The Age of Worms / Flood Season pt. 16 / Galen the 25th through 26th, 3592 CE / 1-3-21

General Summary

Not By Choice sits on the shore of an underground lake outside an ancient stone complex, recovering from their latest encounter with horrifying undead creatures. They had come to these underground ruins seeking the Wands of Sacred Water, in order to save their adopted home of Cauldron from disaster. As the party debates their next move, a figure approaches from across the lake, a fish-like humanoid riding atop a large, fanged toad. The fish-man introduces himself as Tstha-Ghi, the last survivor of the race of ulat-kini for whom the underground complex was named. The Ebon Triad cultists who took over the ruins, the same ones responsible for the theft of the wands, slew his people, forcing him into hiding. He is grateful to Not By Choice for driving out the Baalite cultist Triel Eldurast and her tiefling guards, as well as slaying her pet merrow. "Soggy" offers the party a place to rest, and they gratefully accept, though Lulu must be reassured that her quarry, the Vexna cultist Skaven Umbermead, will not escape in the meantime. The next day, the party is awakened to the sound of Skaven Umbermead's discovery that not only has he been abandoned by Triel, she has cut down the cable car that provided transport in and out of the cavern. The party crosses the lake once more and chases Skaven into the complex, confronting him in his office. He agrees to a parlay after determining that Lulu may also be a follower of Vexna. Under Lulu's questioning, Skaven shares some heretofore unknown details about her patron, such as the fact that Vexna and Vespera are sisters, acting as a balance between procreation and destruction. He can tell her little of the green worms which have plagued her dreams and brought her to the Southlands from Pandona in the first place. He is aware, as she is, that the green worms can infect their host, turning them into undead, and tells them the two worm spawn guarding the necromancer Tarkilar's portion of the complex are the result of a trip the undead gnoll took south across the Cape of Good Fortune. Desiring to learn more about her patron, Lulu invites the plague priest to travel back to Cauldron with them, and Nari, remembering the original purpose of their quest, inquires about the missing wands. It turns out that the Ebon Triad has four wands in total, two pilfered from the priests of Peladon, and two gained from another church by means of which Skaven is unaware. The party offers recovery of the wands as a condition for Skaven's escape from the ruins, but the halfling can only offer one, and even that is no longer in his possession, but under the protection of his "friends." These friends turn out to be a pack of spiders and ettercaps who resided within web-lined caves at the southern end of the complex. Skaven leads Not By Choice deeper into the spiders' lair, until they are face to face with the creatures' leader, a massive harpoon spider, festooned with weapons and plates of armor. Skaven claims to be friends with the harpoon spider and his kin, but it soon becomes apparent that the spider has betrayed the halfling. As Skaven goes to retrieve the wand, the monster impales him, and then turns its cold gaze upon the rest of the assembled party.

Character(s) interacted with

Lulu Victry, Nari Ashida, Marrow, Scrimshander, Milton Butters, Kade, Jozu, Tstha-Ghi ("Soggy"), Skaven Umbermead, Pykwit (a cat), a slurk, an air elemental, a harpoon spider, giant spiders and ettercaps

Report Date

03 Jan 2021