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The Age of Worms - Morrus' Campaign - Finished 6th August!!
- Thread starter Eccles
- Start date
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
The dozen giants gathered around us, slapping one another on the back and kicking over the dismembered chunks of dragon with gleeful curiosity. Bending down towards us, the one who had let us into the now-demolished tower muttered deafeningly into our ears.
“You have our thanks, tiny giants. You wish to see king?”
“I thought you said that the king was dead,” I asked whilst looking at my comrades in confusion.
“Nah,” said the hill giant whilst shaking his head. “Nearly dead, if that helps. Bagg now in charge. We stay here and rebuild tower, leader is down there in palace.” He gestured down the slope at a large building on one of the spires perhaps a mile away before continuing. “You be careful down there – dragons. Stay away from Tiamakh and Nulshaddha tribes; they in citadel hiding from dragons.”
Thanking the giant, we headed into Kongen-Thulnir. The city itself was practically in ruins. Buildings stacked hundreds of feet high with giants and a bugbear slave-race both rebuilding the ruined defences and defending themselves from the dragons above.
As we picked our way invisibly through the smashed city, we saw to our right a gigantic ladder leading downwards into the canyon – each of the rungs of the ladder easily as large as I was tall. Beyond that lay a colossal rope bridge which led out to another of the spires, which was littered with the ruins of ballista and catapult emplacements, some of which still smoked with heat or steamed with terrible other draconic breath weapons.
As we continued onwards, the tremendous ledge on which the city was placed narrowed considerably as it rounded a corner in the cliff wall. Under an overhang stood a single ballista which was still intact.
“Invisible Dragon!”
It was Endo, still mounted on the fiery phantom steed he had summoned earlier he wheeled the mount about and began to move away from the rest of us. I had no sooner registered what he was doing than a flash of talons and teeth blinked in and out of sight, and the powerfully invisible dragon crashed down onto Endo.
The brief glimpses I had of it were of a massive brown-grey beast covered from head to tail in spurs of bone. As it flashed in and out of sight, I could see it cast a spell at great speed and a lance of black energies bathed Fez’s annis-hag form, and he slumped as much of his strength was drained from him.
As we were all invisible, I couldn’t really see what Janga was doing, but from the sounds he was making he was casting a spell designed to strip the dragon’s protections away – it had no appreciable effect whatsoever.
I then heard Endo fling a blindness spell at the dragon. With this he appeared to my eyes, but then called up a dimension door to transport him away from the dragon as its toothy maw turned towards him.
Fez quaffed something which made him look considerably stronger once more, and then moved to one side. I tried to help with a dispelling enchantment of my own, but the beast remained invisible, even if my magic-detecting glasses showed that a small number of the dragon’s many tremendously powerful protective wards had fallen.
Whilst none of us could see the dragon, we could see Flynne as he materialised firing his bow repeatedly. Arrows could be seen to strike the dragon, raising sparks on its armour plates and ricocheting off in wild directions. The dragon, meanwhile, had moved towards Janga, and in a series of dreadful blows we could see the dragon appearing. One instant we could see it at the very moment that its awful teeth closed across his armour, and then it vanished again to show Janga standing gasping after some terrible power had taken effect, and we could see the massive series of rents and tears in his armour.
Then the dragon was obscuring our view once more as its wings slammed home, crashing into the gnome’s helmet and leaving him dazed and bleeding from the mouth. The huge dragon disappeared once again, and reappeared as its tail crashed into Janga’s knees from behind. Then it was gone as Janga’s armoured form crashed to the floor.
First one, then a second huge set of scythe-like bony claws drove home into the gnome’s chest and stomach, sending showers of blood into the air and forcing a flow of dark blood up from the tiny cleric’s mouth.
With an invisible pull, the dragon was briefly visible only in the shower of blood and gore as it tore Janga into two pieces. The blood faded from sight as the dragon’s invisibility spell took effect once more, and it was too late for Janga – he was beyond any of our abilities to heal, lying on the floor in two pieces.
I did not understand what spells Endo cast then, but it was clear from his oaths that they had failed, and then Fez charged towards the invisible dragon whilst screaming – but his scythe swing went wild.
Joining him, I swallowed deeply as I ran in singing a spell. I managed to slap the flank of the gigantic beast, and could hear the dragon’s footsteps change; it began to shuffle and stomp along with the music I had managed to plant in its mind.
As Endo had dashed to Flynne’s side, I then grabbed what remained of Janga’s body and cast a dimension travel spell of my own to join them, as Fez slashed and Flynne fired at the beast; much of the steel of their weapons glancing off the titanic plates on the creature. One of Fez’s swings, however, drove home in a titanic upwards swing, which would have utterly disembowelled a lesser creature.
With the realisation that we were not going to be able to drag the raging Fez from the creature, I cast yet another dispelling magic upon the dragon, and it finally lost its invisibility protection.
With a sudden sinking feeling, 9 identically wounded dragons appeared before us, snarling and twisting in the air as it lashed out savagely towards us. Flynne’s arrows began systematically whittling away the images with pinpoint accuracy. The Dragon, however, was equal to this as it shook off my spell which had made it dance, and unleashed its full savage fury on Fez, knocking him to the floor with a sweep of its wing and stamping down repeatedly on his head.
The barbarian, however, was made of tougher stuff than the cleric, and his armour was, despite its shabby appearances, highly effective. He shook his head and swung the scythe upwards towards the creature’s belly.
Endo then tossed me a wand which I had seen him use before, and as I started activating it to make my next blow strike true, he unrolled a scroll and read from it, ending “I wish that we were all healed”.
Unwounded myself, I could see the terrible injuries on Fez close as his skin knotted back together. The massive injury to Endo’s scalp closed as well and we tightened our grips on our weapons in readiness. Flynne managed to destroy another of the remaining images, but other arrows sparked off the creature’s armour – more worrying still one of the shots slid through the beast – it was clearly protected with yet more powerful protections we had not been aware of.
The dragon savaged Fez once again; smashing him heavily with its claws and its bite turning his flesh ashen grey. As I thought through the spells in my mind, I began fumbling through a scroll tube to locate the scroll I had which would help alleviate his drained condition. Though terribly wounded once again, Fez bravely continued to slash at the beast, causing it yet more significant damage.
Quickening a spell through the power of his magical rod, Endo flung two spells into the creature – I recognised the second as a powerful spell which could reduce the target to ashes. However, neither spell had any effect – the creature was so powerfully resistant to magic that even my lich-like half-orc comrade’s spells had no effect.
Ducking and weaving as I ran forwards, I tried to replicate my earlier success and distract the wounded dragon with the magic of song. Slapping my hand down accurately onto its flank through the power of Endo’s wand, I released my spell, and felt it strike, and then shatter completely on the dragon’s magical resistances.
