Menexenus's Age of Worms Campaign Journal

[Menexenus]

Session 22: The Maze of Mirrors

5th of Richfest (continued). While Alees continued to search the doppelganger rooms, the rest of the party explored the unopened doors along the rest of the corridor. After discovering a latrine, they opened the double doors at the far end of the corridor. These opened into a large conference room filled with maps, books, and papers. Alexander attempted to open the other double doors on the far side of the pit trap. He discovered that those doors are false. The party began looking for a secret passage that would lead deeper into the doppelganger lair. Alexander flew down into the pit trap looking for secret doors. Tarric, Killick, and Thorash took closer looks at the map room. However, it is Alees's voice that called out with news of discovery. She showed the party that there was an illusory wall in the last doppelganger room. The party passed through that wall and found a closed iron door with a faint light coming through the crack at the bottom. The party opened the door, finding an octagonal room with reflective polished metal walls. In this room, the party saw... THEMSELVES - all 6 of the party members - dressed in rags and chained to chairs in the middle of the room. As soon as these captives saw their counterparts walk through the door, they began calling out for the party to free them and insisting that their counterpart within the party is false and should not be trusted.

Thorash walked menacingly toward his double. Alexander advised caution. Instead of destroying his double, Thorash dragged him and his chair out into the hallway for interrogation. Alexander instructed Alees to watch the rest of the doubles until the interrogation of the Thorash-double was completed. Tarric and Killick also stayed behind to keep an eye on the chained up doubles. Katawan joined Alexander and Thorash in the bedroom where the interrogation was taking place. The Thorash-double pleaded with Alexander to set him free. He insisted that he had been replaced by a doppelganger. Alexander asked him some questions about the party's recent exploits. Although his answer is halting at first, he was able to produce the correct answers. Thorash decided to leave the room and asked to consult with a suspicious Alexander in private. While in private they shared the suspicion that the doppelganger may be able to read minds. They decided to ask the Thorash-double a question to which even Alexander does not know the answer. Thorash would write the answer on a piece of paper in dwarvish, and Alexander would read it only after the Thorash-double had already answered.

Alexander returned to the sleeping chamber with the folded paper in hand. He asked the Thorash-double how Thorash obtained his new spikey armor. The Thorash-double insisted that he had never owned spikey armor and that it must belong to the doppelganger who took his place. He asked Alexander if it didn't seem odd how Thorash was late meeting up with the party and suddenly showed up wearing unfamiliar armor. These responses gave Alexander some pause. He began to wonder if Thorash might not be a doppelganger after all. But then he asked the Thorash-double to read the paper that Thorash had written on. The Thorash-double insisted that the writing was gibberish. However, Alexander read the paper, and he found the following sentence written in dwarvish, "I commissioned the armor from craftsmen in my home village of Dumadan in the Abbor Alz mountains." This finally convinced Alexander that the double was the imposter. He took out a bottle of ink, and placed a dot on the Thorash-double's forehead.

When the Thorash-double was convinced that the jig was up, he called out loudly that Alexander was making a terrible mistake and that he was the real Thorash. As Thorash and those around him considered what to do with the imposter, Alees walked through the illusory wall and cold-bloodedly stabbed at an unsuspecting Alexander. Her first thrust missed him, but the second one struck true, causing Alexander grievous damage. Alexander was so rattled by the attack that he turned and fled, but Alees struck him down before he was able to leave the room. Alexander collapsed unconscious. In the mean time, all of the doubles in the octagonal room slipped their shackles - except for Alees. Tarric stood in the doorway to block their escape. They took turns attacking him. Killick entered the room with the Thorash-double and started attacking it, eventually killing it with a rain of blows from his quarterstaff. As it died, it returned to its true form - the tall and gangly dark-gray-skinned form of a doppelganger. Alees walked through the illusory wall and took up a flanking position behind Tarric. Tarric, having heard that Alees was false, turned to face her and dealt her a hefty blow. She withdrew back through the illusory wall to quaff a healing potion. Despite being unable to see her, Katawan punched Alees through the illusory wall.

In the mean time, Thorash had revived Alexander with the last remnants of the Wand of Cure Light Wounds. Alexander drew his Wand of Magic Missiles and leveled it at Alees. She was overcome by the barrage of missiles and fell unconscious. Moments later she died and also reverted to her true doppelganger form. At about the same time, Tarric dispatched the Killick-double, the Alexander-double, and the Katawan-double with a single slice of his bastard sword. He then entered the room to face his own double. He dispatched it with another single sword stroke. (However, after doing so, he felt slightly disoriented. But the strange feeling passed quickly, and no one else noticed.)

The party freed Alees who had remained chained to her chair throughout the entire fight. She explained that she had been led out of the Crooked House by a false note late in the evening during the previous night. There she had been overcome and kidnapped by one of the doppelgangers. She had been stripped of her clothes and belongings and placed in this room. Throughout the morning each of the other party members had joined her in the room, similarly stripped of belongings. Alees had assumed that the doppelgangers had successfully captured the entire party, one by one. She had no idea that everyone else in the room was a doppelganger. She was very grateful for her rescue and was eager to suit up and wreak vengeance upon her captors. She quickly found a secret door leading out of the octagonal room.

This secret door led to a mirrored maze. As she stepped in to investigate, she was quickly cut off from the rest of the party by a section of wall that slid down behind her. The rest of the party moved into the maze to find Alees. Killick encountered a fighter who attacked him. The fighter was quickly trapped and flanked by Alees. Soon Katawan and Tarric were also nearby waiting for opportunities to attack. Meanwhile, in another part of the maze, Alexander encountered someone who looked very much like Tarric. He even had the same ink marks on his face that the party had drawn on themselves in an attempt to distinguish themselves from doppelgangers. However, Alexander noticed that this Tarric was not wearing the right armor. Alexander fired magic missiles at the imposter. The imposter closed with Alexander and dealt the mage serious damage. Katawan followed the sounds of battle and found the mage cornered. Unable to break away without offering an attack of opportunity, Alexander decided to go down swinging. He fired another volley of magic missiles before succumbing to the power of the false-Tarric's longsword. Katawan and Thorash pinned the false Tarric on one side while Alees and Tarric keep it from escaping on the other side of the hallway. False-Tarric called out to someone for assistance, and Killick who was out in the hallway noticed a face glancing down the hallway at him. As he moved to investigate, he turned a corner and saw himself.

Killick begins fighting his counterpart and called out to warn his comrades. But as soon as he landed a blow against his imposter, he felt disoriented. Hearing Killick call out that he was fighting himself, Tarric came to investigate. Killick dropped out of the fight and instructed Tarric to take up his spot. (It wasn't difficult for Tarric to realize who the imposter was, because the imposter was wielding a longsword - something that Killick was sworn never to do.) The 2 fighters battled each other to a stalemate. Just as Tarric was resigned to his fate, his opponent withdrew deeper into the maze, dropping sections of wall behind him to cover his escape. On the other side of the battlefield, Katawan had taken so much damage that he could no longer stand toe-to-toe with the Tarric-double. He resorted to his Spring Attack maneuver. Thorash cast Shield on himself, attacked on the defensive, and took up a position on the front line. Meanwhile, Alees attacked it from the flank position. The Tarric-double focused on dropping Alees. When she was badly wounded, she tried tumbling away, but the fighter got in an attack of opportunity and knocked her unconscious. Killick, having left the fight against his double, stabilized Alees and kept the Tarric-double from escaping. Finally, Thorash dropped it with a successful casting of Inflict Moderate Wounds. With a terrifying glint in his eye, Thorash reached out to empower himself with the doppelganger's soul, but Thorash's quarry was elusive and it escaped to its eternal reward.

When the Killick-double retreated, the party decided that it was in no shape to pursue. The party collected the 2 doppelganger corpses and retired to the octagonal room. They decided to hole up and wait for dusk so that Thorash could rememorize heal spells. However, about an hour later, Katawan heard someone trying to open the secret door leading from the maze into the octagonal room. When the person or persons discovered that the door had been barred, it/they did not continue trying to open the door. About half and hour later, Katawan - who had taken up a watch position just beyond the illusory wall - barely heard the sound of glass breaking far away in the distance. About half an hour after that, the conscious members of the party heard a loud boom. Katawan poked his head out to see down the hallway. He saw the map room at the far end of the corridor in flames and he spied two figures in the hallway - one that looked like Tarric and one that looked like Eligos, the mage that they met with only yesterday in the Garden District! (Was it really him or just a doppelganger trick?)

Katawan retreated quickly to the octagonal room and reported what he saw. The conscious party members prepared as best they could for a final assault. In desperation, Killick gave the two unknown potions recovered from the Tarric-imposter in the bar fight earlier that day to Alexander and Alees. Alexander turned invisible, but Alees woke up. However, the final assault that the party was anticipating never came. Apparently the remaining residents of the doppelganger lair decided that discretion was the better part of valor. They were gone.

At long last, dusk came and Thorash prayed for spells. He healed the party as best he could. Now that Alexander was conscious again, he began resting his mind in preparation for rememorizing spells in 8 hours. The party decided not to strike out again until after Alees and Killick had an opportunity to pray for spells at dawn (and Alexander had a chance to rememorize spells).

 

[Menexenus]

Session 23: No Rest for the Weary

6th of Richfest. The party had holed up in the doppelgangers' octagonal room to rest and prepare spells for their final assault on the doppelganger lair. Thorash did all the healing he could at dusk of the previous day, including reviving Alexander. The party decided to wait until dawn, so that Alexander, Alees, and Killick would all have spell power before venturing out again. After the party memorized at dawn, they left the octagonal room and investigated their surroundings. First they looked through the charred remains of the map room. They found a secret door open on the south side of the room, but everything in the room had been charred and burned by the fireball. After spending a bit of time looking, no useful information was found to be recoverable.

Next the party traversed the (now empty) maze of mirrors and found a door at the end leading into a large chamber. Along one wall was a large, complicated-looking apparatus made mostly of glass tubes. Many of the tubes had been broken, and there was a great deal of glass on the floor. The tubes looked like they used to be connected to a strange-looking metal helmet and that the helmet would be placed on the head of someone who might have been strapped down onto the metal table. Thorash cast Detect Magic on the apparatus and found that it glowed faintly with Transmutation and Divination magic. He also discovered a receptacle that seemed to be a focus of the machine where a small object about the size of a large gem might be placed.

Meanwhile, Killick noticed 2 booted foot prints that seemed to be traversing the room leaving small shards of glass along the floor. Alees moved to the far side of the room to investigate a stage-like area containing a throne on the far wall resting on a dais. As Alees moved to ascend the 3 short stairs that lead up to the throne area, a 10x10 pit trap opened under her feet. However, due to her roguish reflexes, she was able to jump away at the last second and avoid damage. She looked down into the pit and saw spikes 40 feet down at the bottom. Alees and Killick decided to forego use of the stairs and climb up onto the stage in the middle. They made their way to the throne. Killick found more footprints around the throne. Alees found a small button beneath the right arm of the throne. When she pushed it, it opened a secret door to the left of the throne.

The door opened into a nicely appointed sleeping chamber. Alees searched the room thoroughly. She found that the desk was empty of anything valuable or informative. The generally disheveled condition of the room forced her to conclude that the room had been recently ransacked. She found a closet full of nice clothing. She checked all the pockets of the outfits and discovered that someone else had already done the same job. She kept all the clothes that she thought might be valuable. Alexander picked out all the items of clothing that he thought he could eventually make magic items out of. Alees thought she could sell the rest for about 500 gp. There were two other noteworthy items in the room - a large rug and a large gilded full-length mirror. The rug seemed to change patterns as Alees watched. Alees cast Detect Magic on the whole room and found that the rug and the mirror were magical. The rug radiated Illusion magic and the mirror radiated Divination magic. Alees tossed the clothes and the rug into one of the party's magical Haversacks. When she tried to move the mirror, though, she found that it was very heavy - about 250 pounds. She reluctantly concluded that they might have to leave it behind.

Despite the general lack of valuable information in the room, Alees's efforts were not for nothing. As she leaned over to move the mirror, she noticed a piece of paper that seemed to have been accidentally left behind lying under the bed. It read: "I have a task for you, Telakin. Meet me at the sewer junction beneath the Cold Forge and I will give you the details. There are some troublesome small minds that must be removed."

At this point, Alexander - who had not been feeling well all day - doubled over in pain. His complexion suddenly looked very greenish. Killick performed a healing check on Alexander and noticed something tiny writhing under his skin. Killick realized that he had also been feeling a little under the weather and wondered if he might be suffering from the same ailment. He checked himself out and found the same little writhing things under his skin. He sliced his arm open to find out what it was and pulled a small green worm out of his flesh. It writhed around between his fingers for a few moments, then went limp, and then liquefied. Killick recognized the green worms as the same ones the party had seen in the glass jar that Smenk had given them and the same ones that the Spawn of Kyuss had been dripping with in the basement of Blackwall Keep. Killick surmised that both he and Alexander had become infected somehow, although he couldn't think of how this might have happened. Using his skills with the healing arts, Killick concluded that both he and Alexander had only days to live unless this affliction was cured somehow. He also suspected that, if the affliction were allowed to run its course, both he and Alexander would turn into Spawn of Kyuss after their deaths. Killick's examination also convinced him that their condition was not communicable until they died and became undead.

