Episode 5

The Interrogation
After raiding the bullywog patrol's corpses, the adventurers surrounded the captured Mud Lord to prepare for interrogation. However, the questioning finished before it could begin when Aggumar — mistaking the Mud Lord's capture for an inability to kill him — "helpfully" shot an arrow at the prone Mud Lord.

"Weakness is nothing to be ashamed of, I'm here!"

- Aggumar

Waiting for Donn
With nothing left to do after Aggumar's "helpfulness", the party decided to continue their rest to allow Donn Challar catch up to them. Thankfully, this time the party's rest was uninterrupted, and they awoke to a lightly cloudy, breezy day.

Citing in-town concerns, Ordavil Tea-beard left the party after awakening.

In the morning calm, the party decided to identify the magical loot they found. Athenra identified a spiked dagger as a Bloodclaw dagger — a magical weapon that viciously damages foes in return for the wielder's blood. After a short argument, Athenra was able to keep the dagger for herself. Aggumar was able to identify a flask of questionable contents as a healing potion, and subsequently held onto it.

In the early evening, Donn rejoined the party, and they all set off towards the temple.

The Temple Encounter: Round 2
In an attempt to compensate for the disaster that occurred the last time she scouted the temple, Athenra volunteered once more to go ahead of the party. Although Athenra was very successful in her stealthy approach, she — quite unfortunately — did not know the definition of "scouting", and engaged the enemy bullywogs instead of returning to the party.

While Athenra's first attack — a crossbow bolt through a nearby croaker's throat — was successful, it was also noticed by the nearby guard who had been talking to him. Immediately, the bullywogs gave a mighty croak, sounding the alarm to all nearby guards.

"I guess that's as good a signal as we're going to get."

- Donn Challar

Donn, with an intense case of deja vu, mustered the party to aid Athenra at the temple. However, Athenra was forced to engage multiple opponents for serveral rounds before they could arrive.

Outnumbered and panicked, Athenra took heavy damage from several bullywogs — most disgustingly, she was vomited on by a croaker before being set ablaze by a Mud Lord. Athenra realized her tactical error, and promptly commited another by fleeing the bullywogs in the opposite direction of her allies. The nearby bullywogs pursued her relentlessly, leaving her bloodied. With few locations to hide, Athenra dashed around a corner and hid behind a door frame set into the adjacent wall.

Meanwhile, the party arrived at the temple and began engaging the enemy. The early arrivals were given a warm, fiery welcome in the form of the Mud Lord's Fiery Croak.

Donn attempted to croak rude curses at the Mud Lord in return, however his vicious mockery was received as a joke. Next, Indie charged into the fray, missing his first attack, then forcing a second to strike true.

Aggumar followed up his allies' attack, but missed his axe throw. Avoiding combat, Chali tried to scramble up the tower terrace, but failed miserably.

Athenra's pursuing croaker fell for Athenra's terrible bluff, and was unable to see her. Athenra quickly dispatched him with a shuriken to the eye, and lept down the temple terrace to continue her escape.

After realizing she had fled in the wrong direction, Athenra swiped at a passing croaker with her dagger and attempted to climb back up the temple platform, but failed.

Meanwhile, on the southern side of the temple, Donn tried taunting his foes once more, though his wit was lost in translation. Indie charged at the bullywogs once more, dealing significant damage with his hammers. Aggumar's following axe throw struck true, and his opponent became harassed by Aggumar's raptor spirit.

Indie followed his attack by climbing up the temple walls, a feat not replicated by Aggumar, who attempted the same. After her previous failure at climbing, Athenra ran to find a staircase, but unknowingly stepped right into the remaining Mud Lord's line of fire.

Upon seeing the battered and bloodied Athenra, the Mud Lord let loose a fiery croak, knocked her unconscious. However, in his distraction, he failed to see Aggumar unleash a horde of spider spirits at him. Entangled and overwhelmed, the Mud Lord was easily finished off by Chali who had spent the entire encounter trying to climb up a wall.

Although bloody, burnt, and covered in various bodily fluids, Athenra managed to force herself awake through sheer will — and desire to loot the bodies around her.

Investigation
The party members gathered at the top floor of the temple, where there found the fresh corpses of large, humanoid lizards. The bodies were dressed in strange white harnesses, and though there were signs of a struggle, it appears that they were slaughtered for some form of ritual sacrifice.

Athenra and Indie scavenged their defeated foes for valuables to the background chatter of Donn's ineffective scolding of Athenra and Chali's offering of snacks.

Once they finished gathering their loot, Athenra and Indie examined the temple in further detail. The well traveled adventurers gathered that though the bullywogs had clearly taken residence in the temple, the construction of the building was far too complex for a species that fought mostly with sharpened sticks or vomiting. The temple itself had an arcane aura, as though the stone itself was magical. After considering the shape and structure of the temple, the two suspected it was not built in devotion of any deities of the modern pantheon. After noticing a focused beam of sunlight atop the temple, it seemed likely that the temple was built to worship sunlight, or perhaps the Sun itself.

Visited Locations

 * Sun Temple

Treasure and Loot

 * Potion of Healing (2)
 * 44GP, 310SP
 * Flawed gem (25GP)
 * 500XP = 100XP per PC