After three hours of excitement, game session 28 of Age of Worms came to a close. Present characters included Eol Seregon (half-elf hexblade), Grot Bloodtunneler (shield dwarf warmain), Lyrin Sinbal (simian warmage), Valgen (human fighter), and one of the Character Pool characters, Carn Fodelfex (whisper gnome cleric).
Carn opened the night by casting water breathing, allowing the party to descend down the water-filled barrel shaft. Approximately 75 feet down (35 feet down the shaft to the water surface, 40 feet of water), the party discovered a passageway leading into a large room. Within they battled a giant octopus who was eventually slain by vicious stabbing and a number of magic missiles. The group found a lever to raise and lower the water level in the room, along with a platform accessible when the water and central lever-pillar were at their highest level. Carn and Valgen remained on the platform trying to get through a door, while the rest of the party drained the water and searched the room below. After busting down the door with a portable ram, Valgen found himself bull rushed by a doppelganger. He flew backward and tripped over Carn, plummeting 40 feet to the floor below. Fortunately, he just missed landing on Eol. The casters made short work of the doppelganger, and the group raised the water level back up to get to the platform.
The group moved into a hallway lined with numerous iron doors, including double iron doors on each end. They tried the doors, finding them locked except for the bathroom and a planning room behind the first set of double doors. Within a pair of doppelgangers attacked the front line, but Lyrin blasted them with a fireball, which also destroyed the paper contents of the room. The group found a secret door, but it only held a scattering of cloaks within. The team moved toward the other double doors, but Grot discovered (by plunging into it) that a large pit trap lay before the door. Carn used fly to investigate, while Eol attempted to climb down and Valgen feather fell in. Grot was not a the bottom of the 30-ft.-deep pit, but Valgen quickly discovered the floor was false, and he fell on through. After some doing, they found that the false floor hid another 30-ft. of pit, lined with spikes and a silence effect. As most of the party tried to climb ropes out, Lyrin stood looking over the edge. He was caught completely unaware and nearly bushwhacked by a pair of doppelgangers. He spun about as the second doppelganger untied the rope holding up Eol. As the half-elf skewered on a spike, Lyrin defensively cast his second fireball and turned his two adversaries into crispy critters. Unfazed, he turned back and helped his allies out of the pit.
The party busted open the other doors to find sleeping quarters for the doppelgangers. They then discovered a strange black-mirrored room filled with chairs. Manacled to the chairs were the members of the entire party screaming against their gags for freedom! They ungagged the bound Valgen who began swearing up and down that the Valgen with the party was an imposter and that he was the real Valgen. So, Valgen gagged him back. Riddled with doubt and suspicion, the group further tied up the manacled people and eyed one another warily. They discovered a secret door and decided to move on and deal with sorting out who is who later on. They then found a mirror maze whose reflections make the maze appear to go on endlessly.
The party now stands at the entrance of the maze looking back at their own reflections. Running through each of their minds is the thought that any number of their allies could actually be tied to a chair and ruthless doppelgangers walk with them waiting the right opportunity to plunge a dagger into their backs!