Alexander insisted that the party leave and find help immediately. Although Alexander wanted to leave the party behind, he was reminded that his flying ability was needed to safely traverse the Sodden Hold. So he waited to ferry each party member from the well to the front room of the Sodden Hold. Then he grabbed Killick and flew him directly to Eligos's house. Alees headed for her church to ask for assistance. Thorash said he would do the same. Tarric and Katawan decided to follow Alees. After about an hour, Alees made her way through winding streets of the city to the temple of Fharlangn. She was greeted as a member of the faith, but when she described her party-members' ailment, the clerics of the temple seemed to be at a loss as to how they might help. They recommended quarantining the two until the disease had run its course. They also offered that their rates for casting higher level curative spells were very competitive and that Alees was eligible for a small discount if she chose to bring her friends back to the church for spellcasting.

Alees, Tarric, and Katawan headed back to the Crooked House (the inn where they had been staying). As soon as they walked in the door, Tarquin the gnome proprietor informed them that Eligos wished to speak with them immediately. Although craving a warm, soft bed, the half-party continued on to Eligos's house in the Garden District. They were quickly admitted through the front door by Pollard, Eligos's elven man-servant, and escorted to a sitting room where Eligos sat at the head of the table. Thorash, Alexander, and Killick were also seated along the table, and a young lady with short blonde hair wearing a leather explorer's outfit was slouching against the chair across from Eligos with her booted feet propped up on the table. This young woman turned to look at the incoming adventureres, sat up, and said, "Looks like the gang's all here. Let's get started." Eligos welcomed the newcomers and gestured for them to take a seat.

As she was moving towards her chair, Alees glanced back at Alexander. She noticed something strange - something different about him. Alexander didn't look ill any more, but it was more than just that. Finally, she realized what it was. As she sat down, she said, "Alexander, you've got your ear back!" Alexander had been missing his right ear ever since his encounter with the Brown Mold in the Whispering Cairn, but now it had apparently grown back.

Alexander responded with a gesture toward the far end of the table where the young lady was sitting, "Yes, Celeste has been very helpful. Not only did she restore my ear, but she also restored my health. Killick and I are free of Kyuss's disease, thanks to her." Celeste accepted the gratitude implicit in Alexander's statement with a quick nod.

Now that everyone was seated, Eligos brought the assembly quickly to business. He explained that, although they do not work for the same people, Celeste was a trusted colleague of his who he found was often working towards the same goals. At times like these, he continued, they found it convenient to share information and work together. Eligos said that through his investigations of the cult of Kyuss, he had found mention of an unholy document known as the Apostolic Scrolls. These scrolls were used by the faithful of Kyuss to summon what was known as an "Apostle of Kyuss". This "apostle" would be a giant worm whose usual abilities would be to swallow people whole, digest them in its stomach acid, and belch them forth as animated skeletons. However, when summoned by a cleric of Kyuss using the Apostolic Scrolls, the worm would become even more powerful than usual. Instead of belching forth skeletons, it would be able to belch forth much more dangerous Spawn of Kyuss. Eligos's research told him that Apostles of Kyuss were usually summoned as part of larger rites that might accomplish even greater evil than just the presence of the worm itself. His divinations had revealed that there is a copy of the Apostolic Scrolls in town and that it was currently in use under the Greyhawk Arena (where the Champions' Games were currently taking place). Eligos believed that whatever the Apostle of Kyuss was being summoned for would likely take place the next day during the final day of the Champions' Games, and he begged the party to do what it could to prevent the summoning/release of the Apostle.

Celeste said that she had been hired to investigate the disappearance of the daughter of a wealthy merchant which took place several months ago. Killick asked if the missing daughter might be Ilya Starmane, the haughty elf girl that the party released from the Sodden Hold, but it turned out that the girl in question was a human girl named Lahaka. Celeste said that, before her disappearance, Lahaka had been seen in the company of a man named Loris Raknian. Raknian is a man in his 40s who had once been a gladiator who fought in the Arena. He had been a very popular gladiator who earned a great deal of wealth during his career. So when he retired about 20 years ago, he had enough wealth to purchase the rights to run the Arena from Greyhawk's Ruling Oligarchy. It was at this time that Raknian introduced the Champions' Games, as a way to generate interest and bring in larger crowds. For the past 20 years, the Oligarchy had been quite pleased with the increased revenue that Raknian's games had brought to the city. Consequently, Raknian enjoyed a great deal of political protection in Greyhawk, making it difficult to confront him directly. The Directors seemed willing to turn a blind eye to his more nefarious dealings, such as the occasional disappearances of his much younger love-interests. Celeste confided that Raknian is foul character - a hulking brute with a violent temper. She said that her investigations had uncovered that Raknian had been dabbling in the black arts for some time. Apparently, he had a burning desire to somehow return to the glory of his youth as a powerful gladiator, and he seemed willing to make deals with any power willing to restore his youth and physical prowess.

Celeste said she learned that Raknian was receiving a very important shipment a couple months ago, but at the time she didn't know what it was. After consulting with Eligos, she now believed that Raknian was tied up with the cult of Kyuss and that the special shipment that had been received in the dead of night under heavy guard was in fact the copy of the Apostolic Scrolls. Earlier this week, she had snuck into the catacombs under the Arena. She went down some stairs to a sub-level and spotted an unusual undead dripping with green worms. She quickly retreated and, not having seen such an undead before, she came to confer with Eligos. Apparently, Eligos had just met with the party and was in the process of researching the green worm they had brought him. That had been the lynchpin that had finally tied everything together.

Eligos emphasized again that his divinations told him that the release of the Apostle of Kyuss would happen tomorrow during the finale of the Champions' Games when the crowds jammed into the Arena would be at their largest. Eligos pleaded with the party again to take up the challenge of preventing whatever Raknian and the cult of Kyuss had planned. Most of the party seemed willing, but Alees asked Eligos what was in it for her. Eligos seemed displeased with this question, but he responded that if the Apostle of Kyuss was released, there may not be a Greyhawk any more. So if she wished to continue to have a large city full of pockets to pick and merchants willing to buy looted swag, she had better fight to protect it. With Alees's concerns silenced, the party officially accepted the mission.

Celeste said she was willing to join the party and help them, but she emphasized that she was more of the sneaky type than the stand-up fighter type. She said she would prefer to turn invisible and aid the party behind the scenes with her powerful magic.

She gave the party 2 choices. They could try to infiltrate the Arena's sublevels during the games themselves (when the sublevels would be least guarded) either using teleportation magic or using illusions to sneak their way in. The other alternative was trying to get into the sub-levels via the sewers. Celeste confided that one couldn't be a successful sneaky type in Greyhawk without having good contacts with people in the Sewerworkers Guild. She said that she was convinced that they could get into the Arena's substructure through a ghoul/ghast warren that had recently been discovered but not cleared out yet by the Sewerworkers. The first option might be tricky logistically and left the group with very little time to accomplish their mission. The second option gave the group more time, but would force the group to face unnecessary challenges on the way to their real mission. The party opted for the second option.

Since Celeste did not plan to do much fighting, she offered the party the use of her weapon. She opened the palm of her gloved hand, and a heavy mace suddenly appeared. She told the party that it could do extra damage against evil-doers and, on a lucky hit, it could turn undead creatures to dust. Eligos also ponied up some items that he was willing to loan the party. He took off a belt and handed it to Tarric, saying that wearing the belt would make him stronger. He took off a ring and handed it to Alexander saying that the ring would increase his spell casting ability. He pulled a pearl out of his pocket and said that it would allow anyone to re-cast a mid-level spell. Alexander took it. Eligos then unlocked a chest and pulled out a rod. He said that this single-use item would negate any magical effect automatically. He said that the item was very expensive, so he requested that the party not use it unless absolutely necessary. But he said one never knew when such an item might make a big difference. Finally, he pledged to try to procure a wand of healing on the black market over night.

7th of Richfest. In the morning, Eligos handed the party a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds with 38 charges. He said it was the best he could do on short notice. The party elected to give the wand to Celeste who could use it invisibly to aid the party. The party made its way down into the sewers, and with Celeste's guidance, quickly found the undead lair. It turned out that the lair was filled with ghasts, not ghouls. 4 of the 6 party members were sickened by the ghasts' foul stench. However, Thorash was able to command many of them to attack their comrades, making the combat much simpler. Killick had the honor of dropping the ghast leader, while Alees had fun using Celeste's mace to disintegrate the first ghast she struck. The party found a pile of ancient bones that the ghasts seemed to be using for sustenance.

The party continued on rather than waiting for the sickness to wear off. After some tight twists and turns, the party came to a larger natural cavern with a large open pipe on the far wall draining sewage into a pool on the floor. Around the pipe drain hung large masses of yellow goo. Suddenly, the goo began moving toward the party!

 

[Menexenus]

Session 24: Against the Undead Minions of the Kyuss Cultist

7th of Richfest. This was the big day - the finale of the Champions Games, the day that the Arena would be packed with more spectators than it would see on any other day of the year, and the day that something or someone was trying to unleash an evil harbinger of the Age of Worms to devour the city. The party had been convinced by their patron Eligos to try to prevent the release of the Apostle of Kyuss with the help of an enigmatic young investigator named Celeste. Celeste had shown the party a hidden path to the catacombs below the Arena via the sewers. First the party encountered and defeated a warren of ghasts. However, this encounter had sickened the party. They pressed on nonetheless. They made their way through tight subterranean passageways that finally led to an underground cave containing run-off from an ancient sewer pipe. However, as soon as they arrived, they were attacked by large yellowish oozes clinging to the ceiling and walls.

First, Tarric entered the room. He swang his mace at the closest one, cleaving it in two. However, being cut in half did not seem to damage the creature. Instead, there were now more of them to fight! Killick came into the room and tried hitting one of the smaller jellies, but that just caused it to divide again into 2 even smaller jellies. Alees moved into the room and cautiously waited for something to attack. When it did, she struck first, causing it to divide into 2 opponents as well. By this time, the party realized that physical force would be useless against these strange creatures. Katawan tumbled to the far side of the room and lit a torch which he used to burn the creatures. Alexander stood in the doorway and used his Magic Missile wand to good effect. Alees threw her bottles of Alchemist Fire. Killick cast a spell and threw balls of flame at the creatures. All the while, the oozes lashed out with pseudopods. Through the entire combat, the yellow blobs only hit twice. When they hit, they tried to grab their targets, but both times, the grab was unsuccessful. Those who were hit took both physical and acid damage. After the party had deduced that physical attacks did no good, they had little trouble dispatching the oozes.

Celeste told the party that her sewer maps indicated that the party needed to climb up the mildly inclined sewer pipe on the far wall for about 20 feet and then up a vertical pipe for about 10 feet. She thought that this should bring them into a sub-basement level of the Greyhawk Arena where she had seen Spawn of Kyuss. Rather than pressing on immediately, the party decided to wait until the ghast sickness wore off. In the mean time, Alees searched the jelly corpses for valuables, Tarric cleaned Celeste's Mace of Disruption (which he had carelessly dropped into the sewage), and Thorash cast Detect Magic to see if he could find anything of value in the cavern. Alees came up empty in her search, finding only humanoid bones and half-digested muscle tissue. But Thorash found a dim glow beneath the filthy water on the far side of the cavern. He dug around until he found the object. The enchanted item turned out to be a thoroughly befouled gauntlet on a severed hand that had been resting underwater for who knows how long. Thorash wiped the rusty gauntlet off a bit and found that it radiated Transmutation magic. He then greedily placed the filthy object on his hand, to the disgust of his party-mates. However, without knowing the item's command word, he was unable to determine the gauntlet's magical properties.

After the party's nausea subsided, they began climbing into the 4-foot diameter sewer pipe. The party deemed Tarric to be the best climber, so he took Katawan's Rope of Climbing to the intersection with the pipe leading straight up. Tarric was able to see what looked like a stone room up above with a lamp hanging from a chain on the ceiling. He commanded the Rope to fix itself to the chain and knot itself. Then he tossed the other end of the Rope back to the rest of the group. Tarric climbed the rope into the small circular stone room, joined soon after by Killick and Alees. Alees began looking for traps in the hallway outside the room while she waited for the other members of the party to arrive. She quickly found herself almost nose to nose with 3 Spawn of Kyuss sitting on coffins in a small 10x10 room. Alees and Killick leapt to the fight, but Tarric found the appearance of the Spawn too horrific to face. He dropped Celeste's mace and started climbing back down the rope. Alexander flew up and found himself horrified as well. He immediately flew back down. Having seen this effect before, Thorash knew to cast Remove Fear. Luckily, Alexander and Tarric were still close enough to be affected by the spell. Their panic subsided. Katawan climbed up and found himself horrified as well. As he fled back to the cavern, he felt a hand brush against him and some words of magic spoken by a female voice, and suddenly he was unafraid once again.

Meanwhile, Killick and Alees were on their own against the Spawn. One of the Spawn managed to put a worm directly on Killick's flesh. The worm immediately tried to start burrowing into his skin. Terrified by the prospect of being infested by the undead worms again, he dropped his guard in order to grab the worm and remove it. The same happened to Alees. Killick and Alees were holding their own against the Spawn, and when the rest of the party started to arrive, the 3 Spawn in this first room were quickly defeated. Celeste's disembodied voice mentioned to the party that this was the room she had briefly entered and then quickly retreated from. She said she had entered from a secret door behind a coffin on the north wall. The party decided to open the door in case a quick escape route was needed.

