# Wormsnacks: An Age of Worms story hour (updated 9/4)



## dungeon blaster (May 25, 2006)

The following journal is an account of the adventures of my Age of Worms campaign, set in Greyhawk. The campaign began in late March, with the characters starting off at 3rd level (because I heard that the AP was quite difficult).

The Players

Ehrune of Dyvers (swash 2/wiz 3) - a daring swashbuckler with a fascination for magic, and increasingly interested in necromancy. Ehrune works as Allustan's gardner, housekeeper, manservant, and hopeful apprentice. Treasured possession: _wand of magic missile_ (CL 3rd, 50 charges)

Lindingar of the Frostfells (spirit shm 4) - halfling spirit shaman seeking adventure. Lindingar has been spending the last several months at the Bronzewood Lodge. Treasured possession: _boots of the winterlands_

Etherik McCarr (warl 4) - a pragmatic warlock seeking to unravel the mysterious of his eldritch powers. Etherik works at the Emporium as a 'freak'. Treasured possession: _ring of protection +1_

Hiro  (clr 3) - a hulking half-orc cleric of Hieroneous. Treasured possession: _his faith_

Link to Rogues Gallery


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## dungeon blaster (May 25, 2006)

1 Reaping, 595 CY.

The adventure began like any other. Burdened with unpaid debts, living by the sweat off one's back, wishing for a way out.

A group of adventures had been hanging around town for the last few days, spending gold as if they had an endless supply, frquenting the local pubs, and asking questions about the cairns nestled away in the hills. Nothing new about that; treasure hunters abound in this area, all thinking they will find a 'long lost cairn' filled with riches untold. Yet this group seemed different, like they were really on to something. Until the burly fighter spouted something about the 'Stirgenest Cairn' and Ehrune realized that they were just another group of addle-brained dungeon delvers. Everyone knew the Stirgenest Cairn was looted long ago. Obviously these folk didn't do their proper research, unlike Ehrune, who preferred careful planning before an expedition. 'Course he hadn't exactly planned carefully enough to avoid going to jail and being sentenced to two years hard labor in the Diamond Lake mines. He'd probably still be there now if it weren't for the local sage Allustan recognizing the young miscreant's potential and convincing the mayor to give him probation.

Ehrune couldn't help but wonder if any undiscovered cairns did exist...unlikely as that may be. If he got ahold of some old maps, perhaps he could find something overlooked by others. Hey, it had happened before, this could just be his night.


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## dungeon blaster (May 25, 2006)

Ehrune knew he had found something special. Well, rather, the local cartogropher had found something special, but is was all on account of Ehrune pushing and prodding him to look over his oldest maps for signs of undiscovered cairns. And there it was, scrawled in a barely legible hand and marked with a small triangle, 'Whispering Cairn'.

Of course, a copy of the map was neccessary, and the old cartogropher didn't part with one easily. Said he was looking forward to retirement. He asked for a half-share, but Ehrune bargained him down to a third-share. Map in hand, Ehrune set forth to gather a posse. Even a mud-headed half-orc knew that exploring bandit-infested lands alone was apt to end poorly. 'Riches and fame await the bold. Expedition to undiscovered cairn. Only the strong of body, heart, and mind need apply. Meet at the Menhirs after dusk' he wrote on a small note and passed around. He guessed that most of the people who would show would just be there out of curiousity, but he hoped that a few would have the talents he required.

At dusk they arrived, alone or in small groups. He counted forty-three people in all, most of them miners and of no use to him. They waited for him to speak and he spoke, describing in vague terms what he had planned. Most of the people left after a few minutes, but a few lingered, and he spoke with these people one-on-one. By midnight he had found only one who was both willing to join him and possessed useful abilities. It was one of the men from the Emporium. He said his name was Etherik and that he had magical powers. 'Like a wizard?' 'No.' 'Like a sorcerer.' 'No.' 'Then what are you?' 'Don't know.'

It wasn't a good start, but it was a start.


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## dungeon blaster (May 25, 2006)

2 Reaping, 595 CY.

The two set out the next morning for the Bronzewood Lodge. They had heard of a local guide who helped the Free City Adventurers, as they were being called, and might be willing to be their guide. Once at the Lodge, they requested a meeting with the guide. Quite unexpectedly, a halfling clothed in dirty animal hide stepped forth and greeted them. He called himself Lindingar of the Frostfells and said that he had served as guide to the last group of adventurers, and if given the map and a few gold for his efforts, could assist them in finding the Whispering Cairn.

By late afternoon they reached the area of the Cairn Hills where the Whispering Cairn was supposedly located. It took some searching, but eventually they found a weed enshrouded entrance in one of the hills, along with several wolf tracks. Ehrune asked Lindingar to join them in explorign the Cairn, even offering him a share of the treasure, but the halfling shaman refused, citing some nonsense about disturbing the dead, and how money wasn't important to him . 'But think of the spirits that might be in there?' Ehrune mused. In the end, Lindingar agreed and the three treasure hunters entered the cairn.

Their first encounter with dangerous adversaries came relatively early on while exploring the cairn entrance. After finding a tattered bedroll and a strange relic that looked like part of a mirror frame, they were set upon by a trio of ravenous wolves, the alpha wolf bearing a deep scar across its muzzle. Lindingar stepped forward, cooing softly to the ferocious beasts. 'Don't worry, I am a friend of animals!' Lindingar proudly proclaimed. Unfortunately, these wolves hadn't eaten in a week and weren't about to let a little friendship get in the way of a full belly. Ehrune moved to defend the poor halfling, stabbing somewhat wildly at the wolves with his rapier. Although they managed to slay the wolves, they were not without injuries of their own. Ehrune took a particularly nasty bite (for 12 points of damage, nearly dropping him into the negatives.) Animal friend hmm? Riiiiight.

Their first encounter a victory (well, they didn't die at least), the trio continued their exploration of the enigmatic Whispering Cairn. Sibilant voices seemed to emanate from the walls, speaking in an unknown language (doooo not seeek the treasuuuure). Well, it was treasure they sought, and treasure they would find or so help them!

Further exploration revealed a collapsed alcove (nothing there, waste of time), the wolf den (containing a colored lantern) and an alcove featuring a fresco of seven halls with seven lit lanterns of varying colors. The main passageway continued further down, but was obscured by old cobwebs, and we all know that cobwebs are impassable, right? Not for this hardy band of heroes!

Beyond the cobwebs, they discovered the seven halled chamber depicted in the fresco, in the center of which rested a large stone sarcophagus. Wisely deciding NOT to open the sarcophagus, the group instead investigated the various alcoves. A strange green light emanated from the north-most alcove, but turned out to merely be a green lantern (sans cosmic powers or cool rings) with an everburning candle inside. Turns out that several of the alcoves had lanterns of their own, of various colors and all of them unlit, but two alcoves were missing their lanterns. Careful searching revealed that the sarcophagus rested on an arrow-shaped platform that could spin...so the adventuers pushed the sarcophagus with all their brawny might. The platform slowly began to spin, clicking as the arrow pointed at each of the alcoves. Upon reaching the alcove containing the green lantern, a sudden screech and an ominous rumbling emerged from the alcove. A moment later, a strange steel cylinder arose out of the alcove floor and a door slid open.

Ehrune looked with concern at the device. 'some kind of mechanical contraption, I believe'

'yep' Lindingar answered, as if he knew a thing about mechanical contraptions.

The trio decided to test the strange device by placing a large, heavy rock inside. The door slid shut and the device sank back into the floor, screeching in protest all the while. They waited for something to happen.

Nothing.

'Let's try spinning the coffin some more', suggested Lindingar.

So, they continued to spin the platform, causing another cylinder to rise from a different alcove. Finally they had made a full rotation and landed the arrow back on the green alcove, and the screeching began anew. Only this time it sounded far, far worse.

'probably the rock'.

With a screeching crash, the elavator collapsed, plummeting to the floor below. Moments later, a swarm of beetled erupted from the shaft, causing the trio to flee in panic. These were no ordinary beetles. Each was the size of a man's hand, with a shiny greenish-black carapace, and exuded a noxious, burning stench. Acid beetles. What's worse, a strange aberration called a mad slasher (like a crab with one freakin' huge eye) emerged from the shaft and raced towards the fleeing adventurers. Proving once again that you only need to be faster than your slowest friend, the taller and unarmored Ehrune and Etherik quickly outpaced the armored halfling. Damn stubby halfling legs! I suppose it was the thought of their new companion's impending gruesome death, or perhaps it was the realization that they didn't know how to get home, but the two fleet-footed adventurers attempted to buy the halfling some time by attacking the mad slasher with eldrtich blasts and magic missiles. It worked. The slasher was near dead by the time it reached them and a couple more blasts finished it off.

