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Week 22 - The Apostle of Kyuss.

Ok, I didn't write this week's story up when we did it, so I am a week behind. My memory will be sketchy.

28. Altar Room
Two braziers in the northeast and southeast corners light this rectangular room. A simple altar of stone sits in the middle of the east wall, facing a large set of stone double doors to the west. On the altar is a scroll, which glows with an unnatural green light. A writhing green beam of light emanates out of these scrolls to strike the doors to the west, bathing them in the same green glow.
The party face a door leading north. Our intrepid rogue checks it, finds nothing and opens it. Beyond it is a short corridor and another door. Behind it he hears a whining buzz, a drone. It sounds … magical.

Beyond it is the altar room. The scroll on it is strangely immovable - only paper, but as fixed in place as if it were made of stone. And there is a coruscating ray of creen light extending from it. Frith decides to use Detect Magic to determine what kind of aura is on the whole shebang. It turns out to be conjuration, abjuration, and necromancy.

Shock! Horror! Necromancy!

Flash elects to begin casting Clairvoyance to see what is beyond the door, a process that takes some time. The fighters, bored, elect to explore further north without their casters.

Yup, famous last words. "You stay here, we won't be long".

29. Bozal Zahol’s Room
A central pillar of green marble carved in the likeness of a segmented worm supports the ceiling of this square room. The room is dimly lit by a single incense burner that sheds a sweet, fruity aroma. The room is lined with woolen tapestries depicting coiling green worms, and contains a bed, an armchair, and a cupboard. Near the bed is a small nightstand and an ornate, elongated trunk.
Asleep in the bed is some sort of tigerish demi-human.

Unbelievably, the party gets lucky and Bozal Zahol is asleep. I gotta get some better dice. The image is not correct for Eberron - in Eberron, Bozal is tigerish rather than demonic. The party recognise the ancestry of the Rakshasa.

Bozal never stands a chance and is almost killed by the first blow. "Damn you!", he says, and prepares to fight what he knows will be a losing battle for his life. Unknown to the fighters, in the previous room where the casters are, the ray from the scroll gutters and expires.

Bozal is swiftly slain, but from behind the door where the ray had been directed comes and almighty thump. And then another. The party open that door, to see an enormous worm moving up through the ceiling. Recognising their true foe, they pursue

Actually, it didn't happen this way at all. What happened was that the players decided "Fuck it, let's loot the rest of this dungeon first." The consequences of the Apostle not being slain quickly are pretty hideous, involving the conversion of most of the people in the arena into wraiths and the destruction of Sharn by loathsome wormy undead. Oh, and Raknian gets to become a Death Knight - woo hoo! So I had to explain to the players that, well, they really were supposed to fight this thing. Where's the heroism gone, that's what I'd like to know. Where's the valour? The chivalry?

pursue, I say, and fight this size H horror.

Well, it's all pretty anticlimactic, really. Arn has a hit and gets swallowed, Officer Tool does some damage, then Tom the half-ogre war hulk decants a barrel of cheese and does something like 100 points in a round. And the casters help a bit, too. It's all over pretty quick.

So, in the confusion, amid scenes of horror and apocalyptic undead carnage narrowly averted, the party decides to nip back downstairs and continue looting the dungeon.

Bozal has a most unusual chest in his rooms. Jericho examines it carefully and finds a powerful magical trap. He disables it and the party loots it. Then they continue on.

This chest was a DC 35 to disable, and you needed a Wish to undo its effect, which was to entrap. A very horrible and dangerous bit of kit.

30. Kyuss’s Visage
A brazier in the northwest corner lights this rectangular room. A green and black checkered curtain hanging from a steel bar ̃xed near the ceiling conceals the south wall.
Jericho scouts froward to the next room. Behind the curtain is a powerful and irritable demon whom Bozal Zahol has enslaved. Jericho runs, and the party enter the room to attack. But the demon turns out to be more than a match for them all - their best hits barely graze it. Eventually a stand-off of sorts ensues. The party is split on either side of the demon's room. The demon could pursue, but instead opts to communicate with Frith. Irritated by its enslavement, it elects to interpret its orders literally, to "guard this room". The party agree not to harm the room, and gratefully take the escape hatch provided by the kind-hearted gods of fate.

Well. What now? Raknian's plot is foiled - he flees the city. The party decide to play out the rest of the Champion's Games and perhaps win a swag of cash. And maybe come back at that demon, better prepared next time.

And that, basically, concludes the main part of the adventure. Their nemesis, Raknian, … dang, I nearly forgot the important bit!

Bozal Zahol was not the only occupant of his room. There was also there a zombie - simple low-level animated dead - of a young woman. Who else could it be but Lahka, Ekaym's sister? It seems they have found her after all, only to find her tragically undead. Her neck still bears the purple marks of the fingers that strangled her, and incised deeply into the skin is a familiar looking mark left by a signet ring. The seal of her killer. The mark of Loris Raknian.

Yeah, that's right. So anyway. Lahkha, and the remainder of the Champion's Games.

Bye Steve, and good luck. Asclepius be with you.

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