Down the hall the group found a side passage as well as a door straight ahead. Alees checked the floor for traps while Killick and Thorash walked down the separate passageway. Killick noticed that the passageway was very dusty from disuse, so he gave up and returned to the rest of the party without opening a door around the corner. Thorash returned as well, which was a good thing because as soon as Alees opened the door at the end of the hallway, she found herself horrified to see six more of the Spawn of Kyuss led by a similar skeleton-like creature inhabited and animated by a large purple worm. She fell to the floor in fear. Tarric also felt the need to flee. Celeste warned the party that she had no more Remove Fears memorized. Things seemed bleak. But, just in the knick of time, Thorash used his Pearl of Power to recall Remove Fear and cast it again. The undead leader ordered one of his Spawn of Kyuss to go warn its master, and one of the Spawn shambled off toward a set of double doors as commanded. Thorash cast Sound Burst in the middle of the room to damage some of the undead. Celeste cast a spell to Bless the party's struggle against evil. Katawan entered the room and attacked one of the vile creatures. He struck the creature successfully but was quickly surrounded by 5 of them and seriously wounded. As he cried out in pain, Celeste called to him to retreat to the back of the line so she could heal his wounds. Tarric stepped forward to take Katawan's place. With two swings of Celeste's Mace of Disruption, he was able to destroy all 5 of the Spawn of Kyuss standing around the doorway. As the rest of the party cheered and clapped him on the back, he allowed himself a moment of amazement during which he looked at his own hands, marveling at the destruction he had wrought.

The undead leader seemed incredulous. As the party entered the long rectangular room (that seemed like it might once have been a training room), the undead leader stepped forward to attack with its claws as well as its wormy purple tongue. The tongue struck Tarric and injected him with some toxin which his body was able to overcome. The undead leader could not stand for long under assault by all 6 members of the party. It took damage from quarterstaff blows, magic missiles, and the Mace of Disruption. It was destroyed in a matter of seconds. At about this time, the last Spawn of Kyuss reached his master's sleeping chamber after going down two short hallways and traversing a medium-sized altar room with a strange beam of green energy cutting the room in half. When the undead warned the master of intruders, the master commanded it to fight them. Soon thereafter a large white ape-ish creature with four arms emerged from his room and moved to face Tarric. Thorash shot a Searing Light at it, wounding it.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 25: The Apostle Awakens

7th of Richfest. The session began in the middle of a fight in a sub-basement beneath the Greyhawk Arena. Most of the party was in an ancient training room where the party had just killed a skeleton animated by a purple worm (known as a Mohrg). Tarric had moved into an adjoining silent room to fight a summoned Girallon along with the last remaining Spawn of Kyuss. This silent room was illuminated by a beam of green light that cut the room in half. The beam emanated from a stone altar with a scroll lying on it on the far side of the room. The beam stopped (as far as the party could tell) on a pair of double doors illuminated with horrific visions of Kyuss on the opposite side of the room.

Tarric fought the Girallon with great skill, but was knocked unconscious when the beast hit him twice and commenced rending his flesh. In response, Celeste used the Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds and moved into the silent area in order to deliver the spell. Killick tumbled into the room to flank the beast. Alexander stayed at a safe distance and pelted it with Magic Missiles. Thorash seemed intrigued by the scroll lying on the altar. Katawan seemed intrigued by the double doors.

Then another beast appeared where the Girallon had only a few seconds earlier. This time it was a Fiendish Wolverine. It charged in attacking Killick. The Girallon also unleashed its fury on Killick, now that Tarric was down, but to little effect. The Girallon was finally felled by some blows from Killick's magical Shillelagh. Another creature was summoned from the room beyond the silent room - a Fiendish Hyena. It also charged Killick, doing no damage. At about the same time, a tiny sparrow clutching a small piece of parchment flew quickly over the party's heads. Alexander saw it fly down the hall and dart into the secret door that Celeste had exposed earlier.

Alees chose to move forward to check out the smaller room from which the summoned creatures were coming. She could barely see the form of the enemy spell caster in the corner of the room, but she found herself unable to enter the room for some reason. Katawan helped to heal Tarric and then moved up to help against the summoned Wolverine and Hyena. Meanwhile, Thorash discovered that the scroll on the altar was protected somehow from his grasp. He then tried to take out a mirror to deflect the green beam, but the beam passed right through. Alexander moved into the silent room and opened the double doors. This allowed the party to see that the green beam continued down a short hallway to create a wall of translucent energy. On the other side of this energy, the party could see only part of a giant slumbering worm.

Meanwhile, in the far room from which the creatures were being summoned, the evil spellcaster moved up to deliver a touch spell on Alees. Although Alees's body was wracked with pain as cold, black energy coursed through her, she did not succumb to the attack. Alees could now clearly see that the evil spellcaster had horns, cloven hooves, and carried a club that glowed blue with energy. After the attack, Alees found that she was now free to move into the room. (Apparently, the cleric's attack on her had allowed her to enter.) Killick (who had been standing right behind Alees, after the party finished off the two summoned creatures) found himself suddenly able to enter the room as well. Tarric ran up to join in the fray, but found that the ward still kept him at bay.

Katawan ran up and delivered a kick to the green energy field surrounding the worm. His kick had no effect on the energy field, but the cold, sickly energy that infused Katawan when he made contact with it definitely damaged him. He warned others not to strike it. Thorash attempted to Dispel the magical effects in the silent room, but his efforts seemed to make no difference.

The evil cleric spat curses at Killick and Alees in some unholy language. Alees used a tanglefoot bag to root the evil spellcaster to the ground. Then Killick and Alees ran up to him and started beating on him. Alees attempted to feint the cleric in order to deliver sneak attacks. Killick used his quarterstaff to deliver multiple blows. The cleric cast another spell that made his hand crackle with foul black energy. He tried to touch Killick with it, but Killick's whirling quarterstaff kept the blow from landing. Meanwhile, the rest of the party, unable to join the combat against the spellcaster, tried various other creative things in the other room. Katawan tried punching the stone altar. Thorash used his stonecunning to ascertain that destroying the altar would take too long to be worth trying. Tarric tried hitting the green energy field with his holy mace to see if it would have a different effect, but the same sickly energy coursed through his body, causing him further damage. Alexander kept a safe distance away outside the zone of Silence, waiting for an opportunity to cast Magic Missile at an opponent.

Finally, the tiefling cleric realized that his death was nigh. He uttered one more curse in his alien tongue before closing his eyes and concentrating. Suddenly, the rest of the party saw the beam of green energy wink out. The green energy field surrounding the worm dissipated and was suddenly gone. Tarric, who now found himself standing next to a wall of wormflesh, gave it a smack with his mace. The giant worm roared in pain. Thorash tried casting Dismissal on it, but the creature remained. Finally, its segments writhed and struggled, and those who were not in silence heard the great crash of stone breaking. Then, with unearthly speed, the worm crawled up and out. Daylight streamed down into the area where the worm used to be. The party could now see that the worm had been held in a hollowed out sphere of rock just below the Arena. Katawan used his Rope of Climbing and firmly attached it to one of the protruding stones at the surface level. He gave it a hard tug to ensure that it would hold his weight.

Alexander flew up after the worm. Because it was still so early in the morning, there were relatively few people in the stands - maybe 50 to 100. Presumably these people had gained entrance to the Arena early in an attempt to get the best seats for the show scheduled to begin at noon. Alexander flew up as high as he could and waved his hands, telling the people to flee. The spectators seemed to need little prodding from Alexander. The sight of a gargantuan yellowish-green worm bursting forth from the floor of the arena seemed to be enough to motivate them to leave. The spectators were definitely moving towards the exits in a panicked fashion. Meanwhile, Tarric began climbing up Katawan's rope, bringing him almost to ground level.

Killick explored another room beyond the tiefling cleric's room. He pulled open a curtain and saw a horrific mosaic image of a skull filled with green worms. He felt irrational panic welling up in his mind, but he was able to overcome the magical effect. Just then an amorphous blob with tentacles rose out of a large chest-high urn sitting in the middle of the room. As the thing had no mouth, it communicated with Killick telepathically that he had made a grievous error and would now die for it. When Alees tried to come to Killick's aid, Killick insisted that she should fall back. The blob shot a Cone of Cold at Killick that had no effect due to his superb reflexes. It also cast some sort of spell that made one of its tentacles glow with sickly green energy, but it found itself unable to touch him with that tentacle. While Killick blocked the blob from moving forward, Alees worked on opening an ornate trunk with horrific scenes painted on all 4 sides in the cleric's room. As the latch popped open, Alees felt her soul being pulled into the pictures on the sides of the trunk. But her will was strong. However, she became worried when she saw a green worm burst forth from one of her fingers. It melted into goo as soon as it hit the floor. Inside the trunk, Alees found a cache of magical items. However, none of them seemed to be the worm-killing device that she had been hoping for. Alees dragged the trunk and its contents to her party-mates. Killick withdrew after her. The blobby thing that Killick had been fighting did not pursue.

Meanwhile, up in the Arena, the Apostle of Kyuss tried biting Alexander but missed. Alexander tried casting Magic Missiles at the worm, but the missiles just dissipated when they struck the worm's rubbery hide. Tarric climbed up to stand next to the Worm and drew his weapon. Then the Apostle struck at Alexander again. This time the wizard was swallowed hole. Tarric could see Alexander's form writhing within the worm for a short time, then it went still. Tarric attacked the Apostle with his sword slicing into it, but doing less damage than he thought he should have. For his efforts, the Apostle simply swallowed him, too.

Celeste was now visible because she had fired an ineffectual Searing Light at the worm. As she saw Tarric being swallowed up above, she yelled, "NO!" and then disappeared. The rest of the party could see a flurry of energy beams striking the Worm in the Arena above. But finally they heard Celeste's tortured voice yell down to the party warning them not to get close to the Apostle because it could swallow them whole. She sadly informed the party that Tarric and Alexander were already dead.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 25 Aftermath: The Worm's Rampage

7th of Richfest (continued). After being informed that Tarric and Alexander were dead, the party members were understandably in no hurry to climb up the Rope of Climbing and join them in the Worm's gullet. However, there was little time to grieve. Killick announced to the other party members that he had fought a particularly nasty blob-like creature with tentacles and spell-like abilities in another room. The party formed up to take on this new challenge. However, after cautiously advancing into the room with the large urn, the blob creature was no where to be found.

Once the party was convinced that their flank was not threatened by a new foe, they made their way up to the Arena to assist in destroying the Apostle of Kyuss. By the time the party made it up to ground level, the Worm had already slithered out of the Arena (causing damage to the stands as it left). They could see that the creature was now about 100 yards away, leaving destroyed buildings and crushed people in its wake. Once every few seconds, as if on a grisly schedule, the gargantuan creature's maw dipped down to swallow someone whole. The party could also see about 25 people in the air above the creature. Some of these were spellcasters shooting flame, electricity, and energy down on the worm. Most of these attacks simply dissipated against the creature's hide, but some found their mark and seemed to damage the creature. As the party moved to follow the Worm, they noticed that the leader of this small band of airborn spellcasters was Eligos. A surprisingly large number of the flyers seemed to be fighters wielding bows, raining down a fire of arrows and bolts down on the creature. The party was unable to see any sign of Celeste.

The party had difficulty catching up to the Worm, as it moved surprisingly quickly for such a lumbering abomination. However, the Worm's apparently unending hunger for humans slowed it down considerably. Alees and Katawan finally got into crossbow range and began firing. Alees found that her bolts were significantly more effective than Katawan's. The Worm had extruded a series of tightly packed tendrils all over its body that seemed to absorb the damage from normal missiles. However, ammunition from magical bows like Alees's seemed to get through this protective layer.

Eventually, the Worm began to realize that the damage it was taking from the skies was starting to add up. It tried swallowing some of the flyers but found them to be out of range. So, in order to strike at them, it disgorged the contents of its stomach in a spray of acid that instantly killed a number of the flyers. As the bones of the humans the Worm had eaten fell to Oerth, they animated, becoming Spawn of Kyuss. Up until this point, Alees and Katawan had more to do because they were able to strike at the Worm with their ranged weapons. But now that there were undead to fight, Killick and Thorash went into high gear. While all the members of the party were staying a safe distance away from the Worm, Killick and Thorash did what they could to destroy the dozens of Spawn of Kyuss that were now marauding through the streets of Greyhawk.

This running battle through the city was incredibly chaotic, with townsfolk screaming and running in every direction. Eventually, Killick and Thorash were separated. Killick looked over his shoulder and saw that Thorash was gone. However, Killick had no time to go looking for his dwarven comrade. He continued fighting the Spawn on the theory that Thorash could take care of himself.

Eventually, after about 30 minutes of all out warfare and destruction, the Worm slumped lifeless to the ground, crushing one last house in its death throes. Hunting down and destroying all of its Spawn of Kyuss took significantly longer. All told, the Apostle of Kyuss had caused extensive damage to the city of Greyhawk unlike anything in Greyhawk's history. Many of the dead had simply been unable to get out of the Worm's way and were crushed by the enormous weight of the supernaturally quick monster. Others had been swallowed whole and turned into Spawn of Kyuss. Still others had been killed by the Spawn of Kyuss who rampaged throughout the city after being expelled from the Worm's gullet. Many buildings had simply been flattened by the undulating movements of the gargantuan monster. Others were in flames, either as collateral damage from Fireballs or from lanterns that had been knocked over. Desperate people wandered aimlessly in all directions, looking for help or looking for loved ones. The 7th of Richfest would be remembered forever in Greyhawk as the day of the Worm's Rampage.

