Bevis (who plays Frith) was absent this week, but that’s ok, because this week was mainly shopping and setting up the next adventure. We also agreed to knock the longsword from last adventure down a notch but to make it weapon finessable - on the grounds that it was a wind dukey air elementally kind of sword.

The party, following Allustan’s directions, head north to the town of Mageport where Manzorian resides. For safety’s sake, they opt to keep to the prime material plane. The journey takes week or so, and comes a day when Flash senses that the party is being scryed. The party quickly prepare for combat: Rary’s Telepthic Bond and Invisibility all around.

Rary’s Telepthic Bond is a wonderful hand-wave. It justifies all the table talk.

In moments, a band of devils Baatezu appear, demanding the Rod. Battle is swiftly joined, the Barbed Devils Hamatula unleashing Unholy Blight and Order’s Wrath so doing rather a lot of damage to our mainly chaotic and chaotic good party. Meanwhile, the Bone Devils Osyluth move in, blindly searching for the invisible party. The Hellcat Bezikira also advances, attempting to use its track skill to find someone to hit.

I had a hellcat miniature, which I have been wanting to use for some time :) . And I like the old names better than these new ones they invented to placate the religious. There’s no need to go all weird over “Devils”, mum, it’s a game.

The party elect to focus on one of the barbed devils. They move in and strike, undoing their invisibility. The bone devils hit Flash and Gauthakan with some sort of ray, which seems to do nothing. One bone devil uses a wall of ice to split the party. One barbed devil uses his Order’s Wrath, the other teleports away from the spot where Gauthakan reduced him to half hitpoints in a single round.

And after that, it’s a long battle that took a long time on the night to do. The Hellcat moved in, pouncing on Gauthakan. Gauthakan engaged the cat, which meant a 50% miss chance, and so the battle took several rounds. He was badly hurt by the spells the barbed devils were using (scorching ray - two rays), and so Jericho used the Jericho was hit by a fear effect, dropped his weapon, and bolted. Meanwhile, Flash was using Mass Suggestion to turn the devils against one another. He tried to use his little anklet of dimension door at one stage, and discovered that the ray spell-like ability that the devils used at the start of combat was Dimensional Anchor. Fun times.

Eventually, the Hellcat was killed outright, as well as one Bone Devil. One Barbed devil was Feebleminded, and the other tried to escape and was hit with an AAO from Gauthakan, arriving home in a bloody mess of ichorous gore. The remaining three bone devils were pwned by Flash, and he sent them home.

The party proceeds along without further incident to Mageport. There, they are expected. Manzorian is not at home, but the party are put up in an inn.

The adventure here allows for an arbitrary amount of in-game time until Manzorian returns, permitting time for spell research, item fabrication, and shopping. I enforce a “no major magic items for sale on Ebberon” policy, as well as a “The MIC is full of cheese and everything is at +%50 of the base price”.

There’s room in the module for a fair bit of adventuring around town, NPCs and whatnot, but we did not take any detours.

Eventually Manzorian returns and invites the party for an appointment. His digs are everything an Archmage’s digs should be, and ther eis a game of dragonchess in progress no a table in the study, a game that Flash recognises as being that game that Allustan is playing. Manzorian has one or two items to relate to the party:

The Age of Worms

“The Age of Worms is foretold in a prophecy that speaks of a coming apocalypse, an age of death and writhing doom. Normally such rumors should be dismissed—doomsday prophecies are typically the product of nothing more sinister than madness. This prophecy is different. It can be traced back, through various incarnations in books, tablets, and carvings on walls, for over two thousand years. It does not change in content during this time—it has not evolved through clumsy attempts of fanatics desperate to reword its predictions to support their agendas.
“This alone would be enough for it to merit further study. But even more interesting is the fact that in the last few years several of its predictions have actually come true. In one prophecy, it predicts the ‘ruin by fire of a city built in a bowl in the spire’s shadow.’ Just last year, far to the south, the city of Cauldron—built in the caldera of a dormant volcano only a few miles from Kyuss’ one-time home, the Spire of Long Shadows—was nearly destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Other prophecies speak of the recrudescence of the worm-eaten dead, the recovery of potent artifacts from ancient tombs, the destructive manifestation of an immense demonic tree in a distant city across the sea, the arrival of a ‘Fane of Scales’ amid a storm of wind and fire, and the cleansing of an evil taint from a city besieged in the past by giants.
“These events have all come to pass, and quite recently. In fact, there are only two prophecies remaining to be fulfilled. The first of these mentions the reunification of a tripartite spirit—I assume this is a nod to the goals of the Ebon Triad. The second remaining prophecy reads: ‘And on the eve of the Age of Worms, a hero of the pit shall use his fame to gift a city to the dead.’ I believe this last line may have been speaking of Loris Raknian (certainly a hero from the gladiator’s pit) and his recent attempt to sacrifice thousands at the end of the Champion’s Games. Yes, I’ve heard of this, and I know you played a role in its prevention. It remains to be seen if your actions actually made a difference or not, but it would be foolhardy to assume that those who are trying to fulfill the prophecies will abate their efforts.”

