Menexenus's Age of Worms Campaign Journal

[Menexenus]

Session 12: Defeating the Temple of Erythnul

9th of Flocktime. As the rest of the party is making camp at the top of the cliff, Killick decided to head into town for a supply run. He asked the party members if there was anything they needed. Katawan asked Killick to buy him a crossbow and bolts. Alees asked for more bolts. Tarric asked for more arrows. Killick left and said he would return as soon as he could.

10th of Flocktime - early morning. After the party had 24 hours of rest (and both Alees and Thorash had prayed for spells), the party decided not to wait for Killick any longer (otherwise dawn would come and Alees would waste the spells she had memorized). About an hour before dawn, the party decided to venture back down the cliff face. Tarric and Katawan headed down first while the rest of the party waited at the top. The party immediately heard yelling from a Grimlock in the mid-level winding tunnel. When Tarric reached the bottom, he headed into the bottom tunnel. When he emerged on the other side, he was pelted with 3 javelins. Meanwhile, Alexander made it to the bottom, and Katawan climbed up to the far ledge 20 feet above the floor. Katawan saw a Grimlock at the end of the tunnel, but it fell back into the tunnel rather than engaging him. When Katawan checked again a few seconds later, that Grimlock was gone. Meanwhile, Thorash attempted to climb down the cliff with disastrous consequences. His fall knocked himself unconscious. Alees made her way down the cliff and brought Thorash back to consciousness.

In the other chamber, Alexander cast Scare on the Grimlocks at the top of the 30 foot ledge, causing one of them to flee. This made room for Tarric, using the Spider Climb that Alexander had cast on him to good effect. He made it to the top and engaged the javelin-throwing Grimlocks in melee. Meanwhile, Alexander fired Magic Missiles at the Grimlocks and then cast a Spectral Hand to impart his Chill Touch. Thorash cast Cause Fear, and then he and Alees fired bolts from their crossbows. Grimlock reinforcements arrived, causing Tarric to be surrounded by Grimlocks. He was also charged by the commander Grimlock wearing a nice chain shirt and carrying a greataxe. After Tarric cleared some room, Katawan joined him on the ledge. After most of the Grimlocks were killed, Tarric was knocked unconscious by the Grimlock leader's crushing axe blows. Katawan seemed to retreat into the passage on the far side of the cave. The Grimlock leader followed him, but he could not keep up with the monk and was unable to land a blow.

Meanwhile, Alees made her way up to the ledge to heal Tarric and engage the remaining Grimlock. At this point, the party saw that Killick had returned. He tossed a grappling hook on to the ledge to help Thorash in climbing up. Eventually, Katawan led the Grimlock leader back to the party, but now the Grimlock seemed winded from the chase. The Grimlock that had previously succumbed to Alexander's Scare spell also returned. Alexander and Killick joined the rest of the party on the ledge while Alees delivered the killing blow to the Grimlock chieftain.

After a little healing and looting, Alexander and Katawan decided to press on because they were the fastest movers in the party and could retreat quickly if necessary. They got back to the room with the 10 foot ledge and found it deserted. They climbed up the ledge and saw 3 passageways. By this time the rest of the party caught up. Alees, Alexander, and Katawan decided to investigate one of the passageways (above another 10 foot ledge) while Killick, Tarric, and Thorash explored another. Alees's group found what must have been the chieftain's private chamber and Killick's group found the common Grimlock sleeping cavern. Alees and Alexander began looking for swag, while Katawan, Killick, Tarric, and Thorash pressed on into the third passageway. This exit led to a longer passage that curved around in an approximate semi-circle before opening into a much larger area. However, as soon as Katawan moved in, he was attacked by more Grimlocks.

The Grimlocks backed off a bit, allowing Killick to move a bit farther into the room, but he was quickly surrounded. However, the Grimlocks' axe blows are largely ineffective against him even when flanked. It is at this point that the party noticed a cleric wearing a shiny breastplate on the far side of the room on a small ledge over a campfire 10 feet below. As the party fought its way through the warrior Grimlocks, the cleric (who called himself Grallak Kur) cast numerous spells at the party including Hold Person, Cause Fear, Spiritual Weapon, and (when Tarric was approaching his position) Invisibility. (Presumably, he also had time to cast some unknown buff spells.)

After the warrior Grimlocks had been dispatched, Grallak Kur cast Sound Burst at the party which made him visible again. He then climbed back up onto his little platform above the campfire and waited for challengers to face him one-on-one. Tarric was willing to oblige him but was quickly knocked unconscious by the cleric's wicked skill with the morningstar. When it was clear that the rest of the party was unwilling to climb up to face him one at a time, he cast Obscuring Mist to help protect himself from ranged attacks. The party found creative ways to burn off the areas of mist that were protecting him. And after suffering a couple painful arrows and bolts from Alees and Katawan in quick succession, he decided to jump down and face the party all at once. This gamble seemed to pay off handsomely for the cleric as Alees and Katawan withdrew, and Killick was quickly knocked unconscious. Grallak Kur emerged from the mist and saw Thorash for the first time in the battle. He remarked that when he had foreseen this battle in the fire, he had not seen a dwarf in the party - only humans. But his puzzlement at the presence of a dwarf did not delay him long. He knocked the dwarf unconscious in short order.

With 3 of the party's melee fighters unconscious and Katawan wounded and avoiding combat, things looked dire for the heroes. At this point, Alees decided that the party's only hope was to chuck her last tanglefoot bag at the cleric. Alees called on the luck power granted by her deity to ensure that the bag would hit him. Apparently, Fharlangn heard her prayer, because the Grimlock cleric failed to dodge it and was firmly rooted to the ground. Without a slashing weapon, he had no means of escape. Alees quickly stabilized Thorash, then she and Katawan gleefully shot him with arrows from a short distance away. (Alexander made a point of not shooting the cleric while he was helpless.) As he was being shot to death, he conveyed his confidence that the party would die and that the Ebon Triad would eventually be victorious. He claimed that the awakening of the Overgod was inevitable. With his last breath he prayed to Erythnul to receive his soul with honor.

The party was victorious over the temple of Erythnul.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 13: Defeating the Vecna Temple

10th - 12th of Flocktime. Alexander spent time crafting magical items (a wand and 3 scrolls). Others in the party spent time selling swag captured from the Erythnul temple in town. When Krastor the judge and cleric of Pelor learns that the party is back in town, he tracked them down for a status report. He asked them how things were going down in the mine and seemed pleased to learn about the party's success against the temple of Erythnul . He encouraged the party to continue destroying the evil cultists, but asked that they not leave town without contacting him first. He explained that he might need the some of the party members' testimony in the three ongoing trials he was presiding over (Filge, Smenk, and Dourstone). Alexander and Tarric placed orders for masterwork gloves and boots (respectively). Venelle told them that it will take about a week to fill the orders (which were pre-payed).

13th of Flocktime. The party chose to descend back down to the evil temple complex about 2 hours before dusk. Killick saw that the Vecna door had been opened since the party left last time. Katawan entered the Erythnul temple and verified that the grimlock corpses were still where the party left them. After some listening and checking for traps, Alees was able to pick the lock on the Vecna temple door (just barely). This led to a short passage with a wooden door at the end. After more checking and listening, this door was opened, and the party filed into a 5 foot wide hallway. Thorash noticed that the high-quality stone masonry in this area is similar to the masonry in the Cathedral area. He concluded that the Vecna temple and the Cathedral were constructed at the same time, and the Hextor and Erythnul temples were added on later.

After a bit of exploring in the winding, labyrinthine passages, the party heard some mammalian squealing from two directions. A few seconds later, DIRE WEASELS emerged from the darkness to attack the party. As the party engaged them, walking bird men (known as KENKU) emerged from out of nowhere to attack the party. Sometimes they seem to come from areas that the party thought they had already cleared. The attack split the party in thirds with Killick and Katawan on the left side, Tarric and Thorash in the middle, and Alexander and Alees on the right. One of the DIRE WEASELS latched onto Killick and tries to rip his throat out, but Killick killed it before it was able to succeed. Tarric was faring well against the KENKU he faced and found himself looking for enemies to fight. Thorash got flanked by them. Alees got shot at by one of them. Suddenly a KENKU BOSS and a KENKU SORCEROR showed up from an area the party thought it had already explored on the party's right flank. The BOSS tore a bead off his necklace and threw it at Alexander and Alees, causing a fiery explosion. Alexander was hurt but Alees was unsinged. Then the SORCEROR smashed a feather token that turned into a disembodied whip which slashed at Alexander and got a tight grip on him that held him immobile. All of the KENKU had a visible shield of force (Shield of Faith) in front of them as they fought, and many of them threw Alchemist Fire at party members when at short range. When the whip constricted Alexander again, he fell unconscious. But the sorceror and the whip mysteriously moved away. Then the BOSS threw another (smaller, less powerful) bead of fireball at Alexander and Alees, causing Alexander further damage. Slowly, the other two fronts of the battle begin to get the upper hand over their KENKU opponents and started coming to Alees and Alexander's aid. Thorash and Katawan arrived first, followed by Tarric and Killick.

