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Menexenus's Age of Worms Campaign Journal
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<blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 4044137" data-attributes="member: 8951"><p><strong>Session 53: Finishing the Lower Level of the Pyramid</strong></p><p></p><p><em>7th of Fireseek: [in medias res]</em> Katawan, Thorash, and Alexander had just teleported into the storage room behind the Ice Devil. There, they found Alees cowering. Katawan drew his potion of Remove Fear and gave it to her. She drank it, and then drew her sword, rising slightly off the ground. Killick cast Bull's Strength on himself and Grimlock. Tarric swung at the creature, cutting into the creature. Based on the way the creature recoiled, it was clear that his weapon was doing full damage to it. The creature cast Ice Storm in the corridor, catching Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock in a zone of falling chunks of ice. Katawan moved in behind the creature, moving into flanking position. Alees flew up above Katawan, aiming for a vital spot. Alexander tried to cast Magic Missiles at the creature but was unable to overcome its spell resistance. Killick cast Resist Cold on himself and Grimlock. The creature's wounds began closing as it performed a full attack on Tarric. Despite its size, it was surprisingly swift with its spear. It also bit at Tarric and whipped its tail at him. But because of the narrowness of the corridor, it did little damage. However, Tarric struck it again with his sword. Katawan struck it with his fists, but little damage seemed to get through. Alees struck it and seemed to find a vital spot.</p><p></p><p> The devil was in a difficult spot - surrounded by enemies, fighting in a tight space, and taking more damage than it was dealing. It decided to fight on ground of its own choosing. It teleported into the lead room, behind Killick and Grimlock. As the heroes moved forward to fight the creature, they saw that they now had a new ally. The crystaline creature that had been standing motionless over an ancient oaken chest was now attacking the devil! Its appendages had enlongated and sharpened into the shape of swords. Katawan stood in the doorway of the lead room and cast a Fireball into the room from his Ring of Spell Storing. This had no effect on the devil, but it did damage the crystal guardian. Tarric charged past Katawan to engage the creature in melee. Alees followed up as well, but more cautiously. Killick cast Enlarge on Grimlock and then mounted his horse-sized wardog. The devil hit Tarric with its spear and the cold that spread through his body caused his muscles to react much more slowly. Killick leaned over and cast Freedom of Movement on Tarric to get him back into the fight. After a few more seconds, the bug-like devil realized that it could not continue for much longer. So it teleported to the safety of the corridor beyond the Ice Wall that it had created earlier in the battle. Alexander and Thorash could vaguely see its blue color and shape distorted heavily through the Ice Wall. It seemed to be resting and casting spells. Alexander and Thorash, who were separated from the rest of the party, ducked behind a corner and waited for the rest of the party to come back to them.</p><p></p><p> However, the crystaline guardian had transferred its attacks to the party, and the party had decided to take the opportunity to finish it in the devil's absence. To allow everyone to get in on the fight, Killick cast Spider Climb on Tarric. But they found that attacking the crystal creature was easier said than done. Everytime Tarric, Grimlock, Katawan, or Alees tried to attack it in melee, it would simply cause itself to shatter in anticipation of the blow and then reform itself once the blow had passed through it. Each time the creature shattered itself in this way, little cracks appeared in its reformed surface. As the creature shattered more and more, these cracks became larger and larger. Finally, Killick resorted to Produce Flame, which seemed more effective. At long last, the crystal creature collapsed in a heap. </p><p></p><p> At about that moment, the Ice Devil teleported back into the room. Most of its wounds had closed and it now had a black aura surrounding it. Tarric swung his sword at it, but when he hit it, black energy leapt towards him from the devil's aura and caused him to become noticeably weaker. Grimlock bit at the devil's legs, causing it to trip. Alees swooped in, looking for a vital area to stab. Katawan sprang at it from the back of the room. Because the creature had to stand up, it was unable to deploy its full attack sequence. So instead, it simply cast another Ice Storm, damaging all of its opponents in the room. At that moment, back in the storage room, Alexander decided to take the opportunity secure the party's escape route. He cast a Fireball, destroying the Ice Wall and then made for the exit, with Thorash right behind him. Thorash called out that anyone needing healing would find him outside. