KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

"...you mean a gun?"

"Long story short, tiny bomb in the chamber, pull the trigger and it shoots a bullet at people."

Clunk is fine by me. Someone give him a call.

I'm not clear on strong defensive options to deal with gunslingers. Fickle Winds is probably a good place to start.

Clunk is fine by me. Someone give him a call.

I'm not clear on strong defensive options to deal with gunslingers. Fickle Winds is probably a good place to start.

Bullet Shield gives you a +7 Deflection vs bullets, and Bullet Ward gives a +10 Untyped with an Immediate action up to 4 times. Both are 2nd level spells.

Do we have a way to contact Klunk? I forget.

Klunk is hanging out in the All-Seeing Eye a fair bit. We can probably ask Celeste and Eligos if they've seen them, too.

"Oh, I thought it was like a little elf that bowls the ball down the tube, which gets smaller and smaller so the ball gets faster and faster. Huh!"

Klunk is hanging out in the All-Seeing Eye a fair bit. We can probably ask Celeste and Eligos if they've seen them, too.

"Oh, I thought it was like a little elf that bowls the ball down the tube, which gets smaller and smaller so the ball gets faster and faster. Huh!"

Eben nods sagely. "Obviously that's the more logical way for it to work, so I'm just going to assume it's true in spite of what Carina says. I mean, 'combustion'? Pff. what's that?"

Are we ready to say goodnight here btw? Astraden is.

"I always assumed combustion was when food turns rotten after you put it in your combust heap. And then the rats come, and you have to fight them, and then you put their bodies on the heap, but then more rats come to eat the dead rats . . ." Astraden gets a weary look. She gets up to fetch more coffee.

Sure.

"Well, we've got a lot to think about. We should probably get some rest if we're going to go parley with a killer super-storm and fight some guy with the hand of a demigod or whatever tomorrow."

Astraden is left standing holding the coffee as everyone files out of the room.

That's what happens when your IC actions are at odds with your OOC questions. =p

Eben looks puzzled. "Wouldn't the solution to that problem be to just eat the rats yourself? That way the compost heap wouldn't just keep growing, and be a kind of natural food source." As everyone starts gathering their things (except Astraden, who apparently has taken her mooching ways to new heights by deciding she's going to stay around Lashonna's mansion and have as much coffee and cakes as she can stomach), Eben asks one final question of his own at Lashonna. "So, this isn't directly Bucknard, Kyuss, or Dragotha related, but who knows. What do you know about Mahuudril? I have this niggling suspicion there's something really wrong about her, based on little things like resurrecting two of our dead enemies to make into her personal servants and, also, the smell. And since my girlfriend is working for her, I'm kind of concerned. Any chance in your opinion that she's a secret Kyuss devotee biding her time?"

Astraden laughs, spilling coffee. "You can't eat rats, Eben. That's hilarious. Didn't you learn the poison song? 'Don't eat foxglove, don't eat street doves/Don't eat hemlock, it's not a semla/Don't eat rats, bats and or cats/Don't eat nightshade groundapples, try a regular apple!'" she sings, voice rough but tone-true.

"What? A guy back in Greyhawk was always selling rat-on-a-stick. It wasn't half bad. Oh, man, I hope he wasn't swindling us the whole time and actually selling steak-on-a-stick!"

"Rats are delicious," Cuetzpalli adds.

Lashonna watches in silent contemplation as the heroes discuss the fine details of their mission.

Eben asks one final question of his own at Lashonna. "So, this isn't directly Bucknard, Kyuss, or Dragotha related, but who knows. What do you know about Mahuudril? I have this niggling suspicion there's something really wrong about her, based on little things like resurrecting two of our dead enemies to make into her personal servants and, also, the smell. And since my girlfriend is working for her, I'm kind of concerned. Any chance in your opinion that she's a secret Kyuss devotee biding her time?"

