Exhausted, we headed down to the basement of Blackwall Keep. Corporal Green had been makin’ us more anxious with each passin’ minute, tellin’ us how this creature had been down there for more than two years! Tyree didn’t make matters any better, hollerin’ at the basement door as if the Zombie would understand anything he had to say. And people call me a comedian.
We cast some spells, but really, we had very few left. Before we could start to tear down the boards securin’ the basement door, however, two clawed hands covered in dull withered scales punched straight through the wooden boards. As if that weren’t bad enough, the fists opened up and dropped swarms of those green worms all over the floor in front of us!
I pulled out a flask of alchemist’s fire and doused one pile of worms. Tyree tried to smash the worms with his sword, but his weapon had no visible effect on the swarm as a whole (although there was one worm that would cause us no trouble again). Valcrist fired his crossbow through the whole in the door and was rewarded with a low moan from his hit. The burnin’ worms started crawlin’ toward Valcrist while the other group started crawlin’ up Alabron’s legs! Egwaine immediately ran up and used her silver holy symbol (as the worms are vulnerable to silver for some reason even though they aren’t Undead themselves) to burn off one of the worms crawlin’ on Alabron. Alabron managed to pluck off the other worm, but barely avoided the things spiral teeth!
I hit the initial pile of worms with more alchemist’s fire and they finally died and disbursed. Valcrist managed to fire another absurdly precise shot through the hole in the door and hit the Zombie on the other side. That’s when the worms got on Egwaine and started crawlin’ up her legs! Storn, who was momentarily stunned by the appearance of all the worms, bolted towards the exit as fast as his stumpy legs would carry him. Egwaine retreated out of the worm swarm, but wasn’t able to kill any of the three worms that were on her. That’s when Alabron did somethin’ crazy! He doused Egwaine in alchemist’s fire! At first, I thought the Half-Orc had lost his mind, but then I saw that he had killed all the worms – of course, Egwaine was on fire. Suddenly, the door exploded into the room and a trio of worm infested, Lizardfolk Zombies started to come in the room. Tyree charged into the lead Zombie and hit it hard with his Bastard Sword, bottling the rest in the short hallway. One of the Zombies did get by him (despite a vicious slash deliver by his sword) and slammed into Valcrist, depositin’ a tiny green worm on his neck!
I was still tossin’ alchemist’s fire at worm swarms as Tyree finished off the Zombie he was fightin’ and then slashed into a second one. Valcrist ginergy flicked away the worm on his neck and moved away from the flamin’, clawlin’ worm swarm. Egwaine started rollin’ on the ground to extinguish the flames that were just startin’ consume her clothes and Alabron charged past her to kill a Zombie and cleave into another one with his follow through. The remainin’ Zombie hammered Tyree to one knee with a solid blow and dropped a worm on his arm.
More worm swarms started showing up, but we used a combination of torches (wielded by my Unseen Servant) and lines of silver coins to control the worms and kill them. It took some time, but using this method, no one was even in any danger of being turned into an Undead abomination.
After takin’ up a collection from the soldiers in the keep, we set off down the stairs armed with more torches and a bag full of silver coins. More worms were dealt with and then we entered the basement proper. It once served as a barracks, but now it was inhabited by a trio of worm Zombies Alabron and Tyree killed two Zombies (includin’ the man who was the origin of the infestation) while Valcrist, Storn, and I killed the third one.
A sweep of the area revealed no further threats. We did find, however, a crude tunnel that led to the outside. We informed the soldiers of all this as well as made sure to tell them about the tiny Lizardfolk Zombies in the mangaroo swamp. I went so far as to advice addin’ a silver inlay in the floor of each doorway to help protect against further worm problems.
Then we went to sleep. We had to rest up for our trip back to Diamond Lake. Hopefully the town will still be there when we return.
28th Marpenoth, 1371
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