Into the Mere of Dead Men

What time is it? It's Dungeons and Dragons time!

Dawn comes. Luke waits for Alissa to emerge, while Shale and I leave.

Shale seems to have her own business to attend to (something about lepers), and I decide to check on the inn the cultists were stay enough.

Sure enough, there is activity. A see a group I recognize as cultists, who load up a wagon, and then head north, out of the city.

I watch them as they head of to the distance, before heading back to their inn, where I talk to the innkeeper, and give him a few silver for some information.

He heard some things. They group is associated with a Lord Neverember, who is rebuilding a road to Neverwinter which had long fallen into disrepair. He says they're looking to hire on guards, if I'm interested, but they're doing it through a certain mercenary company. He also mentions the "Highroad Charter Company", has something to do with guilds and nobles.

I thank him and leave.

Alissa sees activity too, and she sneaks out after the wagons loaded with supplies. As for I had also just seen, they also head north.

We all meet back up at the inn, and Shale says she has heard of this Lord Neverember. He's a newly landed noble, and he's had a little bit to do with trade, and more recently has taken on several construction places. He has a castle somewhere, and also owns a place called the Carneth Roadhouse, located between Waterdeep and Neverwinter, from back when trade between Neverwinter and Waterdeep flourished. The place had fallen to ruin, but it sounds as if he has recently rebuilt it.

Shale thinks she might be able to find a minor local noble to learn more.

Unfortunately, the lord she speaks to doesn't actually know the man, although he does make some outrageous claims. No time to find anyone who does know anything.

We take our horses, and head to the Carneth Roadhouse.

Day 1

We quickly overtake the caravan, and we abandon the path to cautiously make sure we are not spotted.

We're ambushed by some lizardman, who we quickly dispatch.

Day 4

More lizardmen. They don't last long either.

Day 5

Orc and ogres this time.

They presented more of a threat than the lizardmen did.

Day 6

Nothing interesting happens. We don't talk a bit. I wonder about the glass eye that I have. Perhaps I will find out what connection it has to my father, especially after the merchant in the caravan showed interest.

Luke mentions he came from a merchant family, but...they mostly dealt with sheep and other livestock.

Day 8

We enter the marshlands.

Day 10

A huge group of little frogmen come out of the swamp to attack us.

I throw a fireball upon us, killing them, singeing us.

Things get a bit tense for a bit.

That night we reach Carneth Roadhouse.

It's a small complex, build on a bit of land that a bit slightly higher out of the swamp.

We enter through the front gate, into a courtyard that is crowded by crates. The mud has been stamped down, with a clear path from the gate to the stables, where we stable our horses.

Built into the complex walls are several small connected buildings.

A burly half-orc yells out to us, wondering what we're doing here. We notice he has a dragon symbol on his scabard.

Shale says we're here to meet Lord Neverember. Luke implies that we lost the paperwork, and the half-orc tells us to take a room on the upper floor.

We do.

Alissa sneaks around and tries to find something resembling an office. Luke and I cast some spells to help her out. She does find an interesting door, but there are enough workers around where it might be best to investigate it later.

The night is bitter cold.

Luke and Alissa go down again, and unlock the door.

Luckily Luke had cast invisibility on the pair of them, as a rather surprised lizardman was on the other side. The lizardman blinks at the open door, and then reaches out to close the door. Luke and Alissa back out of the way, and the lizardman relocks it.

Luke and Alissa come back up, and get Shale and I.

We go back down. Alissa spots a lizardman out in the open, and slits his throat. Unfortunately, the lizardman yells out and a day laborer runs in, sees what has happened and then runs off.

Having been apparently been summoned, the half-orc returns, asking why we are attacking his men.

Well, this is awkward, Shale tells him.

The half-orc turns and walks away, and Alissa picklocks the lock for the second time.

Inside we see boxes, but no lizardmen.

But there is conspicuously a trap door in the center of a room.

The tunnel seems to be collapsing behind us. We run through as quickly as we can. Eventually the tunnel drops down into muck, and we struggle through it.

We finally emerge from the muck, to find ourselves surrounded by lizardmen.

Sensing what I might do, the others try to get some distance from me as several lizardmen close around me.

I'm willing to share the fate of my companions when I need to, but with my companions clear, I surround myself with silvery mist, and then make one step to find myself thirty feet away, before conjuring an explosion of fire where we had just been standing just before.

Most of the lizardmen survive, and Shale is fighting one group completely untouched by it. Luke, Alissa and I finish the other lizardmen off, before helping Shale kill hers.

This is actually an incredibly long battle, because none of us seems to be able to roll well.

My final spell is a magic missile, and it has a strange side effect. I feel..taller. Bigger.

Luckily the effects were temporary, otherwise getting through doors would have been difficult.

In the distance we see a castle. Shale suddenly remembers its name. Castle Naerytar. It sits foreboding in the distance. Travel through the cold marshy swamp will not be easy.

HEY. HEYYYY. WE REALLY NEED TO REST.