Session 32 - Chapter 6 - Castle in the Swamp - Part 2

Hello & Welcome!

Chard, Dafnae, Pipp, and Torsion made their way back into the muddy courtyard where the bodies of the Bullywugs and the Giant Lizards were strewn about. They had to move forward carefully. The alarm bell had stopped ringing, but that was no guarantee at all that the threat of danger was over.

There were two doors further down. They choose first the closer one. It was unfortunately barred shut from the inside. Before they could try to open it however, the silence was broken by another loud noise coming from the outside. This was the sound of a blasting horn. Something akin to a battle cry. 

Behind them, the Lizardfolk emerged, crude weapons in hand. The leader spoke to Torsion in Draconic, "You, pink ones. It seems you spoke truth. Snapjaw has come to liberate us. He sounds the horn of battle. We go fight the Hoppers. You leave the Hoppers to us and we leave the other pink ones to you." 

Torsion replied, "Yes, agreed and fight bravely. But if we see the Hopper Shaman, we will not be shy with our blades." The Lizardfolk leader nodded at this last remark and then urged his companions forward into battle with a war cry of his own. Then they hurried down the causeway to face the Bullywugs. At least they would be safe from being attacked from behind. 

The horn blasts continued from the outside. Bullywug and Lizardfolk would be fighting each other.

The four then turned their attention to the other door at the far end of the muddy courtyard. They found the door locked as well. But as they tried to somehow force it (Dafnae had not yet managed to replace her the lock picking tools she broke back at the Roadhouse) the door swung open and on the other side of it were Black Dragon Guard Drakes with their Cultist handlers and combat resumed!

Torion was able to get a high damage hit with Sacred Flame on the Cultist in the rear while Chard and Dafnae focused on the Guard Drakes while Pipp supported from behind and managed to cause some good damage with Vicious Mockery.

The Heroes did well to hold them back and prevent the Guard Drakes from swarming through the door. The Cultists left the Guard Drakes to do guard on their own while they fell back to avoid succumbing to Torsion's assaults like their comrade had done.

One of them though was an Elite Cultist and managed to land a rather strong blow to Torsion with an Orb that magically launched an Acid Splash. And then they were beyond the corner and out of sight.

The fighting continued but the Guard Drakes were no match, Dafnae landing good strong Sneak Attack damage as well and eventually the three of them fell and then they could resume the pursuit of the Cultists.

Rounding the corner, they saw several more Cultists in the similar black leather garb and the Elite one with his Orb. Chard fired Eldritch Blast while Torsion used his Sacred Flame and Dafnae used her hand crossbow. Each of their attacks felled a Cultist. Their numbers will dwindling.

But the Elite Cultist again launched another Acid spell attack and hit Pipp quite hard. She went unconscious and but Dafnae was busy slicing at the Cultists around them before she could run to her aide.

Torsion meanwhile had advanced to engage with the remaining Cultists. But with their Fanatic Fury, they were able to get strong hits and Torsion went unconscious as well. Chard ran to his aide and managed to stabilise Torsion after killing the remaining Cultist around him.

The Elite Cultist expanded his cloak into what looked like Dragon Wings and managed to fly away from the attackers. The door on the far side opened revealing more Cultists and another Elite leader. But Chard and Dafnae quickly turned their attention to them in order to run the weaker Cultists through quickly and prevent the Elite one from using his Acid attack.

The one that flew away came back in for the attack but Chard was able to cut him down with two strong hits from his flaming Glaive and the immediate threat was gone. 

With the brief quiet, Dafnae and Chard looked in the room where the other Cultists were and it looked like some ceremonial room with an Alter in the one end. The two decided they needed a place to hide and recover a bit while Torsion and Pipp regained consciousness and so they thought they would barricade themselves into this room.

Chard stood watch while Dafnae searched the Altar. She found a few healing potions and a nice set of Silver Lock Picking tools. Those would surely come in handy later.

Chard some various groups of Cultists run towards the exit. Then a few would return followed by a few more running out. Eventually the battle horn outside stopped. And the Cultists stopped hurriedly running to and fro. Was the Lizardfolk incursion put down? What had happened to the Snapjaw? They would have to find out later.

