Age of Worms

[Dantardis]

Hi,

I thought i would use this page to write up the account of how my players are faring with the Age of Worms Campaign. First I thought I would tell you about the world I use.

The world of my campiagns is the Titan setting from the Fighting Fantasy books, with some amendments. For example, with regards to Diamond Lake and Alhaster I incorporated these into the world but for other areas I used the Titan settings or others of my own devising.

 

[Dantardis]

T'Cral sighed to his pet wolf. He could never get used to leaving the druidic grove. His teacher Phambasala had been insistent however. "It is time to learn the ways of the world, my son.", he had said. Leaving the Grove was not easy for T'cral however. It was over 10 years since he had last been in Diamond Lake, his leaving had been to say the least acrimonius. His noble family had virtually disowned him and only his uncle the town mayor had supported him, saying that everyone should find thier own way in the world, but still T'cral felt uneasy.

Then he brightened, at least his monkish friend Advale might be back, he was good company to have in these uncertain times. And so T'cral set out.

 

[Dantardis]

Advale looked back at the monastery over his shoulder. He'd finished his first period of training, and although he had more training to come when time allowed, he now felt it was time to explore the world. He's read in the monastery library that there was an unexplored area known as the Whispering Cairn to the west of Diamond Lake, with possible untold riches. He was sure he could convonce his friend T'Cral to join him.

Meanwhile, in the slums of Diamond Lake, the fighter Raymond crawled out of thr gutter. In a matter of days he'd burnt through all of the remaining money he had and now he needed to make money fast. The Guild of Moneylenders were after him. He needed to make money fast. He's heard that a place called the Whispering Cairn might hold some treasure and he was determined to find it.

In another part of town at the Temple of Oiden, the cleric Reteract finished his prayers. He was uneasy. For the last couple of weeks his brother clerics had been convinced that evil was on the increase. Reteract was determined to try and combat this evil when and how he could.

 

[Dantardis]

In the Golden Bird Tavern Raymon was drowning his sorrows. So far he'd not been able to find work. Standing almost next to him was some sort of cleric. Raymond didn't hold much with religion but he'd known a couple of clerics who were alright some time ago.

"What are you doing here, brother?", he asked.

" I'm looking for a group of people to help me on a task.", replied Retaract. "I've heard that there's a cairn near here that may hold a great treasure."

"Well if it's any use to you, I'm in?"

"Wait a moment you don't know if it might be dangerous or not", laughed Reteract.

"Doesn't matter", replied Raymond. "I'll do anything with the chance of adventure and a bit of money."


Suddenly two more individuals, some sort of druid and a monk stepped towards them.

"Greetings", said the druid. "My friend here and I overheard your conversation. We too are interested in the cairn. Would you consider a link-up?"

"Sure", replied Retaract. We could use all of the help we can get."

And so the group set off for the Whispering Cairn.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The journey to the Whispering cairn was uneventful. Even in the distance it could be seen. It was certainly abandoned, covered in a thick layer of moss and weeds. The track they had been following from Daimond Lake became little more than a dirt track at this point.

As the group moved nearer to the entrance, Retaract and Advale started to look around for any tracks of anything but could see nothing. It had been dry for the last week, making it almost impossible to follow a trail.

Suddenly T'cral's wolf started to growl and just as T'cral started to shout, "Look Ou...", a group of four wolves burst out of the cave entrance, immediately launching into the group.

One wolf managed to bite Raymond and an uneven the wolf tried to trip him. As Raymond fell he could feel the wolf's hot breath on his cheeks.

Meanwhile T'cral had managed to slay one wolf without any trouble and Retaract had neatly disposed of the other without taking more than a few nips. Advale had used his stunning fist ability and stunned the third wolf, so it was out of the picture. As a group they turned towards the final wolf, but before they could do anything T'cral's wolf leapt into action, biting the fourth wolf severely. Knowing it was beaten the wolf ran away towards the mountains and the party let it go.