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, in the lead room, the same pattern repeated itself again and again. Tarric damaged the devil at the expense of his own strength. Alees drew her Wand of Restoration and used it on Tarric to restore his strength. However, immediately afterwards, she and Katawan had to leave. Neither of them could sustain the damage from another Ice Storm. They exited the pyramid complex and sought out Thorash's healing. Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock remained and continued battling the creature. Just when the situation seemed dire, Tarric finally felled the foul beast, cleaving it in two.</p><p></p><p> The chest in the lead room had been nearly destroyed by all the crushing chunks of ice from the multiple Ice Storms. In the chest, Alees found a lead key shaped like an eagle with a forked tail, a dagger with worm-like symbols engraved at the base of the blade, a tube of diamond dust, and an adamantine ring shaped like a hell hound biting its own tail. There were about a dozen assorted gems as well. The party withdrew from the temple to heal and identify. </p><p></p><p> Thorash did not have time to identify everything, but he did inform the party that the bottles that he had thought were potions, were actually containment devices of some kind. He thought that there might be creatures trapped/contained inside them. Killick scanned the bottles for undead, and found one bottle that seemed to contain an undead creature. He smashed the bottle and a Spawn of Kyuss suddenly appeared. The party moved to destroy the creature, but Killick insisted that he would destroy it alone. The undead creature was no match for someone as skilled as Killick and was soon destroyed. Once the creature was dispatched, Killick kneeled down and grabbed one of the still wriggling worms from the undead creature's eyesocket. To the horror of his partymates, he took of his glove and placed the worm directly on his palm. It immediately started burrowing into Killick's skin. Killick grunted and grimaced as he explained to the party that he and his mentor Nogwier had uncovered some scrolls written by the Order of the Storm, an ancient Druidic society whose task had been to fight the minions of Kyuss and keep them from threatening civilization. He explained that some of the most successful of these Druids - known as Wormhunters - had taken in Kyuss's own negative energy into their bodies with the goal of using it against their enemies. Killick sat in tortured meditation as he tried to maintain the upper hand against the energies of the worm as it tried to take control away from Killick and turn him into a minion of Kyuss. Tarric stood over him, sword at the ready, in case anything should go wrong. At long last, Killick emerged from his ordeal, scarred but in control. He seemed different... but stronger.</p><p></p><p> The party divvied up the remaining swag. Thorash asked for the dagger, as a replacement for many of the magic items he had lost in the acid. Killick asked for the diamond dust. Tarric asked for the ring. Alexander announced that he would teleport Dourala's body back to civilization to have it raised. The party asked him to take some swag back with him to sell while he was there. He consented to do so. Killick asked Alexander if he would recharge his Brooch of Shielding. Seeing as Alexander had been the one who depleted it when he had been under the control of the vampire Huvariel, he consented to do so. After receiving a magical bag full of items to be sold, as well as a long list of items to be purchased for various party members, he grasped Dourala's dead body and departed with it, teleporting back to Magepoint.</p><p> </p><p> <em>8th of Fireseek</em>. There were only 2 exterior doors on the pyramid left to explore. The party decided to check them out while Alexander was gone. They opened the first plain stone door and found an empty corridor lying ahead of them. Alees checked the corridor for traps and found a pressure plate in the middle that would cause the ceiling to collapse if it were set off. She was able to disable the trap and make it safe for crossing. She got to the door on the far side and found that it was a false door. Disappointed, the party withdrew and made for the last exterior door left to be investigated. </p><p></p><p> This door was more ornate; it had carvings of animals on it. Alees checked it and found that it contained a trap. Since she knew the trap would spray liquid when tripped, she invited Killick over to purposefully set off the trap and absorb the effect. Killick turned the door knob and was sprayed with a fine mist of liquid, but was unaffected. After the door was open, they saw another corridor identical to the one they had just explored. Once again, Alees found a trap in the middle. Once again, she disabled it. This time, though, the door at the far end was not false. It opened into an empty but immaculately clean white room covered in hexagonal white tiles. Alees quickly noticed some small smears of blood in the grout surrounding some of the tiles on one wall. She announced to the party that there was a secret door there. She found the release mechanism and opened the door. Beyond the door was a crooked hallway filled with much more dried blood. When they turned the corner, they saw a door covered in what looked like blue dragon scales. After looking more closely, Alees determined that this door was magically trapped. She set to disabling the trap. After a number of minutes, with sweat on her brow, Alees finally declared victory. She told the party that it had been a very close thing, but she had successfully disabled the trap. The door could be opened safely.