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Menexenus's Age of Worms Campaign Journal
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<blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 4884298" data-attributes="member: 8951"><p><strong>Session 85: Arrival at Kongen-Thulnir</strong></p><p></p><p><em>7th of Reaping - 4th of Harvester</em>. While many members of the party paid to have magic items improved or crafted, Talon was the party member who spent the longest amount of time crafting items herself - a total of 53 days. During this time, Killick spent time in the libraries at Greyhawk and Magepoint researching Kongen-Thulnir, the location of Dragotha's phyhlactery. He was astounded to see that references to Kongen-Thulnir were suddenly to be found in books that he was positive had contained no reference to that location on previous readings. Killick verified this suspicion by showing one such book to a librarian who was intimately familiar with the work. The librarian was equally as surprised to see the reference to Kongen-Thulnir, which he knew had not been there before.</p><p></p><p>Killick discovered that Kongen-Thulnir was a fortress-town built into one of the cliffsides of Rift Canyon by a tribe of stone giants who had been allied with the Order of the Storm. He met with the rest of the party in Greyhawk to relay this news. He was eager to travel to this location as soon as possible to seek the phylactery, but the party decided to wait until Talon was finished crafting. So Killick mounted his Obsidian Steed (Grimlock was jealous) and traveled to Kongen-Thulnir alone. As he approached the location that he had read about in his books, he entered the Ethereal Plane to evade detection. He found the cliffside fortress and observed hill giants and fire giants who seemed to be warring amongst each other within the city. He cast a spell that allowed him to determine the proximity of unnatural beings. He sensed the presence of one overwhelmingly powerful unnatural being as well as numerous smaller ones, and they all were in the same direction as the cliffside fortress. Rather than risk himself by approaching the city any closer, Killick wheeled his magical horse around and returned to Greyhawk to inform the party of what he had learned.</p><p></p><p><em>5th of Harvester</em>. Three weeks later, when Talon was finally finished crafting, the party made for Kongen-Thulnir via one of Talon's Windwalk spells. They resolidified about a mile from the edge of Rift Canyon. The terrain surrounding the Canyon was a depressingly dry, flat, nearly featureless plateau. Killick created water for a nearby scrub oak and magically asked it some questions about local goings-on, but the tree was of little help to the druid. As the party approached the edge of the canyon, they noticed that the fortress-town in the opposite cliffside was under attack by dragons! At least six dragons - green, black, blue, and red - were visible at any given time, wheeling in the sky and employing their breath weapons on those giants manning impressive static defenses, including catapults and heavy ballistae. The town was also equipped with well-camoflaged guy-wires designed to seroiusly injure flying creatures. It was almost as if the fortress had been constructed with defense against dragon attacks in mind.</p><p></p><p>The party observed that the northerm portion of the city had been almost completey destroyed by the dragons. They were currently focusing their attacks on the southern portion of the city as well as a fortification built on an outcropping of rock across from the middle of the middle of the city. A similar outcropping of rock across from the devastated northern end of the city had been completely leveled. Since the dragons seemed to be focusing their attention elsewhere, the party decided to use the still-active Windwalk spell to take mist-form again, fly across the canyon, land on the outcropping, take solid form again, and then walk across the bridge that connected the outcropping with the enormous cliffside cavern containing the city. The first part of their plan was uneventful. The successfully made it to the northern outcropping without attracting the attention of the attacking dragons. As the party members resolidified, Katawan heard something that sounded like a voice, but he couldn't tell what it was saying or where the voice was coming from. Then Alexander yelled out that an invisible green dragon was crawling out onto the outcropping. (Apparently, this dragon had been clinging to the underside of the stone bridge, lying in wait for enemies who might wish to organize new defenses on the flattened outcropping or in the destroyed northern portion of the city.) </p><p></p><p>Killick cast Glitterdust on the dragon to outline it for his comrades. Alexander shot a Fireball and a volley of Quickened Magic Missiles which bounced off the dragon's Shield spell. The dragon belched out a cone of corrosive gas and then took off into the air, hovering above the party. Tarric flew up to engage the dragon in melee, but it was too fast for him to catch up with. Katawan had similar difficulties. It looked like ranged attacks and spells would be the order of the day. Norvelle and Talon had success bringing down holy columns of flame onto the dragon's head. Alexander had success with more Fireballs and a Polar Ray. Since the dragon's own spells had been completely ineffective against the party, it swooped in, grabbed Alexander in its tremendous jaws, and then flew away with him. For a moment, the party was concerned that Alexander was lost, because they knew the dragon flew faster than they did, but within moments Alexander teleported back to the outcropping none the worse for wear. In frustration, the dragon tried its breath weapon again, to little effect. Talon cast Dispel Magic in hopes of dropping the dragon's Shield spell. Alexander tried more Quickened Magic Missiles, which now struck true. Then he cast Feeblemind on the dragon. Alexander's impressive arcane power overwhelmed the creature and it reverted to animal intelligence. In its unthinking fury, it landed on the outcropping to engage the party in melee. Tarric obliged the dragon, using his spring attack ability to avoid the dragon's claws as he approached. However, after Tarric's sword, Branwhite, tasted the dragon's flesh, the dragon brought its full fury down on its wielder, biting him, slashing him with claws, buffeting him with its wings, and slapping at him with its tail. Tarric could not sruvive another such onslaught and withdrew to partake of Talon's healing abilities.