ADVENTURE 69: ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 1 January 2020
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It was a pleasant morning and the team of adventurers was taking advantage of it. The combatants among them had just finished a round of mock battle to keep themselves in fighting trim, but now they were messing about with their animal companions. Binkadink was astride his jackalope Obvious, practicing alternately jumping onto and off of the stable roof - a practice which Daisy, housed within, did not appreciate in the least. Darrien wrestled with Grumps Junior in the courtyard of Battershield Keep, the half-elf ranger noting with surprise that this was getting to be slightly more dangerous a pastime than it had been before - the dire bear cub was growing fairly rapidly!
Outside, on the other side of the lowered drawbridge, the two elven women, Finoula and Malrin, threw sticks for their own animal friends, Wrath the timber wolf and Taihar the dire fox, to fetch. Hagan looked down on them from his perch on the roof of the northwestern tower of the keep, where he was playing with Wezhley, his weasel familiar. Two floors below him, Gilbert manipulated his Omnibook, adding the arcane scrolls he'd recently purchased into the back cover where he could retrieve them easily. Mudpie was currently the size of a pebble and safely ensconced inside a pocket of the heavyset wizard's robes. MARCI stood motionless against the wall, waiting to be needed.
All of them were thus readily occupied but in truth they were all just killing time, for Helga had warned them lunch would be ready in another ten or fifteen minutes. And nobody wanted to miss out on one of Helga's wonderful luncheon spreads.
But then they all became distracted by the buzzing sound in the distance, which got increasingly louder. Even Gilbert, from inside his second-floor room in one of the keep's four towers, could hear the droning coming from outside. "What that?" he demanded irritably to himself and started down the steps to see what was going on.
The others could see just fine what was causing the sound: dragonflies - hundreds, if not thousands, of dragonflies, spilling up from all sides of the keep and mingling in a chaotic, midair frenzy in the air above the courtyard. Finoula, recalling a recent incident where they'd been attacked at the keep by swarms of undead beetles, raised a hand to her lightning amulet and prepared to transform herself into a living bolt of electricity to blast her way through the mass of insects but then stayed her hand, realizing dragonflies didn't really have much in the way of a means of attacking people; she supposed they could bite but she'd never heard of them biting a person the way flies often did. Plus, despite several of her friends being right there in the courtyard with the swarming insects, none of the dragonflies were attacking. Finoula just watched, amazed at the spectacle before her.
Eventually, the chaotic cloud of multicolored insects started organizing itself into a pattern: a swirling, upright circle of flying bodies traveling in a counterclockwise fashion - at least from Finoula's point of view from outside the keep. And then the image in the center of the circle changed; where before she could see the building in the back of the keep, inside of which Helga Battershield was preparing the luncheon, now she saw a beleaguered elven woman with light hair like her own silver locks, leaning against a massive tree as if using it to keep herself on her feet. The harried elf made a gesture with her hand and a bolt of lightning came crashing down from the sky at the edge of the vision, exploding into a burst of light as it struck the ground just out of sight.
Then the woman turned in desperation and looked straight at the ranger who moments before had been playing fetch with her wolf. "Finoula!" cried her little sister Feron Dru, a high-level druid and now one of the Sisters of Ehlonna - a hamadryad, as a matter of fact. "I need your help!"
Finoula wasted no time. "Stay!" she commanded to Wrath, not wanting her loyal timber wolf to follow her into unknown danger through the magic gateway that had opened up between the courtyard of Battershield Keep and what the ranger knew must be Ehlonna's Grove, on the far side of the Vesve Forest many days' travel away. She ran straight towards the circle of dragonflies, casting a longstrider spell on herself as she ran.
"Stay!" repeated Malrin, this time to her own animal companion, Taihar. Then she too was running for the open gateway.
But Darrien beat them both through it. Oddly enough, although he was between the back building and the dragonfly gate when it manifested - and thus to him, the dragonflies were flying in a clockwise direction - he too saw the image of Feron Dru staggered beside a massive tree from his angle; apparently you could enter the gate from either direction and still end up in the same place at the other end. He ran through the gate without hesitation, nocking an arrow in his Arachnibow as he did so. Grumps Junior needed no prompting from his half-elven friend; he snorted and backed away from the weird-acting dragonflies in confusion. Bugs weren't supposed to act that way - it was just weird!
Once through the gate, Darrien stopped short, for the ground before him was littered with bodies: elven and human women, it looked like, along with numerous humanoid skeletons strewn about. Green worms the size of plump caterpillars scurried about among the corpses. Looking up, the archer saw a dozen or more skeletal figures approaching, although to do so they were crawling over the slain bodies of the recently dead - corpses which included more than a few unicorns, Darrien noted absently. Then he shook off his surprise, took careful aim, and sent an arrow streaking directly into the skull of an approaching, undead figure: a skeleton, he noted, with several large, purplish worms crawling around its arms and through its rib cage, one of them poking out between the skeleton's jaws. The arrow struck true, sending a small burst of frost puffing out where it hit, but the undead thing remained standing and continued its careful approach.
"Gilbert!" Darrien called over his shoulder, in the direction of the dragonfly gate. "We got a bunch of undead over here!"
Finoula stepped up beside him, looking in amazement at the sight of the recent carnage. Some of the undead forms coming nearer had parchmentlike skin stretched over their bones and green worms - the same kind as those crawling among the corpses - poking out of their desiccated flesh, in some cases extruding from their empty eye sockets as well. None of the undead things spoke, although Finoula hardly expected otherwise; still, it was kind of creepy the way they kept climbing over the recently slain in their single-minded desire to get closer to those still standing.
Back on the top of the northwestern tower of Battershield Keep, Hagan looked down into the courtyard and saw what was going on below. The stairs down to the courtyard from the roof were on the far side of the building; still, no matter - the half-orc sorcerer had a quicker way down. Casting a fly spell and positioning Wezhley firmly onto his customary place on the half-orc's right shoulder, Hagan leaped over the side of the roof and glided down through the swirling dragonflies, landing lightly to the ground on the other side of the gate and taking in the sight if the advancing horde of undead. They were approaching from all sides of the biggest oak tree Hagan had ever seen - it must have a diameter of no less than 40 feet, he thought to himself. He'd never known oaks could grow to such sizes!
The undead continued advancing, six of them with the larger, purple-colored worms writhing around and within them. Feron looked behind her and saw an opportunity: casting an entangle spell, she managed to ensnare six of what she knew to be spawn of Kyuss and two of the mohrgs. The grasses of the forest grove wound tightly about skeletal feet and shinbones, trying to prevent the undead monstrosities from advancing any further.
Binkadink and Obvious bounded suddenly through the gate, the jackalope moving at full speed due to the magic of the saddle he wore, which allowed his paws to hover a fraction of an inch above the ground and thus he was not hampered by the piled bodies of dead attackers and defenders any more than he would have been by a lumpy ground. Wheeling for the nearest clump of undead, Obvious ran forward while Binkadink swung his magic glaive at the side of a mohrg, hoping to slice right through its spine. He hit it exactly as intended, just below the undead thing's rib cage, but the steel blade merely scraped harmlessly off the hardened bones of the skeletal monster. The gnome frowned in irritation: these things were tougher than he had anticipated! Darrien joined him in a frown of his own a moment later, after having shot the same mohrg a half a dozen times without having brought it down.
Gilbert stepped outside the doorway to the northwestern tower and into the courtyard. amazed at what he was seeing before him. Keeping a steady stride, he fished in the pockets of his robe as he walked and produced his pebble-sized earth elemental familiar and his slingshot of rock shrinking. Shooting Mudpie through the dragonfly gate, the elemental struck the giant oak tree and resumed his normal size: a full 16 feet in height, as he landed on his feet at the base of the massive trunk. He looked down at the skeletal forms trapped in the nearby entangle spell and bunched his massive hands into fists the size of small boulders, ready to deal some damage.
