The Age of Worms - Morrus' Campaign - Finished 6th August!!
Cerulean_Wings
First Post
Eccles said:
Disrupted weeks? Very understandable, I'm going through that right now. Sorry if I sounded impatient, I only meant to express encouragement.
And your next-entry foreshadowing leaves me even more anxious!
Mathew_Freeman
First Post
Eccles said:
What, he just wandered off?
"No seriously, I just looked away for a minute and he'd gone!"
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
There followed a period of close examination of the heavy machine, covered in levers, dials and inscrutable readouts. Heavy fluids flowed through and under crystalline pipework, and three rune-encrusted pillars of gemwork stood above it, creating a framework in which hovered a sinister black sphere. The sphere was silent, yet even a glance at it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and getting too close was followed by a feeling of weakness and terror. The thing stank of unholy magics and power.
“Negative energy?” I looked to Janga, who nodded once in confirmation.
“Well then this is bad,” I concluded. “As near as I can tell, it seems to be tapping the Plane of Negative Energy and feeding its powers directly here; no doubt it feeds anything undead and saps those of us with any vitality until we join them.”
“So we smash it,” roared Fez as he ran up and brought his blazing sunblade down onto one of the crystalline tubes. It shattered, sending thick black blood-like liquid spattering all over the blade and his arm. He howled and clutched his arm, collapsing to the floor in pain as the thick liquid crawled up the weapon. Even as we moved to help him, several ghostly figures emerged from around the machine’s black central sphere.
Each of the four ghostly creatures had eight long whip-like arms, each ended with a gnashing set of teeth. From behind me, Bob fired a series of enchanted arrows, which sliced through the air and then passed harmlessly through it; only one of the arrows tugged at the creature’s form. Flynne followed suit, and two of his long arrows made the creature ripple in pain.
Janga started casting, and I enthused my comrades with song and a spell of speed; but we weren’t quick enough. Fez was still lying on the floor trembling in pain as the four ghostly monstrosities closed on us. The first lashed out at Flynne, and he trembled as its first long limb passed through his torso, making him momentarily look close to collapse; then the monstrosity unleashed a frenzy of lashing biting attacks on him.
Another pulsed once, and Bob and I could both feel something try to throw us through the air – we both managed to stay on the ground as the other two pulsed as well, but were unable to shift Janga’s armoured form.
The cleric’s summoning spell came to an end, and several angelic forms burst into the air around us. Bob followed this up with a powerful healing spell, but I could see a tidal wave of magic as his healthy positive spell was pulled away into the maelstrom of the unlife vortex like water down a drain.
I cast a spell of my own, slamming a wall of mystical force between us and most of the long-tendrilled ghosts. Only one of the four was on our side, and Flynne (taking another lash as he did so and starting to look distinctly punch-drunk) fired another barrage of arrows at the closest creature. With a wailing noise, it was torn apart by the arrows, and drifted apart.
The other three monsters, however, surged through the wall and ceiling to emerge amongst us, and with a bite from one of them, Flynne collapsed, twitching, to the floor. I looked up, and was alarmed to see Fez on the other side of the Force Wall was still now, covered in the black liquid and moving only in deep shuddering pulses, which were echoed by throbs from the black sphere above him.
Being lashed painfully himself, Bob took aim as well. His arrow struck true but dealt only minimal damage – Bob, however, was quivering on his feet and his face was pale, looking dangerously close to catatonia.
Flynne was down, Bob nearly with him, and Fez’s life force had been nearly entirely leeched away by the evil machine. Janga and I were surrounded by the lashing long-limbed beings, which were spaced equally around us and ready to unleash death upon us.
Trouble.
.oOo.
I muttered some words and snatched at my belt pouch, having summoned one of my more expensive scrolls to the top of the bag’s large extradimensional space. Ducking a lashing blow, I unrolled the scroll and read it, and was rewarded by the sight of a snapping beak hurtling towards my throat.
As the words burned away from the scroll, the savage attack slowed, and then stopped in the air inches away from me. I stepped aside, clutching the Staff of the Magi, which I used to summon wall after wall of roasting, rolling flame, circling Flynne, Bob, Janga and myself and facing outwards. Then I created still more walls of fire a little further away, facing inwards.
I was interrupted in my sixth casting by Janga prodding my side.
“You can stop now,” he said. “I think you got ‘em.”
I could barely hear him above the multiple infernos, and it took me some moments to unweave the spells. By the time I had done so, Janga had healed all of us except Fez. We dashed towards the machine, but as we drew close we could see that all that remained of him was a pile of enchanted weapons and equipment.
