Firedancer
First Post
damn you Eccles, what a place to stop!
The Age of Worms - Morrus' Campaign - Finished 6th August!!
Darmanicus
I'm Ray...of Enfeeblement
Firedancer said:
Yeah, he's a git aint he?
Darmanicus
I'm Ray...of Enfeeblement
Eccles said:
And that was very nearly my coffee all over my monitor!
Inconsequenti-AL
Breaks Games
Darmanicus said:And that was very nearly my coffee all over my monitor!
Made me giggle too.
A fine and epic writeup there Mr Eccles!
Did like the teams for the arena, cool mix of different stuff in there, a good way to go!
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Bedecked in illusory silks and satins, I fumbled with the strap for my lyre, and began singing a popular chant. Within a few moments, dozens of audience members were stamping their feet and clapping. My encouraging chant was picked up by the audience, and as they started to encourage my comrades, I changed my own tune in counterpoint to the melody, giving Igmut and Sheba still more confidence and enthusiasm for what was to come.
Igmut layered enchantment after enchantment upon himself, and as he finally asked Kord to bless us all in the combat, I cast a final spell to hasten us all. As this was going on, Endo cast his own spells of empowerment, wreathing his lumpen orcish body with spectral enchantments as well as making arrows and crossbow bolts for himself, Flynne and I burst into flame. Meanwhile, Flynne poured two potions down Sheba’s throat (first turning her skin a bark pattern, and then making her fade from sight completely), and then he tossed down the bronze griffon statue. As the griffon swelled into being, Malachite’s pair of summoned wolverines materialised; he followed this with a couple of spells of his own, strengthening himself and then calling up threatening stormclouds to float low over the arena, rumbling with ominous thunder.
Looking up, as my song, the crowd and the drumbeats echoed out over the arena, I could see that Reneda the lead elf had drunk a potion at the same time as her followers, and then plainly cast a spell – 6 identical visions of the elf weaved in and out of one another in a confusing pattern.
Each of the gnolls also drank 2 potions, clearly enhancing their aggression and strengthening them, whilst their leader cast a sequence of spells and summoned a badger to aid him. On the far side of the arena, Khoresh the djinn and his two human mercenaries mounted their heavy warhorses and drew their curved weapons, just in time for the horn to ring out over the stadium.
.oOo.
Acting almost quicker than my eye could follow, Reneda had briefly saluted to the gnolls (and to my horror they saluted back), before raising her bow to eye level and firing a positive barrage of arrows, one of which managed to drive past Igmut’s heavy armour and leave an enchanted, frost-rimed wound under the edge of his breastplate.
As if in response, Sheba suddenly materialised from her invisibility right next to one of Reneda’s elven archers ripping and tearing with her claws and teeth and killing the unfortunate elf sending her look of sudden surprise into bloodstained horror before a death-rictus and she stiffened and fell. Lightning crashed down from the shadowed sky, as wolverines leapt towards one of the other elves.
Khoresh the djinn rode towards the gnolls, slashing one across the chest with his glowing scimitar. Sheba and one of the wolverines were both struck with arrows, but shook off the damage and kept on snapping at the retreating elven women. At the same instant, Igmut dashed across to the gnolls to engage them in combat, driving his longspear across the man’s chest with all of his (much enhanced) strength.
The human snarled, and simply dropped his heavy club and changing – his face lengthened and warped, as his body changed. Snarling with fury, he faced Igmut as a snapping, enraged crocodile.
In response, as I started another song of inspiration, something heavy and dark flew out of the crowd and landed on my head. I pulled off the sweaty material and waved it in the air as a trophy.
“Up the orcs!” was all I could think to yell in surprise to my apparent admirer, whose green toothy grin beamed down at me from the stands.
I repressed my instinctive shudder.
For his part, Endo cast rapidly, stripping the elven woman of many of her protections; the many images of her disappearing in an instant, whilst the mounted mercenaries rode towards us drawing bows before firing shots towards both elves and gnolls. The dog-faced halberdiers ran towards Igmut, whose spear danced and spun, plunging into them repeatedly as they closed on him. Although badly wounded, they slashed back at him, and although one missed, the others managed to tear through much of Igmut’s protection and the first of his blood spattered to the sand.
.oOo.
From his position atop the bronze griffon, Flynne flew towards the elves, leaping off at the last moment to roll and land neatly, bow pointed towards the closest elf, his arrow streaking into Reneda, followed closely by the shrieking griffon which scratched and clawed at her. The elf looked panicked, and dived away from the massive metal beast before casting a spell at Sheba – a dark line struck the tiger and sapped her of much of her strength.
Sheba responded by slamming into another of the elven followers; although nothing like as strong, she was still more than deadly enough to despatch this archer in turn. Meanwhile, a few dozen feet away, one of the wolverines dashed in and bit Reneda, whilst the other sank its teeth into the surviving elven archer, who was also struck by yet more lightning crashing from the sky at Malachite’s insistence.
On the other side of the arena, Khoresh called out his intention to cast a spell on Sheba, and rode over to her. Growling, Sheba shook off the spell.
“I thought that we were to be allied,” exclaimed the djinn in irritable confusion.
The surviving elf slashed at the wolverine which had bitten her, and swore in elven as her blow went wide of the mark.
Not so for Igmut, who was hastened, inspired, and enchanted beyond all recognition, Igmut stepped away from his foes and slashed a wide arc with the blade of his longspear. The blow slashed through the throat of the first gnoll, which dropped to the floor in a burbling heap; his spear then tore nearly a foot through the second gnoll’s armoured chest. Igmut pulled the spear free, and to tumultuous applause from the bloodthirsty crowd, he stabbed the weapon into the badger, impaling it into the ground. As the summoned creature faded from sight, Igmut left the spear impaled in the sand and ripped his greatsword from its scabbard on his back.
I took this instant to cast a spell upon myself, making myself appear to be about two feet away from my real position, whilst Igmut was attacked in turn by the raging crocodile; the jaws locked shut around Igmut’s forearm, but he clamped his free hand onto its upper jaw and pulled the beast’s mouth open to free himself.
