Session 6 - Immediately Afterwards

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 to get out from under (like the hiring of Filge) have resulted in the grisly and personally delivered death of his number two man. He insists the party attempt to uncover the goings-ons in the Dourstone Mines, and offers debt forgiveness and rent-free staying at the Observatory in exchange, though Vodja cheerfully steals the Observatory Deed out from under him anyway.

The party makes their way to the significantly friendlier home of Allustan the mage, and fill him in on their discoveries and their concerns, especially about the worm. Allustan imparts some of the history of Kyuss to them - an archmage from a century ago obsessed with becoming a God, who ended up trapped in a sort of divinity-sparked state of undeath, and foretold as a harbringer of some horrific apocalypse: the Age of Worms.