Age of Worms

Ah, Fangsfall. The free city. What a joke. I had to bribe the guards 50 ducats just to get in the gate without wasting a week waiting in line. After some aimless wanderings, we ran afoul of the town sage, who was very interested to see our worm-doo. After some exchange of cruft, he offered to put us up at the Crooked House, a inn run by an associate of his.

The Crooked House turned out to be a well-enough set up dump, but no sooner did we sit down to dinner than Nameless apparently saw fit to stab the landlord, then dash upstairs. Now I know the monk is an erratic madman with a suicidal streak, but even he isn’t crazy enough to commit murder in front of a crowd of eyewitnesses.

Unfortunately, the landlord and the other patrons didn’t share our knowledge of Nameless’ character, and an enormous brawl began, instigated by a rabblerouser who turned out to be the actual perptrator of the stabbing.

Needless to say, we won the brawl, and afterward inspected the unconscious body of the doppleganger. He had a key, which apparently was for a warehouse at the docks….

So one night we’re hangin’ out in the bar at the inn. The innkeep doesn’t hold with weapons and armor in the bar, so I’m not wearin’ much, but I have my new gloves and a nice masterwork dagger I picked up. Suddenly the monk walks up and stabs the innkeeper, then heads upstairs. I chase after him - at least one advantage of not havin’ all that armor on is that I can catch up to the monk. When I gets to his room, he says he’s been up here all th’ time. I tries to get one o’ them priests of Hedrada to come sort it out, but some crazy merchant keeps callin’ for our blood and rilin’ up the patrons. We tries to subdue ‘em and go get the priest, but then th’s’posed merchant starts clawin’ Duncan up, so I has to hit him a few times. Finally the guards arrive and Vogol talks ‘em into listenin’ to us and shuttin’ the “merchant” up.

Vogol almost gets a key off his neck, but the guards catch ‘im and takes it. The next mornin’ we try to find out what he was up to and find that they’ve let him go! Th’ key hadda symbol of the soggy-somethin’-or-other House on it, so we goes down to their warehouse by the docks. Can’t say as I likes the looks of their symbol when we sees it big - a kraken draggin’ down a ship. Still, looks like it could be a good fight.

We goes in and kills some mimics that’re pretendin’ to be chests, and also kills some chests that aren’t pretendin’ to be anythin’. The mage is kind o’ useful, but as usual I has to do most of the killin’.

We finds some pretty clothes and Vogol says nice things about how I looks in this gorgeous sky-blue cloak. Then he finds a door to a hall full of cells with people in ‘em! I guess this place isn’t as deserted as it looked from outside.

So after I make short work o’ that lizard king, we goes back to the fort and finds more zombies. Easy enough to kill ‘em now that we knows how. Ol’ Woolery doesn’t make it, though, and that girl magician seems sad about it, but I figure he really wasn’t cut out for adventurin’, and oughta have stayed home.

We rest up a bit at the fort and meet a new magic guy, Carl, who is also interested in the worms. He’s headed back to the free city of Fangsfall; seems like ev’ryone’s telling me to go there. I have some relatives there anyway, so I’m all for it.

On the way, we meets some trolls who try to rob us, but I teaches ‘em a lesson about attackin’ travellers. They have some crazy story about attackin’ adventurers to get money to pay adventurers. I think they’re kind of stupid. I have to whack ‘em several times before they get the message.

In the free city, we’re trapped in a crowd when a circus goes by, and I sees a caw-mair-a, which looks like a lot of fun to fight. I’m distracted by someone tryin’ to rob Duncan and I’m about to draw my sword to soften him up a little when the caw-mair-a breaks out of its cage, so I gets the chance to kill it after all.

Carl takes us to see some wise guy who wants to take all our magic stuff away, which I’m not so sure about, but I guess we can trust ‘im, and anyway, most if it isn’t mine. We hears they’re gonna have some fightin’ contests in the town soon, which I really want to try. My snooty cousins, who I has to pay a duty visit to, don’t think much of this idea, even though they’re sponsoring a team. I’m glad they don’t invite me back, though the food is awful good. Duty done, I enjoys myself on the town, and in m’shoppin’, pick up a pair of gloves of ogre strength. They’re done in a nice shade of dark purple leather, and I’m never takin’ ‘em off!

The lizardmen were holed up in their Tree Fort and we had to get in there and free the prisoners.

When we first arrived it seemed like it was going to be more of a hassle… We took out scout patrols they sent out and, as always, set subtlety aside and followed the barbarian in the front door. Apparently these lizard men were either deeply lazy or so confident of their rulership of the swamp that they didn’t really care much for security.

We went through slughtering lizard men by the roomful. Eventually, we came across one that looked a little different from the others who had been taken over by the worms. Of course we killed him and just note to future generations, when they say UNKILLABLE ZOMBIES, they are being overly pessimistic. It should read something like “NOT EASILY KILLABLE ZOMBIES”. At any rate, the zombie lizard man died just about the time we ran into the Lizardman Shaman. Thankfully, the mage spoke Draconic, so we had someone to translate. The Shaman explained that none of this was his fault and how it was all the kings doing and how if we killed the king, he would give us the prisoners he had. He also mentioned that the king was in league with a black dragon, who’d been encouraging his more violent tendencies, including the raid on the keep.