"Phew, that was a clsoe call", said Raymond. "Perhaps this abandone cairn isn't quite so abandoned at all."

"We just need to be more careful", answered Retaract.

"Never mind the chat responded Advale and T'cral. Let's go."

 

[Dantardis]

Retaract and Advale lit thie torches and looked around the entrance to the Cairn. Meanwhile Raymond could hear a strange whistling, whispering sound.

"Listen, what's that?", he said.

The rest of the group listened to the sounds too. "This must be where the Whispering Cairn gets it's name from.", answered T'cral.

Looking to their right the group could see a lair where the wolves appeared to have lived. In one corner they could see the badly mauled body of a child.

"When we leave this place, we must take the body of this innocent with us. It is the Will of Oiden!", said Retaract, tears filling the corners of his eyes. The rest of the party agreed and in sombre silence they headed to the left where a passage led into the darkness.

The left hand passage seemed to end in a dead end. In once corner was what appeared to be the wooden frame of a large, broken mirror. This frame was covered in some kind of runes which no one could read. In addition the frame appeared to be bolted to the floor and despite constant tugging from Raymond, in particular did not allow any form of movement.

Meanwhile T'cral and Advale had noticed that there appeared to be a greenish glow coming from up ahead.

"Let's have a look at this", said T'cral. "This looks interesting."

Following the light, the party found themselves in a large chamber where the stone sarcophagus of a long dead noble appeared to sit. No one in the body appeared to recocognise the image and they fell to examining the sarcophagus itself. Finding no way to easily open it and having managed to avoid the trap in the lid, Raymond slumped back against the sarcophagus in exasperation and it moved....

"Let's try and see how this thing moves", said Advale. The group found that they could move the sarcophagus to various other coloured lanterns. They first tried the purple lantern and some kind of metal tube appeared. Raymond moved towards it to examine it.

"Be careful", said T'cral. "It could be a trap." As if to prove his words some kind of doors opened on the tube and a long dead crushed body fell out. "I'm guessing that;s not the way to go", said Raymond.

"What", he said as the remainder of the party looked at him in disgust.

The group then moved the sarcophagus towards the green lantern, and another tube appeared. The group eyed it warily as the doors slid open, seeing some kind of mass within. Only Advale, standing in the front of the group, realised what it was,

"Look out. it's some kind of swarm." Just as he said this the swarm moved forwards and engulfed him. With a great roar Raymond swung his mighty axe and managed to kill 2 of the beetles. "That's great" scoffed T'cral, "but we need to try to take out the swarm as a whole."

Lighting their lanterns, T'cral and Retaract threw their torches into the mass of the swarm, setting some of it alight. To follow this up Raymond flew a vial of alchemist's fire onto the torches and the whole swarm blazed merrily. Unfortunately as part of the swarm had been on Advale he took some fire damage too, in fact he took rather a lot of fire damage and he fell unconscious. Fortunately Retaract was on hand and healed him until he was conscious again.

 

[Dantardis]

With their wouns healed the party took the green elevator down to the next level. Here they found a passageway where there were two alcoves. At one end there appeared to be a large stone block covering part of the passageway.

Raymond had a look around by the stone block and heard a slithering sound. Looking in the direction of the sound Raymond saw a strange slithring thing that seemed to be mainly tendrils and a large pair of eyes.

"What the heck's that?", Raymond shouted.

As one the party turned in the direction he was pointing in. "It's some kind of aberration", replied Advale, just as another one came from the other alcove.

The party attacked the aberrations and apart from T'cral and Retaract taking some minor damage the fight was over quickly. The problem of the stone block, however, remained.

Raymond tried to push the block out of the way but felt something go "twong" within and wisely decided to ask the other's for assistance.

Putting their shoulders to the block they all pushed together. "One, two, three. Heave", said T'cral and they managed to push the block out of the way.

The chamber that they came into was filled with the sound of running water, and the party could see that the water level was already up to knee height.

