Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
Original character art by Jimmy McClure.
Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Chat with us in the Official Discord Server.
Support the channel via Patreon!
Previously on Call from the Deep
Starring:
Gotwald Ironhorn, level 7 minotaur Rune Knight Fighter
Mac, level 7 tortle Drakewarden Ranger
Savra Akkedis, level 7 lizardfolk School of Necromancy Wizard
Torrel, level 7 kenku Fathomless Warlock Pact of the Amulet/Fighter
At Thornhold the party met Lady Mara Greycastle, mother to famed adventurer Miri Greycastle, and former survivor of the attacks of elemental evil in our Princes of the Apocalypse campaign.
Mara confirmed the sahuagin invasion of the nearby lizardfolk island lair, with whom they had good relations with. Dozens of survivors were driven from their home and forced to flee onto the mainland. They came to Thornhold first, but without their queen. Tensions grew on both sides, and eventually the lizardfolk left (or perhaps, were told to leave) into the Mere of Dead Men Swamp.
Hundreds of sahuagin took over the area, using the island as a forward base of operations to launch attacks on the coast. They crippled Thornhold’s tiny navy, but have yet to attack the castle itself.
Thornhold also witnessed a strange phenomenon: the island began slowly sinking into the sea. What was once a towering, mountainous spire over 100ft or more, is now little more than 30 or 40ft, the rest having sunk completely below the sea.
Torrel uses an Arcana check to determine that powerful magic must be involved.
The party enjoys a Long Rest after their nasty bout with the sahuagin patrol, and Mara hears from hear daughter in Waterdeep that attacks are ramping up between the Kraken Society and the sahuagin, but threats are being neutralized thanks to her and some old friends.
Mara suggests finding the lizardfolk and speaking with them to get even more information about their island home.
The party sets out into the swamp. The lizardfolk were numerous and didn’t bother hiding their tracks. On the other hand, it’s hard to track in the swamp, and they left weeks ago.
As a ranger, Mac would be the obvious choice. But he’s a city boy, used to tracking criminals in the streets of Neverwinter, not in the wilderness (+1 modifier!). Torrel has a +4 to Survival, but rolls poorly, leading them into a patch of green slime.
Mac, assuming his ranger skills would translate to the swamp, also embarrasses himself, and leads the party through some muddy quicksand, then a nest of stinging insects!
The party is cranky, wounded, and thoroughly done with this damn swamp when they finally hear the sounds of shouting and battle up ahead.
A small group of lizardfolk are fighting off several hideous creatures that resemble buffalo but with long necks and demonic heads (catoblepas calf, Monster Manual Expanded 2). Several lizardfolk already lie face down in the swampy muck, dead.
Our heroes rush forward to aid them, blasting with eldritch blast and slinging arrows.
Gotwald tries to rush forward, but is stymied by the swamp muck.
The lizardfolk are startled, especially when Torrel summons his spectral tentacle and his go-to hunger of Hadar.
Thankfully Mac and Savra speak Draconic, and can explain they’re here to help (though Savra snaps at them for even thinking of retreating after their leader told them to back off only to get stunned from a catoblepas tail club).
An adult catoblepas rises from the muck and escapes the hunger of Hadar. It uses its death stare at Gotwald, who makes the CON save, avoiding the full 49 necrotic damage! “Oh, fuck you DM!”
A calf kills one of the lizardfolk, but their leader, a scaleshield named Vyth, takes it out with his spiked shield. The party focuses on the frightening adult as it recharges its death ray and stares down Mac.
Gotwald invokes his storm rune power to grant Mac advantage on the save. It’s a clutch move that saves the tortle’s life, as he would’ve failed by five or more, triggering the max damage effect.
The adult catoblepas finally goes down to an all-out assault, including a 20-damage toll the dead cantrip from Savra, and a force push back into the hunger of Hadar from Torrel’s eldritch blast.
Vyth begrudgingly thanks the heroes for their help. They were out looking for food and found a lone calf. They tried to take it down quickly but more and more kept rising from the swamp, and using their death stares. If the party hadn’t arrived, the adult could have easily killed them all.
They take one of the calf bodies and the party back to their camp, avoiding any further hazards.
The lizardfolk encampment is in a sorry state. Partial ruins provide little shelter, and the tribe mostly consists of children, elderly, and sickly lizardfolk.
Their numbers were once over 250, but now are fewer than a hundred after the assault. The swamp is dangerous, and they have no leadership without their Queen.
Vyth believes Queen Othokent still lives, and is a prisoner of the sahuagin, though others, like Sauriv, disagree.
The elderly Sauriv is the tribe’s minister, the head adviser to the Queen. He speaks fluent Common, and is shocked to see Vyth leading heavily armed strangers into their camp.
Once the party smooths things over (Savra’s forceful, derogatory comments bring her comparisons to the queen), Sauriv admits he believes the queen is dead. The tribe must end this period of mourning, nominate a new queen, and work on rebuilding.
Vyth argues that honor demands they take back their island home and rescue their Queen, though he admits it’s probably a suicide mission, especially now that the island is mostly sunken into the sea!
The party has magical ways of dealing with that, however, making them the perfect candidates for an infiltration.
The sahaugin are too numerous to destroy outright, but by eliminating their leadership, they can throw the shark-folk into disarray.
The party also knows the reason behind the sahuagin’s tactical prowess and motivation: they’re being controlled and manipulated by the mind flayers, via the elder brain-kraken. Perhaps a device similar to the shield in the Wreck of the Golden Crown could be found and destroyed, cutting off that connection.
Finally, the party has yet another objective: rescuing captives from Neverwinter, if they still live. And the lizardfolk queen, if she lives as well.
Sauriv isn’t ready to commit any aid or forces at first. He demands that one of the party battle one of their own in an honor duel to prove their strength and commitment.
He brings out his eldest daughter, Gara, whom he wishes to nominate for the tribe’s next queen.
Gotwald steps up, excited for a non-lethal bout. No magic allowed!
The lizardfolk form an informal ring, and the combatants square off.
Gara is a hulking brute of a lizardfolk, wielding a trident. But Gotwald is no calf. She comes at him and he deflects both blows, then disarms the trident, and grapples her.
Without her weapon, she uses her claws and teeth, but he bats them away and pins her to the ground for a righteous pummeling.
Twice she tries to escape and twice he holds firm.
Finally he yells that she is defeated, and while she doesn’t understand him, she certainly understands the meaning. She taps him on the shoulder and he hauls her up. She clasps a clawed arm in respect, and the lizardfolk cheer at the most fun they’ve had in a long time.
An alliance is formed, and the lizardfolk agree to help the party in whatever crazy plan they come up with. Sauriv shares some crude drawings of the interior of their island lair, and suggests a couple different entrances.
Whatever the plan may be, the party will have their work cut out for them with multiple objectives inside extremely hostile territory. And most of it completely underwater!
MVPC – Gotwald
Live post-session discussion:
Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
Support my channel via Patreon!
RogueWatson 