MARCI followed Gilbert as the wizard strode through the gate. "Stimdose," the portly mage commanded and the construct extended a thin needle from a metal finger and stabbed it into the wizard's neck. Gilbert felt a sensation of sudden heat flow through his body as the fluid temporarily increased his strength and shortened his reaction time. "Good," he said. "Now we see about taking out these undead!"
Malrin cast a mass cure light wounds spell, sending healing energy flaring out at the nearest undead, which ate away at the necromantic energy empowering their unholy movement. But it wasn't enough to outright slay any of them; several spawn of Kyuss attacked Obvious, futilely clawing at him while the jackalope frantically kept his distance. And behind the druid, three of the entangled Kyuss-spawn and the two mohrgs managed to extricate themselves from the winding grasses and exit the area of effect of Feron's spell, shambling forward to do further harm to the living beings around them. All about the Great Oak - the extraplanar tree through which Ehlonna broadcast the spell energy to fuel the spells of her faithful - more spawn of Kyuss and mohrgs staggered forward.
Hagan cast a chain lightning spell centered on one of the mohrgs attacking Obvious, sending arcs of electricity to hit a handful of other undead in the vicinity. Four of the spawn of Kyuss were slain by the attack, their unholy bodies adding to the piles all around the Great Oak. But another mohrg standing beside Obvious struck at the jackalope, its ragged claws ripping lines of blood along the faithful mount's flank as its purplish worm-tongue darted out and bit Obvious in the side of the neck, delivering a paralytic venom into his bloodstream. Sitting in the jackalope's saddle and striking the nearby undead with his glaive, Binkadink was surprised when his mount froze up on him all at once; the gnome managed to leap from the saddle at the last moment as Obvious tipped over onto his side. But Binkadink took advantage of the momentum of his leap, swinging his glaive into the side of the mohrgs responsible for Obvious's paralysis, sending several of its rib-bones flying and carving his blade deep into one of the dark worms writhing along its arm-bones.
Feron spun about, sensing the mohrgs approaching behind her, and dropped a bolt of electricity from her previously-cast call lightning storm spell onto the skull of the nearest of the two. She made a brief mental inventory of her remaining spells; most of her most powerful ones had already been cast in fighting off the undead swarming the tree sacred to her goddess.
But she knew this was only part of the attacking force she faced - and not even the most dangerous part at that. Through her link with the life-force of the Great Oak - which was her home, in the same way a normal dryad's life was tied to a specific tree - she could sense that it was also being attacked from below. "They're attacking the roots of the Great Oak as well!" she called to her sister and her adventuring companions. "I can't fight them off in both places at once! Some of you will need to go below - there's a cavern 20 feet straight down! Hurry!"
Gilbert made a snap decision. "Mudpie!" he called to his familiar. "Dig down, but leave tunnel behind! Those coming with, center on me!"
Without any further prompting, the earth elemental sunk into the ground, digging a tunnel into the cavern Feron had described below. Unseen in the midst of battle against the undead, the dragonflies forming the gate to the courtyard of Battershield Keep dispersed and went their separate ways, their temporary service to the Goddess of Nature fulfilled.
Looking over at Obvious and realizing Binkadink's dilemma, Hagan called out, "We'll keep him safe!" as Darrien added, "Go! We'll protect Obvious--you head on down!" Darrien realized the gnome's glaive could wield an awful lot of damage and would likely be put to better use against the unseen enemies attacking the Great Oak's roots that had Finoula's sister so worried. To back up their claims, Darrien sent waves of arrows plunging deep into the desiccated flesh of the spawn of Kyuss surrounding Obvious while Hagan cast another chain lightning spell that fried several of the swarming undead. His worries about his mount and friend allayed, Binkadink ran toward Gilbert, his glaive striking out at the undead in his way.
Down in the lower cavern, Mudpie saw an enormous, black shape before him. Other than its coloration, it appeared to be a purple worm, its attention focused on the mindless gnawing of the massive roots of the Great Oak poking through the cavern's ceiling. Mudpie looked down the creature's length and saw its bloated body took up about half of the width of the subterranean tunnel leading downwards at a gentle slope into darkness. The tunnel turned to the right at the edge of the elemental's vision, beyond which he had no way of knowing what the passageway might hold. At least the close confines should prevent the worm from bringing its venomous tail-spike into play, not that poison held much of a threat to the earth elemental.
Mudpie sent a boulderlike fist crashing into the worm's side. It barely even noticed and continued with its grazing, breaking off great chunks of the Great Oak's thick roots with its powerful, toothed maw.
Topside, Finoula had advanced beside her sister and was fending off the oncoming undead with Tahlmalaera and her flaming whip of thorns while Feron dropped another bolt of lightning onto a mohrg's skull. "Thank you for coming," the druid said to her older half-sister, knowing full well Finoula had been jealous of Feron's rapid advancement through the ranks of the druid circles decades earlier, despite her relative youthfulness - thanks to her half-human parentage and the speed with which humans and those of their bloodline aged and matured compared to full-blooded elves. She hadn't been entirely sure Finoula would come to her aid.
"Of course," replied Finoula grimly. She hadn't always been a big fan of her half-sister, true, but while the ranger wasn't a full-fledged Sister of Ehlonna herself - a commitment requiring service for the rest of her natural life in Ehlonna's Grove, one she wasn't ready to give now and quite possibly never would be - she still was a follower of the Goddess of Nature and would willingly come to Her aid when called. Plus, like it or not, Feron was family: they shared the same mother. She couldn't not come to her half-sister's aid.
While Darrien and Hagan kept the undead temporarily at bay, Malrin ran up to Obvious and cast a neutralize poison spell upon him that soon had the jackalope struggling to his feet. But no sooner had he regained his footing than another wave of the spawn of Kyuss were upon him. Hagan took one of the new arrivals out with another chain lightning spell, damaging a few other nearby undead in the process. But two more mohrgs were now close enough to attack the jackalope, as two others clawed at Feron and Finoula, their thick, violet-colored worms attempting to paralyze the sisters.
Obvious fought back with his antlers and teeth. Finoula fought back with her longsword and whip. Feron, wishing this long battle was already done and over with, found a hidden well of untapped strength within her and summoned forth the energy needed to transform into a fire elemental, doubling her size as she did so.
As Binkadink stabbed at a mohrg standing between him and Gilbert, the wizard did some mental calculations and cast a sunburst spell behind the Great Oak, catching about half of the remaining undead swarm in the spell's area of effect while keeping himself and his fellow heroes well out of range. The spell enveloped and burned several spawn of Kyuss into dust, the cleansing light evaporating the hideous, green worms that swarmed over the desiccated undead as well. It also swept over a mohrg, blinding it. Gilbert smiled at the spell's effectiveness; any spell causing that much damage to that many undead abominations all at once was a good spell, in his estimation.
MARCI, at Gilbert's verbal direction, walked up to Finoula and injected her with a dose of the same substance she had given to Gilbert earlier. The elven ranger felt a warmth flow through her body as the stimdose took its full effect.
Darrien noted, with some concern, during Obvious's combat with the spawn of Kyuss he'd been fighting, several of the worms had transferred themselves from their undead hosts onto the jackalope's fur. Not sure of their capabilities but doubting they were likely to be good for the antlered rodent, Darrien took a momentary break from shooting undead with his Arachnibow and cast an animal growth spell on Obvious, causing the jackalope to double in size but more importantly, grant him an increased toughness that would hopefully prevent the green worms from being able to burrow into his hide. From what he could tell, the spell was effective on that front - so far, at least.