Near me, I saw Endo hesitate, and then focus his attention on the two horsemen in the centre of the stadium; clearly waiting for them to do something. It clearly wasn’t for them to charge Flynne, which they did; one of them slashing my elven comrade across the shoulder.
One last gnoll swung at Igmut, but he missed.
.oOo.
Khoresh, pointing his scimitar at Flynne and spurring his horse, was surprised when he was suddenly assaulted by the griffon, biting and clawing at him. He weathered this assault, but then realised that he was riding into the face of Flynne’s arrows. Firing and reaching again for more arrows before firing again, Flynne paused. Khoresh paused two, arrows deeply stuck into his chest and head, before very gently sliding off his horse, stone dead.
.oOo.
Abruptly, there was a clanking and grinding noise – a series of walls rose out of the floor, dividing the arena into quarters, whilst the floor dropped out from under the points at which we had started. There was a cry of alarm from behind me as Malachite dropped into one of these spike-lined pits. Endo, to my left, swore as his intended target was shrouded by one of these large wooden walls, which easily rose to 40 feet in height; so high that we couldn’t climb over them without disqualifying ourselves.
At the far side of the arena, Igmut also shouted in annoyance as he was unceremoniously dropped into one of these pits alongside the surviving gnoll, leaving Endo and I facing the raging crocodile. We both swallowed deeply.
Beyond the wall, there was the snarling, snapping noise of a number of wild beasts savaging elves, as Malachite soared out of the pit in the form of a graceful eagle.
A wet gurgling sound emanated from the pit as Igmut despatched the ‘distraction’ so that he could start climbing uninterrupted.
.oOo.
Rather worried, I fired a shot with my crossbow, scoring a fiery hit on the beast which barely seemed to even feel the enchanted shot. It then hurtled across the sand towards me, its jaws slamming fast about eighteen inches to my left – precisely where my illusory double was standing.
To my side, Endo simply took flight, casting a spell down towards the enraged crocodile-man draining my foe of much strength. Above the sound of Endo’s spellcasting, I could hear Flynne’s bow sing several times, and the sound of another man falling off his horse, whilst the bronze griffon screeched in a strangely mechanical voice.
Suddenly, the walls sank back down into the floor, and I could glimpse Sheba beset by foes, and Flynne clutching his bow and surrounded by dead enemies. Just as I could see Igmut’s hand reach the top of his pit, the walls sprang up in different places, blocking him completely from my sight. I swore, and Malachite, who was also locked into this new partition with the reptilian rager, screamed out a spell from his place hovering in the sky. Freezing winds tore around the crocodile as heavy balls of ice slammed around him and beating at him.
As I looked around and realised I had no escape route, I pondered leaping into the spike-lined pit behind me to escape the creature; then I heard Igmut’s greatsword slam into the wall. A single titanic blow tore a gap easily eight feet from top to bottom, and Igmut was framed in the hole, spattered with the blood of many foes and grinning toothily as he yelled abuse at the crocodile-fighter.
Stapping at the reptile once, I leaped away from the snapping jaws to stand next to Igmut. The crocodile hurtled after me, and its jaws snapped, slamming shut on my leg. As I fell, I reached up behind me and tapped Igmut on the leg.
“Tag,” I muttered through clenched teeth. “You’re it.”
I shut my eyes in pain, but could still hear the sound of Endo’s crossbow clicking from behind Igmut, and a series of bowfire from Flynne beyond the wooden wall – several arrows slamming into the wood having clearly torn through yet another target, and heralding the defeat of the elven bow-women. Her leader, Reneda, could dimly be heard to yell “I surrender”, and Malachite screeched out some instruction to Sheba.
Igmut’s sword hacked down four times, and the pressure on my leg was eased when the beast was suddenly slaughtered. 5 roughly equal sized chunks of crocodile littered the floor around me, and I was positively covered in its blood.
The wooden walls sank once more, and I could see the cheering crowd all around me. Not a single enemy was still standing as Racnian stepped down form his seats to announce us the winners. We were summoned up to meet with him (as we walked I took a moment to cast spells to clean myself and heal the worst of my injuries), and he handed me not only a sack of gold, but also a bronze trophy. I turned, and raised our prize to the screaming crowd.
.oOo.
By the afternoon, other winners returned to the cavern complex. The dragon and its team of kobolds were victorious, as (of course) was Auric and his team of stone golems. ‘The Crazy Eight’; a group of 8 monks won their round, as had a ‘Rauth’s Dragoons’ – a military unit of 7 men and ‘Pitch Blade’; a group of 4 heavily equipped axe-wielding dwarven berserkers.
The announcers came to advise us that the rest of the day and the next day were to be used to recuperate. The very next fight that we were to have was against ‘Pitch Blade’, the four dwarves – trained and equipped by Raknian’s own Chief of Security, they were likely to be clear favourites in the next fight, and would have a considerable ‘home field’ advantage.
.oOo.
In the afternoon, we were also allowed to meet with Akame, our manager. He finally explained to us why he had been so intent in staring at Raknian during the opening sequence. He admitted that he was simply using us as an excuse to get close to the Games Manager. He had a sister, a bard of considerable repute named Lahaka, who had caught Raknian’s eye the previous year. She had been very popular and performed often during last year’s games, but at the very end of the celebrations, she had simply disappeared.
Akame had tried divination spells without success, and believed that his sister was, in all likelihood, dead. However Akame still wished to confirm this, and the only way he could think to do was to get into Raknian’s palace, or the forbidden area beneath it.
Our eyes were drawn as we spoke, inevitably, to the ‘forbidden’ and blocked off passageway to the south…
Igmut layered enchantment after enchantment upon himself, and as he finally asked Kord to bless us all in the combat, I cast a final spell to hasten us all. As this was going on, Endo cast his own spells of empowerment, wreathing his lumpen orcish body with spectral enchantments as well as making arrows and crossbow bolts for himself, Flynne and I burst into flame. Meanwhile, Flynne poured two potions down Sheba’s throat (first turning her skin a bark pattern, and then making her fade from sight completely), and then he tossed down the bronze griffon statue. As the griffon swelled into being, Malachite’s pair of summoned wolverines materialised; he followed this with a couple of spells of his own, strengthening himself and then calling up threatening stormclouds to float low over the arena, rumbling with ominous thunder.
