Status check.

So, anyone still got their email accounts linked to this?

Age of Worms, Session 6

The group of intrepid adventurers approached the door to the old observatory. Jerad looked at the others, then walked up and knocked on the door! Of course there was no answer. Filge was asleep in the upper room and the only person who had reason to call on him had his own key anyway. Romanova opened the door and graciously allowed Stonan to go in first. He was greeted by Filge's 'welcoming committee,' three of poor Alastor Land's relatives animated as skeletons.

The undead had barricaded themselves behind some overturned tables on the far side of the room. Broken furniture and other debris was scattered about the floor making footing treacherous. The skeletons raised up as Stonan entered, each firing a crossbow bolt tipped with greasy poison at the dwarf. Luckily for Stonan, two of the bolts thudded into the wall around the door and the third sailed over his head, alerting the rest of the group to the imminent danger. Stonan rushed into the room, successfully picking his way through the debris, and slammed full-speed into the large table that two of the skeletons were behind. The skeletons both hit the wall and then the ground. One of them crumpled into a pile, the magic holding it together dispersed.

Nader and Phil rushed in, making quick work of the other two skeletons and clearing the room. The group looked around and found nothing of interest. Moving on to the one inner door, Romanova proceeded cautiously, searching for traps. Finding none she again let Stonan open the door. He went out into the hallway and saw only more doors. The group quickly searched the four small cells on the north wall and found a small pouch of platinum and gold cleverly hidden by one of the observatory's former tenants. Searching the abandoned office yielded only useless debris. The last door opened into the communal living space of the observatory, and a truely gruesome sight.

In the middle of the large room there was a table, set for dining. Around the table were ten chairs, nine of which were occupied by putrid decomposing corpses with half-filled glasses of wine and recently fresh food in front of them. The stench was overpowering to most of the party, but Phil's own BO was covering enough of the smell that she sauntered over to the table and grabbed one of the half-full bottles of strong red wine. She guzzled the bottle greedily and sat down in the empty chair at the head of the table.

As Phil's ample bottom hit the chair the bodies seated at the table becan a macabre scene. They began to clumsily mime eating the meal in front of them, then they spoke! "Filge, you really are the greatest wizard in the realm, the guild was daft to throw you out!" said an elf with a head wound. "I didn't love you in life, but now I love you forever." chimed in a delicate corpse that once may have been a woman. "You sure taught me, Filge old boy!" exclaimed a fat one in merchant's clothes.

When Phil stood, the zombies returned to their previous state. A quick search of the room and cupboards turned up only some serving ware and other possibly valuable dining implements.

Along the north wall the stairs up to the observatory proper beconed.

Filge had awoke when the creep show around the table began and quickly gathered his wits. When Romanova tried to creep up the stairs from below he went up to his laboratory to make his stand. Romanova heard Filges footsteps on the staris and motioned for the rest of the group to follow her up.

When she poked around the corner Filge had already cast his spells for battle. "Why have you entered my sanctuary?" he asked. Romanova explained that she was looking for the skeletons from the Land farmstead. Filge knew the half-orc had given him up and decided to fight. "ARISE MY CREATIONS!" he bellowed to the undead creatures kept in stasis jars around the room. Bursting forth from the four glass tubes came the animated corpses of three lizard like creatures and a large, furry bugbear.

The zombies all approached Romanova at the top of the stairs. She ducked and dove through them to try and get to the wizard. She was brought up short by another of Alastor Land's relatives. The skeleton made a viscious blow to Romanova's abdomen, and when she tried to get away again, the skeleton slashed her across the neck. Romanova hit the floor bleeding. Stonan was battling the zombies at the top of the stairs with a bit of help from Jerad. Filge had brought a spectral hand into being and used it to try and touch Stonan with a debilitating spell, but failed every time. Mercurio conjured grease on the floor underneath the zombies, causing two of them to slip and fall. As they got up Stonan and Jerad beat on them soem more. Stonan's axe worked fine, but they seemed to more or less ignore Jerad's mace. Nadaer prayed to his god and made himself larger. He grabbed the lip of the stairs from below and made for Romanova's lifeless body to see if he could save her.

The zombies started to fall under the relentless swings of Stonan's axe, Filge was beginning to worry. He had hit the dwarf with several spells, but he just shrugged them off. Nadaer made it to Romanova just in time, her life's blood was almost gone. He used a spell to heal her enough to keep her alive, then turned his attention to the necromancer.

Stonan clove through the last of the zombies and he and Nadaer caught Filge between the two of them. The last Land skeleton dropped quickly (not as quick as it dropped Romanova though) and the two barbarians pounded poor Filge. He tried to plead with them to stop, but there's no treating with raging barbarians. One last blow from Nadaer and Filge lied dead on the floor.

