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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1613090" data-attributes="member: 9626">The campaign's second-biggest portable hole mistakeThe sewer, while largely ruined from the passing of time and the damage done by the cave-in, still had one accessible tunnel.  While dingy, it was comparatively clean for a sewer, but the same couldn’t be said for the room at the end of the tunnel.“Phew.  What IS that?” a disgusted Galeron asked as he looked at the massive room, which was filled with garbage to the point where the floor couldn’t be seen.“I don’t know.  Maybe some more of those worker sheens were given some food preparation jobs, and they didn’t quit for centuries, even though the actual people to eat the food are long gone,” Tsine speculated, in between gagging breaths.However, Fnipper, who was barely aware of the concept of bathing as a theoretical notion, merely shrugged.  What was the problem, really?Obviously, no one wanted to actually walk through the crud, so everyone prepared magical means to get through it.  Fnipper used a ring that let him walk on the wall, while Tsine and Tal used magic to fly across.  This didn’t help Galeron, Tebryn or Robin out, though, but Tal had an idea.  “What if the three of you waited in my portable hole?  There’s enough air to last a long time, and it shouldn’t take more than a few moments to cross the room.”  Tebryn and Robin agreed, but Galeron decided that was too risky and decided to tough it out by walking across.  Everything was fine, at least at first.  However, after Galeron waded halfway across the room, there was rumble below him.  Before anyone could react, three hideous creatures emerged from the filth.  Two looked like giant centipedes, with a number of strange tentacles growing out of their faces.  The third, however, was far worse.  It was a colossal purple worm, and was about the size of half of the room!Tal reacted first.  Though the danger in front of him was great, he chose not to flee, and instead hurled a blast of sonic energy at the worm.  Fnipper also chose to help. He leapt into the garbage with a disturbed glee, and then crawled over to the first of the little centipede-creatures.  As he crawled, he activated his magic ring and began to blink in and out of reality.  Tsine managed to fly a little closer to the other side of the room, and then followed up with a bolt of lightning directed at the second centipede.  However, the little centipedes were quick to react, and while the first couldn’t get near the elusive Fnipper, the other was able to repeatedly slap Tsine with its tentacles.  The pain was minimal, but to Tsine’s horror, he felt himself slowly go numb.  He was terrified beyond belief as the monster dragged him into the garbage, but was helpless to resist.The worm was even more effective.  Seeing an easy prey near its head, it almost casually lunged at Tal, who was nowhere near fast enough to dodge.  He began to struggle with the worm, as its dagger-length teeth began to dig into his flesh.  Meanwhile, Galeron managed to reach the end of the room, but could do little to help from here.  Suddenly, he had an idea, and began to cast a spell.By the time he was finished, things were steadily getting worse.  Fnipper had managed to dispatch the first centipede, but the other was still gnawing into Tsine.  Even worse was the microscopic threat, however.  Though they were unaware of it at the time, a disease that had been festering and growing stronger for a millennium festered in the waste, and it managed to get into Tsine’s system through his numerous wounds.  But Tal had it even worse, as the Worm finished swallowing its prey!  Tal began to struggle to escape, as he was being crushed by the creature’s stomach lining and slowly dissolved by digestive acid.Meanwhile, Robin came upon a brilliant play, and chose to draw three cards.  Tebryn dealt them to him, as they tried not to think about what’s going on outside.  “What do you think is taking so long?” Robin asked.Tebryn thought about it the question for a minute.  “I don’t know, but I hope they didn’t forget about us.  There can’t be that much air in here.”Galeron’s spell had summoned a celestial creature.  It was a lantern archon, the least of the holy beings, but Galeron knew it had powerful long-range weapons and a magical aura that struck fear into its enemies.  Sure enough, its appearance caused the worm to shrink back, and it began to fire at the second centipede as Galeron summoned another magical ally.  This one was a flying sword, which flew through the air guided by the divine might of his goddess.  Between his magic blade, his own sword, and the archon’s beams, the second centipede also soon fell.  However, it was Fnipper who saved the day.  He saw the purple worm lunge towards him, and deftly leapt onto the creature’s head, while simultaneously bringing his blade down in a perfectly-placed blow.  He had managed to plunge his sword into the creature two more times before the worm could even turn around for a second attack.  Fnipper laughed as he saw his enemy come for him, and ran towards the wall.  He rebounded off of it just as the worm’s head passed under him, and he was leap straight at the top of the creature’s head.  The momentum of his leap plus the perfect timing of the attack was enough to catch the creature perfectly, and he was able to keep the blade in as the creature passed under him, nearly slicing the top of the creature in half!  It collapsed, and began to sink into the muck as Fnipper helped dig the near-dead Tal out of the belly.  Bedraggled, the heroes shambled out of the room, and decided to rest one last time before they finished their exploration.  After all, it doesn’t matter if they find Zuriden if they get killed rescuing him.    Meanwhile, deep in the complex, Zuriden was waiting.  But he was neither trapped nor in any particular danger.  In fact, he found truths deep within the structure that made changed his mind completely about the nature of his city and the actions of those inside it.  He wanted to change everything, and he didn’t especially want to be disturbed while he did so.    OOC Notes:  Okay, so I embellished Fnipper’s actions just a little, but not by much.  He did more or less single-handedly destroy that worm with a series of sneak attacks.  Galeron admittedly helped a lot with the penalties his archon gave the purple worm, but otherwise he might have saved the party from a TPK.  Especially when the worm essentially swallowed half the party in one gulp!    This and the last two updates were all from one game, and it was a great one.  Two close combats, some great role-playing with the new players, and the fun of watching them figure out the habitation.  If I had to pick, I’d say this was possibly my favorite game of the campaign to date.    Sorry about the short update, btw.  I lost all of yesterday to Father’s Day festivities, and with a Wednesday update so close, I didn’t want to go overboard for this one.  Expect the next one to finish up the ancient dungeon and start the next adventure.</blockquote>

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