Adventure 1.3: An Errand for Amalthea - Group 2, Session 1

General Summary

The party has returned from their visit to the Jennings farmstead where they helped the farmer recover his lost tools - and perhaps helped to smooth things over between the farmer and the local Fey creatures. Having recovered from their injuries, they were lounging in the Bugbear's Head Inn common room reviewing and dividing their spoils when Branwyne Pinnman - the co-owner of the inn and wife of tavern-keeper Theodric - returned from her hunting trip.

Hunting was good, but a visit with her good friend Amalthea the Dryad was troubling. Amalthea spoke of problems in the Feywood - particularly up north - that may involve the trapping and/or killing of the lesser Fey creatures in the region. Amalthea has been trying to gather information, but has so far had little luck. However, word has reached her that a Lizardfolk chieftain of a village in the marshlands known as the Lizard Fens has some information he is willing to share, but he cannot leave his village to deliver it.

The nature of the swamps is such that Amalthea cannot go to him, and none of the lesser Fey are willing to brave the swamps either. The marshlands are the domain of the gremlins and other creatures that do not take kindly to nymphs. Branwyne asks the party if they would go to the Lizardfolk village and retrieve the message from the chieftain. They agreed.

The next morning, they set out following Daphinia's Stream until they reached the edge of the marshes. From there, they were told to head due north into the swamps to find the lizardfolk village. The terrain they were crossing was not unusual for a low-lying swamp region. While there were some high and dry spots, most of the land was spongy soft, with water bubbling up at every step. There were many places where small channels of standing water had to be crossed. Most were shallow enough for the goblin and gnome to cross, but not all.

It was while crossing one of the deeper channels that the trouble occurred. The channel of dark, stained water proved to be about four feet deep and was about fifteen feet across. Tanalith the Elf took Pickles the Gobin onto his shoulders and crossed while his companioni Ewulf swam alongside. Thornas attempted to follow with Zat the gnome on his shoulders, but before they reached the far side, an alligator erupted from the waters to strike at them.

Zat had seen the gator just before the strike, and was able to nimbly leap from Thornas' shoulders and tumble clear on the land beyond the channel. Springing to his feet, he got well clear of the creature before turning around. Thornas was not so lucky. The ten-foot-plus alligator turned its head and locked its jaws around Thornas' waist, preparing to use its "death roll" tactic to get the human off his feet and into the drowning water.

Thornas was lucky -- the beast lost its grip and he was able to get free of the jaws and keep his feet. Almost at the same time, Tanalith the Elf leapt from the shore into the water behind the gator, driving his shortsword into the beast. In the meantime, Thornas assumed a fighting stance and rained a flurry of blows on the snout of the beast.

The gator thrashed its tail at the annoyance behind it - dealing an almost crippling blow to the Elf. It then snapped repeatedly at the monk before it, but the monk evaded the attacks. A chilling blast of magic from Pickles the Goblin, and finally a brutal axe assault from the Aryk the Dwarf (who had been preparing to remove his armor to make his own way across the channel) finished the creature.

Souvenirs were taken and wounds were tended. The party wisely decided that carrying a full alligator skin into a lizardfolk village may not be wise, so they settled for gator tooth souvenirs of the battle. Zat's new dragonskin boots would have to come another time.

Moving away from the water and finally finding sufficiently dry ground on which to make a camp, the party settled in for a night in the swamp.