PH Dungeon's Age of Worms


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I started running Age of Worms a little while back. I've opted to go Pathfinder for this AP. I've made some changes to the story here and there to try to make the adventures connect a little better with each other and the characters. I figured I might as well post my journals since they might be of use to other folks trying to run this campaign.

The first few entries are point form, as I wasn't originally planning on doing an online campaign journal, but I found that I naturally want to write paragraphs, so I went back to my usual journaling format (i.e.. paragraphs).

It's more geared towards folks familiar with the Age of Worms AP, so if you aren't you may have some trouble following certain parts, but if you have questions feel free to post and I can try and clarify any details that aren't clear.

The starting party consists of:

Stinky: half orc, oracle of battle, and follower of Kord

Potts: gnome, draconic blooded sorcerer

Wraith: elven fighter

Rofo: dwarf monk (nephew of Ragnolin Dourstone)

Bjorn: human rogue (henchman of Balabar Smenk)


Session #1 (The Whispering Cairn):

Characters Present: Stinky, Potts, Wraith, and Bjorne

• Characters explore Whispering Cairn
• Find Indigo lantern in the backpack of a dead adventurer
• Kill wolves
• Explore the tomb area with coloured lanterns. Bjorne falls victim to the face sculpture trap- is hypnotized, blown down the hall way (sustaining damage), and catches onto the lantern chain at the last second as he is blown out the tunnel 40’ up in the air.
• They discover that the sarcophagus in the lantern chamber acts as a key to triggering affects in the alcove. They turn it and activate several elevators- they find out one is trapped.
• One elevator breaks down and plummets to the bottom of the shaft initiating the acid beetle swarm, which gravely injures Potts and Stinky.
• While dealing with the swarm, Wraith hears gnolls in the upper hall. Bjorne goes up to investigate and fails his stealth check- gnolls attack. Characters end up in a fight with the gnolls and the mad slasher that also comes up the shaft. Potts takes out most of gnolls with Colour Spray. Gnoll archer nearly kills wraith. Hyena nearly kills Bjorne.
• After defeating the monsters they rest and then return to explore the next day.
• They lower Potts down the elevator shaft and then Bjorne goes after him. They managed to get over top of the block that obstructs the hall beyond.
• While exploring the lair of the architect they enter the sculpture workshop and Bjorne touches a stone “egg.” It forms into a small earth elemental which proceeds to pummel the party. Wraith goes down to a Crit- is stabilized by Stinky.
• Lurking strangler joins fight and takes down Potts with a sleep ray
• Bjorne goes toe to toe with the elemental and nearly dies- Stinky saves him with more healing.
• Stinky nearly goes down to the sleep ray several times- then finally drops from it, but not before finishing off the earth elemental with Wraith’s sword (after breaking his axe)
• Bjorne takes out the lurking strangler, which is in the process of killing Potts with a crit from his dagger.
• Session ends with the heroes deciding to rest for two days in the lair of the architect.
• In total the characters have spent 3 days exploring the Cairn.

XP - wolves: 400, 300, 300
- mad slasher: 600
- mouth trap: 800
- elevator trap: 600
- gnoll 400, 400, 400, 400
- gnoll archer 600
- hyena 400
- lurking strangler: 600
- earth elemental: 600

XP total: 6800/4= 1600 per PC


Session #2 (Whispering Cairn continued)

Characters Present: Stinky, Rofo, Potts, Wraith

• Characters return to Diamond Lake for Fight night. They hear many rumors during Fight Night.

• Wraith gets pummeled by a miner in the ring.

• Potts and Stinky have to intervene when Kullen the half orc nearly kills the miner he is fighting.

• Rofo the dwarven monk defeats the half orc Kullen in a fight, much to Kullen’s chagrin.

• Rofo is promptly defeated in the final round of the tournament by Auric the fighter- a member of the rival adventuring party from Greyhawk, and apparently a former gladiator.

• Potts considers seeing if Auric’s crew needs a sorcerer.

• The next day Potts and Stinky go the Emporium. Potts manages to smooth things over regarding missing a couple of shifts, but Stinky tries to intimidate the Zalamnadra (his employer) and gets himself fired-he’s also told he’s no longer welcome in the Emporium.

• They consult with Allustan the sage and he buys one of the architectural statuettes off them for 100 gp. He says he will research the glyphs that they uncovered and he agrees to keep the other to statuettes safe for the party, suggesting that they take them to Greyhawk to sell once they are done fully exploring the tomb. Stinky visits Osgood the smith and he repairs the haft of his axe for free because he is a fan of Stinky’s fight nights.

• Early the next morning, before sunrise Wraith, Stinky, Potts and Rofo trek back to the Whispering Cairn, they explore the final level that they hadn’t previously investigated. There they find a crypt of sorts housing strange dais with magical floating, swirling ashes above them. Each dais has a glyph inscribed in it. Part of the crypt has been flooded and Wraith strips off his armor and goes swimming to explore it. He finds the body of dead adventurer and encounters a ghoul. He flees to the surface and the party fights the ghoul. Rofo is paralyzed by it, but Wraith manages to kill it with his greatsword. They find a ring on the ghoul that they later learn indicates he belonged to an organization of greedy treasure hunters known as the Seekers. Presumably he drowned while exploring the crypt and was cursed to unlife.

• They free the other drowned corpse, which had gotten its arm stuck under one of the stone dais while trying to move it, and had also presumably drowned as well. In a satchel on the corpse they find the missing Red Lantern.

• They also find another section on that same level where the tunnel had been blocked because of a cavern collapse, but can proceed no further on that level, due to the collapse

• Returning to the chamber with the lanterns, they put the red lantern in place and light all the lanterns. They discover that the mouth in relief sculpture at the end of the strange wind tunnel has now opened, and this leads them to another chamber beyond. This chamber is like a long, wide hall, and there is a petrified wooden plank that runs down the center of it. It is 20’ drop from the plank to the floor of the chamber. Potts tries to cross it, but is assaulted by a stone ball that fires out of the wall. It nearly KO’s him and knocks him off the plank, fortunately he is roped to the plank and doesn’t fall to his demise. He ends up shimmying along the underside of the plank to get to the landing on the far side of the room (despite being at 1 hp). There he encounters the ghost of farmboy who was killed by the same trap. The ghost wants his curse lifted and cuts a deal with Potts. Potts agrees to return his bones to be buried with his family on their nearby farm, and in return the ghost promises to bring a magical chime from the body of a dead adventurer into the chamber from the room beyond, so that they can open the strange magical metal door that connects the two rooms. The ghost explains that the room beyond is a fabulous magical tomb, so the “heroes” figure it’s worth trying to help the ghost.

• As well as the ghost, they find the skeletal remains of another dead adventurer that had been killed by the trap. On the skeleton they uncover a suite of magical, fire resistant chainmail and a masterwork sword and shield. The shield bears the heraldic symbol of a noble family. Wraith ends up keeping the Chainmail.

• They recover the farm boy’s bones and bring them back to his farm to bury with his family. The farm is abandoned and in ruin. However, they discover that the family graves have been dug up. They bury the boy’s bones anyhow, but when they return to the Whispering Cairn they find the ghost is still there and his curse has yet to be lifted- probably because his family’s bones have all been stolen.

• Potts recalls that during the fight night one of Kullen’s friends had mentioned that Kullen was annoyed about having to go around robbing graves for a fellow named Filge.

• They decide to head back to town and arrive late that evening. They recall that Kullen works for Balabar Smenk, as does Bjorne, so they go to the Watering Hole and talk to Bjorne about their day’s expedition. They ask him if he knows about Kullen stealing corpses, and he mentions that Smenk recently had a friend named Filge come into town from Greyhawk to do some sort of work for him. Smenk put Filge up in the Old Observatory on the edge of town. Bjorne had met the fellow and had heard rumors from Kullen and his boys that he was a necromancer. He suspected that if Kullen was digging up graves it was probably for this Filge fellow.

• The next day they spend some time taking care of business in town. They go visit Allustan again, and he explains that Khellek the wizard (who works with the rival adventurers) came by the day before and asked him a lot of questions and also roped him into a game of Dragon Chess. Consequently, Allustan hasn’t yet had a chance to do any research. However, Allustan did point Khellek in the direction of some other cairns well out of town that would also likely be empty, but would at least get them out of town.

• The PCs also go to the Garrison. There they meet the chaplain of Heironeous, Valkus Dunn. He identifies the shield as belonging to a well-known noble family in Greyhawk called the Randevals. He explains that the family would probably appreciate the sword and shield returned, and he offers them 50 gp for the shield and sword, promising to see them sent back to the family. He also pays them for the gnoll ears since the PCs had learned the Garrison had put a bounty on gnolls (5 sp for a pair of ears). Stinky and Valkus get into a bit of conflict, and in the end Valkus challenges Stinky to a fight during his next fight night.

• Later they visit the Boneyard, which is protected by the clergy of Wee Jas a goddess of death and magic. They speak with an acolyte and the acolyte is abhorred to learn of a necromancer having graves robbed. The acolyte promises to speak with her mistress regarding this distressing news and asks the PCs to come see her the next day.

• The next day heroes go back to the Boneyard, and again speak with the Acolyte of Wee Jas. The acolyte isn’t a great deal of help, but has been authorized by her mistress to give them two vials of holy water to help deal with any undead the necromancer might have created.

• The PCs then venture to the Old Observatory. They knock on the front door and convince Filge that they have been sent by Kullen. He comes to the door, speaks with them for a couple of moments and then Potts hits him with a colour spray spell. It doesn’t knock him out, but it stuns him, giving Rofo and Wraith time to take him out. Wraith uses the flat of his blade, and they don’t kill him.

• In the room beyond they encounter 3 animated skeletons defending the room with crossbows. They deal with the skeletons with ease and then bind Filge and proceed to explore and loot the observatory.

• Just after dealing with the skeletons and tying up Filge, Wraith spots an owl fly out of the observatory and head towards town.

• They find a few more skeletons near his operating theatre, which they also destroy. They recover his spellbook and several potions. They also find a letter that they believe is from Balabar Smenk. It reads as follows:

Filge,

I need you in Diamond Lake. The bastards in the Dourstone Mine have decided to try and send me a message. They killed our boy Fixx. They infected him with some sort of infestation of worms. I know you two were close back in the day. I did what I could to help him- I paid good coin for a scroll to cure disease, but when I tried to cast it, it didn’t work. In the end, I had to put Mestel out of his misery. I made it quick and clean, but when I did these green worms started crawling out of where I had slit his throat. I managed to salvage one of them. I need you to take a good look at it, and tell me what we’re dealing with. Mark my words, they’ve gone too far, and when the time is right I’ll see that they get theirs.

I’ll put you up at the old observatory. Show this letter to the white half orc at the Feral Dog. He’ll help you get settled. I trust you’ll find these coins sufficient to cover your travel from the city.

S

• Another important item they find is a glass jar with a strange, segmented green worm in it.

• They bundle up all the skeletons with strips of bedding and prepare to take them back to the abandoned farm to bury.

• As they are about to leave, Rofo, who was put on lookout duty, spots a group of 7 men coming up the trail towards the observatory. He is pretty sure one of them is Kullen the half orc.

End of Session #2.


This is great! I was an avid reader of your Savage Tide campaign journal (once I discovered it), so I'm looking forward to reading about your take on Age of Worms.

Are any of the STAP players in your AoW campaign? (You don't have to mention them by player name, just the character name is good enough.) As I understand, monks (at least the 3.5 ones) had no joy in AoW, so it will be interesting to see how well this one does ...

And I'm also very interested in any changes which you've made to accomodate the change from 3.5 to PF. Have you allowed the PCs and/or foes to keep anything from 3.5 - feats, spells, prestige classes, etc.? (I too have AoW standing on my shelf, and will probably be running it in PF when the time comes.)


For now we're using strictly pathfinder. I have some players from my Savage Tide Campaign, but I have several new players as well, as some players have moved on and such. I hope you enjoy the journal. There are some PC journals coming up, but not for several sessions in. We're at session #17 right now, so I have a lot of journals to post. I'll probably do one a day or so for the next while until I'm caught up with where we're at.

It should also be noted that I'm using the medium xp advancement scheme and I'm including some homebrew side trek stuff in the campaign as well.

DM Notes on Session #2: I made some changes here. In the door to the true tomb in the Whispering Cairn, I thought it was lame that Alastar would be able to open the door by activating a latch on the other side. Thus I made the door a shimmering portal of mercury with no apparent way in. However there are two dead adventuring corpses on the far side of the door, they were killed by the wind warriors. One was a mage and has a chime of opening that he used to open the shimmering silver door. Alastar saw this happen, and offers to recover the chime of opening. He uses the chime with the help of his mage hand ability to open the door for them and then they can recover to use it later if they need to get out or go back in.