Was it possible that the black unlife vortex was a little larger? Or were we imagining it?
.oOo.
As the others scooped up the equipment, I spent my time examining the machine from a careful distance. Eventually, I straightened, my spine popping as I did so.
“I think I’ve got it. I can turn it of, but they’d turn it back on again. I can muck it up, but they could fix it. Or I can make it … well, I can make it blow up. But you’d better get to a safe distance before I do it.”
“How far’s safe,” asked Janga curiously.
“Half a mile? This is hardly precise. It’s not alchemy…”
I could see they were already backing away.
.oOo.
Fifteen minutes later, I was ready. A spectral horse stood motionless behind me, and several spells of protection lay over both it and myself. I rolled up my sleeves and began to manipulate the switches and pull the levers. The machine shuddered, and the unlife vortex began to crackle with black lightning.
I was swinging my leg onto the horse when the building began to shudder, and the horse had surged into motion as the crackling and unstable conduit to the negative energy plane began to shrink in on itself.
I was halfway down the long corridor out of the complex when a terrible rushing wind began to go past me, being sucked into the vortex and it collapsed.
The wind stopped, and then began to hurtle past me. Even as I was thrown off my spectral mount, I summoned all my concentration to cast a spell of teleportation.
The explosion washed over my body.
.oOo.
My next breath was drawn a thousand miles away. I was still underground, but standing before a statue with a dark mouth. I unfolded a square of material and placed it on the ground and then pulled the wire loop of the Talisman of Sphere Control from the special wrist-sheathe I had commissioned for it months ago.
Using it, and focussing my concentration on it rather than trying to bully the artefact to obey me through pure mystical force, guiding the Sphere of Annihilation into the Portable Hole was almost laughably easy.
Then I teleported back to my comrades in the city.
.oOo.
After using a scroll of massive potency to wish that we were rested and ready for what might come, and we set off for the ziggurat which loomed over the town.
.oOo.
The massive structure was easily 300 feet high, topped with a three segmented tower like a massive trident rising from the peak of the pyramidal structure. Lightning leapt from balcony to balcony of the structure.
At the base, there were 4 entrances, which were mirrored at the level above and again in the layer above that. There were further entrances in the tower and we cast the spells to approach it.
Janga’s spell of pathfinding directed us to the top of the tower as the ‘focal point of the energies in the structure’, and then he used an item to summon a flying griffon which preceded us up the tower to make sure than nothing would snatch it out of the air.
Once the griffon was flying around the tower top, we followed it up, and hovering above the tower’s central platform, we could see a pinnacle of black rock, which seemed to writhe under the surface as though filled with the eldritch worms.
The pinnacle was surrounded by four ‘L’ shaped rocks, clearly designed to focus some mystical power.
Flynne went first, touching down on the platform and heading for the stairs down.
.oOo.
The instant the elf’s foot touched the tower, the clouds overhead abruptly went green, and a green tendril of energies, like a tornado, whirled around us. It touched the tower, and a massive sphere of dark necromantic energies burst from the ziggurat, hurtling outwards in all directions slaying hundreds, perhaps thousands, beneath us. It burst over us all, and whilst I was strangely unaffected, my comrades were agonised by its power. Flynne and Bob were both abruptly frozen in place in abject terror; Flynne on the tower itself, and Bob turning gently in the sky, wings on his boots flapping madly.
The entire side of the dark tower rippled strangely, and then two torrents of worms streamed out of it, forming into the form of a tremendously large executioner’s mace. A huge fist clutching the weapon formed out of the stream of worms, and then Kyuss himself simply emerged from the building, towering over us.
As Janga prayed, I could feel the wash of positive energies come from him, freeing the others and protecting us all from Kyuss’ baleful influence; though I couldn’t imagine what it had cost him to channel that much of his deity’s power.
Then Kyuss’ dreadful gaze turned onto us, as tiny undead forms streamed out of the bast of the ziggurat and began to look up, some taking flight to join the combat alongside their deity.
“Uh… Uhh…”
I didn’t know what to say or do – as a vengeful deity prepared to destroy us all, it was hopeless.
We were doomed.
“Uh…”
“Negative energy?” I looked to Janga, who nodded once in confirmation.
“Well then this is bad,” I concluded. “As near as I can tell, it seems to be tapping the Plane of Negative Energy and feeding its powers directly here; no doubt it feeds anything undead and saps those of us with any vitality until we join them.”
“So we smash it,” roared Fez as he ran up and brought his blazing sunblade down onto one of the crystalline tubes. It shattered, sending thick black blood-like liquid spattering all over the blade and his arm. He howled and clutched his arm, collapsing to the floor in pain as the thick liquid crawled up the weapon. Even as we moved to help him, several ghostly figures emerged from around the machine’s black central sphere.
