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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 1150046" data-attributes="member: 6294">Kull's 7th Report - Part 2The journey to the lizardfolk stronghold was uneventful.  They were able to confirm the location of the Newts' fort.  They did not offer assistance in retrieving the lost villagers, but I was provided with a symbol of the clan, so that lizardfolk patrols would know we were friends, if we encountered them.  Even this limited assistance proved to have an ulterior motive: one of the first things we encountered in the Newts' lair was a diplomatic envoy from the lizardfolk, come to negotiate peaceful relations.I made it clear to the envoy that I would consider any such agreement a hostile act, unless and until all the kidnapped women were returned, unharmed.  The envoy responded to this with evasive remarks: it seems the lizardfolk are fickle allies.  I shall remember that.  When I left him, I bade him remain in his chambers until we returned: if I saw him elsewhere in the fort, I would treat him as an enemy.But I have got ahead of myself: the Newts' had made their home in an abandoned fort, half-sunk in the swamp.  I led the approach, and we reached the doors without being detected - very poor security and discipline on the part of our enemies.  Much of the fort's roof was missing, and this provided a means to gain entry and unlock the doors.Once inside, we quickly encountered the envoy, then moved on to search the other rooms of the fort.  In one of these, we encountered three of the Newts.  These were quickly overcome, but the noise of the battle attracted several more of the creatures, including one of larger build, and carrying superior equipment.  Recognising that this must be their chief, or at least a war-leader, I immediately met him in battle, while leaving his minions for the others to defeat.  He proved a strong warrior, though an overly aggressive one.  He struck hard, but left himself open to counter-attacks, and after an exchange of blows I struck him down, shattering his jaw in the process.With their leader fallen, the remaining Newts in the battle were quickly destroyed.  My forces - including myself - had taken heavy injuries in the fight, but none had fallen except Gnorric, though death seems less interested in him than he in it: the wizard still clung to life.  His performance in the battle had been disappointing, to say the least: he had cast only one spell, and even that had had no effect.  After healing him, I warned him that he would need to perform better, if he wished to survive against skilled opponents.Once all our injuries had been attended to, I continued the exploration of the keep.  Much of the lower level was under several feet (or more) of water, while another section was sealed behind an ancient iron door.  I left these areas untouched for the moment, concentrating on those rooms which we could all easily explore.  These proved empty of either enemies or the village women.With the accessible areas of the lower level dealt with, I led the way up to the battlements.  Halfway up the spiral stairs, I could hear the sounds of battle from above.  Not wanting to stumble into the middle of the fight, I sent Shepherdson ahead to scout.  He did so efficiently, and quickly returned to advise that a number of the Newts were involved in a fight with some strange, tentacled caterpillars, each nearly five feet long, which appeared to be able to paralyse their enemies.Knowing that, whichever side won the battle, the other would be weaker for fighting it, I held the others back, waiting for the fight to come to an end.  Once the noises of combat ceased, I climbed up to view the results.  The strange caterpillar-creatures had won the battle, and now appeared to be slowly consuming the paralysed - and still-living - Newts.  Such would have been a just fate for them, but I did not wish to take the risk that any of them might escape, and therefore ordered the use of missile weapons to ensure their deaths.This done, I left the carrion-eating creatures to their meal, and returned to the lower level.  There was nowhere on the battlements to hide the women, which meant that they must be within one of the areas that I had not explored.  There were four of these: the area behind the iron door, and three rooms which had been wholly or partly flooded.One of these three flooded areas proved to be filled with enormous leeches, over a foot in length.  Knowing that any prisoners left amidst such creatures would soon have been nothing but empty husks, I saw no reason to press on into the area, and instead focussed on the other two: a large chamber so deeply submerged that it had thick clumps of reeds growing within it, and a long corridor down which I could hear a bass rumble, sounding like the croaking of toads, but magnified many times over.  The druid redundantly identified these noises as the calls of giant toads - even had I not been able to deduce this for myself, I was able to see far enough into the darkness to make out the creatures' shapes.Plainly, if we wished to venture further down this corridor, the creatures would need to be destroyed.</blockquote>

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