HotDK 30: “The Gruesome Demise of Pharblex Spattergoo”

After taking a short rest near the tadpole pond, you continue around the edge of the underground lake. Stepping out briefly onto a small peninsula you spot a Giant Frog on a small island; it croaks loudly then jumps into the water, disappearing below the surface. Shortly after you hear a cacophony of other frog croaks from off in the distance and the sound of multiple splashes. You decide not to wait around to see what made those sounds and crack on.   You come upon a larger chamber walled on the east side by a 10’-15’ cliff face, atop which sits what appears to be a crane that can lower things down to the chamber or lift things up to the top of the cliff. Brehana climbs up the ladder to investigate but finds that it just leads back around to the chamber you entered the caverns from.   Of note are marks along the ground from the cliff face just below the crane to an opening to the north on the west side of the chamber that appear like heavy items were being dragged, while the opening to the southwest has muddy footprints leading toward it. You choose to follow the muddy footprints but not before Malice briefly checks the northwest corridor and finds it leading into another chamber with a mist covered floor.   Going down the shallow stairs to the southwest you finally come upon whom you have been hunting – Pharblex Spattergoo, Shaman-Chieftain of the Bullywugs and his entourage of guards in what appears to have been some strange religious ceremony. Snapjaw, upon seeing Pharblex charges in a bloodlust, determined to fight his way to the killer of his own Shaman-Chieftain (you note, in fact, that Pharblex wears the head of a Lizardfolk as a kind of crown.   Naturally battle ensues, with Pharblex directing his Bullywugs while casting various spells from behind them. Ultimately, he is forced to retreat into an inner chamber as his Bullywug guards fall one by one. Snapjaw, despite his injuries in the fight, gives chase managing to strike a decent blow before Pharblex can completely escape.   Pubert joins Snapjaw’s chase of Pharblex into the cave while Rargir bolsters their health but Pharblex’s Barkskin spell manages to thwart their melee efforts. But Malice, using Eldritch Blast to seal Pharblex’s death – as he goes down Snapjaw delivers a skull shattering blow to Pharblex’s head not knowing it was Malice that delivered the kill shot (and you allow him to believe it was he who slew the enemy of The Scaly Death Clan even assisting him with using Pharblex’s staff to put his head on a pike for Snapjaw to display as a trophy and rally banner for the tribe).   Among Pharblex’s meager possessions you find an empty chest that was rigged to cause six clay pots full of some unknown fine white power from the ceiling but Brehana manages to deftly find and disarm it and Pubert is able to then safely lower the pots to the floor without them breaking. He also has a pair of arcane spellbooks, no doubt stolen from the Cult’s library upstairs that you set aside for Malice and Brehana to study in depth later.   At this point, you finally succumb to your fatigue and settle into Malice’s Tiny Hut for eight hours of well earned and much needed rest.