Each of the four ghostly creatures had eight long whip-like arms, each ended with a gnashing set of teeth. From behind me, Bob fired a series of enchanted arrows, which sliced through the air and then passed harmlessly through it; only one of the arrows tugged at the creature’s form. Flynne followed suit, and two of his long arrows made the creature ripple in pain.
Janga started casting, and I enthused my comrades with song and a spell of speed; but we weren’t quick enough. Fez was still lying on the floor trembling in pain as the four ghostly monstrosities closed on us. The first lashed out at Flynne, and he trembled as its first long limb passed through his torso, making him momentarily look close to collapse; then the monstrosity unleashed a frenzy of lashing biting attacks on him.
Another pulsed once, and Bob and I could both feel something try to throw us through the air – we both managed to stay on the ground as the other two pulsed as well, but were unable to shift Janga’s armoured form.
The cleric’s summoning spell came to an end, and several angelic forms burst into the air around us. Bob followed this up with a powerful healing spell, but I could see a tidal wave of magic as his healthy positive spell was pulled away into the maelstrom of the unlife vortex like water down a drain.
I cast a spell of my own, slamming a wall of mystical force between us and most of the long-tendrilled ghosts. Only one of the four was on our side, and Flynne (taking another lash as he did so and starting to look distinctly punch-drunk) fired another barrage of arrows at the closest creature. With a wailing noise, it was torn apart by the arrows, and drifted apart.
The other three monsters, however, surged through the wall and ceiling to emerge amongst us, and with a bite from one of them, Flynne collapsed, twitching, to the floor. I looked up, and was alarmed to see Fez on the other side of the Force Wall was still now, covered in the black liquid and moving only in deep shuddering pulses, which were echoed by throbs from the black sphere above him.
Being lashed painfully himself, Bob took aim as well. His arrow struck true but dealt only minimal damage – Bob, however, was quivering on his feet and his face was pale, looking dangerously close to catatonia.
Flynne was down, Bob nearly with him, and Fez’s life force had been nearly entirely leeched away by the evil machine. Janga and I were surrounded by the lashing long-limbed beings, which were spaced equally around us and ready to unleash death upon us.
Trouble.
.oOo.
I muttered some words and snatched at my belt pouch, having summoned one of my more expensive scrolls to the top of the bag’s large extradimensional space. Ducking a lashing blow, I unrolled the scroll and read it, and was rewarded by the sight of a snapping beak hurtling towards my throat.
As the words burned away from the scroll, the savage attack slowed, and then stopped in the air inches away from me. I stepped aside, clutching the Staff of the Magi, which I used to summon wall after wall of roasting, rolling flame, circling Flynne, Bob, Janga and myself and facing outwards. Then I created still more walls of fire a little further away, facing inwards.
I was interrupted in my sixth casting by Janga prodding my side.
“You can stop now,” he said. “I think you got ‘em.”
I could barely hear him above the multiple infernos, and it took me some moments to unweave the spells. By the time I had done so, Janga had healed all of us except Fez. We dashed towards the machine, but as we drew close we could see that all that remained of him was a pile of enchanted weapons and equipment.
Was it possible that the black unlife vortex was a little larger? Or were we imagining it?
.oOo.
As the others scooped up the equipment, I spent my time examining the machine from a careful distance. Eventually, I straightened, my spine popping as I did so.
“I think I’ve got it. I can turn it of, but they’d turn it back on again. I can muck it up, but they could fix it. Or I can make it … well, I can make it blow up. But you’d better get to a safe distance before I do it.”
“How far’s safe,” asked Janga curiously.
“Half a mile? This is hardly precise. It’s not alchemy…”
I could see they were already backing away.
.oOo.
Fifteen minutes later, I was ready. A spectral horse stood motionless behind me, and several spells of protection lay over both it and myself. I rolled up my sleeves and began to manipulate the switches and pull the levers. The machine shuddered, and the unlife vortex began to crackle with black lightning.
I was swinging my leg onto the horse when the building began to shudder, and the horse had surged into motion as the crackling and unstable conduit to the negative energy plane began to shrink in on itself.
I was halfway down the long corridor out of the complex when a terrible rushing wind began to go past me, being sucked into the vortex and it collapsed.
The wind stopped, and then began to hurtle past me. Even as I was thrown off my spectral mount, I summoned all my concentration to cast a spell of teleportation.
The explosion washed over my body.
.oOo.
