The Age of Worms - Morrus' Campaign - Finished 6th August!!

[Tamlyn]

Was a fun one! Enjoyed this whole grimloc temple complex a lot. That first set piece was great stuff... amazing how difficult a bit of awkward terrain can make something!

Done a write up for Igmut over in the rogues gallery... I probably should be doing some work, but it's Friday and I'm bored.

Wow. Where can I find a Vorpal Flying Castle of Speed?

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Wow. Where can I find a Vorpal Flying Castle of Speed?

Dammit - figured if it got left a couple of weeks before anyone noticed then I could keep it!

It beheads kingdoms on a natural 20.

 

[Gold Roger]

One question I-AL:

Why a greataxe when Kords favored weapon is the greatsword?

Just curious.

 

[Eccles]

We scaled the wall and stood at the edge of the three strand rope ladder. Swaying slightly in the slight breeze, the three aging ropes led some 50 feet across the chasm and up to a ledge on the other side. We couldn’t see what was on the ledge, as it was too far above us, and the age and decay of the ropes suggested that we shouldn’t go across it in too great a number.

Flynne almost casually pranced across the thin ropes, leaving the rest of us standing watching him and wondering hoe to get across. He began to reach the upwards curve on the ropes, over halfway across, when a number of javelins sailed out of the darkness to meet him.

Balancing on the ropes, Flynne grapped for his grappling hook, whirled it over his head and sent it sailing towards the unseen figures on the ledge. A furry hand snagged the ropes, and Flynne pulled hard on the ropes. The hand vanished back beyond the lip of the ledge; unseen to any of us but Flynne. The effects of the figure could be seen, however. Flynne struggled to pull at the rope, but was unable to pull the grimlock off the ledge. After a few seconds, the rope came free.

Flynne leapt off the rope bridge under a withering hail of javelins; 40 feet below him the dangling grappling hook shot upwards, pulled by his weight. It hurtled past the falling Flynne and snagged on the rope ladder, which bent under the sudden pressure, pulling taught and slowing the last few feet of Flynne’s descent.

40 feet beneath us, Flynne released his grip on the rope and stepped casually to the ground. The bridge and rope shot upwards, the grappling hook flew free and crashed to earth 3 feet from Flynne. The elf brushed down his tunic and bent to pick up his equipment.

Beside me in the narrow tunnel, Endo’s face warped as he turned into the form of a drow elf. For no good reason.

Time passed.

 

[Eccles]

From the chasm below, Flynne’s grappling hook sailed up and bounced off the rock ledge. He threw again, and this time it caught – he began to climb. Igmut descended to the chasm floor and stood by waiting for his turn to climb up to the ledge.

Almost immediately, a grimlock appeared in sight on the opposite side of the chasm. The creature produced a dagger and moved to saw at the grappling hook’s rope. We all fired our bows at the figure, and although only Niccoli’s shot made contact, the creature pulled back.

By unspoken consent, most of the group began to advance. Flynne continued to climb his rope, whilst Endo moved out gingerly along the rope bridge. As he closed, a cry of rage came from the other side; the creatures were clearly enraged by Endo’s drow-like image. Javelins shot out form the darkness at him, as he cast a spell then fired a wand at the enemies which he could see from his position.

I began a chant of encouragement, lending a touch of confidence to Niccoli, who began to gingerly edge out onto the rope bridge. The ropes sagged alarmingly – clearly it would not be safe for more than two people to go onto the ropes at the same time.

Beneath us, there was a crashing noise followed by a torrent of swearing in elvish as Flynne fell off his rope. Igmut stepped up to take his place and began climbing hand over hand up the rope. Flynne backed up and began to fire arrows overhead; miraculously we heard a shout of pain from beyond the lip of the unseen tunnel.

Opposite us, one grimlock could be seen briefly, as he came into my view to saw at the grapple. The rope was severed, and Ig fell hard to the floor below. Two javelins sailed out, and one of them struck Endo. He responded by casting a spell, pointing at the unseen enemies. A terrifying spectre shot from his outstretched finger towards the ledge and he was rewarded with screaming. Whatever it was he had done was sufficient to send one of the grimlocks fleeing loudly down the corridor; equally as much a blessing as a potential curse if it alerted any more enemies.

Endo then began to unleash blasts of dark energy from his wand as Niccoli stepped off the other end of the rope bridge, bastard sword in hand.

 

[Eccles]

By this stage, Niccoli was out of sight on the other side of the rope bridge, clearly in combat with the unseen grimlocks. Towards the far side of the bridge stood Endo, who was aiming a further shot with his wand up beyond Niccoli. Flynne had climbed up to me and was aiming his bow towards the ledge. Igmut finally clambered his way up to my side of the bridge, and I used the recently captured wand to cure him of the worst of his ills.

Abandoning an almost impossible shot, Flynne dashed nimbly across the ropes and flung a tanglefoot bag up into the opening. Endo fired another dark beam into the gap, and form his grim smile I could see that he had struck his mark with the wand-spell.