 

[Dantardis]

At the same time that they entered the room T'cral could hear a slithering sound coming from a door on the other side of the room.

"Hang on, I've got an idea.2, he told the others. He waded over to the door and opened it, noticing that the water ran slightly downwards into the room. Next he dived down beneath the water and completely blocked the drain. Soon the water level began to rise until it was about the same height as T'cral's neck. At this point the water flowed into the opposite room, there was a gurgling sound and then silence.

 

[Dantardis]

When the party retried the door, it opened easily enough, revaling a room that was more than half full of water. The only part of the room which was dry was a plank which lay the length of the room. On the surface of the water floated the body of a strange tentacled creature, obviously dead.

"Nice work", said Retaract, wlking across the plank. Although there was a grinding sound as if something had been set off nothing appeared to happen. Raymond reasoned that the release mechanism had filled with water too, meaning it couldn't release. The plank appeared to end at a solid stone door, which had no obvious way of opening it.

While the rest of the party tried searching the area, T'cral appeared to go white ans then an unearthly voice seemed to issue from his lips,

"Greetings! My name is Alastor Land and I am dead. I mean you and your companion no harm, but I need your help. I explored these ruins many years ago but alas I fell foul of one of the many traps and I died here. Now I am doomed to linger in this place until my bones are returned to the family resting place. If you agree to return my bones to the graveyard then I will open the door for you."

"How do we know we can trust you", said Retaract hotly. "You could be a servant of evil in disguise."

"Yes I could be", replied Alastor, his words echoing strangely from T'cral's lips, "but I swear by the honour of my family and by the god Glintaka that I give you my word, I will not harm you."

"Very well", said Raymond, hoping this was the right thing to do. "Open the door and release my friend and I will return your bones for you."

Alastor's ghost left T'cral's body and floated ephereally through the door. A few seconds later there was the click of a mechanism and the stone door slowly slid open, allowing the party to progress.

 

[Dantardis]

The door had opened into a room which seemed to consist of a series of stone platforms. High above the middle platform there appeared to be an opening, but no immediate way of getting there. On the middle platform there seemed to be some kind of whirlwind in effect.

"Be careful, there may be enemies in here", said Raymond.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when two flying, armoured figures appeared on the central span. They each appeared to be holding both a longsword and a shortsword. They made no sound until they clashed their swords together. At this point there seemed to be a line of sound which travelled across the span to the party. Raymond was stunned at this point and T'cral's wolf fell unconscious.

Mot wishing to waste any time Retaract cast Bless on everyone and he and Advale moved in to attack the nearest creature. Advale used his stunning fist ability, which caused the warriors weapon to spin down into the depths. Both Advale and Retaract were then somewhat surprised when the warrior appeared to grow a new sword right into his hand.

"How on earth did that happen?", cursed Retaract as he lay into the creature with his mighty morningstar.

Meanwhile T'cral had started to open fire with his shortbow on the other creature, and soon both creatures had evaporated into the wind, leaving nothing behind. After healing Raymond and the wold the party decided how to get to the opening.

 

[Dantardis]

The party stepped up to the centre of the plinth where the whirlpool was raging.

"I've just noticed, that goes all the way to that opening", said Advale.

Gingerly the party members entered the whirlwind and were lifted slowly up to the opening onto a little ledge.

Inside the opening there was a stone tomb of what looked like an elderly human. There seemed to have been an overwhelming sense of goodness from it.

Advale said, "Are you sure we should disturb this. This is after all the tomb of a good warrior."

"I think it's alright", said Retaract. "If they didn't want us to open it there would have been more guardians to prevent us from doing so."

T'cral and Raymond pushed the lid off the tomb to reveal the perfectly preserved body of an elderly noble. On his forehead rested a silver bracelet, which Retaract took. The party then left the tomb.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following day, after resting and selling some of the items they had found in the tomb, the party led to the Land family plot.