Veronica winces as the shout rings out, and her gloves hands tighten and then release on the reins of her mount.
"Hurry, Zeke," she whispers under her breath.
Ezekial realizes that he could disable the simple lock on the gate, but it may draw the attention of the guards. He easily scales the palisade walls instead.
On the other side of the fence Ezekial sees five mud huts surrounded by standing swamp water. In the center of the compound he sees a small boy submerged in the mud and water up to his neck. Chained alligator like creatures snap and snarl at the boy. A pulsating sphere of flickering light floats over both the boy and the alligators. As you watch, the boy again screams in terror. The pulsating sphere seems to grow brighter as the boy screams.
Ezekial recognizes the flickering light to be similar to what he encountered at the Temple of the Elk - a will-o-wisp.
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Understanding the boy is terrified but believing he is not in any real risk of immediate death Ezekiel moves all the way back to the group and reports on what he sees. After giving an overview he adds It may be that the only enemy there is the wisp thing. If we can kill it or drive it off the lizard folks might be happy to talk. Any way we can get resistance to electricity?
Veronica lets out a sigh of relief when Zeke returns.
"Give me a day and I can give two or three people a small amount of resistance," says Veronica. "I could also make someone immune to electricity completely for a short time."
"I'm inclined to agree, rescue the boy, get rid of the wisp, then see if the lizardfolk will talk. I wish I could get a read on them... but they're so different it's hard to tell what they're thinking," she says wistfully.
"I doubt the wisp chained up the alligators, so let's still be careful of these lizard men. If its anything like the last one we encountered they may even consider it divine. Shall we gamble and try to sneak in or just break down the gate?" Connor does a poor job of hiding his preference for the straightforward approach.
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Ezekiel looks torn. I am not happy about trying to tackle one of those whisps without some electric protection but I hate leaving the boy for a whole day. He will be more scarred mentally than he already is if we do that. If the plan is to go now, I can get the gates open. You lot just be ready to move.
Larisa nods once, loading her weapon. "The sooner we rescue the child the better."
Ezekial, still invisible, is easily able to scale the palisades and open the gates. As he does so, the lizard men guards take notice of the gates opening and climb down to investigate. With the sentries distracted you are clear to approach.
"Sooo, not so much for the diplomatic approach," Seres chuckles. He casts a spell, shapeshifting his legs to become longer and double-jointed. He also shrouds himself in a magical barrier and enchants his bow.
Veronica prepares for the upcoming scrum with the usual divine benefits:
• Bless (5 minutes)
• Shield of Faith on Zeke (5 minutes)
Raff tosses back many potions as they approach their destination. Amounge them are bottles labeled "Enlarge person", "Long arms", "Monkey fish" and his canteen of Mutagen that has become a familiar sight.
He offers his last bottle of long arms to the group. "Makes your arms all lanky, useful, trust me."
He then charges the gap with Cinder, attempting to push through and get to the wisp. If necessary, he and Cinder will both attack on the way by.
As the party approaches the gate Larisa casts a quick spell, drawing on Erastil for guidance.
She gives Raff a curt nod of her head. "Got all the reach I need right here." She says, taping her crossbow as she brings it up to her shoulder, training it on the gates. As they open she fires on the one of the guards.
Larisa fires on one of the lizard man sentries through the gate and drives a bolt through his shoulder.
Ezekial steps to the other guard and saps him into unconsciousness.
The rest of you charge forward on your horses towards the compound. The swampy water is impairing how fast your horses can move )
Seres will move forward with the others. Hesitant to kill the lizardmen, he casts sleep on the one by the gate.
Raff spurs his horse forward, dismounting right at the gates as he prepares to descend upon the lizardmen.
Seres rides forward and then begins casting a sleep spell. Raff advances to the gate and dismounts.
The wounded lizardman sentry screams the alarm and moves to attack Ezekial, but the rogue deflects his spear.
The will-o'-wisp suddenly blinks out and disappears.
Veronica advances and then dismounts from her horse.
She fires an arrow at the lizardman at the gate.