Looking up, as my song, the crowd and the drumbeats echoed out over the arena, I could see that Reneda the lead elf had drunk a potion at the same time as her followers, and then plainly cast a spell – 6 identical visions of the elf weaved in and out of one another in a confusing pattern.
Each of the gnolls also drank 2 potions, clearly enhancing their aggression and strengthening them, whilst their leader cast a sequence of spells and summoned a badger to aid him. On the far side of the arena, Khoresh the djinn and his two human mercenaries mounted their heavy warhorses and drew their curved weapons, just in time for the horn to ring out over the stadium.
.oOo.
Acting almost quicker than my eye could follow, Reneda had briefly saluted to the gnolls (and to my horror they saluted back), before raising her bow to eye level and firing a positive barrage of arrows, one of which managed to drive past Igmut’s heavy armour and leave an enchanted, frost-rimed wound under the edge of his breastplate.
As if in response, Sheba suddenly materialised from her invisibility right next to one of Reneda’s elven archers ripping and tearing with her claws and teeth and killing the unfortunate elf sending her look of sudden surprise into bloodstained horror before a death-rictus and she stiffened and fell. Lightning crashed down from the shadowed sky, as wolverines leapt towards one of the other elves.
Khoresh the djinn rode towards the gnolls, slashing one across the chest with his glowing scimitar. Sheba and one of the wolverines were both struck with arrows, but shook off the damage and kept on snapping at the retreating elven women. At the same instant, Igmut dashed across to the gnolls to engage them in combat, driving his longspear across the man’s chest with all of his (much enhanced) strength.
The human snarled, and simply dropped his heavy club and changing – his face lengthened and warped, as his body changed. Snarling with fury, he faced Igmut as a snapping, enraged crocodile.
In response, as I started another song of inspiration, something heavy and dark flew out of the crowd and landed on my head. I pulled off the sweaty material and waved it in the air as a trophy.
“Up the orcs!” was all I could think to yell in surprise to my apparent admirer, whose green toothy grin beamed down at me from the stands.
I repressed my instinctive shudder.
For his part, Endo cast rapidly, stripping the elven woman of many of her protections; the many images of her disappearing in an instant, whilst the mounted mercenaries rode towards us drawing bows before firing shots towards both elves and gnolls. The dog-faced halberdiers ran towards Igmut, whose spear danced and spun, plunging into them repeatedly as they closed on him. Although badly wounded, they slashed back at him, and although one missed, the others managed to tear through much of Igmut’s protection and the first of his blood spattered to the sand.
.oOo.
From his position atop the bronze griffon, Flynne flew towards the elves, leaping off at the last moment to roll and land neatly, bow pointed towards the closest elf, his arrow streaking into Reneda, followed closely by the shrieking griffon which scratched and clawed at her. The elf looked panicked, and dived away from the massive metal beast before casting a spell at Sheba – a dark line struck the tiger and sapped her of much of her strength.
Sheba responded by slamming into another of the elven followers; although nothing like as strong, she was still more than deadly enough to despatch this archer in turn. Meanwhile, a few dozen feet away, one of the wolverines dashed in and bit Reneda, whilst the other sank its teeth into the surviving elven archer, who was also struck by yet more lightning crashing from the sky at Malachite’s insistence.
On the other side of the arena, Khoresh called out his intention to cast a spell on Sheba, and rode over to her. Growling, Sheba shook off the spell.
“I thought that we were to be allied,” exclaimed the djinn in irritable confusion.
The surviving elf slashed at the wolverine which had bitten her, and swore in elven as her blow went wide of the mark.
Not so for Igmut, who was hastened, inspired, and enchanted beyond all recognition, Igmut stepped away from his foes and slashed a wide arc with the blade of his longspear. The blow slashed through the throat of the first gnoll, which dropped to the floor in a burbling heap; his spear then tore nearly a foot through the second gnoll’s armoured chest. Igmut pulled the spear free, and to tumultuous applause from the bloodthirsty crowd, he stabbed the weapon into the badger, impaling it into the ground. As the summoned creature faded from sight, Igmut left the spear impaled in the sand and ripped his greatsword from its scabbard on his back.
I took this instant to cast a spell upon myself, making myself appear to be about two feet away from my real position, whilst Igmut was attacked in turn by the raging crocodile; the jaws locked shut around Igmut’s forearm, but he clamped his free hand onto its upper jaw and pulled the beast’s mouth open to free himself.
Near me, I saw Endo hesitate, and then focus his attention on the two horsemen in the centre of the stadium; clearly waiting for them to do something. It clearly wasn’t for them to charge Flynne, which they did; one of them slashing my elven comrade across the shoulder.
One last gnoll swung at Igmut, but he missed.
.oOo.
Khoresh, pointing his scimitar at Flynne and spurring his horse, was surprised when he was suddenly assaulted by the griffon, biting and clawing at him. He weathered this assault, but then realised that he was riding into the face of Flynne’s arrows. Firing and reaching again for more arrows before firing again, Flynne paused. Khoresh paused two, arrows deeply stuck into his chest and head, before very gently sliding off his horse, stone dead.
.oOo.
Abruptly, there was a clanking and grinding noise – a series of walls rose out of the floor, dividing the arena into quarters, whilst the floor dropped out from under the points at which we had started. There was a cry of alarm from behind me as Malachite dropped into one of these spike-lined pits. Endo, to my left, swore as his intended target was shrouded by one of these large wooden walls, which easily rose to 40 feet in height; so high that we couldn’t climb over them without disqualifying ourselves.
At the far side of the arena, Igmut also shouted in annoyance as he was unceremoniously dropped into one of these pits alongside the surviving gnoll, leaving Endo and I facing the raging crocodile. We both swallowed deeply.
Beyond the wall, there was the snarling, snapping noise of a number of wild beasts savaging elves, as Malachite soared out of the pit in the form of a graceful eagle.
A wet gurgling sound emanated from the pit as Igmut despatched the ‘distraction’ so that he could start climbing uninterrupted.
.oOo.
