Week 13 - Chicken omlette. (well, tastes like chicken)

After a little discussion with Hishka, the party determine that the infected lizardman had been recently given a potion that had been supplied by Illthane, the Great One. The party check a couple of other potions supplied by Illthane and, sure enough, they each have a worm living in them.

Hishka recovers from her shock, and determines that the tribe must move from their digs and go hide from the treacherous Great One. However - there is a problem. The tribe's eggs are in a chamber guarded by Iltahane's trusted guards. The tribe had thought that these guards were put their for the tribe's benefit, but it is now clear that Illthane's designs and guards are not to be trusted. Hishka asks the party to deal with the guards so that the tribe can retrieve their eggs and abandon their home.

The eggs are beyond a submerged tunnel which is trapped with snare spells. However, Hishka casts water breathing and tells the party how to recognise the snares, so there is no problem negotiating the passage. As Hishka does occasionally examine the eggs, the plan is simple. Flash will change so as to appear to be a lizardman and will accompany her into the chamber. The rest of the party will wait just out of sight. Then, umm, everyone attacks. Hiskha stresses, however, that the eggs must not be harmed (more than strictly nessesary) and so if the party can keep Tom "Boatfoot" out of the egg area itself, that would be a good idea.

Oh - one other thing. Marzeena has nothing much to tell the party about the worms, save that they are vulnerable to silver. The party files this away in the "handy things to know" drawer.

Well, it all goes pretty much to plan. Flash uses a scroll of Web to entangle the kobold guards at the rear (so that they don't harm the eggs), and a spell of Deep Slumber. The party emerge from the water and carve up the guards. And that's that.

Eight 1st-level lizardman rogues. Riiiight. I have to start beefing up these encounters.

They capture one Kobold, but these guards are basically slaves of Illthane and know nothing. At the back of the egg chamber is what is clearly a dragon egg. The party elect to take it with them - maybe raise a black dragon as a mount, or something.

*Slaps head* - really: do anybody else's players pull this kind of stuff?.

And with that, they are done with the Twisted Branch tribe. Hishka gives them some documents to take to the chiefs of the pinks, and sends them back to the keep with a couple of guides which bypass all the dangers of the swamp in a few short words.

They arrive back at the keep - and whaddaya know, it is in an uproar.

Seems that Marzeena's predecessor didn't simply wander off into the swamp one day and never return. In fact he did return - as a hideous undead thing with worms coming out of his empty eyesockets. The keep guards had him imprisoned in the basement, but during the attack a lizardman broke open the reinforced door holding him. He attacked the lizardman and converted him into an undead horror like himself.

Since then, the soldiers have kept the entrance to the basement barricaded. Unfortunately, the creatures broke through the barricade at one point and siezd another soldier, so now there are three of them down there. They ask the party, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, and since they are experienced with dealing with weird supernatural stuff, and have a cleric, if they could possibly deal with the situation. By which they mean - kill the monsters.

Man, did I screw this up. I forgot the fear aura! Doh! The fear aura! And I sent the monsters at the party one at a time. Next time it will be stacks on, by God. Also, I gave the party a claok of hide from undead and didn't have the rules with me - I have even forgotten which sourcebook it came from. I was also not clear on what happens when a Kuss spawn "dies". Presumably, the worms can't re-reanimate the body. All in all, a bit of a mess. Oh well.

Frith dons the cloak of hide from undead which the party retreived from The Faceless One and heads downstairs. He soon catches sight of one of the Spawn of Kyuss. He calls upon the power of his Gods and sends it scurrying away in fear.

Oh - Bevis screwed up Frith's stats: "Improved Turning" cannot be taken multiple times. Mind you, the turning rules are so complicated that fair enough that anyone should stuff them up. There was an extended discussion at the table.

Look: I forget the details, ok? Here are some of the highlights:

• Jericho was guarding the stairs up to the main floor of the building. Not really a hell of a lot that a rogue can do when there's undead around.
• Flash was using clairvoyance to monitor activity - but that wasn't really much help to the fighters on the ground.
• The fighters were hacking apart the undead who were busy cowering from Frith, and dealt with two of them.
• Then I remembered the fear aura. The third one came out and filled Tom and (I think) Jericho with supernatural horror, and they fled. It also flicked a worm onto Arn, but he crushed it before it could start burrowing. Pity.
• Frith went upstairs to cast Calm Emotions and bring Tom and Jericho back down. The spell is an emanation that must be concentrated on, so Frith could do nothing further. But so long as he stayed near enough to the fighters, they were ok with the fear.
• Not sure what the turning rules are if the cleric goes away and comes back. I ruled that the undead were still turned … but I need to clarify the rules.

The party eventually overcome the monsters. They take their leave of Blackwall Keep, and head back to Diamond Lake and Allustan to debrief. Mercifully, their journey is uneventful.

Regrettably, Marzeena has little new information for Allustan, merely confirmation of what he already does know. To summarise:

• There is a new type of undead: the Spawn of Kyuss, created when Kyuss Worms infect a living host (pretty obvious).
• The worms consume the body of the host, but as quick as the host is consumed, it regenerates (this was visible to the party when they saw the spawn).
• The spawn radiate a supernatural aura of fear.
• Kyuss spawn are intelligent undead (from the soldiers reports of how they ambushed the third soldier).
• A Kyuss spawn can transfer a worm onto an opponent during battle. (Arn dealt with one before it started burrowing, so the party does not know yet what happens or how fast it happens, but it's gotta be bad.)
• The worms are vulnerable to silver and to normal damage (Marzeena's research).
• When the host dies, the worms infecting the host also die in one round (party saw this happen).
• There is more than one kind of worm - the ones in the potions were different to the usual ones.
• If things go really pear-shaped, they will infect all that lives, bringing about an age of ruin and despair over Khorvaire and then the entire world - the Age of Worms. (again, pretty obvious. God help everyone if they get into the Sharn sewer system.)

All in all, Marzeena was not much help. Allustan would now like the party to take his notes to the sage Eligos, who lives in Sharn. In particular, maybe he will have suggestions on some concrete way to adress the problem. While they are there, they can also drop off the diplomatic package from the lizardfolk of the mistmarsh.

Oh - the drgon egg.

Well, on an hunch, Flash used their wand of Remove Curse that they have on loan from the church of the Silver Flame on the egg. After a few days, it started to smell (the egg, not the wand). On investigation, it turned out to contain not a dragon embryo, but to be full of some foul-smelling muck. Presumably there's some sort of dragon/worm thingo going on, but the party will never know what the story was.

And so we conclude, the party having survived their first brush with the Spawn of Kyuss unscathed. Is there more going on? You betcha there is. Will I be able to run a convincing urban adventure in Sharn? … probably not, but there you go. Onward, then, to the Hall of Harsh Reflectons!