Week 34 - Handling the shaft

1. Western Entrance

The walls of this chamber are carved to depict an army of armored soldiers engaged in the ruin and destruction of a city of helpless men, women, and children. Buildings burn, blood washes the streets, and dark thunderclouds boil in the skies above. Above them all, directing the army, is an enormous figure dressed in plate mail. His face is cold and cruel, but also quite handsome. He wields an exotic polearm that combines the features of a pick, an axe, and a mace.

The party examine the western entrance cautionsly, but there isn't much there.

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5. Halls of Knowledge

This long chamber obviously served as a library, as dozens of bookshelves line the walls and stand back-to-back amid the chamber. In addition to the surprisingly well-preserved tomes, twelve clear jars sit on various shelves, each filled with a thin gray liquid and containing a single writhing green worm.

Then the party venture the southern door. Behind it is a library, and three more foes: two undead knights, and some sort of spellcaster.

Vision: Kyuss the Student

The chamber wavers and shimmers, and suddenly a human man appears at one of the desks nearby. A strange gray-skinned humanoid creature with six arms stands at his shoulder. The man studies a collection of worn and pitted bronze disks arrayed on the desk before him. Faint etchings adorn the plates, and it seems as if the alien figures and symbols writhe together at the behest of some sinister will. The gray creature points to one of the plates, and a look of sudden comprehension blooms on the man’s face. The man, the creature, and the plates then fade away, and are gone.

They fight and defeat these three, and experience yet another vision.

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Vision: The Sundering

The strange dark stain in the air wavers and then grows solid. The peak of the Spire of Long Shadows is restored, and affixed to this peak is a fifteen-foot-tall, three-foot-thick trapezoid-shaped pinnacle of black rock, ten feet wide at the base and five at the peak. The monolith of stone shimmers and vibrates with waves of energy, and something strange and horrible writhes inside its nearly opaque interior. Suddenly, a brilliant red wall of scales fills the view, and there’s a terrible sound of crumbling stone. In an instant, an enormous red dragon is winging away to the north. The spire’s peak is in ruins, and clutched in the dragon’s talons is the monolith. The vision fades, and the dragon and its prize are gone.

The party search the room, taking a dozen flasks with Kyuss worms in them, worms that can grant knowlege ... but at a price. Jericho examines the stairs up out of the central chamber, and determines that they open up onto hidden entrances in the outside of the ziggurat. He, too, notices the strange stain in the air. Flash attempts to determine its nature with a Clairvoyance spell, but finds nothing. So Jericho agrees to climb the spire. Near the top, he experiences another vision, which the party shares by their Rary's telepathic bond.

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The party decide to rest before attempting the climb down the shaft in the centre of the main chamber. Their researches in the library indicated that below them were the private chambers of Kuss, and those of the four "Knights of Kyuss". Serious foes, no doubt. The grounds around the ziggurat turn out to be infested with worms, so they cross the barrier to camp outside.

6. The Writhing Chamber

At first, the floor itself seems writhe and twist in on itself, but a longer look reveals it to be covered with thousands and thousands of Kyuss worms of all sizes.

But first, Flash uses Clairvoyance again to determine what lies at the foot of the shaft. It turns out to be a room full of Kyuss worms. This causes consternation. Various approaches are suggested, but Frith recalls that the worms are merely vermin and not themselves undead. Forewarned is forearmed, so he announces that he will beseech his gods to grant him the spell of Repel Vermin. Maybe a couple.

Next day, the party rise and are soon ready to dare the shaft. With a Hero's Feast and Spider Climb all around, they descend. The walls of the shaft are honeycombed with passages, and three strange nagas attack. They dispel he Spider Climbing on Frith and Jericho, but our heroes have rings of Feather Fall. Frith elects to cast his Repel Vermin and simply drift to the bottom. Flash and Gauthkan, with Feeblemind and hammer respectively destroy the strange nagas.

As our adventure concludes for the nonce, the party stand in a room filled with kyuss worms, with a 10'-wide clear area centered on Frith.

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