Katawan and Killick fought on opposite sides of the BOSS, trapping him. The BOSS exploded another fireball at his own feet, but no one took any damage this time. The SORCEROR reappeared and cast Grease at an intersection 10 feet in front of him. And the whip grabbed Alees. Alees broke out and slid Alexander out of the Greased area. Tarric moved across the Grease to threaten the SORCEROR. The SORC tried casting magic missile at Tarric, but his Brooch of Shielding absorbed the hit. Later, the SORC moved away from Tarric and casts Magic Missile at Thorash. At this point the BOSS was finally killed by Katawan, and the SORC was all alone trapped in a corner. He got off another Magic Missile at Alexander (ineffective due to Alexander's Shield), and yet another at Katawan, before finally succumbing to Alexander's Magic Missiles. While the rest of the party finished off the SORC, Thorash went around a corner to retrieve the BOSS's necklace. Thorash found it empty of beads. When Katawan joined him a couple rounds later, the KENKU BOSS's corpse appeared significantly different from the way he had left it. The corpse appeared desiccated.

With the fight over, the party looted the dead bodies and explored the labyrinth more systematically. The party eventually found two nest-rooms for the KENKU that contained a total of 600 gp as well as a pair of magical contact lenses. The desiccated body of the KENKU BOSS was found wearing masterwork studded leather and a masterwork light crossbow. The only thing of his that glowed magical were the three bottles of ointment that he was carrying on his belt.

While Thorash was praying to renew his spells (at dusk), Killick and Alees discovered 3 secret doors on the far labyrinth wall. They think a retreating KENKU might have gone through the door on the left, so at first the party went through that door. Thei found a storage room, filled with barrels and crates all bearing the mark of Smenk's Feral Dog tavern. When the party heard some kind of voice on the other side of the far door, they chose to attack from another direction. The entered the middle secret door and launched an attack. Tarric and Katawan were the first ones into a long room with pillars in the middle. The pillars were made of a strange marble whose green veins that seem to move and throb. The walls were a grey marble with large round protruding bumps at irregular intervals. When Katawan moved far enough to see through a 10 foot wide doorway into the Inner Sanctum, a VECNA ACOLYTE cast Web to keep him from moving any farther. Tarric opened another door into the Inner Sanctum, and the second VECNA ACOLYTE failed to hit him with a Scorching Ray. Moments later, the second ACOLYTE cast Web on the second doorway. Meanwhile, an ALLIP moved out of a wall to attack Katawan while he was stuck. Katawan smashed a flask of Alchemist Fire he had picked up from a dead Kenku in order to slowly burn his way out of the Web. While he waited for the web to burn away, he suffered multiple hits from the ALLIP that drained his Wisdom. A FIENDISH MONSTROUS CENTIPEDE emerged from the far side of the room to protect the ACOLYTES.

The CENTIPEDE was dispatched quickly. Just then, the rest of the party heard the Allip mumbling. Tarric and Alexander were hypnotized by its insane ramblings. Meanwhile, Killick and Alees were stunned by 2 Color Sprays cast by the ACOLYTES. The last KENKU found the courage to return to the fight while 4 of the party members were stunned or hypnotized, and it commenced beating on defenseless Tarric. Another FIENDISH MONSTROUS CENTIPEDE appeared and joined the fight. By now, Katawan was free from the web that had trapped him at the beginning of the combat. He and Killick teamed up to flank the enormous magical insect. Eventually, the ACOLYTES had expended their magic and were reduced to attacking with daggers. They begged their master loudly to assist them, but a voice in another room just laughed. Alexander awoke from his hypnosis and ran in to a back room to confront the source of the laughter. It was the man described by Smenk as the FACELESS ONE. Alexander cast a Fireball that the Faceless One shrugged off. He replied with a Lightning Bolt of his own. After getting the worse of the magical exchange, Alexander moved away. The FACELESS ONE cast Web into the Inner Sanctum, immobilizing many of the party members. Katawan and Alees both used flasks of Alchemist Fire to burn the web away. The FACELESS ONE cast a Flaming Sphere at Katawan's feet, but he was able to avoid it rather easily. However, Tarric was hit by the Flaming Sphere as he moved to attack the FACELESS ONE. Katawan also move in to provide a flank for him. Thorash cast Hold Person and Cause Fear. Neither spell is effective against the Faceless One, who combat casts Lighting Bolt from a scroll, dropping Thorash. (Meanwhile, Alexander has destroyed the ALLIP with Magic Missiles from his wand.)

Realizing his danger, the FACELESS ONE tried to baracade himself in a laboratory behind the Inner Sanctum, but Katawan forced his way in. Alexander entered from the opposite side of the room and dropped the FACELESS ONE with Magic Missiles to the back (his non-Shielded side). With his parting words, the FACELESS ONE suggested that by killing him, the party had ensured the final triumph of the Ebon Triad. (Meanwhile, Killick stabilized Thorash with a Goodberry.) As life left the FACELESS ONE's broken body, the party felt a tremor in the earth. Something was happening! Quickly, Alees picked up the Wand of Cure Light and healed Thorash. Then Alees went off looking for things she could loot quickly. The rest of the party was concerned about the minor earthquake and the ominous warning given by the FACELESS ONE.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 14: To Blackwall Keep

13th of Flocktime. The party had just killed the Faceless One and felt the ground rumble. They quickly rifled through the Faceless One's journals to find some information about what might be happening. The following quotes are the relevant journal entries that the party was able to find. (Only Thorash was able to read the language that these journal entries were written in.)

"Glory Be to the Lord of Secrets! I finally stand in Vecna's own Dark Cathedral! I walk His labyrinth and drink in His mystical power. It is humbling to know that my Undead Lord once trod these very same steps! Here I will be able to uncover and comprehend secrets that never would have been possible before. Here I will be able to unlock the secrets of multiplying Vecna's power ten-fold. The pieces are coming together. The Ebon Triad will be invincible!"

"At last the riddle of this place is solved. In ages past, a great being known as Kyuss rose above the petty warlords who fought and struggled for material gain. Mighty Kyuss is the herald of the Overgod. Although he has been long imprisoned, his return is finally at hand! Soon, he will sound the clarion call to the faithful. The three sundered faiths shall be made whole!"

"The undead our agents spotted must be located and captured. If they bear the Worms of Kyuss then they perhaps hold the final answer to our research. We must find the worms and the undead hosts that carry them. If they are not here, then we must send agents to the Rift. If Kyuss himself, or his agents, cannot shepherd in the Age of Worms, then we shall do it ourselves so that the Overgod may live."

"The Ebon Aspect stirs within the pool, but it is still not ready to emerge. Our Champion needs to continue gaining strength. It will achieve its full strength on Devil's Night - when the barriers between Oerth and the Lower Planes are at their weakest. But even then, it will not emerge without an extraordinary sacrifice. Usually, we would sacrifice Unbelievers. But to call forth an Aspect of the Overgod will require more. To form the Unholy Union, the individual churches must perish. Grallak Kur is the only one who is aware of what must happen. I dare not tell Theldrick, as I am unsure what his reaction would be. But the sacrifice will be well worth it. The Ebon Aspect will be gloriously powerful. The carnage and destruction that it sows will be marvelous. News of its power will be spread far and wide, and the Ebon Triad will win many converts. When the Unholy Trinity is forged and the Overgod rules over all Creation, we who sacrificed our lives to bring It into existence will sit by Its side in eternal glory!"

"As Grallak Kur has foretold, a group of adventurers has come to make the sacrifice that is necessary to summon the Ebon Aspect. May my death be pleasing to You, O Whispered One! But they come too soon! If only we can delay them for a week or two, Our Champion will rise at full strength. And then the horrors in wreaks on the world will truly announce the presence and power of the Overgod! Theldrick is a competent commander, but I don't know how long he and his temple will be able to repel the enemy."

"Clearly Smenk has betrayed us. His use is at an end in any case. He must be eliminated. After he is dead, we must send agents to the Mistmarsh, across the southern hills. I believe that we will find what we are looking for there, among the lizardfolk. If the calculations and portents are correct, the time for covert action is at an end. As the Age of Worms begins, we must strike hard and fast to prepare the coming of the Overgod."

"The filthy heathens have destroyed Theldrick and Grallak Kur. My temple is next. It sickens me to think of their presence in the Maimed Lord's unholy labyrinth, defiling our altar and laboratory. But it is necessary, and I have made my peace. Soon I will be no more. But my death will allow the Ebon Aspect to be born. If only I could live to see its horrific visage... If only I could live to witness its destructive power... But that is not to be. I console myself with the knowledge that the first meal of the Overgod's Champion will be the battered corpses of those who have slaughtered me. These adventurers will have the honor of being the first of many killed by the Overgod's Champion! Glory be to mighty Kyuss, herald of the Overgod! Glory be to the Ebon Aspect, oerthly manifestation of the Overgod! Supreme Glory be to the Unholy Trinity, whom we have worked to unite! I pray that my labors have been pleasing in the Overgod's sight, and that It will accept my soul into Its eternal service."

Alees reported that the black pit in the cathedral area is now bubbling. It seemed to be the source of the intermittent tremors that the party was still feeling. The party expended 7 charges on the wand of cure light wounds in order to get the party back to full health. When they think they are ready, they took up positions in the Cathedral and waited for whatever was coming.

