KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

Should be at 7 myself. 3 from earlier, 2 from acid beetle.

We're sitting on four CLW potions currently. Feel free to chug one.

Yar.

Farrukh take a drink of some crisp, refreshing Mountain Dew™ healing elixir.

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

The adventurers exit, one-by-one. They see that Bermintrude and Spiny are both fixated on a small shape in the formerly webbed corridor.

Astraden sees a red-skinned woman climb out. She's followed by a big man in scale armor, a tall bronze-skinned Kethite, a hulking Olman, and a smaller man with a longbow.

Sense Motive (hunch): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Astraden squints at the red-skinned woman. Maybe those bottles hold acid? She seems very far from a cold-blooded torturer, though. And by her alien looks, Astraden is reminded of the old saying, "All that is gold does not glitter."

When she sees the muscled fighter, she is convinced. The golden-haired man reminds her of someone she knew as a child - a good person, though she remembers them being at odds.

Tanith and Astraden are of similar ages, I assume.

Astraden stands up and steps out of the shadows. "Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb your animals. There's a group of very dangerous people out in the hills today, and I had planned to lay low for a few nights here." She sheathes her rapier. "I'm Astraden, by the way."

Astraden is a tall-ish dark-haired woman with well-worn clothes and mail. She has a black and white mask hanging on a cord around her neck.

"Farrukh." he says, giving an awkward little wave.

"You're lucky we got here first, or you might have been dissolved by a swarm of acid dripping, man eating beetles."

A DC 8 Knowledge (religion) check identifies the mask as the symbol of Olidammara, the Chaotic Neutral patron of thieves, bards and pranksters.

"Ah, so that's what happened to the dwarf, eh? You guys must have taken care of the wolves, too. There's no way I could have fought them on my own, so I thank you for that." She nods at the Ketite.

"Is there any way I could, er, stay here, at least until the sun goes down? I don't feel safe with Kullen's thugs running around out there."

"Not my ruin." he shrugs.

Astraden looks over the sarcophagus and cranes her neck to examine the ceiling. "Whose was it? It seems very old."

"We don't know. If you help us explore this place and find out, we'll give you a cut of the treasure. We need all the help we can get. This place is very dangerous," Cuetzpalli says, pointing to the dead dwarf. "If you should try to harm us, you'll find out how dangerous we can be," he continues pleasantly. As he finishes his friendly warning, he pats Spiny on the shoulder who looks at Astraden and hisses, bearing his teeth.

Tanith greets the newcomer with a big grin. "I take it Kullen's the dangerous one you're worried about? The Olman's right. Stick with us, I'll make sure no one lays a finger on you."

"You're adventurers, right? I haven't had much experience in that line of work, but I bet it's better than dealing with Kullen." She approaches, smiling slightly at the Olman and Suel. "If it's so deadly, I can heal anyone who falls, and I'm not too shabby with a blade."

"Could I know your names?"

Robin clears his throat and struts forward confidently, grinning like the Chesire Cat. He bows low before the woman, outstretching his hand.

"Robin O'Haranson, my dear. Adventurer extraordinaire."

She pauses for a moment, evaluating, then grips his hand and shakes it. "It is a pleasure, Robin," she says, inclining her own head.

"What's down the shaft? More lanterns and beetles?"

"Lanterns, no. There WERE more beetles, but we managed to kill those. We were just heading down a flooded corridor when someone spooked our horse." Farrukh says, looking pointedly at Bermintrude.

"I am Cuetzpalli, this is Spiny. We are not adventurers, but we are on this adventure," the Olman says by way of introduction. "I'm sure both your skill sets will come into play here."

Carina addresses the newcomer, pleased to see that at least the newcomer doesn't mean them harm.

"I'm Carina. A pleasure, Astraden." She bows slightly, putting away her explosive vial. Her tail *swishes* from side to side.

She rolls her eyes, but has a small smile on her face when Tanith makes his declaration of protection. Such a gentleman, isn't he?

