Tuesday Knights - Age of Worms

  The party recovered from the Anathema fight with a short rest, interrupted by the sudden appearance and immediate disappearance of Mesmer into one of the portals. Somehow feeling like they weren't going to see him for awhile, and possible ever again, they decided not to mess with the portals and instead took to the secret passageways again and made their way into one of the hanging towers of Serastis. Navigating their way down a spiral staircase, they were ambushed by shrieking undead baboons, who managed to suck a bit of life from Vodja and Wanda before being dispatched. They broke into a room of worship and killed a Yuan-ti necromancer and then found a sacrificial chamber with some statues and a rescuable victim, who seemed convinced they were in crypts beneath Elturgard. Deacon Fry restored one of the statues to life and she admitted that she had indeed encountered a medusa in the halls while trying to escape from the prison. Finally they reached the bottom of the tower to fin

The party wisely chose to retire for a long rest before exploring the castle further, despite the possibility of marshaled fortification. They re-entered Serastis and managed to defeat an ambush laid for them before slipping into the secret tunnels they'd found. Ascending up into the reaches, they emerged on a balcony over a sinister ziggurat from which protruded a black monolith of strange origin. Investigating further they found some magical gates, and Vodja noticed some magic items placed in front of the monolith that seemed decidedly lootable. Unfortunately the shadows swirling the ziggurat finally coalesced into a hideous snake-clustered giant and attacked him, and the party was forced to take on what seemed like a deadly challenge, made worse by Wanda being polymorphed into a mouse. Though things seemed somewhat touch and go, Wanda's spell was broken and she finished the monstrosity off, winning the day.

The party had successfully defeated a vicious Guardian Naga in the Ashen Hills below the castle, and now prepared to infiltrate the keep properly. Mesmer, confronting no problem that could not be solved by clever application of illusionry, proposed to bring the party in as slaves being escorted by the recently defeated guardian. The yuan-ti at the entrance chamber were indeed easily duped, seemingly a bit of a decadent and drug-addled group. They waved the party towards the torture chambers and upon discovering that the torture chambers were in fact filled with torturing, they decided to start murdering yuan-ti, pushing past poisons and mind-affecting magic to clear out several rooms on this floor. A secret passage discovered in a dining chamber remained unexplored, and instead the party's interest was piqued by the discovery of a lizardman druid - some sort of elevated slave / preferred pet who seemed to have been brainwashed to "conquer" rival lizardman tribes through s

  Having uncovered a plot to spawn Kyuss Worms in an egg chamber in the bowels of the Godsdeath Brewery at Boareskyr, the party consider what to do next. After a troubling nightmare Mesmer has of some sort of dream snake going after the Librum Mortis, they have enough hints now that these foul workings are coming from the northern Serpent Hills. Against some warnings, they resolve to investigate, at least checking in at Blackwall Keep to ask what those knights had seen. The Monks supply them with rations and ale and the Abbess provides a Letter of Introduction to Sir Celbion, and the party begins traveling into the foothills that the Winding Water spills from. The land begins to turn desolate and quiet and by the time they turn up towards the Serpent's Tail stream they see the vast stretches of the High Moor lay desolately to the northwest. They fight off some Kyuss spawn wearing the livery of Blackwall, and worry for the keep. The worries are legitimized as they find it in ruins,

  Forgot to write this session up right after but basically the party found a hydra guarding a clutch of eggs in the Fermenting Caverns of Boareskyr and killed it. Also the Abbess pushed Dravej into an ethereal jaunt, so he got to watch the fight a little bit outside of space and time.

  The party reaches Boareskyr Bridge and the cluster of cliff buildings the monks live in around it. They see the Godsdeath spring bubbling up from the waters below and meet Satchel , an attractive tiefling monk standing vigil. She notes that it has been 130 years since Cyric slew Bhaal at this spot, and that the monks have been here far longer than that. She welcomes the companions and offers them food and lodging if they wish it. The party decides to make use of the hot spring baths here and meet a few more of the monks. They find them quirky, boastful and diverse in origin. Dravej is gently ribbed a little for leaving the enclave, and some strong mushroom brew is shared, hitting Amanon particularly hard. Finally it is time for shared dinner, though Wanda is tired and chooses to retire early. At the Hall of Sustenance they meet the last of Dravej's trainers, a half-orc hunter and chef who prepares a tasty dinner of salad and boar. Mesmer, ever eager to acquire knowledge, attempts