The group split up and turned their attention to searching the rest of the observatory. Filge had little in the way of useful supplies, a minor magical trinket or two and some potions along with a few gold. There was a mysterious note on Filge's desk signed simply S. The note asked Filge to come to Diamond Lake to research a strange worm found in the Dourstone mine.

The group is considering using the observatory as their new base of operations, but given the note is obviously signed by the owner of the building who was friends with Filge, that might not be the best idea...

Age of Worms, Session 5

And so through the face they went. Jerad and Stonan led the way, emerging into a strange room with a narrow beam suspended above a floor covered in what appeared to be ceramic balls about the size of an orange. The beam spans the entire length of the room from just behind the face to a door at the far end, just within the reach of the shadowy light of Jerad's illuminated mace. There was no indication of what might lie in wait below the spheres, or even how far down the floor is. The walls of the chamber, from the height of the beam up to the ceiling, are honeycombed with many small dark recesses.

Romanova was sharp enough to notice that the holes in the wall were just a hair bigger than the ceramic spheres underneath the beam.

Now mindful of the likely trap, Jerad and Stonan got down and hugged the beam, crawling along it towards the door. Towards the middle of the beam, Jerad felt it shift, and a fell wind began to blow from the holes in the wall.

"Fwump, Fwump!" the spheres came shooting out from many directions. One caught Jerad in the ribcage, knocking the wind out of him. Another caught Stonan square in the side, knocking him from the beam to the spheres below! Panicked, Stonan leapt to his feet, promptly sinking up to his ankles in the loose spheres. Stonan assessed his new situation, not thinking it so bad, until a green, worm-like creature burst from the spheres behind him and attacked!

The foul aberration unfurled four tentacles and whacked at Stonan with each one, then lunged at him with it's vicious beak. Stonan sliced at the beast with his axe, but the thick hide and soft body absorbed most of the blow. At this a faint child's voice, which seemed to emanate from throughout the room, shouted, "Good one dwarf!" and cackled with glee. Those who were not in the room already entered at the sounds of fighting, and Jerad dropped to the spheres to help Stonan. Phil also dropped down to the fight. Mercurio tried to communicate with whatever child spirit was commenting on the fight, but to no avail. Romanova attempted to disarm the ball trap so she could aid in the fight from above (and set off the trap again in the process).

Stonan and Phil's blows were hitting and missing, none doing too much damage, and the child's voice continued to cheer and jeer them. Mercurio identified the beast as a grick, and told Romanova to hand her enchanted sword to Stonan because it would cut through the beast's tough hide. She did, and Stonan's blow finally did some damage. Naeder cast a spell upon his weapon and jumped down to help, his next blow felling the beast.

Once the beast was defeated, the ghost of a young boy, perhaps thirteen, appeared on the causeway. His appearance was horrific, his head bent grotesquely to one side due to the injury that caused his death. At once he tried to take possession of Mercurio, but the wizard resisted. Romanova had her back turned while she worked on the trap. The ghost easily stepped into her and began to speak.

"My name is Alastor Land, and you must help me if you want to go further in this tomb. I ran away from home and met my end in this very room. Take my bones from the corner there and place them with my family and I will open the far door for you." Alastor went on to describe the location of his family's farmstead.

The party gathered the bones and left the Whispering Cairn to find the boy's grave. From Mercurio's knowledge of Diamond Lake and the boy's description they were able to locate the abandoned and ruined farm of the Land family. Much to their surprise, the family graveyard had recently been robbed! Romanova was able to determine that five medium sized humanoids had recently dug up the graves and then headed up to look at the house. Only four sets of tracks returned however. The four that came back appeared to be running, quickly gathered their wheelbarrow, and headed back towards town along the road. Romanova followed the wheelbarrow for about a mile before losing the tracks in the hard packed road.

Deciding that perhaps the house held a clue as to who the grove robbers were the group cautiously made their way up the small hillock that the house sat upon. Romanova scouted out the north side while Stonan looked in the front door and Mercurio went to the south. Romanova was surprised to see a massive owlbear in the one room, but not as surprised as the owlbear was to see her! It roared and headed for the door, right into Stonan, who was waiting around the corner of the one wall. The owlbear had certainly been injured by the grave robbers, and was luckily not yet at full health, or there might have been real trouble. As it was, Stonan was injured before he, Jerad, and Mercurio were able to bring the beast down.