Session #3

Character's Present (now level 2): Bjorne (Human, Rogue 2), Stinky (Half Orc, Oracle 2), Potts (Gnome, Sorcerer 2), Wraith (Elf, Fighter 2), Rofo (Monk 2)

• Avoid a fight with Smenk and his gang via diplomacy.
• Hand Filge over to Smenk
• Take bones back to the farm and bury them
• Return to Whispering Cairn and get the Chime of Opening
• Go back to Diamond Lake rest for the night
• Next day speak with Allustan and learn a bit about the glyphs and the Cairn. Discover that the cairn was likely created by a race of powerful elemental beings called the Wind Dukes that existed thousands of years ago and waged war with an entity known as the Queen of Chaos. The Wind Dukes eventually defeated the Queen of Chaos using an artifact called the Rod of Law, which was shattered and later become known as the Rod of Seven Parts, which is a one of the most legendary artifacts known. The Whispering Cairn is probably one of the oldest Cairns in the hills. If it is in fact the burial site of a Wind Duke it might contain great wealth.
• That afternoon they buy rope ladders and return to the Whispering Cairn.
• Spend several hours setting up the ladders and dealing with the stone cannonball trap.
• Use the Chime of opening to get past the liquid metal door and into the chamber beyond.
• PCs are attacked by the Wind Guardians and forced to retreat. Wraith and Stinky are nearly killed by the Wind Guardians.
• Salvage the Corpse of the dead rogue they find on the other side of the door.
• Stinky claims a magical greataxe from the dead dwarf that is also on the other side of the door.
• While trying to take an unconscious Wraith and Stinky down to the magical wind bed to heal they find that Smenk, Kullen and his boys have tracked them to the Cairn.
• Smenk wants to know what the place is, and is a little annoyed that Bjorne didn’t tell him about the discovery.
• Smenk explains that he talked to Filge about the green worms that he found in Mr. Fixx’s body, and that Filge identified them as belonging to an undead creature called a Spawn of Kyuss.
• Smenk is concerned that Mr. Fixx might now be a horrible undead creature. He offers to help get Wraith and Stinky healed if the party helps him track down the undead Mr. Fixx and destroy him.
• They head back to Diamond Lake and at Smenk’s manor, Smenk uses a magical wand to heal Wraith and Stinky.
• Kullen tries to take Stinky's new axe while he's unconscious, but Bjorne manages to convince Kullen that the axe is cursed and Kullen grudgingly returns it to Stinky.
• Smenk also informs the characters theat Mr. Fixx was infected with the worms by some sort of cultists lairing beneath the Dourstone Mine.
• Smenk claims that Rofo’s uncle Ragnolin is supporting the cultists, and that Smenk has been delivering them supplies, but has recently angered them (presumably by trying to extort too much money from them to keep quiet and by sending them shoddy supplies). As a result they killed Mr. Fixx to send him a message.
• Smenk isn’t happy about this and wants to retaliate.
• The next day Potts and Rofo go to visit Ragnolin to see if he is under magical influence, but Potts isn’t sure one way or the other.
• They then head to the abandoned mine where Smenk mercy killed Mr. Fixx. They find Mr. Fixx and a couple of other Spawn of Kyuss in the mine. After a difficult fight they slay the Spawn of Kyuss. However they are uncertain if there are more lairing in the mine and they want to make sure they destroy any of the green worms that are still in the mine. Stinky is KOed in this fight and a couple of the characters are required to pull daggers to cut worms out of their arms, as the things burrow into them.


Session #3 DMs Notes: Bjorne works for Smenk and in his backstory he has been running supplies to the Dourstone mine, so he is already aware that some sort of cult exists below the mine at the start of the campaign, but he's been sworn to secrecy, so hasn't told the rest of the party initially. Mr. Fixx, was Bjorne's mentor but recently disappeared- Bjorne doesn't initially know what happened to him, but discovers later that Mr. Fixx was called down to talk to the Faceless One about the deteriorating quality of supplies being sent by Smenk to the cult. To send Smenk a message, the Faceless One takes him out with a sleep spell, and while he is sleeping infects him with a slow worm.

The worm causes disease like symptoms in Mr. Fixx. Smenk, concerned for his friend spends money on remove disease scroll, but fails his check to get rid of the worm infection. Mr. Fixx doesn't want to be taken to a temple, as he despises all the priests in Diamond Lake, so Smenk takes him to the abandoned mine and slits his throat as a mercy kill. Worms come out of him when he does this, and Smenk takes one as a sample. He then summons Filge to Diamond Lake to investigate the worm. He isn't thinking at his best when he kills his friend and leaves the body in the mine. It animates a little while later as a spawn of Kyuss (he should have burned it). It makes its lair in the mine and at night starts preying on drunken miners stumbling home from the bars. By the time the PCs are recruited to deal with them by Smenk, there are 3 Kyuss spawn in the mine- a dangerous challenge for 2nd level PCs


The Axe Stinky Recovered is called Fury's Bite:

Fury’s Bite: +1 Vicious Greataxe. +1 circumstance bonus to CMD vs disarm attempts while using the weapon.

Background (clearly inspired by the Warhammer rpg): The name of the blade is etched on this dwarf forged axe in dwarven runes. The axe has a sturdy oak haft that is wrapped in red dragon hide to provide extra grip. This axe has the markings of the Slayers Guild (pair of crossed axes dripping blood), an order of savage, chaotic dwarves that has chapters in dwarfholds throughout the Flanaess. The Slayers Guild members are all savage adventurers who cover themselves with runic brands, fearlessly throw themselves into battle and wish nothing more than to die a glorious death against a worthy opponent. It is said that members of the Slayers Guild created the Vicious weapon, and members of the guild favor a great axe enchanted with this property. Such axes are often awarded to members of the guild who kill powerful monsters in single combat (giants and dragons being the most common of such enemies).


Session #4 (Three Faces of Evil)

Characters Present:

Rofo (Dwarf, Monk 2)
Stinky (Half Orc, Battle Oracle of Kord 2)
Potts (Gnome, Draconic Sorcerer 2)

• Characters leave the abandoned mine after killing the worm-infested zombies. Report back to Balabar Smenk- bringing an unconscious Stinky along.

• Find Filge eating lunch with Smenk at his residence. Smenk agrees to use his healing wand to revive Stinky if they return some items they stole from Filge (syringe, animate dead scroll and remaining potions). Potts agrees to his terms.

• They go back to their respective residences to rest. Smenk promises that he will take Filge, Kullen and his boys and go back to the abandoned mine to make sure it has been fully cleared of undead.

• Wraith returns to the Moonmeadow residence to recover from his ordeal in the mine- after having to cut a worm out of his arm.

• Bjorn falls ill that evening- possibly contracting some sort of disease from the undead.

• The next day Rofo has uncle Ragnolin give him and Potts a quick tour of the Dourstone mine. They notice the sealed off section that apparently leads to the lift that in turn leads to the lair of the cultists. Ragnolin claims it is closed off for safety reasons. Nothing else seems suspicious about the mining operation.

• That evening is fight night at the Watering Hole. Bjorn is still ill, so Potts has to collect the bets.

• A pair of monks from the Twilight monastery are at the fight night. One of them works his way through the miners and ends up facing Rofo, but Rofo bests him.

• Rofo hears a rumor that the garrison’s chief scout has tracked the gnolls that have been raiding in the area of Sentinel Hill and that Captain Trask is now looking to hire adventures for a recon mission to the caves beneath the hill where the gnolls are believed to be lairing.

• Valkus Dunn, the garrison’s chaplain, shows up at the Fight Night to put Stinky in his place for insulting him during session #2. Stinky fights him in enlarged form, but is still trounced by the powerful cleric.

• The next day PCs meet with Smenk again and find out that Smenk found no more undead in the mine, but burned the corpses and any worms they spotted.

• They volunteer to do some investigation beneath the Dourstone mine for Smenk.

• That night they bring the supplies that Bjorn had previously collected to deliver to the Dourstone mine. With the help of two of Smenk’s men they take all the supplies to a lift located at the end of the closed off tunnel.

• Two tiefling guards with symbols of Hextor branded on their arms come up the lift to inspect the inventory, and the PCs start loading it onto the lift and sending it down. They can hear people down below unloading the lift.

• Just before the last load is sent down, Potts colour sprays the two tieflings over seeing them at the top of the lift and then slits their throats.

• Potts then hides in a barrel and Rofo hides behind some barrels that are loaded onto the lift.

• Stinky uses the potion of Diguise Self that the party had found to disguise himself as one of the tiefling guards. The three then take the lift down into the cultist’s lair. Stinky moves off the lift and as a couple of cultists move in to start unloading the last of the supplies, Potts pops out of the barrel and blasts them with a Colour Spray.

• Rofo leaps out from behind a barrel and attacks, and Stinky draws his axe and also attacks.

• They end up in a fight with 5 lightly armored cultists with clubs, 2 tiefling guards and 1 big half orc. Fortunately, Potts’ colour spray spell puts down one of the tieflings and the half orc, making much more manageable.

• Two of the cultists manage to escape through a marble door, but the others are slaughtered by the PCs.
• They find themselves in a large cavernous room with a high, vaulted ceiling, marble columns and a marble tiled floor. One end of the room has a big pool of strange, oily, black liquid. The room has two doors leading out of it. Both are made of marble.

• The PCs decide to barricade the door that the two cultists escaped through with the mining carts full of supplies. They then opt to explore the remaining door. They use a key found on one of the dead tieflings to open the door.

• They find themselves in a crudely carved stone hall with stairs descending down.

• The stairs lead to a natural cave filled with stalacmites and stalactites. At the far end of the cave the stairs and tunnel continues.

• In this cave, Rofo is ambushed by a trio of Grimlocks hiding among the stalacmites. Fortunately, Potts and Stinky come to his aid, and they kill the Grimlocks. They find primitive symbols of Erythnul, the god of savagery and slaughter, carved into the flesh of the grimlocks.

• They decide not to explore further for the moment, and they return to the main chamber. There they light a cart full of charcoal on fire in front of the door the cultists fled through. They also throw most of the supplies they delivered into the pool of black liquid.

• They then go back up the lift and head back to Smenk’s manour to report the results of their initial foray.


Session #4 (Three Faces of Evil)

Characters Present:

Rofo (Dwarf, Monk 2)
Stinky (Half Orc, Battle Oracle of Kord 2)
Potts (Gnome, Draconic Sorcerer 2)

• Characters leave the abandoned mine after killing the worm-infested zombies. Report back to Balabar Smenk- bringing an unconscious Stinky along.

• Find Filge eating lunch with Smenk at his residence. Smenk agrees to use his healing wand to revive Stinky if they return some items they stole from Filge (syringe, animate dead scroll and remaining potions). Potts agrees to his terms.

• They go back to their respective residences to rest. Smenk promises that he will take Filge, Kullen and his boys and go back to the abandoned mine to make sure it has been fully cleared of undead.

• Wraith returns to the Moonmeadow residence to recover from his ordeal in the mine- after having to cut a worm out of his arm.

• Bjorn falls ill that evening- possibly contracting some sort of disease from the undead.

• The next day Rofo has uncle Ragnolin give him and Potts a quick tour of the Dourstone mine. They notice the sealed off section that apparently leads to the lift that in turn leads to the lair of the cultists. Ragnolin claims it is closed off for safety reasons. Nothing else seems suspicious about the mining operation.

• That evening is fight night at the Watering Hole. Bjorn is still ill, so Potts has to collect the bets.

• A pair of monks from the Twilight monastery are at the fight night. One of them works his way through the miners and ends up facing Rofo, but Rofo bests him.

• Rofo hears a rumor that the garrison’s chief scout has tracked the gnolls that have been raiding in the area of Sentinel Hill and that Captain Trask is now looking to hire adventures for a recon mission to the caves beneath the hill where the gnolls are believed to be lairing.

• Valkus Dunn, the garrison’s chaplain, shows up at the Fight Night to put Stinky in his place for insulting him during session #2. Stinky fights him in enlarged form, but is still trounced by the powerful cleric.

• The next day PCs meet with Smenk again and find out that Smenk found no more undead in the mine, but burned the corpses and any worms they spotted.

• They volunteer to do some investigation beneath the Dourstone mine for Smenk.

• That night they bring the supplies that Bjorn had previously collected to deliver to the Dourstone mine. With the help of two of Smenk’s men they take all the supplies to a lift located at the end of the closed off tunnel.

• Two tiefling guards with symbols of Hextor branded on their arms come up the lift to inspect the inventory, and the PCs start loading it onto the lift and sending it down. They can hear people down below unloading the lift.

• Just before the last load is sent down, Potts colour sprays the two tieflings over seeing them at the top of the lift and then slits their throats.

• Potts then hides in a barrel and Rofo hides behind some barrels that are loaded onto the lift.

• Stinky uses the potion of Diguise Self that the party had found to disguise himself as one of the tiefling guards. The three then take the lift down into the cultist’s lair. Stinky moves off the lift and as a couple of cultists move in to start unloading the last of the supplies, Potts pops out of the barrel and blasts them with a Colour Spray.

• Rofo leaps out from behind a barrel and attacks, and Stinky draws his axe and also attacks.

• They end up in a fight with 5 lightly armored cultists with clubs, 2 tiefling guards and 1 big half orc. Fortunately, Potts’ colour spray spell puts down one of the tieflings and the half orc, making much more manageable.

• Two of the cultists manage to escape through a marble door, but the others are slaughtered by the PCs.

• They find themselves in a large cavernous room with a high, vaulted ceiling, marble columns and a marble tiled floor. One end of the room has a big pool of strange, oily, black liquid. The room has two doors leading out of it. Both are made of marble.

• The PCs decide to barricade the door that the two cultists escaped through with the mining carts full of supplies. They then opt to explore the remaining door. They use a key found on one of the dead tieflings to open the door.

• They find themselves in a crudely carved stone hall with stairs descending down.

• The stairs lead to a natural cave filled with stalacmites and stalactites. At the far end of the cave the stairs and tunnel continues.

• In this cave, Rofo is ambushed by a trio of Grimlocks hiding among the stalacmites. Fortunately, Potts and Stinky come to his aid, and they kill the Grimlocks. They find primitive symbols of Erythnul, the god of savagery and slaughter, carved into the flesh of the grimlocks.

• They decide not to explore further for the moment, and they return to the main chamber. There they light a cart full of charcoal on fire in front of the door the cultists fled through. They also throw most of the supplies they delivered into the pool of black liquid.

• They then go back up the lift and head back to Smenk’s manour to report the results of their initial foray.


DM Notes: My main changes with this portion of the AP were that I wanted to make Balabar Smenk more of a patron to the PCs and the impetus for investigating the Dourstone Mine. He had blamed the cultists for infecting Mr. Fixx with the worms and wanted to get out of his relationship with them and give them some payback. Thus, recruiting the PCs to help him wasn’t overly difficult given that the PC Bjorne had been assisting with delivering shipments to the mine and had been friends with Mr. Fixx. This made infiltrating the mine a tad easy since they had a shipment of supplies to deliver on Smenk’s behalf. They also owed him for healing services via the wand of cure light wounds he used on Stinky on a couple of occasions (Use magical device)

I made one significant change to the design of the complex, which was making the door to the Vecna temple a secret door. Thus the PCs initially only noticed the door to the Hextor temple and the door that led into the Grimlock caves.


P.H. Dungeon: are you going to / did you make the AoW-specific prestige class available to this group of players? Turin, having imbibed 2 bottles of peach champaign moments before posting, is a bit addle-pated and cannot recall the name of the PrC other than that it is amongst his downloadable PDFs from Paizo


I'm not sure. There was a Wormhunter prestige class in one of the Dragon Mags, but I don't actually have that issue. Pathfinder does a better job than 3.5 IMO of making the core classes desirable to play all the way through, and my players haven't shown as much of an interest in prestige classes as they did with 3.5, which is A okay with me, as I wasn't a big fan of a lot of the 3.5 prestige classes.