After several weeks of recovery in their observatory at Diamond Lake, the party packs and prepares for their journey north through the hills to the Trade Way, about a week's travel. The journey is straightforward, and the companions reminisce and get to know each other a little better as they camp in the wilderness. Mesmer gains some insight into the nature of the Librum Mortis, apparently known in some circles as the Necrotome of Trask, and finds that an old antagonist has passed. Halfway through the journey, they encounter a troupe of ogres carrying a captured gnome whom they decide to rescue. The ogres are dispatched without too much trouble, but the prisoner, Hisni Ertix Yegim-Wrefan from Trielta, is a particularly morose fellow and not terribly fun to travel with. On the last day before reaching the main roadway, they spot a distant black dragon, probably hunting from the Forest of Wyrms to the North. The party reach the trade way and elect to travel southwest to Soubar for

  The party collapses at their Observatory, resting and bathing for a few days while discussing profits and plans. Mesmer animates the taxidermied goblin butler and names him Jeeves, and starts setting up his laboratory and library. Finally, somewhat rejuvenated from their adventures below, they decide to head into town for a warm meal, some shopping, and most importantly, some good carousing. They discuss hiring Kullen as a guard for their new shared home and loot while they travel abroad, and send for him. He arrives the next day, looking somewhat conflicted, and when Mesmer expresses faith and fairness in him Kullen suffers an emotional break and insists they accompany him into town where Smenk is engaging in a power move to seize the Dourstone holdings. Smenk has successfully lobbied the mayor into executing Dourstone for harboring the cultists in his mine, but the party casts suspicion back on him with the use of some illusions, and disavow the credit he claims for rooting them ou

  Having successfully defeated the last overlord of the Temple of the Dead Three, the party set themselves to the task of returning to the surface. They elected to take a long rest to replenish spells, but were interrupted by strange tremors and the sound of distant screams. Finally feeling fortified, they left the Faceless One's chambers and headed south, but not before deciding to check out a few unexplored chambers along the way. One of them, a huge cavern, contained a fiendish looking wizened monkey trapped within a magic circle of protection. Suspicious, they questioned it a little and it introduced itself as Torgrodd the Wise , summoned to reveal secrets of divine animation. It bantered a bit back and forth, until the previously seen Crawling Claw snuck in to disrupt the protective magic, upon which Torgrodd reverted to a more demonic form and attacked. It managed to fell Mesmer but was ultimately brought low by attacks, including a rare thornwhipping from a non-beastformed A

Mesmer rejoins the party outside the laboratory of Vecna, and they cautiously open the door to the inner sanctum of the master of this underground cult. It's a spare chamber, reflecting an obsessive ascetic who clearly cares little about finery. A thaumaturgical voice booms across the walls: “If you’re here, then the rest of my brothers and sisters must have fallen. They were always going to die, we all will, but you denied them the chance to die for something better, something greater. “You will hinder the Ebon Triad no longer. Your corpses will be the final submission to the slumbering aspect, to awaken it in the glory of murder and in its wake I shall rebuild this world anew.”  The party offers their thoughts on that and begins exploring the room, but when enough of them line up, a vicious lightning bolt arcs from wall to wall, doing considerable damage to the front line. Dravej charges the source of the bolt to discover that one of the walls is illusory and the Faceless One him

Summer, 1970, Portland, Oregon. Government anti-occult task force Delta Green calls for a crack team of agents to eradicate an infestation of deadly crypto-amphibian creatures infesting the decrepit tunnels beneath downtown. However, they’re in a hurry, so what they get is Kirin (an all-American straight-arrow FBI agent, Max (a German-emigree Reed College Professor and occult expert) and Jason (a 6’3” Navy Seal whose hobbies include psychedelics, blowing stuff up and blowing stuff up while on psychedelics). After a briefing at the jankiest dive bar in Chinatown , Kirin and Max investigate the fish-monster corpse (rubbery, diseased arm), while Jason holes up in his hotel room perfecting his demolition kit. The next day, Max and Kirin interview the psychologically broken agent who led the previous expedition into the tunnels while Jason wanders downtown to score a handful of assorted recreational pharmaceuticals. Descending into the old19th-century cargo tunnels they poke around until th