Malrin, still in the vicinity since casting her spell upon the jackalope, decided to take advantage of a higher combat position and climbed up onto his empty saddle; at presently double its normal size, the gnome-sized seat fit the elf just fine. A mohrg tried to grab her while she got settled into a comfortable position in the saddle, but a cure serious wounds spell cast directly upon the undead caused it to instinctively flinch back as if stung, smoke rising from where the druid had touched it. And then the creature fell to another of Hagan's chain lightning spells.
Finoula's flashing weapons cut down several spawn of Kyuss in rapid succession; she took a moment to crush a wriggling, green Kyuss worm under her heel while turning to face the next approaching undead foe. Beside her, Feron's flaming form had set a mohrg's dry bones alight, the crackling flames having a deleterious effect on the thick bodies of the purple-skinned worms thrashing around, entwined between its blazing bones.
Down in the cavern, Mudpie continued punching the massive, black worm to little effect; it studiously ignored the attacks, continuing its mission to devour the roots of the Great Oak. But by then Binkadink had managed to strike down the mohrg he'd been fighting and make it to Gilbert's side, as had Darrien and Finoula at his frantic gesturing. "They can handle it up here!" Gilbert told the others, indicating Feron in her fire elemental form, Hagan still casting chain lightning spells, and the twice-normal-size Obvious with Malrin upon his back. Indeed, there weren't many undead left surrounding the Great Oak any more; time to go deal with whatever was threatening its root system. With a few arcane syllables, Gilbert cast a dimension door that sent the quartet of heroes - and the ever-present MARCI at his side - down to the lower cavern.
Gilbert's arcane-enhanced eyesight failed to pick up an aura of undead around the black worm, which was surprising but not at all disappointing; not only did that mean one less undead monstrosity in the world to have to deal with, but he had prepared several combat spells that were all but useless to undead creatures and this gave him an opportunity to bring some of them to bear.
Binkadink wasted no time in bringing his magical glaive swinging down upon the dark beast, the blade slicing deep into the worm's flesh. Darrien moved further down the worm's side, lining up a shot that wouldn't have Binkadink's swinging weapon in the way. As he passed MARCI, she gave him a dose of the stimulant she'd been using as a combat aid since her stores of healing fluid had run dry. Darrien let fly with his arrow, burying its shaft in the worm's side.
Finoula sent her longsword flashing forward, slicing deeply into the worm's flesh. This, at long last, got the worm's attention away from devouring the roots it had been sent to destroy. Rearing its head and spinning about, it opened its maw and lunged at the elven ranger, snapping her instantly into its mouth. It was dark inside the worm's maw but from the scant light coming down from above through Mudpie's steeply-sloping tunnel and the everburning torches attached to the antlers of Binkadink's battle helmet she was surprised to see no remnants of roots inside the worm's maw with her; rather, it seemed to the silver-haired ranger that the worm hadn't been actually eating the roots so much as disintegrating them - a fact which, if true, did not bode very well for her!
Any attempt to try to extract their elven friend and companion from the worm's mouth were interrupted by the sounds of thousands of beating wings coming from the worm's tail section. Thinking at first that this might herald the return of the dragonflies responsible for bringing them here to Ehlonna's aid, Darrien turned his head towards the rear of the tunnel passageway and was blasted by a swarm of flying locusts. They sped up the tunnel to engulf every living thing there, making it all but impossible to see.
Topside, Malrin - seeing the success Feron was having against the remaining mohrgs with her fire elemental wildshape form, cast a summon nature's ally spell to bring forth another one, this one twice as big as Feron's already oversize form. It reached down and burned to ashes the last remaining spawn of Kyuss on the battlefield, while Hagan switched spell tactics by using a polar ray to slay one of the few remaining mohrgs. The mohrg Feron had set ablaze continued to attack her as it burned; she attacked it right back, her flaming fist adding to the fires engulfing it. And Obvious got an already-heavily-damaged mohrg's bones in his mouth, where he shook it back and forth until the magic serving as its connective tissue gave way and it felt, quite literally, to pieces. The jackalope then stomped up and down on the thick, ropy worms that spilled from the mohrg's broken body, smashing them to paste beneath his leaping body.
Knowing full well the ineffectiveness of a bladed weapon against literally thousands of insects, Binkadink plucked a crystal from his necklace of lighting crystals and activated it blindly. The crystal vanished, to be replaced with a bolt of electricity that fried through every locust body with which it came into contact. Gilbert could hardly see with the locusts swarming all over him, but he didn't really need to see his target to bring his next planned spell attack into being; reaching out with his hand until he touched the flank of the voidspawn worm, he cast an Otto's irresistible dance spell - a spell useless against the undead, for it required a living target.
It was a shame the tunnel was still currently plagued with locusts; Gilbert had hoped for a better view of the first time he'd ever seen a worm dance.
As the worm wriggled and writhed spasmodically in place, Mudpie sent his stony fist crashing into the creature's mouth, shattering a few of its sharp teeth. But trapped in the power of Gilbert's "spoilsport" spell, it paid as much attention to the elemental's attacks at it had earlier when its attention was focused upon disintegrating the Great Oak, piece by piece, from below.
MARCI was covered head to foot in locusts but they had no effect upon her metal body and they were doing her no harm so she let them be. Darrien plucked the next-to-last crystal from his own necklace and followed Binkadink's lead, sending another lightning bolt burning its way through hundreds of the locusts clogging up the tunnel. Slowly, the number of flying locusts was being whittled away.
Finoula balanced in a kneeling position inside the voidspawn worm's maw and brought Tahlmalaera crashing down before her, piercing the bottom of the worm's mouth. The worm did not react, continuing its wriggling dance as Binkadink and Darrien continued their attacks from outside its body and Finoula did likewise from inside.
Then, from the back of the subterranean tunnel, the being responsible for having summoned the locusts and who had dominated the voidspawn worm and set it upon the Great Oak made his appearance. Blocked as he was by the remaining swarms of locusts and concentrating on sending arrows into the worm's flank, Darrien didn't see the robed form approach and cast a spell his way. He felt a wave of spell energy wash over him but although he had no idea what the spell's intended effect might be he instinctively fought against it. As a result, the disintegrate spell failed to kill him, although it did harm him sufficiently for him to take notice. Whirling to face his attacker, he saw - through the remaining flying locusts - a robed figure whose face was hidden behind a white porcelain mask. The frozen expression on the mask held a slightly bemused smile - almost a smirk.
Up above, Malrin used her healing spells against the remaining undead while her summoned fire elemental - and Feron Dru, in her own fire elemental form - pummeled the mohrgs with their flaming fists. Hagan had switched to polar ray spells, disappointed that it took two such spells to bring down a single mohrg - but never more than two. Once the undead foes had all been vanquished, Feron resumed her half-elven form and immediately began pumping her remaining healing spells into the Great Oak. Without being asked, Malrin dismounted from Obvious and did the same. The jackalope, unable to fit down the hole Mudpie had created, busied himself patrolling the battlefield and stomping on any remaining Kyuss worms he could find. Hagan, his fly spell still active although unused since arriving in Ehlonna's Grove, flew over to Mudpie's near-vertical tunnel and began carefully to descend to the cave below.
The remaining locusts had retargeted themselves against Binkadink, Darrien, and Gilbert; MARCI and Mudpie were unperturbed by their presence and Finoula was out of sight, still inside the giant worm's mouth. It continued its rhythmic gyrations, until a final blow from Binkadink's glaive cut halfway through its body, releasing a vile pool of black blood onto the floor of the cave tunnel. The worm's enforced dance ceased as the creature died. Finoula, glad that the bouncing, dizzying ride inside the creature's bobbing head was over with, tried climbing out of the worm's mouth but found she didn't have the strength to force open its jaws, even after planting her feet carefully and pushing up against the top of the creature's mouth with her back. This was no good! "A little help?" she called to her friends.