Rather worried, I fired a shot with my crossbow, scoring a fiery hit on the beast which barely seemed to even feel the enchanted shot. It then hurtled across the sand towards me, its jaws slamming fast about eighteen inches to my left – precisely where my illusory double was standing.
To my side, Endo simply took flight, casting a spell down towards the enraged crocodile-man draining my foe of much strength. Above the sound of Endo’s spellcasting, I could hear Flynne’s bow sing several times, and the sound of another man falling off his horse, whilst the bronze griffon screeched in a strangely mechanical voice.
Suddenly, the walls sank back down into the floor, and I could glimpse Sheba beset by foes, and Flynne clutching his bow and surrounded by dead enemies. Just as I could see Igmut’s hand reach the top of his pit, the walls sprang up in different places, blocking him completely from my sight. I swore, and Malachite, who was also locked into this new partition with the reptilian rager, screamed out a spell from his place hovering in the sky. Freezing winds tore around the crocodile as heavy balls of ice slammed around him and beating at him.
As I looked around and realised I had no escape route, I pondered leaping into the spike-lined pit behind me to escape the creature; then I heard Igmut’s greatsword slam into the wall. A single titanic blow tore a gap easily eight feet from top to bottom, and Igmut was framed in the hole, spattered with the blood of many foes and grinning toothily as he yelled abuse at the crocodile-fighter.
Stapping at the reptile once, I leaped away from the snapping jaws to stand next to Igmut. The crocodile hurtled after me, and its jaws snapped, slamming shut on my leg. As I fell, I reached up behind me and tapped Igmut on the leg.
“Tag,” I muttered through clenched teeth. “You’re it.”
I shut my eyes in pain, but could still hear the sound of Endo’s crossbow clicking from behind Igmut, and a series of bowfire from Flynne beyond the wooden wall – several arrows slamming into the wood having clearly torn through yet another target, and heralding the defeat of the elven bow-women. Her leader, Reneda, could dimly be heard to yell “I surrender”, and Malachite screeched out some instruction to Sheba.
Igmut’s sword hacked down four times, and the pressure on my leg was eased when the beast was suddenly slaughtered. 5 roughly equal sized chunks of crocodile littered the floor around me, and I was positively covered in its blood.
The wooden walls sank once more, and I could see the cheering crowd all around me. Not a single enemy was still standing as Racnian stepped down form his seats to announce us the winners. We were summoned up to meet with him (as we walked I took a moment to cast spells to clean myself and heal the worst of my injuries), and he handed me not only a sack of gold, but also a bronze trophy. I turned, and raised our prize to the screaming crowd.
.oOo.
By the afternoon, other winners returned to the cavern complex. The dragon and its team of kobolds were victorious, as (of course) was Auric and his team of stone golems. ‘The Crazy Eight’; a group of 8 monks won their round, as had a ‘Rauth’s Dragoons’ – a military unit of 7 men and ‘Pitch Blade’; a group of 4 heavily equipped axe-wielding dwarven berserkers.
The announcers came to advise us that the rest of the day and the next day were to be used to recuperate. The very next fight that we were to have was against ‘Pitch Blade’, the four dwarves – trained and equipped by Raknian’s own Chief of Security, they were likely to be clear favourites in the next fight, and would have a considerable ‘home field’ advantage.
.oOo.
In the afternoon, we were also allowed to meet with Akame, our manager. He finally explained to us why he had been so intent in staring at Raknian during the opening sequence. He admitted that he was simply using us as an excuse to get close to the Games Manager. He had a sister, a bard of considerable repute named Lahaka, who had caught Raknian’s eye the previous year. She had been very popular and performed often during last year’s games, but at the very end of the celebrations, she had simply disappeared.
Akame had tried divination spells without success, and believed that his sister was, in all likelihood, dead. However Akame still wished to confirm this, and the only way he could think to do was to get into Raknian’s palace, or the forbidden area beneath it.
Our eyes were drawn as we spoke, inevitably, to the ‘forbidden’ and blocked off passageway to the south…
Firedancer
First Post
A couple of questions; mostly for Morrus.
What issue can this be found in; it sounds like a nice little aside I could fit into something I'm working on at the moment?
How much of it is your handiwork (the NPC parties I presume)?
Cheers.
What issue can this be found in; it sounds like a nice little aside I could fit into something I'm working on at the moment?
How much of it is your handiwork (the NPC parties I presume)?
Cheers.
Firedancer
First Post
Sorry to hijack the thread Eccles; Morrus I've checked out the Paizo webpage and looked at the highlights. It sounds suitable to me, I'll be running an urban campaign and want to plot in some specifically named adversaries for the group. Some will be met straightaway, others working away in the back ground.
One of the players wants an exotic race and will be playing a character striving to be a fighter without peer. Sounds like I should be able to build this event in to the city as well as some early threads for plot.
It certainly sounds as if the Champion's Belt is easy to shed AoW material from.
Thanks very much.
One of the players wants an exotic race and will be playing a character striving to be a fighter without peer. Sounds like I should be able to build this event in to the city as well as some early threads for plot.
It certainly sounds as if the Champion's Belt is easy to shed AoW material from.
Thanks very much.
Darmanicus
I'm Ray...of Enfeeblement
C'mon.....update already!!!
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Half an hour later, we sat in our lodge in the Coenoby having used several charges from healing wands to make ourselves recover from our wounds. We were about to discuss what our next plans were, as Endo flipped idly though his spellbook muttering something about “dwarves” whilst grinning most unpleasantly.
Outside, we could hear voices, plainly guards, and one of them was grumbling to the other.
“It’s just so difficult to keep Madtooth’s cage cold,” complained the voice. I looked up sharply at the others, and then sauntered outside, stretching.
The two guards were friendly enough, although plainly on duty and reluctant to discuss things in depth. I did manage to turn the conversation around to the dwarven berserkers, who were something of a ‘house team’, having been trained by the arena’s guard captain. They were well known for fighting with flaming swords of purest adamantine and shields, together with finely-wrought chainmail.
The next round, they offered, always saw one team fighting a terrible monster, but they wouldn’t be permitted to give me any details. With Endo’s help, a large gemstone swapped hands, and the guardsman admitted that it was a frost salamander; a creature the size of a small house which radiates a deadly cold effect, but was deeply vulnerable to fire.