... with the usual predictable results.
Larisa spurs her horse forward towards the gates, dismounting as she reaches it.
Ezekial saps the second sentry into unconsciousness as the rest of you approach the gate.
Lizard men soldiers begin pouring out of the nearest huts.
Partly crouched, Veronica makes a quick chant to hopefully ward off the wisp if it should reappear, and then draws her morningstar and moves to assist Ezekial.
"Might be time to try that diplomacy stuff..."
"Yes, yes... we do not wish to fight -- we will bargain, but that boy comes with us. Oh, and the evil wisp must be destroyed." Seres tries (and fails) to sound reasonable.
"What languages do these folk speak?"
Connor twirls Cinder in a circle as she paws excitedly at the ground, snorting.
He thrusts his lance toward the boy, "Let him go. Immediately and we can call this a misunderstanding."
The lizardmen do not pause when Ezekial, Connor and Seres attempt to reason with them - they lower their spears and advance. Three make it up to Connor but he easily deflects their attacks.
With a flash of green light, the will-o-wisp appears next to Veronica as a floating lizardman skull. A voice dripping in malice echoes in your head. "Surrender your souls to Shub-Niggurath and your lives will be spared."
The door to the main mud hut slams open and a large, armored lizardman wielding a trident steps out. He is flanked by two blood red alligators and more soldiers. The lizardman bellows a challenge to you.
; 1=C, 2=E, 3=V
Larisa imbues her weapon with deadly energy vs Humaniod Reptilians, holding off on attacking to see how the diplomacy plays out as she reloads.
Hearing the large lizardman roar his challenge Larisa brings her weapon to her shoulder, taking a moment to focus on the towering figure before firing. "You will dine on nothing." She whispers as the bolt flies away.
Connor ignores the mob and circles Cinder to the southwest, drawing 3 AoOs from the lizardfolk in front of him.
Veronica looks oddly at Zeke, then lashes out at the skull-shaped terror wisp with her morningstar.
"We do not fear you, evil spirit. Prepare to meet your demon god in whatever abyss spawned it!" Seres pulls his wand as he rides to the gates. He casts a spell, causing the ground around the central hut to erupt in entangling vines.
Ezekial steps back and drinks a potion.
Veronica attacks the floating lizard skull, but the will-o'-wisp nimbly floats around her morningstar.
Connor pulls away from the lizard man soldiers - drawing ineffective attacks as he wheels around the southern fort perimeter.
Larisa fires across the battle field and through the traffic of numerous combatants. Her bolt hits the lizard king and drives through his shoulder - he cries in pain and points his trident at the inquisitor.
Seres rides into the encampment and casts a spell - the roots beneath the swamp mud rise up and begin entangling the lizard king and his minions. Two lizard men soldiers and two of the lizards become entangled.
One of the lizard men soldiers with the king lizard moves up to Cinder and drives his spear into Cinder's flank . The king and several soldiers move to surround Connor.
One lizard man moves out to attack Raff, but misses. Another moves to engage Seres.
Two lizardmen move to attack Veronica - but her armor deflects the attacks. A bolt of electricity shoots down from the floating lizard skull and burns Veronica .
You know that the reddish crocodiles are a variant called blood caimans. The chained lizards near the boy are a local variant of a monitor lizard known as Narlmarch muggers.
; top to bottom
; Vesket
; BC
; Vesket
; ML
[spoiler=dice]
; Connor
; Raff
; Veronica
; Veronica
; Veronica
; Connor
Raff snaps himself out of the unexpected stupor. Must have mixed one of those with some off ingredients. Before slashing at the nearest lizard man with his falchion and twisting to the side of his horse for a bite.
As the lizard king moves out of sight Larisa curses and dismisses the baneful energy from her weapon as she reloads. Thinking quickly she fires on the lizardman to the left of Veronica.
Seres has his horse back up behind Raff while he aims and fires his wand at the wisp.
Veronica continues to flail with her morningstar, quickly coming to realize that she will never be able to hit this damn thing.