As The Green Dragon Brotherhood recovers from their encounter with a Bandersnatch (and the ever-present Feathered Maw), they decide to keep heading towards the pulsing green light at the far end of the strange enclosed world in which they find themselves. Cleansing Waters ingests the sacred mushrooms and gazes upon the visage of The Moistened Sloth (meta note: his luck is permanently increased).

Sooney-Crow of No Family and William Dune also eat the mushrooms, and, not being initiates of the Sloth find themselves beset by madness! Sooney is tormented by an unshakable stench, and Dune sees a mysterious Dwarf leading them forwards.

As they travel, they can see other Bandersnatch moving and hear the sounds of a forest teeming with life. Greer the Betrayer, ever vigilant, suspects they are being followed. He stealthily doubles back, and sure enough, the Brotherhood soon discovers they are being stalked by a tribe of Toad Men.

Several of the spear-carrying Toad Men approach and with limited vocabulary ask the party to stop and parley. Once confrontation is avoided, their leader makes himself known, striding forward confidently. He is well-armored, carrying a much better crafted spear, and appears to have another version of The Uxul hanging from his neck!

He is apparently much smarter than his tribe - and with great bluster and malapropism seeks an alliance with the Brotherhood. These people seem to be long-lost descendants of the Lizardfolk whose scientists may have built this world. They call The Old Ones "interlopers" and "Invaders" and ask the Brotherhood to help them send the "lanky colonizers" home.

It seems the green light comes from a towering ancient temple platform, on which the Old Ones have set up shop. The Toad Men intend to assault it with the party's help.

Greer the Betrayer asks the Toad Chieftain for his Uxul in exchange. The offer is declined, but the Chief offers a large share of the spoils instead. The Brotherhood wants more of the Old Ones' shiny metal fabric, which appears to be fireproof, which will come in handy for the coming draconic double-cross.

That's good enough for our heroes and the two groups continue the march to battle. Along the way, Sooney-Crow of No Family sings the Tale of the Green Dragon Brotherhood, deftly weaving in their new...business...relationship with Ur-Balat as the story of a father forgiving the Brotherhood for slaying its child (readers will remember the tale tells of the Brotherhood defeating a green dragon, when the truth is they found a dead one and harvested its scales for armor).

The Temple is merely a towering stone platform rising from the forest canopy - the only way up is a long, straight staircase. It is ancient and crumbling, with moss covering the sides and a sense of doom radiating from it. Kraz Formalhaut places the Old Ones' psionic helmet on his head and attempts to reach out to any aliens on the platform. He finds five minds and is sending calming thoughts to them when a flock of Feathered Maw, attracted to the helmet, attack!

Party and tribe alike join the fray, and soon the Maws are blasted, kicked and stabbed from the sky. The Old Ones, however, are also now alerted.

The Toad Men are impressed that they have allied with such legendary warriors! So impressed in fact that all thought of strategy is thrown out the window and they charge the temple stairs.

As the Toad Men charge, the green light turns purple and a large energy shield of some sort covers the top of the platform. The Chieftain bounces off it and tumbles ass over teakettle. The Brotherhood and the Toads bunch together on the stairs. The shield appears to be generated from six Lizardfolk statues that ring the platform.

What they see is a handful of Old Ones surrounded by bags and bushels of Slothshrooms, loading them into large crystal pods, which rise from the floor and, once filled, are loaded into some kind of tube which appears to blast them away from the world. Cleansing Waters is appalled! They must pay!

Suddenly, the shield drops and an Old One blows away a Toad Man with a shot from his energy weapon. The shield is immediately restored. The party readies itself to "bum rush" the platform the next time the shield drops, which they do.

A combination of prowess and luck gets everyone except Sooney-Crow of No Family and two Toad Men onto the platform, where the battle is fierce and deadly. As luck would have it, the Old One in charge of the shield is killed early on, and Sooney is locked out for the duration.

After pulling off a miraculous rescue of Cleansing Waters, who almost gets fried by an energy burst, Shiv Drinkstep beheads on Old One with one clean stroke of The Blade of Graxus, and Greer the Betrayer uses his magic ring to summon a Chull, which promptly seizes an alien and cuts it in half. The Chieftain's spear transforms into a lightning bolt when hurled, it appears! The Toads handle the rest while the Brotherhood hammers away at statues, trying to defeat the shield and let Sooney in. Four statues later, they finally do.

True to character, William Dune follows his madness-induced Dwarf into one of the departing crystal pods and is launched into...the aether? The void? Beyond the Veil? No one knows, and we may or may not see her/him again (note: the GM knows what happened; can you figure it out?).

The battle ends with minimal damage and five dead Old Ones...yet Greer the Betrayer still wants the Cheiftain's Uxul...will the Betrayer live up to his name?

TIME ELAPSED: Half a day...ish.