During the fight Romanova came through the north window to try and attack the animal from the rear, but was stopped short when a large owlbear cub was waiting for her just inside the house. The cub bit at her, but only because of her sudden movement. Upon examination, the owlbear's mate had been killed by the grave robbers, and so had three of four cubs. The owlbear cub, now an orphan, bonded with the first party member it saw, Romanova. Romanova wanted nothing to do with the beast, but the others wouldn't let her harm it, it was just a baby after all, and quite a valuable commodity to either the Emporium, a trainer, or the druids of the Bronzewood Lodge. The group found an intact human arm with a telling tattoo, the mark of Garavin Vest, a ruthless mine manager who used to brand his miners. Vest's mine had been acquired a few years back by Balabar Smenk, and the few miners who are left in Diamond Lake are in gang led by the half-orc Kullen, who bears his mark on his forehead. Evidence in hand (pun intended) the group headed for the Feral Dog, hangout of Kullen's gang. Romanova let the cub follow her to town.

Once near Diamond Lake, the group skirted the town in the woods and led the cub to the Bronzewood lodge. The hierophant of the grove agreed to take in the cub and provide the group with assistance at a later time in return for not killing the infant. The druids there healed those with wounds.

Smartly the group went into the dog during the day when fewer people, especially those loyal to Kullen are around. They spread out so as not to be too conspicuous. Nader and Stonan approached the half-orc and threw the arm down on the bar! Kullen was surprised by their brazen attitude and gave them the name of the arm's former owner, Skutch. Kullen seemed dejected about the loss of his comrade and uncharacteristically melancholy. With only a little prodding he gave up the reason they had robbed the graves, to provide 'helpers' to a man named Filge that Smenk had brought to town. Filge was staying in the old observatory up on the bluff.

The group left Kullen to drown his sorrows and headed for the old observatory. They tried knocking, but got no answer. Looking for an alternate way in they tried a door underneath the steps that Romanova ended up having to unlock. When Jerad opened the door a nasty floating dust bunny was waiting for him and promptly bit him on the hand. Jerad felt a flash of heat run up from the wound. Between Jerad and Phil beating on the undead thing they managed to kill it again.

Age of Worms, Session 4

That night the party split up in Diamond Lake. Romanova soaked her bruises (wait, she hasn't fought anything yet), soaked her cares away in a perfumed bath at the Emporium and stayed ina room there for the night. Mercurio prepared dinner and stayed with his mentor Allustan. Jerad returned to the temple of Pelor and spent the night in contemplation.

Our three barbarians (one now a Cleric of Kord) strolled into the Feral Dog for some grog and some fun. Greeted in a surly manner by the albino half-orc bartender Kullen, the three took their drinks and headed downstairs for the dogfight. It was a rip roaring good time, with the bull mastiff finally overcoming the wild wolf mutt that was caught outside town earlier that day. Fighting over for the night (at least by the dogs) the boys and Phil headed back upstairs where a large blonde man had drawn a crowd around his table and was regaling them with stories of his bravery and daring while exploring the Stirgenest Cairn. This could only be Auric, adventurer of the Free City and current holder of the Champion's Games Belt. Sitting next to him and whispering in his ear every so often was his wild haired, red robed mage friend Khellek. The three joined the throng and listened in on Auric's outrageous stories. Sensing that most of the talk was empty boasting, Stonan and Nader chided Auric about the red welts on his arms and legs, tell-tale signs of a bad encounter with the stirges of the eastern shore. Khellek whispered something to Auric, and the blond giant quickly changed topics to the pair's exploits in past two years' Champions Games, soon to be held again in Greyhawk.

Along one of the walls was the third member of Auric's band, the elf maid Tirra, competing with all comers in a dagger throwing contest. On the wall were two concentric circles (remarkably well drawn for the Feral Dog) and throwing from a line 10 paces back the competitors tried to hit the bull's eye. Tirra was raking in the gold from bets placed on the game. Phil, quite penniless, stepped up and nailed a practice throw dead center. Tirra asked if she wanted to put some gold where her arm was. Phil borrowed a few coins from Stonan, but didn't throw near as well the second time and Tirra took her winnings with a wink and a shrug. Dejected, Phil stalked off. In the corner of the room she spotted two strange looking men in dark cloaks, she was sure she saw a tail flick under one of the cloaks! Going over to the table, it was obvious that the men didn't want to be bothered. "If you're not the serving girl, go away and leave us alone!" growled the one with the tail. Phil took offence and got into the face of the man. When she did, she noticed that the cowl the man wasn't shaped quite right, and Kullen's crew was starting to stand up from their table. A beating tonight wasn't worth the trouble, and Phil backed down. The three left together, but Nader went and got a room at the Emporium while Stonan and Phil walked the hour back to the mine office. In the morning, Mercurio, Romanova, and Nader met up and got the mule, Johnny, from the stables. They bought a few extra supplies before heading back to the mine office. Jerad, quite impatient to continue the exploration of the cairn, went straight there. The rest of the group caught up with him in the lantern chamber. After much discussion about where to go next, the group decided on the elevator and small chamber below the yellow lantern. After the whole group had descended into the small antechamber, Romanova tried one last time to make sure she had disarmed the trap under the stone slab. This time she was sure she got it. Working together, the three barbarians and Jerad pushed the slab into the hallway beyond. Romanova went into the hallway first. A few yards in she felt as if something was trying to affect her mentally. The group looked around, but could not find anything. Suddenly, Phil fell over, asleep! Stonan shook her awake while Romanova scanned the passage for the culprit. This time she saw it, hovering near the 20 foot cieling was a tiny gruesome creature that was nothing more than two eyes connected by a three foot strand of muscle.