'Er, how does it eat?' Ehrune wondered.

But it wasn't the time for an anatomy lesson, as a swarm of acid beetles continued to give chase. The trio high-tailed it out of the Cairn, not looking back until they had reached Diamond Lake.


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## dungeon blaster (May 25, 2006)

*Caught between a rock and a hard face*

4 Reaping, 595 CY

After restocking much-needed supplies, Ehrune and Etherik returned to the Cairn with a new companion in tow. He was an oiled and muscled ex-gladiator-turned-mine merchant bodyguard named Ferros, and he looked capable of handling whatever the Cairn threw at them; or so they hoped. They were only three instead of four because Lindingar had to take care of some business back at the Bronzewood Lodge, although he promised to join them as soon as he could (the player wasn’t at the session). Ehrune remembered Ferros from that first meeting a few nights ago. Why hadn’t he offered his services then?

Once they were back at the Cairn, Ehterik made a gruesome discovery. The three wolves they had slain were now completely devoid of flesh or tissue, their skeletons gleaming as if bathed in acid (which they were). Etherik grabbed alpha wolf’s skull and tucked it into his pack. Further on they found the skeleton of the mad slasher. Ehrune overturned the slasher’s skeleton. ‘Ah, that must be where its mouth was’.

A quick deliberation turned into a solid plan. Pour oil around the edge of the shaft, call out the beetles, and burn the sh*t outta them! The plan worked. The beetle swarm exited the shaft and was immediately doused with flaming oil and alchemist’s fire. Ferros assisted with the flat part of his shovel. Once the beetle threat had been neutralized, the trio clambered down the acid-pitted shaft, trying not to gag on the acrid fumes. At the bottom of the shaft they found several rooms populated with more acid beetles. With fire in hand, the beetles were more a nuisance than a threat, but the same could not be said for the two giant bombardier beetles they encountered. In the ensuing melee, one of the bombardier beetles let loose a stream of acid directly into the warlock’s face. He screamed in pain as his attractive features marred somewhat, but managed to continue to fight until both beetles were slain. In one of the side rooms they noticed a statue holding a hammer and a smashed skeleton. ‘hmmm…now what could that be? Survey says: a trap!’ Hooking the statue’s arm with a grappling hook, they yanked the statue down and cheered in victory! Considering how much of the Cairn yet lay unexplored, they shouldn’t have declared ‘mission accomplished’ quite so soon.

Continued exploration revealed a room with a basin containing a hardened orange sludge that the beetles had evidently turned into a nest. Digging through the paper-mache-like substance, they discovered several potions of healing and a magical ring with a feather motif. Sweet! Magic items R0x0r!

Further down the main corridor, they discovered a water-filled stairway. Etherik cheerfully began to wash the acidic spray off his mangled mug, failing to notice the water beside him coalescing into a fist. KAPOW! Right in the friggin’ eye! He stumbled back as the insane water elemental readied to give him another shiner.

Deciding that they didn’t have the proper tools to defeat a creature of living water, the group backtracked to the lantern room. They hadn’t explored wherever the yellow lantern elevator went to, so that seemed like the next logical choice. It led to a series of rooms, one of which contained more orange oatmeal and a thick layer of brown mold. They noticed that the mold seemed to grow as they approached it. Interesting. It also seemed attracted to the heat of their torch. Even more interesting. Perhaps we should throw our torch on it and see what happens. Very interesting. Well, not so much interesting as a total disaster. They barely made it out of the room alive as the mold exploded outward with burst of frigid cold that drained the heat from their bones. At least one lessoned was learned: fire + beetles = good. Fire + mold = BAD.

Once again, in what would become a recurring theme, the adventurers retreated. There was only a couple possible areas to explore, until they found a way past the water elemental and the mold that is. The first was a third elevator, although they didn’t particularly want to test it since they had found a skeleton inside with a smashed skull and some dried blood on the ceiling of the elevator. Their other option was an opening near the ceiling of one of the alcoves, a good 50’ up and accessible via the lantern chain. The found a skeleton on the floor of that alcove, too. Two paths, two skeletons.

A group huddle decided in favor of the opening, so a couple of climb checks later saw them at the entrance of a long, straight corridor extending beyond the scope of their vision. Slowly and methodically, the group moved down the passageway, taking care not to set off any tripwires, pressure plates, that sort of thing. Of course, none of them being thieves or having more than a couple ranks in Search, it really didn’t mean beans. They were fubar’d from the start. They saw at the end of the corridor a large stone face, mouth agape, with fist-sized crystals for eyes.

Ehrune: ‘Judging from the position of the mouth and the location of the skeleton below, I posit that this is some sort of trap that uses a force, wind perhaps, to deposit one over the far edge of this corridor. What should we do?’

Etherik: ‘Keep going’

Keep going they did. Right up until the point when the stone face’s eyes lit up with the care-bear stare of death. Although none of them failed their Will save, one by one they began to slide towards the opening at the far end. Ehrune, having given the ring of feather fall to Ferros, was of course the first to plummet off the edge to the cold stone floor 50 feet below. It wasn’t the fall that hurt so much as the landing…and then the second landing when Etherik fell on top of him, plunging him into the negatives. Ferros, of course, fared much better and was able to resuscitate the feebly twitching swashbuckler-mage using the healing potions they had found. Realizing that once again they were unprepared to venture further, the group returned to Diamond Lake.


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## Fiasco (May 26, 2006)

This is a very entertaining writeup. Keep it up!


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## the Jester (May 26, 2006)

I agree, so far I really like this!


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## dungeon blaster (May 26, 2006)

*I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!*

Back at Diamond Lake, Ehrune ran off to go see his master, Allustan, while Etherik ambled over to the Feral Dog, a local pub of some repute (but none of it good). Ferros skulked away, magical ring still on hand.

The Feral Dog was the kind of pub you visit when you just want to relax, unwind, and maybe stab someone over a game of dragon ante. Mostly miners frequented the establishment, drinking away their hard-earned coppers in a haze of self-pity and depression. Fights were common, be they dog fights in the ring or just a couple of locals going at it. All in all, the place was a complete dump, run by dishonest thieves and frequented by unwashed yokels. It was Etherik's kind of place.

He took a seat at the bar, as usual. You see, he didn't really have any friends, except for Shag the Gentleman Quaggoth back at the Emporium, and so he couldn't really take a table all to himself, nor was he going to share space with some dirty miner who would probably recognize him as one of the 'Emporium freaks'. Besides, the bar offered some good seating to watch the dog fights that occurred on the lower floor. A large hole with a short wood rail allowed tavern patrons to watch the fight without falling in. Luckily for Etherik, there would be just such a fight that night.

He was on his third drink, the dog fight had just begun, and he was starting to feel good when Lindingar appeared beside him. The little halfling clearly was uncomfortable with the concept of two animals tearing each other to bits for the enjoyment of the spectators, but there was obviously little he could do about it. Lindingar grimaced, but remained silent.

The fight didn't last long; the resident champion 'Killer' proved his namesake true. Money changed hands and more drinks were ordered. An argument between two miners over a bet escalated into a fight, and then into an all-out bar room brawl with Etherik and Lindingar caught right in the middle! Fists, chairs, and mugs flying, the two attempted to extricate themselves from the mess. However, once one of the drunks fell into the pit, Lindingar realized that his unique skills could save the man's life and he leapt into the pit. 'Killer' had already begun to savage the poor guy, who could only shield his face with his arms and cry out for help. Lindingar slowly approached the feral dog, calling out to it with soothing words....goood doggy...nice doggy. His words, assisted with the magic of a charm animal spell, did the job. After healing the wrecked man, Lindingar, along with his new animal friend, bolted up the stairs to the main floor and headed towards the front door. Unbeknownst to the halfling, bets had been placed on the dog versus the drunk, and Lindingar’s interference wasn’t looked on kindly. He realized that he had done something wrong when the large albino half-orc at the end of the bar stood up and began moving straight towards him, scowling and clenching his fists in an ‘i’m gonna pummel you into halfling paste’ kind of way. Behind the half-orc followed a couple of toughs, one a wiry looking goon with matted hair and a sickly complexion, the other a burly warrior with large, meaty arms. The half-orc’s name was Kullen and he was notoriously violent. He and the other two were local toughs in the employ of one of the mine managers, Balabar Smenk. No one messed with these guys, except maybe forces from the Garrison, and even they didn’t tangle with Smenk.