</p><p></p><p>However, once the dragon had landed, it lost most of its advantages. Now all the party members could bring their abilities to bear. After getting Healed by Talon, Tarric ran back into the fight and delivered the killing blow. The ancient lieutenant of Kyuss slumped to the ground in ignominious defeat. (Perhaps its feeble-minded state was a blessing in disguise since its stupidity rendered it incapable of comprehending the humiliation of its utter defeat at the hands of beings less than a 20th of its age.)</p><p></p><p>Norvelle and Talon healed up the damage caused by the dragon and Alees relieved the dragon's corpse of an amulet and a ring. Then they headed across the bridge to the war-ravaged northern side of town. After briefly looking around, they found a functional well as well as the top of a stone ladder leading down the face of the cliff to a small under-city whose buildings looked small enough to house humanoids. In the distance, the party could see a keep guarding a gate which separated the northern and southern halves of the city. This keep was obviously still manned, as harpoons and catapults were being fired at passing dragons from that location. The party reasoned that if the dragons had destroyed this part of the city and had moved on, then the phylactery must not be here, so there was little reason to stay and search it exhaustively. The party chose to approach the manned keep and hopefully pass unseen into the southern half of the city rather than scale the ladder down to the undercity. </p><p></p><p>Just when the party was about to move out, a small figure climbed out from hiding and hailed the party. As it approached, the party recognized this gnome as the Ominous Fabler, Prince Zeech's court jester! They asked him what he was doing here. He replied that his position as court jester for Prince Zeech was only a ruse which allowed him to spy on the Prince and attempt to learn what connection the Cult of Kyuss had with Alhaster. His former master, a stone giant from the floor of Rift Canyon had dreamed of the coming Age of Worms and his visions convinced him that this apocalypse would be initiated somehow in Alhaster. So the Ominous Fabler (whose real name was Gazilfek) had been dispatched to Alhaster to learn as much as he could and report back. When the party had arrived in town making no secret of their hatred for the Ebon Triad, Gazilfek thought that they might be useful allies in the effort to prevent the Age of Worms. On the way back to Rift Canyon to report what little he had learned to his stone giant master, he suddenly found a note in one of his texts on the Age of Worms that he knew hadn't been there before. It indicated that Dragotha's phylactery was hidden somewhere in Kongen-Thulnir. He knew that Dragotha was Kyuss's primary servant on the Material Plane, so he made a detour here to find out what he could. He arrived just a day before the dragons attacked. Since then he has been scouting out the city, looking for where the phylactery might be hidden. While he hasn't found it yet, he could still be of use to the party by guiding them through the town, saving them from wasting time on false leads, and he would also be willing to use his bard song to help the party in battle.</p><p></p><p>Alexander waited patiently for Gazilfek to finish his pitch before asking him why they should trust an undead creature such as himself. The rest of the party was surprised by this news - the gnome looked living to them. Gazilfek hesitated and then asked how he could carry out his mission to safegard the world from the Age of Worms with but one lifetime? Becoming undead had been necessary, he claimed. Killick used his Wormhunter power to sense if Gazilfek had become an agent of Kyuss. He had indeed. Killick informed the party that the gnome was indeed an agent of Kyuss and the party sprang into action. Tarric, Katawan, and Killick moved up to engage the gnome, who smelled of vomit covered up by strong perfume. As the three party members moved in close enough to attack, Gazilfek shot Kyuss worms into the air from all over his body. All three party members were struck, but they were able to scrape off the worms before they could begin burrowing. Each party member took a turn doing their worst to Gazilfek who didn't survive to take another action. Gazilfek's zombie-like corpse was wearing much more equipment than the Ominous Fabler had worn in Zeech's palace. Alees took everything of value so that the magical items could be identified later.</p><p></p><p>The party continued with their original plan of trying to sneak by the gatekeep that separated the currently destroyed lower-class northern half of Kongen-Thulnir from the besieged upper-class southern half of the city. The hope was that the keep's inhabitants would be too occupied with the dragons flying out in the skies to notice smaller beings like themselves flying up and over their gate. However, the plan didn't work. As they approached the gate moving slowly up against the back wall of the cavern, they saw a giant poke his head up, point in their direction, and shout an alarm to its brethren. The attempt to bypass the keep undetected had failed.