"Well to be clear. I am not proposing a fight. I am proposing a look from other angles. But yes. We burned through any welcome we had. Unless things change."
Your jolly boat arrives at the Sea Ghost. All is good aboard. You continue your conversation on the main deck with a good view of promontory where the lizardfolk lair lurks below just to the right of the effluence of the Dunwater river.
Drusilla mulled over the young man's words. As she did she thought it through. The Lizard Folk would have sentries, hunters, and gatherers out.
"It's not a bad idea, we just need to figure out how to execute it properly"Drusilla encouraged the now one-legged monk and smiled.
"Anyone here an expert on Lizard Folk? My knowledge is limited to peripheral treatises from a centuries-old tome I read as a child." Drusilla announced inwardly frustrated at her ability to recall facts from a tome she read as a child but not her mother's face. It was strange. Still, she shrugged and looked at the group.
Drusilla mulled over the young man's words. As she did she thought it through. The Lizard Folk would have sentries, hunters, and gatherers out.
"It's not a bad idea, we just need to figure out how to execute it properly"Drusilla encouraged the now one-legged monk and smiled.
"Anyone here an expert on Lizard Folk? My knowledge is limited to peripheral treatises from a centuries-old tome I read as a child." Drusilla announced inwardly frustrated at her ability to recall facts from a tome she read as a child but not her mother's face. It was strange. Still, she shrugged and looked at the group.
ome temporarily proficient with any skill.[/ooc]
Badger steps forward, "Nah kid. Its a good plan." He shrugs, "Finding a small group away from the cave might not be to hard."
"Well whatever we are going to do we need to look like we are sailing home. We can row ashore a few miles away and circle back to the area."
"Make no mistake though if the treatment is rough or turns rough. We taint helpin' the cause of peace."
"That is true let me look through my spells and see if I have anything to help us out?" Drusilla waits until she is on the ship and peruses her book for any helpful spells.
After quite a bit of discussion, you give the commands to weigh anchor and sail toward Saltmarsh pulling your jolly boat behind the Sea Ghost. You imagine being watched but never see anyone.
You sail halfway toward Saltmarsh and drop anchor after almost two hours. The sun readies to plunge below the horizon.
"I think we have gone a good ways. Its getting late. Do we want to wait till morning to go ashore?"
"Morning as I can better prepare for the coming encounters" Drusilla says as she pulls her spellbook free and begins to read it as she walks the deck.
After a calm evening and breakfast aboard the Sea Ghost, you order the crew to drop you on shore where the marsh finally lets loose of the land. A small hill rises almost 400 feet to the north of you, which you know is due west of Saltmarsh.
It's an hour after dawn. The skies are blue with a few clouds. There's a thread of land at the base of the hill with sure footing. You're over four miles north east of the lizardfolk lair and Dunwater River.
Badger moves to the hill and crests it slowly looking over the land. "I'll take point on this one and try to keep us out of the thick. And nonahya want to step in the quicksand or find a deep patch in the mud."
@Badger. Please look at the map. The crest of the hill is about 6 miles away and up 400 feet. It'll take you 3-4 hours to hike that. You absolutely can do that, but it'll take half a day. Just saying
You wave goodbye to the Sea Ghost, and Badger leads you inland a bit finding a trail that he knows. Trail is a big word, meaning it is used by two feet and four feet. It follows the coast and keeps you relatively dry considering the surroundings.
Following Badger's directions and guidance, you make good time and pause after an hour. Badger thinks that you're halfway between where you started and the lizardfolk lair. You haven't seen anything bigger than a badger.
Argyri trudges along beside Badger. At first, it feels like a cool clandestine mission and she's got a bit of a spring in her step...but after a while she starts to drag, especially as her boots sometimes sink into the muck and water starts to get between her toes.
She turns to Badger. "So...can you pick up any tracks in this muck? Does it seem like the lizardfolk make it out here?"
Along the trail, Badger finds all sorts of tracks of various age, including lizardfolk. Seems like the trail is often used by two-legged and four-legged traffic.
