"Greetings", said Logresia.  "I am called Logresia.  I do not consider myself an evildoer but music critics and the Lizardfolk I just killed may disagree.  I have come with these gentlemen to try to recover their missing children."

She does not look at Thorgrim as he speaks but continues to look toward the slammed door, wondering whether anyone has the skills to open it or to destroy it.  Either way, she holds her mace ready to parry anything used against her.

OOC: Lizardfolk tend to favor humid climates. They dwell in warm or temperate marshes, swamps, and jungles, or more rarely in flooded cavern systems. Climate here is temperate. The ruins both outside and based on this first chamber are more on dry side. Baffling.

Edit: I used your Monster Wrangler background, since your question is about lizardfolk and they aren't natural dungeon creatures per se.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:29, Sun 12 Dec 2021.

"I'm Thorgrim," says Thorgrim. "So these lizardfolk's been kidnapping kiddies, have they? Har, that's excellent news! That's evil-doing if anything is, so that means I can smite them!"

He scowls at the ones on the floor.

"Except it looks like you smote these ones good and proper already," he says. "What say you we go find some fresh ones?"

"Good day to you, Master Dwarf. I'm Tristan Wheeler, and this scared fellow here is Morland. We're searching his son and other missing villagers. This band of travellers, ahem, travelling adventurers, they're kind enough to help us with this endeavor. The tracks brought us here. The half-elf knows his business." The old warrior nods at Doherti.

Doherti returns from grabbing his ax and checking the door that had been slammed. "Hello," he says to the dwarf. "I'm Doherti. Do you know this underground? Is there route that can get us behind that door? If not, we need to get it open, with a quickness."

In reply to Doherti (msg # 79):

As you check the door there is a keyhole and so perhaps a lock as well, but it looks so rusted and filled with grime and dust that it's likely nonfunctional. You think it could be opened simply by pushing it open again. You don't hear any sounds coming from the other side of it.

"The door may just open. If we are ready, I'll give it a try. But let's hurry. I don't know why anyone might have gone willingly with these folk. But these warriors also aren't the owners of the tracks we followed."

Thorgrim pushes up his helmet to scratch his head.

"I don't know my way around as such," he says. "Mostly I've just wandered around and trying to find something to fight, but without any luck so far. There are some doors in the room I came for that we can try, I suppose. Maybe Marthohtar has seen something..." He looks behind him. "Marthohtar! Hurry up, lad! We have kidnappers to catch!"

Footsteps echo in the hallway Thorgrim came from.  "You found them!?" says a voice that sounds young, but creaks like a tree in the wind.  A tall figure in plate armor, bearing sword and shield, bursts from the doorway, joining the dwarf.  Elven features and greenish skin show through the gaps in the newcomer's helmet.

"Oh."  He says, stopping and looking around confusedly.  Thorgrim is clearly not in battle, so he assumes the room is safe, and these are not enemies.  "I didn't see anything special."

Lady Magister got Jobol's attention and called him over closer to her she then leaned down closer but holding her breath and whispered into his ear " then she stood up quickly and took a deep breath when she was a step away from Jobol.

Her eyes moved to the Dwarf that came running in and asking such a nonsense question.  But most beings would claim that her race was evil. It all brought a smile to her face as she listened to the two quickly make conversations with him.

Then her eyes started at the figure moving behind the Drwarf.  An Elven warrior...

Jobol nodded at Lady Magisters whispered advice and was about to proceed when Thorgim burst into the room. He was rolling his eyes at the dwarf blathering about "evil-doers" and fool quests just looking for a fight when the elven giant entered the room. He quickly dropped whatever scathing epithet he was going to unleash and looked to his mistress, caution writ clear on his expression. He carefully skulked back into the gloom, staying as inconspicuous as he could while circling around to get behind the steel-clad elf, nary taking his eyes off Lady Magisters reaction. His hand subtly strayed toward the hilt of one of his many knives and watched for the inevitable pin to drop; between the boisterous dwarf and this "fine" example of elven masculinity and no doubt "honour" (he spat the thought in his mind), this could all go to Styx quick as a blink. But not if he had anything to do with it.

"Are those Lizardfolk who we were following, Doherti?" asks Logresia.  "Or are we looking for someone or something else?" She doesn't see well in the darkness so she relies on her other senses, smell, the feel of movements of air and of course, sound.

Doherti gives the door a slight push and it swings open again with a nerving creak. Behind it opens a much larger chamber, so large your torch can't illuminate all of it. The passage where you stand enters the room near its NE corner. You can see the left hand wall go straight south and can barely make out south wall maybe 50' away. On the right hand side, at the north wall there are two exits towards north; one close to this doorway at the NE corner and the second one further away at the west, probably close to NW corner. Both are closed by the similar wooden door you've opened.

From the ceiling, about 15' high, there's a complex mechanism of multiple pulleys and gears. Several rusted heavy metal chains hang loosely from the ceiling, some of them ending to a hook, and all end at about a persons height from the floor. Near the center of the room, or away from the walls, there are many desks and workbenches, some collapsed or tipped over, with multitude of jars, kettles, pots, glass and metal tubes, piping, and tools like spatulas, tongs and scoops. Some of them on the desks and workbenches, some scattered on the floor.

There's a metallic odor lingering here. The floor is littered with stuff and shrapnel of pottery etc. and there's been a lot of movement disturbing it but no clear path or tracks anywhere. It looks like somebody's been through scavenging the area recently.