Etherik saw the impending disaster and moved to assist his companion. The two (and ‘Killer’) fled the tavern, hiding behind the church of St. Cuthbert until the coast was clear. For Etherik, hiding behind a church was the closest he had ever come to a "religious experience".

‘what should I call him?’ Lindingar asked?

‘what?’

‘my dog! What should I call him?’

‘uh…kujo?’

‘….how about Feral?’

‘sure, whatever. Just make sure you keep him in check. That charm spell won’t last forever.’
Lindingar nuzzled up to the mangy dog, its fur still matted in human and dog blood. ‘yes, you’re a good Feral, aren’t you? Yes you are!’ Feral licked him with a wet, bloody tongue.


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## dungeon blaster (May 26, 2006)

Meanwhile, Ehrune had met with his master, Allustan, and traded some shards of a strange black stone he had found in the Cairn for the permission to copy the ray of frost spell from Allustan’s spellbook. Allustan examined the glyphs Ehrune discovered in the Cairn; he didn’t know what they meant, but guessed that they were personal glyphs.

It was about this time that Ehrune attempted to recover his magic ring and things took a turn for the weird.

The swashbuckling mage met with Ferros to discuss the terms of the ring's return to its rightful owner. Ferros demanded 500 gp as payment for his services, which seemed like an awful lot of money for an awful little amount of service. Ehrune said he’d think on it, but would like to hold the ring until the matter was settled. Ferros looked at him like he was nuts and began walking from Allustan’s back to his pad. 

Etherik, who had just been walking up the path at that moment and saw that the ring was still on Ferros’s finger, decided that if Ferros was dead it would be pretty easy to get the ring back. So he hit him with an eldritch blast. At this point several jaws dropped around the game table. Wait, what just happened? Did this minor encounter suddenly turn into a Player vs. Player combat? Did it just get brought?!

Etherik and Ferros attacked each other relentlessly, eldritch blast versus one-hand-wielded bastard sword, with a few magic missiles thrown in the mix by Ehrune. It looked bad for both of them, with the next successful hit likely to drop the other, when Allustan finally appeared and declared the fight a draw with a deep slumber spell (yeah, half-elves are technically immune, but we forgot). The local sheriff and his men arrested Etherik and off to jail he and Ferros went. As they were being arrested, Ferros looked to Etherik and solemnly vowed that the next time they met, he would kill him. Etherik just wrote Ferros’s name on his list of ‘people to whom I hold a grudge and must eventually destroy’ (the list is starting to grow long, as he is much better at making enemies than destroying them).

Of course, its pretty hard to contain a warlock that can blast through metal bars (given time), create darkness at will, and climb like a spider. The point being, he escaped the jail and became an official ‘escaped criminal’. This turn of events would have lasting repercussions.


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## dungeon blaster (May 28, 2006)

*I see undead people*

5 Reaping, 595 CY

Ehrune, Etherik, and Lindingar returned to the Cairn the next morning, intent on further exploring its innermost secrets. Back down the yellow elevator, Ehrune unleashed a couple ray of frost spells on the brown mold, destroying it. Past the mold they found another chamber, and inside stood a strange black stone ‘egg’ on a red metal pedestal. A gold triangular symbol was etched into the face of the egg. As Etherik moved to examine the egg, it suddenly moved, uncurling itself as a man who was sitting on his haunches would stand. It spoke in a harsh, grating tongue that sounded like stone scraping stone, but whatever the hell it said no one could understand. The halfling spirit shaman closed his eyes and concentrated, stretching out his will, feeling for the presence of spirits…he felt it! It was a spirit of the earth, an elemental! Suddenly, the creature struck out at Etherik with a stony fist, driving the wind out of him and causing him to let out a grunt of pain.

‘Two can play at that game!’ Lindingar shouted as he summoned the power to chastise the elemental. ‘I chastise you! Bad elemental!’ Blue energy crackled through the elemental, flaring in the cracks of its rocky carapace and blasting it into small shards.

‘Whoa.’ Ehrune had never seen THAT before.

‘Spirits are my specialty’, Lindingar grinned.

At the other end of the room stood a statue, and in one of its hands it held a stone rod. Etherik noticed that the rod bore six evenly space grooves, as if it were segmented like a worm. ‘not magical’ Etherik answered before Ehrune could finish asking.

A thorough examination of an adjoining room revealed an already-sprung trap, a few curious valuables, and what appeared to the be springer of said trap, clearly long dead and flat as a pancake. The three small statuettes were not magical, but the two wands, the goggles, and the mangled chainmail glowed in Etheriks magic detecting vision. Magic items.  Sweeeet.

‘Dibs!’ Lindingar yelled as he grabbed the goggles and put them on. He turned to the others. ‘so, what’dya think?’ 

With the goggles on, the halfling looked like a miniature version of professor Trelawny, his magnified eyes the size of oranges.

‘it suits you.’ Ehrune chuckled.

The halfling took a step and stumbled, barely grabbing the goggles as they slipped off. ‘I think they’re better for looking at things up close.’

With the area fully explored, the trio decided to go back to the green lantern alcove and see if Lindingar could work some mojo on the water elemental. The halfling stared intently at the water until he could make out the vague form of the elemental lurking just under the surface. Summoning his power of spirits, he yelled, ‘I chastise you! Bad elemental! Bad, bad elemental!’ A surge of blue energy exploded outward and the elemental was no more.

Ehrune whistled. ‘God damn that is useful. Now to tackle our next problem. Who here can swim besides me?’

Lindingar and Ehterik looked at each other, then back at Ehrune.

‘Riiiight.’

After some deliberation, the group came up with a plan involving tying a rope around Ehrune and yanking him back to safety should harm befall him.

‘How will we know if harm befalls you?” Lindingar was a bit puzzled by the idea, and doubted that he would be much use if it came to hauling Ehrune with the rope.

‘Oh, you’ll know.’ Ehrune grimaced as he cast a light cantrip upon his rapier.

The water lapped gently against the stone stairs, black as night. Ehrune dipped a toe in and withdrew it suddenly, gasping.

Lindingar scanned for spirits but found nothing. ‘what is it?!’ 

‘it’s….cold!’

‘you’ve obviously never taken a bath at the Emporium’ Etherik responded.

Ehrune ever so slowly lowered himself into the water, gasping and squirming all the while. He took a deep breath, submerged completely, and began to swim down the underwater stairwell. The bluish-white light of his spell provided a feeble illumination and did nothing to assuage the claustrophobia and fear that stirred within his gut. In fact, it only worsened it. Ehrune soon discovered that the stairwell led to a large shower room, completely submerged of course. He had just begun investigating, and his lungers were already starting to ache, when suddenly something grabbed his ankle! He spun around, the light from his rapier revealing a bloated, rotting hand attached to an equally bloated, equally rotting body. Ehrune let out a scream of terror and with his free hand yanked on the rope as hard as he could. Just as the creature clawed at him with its other rotted hand, the rope went taught.

‘Pull!’ Etherik pulled on the rope, digging his boots into the stone floor in an attempt to gain some traction. ‘Pull damnit!’

‘I am pulling!’ the halfling wheezed as he devoted all of his 41 lbs to the effort.

‘Well pull harder!’

The rope had suddenly yanked, almost out of their hands. Ehrune was right; they WOULD know when he was in trouble. They pulled and pulled, moving back with the rope until Ehrune finally appeared, gasping and sputtering, at the water’s edge. Behind him rose a horrific, bloated humanoid, reaching with clawed hands towards the terror stricken swashbuckling mage. Etherik charged the undead horror, hoping to distract it while Ehrune recovered himself. It clawed at the warlock, drawing blood, but fortunately paralysis didn’t take hold. Etherik leapt back and released a blast of eldritch energy, burning a fist-sized hole in the ghoul’s chest. The attack was quickly followed up by two glowing white bursts of energy that slammed the creature back. It fell with a splash into the water and didn’t move again.

A second examination of the flooded level produced some loot, including a badly gnawed skeleton wearing red leather armor with the symbol of an eye upon the breast, and more importantly, a red lantern! So it was back to the lantern chamber, where all the lanterns were placed in their proper alcoves and lit. The light from the lanterns reflected off the ceiling and walls in dizzying patterns of color and grooooviness. Guessing that the stone face trap was somehow linked to these lanterns, the adventurers climbed back into the wind corridor and slowly approached the silently screaming face at the other end. Luckily for them, they were right; they had disarmed the trap by lighting all the lanterns. Furthermore, there was now an actual opening within the face’s mouth, an opening that led into darkness. Realizing that they were literally crawling into the mouth of danger, they steeled themselves for whatever lay beyond.