Romanova quickly drew her bow and grazed one of the creatures eyes. She was rewarded with a sudden nap herself! Nader cast an enchantment on Phil to make her even bigger than normal, now that she was awake. Mercurio drew his crossbow and fired at the thing, but missed. Phil, now tall enough to strike with her axe, stormed up the hallway, but missed with her mighty blow. Stonan drew back his bow from directly underneath the monstrosity and let fly, missing as well. Faced with a larger threat, the creature turned it's eye to the half-orc, and put her to sleep! Stonan had the wind nocked out of him by Phil's massive body crumpling down on top of him. The aberration then struck fear in the heart of Jerad, and he cowered the rest of the fight. Stonan got to his feet and woke Phil, who stood and split the two eyes apart with her axe. The threat was over, for now.

Phil shrunk to her normal sive and the party took a more detailed look around the hall. There were six statues lining the hallway in pairs with outstretched hands, as if they were holding something. Near the third set of statues the hallway became unnaturally cold, and the group proceeded with caution. Rounding the corner into a small room with a large central pillar, they discovered a brown, mold like substance spead upon the floor, and it was colder the closer one got to it. Nader told everyone to get back, and he threw a bottle of alchemist's fire at the brown patch. The group was surprised when it immediately doubled in size!

Mercurio, using his knowledge of things dungeon dwelling, deduced that perhaps if fire made it grow ice might destroy it. Calling on the most minor of arcane energies he formed a ray of frost. The light blue ray shot from his fingertip barely grazing the brown mold. It had a dramatic effect, the mold blackened and died from the point of contact out! The chamber immediately began to feel warmer.

In one of the chambers off to the side the group found what appeared to be a workshop. Along one wall was a large statue in progress, holding a wooden staff with lines along the length of it dividing it into seven parts. In a corner of the room was a pedestal made of a strange red metal unknown to any of the party. Upon the pedestal was a large stone egg marked with an elemental rune. Mercurio cast a spell to see magical auras, but detected nothing in the room. Romanova was unable to detect any traps protecting the stone egg, so she went to lift it. The egg immediately rumbled to life, unfurling into an earth elemental! Luckily for the party, Mercurio understood the creatures challenge in terran and treated with the creature for information in return for efforts to break the enchantment that bound the spirit to the room. The elemental revealed that a Wind Duke of Aaqua named Nadroc used him as a servant to build the tomb for Zosiel, a minor duke who fought alongside Icosiol at the fields of Pesh.

Having all the information the elemental could provide, the group left the room making promises to help Artophanx (the elemental) that they could not hope to keep. On the other side of the column were the remains of an unfortunate soul who must have tried to loot this part of the tomb centuries ago. His chainmail was all that remained intact of him, along with a pouch containing three small statues of buildings and what appeared to be the crushed bits of three more. When Romanova released the crushing column trap she could tell that it would not function again, and she freely searched the alcove behind. In it she found two long slender wands and a pair of lenses to be worn on the eyes which improve her skill at close work. Upon examination from Jerad, both wands and the armor apeared to have enchantmens placed upon them. The other room in the area appeared to be the bedroom of the architect, and everything had been looted long ago.

Back in the lantern chamber and having explored everywhere else they could find the group made preparations to climb to the niche above the blue lantern. The group had lit torches and placed them in all the lanterns before descending into the elevator in the yellow alcove, and now the torches were sputtering. All but Nader climbed up the chain into the passage at the top of the blue alcove. Romanova moved along the passage towards what apeared to be a stone face at the end, carved in the likeness of one of the wind dukes. As she neared the face, she heard a soft click as the pressure plate beneath her foot triggered. Bright lights, blue, green, and orange started to emminate in a whirling pattern from the eyes. Phil was transfixed by the eyes and unable to move. At the same time, a stiff wind began to howl out of the mouth of the face. The wind got stronger and stronger until they were in danger of being blown out of the passage! Romanova and Stonan pressed themselves close to either side of the face and grabbed holds where they could, staying out of the worst of the wind. Mercurio was wearing the ring found on the hand in the beetles' nest and used it to float safely to the ground below. Jerad tried to brace Phil against the wind, she was still transfixed by the whirling lights. Jerad could hold on no longer and Phil blew out of the tunnel, barely missing Mercurio below. Jerad himself narrowly grabbed the chain and caught himself.