Darrien used his final lightning crystal to blast away the remaining swarms of locusts; only a few individuals remained, and they weren't anywhere near numerous enough to pose any threat.
Gilbert spotted the robed foe at the worm's side and cast an acid fog spell centered on the figure. The greenish vapors engulfed the masked spellcaster at once, making it impossible to target him with further spells requiring any precision. Gilbert only hoped the ongoing acidic attacks would take their toll on their unknown enemy.
Unseen inside the acidic cloud, the sorcerer cast a teleport spell placing him deep inside the voidspawn worm's throat, a good ten feet behind Finoula. While Binkadink and Darrien readied their weapons to attack the spellcaster, who they assumed would be making his way out of the acid fog at his best possible speed (and realizing that might take a bit of time, as the acidic vapors also acted as a solid fog spell, hampering movement), Gilbert took the opportunity to cast a spell turning spell on himself - hopefully the spellcaster would target him when he reappeared; then he'd be in for a surprise! But the masked spellcaster silently approached an oblivious Finoula from behind, ready to spring himself on her.
Fortunately for the elven ranger, Mudpie opened the dead worm's jaws and she was able to climb out of the beast's maw, unaware of the danger she'd been in. Hagan, descending to the floor level of the subterranean tunnel, thought he saw some movement from inside the worm's mouth but dismissed it as a trick of the light. He did feel a surge of spell energy wash over him, though, but resisted the effects and looked about, trying to find the spell's point of origin. Inside the worm's mouth, the hidden sorcerer scowled behind his mask, his baleful polymorph spell having failed to transform the oblivious half-orc to a green Kyuss worm as he'd intended.
"Where'd he go?" Binkadink asked, tired of waiting for the robed figure to emerge from the acid cloud spell. "Gilbert, how about dismissing your spell so we can see where he went?"
"Can't," Gilbert replied. "Spell has to run its course." Binkadink sighed in irritation and lowered his glaive. Then, pulling his magic horn from his belt, he gave it a good, long blow - activating a magic circle against evil spell effect around himself. It was something he could do while waiting for the guy in the robes and mask to show his face again.
Gilbert had similar thoughts and cast an extended haste spell on the group, catching everyone but Hagan in the spell's effect, for the half-orc was simply too far away. Mudpie, seeing there were apparently no more enemies to be fought down here, climbed effortlessly back up to the surface to see if there were any more undead who could use a good pounding.
"MARCI? You see anybody?" Gilbert asked. The construct activated the red beam from her eye and sent it searching into the cloud of greenish vapors. "I detect no life-forms within," she announced. Finoula took the opportunity of a break from the fighting to swig down the contents of a healing potion. Hagan, in the meantime, aware that there had to be a spellcaster of some sort in the vicinity, summoned a polar ray to his fingertips, ready to cast it at anyone who might jump out at him. Wezhley, on his shoulder, spun about and looked directly behind the half-orc, ready to report any movement his master couldn't see.
But the spellcaster was aware of none of this, merely that almost everyone was focused on the acid fog down the tunnel and his nearest target was the robed individual standing at the bottom of a vertical shaft from the surface above. He prepared to leap out at the half-orc from his hiding spot inside the worm's mouth; then he'd engulf the enemy within the writhing forms making up his humanoid shape. Tensing with the anticipation of an unexpected attack, the worm-that-walks made his bold move.
But the hem of his robe caught on one of the dead worm's teeth, toppling the spellcaster over. He fell to the ground before Hagan, his body discorporating into the thousands of worms that together made up his corporeal essence. No longer humanoid, the worm-that-walks collapsed into an empty porcelain mask; an open, intricate robe; and a splattering pile of writhing worms forming roughly a ten-foot burst in a circular pattern.
Hagan gave a surprised bleat and levitated halfway up the shaft back before he'd even processed what had happened. But he'd had the presence of mind to fire the polar ray spell he'd had at the ready, hitting the worm-that-walks when he was still a single, humanoid entity. Unfortunately, part of the ritual that had transferred the essence of a human sorcerer dedicated to Incabulos, God of Plagues into a mass of worms - a composite body that could be renewed indefinitely by adding new worms into the overall whole as the years passed - also granted the worm-that-walks a measure of protection from most spells, and in this case Hagan's polar ray was deflected harmlessly away from its intended victim.
Binkadink looked over at the commotion in time to see the humanoid figure transform into a pile of worms. Once again frowning at the uselessness of his favorite weapon, the gnomish glaive, he pulled the magic greatclub from his belt and used it to start smashing clumps of the wriggling worms to paste.
"That take too long," admonished Gilbert, stepping up to the scene. "Get out of way." Binkadink complied and Gilbert cast a maximized cone of cold at the pile of worms, overcoming the foe's inherent spell resistance and freezing each and every worm all at once and putting a definite end to a creature who had had the potential for immortality if even one worm survived. With a silent scream of fury, the consciousness of the worm-that-walks was snuffed out forever.
After a quick peek down the end of the tunnel to ensure there were no other surprises waiting for them - a peek which had to wait for the natural duration of the acid fog spell to run its course - the heroes climbed back topside to rejoin the others. Malrin and Feron, having ensured the viability of the Great Oak, had taken to examining the bodies of the Sisters of Ehlonna scattered around the battlefield. While most of them had been slain in the defense of the Great Oak, there were a few nymphs and dryads who had been merely paralyzed by the mohrgs. Feron was overjoyed to see she was not, as she had feared, the last remaining Sister of Ehlonna.
"Thank you!" she cried in Finoula's arms, giving her older sister a big hug. Finoula was not surprised to find herself hugging Feron Dru - her irritating, half-blood sister who had made such a big name for herself as an adventuring druid while Finoula was still living with their mother Feya back in Kordovia - back just as strongly. It was a new feeling, releasing the jealousy she'd felt for her little sister all these years.
It felt good.
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I wasn't sure how long this adventure would take to run through - it was basically just one big encounter, albeit one occurring in two adjacent locations - so I had the next one prepped in case we blazed through it too quickly. But the session lasted for over three and a half hours, so I read through the next adventure's "plot hook" to give the players an idea of what we'd be doing next time and then we adjourned back upstairs to exchange Christmas gifts between our two families, a tradition we'd held for years. My gift was a T-shirt that fits in very nicely with the next adventure I have planned; so much so that it'll definitely be the one I wear to our next Kordovian gaming session.
The mohrgs were all upgraded to 20 HD to make them a more challenging threat to a group of 18th-level PCs. I advanced the spawn of Kyuss by a few HD each as well, but not by as much - I wanted them to still be the lower-level threat. The giant, black worm below was an advanced purple worm with the voidspawn template applied to it.
I was very disappointed in not getting to spring my worm-that-walks's engulf attack, in which it discorporates into thousands of worms that surround the foe's entire body and deal a straight 50 points of damage. But wouldn't you know it: even though it was a simple touch attack, that was when my trusty d20 decided to betray me and I rolled a natural "1." Being the "let the dice fall where they may" group that we are, I had no choice but to play it out as it happened. But what a bummer!
- - -
T-shirt worn: My Moore-Hanes Family Reunion T-shirt, since it features a silhouette of a tree, a perfect representation of the Great Oak.
