Session 11 - Mud and Blood
5 Thaumont 1010 - 8 Thaumont 1010
General Summary
The party elects to take a short rest to recover from the intense battle with the bullywugs, allowing Leofingol time to re-summon Flametalon, and Stavos to spend some time examining the helm they found. It turns out the helm is a helm of underwater action, providing darkvision, the ability to breathe under water, and a swim speed of 30 ft. The party decides it makes sense to extend the rest to allow Stavos to attune to the item.
With that, the party continues down the trail in search of the Lizardfolk town. They work their way along and find another split in the trail, one path leading to a cave entrance and the other circling north around the large hill. After some debate, and Flametalon scouting from above, they decide to split the difference between the two trails and hike up the hill. Eventually they decide to go into the cave that the right split leads to, which shows signs of large tracks in the mud.
This may not have been the best choice, as once the party enters the cave, six Giant Lizards rise from the mud and attack! This forces the party back a bit, but they fight through it, and soon take down three of the lizards. Then, at the back of the large cave entrance, a group of Lizardfolk enter and ask the party to surrender. In order to avoid an incident the party stops fighting, and the Lizardfolk call off the Giant Lizards. The party explains that they are coming to talk to Redfin, the Lizardfolk that the party met on The Sea Ghost trying to buy weapons. One of the Lizardfolk brings back Redfin, and he recognizes the party, and arranges terms for them to enter and meet with them. The party agrees to surrender their weapons, and follows them into the cave system.
They wind through the cavern system and come to a large vaulted throne room, with various trophy heads on the wall, most of which are large, aggressive sea creatures. There are several guards, a throne, and some young Lizardfolk playing in the hall. The children are sent off to another area, and the party is introduced to Othokent, the leader of the Lizardfolk. Things start a little rough, as they want to understand why the party is "sneaking in the back door" and killing their Giant Lizards. The party explains that they did not know it was the back way in, and were surprised by being attacked by the Giant Lizards, and that they stopped once the Lizardfolk arrived. They also had to explain the interaction with Redfin back in Session 2 - Catching a Ghost, when the party determined that they could not give the apparent stolen weapons to Redfin. They remind the Lizardfolk that they did return the money that had been paid to the Pirates, and were acting in good faith.
Furthermore, the party is here to try to negotiate a peaceful future for both Saltmarsh and the Lizardfolk, if possible (perhaps overstating their authority with Saltmarsh). The party explains the situation with the strange happenings at sea with monstrous sightings, and various missing sailors, as well as their ambush by the Bullywugs on their way to visit with the Lizardfolk. The party asks if there is some way for them to show their good intentions.
Othokent says the Bullywugs are not likely the cause of the problems at sea, as they do not like salt water; more likely the problem is coming from Sahuagin. She goes on to say there has been a Crocodile, known as Thousandteeth, that is very dangerous and, unlike other crocodiles that they can live with, this one really needs to be dealt with. If the party kills Thousandtooth, and brings back proof, she will treat with them.
The party thinks this seems reasonable, and asks how they should properly visit with the Lizardfolk. They are shown the front door, and Othokent gives them a token to show the guards at the gate, and the lizardfolk make them a crude map of the region, mainly showing the two main rivers, and where they have seen Thousandteeth.
The party is given their weapons back upon leaving the cave system and they head to the Sea Ghost for the night. They determine that they will not be done with this visit before the crew runs out of food, so they ask Sumadram to take the Sea Ghost back to town, let the crew have the rest of their pay as a bonus, and report back to the town council that the Lizardfolk are not behind the troubles, and that the party is trying to arrange for a peaceful relationship etc. They give Sumadram 100g to deal with resupply of the ship.
They stay the night on the ship, and are dropped off by the crew at the trailhead again. They head inland (it is quite a few miles to get to the part of the swamp where they expect to find Thousandteeth). After a full day's hike through the swamp, with just a minor spider incident that tried to take down Leofingol with a poison attack, the party reaches the beginning of the area that might contain Thousandteeth. Elincia casts Find Creature or Plant to search for a giant crocodile, but detects nothing within a five mile radius. The party continues forward further into the search target area before trying again, this time Elincia searching for a regular crocodile, and unsurprisingly there was one within 100 yards. The party checks in on this crocodile, and it does not act aggressively, leading them to believe that the beast in question is probably a giant crocodile, and was just outside their original search area. They continue a bit further into the swamp, and get surprised by some giant frogs! One of these frogs size up Leofingol as a bite size morsel. The party is harangued, and four of the five are grappled, including Leofingol, and after a second round, the frog swallows him, much to the surprise of the entire party - apparently he is just small enough to be eaten! The frog leaps away from the party, as they have dealt with two of its kind already, and tries to get away with its meal. Elincia shape changes into a giant snake and hunts down the frog before it gets away, and Leofingol is able to escape from its gullet. After prestidigitating away the foul frog bile from his armor, hair, and clothing, the party moves on to find a good resting spot (away from the stench of the dead frogs), then repeat the search for a giant crocodile. This time they detect one a few miles north/northeast. They take their rest here, as the search spell has taken a lot out of Elincia, and Leofingol is a bit disgusted by the frog situation, and it is dark now, so not ideal for finding a giant hostile creature!