Below, Nader and Mercurio noticed that the blue torch had gone out, and replaced it with a sunrod. Immediately the lights coming from the passage above changed to only green and orange. Running out into the center of the room, they saw that the torches in those lanterns had gutered and snuffed as well. Splitting up they quickly replaced the lights in those lanterns and the wind stopped.

Up in the passage, the mouth of the face opened and beckoned the party inside.

Age of Worms, Session 3

New friends Phil and Jerad in tow, the adventurers headed back to the Whispering Cairn. They choose to descend back down the shaft under the green lantern, now that they were prepared for the beetles that infest the room north east of the entry chamber. As they clambered down the pitted walls, several beetles scattered from the cairns the group built for their two fallen comrades. The group deliberated in the entry chamber on how to proceed. Their decision was made for them when a writhing hoard of acid beetles came around the corner and quickly closed with Stonan and Phil. Two flasks of alchemist's fire quickly dispatched the swarm. Seconds later though, the queen of the colony, a giant bombardier beetle, came around the corner. She ran up to Stonan and caught him, Phil, and Romanova in her deadly spray of acid. Miraculously, all three were unscathed. Phil lifted her great axe and quickly clove the monstrous insect in two.

Jerad and Nader entered the room with the sludge filled basin to search it. Jerad found three oblong lumps, the crusted over corpses of three humans dressed in leather armor with an eight pointed star on the left breast. One of the bodies had some potions, and one had a fabulous pearl. Nader broke apart the nest of the vile bugs, finding a mummified hand with a ring upon it. Jerad attempted to hoard all three potions and the pearl "for his god, Pelor," but Stonan would have none of that. The dwarf became enraged and nearly attacked Jerad, but was placated by one of the potions and promises to split treasure evenly.

While the others were searching the chamber, Mercurio and Romanova looked into the room with the stone slabs from the doorway. Jerad pushed past them to examine the corpse upon one of the far stone slabs, heedless of what else might be in the room. He was surprised not only by a feeling of fatigue washing over him, but by the stag of the beetle colony, another Giant Bombardier, that came stumbling out from between two of the slabs. The beetle quickly closed to Jerad, spraying him, Mercurio, and Romanova, all of them taking festering wounds from the acid. Phil burst though into the room and once again made short work of the beetle, but this time the damage had been done.

Mercurio concentrated to try and divine if any of the items that they had gathered so far were magical. The three potions, pearl, and ring from the hand in the hive glowed brightly. When Romanova was handed one of the found potions, she recognized the small writing near the seal as Ancient Seuloise. "These potions heal wounds!" she exclaimed. She took one and Jerad used his magic to heal himself and Mercurio.

Moving deeper into the cairn, the group notices what look to be pegs for storing tools or similar items set in the walls, but anything of value was taken long ago. The passage ended abruptly at stairs descending into water. Romanova prodded ahead with her staff, eventually being submerged up to her waist in the cold pool. Looking into the water she could discern the hall opened up into a large chamber that was completely inundated. There were columns in the room and a long drain in the floor that was clogged with debris. Just then the water started to swirl violently around the area in front of Romanova. Stonan came forward and brought his flail down hard into the water, seemingly with no effect, he had gone in deeper than he intended. Phil grabbed Romanova and pulled her out of the water just as a vortex swirled and picked up Stonan, pulling him under water and into the large chamber beyond.

Jerad and Nader jumped into the water and swam down to the drain, quickly trying to clear it. Mercurio told Phil to stay put while he cast one of his incantations upon her. A few seconds later, Phil was twice her normal size and swimming towards the corner where the water elemental had swept poor Stonan. Stonan was in bad shape, The elemental left its vortex form and coalesced into a living wall of water. It slammed Stonan up against one of the columns. The activity had drawn the attention of a horrible undead creature that dwelt in one of the rooms off the main chamber. It swam out and tried to take it's own chunk out of Stonan, and succeeded. Luckily, Stonan did not succumb to the paralyzing effects of the ghoul's bite.

Stonan attempted to withdraw from the enemies, but the elemental was presented an opening, and struck poor Stonan again. Phil retaliated with a powerful blow of his own against the elemental. At the entrance to the room, Mercurio joined the efforts to clear the debris from the drain. Together the three were making progress. Stonan, away from the melee, dropped his heavy shield and swam to the surface, now about a foot below the ceiling. He drank a potion to heal his wounds and prepared to reenter the fray. Phil lashed out at the ghoul, wounding it grievously, but undead it fought on. Both the elemental and the ghoul landed blows on Phil, and she struck back, ending the ghoul's unlife. The elemental struck her again, hard, and she fell unconscious and started to drown. Nader swam over and finished the elemental with a blow from his great sword, but Stonan was unable to lift Phil's head out of the water because of her enormous size.

