Age of Worms

[Dantardis]

As the party moved near the Land family plot they could see that there was th signs of a great battle. Blood stains and some kind of fur was on the ground. T'Cral's wolf started to growl softly. At the same time Retaract examined the fur.

"Be careful", he said. "That looks like owlbear fur to me."

Sneaking carefully around the remains of the old Land house the party could see the figure of a large female owlbear.

Without a word Raymond nocked an arrow to his bow and fired, doing s small amount of damage. At the same time Retaract abd T'cral moved in with their longspears and started to poke the owlbear. Unfortunately the owlbear managed to claw and rend Raymond and he fell unconscious, bleeding on the floor. Only two rounds later the owlbear was dead. Retaract called to Oiden to heal Raymond and very soon he was back on his feet. Looking around the house Retaract noticed that cowering in one corner was the owlbear's baby and the party decided to take this back with them so they could sell in it the market place in Diamond Lake when they returned.

Moving on to the graveyard the party noticed that 3 of the graves had been plundered and were empty. Next to one of the graves was the body of a human thug. Retaract did a cursory examination.

"This man is beyond my ability to heal. He has been dead at least 2 days."

"Well, there'sno harm in searching the body", said Raymond. Looking through the corpse's belongings Raymond found a small bag of gold and silver pieces and a note signed by someone named Filge, instructing the thugs to loot any dead bodies they could find and to take them to the old observatory.

T'Cral spoke up at this point, "I think we ought to let my uncle know about this. And what's more we can sell what we've found already." The rest of the party readily agreed.

Whilst the rest of the party sold the items, including the owlbear that they had found, T'cral went to see the mayor of Diamond Lake.

The mayor readily agreed to the party examining the old observatory and agreed to pay them a retainer of 100gp each. "It is imnperative that you find out who is behind these desecrations within our town", he told T'cral.

When he returne dto the party some time later T'cral told the party what the mayor had said and they agreed to investigate the old observatory under the cover of darkness.

 

[Dantardis]

The old observatory was silhouetted against the pale moonlight. It looked in very good repair, considering it had been abandoned years ago. In the topmost window, high up in the tower a single flickering light appeared to glow.

Realising that the only way into the tower was through the front door, T'cral tried the handle and was surprised to find it was open.

"Watch out", he said, "this could be a trap."

"You worry too much, always seeing menace in your own shadow.", snorted Raymond in response, opening the door as he did so.

"See, nothing to worry about", he continued. "Just a set of stairs leading up with some sort of cupboard beneath them."

As Raymond said this there was explosion of wooden creatures and a dark coloured creature leapt out at him. It appeared to consist of mainly teeth and fur. The creature leapt onto Raymond and clawed him mercilessly.

"I recognise this thing,it's a tomb mote. It's undead, I'll try to turn it", said Retaract, praying to Oiden.

The creature wavered and ended up cowering in one corner, Advale and T'cral moving in to finish it off, while Retaract cured Raymond's wounds.

"Maybe that'll teach you not to be so impulsive, my friend.", said Advale in an admonishing tone. "This tower is dangerous."

Moving silently up the tower the party came to a bedchamber which appeared to be full of treasure and notes. Helping themselves to the treasure, T'cral also noted a note written by Balabar Smenk to a character called Filge to investigate an onset of green worms. A specimen in a jar would appear to have been the item in question.

Raymond found a stairway leading up and the party followed it.

"Get ready", said Advale. "I sense that our quarry is at hand."

Opening a trapdoor in the ceiling, the party came face to face with Filge and a group of undead. Retaract was able to turn two of them and the party was able to defeat the rest easily. Even though the necromancer Filge threw a few bad spells against them the party soon managed to convince him to surrender.

After divesting him of any weapons and treasure T'cral questioned Filge. Filge revealed to them that he had been summonned to Diamond Lake to investigate an outcrop of green worms by one Balabar Smenk, a local mine owner. In return Filge had been allowed to practice his necromantic arts.

T'cral and the others handed Filge over to the local authorities and then decided what to do. They all trained to new states of readiness and sold and purchased items. Then there was only one bittersweet duty to perform. Taking the bodies of Alastor Land and his family the party reinterred them in the family plot.


--------------------------END OF SESSION ONE------------------------------------------