PC Roster:
Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 18
Darrien, half-elf ranger 18
Feron Dru, hamadryad (former half-elf) druid 20 Sister of Ehlonna
Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 18
Gilbert Fung, human wizard 18
Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 18
NPC Roster:
Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 13
MARCI, humanoid construct
Game Session Date: 1 January 2020
- - -
It was a pleasant morning and the team of adventurers was taking advantage of it. The combatants among them had just finished a round of mock battle to keep themselves in fighting trim, but now they were messing about with their animal companions. Binkadink was astride his jackalope Obvious, practicing alternately jumping onto and off of the stable roof - a practice which Daisy, housed within, did not appreciate in the least. Darrien wrestled with Grumps Junior in the courtyard of Battershield Keep, the half-elf ranger noting with surprise that this was getting to be slightly more dangerous a pastime than it had been before - the dire bear cub was growing fairly rapidly!
Outside, on the other side of the lowered drawbridge, the two elven women, Finoula and Malrin, threw sticks for their own animal friends, Wrath the timber wolf and Taihar the dire fox, to fetch. Hagan looked down on them from his perch on the roof of the northwestern tower of the keep, where he was playing with Wezhley, his weasel familiar. Two floors below him, Gilbert manipulated his Omnibook, adding the arcane scrolls he'd recently purchased into the back cover where he could retrieve them easily. Mudpie was currently the size of a pebble and safely ensconced inside a pocket of the heavyset wizard's robes. MARCI stood motionless against the wall, waiting to be needed.
All of them were thus readily occupied but in truth they were all just killing time, for Helga had warned them lunch would be ready in another ten or fifteen minutes. And nobody wanted to miss out on one of Helga's wonderful luncheon spreads.
But then they all became distracted by the buzzing sound in the distance, which got increasingly louder. Even Gilbert, from inside his second-floor room in one of the keep's four towers, could hear the droning coming from outside. "What that?" he demanded irritably to himself and started down the steps to see what was going on.
The others could see just fine what was causing the sound: dragonflies - hundreds, if not thousands, of dragonflies, spilling up from all sides of the keep and mingling in a chaotic, midair frenzy in the air above the courtyard. Finoula, recalling a recent incident where they'd been attacked at the keep by swarms of undead beetles, raised a hand to her lightning amulet and prepared to transform herself into a living bolt of electricity to blast her way through the mass of insects but then stayed her hand, realizing dragonflies didn't really have much in the way of a means of attacking people; she supposed they could bite but she'd never heard of them biting a person the way flies often did. Plus, despite several of her friends being right there in the courtyard with the swarming insects, none of the dragonflies were attacking. Finoula just watched, amazed at the spectacle before her.
Eventually, the chaotic cloud of multicolored insects started organizing itself into a pattern: a swirling, upright circle of flying bodies traveling in a counterclockwise fashion - at least from Finoula's point of view from outside the keep. And then the image in the center of the circle changed; where before she could see the building in the back of the keep, inside of which Helga Battershield was preparing the luncheon, now she saw a beleaguered elven woman with light hair like her own silver locks, leaning against a massive tree as if using it to keep herself on her feet. The harried elf made a gesture with her hand and a bolt of lightning came crashing down from the sky at the edge of the vision, exploding into a burst of light as it struck the ground just out of sight.
Then the woman turned in desperation and looked straight at the ranger who moments before had been playing fetch with her wolf. "Finoula!" cried her little sister Feron Dru, a high-level druid and now one of the Sisters of Ehlonna - a hamadryad, as a matter of fact. "I need your help!"
Finoula wasted no time. "Stay!" she commanded to Wrath, not wanting her loyal timber wolf to follow her into unknown danger through the magic gateway that had opened up between the courtyard of Battershield Keep and what the ranger knew must be Ehlonna's Grove, on the far side of the Vesve Forest many days' travel away. She ran straight towards the circle of dragonflies, casting a longstrider spell on herself as she ran.
"Stay!" repeated Malrin, this time to her own animal companion, Taihar. Then she too was running for the open gateway.
But Darrien beat them both through it. Oddly enough, although he was between the back building and the dragonfly gate when it manifested - and thus to him, the dragonflies were flying in a clockwise direction - he too saw the image of Feron Dru staggered beside a massive tree from his angle; apparently you could enter the gate from either direction and still end up in the same place at the other end. He ran through the gate without hesitation, nocking an arrow in his Arachnibow as he did so. Grumps Junior needed no prompting from his half-elven friend; he snorted and backed away from the weird-acting dragonflies in confusion. Bugs weren't supposed to act that way - it was just weird!
Once through the gate, Darrien stopped short, for the ground before him was littered with bodies: elven and human women, it looked like, along with numerous humanoid skeletons strewn about. Green worms the size of plump caterpillars scurried about among the corpses. Looking up, the archer saw a dozen or more skeletal figures approaching, although to do so they were crawling over the slain bodies of the recently dead - corpses which included more than a few unicorns, Darrien noted absently. Then he shook off his surprise, took careful aim, and sent an arrow streaking directly into the skull of an approaching, undead figure: a skeleton, he noted, with several large, purplish worms crawling around its arms and through its rib cage, one of them poking out between the skeleton's jaws. The arrow struck true, sending a small burst of frost puffing out where it hit, but the undead thing remained standing and continued its careful approach.
"Gilbert!" Darrien called over his shoulder, in the direction of the dragonfly gate. "We got a bunch of undead over here!"
Finoula stepped up beside him, looking in amazement at the sight of the recent carnage. Some of the undead forms coming nearer had parchmentlike skin stretched over their bones and green worms - the same kind as those crawling among the corpses - poking out of their desiccated flesh, in some cases extruding from their empty eye sockets as well. None of the undead things spoke, although Finoula hardly expected otherwise; still, it was kind of creepy the way they kept climbing over the recently slain in their single-minded desire to get closer to those still standing.
Back on the top of the northwestern tower of Battershield Keep, Hagan looked down into the courtyard and saw what was going on below. The stairs down to the courtyard from the roof were on the far side of the building; still, no matter - the half-orc sorcerer had a quicker way down. Casting a fly spell and positioning Wezhley firmly onto his customary place on the half-orc's right shoulder, Hagan leaped over the side of the roof and glided down through the swirling dragonflies, landing lightly to the ground on the other side of the gate and taking in the sight if the advancing horde of undead. They were approaching from all sides of the biggest oak tree Hagan had ever seen - it must have a diameter of no less than 40 feet, he thought to himself. He'd never known oaks could grow to such sizes!
The undead continued advancing, six of them with the larger, purple-colored worms writhing around and within them. Feron looked behind her and saw an opportunity: casting an entangle spell, she managed to ensnare six of what she knew to be spawn of Kyuss and two of the mohrgs. The grasses of the forest grove wound tightly about skeletal feet and shinbones, trying to prevent the undead monstrosities from advancing any further.
Binkadink and Obvious bounded suddenly through the gate, the jackalope moving at full speed due to the magic of the saddle he wore, which allowed his paws to hover a fraction of an inch above the ground and thus he was not hampered by the piled bodies of dead attackers and defenders any more than he would have been by a lumpy ground. Wheeling for the nearest clump of undead, Obvious ran forward while Binkadink swung his magic glaive at the side of a mohrg, hoping to slice right through its spine. He hit it exactly as intended, just below the undead thing's rib cage, but the steel blade merely scraped harmlessly off the hardened bones of the skeletal monster. The gnome frowned in irritation: these things were tougher than he had anticipated! Darrien joined him in a frown of his own a moment later, after having shot the same mohrg a half a dozen times without having brought it down.
