Dungeons & Delvers: Age of Worms, Episode 702

Cast

• Humal (level 11 wrathful cambion wizard)
• Corzale (level 11 dwarf war cleric/druid)
• Sumia (level 11 elf rogue/ranger/wizard)

Session Highlights

Most of this session was dedicated to preparing for their eventual foray into the jungle in search of Kuluth-Mar, the site of Kyuss's apotheosis, and investigating various issues that in one case were literally plaguing the city of Dovin.

The bone devil Varasiol paid a visit to Humal while everyone else was away. In exchange for their rod fragment, he offered to teleport Humal directly to a sphere of annihilation, let him grab is using his talisman of the sphere, and even bring him back to Dovin.

Varasiol didn't divulge what Humal's father wanted with the rod, though he admitted that Humal was "very close" when he theorized that his father wanted it to kill Kyuss, and keep it out of the hands of the forces of good. Humal declined the offer, but as a gesture of good faith Varasiol provided him with the location of Kuluth-Mar before vanishing.

Corzale confirmed that the plague originated from somewhere underneath the arena, and that the combined effort of the city's priests were unable to remove it. Given the whole ordeal with Bozal, a massive Kyuss zombie-vomiting worm, literal piles of dead bodies in a flooded room, a warren filled with ghouls, and the fact that the arena understructure was laid out like a sprawling ritual circle, she wasn't surprised.

From what she gathered anyone going in through the front door quickly succumbed to the plague, and even those with divine protection didn't make it much further. Luckily she knew of a few possible back doors, plus Humal was a necromancer, which meant he might be able to whip up some more reliable protection or even dispel it. If none of that worked, she supposed they could just collapse part of the arena.

While out and about in search of rumors, Sumia heard that specifically elves were getting viciously slaughtered by a dog or dog-like creature. Descriptions varied from a normal dog, to something the size of an ogre or even a small house. The only consistent detail was that all of the victims were elves, and it attacked at night.

Unfortunately she managed to drag Humal and Corzale along while her magic armor and Corzale's holy hammer were having enchantments transferred: a magic hammer dedicated to destroying evil would have probably been especially handy.

They picked an alley in a neighborhood with the largest elven population they could find, and eventually decided that, instead of using Sumia as live bait, Humal would conjure the illusion of an elven woman standing near the entrance.

Their plan worked.

The creature emerged from a nearby shadow. It looked like a huge hyena, but even to Sumia's keen ears it moved without making any sound at all. It crept up behind the illusion, and in grisly fashion its head tore apart into five somewhat smaller heads: they all struck at once, each going for a separate limb and her head. The illusion vanished, and the heads snarled with a mixture of confusion and frustration.

The heads haphazardly looked about and sniffed the air, before whirling about in unison to face Sumia.

Design Notes

Didn't mean to sidetrack the players so much, especially since I haven't had a chance to run this adventure and I reeeally want to. Now I have to plan for whatever is underneath the arena, and also stat up that shadow-hyena-hydra.

I didn't think Humal would give the rod to Varasiol, but you never know. Maybe they will later if they really need that sphere of annihilation. Or maybe Humal will manage to kill Varasiol, trap his soul, and get the sphere's location out of his demon-ghost.

His character is already pioneering the field of Necromentology (using the "bones" of the winter wolves they fought in the Elemental Plane of Air), totally possible he could find a way to trap a demon's soul essence after its shell has been recently destroyed.

I keep forgetting about Cedric, Allustan, Doppel-Filge, and if they manage to drag Eligos around I'd probably forget about him, too, so I'm going to make Google Docs with all of their stats and let the players deal with them.

Announcements

You can now get a physical copy of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book. Only color softcovers available right now, but the others should become available in a week or two.

It look a lot longer than expected, but we finally released The Jinni. As with our other monstrous classes, this one is more faithful to the mythology (so don't go in expecting elemental-themed jinn).

After putting it to a vote, the next couple of classes on the docket are the warden (think 4E D&D warden) and apothecary (gotta go see what they're all about).

Dwarven Vault is our sixth 10+ Treasures volume. If you're interested in thirty dwarven magic items (including an eye that lets you shoot lasers) and nearly a dozen new bits of dungeon gear, check it out!

Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!

By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).