Fire in the Primordial Marsh

A living water passage carries disease into the rail cart, while a breach in the dwarven tunnels opens onto a prehistoric swamp and a poisonous troglodyte ambush.

Party: Asuran · Halen · Karl · Toby
Route: Dwarven Railway → Water Passage → Primordial Swamp
Encounters: Water-sphincter Creature · Poisonous Troglodytes

Four human adventurers force a dwarven rail cart through an enormous living water-sphincter creature — The flooded railway passed through a living membrane that closed around cart and travellers alike.

← Previous chronicled entry: Day 11

✧ Encounters & Consequences

01Living Water PassageA sphincter-like creature enclosed the rail tunnel and spread disease by contact. 02Creature InfectedToby infected the living passage; Karl called on Kord and cured it. 03Troglodyte AmbushPoisonous reptilian humanoids struck from the prehistoric marsh. 04Explosive Marsh GasAsuran's alchemist's fire ignited the gas and ended the fight.

The flooded railway

Through the Living Passage

The party continued by rail through tunnels grown damp and cold. Ahead, the line disappeared into something that was neither gate nor stone: a vast sphincter-like creature enclosing the watercourse.

The cart forced through the contracting membrane. Ancient, startlingly pure water surged around them while the living passage pressed against wood, iron and flesh.

Disease in the cart

The Creature’s Infection

During the passage, Toby infected the living creature with disease. Karl called upon Kord and cured the creature before the infection could take hold.

The cure left another troubling sign: divine aid could still answer, even after the Celestial Watcher's warning that careless invocations might attract darker attention.

Water from another age

The Breach into Prehistory

Side-on view of Gerlik and four human adventurers aboard a dwarven rail cart passing a collapsed side-wall opening onto a prehistoric swamp — The cart continued along rails running past the breach, while the collapsed side wall revealed the impossible swamp beyond.

The water beyond the creature felt impossibly old and pure, as though it had survived untouched since the world's first age. Through a crack in the tunnel wall, the party found an opening into a prehistoric swamp.

Ancient ferns, black water and marsh gas filled a wetland that should not have existed beneath the mountain.

Poison in the reeds

The Troglodyte Ambush

Four human adventurers fight poisonous troglodytes in a prehistoric underground swamp — Halen drove into the ambush while Toby fired from the rear and Karl struggled through Asuran's misplaced spike growth.

Poisonous troglodytes rose from the reeds in numbers. Asuran's first answer—a spike-growth grenade—went badly astray. The sudden thorns hindered Karl's armoured advance and left him watching as Halen threw himself into a greatsword frenzy.

Toby's arrows pinned several attackers, but more shapes gathered in the mist, ready to answer the call.

Genius or insanity

The Marsh Ignites

Alchemist's fire ignites marsh gas among troglodytes as four human adventurers brace from the blast — Asuran's fire reached the reserves; the gas-rich marsh did the rest.

With reinforcements closing, Asuran hurled alchemist's fire into their ranks. Flame touched the marsh gas and the swamp erupted.

The blast ended the fight almost at once. Halen survived the fire at dangerously close range, and when the echoes faded the party searched the burned ground for useful tools before moving deeper into the strange wetland.