*Note: see previous post for some background info I forgot to add on my last posting.


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## dungeon blaster (May 28, 2006)

*Rule #1: Never split the group*

On the other side they stepped onto a narrow stone bridge, which extended to the far side of the room. Thousands of fist-sized stone spheres formed a floor about 10 feet below. ‘who has the time to do this kind of thing?’ Ehrune wondered. Etherik boldly began to walk across the bridge, fully expecting some sort of trap to spring. At least he wasn’t disappointed.

Stone spheres slammed into him from all sides, nearly causing him to fall off the bridge. The warlock withdrew to the mouth-opening, nursing his bruised ribs. Lindingar grabbed his arm and hissed, ‘I sense a spirit in here!’. Etherik didn’t need to sense it, he could see it at the edge of his eldritch vision, hovering in the ethereal plane and glaring at them malevolently. Etherik, being the only one able to actually see it, quailed at its horrific appearance.

The apparition looked to be no older than 13, although it was difficult to be certain. What was certain, however, was that this kid had died from a broken neck, as his ghostly head rested perpendicular to the rest of his body. As if dead kids weren’t creepy enough.

The ghost, realizing that at least one person could see into the ether, fully manifested, testing the group’s will against its horrific appearance. Lindingar had agreed to investigate the Cairn in the hopes that he would find spirits, and now that he finally encountered one (because elementals don’t really count), he did the thing he does best. He chastised its ectoplasmic ass back to the nether realms. As you’ll soon learn, it was probably not a good decision to destroy the spirit. 

With the spirit gone, the group inspected the large metal door at the far end of the chamber. Despite ‘taking 20’ with their Search checks, they were unable to discern a method of opening the door. In fact, they had found the method (the ghost) and destroyed it. Utterly at a loss, the adventurers gathered what treasures they had found and returned to Diamond Lake, hoping an audience with Allustan might uncover the secrets of the impassable door.

Allustan offered to sell them a scroll of dispel magic, which they purchased. Ehrune noticed that Allustan was wearing a nice, shiny new ring. With a feather motif. The sage insisted that he was only keeping it until all the legal issues of ownership and payments for services rendered were cleared up.

Etherik, who had once again run afoul of the law, had taken to sleeping in the local graveyard. There he encountered several priestesses of Wee Jas and became interested in the enigmatic deity of death and magic. If only they weren’t so frigid, I mean rigid.

So, with scroll in hand and hope in heart, the adventurers returned once again to the Whispering Cairn. They figured that the impassable door could mean only one thing: they were almost at the end.

Back in the room with the stone spheres, they were surprised to see that the ghost had returned! Knowing that these guys meant business, it quickly offered parley. The ghost told them that it was once a 13 year old boy named Alastor Land, and that the skeleton lying on the floor in the previous room was its own. It offered to open the door, but only after they gave its bones a proper burial beside the bones of its family (who had long since died). Alastor instructed them to carry his bones to a farmstead a few miles outside of town. Not fully trusting the apparition, the group decided that Etherik would remain behind while the other two took care of the bones. Ehrune and Lindingar departed, leaving Etherik alone with the incorporeal spirit.

Alastor drifted slowly towards the warlock, a demoniac glare in his eyes.

‘Hey, what are you doing?’ Etherik asked, unknowingly taking a step back. ‘stay where you are’.

‘it’s been so long since I’ve felt…anything’. Alastor inched closer, grinning wickedly.

Etherik leapt back, trying to stay out of arm’s reach, but the ghost was faster. It darted forward, disappearing into Etherik’s body. His insides felt like ice and his vision blurred.

Deep within his own mind, Etherik could sense the presence of another entity possessing him, but even this tiniest of sensations was quickly fading. He could feel it controlling his body, forcing him to walk forward along the bridge…straight towards the trap.

The last thing he heard the apparition say before his mind went black: ‘this is going to be fun!’


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## Ruined (May 28, 2006)

Heh, so they blasted Alastor's spirit at first sight?  Yeah, my game has a priest with sun domain, so I'm halfway expecting his greater turning attempt as soon as they get into the room. Good stuff, dungeon blaster.


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## dungeon blaster (May 28, 2006)

I made a mistake by having them all be affected by the horrific appearance when Alastor was supposed to use it on only one person. That said, I believe they would have blasted him anyways. I was just lucky to make Alastor's 'reformation' roll, so he was destroyed, but not permanently.


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## dungeon blaster (May 28, 2006)

6 Reaping, 595 CY

Ehrune and Lindingar found the Land family farmstead a few miles outside of town, just as the ghost had said. At the bottom of a small bluff stood several headstones, the Land family graves. There was only problem: the graves were empty. Whoever had desecrated these graves and taken the bones had done so recently. 

The PCs approached the Land farmhouse, hoping to find clues. The house was in disrepair, clearly no one had lived here in a long time. Inside the house was a wounded owlbear chewing on a severed human arm. Interestingly, the arm bore a tattoo identical to the one on that half-orc, Kullen's, face. Once again, Lindingar attempted to use his wild empathy to make friends with the beast. And once again, the beast attacked him.

With the owlbear defeated, the PCs searched the Land farmhouse but found nothing of interest other than the tattooed arm. Rightly believing that burying the bones next to empty graves wouldn't fulfill their half of the bargain, the two traveled back to the Whispering Cairn to grab Etherik and track down the graverobber(s).

They found Etherik huddled in a corner of the stone sphere room, whimpering and feebly rocking back and forth. He was covered in deep purplish bruises, but it was his soul that truly hurt.

The group was pretty sure that Kullen and his Gang were involved in the graverobbing, but couldn't agree how to best approach the situation. Directly confronting the brutish half-orc was ruled out immediately. After many minutes (real-time), they finally had a plan, which was to create several false graves just outside of town and wait for the graverobbers to come.

Two days later, it was apparent that no graverobbers were coming. On to Plan B. If only there was a Plan B. The group fell again into heated discussion, with Lindingar finally remarking that this would be easy if they could just charm one of the graverobbers into revealing what was going on. Oh wait, they CAN just charm one of the graverobbers into revealing what was going on. Foreheads were liberally smacked.

That night, Ehrune waited outside the Feral Dog for Kullen and his Gang to emerge. As the night wore on, various members of the Gang exited the tavern to drunkenly stumble home. The last to leave was the wiry goon, Rastophan. He looked positively smashed. Could the opportunity be any more perfect?

Ehrune began tailing Rastophan, and when no one was around to see, charmed him. Hey, friend, how are ya? Not a night to walk alone and piss-drunk don't ya think? Here, I'll walk ya home. Say, by the way, remember how you told me about those bones ya dug up? No? Well, you did. So, what were you doing with those bones anyways? Gave them to a necromancer named Filge huh? He's in the Old Observatory? And on orders from Smenk too? Interesting. Well, this is where you live, so I'll be getting home. It isn't where you live? Sure it is.

And just like that, they knew where to go and what to do.

"Time to kick ass and take names"

"we've already got the name"

"you know what that means"

"time to kick ass"


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## the Jester (May 29, 2006)

This remains really cool so far   ... how far along has your group played the campaign?


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## dungeon blaster (May 29, 2006)

Thanks for the praise; I find that writing about the adventures really helps cement the characters and story in my mind.

Currently we are about to begin Hall of Harsh Reflections. After the cakewalk that was Blackwall Keep, it should be fun reasserting the deadliness of this Adventure Path


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## JollyDoc (May 29, 2006)

dungeon blaster said:
			
		

> I made a mistake by having them all be affected by the horrific appearance when Alastor was supposed to use it on only one person. That said, I believe they would have blasted him anyways. I was just lucky to make Alastor's 'reformation' roll, so he was destroyed, but not permanently.





Don't know how far along you've read in the AoW campaign, but you might want to be careful with Alastor.......

SPOILERS!!

































He makes an important reappearance in Kings of the Rift


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## dungeon blaster (May 29, 2006)

I didn't know about Alastor until I finished reading your story hour, last night. A very entertaining read, by the way.

I wonder how my PCs are ever gonna survive it since they aren't optimized for combat. I'm going to make a few changes to the Alastor story arc because I don't particularly like it or think it makes sense.


