18 - A Sunken Fort the Third - Continued

by lichbrush

## Cast

Greg Hansen - Dungeon Master

Coldlikebryce - Arlo

Shadow - Murdock

Stone - Puck

Temhr - Haymanot

## Day 3 (continued)

### Encounter 7: Recovering the Mules

After running from the lizardfolk by the sunken fort the party realizes it left its mules tied to a tree nearby and Murdock and Puck sneak back to get them and find a place to hunker down covering their tracks as they go.

### Encounter 8: Lizard Hunters in the Night

A party of 2 Lizardfolk go hunting for the party but are not able to find their camp, the party then sets up to ambush them as they return to the fort. As they loose their first volley one of the lizardfolk falls. The second turns to face the party and chucks its spear into the chest of Haymanot. Then striking him down before falling to the onslaught of the party. Arlo heals Haymanot back to consciousness and the party returns to bed.

DC 10 foraging – 1 fail 3 pass

## Day 4

### Encounter 9: Back to the Fort [unrand]

The party makes their way back to the fort from the south west noticing two guards on top of the tower and the shaman meditating in the fort. Arlo begins to fake frog noises from the outside of the fort in attempt to draw out the lizardfolk. The lizardfolk maintain their watch until he changes to dying lizardfolk noises. At this the two guards begin to make their way out, springing the party's ambush. One of the guards goes down as Arlo charges the shaman.

The shaman responds by turning into a giant crocodile. The remaining guard downs Haymanot who bleeds badly on the ground nearly dying before Murdock patches him up. Puck smashes in the skull of the remaining guard as the group turns their full focus on the shaman. The croc grips Arlo in its teeth and moves to close with the rest of the party. The fire from Haymanots fingers revery the shaman to its lizardman's form. The shaman bites Arlo dropping him to the ground as Haymanot brings him back t his feat. Murdock from his vantage point up on the battlement shoots the shaman in the back slaying him.

### Encounter 10: Diving Back Beneath [unrand]

The party heads back below finding the corpses they had left before and water leaking through under one of the doors. The doors themselves are ancient and crumbling as is the stonework around them. They head towards the door the water is not coming from and go through into what was one clearly an armory, the racks of weapons have long since rotted away. There are two pieces of armor untouched by time. The armor rises from their position and begin to move. The animated armors close in trading blows with the party as the clerics switch to calling down radiant energy that won't be blocked by the armor's hardness. Murdock shoots down the first one as Puck and Arlo take punches. The last armor struggles to get past Arlo's shield as the party tears it to pieces.

### Encounter 11: The Dining Hall[unrand]

The party pushes forward to the room beyond finding the remains of a dining hall. There is a large stone slab in the center with nubs around it that look like they could be used as seats. There is a mural on each of the walls of this great hall made of color tiles, meticulously placed. They are worn by time and slime grows upon them.

The murals: A group of warriors fighting other humanoids. A victorious human figure with a stags head with others around him kneel. A great building and a throne with a stags antlers being built while this human watches. A multi-headed lizard killing and biting many of these figures in a pitched battle. The human with a stag's head wielding a large two-handed weapon standing victorious but wounded. A procession of figures carrying the stag-headed man and his weapon to a tower and leaving him there.

They move on to another room adjoining the armory. This room is empty besides a green fungus covering the entire room which Arlo identifies as a mushroom with very toxic spores as the party closes the door and moves back to the door with the water was leaking through which is stuck. The party wraps a rope around the handle of the door and tugs but it refuses to budge. Murdock finds a piece of metal to jam in the door frame to pry with and Puck rips the door open.

### Encounter 12: The Deeper Fort[unrand]

As they pry the door open water rushes past them no higher than the knees of the characters as they see this is the part of the fort leaning further into the lake. The water in the room becomes deeper further in the room and they spot a crocodile sleeping below the water. The party prepares to ambush the beast, slaying it as it wakes from its nap. The party searches this crocodile's lair finding bones of animals and humanoids. They move on to a room beyond which is much drier on the north and submerged on the south side. There are holes in the submerged part of the fort. The party then looks back at another door coming from the room they found the crocodile noticing that water is leaking from all around it. The party decides to return to the partially submerged room to do a proper search. There is a decanter down below the water as well. As Puck swims down to grab the decanter he notices a shipwreck down outside the fort. The ship lies in half at the bottom of the swamp. Puck realizes he would be pushing his breath to get to the ship, but notices lots of crocodiles and water-life in this large lake.