</p><p></p><p> Upon opening the door, a dust-covered living room was revealed, with sofas and end tables. Alees cast Detect Magic and noticed the glow of some magical auras coming from underneath one of the couches as well as from a statue on one of the end tables. As the party entered the room to investigate, the statue animated. It was a small statue of a red dragon, about the size of a house cat. However, the statue seemed to be covered in real red dragon scales. The statue screamed at the party causing Tarric and Alees to become deafened. The party members entered the room and backed the statue into a corner. It was a much tougher opponent than anyone expected. When it bit and slashed at opponents with its claws, it did almost as much damage as the Ice Devil had done with its much larger spear. However, despite the impressiveness of the construct, it eventually succumbed to the combined prowess of the party. Alees checked the room thoroughly and found lots of heavy furniture as well as a magical wand made from the bone of a blue dragon and a set of magical bracers made from the scales of a gold dragon. The party debated the ethics of keeping such an item, made from the body of a good creature.</p><p></p><p> While the party had been fighting, Thorash had remained outside the pyramid, trying to discern what kinds of creatures were trapped inside the bottles the party had found. So far he had met with no luck. The party asked Thorash if he could take a break to identify the two items they had found. He agreed to do so. As he was working on the identifications, Katawan was carefully setting off the remaining acid traps in the room with the acid pool. When he was done, the acid pool had quadrupled in depth - it was now a bit less than a foot and a half deep. The flying members of the party set about constructing a causeway through the acid pool using chunks of rock from the corridors they had excavated whose ceilings had collapsed. After a full day of work, the causeway was complete. Now, even non-flying party members would be able to traverse the distance from the outside of the pyramid to the silver doors safely. (However, where there was still acid, the acid was now about 2 feet deep.) The party rested after a long day's work and waited for Alexander to return with the party's newly purchased items.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Menexenus, post: 4044137, member: 8951"] [b]Session 53: Finishing the Lower Level of the Pyramid[/b] [I]7th of Fireseek: [in medias res][/I] Katawan, Thorash, and Alexander had just teleported into the storage room behind the Ice Devil. There, they found Alees cowering. Katawan drew his potion of Remove Fear and gave it to her. She drank it, and then drew her sword, rising slightly off the ground. Killick cast Bull's Strength on himself and Grimlock. Tarric swung at the creature, cutting into the creature. Based on the way the creature recoiled, it was clear that his weapon was doing full damage to it. The creature cast Ice Storm in the corridor, catching Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock in a zone of falling chunks of ice. Katawan moved in behind the creature, moving into flanking position. Alees flew up above Katawan, aiming for a vital spot. Alexander tried to cast Magic Missiles at the creature but was unable to overcome its spell resistance. Killick cast Resist Cold on himself and Grimlock. The creature's wounds began closing as it performed a full attack on Tarric. Despite its size, it was surprisingly swift with its spear. It also bit at Tarric and whipped its tail at him. But because of the narrowness of the corridor, it did little damage. However, Tarric struck it again with his sword. Katawan struck it with his fists, but little damage seemed to get through. Alees struck it and seemed to find a vital spot. The devil was in a difficult spot - surrounded by enemies, fighting in a tight space, and taking more damage than it was dealing. It decided to fight on ground of its own choosing. It teleported into the lead room, behind Killick and Grimlock. As the heroes moved forward to fight the creature, they saw that they now had a new ally. The crystaline creature that had been standing motionless over an ancient oaken chest was now attacking the devil! Its appendages had enlongated and sharpened into the shape of swords. Katawan stood in the doorway of the lead room and cast a Fireball into the room from his Ring of Spell Storing. This had no effect on the devil, but it did damage the crystal guardian. Tarric charged past Katawan to engage the creature in melee. Alees followed up as well, but more cautiously. Killick cast Enlarge on Grimlock and then mounted his horse-sized wardog. The devil hit Tarric with its spear