A couple minutes later, a large 6-armed creature rose from the pool, dripping sticky black fluid. Three of its 6 arms ended in stumps, as if the hands had been removed. The thing's face was like a skull with only one eye looking out. The party went to work attacking the vile creature. Katawan was an expert marksman with the new masterwork crossbow he had looted from the Vecna temple. He struck the beast in critical location with 3 out of 4 arrows. Killick moved around behind the creature to flank it. The creature almost knocked Killick backwards into the pool, but Killick held fast. The thing itself cast spiritual weapon on Alexander, and later moved it to Katawan. The spiritual weapon seemed more effective than the creature itself. He attacked with teeth and claws, but was unable to do significant amounts of damage. For a few seconds, a fire lit up in its eyes, and it seemed more difficult to hurt, but that effect went away quickly. Thorash tried to deliver a Death Touch, but the creature's spell resistance caused it to dissipate. Alees helped out by using the Wand of Cure Light Wounds to heal the damage that the spiritual weapon had done to Alexander.

Despite all the dire warnings found in the Faceless One's journals about the invincibility of the Champion, the Ebon Aspect was slain by the party in less than half a minute. It fell back into the pool with a dull splash and returned from whence it came in humiliated defeat.

Once the party was sure it was all over, Alees went back to the Vecna temple to continue looking for secret doors. She found many, but only one of them had anything interesting behind it. She found a third Kenku nest containing 300 gp and 2 small diamonds. This search took Alees about 4 hours total. The party gathered up its swag and returned to the surface.

One of the guards at the top of the elevator shaft, when he heard of the party's victory, asked them what they wished to be called in bard songs that would sing their praises. Aside from suggestions like "The Super Squad", "The Beatles", and "The No-Carrots", the party was unable to come to consensus on a fittingly heroic moniker.

14th-16th of Flocktime: Those who had suffered permanent Wisdom damage at the hands of the Allip had this damage healed by clerics at the town's expense. Father Jierian healed Killick's wounds. He pumped Killick for details of Killian's death, and continued to insist that his death was impossible. Amariss (the high priestess of Wee Jas) healed Katawan's Wisdom damage. She asked for tales of how Thorash had helped the party. She said she was proud of Thorash and confided that he was her most capable operative.

After all the party members were back to full strength, Allustan asked to meet with them. He told the party that he had received a letter from a colleague and friend of his who worked as a battle mage for the Greyhawk militia stationed at Blackwall Keep (3 days southeast of Diamond Lake). She wrote that rangers have been spotting zombies full of green worms that are very difficult to kill in and around the Mistmarsh. Allustan said that, in light of the things the party had shown and told him, he thought that these zombies merited closer inspection. He wished to travel to Blackwall Keep to examine the evidence that the Militia had found. Since the party brought the potential danger of these green worms to his attention, he asked if they were interested in accompanying him. The party agreed. He told them he was making preparations to leave in a week's time.

17th-22rd of Flocktime. Alees and Thorash headed to Greyhawk to sell their wares. The other 4 party members remained in town. Occasionally, they were called to testify in the trials of Smenk, Dourstone, and Filge. Later in the week, all 3 trials concluded and a verdicts were reached. Smenk was found guilty of numerous crimes including murder, rape, and kidnapping. He was sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead. Dourstone was found guilty of aiding and abetting banned cults. He forfeited all his possessions and was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in the mines. Filge was found guilty of grave-robbing and necromancy. He also forfeited all his possessions and was also sentenced to 10 years hard labor.

23rd of Flocktime. Alees and Thorash returned from Greyhawk and distributed the proceeds to the other party members. Allustan bought riding horses for any party member that didn't already have one. He did not ask for compensation.

24th of Flocktime. The party headed east on the Urnst Road. After a long day of travel, the party made camp at an abondoned farmhouse called Shank's Rest. Allustan had been very complimentary to the entire party during the trip, but especially to Alexander. He admits that he never thought Alexander was capable of such rapid advancement. He admitted that, at the current rate, Alexander would be more powerful than he in a matter of weeks or months. Allustan shared war stories with the party. He talked about his own apprenticeship and the missions he was sent out on. However, when asked for the identity of his old master, Allustan declines. He said that he and his master had not parted on good terms, and it is something he doesn't like to think about.

25th of Flocktime. After sleeping in a bit from the long journey the previous day, the party began following a newer, less traveled path, that led south.

26th of Flocktime. In the afternoon, Allustan thought that the party should be coming up on Blackwall Keep soon. He said that it was hard to miss the Keep since it sat on the highest hill overlooking the Mistmarsh. Katawan looked in that direction and could barely see smoke on the horizon. At that moment, lizardmen sprang an ambush on the party from the side of the road. 3 lizardmen and a leader were on the left of the road while 3 lizardmen and a large blackscaled lizardman with long arms and a greatclub were on the right. The surprise caused Alees's mount to bolt. It sped away back to the north carrying Alees with it. Alexander fireballed the group on the left, leaving only one lizardman alive. Killick entangled the group on the right, leaving only one lizardman unentangled. The remaining lizardman on the left broke and fled into the brush. The unentangled lizardman on the right formed up for battle. He was followed by the blackscaled lizardman who, with a cry of rage, broke free of the the tangles and moved at remarkably high speed to the edge of the entangled area. Both enemies were quickly beaten to near death, and they ran away to the south (towards the Keep).

The party captured the 2 lizardmen that were entangled and saved the leader lizardman from dying. They used goodberries and cure minor wounds spells to bring the leader back to consciousness. Alees returned with the frightened horses. Allustan offers to do some reconnaissance ahead and cast Invisibility on himself. The party interrogated its prisoners (Alexander in Draconic and the others in Common, which the leader understood). They learned that the lizardmen were fighting for a black dragon named Ilthane who had helped the Tanglebranch tribe gain supremacy among the Mistmarsh's lizardmen in exchange for service. After having consolidated the lizardmen tribes by force, the lizardking now felt powerful enough to renew his raids on nearby human settlements. The newly built Blackwall Keep stood in his way, so it was his first target to be destroyed. The lizardking had sent his greatest warlord with an army of hundreds to complete the task.

Allustan returned and said that he saw red smoke coming from the keep, which was a Greyhawk militia sign for help. The smoke was a good sign becaue it meant that the keep had not yet fallen. However, Allustan had seen that the keep was surrounded by small bands of lizardmen like the band they just fought. He had counted 40 lizardmen in his immediate field of vision, but that was only part of the battlefield.

He said he would use a scroll of Teleport that he keeps for emergencies to return to Diamond Lake and gather the Greyhawk militia garrison and bring them back to relieve the siege. He told the party that it would be 3 or 4 days before the militia could arrive. He asked the party to do what it could to prevent the lizardmen from taking the keep until reinforcements arrived. He also specifically asked them to do what they could to protect his friend and colleague Marzena, who might still be inside the keep. Alexander suggested that Allustan take the lizardman leader back with him for further interrogation, and Allustan agreed.

Katawan moved forward to check the situation for himself. He saw a small squad of lizardmen moving along the road in their direction. He returned to the party and told them what he had seen. The party surmised that they might have been alerted by the sound of the Fireball. They set up an ambush at the fireball blast-site and waited, but the lizardmen did not show up when they were expected. Katawan moved forward to provide an early warning system to the rest of the party. Alees took the horses and prisoners away to hide them.

Just after dusk, the lizardmen finally showed up, but they were in significantly greater numbers than Katawan had seen the first time. The party was quickly enveloped by about 20 lizardmen, 3 leaders, and 2 large blackscale lizardmen with greatclubs. Will the party be able to fight its way out of this swirling melee? Tune in next time!

 

[Menexenus]

Session 15: Into the Mistmarsh

26th of Flocktime. Soon after dusk, the party had encountered about 2 dozen lizardmen warriors along with 2 Blackscales. When the attack commenced, Alexander webbed a portion of the battlefield to trap some of the enemies. But the web was unable to prevent the party from being enveloped by the more numerous foe. The only party member who had not been surrounded by the attacking lizardmen was Alees, who had been farther back guarding the party's flank. She moved forward and fired her crossbow at the lizardmen, which caused a group of 3 lizardmen and 1 leader to run out after her. Killick, Tarric, and Alexander worked together to quickly drop one of the large Blackscale Lizardmen. At about that time, the other Blackscale Lizardman freed himself from Alexander's web. After the lizardfolk troopers spent another round swinging their stone axes wildly and hitting nothing but air, their leaders commanded them to try grabbing the party instead. (Since they did not have shields, they were able to do this without dropping weapons.) The lizardmen had success with this new tactic first against Thorash, who was quickly dog-piled. But, in an amazing feat of strength, he was able to shrug off his 4 grapplers. However, this favorable result was for naught because the newly freed Blackscale Lizardman brained him with a greatclub and knocked him unconscious.

Tarric put his attacks of opportunity and his Cleave feat to good use as he killed many lizardfolk who attempted a grapple with him. But eventually, one of them was successful, and a new dog-pile was formed on Tarric. Not wanting to hit his comrades, the Blackscale Lizardman chose Katawan as his next target and knocked him unconscious as well. All the while, Killick did his best to rescue those who were grappled. At this point, he turned his attention to reviving his fallen comrades. Throughout the battle, Alexander used his wand of magic missiles to excellent effect. And Alees seemed to be getting the better of the 4 lizardmen who had accosted her.

After dropping, Katawan, the Blackscale Lizardman wanted to go after Alexander next, but a well-placed shot from Alees diverted its attention to her. Alees put all of her energy into avoiding the Blackscale's giant club. Alexander came to Alees's rescue by firing Magic Missiles at the creature, eventually putting it down for the count before it could hurt Alees.