### Encounter 13: The Flooded Room[unrand]

The party then returns to the door to the fully flooded room and attaches a rope to open it from a distance. As they open the door the room that they are in floods completely. Puck swims in and investigates the new room. This place appears to be former living quarters with shelving and cots. There are two corpses that are giant humanoids dressed in furs. As they spot Puck they stir to life and the party pulls Puck back out of the water. As they wait for the creatures to follow nothing comes.

### Encounter 14: The Throne Room[unrand]

The party returns to the fungus room wrapping their nose and mouth in cloth to attempt to reduce the exposure to poison. Puck traverses the room to the door on the other side and opens it. The room is a throne room a massive rotting wooden throne carved with enormous stag antlers is flanked by two corpses in full furs holding big clubs with tooth marks in them. They rise up to face towards Puck. Coming towards him as he attempts to draw them back to his allies. Arlo rushes in and turns undead causing one of them to flee. Arlo crushes the head of the one who held its ground. A critical firebolt from Haymanot strikes the fleeing one in the back as it turns back to fight Murdock strikes it with an arrow killing it.

As Murdock makes his way through the fungus room he feels the spores effect him. His strength dexterity and constitution are halved for the next 7 days or until treated. The salve from Witha allow them to clear the illness after a long rest. The door to the east in this room is a very dark wood and is emblazoned with a stag head inlaid with silver with no handle. There is a well made carpet in front of the throne destroyed by the water and two large bronze brazers with petrified wood in each of them. On the ceiling is a bone chandelier made of the horns of various animals. The party closes off the throne room and begins to rest for the night. Puck opens the decanter and water comes immediately pouring out. The decanter can be given a command word and produce water(decanter of endless water). The pendant Murdock picked up can transform him into a crocodile.

NO Foraging

## Day 5

### Encounter 15: The Treasury[unrand]

The party opens the simple door in the throne room to a simple small living quarters that has rotted away. On a stone protrusion in the room there is a black ring with a stag's head embossed upon it. They find the ring to be magic of transmutation through Arlo's ritual. Haymanot takes the ring, puts it on and presses his hand against the silver inlaid door in the throne room. A knocking sound rings out as the door opens of its own accord revealing a small room beyond it. There is a huge mound of wealth in the room beyond much of the pile is submerged and covered in fungus. There are skeletal remains in the back of the room, both animal and humanoid and there is a strange rock formation hanging down from the roof. The party does not trust this rock formation and begins to fire upon it with sacred flame as the roper comes to life. The party attempts to pierce the creature's rocky exterior as the roper sends out tentacles to reel in the party. Puck gets bitten by this monstrosity falling unconscious in a single bite. Arlo brings Puck back with a healing word and Puck deflects the next bite with a torrent of water from the decanter. As the sacred flames come down upon it creating cracks Murdock turns into the crocodile and the roper bites it fully in half, luckily Murdock falls away safely out of its mouth reverted to his original form. The roper attempts to bite down on Haymanot but is blocked with a shield. The roper on its last legs bites Haymanot clean in half sending the cleric to his grave. Finally the sacred magic that Arlo had been channeling slays the beast at a great cost.

The party finds 800 gold of treasure and a pair of gleaming bracers and a mask of a creature with feathers and a beak and a small rod with a spider trapped in amber atop it with a leg missing. Murdock investigates a door beyond but it's blocked from the other size. The party takes a quick breather to bind their wounds.

Puck tries to pry the door beyond off its hinges and fails but manages to weaken it enough to kick down the door and make their way beyond into a stone staircase leading up and out to the tower of the sunken fort and begins making their way back to Farfield Keep.

Fast pace returning to Farfield Keep

DC 20 Navigation failed

### Encounter 16: Giant Lizards of the Marsh

As the party makes their way to a deeper part of the marsh four giant lizards surface and rush towards them. Puck cuts loose a mule as a distraction and they attempt to run but the swamp slows them down too much and the lizards return. The three of them easily cut down the lizards as Arlo uses necrotic magic to drain the life from one of them completely. The party returns to Farfield Keep.