KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

Astraden stands up. "Fair enough. Now, why is Smenk so keen on helping you? Are you reanimating his miners or something?"

I think the Seekers were interested in his studies, and he's afraid of them (because they have a lot of power and could come down on him pretty hard if they wanted to?)? Tidwoad may have been exaggerating.

Does Diamond Lake have any sort of judicial system or is it superhero vigilante time?

I'm also not understanding his motives. He came to Diamond Lake to study. What was his interest in the Seekers. Did he come to study the Seekers?

If only you had someone who, say, knew the answers to those questions, and you had him, if you will, tied up, so as to ask him unimpeded. ;P

"Me mate Balabar called me over from the Free City for a bit of study about some weirdness in the town. He got himself brought down to a hidden part of the Dourstone Mines a month ago to check out some provisions deal with the dwarf what runs the place.

"But before you hear another peep, I want me guarantees." Filge scratches around the wound in his stomach. "I tell you what Balabar saw, you let me walk. No tricks, hear me? I take me spellbook an' notes an' go. Balabar's on his own this time."

The easily confused Tanith scratches at his stubble. "What'd you come here to study? You can't find bodies wherever you came from?"

Filge says nothing, eyes narrowing.

Tanith slugs the necromancer in the gut. "Can you hear me now?"

Intimidate: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Farrukh wipes the emerald off as best he can, holing it up to the light.

He waves at everybody with it in hand and grins.

Not really inputting much since I've been a bit busy and you guys seem to have it well in hand anyway.

Tanith slugs the necromancer in the gut. "Can you hear me now?"

[dice=Intimidate]1d20+6

Roll damage. You're probably going to knock him unconscious again.

By the way, you saw this part, right?

"But before you hear another peep, I want me guarantees." Filge scratches around the wound in his stomach. "I tell you what Balabar saw, you let me walk. No tricks, hear me? I take me spellbook an' notes an' go. Balabar's on his own this time."

Yeah but he's not really in a position to make demands.

Damage: 1d3 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

I'm assuming Tanith can choose to use Sacred Weapon or not.

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Filge gasps and passes out again as the barely-healed stomach wound reopens.

Not at a "Bleeding to death" level, though.

Tanith feeds the necromancer another potion.

"If we wanted you dead you'd be dead already. Tell us what we want to know and you may walk away from here. The spellbook is forfeit either way."

Filge snarls. "Think I'm a moron? I'm not some nitwit thug you can just bash information out of like a f+&#in' pinata. Who's to say I don't get killed the second I tell you what you wanna know?

"The spellbook I'll part with, since you asked so f#~@in' nicely. My neck has a higher price."

Tanith shrugs. "We just came for the bodies. We really don't care what Balabar saw. Tell us what we want to know and you may live. Keep it up and you definitely won't."

Sorry, you're going to have to roll a Bluff check.

I don't understand. It's not a bluff. Is there a reason we should believe there's something going on that we need to know about?

I feel like I missed a plot point somewhere.

Edit:

Tanith repeats himself, slowly, but makes it very clear that he's sincere.

Tell us what we want to know and you may live. Keep it up and you definitely won't."

This was the point of concern. Since you've clarified Tanith's plan, it's a moot point. I just needed to be clear on what you intended before moving things along.

Filge bites his lip. "Fine, then. I came to study that."

He gestures limply to the jar Farrukh retrieved.

"Try an' pay attention, 'cause we've all got things we'd rather be doin' than this. Balabar went down to the Dourstone Mines, like I said. But the mine was crawling with awful beasts in hooded robes. He said their wild cries made his stomach heave. The cultists—called themselves the Ebon Triad—said something about the Age of Worms, about strange undead in the southern hills an' the swamp. Smenk knew he had to prepare a defense, so he called in his undead expert. Me."

Don't think anybody can get a 30 or higher.

I have a feeling we're virtually finished with the Cairn already, and that it's just the "bring the party together and get clues" dungeon. If we had pressed on we may have found there to be only one or two more rooms. The real overarching plot of the campaign is only just showing it's beginnings. We wouldn't have come to Filge without finding the Land's bodies were missing. This the writer's way of getting us on the trail of the bigger issue of the Age of Worms and apparently this cult, the Ebon Triad.

