Episode 5: Bogged Down (Part 2)

Game Date: 2/11/2015

Quest Information

 * Date: 22nd Tammuz, 837
 * Title: Bogged Down
 * Special note: this adventure was based on "Bogged Down", by Terry Edwards, originally published in Dungeon Magazine #91. It was modified to fit this campaign. If anyone knows Terry, feel free to point him to this Wiki. The moderator would love to provide a link to any current works, blogs, etc. as a token of appreciation.
 * Level: 3
 * Location: Bearden's Crossing

Primary Cast

 * Ket-Ramat, human fighter-rogue
 * Shoklen, human swamp ranger
 * Dylan Minglewood, halfling bard (cameo)
 * Lugal, human Mage of Learning (cameo)

Supporting Cast

 * The White Witch of the Sapannu Swamp

Summary
The party, after an uneventful rest in the Sapannu Swamp (thanks to the wary eyes of Shoklen, the Swamp Ranger), decided to investigate the White Witch the lizard man told them about in the prior episode. Again, Shoklen, operating in his home turf (as boggy as it is), effortlessly leads the party through the swamp, until they find a well-worn trail. A well-worn trail? In the morass of the Sapannu? Maybe it's the trail of the White Witch!

Sure enough, after a few miles the party comes across a clearing in the swamp. Solid ground holding a small, well made hut. From inside the hut comes the sound of ... singing. Probably the worst singing they've ever heard, but definitely sincere. Peering in, they see a small, disheveled figure, wearing homemade, raggy clothes. She's cooking something that smells particularly horrid, singing the whole time. She turns around, spots the party, and invites them in to dinner! "Have some lovely frog stew", she croaks. "Freshly captured today!"

The party tries to engage her in conversation, but that's difficult. Not only is her voice real raspy and hard to understand (most likely due to whatever traumatic injury caused the nasty scar across her throat), but she seems to flit from one conversation to another. One moment she's inviting hte party to dinner, the next moment she's terrified there are strangers in her house, and the next moment she's inviting them to dinner again. "Have some lovely frog stew", she croaks. "Freshly captured today!"

Things seem to change when she spots Dylan wearing his dragon blood amulet. She approaches him, reaches out, and grabs it gingerly. She softly speaks. "I had one just like this. i gave it. To a woman. Who was kind to me." Dylan received his from his mother, who apparently received it from a woman she helped on the side of the road one day. Could this be the same woman? Asking further, the White Witch speaks. "My husband. He had one, too. They were his. We were together. We were happy. And then we were murdered."

Eureka! The White Witch is, in fact, Irewyn, the wife of the murdered former mayor ... and now bog mummy ... Sethellen! With their new-found evidence, the party decides to return to the village to confront the current mayor, Eural Dunaman. Grabbing their belongings, and bidding the White Witch farewell, the party heads down the trail towards town.

But wait, what's that up ahead? A halfling-sized figure, shuffling through the swamp, moaning into the nothingness: "Murder! Eural! Revenge!"

[To be continued]