Age of Worms Campaign Update 8/24/2008

CHRONICLE VAULT 20080824, FROM THE LIBRARY OF RHAVUS THE FIEND-SAGE ...

Coldeven 18, 595 CY
Other interests have pulled my attention away from the Kings of the Road for a time, other interests that will soon become their interests. For all things come to pass in the end, and the end starts with the Age of Worms.

The heroes, having met Lashonna at the palace of Prince Zeech of Alhaster during a feast and games commemorating his 20th anniversary as ruler, arranged a meeting at her palatial home at midnight on Coldeven 12. The companions arrived early and were greeted by Lashonna's house servant, who brought them to her spacious and impressive library. Duke was especially interested in the volumes of lore, most of which seemed to center on the history, flora, and fauna of the Bandit Kingdoms region.

After a short wait Lashonna arrived in a gossamer nightgown that accentuated her graceful elven figure. She apologized for the lateness of the hour, and gave them the remnants of Grimoire Barackus' journal. The elven noble admitted a certain obsession with Grimoire's work, and remember fondly his visit to her almost twenty years ago.

From what the heroes could read from the tattered remains of Grimoire's journal gave them a newfound respect for the missing wizard. Grimoire identified the dracolich Dragotha as the herald of Kyuss, and it was him that the companions saw in the visions they experienced in the ruins of Kuluth-Mar far to the south carrying away the physical remains of the Wormgod. The ancient dracolich laired somewhere in the Rift Canyon to the north, but Dragotha's phylactery was taken by a group of druids called the Order of the Storm and hidden away from the world. Lashonna told the heroes that Grimoire had gone north to the Wormcrawl Fissure in the Rift Canyon to confront Dragotha against her guidance.

In the time since Grimore disappeared, Lashonna had been researching and discovered that the Order of the Storm secreted away Dragotha's phylactery in a hidden place called Last Resort. The only way into Last Resort was through the island of Tilagos, ancient stronghold of the druids somewhere in the Nyr Dyv. Tilagos appears on no maps, however, and is kept hidden from the world by powerful storms that destroy passing ships.

Lashonna was very frank with the heroes. The Age of Worms is upon them all, and if they have a hope of stopping this terrible event they must destroy the herald of Kyuss. But to defeat a dracolich one must first destroy its phylactery, and in Dragotha's case you have to first find it. The elf noble admitted at this point that she had made many enemies, and one of them planted a spy in her household. A month ago most of her research notes on the existence of Last Resort and the Order of the Storm was stolen by a trusted associated of hers, so it is likely someone else is seeking the knowledge of the druids.

And there was one more catch. In order to access Last Resort one must possess the blood of one of the Order's members. The druid line had been diluted greatly in the last 1500 years, but Lashonna was able to trace the lineage down to one person - Christine, wife of King Toka Deasseana of Bloodstone. The companions needed to get a vial of blood from King Toka's wife before setting out for Tilagos.

In this they were partially lucky. King Toka and his wife were both in Alhaster for Prince Zeech's banquet. The heroes were in agreement - they could not turn back now, not after all they had done. The elf rogue Fin, whom the companions met at the banquet, explained that his liege - Lord Dextarian Nightshade of the Homogeny - had sent him on this quest as the strange worm-ridden undead had begun to appear in his lands as well.

And so, at 2 am, Duke, Argo, Fin, Drake, and Kong set out to find King Toka wherever he was staying in Alhaster. They found the inn and managed to bribe the keeper to get Toka's room number. After several minutes of pounding on his door they were confronted with a very upset man who held a hammer that could kill a giant in a single blow. But the heroes were not deterred and explained in a rush what was going on.

Toka invited them in and listened to their tale, adding that he had been warned by Malakara that they might be showing up. At first he refused to give up and his wife's blood for the reason that she was with child. But given the circumstances surrounding the situation and the dire threat the dracolich posed to everyone in the Bandit Kingdoms he relented. He took a vial into the bedroom and returned a few minutes later with it filled with blood. Toka gave them the vial, and told them that the should return to Bloodstone if and when they came back from Tilagos Island.

The heroes returned to their inn for one more night in Alhaster and went out early the next day. Captain Shadowstalker and the Sunshadow were two days outside of Alhaster, and upon arriving it didn't take much convincing to get the shadow elf captain to sail into the elemental storm that surrounded the island. The crew prepped the ship quickly and within an hour the Sunshadow set off into the Nyr Dyv, traveling at rapid speed across the lake's choppy waters.

It was still a two day trip into the heart of the Nyr Dyv even at the accelerated speeds of the Sunshadow. On the afternoon of the second day they entered the path of a powerful storm, which Captain Shadowstalker identified as the storm that concealed the island of Tilagos. The winds whipped about and the ship heaved back and forth, but the companions held firm to their ground (impressing even the crew of the Sunshadow!).

After three hours of being buffetted around by the torrential rain and winds one of the crew shouted "land!" and out of the center of the storm an island came into view. It was mostly obscurred by the powerful downpour, but from what could be seen was a barren rocky terrain dotted with what appeared to be stone ruins. Captain Shadowstalker sent the heroes ashore on a dinghe as the water was too shallow for the Sunshadow to approach close enough.

As the companions plowed through the choppy waters they could see that the beach was littered with the remains of ships that had been dashed to pieces on the rocks. One wreck seemed recent - The Secret Hand, a large schooner, lay broken in half on the rocks. Kong pulled the small boat to shore and everyone kept an eye out for trouble.

Which was a good thing since trouble appeared behind the rocks of the beach. Argo spotted them first, then Fin pointed out a few more - orc pirates, moving stealthily amongst the debris. There were about eight of them it seemed moving in on their position. Fin ducked down into the boat and disappeared while the rest of the heroes loosened weapons and steeled their nerves.

The orcs made the first move - big mistake. They leapt up with a ferocious yell that could be heard over the roar of the wind, and then one found two daggers lodged in his skull from Argo's masterful throws. Drake charged a pair, the orcs rushed forward and melee was engaged. With an acrobatic leap Fin revealed himself and stabbed one of the pirates with his rapier. Duke's image seemed to waver for a moment but then he literally scared one of the pirates to death.

Drake was confronted by the leader of the pirates, a nasty orc with a scar running the length of his face. He was a patient and skilled fighter and matched Drake blow for blow in a titanic match of ringing steel and spraying blood. Things did not look good for the human warrior but then Kong- foam frothing at his mouth - charged forward and used his barbarian strength to drop the orc captain.

The captain pleaded for his life, and explained that he was the captain of the Secret Hand. Him and his crew were hired by a Vecnan priest named Darl Quethos to find the island of Tilagos. Several of the crew had been killed by the vicious priest using the Hand of Vecna. They arrived on the shores of the island two days ago whereupon Darl and his retinue went into the interior of the island.

The companions decided to spare the orc his life. They looked upon the wind-beaten interior of the island and knew that not only were they searching for the secret of Dragotha's phylactery they were racing against a powerful priest of Vecna who possessed his god's legendary hand. Not great prospects.

Session Updates
'Bout time! Good to get the campaign back up and rolling, but there are some not so good things about it too. Harris has moved down to Mankato, though it seems he's coming up to the cities every weekend. We've moved the campaign from Thursdays to Sundays. And it sounds like Travis will be joining us as a regular character. What PC he makes is still up in the air, along with Jesse making a new character.

XP Recap
Err ... I don't have the numbers here. I'll update it later.

Until next, Game On!

"Weird" Dave Olson
weird.dave.dfga@gmail.com