That being said, can someone reminder me who Balabar is? A mine owner?

"What did you discover about the worm in the jar? Do you know anything of the Age of Worms or this Ebon Triad? If you tell me the rest of what you know and promise to never rob from graves to get your materials again, I'll make sure the big guy lets you go."

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

"The Ebon Triad are some group that wants to somehow merge Hextor, Vecna, and Erythnul. They're considered heretics even by those churches."

She nods at Filge. "It actually isn't that bad to rob a grave, if no one's around to come after you for it. But there was this one kid of the Lands' who got dug up and dumped in the Whispering Cairn for some reason, and his ghost is pretty rowdy, and you don't want to f#$! with a rowdy ghost." She pauses. "Do you know anything about that? Have you heard anything about the Cairn?"

Farrukh looks over from his looting.

"What kind of sick and twisted bastard wants to associate with even ONE of those three, much less combine them into some unholy mass of evil?" he asks incredulously.

That being said, can someone reminder me who Balabar is? A mine owner?

Balabar Smenk is the biggest mine manager in town. Although opposed by a few, he's not too far from owning Diamond Lake. For more information, Ctrl-F his name in the player's guide.

"What did you discover about the worm in the jar?"

"It's very rare. Dead now, of course, but once it and hundreds of worms like it must've wriggled within the abscesses of a powerful undead creature called a spawn of Kyuss. These're prob'ly the 'unkillable' zombies the cultists mentioned to Smenk. If true, it could be a real problem—those worms can get inside you and turn you undead in about a day."

"Do you know anything of the Age of Worms or this Ebon Triad?"

"Pretty much what the Olidammaran said. Hextor, Erythnul, and the Lich-Lord of old. I'd love to accompany you if you intend to go. Place must be crawling with delicious secrets."

She nods at Filge. "It actually isn't that bad to rob a grave, if no one's around to come after you for it. But there was this one kid of the Lands' who got dug up and dumped in the Whispering Cairn for some reason, and his ghost is pretty rowdy, and you don't want to f+#* with a rowdy ghost." She pauses. "Do you know anything about that? Have you heard anything about the Cairn?"

"Aw, goblin balls. Of all the stiffs the half-orc could've grabbed..." Filge frowns. "Whispering Cairn? Only that some Seekers went in about sixty years back an' never came out. That's why Tidwoad had some of their stuff, but at the time I thought they was sending me some sorta message though him."

For some reason I never got any notifications as to updates here.

Carina continues to watch, letting Tanith & Astraden do the talking.

All the old skeletons are likely the Lands' corpses. And this 'Age of Worms' he's going on about, the Ebon Triad... all the more reason to leave Diamond Lake now.

"What kind of sick and twisted bastard wants to associate with even ONE of those three, much less combine them into some unholy mass of evil?"

"If I had to guess, they'd be idiots, scum, and/or desperate." She quips.

I don't suppose Filge lost a tooth in the fight?

Nope. You punched him in the gut, Farrukh and Robin stabbed him. Maybe if you ask real nice, though, he'll give you part of the intestine Farrukh damaged.

Of course, whether Kullen would tell the difference between Filge's tooth and a random skeleton's is another matter.

While Carina is rather reluctant to kill a surrendering opponent, she does remember that Kullen asked for Filge's eyes.

She starts looking around at the zombie corpses on the floor, hoping to find a pair of eyes she can bring back to the half-orc.

Hey, he never said they had to be Filge's real eyes...

Could Tanith knock out a tooth with a strategically placed sucker punch?

Sounds perfectly fine to me.

The lizardmen's eyes are quite clearly reptilian, and the big goblinoid's are milky white.

Tanith’s head spins as he struggles to put together the strange information. His companions seemed to make sense of it all at least.

While the necromancer waits for his next question, the big Kordite slugs him again. This time across the jaw.

Damage: 1d3 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

As Filge reels, Tanith picks up the bloody tooth knocked loose from his mouth. ”I think it’d be best if you leave town. Now. Kullen and his boys aren’t going to be as friendly as we were.”

