Carina wordlessly watches the vision unfold, her eyes widening and the colour visibly draining from her face. "...why...no, don't pick it up, just kill it..." She whispers.
"What the hells was that thing? You guys saw it too, right?"
"...yeah..." Carina nods. She's still somewhat out of it.
"...and the robed guy actually revered the damn worms."
"That would make sense. I'm pretty sure the robed guy was Kyuss, Eben and I saw him earlier. They were chanting 'Kyuss' at him, anyway."
"No, I didn't see 'it.' What was it?" Astraden asks, starting to head over to look at the room.
"Yeah, definitely Kyuss. Must have been before he was a god, though. So I guess my theory about the visions coming in order was wrong." For Astraden's beneift, he recaps the vision. "Kyuss- probably as a mortal- standing here in front of some undead six armed monster that was holding a couple of rods, and a jeweled box it gave to Kyuss. And the room was furnished like a torture chamber." He glances down the hole, his eyes following the stream of Kettite vomit as it messily splashes out of sight. "Er... by the way, Farrukh, when I shone my light down there there I saw a bunch of holes in the walls. Stuff might live in them. So tossing stuff.... or just tossing... down there is probably not a great idea until we're ready for something nasty to come screaming out..."
"Eugh, a torture chamber makes sense I guess. It must have been where he tormented Kelvos . . . afterwards? Or maybe before?"
The priestess looks uneasily towards the pit. "I saw something shadowy moving around where you are. Like, just at the corner of my vision. There might be something up here, too."
"Huh. If there were, you'd think it would have attacked while we were dealing with the angels and worms..." Eben says, but clearly doesn't dismiss the idea out of hand, since he starts slowly moving his lights around the sides of the pit and the surrounding rubble, looking out for anything out of place.
Eben's lights do not illuminate anything new.
Carina ponders just what that six-armed bug-like creature was.
"By the way, it looked like it was the first time Kyuss ever saw one of those worms..."
"There were worms? I didn't see any worms." Eben continues looking around to no avail. "Hey, Farrukh, is Carina's potion still improving your eyesight? Do you see anything hidden?"
"Oh, you didn't see it?" Carina blinks in confusion. "His bug servant took a worm out of a box with a pair of tongs... at least, in the vision I had."
"Oh, okay, from where I was standing I couldn't see what was in the box. So... if that was mortal Kyuss, I guess the worms weren't something he invented, then?"
"Maybe something he adapted, though? I mean, there's gotta be a reason they're called Kyuss worms."
Astraden heads to the middle of the group and releases a healing burst, then listens into the room for magical auras.
Carina wracks her brain, but the creature did not look familiar to her.
Astraden finds that the sword archons' fiery swords have faded away. They had nothing else on them, but Kelvos was wearing a suit of masterwork breastplate. The breastplate bears designs of broken trumpets and feathery serpents writhing, as though in pain. It and his greatsword both ring with indistinct whispers when she casts her spell.
The greatsword is a +4 unholy greatsword.
"I didn't see anything. Regardless, what's our next move?"
"Ooh, that's a nice breastplate. Farrukh should probably hold onto the sword for now as it's . . . a little amoral." Astraden enters the room, wary of worms exploding from the walls again, and picks up the serpent-covered breastplate and sword, hunching under their weight. "Anyone want the breastplate? Seems like it weighs a little more than my chainmail, but I might be able to rearrange my backpack. The enchantments on it seem quite powerful."
"That breastplate looks too heavy for me to wear. Sorry."
Tanith shrugs. "I can carry it in the meantime. Stick it in the bag."
The space between the glass and the walls—just a few inches wide—is clearly devoid of worms now, and there is no further danger visible here.
"I vote we check out the west door. Let's get this level clear before venturing down into the evil prison pit. But everyone keep your eyes out for shadowy figures." Saying this, Astraden moves towards that door, then waits in readiness to help Farrukh inspect it for traps.
Eben shrugs as he restocks his quiver both with bundled arrows and scrounges up a few misses. "Yeah, one door is as good as another. Maybe we'll find all the answers we need up here and not have to go into the evil prison pit?" His voice on this possibility is clearly that of optimism refusing to admit it's been defeated.
"Sounds good to me."
Finding nothing out-of-the-ordinary on the western door, Farrukh opens it.
The walls of this chamber are carved to depict an army of armored soldiers engaged in the ruin and destruction of a city of helpless men, women, and children. Buildings burn, blood washes the streets, and dark thunderclouds boil in the skies above. Above them all, directing the army, is an enormous figure dressed in plate mail. His face is cold and cruel, but also quite handsome, and quite familiar to Eben, Farrukh and Carina. He wields an exotic polearm that combines the features of a pick, an axe, and a mace.
The stairs appear to lead back outside.
When the group repeats the process for the eastern door, they see the eastern entrance. The walls of this chamber are carved to depict an army of undead soldiers engaged in the ruin and destruction of a city of helpless men, women and children. Buildings burn, blood washes the streets, and dark thunderclouds boil in the skies above. Above them all, directing the army, is an enormous figure dressed in a tattered dark gray robe. His visage is only remotely humanoid, a seething mass of worms in the mocking shape of a face, with vast, cavernous sockets for eyes.
"Southern door?"
