Yarroth's arrow strikes true, piercing the thick hide of the enormous frog. Anton rushes toward the injured frog, water splashing as he wades in. His powerful blow cuts the frog right between the eyes and it falls dead.
Two more frogs emerge from the water and attempt to bite Anton. He easily wards away their blows with his heavy shield.
Yarroth tracks one of the other frogs and sends an arrow its way.
Drummer tries again with his sling.
To hit
Damage
and misses again.
The ball of light in Tarric's hands has grown to the size of an apple, when he grabs it in his right hand and tosses it past Yarroth, Anton and Drummer into the swamped room. The ball lands in the water with a plop, then with the sound of rushing wind, expands and vanishes, leaving a silver and grey dog in its place. The dog growls once before pouncing on the frog to its right.
Anton strikes back with a sword thrust at one of the giant frogs trying to tear him apart with a maw full of teeth.
Anton slices a frog. It tries to bite back, but is distracted by the pain. Yarroth's arrow strikes true. The frog's tongue lashes out at him, but falls short.
Frustrated by his horrible aim, Drummer steps forward with his maces and tries to flank one of the frogs.
To hit hvy mace
To hit lt mace
Damage hvy mace
Damage lt mace
Critical threat on hvy mace
Drummer steps up and knocks a frog hard on the head. It slumps down underwater and remains still.
Anton turns to face the remaining giant frog. Seeing how effective his powerful swing was against the first one, he attempts to put all of his strength into his attack again.
Anton slashes the last frog and it falls over, dead. The hole in the ceiling seems to lead up through a natural tunnel in the rock. It must be how the oversize frogs made their way in here. Floating in the northern corner you find a half eaten corpse. He has little of value left except a gold ring set with a single aquamarine and a pouch with 24 gold coins. There is another waterlogged door to the south.
"May as well smash the door while Tarric's summoning persists. Yarroth should probably chck for traps first, though."
Yarroth examines the door, to make sure there are no unexpected surprises.
You bust open the door without incident. There is a hallway that leads south, still submerged in water. It continues for about 20 feet before a branch leads west, but the hall goes another 20 feet south before opening out into a larger room.
The western branch goes only ten feet before it opens up into a smaller room. A strange blue fungus covers the walls, ceiling, and pillars of this waterlogged chamber. Its wispy strands stretch out from the wall like roots dangling in the air, twitching and swaying in an unseen breeze. Floating in the water are four decaying corpses—three large rats and one giant frog—with strange burn marks all over their bodies.
There looks to be a hallway heading further west from that room.
"I'm not touching or going near those things, whatever they are." Anton says, looking at the strange plant growth in the western room.
"Do we take a look, or continue south? We can also try to quickly get through the mushroom room, but it looks like something in there might have killed those creatures."
"This whole place feels damp and stinks of death, like a swamp."
"South first. I'm sure the wheel is behind that fungus, but I don't want anything sneaking up on us."
Yarroth nods his head in agreement with Drummer. "I do not really wish to go into that room! Lets continue south and see what we can find."
You continue south to the next room. This large chamber is partially flooded, with the south end just barely rising out of the stagnant water. A large wheel is set into the floor of the dry area, attached to chains that rise up into the ceiling. A thick layer of slick, black mold covers the carvings on the walls of this chamber. You see four skeletons lurking under the water in the room.
Yarroth steps forward and strikes one of the skeletons with his heavy mace.
Anton quickly switches to his mace, having learned his lesson the hard way about his chosen weapon's effectiveness against skeletons last time.
Drummer steps forward with his maces and
To hit, heavy mace:
To hit, light mace:
Damage, heavy mace
Damage, light mace
Critical threat, light mace
pummels it with his light mace.
Yarroth wades into the room and swings at a skeleton, but misses. Anton steps forward to go next to him and suddenly sinks into a deeper section of water. Drummer notices the edge of the underwater pit and makes his way to the other side of Yarroth. His blow lands true and the skeleton's skull is crushed. The remaining bones sink back below the surface.