and the cold that spread through his body caused his muscles to react much more slowly. Killick leaned over and cast Freedom of Movement on Tarric to get him back into the fight. After a few more seconds, the bug-like devil realized that it could not continue for much longer. So it teleported to the safety of the corridor beyond the Ice Wall that it had created earlier in the battle. Alexander and Thorash could vaguely see its blue color and shape distorted heavily through the Ice Wall. It seemed to be resting and casting spells. Alexander and Thorash, who were separated from the rest of the party, ducked behind a corner and waited for the rest of the party to come back to them. However, the crystaline guardian had transferred its attacks to the party, and the party had decided to take the opportunity to finish it in the devil's absence. To allow everyone to get in on the fight, Killick cast Spider Climb on Tarric. But they found that attacking the crystal creature was easier said than done. Everytime Tarric, Grimlock, Katawan, or Alees tried to attack it in melee, it would simply cause itself to shatter in anticipation of the blow and then reform itself once the blow had passed through it. Each time the creature shattered itself in this way, little cracks appeared in its reformed surface. As the creature shattered more and more, these cracks became larger and larger. Finally, Killick resorted to Produce Flame, which seemed more effective. At long last, the crystal creature collapsed in a heap. At about that moment, the Ice Devil teleported back into the room. Most of its wounds had closed and it now had a black aura surrounding it. Tarric swung his sword at it, but when he hit it, black energy leapt towards him from the devil's aura and caused him to become noticeably weaker. Grimlock bit at the devil's legs, causing it to trip. Alees swooped in, looking for a vital area to stab. Katawan sprang at it from the back of the room. Because the creature had to stand up, it was unable to deploy its full attack sequence. So instead, it simply cast another Ice Storm, damaging all of its opponents in the room. At that moment, back in the storage room, Alexander decided to take the opportunity secure the party's escape route. He cast a Fireball, destroying the Ice Wall and then made for the exit, with Thorash right behind him. Thorash called out that anyone needing healing would find him outside. Meanwhile, in the lead room, the same pattern repeated itself again and again. Tarric damaged the devil at the expense of his own strength. Alees drew her Wand of Restoration and used it on Tarric to restore his strength. However, immediately afterwards, she and Katawan had to leave. Neither of them could sustain the damage from another Ice Storm. They exited the pyramid complex and sought out Thorash's healing. Tarric, Killick, and Grimlock remained and continued battling the creature. Just when the situation seemed dire, Tarric finally felled the foul beast, cleaving it in two. The chest in the lead room had been nearly destroyed by all the crushing chunks of ice from the multiple Ice Storms. In the chest, Alees found a lead key shaped like an eagle with a forked tail, a dagger with worm-like symbols engraved at the base of the blade, a tube of diamond dust, and an adamantine ring shaped like a hell hound biting its own tail. There were about a dozen assorted gems as well. The party withdrew from the temple to heal and identify. Thorash did not have time to identify everything, but he did inform the party that the bottles that he had thought were potions, were actually containment devices of some kind. He thought that there might be creatures trapped/contained inside them. Killick scanned the bottles for undead, and found one bottle that seemed to contain an undead creature. He smashed the bottle and a Spawn of Kyuss suddenly appeared. The party moved to destroy the creature, but Killick insisted that he would destroy it alone. The undead creature was no match for someone as skilled as Killick and was soon destroyed. Once the creature was dispatched, Killick kneeled down and grabbed one of the still wriggling worms from the undead creature's eyesocket. To the horror of his partymates, he took of his glove and placed the worm directly on his palm. It immediately started burrowing into Killick's skin. Killick grunted and grimaced as he explained to the party that he and his mentor Nogwier had uncovered some scrolls written by the Order of the Storm, an ancient Druidic society whose task had been to fight the minions of Kyuss and keep them from threatening civilization. He explained that some of the most successful of these Druids - known as Wormhunters - had taken in Kyuss's own negative energy into their bodies with the goal of using it against their enemies. Killick sat in tortured meditation as he tried to maintain the upper hand against the energies of the worm as it tried to take control away from Killick and turn him into a minion of Kyuss. Tarric stood over him, sword at the ready, in case anything should go wrong. At long last, Killick emerged from his ordeal, scarred but in control. He seemed different... but