After the pause halfway between the trail start and lizardfolk lair, Badger leads you off the trail into the marsh proper. Despite his excellent guiding, it's messy. After an hour travel, you are all soaked from the waist down for all but Badger and Tarn who are drenched from the neck down. Insects bite and annoy you. The cool breeze on the coast has not followed you into the decaying, flooded marsh.
Badger silently signals for everyone to stop. Something is wrong. You look beyond the gnome, you see two large crocodiles across your path, about twenty feet from Badger. They had been submerged in water but now have moved a bit to get some purchase under their claws.
Drusilla casts Mage Armor on herself and moves so the more capable fighters get in front of her.
Tarn stomped along. He had no skills that made their task any easier. He was not a scout. He was not a ranger. He was an outdoorsman only when it came to being underground. All he could do was embrace the suck and forge on, following his more skilled companions.
"A tight formation is best. Keep scrappers in the front." As he speaks Badger backs toward the rest of the group hoping to start a horseshoe shape line to meet a charge if it comes.
Once firmly with the larger cluster of companions Badger puts his arms wide with his swords outstretched hoping the large mass of folks are imposing to the crocs. He speaks a lurching pattern that almost growls and gets louder as it goes (not a scream). "Back OFF."
Badger tilts his head, "I don't think its working. Unleash Hell."
Kwin steps back with Drusilla, making sure he stays behind her in case any other creepy-crawlies try to take advantage of the crocs attack.
He calls upon his god's power, hoping some flame might deter the predators.
Crocodiles?!?
With a gulp, Argyri steps up and a bit apart from Badger, hoping to capture one of them in a pincher maneuver, as she's done with the plucky gnome several times before.
Kwin's holy flames just miss cooking crocmeat.
Both crocs lunge for dwarfmeat. Both clamp their jaws on a different dwarf leg. Setting up a potential tug-of-war for dominance.
"Ulp! We've got your back, Tarn. And your leg!"
The nimble swashbuckler does her best to skewer the crocodile nearest her.
With two quick rapier thrusts, Argyri pierces the heart of one of the large crocodiles.
Then, she draws blood from the second croc.
Badger leaps toward the croc both swords aiming down. "Let'em go."
Drusilla will move so she can be a good 20 feet from the crocodiles, but off to the side. Making sure they are in a line she begins to cast. Grabbing a bit of rotten apple and intoning the arcane syllables and then letting loose a line of brackish ichor form the tip of her finger.
1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (30-foot line)
Components: V, S, M (a bit of rotten food)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
A stream of acid emanates from you in a line 30 feet long and 5 feet wide in a direction you choose. Each creature in the line must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be covered in acid for the spell’s duration or until a creature uses its action to scrape or wash the acid off itself or another creature. A creature covered in the acid takes 2d4 acid damage at the start of each of its turns.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 2d4 for each slot level above 1st.
Badger gets through the tough hide with his second stab.
Drusilla overpowers her spell and sails the Tasha's acid over the live crocodile and hits the dead one.
Blacklock struggles in his first post-amputee combat.
Kwin points again at the remaining croc, hoping to scorch it and send it away so he can tend to the dwarf.
Sacred flame, DC 13 dex save or take radiant damage.
And the last crocodile burns to death in holy fire.
"Hmmm that did not work as well as I would have hoped?" She says looking at the others and then the crocodiles.
"We could skin and carve them up?"
"The tail is good meat. Though keeping it fresh till we get back is gonna be hard."
"Tarn, how're you doing there? I know Blacklock makes that pegleg look really good...but that doesn't mean you should go shoving your leg in the mouth of the first crocodile you see, got it?"
. . .
At the kid's suggestion, Argyri cocks her head. "That's...interesting. I'm not sure I'd be able to tell what we find there...but maybe one of us could? Badget?"
Badger shrugs, "Kid is right if they ate something its there. Though I doubt these two would bother with big folks like yerselves if they ain't hungry."
"Let's get clear of this mess. Its gonna pull birds soon" . . . He looks back at the others. "Its gonna pull birds soon. Scavengers. When they circle. Maybe one of the lizard folk will want to take a looksie."
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"Let's move to a dryer spot near by and keep a watch here and get Tarn bandaged up. Maybe some lizard folk will come check."