Mercurio canceled the spell in the nick of time. Nader and Stonan were able to lift her out of the water and get her breath. Searching the room Nader found a ring on the ghoul with the same eight pointed star seen on the other corpses in the area, and a pouch full of coins. Jerad found a short sword and the missing red lantern from the chamber above. Licking their wounds and running low on spells and potions, the group once again returned to Diamond Lake and Alustan's mansion.

From Alustan they learned that the eight pointed star is the symbol of the Seeker Lodge, a group of unscrupulous archaeologists and scholars in the Free City who sent an expedition to the area many years ago. The party must have found their remains. He warned against flashing their loot around town, Khellek, the mage with the group exploring the Stirgengest Cairn, is also a Seeker and would be interested in finding out where the items came from.

Romanova sought out a place to discreetly sell their loot while the rest of the group went to the temple of Pelor. She wandered into Tidwoads, the store run by a weasely little gnome, and the best place in town to get rid of stuff you didn't want other people to know about. He was all too happy to give Romanova some gold for the ring and red leather armor.

Meeting her cohorts at the temple, they pooled their funds and bought everyone who didn't have one a healing potion and paid for Phil and Stonan to have spells cast upon them. Romanova retired to the Emporium for a hot perfumed bath and the others found a beer garden to spend some of their hard earned gold in.

Age of Worms, Session 2

Alustan, the resident wizard of Diamond Lake and brother to govenor - mayor Lanod Neff has sent his pupil Mercurio to observe and aid a group of young locals exploring the ancient cairns in the hills around the city. Alustan is concerned with recent rumors he has heard about unkillable undead in the Mistmarsh and possible cult activity in Diamond Lake and it's environs. Mercurio is to keep an eye on the adventurers and make sure they don't stir up anything that shouldn't be.

The group Mercurio is looking for was seen by a ranger friend of Alustan's leaving town towards the north west two days ago, and Alustan has a pretty good idea where they are headed. The Whispering Cairn, the scene of many tests of bravery of local youths, is the most likely target in that direction.

Upon nearing the area, Mercurio notices a thin whisp of smoke, as from a camp fire, rising from the last remaining building of an abandoned mining camp. Mercurio approached the group in plain sight as they were finishing up their breakfast. They welcomed him into the camp and he related his purpose in seeking them out, offering his conjuring services in their endeavor. The group realized that they could use all the help they could get if this adventure were to be profitable for them, and gladly accepted his offer. They relayed (with a little embelishment) their progress so far. With Mercurio caught up they returned to the Whispering Cairn.

At the top of the stair they peered down towards the green flickering light. Romanova guessed correctly that the light had to do with the frescoes of the lantern chamber in the western alcove and proceeded down the stairs. They found what appeared to be the tomb itself, a sarcophagus with a bas-relief figure upon it, larger than a human and completely hairless (well, what they could see anyway). Romanova discovered that the lid was trapped and deftly disarmed it. Upon opening the sarcophagus, the party was dismayed to find it empty, but jostled it enough to realize that it moves in a clockwise direction around the room.

When pushed to point at the hallway with the yellow lantern, a stone cylinder rose from the floor beneath the lantern and doors opened up revealing a chamber just big enough for a human to get in. Norad had his snake, Fang, wrap around him so they could both fit and entered the chamber. He felt it going down and the doors opened revelaing a small room with the exit near completely blocked by a large stone slab. Norad tried to wriggle through the gap, but his bulky dwarven body prevented it. Fang was easily able to pass to the other side and returned a minute later.

Meanwhile, the group up above had turned the sarcophagus to the green lantern. As it clicked into place, loud sounds of grinding stone against stone filled the room. The group paused for only a moment before turning the sarcophagus to the blue passage. Nothing happened. They went to explore the blue alcove and found that the ceiling was higher than the others, and about fourty feet up a passage continued to the north east.

After hanging the indigo lantern on the chain at the end of the eastern passage the group turned the arrow there. Another elevator rose from under the indigo lantern. Weber went to investigate and immediately noticed the crushed bones and moldy clothes at the bottom of the elevator. Sensing a trap, he dug around with his weapon in the pile from outside of the elevator finding a pouch with a few coins and a small ruby.

Moving the arrow to the violet and empty alcoves produced no futher results. Wondering where the party druid had gone they turned it back to the yellow alcove and the elevator again rose empty. Romanova entered and descended to the room where Norad and Fang pondered how to pass the stone slab. Upon examination, Romanova found the call button for the cylindrical contraption and returned to the lantern room.