Gilbert stepped outside the doorway to the northwestern tower and into the courtyard. amazed at what he was seeing before him. Keeping a steady stride, he fished in the pockets of his robe as he walked and produced his pebble-sized earth elemental familiar and his slingshot of rock shrinking. Shooting Mudpie through the dragonfly gate, the elemental struck the giant oak tree and resumed his normal size: a full 16 feet in height, as he landed on his feet at the base of the massive trunk. He looked down at the skeletal forms trapped in the nearby entangle spell and bunched his massive hands into fists the size of small boulders, ready to deal some damage.
MARCI followed Gilbert as the wizard strode through the gate. "Stimdose," the portly mage commanded and the construct extended a thin needle from a metal finger and stabbed it into the wizard's neck. Gilbert felt a sensation of sudden heat flow through his body as the fluid temporarily increased his strength and shortened his reaction time. "Good," he said. "Now we see about taking out these undead!"
Malrin cast a mass cure light wounds spell, sending healing energy flaring out at the nearest undead, which ate away at the necromantic energy empowering their unholy movement. But it wasn't enough to outright slay any of them; several spawn of Kyuss attacked Obvious, futilely clawing at him while the jackalope frantically kept his distance. And behind the druid, three of the entangled Kyuss-spawn and the two mohrgs managed to extricate themselves from the winding grasses and exit the area of effect of Feron's spell, shambling forward to do further harm to the living beings around them. All about the Great Oak - the extraplanar tree through which Ehlonna broadcast the spell energy to fuel the spells of her faithful - more spawn of Kyuss and mohrgs staggered forward.
Hagan cast a chain lightning spell centered on one of the mohrgs attacking Obvious, sending arcs of electricity to hit a handful of other undead in the vicinity. Four of the spawn of Kyuss were slain by the attack, their unholy bodies adding to the piles all around the Great Oak. But another mohrg standing beside Obvious struck at the jackalope, its ragged claws ripping lines of blood along the faithful mount's flank as its purplish worm-tongue darted out and bit Obvious in the side of the neck, delivering a paralytic venom into his bloodstream. Sitting in the jackalope's saddle and striking the nearby undead with his glaive, Binkadink was surprised when his mount froze up on him all at once; the gnome managed to leap from the saddle at the last moment as Obvious tipped over onto his side. But Binkadink took advantage of the momentum of his leap, swinging his glaive into the side of the mohrgs responsible for Obvious's paralysis, sending several of its rib-bones flying and carving his blade deep into one of the dark worms writhing along its arm-bones.
Feron spun about, sensing the mohrgs approaching behind her, and dropped a bolt of electricity from her previously-cast call lightning storm spell onto the skull of the nearest of the two. She made a brief mental inventory of her remaining spells; most of her most powerful ones had already been cast in fighting off the undead swarming the tree sacred to her goddess.
But she knew this was only part of the attacking force she faced - and not even the most dangerous part at that. Through her link with the life-force of the Great Oak - which was her home, in the same way a normal dryad's life was tied to a specific tree - she could sense that it was also being attacked from below. "They're attacking the roots of the Great Oak as well!" she called to her sister and her adventuring companions. "I can't fight them off in both places at once! Some of you will need to go below - there's a cavern 20 feet straight down! Hurry!"
Gilbert made a snap decision. "Mudpie!" he called to his familiar. "Dig down, but leave tunnel behind! Those coming with, center on me!"
Without any further prompting, the earth elemental sunk into the ground, digging a tunnel into the cavern Feron had described below. Unseen in the midst of battle against the undead, the dragonflies forming the gate to the courtyard of Battershield Keep dispersed and went their separate ways, their temporary service to the Goddess of Nature fulfilled.
Looking over at Obvious and realizing Binkadink's dilemma, Hagan called out, "We'll keep him safe!" as Darrien added, "Go! We'll protect Obvious--you head on down!" Darrien realized the gnome's glaive could wield an awful lot of damage and would likely be put to better use against the unseen enemies attacking the Great Oak's roots that had Finoula's sister so worried. To back up their claims, Darrien sent waves of arrows plunging deep into the desiccated flesh of the spawn of Kyuss surrounding Obvious while Hagan cast another chain lightning spell that fried several of the swarming undead. His worries about his mount and friend allayed, Binkadink ran toward Gilbert, his glaive striking out at the undead in his way.
Down in the lower cavern, Mudpie saw an enormous, black shape before him. Other than its coloration, it appeared to be a purple worm, its attention focused on the mindless gnawing of the massive roots of the Great Oak poking through the cavern's ceiling. Mudpie looked down the creature's length and saw its bloated body took up about half of the width of the subterranean tunnel leading downwards at a gentle slope into darkness. The tunnel turned to the right at the edge of the elemental's vision, beyond which he had no way of knowing what the passageway might hold. At least the close confines should prevent the worm from bringing its venomous tail-spike into play, not that poison held much of a threat to the earth elemental.
Mudpie sent a boulderlike fist crashing into the worm's side. It barely even noticed and continued with its grazing, breaking off great chunks of the Great Oak's thick roots with its powerful, toothed maw.
Topside, Finoula had advanced beside her sister and was fending off the oncoming undead with Tahlmalaera and her flaming whip of thorns while Feron dropped another bolt of lightning onto a mohrg's skull. "Thank you for coming," the druid said to her older half-sister, knowing full well Finoula had been jealous of Feron's rapid advancement through the ranks of the druid circles decades earlier, despite her relative youthfulness - thanks to her half-human parentage and the speed with which humans and those of their bloodline aged and matured compared to full-blooded elves. She hadn't been entirely sure Finoula would come to her aid.
"Of course," replied Finoula grimly. She hadn't always been a big fan of her half-sister, true, but while the ranger wasn't a full-fledged Sister of Ehlonna herself - a commitment requiring service for the rest of her natural life in Ehlonna's Grove, one she wasn't ready to give now and quite possibly never would be - she still was a follower of the Goddess of Nature and would willingly come to Her aid when called. Plus, like it or not, Feron was family: they shared the same mother. She couldn't not come to her half-sister's aid.
While Darrien and Hagan kept the undead temporarily at bay, Malrin ran up to Obvious and cast a neutralize poison spell upon him that soon had the jackalope struggling to his feet. But no sooner had he regained his footing than another wave of the spawn of Kyuss were upon him. Hagan took one of the new arrivals out with another chain lightning spell, damaging a few other nearby undead in the process. But two more mohrgs were now close enough to attack the jackalope, as two others clawed at Feron and Finoula, their thick, violet-colored worms attempting to paralyze the sisters.
Obvious fought back with his antlers and teeth. Finoula fought back with her longsword and whip. Feron, wishing this long battle was already done and over with, found a hidden well of untapped strength within her and summoned forth the energy needed to transform into a fire elemental, doubling her size as she did so.
As Binkadink stabbed at a mohrg standing between him and Gilbert, the wizard did some mental calculations and cast a sunburst spell behind the Great Oak, catching about half of the remaining undead swarm in the spell's area of effect while keeping himself and his fellow heroes well out of range. The spell enveloped and burned several spawn of Kyuss into dust, the cleansing light evaporating the hideous, green worms that swarmed over the desiccated undead as well. It also swept over a mohrg, blinding it. Gilbert smiled at the spell's effectiveness; any spell causing that much damage to that many undead abominations all at once was a good spell, in his estimation.
MARCI, at Gilbert's verbal direction, walked up to Finoula and injected her with a dose of the same substance she had given to Gilbert earlier. The elven ranger felt a warmth flow through her body as the stimdose took its full effect.
Darrien noted, with some concern, during Obvious's combat with the spawn of Kyuss he'd been fighting, several of the worms had transferred themselves from their undead hosts onto the jackalope's fur. Not sure of their capabilities but doubting they were likely to be good for the antlered rodent, Darrien took a momentary break from shooting undead with his Arachnibow and cast an animal growth spell on Obvious, causing the jackalope to double in size but more importantly, grant him an increased toughness that would hopefully prevent the green worms from being able to burrow into his hide. From what he could tell, the spell was effective on that front - so far, at least.