"Thanks, Cuetzpalli," she says, saying the name slowly to remember better. "Spiny is very fearsome. It almost seemed like he was going to come after me, and it almost seemed worth it to head back to Dia - I mean, back out to where Kullen is."

"The horse is also an excellent guard. Where did you get it?" Astraden asks Farrukh.

"Very nice to meet you, Carina." Astraden bows to her as well. "May I ask, what is in those vials you carry?"

"It came with this guy, part of a package deal. Still not sure where we picked HIM up from." he says, gesturing towards Robin.

Robin blinks. "I resent that, good sir."

He strolls over to Bermintrude. "I never knew you could be such a good guard!"

"So you didn't all know each other before? Just brought together by the chance of treasure?"

I'm ready to head downstairsshaft, but I don't think it'd be in-character for Astraden to suggest it now.

"Tanith. Tanith Creed", the big suel adds. "You could say it was the treasure that brought us together."

"Well..." Carina's tail continues to sway about. "I only really know Robin." She nods at him.

She looks back at the sarcophagus room, sadness in her eyes. "And..." She sighs.

"And poor Erep..."

"'Tanith' rings a bell. You're from Diamond Lake, right? I grew up down on the waterfront."

She pinches her eyebrows. "She did not die well. I'd like to avoid those beetles if at all possible."

"Yup", the big man explains with a nod. "I've been here my whole life. I'm hoping to walk away from this cairn with enough coin to leave."

"She deserved better alright."

Carina nods.

"So, um... may I ask what you're doing here? This place isn't exactly hospitable, you see."

"It's not too bad a town, though I know I've seen better," Astraden says to Tanith. "Of course, it's easier to like a place when you haven't lived there for a while."

"Well, back in the day my family was working for Balabar Smenk, and he sent Kullen around whenever the miners got restless, which was often. Anyway, I - mind you, being a lot smaller than I am now - and some of my friends used to to sneak around behind him and throw rocks at the back of his head. For a big guy like Kullen, it probably didn't register as pain, but we reckoned it was annoying as hell, especially because he could never catch us. We were like horseflies - you know, you hear them buzzing around and you know they are there, but you can't reach them; then when you let your guard down they sting you and before you even notice they're gone. Except, like with horseflies, eventually Kullen got lucky. He cornered Rindi and I and had his toughs whip us bare, then threatened to dump our bodies in the lake if he ever saw us again. We hightailed it, of course - floated off down to Greyhawk and took up whatever work we could find.

"Rindi got pushed off a bridge a few weeks ago, though, so I was here to deliver her family my respects. And we used to hang out up here, so I was coming up to reminisce a bit. But then I saw Kullen, again - he and his thugs have got a body in a wheelbarrow, it looked like - and I don't want to just head right back out, you know?

Bluff: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

...yeah, I'm not even going to bother to roll.
Carina shifts from foot to foot. Her tail stops swaying around.

"This Kullen doesn't sound reasonable to me. Still... we're here to get enough loot together to get out of Diamond Lake the first chance we get."

At this point she remembers the question Astraden asked her before. "Oh, these?" She takes out one of her explosive vials. "They're volatile mixtures of chemicals that I use for the termination of massed insectoid creatures."

She smiles. "They're bombs. I use them to blow up bugs."

"And this--" She produces another bottle, this one containing a translucent grey fluid. "--is a little potion I whipped up to help me throw bombs further."

Astraden nods with that half-smile in response to Carina's joke. "I have heard of alchemy, but never seen it up close. You were the one to destroy those beetles, then?" She studies the bottles. "It's a common response, I'm sure, but the idea of something like that becoming something like a giant fiery explosion is really quite fascinating."

Carina puts the bottle of grey stuff away.

"Yeah, I blew the little beetles up. You'd have to thank the others for taking out the bigger ones." She says, blushing a bit.

Didn't help you save the dwarf, though. You know, you never let me feed on zir life force...Can't imagine why.

She winces briefly.