Their tongues loosened by the bribe, they were also prepared to talk about Raknian, who they described as ‘a good guy’. One of the two dimly recorded Lahaka as a talented artist who may have been sleeping with Raknian, but she was rumoured to have skipped town immediately after the games. Raknian also cleared the ghouls out to the south, together with a group of others (including his now guard captain). The tailored stone was then placed over a flooded cavern to stop the ghouls getting out. The stone lay within the southernmost part of the Coenoby, a dilapidated area known as the ‘Titan’s House’, largely buried under tonnes of rubble, but a 10 foot tall alabaster statue known as ‘the Titan’ remained.
.oOo.
Having bidden the guards farewell, we headed to the Titan’s House ourselves. The plug of stone was perfectly plain to see, buried under ten feet of water. Looking around, we headed back for our evening meal, before equipping and returning.
After several minutes of efforts with ropes and levers, we heaved the plug free from the water which immediately all but drained away down the hole. Clearly, the rumours of the chambers beneath having been flooded had been greatly exaggerated. To be safe, however, Igmut cast a spell which he assured us would let us breathe under the water; we then leapt into the deep, pausing only to heave the stone slab shut behind us.
When we pulled ourselves out of the freezing water, we found ourselves in a narrow tunnel, down which Flynne crept silently. He returned with a report, and a grimace. He was holding his nose against a stench which crept around the corridor, coming from 9 or 10 shuffling and rotting figures at the end of the corridor.
After Igmut had fashioned us rough masks of water-soaked cloth, we set off down the corridor with Flynne preceding us. As he reached the edge of the room, there was an abrupt cessation in the groans. Silently, the stinking ghoul-like creatures lurched towards Flynne with an alarming speed. They slashed at him with claws and opened their jaws wide to try and bite lumps out of him, but the nimble elf was too quick for them.
Igmut piled in with his spear, driving it into the closest stinking ghoul as Flynne slashed around him with his enchanted sword.
I moved as close as I could bear given the terrible smell, and started to blast at the undead with a magical wand, firing pairs of missiles into them whilst Malachite summoned a clutch of earth elementals and Sheba crashed into the fray, tearing apart one of the ghouls; in return, their clawed fingers scraped down Flynne’s new mithril buckler and Igmut’s heavy armour.
Behind me, I could hear Endo muttering. “Too nimble, the teeth too pronounced, and the skin-tone shows sign of a prolonged diet of… Guys, these are ghasts, not ghouls!”
Almost immediately, Igmut’s spear brought one low, but he was rapidly surrounded by other creatures and forced to draw his greatsword and defend himself. Flynne leapt away from this fray, firing his bow as he did so; almost immediately, he was charged by three more of the ghasts.
More magic blasted from my wand, and the ghast closest to me collapsed to the floor under the assault. Bitten to the neck, Sheba kept on fighting, and across the room from me, two of the elementals flanked a ghast and pummelled it until it collapsed to the floor.
Beset on all sides by the biting and clawing ghasts, Flynne was bitten on the arm, and almost immediately he stiffened. Teeth and claws continued to scrape off his armour as the three ghasts tried their best to find an exposed area of skin to tear and rip at. One of the creatures tore a small chunk of skin from his leg and chomped down on it, a sudden and dreamy look on his face as it swallowed.
Using his crossbow instead of his magic (having prepared his selection of spells that morning, Endo was ready for human opponents and not the undead), Endo shot a ghast through the throat, but it kept on fighting.
Shouldering his way through the ghasts, Igmut dashed up to Flynne and cast a spell which freed him instantly of the paralysis. The fight began to turn, as elementals and Sheba each crushed their opponents. Flynne and Igmut were still beset by foes, although rocky elementals were gliding at Malachite’s direction to help them, and the ghasts seemed largely unable to find any exposed flesh to tear at.
Restored and able to move, Flynne dashed backwards and fired his bow once again, and his target fell to the floor, where it was crushed underfoot by one of the squat elementals. Malachite drew his scimitar and dashed up to assist Sheba, who was swift to claw down the offending ghast, whilst on the other side of the room the Flynne’s arrow brought down yet another. We united against the last couple of creatures, smashing and hacking at them whilst Endo and I fired crossbows at them. They fell swiftly under our combined assault, never to move again.
.oOo.
We looked around, and Flynne crept away up one of the two exits to the room. He returned a minute or so later, telling us of a cave with a thigh-high stream of filthy water flowing through it.
He then looked up the other passage, but was holding his nose as he came back. Apparently, that way led a 300 foot wide cavern with over a dozen exits and perhaps 50 ghasts and larger creatures. We headed for the room with the river through it, and worked our way upstream until we reached an obvious end-point. From here, there was a wide filth-encrusted pipe which spilled refuse into the water, but no other exits.
As Flynne went up the pipe to scout out, the rest of us looked around our surroundings. Igmut was rewarded (in a sense) when he found a severed and heavily gnawed arm, which was still wearing a gauntlet which glowed to my eyes with magic. We experimented with the item, to learn that it could be used to dissolve metals at a command.
.oOo.
When Flynne dropped the rope, we were happy to leave the slimy cave and head up to a room of shaped stones and bricks, in a room which was clearly used to dispose of refuse. Ugly bloodstains marred the stone at the top of the pipe. Endo consulted his compass, and swore to us that we were now in a series of passages directly beneath Raknian’s palace building.
We headed up the corridor, but the instant we opened the door at the far end of it, we were assaulted by a group of three lumbering undead, each of them dripping with worms. We slammed the door and discussed our plans.
Grinning, I reached behind me and pulled out a new item – a carved wooden staff approximately 4 feet in length. We counted to ten, and heaved the door open as I triggered the magic contained within the staff, and a horrendous ball of fire blossomed in the room, crisping the worm-infested zombies in an instant.
We moved forwards to the next chamber down the corridor, which contained a decaying and empty bookshelf. To one side there lay an empty doorway, with the wood of the rotting door lying on the floor. New wooden double doors were to the north, and Flynne (sneaking a subtle look through the door) told us that there were 6 more worm-infested zombies together with some larger undead creature lumbering around the room beyond.