The last of the group had moved the arrow again to the green passage and the grinding sounds were now louder. The stone circle under the green lantern heaved and then fell down into a dark shaft. A moment later, as Norad and Fang returned on the yellow alcove, skittering noises as of many insects rose from the depths of the green. Romanova shoved her way past Norad back into the cylinder and descended back to the room below to cower in fear. The rest of the party steeled themselves and got into position. Mercurio cast a spell upon Stonan to turn him into a hulking behemoth of fury.

A living geyser of green beetles burst forth from the darkness, coalescing into a swarm that left a green sizzling trail of acid in its wake. Just behind them came a foul aberration, a spider like creature with six legs supporting a body that was almost entirely a single eye. Weber readied a flask of oil to throw at the skittering beetles. Nader threw a javelin and Stonan fired his crossbow at the foul spider creature, but both missed. Stonan advanced a bit, aprehensive about approaching the swarming insects. The mad slasher moved to get to the rear of the party, avoiding the beetles it appeared with. As it moved through Stonan's now improved reach, he clove the beast in two with his mighty axe.

The swarming beetles made their way toward the huge tasty looking dwarf. As they did, Weber and Mercurio let loose with their flaming vials of beetle death and greatly reduced the numbers of beetles, but on they came, crawling up Stonan's legs and covering him from head to toe. Norad turned the sarcophagus to face the indigo alcove and again the elevator rose out of the floor. He was trying to escape the battle by running into the waiting trap. Luckily, he noticed it before entering, and went back to try and help Stonan. The beetles were now feasting on Stonan's living flesh and burning him with their acidic excrement. The others in the party, afraid to burn Stonan with more fire, quickly tried to beat the beetles off of Stonan with their hands and blankets. They succeeded in breaking up the swarm just in time, for Stonan would surely have succumb to their bites had they covered him longer.

Romanova remained in her hiding place under the yellow lantern while the rest of the party recovered. Norad used his natural healing magic to restore Stonan to fighting strength. Romanova used her time to search the room below, and found that if the stone slab blocking the passage forward was disturbed, some form of trap would trigger. She tried to disarm the trap, but is unsure whether or not she succeeded.

Up above, Weber was anxious to explore the passage opened up by the collapsed floor. The walls of the shaft were pitted and scarred, and should have made for easy climbing. In his haste, Weber lst his footing at the lip of the pit. A horrified look of panic crossed his face as his hands scrabbled for purchase on the hard smooth floor of the chamber. Backward he tumbled into the dark, striking the wall several times before coming to an abrupt stop. A sickening thud resonated up through the shaft as Weber's blood coated the ruin of the elevator below.

In a rush Norad ran to the edge of the pit and began to climd down himself to help his fallen comrad. In a cruel twist of fate, he too lost his hold only a few feet into the shaft and fell, landing uncerimoniuosly atop his fellow, their blood mingling in the rubble. Feeling the loss of his bond to the druid, Fang returned to his natural tendencies, and simply slithered away.

Mercurio turned the sarcophagus back to the yellow alcove, calling the elevator. He descended and found Romanova still examining the stone slab. Relaying the recent events, Romanova's horrified stare gave way to a slight curl of her lips, it was hard not to laugh at Weber and Norad's foolish misfortune. They both ascended to the main chamber.

Learning their lesson from the two's rash behavior, the rest of the group took their time climbing down and made it safely to the bottom of the pit. In a corner of the small room they used the rubble of the elevator to build small rock cairns over their fallen comrades (after looting their corpses, of course). Stonan said a nice dwarven prayer over their bodies, something that would have upset Norad to no end, had he been alive to do anything about it.

Romanova scouted just to the first intersection of halls on this level and discovered another swarm of beetles around one corner, and a huge hulking statue in the shadows around the other. The group decided to return to town to resupply, and hopefully find some more warm bodies to fill their ranks.

The now group of four first went to Alustan's home to allow Mercurio to report, and hopefully get some sage advice. The wizard could not believe what he heard! Falling down an easily climbable shaft?!? What buffoonery! He offered his condolences, and offered what help he could. He traded the group some spending money for the elven armband and ruby they had found, and supplied those who wanted it with alchemist's fire. He then suggested that perhaps the temple of Pelor would provide a suitable replacement for one of the groups fallen comrades.

The group ventured to the small temple devoted to the sun god. paying their monthly tithe game them access to potions of healing and other items, should the need arise. Sure enough, there they also met Jerad, a young favoured soul who has been tasked with exploring the cairns to seek out dangerous undead.

Still feeling like they needed more manpower, or female half-orc power as the case may be, Stonan and Nader approached a young barbarian they had met while nomad wrestling with others of their lifestyle outside of town. She would not tell the group her true name, asking to be called Phil.

Resupplied with goods and party members, the group headed back to the abandoned mining camp.

