Post by hubertbartels on Jul 9, 2023 14:23:46 GMT -5
After the Rainy Season
Several weeks pass at Tanaroa. The rainy sea has come and every day is like the day before – a view of heavy rains blotting out the skies and veiling the view of the jungles around us. Tessa used this time to study the contents of Alissa’s spell book and copy interesting spells into her own book.
One evening, the rains changed – the storm became more violent and the lightning was a strange magenta color. Later that evening, the clouds parted to show us the stars but they had all changed. Then with a flash, the stars changed again to a night sky we were all familiar with. And with the return of our old sky view, the clouds rolled in again and begin to rain.
By the time two months had passed, everyone was getting on everyone else’s nerves. It was with a feeling of release that the lizard folk elders reported that the rains were drawing to an end. We began making plans to explore another of the serpent folk ruins we had heard about.
The first clear day, we headed north in the company of lizard folk going to the tar pits. A few days later, we broke away from the group and started along a jungle path leading toward the ruins. Devon’s quasit familiar, ‘Imp’ was ahead of us, acting as a scout. Three Rivers and his ankylosaurus blazed a trail and we followed in its wake.
Around mid-morning, the quasit reported that it found a corpse in our path. Coming closer, we found partially eaten human lying next to the wicker basket from a hot air balloon. From the diary we found in the basket, his name was Hannibal Snow and he was the last survivor from a group of six, fleeing in his balloon. We guessed that the storm had destroyed the balloon and left him dead. Three Rivers used a Move Earth spell to bury the poor man and we moved on.
The next day, the only incident was the discovery of a giant crocodile lying in ambush along our trail. Three Rivers cast Animal Friendship spell to let us get by peacefully. That evening while in camp, Talos noticed a group of frog-like Grongs rolling a bush up to our ankylosaurus. He woke the rest of us up while Marissa began firing her crossbow at them.
The Grongs changed their direction and leaped at us, trying to take us down. Tessa used Burning Hands at point blank range to get one off of her. But in a few moments, the frog-like Grongs were all dead. Devon amused himself by raising some of them as skeletal undead.
Mid-day, we arrived at one of the serpent folk cities. We needed to pass through it to get to the ruins we were going to explore. Devon’s quasit stopped us and warned us that there were more Grong in the city.
We descended on their camp, Talos having cast Tongues on himself to talk to them. The discussion did not go well as the leader demanded that we be given in sacrifice to the Grong god, Nam-nam. Talos signaled to Tessa. Tessa dropped a Fireball on the mass of Grong. Talos then cast Hypnotic Pattern on the survivors. Only a Grong warrior and the chief were still able to attack us. We dispatched them, killed the rest of the frog-like Grong, destroyed the temple to Nam-nam and burnt the village to the ground.
We then continued traveling for the rest of the day and made camp. It’s another half-day traveling in the swampy lowlands and a half-day climbing the hills before we arrive at the serpent folk ruins.
Several weeks pass at Tanaroa. The rainy sea has come and every day is like the day before – a view of heavy rains blotting out the skies and veiling the view of the jungles around us. Tessa used this time to study the contents of Alissa’s spell book and copy interesting spells into her own book.
One evening, the rains changed – the storm became more violent and the lightning was a strange magenta color. Later that evening, the clouds parted to show us the stars but they had all changed. Then with a flash, the stars changed again to a night sky we were all familiar with. And with the return of our old sky view, the clouds rolled in again and begin to rain.
By the time two months had passed, everyone was getting on everyone else’s nerves. It was with a feeling of release that the lizard folk elders reported that the rains were drawing to an end. We began making plans to explore another of the serpent folk ruins we had heard about.
The first clear day, we headed north in the company of lizard folk going to the tar pits. A few days later, we broke away from the group and started along a jungle path leading toward the ruins. Devon’s quasit familiar, ‘Imp’ was ahead of us, acting as a scout. Three Rivers and his ankylosaurus blazed a trail and we followed in its wake.
Around mid-morning, the quasit reported that it found a corpse in our path. Coming closer, we found partially eaten human lying next to the wicker basket from a hot air balloon. From the diary we found in the basket, his name was Hannibal Snow and he was the last survivor from a group of six, fleeing in his balloon. We guessed that the storm had destroyed the balloon and left him dead. Three Rivers used a Move Earth spell to bury the poor man and we moved on.
The next day, the only incident was the discovery of a giant crocodile lying in ambush along our trail. Three Rivers cast Animal Friendship spell to let us get by peacefully. That evening while in camp, Talos noticed a group of frog-like Grongs rolling a bush up to our ankylosaurus. He woke the rest of us up while Marissa began firing her crossbow at them.
The Grongs changed their direction and leaped at us, trying to take us down. Tessa used Burning Hands at point blank range to get one off of her. But in a few moments, the frog-like Grongs were all dead. Devon amused himself by raising some of them as skeletal undead.
Mid-day, we arrived at one of the serpent folk cities. We needed to pass through it to get to the ruins we were going to explore. Devon’s quasit stopped us and warned us that there were more Grong in the city.
We descended on their camp, Talos having cast Tongues on himself to talk to them. The discussion did not go well as the leader demanded that we be given in sacrifice to the Grong god, Nam-nam. Talos signaled to Tessa. Tessa dropped a Fireball on the mass of Grong. Talos then cast Hypnotic Pattern on the survivors. Only a Grong warrior and the chief were still able to attack us. We dispatched them, killed the rest of the frog-like Grong, destroyed the temple to Nam-nam and burnt the village to the ground.
We then continued traveling for the rest of the day and made camp. It’s another half-day traveling in the swampy lowlands and a half-day climbing the hills before we arrive at the serpent folk ruins.