One of the Lizardfolk leaders realized that the battle was lost and tried to run off to warn his comrades, but Alexander took him down with magic missiles as well. Eventually, all but the 2 lizardmen caught in the web were dead. Those 2 were captured, interrogated, and bound up with the other prisoners from the earlier battle.

27th of Flocktime. The group rode off to a safe distance to make camp. When they returned in the morning, they found their prisoners still bound. The prisoners beg for water and Alexander gives them some. The prisoners described the noises of battle that they had heard in the early morning. The party rode on to Blackwall Keep. They saw red smoke rising from the direction of the Keep, which they decided must be a good omen. When they got within sight of the keep, they found dozens of dead bodies lying all around - mostly lizardfolk and some humans. The hilltop had become a garden of arrows and crossbow bolts. As they approached they were hailed by a sentry and welcomed inside. Barricades were moved aside to allow the party to enter.

Corporal Fritz, who was in command of the Keep's remaining 12 soldiers, informed the party that the garrison had just barely been able to repulse the lizardmen's last attempt to gain entry. When Kushak (the commander of the lizardmen) was down to only about 30 soldiers, he and his men were seen moving off to the northeast. The party spent the day doing what it could to help the wounded within the keep. Because of the party's efforts, 5 more soldiers were brought back from the brink of death. The garrison was very grateful for the party's assistance, and when they heard the tale of the party's fight, they insist that the keep would surely have fallen had those forces not been diverted from the siege. As a token of their thanks they offered to replenish the party's supplies from the keep's provisions.

During some down time, Fritz informed the party that a high-level ambassador had been sent directly from Greyhawk to make a treaty with the lizardmen. After a trip into the Mistmarsh, he had returned to the keep in good spirits. Apparently, his mission had been accomplished. He had directed the commander to assemble a small group to deliver a wagon-load of goods to a specified location within the swamp. He would have led that expedition, but he had apparently contracted some kind of disease in the swamp and quickly fell ill. So the keep's battle mage, Marzena, had been placed in charge of the mission. The next day, she and three guards had left the keep in the wagon at dawn. Although no one was quite sure what happened next, apparently the lizardmen chose that same moment to attack. Second-hand reports from soldiers who were long dead described the lizardmen ambushing those on the wagon at the tree-line. Apparently, a few lizardmen had gained entrance to the keep while most of the soldiers were still sleeping. They had killed the commander and about 10 others in their beds before the alarm had gone up and the gates had been closed. Apparently, those who slipped inside the keep had been advance elements of the lizardman army, because only a few lizardmen had made it into the Keep and the first full attack from the swamp occurred hours afterwards. The keep had been under siege for a total of 3 days.

Corporal Fritz was not concerned about the remnants of the lizardman army returning, especially when he heard that Allustan was bringing the Diamond Lake garrison to relieve them. He urged the party to follow the wagon into the swamp and rescue Marzena and her guards, if they were still alive, and to recover the contents of the wagon if possible. (He said he did not know what had been transported on the wagon.) Fritz said that a wagon would move very slowly in the swamp, so it was reasonable to think that the party might be able to catch up. The party agreed to help and pledged to leave the next morning.

28th of Flocktime. The party left early in the morning. They quickly learned that horses would be useless in the swamp. All the party members except Killick chose to send their horses back and leave them at the newly emptied stable at Blackwall Keep. They found that the wagon tracks were quite easy to follow. Based on the depth of the tracks, Killick determined that the wagon must have been heavily laden. Walking through the swamp was very tiring because the party members' feet sank about calf deep into the muck with almost every step. In addition, the species of tree that was most prevalent in the swamp - the mangaroo - had extended root systems that tended to lie hidden just below the surface, causing most people to trip and fall frequently. (However, Killick seemed to have an unnatural ability to move much more quickly through the undergrowth than the rest of the party.) Along the way, the party was constantly harried by buzzing insects. Killick did what he could to find natural remedies to ward them off. Many party members spotted small crocidiles lying in shallow water along the way, but they were small and tended to swim away when they noticed the party.

Eventually, someone in the party spotted a stone statue of a crocodile several yards away from the wagon tracks. This statue was of a crocodile that was significantly larger than the ones the party had been seeing throughout the day. The statue was very life-like, and it was clearly in an aggressive pose. Killick inspected the area around the statue and found birdclaw tracks and feathers. Alexander determined that the crocodile could have been petrified by a magical beast known as a cockatrice.

At the end of the day, the group was happy to finally make camp. The party's legs were sore from the day's march and their exposed skin was itching from multiple bug-bites. Soon after the party made camp, they heard the crash of some very large animal moving quickly through the undergrowth. The party got to its feet and found itself under attack by 2 giant crocodiles. These crocs did massive amounts of damage with their teeth and they also swang their tails at opponents to good effect. Killick took some damage from the first croc and was lucky not to be grabbed by its massive jaws. Tarric went to work on the other one. The rest of the party resorted to missile weapons. Alexander killed the first one with magic missiles as it tried to flee. And although Tarric did a great deal of damage on the other one, it was finally felled by a bolt from Alees's newly magical crossbow. Finally, there was silence, and the party gratefully took turns sleeping.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 16: To the Lair of the Lizard King

1st of Wealsun. After being attacked by 2 giant crocodiles the previous evening, the party headed out in pursuit of the wagon that was carrying Allustan's colleague as well as some other unknown heavy cargo.

Around noon, Killick's horse inexplicably reared and ran off in a strange direction. Killick and Thorash went off together to recover the horse. While they were gone, the rest of the party was attacked by a HUGE MONSTROUS SPIDER. It shot a web at the party which caught Tarric and Alexander. Alees and Katawan remained free, and they both shot crossbows at the beast. Alexander was able to reach his Wand of Magic Missiles and fired it repeatedly at the 8-legged freak. Tarric tried to break free unsuccessfully. Since it had taken the most damage from Alexander's boom-stick, the giant vermin turned its attention to him. In the next few seconds, Alexander was bitten and poisoned twice. The second bite made him weaker than a baby, and he fell to the ground, conscious but still. Now that the beast had quieted the boom-stick, it turned its attention to the other three adventurers. However, they were able to finish it off without much difficulty.

Killick and Thorash returned with Killick's horse. Luckily, Thorash had just happened to memorize 2 Lesser Restoration spells. He cast them on Alexander. This was enough to get him up and walking. He also casts 3 Cure Light Wounds spells on those who were injured by the spider.

Alees decided to milk the dead spider's venom gland. She and Katawan estimated that without alchemical help, the venom would degrade in about a week. (Alexander declined to lend his aid to the endeavor.) Alees successfully tipped 10 arrows with the poison. Katawan decided that he'd like to try to do the same. He successfully tipped 3 of his arrows with poison, before becoming poisoned himself. Despite being significantly weaker, he continued trying to tip his arrows with poison. He was successful once more before accidentally infecting himself again. He was reduced to a catatonic state, like the one Alexander had been in before. Only this time, Thorash was out of spells. The party had no choice but to camp and wait for dusk, so that Thorash could rememorize spells. This time he memorized 5 Lesser Restorations as well as 3 Cure Light Wounds. He immediately cast all of his spells to get Alexander and Katawan as much strength as possible, while also healing all of the party's remaining wounds.

Rather than push on during the night, the party decided to remain in camp and continue tracking the wagon the following day.

2nd of Wealsun. Upon waking, Alexander and Katawan felt a bit stronger than they had felt the previous day. Apparently, this poison's effect was wearing off more quickly than most poisons. The party continued following the wagon's trail. Around mid-morning, many party members spotted a corpse floating face-down in some water a short ways off the trail. Most of the party walked over to investigate. Killick circled the corpse looking for signs of struggle. Just then, 5 GHOULS emerged from hiding and the floating corpse itself stood up and revealed itself as the Ghouls' leader (a GHAST). Killick quickly moved back toward his party and cast Entangle on the undead. 2 of the Ghouls were trapped by writhing vines and roots. The others shambled towards the party, attempting to strike them. The GHAST created a horrible stench that sickened Tarric. Nonetheless, he was still able to strike the undead creatures for lots of damage. The party quickly dispatched the ones that were free and then took pot-shots at the ones who were entangled until all were dispatched.

Continuing along the trail, a few hours before dusk, the party spotted a pair of the large black-skinned lizardmen, like the ones that they had fought before. They seemed to be on patrol. The BLACKSCALE LIZARDFOLK also spot the party. After giving a shout back over their shoulders to some comrades, they ran forward, charging into action. They flanked and pummeled Tarric before being brought low by blades, bolts, and staves, as well as a lightning bolt from Alexander. As the first pair was defeated, two more arrived on the scene. Just as they began flanking and pummeling Killick, a HARPY began singing its song. 4 of the 6 party members were enraptured and began moving towards the beautiful music. Only Killick and Katawan remained unenchanted. Thorash was jarred back to his senses by a thump on the head delivered by one of the Blackscales. Luckily, the Blackscales were defeated, and the harpy flew away. Alees delivered a parting shot with her crossbow, and the harpy seemed to become visibly weaker as it rose above the canopy.

