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Here's a list of the original Age of Worms prophecies as described in the Spire of Long Shadows:
1) Legions of worm-eaten dead rise from soggy graves.
2) An immense and demonic tree explodes into destructive life from the heart of an unfamiliar city.
3) A burning comet lances down from the heavens to strike the earth in a tremendous, mushroom-shaped cloud of devastation.
4) Another city, its town square wreathed in a cloud of black smoke filled with eyes, is held in the grip of shadows that move independantly from ther source.
5) A cackling man attaches a clawed and withered hand to the bleeding stump of his arm, and the hand writhes to unholy light.
6) A city built in the heart of a volcano suffers tragedy during a partial eruption that sees the collapse of its southeastern quadrant.
7) A tripartite spirit once again becomes one, and at its advice are the mighty undone.
8) On the eve of the Age of Worms, a hero of the pit shall use his fame to gift a city to the dead. (On a side note, I still don't understand who this prophecy is talking about. At first I assumed it was Raknian, but he doesn't make an appearance in the final adventure. Neither does Auric. Is the hero of the pit supposed to be Zeech or one of the PC's?)
Now, I can understand why the folks at Dungeon would include references to older adventures, but since my players are generally unfamiliar with these, I was thinking of changing the prophecies to better suit the needs of my campaign. Basically, I decided there should be two versions of the prophecies. The original as written on the spellweaver plates that Kyuss founded in the Amedio, and a modified version found in the Way of the Ebon Triad, which foretells the coming of an Ebon Overgod. Here are some possible prophecies (in chronological order):
- Original Version: The deaths of Kuluth-Mar's people & Kyuss' apotheosis (c -1400 CY)
- Ebon Triad Version: The acsension of Vecna and his ur-Flan empire (c -1400 CY)
- Original: Dragotha's transformation into the first dracolich (c -900 CY?)
- Both Versions: The decline of a Great Kingdom which would bring about the Age of Great Sorrows (213-586 CY)
- Both: The Red Death plague (576 CY)
- Both: The Ascension of Vecna* (591 CY)
- Both: The appearance of spawn of Kyuss in the Cairn Hills (593 CY)
- Both: The reappearance of the Hand of Vecna (594 CY)
- Both: The partial eruption in Cauldron (594 CY)
- Both: The coming of the Apostle of Kyuss
- Both: The reappearance of the Library of Last Resorts
- Ebon Triad: The construction of a grand temple to Hextor
- Both: The tripartite spirit becoming one
- Original: The construction of a new Spire of Long Shadows
* It's important that the original prophecies include the ascension of Vecna because since Vecna was still on Oerth at the time the Way of the Ebon Triad was written, why else would Vecna be made part of the Ebon trio? Surely Lashonna and Dragotha knew that Vecna would eventually become a deity or they would have chosen Nerull instead.
Now, I'm not too sure how to translate some of these so that they sound like prophecies. But having these allows me to know what the villains of the campaign are up to. The recent ascension of Vecna has allowed the villains to shift their plans into high gear as they see the Age of Worms will soon be upon them.
Background: Originally written on bronze plates (by Mak'ar?) before Kyuss' arrival in the Amedio Jungle, Kyuss himself learned of these and began the long task of bringing about the Age of Worms. After Dragotha's rebirth as a dracolich, Kyuss taught his new servant the prophecies. Dragotha, seeing no need to wait for all these prophecies to come true, managed to release Kyuss prematurely about 1500 years ago. But Kyuss' time on Oerth was short-lived thanks to the Order of the Storm. Seeing the need to have the prophecies fulfilled, Dragotha & Lashonna used powerful divination magic and wrote a collection of apocalyptic essays, epic poems, and cryptographs known as the Way of the Ebon Triad, a distorted version of the prophecies. This version claimed the tripartite beings were Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna (who wasn't a god, but a powerful undead emperor at the time). The Way of the Ebon Triad claimed that with the release of an undead colossus known as Kyuss and the coming Age of Worms, the Ebon Overgod would arise. Years later, a heretical follower of Vecna came upon the Way of the Ebon Triad and referenced the prophecies in the blasphemous Nethertome of Trask. He claimed that Vecna had found a way to achieve godhood and unite his essence with the two evil Oeridian gods of battle, Hextor and Erythnul. Vecna, who had been recently destroyed in a battle against his vampiric lieutenant Kas the Bloody-Handed, would one day return as a god and fulfill his destiny.
I intend to have my PC's find a copy of the Nethertome of Trask in the Faceless One's quarters. The tome, with its distorted prophecies, will explain why the Ebon Triad was in Diamond Lake. Later, when the PC's journey to Kuluth-Mar, the true prophecies will be revealed to them. As for the original Way of the Ebon Triad, its best location is probably in the Well of Triptych Knowledge.