On our travels through the Mere of Dead Men, we had some time to review some of the people and places we encountered on our adventures in the previous weeks:
While resting for the night, Thoredim got woken by a vision. The voice of Harbin Wester, Mayor of Phandalin came to him in the dark. He said that Phandalin was endangered by a white dragon (-> Ice Breath, likes the cold) and implored our group to help. We decided to head north as soon as we solved the situation at the castle. The dragon encounters do seem to become more. Speaking of which, the black dragon at the edge of the mere is called Voaraghamanthar.
Finally we arrived at the castle. A large structure, with the huts of both the lizard and frog people huddled against its south and east sides. The lizardfolk are NOT happy with the current situation and there were talks about starting a revolution. There was a discussion in the group whether we should actually interfer at all - after all the Lizard Folk worship dragons, the Bullywugs follow the Dragonborn.
We decided that the former actually are the lesser evil as dragons are not inherently evil, but the Dragonborn seems to be. There were around 40 Bullywugs, 15 Cultists in and around the castle as well as two giant frogs, an Elf, a Dragonborn (presumably Rezmir) and of course the Lizard People. The cultists sometimes go to the castle basement but it seems they do not always return from there.
While the group delivered the crates to the castle, Snapjaw gathered people who might be helpful to the groups plan. Upon returning to one of the Lizard Peoples’ longhouses, Fynn holds an inspiring speech to them to rally them behind our cause. We just hadn’t quite figured out yet what our cause was at this point.
Pharblex, leader of the Bullywugs, resides in the Chambers on the second floor of the castle. Sometimes he is to be found in the dungeon, since it contains some kind of shrine to the frog peoples god.
For lack of a better plan, Kaiya put on a purple robe, disguised herself as an old man and walked into the castle, asking the first cultist she saw about the location of the “secret entrance”. Awkwardness ensued, since the entrance was technically not ‘secret’ but in the end she left with the information she needed.
Snapjaw offered to help by stealing some cultist clothing so our group can sneak into the castle, and the dungeon. We convined a Bullywug to lead us down into an exceedingly moist and slick dungeon.