The party found the wagon they had been following. It had been emptied and was being used by the Blackscales for additional shelter. Close by the wagon, the party found a well-traveled entrance into the root system of a gargantuan stand of mangaroo trees (clustered so close together as to be indistinguishable from one another). Upon entering the poorly lit cave-like area, the party found itself beset on 2 sides by javelin wielding LIZARDFOLK and by 2 HARPIES on a third side (one of which was sporting a crossbow bolt stuck in its side). Alees stepped forward to get in a good crossbow shot and was quickly caught up by an ASSASSIN VINE which began strangling the life out of her. Just as Alees fell unconscious, Tarric chopped the vine to pieces and freed Alees from its grip. The Lizardmen did their best to grapple with Thorash, Killick, and Tarric, but were almost universally unsuccessful. Killick attempted 2 heroic tumbles to try to reach Alees's side and stabilize her, but both tumbles ended with Killick staring up at the ceiling and avoiding the blows of lizardfolk battleaxes. (Luckily, Alees stabilized herself.)

The lizardmen were quickly either killed or driven off. The harpy that Alees had shot before was killed, but the second harpy escaped via an opening in the ceiling. The party heard more noise coming from deeper within the structure, so they knew there were more enemies to deal with. The party decided to press on. Thorash used 6 charges from the Wand of Cure Light Wounds to bring his comrades back to full strength. After about a minute, the party moved deeper into the structure...

 

[Menexenus]

Session 17: Breaking the Twisted Branch Tribe

2nd of Wealsun (mid afternoon). The party entered a large den of lizardfolk made from the twisted bark and roots of an enormous stand of mangaroo trees and was able to fend off an assault by dozens of lizardfolk. The party healed up using a Wand of Cure Light Wounds and then pressed onward into the depths of the Twisted Branch tribe's seat of power.

Soon after moving forward, Killick spotted 3 lizardmen with metal shields and axes as well as a spell caster with a viper animal companion. The small group of lizardfolk seemed to be delaying. When most of the party was in sight, the spellcaster cast Entangle on everyone except Killick (who had already tumbled next to the spellcaster). Killick, guessing that the spellcaster was a Druid, spoke to it in Druidic, asking it to release the human female spellcaster that the tribe had taken prisoner. The Druid replied that he wished to speak to the party under conditions of truce when the other three warrior lizardmen that accompanied him had been slain. He intimated that while those warriors were watching, he could not be seen to be talking with the tribe's enemies.

Not understanding any of this, the rest of the party fought on. Katawan avoided becoming entangled and ran down a back hallway that ended up behind the Druid. He took a shot with his crossbow. Thorash also avoided the entangling roots. He moved into the cavern and went to work on the lizardfolk warriors. Alexander did get stuck, but that was fine by him. He just pulled out his trusty Wand of Magic Missile and cast it at the Druid. Tarric was also stuck, but that was fine by him, because he had an enemy lizardman right next to him that he could wail on. Alees was also stuck, but that was fine by her. She activated a power that the party has never seen her use before, and suddenly the vines released her and cleared a path for her to exit the area of entanglement. She delivered a disemboweling sneak attack to an unwary warrior.

The Druid's viper moved off to attack Katawan. The Druid cast Fog Bank to keep Alexander from using his Wand of Magic Missiles. Killick made a show of attacking the Druid, but all of his flailing attacks failed. Katawan shot the Viper with his last poisoned bolt, and it seemed weakened by the shot. The Druid moved into the Fog Bank and called his Viper to him.

Moments later, when the 3 lizardfolk warriors were defeated, the Druid emerged with his hands up in a sign of peace. He introduced himself in Common, calling himself Hishka. He said that he had been the main shaman for the Twisted Branch tribe for 10 years. The Twisted Branch tribe had been relatively weak, until the current king Shaka arrived and challenged the former chief to ritual combat. Shaka defeated the former chief and assumed control of the tribe, calling himself "king". Soon thereafter, a black dragon named Ilthane appeared who seemed to be in league with Shaka. This gave him even greater standing among the tribe, and as word spread that the King of the Twisted Branch Tribe had a dragon as an ally, the tribe's size and influence quickly grew. Although the tribe's prestige and power was growing under Shaka's command, he was pursuing a suicidal policy of instigating conflict with the softskins outside the swamp. Hishka knew that no matter how powerful the tribe became, they were no match for the armies of the softskins. Hishka could foresee that provoking the softskins would be disastrous for his people.

Consequently, Hishka implored the party to kill Shaka (who was only a couple rooms away). If the party were to do this, Hishka assured the party that he would install a king who would make peace with Greyhawk. However, Hishka warned the party that Shaka was keeping the female spellcaster (Marzena) hostage, and that if he felt threatened, he would surely have her killed. He would only bargain for her life as a last resort. Killick asked the Druid if, as a token of good faith, he could heal some of Katawan's lingering Strength damage. The Druid said he did not have the necessary spell memorized. However, trying to be helpful, he did mention that there were some red-spotted mushrooms in a trash room to the north that could heal his damage. However, he warned the party that the tribe kept its pet Otyugh in that room. For those who did not know, he explained that an Otyugh is an omnivore with tentacles whose main purpose in life is to eat. It would surely attack anyone entering the room.

The discussion was cut short, though, by a booming voice in Draconic yelling, "Get him!" (as well as the sound of Alexander's wand shooting its missiles). As the party moved to investigate, Hishka confirmed that that was the voice of Shaka, the lizard king. Apparently, during the quiet conversation, Alexander had broken free of the entangle, and left it by the quickest route, which took him deeper into the tribal lair. As he tried to find a way back to the party, he stumbled upon the king's throne room. Luckily, the party was not that far away, so they were able to make it to Alexander's side before Alexander was in any real danger.

While most of the party ran to Alexander's aid, Thorash seemed to be lingering near Hishka. When he thought he was alone with the Druid, he attacked. The Druid cried out that the dwarf was attacking him and that the softskins were traitors. Tarric saw what Thorash had done, dropped his sword, grabbed Thorash, and pulled him away from the Druid. Hishka took the opportunity to slip back into the fog bank, but his viper stayed and attacked Thorash. Thorash was struck, and the viper's poison seemed to sicken him. However, once the Druid was gone, Tarric was able to convince Thorash to leave. (For a short time, the viper tried to chase down the vile dwarf. But a slash from Tarric's sword convinced it to withdraw.)

Meanwhile, Alexander was hovering at the ceiling of the hallway, using his Wand of Magic Missiles to strike the king. The king was flinging a flying (obviously magical) trident at Alexander that would return to the king after it was done attacking. The king's bodyguard came out into the hall to attack Alexander, but soon found himself fighting the rest of the party instead. He screamed in a fit of rage, and seemed to become more powerful. There were also several regular lizardfolk with various fancy adornments and ornamentations who did their best to assist in the fight. (From the Druid's description, the party assumed that these were most likely the king's concubines.) Alexander was able to see the form of a human female at the back of the throne room. One of the female lizardfolk was kneeling over her with her painted claws at the human's throat, waiting for a command from her king to dispatch the prisoner.

The king ordered the party to withdraw or else the human female would die. Alexander ordered the king to give up the woman and they would let him live. The battle raged on. Thorash arrived and cast Cause Fear on the king's bodyguard. He ran back to the throne room and cowered near the throne. Killick tumbled to Marzena's side and tried to stun the lizardfolk that threatened her. When he failed, Alexander cast Magic Missile at the same lizardfolk, killing her. Seeing this, Shaka moved across the room to face Killick and threaten Marzena. He did much damage with his stab-claw-bite progression, but soon the king was surrounded by Killick, Tarric, and Alees. He tried to eliminate the one he perceived to be the weakest target first - Alees. With one stab-claw-bite progression, she was on the floor unconscious. Meanwhile, Killick had pulled Marzena away from the king, and Alexander just kept firing off his wand, doing automatic damage.

Things started looking up for the lizardfolk when the barbarian shook off his cowardice and joined the fray again against Tarric. At about the same time, some of the remaining lizardfolk were successful in grabbing onto Thorash and biting him for small amounts of damage that added up quickly in his poison-weakened state. However, the lizardfolk's momentum faded quickly, as Tarric dispatched the king's bodyguard and Thorash escaped from the hold of 2 lizardfolk. The remaining lizardfolk grabbed onto Thorash again and knocked him unconscious. Meanwhile, Shaka fought with Tarric, giving at least as good as he got. But those damnable Magic Missiles continued to rain in on him, despite his success in melee. Killick moved off to stabilize Thorash and one of the remaining lizardfolk tried unsuccessfully to hit Marzena's unconscious form. That lizardfolk was quickly dispatched.

At long last, Shaka realized that his time left on Oerth was short. So, in a fit of spite, he shouted, "AT LEAST THE HUMAN FEMALE WILL DIE BEFORE ME!" With all his remaining strength, he threw his returning trident at the unconscious form of the human sorceress. But the trident snagged on a protruding branch, was deflected, and missed her entirely. Shaka cried, "NOOOOO!!!" in utter futility as Killick dispatched him.

There was one lizardfolk left alive. Seeing her king killed, she groveled on the floor, weeping and begging for death. The party took her captive. They also took a closer look at lucky Marzena. The lizardfolk had broken her jaw as well as all of her fingers so that she would be unable to cast spells. While some were tending to Marzena's wounds, the rest of the party interrogated the lizardfolk prisoner. She told them that the dragon Ilthane stayed with the tribe only rarely, so it was unlikely that she was currently in residence. However, she did leave a dragon egg in her cavern. The prisoner explained that she promised to protect the lizardfolk eggs, and as a show of good faith, she had placed one of her own eggs in the same chamber. The prisoner said that the dragon's lair was in a submerged cavern off to the southwest.

