"I know you planned to relocate anyway, but... will your tribe be safe from her? If Ilthane would poison her own egg just to destroy your future, it's hard to say what she won't do." He looks at the south tunnel. "I wish we could booby-trap her backdoor entrance, but I don't think we have the resources to do serious harm to a dragon, even as a surprise trap."
"We will simply have to hide and see. She may decide targeting us again is not worth the trouble." Hishka grins. "We will soon have over two hundred able-bodied kecualas to defend us, after all. Perhaps we will get lucky and she will not have the patience."
Carina watches as the lizardfolk begin carrying away the empty husk of the tainted dragon egg.
She moves to examine the green paste the worms were reduced to... if they weren't undead, then what in the Nine Hells were they?
Tanith stands by Carina while she studies the goop.
”What do you make of it Red? It just looks like charred worm paste to me.”
Carina has no idea what these creatures are, though they definitely aren't completely natural.
Carina shrugs. "No idea, aside from them not being completely natural." She gets up and makes to leave the egg chamber.
"Come on, let's get the mage lady and the soldiers. We need to get them back to Blackwall Keep." She says, obviously intent on leaving the place as soon as possible.
"Oh, that reminds me, Carina. You might be able to make a paste to damage other worms using the ashes of these ones."
Carina arches an eyebrow. "Really?" She stoops to gather up some worm paste in vials from her alchemy kit. "Hmm..."
Kyuss Worm Paste
This cup-sized container of badsmelling greenish-brown paste renders a creature immune to the green worms of a spawn of Kyuss. Any worm from a spawn (or similar worm attacks, such as slow worms) dies instantly if it touches a creature protected by the paste. Applying the paste is a full-round action and lasts 1 hour. Each cup of paste can protect one creature.
Faint abjuration; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, neutralize poison; Price 750 gp.
Kyussbane Oil
This rank oily substance gives a weapon the undead-bane property for 1 hour. Any spawn of Kyuss or similar creature associated with the worms struck by the affected weapon takes +1d6 damage in addition to the +2d6 from the bane property.
Faint transmutation; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, summon monster I; Price 750 gp
"You can make stuff out of... that? Like... alchemically? For the record, I am not ever ingesting or drinking anything made from burned worm puree."
"Oh, so you won't be drinking any of my extracts, then?" Carina quips in a transparent attempt to calm herself down.
It doesn't appear to be too successful.
It turns out that the pile of gear found in Shukak's lair, as well as Shukak's ring, belonged to Marzena. However, the sickly mage, healed to consciousness by Hishka, asks the adventurers to keep them. "Finders-keepers is fair game in adventuring circles," the aging sorceress says. "It was all expendable, anyways. My real stuff's back home. Consider it a reward for my 'daring rescue'."
Sadly, the lizardfolk already ate her owl familiar, a fact that doesn't seem to particularly surprise her.
Though she's still too weak to walk, Marzena assents to be carried by the three soldiers. She seems to be good friends with all of them, and she's especially anxious to get back to the fort and see who survived the siege.
"If it's okay with you guys, I'll wait outside the bramble with Spiny. This place gives me the creeps," Cuetzpalli says. "You can come join us once you've secured the prisoners." He then retraces their steps to get out of the overgrown lizard nest.
As Cuetzpalli hurries out, he notices Hishka explaining something to the other lizardfolk. Judging by their horrified shouts and Hishka's gesturing, they're explaining the situation in the Egg Chamber.
They eye Cuetzpalli and his beast with considerable respect. Indeed, all seven of the heroes (except possibly Spiny) notice that they're being eyed much more favorably than before as they leave.
Carina walks in silence, bowing her head out of respect as she leaves the tribe's lair.
At least there was no sign of Mom here... she'll be fine. I'm sure of it.
Astraden eyes Carina, misinterpreting her bowed head. "Hey Marzena, you wouldn't have seen a mendicant Fharlaghn priestess heading into the swamp, wouldya?"
"Are you talking about Alyssa?" Marzena frowns. "We know each other. Been helping me in my studies on the worms. Last I heard, she'd secured a lizardman guide. She was on the trail of something called a 'Krentqeth', or something like that. Was about to explain what that meant when the Keep got attacked."
The journey back to the Keep is long and tiring. Camp is uneventful—the group is now a bit too large to make an attractive target for all but the most deadly of predators—and the next morning they arrive at the Keep.
At the high balcony of the tower, several soldiers wave at the approaching group. As the heroes draw closer, they see that some of the soldiers are new. Merris Sandovar and several guardsmen come out to greet the party.
"Captain sends his regards," he says. "He regrets that he couldn't be here in person, but there's been some...commotion back home. Some of the local color making a scene."
"What's wrong? You're not telling us everything."
Carina perks up at the mention of her mother.
Once the party arrives at the keep, Carina listens to the scout's report.
She has no idea if anything's wrong, but judging from Farrukh's questions, something is indeed amiss. She keeps quiet, hoping to learn what's wrong.
Eben nods at Merris. "Good that reinforcements got here; fortunately, things are settled with the lizardfolk. Turns out they were being manipulated by a dragon who was trying to annihilate both sides. We sorted things out, convinced them of the folly of war. We have to head back to the Free City at some point and see if we can't hammer out a formal treaty. Did Allustan return here with you? I know he'd wanted to speak with Marzena originally."
