Mattiverse Next - Session 15

Dismal Weather

• What was a tense fight has done an about-face on its inertia. The remaining orcs put up a resistance for a short while before breaking. They are run down ruthlessly.
• The boys puzzle over the non-Orc. They don't know what a lizardfolk looks like, but figure that must be one even though they find it truly odd that a lizardfolk would be working with orcs, especially against the backdrop of the dead dragon turtle from before, and double-especially in expensive, dramatically difficult-to-manufacture and extraordinarily ill-suited-to-swamp-conditions armor. Their conclusion is that it must be a stranger faction rather than a native one.
• They take some heads to convey this news to someone later, from the shifty shadow orc and the scaled one. Bobwhite wants to send a clear message, and while he's annoyed at the party that he's the only one with rope, he nevertheless uses it to string the big dude up with "Don't bother the halflings" written in blood on its chest. Everyone else is left to rot. They do salvage some worthwhile gear, though.
• They progress after a quick rest. It starts to rain, and does not let up. In the fog and damp, they are mostly unmolested, although they do run into some large-ish creatures on the way that they leave to their own devices.
• At the end of four days of travel (since Wydmoor), they reach where they know the ruins should be nearby. They decide to press on to reach it that night.
• A couple of hours of forced march pass, which they manage without getting too tired. They know the temple should be here... but all that is there is rubble.
• Some critters explode out of it!
  • They are big bugs with antennae that rust metal! The bugs are a poor match for the very dexterous party that does not wear metal armor, and die very quickly (but not before getting some rust on Beldon and Banner's swords).
• The hole they exploded from is an entrance! Filled with water!
• They are very tired by this point, so they rest to investigate the next morning.

Swamp Temple?

• Four is the best at swimming, so he gets to be the party explorer. Beldon kits him out with cunning and Banner with guile, and he starts swimming.
• The water is murky. He scouts out the entryway and is startled by an orc corpse. It floats menacingly.
• After coming back to catch his breath, he tries again. He does this several times, making a little more progress each time.
  • At one point he brings the orc back. Bobwhite and Beldon investigate.
    • He died a traumatic death, with lots of evidence of frostbite. It was sometime within the last few weeks.
• Piece by piece, Four scouts the temple. He finds an air pocket some way in, so Banner joins him.
  • They find a room, with hairline fractures all around and a chill on its floor. But, no hydra.
  • Some more passageways later, and then they find... the hydra!
    • It is dead.
    • With eighteen heads severed, and all of it drained.
      • This is a big deal.
• They regroup to process this information. Four retrieves a couple of heads in the process. Their expeditions' purpose nullified, they discuss what to do with this information.

Stuff

• Plate armor, including a helmet worth five times as much as normal (25gp).
• Some cloth-of-gold vestments
• A healing potion
• A malachite
• An orc head and a "lizardfolk" head
• Two drained cryohydra heads
• A couple of rust monster antennae
• Some scattered electrum and copper