Soon after the Worm died, Killick linked up again with Alees and Katawan. He asked if they had seen where Thorash had gone. They had not. Killick instructed Alees and Katawan that Alexander and Tarric could be resurrected, but only if their corpses were recovered. He set them the task of trying to find which of the new Spawn of Kyuss bore their former comrades' belongings. Meanwhile, Killick would help to triage the town's wounded. He made sure to mark with ink all those who had been wounded or killed by the Spawn of Kyuss, since they might become infected and rise again as additional Spawn.

Eventually, the four surviving members of the party met up with each other once again. Killick asked where Thorash had gone, and he said that he had chased some rampaging Spawn down an unfamiliar alley. Once the Spawn had been dealt with, he found that he had lost his way. He made his way back to the party as quickly as he could. Alees and Katawan had been successful in recovering the bones of their former comrades. Because they were undead, Alees and Katawan had identified them by the items they still wore. Most of their magical items were still intact, but it looked like the metallic items that they had been carrying took significant damage from the powerful necromantic acid in the Worm's stomach. The magical short sword that Alexander had been carrying had been reduced to a useless hunk of twisted metal. Tarric's magical shield and his bastard sword had been similarly destroyed, along with the handaxe that he had used in the last seconds of life in an unsuccessful attempt to escape the Worm's gullet. (Tarric's magical full plate armor, which had previously looked shiny and new, now looked blackened and pitted. However, it still seemed to function at full strength. Tarric's back-up magical longsword was apparently saved by being in its sheath throughout the ordeal.) There was no sign of Celeste, nor was there any sign of her powerful Mace.

Finally, Eligos found the party. He expressed regret at the news of Tarric and Alexander's demise, but the scope of the city's destruction was so great that the wizard found himself too shocked to shed any tears over the loss of these dutiful heroes. He reassured the party that, when the current crisis was over, he would do whatever was necessary to bring Alexander and Tarric back from the land of the dead. When he was informed that there was no sign of Celeste, he took the news in stride. He commented that she was a very resourceful individual, and he would not assume she was dead until the fact had been proved beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Soon thereafter, the party's services were commandeered by the City Watch to help organize emergency food and shelter for those displaced by the disaster. (Thorash and Alees seemed somewhat reluctant to offer their services for free, but they decided not to make a fuss about it under the circumstances.) They were placed under the command of a familiar face, Captain Auron, the man who had taken their doppelganger into custody in the Foreign Quarter. The decision was made to use the Arena as the city's base of emergency operations. Anyone looking for lost family members was to report there. Similarly, the homeless were told to bed down on the sand of the Arena floor. Although some people were wary of returning to the location from which the Worm had sprung, there wasn't any other realistic choice for a venue that could accommodate such large numbers of people.

Knowing that she was infected by Kyuss worms, Alees asked Thorash to memorize Remove Disease at dusk and cast it on her. He did so, and she felt the tiny movement of worms inside her body cease.

After working with Captain Auron at the Arena into the wee hours of the night, the party shambled wearily back underground to loot the areas that they had been forced to leave behind so quickly the previous morning.

1st of Reaping (early morning). Although the party-members were bone-tired, they began looting the sub-basement area where they had fought the cleric of Kyuss and its minions the previous morning. The party quickly noticed that the place was not in the same condition that they had left it. The most obvious sign of this was an open secret door across from the Kyuss mosaic in the room with the large urn. They also found that a previously unopened door at the end of that hallway was now open. The room itself was apparently a latrine, but inside the room was a headless corpse. Killick determined that the body - a human female - had already been a zombie at the time that it was beheaded. With her photographic memory for swag, Alees was able to tell that some items were missing from the evil cleric's body as well as from the ornate trunk. (It was apparent to Alees that someone had been in a hurry to rifle through everything.) The cleric's holy symbol, ring, belt pouch, potion, and his glowing club were gone, and the cleric's cloak was missing its brooch. In addition, the spoon, a potion, the dust, the money, and the gems were all gone from the trunk. The following items of value were left on the evil cleric: 2 scrolls, a wand, magical chainmail, magical shield, and a strand of beads. Inside the trunk, the party found 3 scrolls, seven blocks of incense, a wand, and 3 vials of oil. As Alees searched the rest of the complex, the only other valuable items she found were two giant emeralds that had formed the eyes of the Kyuss wall mosaic. She also noticed that the curtain that had obscured the urn from view before Killick pulled it aside was made of spider silk and was sheer on only one side (allowing one to see through the curtain from one direction but not from the other). Alees was sure that the curtain must also be valuable.

The party followed the newly discovered secret passage and found that it ended in the basement of Loris Raknian's private residence on the Arena grounds. His residence had clearly been ransacked for portable valuables, as much of value that was not portable had been left behind. It was apparent to everyone that Raknian had liked to live in style. All of the residence's amenities and appointments were of the finest quality. There were several large portraits of himself throughout the residence, showing a strapping young gladiator in various action poses with scars running across and down the left side of his face. Although Alees grabbed a couple candlesticks and a silver serving tray, most of the rest of the furniture and decorations were too large to carry out easily. Also, the party didn't want to get charged with looting in a time of emergency, so the party left the remaining valuables in the house (much to Alees's consternation).

The party decided to take their newly acquired loot back to Eligos's house. When they arrived, he agreed to identify their swag at the earliest reasonable opportunity and discreetly asked for the return of the items he had lent them. Once the Rod of Cancellation, the Ring of Wizardry, and the Pearl of Power were returned, Eligos instructed his elfservant Pollard to show the weary adventurers to a large guest room. They fell instantly to sleep on cushy feather beds and slept through most of the day.

2nd of Reaping. When the adventurers came downstairs early in the morning after sleeping most of the previous day, Pollard informed them that the master was away on important city business. However, since inn-space in Greyhawk was being commandeered for use by all the refugees, it would not be possible for them to retain their rooms at the Crooked House. Consequently, Master Eligos had invited them to stay with him while they remained in the City. Pollard also informed them that the master had seen to the identification of the items they had recovered. The items the party had lifted from the cleric were: a Scroll of Restoration (11th level), a Scroll of Heal (11th level), a Wand of Inflict Moderate Wounds (5th level), a suit of Chainmail +1, a small wooden Shield of Light Fortification +1, and a Necklace of Prayer Beads (containing a bead of healing). The items the party had lifted from the trunk were: a Scroll of Death Ward, 2 Scrolls of Ethereal Jaunt, 7 Blocks of Incense of Meditation, a Wand of Restoration (36 charges), and 3 vials of Oil of Gentle Repose. The party had most of the day free to try buying and selling objects. (However, with the city in a state of chaos, it was sometimes difficult to find the items/vendors that they wanted to buy/sell from.)

Later in the day, Eligos returned with an aged cleric carrying a number of scroll tubes and wearing a holy symbol of St. Cuthbert. Eligos said this man would cast the spells necessary to bring Tarric and Alexander back from the dead. The cleric asked the party to lay the remains out on separate tables. He then asked for some privacy, saying that the process was a delicate one and that he needed to commune with his god in peace. Eligos insisted that he had paid good money for these Resurrections, and he demanded to observe them to ensure that they took place smoothly and without a hitch. Reluctantly, the cleric allowed Eligos to stay and observe, but he insisted that all others must leave. About a half and hour later, Eligos and the priest emerged from the room, followed by Alexander and Tarric, who were greeted heartily by their grateful partymates.

His business being concluded, the cleric of St. Cuthbert was shown to the door, and Eligos got down to business with the party in private. He informed them that the City's best estimate of the final death toll resulting from the Worm's rampage was 524. Along with the damage to the Greyhawk Arena, 67 buildings had been destroyed or severely damaged, most of them homes and small businesses near the Arena. Eligos also informed them that the Ruling Oligarchy had placed the City Watch on alert, looking for them. Apparently, the Ruling Oligarchy wanted to interview the party about their part in the disaster. Officially, the party was to be treated as potential witnesses, i.e. as "persons of interest." However, Eligos shared his concern that the Ruling Oligarchy may be looking for a scapegoat, so he was not sure whether to advise the party to submit themselves to the interview or go into hiding. He pointed out that with all the local churches aiding the Oligarchy's investigation into the matter with divination spells, it would probably only be a matter of time before the authorities located them.

When asked where the party might go from here, Eligos noted that the only remaining lead the party seemed to have was the note that they had found in the Doppelganger's lair that referred to a meeting place "beneath the cold forge". Eligos said that he knew of a blacksmith's shop called the Cold Forge, so the meeting place that the note referred to could be in the sewers (beneath it). He suggested that if the party chose to remain in town, checking out that lead should be their next mission. However, he left the decision whether to stay in town up to them.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 26: Beneath the Cold Forge

2nd of Reaping. Upon learning that the party was wanted by the Greyhawk authorities for questioning, Alexander was adamant that they should turn themselves in immediately. The rest of the group was much more wary. Alexander argued that the longer they waited, the more suspicious they would look. Tarric was inclined to agree with Alexander but refused to abandon the rest of the party. The other four party members, though, were equally adamant about not turning themselves in. With his pithy wisdom, Katawan submitted that it would be foolish for the fly to willingly enter the spider's web. Thorash agreed heartily with this sentiment. Due to her prior experiences with the law, Alees wanted to leave town altogether. Killick seemed concerned that, if the party did not investigate the Cold Forge lead soon, the bad guys might not be there any more.

At dusk, Thorash re-memorized spells. Immediately afterwards, he cast a spell to seek his deity's guidance about what they should do. He asked Wee Jas whether the enemies beneath the Cold Forge would be gone if the party waited a day for Alexander to be released. The response Thorash received was that the enemies would remain, but Alexander might not be released in a day. Although Alexander was dismissive of any information gathered from a deity the likes of Wee Jas, the rest of the party concluded that it would be better to continue on to the Cold Forge while Alexander turned himself in.

Later that evening, the party headed towards the Cold Forge, cautiously avoiding City Watch patrols. Using directions given to them by Eligos, they found the smithy (which was closed for business), found a manhole cover nearby, and descended into the sewers. They found that the sewers reeked even worse than usual, because of all the blood and gore that had run off from the street level due to the Worm's Rampage. At first the party became frustrated because there were no obvious exits or entrances that might lead to a subterranean lair. Nor was there any sign of a secret door that the party could find. Finally, though, Killick noticed a slightly phosphorescent bootprint near the waterline. Killick investigated the substance and determined that it was Beggar's Gold, a relatively rare phosphorescent fungus that grew in subterranean environments near deposits of heavy metals. Killick attempted to follow the tracks back the way they had come. After about a half an hour (and after briefly losing the trail once), the party found that they had descended to a tunnel about 60 feet below street level (according to Thorash's dwarven estimation). Finally, Killick spotted a collapsed tunnel wall leading into a natural cavern whose entrance was covered with Beggar's Gold.

Alees moved forward quietly and poked her head in to see what was inside. She saw a small room filled with Beggar's Gold. Among the yellow phosphorescent fungus were 4 large toadstools about 2 - 3 feet high. She returned to the party (which had remaind around a corner close by) and reported this information to them. Killick moved forward with his continual light torch to investigate the toadstools more closely. That's when the toadstools began making a shrieking noise that was tremendously loud.

Realizing that their surprise was lost, the party sprang into action. Katawan bolted through Beggar's Gold and past the shrieking mushrooms into a thin passageway beyond. As he ran through, the yellow fungus on the ground shot out some spores. Katawan coughed a bit as he inhaled them, and then yelled back that the spores were poisonous. He stopped running when a clay jar was tossed down in front of him, exploding on the floor and igniting some oil that had been spread on the floor. As Katawan jumped back, away from the mini-inferno, he looked up and spotted three dark-skinned elves with white hair staring down at him from a rocky shelf near the roof of the natural passageway.

In the meantime, Killick identified the fungus that Katawan had run through and determined that it could be burned away. He threw two bottles of alchemist fire on the ground to clear a safe path through the fungus. Meanwhile, Killick's new animal companion, a wardog named Grimlock joined Tarric in attacking the shrieking mushrooms (whose loud screeches were making it difficult for the party to communicate). Rather than waiting for the fire to burn itself out, Thorash jumped over the last 5 feet of yellow mold and moved to catch up with Katawan. However, when he saw that there were 3 attackers waiting in ambush, he withdrew back to the fungus room (which was now blessedly quiet).

Tarric, Killick, and Alees moved forward to catch up with Katawan. But by this time, Katawan was already long gone. He had continued on into a large cave with a small pool. He saw a large snake with a woman's head emerge from the pool and hide behind one of the 3 natural stone pillars in the room. Katawan yelled back over his shoulder to his comrades about the snake-creature and then went around the pillar looking for it. He did not find it until he bumped into its invisible body, causing the creature to hiss viciously. As Katawan tried to strike the invisible monster, he was attacked from behind by a small group of more dark-skinned elves which had entered the room from the far side. Katawan tumbled away from his attackers, moving towards the direction they had come from. He found another large cavern with a small cage full of poorly fed swine and cattle and a natural stone ramp leading up to a 10 foot tall ledge overlooking one side of the room. In the middle of this room stood a female dark-elf spellcaster. Katawan had found his target!

