Age of Worms: Session One - Part Four

A great rumbling is heard from below the chamber as the circular stone at the end of the tunnel rises eight feet into the air, pushed up by a 5-foot-diameter metal cylinder that seems to arise from the ground itself. Seconds after it comes to rest, two thin doors slide into the sides of the cylinder, revealing a small empty chamber. Wary of this chamber, Mullins inspects it, searching for any signs of danger, but as he steps inside the doors slam closed and the entire contraption lowers itself into the floor. It continues down for several seconds, then finally comes to a stop. The doors slide open quietly to reveal a dark room.

Mullins stands there for a few moments, hoping the elevator will go back up, but it does not. He casts dancing lights so that he may look about the room. He sees several statues which look similar to the figure upon the sarcophagus, though several of the statues have limbs hacked off, and about fifteen feet to the south, a dark passage extends from an elaborately carved arch. However, only a little of this hallway is visible as a large stone block obscures most of the passage. As there is nothing else he can do, Mullins steps out of the elevator to inspect the room closer. Seconds after he steps out, the doors close and the elevator heads back up. Outside the elevator now, Mullins notices a button inset into the wall near the bottom of the shaft.

For about a minute, the rest of the PC's stare at the space that the elevator was in, wondering what to do about their lost friend. Al'lah breaks the silence by saying, "Well, I'm gonna miss that guy", but nothing else is said. Then they again hear the elevator rising and when it arrives the doors open as before. Al'lah steps in, the doors close, and the elevator heads down once more. Mullins hears the elevator decending and assumes it is one of his friends. When the doors open, he holds up his hand and says, "Wait. Get a lantern." Then he hits the button on the wall and the doors close, sending Al'lah back to the upper floor.

When the doors open above Al'lah, Able, and Xan look at each other confusingly. Al'lah walks out of the elevator, then walks back in. The doors close, he heads down. When he arrives below without the lantern, Mullins shakes his head and face palms. Then he looks up again and says a little louder and very clear, "Get... a lantern." Al'lah replies, "Oh. I didn't know what you meant." Mullins presses the button again. Again Able and Xan are confused, but Al'lah makes sure to take a lantern down with him this time. He grabs the indigo lantern off the hook. The elevator has to make a few trips, but eventually the whole party is together on the lower floor.

There isn't much to see in this small room and the group decides to try to get past the stone slab. First, Mullins inspects it and finds a trap: a pressure plate below the slab. He tries to disarm it, but is unsuccessful. After being helped onto the top of the block by his friends, Mullins inspects the opening between the slab and the archway. He is able to fit through this opening, so has the group lower him down with rope and he takes the lantern with him.

He's only about 10 feet in when he suddenly falls asleep and hits the floor. The rest of the group hear the little gnome and the lantern hit the floor and try desperately to move the stone block, but to no avail. Just as suddenly as Mullins fell asleep he is awoken. A creature is hovering above him that looks like two floating eyes with something like tentacles wrapped around his neck. Mullins can tell he's severely hurt, but manages to escape the grasp anyway. As he stands up he is suddenly struck with fear. He runs for the stone block, screaming "Pull me up!" and is hoisted back into the other room. Able heals Mullins' wounds, and then the group gets to work on moving the stone block, which takes about 30 minutes. The block falls towards them, but they notice and move out of the way. At this point, the trap goes off and a noxious green gas fills the room. It only seems to affect Mullins, who suddenly feels weaker. Knowing that this gas is probably poison, Able manages to assist Mullins in overcoming any additional effects.

They stand in the room for about 10 minutes, dealing with Mullins' sickness and watching for the strange creature which never shows. Then Al'lah moves forward and the creature attacks from the same place as he did before, trying to cast sleep on his target from behind a statue, but misses Al'lah. Xan has heard about this monster before and knows that it is a Lurking Strangler: an aberration that shoots eye rays. The monster is unlucky this time and is unable to hit his marks. Mullins charges up to the monster and deals a fearful, but lethal blow, and for several seconds he keeps hitting the monster, slowing coming out of his state of fear.

And that is where we left off folks! I had to add a little in, as I made mistakes and there was only certain ways that things could have happened. My very first stint at DM'ing, so I should eventually get better. Hopefully, I do a better job of summarizing next time! Though this has been fun, it is quite time consuming. Anyway if anyone actually wants me to keep writing the story this way, let me know and I will probably keep doing so (if I don't anyway; I'm bad at summarizing).