Since we’d already planned on killing pretty much every lizardman we ran into, this didn’t seem to be much of a problem. So, we went to the throne room and took care of the king and his brides. Apparently, the Lizardman king had been a slave in the Gladitorial Arenas of Fangsfall and his training said “Kill the mages first.” So he did. Poor Woolery.

The king had a trident what returns to him when thrown. Pretty nifty clink. We lost one of the prinsoners in the assault, but the mage we’d come to save was okay, except for a broken jaw.

After the fight, the shaman explained how the lizard men’s eggs were in danger and how he needed our help to get them free from the minons of the black dragon. We were a bit worried about this, until he explained that the minions were merely kobolds. Problem: The kobolds were at the other end of a cavern filled with water. Solution: The shaman had some water breathing potions…. Problem: there was something slimey in the potion that I drank.

I was worried about this kind of thing, I’d been thinking that perhaps the shaman was not really the peaceloving man he protested to be and that more than that, he was also infected with the worms. So, I slapped him with my sparitzna just to make sure I had his attention and tried to figure out what was going on. His reaction, his sheer surpise was such that I laid off the attack and made myself wretch up the potion. There had, of course, been a worm inside. No one else had noticed. Much wretching ensued and it seems that we were all able to get the worms out before becoming infected. Apparently, there were potions given to him by the black dragon. We smoothed things over with the shaman and told him to check the rest of his supply.

Luckily, the potions had had enough time to take at least some limited effect and we were still able to swim down into the egg cavern. The fight with the kobolds took less time than it’s taken to write this sentence about it. The major upshot was that there was a dragon egg in among the lizard mens’ eggs. There was some debate about what to do with the dragon egg. The monk actually started to break it at one point, but calmer and more profit oriented head prevailed and we decided to take it back out with us. Unfortunately, or perhaps forunately, the monk dropped the egg on the way home. The egg was, of course, filled with little green worms. We all went to sleep that night with dreams about what would have occured if the monk had had his way and broken the egg earlier in the cavern with all the other eggs.

We got back to the outpost and found that several of the “surivors” of the garrison had came back to life as zombies and were trapped in the basement. We killed them, as we always do.

I think we need to find the person who said, “Violence never solves anything” and take him out back for a wholloping.

Once we had felled the lizardman chief and his guards, we quickly surveyed the scene of the carnage. Shortly thereafter, the lizard-druid came back, captives in tow. He fed a restorative draught to the apprentice, who lost no time in asking after her missing possessions. Meanwhile, we had her translate for us to the druid, who was now begging us to complete the purging of his home of draconic influences. Apparently past the chief’s chamber was a hatchery, filled with the lizardmen’s egg cache, as well as an egg of the very dragon who had overbourne the lizardman chief. We were to dispose of the egg and its guardians, apparently a dozen or so kobolds.

In order to reach the hatchery, we needed to swim some distance in a flooded tunnel, and the druid provided potions which he claimed would allow us to breath the brackish murky water. With some small trepidation, we all drank our potions, and began to wade into the tunnel, when suddenly Vogol began to retch hideously. He spat up a green worm, like the ones that had turned the lizardmen into zombies. Sensing betrayal, he immediately assailed the lizardman druid, who looked as stunned as any of the rest of us. After some hasty words, he assured us that he hadn’t had any idea that the potions were corrupted. To be safe, we each coughed up the potions as best we could, and then proceeded into the hatchery, accompanied by the druid.

Inside, the floor was littered with eggs and eggshells, and in the very center we could see the large, shiny black dragon egg. Lounging around, completely unaware of our presence, were the kobolds. Kandu rushed out of the water instantly and began laying about with gusto. The battle was swift and brutal, the outcome, inevitable. Once in possession of the hatchery, we searched the cavern, and the nameless monk began to contrive a way to carry the dragon egg off, convinced that he’d be able to sell it to some deranged collector. The rest of us did not argue, simply being eager to quit the lizardman settlement.

Once outside the settlement, we braced up to march back through the swamp and mists to Blackwall Keep. It was then that the fortunate monk dropped the dragon’s egg, only to discover that it had been entirely infested with the necrotic worms. A foetal, undead dragonling emerged from the egg, covered in the creeping stuff, but the apprentice lost no time in burning the entire foul mess to a crisp.

Lest our march back to the fringes of civilization become too commonplace, we were set upon by a trio of cockatri, sickly graying half-lizard, half-birds, whose bite could turn a body into stone. Fortunately, no one was afflicted before we could slay them, and we resumed our now brief march back to the keep.