Meanwhile, Thorash, who had remained in the fungus room while Alees and Tarric shot at the 3 drow on the ledge, suddenly heard footsteps coming up from behind. He whirled around and almost fired a crossbow bolt at the newcomer before recognizing that it was Alexander! Although Thorash was puzzled about how Alexander could have caught up with them so soon after turning himself in, he grudgingly admitted that Alexander's abilities would undoubtedly come in handy against the enemy. Alexander moved forward and shot one of the drow on the ledge with a barrage of Magic Missiles that was noticeably more powerful than the ones he usually cast. The drow enemy fell dead from his perch. The other two drew tanglefoot bags from pouches at their sides and tossed them at Alees and Alexander. Both were struck by the sticky goo. Alexander was held fast to the ground. Alees called on her god's luck power to avoid being cemented to the ground. Tarric moved to help scrape the goo off his comrades. Meanwhile, Killick and his faithful Grimlock moved in to flank the invisible snake creature. After bumping into its invisible form, he cast a spell that outlined its invisible form with glowing light. Then he and the wardog flanked the creature. The damage caused by Killick's whirling quarterstaff finally caused the creature to strike back (thereby becoming visible again). It sank its teeth into the dog, causing grievous damage, but it obeyed its new master and held its ground.

Katawan moved to strike at the drow spellcaster, a cleric by the looks of her weaponry. She drew a heavy mace and clocked him mightily. Katawan shook off some kind of spell effect and marvelled at the unnatural strength the woman possessed - no doubt the result of vile sorcery. When Katawan noticed that there was a door in the wall near the cattle pen, he ran over to see if it would open. It did not. Now that Katawan was separated from their mistress, the drow warriors took this opportunity to toss their tanglefoot bags at him. He was only struck by 3 of the 5 bags, and he avoided being stuck to the ground. The female cleric followed Katawan and brained him again. Katawan decided that it was time for some healing, so he used a stored spell from inside his ring. Immediately afterwards, though, Katawan's breathing became labored as he felt the effects of the poison he had inhaled earlier doing its damage in his system. With a cough and a retch, he collapsed at the drow cleric's feet.

Tarric ran into the room in time to see Katawan fall. He faced off against the drow warriors and began slicing through them with the expertise and efficiency that the party had come to rely on.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 27: Acquitted! (Scapegoats No Longer)

2nd of Reaping. The party was in the thick of battle against a large spell-casting snake creature as well as a small platoon of drow warriors led by a female cleric. Katawan, who had rushed in to face the cleric in advance of the rest of the party lay unconscious before a locked door. Tarric found himself surrounded by the drow warriors. Killick and his new wardog Grimlock were flanking the snake creature. Alexander, who had been charmed by the naga, was using his spell power to assist his teammates. Alees, who had been hit with a tanglefoot bag, was moving slowly toward Tarric (and doing everything in her power to avoid the naga's gaze). Thorash was bringing up the rear, defending the party against two advancing drow warriors who had dropped from their perch to pursue the party deeper into the system of caverns.

One of these two drow faced off against Thorash directly while the second one moved toward the back of the cavern to assist the naga against Killick. The naga, who was tired of being flanked, tried to concentrate to cast a spell once more. The previous time she had tried this, the spell had fizzled. However, this time the spell was cast successfully. A familiar bead of energy left the naga's tongue and shot across the room. When it impacted on the far wall, it exploded into a fiery conflagration which caught Alexander, Alees, and Grimlock in its path. Alexander and Alees took the full brunt of the fiery blast, while Grimlock jumped and ducked in such an acrobatic fashion that the well-trained dog was able to avoid all damage.

Meanwhile, Tarric was consistently doing grievous damage to his drow enemies, but they were also consistently doing grievous damage to him. In a relatively short span of time, Tarric had killed three of his enemies, but a wicked critical hit from the drow cleric knocked him to unconsciousness. This freed the remaining drow to assist the naga in the adjoining cavern.

Killick heard Tarric's plate-armored body collapse to the floor in the adjoining cavern, and he saw the drow that had been fighting him start entering his cavern. He knew that Tarric must be in need of aid. The second drow from the ledge had also moved in behind Killick, causing him to become flanked. Killick whistled for his dog to come to his aid. The dog, which had been helping Killick flank the naga, now moved around a natural stone column to threaten the drow. Meanwhile, Killick moved and tumbled his way past the drow to Tarric's side. When he reached Tarric, a scroll emerged magically from his gloved hand. He read it and Tarric was instantly as good as new again!

Unfortunately, Grimlock had been left to fight the naga and a drow warrior by itself. In its depleted state, the wardog was no match for these foes, and he was quickly knocked unconscious by the drow. This freed the naga up to fire off some spells of opportunity. She noticed that Alees was staggering back towards Thorash for assistance, so she shot the rogue with magical missiles, knocking Alees unconscious. Because of his Shield spell, Thorash had little to fear from the drow warrior that had been attacking him. So he moved next to Alees's unconscious form and healed her. When she regained consciousness, she used her magical prayer beads to heal herself even further.

Meanwhile, Alexander stood near the pool, as far away from the enemies as possible and fired his magic missile wand at drow targets. (Even after being fireballed by the naga, Alexander could not shake off her charm effect. He refused to believe that she could have targeted him on purpose. Surely it had been a mistake!)

Tarric and Killick faced off together against the drow cleric and her dwindling warrior minions. One by one, the minions fell away until the only the cleric remained. She might have considered retreat had it not been for Alees's timely tanglefoot bag. Even though the cleric was not rooted to the floor by the sticky goo, it rendered her so slow that retreat was no longer an option. She opted to go down swinging. She continued clocking Tarric for large amounts of damage, but this time Tarric won the damage battle. The cleric fell dead to the floor at Tarric's hands. Tarric, his hands drenched with blood and sweat, breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Thorash went in to investigate the fallen cleric, while the rest of the party faced off against the naga, which had been given a few seconds of respite while the party focused on the drow. It had apparently been casting spells on itself during the lull. Killick went toe-to-toe with the abomination and ascertained that the creature definitely was not as wounded as it had been before he had tumbled away from it. Alees joined Killick against the naga.

In the other room, Tarric called for healing from the dwarven cleric, but Thorash seemed more interested in finding a drow who was still breathing. When Tarric heard the sound of battle being joined in the next room, he strode and sprang to his comrades' aid. The naga saw that Killick, Alees, and Tarric were all in a tight group, so it backed up five feet and shot another bead of energy at the back wall, igniting another fireball. Killick and Alees were able to use their reflexes to avoid any damage from the fiery blast, but Tarric was burned alive and instantly fell dead to the ground. Another casualty of the blast was Killick's faithful wardog, Grimlock (who had been unconscious but who was now a charred cinder).

Seeing the body of his dead friend Tarric and the charred body of his dead dog Grimlock, Killick began fighting the naga with renewed ferocity. Suddenly and unexpectedly he felt someone pulling at him from behind. It was Alexander! Although the wizard's attempt to grapple Killick was unsuccessful, he cried out that Killick should not hurt his friend. He even suggested aloud that Killick was the one responsible for Tarric's death! Killick gave the wizard a threatening look and warned him not to try that again. Then he turned his attention back to the naga. Luckily for everyone involved, the naga was felled soon thereafter, freeing Alexander from his enchantment.

Thorash finally got around to healing Katawan, who had lain unconscious near the locked door for most of the battle. Although the party was curious about what might be waiting for them down the next passageway, they realized that they could not continue without their stalwart friend Tarric. The party looted the bodies of the fallen drow. Alexander noticed a dim light shining at the bottom of the pool. He dove in and recovered 8 pp, a large emerald, and an ornate jug. Disappointed, the party withdrew and carried their dead friend back to the surface.

On the way back through the sewers, Alexander pleaded with his comrades to turn themselves in to the authorities, as he had done. When Thorash resisted Alexander's pleas, Alexander explained that he would now start suffering serious consequences if the party refused to turn themselves in. He insisted in no uncertain terms that the party *must* turn themselves in! Thorash pressed the wizard for details of the "consequences" that he had mentioned, but Alexander was characteristically unwilling to tell the party more than they needed to know. Finally, the group relented and agreed to turn themselves in after a brief stop at Eligos's house, to bathe and drop off the loot (as well as Tarric's body). They told Eligos what loot he could sell, and they asked him to use the cash to hire a cleric to raise their friend. The next day, Eligos did as he was instructed, and immediately after being raised, Tarric turned himself in to the authorities to face judgment side-by-side with his comrades.

3rd - 10th of Reaping. When they were taken into custody, the party was split up and interrogated individually. The interrogation was quite aggressive and harsh. It continued on again and off again for more than a day. Each of the party members was beginning to suspect that turning themselves in had been a big mistake. Then suddenly, the interrogation lightened up. A familiar face visited each party member in their individual cells; it was Krastor, the circuit court judge who had tried Smenk and Filge back in Diamond Lake. Apparently, he had returned to Greyhawk in the wake of the Worm's Rampage and had heard about the party's plight through his contacts among the city's legal system. Having fought by their sides against the temple of Hextor, he offered to represent them and offer them legal counsel. The Ruling Oligarchy found that it had little choice but to accept Krastor's offer. Krastor and Eligos had been working behind the scenes ever since to line up important witnesses that could attest to the party's innocence. Apparently, their efforts had been successful, because the conditions of the party's imprisonment had improved dramatically.

The next day, the party were given back their possessions and placed in a more comfortable cell together. The interrogations were now much more polite and Krastor was permitted to be present. Eventually, Eligos was permitted to visit the party. He confided to them that the Directing Oligarchy had indeed originally set out to use the party as scapegoats for the events that had now become known by the citizens of Greyhawk as "the Worm's Rampage." However, because of the stiff legal resistance presented by Krastor, the Directors had decided it would be more convenient to blame the disaster on Loris Raknian - the former gladiator who ran the Greyhawk Arena. Although Raknian and the Directors had had a cozy relationship in the past, Raknian and his head bodyguard Okoral had disappeared immediately after the Apostle of Kyuss was released. The suspicious timing of Raknian's disappearance along with the suspicious passageways leading directly from his residence to the sublevels of the Arena where the Worm had been summoned led the Directors (reluctantly) to the conclusion that he (and not the party) was truly responsible for the disaster. A bulletin was dispatched to all Greyhawk Militia offices offering a reward for the capture of Loris Raknian, dead or alive.

Finally, the party was released from custody after having been imprisoned for a week. The party received a weak apology from representatives of the Directing Oligarchy for the inconvenience that they had endured. While the party was still unhappy about their initial treatment at the hands of their jailors, they were too happy to be free again to hold a serious grudge.

Now the party had to decide whether to return to the caverns in the sewers beneath the Cold Forge, knowing that their enemies had a week to prepare for their return.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 28: The Mind-Flayer's Sanctum

11th - 17th of Reaping. Alexander borrowed Eligos's laboratory in order to fashion some magic items. Most of these items were for himself, but he offered to make something for Tarric as well. When other party members placed requests for similar items, Alexander frostily informed them that he would only create magic items at a discount for Tarric. All others must pay market price (or higher). Killick, Katawan, and Alees were puzzled by Alexander's sudden expression of disfavor. (Thorash, on the other hand, was not surprised at all. Alexander has never hidden his dislike for the dwarf.)

During this week of downtime, Alees tried singing at local bars for spare cash. On the first two nights, the crowd was too polite to boo her off the stage, but the paltry tips they tossed into her cap left no doubt about their true opinions of her talent. Since she decided she wasn't going to return to that bar again anyway, she decided to pick the pocket of a particular wealthy-looking (and drunk-looking) bar patron. On the third night she tried a new bar. Apparently these new surroundings agreed with her, because she gave a much better performance and was rewarded accordingly. All of her week's moonlighting (both the legitimate and the illegitimate varieties) netted her a total of not quite 5 gold pieces. This experience reaffirmed Alees's decision to pursue a career of adventuring.

At the end of the week, Eligos assembled the party to inform them of another possible lead. He said that he had been using divination to try to track the source of the Apostolic Scroll that had been received by Loris Raknian and used by his nefarious accomplices beneath the Greyhawk Arena to unleash the Worm on the city. Killick interrupted Eligos to ask if he had had any word from Celeste. Eligos again expressed his confidence in Celeste's ability to take care of herself. He said that he had been preoccupied this week trying to identify the source of the Apostolic Scroll, but he promised to spend some time in the coming days divining Celeste's current state. Eligos continued. The scroll seemed to have come from a man named Londar Brightrain - a wizard who styled himself as "the Rainbow Mage".

Eligos indicated that he was at least casually acquainted with Brightrain and described him as a typical member of his species. Like other powerful wizards, he was arrogant, self-interested, and pre-occupied with the inner-workings of magic to the point of having no preference over the forces of good and evil in the world. In order to give credance to his moniker, Brightrain had researched a number of spells and spell effects that made his magic particularly colorful and visually interesting to casual onlookers. However, there was no evidence that his spells were more potent than their ordinary counterparts. Apparently, he thought his research merited him a spot among the Circle of Eight - the most powerful and elite cabal of wizards in the Flanaess. So when he was passed over for membership in the Circle when 3 vacancies were filled by other wizards about 10 years ago, he took it as a personal affront. Since then, he has been noticeably withdrawn from the arcane academic community and has had relatively little contact with the outside world.