stronger. The party divvied up the remaining swag. Thorash asked for the dagger, as a replacement for many of the magic items he had lost in the acid. Killick asked for the diamond dust. Tarric asked for the ring. Alexander announced that he would teleport Dourala's body back to civilization to have it raised. The party asked him to take some swag back with him to sell while he was there. He consented to do so. Killick asked Alexander if he would recharge his Brooch of Shielding. Seeing as Alexander had been the one who depleted it when he had been under the control of the vampire Huvariel, he consented to do so. After receiving a magical bag full of items to be sold, as well as a long list of items to be purchased for various party members, he grasped Dourala's dead body and departed with it, teleporting back to Magepoint. [I]8th of Fireseek[/I]. There were only 2 exterior doors on the pyramid left to explore. The party decided to check them out while Alexander was gone. They opened the first plain stone door and found an empty corridor lying ahead of them. Alees checked the corridor for traps and found a pressure plate in the middle that would cause the ceiling to collapse if it were set off. She was able to disable the trap and make it safe for crossing. She got to the door on the far side and found that it was a false door. Disappointed, the party withdrew and made for the last exterior door left to be investigated. This door was more ornate; it had carvings of animals on it. Alees checked it and found that it contained a trap. Since she knew the trap would spray liquid when tripped, she invited Killick over to purposefully set off the trap and absorb the effect. Killick turned the door knob and was sprayed with a fine mist of liquid, but was unaffected. After the door was open, they saw another corridor identical to the one they had just explored. Once again, Alees found a trap in the middle. Once again, she disabled it. This time, though, the door at the far end was not false. It opened into an empty but immaculately clean white room covered in hexagonal white tiles. Alees quickly noticed some small smears of blood in the grout surrounding some of the tiles on one wall. She announced to the party that there was a secret door there. She found the release mechanism and opened the door. Beyond the door was a crooked hallway filled with much more dried blood. When they turned the corner, they saw a door covered in what looked like blue dragon scales. After looking more closely, Alees determined that this door was magically trapped. She set to disabling the trap. After a number of minutes, with sweat on her brow, Alees finally declared victory. She told the party that it had been a very close thing, but she had successfully disabled the trap. The door could be opened safely. Upon opening the door, a dust-covered living room was revealed, with sofas and end tables. Alees cast Detect Magic and noticed the glow of some magical auras coming from underneath one of the couches as well as from a statue on one of the end tables. As the party entered the room to investigate, the statue animated. It was a small statue of a red dragon, about the size of a house cat. However, the statue seemed to be covered in real red dragon scales. The statue screamed at the party causing Tarric and Alees to become deafened. The party members entered the room and backed the statue into a corner. It was a much tougher opponent than anyone expected. When it bit and slashed at opponents with its claws, it did almost as much damage as the Ice Devil had done with its much larger spear. However, despite the impressiveness of the construct, it eventually succumbed to the combined prowess of the party. Alees checked the room thoroughly and found lots of heavy furniture as well as a magical wand made from the bone of a blue dragon and a set of magical bracers made from the scales of a gold dragon. The party debated the ethics of keeping such an item, made from the body of a good creature. While the party had been fighting, Thorash had remained outside the pyramid, trying to discern what kinds of creatures were trapped inside the bottles the party had found. So far he had met with no luck. The party asked Thorash if he could take a break to identify the two items they had found. He agreed to do so. As he was working on the identifications, Katawan was carefully setting off the remaining acid traps in the room with the acid pool. When he was done, the acid pool had quadrupled in depth - it was now a bit less than a foot and a half deep. The flying members of the party set about constructing a causeway through the acid pool using chunks of rock from the corridors they had excavated whose ceilings had collapsed. After a full day of work, the causeway was complete. Now, even non-flying party members would be able to traverse the distance from the outside of the pyramid to the silver doors safely. (However, where there was still acid, the acid was now about 2 feet deep.) The party rested after a long day's work and waited for Alexander to return with the party's newly purchased items. [/QUOTE]
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