Session #5

Characters Present: Rofo (Dwarf, Monk 3), Potts (Gnome, Sorcerer 3), Stinky (Half Orc, Oracle 3)

• Characters returned to Smenk’s manor and report the results of their mission. They rested for the night at his manor.

• The next afternoon they payed a visit to the mine to see if there was any fallout from the previous night’s raid. They discovered that some of the smoke caused by the fire they set in the cultists’ lair had smoked out part of the mine, but had since been dealt with. Ragnolin was suspicious of them and asked if they knew anything about the “act of arson” that had be perpetrated in his mine. They denied any knowledge.

• That evening Potts put on show at the Emporium while Rofo and Stinky went pub crawling. During their escapades they attempted to gather rumors. There was much talk of Smenk increasing security around his manor and pulling in Kullen and his boys to beef it up. They also heard mentions of a fire in the Dourstone mine (which was the smoke caused by the fire the PCs had set at the end of the previous session), and the miners speculated that maybe Smenk had attacked Ragnolin’s operation and now feared reprisals. Of course this isn’t exactly the case, but it’s not too far off.

• Potts overhead a couple of Ragnolin’s dayshift foremen talking at the Emporium and discerned that they didn’t seem to know much about what exactly had caused the fire, but they were suspicious that their boss was involved in some shady business at night.

• While heading to the Emporium Stinky was accosted by Jieren Weirus, the local high priest of St. Cuthbert. Weirus urged Stinky to stop his fight nights because in Jieren’s mind they were only serving to further deteriorate the moral fiber of the community. Stinky basically told him to piss off, which he did for the moment.

• That night Rofo slept at his uncle’s home, Potts stayed at the Emporium and Stinky returned to Smenk’s manor.

• The next morning Stinky discussed plans with Smenk. He explained how the party wanted attempt another raid on the cult’s lair that night, and he requested Smenk send them with some backup. Smenk agreed to send Kullen and his boys along. There was something of a dispute between Stinky and Kullen about who would lead the attack, but Smenk stepped in and made it clear that he wanted Potts in charge (since Bjorne still wasn’t well).

• During the afternoon the PCs learned of a murder that had taken place at a home near the Dourstone mine. They went to the site of the murder and found a crowd had gathered while Sheriff Cubin and a couple of his deputies brought out the bodies. A man, woman and teen-aged boy had been killed, their throats slit in their sleep. The family’s two young daughters had gone missing. This was of interest to the heroes because the list Smenk had been given for the monthly shipment to the cult had included two virgin girls.

• Sheriff Cubin had found a strange black “raven” feather at the murder scene. He agreed to give it to Potts to take to Allustan to see if the sage might know anything about its significance. They also encouraged/convinced the sheriff to investigate the Dourstone mine for clues regarding the murders.

• Allustan examined the feather and informed the PCs that the feather was actually the feather of a creature called a kenku. Allustan then explained that kenku are an intelligent race of bird men that are fairly rare, but sometimes congregate in urban areas, usually living on the fringes of society. They are known to frequently act as thieves and cutthroats.

• The characters decided to go report this info to Smenk. They then set out to find the Sheriff Cubin and tell him as well. They found Cubin returning from the Dourstone mine. They told him about the kenku feather and asked him if he had found anything, but he claimed his investigations hadn’t turned up anything fruitful. Potts couldn’t help but notice that his coin purse seemed quite full, and he was pretty sure that Ragnolin had paid him off.

• This gave them the push they needed to confront Ragnolin once more. In their confrontation they convinced the dwarf that he was in over his head and that they could help him “evict the unwanted tenants” beneath his mine. He agreed that things had gone too far, and was willing to cooperate.

• That night, right after dark, Potts, Stinky, Rofo, Kullen and his boys (Todrick, Rastophan, and Merrovin) made another assault on the lair of the cultists. There was some argument at the top of the lift about how to proceed. In the end, Rofo volunteered to climb down the ropes of the lift to try and sneak in and scout things out. He climbed down as stealthily as possible, and spotted 4 animated skeletons stationed near the bottom of the lift. 2 had long bows. They didn’t seem to notice him up on the ropes above, but other foes did. Suddenly he found himself pelted by arrows. This drew the skeletons’ attention and before he could climb back up to safety he was KOed by a volley of arrows. He plummeted 30’ to crash land in the bottom of the elevator (Jason was forced to spend 2 hero points to save his character from death).

• Stinky raised the lift with Rofo’s nearly dead corpse on it, and used healing magic to get him back to consciousness.

• The heroes then opted to go down in the lift, as the 3’ high wooden wall around it would provide cover against the archers. Tordrick and Merrovin stayed above to lower it down. There was an argument about who would be the first one out of the lift, as that person would likely face an arrow barrage. The PCs nearly came to blows with Kullen and his gang, but Stinky managed to cow Kullen into following their orders (good intimidate roll Stinky!).

• Stinky agreed to be the first man out, but insisted on borrowing Todrick’s shield to give him some extra protection. Sure enough, he was peppered with arrows, but his shield and half plate armor served him well, protecting him from the attacks.

• The characters engaged in a nasty melee at the bottom of the elevator. They found themselves up against 4 skeletons, 3 kenku rogues and a mage. Rastophan and Kullen helped out, but the mage dropped Kullen with a colour spray spell early in the fight and then a Kenku slit his throat, killing the half orc. Despite, the casualty the party faired well and defeated their opponents. Stinky cleaved down the mage. Rofo took out a couple of kenku, and Potts and Rastophan dealt with several of the skeletons. The PCs took injuries, but survived. They searched the chamber for signs of the captive girls, but found none.

• They then proceeded into the lair of the Hextor cultists. The door to their lair was weakened by the fire the heroes had set in front of it on their first raid, and Stinky was able to hack through it with his axe.

• Beyond the door they found themselves in a room with 8 more skeletons. Some of the skeletons were tieflings and one was a half orc, suggesting that cultists they killed in their first raid had since been animated as skeletons (probably via an animate dead spell).

• To make matters worse 5 human cultists with longspears and 2 tiefling warriors with heavy flails also joined the fight. Things were looking grim, as the PCs were severely outnumbered. Rastophan was cut down by skeletons early in the fight. Luckily, Potts proved very handy in this fight. He used a scroll from the apprentice mage they killed to cast a web spell that trapped several of the cultists and skeletons, and after that he used the lightning bolt scroll the party had acquired to blast the tieflings and 3 of the skeletons. Rofo and Stinky each took out a handful of the skeletons and cultists. However, Rofo ended the fight by grabbing a torch off the wall and hurling it into the midst of the web spell, igniting the web and finishing off the remainder of the skeletons and cultists.

• The session ended here with the party battered but wanting to press on.


GM Notes: The players really got into the challenging of delving into this well defended locations. Rofo would have been dead from the barrage of arrows by the waiting skeletons if it hadn’t been for hero points. Beyond that they faired well considering there were only 3 PCs. Having Kullen and his boys for backup sure helped even the odds and made for some interesting rp dynamics. Stinky was bitter when the Kenku slit Kullen’s throat because he had quite a rivalry with the half orc and had been waiting for an opportunity to have a go at him.

I made the cult a bit more proactive than described in the adventure. The Kenku stepped things up by going out and gathering sacrifices for the Faceless One to put into the black pool in hopes of expediting the summoning of the Ebon Aspect since he knew that folks on the surface were onto his operation and he wasn’t sure how much more time he had to complete his goals.

It should also be noted that at this point the party hasn’t actually completed the Whispering Cairn, but they got a bit scared off by the Wind Warriors (for good reason, as the first encounter with them would likely have been a TPK if they hadn’t retreated); they still have plans to get back there eventually, but for now they are happy to take care of the more pressing matter of dealing with a crazed cult beneath their town.

I like that both of the first two adventures in this campaign are offering plenty of challenge, and although Three Faces of Evil took some criticism as being one of the weaker adventures in the campaign, my players are really liking it- more than the Whispering Cairn I would contend.


I made a detailed map of the immediate Diamond Lake region. I thought it might be of use to some GMs running this campaign. Here's a link.

Diamond Lake Regional Map


Session #6

Characters Present:

Bjorne (human, rogue 3)
Wraith (elf, fighter 3)
Stinky (half orc, oracle 3)
New Character: Fraya (halfling, rogue/? 3)

• Potts and Rofo evacuate the cult’s lair to rest and recover, while Wraith, Bjorne and Fraya join the party.

• They immediately head back into the lair of the Hextor cultists and come across a tiefling warrior and a cultist trying to open the padlocked double doors to unleash something nasty.

• They rush into stop this. Killing the cultist and forcing the tiefling to withdraw into an arena area with a balcony and enemies positioned along said balcony.

• The PCs see the arena area for the killzone it is and don’t enter. They try to draw their enemies out.

• A pair of kenku attack them from behind, which they dispatch

• Skeletons, trog zombies, a female priest and a male priest come after the party.

• They fight bravely for a time, but are overmatched and forced to retreat. The female priest manages to open the doors and unleash a dire boar on the heroes. It tramples a skeleton and zombie and chases them to the lift. Freya and Bjorne bravely cover the retreat to save Wraith and Stinky who are badly wounded from holding the front line.

• They return to Smenk’s manor and report. Bjorne manages to convince Smenk to loan them his healing wand. They heal up and take Todrick and Bask for spport and return to battle.

• Fraya climbs down the ropes of the lift to scout things out, and sees that there is plenty going on in the cathedral room. The remains of the Hextor Cult have gathered around the black pool, along with some Grimlocks, and a wizard, his apprentice and a few more kenku. They are in the midst of sacrificing the two virgin girls that the Kenku had kid-knapped the night before.

• Fraya climbs back up to report to the party and then is lowered back down.

• By the time she gets back down to keep watching the sacrifice has been completed.

• The cultists all seem focused on the pool of black liquid, which the girls have been tossed into, but nothing seems to be happen.

• The Hextor priest starts arguing with the wizard about why the sacrifice doesn’t seem to have worked, and after some bickering the different groups go separate ways. The remains of the Hextor cult retreats to their lair, the grimlocks go back to their caves, and the wizard and kenku disappear through a secret door in the back of the chamber. Only 2 skeleton archers are left to guard the cathedral room.

• The party then comes down the lift and dispatches the skeletons

• They decide to go after the wizards and head through the secret door that Fraya saw them use.

• They end up in a strange and ancient labyrinth that has many secret doors. They make their way through the maze and are harried by backstabbing kenku, which they manage to deal with.

• They find a secret door near the end of the maze that leads into another chapel type area. Here they battle the wizard, his apprentice and insane incorporeal undead creature. The fight is brutal.

• The Faceless Ones takes Bjorne into negative hp early with a lightning bolt

• Stinky is drained to only 2 wisdom by the babbling undead.

• The heroes managed to take the Allip down, thanks mainly to a crit from Wraith after Stinky cast magic weapon on his sword.

• The Faceless One fails several combat casting checks and loses some important spells (colour spray, deeper slumber), and the PCs make saves vrs others (sleep, burning hands)

• Towards the end of the fight, the Faceless One gets off a wall of fire spell that nearly destroys the party. Stinky is KOed, a dying Bjorne is killed and other PCs are badly hurt.

• The heroes pull back from the flames, but Todrick, who was caught in the wall steps through to the cool side, managing to kill the wizard before he can decimate Todrick with a magic missile barrage.

• Wraith has to pull a large sized, KOed, insane Stinky away from the wall of fire to save him.

• The heroes wait several minutes for the wall of fire spell to end and the session ends there.


GMs Notes for Session #6: We had a “new” player join this session. The player is actually a player that has gamed with me plenty but was unable to join initially due to work commitments. He ran Kratos and Argent during my Savage Tide campaign, and is my core power gamer of the group- or at least the one that likes to talk about builds and optimizing the most. Fraya was his first Pathfinder character, and I don’t see him sticking with her too long.

We also had our first character death. The fight against the Faceless One was a tough go for four 3rd level PCs. As noted, poor Bjorne the rogue failed to sneak up on the Faceless One, gets nuked by a lightning bolt (failing his Reflex save, which sucks when you have evasion, and even spends a hero point to reroll and fails a second time). The lightning bolt doesn’t kill him, but the Wall of fire that goes up nearby him two rounds later finishes him off just fine.

Todrick, an NPC and one of Kullen’s gang proves to be something of an MVP of this fight, killing the Faceless One. As of this session, he and Merrovan Bask are now the only surviving members of Kullen’s gang, as the rest of them all ended up being red shirts for the PCs and getting themselves killed fighting the cult. Poor Stinky ends another session KOed- his 3rd one so far. This time he is insane as well, due to wisdom drain by the Allip.

This was a tough session to run, as I was off my game. It was a Friday night. I was tired from working all week. We were down a couple of key players and had a new player join (different dynamic). We were gaming at one of the players’ apartments that I’d never gamed at before, and his table and seating were really cramped, so I wasn’t able to organize my stuff the way I like. By the time they got to the final encounter with the Faceless One it was late, and I was really tired, so I didn’t run it as well as I could of, which is probably for the best, since I would likely have TPKed them if I had remembered a few important details. I forgot about the Allip’s half damage from corporeal sources, and I used the Faceless One’s Wall of Fire spell late in the encounter and forgot I gave him a wand of lightning. However, RAW the Faceless One doesn’t have Wall of Fire, but in the conversion to Pathfinder to make him CR 6 he became a 7th level wizard, which gave him 4th level spells.

All in all it was a solid final encounter that really pushed the party to their limits and got that first PC death of the campaign out of the way. I anticipate several more casualties, though the use of Hero Point rules from the APG will probably mitigate that substantially (I should really be at 3 by now if it weren’t for hero points). My Savage Tide campaign had a total of 26 character deaths, which is nothing compared to Killer DM/Allen Stewart’s Age of Worms game, but still quite respectable, so hopefully this campaign will prove deadly enough that my players won’t think I’ve gone soft on them.


Session #7 (Three Faces of Evil continued...)