We set off down the side passage first, but this did not take long. A short walk to a room containing a broken down piece of ancient machinery which, Endo declared, used to be a water pump which would have filled the drains. There was still a two foot wide pipe, down which we could hear a faint humming noise.
In an instant, Malachite transformed himself into a rat and skittered off down the tunnel. Upon his return, he explained to us that there was a spongy wall of force blocking off the pipe, but that he could see a gigantic grub resting yet pulsating with an ever-growing power and menace.
Raknian had already created a zombie-making death-worm from the Apostolic Scrolls.
.oOo.
The two heavy wooden doors crashed open as Flynne kicked them, and we gripped our weapons tightly as a sudden wave of fear and stench rolled over us. Whining, Sheba bolted down the passageway and we could hear a crash as she leapt into the pipe and slid swiftly out of sight and out of reach.
The zombies lumbered forwards as Flynne fired and Igmut swung at them; missing. They didn’t try to smash at Igmut, but instead seemed to reach out and try to just touch him. Both of the closest didn’t manage to touch him, however; but we did see in horror that they held wriggling worms in their outstretched fingers.
From a little further back, a third zombie threw a fistful of the worms at Flynne, and they landed all around him, mostly pattering to the ground. Two of the worms, however, landed on him and started to crawl over his armour.
The largest of the undead approached, and we realised that it didn’t have any worms on it at all, but that its torso and head were crammed with a long purple tube, which lolled out of the skeletal head like a gruesome tongue; tipped with a snapping jaw. Its huge fist slammed down at Igmut, crashing against his braced shield.
More worms were thrown at the half-orc, with a couple of them landing on his shoulder-plate where they immediately started to crawl towards the seam where his helmet met his shoulder-plates.
I began to sing, hoping that my song would help Flynne and Igmut resist the worms before they touched their skin; Flynne ignored the tiny crawling creature, and his bow sang as it killed one of the zombies with frost-rimed arrows.
Igmut also ignored the worms, and struck the large undead (which Endo muttered was a ‘morgh’ – and he sounded alarmed as he said this). As his sword slammed home, he triggered the magics stored within the heavy blade, and a huge light burst out, burning the monster terribly. It screamed in pain and the dim light in its eyes blazed with fury, the purple ‘tongue’ writhing. A second heavy blow left the creature staggered, but not yet nearing death.
Suddenly both Flynne and Igmut yelled in pain as the worms found exposed flesh and bit deeply, wriggling in under the skin. Thin lines showed that the worms were headed upwards, and the two at Igmut’s neck seemed to be trying to find a way to penetrate his skull and get at his brain. Bellowing in frustration, Igmut fumbled at his belt for a knife and shouted “remove them – a spell to get rid of diseases should do it!”
As they fought to extricate themselves from combat to better remove the worms, more of the tiny writhing creatures were thrown by zombies, missing both of the two fighters as another zombie punched Igmut in the chestplate.
At Malachite’s summoning spell, a tiger larger and bulkier than Sheba appeared inside the room and charged at the biggest of the undead, clawing and biting at it. It responded by continuing its assault of Igmut, slamming his shield again before the ‘tongue’ shot out and clamped itself around Igmut’s throat.
As Flynne stepped back, I moved up to him, pulling a magical ring from my bag and expelling its stored spell into him. Instantly, the worms stopped moving, and I was able to pull their limp bodies out of the holes in his side before they vanished completely inside him. Endo dumped the contents of one of his flasks of holy water on the worms which were even now crawling over his armour. The holy water had no effect whatsoever. Flynne slapped at them, and both were squashed instantly under his fist.
Igmut stabbed himself in the back of the head with his belt knife, pulling out the mangled body of one worm. Suddenly, however, he started to yell in pain as the remaining worm found a gap and vanished into his skull. And he didn’t have the means of removing it as the creature began to feast.
.oOo.
At the back of the room, the tiger was swiftly littered with worms which were thrown at it and left on it by a punch from one of the zombies. 3 more zombies threw yet more worms at Igmut, who still had worms crawling on him from seconds earlier. His armour was swiftly littered with the tiny writhing creatures.
4 wolves materialised, tearing and biting at zombies and the morgh. The frenzied biting and tearing managed to trip one of the zombies, which fell to the floor shaking loose yet more of the worms.
Seeing so many of the worms both on the floor and covering Igmut, I resorted to a desperate ploy, casting a spell which boomed a resounding noise around Igmut. Small pieces of flesh fell from the zombies in the cacophony, and the many loose worms were suddenly reduced to mush in an instant.
Endo cast a spell of his own, and 3 of the 5 remaining zombies started to move extremely slowly.
Free of worms, Flynne plied his bow-trade; 2 arrows slammed into one zombie and killed it outright, before his third arrow practically froze the entire head of a second, shattering it as it fell to the floor.
The summoned tiger (whose skin writhed at the worms within it) and wolves assaulted the large morgh, which incredibly was brought to the floor by the attack, but clambered back to its feet despite being bitten by wolves yet again as it did so.
My magic wand fired, and another zombie collapsed, whilst a few feet away I could hear Endo’s raven familiar squawking as it flew up to Igmut, touching him with one claw.
Igmut’s form shuddered, and abruptly he was transformed. His armour and features dissolved into the form of a huge lump of acidic jelly; the tiny form of a worm dissolving abruptly at its centre.
Flynne’s arrows slammed into the largest of the undead, which suddenly collapsed, falling over a zombie as it went; Flynne was quick to capitalise as he fired a arrow into this opponent and slaying it in an instant. The wolves and tiger savaged another of the zombies. The last died an instant later as the ooze which was Igmut lashed out with a pseudopod and simply rolled over the worm-infested undead; the virulent acids contained within his form dissolved the zombie and its many worms in a matter of seconds.
Outside, we could hear voices, plainly guards, and one of them was grumbling to the other.
“It’s just so difficult to keep Madtooth’s cage cold,” complained the voice. I looked up sharply at the others, and then sauntered outside, stretching.
The two guards were friendly enough, although plainly on duty and reluctant to discuss things in depth. I did manage to turn the conversation around to the dwarven berserkers, who were something of a ‘house team’, having been trained by the arena’s guard captain. They were well known for fighting with flaming swords of purest adamantine and shields, together with finely-wrought chainmail.