Age of Worms, Session 1

While performing in the square at the end of the Vein, Weber has recently befriended Stonan, who desperately wants out of his job with Luzane Parrin's mines because he is afraid they're about to be sold to Balabar Smenk. Weber has heard first hand the boasting of a group of adventurers from the free city of Greyhawk that they are going to find untold riches in the played out cairns on the SE shore of the lake. Having grown up in Diamond Lake, Weber is pretty sure there isn't anything left but rat droppings and broken junk in that area. However, the idea may have some merit as he knows of a small, forgotten cairn to the north of town that the local teens call the Whispering Cairn. He and Stonan gathered up Stonan's friend Nader and hit the beer garden at the Emporium to talk over adventuring while enjoying some evening refreshments.

As the three of them were discussing the possibilities of wealth in the Whispering Cairn, their renay serving girl was listening intently whenever she passed their table. Towards the end of the night she introduced herself, convinced the three of her usefulness in the endeavor, and quit her job on the spot. The next morning the group of four purchased supplies and a pack mule and headed for the abandoned mining camp that Weber knew to be in the area of the cairn.

Norad had never really fit in with the other druids and rangers he met in the wild, and never fit in with his dwarven kin. While he attends regularly the moots at the Bronzewood Lodge, he has taken up residence in an abandoned mining office near a strange burial cairn that sometimes whispers when the wind blows. He and his companion Fang, a viper, live comfortably off the land and keep to themselves. Today, as he was preparing a breakfast of leftover rabbit stew, Norad saw four scruffy looking travelers approach his humble home. He quickly hid himself, and commanded Fang to hide in the rafters.

Stonan was first to enter the old office and immediately noticed that it was recently used and the large snake trying to hide above his head. As he reared back his axe to strike Norad sprang from his hiding place and commanded "STOP!" Seeing another dwarf Stonan forgot about the snake and greeted his kin. Norad met him with a cold reception and commanded the group to leave immediately. Weber tried to convince the druid that the old mine belonged to his family, and he had every right to kick Norad out and take up residence there. Norad didn't buy the bluff, and grew even more hostile, especially with a dwarf in the party. In a spectacular display of wordsmanship, Weber was able to convince the suspicious druid that Stonan was in fact a largish gnome, and the druid warmed to them and invited them to share breakfast.

Over the meal the group shared their plans with Norad and he agreed to come with them on their exploration of the cairn. Around mid-day the party entered the burial site. They examined an ancient magical transport inscribed with runes and found the remains of a teenager's overnight camp. Further into the cairn they surprised a sleeping pack of wolves who immediately attacked them. The druid cast a spell allowing him to speak to the beasts, offering to feed them if they would stop attacking. Two of the wolves were too hungry to hear reason, and pressed the attack. The larger one was put to sleep by a sweet song from the bard. The two scrawny wolves stopped at the behest of the druid, but the druid had only one rabbit with him, and the other wolf aimed to take the promised food out of the druid himself. The druid was tripped to the ground and his snake quickly came to his aid, felling the mangy cur. The other scrawny wolf finished his rabbit ravenously and emerged from the den as the druid was getting up. The wolf tried to drag the druid back into the den for more food, but the snake again prevailed, felling the already injured wolf. Nader finished off the large sleeping leader of the pack before the druid could protest.

With the bard's and druid's magical energy expended for the day, the party returned to the old office for a night's rest.

Age of Worms Introduction

Hello all! I am the DM for our Age of Worms Campaign. For those who are unfamiliar, Age of Worms is the second adventure path published in Dungeon magazine. The adventures are being published in 12 consecutive issues beginning with #332 back in June and are designed to take characters from 1st to 20th level. Our campaign is set in the world of Greyhawk. More information can be found here: www.paizo.com

We have six characters in the campaign:

Nader, a human Barbarian with a bent towards the religion of Kord.

Norad Snakeblood, a dwarf cast out of his hold for his love of nature and open country. He was raised by elves in the ways of druidic magic. DECEASED SESSION 2

Romanova, a human (rhennee) rogue and traveler, versed in the ways of the world and serving drinks.

Weber, a human street performer (BoEM Bard) born and raised in Diamond Lake with a gift for music. DECEASED SESSION 2

Stonan Splunk, a dwarven miner and barbarian.

Added Session 2:

Mercurio, a conjurer and apprentice to Alustan, resident wizard of Diamond Lake.

Jerad (Norad's replacement) a Favored Soul of Pelor investigating rumors of new dangerous type of undead.

Phil (Weber's replacement) a female half-orc barbarian and friend of Nader and Stonan.

Welcome!

Welcome to Refugees From Real Life. We're a group of gamers from America's Midwest of various ages and interests. This site will publish our adventures and exploits in realms only dreamed of as well as covering major real life events that occur along the way. Join us in our quest for hidden knowledge, fame, fortune, and most of all fun!