Recap - 20181102 - Tomb of the Lizard King - Part 1 - Team A

20181102 Recap – Tomb of The Lizard King Part 1- Team A
Part 1 of a 3 part series and competition between two teams of players.

Raistlin - Elven Wizard – Arthur
Kazoo! Halfling Druid/ Rogue – Ross
Enzo -  Githzera Hunter – Mick
Wii – Female Pixie Sorcerer - Ken
Nekk – Human Fighter – Kobe
Walster – Mul Warden - Ibuki

For many years there has been relative peace in the lands of Eor.  The fertile plain of the River Ardo has yielded bountifully and commerce has prospered.  But of late, there have been reports of highway robbery at the manor house at Vendare where Baron Baltic resides.  According to tales of whimpering merchants the lands to the west are being overrun by a band of vicious brigands.  Combined with the incursion of hill giants to the far north west, there has been a major impact to trade.  Two weeks ago, the baron sent a squad of thirty of his toughest fighters to the village of Waycombe and there has been no word of their fate.  The party has answered the baron’s call for a group of volunteers to go to the area and learn the fate of the men and determine if there is a greater evil behind the bandit raids.

After interviewing and being accepted by the baron for the task, especially after hearing that Raistlin helped bring down the slave lords and Nekk is a famed dragon slayer, the party is listening to the clues from the merchants most affected by the raids.  The group learns quite a bit about the bandits.  Just as in prior meetings with the baron, the party is disarmed and there are priests chanting protective prayers.  Suddenly, a massive flame strike hits Baron Baltic and all of the adventurers standing near the baron.  As Mordrin the evil priest flees out the door, Nekk (mighty) sprints after him, along with Kazoo!  Catching a weapon from one of the baron’s guards in the hall, Nekk blocks the priest from fleeing, even as the priest repeatedly blasts the fighter with negative energy, causing serious wounds.  The priest finally makes it past the fighter but is stopped by a swarm of bugs called by  Kazoo!  The bug swarm distracts the priest as Wii, Enzo and Raistlin blast the wizard from a distance.  As the swarm dissipates and the priest makes his way to the door, Nekk recovers and again catches up to the priest and knocks him down, preventing him from opening the door, allowing Raistlin to unleash a blast of magic, stunning the priest so that Enzo and Kazoo can tie him up.  (Note, Mordrin was able to heal himself three times so the party had to inflict more than 270 hits on him.)

As a result of capturing the priest, the Baron (who survived the attack) knows that evil plans are in motion and that the party must make haste haste to Waycombe and as such, the group feels that traveling overland via the farmlands rather than the main highway or via a river barge, is the quickest..  Just as they set off, they are joined by a large forest Warden and shortly after that, spot and evade a small group of farmers.  The group also spots and ignores an old man who seems to be traveling to Vendare.  

As the group nears Waycombe, across a distant rise in the field, they sight a large group of lizardmen.  Enzo starts the battle, wounding several enemies with a volley of long range archery.  The lizardmen to the north charge and run headlong into Walster who immediately bloodies one of the enemies wounded by the archer.  Nekk sprints across the field and engages with an extra large armored lizardman.  A large cloud of acid rains down upon several of the party as the lizardman shaman blasts away with spells.  Wii and Raistlin move to the south, with Raistlin trading spells with the shaman.  Two giant lizards in the north rush past Walster who is surrounded by enemies and one stops to bite at Kazoo! while the other chases down Enzo who diverts his arrows against this new foe.  Walster finishes off his initial foe and directs his attacks against the other lizardman who has arrows sticking out of him while a third lizard man continues to shift to flank the warden.  Kazoo evades the giant lizard and moves to the south.  Nekk continues to trade damaging blows with the lizardman champion while Wii shoots arrows from a distance.  After a second acid cloud and a couple of poison gas sprays at small groups and pairs of party members, Raistlin downs the Shaman.  Wii, seeing Walster still surrounded by enemies, blasts the area with magic allowing Walster to down his second lizardman and with an extra effort a third one.  The Warden then rushes to intercept the second giant lizard before it can catch up to Kazoo! as the little Halfling stabs at the lizardman champion’s leg as he rushes by.  Enzo continues to shift and shoot at the lizard chasing him and after being bitten numerous times, finally downs it.  Enzo then hits and downs a lizardman that was moving in behind the fighter.  Nekk downs the lizardman champion and the two remaining lizardmen back off and are taken down by Kazoo! and Nekk.  Walster finishes off the last giant lizard, ending the fight.

The party rests and then moves on, with Raistlin summoning a set of phantom horses that carry the party over the river, south of the main highway and directly to the edge of the village.  Kazoo! scouts the village and speaks to Busby the innkeeper before he leaves, the last villager to leave the village.  The group then visits the crazy hermit who lives on the edge of the great swamp.  Kazoo! is kind to the old man and in exchange, the crazy man gives Kazoo a ring.  

The crazy man tells the party that he is friends with the Great Lizard King and will guide the party to see King Sakatha.  After a frightful trip on a small river boat, the group weaves their way along narrow waterways.  The crazy man, Stephan, seems to ward off the denizens of the swamp.  The party learns that the overhead canopy entangles and constricts any flying creatures and that horrid monsters wait beneath the muddy waters.  Excitedly, Stephan announces that they’ve arrived at the place where Sakatha is, an island in the middle of the swamp.  After finding a hidden door on the side of the slick mud wall of the island, the group begins to move up a narrow stone stairway.  After a short climb, the party arrives at a marble platform.  From the edge of the platform, the group can see a hidden cove where a half dozen small boats are moored.  At the rear of the platform, the group sees a wall of beads.

The wall of beads falls, revealing a squad of archers.  Before the archers can fire, Raistlin hits a couple of them with a blast of magic and Enzo fires a pair of arrows, dealing serious wounds to two more.  The archers unleash a hail of arrows, wounding many of the party.  Also, the archers aim for the party member’s legs, slowing many of them.  Walster and Nekk both struggle to move forward.   Wii flies off to the side and Raistlin moves up the other.  Enzo continues to spray arrows as the rest of the party moves off to the flanks.  Raistlin dazes the enemy leader for a few seconds and as he recovers, he fires a volley of arrows at Kazoo!  Stephan dives in the way, saving Kazoo! but taking one arrow in the neck and a second close to his heart, killing him instantly!  (DM rolled two criticals)  Wii blasts the archers to the east and takes down two of them and wounds a third which Nekk moves up and finishes off.  Raistlen continues to concentrate on the leader and takes down the lesser archer nearest the leader.  Wii shifts position using darkness to hide her position and shoots a volley of magic across the room, wounding an archer that Walster then takes down.  Raistlen then takes down the enemy leader and the remaining archers fall back.  Enzo is fully engaged with a blind swamp lizard near the stairway, and is being torn to bits and falls unconscious.  Nekk and Wii move forward and finish off the last two archers while Walster and Kazoo rush back to help the fallen Enzo.  Walster distracts the lizard while Kazoo heals the group’s archer.  After regaining his senses, Enzo takes out his two best magic arrows and fires under Walster’s armpit, striking the lizard in the nose, finishing the battle.

To be continued…