Quicksilver Lizard

This big, silvery lizard stands on two hind powerful hind legs, balanced by a short tail. It has a pair of small forearms that end in sharp claws. A diamond-shaped head filled with sharp teeth perches atop a long, slender neck.
Quicksilver lizards are valued for their tremendous bursts of speed and their willingness to bear riders.

Strategy and Tactics
As a mount, a quicksilver lizard serves primarily to get its rider safely into and out of combat.

QUICKSILVER LIZARD
Always Neutral
Large animal
Init +2;
Senses - blindsense 60 ft., low-light vision, scent
Languages —
AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 12 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 30 (4 HD)
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +2
Speed - 40 ft., climb 40 ft.; Run, sprint

Sprint (Ex) Once per hour, a quicksilver lizard can move five times its normal speed (200 feet) when it makes a charge.

Melee - bite +6 (1d8+4) and 2 claws +1 each (1d6+2)
Space - 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +3; Grp +11
Abilities - Str 19, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10

Feats - Alertness, Run

Skills - Climb +17, Hide +0, Jump +12, Listen +3, Spot +3
Quicksilver lizards have a +4 racial bonus on Jump checks. They also have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.

All giant lizards are carnivores and eat just about anything that moves. Most make do with cave-dwelling spiders and other vermin.

Typical Physical Characteristics: A quicksilver lizard stands about 10 feet tall and weighs around 500 pounds.

Quicksilver lizards are relatively easy to train as mounts.
A light load for a quicksilver lizard is up to 230 pounds, a medium load, 231—465 pounds, and a heavy load, 466–700 pounds. A quicksilver lizard can drag 3,500 pounds.

Having a head for business

The scrag swam under the party to see which would be the easiest stragglers to pick off for its larder. The paladin quickly swam down to engage the giant while the wizard and scout held back to launch acid and fire down upon it from a distance. Initially the scrag tried to grapple the paladin and then rend her instead but to no avail - the paladin defended expertly whilst hacking away at the troll's loathsome hide. As the scout's arrows continued to find their mark, the scrag was eventually knocked unconcious and, unable to defend itself, slain.

The adventurers clambered into the swan boat, the scout encumbered with the severed head of their opponent. On their return to the goblin market, the residents were jubilant to see that the giant that terrorised the lake was dead. Tzak, the chief, bestowed freedom of the market upon the troll slayers. To ensure that his own name would go down in history, the chief bartered a quicksilver lizard in exchange for the grizzly trophy. Not wanting to be undone, the cleric of Wee Jas traded hundreds of gold coins for a similar lizard.

The tiefling scout also tried to solicit information about the second mausoleum but found nothing, leading him to expect that the place contained the remains of dead goblins and so not for the attention of treasure-hunting adventurers.

Instead, the chief provided leads on several other places where treasure could be found, including paid employment destroying undead, a toll gate and a beholder expressway with a real beholder in it. With this information, the party set off into the dark tunnels after adventure.

[[Scrag - 100 xp each]]

"I'm sure I left the boat just here..."

With no joy finding anything the first waterfall, the party sailed the swan boat to the second and discovered a hidden underwater tunnel.

The warforged artificer concocted arcane ungents that enchanted the armour of each adventurer to make underwater travel possible and soon the party was slowly swimming past the waterfall.

After about fifty feet, the tunnel opened into a water-filled cavern with two rows of ogre bones on each side. The remnants of the dead had been reassembled in a cage-like affair with cement and on top of each was the dead ogre's skull, the owner's name etched into the forehead and highlighted with paint.

At the end of the rows, a ogre-shaped statue of Nerull looked back at the party, a bone scythe in its stone grasp. Floating out from behind the representation, a zombie ogre appeared bearing a sack, the contents of which it soon dumped out in front of the party. The resulting cascade of small teeth magically turned into a swarm of starving piranha which proceeded to take many tiny bites out of anything living in range.

As this was happening, a shark appeared from nowhere next to the swashbuckler. Unfazed, the dashing hero extended his arm out to the left and neatly skewered the fish through the brain, causing it to vanish back to the realm it had been summoned from.

Elsewhere chaos ensued as the swarm chased adventurers around the bone piles and the water took on a pinky hue. The heat of a Fireball and brute force, though, were starting to make a difference and both the fish and the zombie were faltering.

Out of the corner of his eye, the war-forged saw an ogre priest watching the combat. A batch of Magic Missiles from a wand grabbed the creatures attention and caused it to charge the artificer with longspear at the ready. Luckily, the ogre missed and the paladin neatly hacked off its head with expert swordplay.

Within moments, the battle was over and the party set about searching the place. On a shelf in the ogre's living cave was a goblin's skull with a ring inside it (which the artificer surmised was a Ring of Landwalking, designed to allow water-breathers access to the world above the surface). The ogre's study area provided some hides covered in Giant language. The ogre's body itself revealed three Scrolls of Animate Dead.

Returning to the surface, the adventurers were shocked to find that the swan boat had drifted half a mile away in the current creeated by the waterfalls and tunnel leading into the lake. The boat was only noticeable because of the handful of active sunrods left in it earlier. The raven was sent to drop a sunrod into the water around the boat to see if any threats could be illuminated but none could be seen.

As the party began the swim to the boat, a pair of ogres could be seen swimming parallel to them about 60 feet away (the limits of Darkvision). After a little while, as the swimmers neared the hole in the lake floor, the ogres cried out in fear and turned back as a scrag appeared from the deep. Although of greater height and weight, the merrow knew - even together - that they were no match for the aquatic troll's ferocity and ability to regenerate. Better to back off and wait to pick over the scraps of adventurer that would be left.

[[Ogre priest, Ogre zombie, Piranha swarm - 400 xp each person]]
[[Shark - 200 xp for the swashbuckler]]