From within inches of the dragon’s massive flank, I saw its sinuous neck rise up and slash down twice onto Fez. Though the blood flowed freely from his many wounds, they did not look truly life threatening yet, but something from the dragon’s bite caused the savage to stiffen like a board, before collapsing to the floor. I could see that he wasn’t breathing, but then I saw the dragon’s savage maw twisted like a striking snake.
The last thing I saw was the massive barbed teeth closing around my head. There was a brief flash of pain, and then nothing.
“You have our thanks, tiny giants. You wish to see king?”
“I thought you said that the king was dead,” I asked whilst looking at my comrades in confusion.
“Nah,” said the hill giant whilst shaking his head. “Nearly dead, if that helps. Bagg now in charge. We stay here and rebuild tower, leader is down there in palace.” He gestured down the slope at a large building on one of the spires perhaps a mile away before continuing. “You be careful down there – dragons. Stay away from Tiamakh and Nulshaddha tribes; they in citadel hiding from dragons.”
Thanking the giant, we headed into Kongen-Thulnir. The city itself was practically in ruins. Buildings stacked hundreds of feet high with giants and a bugbear slave-race both rebuilding the ruined defences and defending themselves from the dragons above.
As we picked our way invisibly through the smashed city, we saw to our right a gigantic ladder leading downwards into the canyon – each of the rungs of the ladder easily as large as I was tall. Beyond that lay a colossal rope bridge which led out to another of the spires, which was littered with the ruins of ballista and catapult emplacements, some of which still smoked with heat or steamed with terrible other draconic breath weapons.
As we continued onwards, the tremendous ledge on which the city was placed narrowed considerably as it rounded a corner in the cliff wall. Under an overhang stood a single ballista which was still intact.
“Invisible Dragon!”
It was Endo, still mounted on the fiery phantom steed he had summoned earlier he wheeled the mount about and began to move away from the rest of us. I had no sooner registered what he was doing than a flash of talons and teeth blinked in and out of sight, and the powerfully invisible dragon crashed down onto Endo.
The brief glimpses I had of it were of a massive brown-grey beast covered from head to tail in spurs of bone. As it flashed in and out of sight, I could see it cast a spell at great speed and a lance of black energies bathed Fez’s annis-hag form, and he slumped as much of his strength was drained from him.
As we were all invisible, I couldn’t really see what Janga was doing, but from the sounds he was making he was casting a spell designed to strip the dragon’s protections away – it had no appreciable effect whatsoever.
I then heard Endo fling a blindness spell at the dragon. With this he appeared to my eyes, but then called up a dimension door to transport him away from the dragon as its toothy maw turned towards him.
Fez quaffed something which made him look considerably stronger once more, and then moved to one side. I tried to help with a dispelling enchantment of my own, but the beast remained invisible, even if my magic-detecting glasses showed that a small number of the dragon’s many tremendously powerful protective wards had fallen.
Whilst none of us could see the dragon, we could see Flynne as he materialised firing his bow repeatedly. Arrows could be seen to strike the dragon, raising sparks on its armour plates and ricocheting off in wild directions. The dragon, meanwhile, had moved towards Janga, and in a series of dreadful blows we could see the dragon appearing. One instant we could see it at the very moment that its awful teeth closed across his armour, and then it vanished again to show Janga standing gasping after some terrible power had taken effect, and we could see the massive series of rents and tears in his armour.
Then the dragon was obscuring our view once more as its wings slammed home, crashing into the gnome’s helmet and leaving him dazed and bleeding from the mouth. The huge dragon disappeared once again, and reappeared as its tail crashed into Janga’s knees from behind. Then it was gone as Janga’s armoured form crashed to the floor.
First one, then a second huge set of scythe-like bony claws drove home into the gnome’s chest and stomach, sending showers of blood into the air and forcing a flow of dark blood up from the tiny cleric’s mouth.
With an invisible pull, the dragon was briefly visible only in the shower of blood and gore as it tore Janga into two pieces. The blood faded from sight as the dragon’s invisibility spell took effect once more, and it was too late for Janga – he was beyond any of our abilities to heal, lying on the floor in two pieces.
I did not understand what spells Endo cast then, but it was clear from his oaths that they had failed, and then Fez charged towards the invisible dragon whilst screaming – but his scythe swing went wild.
Joining him, I swallowed deeply as I ran in singing a spell. I managed to slap the flank of the gigantic beast, and could hear the dragon’s footsteps change; it began to shuffle and stomp along with the music I had managed to plant in its mind.
As Endo had dashed to Flynne’s side, I then grabbed what remained of Janga’s body and cast a dimension travel spell of my own to join them, as Fez slashed and Flynne fired at the beast; much of the steel of their weapons glancing off the titanic plates on the creature. One of Fez’s swings, however, drove home in a titanic upwards swing, which would have utterly disembowelled a lesser creature.
With the realisation that we were not going to be able to drag the raging Fez from the creature, I cast yet another dispelling magic upon the dragon, and it finally lost its invisibility protection.
With a sudden sinking feeling, 9 identically wounded dragons appeared before us, snarling and twisting in the air as it lashed out savagely towards us. Flynne’s arrows began systematically whittling away the images with pinpoint accuracy. The Dragon, however, was equal to this as it shook off my spell which had made it dance, and unleashed its full savage fury on Fez, knocking him to the floor with a sweep of its wing and stamping down repeatedly on his head.
The barbarian, however, was made of tougher stuff than the cleric, and his armour was, despite its shabby appearances, highly effective. He shook his head and swung the scythe upwards towards the creature’s belly.
Endo then tossed me a wand which I had seen him use before, and as I started activating it to make my next blow strike true, he unrolled a scroll and read from it, ending “I wish that we were all healed”.
Unwounded myself, I could see the terrible injuries on Fez close as his skin knotted back together. The massive injury to Endo’s scalp closed as well and we tightened our grips on our weapons in readiness. Flynne managed to destroy another of the remaining images, but other arrows sparked off the creature’s armour – more worrying still one of the shots slid through the beast – it was clearly protected with yet more powerful protections we had not been aware of.
The dragon savaged Fez once again; smashing him heavily with its claws and its bite turning his flesh ashen grey. As I thought through the spells in my mind, I began fumbling through a scroll tube to locate the scroll I had which would help alleviate his drained condition. Though terribly wounded once again, Fez bravely continued to slash at the beast, causing it yet more significant damage.
Quickening a spell through the power of his magical rod, Endo flung two spells into the creature – I recognised the second as a powerful spell which could reduce the target to ashes. However, neither spell had any effect – the creature was so powerfully resistant to magic that even my lich-like half-orc comrade’s spells had no effect.
Ducking and weaving as I ran forwards, I tried to replicate my earlier success and distract the wounded dragon with the magic of song. Slapping my hand down accurately onto its flank through the power of Endo’s wand, I released my spell, and felt it strike, and then shatter completely on the dragon’s magical resistances.