Upon looting the former king and his bodyguard, the party found a reasonable amount of magical swag, but Marzena (who had been healed by Killick) told the party that some of the items had been taken from her. Alexander graciously returned those items to her. The party also found a chest of gold with the seal of Greyhawk on it. Marzena explained that Greyhawk had negotiated a treaty with the resurgent lizardfolk, and this chest of gold was to be given to the lizardfolk in tribute. She claimed that, when the lizardfolk attacked Blackwall Keep, the terms of the treaty were violated, and hence, the chest of gold still belonged by law to the Domain of Greyhawk. Alexander seemed to agree with Marzena's legal reasoning, but indicated that, when they all returned to civilization, he hoped that Greyhawk might see fit to grant the party a reward for the chest's return. (However, glances exchanged by some other party members seemed to indicate that they were not all in complete agreement on this point.) Alexander brought the lizardfolk prisoner into a separate room from the rest of the party, secured a promise of peaceful coexistence from her, and then let her go free. She ran away from the lair at top speed.

3rd of Wealsun. After praying for spells at dusk the previous day, Thorash began the process of identifying 5 of the items that didn't belong to Marzena. When the others woke at dawn, he reported his findings, and these objects were divided among the party members (generating a small amount of conflict). The party decided to rest for an additional 24 hours in order to rebuild their strength. During the day, Marzena said that if there is indeed a black dragon egg in a nearby chamber, the party should do what it can to destroy it. The party was contemplating defeating the Otyugh and harvesting the medicinal (and possibly valuable) mushrooms. The party was also contemplating going on to investigate the dragon's lair.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 18: The Spawn of Kyuss

3rd of Wealsun (evening). After Thorash prayed for spells at dusk, he cast Water Breathing on the party so that they could investigate the egg chamber. (They decided that facing the Otyugh was an unnecessary risk.) The lead party member was caught in a Snare 4 different times in the narrow underwater corridor leading to the egg chamber. But since the party was able to breath water, these harmless traps presented no serious obstacle. When Thorash's head poked up above the surface of the murky water on the far side of the submerged passageway, he saw a large egg chamber guarded by 10 well-armed and armored kobolds. They fired hand crossbows at him as he emerged from the water, wounding him slightly. Killick moved forward and cast Entangle on the enemy. Only a few of the kobolds were caught by the spell. The others moved quickly to the side of the chamber that contained the dragon's hoard of gold coins (which was unaffected by the spell). Alexander moved into the room and cast fireball, killing many of the kobolds and fusing most of the gold together. Tarric moved to the front and killed many kobolds simultaneously with Great Cleave.

Alexander cast lightning bolt on the larger black dragon egg in the middle of the chamber. This vaporized the top half of the egg, but unexpectedly, thousands of tiny green worms began pouring out of the lower half of the egg into the surrounding water. Alexander cast Web around the egg to try to slow the worms down. Many worms got caught in the Entangle and the Web, but those few that were not stuck were fanning out and burrowing into the surrounding lizardfolk eggs, causing them to turn from bone white to dull gray. Tarric and Alees worked briefly to free some large chunks from the fused pile of gold. Killick threw Alchemists' Fire at the Web, killing some of the worms and causing damage to some kind of creature inside the web (as yet unseen by the party). Killick also spotted some small objects swimming in the water like water snakes. When Killick saw that these things were lizardfolk embryos that had been turned into some kind of wormy undead (and when he sees that more of these creatures are hatching every round), he called for the party to retreat. Thorash moved up for a closer look and commanded 3 of them to attack their brethren. Meanwhile, Katawan and Alexander moved quickly to recover the chests on the far side of the room. The party finally withdrew as tens (perhaps hundreds) of little undead hatchlings moved menacingly (but slowly) towards them.

After moving back through the submerged tunnel, they found Marzena, grabbed the larger chest of Greyhawk gold, took it to the wagon waiting outside, and headed back towards Blackwall Keep at the fastest possible speed. It quickly became apparent that they were not being pursued.

4th - 6th of Wealsun. The party traveled out of the swamp, back to Blackwall Keep. Along the way, another giant crocodile was encountered and defeated. The party also encountered more evidence of at least one cockatrice (bird-like animal with a petrifying gaze) living in the swamp. During down time, the party opened the 3 chests recovered from the egg chamber. Two of them were padded, protective chests, containing 4 potion vials each. One chest contains 2 vials of opaque reddish brown liquid that turned out to be potions of Bull's Strength as well as 2 vials of inky dark blue liquid which turned out to be potions of Cure Serious Wounds. The second chest contained 2 vials of silvery metallic liquid which turned out to be potions of Haste as well as 2 vials of dark black liquid which turned out to be potions of Invisibility. The third chest contains 960 gp with a magical Ring of Spell Storing buried among the coins.

7th of Wealsun. The party finally returned to Blackwall Keep. Alexander and Thorash started coughing, suffering from diahrrea, and experiencing chills and weakness. When party members inquired about these symptoms at the Keep, the soldiers said that it is a common disease called Swamp Fever that usually passes in about a week. (It is deadly only in the rarest cases - usually among the very young and very old.)

Although the Keep had been reinforced by soldiers from Diamond Lake during the party's absence, there are still relatively few soldiers defending the keep, as large groups had been sent out to pursue the remnants of the lizardfolk army. The acting-commander of the Keep begged the party for help defeating some unknown menace that is resposible for 4 deaths. Whatever it was that was killing his men had been trapped in the Keep's basement, and the party suspects that it may be related to the diplomatic negotiator from Greyhawk that had been quarantined prior to the attack on the Keep. The party asked for compensation, and the interim commander suggested that if they defeated the beast in the keep's basement, he would forget about the chest of gold that they had brought back from the swamp. (Marzena seemed to find this sort of under-the-table deal-making distasteful, but she held her tongue.) Once Alexander was convinced that the commander had the legal authority to make such an offer, the party gladly accepted his offer.

They opened the previously barracaded basement door and were quickly engaged by 3 zombie-like creatures that were literally dripping with tiny green worms. The sight of these abominations caused Tarric, Alexander, and Katawan to flee in fear. As they attacked the remaining party members, they usually attempted to slam the party. But occasionally one would simply try to deliver a live worm to a party-member's exposed skin with a touch attack. Although the latter attacks were never successful, multiple party members were successfully slammed. When one of the zombie-creatures attacked Alees, the slam attack left a scratch that quickly seemed to become infected. Killick also noticed during the battle that some of the zombie-creatures' damage seemed to heal itself each round. However, when the battle was over, the party found 2 other bloated, green corpses of keep soldiers who had died in their sleep (but who had apparently not been turned into zombie-creatures).

 

[Menexenus]

Session 19: To Greyhawk

7th of Wealsun. After defeating the Spawn of Kyuss in the basement of Blackwall Keep, Marzena gave the party a sealed note to deliver to Allustan. The next day, the party headed back to Diamond Lake.

8th of Wealsun. On the road back to Diamond Lake, Alees became ill. She was visibly weaker, and her skin started to turn grey. She began raving madly about things that weren't there. Killick guessed that the wound Alees sustained when fighting the Spawn of Kyuss has started to fester. Based on his skill, he surmised that the disease Alees had contracted would be deadly unless it was cured. At dusk, Thorash memorized and then cast Remove Disease on Alees, and she started feeling better immediately.

10th of Wealsun. The party arrived back in Diamond Lake in the morning. Alexander delivered the letter to Allustan. As a token of thanks, Allustan invited Alexander to use his magical laboratory for as long as he required. Alexander took Allustan up on the offer. As Alexander began setting up shop, Allustan admitted to Alexander that he had reached the limits of what he could find out about the Age of Worms with the limited resources available to him in Diamond Lake. He suggested that Greyhawk's extensive libraries would be of great help to the investigation. With some apparent reluctance, he told Alexander that he knew someone in Greyhawk who might be better equipped to find the answers to the party's questions. He told Alexander to travel to Greyhawk and ask for a man named Eligos living in the Garden District. If Alexander told Eligos that Allustan sent them, they should get his undivided attention.

The party agreed to travel to Greyhawk, but only after Alexander was finished enchanting magic items in Allustan's workshop.

11th of Wealsun - 1st of Richfest. For reasonable prices, Alexander enchants an assortment of the party's weapons, shields, gloves, and boots.

After a couple days of waiting around, Thorash asked Alexander for an estimate of when he would be finished. Upon receiving that estimate, Thorash said he would meet the party in Greyhawk at about the time they were expecting to arrive there. Thorash then left town on his own and was not seen again before the party left for Greyhawk. Alees spent some time performing for cash at the Feral Dog. Finally, after a couple weeks of down time, the party was ready to continue on to Greyhawk. They left on the 1st of Richfest.

4th of Richfest. The party was assaulted on the road near Greyhawk by a pair of haggard-looking desperate-seeming troll brothers. One of the trolls got in a good rend on Tarric before going down. The party quickly learned about the trolls' regeneration ability and kept the trolls unconscious until a fire could be built. Then the trolls were finally dispatched for good.

