Mudgol ultimately decides that, with more pressing missions, now is not the time to tackle the tracker Luorn Stride, and thus the party begins to equip itself further for the underwater rescue mission at Skrath Cairn. They purchase spears and ensure that they're all equipped to fight in the hostile terrain. Unfortunately, Ginkwrench the gnome takes ill, some sort of venereal pox (quite possibly caused by the local Vettlar nightlife he partakes of), and cannot make the journey. The rest of the group presses on bravely, climbing out of the city by way of the same rope ladder they used before. They briefly visit Phaegr Mult to procure some of his rafts once again, and find that he's sweating, disoriented and covered in red sores, which he claims come from his 'bodylice'. The PCs are not so convinced, and when they depart, several think they hear the sounds of lashing from within the odd fisherman's cottage...
While several of the PCs scour the Furrowers' Guild, producing a chalk map on slate that roughly outlines the caves beneath the Cairn, Baro decides to grab a chunk of quartz from a bin in the Furrowers' staging area, which draws varied responses from his companions. The wizard, unamused, then decides to climb the Cairn and make use of his spyglass once more. This time, it reveals a series of smoke columns somewhere nearby to the north, hidden behind the thin treeline. Baro assumes there are more berserkers marching to join the tribes already stationed outside Vettlar. Major Langston takes a look for himself, and then the PCs proceed back into the Cairn by route of the opening Luz made with magic on the previous visit. With the exception of Baro and Mudgol, who slip on the rope and take some damage, all make it down safely. They note some wet, slushy, muddy tracks that have been left around the central hub chamber since they first came into the place, and then begin to quaff their protection potions while Luz reads the scrolls of endure elements that will shield them from the icy water's damage. Langston plays a trick on Mudgol, first offering him a vial of liquor, which the half-orc drinks gleefully, soon to realize that he cannot breathe underwater...
After straightening that out, the group proceeds into the drowned subterranean mines, where they travel along the drowned shaft into the central area of Coldflood Quarry (marked on their slate map), which is empty save for drowned totes of ore and various implements. They begin to systematically scope out the surrounding tunnels, when they find a murky, submerged cavern opening where a severed dwarven head 'warms up' to Baro beneath the water. Soon they discover what likely produced such a horror, a fat and oily, disgusting amphibious beast who delightfully pursues his next meal at the party's expense! Fortunately, thanks to a key electrical blast and some coordinated melee, they are able to defeat the huge thing before it entirely consumes Luz (who was stuck in its maw). They search the area and find a silver ring on a dwarf miner's corpse, also several scrawny goblin bodies floating about the muck...
After this, the party at last discovers its elusive quarry, a dozen kuo-toa harpoonists who defend another are of the caverns marked as the Silver Drips on the slate map. The battle is brief but bloody, the expert javelineers fanatically dispatching the wizards with a few painful throws, while the wizards in return lob balls of fire, death and destruction upon them. Sadly, they've depleted much of the PCs' strength and attacks (not to mention Baro had already been hosed by the spectral presence in the haunted mine), and once 'backup' arrives in the form of fanatical kuo-toan aestetics and their sorcerous master, things begin to go south for our heroes. The monks have strange abilities to turn PCs against one another, and prove able hand to hand combatants, several of whom escape the evard's black tentacles. Due to a concentrated lightning strike and the toughness of these amphibious brawlers, Luz, Hnarsh, Baro and again Mudgol are taken out of the fight, and other PCs find themselves constantly having to revive the half-orc diviner. Seeing his followers take the fight hard to the PCs, the leader decides to run off, presumably to bring in the rest of his minions to finish our heroes...instead, Langston decides to sacrifice himself and hold off the remaining monks while Mudgol grabs anyone he can and teleports them to safety.
Meanwhile, the gnome Ginkwrench awakens in Vettlar to the sounds of war horns and much panic among the city denizens...where the bloody 'ell is everyone?!
PCs: Baro, Gruulsh, Langston, Luz, Mudgol
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