From within inches of the dragon’s massive flank, I saw its sinuous neck rise up and slash down twice onto Fez. Though the blood flowed freely from his many wounds, they did not look truly life threatening yet, but something from the dragon’s bite caused the savage to stiffen like a board, before collapsing to the floor. I could see that he wasn’t breathing, but then I saw the dragon’s savage maw twisted like a striking snake.
The last thing I saw was the massive barbed teeth closing around my head. There was a brief flash of pain, and then nothing.
Richard II
First Post
Eek!
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
I awoke, screaming as the sensation of pain faded into mere agony, then went altogether as my flesh and bones were knitted back together with powerful magics. I gingerly opened my eyes, and then closed them again. Standing over my bed in a small church to Fahrlanghan in Mage Point, I could see the pale desiccated face of Endo as well as Janga, a series of still fading scars across his torso a clear indication that he had but recently resurrected. Also in the room was a priest, who was smiling enough that he had clearly just been paid a generous stipend to read from a scroll to bring Janga back from the dead.
I pulled myself up onto my elbows and looked around.
“Where’s Fez? And Flynne?” In response, Endo lifted a magical bag and offered me the chance to look inside, but I didn’t need to – the coppery stench of blood and mangled flesh told e all I needed to know.
“What happened?”
“I defeated the creature,” announced Endo a little too smugly. “Once everyone else was defeated, I began a sequence of hit-and-run attacks on it using telekinesis – once I managed to fire a harpoon with a chain into it; it was hindered, and knew that it was beaten. I peppered it with crossbow bolts, and was preparing one final spell to take it down for good, when it teleported away.”
He was still gloating about his successes an hour or two later as I sold items to gather funds for two more resurrection spells to bring back our fallen comrades. Once this had been accomplished, we decided to rest and return the following morning to see if we could get a little further into the mess that was Rift Caynon.
.oOo.
The following morning, Janga cast a teleportation spell which he claimed was intended to deposit us directly in front of the giants’ palace which we had seen from afar the previous day. All, however, was not the same as it had been the day before. The palace stood in ruins; the roof was caved in, the few remaining walls blasted and etched with scorch marks from breath weapons, and dead hill giants, fire giants and bugbears littered the area around the ruined palace building.
Several dragons still swooped through the sky – a massive blue dragon, followed by two smaller greens and a red were already on an inbound course, clearly sweeping over the ruins looking for survivors.
Casting around for either a hiding place or somewhere we might head in the absence of the palace, our eyes fell on the citadel of one of the giant sects – mounted on a tremendous spire of stone rising out of the dark of the canyon, we could see the walls were almost completely unscathed by breath weapons, and there were still a few giants behind the walls defending the colossal building.
We scrambled behind a nearby shattered wall to give us some cover and watched aghast as the four dragons swooped down on a distant patrol of fire giants like four tremendous and evil cats falling upon a family of mice.
Leaving this scene behind, I cast a rapid spell of transportation, whisking us away across the causeway to the doors of the “Citadel of Weeping Dragons”, carved out of the top of a thousand foot tall pinnacle.
We stepped through the dimensional doorway to emerge behind the battlements, at which were also sheltering three towering fire giants. The power of the geas which I had noticed wrapped around the hill giants was far more powerful, and seemed to have thoroughly erntwined these three armoured giants.
“Turn back,” the closest one thundered as he rounded on us.
I tried my hardest. Despite being enchanted myself in spells and equipment to make me more persuasive and convincing, there was nothing I could do to talk them into letting us enter the citadel. Efforts to persuade them that we could help rid them of the giants, that we were looking for something which would take them all away, even that we were native giants who had been polymorphed by an evil sorcerer all failed, and the giants became increasingly frustrated and angry at our refusal to walk away.
Telling them that we would be leaving as soon as I had cast a couple of spells to protect us from the dragons outside, I cast a series of inquisitive magics and sent my mind inquisitively into theirs, searching out their hidden secrets.
Within seconds, I had torn from their memories the knowledge that there was a hidden vault within the lower levels of the citadel, and that there was a garrison of some 30 fire giants of the Tiamat Nul’Shadarr within.
Prompting the giants with a few questions and hits, I learned that there were three other giants who led this tribe – Kagro Thundersmiter, the leader of the clan and a tremendous warrior, Verkin Abex Tor, a frost giant sorcerer of considerable power, and Bram Cleftshank, hunter of dragons and a figure of considerable skill and prowess with his axes and spear.
When I asked them of the lower crypts, they stared threateningly down at me, clutching at weapons, but their minds flashed a series of images at me. The giants seemed to have no interest whatsoever in the vault, but absently were aware that there were two keys needed – one of which had recently been in the possession of the king in the ruined palace.
Abex Tor, the sorcerer, seemed to be different, and appeared to have an ‘unhealthy’ interest in the vault – even going so far in the recent past as to the try to open the doors, though without any success. He had spoken to the dead king, Charlgar, with a view to looking through the palace library, and the king had agreed on the condition that he could be lent the key. This condition was met, but the frost giant sorcerer never managed to explore the library, as the dragons invaded shortly thereafter.
I looked around at my comrades, and could see Endo was staring around intently. I let the power of my mind-reading spell wash over him, and could feel his thoughts touch mine. “I think I know what you’re doing,” he said. “And the layout of this building is slightly off. A silver gets you a gold that there’s a secret entrance to this ‘citadel’ just round the corner there.”
Taking my cue from his mental prompting, I finally cast the dimension door spell to whish us all away once again, around the corner to where Endo was indicating the likely entrance would be.
Within a minute, Flynne had found it – a patch of rock designed subtly to slide to one side when given enough pressure. I masked us all with a spell of silence cast on a small pebble, and then waited whilst Flynne located and then greased the opening mechanisms. The rocks around us trembled silently as the heavy doorway was pushed open by the black-scaled elf and Fez, and then Flynne pointed silently at a lever just inside the doorway. We crept in and pulled the lever to shut the entrance behind us before I stowed the silencing pebble in one of my magical bags and produced an enchanted lit torch – the first magical item that my comrades and I had ever found.
.oOo.
The passageway into the citadel led upwards, curving into the body of the building before sharply bending to the right. As we moved, Flynne held up his hand and indicated the edges of a hidden door, which he quickly outlined in chalk. The silencing stone was produced once more as Fez turned his bulging muscles to the task at hand, and slowly the massive stone portal ground open.
Beyond lay a hallway from the back of the main gates to our left to a second set of stone doors on the right. We heaved the secret door slowly closed behind us, and then headed further along the secret passageway.
As we went, Janga passed Flynne an enchanted ring before casting a spell of location to try and find the vaults. I could see from his face that the spell had failed completely, slamming hard into the powerful enchantments which ringed this entire canyon and denied any location magics within it.
Flynne, meanwhile, slipped on the magical ring and faded from sight as he headed away up the corridor from us. I could see small flakes of dust from the human-sized stepladder carved into the wall at the end of the 50 foot long corridor indicating that the rogue was sneaking upwards to scout out what was ahead. A few moments later a dropped coloured pebble indicated that all was clear, and we headed up the ladder to join him smashed giant-sized sleeping area. The wind howled past the single door, which led out to a weather-beaten upper courtyard alongside a charred and decaying blockhouse. To the far side of the small courtyard stood a giant-sized door, and a small trapdoor led into the blockhouse itself.