The next morning they depart and head in the direction of the search spell indication, and when they are in the area that would coincide to within a mile of their search target, they try again, and find that the Giant Crocodile is just a mile away toward the river. They head in the direction indicated, confident that they are in the right place. They soon find a large pool of brackish water with a mound in the center. As they begin searching the area, two giant constrictor snakes drop out of the trees, practically on top of the party. Once again, the attack is inside their normal formation, causing a bit of an issue with positioning. This time, the party quickly takes down one of the snakes, and is ready to take down the one attacking Belfur, when a disturbance comes from the water, as what they are pretty sure must be Thousandteeth aggressively presents himself to the party. The remaining snake, seeing Thousandteeth, quickly disengages, and escapes into the trees, wanting nothing to do with the giant crocodile.
With just one opponent to deal with, the party is able to focus their efforts quite effectively, and in just a few combat rounds they have exterminated the threat from this monstrosity. The more brave of the party explores the mound, but find nothing of interest. The party takes the head to add to Othokent's collection, and skin the crocodile for themselves, imagining how many boots could be made from their prize. Their skinning process is quite good this time, and it shows promise as a fine hide.
They head back to the Lizardfolk home, and are most of the way there, when they find themselves near another pool of water, and encounter a modest sized group of Sahuagin, which somewhat surprises the party since this is a small freshwater pool. Regardless, they prepare to fight them, not coming after the Sahuagin and their champion in the water, they instead prepare to fight on the land. Elincia is able to get off the Faerie Fire spell, marking half of them. The Sahuagin set upon the party, and the first to come to shore is immediately cut down, after just getting off a single attack on Belfur. The rest attack, and the party cuts them down in just a few rounds, but not before several of them enter a frenzied state, apparently caused by their opponents being wounded - some sort of blood frenzy. After killing off the evil host they check for any valuables, and only find some coins adding up to just over 70g. They take the head of the champion to show to Othokent and make camp far away from the now-befouled pool.
The night passes peacefully and the party arrives at the Lizardfolk mound in the morning; knocking on the front door. The guard immediately recognizes them, and brings them inside (Thousandteeth's head is a pretty obvious trophy, that Belfur is ridiculously wearing as a helm that is as big as him!). After a short wait they are brought to Othokent. She is clearly pleased that they have returned with the trophy, and the party shares the information of where they encountered the Sahuagin, though she is not as familiar with this area as they'd like, as she explains that this is not their native home. They have been driven out of their original home on an island southwest of here by the Sahuagin and that there are various troublesome and evil creatures that seem to be on the rise. She also explains that the Lizardfolk are seeking to form an alliance with various groups in the area to help deal with the problems with the invaders.
The party explains that this aligns well with the instructions they have been given by the town council, and suggest that the town would likely work with the Lizarfolk to make the area safer, and that an alliance can probably be arranged. Othokent also asks after Sumadram, as she also seeks an alliance with the Sea Elves. The party explains that Sumadram went back to Saltmarsh with their ship to report back to the town council on the situation. While they can not say for sure if Sumadram could negotiate on behalf of the Sea Elves, that he was in fact originally from Ierendi and not the local Sea Elf tribes, but could probably help introduce the Lizardfolk to the Sea Elves to facilitate such a multi-lateral alliance. Othokent also explains that the Lizardfolk had been in negotiations with Koalinth, but that that negotiation had just broken down, leading to her now wanting to engage with the Sea Elves.
She would like to send ambassadors back with the party to Saltmarsh to have discussions with the council; the party immediately agrees to act as an escort and introduce the representatives Garurt and Vyth to the council.
The day is still young, so the party is able to head off for Saltmarsh on foot with the ambassadors, and arrive in the late evening. They speak with the guards, who arrange for them to safely enter the city, and the party feels very good about their expedition. They offer the ambassadors to stay with them on the ship for the evening if that suits them, and they plan to meet with the council the next day.
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Report Date
16 Feb 2020
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