No sight of the lizardfolk, the room is eerily silent.

We're out of combat now.

15:25, Today: Logresia Skrieven rolled 7 using 1d8+2.  Recovery one.

Logresia recovers from most but not all of her wounds.

"I don't know what kinds of creatures we were following," Doherti says in response to Logresia.

Hefting his hatchet, Doherti moves along the path it looks like the child took. If he can't follow that path, he follows the path the fleeing creatures took. If he can't follow that path, he moves to the nearest door and tries it carefully.

In reply to Doherti (msg # 89):

There are no tracks to follow in the room. Doherti opens the closest door to him at the NE corner, which opens easily enough revealing a passage to north. At the other end of this passage, maybe 50' away and barely visible to the half-elf at the limits of his light source range, he sees one Lizardfolk Savage look back at him just before it closes the door behind them.

OOC: As far as I know, Doherti is moving away from the 1st chamber carrying the party's only light source.

"Are they gone? Is it clear?" Vander cautiously peeks from the stairs where he was hiding during the skirmish.

He waves at Thorgrim and Marthohtar. "Vander Hickerlooper the Third, at your service." He snaps his fingers and a magical white light with a tint of blue, not quite as bright as a torch, starts to glow from his finger tip.

"Are those lizard-people? I'm not sure I can stomach the beasts lurking here. I'm not fond of... dark and cramped places."

Doherti moves back to the others. "Yes, more like these," he says, nudging a dead body with his foot. "They've fled further in. I don't have a trace of the boy or the others right now. I would suggest that they can be found wherever our attackers are going. That is the way I will go. Haste is still called for. Who is with me?"

Marthohtar looks at Doherty.  "I think we have the same goal.  Finding missing villagers?   Let's go together, then."

He grins down at his dwarven friend.  "You wanted a fight, I think these people have the knack of finding them!"

He strides off after Doherti, saying over his shoulder, "If there is darkness, we will bring the Light to shine through it, eh, Mr. Hickerlooper?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 06:12, Wed 15 Dec 2021.

"Pah, you surface dwellers are spoiled with all this free sunlight and fresh air!" Thorgrim says. "Down underground, we have as much space as we can carve out with a pickaxe and as much light as we have tallow to burn, and that's just how we like it! But yes, let's not waste time! Those slippery kidnappers need to be introduced to my axe!"

He strides after Doherti.

Logresia moves surprisingly quietly as she joins the column, pausing to wink at Jobol and Lady Magister before she does so.

Tristan and Morland nod solemnly and both join the column, as do pale-faced Vander providing light to the rear end of the group with his spell.

The northbound passage leads into a round room with dome ceiling 50' in diameter. The walls here have the same paint shades and mural as the 1st chamber. You come from the south and there is two other doors in the cardinal directions, one towards north and another towards east. There's a flipped over and broken desk and a tipped over chair close to the west wall, other than that the chamber is empty.

Compared to the other chambers so far this is far cleaner. There only slight layer of dust on the floor but that's enough for Doherti to see with his experience in tracking that there's been lots of traffic between the northern and the eastern door. The fresh tracks, however, made only moments ago by those four lizardfolk passing through go from the south door to the east door.

When approaching this door, all of you hear muffled speech in Draconic dialect: "Kepla'nas ekess slathalin. Astahii re confnir vur yth nishka ygish astahi." Details of what is said are lost to you, but you get the odd words; coming, prepare, fight.

You open the east door and it comes from the center of the west wall to a large square room. Thick odor of smoke and punchy stench of the lizardfolk attacks your nostrils.

The room is dimly lit by small fires burning in the fireplaces at the NW and SW corners. A long and wide desk is standing next to the east wall and the ends of it in the NE and SE corners are closed doors exiting out of the room. There a "nest-like" structure in the middle of the room, made from junk of all sorts including leathers, clothes, wooden and bone material scavenged from somewhere.

Five tall lizardfolk savages including the Milky-Eyed one stand in front of the nest structure in loose formation waiting for you, their arms ready to throw spears at the first person to enter. No other creatures or individuals are visible.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC: Your party has the Initiative, the Savages are Delaying. Round 1 / Party's Turn -Escalation Die +0

The Lizardman Savages have AC:17 PD:16 MD:12.
A - HP:32/31 (The Milky-Eye)
B - HP:32/32
C - HP:32/32
D - HP:32/32
E - HP:32/32

---

Logresia ends her silence as she sheathes her face and begins banging her slightly bent open right hand against the well of her shoulder just above her left breast where they form a slight hollow that emphasises the noise, Ah-ONE TWO and-THREE and-FOUR and-ONE TWO and-THREE and FOUR.  Slowly she replaces the drumming on her chest with strumming on her Oudh as she begins to sing the Song of Heroes.

+1 to each ally's attack once per round

"In bars and taverns the song
Begins. Calls to arms are heard.
Mothers find children are gone
Fathers scream without a word.

Heroes are called
Heroes are called
We answer that call
Sword strikes sword
Sword strike sword
We smite the horde."

Standing back would I be able to see any of the Lizardmen?  Without being close, avoiding being a target, seeing we know they throw spears at people.

Thorgrim charges boldly forth at the nearest lizardman, driving it back with a flurry of blows from his axe but being unable to land a decisive strike.

05:07, Today: Thorgrim Stonefriend rolled 10 using 1d20+4.  Attack.

Miss. Let's say it was against B. It takes 1 HP of damage.