Session 58: Prisoners of the Wormgod
General Summary
Scrubbing driblets of green ooze from their chins, the party rallied to fight off Kyuss' ancient wormcallers. Quick to set up their debuffs, the party made short work of the undead casters, and with both of them kebab'd on Sigvurd's glaive, continued exploring the basement.
They found a room of surprisingly well-preserved corpses, which turned out to be the result of a permanent Gentle Repose spell inscribed on the chamber walls. Nemara called out to a corpse using her celestial power, giving it voice to tell them what it knew.
The corpse told them she had been honoured with the privilege of sacrificing her body to Kyuss the ascendant Wormgod. Her physical body would be of use in Kyuss' rise to godhood, and she had been brought to the temple by a high priest named Atl. She knew little about Kyuss' ascension itself, but indicated that someone who knew much more than she—and could share that information—was southeast of the room.
The party attempted to head southeast, but encountered a lake of worms, where two more wormcallers immediately levitated into the air to do battle with them. Weary from their last fight, Sigvurd covered their retreat with a fog cloud, and Fraeya ensured their rear defence against followers with her summoned spirit guardians. They decided to explore the southwest corner first.
Kicking down the door to the southwest, they found a corpulent worm naga who was surprised but interested to see them. He asked if any of them was a wizard, and when Lins was indicated, asked if she knew Teleport. Upon learning that the party had a scroll of Teleport, the naga, who introduced himself as Sruggut, offered them whatever they wanted in exchange for escape.
He had been experimented on millennia ago, he explained, and turned into his current wormy form. He has remained master of himself, though his kin have fallen into feral savagery. Although he isn't a follower of Kyuss, the Obsidian Ring prevents any of Kyuss' spawn—which technically includes him—from crossing it. Thus, he needed teleportation magic to circumvent it. "It isn't," he commented, "a very pleasant place to be trapped."
The party was sympathetic, and after Sruggut conjured up a dinner for them to share, learned more from the talkative naga. They learned the Obsidian Ring was created by an elven druid circle called the Circle of Storms, and that another powerful spellcaster—a lich, in fact—was trapped inside it as well. This person, whom Sruggut called the Harbinger, had been an elevated person in Kyuss' original cult—such that Kyuss himself looked up to him. Now he bides his time, trapped by the Ring even despite his magics, waiting for the Age of Worms to begin and release him.
The Harbinger, Sruggut told them, would know much more than he did about Kyuss, his following, and the Age of Worms, but he was a deadly foe and not to be trifled with. He advised them to avoid battle, if they could, and expressed that while h was willing to help the party fight off the wormspawn in exchange for a ride-along on their teleport home, he would not join a fight with the Harbinger.