Malrin, still in the vicinity since casting her spell upon the jackalope, decided to take advantage of a higher combat position and climbed up onto his empty saddle; at presently double its normal size, the gnome-sized seat fit the elf just fine. A mohrg tried to grab her while she got settled into a comfortable position in the saddle, but a cure serious wounds spell cast directly upon the undead caused it to instinctively flinch back as if stung, smoke rising from where the druid had touched it. And then the creature fell to another of Hagan's chain lightning spells.
Finoula's flashing weapons cut down several spawn of Kyuss in rapid succession; she took a moment to crush a wriggling, green Kyuss worm under her heel while turning to face the next approaching undead foe. Beside her, Feron's flaming form had set a mohrg's dry bones alight, the crackling flames having a deleterious effect on the thick bodies of the purple-skinned worms thrashing around, entwined between its blazing bones.
Down in the cavern, Mudpie continued punching the massive, black worm to little effect; it studiously ignored the attacks, continuing its mission to devour the roots of the Great Oak. But by then Binkadink had managed to strike down the mohrg he'd been fighting and make it to Gilbert's side, as had Darrien and Finoula at his frantic gesturing. "They can handle it up here!" Gilbert told the others, indicating Feron in her fire elemental form, Hagan still casting chain lightning spells, and the twice-normal-size Obvious with Malrin upon his back. Indeed, there weren't many undead left surrounding the Great Oak any more; time to go deal with whatever was threatening its root system. With a few arcane syllables, Gilbert cast a dimension door that sent the quartet of heroes - and the ever-present MARCI at his side - down to the lower cavern.
Gilbert's arcane-enhanced eyesight failed to pick up an aura of undead around the black worm, which was surprising but not at all disappointing; not only did that mean one less undead monstrosity in the world to have to deal with, but he had prepared several combat spells that were all but useless to undead creatures and this gave him an opportunity to bring some of them to bear.
Binkadink wasted no time in bringing his magical glaive swinging down upon the dark beast, the blade slicing deep into the worm's flesh. Darrien moved further down the worm's side, lining up a shot that wouldn't have Binkadink's swinging weapon in the way. As he passed MARCI, she gave him a dose of the stimulant she'd been using as a combat aid since her stores of healing fluid had run dry. Darrien let fly with his arrow, burying its shaft in the worm's side.
Finoula sent her longsword flashing forward, slicing deeply into the worm's flesh. This, at long last, got the worm's attention away from devouring the roots it had been sent to destroy. Rearing its head and spinning about, it opened its maw and lunged at the elven ranger, snapping her instantly into its mouth. It was dark inside the worm's maw but from the scant light coming down from above through Mudpie's steeply-sloping tunnel and the everburning torches attached to the antlers of Binkadink's battle helmet she was surprised to see no remnants of roots inside the worm's maw with her; rather, it seemed to the silver-haired ranger that the worm hadn't been actually eating the roots so much as disintegrating them - a fact which, if true, did not bode very well for her!
Any attempt to try to extract their elven friend and companion from the worm's mouth were interrupted by the sounds of thousands of beating wings coming from the worm's tail section. Thinking at first that this might herald the return of the dragonflies responsible for bringing them here to Ehlonna's aid, Darrien turned his head towards the rear of the tunnel passageway and was blasted by a swarm of flying locusts. They sped up the tunnel to engulf every living thing there, making it all but impossible to see.
Topside, Malrin - seeing the success Feron was having against the remaining mohrgs with her fire elemental wildshape form, cast a summon nature's ally spell to bring forth another one, this one twice as big as Feron's already oversize form. It reached down and burned to ashes the last remaining spawn of Kyuss on the battlefield, while Hagan switched spell tactics by using a polar ray to slay one of the few remaining mohrgs. The mohrg Feron had set ablaze continued to attack her as it burned; she attacked it right back, her flaming fist adding to the fires engulfing it. And Obvious got an already-heavily-damaged mohrg's bones in his mouth, where he shook it back and forth until the magic serving as its connective tissue gave way and it felt, quite literally, to pieces. The jackalope then stomped up and down on the thick, ropy worms that spilled from the mohrg's broken body, smashing them to paste beneath his leaping body.
Knowing full well the ineffectiveness of a bladed weapon against literally thousands of insects, Binkadink plucked a crystal from his necklace of lighting crystals and activated it blindly. The crystal vanished, to be replaced with a bolt of electricity that fried through every locust body with which it came into contact. Gilbert could hardly see with the locusts swarming all over him, but he didn't really need to see his target to bring his next planned spell attack into being; reaching out with his hand until he touched the flank of the voidspawn worm, he cast an Otto's irresistible dance spell - a spell useless against the undead, for it required a living target.
It was a shame the tunnel was still currently plagued with locusts; Gilbert had hoped for a better view of the first time he'd ever seen a worm dance.
As the worm wriggled and writhed spasmodically in place, Mudpie sent his stony fist crashing into the creature's mouth, shattering a few of its sharp teeth. But trapped in the power of Gilbert's "spoilsport" spell, it paid as much attention to the elemental's attacks at it had earlier when its attention was focused upon disintegrating the Great Oak, piece by piece, from below.
MARCI was covered head to foot in locusts but they had no effect upon her metal body and they were doing her no harm so she let them be. Darrien plucked the next-to-last crystal from his own necklace and followed Binkadink's lead, sending another lightning bolt burning its way through hundreds of the locusts clogging up the tunnel. Slowly, the number of flying locusts was being whittled away.
Finoula balanced in a kneeling position inside the voidspawn worm's maw and brought Tahlmalaera crashing down before her, piercing the bottom of the worm's mouth. The worm did not react, continuing its wriggling dance as Binkadink and Darrien continued their attacks from outside its body and Finoula did likewise from inside.
Then, from the back of the subterranean tunnel, the being responsible for having summoned the locusts and who had dominated the voidspawn worm and set it upon the Great Oak made his appearance. Blocked as he was by the remaining swarms of locusts and concentrating on sending arrows into the worm's flank, Darrien didn't see the robed form approach and cast a spell his way. He felt a wave of spell energy wash over him but although he had no idea what the spell's intended effect might be he instinctively fought against it. As a result, the disintegrate spell failed to kill him, although it did harm him sufficiently for him to take notice. Whirling to face his attacker, he saw - through the remaining flying locusts - a robed figure whose face was hidden behind a white porcelain mask. The frozen expression on the mask held a slightly bemused smile - almost a smirk.
Up above, Malrin used her healing spells against the remaining undead while her summoned fire elemental - and Feron Dru, in her own fire elemental form - pummeled the mohrgs with their flaming fists. Hagan had switched to polar ray spells, disappointed that it took two such spells to bring down a single mohrg - but never more than two. Once the undead foes had all been vanquished, Feron resumed her half-elven form and immediately began pumping her remaining healing spells into the Great Oak. Without being asked, Malrin dismounted from Obvious and did the same. The jackalope, unable to fit down the hole Mudpie had created, busied himself patrolling the battlefield and stomping on any remaining Kyuss worms he could find. Hagan, his fly spell still active although unused since arriving in Ehlonna's Grove, flew over to Mudpie's near-vertical tunnel and began carefully to descend to the cave below.
