Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for September 27, 2007; present characters included Ashkor (lizardfolk barbarian/battle sorcerer/dragon disciple/fighter), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Stormwind Abthek (illumian soulknife), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger), Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor), and Thoril Songsteel (human thug).

The Mercenaries set out further across the sea of worms after Lyrin dropped his wall of fire. They discovered a pair of locked doors, and so they knocked on them. After a few moments, they heard shuffling and creaking on the other side as well as mumbling and swords being drawn. Ashkor smashed through the doors and found himself face-to-face with a trio of Kyuss knights. They immediately began hacking away with their unholy swords and damaging his mind with their intelligence-draining eye-worms.

The rest of the group moved in quickly, with Syvarius laying down a steady rain of arrows. Lyrin attempted to use ionize on the creatures and found them unaffected by the electrical magic. Taravin marched in with his glowing holy sword, Lightbringer, and drew the attacks from several of the knights. Their eye-mouths dripped drool as they longed to rend the flesh of the paladin. In the end, the team rather easily dispatched the trio.

Afterward, the party went to investigate another room and discovered a spellweaver lich! In no time, hostilities erupted. The Mercenaries soon discovered the lich’s apparently frail body was stronger than steel and resisted their weapon attacks. In addition to this resistance, the lich’s innate aura of fear proved too terrifying for Ashkor and Syvarius, driving both into a blind panic away from the room. The rest of the team pressured the lich and backed it against a wall. However, it surprised everyone when it isolated a small portion of the party within using a wall of force.

Things looked bleak for Aridarye and Stormwind, trapped as they were with a lich protected by displacement. Fortunately, Lyrin’s knowledge of all things arcane provided an answer, and he disintegrated the wall of force. With the barrier removed, Iapetus’ silence spell hampered spellcasting from the lich. This allowed the party to batter the creature with melee attacks, but they discovered its damage reduction and displacement were tremendously effective. The party tried to grapple the lich but ended up with Stormwind paralyzed and the undead sorcerer moving about freely. The lich then positioned itself near Morak (and far from Iapetus) and unleashed a prismatic spray!

The rainbow of energy flooded the room, catching those within. Fortunately, Syvarius and Ashkor were safe (having fled earlier), Morak was behind the lich, and Lyrin was out in the hallway beyond harm’s way. The others were not as fortunate. Scathing acid tore into Stormwind and flames whipped about Taravin. Iapetus took the full force of a yellow ray and its electrical blast. Aridarye was bathed in a green ray and succumbed to a lethal poison instantly. An insidious violet ray caught Thoril full on, and he disappeared. Unknown to the party at the time, he was transported into the Plane of Negative Energy where he met an almost immediate and truly excruciating death.

After seeing this blast, Lyrin sealed his allies in the room with the lich using a blade barrier. Of course, it sealed the lich in as well. The lich then jockeyed around the room with the survivors a bit and ended up far from Iapetus and his globe of silence once again. It unleashed a chain lightning at the giant, but he evaded the blast. All of his allies took the brunt of the secondary bolts, however.

Taravin, Morak and Iapetus moved to pin the lich into the corner and prevent it from casting. They succeeded in driving it back, but it reached out and paralyzed Iapetus with its horrific touch. As he fell to the ground, the lich attempted to slip past. The paladin slapped the monster with the full force of his lay on hands, filling the undead with positive energy. Having just taken a brutal hit from one of Lyrin’s hunter missiles, the lich was in bad shape. It continued to try to move, but a raging Morak Beardfist chopped it down with his magical battlehammer.

In the aftermath, a new vision filled their minds. Then the Mercenaries took everything of value while Morak restored Aridarye to life. The fleeing party members were brought back, and the team holed up in the slain lich’s lair to nurse their wounds. Where shall they go from here? Are there additional dangers lurking beneath the Spire of Long Shadows?

Game summary for September 13, 2007; present characters included Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Stormwind Abthek (illumian soulknife), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger), Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor), and Thoril Songsteel (human thug).

The Mercenaries decided to explore the water chamber before going through the unopened doors. They heard noises within, so Lyrin cast two walls of fire along a walkway going over the worm-filled water. Stormwind and Syvarius had moved out onto the bridge when one of the walls of fire was suddenly dispelled. A pair of wormcallers attacked, dropping a flame strike on Stormwind. The soulknife illumian ran for cover while Lyrin launched a fireball at one of the wormcallers. Unfortunately, something seemed to absorb the energy leaving the undead menace unscathed.

