Dungeons & Delvers: Age of Worms, Episode 707

Cast

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

Session Highlights

After Sumia and Corzale attempt various excuses and explanations, the high priest revealed that Sir Wotan and he were already aware of Humal's device: they saw it while investigating the arena understructure earlier, both to see if they could learn anything about the source of the plague, and ensure that it was gone.

Partially their actions were a joke that they were playing on the party, see how they'd act knowing that priests and especially paladins can be dogmatic killjoys: their antics did not disappoint.

To be fair they normally would have intervened, and probably imprisoned and interrogated the group (especially Humal), but thanks to numerous visions from the sun god and communications with various angelic beings, the high priest was aware of many of their deeds over the past months: he'd seen them, more or less, in their own way, cleanse many sources of evil.

It was because of their actions that not only did the high priest trust their decision to contain and harness the necrotar, he even came to provide them with protective amulets. Each contained a Kyuss worm, wrapped in rose stem, encased in diamond, set in a golden disk: anyone wearing them would be immune to the effects of Kyuss worms. In theory. He was confident in their efficacy, though admitted they had not been field tested, yet.

The high priest assured them that they would clean up the bones and conceal the device: whatever they had done had worked, he knew they would need all the help they could get, and there was no sense in tampering with it, especially if it meant possible destruction and further loss of life, or even the plague returning.

Corzale asked if they could provide any further aid. She was hoping for a magical holy symbol, but since they worshiped different gods the high priest instead gave her a vial filled with what looked like liquid sunlight: he informed her that if one perished, it would revive them if administered very quickly. It wouldn't fully restore them, only just barely bring them back from death.

Since it was late they decided to return to their underground lair and wait until morning before heading out (again), but when they arrived saw a spindly humanoid construct that looked to be assembled from gold. It introduced itself as Manzorian VII, and informed them that due to their excessive tardiness it had been dispatched to teleport them to Magepoint.

It asked them if they wished to leave the invisible bone devil looming over Humal's shoulder. Of course they did, and before it could speak or act they found themselves in a small chamber featuring a complex arcane diagram on the floor. As Manzorian VII guided them to one of several audience chambers, it informed them that since the original Manzorian was away on business it would be acting in his stead.

Eligos and Celeste were waiting for them in the audience chamber, seated around a large table with a small stack of books, some scrolls, and a map. Manzorian VII explained that several prophecies and portents linked to Kyuss's awakening had been observed, which meant that they were quickly running out of time to prevent it.

They pooled information and discussed their next plan of action: as expected all signs pointed to the Amedio jungle far to the east, which turns out was where Kyuss originally ascended to godhood. Fortunately Manzorian had a teleportation circle already set up: it would transport them just outside the ruined city of Kuluth-Mar, and he even provided them with a scroll that would let them instantly return to a well-secured room within his fortress when they were finished (or if they had to flee).

Seeing as they were in Magepoint—a port city stocked with a tremendous variety of wares—and loaded with coin (and things that were worth quite a bit of coin), the party wanted to make a quick shopping trip before heading out: hopefully nothing would occur to further delay their expedition.

Announcements

You can now get a physical copy of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book in whatever format you want!

After months of doing other things, we turned our attention to and released The Warden. It's based on the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons class of the same name, but judging by the responses we did an excellent job converting it over.

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).