The party started the session separated, and the gnomish dungeon hiccups seem to have replaced Mesmer with Vodja, but fortunately the replacement gnome had enough extra rope that they were able to lift the Kyuss victims out of the 100 foot pit and regroup to try to figure out where to go next. They decide it's worth chasing the escaped Kenku, and follow it into a gathering room with illusory clouds and winds blowing around. Wanda, Amonon and Deacon Fry tentatively begin exploring, only to discover the clouds gathering into some ethereal spirit that begins shrieking with a form of insanity. The Kenku reappears to take a pot shot and then flees further to a laboratory to the north. The party manages to defeat the enemies, and explores further, defusing a magical trap, and the session ends as they discover the inner chamber of the Faceless One, who begins to monologue at them, promising their deaths.

The ornamental key the party combined proves pointless as the cult of Bhaal has opened their doors in a foreboding invitation, and the party cautiously approaches down the entrance, stopping when they notice the murder holes in the ceiling. Some sleuthing uncovers zombies ready to pour something caustic on trespassers, and Deacon Fry pops them with a powerful Turn Undead. They find a magically dark passage leading to what appears to be a spider pit, and decide to press on into the Main Hall instead. Kenku appear on scaffolds and up higher and begin taking shots at the party, particularly wounding Dravej who had bravely pushed forward into the room. The party begins grinding through them despite the height, but Deacon Fry vanishes through the floor, falling into the pit below. He finds himself trapped in the darkness not with giant spiders, but with a dreaded Spawn of Kyuss. Wanda feather falls into the chamber and despite several brushes with the insidious worms, they manage to burn th

Dravej the monk reappears to assess the slain Lasher Kull, and once again Vodja has slipped off somewhere. The party pokes through Lasher's witching den, finding a magical staff, a strange goblin-skulled amulet, and a Cloak of Elvenkind; as well as the other half of the ornate key to the ornamental door behind the Temple of Bane. They then cross the rope bridge to explore the Grimlock caverns to the west, and encounter numerous grimlocks - but while the blindsighted creatures are immune to Mesmer's illusions, the party's new 5th level skills are more than a match for them, and they drive the Grimlock tribe back to their main cavern, and eventually broker a truce and a renunciation of the Dead Gods. They then retire back to the Vecnan library to rest after their grueling triumph over the Myrkulian Underworld.

The party is pleased to see that the sverfneblin has managed to find them as they stand outside the statuary chamber. Vodja expresses some curiosity about the Librum Mortis they found, but efforts to write in the book yield just fading letters without whatever ritual is required to record a death. They then enter the chamber and begin planning on how best to destroy the statues only to find that the flickering shadows from the candled chamber create strange shadows that come alive and attack them, sapping their strength. Largely thanks to some Radiant spellwork from Deacon Fry, they destroy the undead shadows and set to work smashing the profane statuary, which brings the attention of Lasher Kull and her skeletal minotaur, bursting from a secret door. The Myrkulian Priestess seems desperate to embrace her death, and the party obliges her. However the triumph is only brief as a spirit of a Banshee rises out of Kull's body and lets out an ear-splitting shriek, hurting everyone within

Dravej rejoins the party and is given a Flask of Magically Empowering liquor found in the Vecnan vault along with a Ring of Mind Shielding inhabited by the soul of a Death Priestess. Determined to do something about the sinister sacrificial altar in the middle of the rift, the party send BatGrundle (Mesmer's familiar) up ahead and see it being guarded by more veteran death cultists. They attempt to use illusion magic to set up an ambush in the corridor but these cultists employ blindsighted Grimlocks that see right through the magical wall, nevertheless Wanda makes short work of them and a thunderwave cast by Deacon Fry shoves the cultists into the rift. The party begin attempts to destroy the altar but much of the rest of the Myrkulian cult marshall themselves to attack and a fierce but short fight breaks out again, the cultists devastated by a clustered Shatter spell cast by Deacon Fry. They then discover the Sanctuary of Penance under the Bane temple where a dangerous-looking ho