The next round, they offered, always saw one team fighting a terrible monster, but they wouldn’t be permitted to give me any details. With Endo’s help, a large gemstone swapped hands, and the guardsman admitted that it was a frost salamander; a creature the size of a small house which radiates a deadly cold effect, but was deeply vulnerable to fire.
Their tongues loosened by the bribe, they were also prepared to talk about Raknian, who they described as ‘a good guy’. One of the two dimly recorded Lahaka as a talented artist who may have been sleeping with Raknian, but she was rumoured to have skipped town immediately after the games. Raknian also cleared the ghouls out to the south, together with a group of others (including his now guard captain). The tailored stone was then placed over a flooded cavern to stop the ghouls getting out. The stone lay within the southernmost part of the Coenoby, a dilapidated area known as the ‘Titan’s House’, largely buried under tonnes of rubble, but a 10 foot tall alabaster statue known as ‘the Titan’ remained.
.oOo.
Having bidden the guards farewell, we headed to the Titan’s House ourselves. The plug of stone was perfectly plain to see, buried under ten feet of water. Looking around, we headed back for our evening meal, before equipping and returning.
After several minutes of efforts with ropes and levers, we heaved the plug free from the water which immediately all but drained away down the hole. Clearly, the rumours of the chambers beneath having been flooded had been greatly exaggerated. To be safe, however, Igmut cast a spell which he assured us would let us breathe under the water; we then leapt into the deep, pausing only to heave the stone slab shut behind us.
When we pulled ourselves out of the freezing water, we found ourselves in a narrow tunnel, down which Flynne crept silently. He returned with a report, and a grimace. He was holding his nose against a stench which crept around the corridor, coming from 9 or 10 shuffling and rotting figures at the end of the corridor.
After Igmut had fashioned us rough masks of water-soaked cloth, we set off down the corridor with Flynne preceding us. As he reached the edge of the room, there was an abrupt cessation in the groans. Silently, the stinking ghoul-like creatures lurched towards Flynne with an alarming speed. They slashed at him with claws and opened their jaws wide to try and bite lumps out of him, but the nimble elf was too quick for them.
Igmut piled in with his spear, driving it into the closest stinking ghoul as Flynne slashed around him with his enchanted sword.
I moved as close as I could bear given the terrible smell, and started to blast at the undead with a magical wand, firing pairs of missiles into them whilst Malachite summoned a clutch of earth elementals and Sheba crashed into the fray, tearing apart one of the ghouls; in return, their clawed fingers scraped down Flynne’s new mithril buckler and Igmut’s heavy armour.
Behind me, I could hear Endo muttering. “Too nimble, the teeth too pronounced, and the skin-tone shows sign of a prolonged diet of… Guys, these are ghasts, not ghouls!”
Almost immediately, Igmut’s spear brought one low, but he was rapidly surrounded by other creatures and forced to draw his greatsword and defend himself. Flynne leapt away from this fray, firing his bow as he did so; almost immediately, he was charged by three more of the ghasts.
More magic blasted from my wand, and the ghast closest to me collapsed to the floor under the assault. Bitten to the neck, Sheba kept on fighting, and across the room from me, two of the elementals flanked a ghast and pummelled it until it collapsed to the floor.
Beset on all sides by the biting and clawing ghasts, Flynne was bitten on the arm, and almost immediately he stiffened. Teeth and claws continued to scrape off his armour as the three ghasts tried their best to find an exposed area of skin to tear and rip at. One of the creatures tore a small chunk of skin from his leg and chomped down on it, a sudden and dreamy look on his face as it swallowed.
Using his crossbow instead of his magic (having prepared his selection of spells that morning, Endo was ready for human opponents and not the undead), Endo shot a ghast through the throat, but it kept on fighting.
Shouldering his way through the ghasts, Igmut dashed up to Flynne and cast a spell which freed him instantly of the paralysis. The fight began to turn, as elementals and Sheba each crushed their opponents. Flynne and Igmut were still beset by foes, although rocky elementals were gliding at Malachite’s direction to help them, and the ghasts seemed largely unable to find any exposed flesh to tear at.
Restored and able to move, Flynne dashed backwards and fired his bow once again, and his target fell to the floor, where it was crushed underfoot by one of the squat elementals. Malachite drew his scimitar and dashed up to assist Sheba, who was swift to claw down the offending ghast, whilst on the other side of the room the Flynne’s arrow brought down yet another. We united against the last couple of creatures, smashing and hacking at them whilst Endo and I fired crossbows at them. They fell swiftly under our combined assault, never to move again.
.oOo.
We looked around, and Flynne crept away up one of the two exits to the room. He returned a minute or so later, telling us of a cave with a thigh-high stream of filthy water flowing through it.
He then looked up the other passage, but was holding his nose as he came back. Apparently, that way led a 300 foot wide cavern with over a dozen exits and perhaps 50 ghasts and larger creatures. We headed for the room with the river through it, and worked our way upstream until we reached an obvious end-point. From here, there was a wide filth-encrusted pipe which spilled refuse into the water, but no other exits.
As Flynne went up the pipe to scout out, the rest of us looked around our surroundings. Igmut was rewarded (in a sense) when he found a severed and heavily gnawed arm, which was still wearing a gauntlet which glowed to my eyes with magic. We experimented with the item, to learn that it could be used to dissolve metals at a command.
.oOo.
When Flynne dropped the rope, we were happy to leave the slimy cave and head up to a room of shaped stones and bricks, in a room which was clearly used to dispose of refuse. Ugly bloodstains marred the stone at the top of the pipe. Endo consulted his compass, and swore to us that we were now in a series of passages directly beneath Raknian’s palace building.
We headed up the corridor, but the instant we opened the door at the far end of it, we were assaulted by a group of three lumbering undead, each of them dripping with worms. We slammed the door and discussed our plans.
Grinning, I reached behind me and pulled out a new item – a carved wooden staff approximately 4 feet in length. We counted to ten, and heaved the door open as I triggered the magic contained within the staff, and a horrendous ball of fire blossomed in the room, crisping the worm-infested zombies in an instant.