Characters Present:

Potts (Gnome Sorcerer #3)
Stinky (Half Orc, Battle Oracle of Kord 3)
Fraya (Halfling, Rogue/? 3) replaced half way through the session with Wolf (Half Elf, Ranger 3)

NPCs
Todrick (human, fighter 3) from Kullen's gang
Merrovin Bask (human, wizard 3) from Kullen's gang

• After looting the corpse of the Faceless One, Fraya, Todrick and Merrovin make their way back through the maze to scout the situation at the lift. They leave Wraith behind to guard Stinky’s unconscious body and Bjorne’s corpse.

• Fraya does the scouting and hears voices. She sees Theldrick, Kendra, two skeletons and a trog zombie make their way to the lift. The skeletons start to crank the lift up and Kendra, Theldrick and the zombie get into the lift.

• Up above Potts is waiting at the top of the lift and sees them coming up. He waits until they get into the upper part of the shaft and then blasts the rope supporting the lift with acid splash spells until it snaps and the lift plummets 60’. The zombie is destroyed in the fall, but Theldrick and Kenda both survive, though Kendra is very badly hurt.

• Fraya fires a sneak attack shot at Theldrick, but it reflects off his plate armour

• Combat ensues as Todrick moves in to engage Theldrick

• Bask attempts a colour spray and a sleep spell, but his enemies resist both.

• Kendra uses a wand to heal herself and Theldrick, while Theldric fights Todrick. He channels negative energy and drops Theldrick.

• Fraya snipes from the shadows and inflicts some damage, focusing on taking down Kendra, which she does.

• Having KOed Todrick, Theldrick goes after Fraya and nearly sunders her bow. She makes a run for it and manages to hide.

• He and his remaining skeleton (Todrick took one out before being KOed) then turn their attention to Merrovin Bask. Merrovin runs and flees up the stairs to the platforms above the black pool. Theldrick and the skeleton pursue him.

• Fraya sneaks over to Todrick and feeds him various unidentified potions. She buffs him with Bulls Strength and Shield of Faith, and finally gets a couple of healing potions into him, which get him back into the action (the first is cure light, which gets him to 0, and the last one is a cure serious that brings him to full).

• Todrick goes after Theldrick, but can’t get to him before Theldrick kills Bask.

• Together Todrick and Fraya manage to finish off Theldrick and the remaining skeleton.

• Investigating the pair’s corpses they discover that Theldrick and Kendra had backpacks with travelling supplies and seemed to have been planning on fleeing the region. They find Theldrick’s journal in his pack as well as a scroll written in a cypher. They also loot his +1 full plate and take Kendra’s healing wand.

• Next they get everyone together and take the dead back to Smenk’s manor (including the corpses of Smenk’s dead henchmen and even Theldrick’s body).

• They take a good night’s sleep. The next day Potts visits Allustan and shares info from the journal as well as the cyphered scroll with him. Allustan can’t decipher the scroll, though thinks he might be able to given enough time. Smenk also mentions a contact in Greyhawk that might be able to decipher it. Allustan is concerned that there is an ancient temple/laboratory of Vecna beneath his town and wants to see it.

• Allustan gathers Captain Trask and Valkus Dunn of the militia and then they along with Potts, Stinky and one of Trask’s scouts, a half-elf named Wolf, all venture back into the complex.

• Prior to going down Dunn does Stinky an unrequested favour, by healing some of his wisdom damage with a lesser restoration spell.

• Allustan and Dunn start checking out the black pool, while Wolf goes to scout out the Grimlock tunnels.

• Wolf is ambushed by Grimlock guards stationed in the first cavern, hidden behind stalagmites, just Rofo had been ambushed when he went into the cave. Wolf is pretty badly hurt and retreats, but the Grimlocks don’t pursue.

• Dunn heals him and casts a Bull’s Strength spell on him.

• Stinky, Potts and Wolf wade into the Grimlock cave and quickly dispatch the 3 guards.

• They press deeper into their caves and come to another cave that is guarded by a pair of krenshar and a couple of more grimlocks. The krenshars’ fearful howl sends Wolf and Potts fleeing, leaving Stinky on his own for a moment with several enemies. He takes some nasty hits and retreats. Once Wolf and Potts recover their wits they are able to dispatch their enemies without too much difficulty (except for Jeff rolling three 3s in a row).

• They discover this room ends at the top of a gorge/high cliff. Iron spikes driven into the cliff provide a means of decent. Luckily Wolf spots a pair of Grimlocks hidden on a ledge on the opposite side, ready to fire on climbers with bows.

• The PCs get out their own bows (Potts gets out his wand of lightning bolts- acquired from the Faceless One) and destroy the archers and then descend the cliff.

• Stinky goes first, but when he reaches the bottom he is attacked by a pair of chokers. Luckily his companions provide him with ranged support from above. One is killed and the other one flees into a narrow tunnel before they can do much harm to Stinky.

• The rest of the characters climb down and then they go into the tunnel and follow it to another cave that is filled with excavated debris from the temple of Hextor and has a really high ceiling (sort of a silo).

• Here they find the choker that had fled trying to hide, and they kill it with ease. Up above they see a rope bridge spanning the room. They had noted another tunnel part way up the wall of the previous room and they are sure that it connects with one end of the rope bridge. It had iron spikes in the wall to access it, so they go back, figuring that will the easiest way of getting to the rope bridge and moving further into the complex.

• Stinky heads up the iron spikes first, but has great difficulty climbing in his full plate and falls 20’, injuring himself.

• Wolf takes his place, while Stinky heals himself. When he reaches the top he finds a very narrow tunnel. He’s about to lower a rope for Potts when he is attacked by a female Grimlock wielding a pair of handaxes. She goes into a rage and brutally attacks Wolf.

• Wolf is unable to make effective use of his bastard sword in the tight tunnel, so he draws his dagger. However he finds himself overmatched against the duel wielding, raging grimlock and tries to retreat. He takes a nasty hit from an opportunity attack, while trying to climb down the iron spikes. The grimlock does not chase after him.

• Potts decides to go up and deal with her his way. He blasts her with his wand of lightning. It doesn’t kill her, but when she moves in to cleave him with her axes, she enters Stinky’s line of sight and he takes her down with a well-placed crossbow bolt.

• The session ends here with the party eager to press on.


GMs Notes for session #7: In this session Fraya’s player decided that Fraya wasn’t going to cut it. He figured that the party needed another front line fighter type, so he replaced Fraya with a half elven ranger named Wolf. I don’t see this lasting either, as this player usually runs more atypical races and multiclass builds- a straight half elf ranger is way too generic for him.

Poor Fraya had to go it on her own in the first fight with the NPCs Todrick and Merrovin (being run by other players) helping her against Theldrick and what little was left of the Hextor faction of the cult (who were trying to flee the complex). Fortunately, Potts destroyed the ropes to the lift when Theldrick and friend were part way up, so that fall f@@+ed him up pretty good, and killed his minions. It was still a tough fight, as Theldrick chased them around quite a bit. Neither Fraya, Bask or even Todrick were eager to fight him in melee, so they tried to wear him down with ranged attacks. In the end NPC Todrick was once again the hero and killed Theldrick (you may note he bagged the Faceless One in the previous session). Merrovin was killed, so Theldrick is the only one from Kullen’s band to survive the complex.

Although Theldrick was a bad ass, the Grimlocks weren’t too tough- at least not until Wolf met the female barbarian grimlock in the narrow tunnel with her paired hand axes; here his bastard sword was all but useless, so he was smart got out of that fight. Lightning bolts work well in narrow tunnels, which Potts took advantage of.

My main change in this session was that I made the militia a bit more actively involved and interested in dealing with the Cult, which is how Wolf was brought in. Captain Trask, Valkus Dunn and Allustan actually go into the lair to investigate the cathedral room and the cleared out Vecna and Hextor sections- while sending the heroes off to deal with the only remaining inhabited portion (i.e., the grimlock caves).

Characters attained 4th level at the end of this session.


PHD wrote:
DM Notes: My main changes with this portion of the AP were that I wanted to make Balabar Smenk more of a patron to the PCs and the impetus for investigating the Dourstone Mine. He had blamed the cultists for infecting Mr. Fixx with the worms and wanted to get out of his relationship with them and give them some payback. Thus, recruiting the PCs to help him wasn’t overly difficult given that the PC Bjorne had been assisting with delivering shipments to the mine and had been friends with Mr. Fixx. This made infiltrating the mine a tad easy since they had a shipment of supplies to deliver on Smenk’s behalf. They also owed him for healing services via the wand of cure light wounds he used on Stinky on a couple of occasions (Use magical device)

Sounds like a good idea. In our game, there was a bit of a disconnect (for me) where we had Smenk saying "Why don't you go investigate the cultists in the mine? In return, I'll give you nothing." So...what's my motivation?

PHD wrote:
I made the cult a bit more proactive than described in the adventure.

That certainly makes more sense from a logical point of view, IMO. Our party rested after wiping out the Hextor temple (with one death -- negative-channeling clerics can be lethal against a low-level party in Pathfinder) and I thought it was bizarre that none of the other temples seemed to notice or care there was a bloody, noisy fight by the entrance from the mine. Of course, giving the cultists more opportunity to prepare would make the module tougher, and I thought it was plenty tough as it was!


@Hogarth

I was pleased with how the transition to Three Faces of Evil worked out. It felt really smooth, but it really helped that I had built in the connection with Smenk and the cult to one of the PCs from the get go. Rofo the monk is also Ragnolin Dourstone's nephew, which added additional motivation for the party to want to find out what was going on.

I never like to have enemies be static in my games. I always try to have consequences and reactions to any actions taken by the PCs- at least when it makes sense.

The problem is that TFoE is a tough adventure as you mention, so having the enemies start getting too reactive or clever could easily end in a TPK. However, the cult knows they are operating below a garrisoned town, so they are still trying to operate in secrecy, and they initially figure they are just in a shadow war with Smenk. By the time the garrison got involved in my campaign the Grimlocks were the only ones left.

The three factions are working together, but aren't that cohesive and don't really share intel as well as they should, which is one of the main advantages the characters have against them.


For GMs. I made a list of supplies for the cult as a handout that Smenk gave to Bjorne (The PC rogue), since he was to be in charge of getting them all. It was the two items at the end that caught the PCs attention and made him think "we should really figure out what's going on down there."

• 2 cart loads of charcoal
• 5 mining pick heads
• 3 shovel heads
• 6 50’ coils of hemp rope

• 60 arrows
• 30’ of chain
• Block and Tackle
• 2 bucket yokes
• 8 sturdy wooden buckets
• 200 lbs of dry rations
• 2 goats
• 10 lbs of bee’s wax
• 6 glass jars
• 3 glass beakers
• 10 potion vials
• 3 bolts of cloth
• 6 casks of wine
• 10 casks of ale
• 1 gallon of green dye
• 8 needles
• 4 spools of thread
• 6 wooden plates
• 30 lbs of salt
• 50 torches
• 1 gallon of lamp oil

• 1 butcher’s cleaver
• 6 writing quills
• 4 jars of ink
• 20 sheets of parchment

• 2 leather scroll cases
• 5 empty barrels
• 3 mining cart wheels
• 6 stone chisels
• 2 virgin girls


Session #8

Characters Present

Wolf (half elf, ranger 4)
Potts (gnome, sorcerer 4)
Stinky (half orc, oracle 4)

• Stinky, Wolf and Potts decide to leave the grimlock tunnels/caves and report back to Captain Trask about their findings and potentially gather reinforcements from the militia before pressing forward.

• They find that Captain Trask, Allustan and Valkus Dunn (The garrison chaplain/battle priest of Heironeious) have just finished doing a search of the temple of Hextor (minus the unlocking the chamber of the dire boar). Beyond some loot they likely pillaged, they have found a letter to Theldrick from a mysterious patron. Trask passes the letter onto Potts.

• Allustan reports on the pool. He has determined that it is rife with dangerous necromantic magic, but he was unable to discern any sign of any godly power stirring in the pool.

• The characters make their report to Trask- informing him that there are still likely many grimlocks in the tunnels.

• Trask tells them that he thinks routing the grimlocks and sealing any potential access to the underdark is of prime importance. However, given that the grimlocks have no easy known access to the town (with the lift being broken), he concedes that it is a threat that can wait a day or two. He decides to return to the surface to gather militia and repair the lift. His plan is to come back with more men and properly clear the place out and find and collapse the underdark tunnel that grimlocks came in through.

• Stinky, Potts and Wolf are given the option of coming with them but decide to stay behind and do a more thorough search of the Faceless One’s lair.

• The three make their way back through the labyrinth to the chapel of Vecna. In the chapel they notice that the strange bulges they had previously noticed in the walls have opened up to reveal eyes- big eyes that are staring at them. Clearly this is some sort of strange, unholy magical effect. It makes Stinky angry and he starts madly cleaving at the eyes with his great axe. Surprisingly, this does not get Stinky killed and he manages to cause the stone of the walls to reclose over the eyes. Even though, he takes no real damage, he does sense the presence of a powerful divine entity take notice of him (not in a good way- Stinky has moved from pissing off his employers to pissing off powerful deities. Go Stinky!).

• They find the Faceless One’s laboratory. Here they find a number of items of interest: alchemical lab, cauldron sealed with wax, a sealed, upright metal coffin, a few books, jars containing preserved green worms, and two bigger jars each containing a lurking strangler (the weird creature that tried to kill Potts in the Whispering Cairn).

• Stinky decides to investigate the coffin. It has a metal slide panel near the where a body’s head would be. Stinky slides the panel open. He sees a pair of eye sockets full of writhing green worms. One of the worms leaps out at him, and he just narrowly dodges out of the way. He slams the panel shut and squishes the worm with his boot.

• Potts discovers a The Faceless One’s spell book and a book about various common and uncommon forms of undead, which he also takes.

• They continue their search and find a sleeping quarters and a store room filled with mundane supplies. Having completed their search they decide to head back to the Cathedral room.
• As they enter they hear the sound of Grimlocks approaching. It seems their previous actions had stirred up the savage creatures.

• They decide to rush to the door that the grimlocks will have to come in from, hoping to use it as a choke point. Stinky and Wolf each take up position on separate sides of the doorway and Potts sets up in front of it with his wand of lightning.

• Unfortunately, the grimlocks have a pet hook horror leading the way. Potts gets off a couple of lightning bolts while the hook horror tries to make his way through the narrow hall blasting it, injuring the chief and taking out some grimlock warriors.