My next breath was drawn a thousand miles away. I was still underground, but standing before a statue with a dark mouth. I unfolded a square of material and placed it on the ground and then pulled the wire loop of the Talisman of Sphere Control from the special wrist-sheathe I had commissioned for it months ago.
Using it, and focussing my concentration on it rather than trying to bully the artefact to obey me through pure mystical force, guiding the Sphere of Annihilation into the Portable Hole was almost laughably easy.
Then I teleported back to my comrades in the city.
.oOo.
After using a scroll of massive potency to wish that we were rested and ready for what might come, and we set off for the ziggurat which loomed over the town.
.oOo.
The massive structure was easily 300 feet high, topped with a three segmented tower like a massive trident rising from the peak of the pyramidal structure. Lightning leapt from balcony to balcony of the structure.
At the base, there were 4 entrances, which were mirrored at the level above and again in the layer above that. There were further entrances in the tower and we cast the spells to approach it.
Janga’s spell of pathfinding directed us to the top of the tower as the ‘focal point of the energies in the structure’, and then he used an item to summon a flying griffon which preceded us up the tower to make sure than nothing would snatch it out of the air.
Once the griffon was flying around the tower top, we followed it up, and hovering above the tower’s central platform, we could see a pinnacle of black rock, which seemed to writhe under the surface as though filled with the eldritch worms.
The pinnacle was surrounded by four ‘L’ shaped rocks, clearly designed to focus some mystical power.
Flynne went first, touching down on the platform and heading for the stairs down.
.oOo.
The instant the elf’s foot touched the tower, the clouds overhead abruptly went green, and a green tendril of energies, like a tornado, whirled around us. It touched the tower, and a massive sphere of dark necromantic energies burst from the ziggurat, hurtling outwards in all directions slaying hundreds, perhaps thousands, beneath us. It burst over us all, and whilst I was strangely unaffected, my comrades were agonised by its power. Flynne and Bob were both abruptly frozen in place in abject terror; Flynne on the tower itself, and Bob turning gently in the sky, wings on his boots flapping madly.
The entire side of the dark tower rippled strangely, and then two torrents of worms streamed out of it, forming into the form of a tremendously large executioner’s mace. A huge fist clutching the weapon formed out of the stream of worms, and then Kyuss himself simply emerged from the building, towering over us.
As Janga prayed, I could feel the wash of positive energies come from him, freeing the others and protecting us all from Kyuss’ baleful influence; though I couldn’t imagine what it had cost him to channel that much of his deity’s power.
Then Kyuss’ dreadful gaze turned onto us, as tiny undead forms streamed out of the bast of the ziggurat and began to look up, some taking flight to join the combat alongside their deity.
“Uh… Uhh…”
I didn’t know what to say or do – as a vengeful deity prepared to destroy us all, it was hopeless.
We were doomed.
“Uh…”
carborundum
Adventurer
Eccles said:
At least you got his stuff
Seriously though ... where'd he go? Does he come back? Will he save the day? You can't leave it at "Uh..."
ARGH!
Here's what we'll do. I'm off to bed. When I wake up all will be revealed. Okay?
(please?)
Cerulean_Wings
First Post
Awesome write up, Eccles, glad you could post it
Still, not-so-awesome for the group: K-dawg himself emerged! Was this a good thing, in the sense that it's the best that could've happened, or was there another way to reach the Big Bad Worm?
And what's the DC for disabling a World Destruction Device? 60? 70?
Still, not-so-awesome for the group: K-dawg himself emerged! Was this a good thing, in the sense that it's the best that could've happened, or was there another way to reach the Big Bad Worm?
And what's the DC for disabling a World Destruction Device? 60? 70?
Mathew_Freeman
First Post
Eccles said:
I take it the player left the game - a touch of bad form there, to leave so close to the end!
Or are we about to see a last-minute replacement character?
Excellent write up, and excellent work with the Walls of Fire (I presume that was what it was?)
carborundum
Adventurer
I miss Fez already.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Tallarn said:I take it the player left the game - a touch of bad form there, to leave so close to the end!
Or are we about to see a last-minute replacement character?
Excellent write up, and excellent work with the Walls of Fire (I presume that was what it was?)
Yeah - Inconsequenti-Al got a new job and has had to leave us due to the exceedingly late nights.
And it was the classic Time Stop/Wall of Fire combo. Suddenly being surrounded by something like 260hp damage seemed to do the trick. Janga and I were in a heck of a lot of trouble, so it was definitely time to get out the big guns...
carborundum said:
Believe me, so do we! The only character we had with a decent HtH attack, high AC and lots of HP... Those three things seem to be pretty important!
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