Despite Brightrain's obvious petulance, Eligos expressed sincere surprise that Brightrain would have dealings with an apocalyptic cult as thoroughly depraved and destructive as the cult of Kyuss. However, he could not deny that the evidence was leading him in that direction. To make things worse, Brightrain himself seemed to have disappeared about a week and a half ago (approximately one week after the Worm's Rampage). Although his body had not been recovered by local authorities, he was presumed dead. His carriage had apparently been ambushed by thieves during one of his regular journeys into town from his secluded tower outside the small town of Rosewater in the Duchy of Urnst. Eligos could not confirm that Brightrain was dead, but he was able to ascertain that, if the mage was still alive, he was no longer on this plane of existence.

Eligos left it up to the party whether they thought it best to venture back down into the city's sewers to face what the party suspected might be a mind flayer in its lair, or whether they should embark on a long journey to investigate Brightrain's disappearance and try to find out how he obtained the Apostolic Scroll in the first place. Since it would take at least a fortnight to travel to Rosewater, time could not be a factor in the Brightrain investigation. Consequently, the party chose to tie up the loose ends that were closer to home - they chose to venture back into the caverns beneath the Cold Forge.

18th of Reaping. The following morning, the party headed out. They were concerned that with 2 weeks of time to prepare for the party's return, they worried that their enemy might have restocked the areas that they had previously cleared out in the last battle. However, the caverns that they had fought in before remained clear of enemies, and the dead bodies remained strewn about in various states of decay where they had fallen. Venturing farther into the cavern system, the party came across a small widened area that bore a painted sigil on the floor. The large purple insignia was composed of wavy lines vaguely reminiscent of tentacles. Alees carefully checked the floor leading up to the insignia and the insignia itself for traps. She found none. Thorash cast Detect Magic and scanned the room. He discovered a glowing spot on the ceiling of the cavern right above the sigil. The party decided to skirt the perimeter of the room to avoid whatever magic was in the ceiling. This tactic seemed to work - the party passed through the room unharmed.

Soon afterwards, the natural passage opened up into a larger cavern that was all natural except for the smoothed floor and the marble double doors set into the northern wall. The marble was mostly white, streaked with veins of purple. These doors stood in stark contrast to the rest of the stone in this cavern (which was a more mundane grayish-brown color). The double doors were each flanked by marble columns with the same tentacular symbol burned into their surfaces. Alees moved towards the doors to check them for traps. Just then, 3 purple beasts with one eye and many tentacles crawled out of hiding places among the stalactites on the ceiling. They crawled with ease down 3 natural pillars near the perimeter of the cavern and attacked nearby partymembers with their fore-tentacles (which ended in mean-looking lobster-like claws). One by one, the party-members found themselves looking into the tentacled creatures' eyes. When they did, they found themselves unable to move with the same speed that they had in the past.

However, the beasts did not seem smart enough to stay up on the pillars where the party was unable to reach them. When the party moved out of their reach, they climbed down to the ground, allowing the partymembers to gang up on them and destroy them. However, before the skirmish was over, a significant amount of damage had been done, forcing some members of the party to consume valuable healing spells. (Killick was pleasantly surprised to discover that if he cast a curative spell on his new wardog - Grimlock II - he could share the healing benefits with his animal companion.) Once the healing was over, Alees attempted to open the marble doors and found them to be locked. Alexander cast a spell on the doors and the party heard a loud thump, as if a large bar had just fallen to the ground on the opposite side. Alees tried the door again, and found that it now swung open freely.

As the doors opened, the party saw a circular room with a large stone brain in the center sculpted out of the same marble that the door was made from. Around the perimeter of the room were four stone benches with iron manacles bolted to the wall above them. The party cast some buff spells and then Tarric moved through the room, into a winding stairway. When Thorash moved into the room, he felt some kind of mental presence trying to take control of his mind, but it was being kept at bay somehow. Thorash surmised that his Protection from Evil spell might be what was protecting him. He announced to his comrades to be wary of this mental presence. Since Tarric had avoided the attack, the party decided to just move quickly through the room onto the stairway. They did so, and no others noticed themselves being attacked mentally.

Alexander and Tarric found themselves at the top of the winding staircase first. There they found a room that seemed to be a laboratory of some kind. It contained a desk, 2 tall bookcases, a heavy table with various jars sitting on it, including a large tank full of opaque green liquid. When Tarric stepped into the room, he saw something emerge from the green tank. It seemed to be another of the one-eyed tentacled creatures that the party had fought outside the marble doors, but this one seemed particularly large, strong, and vicious. In addition, its clawed fore-tentacles were longer than its predecessors had been. It seemed to be able to attack any part of the room with its incredible reach. Again, various members of the party found themselves moving more slowly than usual when they accidentally looked into the creature's eye. The creature focused its attacks on Tarric (who had been doing the most damage with his magical bastard sword). When the creature struck him with both claws at once, it started ripping. The rest of the party stood horrified as they watched the creature almost rip Tarric in half. Tarric's blood and entrails were strewn across the floor and no one could tell if he was still breathing. Realizing that Tarric required immediate attention if he were to have any hope of survival, the party sprang to action. Alees moved to Tarric's side and held out a potion. Killick grabbed it and poured it down his throat. Katawan moved up and delivered a jolt of healing from his ring. Thorash was also preparing a curative spell when Alexander pulled out a scroll and cast a spell. Suddenly, the creature's one eye widened in terror, and it collapsed dead! For a moment there was stunned silence, and then a spontaneous victory cry went up from all the conscious party members.

This time Tarric found himself needing to consume multiple healing potions in order to heal the grievous wounds he had suffered and bring him back into fighting shape. He said a quick prayer of thanks to Heironeous, marvelling at the effectiveness of healing magic to maintain his combat readiness even after suffering what would otherwise have been a mortal wound. When the party was ready, they opened a stone door on the opposite wall of the laboratory table. The door opened into a 10 foot wide passage that led to a small circular room with a pool in the center. Killick walked up to the pool in order to ascertain whether the water was drinkable. He found an image floating at the bottom. The shimmering image seemed to be of the sewer entrance to the cavern system that had led to where they were now. Killick thought about Eligos's house, and the image at the bottom of the pool changed to show an exterior view of Eligos's house. Killick announced to the party that he had found a scrying pool. On the far side of the circular room was another 10 foot wide passage with a strange greenish glow reflected on the wall. Thorash followed the passage forward and found that it ended in a balcony overlooking a cathedral-like chamber. Below, to Thorash's left, the dwarf saw a ground-level entrance to the cathedral, and over the entrance was a one-eyed tentacled creature poised to attack. To Thorash's right was a large black octagonal stone pillar set into the wall with glowing green arcane symbols carved into it. At the base of the pillar was a shallow rectangular pool of water. Hovering 40 feet above this pool (at the same level as the balcony) was a bizarre humanoid form with strange rubbery purple flesh, dressed in tattered black leather robes, and holding some sort of magical staff or rod that seemed to glow red hot. The humanoid's head was hairless and bulbous, with 4 short tentacles where its mouth should be. All the party members whose minds were not shielded from mental contact heard the following words forming in an alien voice in their heads, "You dare enter my sanctum? Fools! I shall finish what Telakin could not. Your weak minds will be a sumptuous feast, and your terror will be a pleasing garnish!"

Realizing that the battle had begun, Alexander flew into the cathedral chamber and cast Magic Missiles at his floating opponent. The energy of the missiles washed over the mind-flayer harmlessly. Killick and his wardog moved up towards the balcony get a view of the new opponent. Killick began casting a spell. At this point, the mind-flayer extended its bony arm in the party's direction and lowered its head slightly in concentration. Suddenly Alexander, Thorash, Killick, and Grimlock II felt an explosion in their brains, as if all of their neurons were firing at once, overloading their brains with sensation. Thorash and Killick were able to resist the effect and come to their senses. Alexander and Grimlock found themselves stunned, unable to act. At this point, the tentacled creature above the cathedral's entrance started moving quickly toward the balcony. In addition, a previously undetected second tentacled creature attacked Thorash from above, but missed. Thorash cast Searing Light at the hovering enemy, but again, the energy seemed to bounce of the mysterious creature harmlessly. The mind-flayer began casting a spell in response, during which the length of metal in the mind-flayers other hand began glowing even hotter than before. At the end of the magical incantation, it pointed its finger at the balcony and a tremendous lightning bolt crashed down the hallway, missing Killick, but doing serious damage to both Thorash and Grimlock.

The other party members found that they could not get into the battle on the narrow balcony even if they wanted to. Alees tried to run around to the cathedral's main ground-level entrance. She went back through the laboratory and opened a door into a previously unexplored room. In the middle of this room was a grotesque ebony statue of a vulture-headed humanoid with large feathery wings and sharp talons in a combat pose. The rest of the room was taken up by large glass display cases along each wall full of various strange artifacts - from a shrunken head to a book that was chained shut to a number of glass jars containing severed body parts. While all this sparked Alees's curiosity, she was in a hurry to aid her comrades in the cathedral. On the far side of the room was a winding staircase leading down to what Alees was sure would be the cathedral entrance. With his supernatural speed, Katawan moved past Alees, past the statue, and down the stairs. Once he saw the cathedral's entrance, he hugged the wall to keep out of the mind-flayer's line of sight. Tarric moved up and pulled the wounded wardog out of harm's way into the room with the scrying pool. Killick finished casting his spell and a giant owl appeared in the cathedral, turning to attack the tentacled thing on the wall. Despite the newly summoned assistance, Thorash decided to withdraw from the balcony to a safer position.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 29: Death to the Mind-Flayer!

18th of Reaping. The party had just encountered a levitating mindflayer in a large silo-shaped cathedral floating 40 feet above a shallow pool swimming with large tadpoles. The mind-flayer had stunned Alexander and Killick's dog, then it had cast a powerful lightning bolt, doing serious damage to Thorash. When a Magic Missile and a Searing Light spell seemed to wash over the creature to no effect, the party was perplexed as to how they could defeat this foe.

Alees loaded a crossbow and ran into the cathedral area through the front entrance. As she ran in, one of the two octopins clinging to the walls attacked her and missed. Alees fired a bolt at the mind-flayer. The bolt went right through the place where the mind-flayer seemed to be. The mind-flayer decided not to waste a lightning bolt on just one target. Instead, he fired 2 scorching rays at her, striking her with one of them. Katawan also drew and loaded his crossbow. He entered the cathedral and shot at one of the octopins. Moments later, Tarric followed suit, firing a longbow twice at the mind-flayer, missing both times. One of the octopins struck Killick's summoned giant owl with both of his claws and then ripped the unfortunate avian in half, causing it to disappear and return to wherever it had come from. The other octopin struck at Alexander's stunned body, creating a gash in his side.

Meanwhile, Killick had withdrawn back to the scrying pool, where Grimlock had been dragged and where Thorash was standing. Killick requested that Thorash cast Protection from Evil on him. Thorash consented. He dropped his shield, drew a pearl from his belt pouch, and recalled Protection from Evil, casting it on his teammate. After doing so, Thorash headed the long way around towards the cathedral entrance, leaving his shield on the ground where he had dropped it. At this point, Killick drew and drank a potion of Haste. As he moved toward the balcony railing, wings suddenly sprouted from his back, growing to full-size almost instantaneously. When he got to the railing, he leapt off and began flying! He flew right up in front of the levitating mind-flayer and attacked him, using his quarterstaff to disarm it of its glowing rod. The seemingly red hot rod fell into the pool below, but the water around it did not boil. Needless to say, the rest of the party was impressed by Killick's new flight ability and drew courage from this symbolic victory. Alees immediately moved up and grabbed the rod. She tried to activate it, and she seemed to be successful. But the only visible effect was that the rod glowed hotter for a few moments.

The mind-flayer used its mind blast ability again, causing Katawan and Tarric and one of the octopins to become stunned. It tried using this ability on Killick as well, but Killick shook off the effect. It tried striking Killick with its tentacles. This also failed. Meanwhile, Killick literally flew circles around it, infrequently striking it for damage. One of Killick's blows was so forceful that the creature was momentarily stunned. The second octopin moved onto the black obelisk right behind its master in an effort to help protect him. However, the octopins attacks of opportunity were no match for Killick's skill at avoiding blows. Killick seemed unhittable. At about this time, Thorash finally made it around to the cathedral entrance. He tried using his Magic Missile wand, but quickly realized that the mind-flayer was shielded. So he cast Magic Missiles on the octopin behind it instead. The octopin dropped into the pool dead.

At about this time, Tarric recovered from being stunned. He moved over to the octopin near the front entrance and sliced into it with his bastard sword. However, since the creature was stunned, Alees was able to stab it in its most vulnerable spot, killing it. Now that the last octopin was gone, Alexander, who had just recovered from stun, moved to Tarric and told him that he would lift him into fighting position with the mind-flayer. But at exactly that moment, the mind-flayer mind blasted them both again. Tarric resisted the effect this time, but Alexander was stunned again.

