Dungeons & Delvers: Age of Worms, Episode 712

Cast

• Humal (level 12 wrathful cambion wizard)
• Corzale (level 12 dwarf war cleric/druid)
• Sumia (level 12 elf rogue/ranger/wizard)

Session Highlights

After defeating a half-dozen spellcasting flying Kyuss worms, the argon Xan'tchack mentions that he senses a few magical auras several hundred feet away. Humal asks how he can possibly sense them at that distance, to which Xan'tchack replies that one of his eyes has an especially powerful divination spell scribed into it.

Seeing as Xan'tchack doesn't have any necromancy eyes, he offers to trade it to Humal in exchange for one of his. Obviously it would be very handy, but Humal likes his eyes: he tells Xan'tchack that he'll think about it.

Following one of the tunnels, they come across a small hoard of ancient coins, worm-themed art objects, and magic items heaped about a crude statue of what they assume is Kyuss: skull-headed mace that sometimes injects Kyuss worms into creatures it strikes, gloves that can pass harmlessly through living tissue, and a choker that grants its wearer the ability to breathe acid.

Hoping that none of it is cursed, they load everything into Humal's magic sack. On the way back to the central shaft Corzale spots something glinting in her torchlight, which turns out to be the tip of a presumably very large, monstrous skeleton. Instead of bone it looks to be made of the same golden material as her most recently acquired magic hammer: if the undead dwarf that gave it to her is to be believed, it was made from a fragment of one of Bel-Amaranth's ribs.

Not sure what to make of it, plus they have no idea how big it is, if it's even complete, and whether it can be infested by Kyuss worms, they decide to maybe come back later and dig it out.

The bottom of the shaft opens into a square chamber. As Ahatsunu said it's completely flooded with Kyuss worms. The southern wall has collapsed, revealing a literal swirling lack of Kyuss worms. To the west is a dark chamber covered in an ominous black paste, and to the east is another chamber where a green, crystalline statue of a hooded figure endlessly vomits worms into the mouths of a trio of ornately garbed Kyuss zombies. Once their distended bellies are full, they drag themselves to the ledge overlooking the worm-lake and vomit them in.

As they work Humal charms one: to his surprise it can speak, and even better it also mistakes him for Kyuss. He questions it for awhile, learning that it is slowly creating something called an overworm, a colossal Kyuss worm made from countless smaller worms. Once it is complete, it will descend into the ground to seek out the "heart of the world" and kill it. The good news is that the process takes a very long time, but the bad news is that its already made over a hundred of them.

They learn that there is another sanctum deeper underground, but the entrance is locked. Even worse, the key is divided into three fragments, each carried by one of Kyuss's most powerful knights.

Designer Notes

Changed some of the treasure in the worm-tunnels: namely dropping the masterwork heavy flail, +1 adamantine chain shirt, wand of barskin (why?), and gloves of arrow snaring (WHY?) in exchange for the stuff I mentioned above. Armor could have been useful for Sumia, but I think I could cook up something more interesting.

Changed the fountain into a crystalline statue. Before it looked like an actual fountain that compelled you to drink out of it. Dunno why because they could just hold you down and put a worm on you. Also dunno why they don't die like Kyuss worms normally do when not in a body. Anyway, worm generator just seemed neater and they go to see the worm priests doing their thing.

No vision, of course. Instead Humal charmed another undead and got information that way, which I think is more rewarding for them than just having me read a huge wall of readaloud text.

Announcements

You can now get a physical copy of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book in whatever format you want! We've also released the first big supplement for it, Appendix D, so pick that up if you want more of everything.

Our latest Dungeon World class, The Apothecary, is now available.

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).