• Then the hook horror pushes its way into the cathedral chamber, slashing Stinky and disrupting his casting of his enlarge person spell and knocking Wolf out of the way. It turns its attention to Potts and rends him apart with its hooks, leaving Potts barely clinging to life (Collin had to spend two hero points to keep Potts alive).

• Wolf and Stinky realize they are overmatched. Wolf grabs Potts and make a run for the secret door leading into the labyrinth of Vecna. He gets slashed on the back as he tries to escape. Stinky also withdraws, but the hook horror pursues them.

• Luckily, Fraya had left the secret doors she had found in the labyrinth partially open, and Wolf leads the party into a hidden hallway, closing the secret door behind him and leaving the hook horror lost in the maze with no way of finding them (This was some quick thinking on the part of Wolf’s player).

• They take time to rest and use their healing wands to heal Potts’ extensive wounds, as well as their own. They remain in the hidden hall for a couple of hours hoping that the grimlocks will wander off.

• Finally they emerge from the labyrinth. Wolf scouts things out, and he notices a grimlock guard posted near the entrance to the labyrinth. He gathers the party, just as a few more grimlocks approach from the direction of the Faceless One’s lab. Stinky casts a comprehend languages spell on himself and listens in as they approach.

• He discerns that they are panicked because it seems as though one of their companions made a mistake and opened the window slide of the iron casket. The result was the poor grimlock having a worm jump on him and burrow into his face. His kin had watched in horror as the grimlock collapsed to the ground dead (after the worm burrowed into his brain). They were on their way to report to their oracle master.

• The PCs decide to intervene and attack the grimlocks. They take the four of them out in the maze with little difficulty, but they aren’t able to stop them from making enough noise to alert reinforcements.

• Soon the Hook Horror arrives on the scene. Potts manages to blast him with another lightning bolt and an acid arrow spell. Stinky and Wolf engage the creature in melee. Both sustain pretty nasty wounds, but this time they manage to bring the thing down.

• Grallak-Kull, the grimlock oracle is not far behind along with several grimlocks. Once again they find themselves in a narrow tunnel with Potts waiting for them with his wand of lightning.

• A well placed lightning bolt kills several grimlocks and wounds others. Grallak is injured but survives. He attempts a couple of hold person spells on Potts, but Pott’s manages to resist the magic. Stinky and Wolf enter melee with the remaining grimlocks and the oracle. Grallak and the grimlocks soon fall, and the heroes prove victorious.

• Just as the fight is drawing to an end, Potts hears shuffling behind him. It is the grimlock that had been infected by the worms, now risen as worm infested undead.
Its fear aura overwhelms both Potts and Wolf and they flee in terror. Stinky opts to retreat from it, as he is badly hurt from the previous fight and does not want to face it alone.

• The spawn ends up pursuing Potts, who flees the maze and runs into the Cathedral chamber. There he encounters several more grimlocks who are about to chase him, when they see the spawn coming and decide to retreat back to their tunnels. The spawn ends up pursuing them instead of Potts.

• Once the PCs have recovered from their fear, they decide to go after the creature. They track it into the tunnels and eventually catch up with it. This time only wolf succumbs to the fear (but not before putting an arrow in it), and Potts and Stinky bring the creature down before it can infect them with any worms.

• After dispatching the undead horror, Potts destroys the worms and the corpse with acid.

• They don’t bother going after the few grimlocks that fled. Instead, they return to the main temple complex. They decide to do a final search of the temple of Hextor, since they hadn’t previously finished exploring it.

• They discover the dire boar had been secured back in its room and Captain Trask had not ordered the room searched, figuring he’d let whatever beast was in there starve to death. Stinky really wants to finish the boar. Thus, Potts and Wolf take up position on the balcony in the arena room with bow and spell ready. Stinky unlocks the padlock with Theldrick’s keys takes the chain out and opens the door. He retreats back to the arena and the boar comes charging after him. Wolf and Potts unleash their held attacks on the boar as it barrels into the room. They hurt it, but don’t bring it down and it charges over Stinky, goring him and knocking him to the ground. As it turns to come back at him and try to finish him off, Wolf leaps down on it from the balcony. He drives his blade deep into its back, but doesn’t land his attack well and ends up on the ground. The angry boar gores him badly, but then succumbs to its wounds.

• With the boar dead the heroes explore the rest of the temple of Hextor. They find a hidden panel in the chapel room that contains, a jeweled goblet, silvered dagger, pearl, and other treasure. Unfortunately, the remainder of the complex has already been looted, presumably by Trask, Dunn and Allustan while the characters were busy killing grimlocks.


GM Notes for Session #8: This was another fun session. There were a few changes here. In the Whispering Cairn it says that the lurking strangler in that adventure is a minion of the Faceless One. However, there is no way for the PCs to really learn that. I figured I’d leave them a clue by having a couple of jars in his lab holding additional lurking stranglers to suggest that he had some connection the creatures.

I also decided I wanted him to have a Spawn of Kyuss to harvest worms from, so I gave him one that he was keeping in a special metal coffin. It had a slide panel at eye level, and of course one the PCs would be bound to open it to see what was inside, which inevitably resulted in a couple of worms jumping out. I think I opted for a reflex save here instead of doing a touch attack, so Stinky got lucky with a good save roll and didn’t have a worm burrow into his neck. It ended up proving more interesting than I had initially anticipated, for when the grimlocks found it I was able to have one of them get infected and turn into a spawn.

The hook horror was not RAW for the adventure and proved the biggest threat. It may have TPKed the party if they hadn’t retreated into the kenku maze and hid in one of the secret rooms to heal. I had been going through my minis collection a few nights before the game, and decided that I really wanted a chance to get one of my hook horror minis into action, so I gave the grimlocks a pet hook horror (actually, I really wanted to bring out my umber hulk mini, but I thought that would have been too mean). It was cruel since I only had three players for the session, and a hook horror is a tough customer, especially with a bunch of grimlocks to back it up. Fortunately the characters were defending a choke point, and Potts had a few charges left in his wand of lightning, which was brutal against the grimlocks all lined up in the tunnel to get into the cathedral chamber. He got a bit too close to the hook horror when he used the wand, and the hook horror promptly tore him to shreds, but he survived, thanks to having 2 hero points to burn to mulligan me out of a kill.

Anyhow, the players felt plenty challenged, and they seemed to enjoy the action and were pleased with their successes, so a good session.

As a final note, I was really pleased to get several encounters out of the battle map I drew of the cathedral room. I like it when I can reuse a map a few times.


:) Always fun to reuse maps, especially ones rife with potential mayhem and violence!


P.H. Dungeon wrote:
The result was the poor grimlock having a worm jump on him and burrow into his face. His kin had watched in horror as the grimlock collapsed to the ground dead (after the worm burrowed into his brain).

Surely you mean the grimlocks listened and/or smelled in horror. ;-)


Yeah that's what I meant. I can still make that edit.


or not. Too late.


GMs Notes: One of the things I didn't like about the first part of the AoW was that the hooks for the first four adventures basically boiled down to Allustan sending the to do this or see so and so. I wanted to keep Allustan as a useful source of advice and information for the PCs, but I didn't want them to feel like he was always telling them what to do and where to go.

In order to open the AP up for the characters I revised and added to the documents that are uncovered in the Dourstone mine so that the PCs would have some additional clues that they could go forward with. In my campaign when they finished Three Faces of Evil, in addition to gain the info mentioned in the adventure, they also learn:

• That Theldrick's patron in Greyhawk has contracted an illithid to acquire a set of mysterious magical scrolls.

• This patron has plans to make some sort of grand offering to the Overgod around the time of the next Champion's Games

• The Faceless One acquired the spawn of Kyuss he was keeping in his lab near the Mist Marsh.

• Theldrick has sought the advice of a tiefling named Bozal Zahol, who may or may not be directly tied to the cult of the Ebon Triad.

This gave the PCs lots of options and motivation to continue their investigations on their own. The main risk for me is that several of the clues I laid down are tied to adventures further up the path and carry the risk that the character could get in over their heads with an adventure that they aren't yet powerful enough to take on (at least without me making significant adjustments). I'm not too worried about it though.

I thought I'd post the additional handouts I made since other GMs running this AP might be able to make some kind of use of them.


Here's Theldrick's journal. They recovered it on his person when he was trying to flee the mine in session #7. I made several extra entries in this journal.

Ready’reat 14th, 592 CY

May three become one,

My journey has come to an end for now. I stand in the ancient cathedral. I have met the Faceless One, the servant of Vecna that Bozal has spoken of, and a fellow believer in the teachings of the Ebon Triad. The Faceless One claims that this place was once a place where Vecna conducted his research before his divine ascension. I am inclined to believe him on that account, though how he found this place I do not know. However, Vecna is of little interest to me. When the three become one, Hextor will be the true face of the Overgod, and the power of the other two will merely serve to give him the strength needed to crush Heironeous and the other gods. Still this place is spectacular; it is dominated by a mysterious pool of black liquid.

The Faceless One thinks the pool is the key to unlocking the secrets of the merging of the three, but he will tell me no more than that. I am certain he knows a great deal more than he is willing to share, which is typical of a servant of Vecna. In fact, I am in a way surprised he has revealed as much to me as he has. He has set himself and his apprentices up in Vecna’s former laboratory, a place concealed behind a labyrinth of secret doors and hidden passages. He protects his sanctum with his loyal birdmen. I have been charged with defending the Dark Cathedral and the pool. I have agreed to this duty on the condition that I build my own fortress and chapel to Hextor abutting this ancient hall. The town above teems with faithless and desperate men skilled at hewing stone. They shall make perfect petitioners and laborers for the work I require. I look forward to putting my architectural gifts to use once more and honoring Hextor with a new place of worship.

There is a passage to a series of caverns joining Vecna’s cathedral. We have investigated them, and it seems possible that the caves may access the Underdark. I have recommended that we seal off access to the Underdark, but the Faceless One is insistent that we leave the passage open. He claims that he will only be able to make limited progress in his research until all three faiths are represented here, and he feels that soon the stirring will of the Overgod will send forth a prophet of Erythnul, a prophet that may well come from the depths, hence the need for maintaining access to the darklands. I pray that when such a prophet arrives he is a believer in the way of the Ebon Triad, for if he is not we may well be doomed. I also pray that in the mean time we aren’t assaulted by some other threat from the Underdark.

Reaping 5th, 593 CY

Praise be to the Scourge of Battle,

Work on the Chapel of Hextor goes more quickly than I had dared to hope. Our patrons in Greyhawk have been generous with their coin. We have gained the aid of one of the local mine managers. A fellow named Balabar Smenk. He has been providing us with quality supplies, particularly ones required by the Faceless One that aren’t so readily available in Diamond Lake, and he has helped us recruit a number of petitioners to aid with the work. Several have died from exhaustion, but I have been able to acquire enough onyx to raise those men as skeletons in my service. Skeletons have no minds and can follow only the simplest commands, but they require no nourishment, and they work tirelessly until their bones crumble apart. I have given them picks, and they have been hewing through the stone at a pace that a living man cannot match.

The caves that I originally sought to seal have proved useful. They have provided us with a good place to dump the rubble from our excavations. I estimate that at our current pace, the fortress will be finished in a year.

Sunsebb 10th, 594 CY

Three will become One,

Today was monumental one. The chapel of Hextor nears completion, and a prophet of Erythnul has arrived from the Underdark. The prophet calls himself Grallak Kull. He is a member of a wretched and savage race known as the grimlocks, and were he not a believer in the way of the Ebon Triad, I would destroy him and his foul kind. He has brought with him several follows, all grimlock kin eager for blood and slaughter. They will have to learn patience, for we are still not near to being ready to move against our enemies on the surface. When the time does come he and his grimlocks can be the rabble to lead the attack, much like the peasant conscripts we send to their deaths at the front of so many battles back in the Aredy. Of course a pack of grimlocks are much more terrifying than peasant militia. They are more akin to a horde of raging northmen or orcs. I pray that they will be able to restrain themselves until we give the command to attack. They seem quite loyal to their prophet, so hopefully that will be enough to keep them in line until they are needed.

Flocktime 5th, 595 CY

Praise be to the Scourge of Battle,

The Faceless One becomes increasingly concerned. That addled beast of an oracle Grallak Kul has yet to provide new insights into the Overgod’s nature. The crude missives he sends speak of worms, of a slumbering power that must be awoken before the three can become one, but nothing more. I wish he would go back to the black pit that spawned him if he has nothing more to offer.

The Faceless One tells me this ties to an ancient figure, a being of great power. Of course he tells me little else. He enjoys keeping his secrets, but he forgets they will flourish only behind the protection of Hextor. His latest taunt is a scroll that he tells me contains all the answers I seek. Of course, the bastard wrote it in cipher. Were it not for the dictates of the Ebon Triad, I would lead my troops into their damnable lair and kill every last bird and wizard.

Grallack is the key. Thank the Scourge, he trusts me and not the Faceless One. Otherwise, I doubt the Faceless One would bother imparting anything to us. We cannot trust these mages. When the Overgod arises. I think it will be time to settle some old scores.

Wealsun 11th, 595 CY

Under the Herald’s Watchful Eye we conquer,

Grallak Kul has finally yielded a useful clue. I personally delivered it to the Faceless One, and he cackled like a hyena when he saw the message. Grallak spoke of the worms again of course. He says that the deep tunnels of Oreth are infested with them. All seems well for now, but soon the Age of Worms will begin and they will burst out of the earth and swarm across the land. Still part of his vision troubles me. Grallak spoke of a great power behind the worms, but the Ebon Triad teaches that these worms will awaken the Overgod, who will then reward his faithful servants with immortality. Is there some other power at hand here that we cannot see, and if so, is it friend or foe?

The Faceless One knows more on the matter, but of course he has little to say. Perhaps Grallak has invented everything or perhaps his divine insights are just mad ravings. If he is an imposter or a trickster, we may need to route him out of this place. In that case, we must ensure we have the supplies we need. Six coils of rope, and perhaps more bows and arrows, should do the trick. With the petitioners leading the way we can uncover any ambushes they have within the cliffs.

