Shadowdim 16: Big Bad Ugly

Dorn has opened the secret sliding panel door. It opened in complete silence. Rather than a poisoned needle or a puff of toxic gas, Dorn encounters the smell of oil and he can now hear the rhythmic, swooshing sound that Cabe had described a few moments earlier.

“On me. Aele, stay between the two of us on the descent if you can. Be ready to trigger your rituals.” He glances at Cabe. “You picking up anything else?”

Cabe makes a face. “I thought maybe I detected a heartbeat, but I can’t tell. The noise is interferring.”

Dorn goes down first, his heavy boots clanging rhythmically against the iron rungs, his shield slung over his back to keep his hands free. Aele follows, carefully managing the new weight of the brass cogwheel, and Cabe brings up the rear, his eyes scanning the shadows above and below.

As the party reaches the floor, the temperature drops and the humidity spikes. A greenish light comes from thick, bioluminescent moss clinging to the damp masonry. Huge bronze pistons—the size of siege towers—groan as they slide in and out of stone housings, driving the water of Arden Vul upward.

Cabe takes two steps and freezes. Amidst the mechanical thump-hiss of the pumps, he detects two heartbeats. They are slow, deep, and rhythmic—much larger than the rats but not as massive as the baboon. They are located behind the primary piston assembly to the south. The air is thick with the smell of wet scales and old swamp water.

His magical blade Swift pulses with a steady light, reflecting off the slick, wet floor. Dorn spots a cluster of large, webbed footprints in the silt. He turns to his fellow delvers and sees the anxiety written on Cabe’s face, if not on Aele’s. “We aren’t alone down here.”

Cabe nods tensely. “You’re right. I’ve got the heartbeat of something big that likes the damp. And when I say ‘big’, I mean big in comparison to a certain apple-eating baboon.”

Is it possible that Dorn turns paler? Impossible to tell in the green-hued light. “Are you up for stealthily scounting ahead?” he asks Cabe. “It’d be good if we knew what is behind the pump, and whether it’s sleeping.”

The blood-binder nods. “I’ll scream if I’m about to be killed.” He stalks noiselessly through the silt. Even were he plodding along, it’s likely nothing would hear his approach, given the noise of the pump.

Cabe dissolves into the shadows with an ease that borders on the supernatural, his movements perfectly timed to the rhythmic thump-hiss of the massive pistons. The silt on the floor, wet and heavy, swallows the sound of his boots.

As he stalks closer to the southern assembly, the smell of wet scales and stagnant marsh becomes overpowering. He rounds the edge of a brass housing and freezes.

Behind the primary piston, nestled in a hollow of damp stone and glowing moss, are two crocodilian humanoids — Lizardmen.

They are massive—nearly seven feet long from snout to tail-tip—with mottled, olive-green scales and thick, corded muscle. They aren’t sleeping; they are hunched over a large stone basin, their movements sluggish and ritualistic. One is sharpening a crude serrated spear made of scavenged bone, while the other appears to be feeding small, wriggling pale fish into a drainage pipe.

Cabe’s Observations:

Equipment: They wear loincloths of cured hide and carry heavy shields made from the shells of giant tortoises.

Status: They seem “at home” here, treating the pumping station as a larder or a sanctuary.

The Heartbeats: Their pulses are slow and steady, typical of cold-blooded predators in a resting state.

The Environment: The floor around them is treacherous—slick with algae and littered with the bones of whatever they’ve been eating.

Cabe retreats as silently as he arrived, merging back into the green-tinted gloom where Dorn and Aele wait near the ladder. He leans in close, his voice a mere vibration beneath the roar of the machinery.

“Two of them,” Cabe whispers. “Lizardmen. Big ones. They’ve got bone spears and tortoise-shell shields. They’re alert, but they haven’t caught our scent over the swamp-stink of this place yet. They’re guarding—or living near—a basin to the south.”

Dorn grips the hilt of Swift, the magical blade pulsing in his hand. “Lizardmen in the machinery. They won’t be as reasonable as a priest’s baboon. If we want to move past them, we either have to clear them out or find a way to distract them into the water.”