Peering through the trapdoor we could see a chute which led down into a chamber which was filled with a vast pulsating gel-like substance. I tossed a few morsels of trail rations down onto it, and they dissolved in an instant. We pulled back, as heading through the trapdoor was not an option, and as we did so, could see in the distance the big blue dragon fade into sight with a ripple. An instant later, the fang dragon materialised next to it. The two held a discussion whilst looking over towards us.
.oOo.
Invisibly and silently, Flynne checked the massive door. I saw the handle rise, but he was not strong enough to pull the door open. We moved out to join him, and Fez heaved the door open completely silently. Within stood two platemail clad fire giants, each with a greatsword drawn and their backs to us.
With a series of shuddering slams, fire arrows transfixed the first, and as the other turned to see what was happening, Fez hurtled in. His enchanted scythe hacked messily at the giant, and both fell to the floor amidst pools of blood. Endo, Janga and I allowed the powerful spells to fade from our lips as Fez moved to pull at the door on the far side.
Moving quickly before the enchantments on us faded, we dashed down a short corridor and Fez flung open another door. Beyond it, a cavernous room, lit by a glowing iron pot which swung from chains from the ceiling. A stone table dominated the far end of the room, at the end of which sat a huge acid scarred giant. The opposite end of the room held an even larger threat in a recessed stairway – a red scaled hydra blinked lazily. The beast had an easy dozen heads, and as I glimpsed it, it wheezed a tongue of flame from one of its toothy mouths.
.oOo.
With a roar, the giant leapt to his feet and snatched up a spear, flinging it at the brazier in the ceiling. With a reverberating clang, sparks flew from the brazier as it was smashed from the supporting chains. The spear faded from sight, returning instantly to the giant’s hand, whilst the brazier flew from its mountings, sailing in a wide sputtering arc through the air to crash down into the doorway, showering us all with hot sparks and coals.
The brazier itself crashed off Fez’s floating rock-shield, and crashed down over Endo. Whilst the rest of us leapt away from the shower of ash, the half orc bellowed in pain as he was coated in hot coals and metal.
As the giant dashed the length of the room to free the hydra, Flynne dashed into the room to take cover behind the table and shot a single long shaft into the giant’s thigh. Endo, coated in a thick layer of grey ash, cast a spell at the giant, and then I wove an illusion over the entrance to the stairwell, placing a thick wall of bricks to lock it into the small room beyond. I could hear it bellowing as a wash of flame passed through the illusion – I reflexively altered the bricks to make them appear scorched by flames.
Dashing in, Fez deflexted one spear-stab with the but-end of his scythe before carving the blade of the weapon across the massive figure’s shoulder. I could see, but not hear, the giant roaring in pain as Fez had the silencing stone hidden in one pocket. The huge figure tore a flaming greataxe from over his shoulder and slashed repeatedly at Fez – the floating stone and the armour the ‘halfling’ wore protected him and deflected from every single attack.
The giant, however, was not so lucky, as Flynne’s 5 arrows crashed home; Endo followed this up by gesturing, and black flames washed over the silently screaming giant. As I cast a spell of silencing over the other door to the room as Fez slashed, and the giant collapsed to the ground. We readied ourselves, and as I dropped the illusion, blows and arrows slammed into the beast, killing it instantly.
.oOo.
We climbed the huge stairs beyond the hydra’s body – there were two exits beyond; one a heavy stone trapdoor at the top, and the second a long corridor which was lined with grisly mementos and trophies. Preserved and mounted lengths of dragon hide mounted the walls, whilst skulls and talons were dotted across pedestals and hanging from the ceiling.
We explored several doors beyond – to the right we found a high area of battlements with a heavy metal chamber set amidst the centre of the square where it could overlook the east.
To the left lay more chambers, ignoring one room which contained giant furniture and two squares open to the sky containing massive catapults, one of which was damaged, but one destroyed – next to it lay the corpse of yet another charred giant.
Another room was almost completely empty, apart from a single tremendous arrowslit, which was plated in glass so as to grant a magnified view over the city beyond. We looked down to see a squad of 40 bugbears scattering as a large black dragon landed amidst them, coughing acid and chewing at its ‘snack’.
A truly colossal red dragon crouched on the lip of the canyon, overlooking everything. The blue and fang dragons (the second completely healed from any damage we had previously inflicted upon it), once again rippled into sight above it. With a snarl, the red dragon gave them each an order, and they began to wing their way towards us in the citadel.
.oOo.
We turned our backs on the glass window, and continued our search for the vaults by going upwards. With help, Fez pushed open a trapdoor and peered up beyond, before gesturing ‘no’. When he had carefully closed the trapdoor and crept back down again, he described a massive giant staring out at the canyon beyond. We dashed back down the corridor and then down the stairs to the rooms below, ready to continue our exploration of the giant’s citadel.
I pulled myself up onto my elbows and looked around.
“Where’s Fez? And Flynne?” In response, Endo lifted a magical bag and offered me the chance to look inside, but I didn’t need to – the coppery stench of blood and mangled flesh told e all I needed to know.
“What happened?”
“I defeated the creature,” announced Endo a little too smugly. “Once everyone else was defeated, I began a sequence of hit-and-run attacks on it using telekinesis – once I managed to fire a harpoon with a chain into it; it was hindered, and knew that it was beaten. I peppered it with crossbow bolts, and was preparing one final spell to take it down for good, when it teleported away.”
He was still gloating about his successes an hour or two later as I sold items to gather funds for two more resurrection spells to bring back our fallen comrades. Once this had been accomplished, we decided to rest and return the following morning to see if we could get a little further into the mess that was Rift Caynon.
.oOo.
The following morning, Janga cast a teleportation spell which he claimed was intended to deposit us directly in front of the giants’ palace which we had seen from afar the previous day. All, however, was not the same as it had been the day before. The palace stood in ruins; the roof was caved in, the few remaining walls blasted and etched with scorch marks from breath weapons, and dead hill giants, fire giants and bugbears littered the area around the ruined palace building.
Several dragons still swooped through the sky – a massive blue dragon, followed by two smaller greens and a red were already on an inbound course, clearly sweeping over the ruins looking for survivors.
Casting around for either a hiding place or somewhere we might head in the absence of the palace, our eyes fell on the citadel of one of the giant sects – mounted on a tremendous spire of stone rising out of the dark of the canyon, we could see the walls were almost completely unscathed by breath weapons, and there were still a few giants behind the walls defending the colossal building.
We scrambled behind a nearby shattered wall to give us some cover and watched aghast as the four dragons swooped down on a distant patrol of fire giants like four tremendous and evil cats falling upon a family of mice.