Reaping 6th, 595 CY

Curse Balabar Smenk and the Faceless One,

Progress is being made. We have managed to cause something to stir in the pool. Grallak claims it is an aspect of Overgod’s will- a sign that we are moving closer and closer to the merging of the three. The Faceless One assures me that we are on the verge of bringing it forth. The Faceless One also assured me that he had sent Smenk a message that would bring him back in line. Apparently that message has done the opposite, so my confidence in his word is limited at best. Smenk has had the gall to send his agents against us. I warned the Faceless One that he would not easily be cowed. He has declared war upon us. Darrus is dead, as are several of my more competent and loyal tiefling soldiers. No matter, I have enough onyx left to see that they serve me once more. The Faceless One insists we hold off on any offensive action until the Ebon Aspect emerges from the pool. I can live with that as long as it happens soon. In the meantime we shall ready ourselves in case Smenk tries to hit us again.

The Faceless One has also insisted on dealing with Smenk personally. I can live with that as well. He and his birds can go after Smenk. I will escort the Ebon Aspect and lead my troops against the garrison and the followers of Heironeous. Grallak and his grimlock warriors are most eager for slaughter and blood. However, they are too wild and savage to be of much use to me in battle. I am sure that they will slay with abandon, and that is fine. Their actions will provide a suitable diversion, and if we are lucky the garrison will divide their forces to deal with them. With the aspect of the Overgod fighting at our side, we will be unstoppable.

There is a disagreement between Grallak and the Faceless One about what should be done after the razing of Diamond Lake. They agree that the worms must be spread, so that we have a horde of spawn ready to serve the Overgod. Grallak wishes to begin the march towards Greyhawk, growing the horde as we go. The Faceless One is more cautious. He thinks that we must first travel to the Mist Marsh. He believes that somewhere in that trackless swamp is the source of the spawn that have started to plague the southern hills. He believes that finding that source might be the final key to our holy quest. I am caught in the middle, and I doubt the correct course of action will be revealed to me until after Diamond Lake has fallen.

May the hours until the rise of the Ebon Aspect pass quickly.

Reaping 7th, 295

Hextor give me strength,

You test my faith this day lord. Smenk’s heathens have struck again. I did not think they would dare to make a second raid so soon after the first. We repelled them, but they killed many of our faithful- faithful that were clearly not worthy.

The Faceless One has made the sacrifices, but to seemingly no effect. I ask for guidance. What have we done wrong? What more must we do to bring forth the aspect? I should have known better than to trust a wizard and a crazed grimlock oracle. They are probably both charlatans. Kendra and I have decided to return to Greyhawk. We will reconnect with brethren there, and bide our time. Perhaps, I will contact Bozal and seek his advice, but I am starting to suspect that the tiefling may also be a charlatan. Afterall, it was he who introduced me to the Faceless One, and that alliance has accomplished nothing. Still, I maintain faith that the Overgod will one day rise, but in the meantime, I will see to it that Smenk pays for his treachery.

Praise to the Overgod.


This an additional document I wrote. It is a letter from the cult's patron in Greyhawk

Spoiler:
LR
to Theldrick.

Theldrick,

May three become one! I trust that the financial contributions I have been sending have been sufficing to ensure that the Ebon Triad’s research continues on its course to fruition. Assuming that you and the Faceless One are correct and you have found one of Vecna’s ancient lairs, then I am confident that you will find answers that will help to birth the Overgod. I look forward to the day when the Overgod arises, and I have faith that he will remember my contributions and see to it that I am well rewarded for my devotion and loyalty.

Although I initially dismissed the tiefling that you advised me to speak to, I have in the past few months reconsidered the wisdom of your advice. I reinitiated contact with him, and the conversations we have been having have proved to be quite illuminating. I now see why the Ebon Triad has sought his advice in the past, and I believe that he can aid me in my quest to prove my devotion to the Overgod and restore the vigor of my youth.

He has spoken to me of a series of scrolls that he claims will enable us to achieve our ends. I have been in contact with an illithid that has a reputation for being able to acquire all manner of obscure items. The mindflayer’s network of contacts is said, by all accounts, to be vast, both on the surface world and in the underdark below. I have never had dealings with his kind until now, and the nightmare tales of his race are likely tame in comparison to the truth. He is truly an abomination, and I look forward to seeing the Overgod obliterate his kind along with all other races who he does not favor. However, even though I despise the creature and shudder at the thought of ever having to look upon him again, I believe that he is capable of procuring the scrolls, and when he does I will do whatever I must to ensure that they end up in our hands.

We hope to have the scrolls before the winter. In the meantime, Bozal has been advising me on the other preparations that must be made ready. There is much to do, but the Overgod willing, everything should be in order by the time of Champion’s Games next summer. Of course, all my efforts might not be necessary depending on how quickly you succeed in your own endeavors. Yet if you haven’t succeeded in the merging of the three by next summer, then I invite you to join me in helping to purge the City of Thieves of heresy and make a monumental offering to the Overgod. Who knows, perhaps that is what is needed to see the final fruition of our desires realized.

Sincerely,

Your faithful patron


Finally, this is the Faceless One's journal, which I also modified a little:

The secrets on this page are most holy. Know ye heretics that the eye of Vecna is upon you. If you read this, Theldrik, you have either slain me and doomed our cause, or the time is nigh for our final victory.

At last the riddle of this place is solved. In ages past, a great being named Kyuss rose above the petty warlords who fought and struggled for material gain. Mighty Kyuss is the herald of the Overgod. Soon he will sound the clarion call to the faithful. Three faiths shall be made one and the Overgod will rise.

The worms we claimed from the spawn captured in the southern hills cause the transformation as we expected. I have been examining the worms closely. I have concluded that there is more than one type of worm within the spawn. They look similar in appearance, but how they interact with a host varies depending on the species. The most dangerous type of worm brings on the transformation quickly by burrowing through the skin and going straight for the target’s brain. As a side note, this suggests that the brain does play some sort of role in controlling the actions of the body. Another of the worms causes the transformation in a slower more insidious way. This sort of worm lurks within the stomach of a host and reproduces. The worms then eat at the insides, eventually killing the host and causing the transformation. The time has come to share their gift with the people of Diamond Lake. Even now Smenk’s man is infected by the slow worms and undergoes the transformation, and he shall soon be spreading Kyuss’ gift among the refuse above.

In the meantime, the Ebon Aspect stirs within the pool, and the time has come to start making the final sacrifices that will cause it to awaken. I suspect that when it awakens it will need time to gain its full strength, but feasting on the men of Diamond Lake should give it the nourishment it needs to attain its full power.

Our course is clear to us, my dear Theldrik. Smenk’s use to us is nearly at an end. Once he brings us this final shipment we should have all we need to awaken the aspect and complete our business in this wretched town. If the calculations and portents are correct, the time for covert action is at an end. As the Age of Worms begins we must spread the gift of the worms and strike hard and fast to destroy any who might threaten the coming of the Overgod. Bozal Zahol says that the coming of the Age of Worms and the Merging of the Three is inevitable. He claims that our job is merely to hasten its arrival. I am more skeptical. We have so many enemies. We must not become complacent, and we must not underestimate them. The Overgod will rise, but it is up to us to ensure that everything is in place for the merging to happen.

Soon the Ebon Aspect will rise and grow to its full strength. Soon there will be a horde of the spawn. Then we will bring our army of worms to Greyhawk and cleanse it of its heretics and heathens. Kyuss will come forth to announce the Age of Worms, and then the three shall merge into one, and the Overgod will reward his faithful and crush the lesser gods. The world will be remade, and we will become its immortal rulers, lording over the masses of faithful and honoring the all mighty Overgod.


P.H. Dungeon wrote:
GMs Notes: One of the things I didn't like about the first part of the AoW was that the hooks for the first four adventures basically boiled down to Allustan sending the to do this or see so and so.

It didn't feel that way to me, as a player.

  • Whispering Cairn: Allustan suggests that there's a dungeon that might be fun to explore. That's not really sending us to do anything.
  • Three Faces of Evil: Smenk told us that there are cultists in the mine. I thought the motivation was pretty weak (because I wan't playing a "big damn hero" type PC), but Allustan wasn't really involved.
  • Encounter at Blackwell Keep: Allustan asks us to accompany him to Blackwell Keep. This was the only one where I felt Allustan was telling us what to do.
  • Hall of Harsh Reflections: Allustan has a friend in the Free City who knows about the Age of Worms. By this time, we had gotten hooked on finding out more about the Age of Worms, so we would have gone there on our own.

Foreshadowing HoHR and Champion's Belt sounds like a good idea, though. I wasn't totally clear on how the adventures were supposed to tie together when I played them.


It depends a bit on how the gm runs it. The default in the adventures is that Allustan is sort of the trigger for all 4 of the first adventures. It doesn't take a lot of work by the DM to alter that though.


Three Faces of Evil Epilogue: Potts, Stinky and Wolf return to the surface with what loot they can bring. Over the next few days several things happen. The militia repairs the lift, and then ventures down into the grimlock tunnels with Wolf as their guide. Here they find that the remaining grimlocks have fled into the underdark and they discover a vile altar in one of the caves dedicated to Erythnul, god of slaughter. They also locate a tunnel that appears to access the underdark. Afterwards, miners are brought in to collapse the tunnel.

Sheriff Cubbin and his deputies are ordered to assist the militia in cleaning out the temple complex. All the bodies are hauled out and burned in a massive pyre in front of the Dourstone mine. All the supplies in the complex are brought to the surface and confiscated by the militia. Folk from all over town gather outside the mine to see the action. They are particularly enthralled by the massive dire boar and hook horror corpses removed from the mine. Much of the boar ends up being cooked up at the garrison, and there is feast for the militia that helped do all the grunt work of cleaning the place out. The PCs are invited as the guests of honor to the feast for their pivotal role in dispatching the vile cult. Here Valkus Dunn thanks Stinky for his heroism in defense of the town and apologizes to the half orc for the insults he made towards him and his god previously (even if Stinky provoked him).

Allustan, Captain Trask and Valkus Dunn venture back into the complex while it is being cleared out, so that they can do a thorough investigation of the Faceless One’s lair. They have the iron casket removed and the spawn inside it destroyed. Allustan discovers a secret door in the Faceless One’s lab, which leads to a room that holds the cult’s primary treasury. The extensive treasure is taken from complex and handed over to the militia. However, out of this treasure Wolf, Potts and Stinky are each given 300 gp as a reward for their service.

Smenk, Cubbin and Ragnolin Dourstone are all arrested and face charges. Cubbin is charged with taking bribes to cover up/turning a blind eye the existence of the cult. Captain Trask and Mayor Neff preside over the trials with Allustan providing advice to his brother (mayor Neff). Cubbin is found guilty (especially with PC testimony), and he is fired and put in the stocks for several days. The locals have great fun hurling rotten fruit and such at him, as he is not well liked. Ragnolin Dourstone is found not guilty, as he is deemed to have been under magical influence. Smenk is found guilty of being in collusion with a treasonous cult that threatened the safety of the town, but Neff lets him off the hook with a light fine because he attempted to right his wrongs by taking down the cultists. Yet it is widely suspected that Smenk had some blackmail material on Neff that he was threatening to go public with if he faced any serious punitive measures.

The PCs become regarded as local heroes, as does Todrick who spends a great deal of time in the taverns boasting about being the one to kill the Faceless One and Theldrick, though he is sullen about losing his companions, particularly Rastophan. With Bjorne dead, Todrick becomes Smenk’s new right hand man.

A vigil is held for those who died fighting the cultists- Kullen, Rastophan, Merrovin, and Bjorne, as well as Mestel Fixx and the family murdered by the cult.

Smenk calls Potts and Stinky to a meeting. He is somewhat annoyed that they went and got the militia involved in the whole affair, but he understands why they did it and lets it slide since they saved his ass by taking down the cult.


GMs Notes:

Spoiler:
GMs Notes: There was a big change here in that I totally ditched the Ebon Aspect. It was a cool monster with lots of carnage potential, but given the Cult of Ebon triad is essentially a charade, it didn’t make a lot sense for the this creature to exist. I decided it would be better for the cultists to put all that work into trying to bring forth the aspect and then have nothing happen. Furthermore, Allustan and Valkus Dunn have both suggested to the PCs that the idea of those three gods working together to form an Overgod is ridiculous and would be heresy among any of their faiths, so the PCs now doubt that the cult’s goal of creating an Overgod is possible, but they are concerned about the Age of Worms. This begs the question- “why is Theldrick still able to cast divine spells if he’s a heretic in his faith?” My answer to that is that it was Kyuss who was actually giving him his divine power even though he thought it was Hextor.


Session #9 (Whispering Cairn Wrap Up and Pembrose Keep)

Characters Present:

Stinky, half orc, oracle 4 (Kord)
Ugly, half orc, cleric 4 (Corellon Loretheon)
Potts, gnome, sorcerer 4
Wolf, half elf, ranger 4
Rofo, dwarf, monk 4
Wraith, elf, fighter 4

• Three weeks had passed since their exploits in the Dourstone Mine. During that time Stinky was reunited with his lost brother ugly, and ugly joined the party.

• A full party of PCs returned to the Whispering Cairn where they used the Chime of Opening to enter the strange room with the column of air. Here the 6 4th level adventurers took a second crack at the Wind Warriors. Wraith was probably subject to the most abuse as he engaged one in melee, but other members of the party took their share of damage from the Wind Warriors’ sonic attacks. In the end, the PCs triumphed with relative ease.

• After investigating the odd relief murals on the walls and taking notes of their findings. They used the column of air in the center of the room to transport themselves to the resting place of a fallen Wind Duke. Potts was forced to use his chime of opening again to break the seal on the sarcophagus, and inside they recovered three items of treasure- a silver Wind Duke diadem, a pair of demon horns and a pewter box containing a Talisman of the Sphere- a minor artifact capable of controlling a sphere of annihilation.

• They then left the Whispering Cairn and made camp for the night outside, regaining spells for the day.

• The next day, they hiked to Pembrose Keep in search of a lost elf blade that Wraith believed might still be found in the ruins and one he wished to recover.

• In the remains of the former village near the keep they found a pyre burning with a cold blue flame where former plague victims had been burned many years earlier. The flames were clearly supernatural. They pressed on from the abandoned village without much exploration and headed for the keep.

• As they approached the keep they were assaulted by arrows from the gatehouse and guard tower. They moved along the sidewall and went into the central courtyard through a gap in the crumbling wall. Here they found themselves swarmed by goblins and giant spiders.

• A lengthy and chaotic fight broke out as the heroes hacked their way through a score of goblin warriors and their giant spider pets. Although, the goblins had them well outnumbered, they were no match for the heroes and the surviving little gits were soon forced to retreat.