</p><p></p><p> </p><p>[Special note: This session was played at Origins and was briefly observed by none other than Monte Cook himself!]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Menexenus, post: 4884298, member: 8951"] [b]Session 85: Arrival at Kongen-Thulnir[/b] [I]7th of Reaping - 4th of Harvester[/I]. While many members of the party paid to have magic items improved or crafted, Talon was the party member who spent the longest amount of time crafting items herself - a total of 53 days. During this time, Killick spent time in the libraries at Greyhawk and Magepoint researching Kongen-Thulnir, the location of Dragotha's phyhlactery. He was astounded to see that references to Kongen-Thulnir were suddenly to be found in books that he was positive had contained no reference to that location on previous readings. Killick verified this suspicion by showing one such book to a librarian who was intimately familiar with the work. The librarian was equally as surprised to see the reference to Kongen-Thulnir, which he knew had not been there before. Killick discovered that Kongen-Thulnir was a fortress-town built into one of the cliffsides of Rift Canyon by a tribe of stone giants who had been allied with the Order of the Storm. He met with the rest of the party in Greyhawk to relay this news. He was eager to travel to this location as soon as possible to seek the phylactery, but the party decided to wait until Talon was finished crafting. So Killick mounted his Obsidian Steed (Grimlock was jealous) and traveled to Kongen-Thulnir alone. As he approached the location that he had read about in his books, he entered the Ethereal Plane to evade detection. He found the cliffside fortress and observed hill giants and fire giants who seemed to be warring amongst each other within the city. He cast a spell that allowed him to determine the proximity of unnatural beings. He sensed the presence of one overwhelmingly powerful unnatural being as well as numerous smaller ones, and they all were in the same direction as the cliffside fortress. Rather than risk himself by approaching the city any closer, Killick wheeled his magical horse around and returned to Greyhawk to inform the party of what he had learned. [I]5th of Harvester[/I]. Three weeks later, when Talon was finally finished crafting, the party made for Kongen-Thulnir via one of Talon's Windwalk spells. They resolidified about a mile from the edge of Rift Canyon. The terrain surrounding the Canyon was a depressingly dry, flat, nearly featureless plateau. Killick created water for a nearby scrub oak and magically asked it some questions about local goings-on, but the tree was of little help to the druid. As the party approached the edge of the canyon, they noticed that the fortress-town in the opposite cliffside was under attack by dragons! At least six dragons - green, black, blue, and red - were visible at any given time, wheeling in the sky and employing their breath weapons on those giants manning impressive static defenses, including catapults and heavy ballistae. The town was also equipped with well-camoflaged guy-wires designed to seroiusly injure flying creatures. It was almost as if the fortress had been constructed with defense against dragon attacks in mind. The party observed that the northerm portion of the city had been almost completey destroyed by the dragons. They were currently focusing their attacks on the southern portion of the city as well as a fortification built on an outcropping of rock across from the middle of the middle of the city. A similar outcropping of rock across from the devastated northern end of the city had been completely leveled. Since the dragons seemed to be focusing their attention elsewhere, the party decided to use the still-active Windwalk spell to take mist-form again, fly across the canyon, land on the outcropping, take solid form again, and then walk across the bridge that connected the outcropping with the enormous cliffside cavern containing the city. The first part of their plan was uneventful. The successfully made it to the northern outcropping without attracting the attention of the attacking dragons. As the party members resolidified, Katawan heard something that sounded like a voice, but he couldn't tell what it was saying or where the voice was coming from. Then Alexander yelled out that an invisible green dragon was crawling out onto the outcropping. (Apparently, this dragon had been clinging to the underside of the stone bridge, lying in wait for enemies who might wish to organize new defenses on the flattened outcropping or in the destroyed northern portion of the city.) Killick cast Glitterdust on the dragon to outline it for his comrades. Alexander shot a Fireball and a volley of Quickened Magic Missiles which bounced off the dragon's Shield spell. The dragon belched out a cone of corrosive gas and then took off into the air, hovering above the party. Tarric flew up to engage the dragon in melee, but it was too fast for him to catch up with. Katawan had similar difficulties. It looked like ranged attacks and spells would be the order of the day. Norvelle and Talon had success bringing down holy columns of flame onto the dragon's head. Alexander had success with more Fireballs and a Polar Ray. Since the dragon's own spells had been completely ineffective against the party, it swooped in, grabbed Alexander in its tremendous jaws, and then flew away with him. For a moment, the party was concerned that Alexander was lost, because they knew the dragon flew faster than they did, but within moments Alexander teleported back to the outcropping none the worse for wear. In frustration, the dragon tried its breath weapon again, to little effect. Talon cast Dispel Magic in hopes of dropping the dragon's Shield spell. Alexander tried more Quickened Magic Missiles, which now struck true. Then he cast Feeblemind on the dragon. Alexander's