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## JollyDoc (May 29, 2006)

dungeon blaster said:
			
		

> I didn't know about Alastor until I finished reading your story hour, last night. A very entertaining read, by the way.
> 
> I wonder how my PCs are ever gonna survive it since they aren't optimized for combat. I'm going to make a few changes to the Alastor story arc because I don't particularly like it or think it makes sense.




Thank you!  Yeah, this adventure path is lethal.  I saw that you started your group at 3rd level.  You might want to consider using the Scaling the Adventure sidebars to decrease the crunch factor with some of the coming adventures, ie Hall of Harsh Reflections, Spire of Long Shadows, Library of Last Resort, and all that come after.  

Good luck with you group!


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## dungeon blaster (May 31, 2006)

9 Reaping, 595 CY

The Old Observatory stood at the top of a small hill on the edge of town. Now that Ehrune thought of it, it was the perfect place for a deranged necromancer to ply his trade.

The front door was locked, but was that a problem? Never! Once inside, the PCs were fired upon by crossbow wielding skeletons, and there was only one place these skeletons could have come from: the Land family graves! They dispatched the skeletons easily and began to move through the observatory like a well-oiled machine. Clear 1! Clear 2! All Clear!

On the second floor, they came upon a scene that could only be described as ‘grotesque’. In the center of the room was a large dining table, surrounded by ten chairs, and in all of the chairs but one there sat a rotting humanoid corpse. Most of the bodies lilted to one side or another, and placed before each corpse was a plate filled with sumptuous looking edibles. At this point, the adventurers knew they were dealing with one demented dude.

Etherik proceeded to eldritch blast every single corpse, bathing the room in gore and chunks of flesh.

The third floor appeared to be the Necromancer’s living quarters, and it too was quite obviously decorated by a ‘disturbed’ mind. In one place stood a statue of an angel with the name ‘Filge’ inscribed at the base. In other part they found a mummified goblin holding a silver platter, resting on which was a woman’s well-preserved head. They also discovered some notes on top of his desk, which they took. A stone stairway led to the observation level at the top of the tower. A stinking, yellow-tinged liquid spilled down the stairs, soaking into the beautiful lammasu fur rug. Ehterik cast darkness on a handful of coins and tossed them up the stairs into the room above. He efforts were rewarded by a loud curse and the sounds of bottles being knocked over and shattering.

Suddenly, a hulking corpse emerged from the doorway at the top of the stairs.  The bloated monstrosity dripped with yellowish fluid. The zombified troglodyte shambled towards Ehrune, but Lindingar was ready with a summon nature’s ally spell, and he summoned a hippogriff to block off the stairs. While the two creatures fought, more zombie trogs appeared in the doorway and began leaping off the stairs at the PCs! So, naturally, Lindingar summoned another hippogriff into this fairly small room. With feathers flying and zombies dying (again), things looked pretty good for the heroes. A few minutes later, it was apparent that no more zombies were going to come down the stairs, and whoever was up there wasn’t making any noise, so the adventurers called out, “hey, don’t make us come up there!” A muted string of curses followed, but eventually a gaunt, pale, sinister looking fellow stumbled out of the magical darkness. The necromancer, revealed.

“who in the nine hells are you!?” he demanded. “And what do you want?”

A brief conversation revealed that the necromancer, Filge, did indeed have the skeletons of the Land family, although he had no knowledge of this. In fact, poor ole Filge had no idea where the skeletons had come from, seeing as how it was Smenk’s goons who had procured the bones for him. The PCs eventually determined that Filge had actually only broken one law: animating the dead. Nonetheless, the adventurers had a pretty low opinion of the necromantic arts, and they were faced with the decision of what to do with the guy.

Filge promised to leave, never to return, and to take only his spell book and the clothes on his back. The party agreed.  But, just as Filge was almost at the lower stairs, Lindingar had a change of mind.

“No. You leave with nothing.”

“Wha..what do you mean nothing?”

“Nothing. No spell book, no robes, no nothing.”

“I ain’t got nothing under these robes!”

“That’s your problem. It’s either you leave with nothing, or you leave in chains.” Lindingar created a ball of flames in his hand to accent his attempt at intimidation.

Filge’s look of incredulity quickly turned to one of horror, and he turned to Etherik, the man with whom he had brokered the original agreement? “We had a deal! Are you going to agree with this…. Halfling?!”

“We’re a team. Sorry.” Etherik responded, a hint of pity in his voice.

Filge gave each member of the group one last pleading look. Then he bolted.

Etherik, being a sadistic bastard, took off after him, hurling eldritch bolts at the fleeing necromancer, who covered a hundred feet of ground before taking one right in the back and tumbling down the rest of the hill. Ehrune casually walked up to the broken and bleeding wizard, and picked up his spell book.


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## Nifft (Jun 3, 2006)

Great tone, good humor, and fine writing all around. 
Thanks, -- N


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## dungeon blaster (Jun 5, 2006)

*All we are is dust in the wind*

10 Reaping, 595 CY


With Filge safely locked away in the town jail, the party returned to the Land family farm to bury the bones of Alastor’s kin (the skeletons the PCs had fought in the Old Observatory). As the last spade of dirt was turned, they only hoped that Alastor’s ghost would fulfill its end of the bargain and open the impassable door in the Whispering Cairn.
In Filge’s lab they had found several items of interest, including a syringe, vials of strange colored liquids designed to be injected into the body using said syringe, silver dissection instruments, a jar with a thin, green worm floating inside, and a note from Smenk to Filge.

Proof of a connection between Diamond Lake’s most notorious mine manager and a necromancer! The adventurers knew that this document could be used to their benefit…but how?  None of them had any experience in the games of politik. They were apt to make a wrong maneuver, and end up the worse for it.

Ehrune returned to Allustan’s house, only to learn that the sage had recently spoken with a wizard named Khellek about the Whispering Cairn. Looks like the Free City Adventurers had finally caught on to where the action was at and wanted a piece for themselves! Ehrune and his gang would have to act quick if they were to finish exploring the Cairn before anyone else got to it. They decided to leave for the Cairn the following morning.

Once they had arrived at the Cairn, the adventurers quickly made their way to the room of colored lanterns. Assuming the door was now open, there was only one place left to explore, and they weren’t certain that the Free City Adventurers hadn’t already explored it. They quickly lit the lanterns in order to disarm the stone face trap: red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet.

…er…wait a minute. Wasn’t there a blue lantern? Indeed, the blue lantern alcove was missing its lantern. In its place they found a note, reading:

“Tough luck fellas” – F.

Who the hell is F? Filge? No, he was locked up. Free City Adventurers? Possibly. Ferros? 

All eyes turned to Etherik, who had been the cause of bad blood between themselves and their former adventuring companion (of one session). “Damn it Etherik! You had to go and attack him and now we’re screwed”. Etherik swelled with indignation, but a hint of guilt could be seen in his eyes.

“we can still get by the trap I think”, Lindingar piped up, happily.

“how? We’re missing one of the lanterns and that face will activate the moment we get near it”.

“Yes, but we already know where the pressure plate is, so we can avoid that, which leaves only the stone block at the back of the mouth.”

“yeah, and how will we get past that?” Ehrune always thought that the halfling was a little batty, but now he was sure of it.

“Watch” the halfling said cryptically, the hint of a smile forming at the corners of his mouth.

They stood at the edge of the pressure plate, apprehensively watching the stone face for any sign of danger. Lindingar began casting a spell, while Ehrune looked doubtfully at the little shaman. The halfling completed his spell and looked expectantly at Etherik, who seemed a bit bored and hadn’t noticed any spectacular effects of the spell.

“Blast it” Lindingar commanded.

Etherik obeyed, releasing a blast of eldritch power at the stone face. Chunks of stone flew in all directions, leaving a gaping wound in the stone face. Stone fragments richochetted off of the walls and ceiling of the corridor, but instead of clattering as stone normally would, the chunks thudded softly…as if they were made of clay.

“Brilliant!” Ehrune exclaimed joyously, his hopes of finishing this exploration finally returning.

Etherik hooted with glee. “Take that Ferros! Can’t nobody break our stride, can’t nobody hold us down, oh no… we got to keep on mooooovin.”

At the far end of the room stood the impassable door. At first glance, it appeared to be closed, and the adventurers hopes sank, but then they felt a faint whiff of air and saw that the door was open a crack. Surely, if Ferros or the Free City Adventurers had been through here, they would have closed the door when they left.

The chamber beyond was circular, with a gaping pit in the center, a walkway around the edges, and four bridges leading to a stone ring in the center of the pit. Two of the walkways were broken, leading the adventuers to think that they were traps designed to collapse when walked across. In the very center of the room, a roaring column of air whooshed upwards through the stone ring and into a circular hole at the top of the domed chamber. 