Two skeletons approach Drummer and Yarroth.
Under the water, another skeleton attacks Anton.
One of the skeleton gives Drummer a deep scratch with its claw.
Struggling with the sudden drop into the deeper water, Anton attempts to pull himself back out of the water pit and find some solid footing.
mace to hit
lt mace to hit
mace dmg
lt mace dmg
Hissing at the pain of his wound and surprise at Anton's disappearance, Drummer swings wildly with his maces and misses.
"More skeletons! Great! This place is starting to bother me!
Tarric wades forward, pushing the water in a wave before him as he heads for the skeleton menacing Drummer. Moving to flank the skeleton as best he can, Tarric menaces the ambulatory ossified cadaver, swinging his mace in a whistling arc the moment it turns its attention to Drummer.
An unseen rock under the water catches at Tarric's foot as he moves his feet to swing, causing him to stumble and miss the opening.
Yarroth steps forward and strikes at the skeleton in front of him.
Again he swings and misses the skeleton....
Unaccustomed to fighting knee deep in water, the heroes all manage to miss their targets. The skeletons loom closer and each manage to snag one of the adventurers with a claw. Bubbles and swirling water where Anton once stood indicate he is having a difficult time underwater.
Anton struggles to get to the surface with the skeletons clawing at him. His heavy wooden shield sinks to the bottom as he lets it slip free.
Reaching down into the water, Yarroth grabs Anton's flailing hand, and helps pull him out of the water, while trying to keep the skeleton's off them.
Drummer mutters a curse and swings at the nearest skelleton.
To hit mace
To hit light mace
Damage mace
Damage light mace
Confirm mace
"To your eternal rest, already!"
Anton swims to the surface and Yarroth pulls him over to the floor.
Tarric grimaces as Anton is pulled out of the water.
"At least something went right...Anton, are you ok?"
Tarric takes the time to ensure his footing, planting his feet on the unseen floor of the chamber. He swings true and hard, the mace a grey streak in the half-light provided by the spells.
"Well enough." Anton says to Tarric hastily. Nodding quickly to Yarroth for helping him, he grips his heavy mace with both hands, raises it above his head, and tries to smash one of the skeletons."YAAAAH!"
A series of well timed blows smash the remaining skeletons. There seems to be one more remaining skeleton underwater in the pit Anton was in, but it can't seem to reach you.
"Well now! That was a nasty surprise. Are you all right Anton?"
"Apparently skeletons cannot swim. Curious. I guess their bones are too dense and they cannot gain enough purchase against the water? Or perhaps they are missing something intrinsic to living beings?" Tarric says as he slaps his gut and laughs.
"I am going to look for magic in this room. I suggest we see if there is anything else of interest before we press on."
"I'd say that wheel might open the gate. The mold in here looks kind of nasty."
"Yarroth, I owe you one. There's still one of those bastards down in there though, and I let my shield drop as I was trying to get out of that pit." For a moment, Anton looks like he is seriously contemplating diving back in, but seems to think better of it. "Hadrick, the man who trained me, gave me that shield. I'm sure he would tell me I'm being too sentimental. Perhaps I'll find another one."
"Drummer, should we take a look at this wheel? I've already got some kind of malady from those zombies we fought back there, according to Tarric, but I don't want to get some kind of sickness from that mold either - best not to disturb it too much."
"I'll check out the wheel. Though if it requires much strength I suspect Anton's our man."
Drummer scans the moldy engavings for clues, being catious not to get too close. Then he carefully hops to the dry patch of floor and takes a closer look at the wheel. If it really looks like it might raise the portcullis, and looks safe, he will try turning it.
After examining the wheel, Drummer determines that it will operate some sort of machinery outside of this room. Drummer and Anton rotate the wheel together. The sound of chains clanks through the wall.
Once the wheel has turned as far as it goes, Drummer secures it with a piton from his pack. "I don't want that turning back while we're behind the gate."