Going to give folks a little longer to ask any questions before we cut him lose.

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Filge sways, nodding sullenly.

Astraden sees Carina looking, and turns back to Filge. "Do you happen to have any leftover eyeballs? Maybe from that thug you turned into a skeleton?"

None of the corpses at the table have relatively intact eyeballs, right?

She then picks up one of the wine glasses and sniffs it, whispering the incantation for magic detection.

Detect magic on the whole table. Anything?

Also this can happen any time, but she's going to try to identify the green vials from the Cairn that we think are healing. 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6, 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15.

Astraden still has no idea, magically speaking, what those vials do.

The corpses do hold some magic, and also some eyeballs.

Tanith isn't planning on giving Kullen any eyeballs. He promised him a keepsake. That's what the tooth is for.

Robin returns to the others. "I found some interesting artifacts. Mainly a...magic book, of some sorts. Would anyone care to translate for me?"

As Robin bags the cutlery, he hears the sound of Tanith and Carina upstairs. "Check the siderooms for something useful, friends!"

Did anybody do this?

Tanith would but he's busy with the questioning. Farrukh maybe?

Astraden sheathes her rapier, stashes the two bottles of wine in her bag. and pulls a plate out from in front of one of Filge's guests. She sips from the glass in her other hand. "Carina, that sounds like your department."

No one has done it.

The wine in the glass tastes somewhat foul, reminding Astraden of the foul smell pervading this room.

She takes a bite of the food.

The food tastes fine to Astraden. High-quality, even, though its palatableness is somewhat reduced by the presentation.

Farrukh will check the side rooms.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16 +2 vs Traps.

To be clear, since you've been "getting" me on this, when I say I'm "checking" or "searching" a room my intent is also to make sure it's not trapped. It's why I was somewhat peeved at the ball trap in the Cairn.

I read that as, 'Farrukh shuts his eyes and runs blindly into the room'.

Carina takes the book Robin offers, and looks through it.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

After Filge leaves: Balancing two plates and a glass of wine, Astraden heads into the entry hall. She rights the non-broken table, then goes back and grabs the tenth chair from the dining room. When everything's all set up, she chows down.

By the way, are the skeletons' crossbows still intact? Seems like anyone who wants a ranged weapon could grab one of those.

Farrukh will check the side rooms.

[dice=Perception]1d20+6 +2 vs Traps.

To be clear, since you've been "getting" me on this, when I say I'm "checking" or "searching" a room my intent is also to make sure it's not trapped. It's why I was somewhat peeved at the ball trap in the Cairn.

The trouble with that particular incident was that I thought you were searching the door, not the room (since the door hadn't been opened yet). If somebody makes a Perception check on an object, I actually do assume they're looking for everything.

The search reveals mere pittances: Eight copper candleholders each worth 5 gp.

Carina will also loot a light crossbow and whatever bolts she can find from the skeletons.

I like the fact that we're robbing this man after invading his home and stabbing him because it seems as though he's not as terrible a bad dude as I was led to believe.

He’s still a terribly bad dude but yes, we did murder-hobo him.

It sounds like there's no more questions. Was there any areas left to explore?

KC just went to class a bit ago, so we won't get answers out of him for a while. I think, though, there are still five regions on this floor unexplored (assuming Robin meant for us to search the side rooms up on the second floor?).

Also yeah he's pretty bad.

Not exactly a huge fan of necromancers, especially when they decide to up and have 30-year old graves robbed.

And I don't like his beard.

Well it's better than killing people for the bodies at least.

Ah, I assumed he'd killed at least some of them. Like the "freshly-preserved" head and maybe the people at the table. Maybe we should have asked him.

Carina will also loot a light crossbow and whatever bolts she can find from the skeletons.

The skeletons wielded heavy crossbows. Sorry, did I say otherwise somewhere?

KC just went to class a bit ago, so we won't get answers out of him for a while. I think, though, there are still five regions on this floor unexplored (assuming Robin meant for us to search the side rooms up on the second floor?).

The regions were explored by Farrukh. Nothing of real interest, so I'm not going to update the map.