Dorn whispers just loudly enough to be heard, testing the edge of his blade with a thumb. “Still got the hum of the magic in the steel. If we’re going to move on these lizard-folk, we should do it while the blade is still warm. What’s the call? Do we use Aele’s new tuning fork to lead them on a ghost hunt, or do we take the bridge?”

“Let’s ambush them,” Aele advises. “We’ll have the element of surprise. For all we know the tuning fork wouldn’t be heard over the pump, and what if it triggered the pump to flood the area with water?”

Dorn looks to Cabe, who says, “I agree.”

The decision is made with a grim efficiency. The roar of the pistons provides the perfect auditory cover as the trio prepares to strike.

Dorn leads the way, keeping his shield close to his body to prevent any accidental metal-on-metal clangs.

Cabe circles wide to the left, his eyes fixed on the lizardman sharpening the bone spear. He can feel his Red Frenzy boiling just beneath the surface, his blood singing in anticipation of the strike.

Aele stays ten feet back, mace in one hand and his holy symbol in the other, ready to drop a Radiant Surge if things turn sour.

Because the Lizardmen are distracted and the pump noise is deafening, the party gains Surprise. They get one free round of actions before initiative is rolled.

---

Surprise Round

1. Dorn’s Attack:
   
   Dorn lunges from behind a brass housing, Swift glowing with an aggressive white light.
   Attack: 1d20 + 7 = 26(Critical Hit!)
   Damage: 1d8 + 7 (doubled for crit) = 22 Damage.
   Result: Dorn’s blade catches the lizardman feeding the fish squarely across the back, cleaving through scales and bone. The creature collapses into the drainage pipe without a sound. (1 Lizardman remains)
   
   2. Cabe’s Attack:
   
   Cabe triggers Red Frenzy as he leaps.
   Self-Damage: 1d4 = 1 (Cabe is now at 29/31 HP + 2 Temp).
   Attack: 1d20 + 3 + 2 = 18 (Hit!)
   Damage: 1d4 + 3 + 2 = 7 Damage.
   Result: Cabe’s athame sinks deep into the shoulder of the second lizardman just as it begins to turn.
   
   3. Aele’s Action:Aele moves into position, preparing to support his allies.

Aele sees the surviving creature fumbling for a signal horn and knows there is no room for error. He raises his holy symbol, and a searing bolt of white-gold light streaks across the damp chamber.

Aele’s Action: Radiant Surge
Damage: 1d6 + 3 (Aele is level 3) = (Rolled a 6) + 3 = 9 Radiant Damage.
Result: The light strikes the lizardman in the chest just as its lips touch the horn. The creature is blasted backward, the horn clattering uselessly into the silt. It doesn’t get a sound out.

Combat Over

The pumping station returns to its steady, mechanical thump-hiss. The two lizardmen lie still—one cleaved by Dorn, the other scorched by Aele and punctured by Cabe.

---

Post-Combat Recovery:

Cabe’s Regeneration: He recovers 1 HP at the start of the next minute of calm, returning to his maximum of 31.

Cabe’s Temporary HP: He still has 1 Temp HP remaining.

Dorn’s Status:

He remains at 35/34 (+1 Temp).

Current Party Status

Hero       Hp    AAC    Resources
Dorn     35/34   21     1 temp HP, 3/3 Fortune Points
Cabe     32/31   17     1 temp HP, 3/3 Fortune Points
Aele     27/27   15     1/3 Surges, 3/3 Fortune Points

The lizardmen were guarding a large stone basin filled with clear, oxygenated water. The pool contains dozens of the pale, wriggling fish they were feeding. Beside the basin is a tattered leather bundle. Dorn checks it for traps.

Beyond the basin, the room ends at a heavy iron door with a wheel-lock, leading south. There is also a dark drainage pipe large enough to crawl into that leads east.

Dorn checks the leather bundle for hidden triggers or nested pockets within the hide, then empties its contents.

Inside the bundle, the party finds:

• A set of high-quality Thieves’ Tools: Made of dark, tempered steel.

• A small ivory statuette: Carved in the likeness of a many-limbed aquatic deity (Value: ~25 gp).

• A dried bladder: Containing a thick, pungent grease (likely used to lubricate the bone-spears or the wheel-lock door).

