Session 32: Sanctum of the Wormpriest
General Summary
The party finished off the amorphous creature before one of the hounds breathed fire all over the melee fighters, roasting them.
The party ganged up on them, and defeated one hound handily enough, but then the cleric retreated backward in the fog gloud Sigvurd set up, and summoned a massive phantom.
The hulking figure wore a tattered shroud, its form a writhing mass of green worms. It loomed in the hallway between them and the cleric, dealing massive blows of necrotic damage to all who passed by
Zeke decided it was an illusion, and ran past, tanking the damage and closing with the cleric. The cleric saw him coming however, and dealt a mighty spell against him. The party heard a clatter of armor as the paladin fell.
Lins, healer, fighter, and wizard all in one, asked Sigvurd to dispel the fog, and teleported past the phantom to heal the paladin. Together they fought the cleric back, and then Sigvurd vaulted over their heads, mashing his head with the Greataxe of Frost.
The silence rang after the noise of combat, and the party turned their attention on the rest of the room.
They observed the mosaic behind the urn displayed a disturbing visage of a wormy face. They tried the western corridor, and found a lavatory where they stashed the cleric body, then turned to the door he'd come through.
They saw a room with a four-post bed, an ornately-carved trunk, a zombie sippin tea, a table, and a desk.
They were suspicious of the zombie, but when all investigation revealed were the red marks of strangulation on her neck, they turned their attention on the chest.
The chest showed a cross-section of the earth, with a monolith deep beneath it, and a shrouded figure of writhing worms trapped inside. The carvings showed worms crawling up through the earth's crust, up to a green-blasted landscape where naked, terrified victims cowered from the devouring worms.
Zeke tried to dispel magic, but even his mightiest spell failed. The party discussed, and decided there was a chance the enemy had a weakness stowed in there
They sent Zeke's "constructs," one by one, to try and open it. One by one, they winked out of existence, reappearing as additional carved victims on the chest's side panels.
After some debate, Zeke decided to try it himself. The party held their breath as he turned the key.... and remained! The chest popped open, revealing the cleric's personal effects, plus a bunch of magic items.
They stuffed the zombie in a bag of holding before moving on to the next room, where a scroll on an altar sent a thin line of green energy across the wide chamber to a pair of double doors.