The Salty Crackers continue their search for the missing crew of Passing Hand operatives. During the search, they were able to make an impression on Grawsk, the Boss of the Mudhunters.
A View From the Top
Taking a breather after brawling it out with a Vampiric Mist, the Crackers were able to survey the ruins of the Fen Watchtower from the tower’s cupola. East of the tower are the ruined remains of the watchtower complex, they could see several rooms were left to search. They saw a wrecked boathouse west of the tower, with a pristine rowboat moored to a collapsed rotted pier. North of the watch tower is another building in considerably better repair. The band decided to explore the remaining rooms in the complex.
The Sanctuary of Empty Death
The next door in the central corridor led to a derelict pair of office apartments. Mellwell carefully opened the door, and the band carefully filed into the room. The ceiling has collapsed in the southwest corner of this room. They noted a stairwell that led down into a lower level. They cautiously approached a weathered old desk in the room and nervously looked at it.
Jiim opted to slam the top of this desk with the hilt of his scimitar, cracking the weathered wood deeply. Searching the drawers, Hide found a Lesser Comprehension Elixir, a Minor Elixir of Life, and a Lesser Skeptic's Elixir.
The second room appeared to be intended for private use. A rusted ring of keys sat on the desk opposite the door. Rust has ruined six of its iron keys, but two bronze keys remained usable. One is decorated with a Tower, and the other is decorated with a book. A tapestry formerly concealed a secret door in the back of the room, but it rotted and fell long ago. The door sat slightly ajar, with a pair of skeletal hands gripping the base of the door.
The door opened into a large chamber illuminated by the colored light of stained glass. The air in this large chapel felt colder and damper than elsewhere in the ruins. Condensed beads on the walls ran in rivulets across the countless skulls carved into the stone. The body attached to hands rolled with the door's opening as Jiim, Bobbin , Hide, and Mellwell crept into the Sanctuary of Empty Death. Three short flights of steps led upward to a wider chamber to the north, where a semicircular dais supported an altar of white stone. Beyond the altar loomed four stained-glass windows, each twenty feet tall and depicting four haunting scenes of ghosts rising from overgrown graveyards toward a four-pointed orange star above.
The Salty Crackers could hear scraping and skittering from behind a set of double doors to the south. They could see another mostly decomposed corpse to the north on the altar. The eye sockets of both corpses began to glow with a soft blue light as they pulled themselves up to their feet.
The closer corpse drew a Shortsword from his belt and lunged at Bobbin. Jiim immediately wedged himself between the corpse and Bobbin as the second corpse closed the distance with the band. The dead positioned themselves in flanking positions adjacent to Jiim, sliding their blades into the seams of his armor. Hide focused his fiery passions into his clenched fists and manifested flames around his knuckles as he charged into the fray. Bobbin slammed his tail, Doug, into the corpse that lunged at him, pushing it into a fiery jab of Hide. The corpse collapsed into a heap, leaving a Corpselight floating where its skull once was. The light wove between Jiim and Hide then out the secret passageway. Mellwell fell the second corpse by telekinetically guiding its compatriot’s shortsword through their skull. The disembodied light left behind darted out the secret passage.
The Salty Crackers set to search the camber but found themselves transfixed by the stained glass window. Shambling in through the secret passage, two mangled Mitflits with blue glowing eyes stood in the doorway behind them. Moving quickly into action, Jiim and Bobbin fell the fresh mitflit corpses Blessing his Scimitar Jiim cut down one of the ghoulish will o’ wisps Hide dropped the other with his flaming fists. A thorough search of the sanctuary yielded a +1 Rapier, four @, a silver ring worth 5 gp, a Minor Healing Potion, a Lesser Darkvision Elixir, a Channel Protection Amulet, a Scroll of Restore Senses, and a 1st-level Wand of Heal.
