Journal entry 9.2023.12.30

17th of Eco year 527 (I may be losing track because we are underground)
We spent some quality time in Detroit, training, gathering new equipment, collecting rumors, and spending a lot of money. My contacts in the Steel Hand are confident they are beating out the criminal Grant family. After 39 days faffing around Detroit, we got a package containing Ding Dong's nuts (confirmed with identify) and a note pleading with us to help him out before he also got exsplenerated.
Trying to figure out what to do next and trying to figure out how to get to Skullport (to help Ding Dong). Touch bases with Steel Hand and they would like us to just kill everyone on Skull Island, screw their (and Ding Dong’s) quest to kill the monsters in the river.
We run into a strangely average human while discussing and they also want to join us (Kathy) (Aran), saying they also have a mission down here.
We enter Halaster’s dungeon through the Hole-In-The-Floor and head to level 2. We run into another adventuring group on the way in. We head to the goblin market. Everyone has been murdered (by the group we just passed). We head to level 3. We clear rubble through the hall before the drow town. We are fired at but escape through the town, avoiding the deeper, spiked, trapped, poisoned pit traps. We reach the Sargraurth river and with water walk we head upstream. We note but do not explore caves we see on the way up.
After about half a day we run into a fort on the side of the river. Coatl cannot detect specific thoughts but can tell there are still people there. We avoid it and continue along. Eventually we decided to camp for the night. Aran saw ‘something’ in the night, humanoids, 3, unidentified, they left once spotted.
18 Eco 527
We continued after a long rest. Mid-morning, we spotted a boat wreck. Searched, NSF. We reached Skull Island and ‘sneaked’ by (loudly). We got to the Upper river and camped for the night, using Ferzith’s Tiny Hut, night watchers and stinky dwarves encouraged to be outside the hut. On Aran’s watch again, they see a strange grey creature with a garotte. They try to track it and it seems to have disappeared.
19 Eco 527
We find two wrecked canoes today and that’s all. We camp again. We see another strange creature at night but it disappears as Vectis casts faerie fire at it.
20 Eco
We see a ruined tower. A figure steps out holding a white branch, a sahuagin. They insist on a trial by combat with our champion. Aran is eager because they hate sahuagin. A skinny malnourished sahuagin is presented, and they get one good hit on Aran, then gets blenderized by Aran. We camp. During the 4th watch, ATLT sees a group of a couple dozen drow cross the river south of us. We do nothing
21 Eco
Midday – rises out of the water is a disgusting statue of Fraz-urb'luu. Five human bodies are ruined upon the altar. We attempt to deface the statue. Later we camp. We see some duergar during the 4th watch, also avoiding us. We talk to them in common, they respond in undercommon and leave.
22 Eco
More wrecked canoes, with a chest containing a package of 1 pound of ‘Rain’, a cheap drug. Hergatz collected it. We make camp. No visitors noticed that night.
23 Eco
Encounter a corpse of a hydra washed downstream. And a swarm of stirges. The stirges suck some of our blood. The hydra head is gone. The body has been chomped by something large. I collect some scales. Aran claims ‘Carl’ is ahead and waits for us – it is a dragon turtle! We advance. We encounter a strong smell of death and find a muddy shore with some mushrooms and a large plant which turns out to be a corpse flower, spreading a cloud of poison. We attack. We kill it. It spawns a bunch of zombies. We start killing them. Carl, the dragon turtle, appears and breathes steam over almost all of us. Several go down including Clive, Onslow, Darien, Ryker, Dalden, and Cardo. Grasshopper (who ran across the water) and Aran (who stayed out on the water in the middle) melee the dragon. Coatl was up, healed Darien, and Darien healed Clive and Ferzith.