Tuesday Knights - Age of Worms

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