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The party parts from their host and his host, voyaging north from Aragnak's Island, now renamed Nest Island. As Aragnak now claims all islands, the old name no longer made much sense.
They, perhaps getting a bit soft and not fancying the depths of the Forest of Hope, take the hobgoblins' boat, Kolvio and the Red Dragon having departed to ply their smuggler's trade. The Foothills of the Dungeon of Graves are only a day's sailing away, so you spend your All Souls on the restless sea. A drizzling rain falls and a cold wind warns of the impending winter's chill.
The moon's obsessive grip pulls even the mighty ocean closer to the shore, and the famous tides of Rivenrake allow the Draconic Navy to drop you off close to the shore, the shallow-keeled shore-patrol vessel scudding over the reefs without incident as the light rises on the second day of Novampire. The light, not the sun: the misting rain continues to fall.
The captain offers to send a party of Draconic Marines with you: six hobgoblins armed with glaives and longbows. They could prove invaluable, or they might be a liability.
A short jaunt through the foothills and you'll be there:
You peer down into the sunken graveyard, scanning for movement:
All seems quiet. You note that the gargoyle statues you defeated once before have been repaired and loom over the mausoleum. Following Tragershen's plan, you give them a wide berth and enter the rotten old crypt and its narrow tunnel into the depths.
You wonder how long your preternatural luck will hold... the place is quiet as a tomb. A normal tomb.
Lolly and Bedlam auto-assist for +4
No traps, but a sturdy lock bars your progress.
The fell Dragonmother and her evil co-conspirator make quick work of the lock that would bar their assault on the demons that would dare to challenge the authority of the Red!
The party descends the staircase to a short tunnel.
From Da Book:
The tunnel opens into a huge cavern, with dozens of rat tunnels along
the walls and ceiling. The roof of the cave is too high to see, and bats
swarm about in torchlight. The way is rocky, and the PCs hear running
water in the cave, somewhere out in the distance. In glowing green letters
above the tunnel exit is inscribed, “Beware of Purple Worms! Spiegel the
Arch Mage"
Do you proceed?
Tragershen: Will get you there! Might be some stuff to attack you along the way.
When they approach Rappan Athuk, Tragershen will cast mage armor on himself.
When they go down the dirt hole to get back into the delve, Trag will pull out his ioun torch and set it orbiting himself so that he can have both hands free when climbing down. When they reach the mushroom cave, he’ll get his staff back out.
Bedlam is seen writing something down in his journal. He mutters as he writes,
The Authority of The Red began dere 'pproach ta da Dungeon ov Graves! Da Parrot done did find un fine pic fer us ta see! Now, wees be s'ploring frum da Cave ov S'rooms!
Bedlam then puts away the journal; and the Alchemist begins drinking!
Vermin Repellent
Antiplague
Antitoxin
Alchemical grease
Deodorizing Agent
Scent cloak
Focus chew
Garlic tablets
The Dwarf then allow up to 2 folks an Alchemical Allocation moment?
Bedlam straightens his Burning Blood Red Breastplate. His midnight black claws glints in his bright burning blue eyes. The Dwarf-draconic Hulk grins at his party.
We be back ta da Dungeon! Time fer sum guud ol' non-ethically done s'ploring ta be doing!
The Alchemist stretches his draconic wings a bit, before pulling then in to walk toward the warning entrance.
The party searches its memories and remembers:
Purple worms are gargantuan monsters that can swim through earth and stone. They are capable of swallowing a humanoid whole, and to make matters worse, they have poisonous stings.
Spiegel was a mage interested in magic architecture (an ArchMage judging by the sign he wrote). He disappeared in Rappan Ahthuk in times of legend. Some say that he was enslaved by Orcus or the drow and used to construct the walls of the legendary city of Ques Querax on the marches of the Underdark.
"Give me a few minutes and I will try to 'scout' ahead."
Tragershen casts two spells in succession. Then he sits cross-legged and begins casting a much longer spell. When that third spell is complete, he gestures towards the room, holding his hand aloft. His fingers push this way and that, seeming to manipulate something unseen.
Edit: The spell lasts eight minutes and travels 30' a round (300' a minute). If he has duration, he'll also send it down a promising looking exit.
Bedlam begins doing exercises. The Alchemist starts his second set when Trag does some wizard stuff.
Be un guud idea.
The dwarf instead studies the entrance more while they wait.
Anzath becomes interested at the mention of Drow, and she seems impressed by Bedlam's transformations.
She warns her comrades of the dangers of purple vormz, "Stay off ground if you kan."
Tragershen's Eye roves around the cavern. There's a raging underground river dividing you from the larger section, but the eye passes over it without issue. Sticking to the main cave, he circumnavigates it before the spell runs out. The circumference of the irregular cave ranges between 100 and 150 feet at different points.
He counts twelve exits, plus the two holes where the river enters.
As he sweeps across the cave, he notices huge piles of Purple Worm poop. Around the edges, dire rats nibble impressive fungi.
There's a towering, cliff-sided hill in the center of the cavern. Trag gives it a look, but he doesn't notice anything worth mentioning.
Before is spell expires, he peers into various side tunnels, managing to scout two before the end of the magic:
He follows a few winding passages, but finds nothing but rats down the first. He hurls the eye downriver, following the ferocious torrent at full speed. As the spell ends, he catches a glimpse across the river a distance downstream.