Scorpion Kennel
Carefully leaning against the double doors, the band strained to investigate what was in the next room. Toni could see underneath the door, the rest could make out bits and pieces through cracks and seams in the door. A large black scorpion was skittering around the ruins of the next room. After some quiet deliberation, Jiim cautiously opened the doors; the scorpion charged at the orcish champion and impaled him with its tail. Hide lept at the scorpion, but he was met with a solid black claw that batted him away. Mellwell focused the calming darkness of the night over the scorpion. The pain in his chest drove Jiim to slash down at the scorpion. Hide finally leaped up on the scorpion’s back and pet the exoskeleton, trying to calm them down. Mellwell laid a large chunk of maggot meat in front of the scorpion. The lingering, calming presence of a cool night helped Jiim regain his composure; he focused the healing gifts of the sun maiden into his hand. Jiim looked at the scorpion in the eyes and gripped them under their mandibles, asserting his dominance while channeling healing energy into the scorpion. The scorpion broke off their attack. The Scorpion gripped Hide in one of their claws and set him back on the ground.
Surveying the room, The crackers determined the scorpion was trapped in this room and would not be able to escape of their own accord. The ceiling of this room had fallen in two places. A smaller collapse destroyed a flight of stairs that once led up to the now-ruined upper floor. A larger collapse mostly buried the southern double door, leaving a hole in the roof partially blocked with several crossed timbers. A second double door to the north has a stone face carved with skulls caked with tangles of moss. The exit had been deliberately blockaded by intelligent creatures to pin the scorpion inside. Each of the salty crackers determined to dismantle the barricade to free the scorpion from their prison. Ultimately the barrier came down, and the Scorpion decided to follow these weirdos. Hide has taken to calling them Gordon.
Chief of the Mud Gremlins
Passing across the central corridor, the Jiim opened the last set of doors. Inside, almost the entire ceiling of this room has collapsed, while below, the floor has crumbled into a 10-foot-deep sinkhole filled with rubble, mud, and glistening patches of fungus. Evidence of ancient damage—burn scars and acid scorch marks—decorated the walls and much of the rubble. Standing on the sinkhole's edge, a spear-wielding Mitflit chattering into the sinkhole. Mellwell hears “Hurry up, the Mushroom eyes will be back” in undercommon. Jiim stepped forward and shouted, “Are you good or are you bad?” Panic Overtook the mitflit as he rushed towards the entryway until he notice Gordon with the band. Mellwell stepped forward hands raised “stop !”
“What happened to Daav and Jaamz?” the sentry challenged. Mellwell recounted a story of two zombified mitflits they ran into in the sanctuary. “Mmm those damned Mushroom eyes cursed them, I’d bet”
Jab Peatburner was fascinated by the relatively docile Scorpion, “We’ve been trying to get that one to behave for days. If you leave your weapons here, the boss will want a word with you.”
Back into the mitflits’ throne room, a single, large chamber remains. Rubble, swamp vegetation, and mud pile in heaps like foul nests, while a larger stack of rubble, sticks, and bones looks almost, but not quite, like a throne. A flattened mound of sand with a few dozen bits of wood and stone stuck into it covers the floor before the throne. Stacks of rocks and lines are drawn in a grid are found at the foot of the throne. The Boss’ face turns red under his mud and shell crown once he recognizes the scorpion with the party.
“It’s not every day the fair folk come to make friends with the lowly, ugly creatures of the swamp.” Their escort relayed the crackers account to Boss Grawsk.
Eying down Hide and Bobbin, “the big folk think us weak and foolish, The mushroom-eyed people would deny us any place to lay our heads, the scorpion men would burn your pillows.”
Perching himself higher on his throne, if you can be a friend to the swamp's lowly creatures, you can be a friend to the Mud Hunters. You may use our privy to stable your cow. You should be our friend the dog-faced man who followed you here may not eat your meat if you would stable your cart with us.” Grawsk regaled them with stories about another ghost on the Island north of the tower and a swamp dragon that captured some robbers that slinked into her lair below the boathouse.
He thought for a moment if they wanted to prove their friendship, they would surely clear the next level below for them so they could return to their homes they were routed from by the mushroom-eyed people.
Rewards Given
300 xp
+1 Rapier
Channel Protection Amulet
Four Daggers
Lesser Comprehension Elixir
Lesser Darkvision Elixir
Lesser Skeptic's Elixir
Minor Elixir of Life
Minor Healing Potion
Scroll of Restore Senses
Silver Ring
Wand of Heal-1st Level
Gordon the Giant Scorpion- This scorpion has taken a particular interest in the party
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