As they circled the chamber, strange images composed of steam flowed from the walls; each set of images appeared to describe an event related to the being whose tomb they were exploring. After walking full circle, there was only one thing left to investigate: the stone ring and air column. Lindingar, being the lightest, was the first to step on the unbroken walkway. He closed his eyes and concentrated, reaching out tendrils of perception. His eyes shot open. There were spirits here, he was sure of it. At that moment, two beings emerged through the hole in the stone ring. Humanoid in shape, and clad in ancient ceremonial armor with penants flapping wildly in the wind, the two beings each wielded twin longswords, and appeared to be riding the wind.

The wind warriors floated out of the air column, and as one, clanged their swords together. The clang was deafening, and more than that, the action created lines of sonic force that tore into the halfling’s body. He thought his teeth would rattle right out of his jaw. Why was it that every time he encountered a spirit, it tried to kill him?

“Bad elemental!” the spirit shaman chastised the wind warriors, blue energy flaring in the gaps of their armor as they convulsed in anguish. Etherik blasted them from the relative safety of the walkway, while Ehrune did the same with his wand of magic missiles.

The wind warriors advanced; one soared over to Etherik, the other charged Lindingar. With incredible agility, the wind warrior slipped through the halfling’s (admittedly weak) defenses, inserting a longsword into Lindingar’s right lung (CRIT!). The halfling stumbled back, clutching at the wound and struggling to breathe. Etherik fared mariginally better, suffering a wicked slash across the chest. It was only the first round, and things were already looking bad. Lindgar retreated behind Ehrune, but the wind warrior continued to push the attack. Etherik attempted to gain some breathing room and blast the wind warrior attacking him, but the elemental’s agility proved difficult to overcome. Realizing that another strike would probably be the end of him, Etherik made a tactical maneuver (a.k.a. run away!) towards the entrance, but miscalculated the wind warrior’s speed and the fact that it could fly (!). The wind warrior, heavily damaged itself, easily caught up to the warlock and plunged a blade into his back. He collapsed soundlessly, just as Ehrune sent a couple magic missiles into the wind warrior, destroying it.

There was but one wind warrior left and it was sorely wounded, yet things looked grim for the group. Etherik had fallen, and Lindingar and Ehrune were wounded. Lindingar attempted to chastise the spirit again, but it didn’t seem to be affected much. With one swift slash, the wind warrior’s blade severed the halfling’s throat, and he collapsed upon the ground, dying.

The wind warrior turned its attention to Ehrune, who knew he had but one choice: attempt to save the halfling with his cure light wounds potion, and likely be struck down in the attempt, or kill the wind warrior now and let the halfling expire. Ehrune knew that he would not last long against the wind warrior’s blades; he had to kill it, and do it quick. The swashbuckling wizard leapt back and let loose magic missiles from his wand, just as Lindingar gave one final gurgling cough of blood. The magic missiles tore into the wind warrior, dispersing the elemental inside the armor, which promptly disintegrated into dust and was blown away by the wind.

Ehrune immediately turned to Lindingar, but alas, his spirit had already passed into Yondalla’s waiting arms. The haflling had come to the Cairn seeking spirits; at least now he would see all the spirits he wanted.


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## dungeon blaster (Jun 18, 2006)

*An Offer They Can't Refuse...*

The adventurers returned to Diamond Lake that night with Lindingar’s corpse.  The next day, Ehrune and Etherik went to see a cleric about a body.  First, they visited the Church of Hieroneous and spoke with high cleric Valkus Dunn.  Dunn explained that he did not personally have the power to raise Lindingar, but that he possessed a scroll that may work, if they could cough up the 5,000 gold to purchase it.  After doing a quick inventory, the party realized that they did not possess that kind of money, even if they sold everything they had.  Despondent, the adventurers resolved to try one last option: the Bronzewood Lodge.  Knowing almost nothing about druids, they were under the impression that druids could not raise the dead.

At the Lodge, they were greeted by the local druid of Obad Hai.  The druid admitted that raising the dead was not in his power; however, he agreed to reincarnate the halfling in return for a suitable donation.  The adventurers offered the halfling’s boots of the winterlands in exchange.  Ehrune and Etherik waited outside the Lodge as the druid began casting the spell that would recall the halfling’s spirit from the otherworld and create a new body to house it.  An hour later the great doors of the Lodge opened; within the doorway stood…

…a halfling.  A bit shorter perhaps, and with darker hair and eyes, but the same spirit. The newly reincarnated halfling was ready to take on the Whispering Cairn!

The adventurers returned to the Whispering Cairn the next day.  Slowly, the trio crossed the walkway that had meant death the day before.  This time they crossed without incident and Etherik stepped into the corridor of raging air in the center of the room.  The air propelled him upward through the circular hole in the domed ceiling and into a small chamber above.

The room contained a large stone sarcophagus, nearly identical to the one they had found in the room of colored lanterns.  Using a crowbar, Etherik and Ehrune pried off the lid of the sarcophagus.  Inside, they found a metal box covered in twisting runes, the lid sealed in silver, along with a silver circlet and a pair of bestial horns, black as ebony and blood red at the tips.

They brought the relics to Allustan, who was able to share a little more information about them.  After much research, Allustan revealed that the horns were from a demonic servant of the Queen of Chaos.  The rune covered box was also associated with the Queen of Chaos, but of more importance was the relic contained within: an adamantine loop and handle (much like an ankh).  The sage identified the item as a talisman of the sphere, although he added that the item was nonfunctional.

With the Whispering Cairn fully explored, the trio turned their attention to that most notorious of mine managers, Balabar Smenk.  Back in the Old Observatory, they had found a note to Filge from Smenk, along with a jar containing a segmented green worm.  They decided to investigate the matter and pay Smenk a visit.

At the Smenk manor, Smenk made them an offer they couldn’t refuse: sneak into the Dourstone mines, kill the cultists, and do it quietly.  In return, Smenk agreed to pay them 500 gp, yet it was the subtle connotations of what could happen if they refused that convinced them to take him up on his offer.

While restocking on potions at the Temple of Hieroneous, the party was approached by an hulking, brutish figure—an immense half-orc armored in full plate and wielding a very heavy-looking shield and a longsword! The half-orc introduced himself as Hiro, and asked to join them in their righteous crusade against evil. Fully realizing the utility that 300 lbs of divine spell-casting muscle could provide, the group readily accepted Hiro’s offer.

The Dourstone Mine was well guarded; twelve guards operating in two shifts walked the edge of the wooden palisade that surrounded the mine entrance.  Sneaking in wouldn’t be easy and fighting the guards was out of the question. The PCs decided to retreat and reassess the situation. That night, at the Feral Dog, the adventurers made a deal with a couple of disgruntled miners, demonstrating that a well-placed bribe can be more effective than swords or spells.

Once inside the Dourstone Mine, the adventurers followed instructions given to them by Smenk and discovered an elevator shaft behind a sealed mining tunnel. A wooden elevator platform took them 200 feet down to the Dark Cathedral  below, where two tiefling guards stood sentinel. From their elevated position, defeating the tieflings was easy, but one of the guards managed to knock loudly on one of three large stone doors in the chamber. The door opened, and from beyond they heard the ringing of small bells. Out poured a horde of skeletons armored in rusted and pitted full plate. Hiro made short work of them by brandishing his sword and calling upon the holy might of Hieroneous. Looking around, they noticed that at one end of the Dark Cathedral was a large, dark pool of liquid. The bloodstains around the lip of the pool indicated that it was used for sacrificial purposes. Three of the walls held large stone doors; a black gauntleted fist holding six arrows marked one door, a hand holding an eye marked another, and the third was unmarked.

Entering the next chamber (Citadel of Hextor), the PCs were greeted by a group of cultists willing to lay down their lives for their Lord Tyrant, Hextor. And lay down their lives they did, despite some clever use of longspears and much calling to a creature they called “Beast”. Just as the adventurers were about finished quelling the rabble, a piercing squeal and the sound of screams brought their attention to the passage ahead, where a cultist was suddenly flung like a rag doll from a room beyond, only to slam into the passage wall and crumple to the ground.

“So, how about them long spears?” Etherik mused.

A massive boar emerged from the room beyond, caught sight of the group, and released a deafening squeal of rage. Once again, Lindingar attempted to empathize with the beast. And once again, the beast charged.