The party continued on to Greyhawk. When they arrived near dusk, they found extraordinarily long lines to get into the city. While in line, the party heard about the Champions' Games that Greyhawk holds throughout the week of Richfest. They were already under way. Some of the people in line got into a sporting argument about whether Auric's Warband would go the distance for the second consecutive year. (Tarric recalled that Auric was the burly fighter in the gawdy belt whose drunken complaints about the Stirgenest Cairn had inspired him to investigate the Whispering Cairn with his childhood friends.)

Well after dark, when the party finally made it to the gate, they were given the once-over by some apparently suspicious city guards. They were giving the party a hard time, and it seemed like the party would be delayed for some meticulous customs searches until Killick offered to buy one of guards dinner (and paid him 10 gp). Then the guards became much more friendly and let the party into the city without any further hassle.

Because of the festival, the streets were full even at this late hour. The party happened upon a parade that included jugglers, acrobats, street performers, and a vicious chimera in a cage with iron bars enclosed in glass. Alees sneaked off to pick some pockets amidst the crowd. Killick noticed someone reaching for his pocket, and he cracked the man in the face with his newly enchanted quarterstaff. The man apologized to Killick and faded quickly back into the crowd. (After witnessing Killick's altercation, Alexander looked down to find that one of his belt pouches had already been liberated.)

At about that time, the chimera was able to escape its cage (apparently due to metal fatigue). Panicked citizens went running in all directions. The beastmasters begged for help in subduing the frightened creature. Tarric (with the help of his newly enchanted boots) moved up quickly to engage the beast in melee, as did Killick and Katawan. Alexander cast Scare on the beast, and it tried to fly away. However, its flight was hampered by the fact that its wings had been clipped by its captors. Still, even with its wings clipped, it was faster than most of the party. Alexander cast Fly on himself so that he could keep up. He peppered the creature with magic missiles from the air. When the effect of the Scare spell ran out, the Chimera turned on Alexander and breathed lightning at him. But the magical beast succumbed quickly thereafter to yet another volley of Magic Missiles.

At long last, the party made it to Eligos's house. He received them, gathered their information about the Age of Worms, and promised to look into the matter. He invited the party to stay for free at a local hotel called the Crooked House. He promised to contact them within the week with his findings. In the mean time, he suggested that the party enjoy the festival. The party accepted his offer. They headed to the inn (which was in the Foreign Quarter) and met the gnome proprietor of the Crooked House, Tarquin Shortstone. He seemed friendly and had very kind words to say about Eligos. Seeing that the party was tired, he promptly set them up with accommodations, as promised. The party asked him about stores where they could sell magical arms and armor. Tarquin said he knew someone who might open their shop in the morning as a special favor for him. After promising to look into the possibility for them, the party went up to their rooms and fell asleep.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 20: To the Sodden Hold

5th of Richfest. Alexander, Alees, Killick, and Katawan all returned to the Crooked House after selling two magic items (returning trident and spider hide armor) to a merchant who opened up his store just after dawn. (Tarric did not go because he was sleeping off a night of drinking and rabble rousing.) As the group entered the inn, the smell of breakfast wafted into the taproom from the kitchen. The group sat down at a table to enjoy the morning meal. Most of the bar patrons were discussing the events that had taken place in the Champions Games the previous day and speculating on how their favorite adventuring groups might fare today.

Just after the meal was served, long-lost Thorash strode through the door of the establishment in finely crafted full plate armor covered with nasty-looking metal spikes. Thorash didn't have much time to brag about his new armor, because moments after he arrived, Tarric walked downstairs wearing all of his armor, weapons, and equipment. Tarquin, the gnome proprietor of the establishment, politely asked Tarric to leave his larger weapons in his room during mealtime. He explained that he liked to keep the number of weapons in his establishment to a bare minimum to promote a comfortable, homey feeling amongst his guests. Tarric seemed to take offense at this request. He started yelling at Tarquin, saying that no one has the right to tell him what to do. And without any warning, he stepped behind the bar and stabbed Tarquin with a dagger.

The party sprang into action to restrain Tarric from doing any further damage. The bar patrons, on the other hand, seemed to be out for bloody vengeance. Katawan was the first to move up to Tarric, telling him to stand down, but Tarric slashed him with a short sword. 2 bar patrons who moved to protect Tarquin got a similar treatment. Alexander attempted to charm Tarric, but Tarric ignored the spell almost as if he were immune to its effect. Katawan used a charge from his Ring of Spell Storing to heal Tarquin and keep him from dying.

At this point, Tarric walked down the stairs in his underclothes, yawning and brandishing a bastard sword. He asked what is going on, and the party members seemed perplexed, seeing 2 Tarrics. They immediately seized on the idea that the Tarric who stabbed Tarquin was not the real Tarric, and they resumed the fight against the false Tarric with renewed vigor (and increased deadliness). Alexander shot a lightning bolt at him (destroying a shelf of imported whiskeys and leaving a large black scorch mark on the wall in the process). Killick was able to use a stunning attack to immobilize Tarric for a few seconds. This gave the bar patrons the opportunity to jump on him and drag him down to the ground. Moments later, the false Tarric was knocked unconscious by the bar patrons' ferocious pummeling.

The party investigated the body and found that it did not feel the way it looked. They took off his armor and found that it is studded leather rather than plate mail. They cast Detect Magic and found that his entire body glowed, indicating that his false appearance was a magical effect. In addition, his armor, his short sword, and 2 potions glowed with magic. The tavern patrons agreed that the party could keep the sword and potions, if the party agreed to magically heal their wounds and give them any gold that the false Tarric was carrying. After some vehement objections by Thorash and Alees, the party reluctantly agreed.

Soon after the imposter's swag was divvied up, officers of the Greyhawk City Watch arrive. They asked questions about what happened. They took the unconscious imposter into custody and impounded his studded leather armor. They told the party to direct their inquiries about the captive to Captain Auron at the local City Watch headquarters.

After the cops were gone, the party took a closer look at an odd-looking key that they had found in the imposter's belt pouch. With the help of some bar patrons, Tarquin was able to identify its insignia (a ship being pulled under the waves by a kraken) as the sign of an old abandoned warehouse near the docks called the Sodden Hold. The party decided to investigate.

They traveled to the Dock district without incident and begin investigating the run-down abandoned warehouse called the Sodden Hold. Its old wood exterior had a greenish tinge due to moss. Part of the rectangular building extended over the water of the Selintan River. Alees tried the key in the lock, and it unlocked the door. The double doors opened into a dusty storage room containing haphazardly placed crates and barrels. Killick examined the floor and told the party that, despite appearances, this room had been traversed regularly by humanoid feet. The party saw 3 doors and a ladder to a 10 foot wide, 10 foot tall loft on the far side of the room. Alees investigated the doors and found no traps. She tried the key in the lock to one of the doors and found a room that looked like it might once have been an office. It was full of ledgers and papers in no apparent order. Another door on the same wall led to an empty closet. Katawan tried climbing the rickety ladder leading up to the loft. It collapsed as soon as he got near the top, but mystically, he landed on his feet and seemed not to be hurt at all after falling 10 feet.

After eliminating the first 2 doors and after Katawan climbed up to the loft and confirmed that there was no door up there either, the party became convinced that the third door must lead towards whoever or whatever inhabited this building. Killick and Thorash stepped to either side of it and then turned the knob. Suddenly a large trap door opened beneath their feet causing both of them to plunge into a 40 foot deep pit trap. At just this moment, 3 of the boxes in the room transformed into large humanoids. Tarric attacked the one nearest to him, but he noticed too late that these creatures seemed to be very sticky, covered with a mucus with the adhesive properties of super-glue. His bastard sword stuck to the creature and would not come loose. Thorash and Killick called out for help getting out of the pit. Katawan moved to help them. Meanwhile, Alees hid behind some boxes and shot at them with her crossbow. Alexander cast magic missiles at them. They came after him, but he turned himself invisible and continued firing magic missiles at them. One of the creatures successfully struck Tarric and he was automatically stuck to it. Tarric drew weapon after weapon from his personal armory to stab at the creature, and each weapon in turn stuck to the creature. While Killick was still in the pit, he cast a spell, and a large Dire Bat attacked the enemies in his stead.

Katawan set the Rope of Climbing for Killick and Thorash to climb up. Killick did so successfully, but even with a knotted rope to help him, Thorash was unable to get to the top of the pit. Katawan tried to knock out the monster that was grappling Tarric, but he delivered a crushing blow to Tarric instead (by accident). Luckily, though, one of Alexander's Magic Missiles dropped the nasty brute before it could crush the life out of Tarric. One of the remaining monsters captured Killick in its sticky embrace. But it was dispatched before it was able to crush its prey. With the other 2 monsters gone, the 3rd one didn't last very long on its own. About a minute after the monsters were killed, their sticky glue started to break down, and the people that had been stuck to the creatures were able to remove themselves as well as their weapons.

Having found no entrance into the rest of the building, Tarric began hacking through the worn, old wooden boards that made up the wall. Once he made a hole, he heard and saw an elf women in a cage made of wooden walls and iron bars on the far side of the room. He also saw and heard two men in a similar cage on the opposite side of the room. At first the woman was strangely dubious and dismissive of the party's motivations. She seemed to think that the party was trying to trick her. But once the entire party was in the prison area, she started to be convinced that they were not her jailors in disguise. She introduced herself as Ilya Starmane and said that she was a member of a noble merchant family, controlling most of the trade from Greyhawk to the neighboring elven kingdom of Celene. The men in the opposite cell claimed to be traveling merchants who were abducted about a week ago after entering the city for the Richfest celebration.

