Greyhawk, 586 CY, Readying 20
Southern Hool Swamp, Afternoon, Cool and Foggy
Real Trouble
Without hindrance, Barto heads off back the way you came and soon is gone from sight. Vilana just sighs and shakes her head, and then continues to move forward with everyone else. The group travels for the rest of the morning and into the morning. The swamp gets thicker thicker with choking vines, trees, swampy holes, and foliage. Pretty soon, there is no path to follow, but Cassisus and others lead on, and the rest fall in behind them. The cold, stagnant water attempts to suck the boots off the feet and the air is thick with fog and sounds of the swamp.
The "trail" ends in water...water everywhere the group turns. There is no longer solid ground (or semi-solid ground) to be found anywhere nearby, just vines and scrub snagging your clothing and hair in an attempt to drag you down into the dark, brackish water. Then suddenly, there it is.
- temple rising.png (654.93 KiB) Viewed 912 times
After more than enough travel through these horrid swamps, you finally see a huge stone platform ahead of you, rising out of the water in the side of a sheer, muddy mound. On the surface of this platform a few marble columns still reach toward the open sky; others have fallen over and broken.
Three well-worn stone steps ascend from the water itself to the surface of this marble platform. A number of small skiffs are tied to spikes driven into these steps. At the extreme rear of this platform you can see some type of decorated wall.
You marvel at the sight of this ancient temple for several moments...and it is then you see something floating in the water: a body of a lizardman. In fact, once your eyes adjust to the gloom, you see several bodies, some broken, some looking as if their scales have been melted off...or eaten off by something. More and more are scattered all around the temple and its muddy mound.
"Could these be Sakatha's lizardmen?" Vilana whispers, her eyes peering into the water and at the temple.