Once within the Lizardman stronghold, we wasted no time in alerting the defenders to our presence, mostly by cleaving their limbs and bodies asunder. While it seemed that the saurians were going to put up a determined but ultimately futile defence, we were soon shocked to discover one of the lizardmen was infested with these peculiar worms we’ve come here to investigate. Convenient. Or as convenient as a regenerating zombie lizardman can be. After the worms made their freakish appearance, the nameless monk displayed his usual bravado by charging away at top speed, no doubt intent on attacking a band of invisible lizardman approaching from behind. The other lizardmen were similarly affected, immediately throwing down their arms and begging for quarter. Shortly, one of their chiefs, a druid of sorts, approached us and began to converse with Woolery in Draconic. He was claiming, Woolery explained, that their tribe had come under the influence of an evil dragon. Their chief, whose rule derived from the dragon’s power, was raiding the human settlements at the behest of his master, with the reluctant consent of his tribe. The druid wanted us to kill their chief and his henchmen, with the promise of releasing their captives and cessation of the raiding on human lands. After some brief debate, we assented, after verifying the condition of the hostages in the druid’s possession. Very close by where they were held, we made contact with the lizardman leader and his elite guards.

The chief saurian was a huge example of the type, girt in armor and armed with a trident, which turned out to be magical, as it would instantly return to his hand after he threw it. We saw this feat demonstrated quite savagely as Woolery was nearly impaled by the three-pronged spear. Unfazed, the mage returned fire with a searing ray that singed the leader to his very scales. As Kandu, Vogol and I vied to hem the chief in, he lunged past us, savagely thrusting down at Woolery with his trident. Struck down by such a savage rain of blows, the sorcerer fell to the floor, senseless.

The sight of Woolery’s fall incensed Kandu to even greater heights of rage, and she hammered furiously on the chief, while Vogol made short work of his remaining minions. I waded thru the fray to the fallen form of Woolery, desperate to reach him before the last spark of life left his body. I reached down and laid such blessings as were in my power to preserve his life, but I was too late. Woolery was gone.

The survivors of the Blackwall garrison informed us that the lizardmen we slew were not the only ones who raided them, some having carried off a group of captives, earlier in the day, including, much to my annoyance, the selfsame apprentice who we travelled here to meet. One member of the garrison, a grimy half-orc named Krag, offered to guide us through the swamp to the Lizardman encampment. I was not hopeful of the recovery of the captives, but if we showed up too late to effect a rescue, we could always default into vengeance.

Regardless of the condition of our captives, hors d’oevres or otherwise, we still had miles of trackless swamps to traverse, with Gods know what perils lying along the way. Well, the Gods and us, since we found a gigantic crocodile and a pack of ghasts ambushing us during the multi-day trudge. Nevertheless, we arrived at the Lizardman encampment in good order.

The lizardman settlement was embedded in the bowels of a large, sprawling, hollow tree, overgrown with thorns, vines and underbrush. We swiftly dispatched their sentries, and proceeded inside…

I played it safe and stayed on the sidelines for a while, but decided they were probably geting in over their heads again. The siege of the keep was lifted and many lizard men were shown the way to hell. Unfortunately the apprentice we were seeking had been taken away by lizardmen even before we got there. So, we engaged a local guide and went off into the wamp after her. Despite ghasts and giant alligators , we made it to the tree wherein the lizard men make their home. Apparently my companions, tactical geniuses evey one, have decided that a full frontal assault on the lair woud be the best course of action.

Guys at the Keep told us Woolery’s friend had been taken by more o’ them lizard men, so we runs off into the swamp to rescue her. Can’t say as I much liked the swamp, though fightin’ this big ‘gator sure was fun! Them ghasts smelled like all the worst bits of the swamp put together, but I still took care of ‘em. Travel through the swamp was slow, but we made it to the city of them lizard men. Some city, it just looks like a big patch o’ swampy woods to me. The others were all debatin’ what to do, but I says there’re just a hundred or so of ‘em, and I can take ‘em out easy all by myself! I wants to just charge in there. I was impressed with that guy Crag until he kept keelin’ over like a sorceror, but we were sure lucky to have him guide us, even if he did his best to get killed on the way.

the Light of good and pure guide us…

the party traveled toward blackwall keep - the smell of smoke and burning led our path, and what we found were lizardmen surrounding the old garrison… not very bright these creatures - stupid even, one might say… they were divided in eight camps of five - among them was a leader, larger than the rest… i stayed completely focused on him, for i thought the body should collapse without its head… our wizard woolery put many of the lizardment to sleep while our barbarian became infused with a berserker’s rage… our paladin did what he could from his entangled vantage point, a victim of the lizard druid man… i ran straight for the leader and immediately stunned him with a ki-charged fist of fury - finishing them off was easy after that…

discovering our wizard’s predecessor (his damn master’s previous apprentice mage) was missing, we head off with a half-orc recruit to track her down… the trek took our tired party through the swamp - oh, how i hate the swamp, the Lightless hellhole that it is… we came across a giant crocodile and thought we would lose our new tracker, but he proved to be quite tough, as indicated by his strands of trophy teeth…

if we can save the mage… then we must find the lizard camp…