We moved forwards to the next chamber down the corridor, which contained a decaying and empty bookshelf. To one side there lay an empty doorway, with the wood of the rotting door lying on the floor. New wooden double doors were to the north, and Flynne (sneaking a subtle look through the door) told us that there were 6 more worm-infested zombies together with some larger undead creature lumbering around the room beyond.
We set off down the side passage first, but this did not take long. A short walk to a room containing a broken down piece of ancient machinery which, Endo declared, used to be a water pump which would have filled the drains. There was still a two foot wide pipe, down which we could hear a faint humming noise.
In an instant, Malachite transformed himself into a rat and skittered off down the tunnel. Upon his return, he explained to us that there was a spongy wall of force blocking off the pipe, but that he could see a gigantic grub resting yet pulsating with an ever-growing power and menace.
Raknian had already created a zombie-making death-worm from the Apostolic Scrolls.
.oOo.
The two heavy wooden doors crashed open as Flynne kicked them, and we gripped our weapons tightly as a sudden wave of fear and stench rolled over us. Whining, Sheba bolted down the passageway and we could hear a crash as she leapt into the pipe and slid swiftly out of sight and out of reach.
The zombies lumbered forwards as Flynne fired and Igmut swung at them; missing. They didn’t try to smash at Igmut, but instead seemed to reach out and try to just touch him. Both of the closest didn’t manage to touch him, however; but we did see in horror that they held wriggling worms in their outstretched fingers.
From a little further back, a third zombie threw a fistful of the worms at Flynne, and they landed all around him, mostly pattering to the ground. Two of the worms, however, landed on him and started to crawl over his armour.
The largest of the undead approached, and we realised that it didn’t have any worms on it at all, but that its torso and head were crammed with a long purple tube, which lolled out of the skeletal head like a gruesome tongue; tipped with a snapping jaw. Its huge fist slammed down at Igmut, crashing against his braced shield.
More worms were thrown at the half-orc, with a couple of them landing on his shoulder-plate where they immediately started to crawl towards the seam where his helmet met his shoulder-plates.
I began to sing, hoping that my song would help Flynne and Igmut resist the worms before they touched their skin; Flynne ignored the tiny crawling creature, and his bow sang as it killed one of the zombies with frost-rimed arrows.
Igmut also ignored the worms, and struck the large undead (which Endo muttered was a ‘morgh’ – and he sounded alarmed as he said this). As his sword slammed home, he triggered the magics stored within the heavy blade, and a huge light burst out, burning the monster terribly. It screamed in pain and the dim light in its eyes blazed with fury, the purple ‘tongue’ writhing. A second heavy blow left the creature staggered, but not yet nearing death.
Suddenly both Flynne and Igmut yelled in pain as the worms found exposed flesh and bit deeply, wriggling in under the skin. Thin lines showed that the worms were headed upwards, and the two at Igmut’s neck seemed to be trying to find a way to penetrate his skull and get at his brain. Bellowing in frustration, Igmut fumbled at his belt for a knife and shouted “remove them – a spell to get rid of diseases should do it!”
As they fought to extricate themselves from combat to better remove the worms, more of the tiny writhing creatures were thrown by zombies, missing both of the two fighters as another zombie punched Igmut in the chestplate.
At Malachite’s summoning spell, a tiger larger and bulkier than Sheba appeared inside the room and charged at the biggest of the undead, clawing and biting at it. It responded by continuing its assault of Igmut, slamming his shield again before the ‘tongue’ shot out and clamped itself around Igmut’s throat.
As Flynne stepped back, I moved up to him, pulling a magical ring from my bag and expelling its stored spell into him. Instantly, the worms stopped moving, and I was able to pull their limp bodies out of the holes in his side before they vanished completely inside him. Endo dumped the contents of one of his flasks of holy water on the worms which were even now crawling over his armour. The holy water had no effect whatsoever. Flynne slapped at them, and both were squashed instantly under his fist.
Igmut stabbed himself in the back of the head with his belt knife, pulling out the mangled body of one worm. Suddenly, however, he started to yell in pain as the remaining worm found a gap and vanished into his skull. And he didn’t have the means of removing it as the creature began to feast.
.oOo.
At the back of the room, the tiger was swiftly littered with worms which were thrown at it and left on it by a punch from one of the zombies. 3 more zombies threw yet more worms at Igmut, who still had worms crawling on him from seconds earlier. His armour was swiftly littered with the tiny writhing creatures.
4 wolves materialised, tearing and biting at zombies and the morgh. The frenzied biting and tearing managed to trip one of the zombies, which fell to the floor shaking loose yet more of the worms.
Seeing so many of the worms both on the floor and covering Igmut, I resorted to a desperate ploy, casting a spell which boomed a resounding noise around Igmut. Small pieces of flesh fell from the zombies in the cacophony, and the many loose worms were suddenly reduced to mush in an instant.
Endo cast a spell of his own, and 3 of the 5 remaining zombies started to move extremely slowly.
Free of worms, Flynne plied his bow-trade; 2 arrows slammed into one zombie and killed it outright, before his third arrow practically froze the entire head of a second, shattering it as it fell to the floor.
The summoned tiger (whose skin writhed at the worms within it) and wolves assaulted the large morgh, which incredibly was brought to the floor by the attack, but clambered back to its feet despite being bitten by wolves yet again as it did so.
My magic wand fired, and another zombie collapsed, whilst a few feet away I could hear Endo’s raven familiar squawking as it flew up to Igmut, touching him with one claw.
Igmut’s form shuddered, and abruptly he was transformed. His armour and features dissolved into the form of a huge lump of acidic jelly; the tiny form of a worm dissolving abruptly at its centre.
Flynne’s arrows slammed into the largest of the undead, which suddenly collapsed, falling over a zombie as it went; Flynne was quick to capitalise as he fired a arrow into this opponent and slaying it in an instant. The wolves and tiger savaged another of the zombies. The last died an instant later as the ooze which was Igmut lashed out with a pseudopod and simply rolled over the worm-infested undead; the virulent acids contained within his form dissolved the zombie and its many worms in a matter of seconds.
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