Merry Christmas!

  I hope you and your families are enjoying this holiday, and may your stocking hang low with lead.

  As you read this, my wife and sons and I should be winging our way to London, our family gift to each other. I hope to do a little shopping there for toys...

  See you after the New Year!

Age of Worms, Session IV

   We met again last Friday - two weeks in a row, it's a new record! I was hoping we would finish the Whispering Cairn, but it was not to be... However, things are coming to a conclusion, and I think we may be able to finish off next week. Maybe. Anyway, on to the play by play...

•  Our intrepid heroes have healed up and rested, and proceed back into the Cairn for what they hope will be the last time.
• They successfully bypass the face in the wall trap, and no one is injured climbing the chain (they cleverly shared the ring of feather fall, you see...).
• Entering a new chamber, Norman and Sarmek are knocked off the beam into the iron ball pit, while Wren and Degar more wisely lowered themselves to its surface first. Or was it wise? Because they are attacked by the grick! Ahhh! Degar swings his mighty axe, striking the fiendish abomination squarely, only to see the creature's tough hide bounce the razor sharp steel. Wren electrocutes the beastie with Bigby's shocking grasp.
• No sooner do our heroes defeat the abomination, then a ghost materializes out of nowhere and possesses the cleric with his malevolence attack! The ghost offers to let the party into the final secret chamber if they will bury his bones with his family in their farm cemetery; naturally, our party agrees.
• The party returns to town to sell a few items, check in with their mentor, Allustan, and find out what the other group of adventurers in Diamond Lake were up to. In the process, Sarmek (played by my 12 year old son) spilled the beans to the rival adventurers about what they were exploring. Ooops! Thankfully, he did not give exact directions.
• So now the party is in a rush to get the bones buried and get back to the Whispering Cairn to enter the True Tomb. Sadly, the rest of the family's remains are missing. Returning to town yet again to seek informattion, Wren decides they should investigate an abandoned observatory to see if there are any clues - it seems the perfect hideout for graverobbers!

 And that's where we ended up. Still not there, but oh so close...

The Whispering Cairn, Part III: Getting Our Feet Wet!

  Well, it's been a good while since we played, but our Heroes finally returned to the Whispering Cairn last Firday night. And, in what I thought was going to be one of the most challenging parts of the adventrue, breezed through with nary a difficulty!

  Having penetrated into an area where the laborers who built the cairn once lived, the party advanced to find the communal shower area totally submerged! What awaits them? After a deep breath of air (and a quick overview of the rules for holding one's breath and moving underwater), they proceeded into the murky depths:

• A small water elemental attacks in a whirling vortex! And utterly fails to harm the party, while Norman the Interchangeable (our NPC Hieronean cleric) repeatedly slashes him with his longwsword!
• A ghoul left over from a previous adventuring group (the Seekers) is in the locker room. Our warmage, who is bereft of his spells because he can't talk under water, is hit, wounded unto death, infected with Ghoul Fever and paralyzed! Happily for him, the paralysis prevents him from taking in a breath of water for two rounds, while Norman quickly pulls him out of the submerged area. A near miss - one more round under water and Wren would have drowned! (After leaving the cairn, Wren is taken to the temple of Heironeous in Diamond lake, where he trades a pearl of power for a remove disease spell.)
• Special treasure is located: the last of the colored lanterns (red) from the sarcohpagus chamber!

  Additional encounters follow, in the area of the cairn where the Wind Duke architect Nadroc once lived. Yet another elemental (this time, an earth elemental) is defeated. A fantastic roll on Knowledge: dungeoneering allows our ranger to warn the party about a brown mold, making it an easy dispatch. Great treasures are located and experience is gained.

  The party is now only one major step from completing the adventure: they must somehow gain access to the True Tomb of Zosiel, the Wind Duke lord buried in the Whispering Cairn! And, they have figured out how to get past the trap that guards it, so they are most of the way there... or are they?

I... Love ... Stories!

If you hate gnomes, you will love this.



Get 'em, Frances!