Lashonna bites her lip as the name Mahuudril is spoken. "That... woman gives me pause. Mint is traditionally used to cover up worse scents, and her sweet manner, I think, likewise conceals something foul and rotten. From what I've been able to gather on her, she hails from the southern reaches originally. Olman lands, definitely. But she's been all over—and for a woman of such wealth, range and influence, the thing that disturbs me most about her is how little I can learn about her. I have never met anyone who can name a single specific thing wrong with her, but she has another face, I'm certain of it. I don't know whose side she is on. The Prince despises her."

She hesitates, fidgeting with a stray lock of silver-blonde hair. "I'd tell your paramour to get away from her immediately, but I'm honestly uncertain which is more dangerous: Leaving her near a woman like Mahuudril, or trying to extract her. The inside of a pitcher plant is sweet and easy to enter, but its spines impale any who try to leave."

"Okay, so sounds like we know how to get there and what we need to have ready before we get there, so... when? Shadow walking will take most of a day in itself, if I've got the idea right. So, then we have to figure in whatever last minute shopping we need to do, like for scrolls or whatever. And also negotiate with whoever we are going to use to talk to the hurricane for us.... could we get all that done tomorrow and then head out a day from now, do you think? If they're already on the island, we probably should hurry."

They appeared to be on a ship when you scried.

She's still tuned into the conversation, but also pulls Grayscale out of the backpack, and begins talking to it, though telepathically - by all appearances she's just holding the wand and admiring its petrified needly fishy beauty.

~So, do you want to go back to the Maker? Or would you like a cool rich lady with a fancy pond to take care of you?~

Grayscale twitches and vibrates in Astraden's hand. ~ I don't like it here, Mary. Don't like vaults and boxes either. Can I stay with you for now? ~

Sure.

"Well, we've got a lot to think about. We should probably get some rest if we're going to go parley with a killer super-storm and fight some guy with the hand of a demigod or whatever tomorrow."

Lashonna smiles and rises to her feet, reaching out to shake the hands of the partymembers—and subtly hinting for Astraden to stop refilling the mug. "Indeed. If I were of a religious bent, I would pray for your good fortune, but as-is... good luck. I will keep an eye on the city, and for what it's worth, I will consider those you leave behind to be under my protection in your absence. I still have quite a few resources in this city, and no mischief takes place without my knowing of it."

After saying their farewells, the party departs the manor and gets back in the carriage, where they are silently ferried back to the inn.

14th of Harvester (September), Year 595 — Day 166 of the campaign.

Weather: 1d100 ⇒ 47

It's a foggy, somewhat chilly autumn morning as the party prepares for their journey to the Library of Last Resort.

Alright, so what's the agenda?

As I understand it: 1.) Talk to Klunk, 1B.) Talk to Korrush if he can't help us, 2.) Buy the supplies we talked about (scrolls etc.) 3.) Potentially sell/give the wands to someone trustworthy like Tenser maybe? 4.) Recover spell slots one last time if we need to 5.) Depart via Shadow Walk.

And is the plan for Clunk/Korush (I think it's funny that you guys are making Clunk's name kooler when you're the ones who named this guy to begin with) to replace Zalamandra? Gark seems open to it, so I'll leave it up to the party.

That seemed to be Gark's preferred option to keep the load light on both you and him, so I'm down for it.

Midnight Meeting:

Astraden bows, spilling yet more coffee and apologizing profusely. "I'm sorry. Thank you so much. Truly ashamed. We really appreciate your help. Mortified." She sets the cup down on a nearby chair and gives Lashonna a firm handshake. "Oh, can you look after that one Old Faith half-gnoll with the shop? You know the one." She winks.