With an explosion of water and worms, a gigantic Kyuss worm (an overworm) burst from the water and swallowed Syvarius. While the bulk of the party fell back into the main chamber and used spells to boost their abilities, Syvarius transformed into gold dragon form and tore his way free of the overworm’s stomach. He then began to cling to the worm’s hide. Iapetus and Aridarye used spells such as invisibility, good hope and haste to boost their allies, and Morak used a combination of spells such as bless, mass resist energy, and reach cure critical wounds to aid friends and harass enemies. All the while, the wormcallers blasted away with empowered rays of slashing darkness, and the overworm flooded Stormwind’s mind with horrid images of Kyuss and worms.

Thoril snorted a dose of the powdery magical ogre piss the party took from the trolls days before. He surged with power, doubling height, gaining tremendous strength and going into an absolute rage. He advanced out onto the bridge and was soon waist deep in the overworm’s mouth! This did not deter the raging thug, as he pumped his sword arm vigorously, piercing and electrocuting with his lightning sword. Lyrin discovered his ionize had no effect upon the wormcallers, but his maximized hunter missile blasted a hole right through one.

Flipping his bastard sword over in mid-stride, Taravin charged down the side of the bridge and leaped out over the worms toward the overworm. With a triumphant shout, he plunged his blade to the hilt in a truly devastating blow. The worm writhed in agony and gnashed its razored teeth into Thoril, still clutched in its mouth. Iapetus ran out and jumped on the overworm as well and began poking away with Stalker desperately trying to slay the beast. Syvarius continued to bite chunks out of the overworm with his draconic teeth, turning his golden muzzle into a fearsome blood-slicked mask.

Frustrated Lyrin hit one wormcaller with disintegrate and caused it to turn to dust. Its ancient armor plunged into the worm-infested waters. Meanwhile, Morak was dispelling the air walk from the other wormcaller, and it crashed into the bridge and met its final death. Aridarye attempted to use encourage failure on the overworm, but it seemed unaffected. Then, the dwarven battlepriest unleashed a flame strike on the back of the overworm, killing it. As it sank into the water, Syvarius flew his allies to the safety of the walkway.

The roaring flames of Lyrin’s wall of fire drowns out the sound of the worms swarming in the water. Ahead, the pathway ends and crumbles into the water. What lies across the gap? Do more overworms lurk beneath the water’s surface?

Game summary for September 6, 2007; present characters included Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger), Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor), Thoril Songsteel (human thug), and Zebaum Whitefeather (wood elf druidic avenger/ranger).

Syvarius tied together several ropes, and he, Thoril and Morak went down into the central hole in the ziggurat. Approximately sixty feet down, they discovered a cave opening and entered. Soon, the entire party was brought down into the cave. After exploring for a bit, they were attacked by a pair of worm nagas who struck Taravin and Thoril dumb with feeblemind. Despite this, the party was able to descimate the nagas with deadly sword blows and burning spells. In no time, the worm nagas lay dead. Further exploration of the cave revealed nothing of interest, so Syvarius was sent on to scout.

The central hole went down around five hundred feet into darkness. At the bottom was a man-made chamber covered with teeming Kyuss worms. Syvarius returned to the surface to report to the party. While Morak used heal on Thoril, Lyrin unleashed every fireball he had into the hole in a catastrophic conflagration of fiery destruction. They then waited until Morak could heal Taravin.

At the bottom of the hole, the team found the worms destroyed by Lyrin’s rain of fire. To one side, they could see closed double doors down a hallway. To the other a chamber filled with perfectly preserved corpses lying head-to-toe in neat rows. Ahead seemed to be the undulating waves of lapping water. The Mercenaries opted to investigate the corpses and found fifty in the room. A faint necromantic aura radiated in the chamber. In the room next door lay another fifty bodies, but these were decayed to a skeletal state. A hallway from this room lead to more double doors and a side passage.

The group went to the side passage and discovered the floor had given way into the water; however, the surface of the liquid writhed with Kyuss worms. Lyrin blasted them with electricity, but in moments the worms had been replaced. The Mercenaries opted to leave the water alone and went back to the first set of double doors they had found. They opened the doors and found a temple dedicated to the Wormgod. Instead of an altar, a black-stoned fountain rested in the middle bubbling with clear blue water. Several of the party realized there was no water within but instead it bubbled with Kyuss worms! Syvarius, searching the room, seemed overcome by the fountain and dove face first within, slurping away at the worms. Taravin grabbed his ankles and wrenched him from the fountain, but Zebaum took his place. Within moments, both men were able to regain their senses and spit out all the worms.

After a moment of discussion, the Mercenaries decided they should investigate the other double doors. What horrors await behind them?