rickety ladder up to the catwalk. The group quickly found the ladder would not hold weight and collapsed part of the catwalk and the ladder on their heads. Grot then moved to the last door, and the party gathered close around for a quick entry. He bashed the door with his hammer and triggered a trap which dumped the entire party except Morak into a 40-ft.-deep spiked-filled pit. Using a rope, Morak helped extract his impaled and bleeding comrades.
Eol and Morak stacked crates and went up to the catwalk and found footprints leading right up into a wall. They could find no secret door, so using finesse, they knocked the wall down. Eol led the way down a flight of stairs behind the newly exposed secret door. He found a locked door and a hallway with a couple of closed chests. He bashed one open and found a blue cloak, so he opened the next to find a bag of holding full of gold and a periapt of health.
The group then proceeded through the door and found a dungeon with several cells. One held an elven woman who would not come out of the cell for fear of being beaten. She indicated hundreds of people had come through this hallway and she was through with their games of giving her false hope of escape. Another cell held a pair of male humans who accused the party of being part of whatever group was holding them captive. The last cell held what they thought was a corpse but turned out to be a badly injured man. Morak healed him, and the man proved to be stark raving mad. The party offered to let the prisoners go free and indicated they could either flee or sit there, they didn’t care. Part of the group then opened the next doors while Lyrin and Grot remained behind, keeping an eye on the prisoners.
The next room was in shambles. Most of the floor had rotted away and fallen into the harbor, exposing a webwork of slippery timbers and supports up 10 ft. above the water. Within the water were numerous corpses as well as rusting blades and spears jutting out at all angles. Eol and Aker walked out on the timbers and were soon both bleeding in the water. Aker climbed a support post and got back on the timbers, while Eol threw a grapple up and pulled himself to a section of flooring. As Aker arrived on the same landing, something unseen attacked him viciously. Soon, Aker and Eol were engaged with unseen enemies in a fight for their lives. Morak cast godspeed and hurtled out across the beams, slipping and sliding, but at great speed. He balanced on the beams and cast healing spells on the injured half-elf and litorian. Then, in an amazing display of strength (and odd display of grace, for a dwarf), he lept across a five-foot span over the water and spears to land behind his allies and engage the invisible enemies.
Soon, the three battered and killed the two invisible stalkers and claimed the landing as a “safe” area. Using ropes, they assisted Grot and Lyrin in getting across. Once there, the went through a door into another room. Within, they found a strange situation. An opening in the floor led into a 10 ft. by 10 ft. shaft that plunged down 35 ft. to water. Bobbing in the water was a large, man-sized open barrel. A crude rope ladder descended along the side to the barrel. Using a rope, Eol was lowered into the barrel, which did nothing but bob about. After raising him back out of the shaft, the party realized they are now presented with a puzzle.
How will the heroes navigate the shaft and barrel conundrum? Check back next week.
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