Leaving this scene behind, I cast a rapid spell of transportation, whisking us away across the causeway to the doors of the “Citadel of Weeping Dragons”, carved out of the top of a thousand foot tall pinnacle.
We stepped through the dimensional doorway to emerge behind the battlements, at which were also sheltering three towering fire giants. The power of the geas which I had noticed wrapped around the hill giants was far more powerful, and seemed to have thoroughly erntwined these three armoured giants.
“Turn back,” the closest one thundered as he rounded on us.
I tried my hardest. Despite being enchanted myself in spells and equipment to make me more persuasive and convincing, there was nothing I could do to talk them into letting us enter the citadel. Efforts to persuade them that we could help rid them of the giants, that we were looking for something which would take them all away, even that we were native giants who had been polymorphed by an evil sorcerer all failed, and the giants became increasingly frustrated and angry at our refusal to walk away.
Telling them that we would be leaving as soon as I had cast a couple of spells to protect us from the dragons outside, I cast a series of inquisitive magics and sent my mind inquisitively into theirs, searching out their hidden secrets.
Within seconds, I had torn from their memories the knowledge that there was a hidden vault within the lower levels of the citadel, and that there was a garrison of some 30 fire giants of the Tiamat Nul’Shadarr within.
Prompting the giants with a few questions and hits, I learned that there were three other giants who led this tribe – Kagro Thundersmiter, the leader of the clan and a tremendous warrior, Verkin Abex Tor, a frost giant sorcerer of considerable power, and Bram Cleftshank, hunter of dragons and a figure of considerable skill and prowess with his axes and spear.
When I asked them of the lower crypts, they stared threateningly down at me, clutching at weapons, but their minds flashed a series of images at me. The giants seemed to have no interest whatsoever in the vault, but absently were aware that there were two keys needed – one of which had recently been in the possession of the king in the ruined palace.
Abex Tor, the sorcerer, seemed to be different, and appeared to have an ‘unhealthy’ interest in the vault – even going so far in the recent past as to the try to open the doors, though without any success. He had spoken to the dead king, Charlgar, with a view to looking through the palace library, and the king had agreed on the condition that he could be lent the key. This condition was met, but the frost giant sorcerer never managed to explore the library, as the dragons invaded shortly thereafter.
I looked around at my comrades, and could see Endo was staring around intently. I let the power of my mind-reading spell wash over him, and could feel his thoughts touch mine. “I think I know what you’re doing,” he said. “And the layout of this building is slightly off. A silver gets you a gold that there’s a secret entrance to this ‘citadel’ just round the corner there.”
Taking my cue from his mental prompting, I finally cast the dimension door spell to whish us all away once again, around the corner to where Endo was indicating the likely entrance would be.
Within a minute, Flynne had found it – a patch of rock designed subtly to slide to one side when given enough pressure. I masked us all with a spell of silence cast on a small pebble, and then waited whilst Flynne located and then greased the opening mechanisms. The rocks around us trembled silently as the heavy doorway was pushed open by the black-scaled elf and Fez, and then Flynne pointed silently at a lever just inside the doorway. We crept in and pulled the lever to shut the entrance behind us before I stowed the silencing pebble in one of my magical bags and produced an enchanted lit torch – the first magical item that my comrades and I had ever found.
.oOo.
The passageway into the citadel led upwards, curving into the body of the building before sharply bending to the right. As we moved, Flynne held up his hand and indicated the edges of a hidden door, which he quickly outlined in chalk. The silencing stone was produced once more as Fez turned his bulging muscles to the task at hand, and slowly the massive stone portal ground open.
Beyond lay a hallway from the back of the main gates to our left to a second set of stone doors on the right. We heaved the secret door slowly closed behind us, and then headed further along the secret passageway.
As we went, Janga passed Flynne an enchanted ring before casting a spell of location to try and find the vaults. I could see from his face that the spell had failed completely, slamming hard into the powerful enchantments which ringed this entire canyon and denied any location magics within it.
Flynne, meanwhile, slipped on the magical ring and faded from sight as he headed away up the corridor from us. I could see small flakes of dust from the human-sized stepladder carved into the wall at the end of the 50 foot long corridor indicating that the rogue was sneaking upwards to scout out what was ahead. A few moments later a dropped coloured pebble indicated that all was clear, and we headed up the ladder to join him smashed giant-sized sleeping area. The wind howled past the single door, which led out to a weather-beaten upper courtyard alongside a charred and decaying blockhouse. To the far side of the small courtyard stood a giant-sized door, and a small trapdoor led into the blockhouse itself.
Peering through the trapdoor we could see a chute which led down into a chamber which was filled with a vast pulsating gel-like substance. I tossed a few morsels of trail rations down onto it, and they dissolved in an instant. We pulled back, as heading through the trapdoor was not an option, and as we did so, could see in the distance the big blue dragon fade into sight with a ripple. An instant later, the fang dragon materialised next to it. The two held a discussion whilst looking over towards us.
.oOo.
Invisibly and silently, Flynne checked the massive door. I saw the handle rise, but he was not strong enough to pull the door open. We moved out to join him, and Fez heaved the door open completely silently. Within stood two platemail clad fire giants, each with a greatsword drawn and their backs to us.
With a series of shuddering slams, fire arrows transfixed the first, and as the other turned to see what was happening, Fez hurtled in. His enchanted scythe hacked messily at the giant, and both fell to the floor amidst pools of blood. Endo, Janga and I allowed the powerful spells to fade from our lips as Fez moved to pull at the door on the far side.
Moving quickly before the enchantments on us faded, we dashed down a short corridor and Fez flung open another door. Beyond it, a cavernous room, lit by a glowing iron pot which swung from chains from the ceiling. A stone table dominated the far end of the room, at the end of which sat a huge acid scarred giant. The opposite end of the room held an even larger threat in a recessed stairway – a red scaled hydra blinked lazily. The beast had an easy dozen heads, and as I glimpsed it, it wheezed a tongue of flame from one of its toothy mouths.
.oOo.
With a roar, the giant leapt to his feet and snatched up a spear, flinging it at the brazier in the ceiling. With a reverberating clang, sparks flew from the brazier as it was smashed from the supporting chains. The spear faded from sight, returning instantly to the giant’s hand, whilst the brazier flew from its mountings, sailing in a wide sputtering arc through the air to crash down into the doorway, showering us all with hot sparks and coals.
The brazier itself crashed off Fez’s floating rock-shield, and crashed down over Endo. Whilst the rest of us leapt away from the shower of ash, the half orc bellowed in pain as he was coated in hot coals and metal.
As the giant dashed the length of the room to free the hydra, Flynne dashed into the room to take cover behind the table and shot a single long shaft into the giant’s thigh. Endo, coated in a thick layer of grey ash, cast a spell at the giant, and then I wove an illusion over the entrance to the stairwell, placing a thick wall of bricks to lock it into the small room beyond. I could hear it bellowing as a wash of flame passed through the illusion – I reflexively altered the bricks to make them appear scorched by flames.
