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Week 50 - A scholar calls for help.

Holy crap! Our brave adventurers have destroyed a dracolich’s horcrux phylactery, and not just any dracolich (not that there is any such thing as “just any” dracolich) but the lich who is the herald of Kyuss - Dragotha himself!

Dragotha will construct another phylactery, and if he does then all the efforts of the Order of the Storm will have been in vain. But such a project takes months - it is not a simple thing. So the party go shopping, and Mend uses his demiplane with its speeded-up-time to make some items. Then its off once more to the Goradra Gap, this time to one of its deepest and most dangerous zones - a blind canyon known as the Wormcrawl Fissure. According to legend it was here, in ages past, that Khyber attempted to rise up and escape the bonds of Eberron. A fitting place for the minions of Kyuss and the overlord Katashka.

The Wormcrawl Fissure

A particularly deep spur canyon extending from the westernmost reaches of the Rift Canyon, the Wormcrawl Fissure is well known as one of the most mysterious and dangerous regions in the world. Few have braved its depths, but its perimeter is thouroughly documented.

The Wormcrawl can be divided into two distinct zones: the Heights and the Depths. The Heights extend about 300 feet down into the Fissure. The caverns that riddle the walls of this region are infested with tough groups of ruffians and goblinoids, along with numerous vermin and flying monsters. The worst of this bunch are the derro of the Razorwind tribe, a group of bandits who ride highly-trained wyverns.

(Of course, no-one ever thinks to ask whom they practice their banditry upon, so far from any potential victims.)

The Wormcrawl Depths are often shrouded in a thick mist that blocks the cleansing light of the sun, creating a perfect place for the undead spawn of Kyuss to fester and grow. The deepest point is said to be a mile below sea level, and the caverns that branch off from the cliffs doubtless go even deeper. Numerous undead menaces dwell here, including many types of spawn of Kyuss, nightcrawlers, and worse.

The contact is rushed and fearful - a sudden rush of images. The first is of a mist-shrouded gorge, the floor a maze of rifts and pits in which immense vermin squirm. The second is of a towering worm, its head a tangle of eyes and its pale body shrouded in a haze of writhing filaments. This immense worm lunges forth to consume the viewer, and fades to be replaced by a third, that of a stately looking man dressed in an explorer’s outfit. He sports a distinctive high beard and moustache, and suddenly his expression becomes one of abject horror as his flesh rots away and a storm of green worms consumes him from within.
The party head to the canyon, which is shrouded at all times in gloomy mist. Venturing in, Mend is assailed by a plot hook vision. A spirit - a scholar like himself - makes contact via a terrible vision. Though horrifying, he is not overwhelmed by it, and after the vision is done he feels a tugging - a desire to investigate “thataway”. Through their telepathic bond, Frith recognises the gentleman as Balakarde - who, it seems, has always been one step ahead of them. The party decide that this is as good a starting point as any, and head thataway.

— † —

Earthcancer Centipede
A thirty-five-foot-long pale green and white centipede scuttles sinuously over the barren earth. Its dark green eyes peer above a nest of several long antennae writhing on its face. Tiny green worms drip from its mouth and cracks in its chitinous armor, and at places where it stands or touches the rock walls, the earth turns gray and boils into nasty, tumorlike growths of pale fungus.
They shadow-walk in the direction of Mend’s tugging, but the terrain soon becomes close enough that shadow-walking is not accurate enough. They pop out of the shadow plane next to a cave entrance. Gauthakan flies in in bat form, turning right he sees a nest of enormous, hideous centipedes - most of them already burrowing through the wall, heading straight for the party. He transforms out of bat form and prepares to battle. meanwhile, outside, the party see the first cetipedes emerge from the wall, and the fight is on.

Mindkiller Scorpion
This hideous scorpion is a nasty, black, twenty-foot-long menace. Its chitinous armor is a tangle of cruel hooked spikes and cracks that leaks ichor. It has three scorpion tails instead of one, and the tips of each tail sport several long, green crystalline stingers and plates, looking like some sort of dangerous fanged flower.
The fight progresses for a few seconds or so - although hideous, the centipedes are not difficult to deal with. But then a pair of scorpions emerge from the depths - each radiating an aura of madness. One heads for the chamber in which Gauthakan is fighting, the other heads outside. Gauthkan is protected by a Circlet of Mind Blanking, crafted by Mend at enormous expense. The rest of the party os not so lucky - Screechy is driven part way to madness by the thing. The party outside concentrate their fire and manage to bring down the scorpion without too much trouble. Gauthakan inside hammers away, and the monsters are dealt with.

Mend and Gauthakan head into the interior hamber, looking for loot, while the other members of the party heal up. But less than a minute later, the true master of these caves emerges: the ancient ulgurstasta N’vesh-n’kar, first Apostle of Kyuss. This gigantic wormlike abberation comes flying through the air. It ignores Mend, who is immune to the spell it intends to use, and does not see Gauthakan, who is protetced by his Wraithhunter shirt. Instead it lobbs a Horrid Wilting at the party outside, and it’s on again.

Gauthakan Spider Climbs the walls and lands on the apostle’s back. Meanwhile, the other party members begin lobbing Dispell Magic spells at it. Eventually, someone manages to dispel the Fly spell. Falling into the pit of sharp shards of bone, the monster is wounded, and it Dimension Doors out.

And so the party move into exploration mode. Gauthakan heads left, and is hit by a trap - a fiendish device that fires Greater Dispel Magic and Finger of Death spells. Retreating quickly, Mend is sent in. Both of his Rings of Couterspelling, equipped to counterspel Dispel Magic are discharged, but he has a Death Ward effect in place and so is immune to the FoD anyway. He swiftly disarms the device before it can eliminate any of his magical protections.

Heading further in, they find the Apostle’s lair, and it appears fully healed. The corridor is choked with dragon and chimera skeletons, which Frith begins turning. Gauthakan also notices that the chamber they approach is full of loot. But oddly - the Apostle falls lifeless. Unconcious. As the party battle the skeletons, they are bombarded by some sort of psychic attack. And them, as they clear away the last of the skeletons, Frith senses thought their Telepathic Bond that Screech has suddenly gone missing. Meanwhile, Screechy before them turns and starts attacking the party with spells.

Gauthakan grapples him - Screechy suddenly being curiously unskilled in the barbarianly arts, and the party begin looking for the Magic Jar holding his soul. Sensing that all is nearly lost, N’vesh-n’kar gives up on the Magic Jar spell and returns to his body, prepared to batle to the last.

So they kill him.

— † —

Well! There is a lot of loot, and several powerful and horribly evil magic items, which Mend will no doubt drain. And something … interesting.

An Everfull Purse is here, and attached to it is a fragment of someone’s soul - Balakarde’s no doubt. Retrieving the item, a couple of things happen. First, the presence of the scholar in the item offers help and advice to whoever hold it. Second, the bearer of the item becomes aware of the location of two other fragments of soul.

There’s one thataway, and one thataway.

— † —

Well! Will the party opt to retrieve the other two soul fragments, or will they just charge straight of to beard Dragotha? And will they go thataway, or thataway? Let’s find out!

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