Astraden's hand goes to her hood, but she doesn't complete the motion. She stares up for a few seconds. Then, "Hey Sis!" and a wave.
Merris grimaces. "The wizard couldn't return. His brother's in a fair bit of bother right now."
"What's wrong? You're not telling us everything."
"...we'd best get inside."
Up on the balcony, one of the guards—a woman who looks remarkably similar to an older Astraden—freezes in place. She stares at Astraden, unbelieving.
As Merris leads the party inside, the guards within see the returning hostages and give shouts of relief. They hurry up to relieve their tired brethren of Marzena.
They and Merris head for the second floor, gesturing for the heroes to follow. Upstairs, the heroes see several sick-looking soldiers lying in cots. One of them has had most of his left arm severed.
Merris starts to explain. "See, round two years ago, sounds like the lizardfolk had some manner of bother with the eggs. Softshell, or somethin'. One of the tribes—can't recall the name—happened to be on somewhat good terms with the City, so this lot's previous battlemage went out on an 'off-the-book' trip—alone—to see how they were doing."
Marzena raises an eyebrow, curious, as the Blackwall soldiers hang their heads in shame.
"Well, he found out." Merris spits on his bronze symbol of Obad-Hai, polishing it with his sleeve. "But nobody knows what he learned, 'cause he came back...different. And instead of killing him, this bunch decides to lock him in the basement and hope they can find some way to save him later.
"Mage gets replaced, soldiers stay, lizardfolk start their scheming, and the creature remains in the cellar." His eyes narrow. "Until two days ago."
As Merris explains things, Carina finds herself readying her new pistol and setting it in her belt. Her armour feels uncomfortably heavy--though whether it's from the swamp water or her own lack of strength is unclear. She does hear Astraden call out to her sister, but she's too busy with arranging her gear to notice where the aforementioned sister is.
"What... what sort of creature are we talking about here?" Carina asks, her heart sinking.
"When the mage came back, he was still himself," Merris says. "But his mind was going, and he kept talking about something 'inside him'. From what I've seen, I'm guessing this has something to do with the worm you all showed the captain."
He sighs, rubbing his forehead. "Look, I know you all've had some dealings with this kind of thing. That's why I convinced everyone to wait 'til you got back. Nogwier's talked about worms...well, here they are. The monster's infested with the things. And they like to make new friends, they do.
"Somehow, the door got damaged during the attack. It's been breaking out and claiming my men one-by-one. Now, I've got forty men here, and another ten out patrolling. I could take everyone in and try an' wipe the bastards out. Maybe that's what a hero would do. But I'm thinking these things want nothing more. And if they managed to win...Shalm renew us."
Tanith follows the others inside the keep curious about what new dangers the soldiers had managed to find themselves involved in the day they'd been away. At the mention of a worm-infested monster, the big Kordite shares a glance with Carina - more worms. Tanith grips his poleaxe and gives Merris a nod.
"No, keep your men back, they've been through enough. Do you know where these things are lairing? How many are down there?"
"The basement." Merris points down. "At the start, there was just one, but it's been coming out and grabbing another man each time. I came back to find ten scared soldiers a tick away from desertion. It claimed one of my men since then. There's four down there."
His brow furrows. "We've tried barricading the door, but they're damn strong. They break out whenever they like. The barricade's just to give us a heads-up at this point. We tried going for attrition, but they seem to heal from whatever we throw at them."
"Give my friends and I a few minutes to prepare and we'll head down there", Tanith explains.
"Marzena, I've heard of a basic defensive spell common among mages. Could you cast it on me? I think I've outgrown this ratty old suit of armor", the big Kordite explains with a gesture toward his much maligned scalemail.
Carina shares Tanith's nod. "I've got some extracts prepared to shield us from whatever the worm monsters can throw at us."
She draws her pistol and admires it. "And I think it's time I saw what this can do..."
A bit stronger, Marzena allows Tanith to reach down so she can grasp his arm. A series of shimmering, rune-covered plates spread from her hand, encasing his form like a suit of full plate.
"Better?"
Tanith flexes and tests his range of motion. The spell protected him without inhibiting his movement or pitching his hairy chest. It was a double win!
The big man nods. "Yeah, thanks."
While Tanith busies himself with getting buffed, Carina mixes together one last extract of shield, filling all of her basic extract vials.
Once she's done, she goes around to Tanith, Farrukh and Cuetzpalli. "Here." She presses a vial of dark green fluid into each of their hands. "Shield extracts for dealing with whatever's in the basement."
She hands her last shield vial off to Cuetzpalli. "Could you feed this to Spiny?"
"Thanks Red", Tanith replies once he's handed the extract.
He ponders the pseudo-magical fluid a moment before remembering the worm goop she'd salvaged.
"Were you able to cook up anything useful up with the stuff you scraped up in the caves?"
Astraden makes the rounds, shielding everyone from immediate detection by undead, protecting Carina from attacks, enlarging Spiny's muscles, calling Olidammara's boundless audacity to the group, and making herself more radical.
Once the group is ready to move, Tanith prays for Kord's strength and his guidance in the battle to come.
"Not right now... I'll need to look into it later."