The Ebon Triad

“The Ebon Triad seems to be involved, at least on some level, with most of the events associated with these prophecies. Their involvement merits further investigation, although I believe that they may in fact themselves be little more than agents for a larger power—perhaps Kyuss himself. Certainly, their goal of unifying Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna into one overgod seems ridiculous, although as far as the Age of Worms prophecies about this tripartite spirit are concerned, it seems that the actual manifestation of an Overgod is not what is being predicted as much as it is predicting the heretical beliefs of the cultists themselves.”

Kyuss

“Kyuss is an enigma—what we know of him is sparse. We know that he was once a mortal, a powerful priest who ascended to godhood. He ruled a city named Kuluth-Mar far to the south, and was famed for the creation of undead. A former companion of mine, a wizard named Balakarde, made an extensive study of Kyuss and his ways. You might even say he was obsessed with Kyuss.”

Balakarde

“When Balakarde learned Kuluth-Mar was the likely location of Kyuss’ divine apotheosis, he could barely restrain himself. I cautioned him against going to investigate the ruins. One does not simply teleport into an unknown region without doing some research. Yet Balakarde wouldn’t listen. He left immediately, returning two weeks later with a wild look in his eye. He wouldn’t say much of what he’d found there, and before he moved on he asked me to hold on to some of his notes. He promised to return later and tell me more, but that time was short and he had to head north to follow a new lead. He vanished without a trace not long thereafter. I intended to try to track him down, but unfortunately, other events conspired to take my attention away. I suspect he is dead now. Or worse.”

Kuluth-Mar

“The notes Balakarde left with me are unfortunately rather sparse. They confirm that Kuluth-Mar is located in the Amedio Jungle, far to the south, and estimate that Kyuss ruled the city more than two thousand years ago from a fortress called the Spire of Long Shadows. Balakarde believed that this spire was the site of Kyuss’ ascension to godhood. Kyuss built a ziggurat to serve as the foundation of the Spire of Long Shadows. Balakarde writes how the ziggurat was a powerful magical focus for the ritual that propelled him to divinity. Much of Kyuss’ might has since left the city of Kuluth-Mar, but powerful undead servants and lingering touches of Kyuss’ own miasma make the ziggurat a fell and dangerous place. Balakarde visited the ruined city several times, but never penetrated the spire itself. I never found the journal pages that described his earlier visits.”

Artifacts

“The Age of Worms prophecy predicts that several major magical artifacts shall surface in the months before the end. It does not indicate that these artifacts have a role to play in the realization of the Age of Worms itself, only that their appearance marks that the time is near. I know of several that have surfaced of late; the Black Blade of Aknar Ratalla, the Tome of the Black Heart, the Obsidian Eye, the Dread Forge, the Bindings of Erivatius, and now, as I’m sure you’re aware, a fragment of the Rod of Seven Parts. I’m sure that more are to come.”

The party agree that Kuluth-Mar is probably the next step. And then Manzorian makes an offer. In exchange for the fragment of the Rod of Seven Parts that the party hold, he will give them each one item from his vaults - items of power that simply cannot be bought for mere gold. Flash divines that his offer is sincere. Manzorian’s motives are simple. Firstly, he wants this item safely in a vault rather than wandering the world. Secondly, Manzorian would like to own a fragment of the fabled Rod od Seven PArts - who wouldn’t?

THe deal is: one item each valued not more than 40kgp. Since major magic items are not purchasable on Eberron, this is a unique chance to own something really, really nice. I sort of phased out while the players went cheesemining.
But to all my fellow DMs: the way these guys lit up at the chance to get something that they could get in no other way makes all the restrictions on items worth it. D&D is boring without challenges.

The part accept with aclarity. Gauthakan chooses and Amulet of Health +6. Jericho finds a ring that grants Blinking and Grave Strike. Flash goes for a rod that will allow him to cast evocation spells (via his Use Magic Device: mimic a class ability skill). Frith also got something nice, but we don’t know what, yet.

Then Manzorian shows them a nice picture of Kuluth-Mar, looking rather like the background of this page. A picture so nice, in fact, that you can use it to teleport with. He supplies Flash with two scrolls of Greater Teleport. And then

well, that will have to wait for next week, won’t it? Cheers. And Bevis - let me know what Frith finds in Mazorian’s Vault, if you have the books with you.