Foggy Morning:

Yeah, we just need a good excuse for Zalamandra to excuse herself. I've got an idea, though:

In the morning, rolling out of a bed long-since departed by Cuetzpalli for his morning exercises, Astraden dresses in the new grey tunic and brocaded breeches designed after her party dress, and comes down to the common area to have breakfast with the party. "So, I know we were talking about giving these guys to Manzorian -" she pulls Grayscale out of her pocket "- but Grayscale doesn't actually want to go sit in a vault. And it doesn't want to stay with Lashonna either. It said it wants to come with us, but that's just putting it and Nihil in unnecessary danger, when they're barely even useful to us. Can we at least try to find Drawmij?" She looks towards Zalamandra, thinking.

I will point out that a magic item that can cast haste on everyone without taking up an action from Eben probably has at least a little use to this party. :P

"... Drawmij, the archmage, who vanished twenty years ago so completely that the combined powers and resources of the entire Circle of Eight remain entirely and utterly perplexed?" Zalamandra's lips tighten. "Astraden, darling. I am quite flattered that you think I can succeed where they failed, but even if I could, I can't imagine a more dangerous mission to go on."

The sorceress clasps her backwards-facing hands together. "Besides, ah, I'd thought I would have time to bring it up to you earlier, but... I think I might have to take a small break from running errands for Spiny's Six. If that suits you all."

True, though it's a shorter duration haste, and PETS ME, the Society for the Protection and Ethical Treatment of Sentient Magical Equipment (Astraden, Forzamele, and Tanith, charter members) might scream bloody murder every time it got used.

"Oh, is that what happened to him? Surely the Circle has some idea. But yeah, if you've got something more important to do, don't feel that it has to suit us. Is it anything we can help with, though?"

Oh, I missed that the wand could activate itself. That's pretty good.

"I'm going back to Diamond Lake to see what I can do to help. I'd say that for now, my talents will be of better use there, since Eben is taking up the mantle of coachman for this next outing." She offers her hand to shake. "Give me a sending if I'm needed, though, and I'll be there."

Astraden sets Grayscale on the table and reaches out her hand to clasp Zalamandra's. "Okay, good luck. If you don't hear back from us in a couple days, can you give us a scry?"

She looks at the rest of the group. "I guess we just hold onto the wands for now. Now, the other stuff - should we just send to Clunk, or try to meet them in person?"

"Shouldn't be too hard to at least try to talk to him in person first. If he's not there, sure we can Send him instead."

"So long for now, boss," Eben bids farewell to Zalamandra. "Though, I don't know, you keep getting back in the action with us, so I expect it won't be too long til you get bored and wanna punch a wormgod in the nose..."

He turns to the rest of the group. "Um. So... um, does that mean I'm running a shadow caravan to Magepoint this morning, then?"

Astraden nods. "Yeah, I mean, I have a spell too, but I think we'd all rather get our minds f!%%ed up by creepy Shadow Plane s~~! as much as possible. We head out in like an hour? I gotta ask for some spells in case something jumps us while we're in there."

"Sounds good to me. We need to get to the island as soon as possible, and we have to go there first."

So that's a solid plan for 1 and 3, leaving:

1.) Talk to Klunk, 1B.) Talk to Korrush if he can't help us, 2.) Buy the supplies we talked about (scrolls etc.) 3.) Potentially sell/give the wands to someone trustworthy like Tenser maybe? 4.) Recover spell slots one last time if we need to 5.) Depart via Shadow Walk.

I think we need a loot payout to get #2 done. Is there any way the rest of us can help with that, Feral/KC?

In case we need to figure out who's holding the wands in a combat or whatever, it doesn't seem like Grayscale needs a proficient user - does Tanith want to carry it with the rest of the loot? And should we give Nihil to Carina, or Cuetzpalli? They're the only ones who can potentially use it in a crisis, apart from Eben who already has an intelligent magic item to corrupt his psyche.

PS this is still the same preparation as last night, so I should have marked off a slot for dispel magic.

Sorry, I didn't notice there was additional updates to be made to the payout. Unless I missed something, this post is the final payout.

Tanith can carry Greyscale around. They'll have loads of fun together!

