Charles Plemons' Blog

It was game session 20 of the Age of Worms campaign and the beginning of the third Adventure Path, The Encounter at Cromm’s Hold. The party found Smenk had stiffed them on his payment and skipped town. However, Delfen met them with eager excitement to see his apprentice alive and the party successful. However, he voiced concerns regarding one of his former apprentices, Marzena. A messenger delivering a letter to her had not returned, and Delfen asked Lyrin and company to ride the 18 miles from Daggerford to Cromm’s Hold to investigate.

The party travelled overland without incident, only to find the keep under siege by a group of 30 lizardfolk. The party approached on horseback and were spotted by some humans manning the battlements of the keep. The soldiers were soon signaling the party for help, and the lizardfolk noticed the approaching horses. Seeing reinforcements arrive, the lizardfolk redoubled their efforts to take the keep, with some attacking the door while others rained javelins up at the humans to keep them pinned down. A group broke away from the horde to face the coming cavalry.

Before the fighting could begin in earnest, Lyrin recited a spell from a scroll he had purchased the day before. For the first time in his life, Lyrin hurled a fireball! The globe exploded in orange- and yellow-hued glory, instantly killing numerous lizardfolk and sending several others twitching to the ground with mortal wounds. Heartened by its effectiveness, the party charged forward to meet the menace head on.

In a few moments, arrows from the party picked off the group of lizardfolk moving to engage. A second, and final, fireball scroll took down several more lizardfolk near the door of the keep. Morak galloped up close to the keep, dismounted and engaged the enemy toe-to-toe and was followed closely by dual-whip swinging Valgen and the stoic Thoril. Brutus split a lizardfolk in half as he pounced on him from off his horse, and then he re-mounted and drove the other lizardfolk into the waiting weapons of Valgen, Thoril and Morak. Cam continued his barrage of arrows from horseback, while Lyrin began picking off targets with magic missile.

The apparent leader of the lizardfolk led the survivors in a last desperate assault on the party, dealing damage to Morak and Valgen in the process. The ranks held, however, and the last lizardfolk was cut down. In but moments, what had seemed a menacing army lay charred, pierced, slashed or smashed on the ground. With their victory complete, the party turned toward the door of the keep to see about the defenders.

Game session 19 of the Age of Worms campaign is in the books. The party continued down into the deepest corridors of the caves of Bhaal to find Grallak Kur and his minions. The party fought for some time, with Valgen succumbing to cause fear and Brutus to hold person. Fortunately, both effects ended fairly quickly. The group succeeded in capturing Grallak and interrogating him; however, they had trouble finding useful questions to pose. Valgen inhaled some hallucinogenic mushroom vapors and had a bizarre vision about Bane, Bhaal, Myrkul and the Age of Worms.

Eventually, the party drew tired of interrogating Grallak and listening to him telling them the Overgod will rise if they kill him. So, they killed him. The group then left the caves and returned to the large pool room with the elevator, only to find the elevator smashed, and a six-armed, ogre-sized monstrosity splintering the last bits of the only exit.

This creature wheeled on the party and tore into them. It seemed to feed on magic and surged with unholy energy, making its wounds heal instantly and arrow and blade flow from its hide like water. The party’s newly discovered dwarven rage cleric nearly met death at the claws of the colossus, but a quick-thinking Valgen dragged him to safety. Lyrin found that fire did nothing to the beast, and Cam’s arrows proved a minor irritation. However, the combined pressure from the entire party wore down the monster’s stamina, and it eventually exploded in a burst of gore when finally chopped down.

The party made plans to scale the chains of the elevator to the mines above and escape back into the safety of Daggerford.

Game session 18 of the Age of Worms campaign ended with a bang! The party began the evening attempting to traverse a steep passage up into the darkness. Several of the party members found their armor particularly limiting and the going was slow. At the top of the passage, the group found a wide chamber protected by a pair of spear-toting grimlocks. Naturally, they yelled for reinforcements as they attacked the heroes.

After some interesting combat, a flood of grimlocks poured into the room and setup charges and flanks all through the party. The fighting was fierce but eventually the heroes vanquished the enemy. Unfortunately, they were yet to encounter the grimlock chieftain.

This massive, raging grimlock came charging from his cave yelling praises to Bhaal and swinging a nasty greataxe. A single, horrendous blow sent Brutus to the ground searching for Oblivion. Only the quick thinking of Valgen saved his life; the whip-warrior uncorked a potion vial and force-fed his critically injured ally. The blonde elven bombshell, Cam, went toe-to-toe with the chieftain and suffered terrible injuries for his efforts. The spellcasting prodigies, Jimmy and Lyrin, pelted the chieftain with spells while Thoril dropped back to rain arrows from afar.

