Quixotic Dragonlance #8

 

Player Characters

• Amity, Light Fighter 4, Butcher, Sword Specialist
• Kirilov, Neutral Cleric of Habbakuk 5, Healer, Barber/Surgeon, Endless Endurance, prophetic dreams. Nine fingers.
• Lunethalas, Dark Elf 3, Sword Specialist, Polyglot, Naturalist, Master Historian

Hangers-on

• Rhona, Neutral Ranger 3, Sword Specialist, Naturalist
• Elka Reed, whose dead mom they found earlier. A 0-level villager they've hired to follow them around and sketch the amazing sights they discover.

Peradventure

Atalanta the Black Wizard and her husband, Harold the Red Wizard, provide the party with some more information about the ancient race of the Irda, since fallen into corruption and known as Ogres, the first peoples of Krynn and the first beloved of the gods.

They direct them, for even further information, to Shrivost, where the town's leader is a true expert on the subject.

They also provide the party with a quest - to investigate the fate of the Obor, calm and well-meaning mystic toad-people who have long dwelled beneath Abanasinia and whom Atalanta used to obtain a mushroom concoction to help with her focus. They provide the party with the path that their colleague, Karamantis, took previously, several years ago. 

Before leaving, Amity obtains a gorgeous and carefully designed set of plate armor, and the party agree to tithe to the Seeker church in exchange for keeping their sudden enormous wealth safe.

Avoiding both the Qualinesti Forest and most of the Darkened Wood, the party find their way until the noted stream makes its way from beneath the mountains and finds a way in after some light speculative diving.

Following the underground river for more than a day, the come across an artificial underground lake in a huge cavern, larger than they can see a way out of. Their explorations reveal to them a submerged pagoda in an architectural style new to them, and a giant ferocious eel who dwells therein. They manage to extract the body of a former adventurer from the ruins without having to battle the eel, earning a second potion of water-breathing. 

Finally, they decide to attempt to cross the lake towards the south without getting wet, by using hammer and pitons to cross the eastern cavern wall. This quickly wakes the guards of the toadmen at the gate not more than 100 feet to their south, and the party are convinced to pay the 25gp-per-person toll to enter into "The Realm of the Toad-Men"