"I serve the Cudgel and Wierus. I am here to fulfill my destiny."

Speaking of which, Cuetzpalli is going to read that note next time he's alone.

"Bigger? As in this big?" Astraden asks, enclosing a space about the size of a songbird in her hands. "Or like the size of that spidery thing over by the dwarf?"

"Hmm, I knew some folk who went to Wierus' sermons. I find Olidammara's teachings give one a little more breathing room, but as long as you enjoy it," she says.

"I do not enjoy it. But it makes us strong. What are we going to do now? We have two options that I'm seeing. The first would be for someone to brave the brown mold to discover what's in that chamber. Do we have any way of producing magical cold given enough time? Or could you brew something chymically cold, Carina? Our second option is to swim into the flooded chamber and hope there's a way out before we drown. Spiny is an excellent swimmer, I would be willing to let him pull me under the water."

"I'm not afraid of some mold", Tanith boasts. "I'll see what's on the other side."

"I would advise against it. It will knock even someone like you unconscious in seconds."

How exactly does the mold work? Is it you take damage for each round you end on or adjacent to it? If so, Tanith could probably run past it and maybe only take the damage twice. Once on his way in, and once on his way out.

It just says "Living creatures within 5 feet of it [take the damage]" rather than "Living creatures who end their turn on or adjacent to the mold" so my interpretation was always "When you get near it and every round you spend there you take the damage".

Exactly, so once a round. 3d6!? Dang. I didn't realize it was that much. Yeah, that's pretty risky Tanith. Average of 22 nonlethal cold damage with two rounds of exposure.

At Cuetzpalli's question, her eyes light up.

"I could try to brew a little something... it's called liquid ice. It works like alchemist's fire, except it's cold."

Her tail starts *swishing* again. "Still, that kind of stuff is hard to make for me... but I can give it a try if I must. Not sure how long it'll take, though, and I don't know if I have the materials on me."

DC 25 Craft (Alchemy) to make liquid ice.
How long would it take for me to make one dose of Liquid Ice?

Like a week IIRC.

40 gp = 400 sp. You're unlikely to exceed the DC by any significant amount (needing a 17 to succeed), so if you do succeed you make 25*25 = 625 sp in that week. Break that down by day, that's ~89 sp a day, so it takes you 4 days and some change to make one. If you roll well and don't just waste the materials.

So, too long to really be of practical use here.

Yep.

Well then that room's off limits.

"Sounds iffy. I guess I'll swim into the flooded room, but we need to get Spiny down there somehow to help me."

Since he's bipedal, can he climb down the knotted rope? His climb check is +4, taking 10 gets a 14. DC for knotted rope is 5.

We could tie him to the rope and lower him down if nothing else.

He's heavy, but yeah, we have a horse to help. I'll let the DM decide which way works.

We could tie a rope around Tanith (with Farrukh and Cuetzpalli on the other end, to yank him out if he falls) and then have Astraden spam channel while he runs through the brown mold. He can heal himself when he gets to the other side, and take the remaining potions. It'd be much better if we had a half-orc, though.

Also I think KC said the knotted rope doesn't go down all the way, though it seems like Spiny'd be better at climbing rough walls than something specifically designed for grasping hands, anyway.

"The flooded room is down this shaft? Maybe we could knot up a harness for him and lower him down, though I don't think he'd like it much."

“He’ll do what he’s told, he trusts me,” Cuetzpalli replies.

Well then that room's off limits.

"Sounds iffy. I guess I'll swim into the flooded room, but we need to get Spiny down there somehow to help me."

Since he's bipedal, can he climb down the knotted rope? His climb check is +4, taking 10 gets a 14. DC for knotted rope is 5.

It's the amount of digits, not legs, that matters. That being said, he can try to climb down the wall, though you'd have to Push him—it's not something he's accustomed to.

Also, just FYI—you guys are not very far from leveling up, and Action Points don't work like Hero Points. They don't stack level-to-level. If you still have Action Points when you reach level 2, the old ones will just *poof* away.