Vug is down 1 Con, -1 Fort save and max hps down by 13
And what do you know, Bubba's magic manages to penetrate the monster's defenses and temporarily blind it.
The spellweaver hisses and flaps its arms about in annoyance. "That cannot be true. The Age of Worms is coming, I know it. It is only a matter of time. You will pay with your lives for your intrusion. And then your dead bodies will replace the guardians that you've slain."
Feres reels from the acidic burns inflicted by the spellweaver as his spiritual scimitar continues to attack the undead creature.
As Bubba bluffs the spellweaver regarding the Age of Worms, Feres moves toward another island in the sea of worms and casts a spell to remove the displacement effect cloaking the undead spellcaster.
Eyes flashing with anger as the fog of insanity lifts from his mind, Vulcan directs one of the comets orbiting him to strike the spellweaver as he calls upon his elemental powers, summoning a storm of hail, ice and snow that pummels his enemies while eerily avoiding his friends.
Vug's cyclops takes a couple of swipes with his greataxe.
Running out of bombs, Vug draws her bow and fires at the spellweaver with her eyes closed (50% miss chance).
The spellweaver is immune to cold but it takes some bludgeoning damage from the hailstones. Its skeletal body shrugs off Vug's arrow though.
Feres strips it of its displacement and the spiritual weapon shaves off one image. The cyclops was petrified by the Prismatic spray.
The lich grinds what's left of its teeth and rubs its eyes with two of its arms. Then it speaks some arcane word and a hideous visage made of worms appears above it and hisses at you. Then he is blind no more.
You are up again, if you dare.
Valgrim again attempts as a full-round action to escape the confusing maze!
Will save, with Inspire Courage and Heroism:
Feres' spiritual scimitar continues to attack the spellweaver.
Vug keeps firing arrows at the spellweaver.
With rapid shot, haste, inspire courage and heroism:
The spellweaver frowns as Valgrim makes an untimely return. The spiritual scimitar and Vug's arrows pop all but one of the images. Vulcan and Feres flee in terror while Bubba covers the hideous sight with a comforting illusion.
The lich makes an angry gesture and targets Valgrim with a Disintegrate spell. A sickly green ray hits him for 125 points of damage unless he can make a Fort 25 save, in which case the damage is reduced to 15.
Then you are up again.
An enlarged Valgrim resists the ray, grimacing at the minor pain and standing before the undead spellweaver. "Guess your maze didn't hold me long enough? You will not see the Age of Worms, as your journey ends now!" He calmly waits for Feres' Spiritual Weapon and/or Vug's arrows to attack and get rid of his last image and then he rages and rushes in, attacking the undead with his Falchion!
Feres' spiritual scimitar slashes at the spellweaver and its mirror image.
Sarenrae's wrath robs the ancient lich of his last mocking image, leaving him subject to Valgrim's fury. Under the devastating axe blow the ancient evil finally crumbles and falls to the ground.
His demise triggers another vision.
The visions are violent and horrific. Legions of worm-eaten dead rise from soggy graves. An immense and demonic tree explodes into destructive life from the heart of an unfamiliar city. A burning comet lances down from the heavens to strike the earth in a tremendous, mushroom-shaped cloud of devastation. Another city, its town square wreathed in a cloud of black smoke filled with eyes, is held in the grip of shadows that move independently from their source. A cackling man attaches a clawed and withered hand to the bleeding stump of his arm, and the hand writhes into unholy life. A city built in the heart of a volcano suffers tragedy during a partial eruption that sees the collapse of its southeastern quadrant. As each of these scenes flash by, they are accompanied by a crushing sense of certainty — these events have already come to pass. Yet finally, the whispering voices speak of two more prophecies, and these are accompanied by blackness. “A tripartite spirit once again becomes one, and at its advice are the mighty undone,” the voices whisper. And then, “On the eve of the Age of Worms, a hero of the pit shall use his fame to gift a city to the dead.” After this, there is only silence. It would seem that two prophecies have yet to be realized.
But even apart from the vision, the effects on reality are profound. There is the sound of a great collapse and the ground shakes. Before your very eyes, all the worms around you die and wither into goo. The world is relieved by a great evil.
In the quiet immediately after the vision, Bubba asks, "Shall I perform a soothing melody to restore some of our lost vitality?"
"Well done, everyone!" Feres exclaims, the blinding panic fading from his mind after Valgrim dispatches the lich. "And thank you for the healing, Bubba. I have a few healing spells left as well, if anyone needs them," the stout priest offers.
The bard bows and grins and begins to sing a song of healing.
points of healing
Vulcan returns sheepishly shaking his head. "That was some @%^@ed up ^*(#%!" he mutters. "I'm good but the others are still pretty badly off."
"I'd like to rest and restore some of my bombs," Vug suggests.
"Sounds like a good idea, Vug. Let's detect magic and get all the spellweaver's belongings and treasure and then rest. If there are any other dangers, we can come back later."
The spellweaver is carrying some interesting items (which you will have no trouble identifying):
Cloak of Resistance +5
Headband of Charisma +6
Ring of Force Shield
Rod of Extend Metamagic
Whip of Fury
Among Mak’ar’s possessions are several valuable items, including a jade statue of a green dragon worth 1,000 gp, a huge black pearl worth 2,000 gp, a diamond and platinum necklace worth 3,000 gp, and three well-preserved paintings of Kuluth-Mar in its prime worth 2,000 gp each.
