20 Eleint, 1493
❧Even Dead Frogs Float
Night
After all the frantic fretting about whether owls are on the menu for frogs, our feathered friend made it back unscathed, not a single feather out of place. Even better, nothing trailed him back to us. We decided to give that area a wide berth and check out the one to the northwest.
This room was a mess of scribbles all over the ground. The never-ending mist obscured parts of it, but our Kalama, bless her sharp mind, figured out in no time that it was a teleportation spell. She’s certain she could operate it, but we don’t know where it leads or what the password is. They would have a password, those unthinking oafs! Well, this set us off brainstorming on how to crack the code. I suggested we try “Tiamat,” but it was a no-go. Worth a shot, though.
Demdoo remembered there was a Dragonborn in the library area on the second floor who might know the password. Sounded like a plan to the rest of us, but by this time, it was late, and we were all dog-tired. T-Bone snuck into that room with all the frogs to see what else was there. Looks like someone tried to fashion a shrine or something in there. They’d scrawled a mishmash of religious symbols on the walls and floors. T-Bone said there were sculptures for worship of Shar (the goddess of shadows) and Gaunadaur (the god of slimes), and also some areas for a creator god named Ramenos. Sounds like that one is in a deep sleep or something, so at least we don’t have to worry about that, I guess.
The frogs were scattered around the room, some lounging about or playing dice, while the fancy-looking one seemed to be in prayer. You won’t be surprised to learn that we stood around discussing what to do next for so long that we started hearing footsteps coming our way from the other direction! A lot of footsteps. We hustled around another corner, near the water area, and hid, hoping whoever was approaching would pass us by. But, as luck would have it, they came right down the tunnel we were in. This tunnel wasn’t exactly roomy; we could barely fit two of us in there side by side.
I don’t know who swung first, but suddenly we were in a scuffle with half a dozen frogs. Well, one of them let out a loud croak, and we could hear more frogs from the shrine room heading our way. Once they arrived, we had to fend off 16 plus that fancy one! I think one of them called him a lieutenant, but frogs are kind of hard to understand. Anyway, that narrow tunnel worked in our favor, offsetting their numbers and slowing their approach. While all this was going on, one of those big frogs leaped out of the water behind us and tried to snack on T-Bone! T-Bone, being the brave rogue he is, handled himself with panache.
We grabbed Studded Leather Armor, the Spear, Shield, and a handful of druidic spell components. They just looked like berries and twigs to me, but maybe they’re worth something to someone! We didn’t want to waste too much time, so we tossed 12 spears into the portable hole, tossed a body into the water only to discover that dead frogs float. Maybe all dead bodies float, I have to say I haven’t spent much time messing around with dead bodies. So, we stuffed 17 bullywugs and a big frog body into the portable hole. Gonna have to clean that out again soon.
Now that the shrine room was empty, we thought it might make a good camping spot. Even better, we found another room behind it! All it had was a table, a chair, and a chest. T-Bone saved our hides by spotting a trap on the chest before we opened it. There were six holes in the ceiling and six parts to the trap, or something; rogue speak is hard to decipher sometimes. Anyway, he disarmed the whole trap and set six clay pots in the corner. He said they was really fragile and we shouldn’t go near them. I tried to advocate for keeping one, but the smarter people convinced me otherwise.
On to the chest—inside were a couple of spellbooks which we stashed in the bag of holding. After this, it was time for some shut-eye. We set up a watch rotation, with me and T-Bone taking the first watch. We did spot a torch moving around in another tunnel, but that was all. Demdoo and Lhel had the second watch and reported nothing happening. It was during the last watch, Kalama and Lhel’s, when they heard people talking in the other room. Lhel sneaked over to eavesdrop.
“Where are those lazy bullywugs? They never showed up for their shift,” one of them grumbled.
“After they all massacred each other, what did you expect? They’re probably off plotting revenge,” the other replied. Hey, that means they fell for our frame job!
“Go wake up Pharblex, he can get them moving,” the grumbler finished.
While Lhel was listening in, Kalama snuck around and woke the rest of us up. We really weren’t needed, though, because Lhel took out the two lizardfolk as they entered the room. They didn’t even know what hit ’em, he was so quick! We packed up camp, reset our gems, and started debating what to do next.
I thought it was a great idea to try another ruse and talk our way into the library, maybe by dropping some names we’ve heard throughout all this. Lhel was tired of the nonsense and just wanted to go full throttle and take down everything in our path.