The sun rises on The Green Dragon Brotherhood as they emerge from their hiding spot, having successfully dodged the mass of angry apes who want The Uxul back. The Brotherhood eats and heals and figures out what’s next.
While scouting the immediate area, Greer the Betrayer spies two Serpentfolk walking on a trail in the jungle down below them, heading east. All signs point to Sooney-Crow of No Family being in the hands of the Serpentfolk, but why was William Dune's location spell so far off? Further investigation of the strange metal box reveals nothing more than a faint humming vibration.
They hatch a plan. Greer will get down to the trail and follow any patrols he comes across. At sundown, the party will use the location spell to find him and make their way too him. He departs. While he’s gone, Skarrow finds an old vine-covered tree surrounded by stone statues of small animals. Curious by nature, he goes to investigate and finds himself face to face with a Medusa! This jungle teems with various reptilians!
He is surprised but somehow avoids being turned to stone. He screams for the rest of the group who come running, but not before Skarrow is hit by an arrow and bit by one of the snakeheads, which turns his cloak to stone, pinning him down. He wild shapes into a squirrel to get away and bravely scampers up onto the Medusa to try to mess up her ability to use her bow.
The rest of the party arrives - Shiv Drinkstep attempts to reflect her image back towards her with a shiny knife, but fails. William Dune gets her attention and steals her stone gaze for his own future use. Cleansing Waters uses his martial prowess to redirect one of her snakebites back at her. Finally she falls beneath a hail of blades and blows. They take her head and find a veil with an adamantine chain in the tree, along with strange writing and items.
In the meantime, Greer has been stealthily making his way along the trail. The day is uneventful until he rounds a corner and finds himself face to face with four Ssurloc soldiers eating a late lunch. Before they can react, he drops a smoke bomb and uses the chaos to disappear into the jungle, where he hides himself away, waiting for the rest of the group.
At dusk, per the plan, the group casts the locate spell and travels through the night to Greer’s location. Since he’s on the trail, and they follow the trail, one wonders what the spell did for them.
Reunited, they continue on their way.
They successfully recognize and avoid some man eating vines, having fallen to these strange plants before. They also encounter a large Skorn hunting party celebrating in the night and marking their territory with human skulls. Skarrow spies on the camp and sees them eating…someone…but that someone is not Sooney sized, so they move on.
The next day, they find the end of the trail, guarded by 5 Ssurloc, but they can see nothing being guarded. Skarrow, still squirrelly, sneaks past the guards and for a moment sees a strange tower flicker into existence. He sneaks up the stairs and in, finding a lone Hrrask in an empty stone room. Sunlight filters in and he glimpses a stairway down into the depths.
He returns to the party and they hatch a plan to lure the 5 guards into an ambush. Skarrow transforms into a giant serpent (and the GM wonders why he hasn’t been doing DDM checks during these transformations) and approaches. The guards act like they’ve found a puppy and follow him down the trail, when the rest of the party springs the attack. It’s a fierce battle - Skarrow nearly falls and Dune’s magic goes slightly awry, encasing him in ice while he burns a serpentman to death. Greer is particularly lethal, sneaking amongst the foes and attacking from behind - stabbing backs and slicing throats.
The way is clear - what lurks beneath the mysterious tower?
TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 3 DAYS