You are also able to collect two +1 mithril breastplates from the wormcallers and three sets of full plate +2, three heavy steel shields +1 and three +1 unholy bastard swords from the knights.
The other denizens of the dungeon profit by the opportunity to desert it while you are resting. They've left quite an impressive library, though. The majority of the books comprise a collection of religious studies on necromancy. These books grant a +4 circumstance bonus on Knowledge (arcana) checks having to do with necromancy and a +4 circumstance bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks having to do with gods of death and undeath. They are worth 8,000 gp as a collection, and weigh 50 pounds in all. Better yet, among them is a Manual of Bodily Health +1.
About the last vision:
After clearing out the complex you notice as you emerge that the spire has toppled, smashing the obsidian ring, and that all the worms infesting the grounds are dead. This place isn't a menace to the world anymore - but not terribly safe either, as there are things hiding in the jungle that are a lot worse than trolls, so you'd do well to return to Manzorian.
The latter is, of course extremely curious as to what you have found. Will you relate your visions to him? Also, you can sell all your loot here, and buy anything that strikes your fancy. And don't forget to level up.
"The volcano...I recognize that one, it's in Cauldron and it erupted about a year ago. I guess the prophecies are on the point of coming true if we don't stop it. Let's rush back to Manzarian and see if he has any clues about the last two prophecies."
Bubba starts ticking off on his fingers things he recognized, "The dead crawling from their graves are spawn of Kyuss, seems a natural enough prophesy for them to claim to me. The great tree reminds me of the description of the physical manifestation of a demon lord named Malgarius." He shudders, "The hand attached to the man's arm stump is the artifact known as the Hand of Vecna. Nothing good will come of that, let me tell you."
Ruefully, "The other stuff is familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on any of them."
Knowledge Arcana
arcana #1:
arcana #2:
"That wasn't a comet -- it was a temple called the F-f-f-fane of Scales. Supposedly it f-fell f-f-from the sky a couple of years ago."
Vug also proudly shows off her new tumor that's shaped like a hedgehog!
Celeste is a bit disgusted by Vug's new tumor, but Manzorian calmly declares that he has seen worse. Eligos makes an inscrutable face.
Everyone is happy (and a little impressed) to see you back, and they haven't exactly been idle, although they can tell you little more about Kyuss and his minions that you don't already know. However, they did manage to unearth some interesting information on the Ebon Triad, which seems to have been a focus to Balakarde's studies. He seems to have suspected that the entire cult was really only a front for Kyuss and his activities.
One name seems to crop up again and again in every book and scroll that mentions the Triad, namely the city Maskholm (situated west of Warwik), which ironically means "Isle of worms" in Scandic , the base of operations of the evil and twisted mage that calls himself Midas. Clearly a number of the leaders of the Ebon Triad hail from Maskholm.
Researching the city's history Celeste came upon a dated volume, titled A History of Maskholm, written by a cleric of Iomedae only months before Midas seized control of the city. One section of the book details a secret cabal of worshipers of Zon-Kuthonian heretics who attempted to establish an underground cult somewhere in the city. This cult was dedicated to the ascension of their god into something greater, presumably to purge him from the weakness of suffering. They made particular use of what they called “the Writhing Dead.” The cult was defeated with the aid of one of Maskholm's greatest spellcasters, an elven noble named Lashonna, but its leaders escaped persecution.
Balakarde even left a fairly extensive note in the volume, which Manzorian hands over to you:
Missing heretics never captured... Possible site of Ebon Triad foundation? Did they turn to the cult of Urgathoa for aid and then more recently to that of Norgorber? Are new Triad leaders trained somewhere in Maskholm, and then sent out to start their own cult cells in other cities?
To do:
- Lashonna (helped defeat heretics, may know more about them that wasn't printed)
- Rhorsk (research indicates he did not flee Maskholm after it fell - he's probably dead but may have left some sort of legacy)
- Ebon Triad (are they still active in town? Find out if their original hideout/shrine still exists)
He suggests that you might want to follow up on those leads. They are a decade old but still the best you've got. Also, Manzorian adds with a wry smile, Midas's birthday is coming up, and you wouldn't want to miss that, would you? His parties tend to be... interesting.
Valgrim wracks his head on what he knows about Maskholm geographically.
Valgrim asks the following questions of Celeste and our other allies:
How long has Midas been in power?
What do we know about King Midas other than he's a spellcaster and evil? Sorceror? Wizard? Race?
If evil, what type of evil city is Maskholm? LE? NE?
Any possible allies there, besides Lashonna?
Midas's real name is Lord (well, that's his own addition) Sessestophelzine, and he's a human wizard. Noone knows for how long he's been plotting but he's been in power for almost two decades now. He's known for consorting with devils, and like most powerful wizards he's scornful of the gods. Maskholm is LE, but Midas prides himself on his tolerance, so almost all religions are present. There are some good people there, but none so powerful as to pose even a minor threat to Midas (or else they hide it well).
"Midas makes a point of allowing all religions, but that doesn't mean that good clerics are well-liked or even respected. Expect a rough time unless you prefer to hide your colors."