Green Pass Campaign IV, Session 4: The Worm Conquerors

October 29, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
Tunneling further into the middle of Centerpost with the surving slimes and oozes took only a few hours. The party huddled in the makeshift tunnel after dispatching April through an upward shaft to examine the city center, as well as the cultist throng outside the barracks -- which now included a massive horned figure with wings and two gargantuan worm-like monstrosities. The central plaza was heavily patrolled from the air by gargoyles. Streaks of discolored lightning fell from the skies on the central plaza squares, periodically reigniting the dull glow of summoning circle runes traced on the ground. The perimeter was lined with upright spikes and poles that had plainly functioned to impale victims of the recent invasion.

The party split into two groups. One group (including Sir Pal, Thorin the sapper, Smaug, and the ooze-summoner Spinal Pyrope) pressed forward extending the tunnel toward the far side of the city, seeking to infiltrate the barracks. The other group (including April Dawnbow, Criptus the skinscribe, the mage Qaldor Nim, and a few others) elected to branch off to investigate the plaza and town hall. Some other members of the party, including the craftlord Darrin, retreated outside the city to guard the entrance.

The group tunneling to the town hall stopped beneath the plaza, dumping a summoned hydra as a distraction and then magically sealing the summoning portals closed as a temporary measure. The hydra managed to drop several gargoyles before being fully swarmed. Meanwhile, the party surfaced into the clerks' office area of the town hall, finding the desks and files in a state of disarray. Pushing around the corner in the hall revealed a nearby room of identical construction, this time full of crouching feral ghoul-zombies and a cultist prelate shuffling through papers. Most of the contents of the room were noted to be highly flammable; the party dumped a fireball through the door onto the inhabitants and then shut it again while the fire raged through the offices.

At this point, there were two options: pressing upstairs into the mayoral suites, or moving back toward the lobby area. The path to the lobby followed a discrete hidden passage, and just beyond the lobby was a receiving room for dignitaries. The party searched the room and found a hidden vault just beyond it guarded by a heavy blast door. The vault was full of carefully cataloged treasures of the city.

Just beyond the lobby, a hall lead deeper into the darkness, toward an apparent storage area with a barred door. The party was horrified to find that the current stored contents of the room were dozens of bodies stacked like cordwood, in various states of decay and yet somehow twitching as if slightly animated. Moving forward for a closer look revealed the source of the animation; not undeath, but swarms of feasting rotgrubs that required immediate fiery termination. The party doused the room in combustible oil and then set fire to it as the maggots shrieked and writhed.

Image by Jean-Francious Beaulieu

Recognizing that portions of the building were now burning merrily, the party split, with several members staying to dump the treasure into bags of holding while the others left to check out some disquieting noises from the upstairs. The upstairs door was shut, and behind it was a general buzzing and humming. The moment it opened, the explanation became clear -- a snake-demon (marilith) surrounded by a cloud of several dozen giant flies. The flies and marilith gave quick pursuit, quickly smothering some summoned berserkers that the party used to buy time for an expeditious retreat. Everyone (including those from the treasure room) made a fast dash for the tunnel, then collapsed the exit to prevent the flies from following.

Meanwhile, the barracks group was facing its own complications. To distract the guardian worms, which were presumably hunting by acoustic vibrations, the party enchanted the tunnel behind them to reverberate with the noise of a celestial choir. Within a few dozen yards the barracks, the tunnel in back of the party suddenly exploded into a rushing mass of shadowy bulk -- a worm at least 60 feet long, plowing through the enchanted locus of the choir chant! Thorin dropped a disintegration trap to cover the mouth of the tunnel behind them, preventing pursuit. Sure enough, a few moments later, a pack of hell hounds charged down the newly formed side tunnel, baying for the hunt. The hell hounds came around the corner, and promptly charged into the disintegration barrier. After the first few hounds were vaporized, the remainder cringed and retreated back into the side tunnel.

Then the worm came back, this time slower and more deliberate in motion -- showing a keen intelligence that refused to be deceived by any more choirs. Horribly it crawled directly through the trap, ignoring the magical wards.... until it reached roughly the midpoint, and its magic resistance suddenly failed. The trap suddenly sprang back into function, neatly guillotining the worm into two thrashing segments. One worm down.

Image from George RR Martin's In the House of the Worm

The party broke into the lower floor of the barracks, into a recreation room full of hunting trophies. After a bit of poking about, they found a passage out through a storage area into a larger training room where soldiers met to spar and practice. From there, they advanced to the next floor up, at the ground level.

The ground level was quiet and dark, with no signs of activity. A secret door lead into a large open room, presumably once the location of the sleeping quarters, but with all the bunks removed and replaced by flat sleeping rolls on the floor. Several men reclined on the floor, but sprang at once into alertness as the door swung open. Taking one look at the party, they fled around the corner with Sir Pal and Smaug in hot pursuit. (The slower oozes opted for a shortcut directly through the wall.)

The chase ended at a short side- hall that dead-ended into a doorway. The door opened and out burst a tall figure in spiked black armor, bearing a greatsword. After the predictable bellowing about wanting to know about the meaning of this particular disturbance, everything erupted in violence. The melee fighters pushed forward to handle the commander while everyone else mopped up the underlings (who turned out to be werewolves, not that it did them much good).

Everything was going relatively well until another giant worm crashed up through the floor from the level below. It made a quick grab for Thorin, swallowing him down in a gulp. Thorin, reasoning that he wanted to be as indigestible as possible, proceeded to uncork all of his potions into the worm's belly, giving it a terrible case of indigestion. It managed to avoid losing its lunch, and instead sank back through the floor to rest off the effects of consuming an ill-flavored dwarf.

As the dark-armored commander looked nearly beaten and began to scream of treachery, the armor suddenly clattered to the floor, empty. A ghostly form ascended out of the armor -- the gaseous form of a vampire that fled back through the door and out the window, into the night.

After a moment of peace, the wall itself began to crack and shudder. A huge mace covered in petrified skulls crashed through the wooden frame -- the Wand of Death, the favored weapon of the Demon Prince of Undeath when manifested in his material avatar.

Ladies and gentlemen, Orcus has entered the building.