Out of the doorway leading to the main central tower Chard saw Rezmir emerge with a Bullywug Shaman. This must be the Splattergoo that Snapjaw had mentioned. They were accompanied by another Half-Dragon they had not seen before. Rezmir and Splattergoo rounded the corner and went deeper into the castle.

After some time, Torsion and Pipp came too and they shared the Healing potions to get to a fighting fit state before they would continue. 

They thought they would try the central tower first - the last Chard saw it was the new Half-Dragon that had gone back in the tower. With the rebellion put down, the only way out of this was through it as going back into the Swamp would surely mean capture, or worse.

So they waited for a moment of quiet and the snuck to the other tower door and crept into the lower chamber and shut the door behind them.

The lower chamber was a nice waiting area. They just heard footsteps of one person upstairs. They decided to get the surprise on him and rushed upstairs.

On the top floor it was just the new Half-Dragon they had not seen before. But with the surprise and all four of the Heroes landing strong hits, he only managed to summon his Great Sword much like how Chard summons his Glaive before he fell. 

A quick look around found some loot and jewels and a letter. The letter gave instructions on what the command word was for a teleportation circle that was supposedly under the castle. So it was back down and deeper still to go with now a goal set for them. If they couldn't leave from the way they came, they would need to leave by means of this teleportation circle. Where it led, they did not yet know, but they intended of find out. There was no turning back.

They went back down and went round the same corner they saw Rezmir and Spattergoo go. At the next door, Dafnae carefully peered in through the window and saw several of the same black leather clad Cultists busily sorting various loot and treasure onto different shelves.

The plan they quickly decided on was to use the element of surprise again to get the drop on these Cultists. They also decided to quickly examine the Potions they collected earlier.

One turned out to be a Potion of Vitality and the other a Potion of Hill Giant Strength. They decided it would be best for Chard to drink them. He uncorked each one and quaffed them one after the other.

The Potion of Vitality was first. The liquid tasted of tart red berries, pomegranate and bitter herbs, with a sharp metallic tang like biting one's lip. A moment later, a spreading warmth filled Char'd mouth and chest, leaving behind the clean, invigorating taste of mint and fresh spring water. He felt suddenly, almost unnaturally, refreshed. One level of Exhaustion relieved.

Then it was the Potion of Hill Giant Strength. He swirled it around a bit before downing it. The potion was thick and earthy, tasting of smoked meat, stale ale and far too much salt, with a mineral tang like wet stone.Then came the last mouthful. Something hard touched Chard's tongue. He felt it scrape across his teeth. The little yellowed sliver of hill giant fingernail that had been floating in the bottle caught briefly at the back of his throat before, with considerable effort, Chard managed to swallow it. A heartbeat later, heat surged through his stomach and into his limbs. Chard's muscles tightened, his shoulders felt impossibly powerful. And with that, he put the bottles away, looked at his friends, and said in a low voice, "Right, let's kill these bastards!"

And with that, the swung the door open and rushed in. 

Dafnae and Torsion set their sites on the ones sorting the loot while Pipp and Chard made their way for the Elite Cultist. 

Torsion smashed his way through them. And the ones he couldn't hit immediately, he singed with his Sacred Flame.

Dafnae stabbed the unsuspecting Cultists with her Rapier, landing massive Sneak Attack Damage and then continued with a bolt into another with her Hand Crossbow.

Chard sliced deeply into the Elite Cultist with his flaming Glaive with his multiple attacks and Pipp followed with strong hits from her transformed Fantastical Fiddle. 

The battle only lasted a few rounds before they were all cut down. Chard could not help but smile as each one met their end as it was another soul for Bel.

A quick search of the area just allowed them to grab some treasure before they went deeper. 

Beyond the next door they found a staircase leading down, underneath the castle. 

They would need to head that way, and with the words from the letter on how to use the teleportation circle, they hoped they would be able to continue their pursuit of Rezmir, wherever it would be taking them.

Until next time ...