Dorn looks up, his fingers deftly testing the tension of the lock-picks. “This changes things. If that south door is locked from the other side, I might not need a key or a battering ram anymore. I’m going to investigate this pool. Cabe, will you check the corpses and see if either lizardman was carrying any other items?”

Dorn steps to the edge of the stone basin, the white-gold light of Swift refracting through the clear, churning water. He grips the hilt firmly and plunges the blade downward.

The basin is deeper than it initially appeared. Dorn’s arm goes in up to the elbow before the tip of the magical longsword scrapes against the bottom. The water is approximately three and a half feet deep. It’s not just stone down there. Dorn feels the blade clinking against something loose and metallic. As he sweeps the glowing sword back and forth, he pushes aside the pale, panicked fish.

At the very bottom, half-buried in a layer of fine silt, lies a large, rusted iron ring attached to a heavy stone slab. It’s a submerged trapdoor or a drain plug. He lies down and extends his left arm as deep as he can. He can feel suction where the trapdoor’s edges are.

“There’s a submerged trapdoor in the pool with a pull ring. I think water is leaving the pool through the trap door. Good to know. Cabe, anything on the bodies of the lizardmen?”

While Dorn is busy fishing with his magical blade, Cabe rolls the heavy, scaled bodies over with his boot to see if they carried anything more than just basic survival gear.

Aside from the bone spears and the tortoise-shell shields (which are cumbersome but sturdy), Cabe finds a few items of interest tucked into their hide loincloths and a small pouch:

• A Polished Malachite Stone: Roughly the size of a walnut. It has been smoothed by water and constant handling (Value: 15 gp).

• A “Stink-Bomb” Gland: A preserved organ from some swamp creature, stitched shut with sinew. Cabe’s Blood Scent tells him that if this were punctured or thrown, it would release a cloud of incredibly foul, distracting musk.

• A Copper Key: It’s shaped like a stylized fish and is remarkably free of rust, despite the damp environment.

Cabe shares his findings with Aele and Dorn.

Cabe holds up the Copper Fish Key, letting it catch the green bioluminescence of the room. “Dorn, before you pull a muscle or get your armor rusted in that basin, you might want to see if this fits the slab... or that door over there.”

Dorn looks from the submerged iron ring to the heavy wheel-lock door to the South. Wiping the water from his arm, he examines the copper fish-motif key. He looks at the heavy iron door to the South, noting the fish-shaped indentation in the center of the wheel.

“The lock on the door matches the key perfectly,” he says, stepping toward the southern exit. “If we’re heading deeper, this is likely our path. Though that submerged slab in the basin still has me curious—it’s a classic escape route or a way into the cisterns.”

Cabe stands between the door and the basin, his hand on his side where the Stink-Bomb Gland is stowed. “The heartbeats are gone for now, but the water in that pipe to the East is still flowing. We should decide if we want the ‘front door’ or the ‘secret way’ before something else smells those lizardmen. I want to show you both something before we move on.” He leads them back to where they entered the Pump Station then squats and beckons Aele to bring his lantern closer.

“Remember this track?” Cabe asks. “Look how deep it is. And whatever made it was heavy enough to compress the silt in the bottom of the track.”

Dorn whips out a knife and probes. “You’re right. There is probably a sizable predator nearby.”

“All the more reason for us to move on,” Aele suggests with an upbeat tone.

Cabe leans over, his Blood Scent flaring. He ignores the metallic tang of the lizardman blood and focuses on the older, colder scent lingering in the deep print. “It smells like... old copper and stagnant pond muck, but stronger. Much stronger. Whatever this is, it didn’t come here to feed the fish. It came here to hunt the things that feed the fish.”

Aele looks at the east-flowing pipe—the drainage tunnel. “The tracks lead toward the water, Dorn. If there’s a ‘Grandfather’ to these lizardmen, or something worse like a Giant Crocodile, it’s likely using the cisterns as its territory. The pipes and the trapdoor in the pool may either one or both lead to a cistern where Big Bad Ugly likely is. I say let’s try the key in the iron door.”

“Agreed,” Cabe and Dorn both says at the same time.