Session XV: Frog Legs and Mushrooms

Continuing their exploration of the second level beneath the tower of Zenopus, our party came to a narrow natural stone bridge crossing a open chasm in the earth. Being the ever cautious lot (or just suspicious of their DM), they carefully crossed the bridge one by one with rope tied about their waists while Tibag climbed down to chasm to see what was below. Only finding flowing water the thief climbed back up, crossed the bridged and rejoined his companions.

Proceeding through the caves they found an open cavern lined with a phosphorous lichen along the walls and filled with a forest of mushrooms. As they traversed the forest they were attacked by three Mushroom-men! A quick thinking Gnarly Blunderbrush pulled out a potion of Plant Control (recovered in a previous adventure) and brought two of the Mushroom-men under his control. He ordered those two to slay the third which they did. But upon dying, the Mushroom-man sprouted spores which quickly grew into six additional Mushroom-men which Gnarly also brought under his control. The Druid now controlled an eight Mushroom-man army!

Skwanky, not missing any opportunity for a thrilling ride climbed atop the cap of the largest Mushroom-man and rode him through the rest of the caves!

Pressing on they discovered a number of twisting and crossing natural caves and eventually came upon a natural set of steps leading down into a large cavern. Inside the cavern was a large pool of water along the southern wall. Entering the cavern, the party noticed pairs of eyes popping the surface of the black water. Gnarly lined up his Mushroom-men in the front rank. A long tongue burst from the surface of the water and pulled a smaller Mushroom-man into the gapping mouth of a Giant Frog as the other five frogs leaped to attack. Tibag drew his sword (that he looted from the dead Pirate captain waaaay back in session 3) and to his amazement noticed that it was dimly glowing. With this sword he quickly began hacking through the aquatic creatures. Skwanky, atop his fighting Mushroom hacked at the giant frogs as well.

In the end, the frogs were killed with a couple of Mushroom casualties.

Suspicious that there were no additional exits in the room, Geedleesmote decided to have a peek under the surface of the water. Lo' he discovered two cave openings. Returning to the surface, the dwarf and Wolfheir remove their armor, tied ropes about their waists so that the others can quickly pull them out of the underwater caves if need be and proceeded to swim through the first underwater cave.

The cave lead to another cavern and, quietly breaching the surface, Wolfheir (effectively blind in the dark) heard clicking and guttural noises. The dwarf was able to see a number of Crotch-Goblins drinking from the edge of the water. They also saw natural stone steps leading out of the cave. The two adventurers quietly submerged again and swam to the main cavern and headed towards the second underwater cave.

Swimming through this one, they found a smaller cavern. The water was deeper here and Geedlee was able to make out two pairs of eyes starring at them from the depths. Inside the cave the dwarf discovered a small outcropping of rock with a stone statue of some devilish aquatic god, similar to the one discovered earlier in their explorations, with jeweled eyes and a pile of treasure at it's base.

The two headed back to work out a plan to retrieve tall the treasure with the others.

Wolfheir had a fishing net so it was decided to sack all the treasure, place it in the net and then pull it throughout the cave. Gnarly, Geedlee and Tibag would be the the ones to swim back to the statue while Wolf and the rest would pull the net through. And that is what they did.

The druid, the dwarf and the thief swam back throughout the tunnel and filled the sacks with coin and gems. They placed the sacks in the fishing net and the net was pulled back with Gnarly following.

Tibag and Geedleesmote stayed behind and removed the jeweled eyes from the statue with no ill affects (saves were made!). While the dwarf set about to topple the statue, Tibag stepped into the water to swim back to his companions but saw two Giant Frogs swimming through the tunnel in pursuit of Gnarly and the treasure.

The party , with Wolf pulling the treasure out of the water and Gnarly close behind saw the familiar eyes break the surface and the two giant frogs close in. Slick Vinny pulls out his wand of flesh to stone and enchanted one of the frogs which sunk beneath the surface. The other frog is defeated as disappointed Tibag broke the surface of the water with sword in hand.

With the dwarf finally back with the party they decided that it was time to leave the caves. On the way they killed the six Crotch-Goblins, picked up the dwarf's treasure cart and headed back to the surface...