By this time, the mind-flayer had taken enough damage that it drew a potion of healing, but Killick knocked the bottle out of the creature's hand. The mind-flayer began slowly descending in order to retrieve the potion. Katawan moved up and grabbed the fallen potion before the mind-flayer could recover it. The mind-flayer mind blasted him for his effort, stunning him and Tarric (who had unfortunately just drunk a potion of Haste). Then he mind-blasted the other side of the room. After these two mind blasts, the only character who was not stunned was Killick. The mind-flayer moved up to Katawan's frozen form, grabbed the potion he was holding, and drank it. Meanwhile, Killick continued raining occasional blows on the evil sorcerer with his feet and his quarterstaff. The mind-flayer ripped a bead off of his necklace, throwing it against the far wall, causing a loud, fiery explosion that caught frozen Alees and Thorash with full force. Alees dropped to the floor unconscious. Katawan had recovered by this time and used his monkish reflexes to avoid all damage from the blast. The party couldn't help but notice that the mind-flayer had not placed the fireball as effectively as he could have.

Seeing that some characters had started recovering from stun, the sorcerer cast a lighting bolt that caught stunned Thorash and recently recovered Alexander with full force. But again, the mind-flayer mysteriously seemed to aim the bolt too high in a way that avoided hitting Alees who was lying vulnerable on the ground. Thorash fell to the ground unconscious. Again, Katawan used his monkish dexterity to avoid all damage from the lightning bolt. Katawan moved to his fallen comrades. He used a charge from his Ring of Spell Storing to awaken Thorash. Moments later, he did the same for Alees. (Both Thorash and Alees then administered additional healing to themselves.) After healing his companions, Katawan moved back to help Killick flank the mind-flayer. Throughout the combat, Killick continued landing blows infrequently. Katawan landed a very lucky critical hit against the sorcerer with his fist. The mind-flayer was almost stunned by the blow, and his tentacles gyrated wildly in pain.

Realizing that he had few ways of harming the mind-flayer, Alexander decided instead to target his Magic Missiles at the tadpoles in the pool, killing several of them. This seemed to enrage the mind-flayer even more than Katawan's blow had. First he tried stunning the mage. When that failed, he cast a lightning bolt at him instead. This distracted the mind-flayer's attention long enough for Killick and Katawan to land another blow each. But it was Katawan's blow that finally felled the vile aberration. As members of the party awakened from stun one by one, they began cheering their victory, which had never been certain.

Thorash cast Detect Magic and the party looted the magical items off the mind-flayer's corpse. Alees searched for secret doors in the cathedral area and found none. Killick informed the rest of the party that he thought that the tadpoles in the pool might be baby mind-flayers. So Alexander and Tarric spent time tracking down the helpless creatures and squashing them all.

After the party had healed up a bit, they ventured back into the room with the statue and the glass cases. Alees moved up to one of the cases to check it for traps. This caused the statue in the middle of the room to animate. Alexander called out that the creature was a Vrock - a demon from the Abyss. First, the demon made a horrific screech that stunned Tarric and Alexander (once again). Then it cast Mirror Image on itself. However, Thorash quickly Dispelled that magical effect. Then it tried to open a portal to the Abyss to call for reinforcements, but this attempt failed. The party quickly surrounded the demon. It released some demonic spores on all who stood next to it. These spores lodged painfully into the characters' skin and began growing with unnatural speed. Although the creature seemed resistant to much of the damage that it received, Tarric got a critical hit against it, Katawan stunned it, and Alees got in a sneak attack that finally dispatched the demonic bird creature.

However, even after the Vrock died, the spores lodged in the party's skin continued to grow for a minute, causing significant pain and disfigurement. Grimlock collapsed from the damage. Alexander, who was the only party member unaffected by the spores, used his extensive knowledge of the planes to inform the party that the disfigurement was permanent unless the infected creature drank holy water or was the subject of a Cure Disease or Neutralize Poison spell. Although the party was out of the necessary spells, Killick drank some holy water and cast a healing spell on his unconscious animal companion.

The effect of the demonic spores reminded Killick to check himself for infection by Kyuss worms. To his consternation, he discovered that he was once again infected with them. He checked the rest of the party and discovered that Tarric was also infected. Killick was puzzled as to what might have caused them both to become infected again.

The party decided to take all of the items in the glass cases and return to Eligos's house. However, before leaving, they all took turns looking at the scrying pool trying to look in on various people. Killick attempted to look in on Eligos, but found that Eligos's house was impenetrable to the scrying pool's gaze. Tarric chose to look in on some of his former colleagues at the Greyhawk Militia post in Diamond Lake. He found them in the briefing room where Captain Trask seemed to be presenting a topic of great importance. Alees tried to find Loris Raknian and found him traveling along an unknown road with a companion. Next, she tried looking in on her adoptive family, and she saw her step-father playing a game of 3-card-monte with some foolish mark. Alees smiled. Killick tried to spy on the Rainbow Mage, but there was no change in the scenery. Then Killick tried to spy on Telakin, but again there was no change. He concluded that the scrying pool only worked on those who were sufficiently familiar to the scryer. Then he tried looking in on Celeste, but again the scrying pool did not change its scenery. Last, he decided to look in on his druidic mentor Nogwier. Killick found him in the middle of brewing a potion.

While the others played with the scrying pool, Alexander investigated the mind-flayer's laboratory. He found numerous texts and laboratory notes related to the creation of the tentacular creatures the party had fought, known as "octopins." He also discovered that the mind-flayer's name had been Zyrxog. In addition, he also found some laboratory notes related to the creation of a "mind worm" - a Kyuss worm that would travel to the subject's brain, rendering it more amenable to suggestions. Although Zyrxog's notes indicated that he had been making progress, his experiments had not been completely successful. Zyrxog's extensive experimentation with Kyuss worms made it clear that Zyrxog had been either a worshipper of Kyuss or working very closely with the cult.

As the party left Zyrxog's lair, the stone brain again tried attacking the mind of the first one to enter its circular room. But its attack failed, as it had before, and the rest of the party exited the room quickly. Finally, the party exited the sewers and headed for Eligos's house. However, given their obviously diseased state, the guards at the Garden District's gate denied them entry. The party holed up at a dockside bar and waited for dusk to arrive. When it did, Thorash memorized as many Cure Disease and Neutralize Poison spells as he could, curing all the party members of their disfigurement (and simultaneously curing Killick and Tarric of their Kyuss worm infections). Then the party wearily made its way back to Eligos's house (having no trouble with the guards this time).

Eligos gave them all a hearty congratulations on ridding the City of such a vile predator as Pollard ushered them up to their rooms. In his room, Thorash began identifying some of the magic items that the party had recovered. One of these items was a magic book that, once opened, tried to drain him of his mental faculties, but he was able to resist the effect. Thorash recognized the item immediately by reputation as a cursed item known as a Vacuous Grimoire.

19th of Reaping. After rememorizing spells, Alexander took his turn identifying the magic items. Once Alexander had confirmed all of Thorash's identifications, the party began divvying them up. Alexander chose the Rod of Lesser Empower Metamagic, Katawan chose the Necklace of Fireballs, Alees chose a Cloak of Resistance +2 and the Boots of Elvenkind, Tarric got a Ring of Counterspells, Killick got a Periapt of Health, and Thorash got an unholy dagger as well as a book wrapped in chains. Thorash cast a divination spell and then unwrapped the chains from around the book. The book immediately started flapping its covers like wings and it attacked Thorash, causing him some minor damage. Thorash was eventually able to destroy the book. Alees took the remainder of the unclaimed swag to sell elsewhere in the City. Thorash left to run an errand in the city, as did Tarric. When Tarric returned, his shield was emblazoned with a new device: a black tower on a red background. Some in the party recognized the symbol as that belonging to the Knights of Holy Shielding. When asked about it, Tarric admitted that he had been accepted as a Squire in the Order and that he would be working his way towards full membership as a Knight.

When Thorash returned home, Alexander brought himself to ask the dwarf for a favor. He asked Thorash to cast Break Enchantment on the petrified pseudodragon in order to free it. Despite all the open hostility with which Alexander had treated Thorash over the previous few weeks, Thorash consented to Alexander's request. At dusk, Thorash rememorized spells and cast the spell. The pseudodragon immediately came back to life and thanked them both. It asked if there was a favor that it could do in return for its freedom, but Alexander said no and simply released it.

20th of Reaping. Although the party had been considering leaving Greyhawk bound for the Rainbow Mage's hometown of Rosewater, Killick awoke in the morning with a terrible fever and nasty weeping sores all over his skin. Killick found that he was tired, wobbly on his feet, and having trouble forming coherent sentences. At dusk, after rememorizing spells, Thorash tried casting Cure Disease on Killick, but that spell had no effect. He cast Neutralize Poison, but that spell also had no effect. He cast Restoration, and that seemed to eliminate some of Killick's symptoms. But the visible signs of the affliction were still present. Eligos seemed very concerned about Killick's illness and vowed to find out what it was.

21st of Reaping. After studying and divining all night long as well as most of the previous day, Eligos finally determined that Killick was the unlucky victim of a cursed item known as a Periapt of Foul Rotting (which the Identify spell had incorrectly categorized as a Periapt of Health). He explained that removing Killick's affliction would require a number of high level spells cast in sequence. Although Thorash could cast the first few, they would also need the services of a higher level spellcaster to complete the sequence. (Or they would need to purchase a scroll of the necessary spell and hope that Thorash did not have a mishap trying to cast it.) Although Eligos was happy to help the party hire a spellcaster/purchase a scroll, he regretfully informed the party that they would need to use their own funds. He explained that if the party could/would not to pay to have Killick's curse removed, his symptoms could be dealt with by periodic Restoration spells. Three spells per week would be necessary to keep Killick at his maximum fighting form. The party began assembling its cash.

Soon afterwards, Pollard ushered in an irate shopkeeper to speak with Alees. The shopkeeper angrily threw the scabbarded greatsword at Alees's feet and insisted that she return the money he had given her. He charged that the greatsword she had sold him was cursed. He said that, as soon as a customer tried out the sword, he went berserk and attacked everyone around him! He said that Alees was lucky that no one had been killed, otherwise she would have been responsible for the deaths. He demanded his money back from the group as well as fair compensation for the loss of his shop's reputation. Otherwise, he insisted that he would take his complaint to the City Watch as well as to the head of the Union of Shopkeepers who could bar the group from buying or selling anything within City limits. Eligos did what he could to help calm the man, assuring him that the party would give him his due. Alees reluctantly gave him back the money she had received for the greatsword as well as 500 additional gp, which basically wiped out all the profit that the party had made from selling all the curiosity pieces from Zyrxog's glass cases. Once he had received this payment, the shopkeeper instructed Alees never to come to his store again. Then he stormed off.

 

[Menexenus]

Session 30: Conflict between Wee Jas and St. Cuthbert

21st of Reaping. After the shopkeeper returned the Berserker Sword to the party and took most of their spare cash as compensation, the party was at a loss regarding how to unload their cursed items for a profit. Killick stayed in bed convalescing while Eligos left to make contact with a cleric friend who could be hired to cast Heal on Killick. Thorash and Alees also left to investigate the possibility of selling their cursed items. Alexander cast three spells into Katawan's Ring of Spell Storing.

When Eligos returned, he informed the party that an old friend of his had consented to cast the necessary spell at dawn the next morning at a discount - 10% off the usual price. When Thorash returned, he told the party that he had found a buyer for the cursed items who was willing to pay full market value. Alexander was unwilling to take this offer at face value and asked some probing questions. Thorash admitted that the potential buyer was the Church of Wee Jas. Alexander demanded assurances that the Church of Wee Jas had no intention of using the items for any nefarious purpose. While Katawan and Alees favored the sale, Tarric supported Alexander in demanding assurances before agreeing to the sale. Thorash assured the group that he could obtain a signed statement from his superior that would satisfy Alexander. Conditioned on the acceptability of this letter, Alexander reluctantly acquiesced to the sale.

Thorash left and returned an hour later with the following letter:

"To whom it may concern,

This document certifies that the church of Wee Jas has no intention of
using or re-selling the cursed items which we are attempting to purchase
from Thorash and Company. We are purchasing these items with the
intent of providing necessary capital to a group of adventurers whose
history leads us to expect that the funds we provide will be used in the
common fight against the Cult of Kyuss (may His plans be thwarted and His
followers consigned to Hell). However, we recognize that as a matter of
commercial law, there is no way to dictate how the funds we provide will
actually be used by Thorash and Company. Once the transaction is
concluded, we can have no legally binding expectations regarding the future
actions of our transaction partners.

Similarly, although this letter accurately reports our current
intentions regarding the use of the property we intend to purchase, we do
not consider those intentions (or this document) to place any legally
binding constraints on the future disposition of property which is legally
ours.

We hope this document allays any concerns you may have and will permit
you to accept what we consider to be charity - offering to buy something we
don't need in order to help provide funds to those who are fighting a common
enemy.

With great sincerity and best wishes for future success,

Mother Iridni, Prelate of the Church of Wee Jas"

Alexander found this wording to be satisfactory and, even though it was now getting late in the evening, Thorash left once more to complete the sale. He returned with his Bag of Holding filled with thousands of gold coins. Although Alexander took his share, he seemed uneasy accepting the money. He announced that he would be donating all of his share to the Church of St. Cuthbert first thing in the morning in an effort to offset the evil that the cursed items might do in the future. Tarric admired Alexander's pledge and made a similar pledge to donate 500 gp of his share to the Church of Heironeous and to give the remainder of his share to the party in order to fashion a wand of curative magic. The other four party members took their shares and retired for the evening, thinking about how best to spend their new wealth.