Dashing in, Fez deflexted one spear-stab with the but-end of his scythe before carving the blade of the weapon across the massive figure’s shoulder. I could see, but not hear, the giant roaring in pain as Fez had the silencing stone hidden in one pocket. The huge figure tore a flaming greataxe from over his shoulder and slashed repeatedly at Fez – the floating stone and the armour the ‘halfling’ wore protected him and deflected from every single attack.
The giant, however, was not so lucky, as Flynne’s 5 arrows crashed home; Endo followed this up by gesturing, and black flames washed over the silently screaming giant. As I cast a spell of silencing over the other door to the room as Fez slashed, and the giant collapsed to the ground. We readied ourselves, and as I dropped the illusion, blows and arrows slammed into the beast, killing it instantly.
.oOo.
We climbed the huge stairs beyond the hydra’s body – there were two exits beyond; one a heavy stone trapdoor at the top, and the second a long corridor which was lined with grisly mementos and trophies. Preserved and mounted lengths of dragon hide mounted the walls, whilst skulls and talons were dotted across pedestals and hanging from the ceiling.
We explored several doors beyond – to the right we found a high area of battlements with a heavy metal chamber set amidst the centre of the square where it could overlook the east.
To the left lay more chambers, ignoring one room which contained giant furniture and two squares open to the sky containing massive catapults, one of which was damaged, but one destroyed – next to it lay the corpse of yet another charred giant.
Another room was almost completely empty, apart from a single tremendous arrowslit, which was plated in glass so as to grant a magnified view over the city beyond. We looked down to see a squad of 40 bugbears scattering as a large black dragon landed amidst them, coughing acid and chewing at its ‘snack’.
A truly colossal red dragon crouched on the lip of the canyon, overlooking everything. The blue and fang dragons (the second completely healed from any damage we had previously inflicted upon it), once again rippled into sight above it. With a snarl, the red dragon gave them each an order, and they began to wing their way towards us in the citadel.
.oOo.
We turned our backs on the glass window, and continued our search for the vaults by going upwards. With help, Fez pushed open a trapdoor and peered up beyond, before gesturing ‘no’. When he had carefully closed the trapdoor and crept back down again, he described a massive giant staring out at the canyon beyond. We dashed back down the corridor and then down the stairs to the rooms below, ready to continue our exploration of the giant’s citadel.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
We decided that the only route we had not explored was back through the secret door we had investigated and then closed, which led from the main double doors into the body of the citadel itself – right underneath the titanic ooze, which was part of some substantial trap mechanism. Pushing the secret door open, the trap itself was the work of moments for Flynne, who found a wide and untrodden area of the floor and banged a couple of spikes into it to ensure it stayed in place. Grinning, several of us then floated over the trapped area, at which point Flynne stomped across muttering something about “ungrateful bastards” to himself as he knelt to heave the pitons back out of the floor re-activating the trap.
Once Flynne had picked the tremendous lock (having to use one of his magical shortswords as an improvised lockpick as the mechanism was so large), and indicated that all was silent beyond, Fez shoved the door wide open for the rest of us.
Beyond lay a broad, dark and circular chamber, completely empty apart from the corridors leading away to our left and right, and the tremendous scorch marks all over the chamber itself. Black marks from fire lay across deep rents of acid and the stench of azone. Feeling the breeze rush through the room, Endo chuckled in understanding.
“It’s a diversion chamber,” he announced as though that was supposed to mean anything to us. “A dragon gets this far into the building, and then crashes the doors open. What does a dragon do first? It breathes fire, and the air currents in this room are set up to ensure that dragon breath doesn’t hit what it was aimed at. Then you get some mates, yeah? Down these two corridors, and they come out with big spears. I can guarantee one of them’s going to find something worth stabbing on that dragon, whichever way it’s facing.”
Wincing, we picked the left corridor, and headed along it; turning sharply left again before we picked our way down some dark stairs into a narrow passageway beyond.
.oOo.
At the bottom of the narrow stairs, the passage opened out very slightly as it turned sharply to the left. As we advanced the 20 feet towards the door at the end (ignoring the door to the right halfway along for the moment), and Flynne pushed gently at the door to check what might lie beyond. He abruptly turned, and opened his mouth to call something, but I could see him suddenly looking down the corridor at something. Something tall. Something behind me.
I spun on the spot, and looked up at the towering form of a marilith. The huge female torso swung six heavy scimitars, one of which was burning brightly, whilst the the creature’s heavy tail lashed around her.
There was an incantation from Endo behind me and I could feel the surge of magic as he flung a massive spell at the marilith, before swearing.
“It’s a gods damned illusion,” he spat; and I could see at once that he was right. Flynne, however, was not convinced and sent arrow after arrow streaming down the corridor to spark off the wall behind her. I turned back, and could now see into the room beyond Endo and Flynne at the other end of the short corridor. Squinting around Fez’s polymorphed annis hag form, I could see another scaled multi-limbed opponent in there, but this one appeared to be made from stone. Fearing a powerful spell of protection had been cast at the demon, I flung a counter-spell at what I could see, but the stony marilith didn’t even blink in the teeth of my spell.
Pausing only to let Janga cast a spell of alignment on his cold iron flail, Fez began to move forwards, but not before a whirling wall of blades materialised behind Janga and myself. As Fez moved towards the stone marilith, however, something else slashed down from near the ceiling, sparking off his metal armour.
Endo flung a spell past Fez, whilst I cast a hastening spell and Flynne fired a series of arrows into the room. Blood spattered from something; not the stone marilith but something else invisible in the small circular chamber.
A second wall of whirling blades slashed into place within the small chamber, hacking the arms and tail-tip off the statue. Fez ignored the barrier, and simply hacked through it; his flail carving deep furrows into her flesh, and blood spattered around the walls of the small room.
Endo flung another spell at her, and I followed this up with one of my own, filling the chamber with sparkling glittering golden dust which not only thwarted her invisibility spell, but also her hiding form was clearly outlined with the glitter. Flynne started shooting once again, and sparkling golden blood dripped from the marilith where the spell effects faded and the golden sparks faded to red.
The marilith gestured, and I felt an invisible force grip me and throw me backwards, and I could see Flynne’s limbs flailing as he was thrown through the air as well. In unison, we each twisted in the air and then spun, each of us gyring at the last possible moment so that we span through the blade barrier, caught ourselves with one hand and one foot as we crashed into the back wall before dropping to the ground. I straightened my hat, and noticed that Flynne was already nocking more arrows to his bow.
Beyond the flashing blade wall, I saw that Fez was still hacking at the marilith, but then the side door crashed open, and a towering frost giant, encrusted with ice and clutching an ice-covered warmace glowered out at us all. With a wave and an incantation, the frost giant cast a terrible spell, and Fez simply disappeared.
