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.