Most of the adventurers were off to one side of the room, but Etherik stood right at the opposite end of the room from the corridor. The dire boar’s tusk pierced Etherik’s side and it lifted him bodily into the air. In return, he gave it an eldritch blast. Despite its size and ferocity, “Beast” was defeated.

The main corridor led to a set of double doors, but the group decided to explore the auxillary passages first. After several frantic battles with more tiefling guards, they fought their way into a large chamber with a dirt floor and ringed by a 5’ wide stone catwalk (which the PCs were on). It was a good thing they hadn’t gone through the double doors, as the doors led to the dirt floor and there were a group of tiefling archers perched on the catwalks. At the far end of the room, also on the catwalk-level, they saw several humanoid figures. Three of the figures began casting spells and drinking potions, and the fight was on.

The tieflings sniped at the PCs from the catwalk on the other side of the room, while three humanoid zombies shuffled towards them. Glowing flails appeared in the air, battering their armor and making life miserable in general. However, the adventurers fought back bravely, turning the zombies and sending them fleeing at zombie-pace back towards their masters, who commanded the zombies to attack, and were then turned, and so on. Etherik’s eldritch blast proved useful once again, taking out the tiefling archers, although he suffered a few arrow wounds for his efforts. While fortunate not to be on the ground level, the narrow catwalk made it near impossible for them to advance and bring the fight with the clerics into melee range. In fact, the dangers of close-combat among allies was driven home via sharp blade when Hiro made an egregious fumble, dramatically missing his target and driving his longsword into the softer parts of Etherik’s body. Not a good thing to do when you’re the new guy. The fight wore on, with the adventurers slowly gaining ground, and eventually dropping the zombies, the tieflings, and two of the three clerics. The last, and obviously the leader, fled through a backdoor, summoning a hell hound to aid his escape. With the battle one, the group spent the next few hours looting bodies, pillaging their little black hearts out, and preparing for a night of well-deserved rest.


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## the Jester (Jun 19, 2006)

I take it Hiro is a new pc?  Perhaps a cleric?

Good show so far!


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## dungeon blaster (Jun 19, 2006)

You got it! Sort of.

Hiro is a half-orc cleric of Hieroneous. He's strong. Really, really strong. The Charisma penalty hurts, but he's more of a "buff and smash" type of guy than an undead turner.

Hiro was created to give the party some extra "oomph" after the untimely death of the spirit shaman. This was the moment when the players went "um, what just happened?"     You see, they aren't used to losing characters.

We rotate playing him, and even I (the DM) take a turn.

I'll be posting his stats soon.


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## dungeon blaster (Jun 23, 2006)

I've added Hiro's stats to the Rogue's Gallery. I'm also posting this story hour, character stats, and (eventually) more over here: http:www.freewebs.com/dungeonblaster/index.htm


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## dungeon blaster (Jul 29, 2006)

*Grimlocks, and Kenkus, and Cultists -- oh s#*@!*

Rumaging through their ill-gotten loot, the adventurers discovered a couple journals, various notes, and an interesting piece of parchment that detected as magical, but had not a single marking upon it. Of particular interest was a  journal entry describing the summoning of an “Over-God”, as if regular gods weren’t bad enough, and a “slumbering power that must be awoken”. Further, the author of the journal, believed to be the Hextorian priest who escaped the previous day’s battle, mentioned his affiliation with a group called the ‘Ebon Triad’. The group quickly decided that the ‘Triad’ probably referred to the gods of the three temples located in this underground complex. Separate they are merely Hextor, Vecna, and Erythnul, but together they form MIGHTY HEXNATHUL! Er, nevermind. 

It seemed, too, that there was some distrust within the ranks of the three cults, mainly between the Hextorian leader, Theldrick, and the so-called “Faceless One”, whom the group surmised was the leader of the cultists of Vecna. 

After little deliberation, they resolved to take out the Vecnans and then assault the final temple. Good plan, no? Well, it would have been if the door to the Vecnan temple wasn’t locked. So, they did what any rational person in a similar situation would do. They knocked. And waited. Eventually, they determined that the Vecnans were either a) not home, or b) not going to let in bunch of bloodthirsty killers bent on pillage and slaughter.  Without a rogue or a ‘knock’ spell among them, the score was set at ‘Door: 1 -- Adventurers: 0’, and they decided to tackle the unmarked temple, hoping it may contain a key or other method of entering the Vecnan temple.

Fortunately, cultists of the god of slaughter have little need or desire for locks, as locks make slaughter less likely, and the stone door swung open silently. Unlike the Temple of Hextor, the walls, ceiling, and floor here were of natural, uncut stone. As the brave adventurers made their way deeper into the network of caverns and passages, the local inhabitants, i.e. your friendly grimlock cultists of Erythnul, assaulted them from all sides. The battles were brutish, nasty, and short, but in all cases the result was the same: dead grimlocks and bruised, but victorious heroes. Soon, the group came upon a small passageway, barely wide enough for a single person to fit, and smelling of something most foul.  Hiro was leading the way, with the others close behind, when a sudden scream of primal rage echoed through the passage. The originator of said scream appeared soon after -- a filth-covered female grimlock bearing two long rusty knives charged at Hiro and plunged them both hilt-deep into his abdominal region. Short, and slight of frame though she was, her strength was equal to that of the burly half-orc, and with each wrenching stab he felt more of his life leaving him. He returned the attack, but found that the small passage was much more conducive to fighting with a light weapon than a large sword, and even when he hit, the grimlock barbarian did not seem to notice, and she continued to treat Hiro like a pin cushion. Were it not for Lindingar’s healing ministrations, Hiro certainly would have fallen that day, but his halfling buddy kept him alive long enough for the barbarian’s rage to end, and a final thrust of his sword concluded the affair.

"We really ought not to fight in enclosed spaces", Ehrune pondered thoughtfully.

With the grimlock barbarian defeated, the party continued onward, soon reaching a large cavern with a higher ledge defended by many grimlocks wielding long spears and javelins. The adventurers routed the grimlocks in short order, but were once again greeted by a wail of primal rage coming from the opposite end of the cavern.

“Here we go again”, Etherik grimaced as he scaled up the cavern wall. Hiro’s eye twitched nervously.

From a passage on the other side of the cavern, a hulking brute of a grimlock bounded towards them, a greataxe clutched in his meaty fists. Hiro grabbed a long spear and became the recipient of a bull’s strength and enlarge person spell, making him prodigiously strong and tall enough to peer over the ledge. He set the spear, bracing it against his foot, and waited for the grimlock barbarian. Consumed in Erythnul’s blood rage, the barbarian cared not that a spear the size of a horse lance was aimed directly at him as he leapt off the ledge, greataxe raised high. With a satisfying ‘thunk’, the huge spear penetrated straight through the airborne barbarian, who continued his trajectory along the shaft of the spear and brought his greataxe down upon Hiro’s chest (dealing 40-odd points of damage!). Wounded, but alive, and very angry, Hiro grabbed his longsword, but Etherik beat him to the punch, blasting the grimlock directly in the face with an eldritch blast. As the good ole’ doc would say, “I guess the strain was more than he could bear.”

A long passageway led downward, and the group feared that they were entering the underdark, where, judging from their level of fear, they likely believed Freddy, Jason, and the Predator lurked.  But, it turned out that the passage merely led to a large chamber filled with a ghostly mist. The group moved through the mist by sticking to one side of the cavern. They quickly learned that they were not alone, as grimlock warriors wearing bronze masks of Erythnul assaulted them, then disappeared into the fog. They could also hear the sounds of divine prayers being uttered and decided that now was a good time to use their scroll of silence (they also reasoned correctly that the grimlocks’ blindsense would be affected).  Bereft of his spell-casting capability, Grallak Kur, priest of Erythnul plunged into the battle, dropping Etherik with a flurry of strikes of his morning star. The insane priest had sewn beholder eyes into his eye sockets, and somehow had enchanted them to give him sight. However, even the cleric of the god of slaughter could not withstand the righteous might of Hiro’s blade combined with the ferocious attacks of Lindingar’s summoned hippogriffs and Ehrune’s annoying, but not particularly damaging magic missiles. A final swing of Hiro’s blade parted Grallak’s head from his body, and the battle was won.


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## dungeon blaster (Aug 26, 2006)

8 hours later, and fully rested, the party returned to the entrance chamber, intent on breaching the final temple, the temple of Vecna. What they found awaiting them in the chamber, however, was a bit of a surprise. 

Standing defiantly in the center of the chamber and surrounded by tiefling zombies and a very large, very dead dire boar, the Hextorian priest, Theldrick, called out a challenge to Hiro.