As for consumables:

I'm starting student teaching tomorrow, so expect some infrequency in the coming week's post! A lot going on, so the game might be a casualty for the time being. I'll try to get a response post up when explicit requests or questions are presented for me, but I'll need people to be patient with me if I don't notice things.

Oh, I totally missed that Tanith. Thanks for the link!

After breakfast, Astraden downs the Vial of Souls.

Eben, seeming to realize for the first time that there's a big difference between shadow walking down the hall to the bathroom (and still winding up in the wrong place) and shadow walking between cities or other large distances, and that the groups' teleporter just took a powder and can't bail him out if he screws up, looks noticeably nervous during last minute preparations. "Ah... well, at least Magepoint is closer and doesn't put us out in the middle of the Nyr Dyv if things go wrong..." he says, forcing a grin. Alright, everyone gather round, join hands in a circle, I think. I haven't taken anyone with me before... and get ready for a possibly weird trip..." He clears his throat, and then intones, "Bhithinn a ’coiseachd còig ceud mìle, agus bhithinn a’ coiseachd còig ceud a bharrachd, dìreach airson a bhith nam fhear a choisicheas mìle mìle airson tuiteam sìos aig do dhoras!"

Astraden takes the proffered hands blankly, eyes moving rapidly under her eyelids.

Cuetzpalli takes the others' hands. He picks up on Eben's nervousness, and begins to shift from foot to foot himself. Hope this works right...

"Come on guys, how bad could it be?" Farrukh jinxes the party after looking around at their faces, then grabs the two nearest hands.

The two nearest hands near him are swallowed up in Tanith's big paws. "There's nothing to worry about guys. Eben's done this before."

Somewhere downstairs, a horse that found itself unexpectedly sharing a stall with a urinating human just a few nights ago whinnies its opinion on the topic.

Casting shadow walk, destination: Magepoint, outside the All-Seeing Eye.

So, hey, also, fun fact: I'd been assuming this was a shorter trip than the ultimate 'lost library island' one, but as it turns out, my sense of Oerth spacial awareness was badly off and Magepoint is basically on the opposite side of the Nyr Dyv from Alhaster. That puts it about 550 miles away, which is still within my range, but does make it a longer trek than the short trip to pick up an inevitable I'd assumed it would be.

Oh, and for convenience, the distance from the target we wind up is: shadow walk: 1d10 ⇒ 9...900 feet off course.

So basically instead of the city gate, we wind up about a quarter mile out. Not too bad.

So basically instead of the city gate, we wind up about a quarter mile out. Not too bad.

Or a quarter mile in, lodged in the walls of a building or some other solid structure, which would then shunt us up to another couple miles off course. Stop looking on the bright side!

Thank goodness it's Friday. I'll follow up tomorrow!

So, how does shadow walk work with elevation? If you aim for Magepint at 15 ft above lake level, and get shunted 900 ft inland to where ground level is 30 ft above lake level, do you then have to bite the additional 2 miles or do you wind up on the ground surface? If we're dropped out in the lake, is it at water level or at the ground level underwater? Important questions

As Eben works his new transportation spell, he reaches out between the multiverse—and catches his shadow.

The party's surroundings flicker and drop into colorless noir, and a brief spell of nausea overtakes those unused to planar travel. The world around them seems to almost flow as if made of endless rippling ink, or as if it's all being cast down as shadows on an ocean floor.

With Eben as their anchor, the members of Spiny's Six set out for Magepoint, lurching from dark place to dark place with startling speed. The scenery of Alhaster, even gloomier than usual, flickers by in mere minutes, giving way to jet-black waters that do not seem to move, a sky choked in clouds. Eben leads his colleagues onward across the Nyr Dyv.

After what feels like a whole day's journey, still the bottomless sea stretches on, and the adventurers begin to notice something strange. Echoing from the depths, they can hear a curious lowing sound. The sound is alien, resonant, almost singsong. Almost like whalesong. But... not. There is a disturbing quality to the song. And though it sounds distant, it also sends tremors through the bones of the Shadow Plane travelers as if the ground itself shakes with the unnatural roar.