Eben stares at the eastern mural. "Well, it's nice that he found something... productive... to do with the worms, I guess..." He head towards the southern door. "And there's no south stairs, so this at least won't be another entrance room. Yay?" He stands aside for Farrukh to Farrukhify the door.
Carina pops a false life extract while she's waiting for Farrukh's assessment of the door. She tries to not look at the murals for too long.
"All of this is starting to make me wonder...why? Of all the things to be a god of, why nasty ass worms? And a side order of only slightly less nasty undead."
"Maybe all the more intimidating things to be a god of were taken?"
This long chamber obviously served as a library, as dozens of bookshelves line the walls and stand back-to-back amid the chamber. In addition to the surprisingly well-preserved tomes, twelve clear jaws sit on various shelves, each filled with a thin gray liquid and containing a single writhing pale-eyed green worm. Towards the back is a book left open on a podium.
Standing in the room—or crouching, in one case—are four humanoid undead. Three stand tall and proud. Baroque armor covers every inch of these skeletal figures, every inch save for two gaping eye sockets. The ornate steel and silver plate carries a sickly green sheen, and from one of the armor's many well-crafted joints a small green worm wriggles to be free. Similar worms writhe and slide between many of the armor's plates, yet the creature's grip on its massive greatsword remains firm and hints at deadly skill.
The fourth is rather different from the rest. This stooped creature is sheathed in full plate armor, over which lies the tattered remains of ancient robes of state. The creature's shriveled and tortured limbs teem with writhing hordes of green worms. These worms move over the creature's decayed body, crawling between the plates of its armor.
The latter creature points slowly at the party, rasping in the ancient language of the Flanaess.
Image. You can probably guess which is which.
Tanith puts his encyclopedic knowledge of holy fitness routines to work.
Aside from his weakness, the designs on the greatswords remind Tanith of something called a "Wormblade". He read about it when searching Agath's library, though he hadn't been sure it involved Kyuss until now. These greatswords are given their power when wielded by particular servants of a dark god, and in addition to gaining some magical powers, they inflict some acidic damage to those struck by them. It is said that each death caused by a wormblade adds to the god's tally of souls, increasing his power and drawing the dreaded Age of Worms closer to its fulfillment.
The swords of Kyuss possess enhanced combat abilities, as well as swords that take on additional powers in their hands called the Wormblades. Most fearsome, however, is their "Invocation of the Worm", a fireball-like explosion of negative energy that both harms the living and heals the dead.
The stooped figure, on the other hand, has Astraden mostly stumped.
"They're some kind of specialized undead", Tanith explains. "Use silver. And stay away from those swords. I think they're called Wormblades and they drip acid."
"Got it. Mithril works, right?"
Farrukh carefully studies the two nearer Greatsword wielders and readies himself to beat off the first that approaches.
The three undead advance, but one takes a hit from Farrukh as it goes. The mithral klar cuts into its armor and forces it back. It approaches again, this time from the side. Dead worms fall from the wound Farrukh scored—the only sign that it has been remotely hurt. The other two advance as well.
As they slowly clank over to stand before Cuetzpalli and Farrukh, the armor around their necks seems to reknit itself. As it does so, their jaws simultaneously unhinge, dropping down with the peeling metal. From each warrior, a hollow moan begins to echo, coming out distorted and warped as though from down a long tunnel. The moans raise in volume until three orbs of darkness emit from their dark maws, pulsating with shadowy energy.
The orbs detonate simultaneously, and the whole party feels an overpowering wave of negative energy surge through them, ripping into their souls at the most fundamental level. The taste of rot and decay fills their mouths. They hear the stooped undead speak again.
As the negative energy courses through the room, Farrukh and Carina see the armor of the injured warrior reknitting. Any sign of injury seems to vanish as it raises its sword once more.
Farrukh is rocked by the explosions, but somehow manages to stay standing.
Speaking even more rapidly than his normal glib fashion, Eben begins reciting his standard 'litany of life' as soon as he hears ancient Flan being spoken.
He recoils from the massive onslaught of deathly energy, but stays standing. For now.
Astraden tells the others what she knows of the Swords of Kyuss even as the monsters approach. "Kyuss shock troops, use silver even if magical, can release massive bursts of negative - ah F#%&," she exclaims, seeing the Swords initiate their signature move.
Astraden moves in slow motion, trying to evade the detonation by leaping behind Tanith, but the waves of negative energy travel through the air faster than she can hope to move. Her skin takes on a dark, burnt color, and she falls to the ground with a slight sigh, eyes glassy. She is not moving.
Tanith groans as he's barraged by deadly blasts of necrotic energy.
Eben looks with alarm as Astraden is buffeted by wave after wave of negative energy. "Hey, no! !"
Cuetzpalli roars as the negative energy blasts him. His eyes begin to blaze divine power as he steps up and begins laying into them with his divine gift.
(-3 AC)
Somehow, Carina manages to weather the onslaught of necrotic energy. When the three blasts finally stop, her skin is burnt and peeling in places, but she doesn't seem to care that much--she's too focused on Astraden falling.
"Oh, no. Not again. Not this time." She growls, mostly from the energy blasts.
Carina yanks the syringe of golden liquid from her belt and kneels next to Astraden's body. "CLEAR!"
She jabs it into the downed cleric's neck artery...