"Worm of Heironeous! Slathering knave! I challenge you to glorious combat in the name of the Herald of Hell, Hextor! Do you accept my challenge, or will you hide behind your simpering comrades?" Theldrick's eyes burned with hatred and anticipation.

Hiro, having never turned down a challenge of any sort, pushed past his allies and answered in kind.

"I hide behind no one, priest! the cleric of Heironeous bellowed, "and I accept your challenge!"

Etherik groaned. "Hiro, he's only challenging you because he knows we can take him." But even Etherik knew that it was no use trying to reason with a Heironean cleric facing his arch-nemesis. It looked like the rest of the group would have to sit this one out...or at least _appear_ to sit it out. Ehrune had come to the same conclusion, and winked at Etherik and Lindingar as he assured Hiro that they would not join the fight unless the Hextorian priest's allies joined first.

Hiro realized he was in trouble after his first swing deflected mid-strike. Etherik noticed too, and used his innate magic sense to see if Theldrick had any abjurations in effect. To Etherik's vision, the cleric lit up like a christmas tree.

"Crap." Etherik muttered. Theldrick had numerous protective spells, spells that turned aside blades, magic, and goodness itself. "We need to get involved."

Ehrune agreed, as by now the fight was decidedly in Theldrick's favor. Suddenly, Ehrune had an idea. Reaching into Lindingar's handy haversack, he pulled out a Grallak Kur's severed head. with a wrenching twist, he dislodged a neck vertabrae, and cut off a piece of flesh using his dagger. Flesh and bone, the components needed for his spell.

"Boar. Kill Theldrick." Ehrune commanded. The undead monstosity lumbered forward, unnoticed by the Hextorian priest as he attempted to finalize his victory. The boar slammed into Theldrick, wounding him. He commanded his zombies to attack and they shambled towards the adventurers, but Lindingar was ready and hurled balls of flame at the slow moving undead. Given a moment of respite, Hiro healed his wounds and charged the priest. He didn't know what had happened, and at the moment, didn't care. If his friends had cheated, he would lose honor, and be shamed before his god, but he would figure that all out later. At that moment he had business to take care of.

Hiro's renewed attacks drove Theldrick into a hasty defense. His tiefling zombies had occupied the other adventurers, but he had greatly counted on the zombie boar and they had somehow turned it upon him!  He gave a thought to fleeing, although he hated himself for even considering it; having issued a direct challenge to the Hieronean cleric, it would be cowardice to retreat now. He hardly had a chance to finish his thought, however, as Hiro took advantage of the momentary distraction apparent in his opponent's thoughts and drove his blade through steel and flesh. Nearly at the same moment, the undead boar drove a tusk the size of a sword through the priest's back, lifting him bodily into the air.

"Looks like Hell just gained a new Lemure", Hiro grimaced. His allies had already finished dealing with the tiefling zombies and had watched the priest get spitted like a boar...well, by a boar.


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## dungeon blaster (Sep 4, 2006)

*I spy with my little eye...*

"Was that always like that?" Lindingar wondered, watching the wisps of fog emanating from the pool of dark liquid, which bubbled and gurgled noisily.

Ehrune studied the pool for a moment. "No. It definitely wasn't doing that before." Suddenly, a copper coin soared over Ehrune's head and plunked into the liquid. He spun around and glared at Lindingar. "What did you do that for?!"

Lindingar shrugged. "Maybe there's something in there."

"Well, if there is, I'd rather not find out." Ehrune hated action without forethought. He approached every situation as he approached his wizardly studies, carefully and methodically.

Hiro stood apart from the others, silently watching the large stone door that led to the Temple of the Maimed Lord. Slowly, the rest of the group congregated by him.

"Everyone ready?" Ehrune asked, fingering the key he had pilfered from Theldrick's corspe.

Hiro grunted.  

"Oh yeah", Etherik grinned.

"Let's do it", Lindingar affirmed.

Ehrune turned the key in the door, and with a soft click, the door opened. "Remember, Smenk said that there was a maze up ahead, so I'll be using the chalk."

"That'll help us not get lost, but it won't help us find the right way" Etherik frowned.

Lindingar stepped through the doorway and inspected the floor and walls carefully. He rose, and turned back to his companions, smiling. "Looks like our good friend Theldrick has given us a lead". He held up his index finger, which was smudged with dried blood.

"Perfect." Ehrune turned to the zombie dire boar. "Boar. Let's go." The hulking corpse shambled forward through the doorway, with the group following behind, except for Lindingar, who sat on the boar's snout and kept an eye out for more dried blood.

Following Theldrick's trail was not difficult, and what could have been a very confusing maze was made significantly more simple and straightforward. Still, the cultists of Vecna, strange bird-men in dark cloaks, harried the group as they slowly made their way through the maze. These Kenku, as they are called, sniped with crossbows and tossed vials of alchemist's flame before disappearing around a corner. The adventurers quickly gave up on the notion of pursuing the bird-men, as they seemed to know every passageway and turn in the labyrinth, and somehow found ways to disappear even while fleeing into a dead-end. Annoying as they were, they caused little damage to the party.

The trail of dried blood abruptly ended at a wall. Lindingar immediately began probing for a secret door, and was rewarded by the silent swinging open of part of the wall. Without hesitating, the group walked through the secret door into the chamber beyond.

The chamber was shaped like an 'L', with dull gray marble walls covered in strange, circular bulges of varying sizes and placement. A row of columns ran down the center of the chamber, and strange patterns of wispy green veins writhed and undulated within the stone. Upon seeing the wispy patterns, the group began to hear voices in their minds, and they quickly averted their gazes.

Etherik used his innate power of magical detection and as he did so, the bulges on the walls sprang open, revealing eyes of every imaginable size, shape, and color. Many eyes looked around wildly, some started at nothing in particular, but the majority were focused on the adventurers.

Etherik frowned. "Do ya think we're busted?"

"Big time." Lindingar replied. "Try blasting one".

Etherik released an eldritch blast, destroying one of the eyes in a shower of stone shards.

Ehrune motioned the group forward. "Let's not waste time with these eyes. The enemy knows we're here, I'm sure of it." He commanded the dead boar to lead ahead. They continued to the next chamber, which had walls of strange green rock with purple veins that  writhed and danced within it. Six black pillars of a tar-like substance formed two rows along the length of the chamber. Hands pushed at the surfaces of the pillars, as though there were creatures trapped within, and a plain, basalt altar rested at the far end of the chamber. Beside the altar stood two humanoids robed in dark purple. Their hands moved in intricate patterns and their voices carried words of power.

Etherik had but a moment to curse as lines of fire erupted from the cultists' hands. The scorching rays burned the adventurers, setting their clothes alight. Etherik returned fire with an eldrtich blast, dropping one of the wizards instantly. Ehrune commanded the boar to attack, and it easily dispatched the second wizard. Suddenly, a door burst open and two more cultists emerged. The adventurers tactically withdrew to the L-shaped corridor, only to see a humanoid figure standing at the opposite end of the passage. The figure was robed in green, trimmed with gold, its face covered by a leather mask. In one hand it held a rod carved with intricate runes, while it's other hand was already moving in the casting of a spell. The rod flared briefly as lightning crackled from its hand, striking the boar and Hiro. The acrid smell of burnt flesh began to fill the chamber. Ehrune quickly released a couple of magic missiles, but they had no effect on the robed enemy, who was already casting another spell.

A web of sticky magic strands filled the area, trapping most of the group. The two cultists sent forth rays of scorching fire, which burned away some of the webbing, but caused great damage as well. The adventurers knew they were in for the fight of their life and responded with everything they had. Eldritch blasts, alchemist's fire, and summoned hippogriffs tore at their enemies, who responded with bolts of lightning, magic missiles, and summoned monsters.

After a long and desperate fight, the adventurers finally defeated the masked figure and his underlings. Weary, but ecstatic, they thoroughly searched the masked figure's corpse and his personal quarters. Lindingar took the metamagic rod, while Hiro found a shield emblazoned with the symbol of Hieroneous.

Ehrune removed the mask of their slain enemy, revealing a pale face devoid of features, except for two small, black eyes, and a thin line for a mouth. The body was freezing cold and glistening. With horror, he realized that the body was melting! This was no living man, but a construct of snow and ice, although Ehrune had never heard of such thing. He would have to remember to ask Allustan about it later.

Gathering their new-found loot, the adventurers retraced their steps through the maze, back to the Dark Cathedral. Immediately, they noticed that the elevator was no longer there. Someone must have used it to escape!


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