Flynne continued his headlock dash and stepped up to join Niccoli on the ledge and the sounds of the sword-fight grew louder. I was left alone on my side, singing songs of encouragement to Igmut as he stepped onto the edge of the bridge causing the ropes to sag alarmingly.

Still singing encouragement, and unable to shoot safely now that my friends had reached the ledge, I could see no other way to contribute. I began to paint lipstick onto Endo’s skeleton follower, managing to find a scrap of white material to look like a veil. Strange things come into your mind at the most inappropriate of times…

.oOo.

On the other side of the chasm, one of the grimlocks sailed out into space, screaming as he fell to earth with a crash. He lay there still. Clearly things were going well in the darkness. The tables would be turning all the faster once Igmut slammed onto the ledge with his longspear in hand. Endo changed his appearance into that of a Halfling before making a wobbly few steps onto the ledge as well.

I dashed across the bridge to join them, to see no less than 4 dead grimlocks, with the 5th fleeing at speed down a narrow winding tunnel. We gave chase into a large cavern with three other exits. And one dead grimlock. Niccoli and Igmut wiped down their blades, just in time to ready them again as still more grimlocks poured out of one of the tunnels.

Niccoli spun and hacked two of the grimlocks to the floor in a single sweeping blow of his bastard sword, before Flynne materialised out of the shadows to fire an arrow through the throat of a third. Not to be outdone, Igmut hacked down another with his axe. Fearlessly, the two remaining grimlocks pressed forwards. Endo once again changed form, appearing once again as a drow.

After I had healed Niccoli with the wand, he stepped forwards, slashing down first one, and then the other of the surviving grimlocks. The battle was over within moments, and we headed off the way the enemies had come.

The passageway led to a smelly bedchamber filled with mouldy rags and furs. In there, Igmut carefully checked his prized possession (“The Big Book of Kord”), reading the words laboriously and tracing every one with his finger. Satisfied, he closed the book with a thump, and then grabbed Endo and his skeleton by their scalps. He frowned as he spoke unfamiliar words.

“By the words of Kord and the power inves… given to me, I pronounce you man and wife. You are now a lawfully married skeleton.” Thus satisfied that the skeleton was ‘permitted’, Ig picked up his axe again and ceased worrying about the undead in our midst.

 

[Eccles]

We retraced our steps, and made our way down another of the corridors, this time emerging into a large cave with some glowing embers at the far side, partially wreathed in thick smoke. Three large grimlocks were given orders by an unseen fourth figure, and they lumbered towards us. Each was easily a foot taller than their fellows, and they wore heavy bronze armour and carried longspears.

Combat was joined with axe, sword and bow as the bronze-clad grimlocks moved to block my friends’ advance. On the other side, the fourth figure was revealed as he cast a spell surrounding himself in a swirling multi-hued glowing energy. Endo raised his wand once more and fired yet another black beam at the enemy, sapping him of strength.

Niccoli ran forwards, and was badly hurt within seconds. The glowing colours around the distant foe deflected Flynne’s arrows, whilst I realised that my throat was too sore to continue singing. I picked up the wand and started to heal Niccoli as fast as I could manage.

Gnashing his teeth, Igmut bellowed “KORD”, and dashed towards the foes with a mad gleam in his eyes. His mad strength made his muscles bulge, but the devastating axe-sweep went wide.

10 feet to my left a glowing hammer of force sprang into existence, and (wholly unsupported by any hand) began to try to bash Endo’s brains out of his skull. Ignoring this, the wizard cast a spell which drove one of the grimlocks into wild throes of paranoia, casting his spear aside and wailing, his eyes rolling in his head.

.oOo.

To the left of the combat, the new “Mrs Sevestarian” ran into the fray swinging its axe. It missed, but Flynne moved to flank the same wailing paranoid enemy, stabbing the helpless foe.

On the other side of the fight, Igmut was a dervish of screaming and flailing axe-blows. His huge sweeps were sidestepped by the enemies, who could see the huge blows as they were thrown.

The grimlock cleric cast a spell at my enraged half-orc comrade, which had no obvious effect on him in his frenzy. Endo flung one back, which was similarly unsuccessful. Then Igmut managed to land a blow, killing the grimlock which he and Niccoli had both been striking at.

Endo chose that moment to use his hat of disguise once more, suddenly resembling a Halfling. He jumped the 10 foot drop to be on the same level as the fighters, turning his ankle on the uneven floor. He swore, as the glowing hammer followed him down, and once again bashing him on the head. Another of his spells took no effect on the cleric across the cavern.

Although still wounded, Niccoli dashed to join Igmut, working together to try to bring down the already spell-weakened foe. 20 feet from where they stood, Flynne and the skeleton were wearing down the still-paralysed second grimlock; the effects of Endo’s spell meaning that the armour-clad form was still clutching his ears and covering his eyes in terror at unseen enemies.