The waters below begin to ripple and swell, and somehow seem to grow darker still—such that the party almost doesn't seem to be running across dark waters at all, but an endless expanse of void. The moaning wail grows louder and louder, and as fast as Eben races across the black, the water's swell seems to move faster still.

Faster. And faster. Louder. Louder. The party cannot escape the sound, which seems to drown out all thought, all rationality, all other words, and it is getting louder—

But then land comes into view, creeping down the horizon. As it does, the song drops away. The shadows lighten, and a sense of creeping dread eases away again, leaving the hearts lighter.

Whatever was pursuing the party, it appears to have lost interest. And perhaps this is just what it feels like when one spends too long on the Plane of Shadow without a break.

Eben ends the spell, and 6d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5) = 27 Cuetzpalli and Astraden find themselves sitting in the back of the fishing boat of a very surprised-looking pair of elderly fishergnomes.

Everyone else plunges into the frigid waters of the Nyr Dyv, having materialized just outside of the boat's area.

After explanations and apologies are made, and the gnome couple finishes collecting the day's catch, they are quite happy to ferry the adventurers back to shore. From there, Spiny's Six makes its way to the All-Seeing Eye, where they find Clunk engaged in what appears to be a spirited debate with a rather funny-looking creature—almost like a beholder, but much, much smaller, a cyclopean being that clicks and whirs with every motion and seems quite irritated with Clunk.

Unless the party makes an effort to quietly eavesdrop, they immediately clam up when they notice Spiny's Six's arrival. Clunk bows—the kolyarut is in his natural mechanical form, somewhat unusually. "This unit is... aware of your presence, and your presence is not an obstacle to it."

"CLUNK," whirs the spherical creature, its voice harsh and grating like sandpaper on a chalkboard, "your displays of overt affection are not appropriate conduct. Please undertake to regulate yourself."

Weird Creature.

"wshat's everyone so mad about? It's not like it was a lake of lava or anything like that!" Eben says defensively as the group sops their way into the All-Seeing Eye. "And, sure, it was a long, all-day trip, but hey, conveniently enough, we're at an inn!" He wrings out his cloak on the floor, letting a last trickle of water pour forth. "And, look, there's Clunk! Exactly who we came to find! Hi, Clunk. Who's your friend?" Eben tilts his head to one side as Forzamele decides to enlighten him on this new individual before Clunk can, just to show off.

Forzamele: Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

Outside

"I think a Great Old One tickled my taint, man. That was way worse than teleporting!" Cuetzpalli seems quite put off by the creepiness of the experience.

Inside

"Hi, Clunk. What's 'undertake to regulate' mean?"

And with that, folks, we've finally acknowledged the horror of the taint elemental from book 2.

Astraden pats Eben on his sopping shoulder with a slapping sound. "It sure wasn't a lake of lava. It was almost as hilarious, though."

"Undertake means like bury; are you going to kill someone, Clunk?"

Farrukh flails a bit in the water before surfacing.

"Gah! Couldn't you have jammed us inside a wall or something instead?"

Once inside, he warmly greets Clunk.

"Hey! What have you been up to while we've been gone?"

I'm surprised Astraden didn't hit him with the ol' "Long time no see! Anyway, we need a favor..." routine.

I just realized that, since we were only six traveling back here, Astraden could have just word of recalled us back to the All-Seeing Eye instead, and we could have skipped the swim in the Nyr Dyv and the Cthulhu Jr. stalking session.

So if you've got wet unmentionables and are prone to nightmares for the rest of your life, blame the cleric for not speaking up!

Astraden smiles big at Eben, unconscious of any way the trip to Magepoint could have gone better. It seems her eyes have regained their normal color at some point after the return from the shadow realm.

"Clunk, would you like to join our party?" Astraden asks.