22nd of Reaping. Soon after dawn, Eligos's cleric friend, Pentax, arrived. He and Eligos exchanged some friendly banter, but he got down to business soon enough. Once he was paid his 600 gp fee, and once Thorash was done casting Remove Curse and Cure Disease, Pentax cast Heal, and Killick was instantly cured of his affliction. Killick immediately removed the Periapt of Foul Rotting from around his neck and smashed it into pieces in a fit of disgust.

With Killick's curse lifted, the party members fanned out across the city to take care of their own personal business. Tarric took 500 gp to the church of Heironeous. Alexander had to cast Tenser's Floating Disk in order to carry his share to the church of St. Cuthbert. Alees went off to buy some potions, and Killick left to purchase some defensive magic items. Katawan went to visit the money changers to make his cash easier to transport. The group reassembled at Eligos's house for the midday meal. When all the party members were together, Alexander announced that he would leave immediately for Diamond Lake. Thorash said that he would do the same. The rest of the party was puzzled by the sudden rush to return to their old hometown, but neither Alexander nor Thorash seemed interested in explaining their motives. Since there had been talk of crafting a healing wand, some thought it might be wiser to craft it in Greyhawk before hitting the road again. But Alexander and Thorash were both adamant that they must leave immediately. They pledged to work on the wand together in Diamond Lake (circumstances permitting). Tarric supported his friend Alexander and agreed to leave with him. Killick shrugged and said that if he left immediately, he would be able to attend the Bronzewood Lodge's monthly religious service. With 4 party members in favor of leaving immediately, the decision was made. The party began packing up for the trip to Diamond Lake.

Later that day, as the group traveled along the road, Killick offered Thorash a 450 gp IOU to cast a Commune spell to try to find out what was causing the seemingly random Kyuss worm infections among party members. Thorash consented and memorized the appropriate spell at dusk. After the party had made camp, the two of them both volunteered for first watch and quizzed Wee Jas about the cause of their infections while the rest of the party slept.

23rd of Reaping. The next morning, Killick announced to the party at breakfast that he and Thorash had learned that the Kyuss worm infections were being caused by potions the party was drinking. However, he was not sure how to determine which ones were causing the infection. Alexander surmised that the offending potions may have come from Ilthane's egg chamber in the Mistmarsh.

25th of Reaping. When the party reached the outskirts of Diamond Lake in the early afternoon, Alexander conferred with the group briefly to inform them that a cold war was being waged in Diamond Lake between the Church of St. Cuthbert and the Church of Wee Jas. Father Jierian had been preaching opposition to the Church of Wee Jas, and the opinions of the common folk in town had soured accordingly. Some members of the Church of Wee Jas had suffered insults, threats, and even beatings as a result. Alexander said that he had been sent as a representative of Matriarch Eritai of the Church of St. Cuthbert to investigate the source of the conflict between the churches and to try to encourage both parties to return to peaceful coexistence.

As the party rode into town, they were surprised to see how many of the common people now wore weapons at their sides as they went about their daily business. The party rented rooms at the Feral Dog and left word with an acolyte at the temple of St. Cuthbert (just a few yards away, across the town square) that they wished to meet with Father Jierian. Thorash took his leave of the party to accomplish his own secret mission, the details of which he was reluctant to divulge. When he returned a couple of hours later, the party informed him that Jierian had agreed to meet with the party as long as Thorash was not present. So the five party members left Thorash behind and walked across the town square to meet with Jierian.

The group was welcomed warmly by Father Jierian. He told them that Killian would have been proud of all they had done to combat the forces of evil in Diamond Lake, in Greyhawk, and in the Mistmarsh. The party thanked him for his praise. Alexander announced that he had been sent to investigate whether there was any evidence to support Father Jierian's antagonism towards the church of Wee Jas.

Father Jierian explained the joy he had experienced when Holy St. Cuthbert had come to him in a dream telling him that his young acolyte, Killian, was destined to have a crucial role in averting a horrific apocalypse. Never before or since had Jierian enjoyed such direct contact with his deity. Jierian felt proud and honored to be in a position to instruct such an important individual in the teachings of St. Cuthbert, so that when the time came, he would be strong enough to carry out his blessed destiny.

But then Killian's life was unexpectedly cut short in the mines beneath Diamond Lake. Surely this was not the glorious destiny that St. Cuthbert had been referring to in Father Jierian's dream! Since St. Cuthbert could not have lied and could not have been wrong, the only explanation for Killian's premature death was the active interference of another deity - a deity whose purposes were at odds with those of St. Cuthbert! Obviously, any deity choosing to thwart the will of St. Cuthbert must be considered an enemy of His Church! But the question was, which deity? Jierian meditated on this question for weeks.

Finally, he recalled the virtually miraculous coincidence that the party had recounted to him upon emerging from the mines. As the party had recounted the tale, Killian died in the first foray against the Hextorites and the party had had to leave his body and retreat up an elevator back into a disused mine shaft. There they sat in the dark, wounded, without a healer, unable to leave the mine, unable to continue the attack, and unable to give up (because Katawan was being held hostage). Suddenly, out of the darkness, Thorash, the dwarven cleric of Wee Jas emerged, offering his services to the party.

This was the missing piece of the puzzle! This coincidence was just too good to be true. Wee Jas must have been the deity interfering with the will of St. Cuthbert. Apparently, She wished to insert her own servant in Killian's place. Perhaps Wee Jas wanted her servant to enjoy the glory and the honor that would otherwise have gone to St. Cuthbert. Or perhaps her designs were even more nefarious. Either way, though, if Wee Jas was acting to thwart the will of St. Cuthbert, then She must be considered His enemy. Father Jierian pledged to use all of his influence to combat this newly discovered enemy in Diamond Lake. He began spreading the word to his parrishoners that Wee Jas is an enemy of St. Cuthbert and Wee Jas should not be allowed to continue gaining followers and exerting power in Diamond Lake.

The party was very skeptical of Father Jierian's conclusions. They suggested to him that it was more reasonable to conclude that Killian's death was caused by the influence of Hextor, Erythnul, or Vecna - or all three together - rather than by Wee Jas. Jierian replied that that hypothesis would not explain the sudden appearance of Thorash at exactly the right moment. Jierian refused to believe that Thorash's appearance was mere coincidence.

The party pointed out that preaching violence against those who are not evil is in violation of the tenets of St. Cuthbert. Father Jierian agreed and told the party that he had privately spoken to those parrishoners of his whom he thought might have been responsible for the attacks on Wee Jas worshippers, telling them that their actions were not pleasing in the sight of St. Cuthbert. However, Jierian did not deny that he wanted the followers of Wee Jas to feel unwelcome in Diamond Lake.

The party asked if he had performed any divinations to support his claim that Wee Jas was the one thwarting the will of St. Cuthbert. Father Jierian said that he had indeed tried divining the source of the interference, but the responses he had received had been unclear. He said that it felt almost as if the responses he was getting from St. Cuthbert on this issue were muffled. The party renewed their assertion that it must be some other deity trying to foster enmity between the two churches. Killick insisted that conflict between two churches who had previously been working together to fight the Cult of Kyuss only served the forces of evil. However, Jierian was unswayed. He said that no evidence could sway him more than the direct Revelation he had received from his deity. He said that, to a man of St. Cuthbert, nothing could convey greater certainty. He wished aloud that he could convey the same certainty that he felt to the party members.

At this point, Alexander decreed that he had heard Jierian's evidence and found it lacking. He instructed Father Jierian that Matriarch Eritai had ordained that there should be peace between the Churches of St. Cuthbert and Wee Jas and that, accordingly, Father Jierian must cease preaching against the Church of Wee Jas in his sermons. Jierian asked if Alexander had any documentation supporting his assertions of the Matriarch's will in this matter. Alexander admitted that he did not, but he promised that he would request it and that it would be sent with all haste. Since that day was a Godsday, Alexander assured him that the Matriarch's orders would arrive before his next sermon. Father Jierian stated that if such an order came, he would have to consider whether his primary loyalty was to the hierarchy of his church or to the direct revelations he had received from St. Cuthbert. At this point, Father Jierian thanked the party for meeting with him, and the party was ushered out.

The party returned to their rooms at the Feral Dog and conferred with Thorash. Alexander admitted that he thought Father Jierian was acting unreasonably and he revealed that the Matriarch had ordered that all hostilities cease. He asked Thorash if he could set up a meeting with Sister Amariss, the leader of the church of Wee Jas in Diamond Lake. Thorash said he was sure he could. He left again and returned near dinner time, saying that Amariss had agreed to meet with the party in the boneyard at noon the next day.

After dinner, Killick left for the Bronzewood Lodge. He returned early the next morning.

26th of Reaping. At noon the party met openly with Sister Amariss in the Diamond Lake boneyard, where they had first encountered her just a few months earlier. However, this time her green robes looked bulkier, as if they were worn over some kind of armor, and she wore a heavy mace on her belt that had not been there before. Alexander communicated to Amariss that the Matriarch of the Church of St. Cuthbert had ordered the violence against her parrishoners to stop. Amariss seemed grateful to receive this news. She thanked Alexander for his fair-mindedness in reaching a judgment that was at odds with his former priest. And she expressed sympathy for Father Jierian, despite the hardship that his preaching had caused her and her church. She could only imagine how hard it must be to hear the words of one's god and then see them contradicted.

Thorash and Alexander retired to Allustan's house to begin working together to craft a Wand of Cure Serious Wounds. Allustan welcomed his former pupil with open arms. He reported that he had been spending a lot of time in the Whispering Cairn trying to discover more of the Wind Dukes' secrets. He mentioned that he had been working to clear out a collapsed passage, and that he couldn't wait to find out what might lie on the other side. Alexander asked Allustan if he knew of any magical effect that might cause divinations to become muffled. Allustan said that he didn't.

1st of Goodmonth. Thorash and Alexander had been working together for 4 days to craft the wand. On this day, a courier arrived and delivered a letter to Alexander. It contained a short message as well as another sealed letter. The message instructed Alexander to deliver the sealed message to Father Jierian. The message also informed him that Father Jierian was being ordered to stop making any reference to Wee Jas, the church of Wee Jas, or any followers of Wee Jas in his sermons until further notice. Alexander assembled the rest of the party (except Thorash) and delivered the letter to Father Jierian. He read it in front of them with a look of consternation, but he did not offer a verbal reaction. He thanked the party for delivering it and ushered the party out, insisting that he had important matters to attend to.

4th of Goodmonth. This was the next Godsday since the party's arrival in town. Most of the members of the party were prepared to attend Father Jierian's sermon to discover whether he would abide by the Matriarch's orders. However, at dawn, before the service started, there was a hubbub as people went to the boneyard to see something. The party followed the crowd and found a small group of common folk celebrating around a large wooden sign planted in the ground. The sign read, "Because of your foolish actions, Diamond Lake no longer enjoys the protection of Wee Jas. May She have mercy upon your souls!" Killick investigated the boneyard, and found that the sign was made from wood torn from the back of a utility shed. When the party returned to the town square, they learned that all of the known worshippers of Wee Jas had gathered up their belongings and left town in the middle of the night. Although the party found these events somewhat ominous, the townsfolk seemed relieved that the conflict was over and happy that their side had won. Father Jierian's sermon later that morning expressed similar pleasure at what he considered to be an important victory over an enemy of St. Cuthbert (which he was careful not to name).

9th of Goodmonth. Thorash and Alexander completed their Wand of Cure Serious Wounds, and the party departed for the town of Rosewater, home of the Rainbow Mage.

15th of Goodmonth. About halfway to their destination, along what the residents of Greyhawk call the Urnst Trail, as it winds around the northern foothills of the Abbor Alz mountain chain, the party was ambushed by a tribe of marauding ogres. The ogres blocked the road on both sides with felled trees and then ran down the hills from all directions, quickly surrounding the party. The ogres were all clad in hide armor and wielded giant clubs. Two of the 11 ogres seemed to be wearing slightly fancier armor and wielding slightly nicer clubs. These two barked orders to their comrades. The ogres did tremendous amounts of damage with their clubs. After suffering one such blow, Alexander cast Fly and then rose out of the ogres' reach. From the air, he pelted the ogres with lightning bolts, shouts, and magic missiles. Meanwhile, the rest of the party became completely surrounded and flanked. The party members dropped like flies beneath the ogres' furious blows. One of the first to drop was Thorash, who was carrying the new healing wand in some unknown location. Then Grimlock II (Killick's wonderdog) fell. Then Katawan fell. Then Tarric fell. Although the ranks of the ogres were thinning as well, things looked grim for the heroes. Alees tumbled to Thorash's body and rifled through his Bag of Holding until she found the Wand (wondering all the while why he didn't keep it in a more accessible location). She was able to use it to revive Katawan and Tarric before being felled herself. Having just awoken, Tarric nobly stood up to face the few remaining ogres, but he was in no shape to fight. He was struck with a vicious blow that nearly took his head off just before the last ogre was killed. His soul was almost ready to depart the Material Plane (yet again) when Killick administered a very timely charge from the new wand. He then did the same for Thorash, who reclaimed the wand and restored consciousness to all the other party members.

The party looted the ogres' bodies and found very little of value. Only the 2 ogre leaders had magical items - magical hide armor and magical greatclubs. Although these items were big and bulky, and although it might be hard to find a buyer for such items, the party found a way to stow them for sale at a future date and continued along the road south towards their destination.