 

[Eccles]

The raging Igmut hacked down the grimlock he and Niccoli had flanked, and then he charged towards the cleric. The cleric responded by flinging another spell at the half-orc, who completely ignored its effects in his fury.

The cleric’s unholy hammer continued to smash Endo around the head, and I turned to heal his injuries with the dwindling resources of the healing-wand. Behind me, Niccoli dashed over to join Igmut, slowing in the clouds of smoke around the fire as sudden bone-sapping fatigue set in.

A loud bang suddenly rang in my ears, deafening and stunning me momentarily. When I blinked the tears out of my eyes, I could see that Flynne had managed to hack down the last bronze-armoured grimlock. All of us could turn our attentions to the cleric now. Niccoli and Igmut swiftly had the final enemy backed against the wall, desperately fighting back against their two huge blades.

.oOo.

Unseen by all of us, Flynne had drifted once more into the shadows of the rocky wall. He fired from hiding, but his arrow went wide and cracked against the wall, whilst Endo cast spells from memory and his wand at the cleric, all the while ducking the sweeps of the hammer.

Both of his spells were successful, sapping the cleric of strength, as well as ringing the grimlock with dozens of gloating spirits, all desperate to tug and tear at any wounds on his body. In retaliation, the hammer bashed Endo across the temple once more, causing his knees to sag, but the stubborn wizard kept chanting.

Across the cavern, the small cleric began to swing his morningstar in anger, laying a series of blows into Niccoli, who groaned, and then crashed to the floor in a pile of metal. I dashed forwards (suddenly feeling faint and tired in the strange-smelling smoke), and used the wand to keep the fighter alive. His eyes fluttered and opened once more.

Flynne flung his second tanglefoot bag at the cleric, which joined the arrow in being smeared all over the wall just to the cleric’s left. Igmut, breathing heavily, swing and struck the cleric, then smashed the heavy axe into him a second time. Suddenly his breathing became even more laboured, and the toll of his many injuries began to show on the half-orc’s form.

Behind me, there was a single ‘twang’, and Endo’s crossbow bolt hurtled over my shoulder to embed itself in the cleric’s eye. He gasped once, and then slumped to the floor.

 

[Eccles]

Items were snatched from the bodies by greedy hands, especially once we realised the worth of the heavily enchanted banded mail the three grimlocks had been wearing. The cleric had been carrying a silver key as well as a number of scrolls, one of which spoke of visions he had had in the smoke, saying that a great power was stirring, and that

“At last the will of the Ebon Triad be done. With the return of Kyuss, the Age of Worms is at last upon us.”

.oOo.

We spent still more of the charges from the every-weakening wand of healing, and then backed up to the third and final exit. Flynne went first, creeping down the narrow tunnel. He returned a few moments later to describe a room filled with skulls and a mound of furs, upon which sat a large and heavily scarred grimlock.

We prepared carefully, strapping one of the suits of enchanted heavy armour onto Igmut and positioning Endo’s skeletal ‘wife’ in the corridor in front of us. Flynne then crept back down the corridor with his bow, taking a single shot and then dashing back to join us.

Judging by the bellow of rage and pain, the shot was true, and moments later the largest grimlock yet appeared in the tunnel mouth. Ignoring the arrow lodged in his left shoulder, the barbarous grimlock raised a heavy axe above his head and bellowed at us.

“Erythnull will destroy you!”

The monstrous humanoid charged towards us, foaming at the mouth. Seconds later, ‘Mrs Sevestarian’ was on the floor in hundreds of bony shards. We all fired arrows at the creature, which shook its weapon at us and continued to threaten us.

Igmut raised his spear to block the creature should it charge, whilst Niccoli drew his heavy sword and prepared to counter-charge. Flynne, Endo and I could not believe that the creature would be so brazen as to stand and threaten us. So we shot it a second time.

Bellowing, the huge creature ran at us, taking Igmut’s set spear straight into his belly. In a burst of gore, the spear burst from the monster’s back, and he simply pushed himself along the spear, screaming into Igmut’s face all the while.

Niccoli took four paces, swung his sword, and swept his sword. One blow parted the grimlock’s head from its shoulders, and its body slumped to the floor.

The battle was over, and the temple to Erythnull had fallen. We settled back for a well-deserved rest.

 

[Eccles]

To add a little more OOC information, we've now reached level 5. Endo's player (Darmanicus) is hugely excited at the prospect of third level spells, and we're all horrified that he's probably going to be the first level 5 wizard ever not to have fireball.

And to answer the question, Morrus has a house rule that in the event of death, you can either come in with all-new equipment, or take the stuff from your old character. Igmut's player Inconsequenti-Al chose to take the second option. He's therefore been wearing dwarven platemail as a breastplate, and there was no greatsword available. The damn great axe was the next best available option for a barbarian/cleric.