• A magically enlarged Stinky ended up pursuing a pair of fleeing spiders into a secondary courtyard dominated by a large yew tree. As the spiders scurried up the trunk of the tree Stinky saw movement up in the tree’s foliage. Before he could make out what was up there a strand of sticky webbing shot down and entangled him. As he struggled in the webbing, Ugly came to his aid (sort of).

• Ugly promptly tripped a deadfall trap that caused a pile of suspended stones and logs to come plummeting down from high up in the tree. Ugly managed to dodge out of the way, but Stinky was less fortunate and was clipped by the deadfall, but the hearty half orc withstood the damage.

• The rest of the party soon arrived on the scene, and they discovered the nature of their opponent when it fell from the tree while trying to jump to the nearby wall (natural 1)- an ettercap.

• Despite its fall, the ettercap managed to get away, but heroes killed its giant spider allies.

• The party then looted the goblin occupied section of the keep and recovered a number of coins and some silverware up in the nest area of the goblin shaman.

• Feeling ready to press on, the adventures began exploring the final section of the keep. Here they found the bedchambers of Lord Pembrose, and here they encountered the ghost of Giselle the plague bringer. Fortunately enough of the heroes had magical weapons that they were able to temporarily destroy the ghost’s incorporeal form before she could inflict significant harm on them. It was Ugly’s channeling of positive energy that proved to be the stroke that obliterated her.

• With the ghost dispatched for the time being and the goblins driven away, the adventures had the keep to themselves and set about doing a thorough search of the place. During their search they uncovered a secret escape passage in the keep’s crypt, and within the escape passage they discovered a hidden chamber that held the treasury that presumably once belonged to Lord Pembrose. Among the gold and silver, the heroes recovered the enchanted elf blade and an enchanted mithril chain shirt.

• Pleased with the success of their adventuring, the heroes returned to Diamond Lake.


GM Notes on Session #9

This was pretty much a hack and slash session. The PCs finally completed the Whispering Cairn, which was nice to see. Pembrose Keep was a homebrew side trek. It proved to be a fun little adventure though. The fight with the goblins turned into one huge, sprawling battle with the PCs fighting over 20 enemies on multiple fronts. Fortunately, the goblins and giant spiders had low ACs, low hp, and low attack bonuses, which made them easy to hit and kill, while they had trouble hitting the heroes unless they could get flanking (and even then they missed a lot). The webbing of the giant spiders proved a bit of hurdle and the goblin adept was dangerous, so it was far from a cake walk, but I think the PCs enjoyed taking on a huge number of mooks and interacting with the terrain of the old keep.

Ugly was a new character brought in by the player who had been running Bjorne. That player is basically a floater player since he has a couple of kids and lives out of the city, so he can only make the odd session. His character was supposed to be Stinky’s twin brother. FYI, the reason Stinky is called Stinky is not merely because he is a half orc, but also because he has the Wasting curse, which says, “your body is slowly rotting away.” As an oracle he actually has a high charisma score, but as part of that curse he takes penalties to charisma checks that aren’t tied to intimidate. It is for this reason that Stinky’s default interaction with people is to try intimidate checks. This has got him in trouble a couple of times- he pissed off Valkus Dunn and got himself fired from his bouncer job at the Emporium.

Ugly worships the elf god, which is a little weird, but it is because his player decided that he had been taken in by a band of elf mercenaries after he saved one of them from death (I can't remember the full details at this moment).


P.H. Dungeon wrote:
I think the PCs enjoyed taking on a huge number of mooks and interacting with the terrain of the old keep.

Are you going to be making any changes to Encounter at Blackwall Keep? Because it could turn out to be more of the same (except with lizard men instead of goblins).


I'm hoping he has the lizard men eating people alive, worshipping 'old worm-face' openly and generally being all "reptile cultist-y".


We've finished Blackwall Keep and the journals for it will go up in the next few days. I thought that adventure was a bit lacking in some areas, so I made some significant changes, but not quite in the way Brother Faust is hoping.

Most of the changes involved linking it into the overall story arc better and making it more challenging. I still kept the lizardfolk as primarily victims of draconic deception (not so much crazed, cannibal cultists).


Here's my backstory for Pembrose Keep

History: Pembrose Keep was founded 200 years back by the Pembrose family on a hill overlooking a somewhat fertile valley (a rare find in the Cairn Hills). The Pembrose family originated from Diamond Lake, and it became a small farming community. A quarry was established nearby. The Pembrose family ruled the settlement for many years, until the place was hit by a plague called the Red Death, which ravaged Diamond Lake, Bostwick and other nearby communities 30 years ago (566 CY).

The Red Death began in Pembrose. It is said that a village girl named Giselle had been out gathering nuts and berries in a small wooded vale just north of the village. She stopped by a pond and was looking at her reflection in the water. A deep sorrow washed over her when she looked at her face and realized how ugly she was and why no man in the village showed any interest in her. Giselle began to weep, and while she cried, she was approached by a “kind” old woman. The woman comforted her, and then told her that she could make her beautiful. The crone convinced her to drink a magical elixir that she claimed would make her pretty. The girl drank the elixir, and its magic worked. She became gorgeous. She could still be recognized, but she almost looked like a new person.

Instantly, the men of the village all desired her. Brawls erupted over her and blood was shed. In the end, Lord Pembrose claimed her as his own only a day after his own wife had “tragically” fallen off her horse and died while out riding (sabotaged saddle). It is said that Lord Pembrose was overcome with lust for the girl, and he deflowered the woman in his chambers that very night, long before a wedding could be planned. The next day both the girl and Lord Pembrose broke out in terrible sores, which they died from that night. The disease was highly contagious and quickly swept through the keep and village, and soon into the surrounding countryside. Clerics from as far as Greyhawk were brought in to combat the plague, and it was only through their devotion and the blessings of the gods that the disease didn’t ravage Greyhawk itself. Of course, the old crone was blamed for causing the plague, which became known as the Red Death, but she was never found. Some say she still haunts the hills. For the past 30 years since the Red Death the keep and the village that surrounded it have been considered curse. It was abandoned, as the residents that survived the plague left and moved to other communities like Diamond Lake where most found work in the mines.

The keep and village is still considered cursed. A few groups of adventurers have gone and investigated the Old Keep and rumors claim it to be haunted. There is little reason to go there, as the keep’s valuables have been looted. However, many folks believe that Lord Pembrose still has treasure hidden in the keep.


Here's my DM notes for the keep:

Spoiler:

Rumours: Characters who grew up in Diamond Lake or have lived there for a long time would have heard stories about Pembrose Keep (Wraith and Bjorne).

• Pembrose Keep is haunted by the ghosts of Giselle and Lord Pembrose (only Giselle haunts the keep]
• The vile witch that gave Giselle the elixir of beauty is actually a demon and still lurks within the vicinity of Pembrose Keep. She lives in a magical hut that appears in the woods near the keep on nights when the moon is full. (false]
• The spirits of the plague victims still haunt the village and a pyre can sometimes be seen burning in the square at night. (true)
• Lord Pembrose murdered his first wife and her spirit wanders the fields nearby. (Mostly false- he did murder her, but her spirit rests in the afterlife]
• The keep has been looted, but Lord Pembrose still has treasure hidden in it somewhere.
• Lord Pembrose was visited by one of Ellival Moonmeadow’s deputies, an elf named Tylan. Tylan had heard of Giselle’s beauty and he fancied himself as a ladies man. He went to see her for himself, and like the other men in the village he became enchanted by her. He was staying with Lord Pembrose and he spoke to the Lord of his love for her, and how he was going to be the one to win her heart. Lord Pembrose, though still married had also at this point fallen for Giselle went mad with jealousy at the thought of the Tylan taking her. He had the elf taken by his guards and hung from the Yew tree. Ellival can elaborate on this rumor and explain that Tylan had an enchanted elven blade. He thinks that Lord Pembrose hid the blade somewhere in the keep. A few of his current deputies knew Tylan and still clearly remember the time when the Red Death swept through Diamond Lake.
• Three years ago the militia tracked a gang of bandits known as Black Scar’s Band that had been operating in the area back to the keep. They had been using the keep as their lair. The militia cleared them out. The current status of the keep is uncertain.
• Last summer a group of young gnome adventurers from Grossetgrottel decided to go to the keep to search for Lord Pembrose’s treasure. They didn’t return.

The current state of affairs:

• There are some haunts in the vicinity of the village and several shadows make their lair in the village- in the remains of the tavern/inn.

• There is a grave yard on the edge of the village. However most of the plague victims were burned in a big fire. The remains of the fire pit still sit in the square in the center of the village.

• The rumors of the keep being haunted are exaggerated. However, Giselle does still haunt the keep, but her haunt is limited to the upper floor of the keep, usually Lord Pembrose’s bed chambers. The only way to release her from her torment is to slay the vile hag that gave her the beauty potion. Finding the hag however, is very difficult as she is quite elusive. Giselle is quite mad and hateful these days. The red death plague warped her mind just prior to her death, and it remains damaged in unlife.

• The main floor of the keep and the lower level is home to a tribe of goblins who have pet giant spiders. They have allied themselves with an Ettercap that dwells in the Yew court. The ettercap has rigged up a deadfall trap with rocks from the keep’s wall and webbing. He triggers it if anyone goes under the Yew tree (10’ radius, Reflex DC 16 or take 5d6 damage and +12 vs CMD or be knocked prone). The ettercap also has several pet spiders that dwell in his tree with him.

• The leader of the goblins is a crazed goblin adept with an affinity for spiders. The tribe is called the Spiderkissers. Some goblins ride spiders into battle. They coat their weapons with spider poison, particularly arrows and javelins.

• Treasure #1: There is a piece of flagstone by the yew tree that can be removed. There is a small cubby beneath the stone that has a chest in it covered by a tarp. The chest is locked and protected by a magical ward (fire trap spell?). Treasure belonged to bandits that held the keep for a time.

Bandit’s Treasure Chest:

Wand of cure moderate wounds (CL 1, 18 charges)
Potion of cure serious wounds (CL 6, 3d8+6 healing)
800 sp
200 gp

• Treasure #2: A trap door in the floor hidden under a sarcophagus leads to a small room with an escape tunnel. The walls are covered with crumbling plaster. The room has a removeable panel hidden behind the plaster that leads to a hidden chamber that has another sturdy door. This leads to yet another small chamber, which holds some hidden treasure, including Tylan’s elfblade.


Here's the little write up I did on the elf blade Wraith recovered:

Senethel (Translation- Keen Edge, 1 of the 6 sisters) +1 keen mithril greatsword. In addition, while wielding the sword the bearer gains a +2 to saves vs. fear effects and can radiate light on command.

Its name is etched into the blade, and the blade bears the marking of Feravis, the royal smith of Queen Yolande’s court in Celene. This blade is one of 6 such swords known as the 6 sisters. Queen Yolande had commissioned the 6 blades to be forged by Feravis towards the end of the Hateful Wars (498- 510- the war whereby elves and dwarves worked together to purge the Lortmil mountains of goblinoids). Each sword was given to an elven warrior that had fought bravely in the war. Tylan’s father was given one of the blades and passed it onto his son when he set out from Celene.


Session #10, A visit to Greyhawk

Characters Present:

Stinky, Half Orc, Oracle 4
Wraith, Elf, Fighter 4
Potts, Gnome, Sorcerer 4
Wolf, Half Elf, Ranger 4
Rofo, Dwarf, Monk 4

Previously: While exploring the strange former temple of Vecna beneath the Dourstone mine, the heroes found it to be occupied by a strange group of cultists called the cult of the Ebon Triad. The cult’s goal seemed to be to help three evil gods merge together as a single all powerful Overgod. Through various documents the heroes discovered, they learned that the cult had a tiefling contact in Greyhawk named Bozal Zahol. They also learned that anonymous patron (also presumably from Greyhawk) was helping to fund the cult in Diamond Lake. In addition, this patron indicated that he has been in contact with Bozal Zahol and has contracted a mind flayer to acquire some mysterious scrolls for him that will allow him to “prove his devotion to the Overgod and restore the vigor of his youth.”

Greyhawk Day #1: After several days of travel from Diamond Lake, the weary heroes arrive in Greyhawk with their cart and mule. They make their way into the city and get settled at the Crooked House Inn in the Foreign Quarter. The Crooked House is an Inn belonging to Potts’ uncle Tarquin.

Greyhawk Day #2: The next day they sell off various goods at a shifty place called Vesper’s Pawnshop and Wolf purchases an enchanted Darkwood shield. They then pay a quick visit the temple of Pelor to purchase a healing wand.

• Afterwards they meet with a trusted wizard friend of Allustan’s named Eliagos. They discuss with him their exploits in Diamond Lake and inform him of their interest in further investigating the cult of Ebon Triad in Greyhawk. Eligos hasn’t heard of Bozal Zahol, but he suggests that pursuing the lead on the mindflayer is a smart but dangerous idea. To get them started he suggests they pay a visit to place called the Pits, as he knows that the manager of the Pits has made use of the mind flayer as means of procuring exotic fighters from the underdark. The manager’s name is Storvick Boneblade. Eliagos also gives them the name of a professor who teaches at the Grey College named Silas Crane, who is said to be an expert on mind flayers.

• That evening they pay a visit to the Pits. Stinky promptly introduces himself to Storvick Boneblade and volunteers to fight in a lethal pit fight to honor Kord. He is put into battle against a Grimlock warrior. A single axe is put in the center of the fighting pit, and although the Grimlock gets to it first, Stinky eventually disarms him and grabs the axe for himself. He then manages to slice his enemy’s head off with a crit. After this victory, he is then forced to face off against a minotaur with only a dagger and no armor. Despite the odds being stacked in the minotaur’s favor, Kord protects, and Stinky slays the minotaur- glory to Kord! Since several of the PCs bet on Stinky, the party ends up earning some decent money with the 4 to 1 odds against him.

• After the fights, they speak with Storvick. Stinky convinces him that he wants to purchase some exotic warriors for his own establishment back in Diamond Lake, and he offers Storvick 100 gp to give him a means of getting in touch with the contact he uses to acquire his exotic underdark talent. All this is in hopes of finding a means of locating the mind flayer. Storvick directs him to a tavern called the Depths of the Earth. Stinky is instructed to talk to the bar tender, who he suggests will help Stinky get in touch with a man who represents the “individual” Storvick uses to get his exotic warriors.

