Wilderlands: Terror in the Temple of the Toad

...Or How the Fumbling Four became Two

James as Tancred (Half Giant Fighter 1)

KC as Namira (Altanian Warlock 1 disciple of Mycr)

JP as Paelias Diamonddew (Elf Ranger 1 soon to be deceased)

Chris as Cyrus (Viridian Fighter 1 also soon to be deceased)

When we last left the Fumbling Four, they were removing a stone panel from the wall of a tomb in the Palace of the Toad Cult - a black pyramid in the Mermist Marsh.  Apparently prying the panel off the wall last session attracted some of the pyramid's inhabitants as a group of strangely bug-eyed, slit-mouthed men dressed in bones and reptile skin burst through the door to attack the intruders.  They threw spears and then rushed into melee, catching the party off guard and dealing some significant wounds; however, they could not stand before the Four and were slain to a man.

Toad Sarcophagus

Since members of the company were injured, they decided to rest in the tomb for an hour to heal wounds and to investigate the sarcophagi.  Paelias and Cyrus opened the sarcophagi with crowbars while Tancred and Namira rested a ways away.  The wounded members feared the sarcophagi would hold some kind of trap, and thus they wanted to not be nearby when it triggered.  They were, in a way, correct, but the trap was only metal teeth under the sarcophagus lid which were avoided by the use of the crowbars.

The interior of the sarcphagi were wet and pink with large mucous membranes stretched over their occupants.  Cyrus and Paelias each cut one open, revealing almost skeletal corpses whose eyes still registered terror and pain as though alive.  Paelias stabbed his in the head - which caused the skull to disintegrate - and removed an iron khopesh of Orichalcan make.  Cyrus found that his occupant was a skeletal woman with gold bangles around her arms.  These he sought to remove while being watched by the frightened corpse.  Namira, who had come over to investigate after no explosion had torn her companions asunder, stabbed the corpse in the head as Paelias had done.  Cyrus and Namira then debated the merits of such action, since the nature (or even reality) of the corpses' suffering was unknown and the panel had said they deserved it.  Namira believed the end of torment was a good regardless of who was being tormented.

Traveling on, the Fumbling Four found a set of stairs leading beneath the pyramid.  Despite knowing that more danger would lurk closer to the heart of this sinister fane, they descended.  Shortly they encountered two enormous toads, each seated on a dais.  These leapt from their positions and attacked.  A brutal combat ensued in which Tancred was knocked unconscious and Cyrus and Paelias were both devoured!  Namira was able to finish off the last toad and, upon healing Tancred, the two cut the bodies of their friends from the toad's stomach.

Despite being weighed down with the bodies of their comrades and treasure plundered from the tomb, the two remaining members of the Fumbling Four returned to the City State without further incident.