S2 Week 1 (Part 2) - "Rats and Frogs and Robots, oh my!"

Slowly working their way down from a muddy hilltop to the ominous swamp land in the valley below, Erwise and Fernal descended using improvised rope and piton system from their supplies.

Just then, with Mootan still out at the crest of the hill, a ear-splitting metal screech accompanied by a neon green search light came lurking above the horizon. Panicking, Mootan scrambled down the hill, loosing his balance and falling. Erwise tried to dive forward to save him, but only succeeded in muddying his clothes. Mootan landed flat on his back, scraped up, but still alive.

Our heroes quickly ducked into the cover of the swamp land just as the machine walker spied their rope. The machine hunted them at the entrance the swamp, but the party was too well concealed to be detected, and the Deepforged Strider moved onward in search of more organic creatures.

(Illustration from "The War of the Worlds" be H.G. Wells)

The group moved deeper in the swamp, goaded onward by a sighting of black smoke against the night sky, signaling that the wreckage of their supply pod was somewhere in this swamp. The going was rough; vines and mud had obscured most of the cobblestone road, but the party was able to adeptly blaze a trail into the murky reaches of the Rimebog, unfettered by waist-high sludge and mysterious footprints.

Ahead in the road, through the underbrush, Erwise spotted a small fire and decided to investigate, finding a foul sight: kobold zombies gathered around a fire, flanked by a kobold necromancer! Fernal blew his warhorn and charged into battle, Erwise (who was previously hidden from the kobold caravan) ambushed the necromancer, and Mootan sent his healing spirit into the fray.

Although a rat swarm and a kobold crossbowman joined the fray from the kobold caravan, the vermin were easily dispatched by the three adventurers. Then, a shocking discovery! The kobold necromancer had some sort of connection with Verminhide (a powerful kobold necromancer that the party dispathced in Season 1), and carried with him both a powerful necrotic incantation and a plague-filled bomb, which he was planning using to destroy a nearby village of bullywugs*! His motives, at that time, were still a mystery...

*Bullywugs are frog people! They smell bad... just don't say that to their face.

Our party advances further into the cold and cruel Rimebog...

The party continued to the bullywug village, both to warn them of the bomb near the village and to investigate the black smoke rising above the settlement, only to find the amphibians in the midst of a celebration. The leader of the village, the "Venerable Lord" Kroak, was leading the village in some sort of religious festival, and it soon became apparent that the villagers believed that the crashing of the supply pod, which they referred to as "The Burning Star," was a good omen. Upon learning of the bomb threat just outside his domain, Kroak dispatched a handful of villagers to "deal with" the problem, rather uncaring for their safety.

Thanks to some fast-talking by Erwise, Kroak allowed the party visitation to "The Great Burning Star." However, once the group was away from the celebration, Kroak made it very obvious that he cared very little of this so-called "omen," and much more about wealth, power, and controlling his populace. Erwise was able to retrieve the supplies from the pod with little trouble. Kroak dismissed them, turning his attention to a mysterious purple glow atop a nearby altar...

The party could have investigated further, and Kroak certainly seemed like an unsavory character, but our heroes were in a battle against a greater foe, and couldn't spare the time to deal with the egotistical bullywug lord. They found their way back to their base of operations and inspected what they had found in the supply pod...