• The upset at the Pits causes quite a stir. As the characters return to the Crooked House for the night, Rofo notices they are being followed. Wolf splits off from the group to try and get a better look at their pursuer. The heroes duck into a tavern, and Wolf then realizes that three men were actually following the group. The men follow them into the tavern and take a seat at a nearby table after ordering some drinks. Rofo decides to confront them, and they exchange words. The three men insinuate that they are members of the Thieves’ Guild, and that the guild is not happy with Stinky’s upset at the Pits. They claim that paying the guild 1000 gp of their prize money would be enough to smooth things over. The heroes are in no mood to hand over their winnings to a few thugs. They are ready for a fight, but after having their request rejected, the thieves leave the tavern.

• The PCs finish up their drinks and continue back towards the Inn. They once again notice the three men following them. Potts gets a bit pissed and blasts one of the men with a magic missile spell. It doesn’t kill him, but it sends them scurrying into the alleys. After this incident the adventurers decide to stay the night at the Green Dragon Inn in the river quarter instead of risking bringing the wrath of the Thieves’ Guild down on Potts’ uncle’s establishment.

• They get a large room on the second floor of the Green Dragon that can accommodate the whole party. Potts wards the window with his wand of alarm, and Wraith takes up position in front of the door. The night passes without any further trouble.

Greyhawk Day #3:
• After a long night, the party gets up late, has breakfast at the inn and then heads to the Grey College to visit Professor Silas Crane. They find him taking his lunch in a pub called the Faculty Lounge. They have a lengthy conversation with Silas, and they learn a good deal about mind flayers and the sort of dangers they pose.

• That evening they head for the Depths of the Earth Tavern in the slums. En route, they are ambushed by thieves from the Thieves’ Guild. There are five men in total in the ambush, and three of the men are the same men that were trailing them the night before. Despite having the advantage of surprise and a couple of archers on the roof tops, the ambush goes poorly for the thieves, and the heroes kill one and drive the rest off.

• They visit the Depths of the Earth Tavern. Stinky introduces himself to the bartender. He continues to use his story about being interested in purchasing exotic warriors for his own gladiator fights. After Stinky butters the bar tender up with gold, he convinces the bar tender to arrange a meeting with the mind flayer’s representative, “Nameless.” The heroes also learn there is a sewer exit from the tavern, and they use it to leave because they are worried about another ambush from the Thieves’ Guild. The session ends with the characters venturing into the sewers as a means of leaving the slums.


GMs Notes for Session #10:
So since I dropped a bunch of clues to foreshadow Hall of Harsh Reflections and the Champions Games back in Three Faces of Evil, the characters were eager to head to Greyhawk to sell off some loot and do some investigating. I didn’t want to railroad them into Blackwall Keep, though I had dropped hints that there was stuff going on there that they might want to investigate, so I left it up to them to decide how to proceed. They opted to go to Greyhawk, which was fine by me, as I was more in the mood for some rp and investigation than more dungeon crawling.

I made some changes here. I wanted the characters to be proactive, not just reacting to trouble being hurled at them, so I came up with some clues to hand out that could put the on the path of tracking down Xyrxog without him coming after them first- hence the Pits. I was inspired by season #1 of Spartacus for this, and the fact that Stinky had been running his own Fight Club of sorts in Diamond Lake. I figured that The Pits would be a fun place for them to visit, and would make sense as place where the owner might want to deal secretly with a mind flayer to provide him with exotic talent.

The encounter at the Pits nearly killed Stinky. Even though there were some non-lethal options for combat at the Pits, Stinky decided he wanted to go straight for the death fights. He was a bit surprised when he discovered that after beating the grimlock warrior, he was expected to go in another fight. The other players were laughing at his expense when they found out he was going to have to go one on one with a minotaur with no armour and only a dagger. He could have bowed out and looked like a coward, but that’s not Stinky’s way. This fight could easily have ended in Stinky’s demise, but the dice were hot for him and I was rolling a bunch of shit, so he somehow managed to take the thing down, much to the surprise of the audience and the rest of the players. Fortune favors the bold.

The Depths of the Earth tavern was inspired by a bar of similar name from Volo’s guide to Waterdeep (I really liked those 2E books).

This session was a nice change of pace for me after the heavy combat of the last few sessions, and it gave the characters a chance to do some fun rping and see more of the world, which I always like to see happen. I was pleased with how the changes I made worked out, though I’m a bit worried that they’ll dive head long into Hall of Harsh Reflections at 4th level. That could get real interesting in a TPK kind of way.


That's the danger about certain kinds of clues getting discovered a bit too early - sometimes the PCs glomp onto something that seems really interesting that turns out to be out of their league. :)


Session #11

Characters Present:
Stinky (half orc, oracle 5)
Rofo (dwarf, monk 5)
Wolf (half elf, ranger 5)
Potts (gnome, sorcerer 5)

• The characters make their way through the sewers trying to find an exit away from the slums, so they can get back to the inn without being attacked by the Thieves’ Guild again. Unfortunately, they run afoul with a pack of ghouls and a lone carrion crawler hiding in the sludge. The fight is fairly quick and one-sided. The heroes fair well against the undead dispatch their enemies without suffering more than a few minor wounds. Wolf’s undead favored enemy proves to be a boon, and he is very effective against them.

• After slaughtering the ghouls, they make it safely back to the Green Dragon Inn. They rest the night.

Greyhawk Day #4:
• The next morning, while eating breakfast they are approached by an alluring elf, who introduces herself as Tirra, an adventuring companion of the warrior Auric, who Rofo was bested by during Stinky’s fight night several weeks earlier in Diamond Lake (see session #2). She explains that she represents the Thieves’ Guild and has an offer that might get the guild to leave the heroes in peace. They agree to hear her out, and she introduces them to a man named Voros Wessler. Voros explains that he sponsors gladiators and that one of his rivals, a man from Ket named Al Jabaz, is looking to pit his new prospective champion against one of Wessler’s men. Wessler wants Stinky to return to the Pits and be his champion in the upcoming fight. In return he says that he’ll pull some strings so that the party can operate freely in the city and no longer have the Thieves’ Guild hunting them. Stinky agrees to the terms and learns the fight is to take place three nights hence.

• With the guild off their backs until Stinky’s fight at least, the PCs work to take care of various items of business in town. Potts pays a visit to the wizard’s guild where he has a haversack commissioned.

• Rofo spends his down time touring various brothels in the River Quarter, drinking, carousing and spending his winnings. As a monk, he had recently become immune to disease, which must surely come in handy for him during these days.

Greyhawk Day #5:
They return to the Depths of the Earth tavern and speak to the bar tender again. He tells them that he has been able to set up a meeting for them with Nameless and it is to take place the evening before Stinky’s next fight in the Pits.

• Later, back at the Green Dragon Inn, Stinky and company are eating and drinking when they are visited by a few boisterous followers of Kord who congratulate Stinky on his winnings in the Pit and invite him to join them for further drinking at the Hall of the Valiant, the temple of Kord in the foreign quarter.

• The party heads to the Hall of the Valiant. Like they had been told, it turns out to me much more akin to a great northern mead hall than a temple. There are huge trestle tables where burly men boast and drink. Roasts of meat cook on spits over hot coals, and buxom women with strong arms deliver platters of food and tankards of mead and ale to the followers of Kord. In the center of the “temple” there is a ring filled with sand for wrestling. Currently there is a challenge to honor Kord that requires participants to chug a massive tankard of ale, throw a great axe at a greased pole and then climb the pole. Eventually all the heroes decide to participate. Rofo fairs the best in the contest, but none of the heroes make a real disastrous performance. Rofo is rewarded by having the most buxom bar wench pick him up and shove his face in her cleavage. Stinky passes out late that night on a table in the hall.

Greyhawk Day #6:
• They go to see Eliagos once more, and they learn that over the past few days, Eliagos has succeeded in digging up some information on Bozal Zahol. He tells them that several years back Zahol was a doomsayer, a prophet of Kyuss who preached about the coming of the Age of Worms among the slum dwellers of the city. He apparently wielded divine powers that he would use to aid those who would listen to him, and thus he was able to gain a small but loyal following. Over time he formed a death cult in honor of Kyuss. However, his cult only existed for a short period of time (a matter of months perhaps) before it was destroyed. There are many rumors about what happened at this point. The general concensus is that he and his followers were attacked by a rival death cult. Some say a cult devoted to Orcus (the demon prince of undead) others say it was the cult of the Shriven Sickle- a death cult devoted to Nerull that operated until recently in the city when it was destroyed by followers of Saint Cuthbert. He’s also heard some whisperings that it was actually the Assassin’s Guild that was responsible, and they framed one of the other cults. At any rate, Bozal was said to have survived the attack, but was forced into hiding. He’s been very quiet since then. Eliagos wasn’t able to turn up anything about his activities since that time. Most folk he talked to seem to think Bozal likely left the city. The important detail that the PCs gain from this is that Bozal seems to be a follower of Kyuss.

• Eliagos doesn’t know much about Kyuss, but he has heard of him. Eliagos says he’s an entity associated with death and undeath. He’s considered to be a foul and evil being, and he is obscure and not widely followed. However, he does bear the title of “The Worm that Walks” and “Harbinger of the Age of Worms.” Eliagos believes he is some sort of demi-god, and suggests they can find out more about him through research at the Great Library.

• That evening they have their meeting with “Nameless”, the middle man for the illithid, at the Depths of the Earth Tavern. They find him sitting at a table by himself with a hooded cloak pulled low over his eyes to conceal his features. Several other patrons sit at tables nearby, and the PCs suspect they might be associates of Nameless, ready to step to his defense if things turn ugly. Stinky takes point on the negotiations and with his usual charm (i.e., “I roll an intimidate check”), he explains to Nameless that he wants to buy some exotic fighters for his own operation in Diamond Lake. He ends up “discussing” options for a while with Nameless and manages to learn very little about Nameless’ illithid master. In the end, Stinky orders 2 grimlocks to be delivered to Diamond Lake. He pays 200 gp up front, and he’s to pay the other half on delivery. Before Nameless leaves Stinky insists on learning his name, which he tells Stinky is Donovan (after Stinky attempts another intimidate check). Nameless then tells the party that since business has been concluded they had best be on their way (he’s not too happy with Stinky’s lack of tact). The PCs leave. They consider trying to follow Nameless when he leaves the bar, but they suspect he might use the sewers, and decide they don’t want to bother trying to track him through the sewers. They opt to return to the Green Dragon Inn, and wait for another opportunity to deal with the illithid.

Day #7:
• That night the characters head to the Pits for Stinky’s fight. They learn that Storvick the former manager of the Pits was found dead in an alley a couple of days earlier, and that a fop named Fabian has become the new manager. They meet Voros Wessler who is pleased to see Stinky show up as promised. They also spot the Ketite lanista, Al-Jabaz, who is with several of his bodyguards and has his lizardman champion ready for combat. The lizardman is large by lizardman standards and has a muzzle on his mouth; his tail is secured against his back by a leather girdle and his arms are shackled. Stinky removes his armor and weapons, and he and the lizardman go below to their respective waiting areas. There Stinky buffs with spells (bull’s strength, divine favor etc..). When the gates open to fight Stinky rushes for the dagger in the center of the fighting pit. However he realizes something is wrong. The lizardman is slumped against the wall of his prep cell and one of his handlers is screaming. Stinky quickly sees that the lizardman has green worms bursting out of his eyes and mouth and a few have burrowed into the handler’s arm. Potts is down there with Stinky as his corner man, and they burst into action. As the lizardfolk rises as an undead spawn, Potts hurls a disrupt undead ray at him, but misses. Stinky goes for the handler, but instead of trying to cut the worms out of his arms, he figures it’s too late to save him and tries to cut his throat. Wolf, who is up above watching the scene, realizes there’s something wrong as the lizardman spawn staggers out towards Stinky and hurls a handful of green worms at him, which Stinky ducks away from. Wolf then draws his sword and leaps down into the midst of things decapitating the lizard spawn (with a 40 damage crit from his bastard sword). Stinky finishes the handler and they proceed to crush the worms, though Potts putts one in an empty potion vial for later study.

• After the incident in the Pits there is much chaos. Bets have to be returned, and there is much explaining to be done. The PCs along with Voros confront Al-Jabaz and demand to know where he acquired a worm-infected lizardman. Al-Jabaz claims he didn’t know it was infected. He explains that he bought the thing from some slavers, who he believes got it from guards working at Blackwall Keep near the Mistmarsh. Selling the odd lizardman captive to slavers seems to be somewhat of side business for the guards. The PCs believe him, and figure he didn’t intentionally try to release a dangerous undead creature into a fight.

• Even though, the fight didn’t technically happen, Voros is still happy with how the PCs handled the situation, and he promises that he will still try to pull some strings with the guild to keep them off the heroes’ backs, but he suggests they still might want to either leave town or keep a low profile. Afterwards they return to the inn for the night.

Day #8:
• Potts spends the day conducting research in the Great library, but doesn’t turn up much. He realizes he’s in over his head due to the volume of material to go through.

Days #9, 10, and 11:
• Potts hires a researcher to help him with his work at the library, and he is finally able to turn up some information on Kyuss.

• Rofo continues to drink and carouse in the whorehouses of the city.

Day #12:
• The party spends a final day in Greyhawk provisioning for their return journey.

Day #13:
• They set out back to Diamond Lake. Their plan is to return to Diamond Lake and then soon after head for Blackwall Keep to seek out the source of the undead worm spawn.


GMs Notes for Session #11: I enjoyed running this session. There wasn’t any heavy combat, but there was some entertaining rping, and it was fun watching the PCs mucking around town, taking care of business.

They dropped the ball a bit on the encounter with Nameless at the bar. They got a little distracted with their cover story of buying a pair of Grimlocks for Stinky’s fight nights in Diamond Lake and didn’t really do anything to locate the mind flayer. I thought that given they had a ranger in the group and knew about the secret sewer exit from the bar, they might have tried to track Nameless (as they figured he was entering and leaving through the sewer), but they didn’t, so now they have an order of Grimlocks being shipped to Diamond Lake and no real leads on the mind flayer.

Fortunately, the worm-infected lizardman renewed their interest in the Mist Marsh, which is probably for the best…

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