HotDK 26: "Into The Swamps"

Having reached the end of the tunnel you discover a very obvious trail leading into the wetlands. Non-human footprints both coming and going and drag marks as if several heavy chests were being dragged. Pubert chooses to stay back for a bit to guard the tunnel and make sure no one is following you all and will catch up later. After a while, it dawns on Brehana and Rargir while looking at these drag marks that several chests and crates that they knew were in the locked room the first time the went in, weren’t anymore.

About a half hour into trudging through the muck of the swamp you spot a quad of Lizardfolk that seem to be standing watch over the trail you are following. Thankfully Malice’s invisibility spell is still in effect so you are able to sneak past them. Finally, some 7 miles (roughly 2 hours) after exiting the tunnel (the invisbility spell) has worn off, you come upon a crude camp site. There are four lean-tos and three canoes on this slightly raised land mass but beyond here there’s nothing but black murky water.

While you are inspecting the camp and about to get into the canoes to make you way out into the water, you hear yelling coming from the direction you came from. The four Lizardfolk you saw before have returned to what you now figure was their camp and they’re none to happy to see strangers about to steal their boats.

In their first volley of javelins, one strikes Brehana. Malice sends a retaliatory Eldritch Blast declaring, “How dare you strike The Iron Gnome?!”. As combat ensues, one Lizardfolk is killed but another, upon hearing the name “Iron Gnome” seems to hesitate a moment, but then drops his weapon and gets Malice in grapple. In broken common he declares, “please help us; no kill; need help; talk alone”

Malice agrees and the Lizardfolk surrender after an order from the one who’s name you learn is Snapjaw. He tells you about the ‘dragon kneelers’ and the elf that commands the castle on the other side of the blackwater and how the ‘dragon kneelers’ use the Lizardfolk to porter the heavy chests from the roadhouse to the castle. The cult leaders have also apparently enlisted the assistance of a group of Bullywugs who treat the Lizardfolk very poorly.

Snapjaw and his people have somehow heard the tales of Pubert and The Iron Gnome, their demon friend and the quiet cleric that travels with them. When he heard Malice call Brehana “The Iron Gnome” he took a chance that it was really THE Iron Gnome and decided to seek your assistance to free his people from the Bullywugs and Cult of the Dragon.