Vi frowns as she listens, and nods slowly. "Yeah. We can do that."

The Mere of Dead Men, so you've heard, is an expansive marsh that has been a bane to travelers along the High Road for centuries. All attempts to tame the wild swamp have failed, as countless threats call the area home: young dragons, trolls, lizardfolk tribes, swamp beasts, and even more aberrant monsters. At best, the forces of civilization hope to keep the High Road safely passable to facilitate trade and travel between Waterdeep and the lands of the north.

You all can take a short rest and leave today, or take a long rest and move out tomorrow. Since you are going for two reasons, one of them missing people, time is of the essence.

Lanarial is ready to go as soon as the rest of the group is. He will recover as many arrows as he can while the group rests.

"We should leave tomorrow as we have been fighting for most of the day and I am mostly tapped. I can still heal and support you, but no dinoiri until I rest." 

Vi nods. "All right. We'll leave first thing in the morning."

Tex will lean over to the group, “I have an errand to run before we settle in for the night. I’ll meet you all back at the tavern, I shouldn’t be gone long.”

Tex’s errand

As the day begins anew and you head south on the High Road from Leilon, you all don’t find anything of import right away. However,  eventual subtle clues of struggle show evidence of trouble, and you all must move off the main path and deeper into the Mere of Dead Men to investigate.

The Mere itself is wet, sticky, and foggy. 3 Fortunately, your journey into it is uneventful. The bad news is there was no sign of the missing patrol yet, or evidence of foul play and ghouls. You continue to follow the trail.

An examination of the area finds a broken cart half-buried in the mud, a broken sword blade, and some buttons from a jacket worn by Leilon soldiers. An obvious trail also leads west, deeper into the Mere of Dead Men.

Vi narrows her eyes. "Yeah, this isn't looking promising."

Time for a DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check!

Survival: 15

Survival: 8

Here's what you discern, Tex.

A large number of tracks are apparent. Most are made by bipedal lizards of various sizes. Some are booted prints the size of humans.

There are strange ruts in the mud that look like dual-tracked sleds. The ruts are deep enough that the sleds are probably pulling a great deal of weight.

On top of the mud along the tracks are several trails of slimy residue, like those created by snails as they move.

“Hmmm, they went this way. Pulling sleds with what is likely the missing patrol. We should continue with caution.” Tex will lead the way following the trail, stealthily.

9

The rogue continues to scout out ahead of the group, sneaking along and reporting back anything interesting or unusual...

Stealth: 16

Perception: 13

Ahead of you, the sound of murmuring and hissing voices rises above the droning of insects. Several carts fitted with sled rails are being pulled by giant snails with thick appendages protruding from their heads. Most of the carts carry lizardfolk of various ages and size, but two of them bear cages. Each cage contains four humans, and you recognize four of them, by their uniform, as the soldiers you were sent to rescue.

A tall lizardfolk addresses the fifty or so of his fellows, and they scatter, performing the tasks of setting up camp. A larger, bestial-looking lizardfolk moves closer to the leader, as if waiting for directions.

Lanarial sneaks back tothe group and informs them that he's found the missing patrol, but there is a whole tribe of lizardfolk ahead with giant snails. He recommends staying hidden and waiting until they have the camp set up and go to sleep, then they can sneak in and release the guards. If the gods smile upon them, they can liberate the humans and be gone before the lizardfolk even realize anything was wrong.

Vi nods. "Sounds good. We'll keep it quick and quiet."

If all agree to the plan, Lanarial will wait until about 0300 before heading back to the camp. He moves quietly, sliding from shadow to shadow (Stealth: 15 ) until he can observe the lizardfolk camp. He looks for sentries and to see the layout of the site - where the prisoners are in relation to the others, if there were tents or structures to sleep in, and other information that would help him decide upon a plan. 

If the opportunity presents itself, and the prisoner cages are away from the bulk of the camp, and there are no guards around, he will slip up and unlock the doors to the cages (Thieves' tools: 16 ), whispering to the guardsmen, "Quietly now - we're here to rescue you. Sneak off in that direction," he points to where the party waits, "quickly and as quietly as you can!"

Impressive. As if perfect timing, you're able to free to prisoners quite stealthily, while smashing through the forest emerges three enormous undead trolls who attack the lizardfolk immediately. You're able to whisk the prisoners away in the ruckus, who also hand you 500g for a reward. The rest of the party, Lanarial, does not see one of the guards handing you the money. They prisoners are grateful for being freed - by a drow, no less.

You don't, however, see any signs of ghouls or other undead creatures in the Mere, but that doesn't mean they're out there somewhere. 

You're easily able to return the soldiers back to Leilon.

The final part of the adventure, should you want to proceed, is travelling to the Thunder Cliffs where cult activity has been spotted.

Vi glances at the others. "Finish what we started?"