Having dispatched the vampire spawn, the party examines the chamber, noting shelves of books and the magical door to what is likely a vault of treasures. To the south, they find an empowered spring of life-bolstering earthblood before attempting to breach the vault door, triggering a frost glyph that nearly kills Amanon. A few reduce spells from Mesmer and the door shrinks and collapses, revealing a Tome of the Stilled Tongue, a chest of ancient coinage, and some shelves of magical trinkets, including a clockwork shocking lizard that Frakker attunes to. The party takes another long rest before venturing forth, finding a secret passage to the crypts below the Black Font far above at the temple entrances. A ghast licks at the necrotic effluvium leaking from the walls, but is quickly killed. They find a kobold haven barricaded off and a large room filled with zombies beyond a dropped portcullis, and some collapsed hallways and chambers, one of which reveals a magic ring. Finally, they fac

After a long rest in the relative security of Theldrick's personal room, the party resolves to explore the rest of this floor of the temple, discussing fanciful plans of unleashing the Thunderlizard across the halls to wreak havoc. They have uncovered half of the key that purportedly opens the inner temple of Bhaal, and suspect that the Myrkulian priestess Lasher Kull holds the other one. Crossing to the other side of the entrance chamber, they sneak into the slave pits, hearing the mutterings of the bestial torturer. Before freeing a trapped miner, they take on the mad gnoll torturer and make fairly quick work of him and his zombie meals, and then move on to discover the gate of Myrkul, a great sinkhole 100 feet down into darkness. Behind the hole they find the the Thunderlizard lair, where the great beast eyes them warily and hungrily. Deacon Fry attempts to establish some electrical scaley rapport with it and the lizards' keeper, a downtrodden drow named Darkmaster Drizzle ,

After a short rest of gathering bodies, rifling through belongings, and patching wounds, the captured cultist regains consciousness, expressing a great deal of admiration for the party's skills at slaughtering his comrades. He's young and bloodthirsty in a fannishly eager sort of way and the party actually ends up taking a liking to him. He explains some of the goings on in the combined temple, describing some of the lead figures: Painmaster Theldrick of Bane, Lasher Kull of the Underworld, and the strange Bhaalspawn known only as the Faceless One . He mentions some sort of Thunderlizard that piques the party's interest. They then head north past the main church and discover a pair of Dire Boars snuffling in a pit connecting to the arena to the west, and beyond that the antechamber to Theldrick's personal quarters. The guards spot them and prepare a defense, and the heroes have no success drawing them out of the room, instead having to contend with Theldrick himself a

The party examines the temple entrances, noting them as venerating Myrkul (a God of Death), Bane (a God of Tyranny), and Bhaal (God of Murder). A captured kobold admits that it's most often armored cultists from the Bane temple that boss them around, and that he never sees cultists of Bhaal. The party sets up an ambush to lure Bane cultists out from the middle door to take prisoners, and it works. They avoid a dangerous-looking arena and infiltrate the main living chambers of the cultists, engaging in a prolonged fight with a number of waves of the rank-and-file. Attempting to take a short rest, they are attacked further by a vicious priest and a scarred barbarian the priest refers to as "the Boarkeeper". At one point a thunder attack is "responded to" by another muffled thundering from the west side of the complex. Dravej falls to a necrotic attack but is healed before dying. The party is victorious over a significant portion of the Fists of Bane, for now.

Some of the party decides to visit the Diamond Lake Interfaith Friends Breakfast Circle with Deacon Fry to get some sense of rumors and happenings and are greeted by Ord of Oghma , the cleric of the Foursworn , the visiting adventuring party from Baldur's Gate. He puts the group a little on the defensive by being inquisitive and curious about their activities and in return Deacon Fry attempts to encourage him to have the Foursworn head north to the Serpent Hills to investigate the unkillable undead, with middling success. Afterwards the party regroups and scouts the Dourstone Mines , a tightly guarded mine in the northeast hill of town, and decide to try to bluff their way in as exploratory orefinders. Ragnolin himself considers their offer but doesn't seem quite convinced to let them run amuck in his mines with total freedom, and upon insisting he inspect their equipment (illusioned on Marvin the Mule to look like pickaxes and lanterns), Mesmer distracts him with a Tasha's