Endo, apparently, recognised what was going on, cast a spell of his own wishing that the barbarian be returned to us quickly. He then flung a powerful draining spell onto the giant, which tore at its willpower and casting abilities.
Janga’s spell, almost poetically, set up his own barrier of whirling blades over the giant’s entrance, and whilst Flynne slid back through a second tiny gap in the blade barrier before perforating the marilith and sent it crashing to the floor, I cast a simple spell which filled the small room in which the giant stood. The frost giant sorcerer opened his mouth to cast another spell, and realised abruptly that he couldn’t make a sound. He turned, lifted a curtain in the corner of his room, and vanished down a flight of stairs.
A few moments later, a frustrated Fez reappeared standing over the corpse of the marilith. We regrouped, and dashed on after, pausing only to snatch a few interesting items from the frost giant’s well appointed study room and then headed on down the stairs.
We descended into an oddly shaped room, at the far end of which was a massive set of double doors flanked by towering giants with iron grey skin which seemed dry and cracked; receding from their claws and teeth. Close inspection of the two huge doors showed that each was covered in separate carvings. Across the centre, we could see a figure trapped within a trapezoid shape surrounded by dozens of tiny worms. On the left were hundreds of stone giants fighting worm infested undead. On the right door, a dizen figures stood on a stony ledge carrying out a ritual, whilst defended from the rampaging undead by a handful of familiar looking figures.
The doors were locked with two small golden keyholes.
.oOo.
As we studied the doors, there was a sudden pale shimmering figure which glided through the floor to float in the air before us. My jaw dropped at the sight of the familiar figure – Alastor, the child ghost we had laid to rest back in Diamond Lake, had travelled with us, and seemed to have a message for us.
“Well met, friends,” the spirit of the dead farm boy said, “Long have our journeys been since our last meeting. You have come far in your quest to stop the abomination that rises even as we speak, and I have been down long roads in other worlds learning who and what I am. And now, here at this juncture, our paths cross again. Oh I know most of you think you do not know me, for your spirits wore other guises when last we met, but search your souls and all will be made clear. As you have doubtless learned, an age ago the Wind Dukes fought a great battle against the Armies of Chaos. The Rod was broken into seven parts and scattered across the cosmos. Tombs were built to inter the honored dead, but the Wind Dukes did not abandon the field of battle entirely. Certain guardians were left behind to watch and wait for the reemergence of the Age of Worms. One of these guardians was an order of mortal druids. The Wind Dukes taught these druids their secrets, and this order grew powerful. They became the Order of the Storm, and they defeated Kyuss nearly fifteen centuries ago. Kyuss was banished, locked away in a stony prison, but now he threatens once again.
”Over long years, the secret watchers joined with the cultures around them. These guardians forgot their cause, and traditions were abandoned. My family, the Land family, named for their sacred attachment to the hallowed grounds of the Wind Dukes, were among the last of these watchers. Though the blood of the Wind Dukes ran thin in my veins, it still called to me and allowed me access to the tomb of Zosiel until my destiny was fulfilled and I fell to a trap. Likewise, your coming to the Whispering Cairn was no accident. I can smell the mark of the Wind Dukes within you, heroes. You may be the last of a long line, the only surviving heirs to the Wind Duke legacy. As such I have come to advise you one more time.
”Kyuss’ strength lies in his prison. When he became a god, he became trapped in the focus of his divine apotheosis…a massive monolith of stone affixed to the peak of the Spire of Long Shadows. Dragotha stole this monolith long ago and brought it to his lair in Skull Gorge. Over the centuries, the presence of Kyuss’ monolith transformed this portion of the canyon into what is known today as the Wormcrawl Fissure. Once, after Dragotha was murdered by the Chromatic Dragon and returned to unlife by the Wormgod, Kyuss managed to escape his prison. With Dragotha as the general of his undead armies, the Wormgod rose from the Fissure and attempted to begin the Age of Worms, but the Order of the Storm was ready.
“You know of this battle. And now you know that in the room beyond lies Dragotha’s phylactery. Yet to reach it, you must look into your memories, your souls. Find the ritual of opening, and use the vault keys. Yet know also that once these doors open, the phylactery vault will be open to all. Dragotha and his minions will smell his phylactery and they shall come to claim it. You must be quick. If you destroy the phylactery, Dragotha can be truly slain, but as his life-force escapes, he may be able to reclaim some of it from the beyond…destroying the phylactery may make him more dangerous than ever before. Yet I see little choice.
“I must go now. You shall not see me again, I think, until you join me on the other side. Good luck, my friends, and farewell…” With that, a smile crossed the ghost’s lips and he simply faded away.
.oOo.
We started to discuss what we had learned, but our thoughts were interrupted by a tremendous crashing as something tore the curtain upstairs from the wall. Two huge giants began to descend, and were not slowed by my shouting that we were trying to get rid of the giants.
Within moments, the doorway was blocked by the return of the frost giant sorcerer, and he had brought the giant king with him. Our exit way was blocked, and we were in trouble.
Once Flynne had picked the tremendous lock (having to use one of his magical shortswords as an improvised lockpick as the mechanism was so large), and indicated that all was silent beyond, Fez shoved the door wide open for the rest of us.
Beyond lay a broad, dark and circular chamber, completely empty apart from the corridors leading away to our left and right, and the tremendous scorch marks all over the chamber itself. Black marks from fire lay across deep rents of acid and the stench of azone. Feeling the breeze rush through the room, Endo chuckled in understanding.
“It’s a diversion chamber,” he announced as though that was supposed to mean anything to us. “A dragon gets this far into the building, and then crashes the doors open. What does a dragon do first? It breathes fire, and the air currents in this room are set up to ensure that dragon breath doesn’t hit what it was aimed at. Then you get some mates, yeah? Down these two corridors, and they come out with big spears. I can guarantee one of them’s going to find something worth stabbing on that dragon, whichever way it’s facing.”
Wincing, we picked the left corridor, and headed along it; turning sharply left again before we picked our way down some dark stairs into a narrow passageway beyond.
.oOo.
At the bottom of the narrow stairs, the passage opened out very slightly as it turned sharply to the left. As we advanced the 20 feet towards the door at the end (ignoring the door to the right halfway along for the moment), and Flynne pushed gently at the door to check what might lie beyond. He abruptly turned, and opened his mouth to call something, but I could see him suddenly looking down the corridor at something. Something tall. Something behind me.
I spun on the spot, and looked up at the towering form of a marilith. The huge female torso swung six heavy scimitars, one of which was burning brightly, whilst the the creature’s heavy tail lashed around her.
There was an incantation from Endo behind me and I could feel the surge of magic as he flung a massive spell at the marilith, before swearing.
“It’s a gods damned illusion,” he spat; and I could see at once that he was right. Flynne, however, was not convinced and sent arrow after arrow streaming down the corridor to spark off the wall behind her. I turned back, and could now see into the room beyond Endo and Flynne at the other end of the short corridor. Squinting around Fez’s polymorphed annis hag form, I could see another scaled multi-limbed opponent in there, but this one appeared to be made from stone. Fearing a powerful spell of protection had been cast at the demon, I flung a counter-spell at what I could see, but the stony marilith didn’t even blink in the teeth of my spell.