impressive arcane power overwhelmed the creature and it reverted to animal intelligence. In its unthinking fury, it landed on the outcropping to engage the party in melee. Tarric obliged the dragon, using his spring attack ability to avoid the dragon's claws as he approached. However, after Tarric's sword, Branwhite, tasted the dragon's flesh, the dragon brought its full fury down on its wielder, biting him, slashing him with claws, buffeting him with its wings, and slapping at him with its tail. Tarric could not sruvive another such onslaught and withdrew to partake of Talon's healing abilities. However, once the dragon had landed, it lost most of its advantages. Now all the party members could bring their abilities to bear. After getting Healed by Talon, Tarric ran back into the fight and delivered the killing blow. The ancient lieutenant of Kyuss slumped to the ground in ignominious defeat. (Perhaps its feeble-minded state was a blessing in disguise since its stupidity rendered it incapable of comprehending the humiliation of its utter defeat at the hands of beings less than a 20th of its age.) Norvelle and Talon healed up the damage caused by the dragon and Alees relieved the dragon's corpse of an amulet and a ring. Then they headed across the bridge to the war-ravaged northern side of town. After briefly looking around, they found a functional well as well as the top of a stone ladder leading down the face of the cliff to a small under-city whose buildings looked small enough to house humanoids. In the distance, the party could see a keep guarding a gate which separated the northern and southern halves of the city. This keep was obviously still manned, as harpoons and catapults were being fired at passing dragons from that location. The party reasoned that if the dragons had destroyed this part of the city and had moved on, then the phylactery must not be here, so there was little reason to stay and search it exhaustively. The party chose to approach the manned keep and hopefully pass unseen into the southern half of the city rather than scale the ladder down to the undercity. Just when the party was about to move out, a small figure climbed out from hiding and hailed the party. As it approached, the party recognized this gnome as the Ominous Fabler, Prince Zeech's court jester! They asked him what he was doing here. He replied that his position as court jester for Prince Zeech was only a ruse which allowed him to spy on the Prince and attempt to learn what connection the Cult of Kyuss had with Alhaster. His former master, a stone giant from the floor of Rift Canyon had dreamed of the coming Age of Worms and his visions convinced him that this apocalypse would be initiated somehow in Alhaster. So the Ominous Fabler (whose real name was Gazilfek) had been dispatched to Alhaster to learn as much as he could and report back. When the party had arrived in town making no secret of their hatred for the Ebon Triad, Gazilfek thought that they might be useful allies in the effort to prevent the Age of Worms. On the way back to Rift Canyon to report what little he had learned to his stone giant master, he suddenly found a note in one of his texts on the Age of Worms that he knew hadn't been there before. It indicated that Dragotha's phylactery was hidden somewhere in Kongen-Thulnir. He knew that Dragotha was Kyuss's primary servant on the Material Plane, so he made a detour here to find out what he could. He arrived just a day before the dragons attacked. Since then he has been scouting out the city, looking for where the phylactery might be hidden. While he hasn't found it yet, he could still be of use to the party by guiding them through the town, saving them from wasting time on false leads, and he would also be willing to use his bard song to help the party in battle. Alexander waited patiently for Gazilfek to finish his pitch before asking him why they should trust an undead creature such as himself. The rest of the party was surprised by this news - the gnome looked living to them. Gazilfek hesitated and then asked how he could carry out his mission to safegard the world from the Age of Worms with but one lifetime? Becoming undead had been necessary, he claimed. Killick used his Wormhunter power to sense if Gazilfek had become an agent of Kyuss. He had indeed. Killick informed the party that the gnome was indeed an agent of Kyuss and the party sprang into action. Tarric, Katawan, and Killick moved up to engage the gnome, who smelled of vomit covered up by strong perfume. As the three party members moved in close enough to attack, Gazilfek shot Kyuss worms into the air from all over his body. All three party members were struck, but they were able to scrape off the worms before they could begin burrowing. Each party member took a turn doing their worst to Gazilfek who didn't survive to take another action. Gazilfek's zombie-like corpse was wearing much more equipment than the Ominous Fabler had worn in Zeech's palace. Alees took everything of value so that the magical items could be identified later. The party continued with their original plan of trying to sneak by the gatekeep that separated the currently destroyed lower-class northern half of Kongen-Thulnir from the besieged upper-class southern half of the city. The hope was that the keep's inhabitants would be too occupied with the dragons flying out in the skies to notice smaller beings like themselves flying up and over their gate. However, the plan didn't work. As they approached the gate moving slowly up against the back wall of the cavern, they saw a giant poke his head up, point in their direction, and shout an alarm to its brethren. The attempt to bypass the keep undetected had failed. [Special note: This session was played at Origins and was briefly observed by none other than Monte Cook himself!] [/QUOTE]
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