Vodja, having attuned to the Windblade, uses its command word "Zosiel!" and the sarcophagus opens, revealing aTalisman of the Sphere, a Bardiche of the Aaqa, the Diadem of Zosiel, and a pair of Demoniac Horns. The party determines that this is the true, ancient treasure of the Whispering Cairn, and resolve to bring their prizes back to town for study (picking up a few beetle carapaces along the way). As they reach the outskirts of Diamond Lake, they find Kullen and his thugs waiting for them, having apparently suffered some backlash from their boss Balabar Smenk for the murder of Filge. Smenk's legbreakers have been tasked with getting retribution and damages paid, but the party is more than happy to take up the issue directly and talk Kullen into leading them to the mine boss's mansion. A chat with Balabar Smenk reveals that the boss is in fact in over his head with the cultists, of whom he apparently has been coerced into various dealings with, and recent attempts

The party spent the night cleaning out the observatory and planning what to do, and the next day purchased a cart to help return the Land family bones to their homestead and bury them in a ceremony, along with some other shopping and studying. After a night at Mesmer's, they prepared for another foray into the Whispering Cairn, and true to her word the ghost Alestra opens the door to them. They enter a gallery revealing several mist-animated scenes of the battles between Law and Chaos, and fight a pair of elemental Wind Warriors before magically descending to the true tomb, whereupon they are asked for the name of the occupant before proceeding any further.

The farmhouse turned out to be the nest of an owlbear, in a highly protective mood despite having recently eaten one of the poor graverobbers. Defeating it proved why - a freshly hatched owlbear cub was in the nest, which seemed to imprint onto Vodja, who decided to name it Archie . A tattoo on the uneaten arm reminded Vodja of some of Smenk's enforcers who liked to hang out down at the Feral Dog. Before following up, the party decided to stop in on a Wizard friend of Mesmer's in town named Allustan , only to bump into a squirrelly little mage who gave off sinister vibes. Allustan blew them off, but not without expressing some interest. Kullen and his thugs at the Feral Dog proved somewhat indifferent to the party's success against the owlbear, but confessed to the grave-robbery at the behest of their boss's friend, the necromancer Filge , who had taken up recent residence at the old Observatory north of town. A successful conquest of the observatory yielded the rest of

While putting Borat to rest in the Diamond Lake graveyard, the party hears rumors of a rash of attempted grave robberies. A dragonborn cleric of Tempus gives the eulogy and agrees to join the party in Zniltch's place.  They re-enter the Whispering Cairn after getting some fresh supplies and discover beyond the baths a viciously giggling wight clutching a magical sword, as well as the missing Red Lantern needed to access the Stone Face that might lead to the true tomb.  Lighting all the lanterns, the way opens, revealing a thin bridge across an open chamber, the floor below filled with terracotta balls, as well as a young voice offering warnings and encouragements. Various plans are proposed for getting through the room, including the Druid trying out a spiderform for the first time, but the voice - a ghost of a young explorer who had died in the room - insists that only she can open the chamber from the other side, and only if the adventurers return her body to her family, which in

Exploring further, they chit-chat with the magically imprisoned earth elemental Artophanx that regales them with tales of the great battle of Pesh and spills a few secrets of the tomb. By collapsing the floor underneath the green lantern, they unleash a swarm of flesh-eating beetles and its acid-spitting larger kin. Below the collapse they find the beetle hive and a sleeping chamber with some strange enchantments, and then a half-submerged bathing area protected by a Water Weird. They are able to defeat the Weird but not without the loss of the War Cleric Borat .

The brave but inexperienced explorers delve into the ancient and forgotten tomb, to find that it is the resting place of one of the  Vaati , a  Wind Duke of Aaqa  - a long-forgotten race of Planar Lords who fought in a great war against chaos, the balance of which supposedly created the shifting stability of the Prime Material. Several members of the party are injured from a fall after being blown out of a high corridor by a strange stone face with rainbow eyes. They discover some chambers of the tomb architect and fight a sinister creature of strangling eyeballs.