Finally, spells brought down the axe-swinging behemoth. Little Jimmy Firespark then ran over and bashed its skull with his fearsome quarterstaff.

Licking its wounds, the party has holed up in the chieftain’s quarters in an effort to camp and recover their strength. A single, dark passageway winds down into the darkness outside his chambers. Where will it lead, and what evils await below?

It was game session 17 of the Age of Worms campaign this week. A re-grouped party, joined by two new members, pressed further into the caves of Bhaal. The grimlock archers hounding the party at the ledge were eventually neutralized with a barrage of arrows, bolts and spells.

After traversing the cliff face to the cavern floor, the group fought off a pair of chokers intent on turning the band into dinner. After dispatching the chokers, the party turned their attentions to the rope lattice above the choker lair and found it guarded by a grimlock barbarian and three grimlock warriors.

Spells flew, arrows zinged, and potions were quaffed. By the end of the carnage, the entire party remained standing, and all of the grimlocks lay dead. Of course, the party conducted an obligatory search of the bodies and moved on.

Now, the group stands at the top of the rope lattice gazing upward into darkness at a narrow passage winding sharply into the unknown.

Thursday’s Age of Worms game presented the party with several obstacles. The party left the labyrinth and proceeded into the caves of Bhaal. They descended into a stalagmite filled cavern guarded by a trio of sightless grimlocks. After a quick skirmish, the party defeated the group and moved further into the caves.

Soon, a second cavern presented itself, also filled with stalagmites and stalactites. This larger room also led to a drop off plunging 45 feet straight down into the darkness. Within the room lurked a pair of krenshars and a grimlock kennel master wearing a dire ape pelt as a cloak and a blood-red wolf skull for a mask. His gleaming axe nearly killed Krismorel, but her renewal saved her. Valgen found himself scared of one of the krenshars and spent some time fleeing from it. Several attacks and spells like spiritual weapon, flaming sphere and magic missile later, the krenshars and grimlocks were slain.

While investigating the edge of the drop off, the party found iron spiked had been driven into the stone wall making it possible (although treacherous) to descend. Unfortunately, Firsta and Lyrin discovered there were archers somewhere down in the darkness, and Valgen had to drag Lyrin’s dying corpse to safety for revival by Krismorel. Unfortunately, Firsta was not so lucky; he was flying over the chasm when the archers attacked, and he plummeted to his death. Krismorel used a precious scroll to unleash her only silence spell upon Valgen who then attempted to use a rope to descend into the darkness. His bulky armor interfered, and he fell. He had 45 feet of rope to play out, and the fall was 45 feet (a little less with the stalagmites sticking up). Valgen slammed into the ground with an absolutely silent crash.

Krismorel attempted to follow Valgen down, but she was hit by arrows from the archers and fell from the rope. She did not survive the impact of the fall. Lyrin stayed back from the chasm to await reinforcements or signs of life from his allies. Valgen quickly searched the bodies of Krismorel and Firsta to collect items to help him escape and fortunately found a potion of gaseous form, which allowed him to return to Lyrin. The pair fell back to a secure area to nurse their wounds and mourn the death of their companions.

Thursday’s Age of Worms game went well. The party continued its exploration of the temple of Myrkul, investigating the bedroom used by the slain acolytes of Myrkul. They also discovered a storage room filled with foodstuffs and other supplies. While most of the party was in the acolyte bedroom, Fruos pulled out his portable ram and charged through a door on the other side of the temple. Within, he found himself face-to-face with a huge centipede, two more acolytes, and the Faceless One himself! Fruos attempted to withdraw, but he was caught by a color spray effect, beaten on by a summoned fiendish ape and then stabbed to death with daggers.

Several party members tried to come to his rescue but found themselves grappled by the spirits trapped within the pillars of the main temple. The Faceless One and his cronies drove the party back with lightning bolt and summon monster spells. Eventually, the Faceless One caught them in the hallway trying to flee the temple and hit Thoril with another lightning bolt as he opened a door. The party moved into position and succeeded in flanking and killing the evil wizard and another acolyte.

A search of the Faceless One’s laboratory revealed several items of interest, including the key which allowed the group to read the cipher scroll. They also recovered a few items of magical power and some bit of treasure. Goodbyes were said to the fallen half-orc barbarian (i.e. they looted his corpse) and the party made camp in the store room after emptying some of its contents.