Sanguine Sunrise #3: Death's Road

General Summary

The Northerners quickly rush away from the scene evading any pursuers following them from the sprawl of dead cultists they left in their wake. As they travel, the heavy precipitation gives way to snowfall, and the group must build a makeshift shelter that night to defend themselves from the elements. That night, Kiwi notices a strange glow in the coastal rocks, but she is unable to find anything and in the morning, the group leaves it behind.
As the group travels, they run into a group of giant crabs along the side of the road. The group tries to evade them, but Grimace is surrounded by crabs and can't get away. Meanwhile, two abyssal looking creatures rise from the water and attempt to harpoon and drag away Skek and Luthrin. They manage to get Skek and attempt to drag him into the deep, but after a short fight, the crabs and the merrow are defeated and Skek and Grimace are saved. The party then continues on until they find a spot to rest.
That night, as Skek and Grimace take first watch, they see a giant insectoid creature flying along the road. They are spotted as Grimace tries to hide, and the creature attacks them, devastating them and nearly killing Grimace and Kiwi. However, with Skek's healing and Luthrin's attacks, the creature is defeated with everyone's lives intact.
The group continues on the next day, passing the pits where, barring Grimace, they were once held. Travelling along the road, the group encounters a duergar slave driving team carrying a copper elf figure from Skek's past. Skek initiates a fight, killing all but one duergar as he escapes. The group then greets the prisoner who introduces herself as Rastra though Skek knows her full name is Theirastra. She recounts her tale of how her shared village with Skek was burned many years before.
The next two days pass uneventfully as the group comes upon the fort they came for. They enter and follow signs to a door that states, "Explore deeper into the swamp, and find the strongholds of the necromancer's legions. End them, and you’ll be payed in gold, glory, and magic."
As Luthrin scoffs at the fact that no one was present to give this order, a cough comes through the door followed by multiple voices giving slightly more in depth info. The group then enters the swamp, leaving Rastra in the fort
As they explore the swamp, the group is confronted by a group of four goblins riding skeletal giant frogs. The group begins to feign weakness to have the goblins take them back to their base, but as the goblins attempt to bind Luthrin in rope, he attacks them. Two of the goblins and their mounts are quickly slain, but the other two abandon their mounts and hide in the swamp brush to escape the combatants.
The Northerners chase after the goblins, but as they do, they hear the crackle of fire and see the rising of smoke. The group rushes forward to find a tribal village on fire as frog-like humanoids covered in a strange fungus are fighting a black drake and lizardfolk.

Character(s) interacted with

Theirastra, The Prisoner

Report Date

23 Mar 2020