Bedlam approves of the archway--doorway. It looks well-built and solid. Big enough for a horse, too small for a Purple Worm, perfect for the job.
Tragershen narrates what he sees as the spell runs its course. At the end, he sketches a map for them to examine as they figure out their course of action.
"Unless there is regular traffic through here, I imagine the purple worms have to roam for enough food to sustain them. There may not be any here at the moment. I have prepared a spell that could levitate one of us, but that is all I have prepared at the moment. Perhaps we just go, ready for trouble?"
Bedlam stands straight at the mentioning of the purple worms have to roam for enough food to sustain them . The Alchemist digs into his haversack; procuring a few smokesticks. He then waves at those after he drinks an Invisibility Extract.
Me gonna block dem holes while you folks cross. See ye on da otter side!
The Invisible flying dwarf then flies to the biggest openings and tosses a Smokestick down it. He then repeats this until Parrot tries to eat him!
Vermin Repellent
Antiplague
Antitoxin
Alchemical grease
Deodorizing Agent
Scent cloak
Anzath has heard about Ques Querax, Gateway to the Deeps, from her drow captors long ago. But she can't remember much about it except that it is down, down, down... waaay down.
Bedlam starts tossing smokesticks into side passages and wormholes. Most of them sputter and smoulder in place. Some drive the occasional rat from its burrow and into the sand. Bedlam notes that one of the entrances has air currents that pull the smoke deeper into the darkness.
The rats scamper away from the smoke and scrabble at the cavern walls, seeming terrified to remain on the sand for more than a second or two.
All this is across the underground river except for one hole to the party's left/to the east.
She warns her comrades of the dangers of purple vormz, "Stay off ground if you kan."
Terapin, who has been riding on the back of his flying turtle anyway, unconsciously raises his feet away from the turtle's sides like an infant avoiding grass. He's going to summon an Unseen Servant to wait by the door and clomp heavily (or as heavily as it can, which is not very) along the opposite side of the cavern whenever his companions are ready to cross. When he was growing up, he used to play The Floor Is Lava in other people's houses all the time, and as a gnome, he feels a natural kinship for burrowing animals, but he somehow thinks the purple worms might not feel the same way.
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The ceiling of the cave is high and um cavernous, probably between 50-100 feet. It looks more or less how you'd expect an old cave to look. No obvious monsters, no poorly hidden traps, certainly no suggestion that you're actually in an enormous mouth already...
...I kid, but that last bit is actually a pretty good idea, isn't it?
Tam edges closer to Lolly, bow in hand, eyes scanning the pitch-dark cave. She says quietly, "I'm strong enough to climb around the edge with Anzath. Are you coming?"
Lolly nods at Tam and the rest. The party takes to the air and the cavern walls, sending the Unseen Servant thumper to the west.
For the first half-hour, nothing much happens. The party picks its way along the walls and whooshes through the air. The flyers land at the smoky mouths of the tunnels to the east.
Bedlam will fly across, carrying the Cleric; then go back for the barbarian.
The party rendezvouses at the east tunnels. The first gets narrow and constricted very quickly. By the stench, you're in rat tunnels again. Poking your head in the next tunnel tells the same story. While you can stand in the mouth and see down it a ways, it gets narrow and tiny very soon.
Do you continue down the tunnels, or do you find a way to cross the river?
"I think we'll need to cross the river."
Bedlam's Taxi and Ferry Service has begun humbly in the Dungeon of Graves. The founder of Bedlam's Taxi and Ferry Service was none other than a simple Alchemist who was in the wrong place at the right time...
Bedlam begrudgingly (as a good dwarf is expected to be) ferries both clerics across the roaring river that runs ravenously through the Dungeon of Graves!
Be keep'n yer eyes open just un case sum big fish comes flying ay yee!
Terapin floats up to adopt a position above the river, approximately halfway between the ceiling and the floor, and peers over the rim of his turtle's shell, readying summons to send down assistance should anything happen to his friends during the crossing. He'll also pull out his fishing pole, just in case.
Bedlam and the rest work together to get safely across the river while the thumper thumps and Terapin fishes. Bedlam, working quickly, is rewarded by the warm and fuzzy feeling of seeing the party gathered on the far bank of an underground river in a worm zone.
Terapin's thumper stays parallel with the group, but always against the opposite wall (or as close to the opposite wall as 100ish feet can get him).
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Anzath checks the ground for signs of recent worm activity.
Anzath takes a piercing look around. She sees many signs of recent worm activity, some obvious, some more subtle. In the center of the cave, she sees almost-obscured signs of a struggle between a purple worm and some unknown opponent.
The thumper thumps away on the sand in the distance. The party remains on the far shore of the underground river. Where next?
Bedlam starts walking to the tunnel that Trag seems to be looking at.
"Lookz like vormz have eaten recently... Ve may have more time."
The party starts poking around the tunnels of the south.
Anzath's tunnel quickly peters out, but Tragershen's tunnel is bigger, more open, and... it ends with a stone door carved with a grimacing face of Orcus.
There aren't any visible traps.
Bedlam stares at the door long and hard. The dwarf then shakes his head.
Be un trap 'ere! Just be know'n dat dis stupid face be hav'n un trap!
The stubborn dwarf continues to look real hard at the door.
Bedlam then shakes his head again.
Nope, just be me paranoia agin.
He opens it.....