While the party was working on getting the elf woman's cell door open, Thorash noticed the men behind him drawing longswords and shields from underneath their beds. They quickly pushed the iron door of their cell open, despite the fact that they had seemed to be locked a moment ago. Ilya screamed as these false prisoners attacked the party. Distrustful of the surly elf maiden, Alees kept a dagger at her throat while the rest of the party dealt with the attack. Although the false prisoners seemed to be well-trained fighters, they were outnumbered and unable to maneuver. They were beaten down without much difficulty. As they died, they reverted back to their original form - that of a tall bony humanoid with large eyes and grayish black skin. Alexander identified the creature as a doppelganger - an insidious shapechanger who steals others' identities.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 21: Discovering the Doppelganger Lair, or Thorash vs. the Kraken

5th of Richfest (continued). The party had just defeated the doppelgangers who had been pretending to be prisoners. These doppelgangers were wearing tight-fitting (finely crafted) studded leather armor that they were able to conceal successfully underneath their merchant costumes. They had pulled longswords and heavy steel shields out from under their bunks. The longswords seem to be of fine make, but the shields seem to be of standard quality.

With the action over, the party started interrogating the elf woman with renewed skepticism. The party was now much more suspicious of Ilya, thinking that she may also be a doppelganger. Although Ilya was haughty and impatient with the party's questions, she answered them in the hopes of finally being freed. She told the party that she had been in the cell for about a month. Her captives had fed her and occasionally played cruel tricks on her, like impersonating her friends and pretending to rescue her. She said that the doppelgangers who were killed had been in the cell across from her for a week. When the party asked why the doppelgangers would stay in a prison cell for so long, she replied in an exasperated tone that she had no idea. She suggested that perhaps the doppelgangers had been working in shifts, changing places while she was sleeping. The party asked what was beyond the double doors at the end of the room. She said she didn't know. She volunteered that none of the prisoners who had gone through those doors had ever come back. Thorash cast Detect Magic on her. Nothing on Ilya glowed. (However, he did notice out of the corner of his eye that the longswords that the doppelgangers had been using were glowing.)

Thorash, Alees, and Katawan were still distrustful of the girl and wanted to keep her locked up until the party was through with its incursion into the Sodden Hold. Alexander was adamant that the girl should be set free immediately, and Killick reluctantly agreed. Tarric, who was trying to score points with the hot babe, agreed that the girl should go free. This left the party at an impasse until Katawan changed his mind. Although Ilya was grateful that she was finally being set free, she didn't seem to have much love for the party. She told them that when the doppelgangers captured her, they stripped her of all her valuables and put them in the closet across the room. She went to retrieve her things (along with a couple members of the party who wanted to observe her actions in the closet), and when she came back, she tossed a bag at the party's feet, saying, "I found this along with my belongings. It's not mine, so as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to it." With some reluctance, she concluded, "I suppose you've earned it." Thorash, whose Detect Magic spell was still active, noticed that the bag was glowing. He and the rest of the party looked inside and found that there was more room inside the bag than there appeared to be on the outside. The bag contained hundreds of gold coins (864gp, to be exact). As Ilya was about to leave, Thorash vindictively frightened the girl with stories of deadly monsters in the next room. When she appeared to be somewhat concerned about the danger to herself, Tarric offered to escort her out to safety.

Without waiting for Tarric to return, Thorash opened the double doors and found what must once have been a large loading dock. There were large doors on the far wall that might once have allowed river boats to dock and unload their wares. (However, these doors were completely boarded up now.) The wooden floor of the room had almost completely rotted away, leaving only a few small portions of floor in the corners of the room intact. Where the floor had rotted away, the party could see the shore of the Selintan River below. In the shallow water had been planted numerous old, rusty swords and spears with points facing upward. To facilitate traversing the room, narrow planks of newer wood had been lain across old wooden pylons that might once have held the collapsed floor up. Alexander flew into the room to get a better look at the far side. When he did so, a sudden gust of wind blew around him. The wind seemed to take shape and started pummeling him. Because of his surprise, he was quickly knocked unconscious. But rather than plummeting to his doom, his unconscious body fell very slowly. Once Alexander was knocked out, the second air being moved to Thorash and attacked him. Killick moved in to help Thorash. Katawan tumbled acrobatically across the narrow planks and grabbed Alexander's floating body, setting it to rest safely on one of the few remaining portions of wooden floor along the wall. Alees fired a few shots from her crossbow at the invisible attackers, missing horribly. Some of Killick's blows also missed due to the creatures' invisibility. Tarric came running back and joined the melee. Katawan heroically stood over Alexander's body, protecting it from the large wind creatures and also delivering curative spells from his Ring of Spell Storing. Alexander awakened and cast a fireball in the area where he surmised that the creatures must be. With the explosion, one of the creatures seemed to dissipate and the system of wooden planks was blown to smithereens. The rest of the wooden building smoldered but did not catch fire due to its being water-logged. Soon thereafter, Killick and Tarric combined their attacks to destroy the last remaining wind creature.

Alexander used his flight to transport the party to the far side of the room where there is a door. They opened it and found that the room beyond contained nothing but the stone shaft of an old well. However there was a fairly new rope ladder attached to the side leading down into the well. Peering over the side, the party saw that the water level was about 35 feet below where the PCs are standing. Killick used tracking to determine that the ladder had been used frequently. Katawan climbed down the ladder and swam under the water to try to find out how deep it went. He returned to the party and told them that the water was deeper than 20 feet. Thorash decided to hold is breath and go down to the bottom to investigate. The ladder led down to a small cistern whose bottom was 40 feet below the water level. A tunnel has been dug through one side of the cistern, leading away towards the direction of shore for about 40 feet before opening out into a larger space. Thorash returned and reported this information to the party, announcing that he was going to investigate further. Killick decided to join him, just in case. This time Thorash sank to the bottom rather than climbing. Killick followed him, swimming. Thorash moved to the end of the tunnel and saw a much larger room with a large stone pillar in the center. He noticed that the water also seemed to be about 40 feet deep in this room and that there was some air at the top. He moved to the 10 foot diameter pillar to investigate. He found a ladder constructed into the stone of the pillar on one side.

At this moment, Thorash was attacked by a giant octopus. It quickly grabbed him in one of its tentacles and began squeezing the life out of him. Killick swam back to the party as quickly as he could and reported that Thorash was in trouble. Meanwhile, Thorash used the grapple to automatically perform his Death Touch on the kraken, but it still continued to squeeze. Then he used his new spikey armor to deliver damage to the beast, but still it continued to squeeze. Realizing that he was about to black out, he quaffed a potion to keep himself conscious, in the hope that his party mates might still save him. At just that moment, a porpoise swam out of the tunnel and attacked the octopus. The octopus, distracted by the attack, quickly destroyed the summoned creature. Then Alexander flew out of the tunnel and into the open air above Thorash. He saw that there was a metal lever at the top of the stone pillar as well as a stone walkway leading to a door. But an investigation would have to wait, as he had other pressing matters to attend to. He cast Magic Missiles that struck the octopus. Thorash, seeing that the cavalry had arrived, continued damaging the creature with his armor spikes. The kraken now decided that the small dwarf was not worth the hassle. It produced a large black cloud of ink to obscure its exit, and by expelling a jet of stored water, the octopus moved extremely quickly away from its foes. Thorash, with his darkvision, saw the creature slither through a large grate in the floor on the far side of the room.

With the creature gone, Thorash moved up the ladder as quickly as he could, and gasped for air when he reached the top. As Thorash regained his breath, Alexander pulled the lever, and the water began to drain out of the room (and the well). A minute later, when the water was gone and the way was clear, the rest of the party joined Killick, Alexander, and Thorash at the top of the large stone pillar. They opened the door across the walkway and found a T-intersection with a long crosshallway lined with many single doors and capped by doubledoors at each end. The area was lit by a continual light torch, and since Killick had just lost his old torch down the drain, he took this new one off the wall to replace it. The party listened at each of the single doors and heard nothing. Alees checked the floor for traps in front of the double doors and found none. Tarric moved up to one of the double doors and the floor suddenly gave way. As Tarric fell, everyone noticed that his scream ended very abruptly and there was no "thud" when he hit the ground. Thorash moved up to the edge to investigate. He saw a 30 foot deep pit, but Tarric was nowhere to be found inside it.

Just at that moment, 4 of the single doors along the hallway opened, and doppelgangers emerged. They tried desperately to push Thorash into the pit with no luck. They attacked without weapons or armor and were quickly cut down. During the battle, the party saw a continual light torch fly up out of the pit and fall back in. When the "danger" was over, Alexander flew to the bottom of the pit, discovering that the bottom was an illusion. When he passed through it, he saw Tarric standing at the bottom of a deeper spiked pit gesticulating wildly, but making no sound. Alexander picked him up and flew him to safety.

The party investigated the rooms the doppelgangers had came out of. They seemed to be sleeping chambers. Each chamber contained a bed, a full-length mirror, and rung full of hanging clothes. The clothes were very differentiated, running the gamet from very poor-looking to very rich-looking. Along with the clothing, each room also contained a small box full of costume jewelry. None of the jewelry was as valuable as it looked at first glance, but Alees thought that she could still sell the whole lot to a vendor for about 500 gp.