Dinner with the Red Jaws. Give them fish from the market. They say a prayer in Draconic – honoring ancestors. We introduce ourselves. Leader is Kiz (Gash, Duz and Thox). Live in peace and harmony, trying to with Thornhill. Kiz thinks Jagged Claws are behind the fires. Refers to ancient kingdom with magic and structures. Jagged Claws are trying to kick out warm-blooded ones. Believe than an ancient temple has been found. Pliaj suggests we try and work with and help lizard folk. Kiz is surprised. Need permission from tribal leaders to visit holy sites. OK to visit cursed sites occupied by Jagged Claw. Zisrin is trying to keep peace between warm-bloods and lizard-people. Points us to a Jagged Claw fort with 10-20 lizard-men there. About 1.5 days of travel.

Start on the way. Set up camp in swamp. Come across a series of mounds that look like an abandoned dig site. With mining equipment. Close examination of archway reveals runes that Tholir can’t identify. Carvings of humanoids mining, gemstones. Very worn and weathered. Humanoids don’t look like anything we recognize. We go in, and it looks like a sophisticated mine. 30 ft in starts to branch. Starts to smell rotting organic material. Pliaj sees gems in the wall across a swamp. Uses thamaturgy to project booming voice and rumbling earth. Strange creature emerges from muck saying “who disturbs my cleansing”? Combat ensues. We fight a bit, disengages, and swamp does some healing. Swamp thing just wanted to finish his bath. We take a long rest. Pliaj and Tholir manage to pull out 3 uncut gems (diamond).

We take a day to walk to the Jagged Claw fort. We start with negotiation (Pliaj). Ral notices that there are two wakes in the water approaching us. We decide to move on.

We walk towards the hills and see 2 ziggurats on top of hills, covered in jungle. A gorge with a fast-running river at the bottom separates us. Crummy bridge spans it. Northern ziggurat has light on top pulsating with light (like breathing). We hike a mile upstream and leap across. Start walking south and are ambushed by 4 lizard people in trees.