Pausing only to let Janga cast a spell of alignment on his cold iron flail, Fez began to move forwards, but not before a whirling wall of blades materialised behind Janga and myself. As Fez moved towards the stone marilith, however, something else slashed down from near the ceiling, sparking off his metal armour.
Endo flung a spell past Fez, whilst I cast a hastening spell and Flynne fired a series of arrows into the room. Blood spattered from something; not the stone marilith but something else invisible in the small circular chamber.
A second wall of whirling blades slashed into place within the small chamber, hacking the arms and tail-tip off the statue. Fez ignored the barrier, and simply hacked through it; his flail carving deep furrows into her flesh, and blood spattered around the walls of the small room.
Endo flung another spell at her, and I followed this up with one of my own, filling the chamber with sparkling glittering golden dust which not only thwarted her invisibility spell, but also her hiding form was clearly outlined with the glitter. Flynne started shooting once again, and sparkling golden blood dripped from the marilith where the spell effects faded and the golden sparks faded to red.
The marilith gestured, and I felt an invisible force grip me and throw me backwards, and I could see Flynne’s limbs flailing as he was thrown through the air as well. In unison, we each twisted in the air and then spun, each of us gyring at the last possible moment so that we span through the blade barrier, caught ourselves with one hand and one foot as we crashed into the back wall before dropping to the ground. I straightened my hat, and noticed that Flynne was already nocking more arrows to his bow.
Beyond the flashing blade wall, I saw that Fez was still hacking at the marilith, but then the side door crashed open, and a towering frost giant, encrusted with ice and clutching an ice-covered warmace glowered out at us all. With a wave and an incantation, the frost giant cast a terrible spell, and Fez simply disappeared.
Endo, apparently, recognised what was going on, cast a spell of his own wishing that the barbarian be returned to us quickly. He then flung a powerful draining spell onto the giant, which tore at its willpower and casting abilities.
Janga’s spell, almost poetically, set up his own barrier of whirling blades over the giant’s entrance, and whilst Flynne slid back through a second tiny gap in the blade barrier before perforating the marilith and sent it crashing to the floor, I cast a simple spell which filled the small room in which the giant stood. The frost giant sorcerer opened his mouth to cast another spell, and realised abruptly that he couldn’t make a sound. He turned, lifted a curtain in the corner of his room, and vanished down a flight of stairs.
A few moments later, a frustrated Fez reappeared standing over the corpse of the marilith. We regrouped, and dashed on after, pausing only to snatch a few interesting items from the frost giant’s well appointed study room and then headed on down the stairs.
We descended into an oddly shaped room, at the far end of which was a massive set of double doors flanked by towering giants with iron grey skin which seemed dry and cracked; receding from their claws and teeth. Close inspection of the two huge doors showed that each was covered in separate carvings. Across the centre, we could see a figure trapped within a trapezoid shape surrounded by dozens of tiny worms. On the left were hundreds of stone giants fighting worm infested undead. On the right door, a dizen figures stood on a stony ledge carrying out a ritual, whilst defended from the rampaging undead by a handful of familiar looking figures.
The doors were locked with two small golden keyholes.
.oOo.
As we studied the doors, there was a sudden pale shimmering figure which glided through the floor to float in the air before us. My jaw dropped at the sight of the familiar figure – Alastor, the child ghost we had laid to rest back in Diamond Lake, had travelled with us, and seemed to have a message for us.
“Well met, friends,” the spirit of the dead farm boy said, “Long have our journeys been since our last meeting. You have come far in your quest to stop the abomination that rises even as we speak, and I have been down long roads in other worlds learning who and what I am. And now, here at this juncture, our paths cross again. Oh I know most of you think you do not know me, for your spirits wore other guises when last we met, but search your souls and all will be made clear. As you have doubtless learned, an age ago the Wind Dukes fought a great battle against the Armies of Chaos. The Rod was broken into seven parts and scattered across the cosmos. Tombs were built to inter the honored dead, but the Wind Dukes did not abandon the field of battle entirely. Certain guardians were left behind to watch and wait for the reemergence of the Age of Worms. One of these guardians was an order of mortal druids. The Wind Dukes taught these druids their secrets, and this order grew powerful. They became the Order of the Storm, and they defeated Kyuss nearly fifteen centuries ago. Kyuss was banished, locked away in a stony prison, but now he threatens once again.
”Over long years, the secret watchers joined with the cultures around them. These guardians forgot their cause, and traditions were abandoned. My family, the Land family, named for their sacred attachment to the hallowed grounds of the Wind Dukes, were among the last of these watchers. Though the blood of the Wind Dukes ran thin in my veins, it still called to me and allowed me access to the tomb of Zosiel until my destiny was fulfilled and I fell to a trap. Likewise, your coming to the Whispering Cairn was no accident. I can smell the mark of the Wind Dukes within you, heroes. You may be the last of a long line, the only surviving heirs to the Wind Duke legacy. As such I have come to advise you one more time.
”Kyuss’ strength lies in his prison. When he became a god, he became trapped in the focus of his divine apotheosis…a massive monolith of stone affixed to the peak of the Spire of Long Shadows. Dragotha stole this monolith long ago and brought it to his lair in Skull Gorge. Over the centuries, the presence of Kyuss’ monolith transformed this portion of the canyon into what is known today as the Wormcrawl Fissure. Once, after Dragotha was murdered by the Chromatic Dragon and returned to unlife by the Wormgod, Kyuss managed to escape his prison. With Dragotha as the general of his undead armies, the Wormgod rose from the Fissure and attempted to begin the Age of Worms, but the Order of the Storm was ready.
“You know of this battle. And now you know that in the room beyond lies Dragotha’s phylactery. Yet to reach it, you must look into your memories, your souls. Find the ritual of opening, and use the vault keys. Yet know also that once these doors open, the phylactery vault will be open to all. Dragotha and his minions will smell his phylactery and they shall come to claim it. You must be quick. If you destroy the phylactery, Dragotha can be truly slain, but as his life-force escapes, he may be able to reclaim some of it from the beyond…destroying the phylactery may make him more dangerous than ever before. Yet I see little choice.
“I must go now. You shall not see me again, I think, until you join me on the other side. Good luck, my friends, and farewell…” With that, a smile crossed the ghost’s lips and he simply faded away.
.oOo.
We started to discuss what we had learned, but our thoughts were interrupted by a tremendous crashing as something tore the curtain upstairs from the wall. Two huge giants began to descend, and were not slowed by my shouting that we were trying to get rid of the giants.
Within moments, the doorway was blocked by the return of the frost giant sorcerer, and he had brought the giant king with him. Our exit way was blocked, and we were in trouble.
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