The remaining locusts had retargeted themselves against Binkadink, Darrien, and Gilbert; MARCI and Mudpie were unperturbed by their presence and Finoula was out of sight, still inside the giant worm's mouth. It continued its rhythmic gyrations, until a final blow from Binkadink's glaive cut halfway through its body, releasing a vile pool of black blood onto the floor of the cave tunnel. The worm's enforced dance ceased as the creature died. Finoula, glad that the bouncing, dizzying ride inside the creature's bobbing head was over with, tried climbing out of the worm's mouth but found she didn't have the strength to force open its jaws, even after planting her feet carefully and pushing up against the top of the creature's mouth with her back. This was no good! "A little help?" she called to her friends.
Darrien used his final lightning crystal to blast away the remaining swarms of locusts; only a few individuals remained, and they weren't anywhere near numerous enough to pose any threat.
Gilbert spotted the robed foe at the worm's side and cast an acid fog spell centered on the figure. The greenish vapors engulfed the masked spellcaster at once, making it impossible to target him with further spells requiring any precision. Gilbert only hoped the ongoing acidic attacks would take their toll on their unknown enemy.
Unseen inside the acidic cloud, the sorcerer cast a teleport spell placing him deep inside the voidspawn worm's throat, a good ten feet behind Finoula. While Binkadink and Darrien readied their weapons to attack the spellcaster, who they assumed would be making his way out of the acid fog at his best possible speed (and realizing that might take a bit of time, as the acidic vapors also acted as a solid fog spell, hampering movement), Gilbert took the opportunity to cast a spell turning spell on himself - hopefully the spellcaster would target him when he reappeared; then he'd be in for a surprise! But the masked spellcaster silently approached an oblivious Finoula from behind, ready to spring himself on her.
Fortunately for the elven ranger, Mudpie opened the dead worm's jaws and she was able to climb out of the beast's maw, unaware of the danger she'd been in. Hagan, descending to the floor level of the subterranean tunnel, thought he saw some movement from inside the worm's mouth but dismissed it as a trick of the light. He did feel a surge of spell energy wash over him, though, but resisted the effects and looked about, trying to find the spell's point of origin. Inside the worm's mouth, the hidden sorcerer scowled behind his mask, his baleful polymorph spell having failed to transform the oblivious half-orc to a green Kyuss worm as he'd intended.
"Where'd he go?" Binkadink asked, tired of waiting for the robed figure to emerge from the acid cloud spell. "Gilbert, how about dismissing your spell so we can see where he went?"
"Can't," Gilbert replied. "Spell has to run its course." Binkadink sighed in irritation and lowered his glaive. Then, pulling his magic horn from his belt, he gave it a good, long blow - activating a magic circle against evil spell effect around himself. It was something he could do while waiting for the guy in the robes and mask to show his face again.
Gilbert had similar thoughts and cast an extended haste spell on the group, catching everyone but Hagan in the spell's effect, for the half-orc was simply too far away. Mudpie, seeing there were apparently no more enemies to be fought down here, climbed effortlessly back up to the surface to see if there were any more undead who could use a good pounding.
"MARCI? You see anybody?" Gilbert asked. The construct activated the red beam from her eye and sent it searching into the cloud of greenish vapors. "I detect no life-forms within," she announced. Finoula took the opportunity of a break from the fighting to swig down the contents of a healing potion. Hagan, in the meantime, aware that there had to be a spellcaster of some sort in the vicinity, summoned a polar ray to his fingertips, ready to cast it at anyone who might jump out at him. Wezhley, on his shoulder, spun about and looked directly behind the half-orc, ready to report any movement his master couldn't see.
But the spellcaster was aware of none of this, merely that almost everyone was focused on the acid fog down the tunnel and his nearest target was the robed individual standing at the bottom of a vertical shaft from the surface above. He prepared to leap out at the half-orc from his hiding spot inside the worm's mouth; then he'd engulf the enemy within the writhing forms making up his humanoid shape. Tensing with the anticipation of an unexpected attack, the worm-that-walks made his bold move.
But the hem of his robe caught on one of the dead worm's teeth, toppling the spellcaster over. He fell to the ground before Hagan, his body discorporating into the thousands of worms that together made up his corporeal essence. No longer humanoid, the worm-that-walks collapsed into an empty porcelain mask; an open, intricate robe; and a splattering pile of writhing worms forming roughly a ten-foot burst in a circular pattern.
Hagan gave a surprised bleat and levitated halfway up the shaft back before he'd even processed what had happened. But he'd had the presence of mind to fire the polar ray spell he'd had at the ready, hitting the worm-that-walks when he was still a single, humanoid entity. Unfortunately, part of the ritual that had transferred the essence of a human sorcerer dedicated to Incabulos, God of Plagues into a mass of worms - a composite body that could be renewed indefinitely by adding new worms into the overall whole as the years passed - also granted the worm-that-walks a measure of protection from most spells, and in this case Hagan's polar ray was deflected harmlessly away from its intended victim.
Binkadink looked over at the commotion in time to see the humanoid figure transform into a pile of worms. Once again frowning at the uselessness of his favorite weapon, the gnomish glaive, he pulled the magic greatclub from his belt and used it to start smashing clumps of the wriggling worms to paste.
"That take too long," admonished Gilbert, stepping up to the scene. "Get out of way." Binkadink complied and Gilbert cast a maximized cone of cold at the pile of worms, overcoming the foe's inherent spell resistance and freezing each and every worm all at once and putting a definite end to a creature who had had the potential for immortality if even one worm survived. With a silent scream of fury, the consciousness of the worm-that-walks was snuffed out forever.
After a quick peek down the end of the tunnel to ensure there were no other surprises waiting for them - a peek which had to wait for the natural duration of the acid fog spell to run its course - the heroes climbed back topside to rejoin the others. Malrin and Feron, having ensured the viability of the Great Oak, had taken to examining the bodies of the Sisters of Ehlonna scattered around the battlefield. While most of them had been slain in the defense of the Great Oak, there were a few nymphs and dryads who had been merely paralyzed by the mohrgs. Feron was overjoyed to see she was not, as she had feared, the last remaining Sister of Ehlonna.
"Thank you!" she cried in Finoula's arms, giving her older sister a big hug. Finoula was not surprised to find herself hugging Feron Dru - her irritating, half-blood sister who had made such a big name for herself as an adventuring druid while Finoula was still living with their mother Feya back in Kordovia - back just as strongly. It was a new feeling, releasing the jealousy she'd felt for her little sister all these years.
It felt good.
- - -
I wasn't sure how long this adventure would take to run through - it was basically just one big encounter, albeit one occurring in two adjacent locations - so I had the next one prepped in case we blazed through it too quickly. But the session lasted for over three and a half hours, so I read through the next adventure's "plot hook" to give the players an idea of what we'd be doing next time and then we adjourned back upstairs to exchange Christmas gifts between our two families, a tradition we'd held for years. My gift was a T-shirt that fits in very nicely with the next adventure I have planned; so much so that it'll definitely be the one I wear to our next Kordovian gaming session.
The mohrgs were all upgraded to 20 HD to make them a more challenging threat to a group of 18th-level PCs. I advanced the spawn of Kyuss by a few HD each as well, but not by as much - I wanted them to still be the lower-level threat. The giant, black worm below was an advanced purple worm with the voidspawn template applied to it.
I was very disappointed in not getting to spring my worm-that-walks's engulf attack, in which it discorporates into thousands of worms that surround the foe's entire body and deal a straight 50 points of damage. But wouldn't you know it: even though it was a simple touch attack, that was when my trusty d20 decided to betray me and I rolled a natural "1." Being the "let the dice fall where they may" group that we are, I had no choice but to play it out as it happened. But what a bummer!
- - -
T-shirt worn: My Moore-Hanes Family Reunion T-shirt, since it features a silhouette of a tree, a perfect representation of the Great Oak.
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