"I want to scribe scroll, sure," Anklebiter says. "But I can only do one each day, and I'm out of monster-summoning ones. How much money do we have to spend on supplies? ... And should we be re-opening the doors so the money can flow into our pockets again? The longer the Golden Goblin's closed, the less people will want to come here."
"I'll need a single day to heal us, then another day to have my spells replenished for the trip back under earth."
Bruendor winces when he hears Kel's assessment. "I don't think we can afford that long a wait. What about enlisting the aid of some outside priest? It'd cost a bit, but I'm not sure I can sit still that long knowing that Saul's just getting further away."
Lefrik scratches his jaw, "I wonder if Saul ever angered one church or another? They might give us a discount if so."
"he has lots of criminals angry at him, but I don't think I want to be healed by a priest of Norgorber," Anklebiter says, his ears folding back in an expression of some distress.
"Agreed," Bruendor said, nodding to Anklebiter. "As it stands, if anyone would give us a discount, it might be your clergy, Calla. What we're about to do would definitely be within the Savored Sting's purview."
"True. I can ask."
Calla will, on her trip to refill her quiver, stop at Calistria's temple and see if there's an acolyte who would be willing to come to the Golden Goblin to help us.
Calla found a young acolyte, named Jesh, that was more than willing to come help the Heroes of the Gold Goblin, and he'll even do it for half price, on account of he really needs the money.
"A fair deal, to be sure, lets get healed and journey back out tomorrow morning." Kel starts counting out her coins. "Do we pursue Saul through the same path below the Goblin? Perhaps we should pay a visit to the rumor mill this evening, maybe some new information has 'surfaced'."
"You know, we could give this Jesh a drink or two in payment as well."
"He's a Calistrian, Lefrik, not a priest of the Lucky Drunk. We could open a few of our rooms to him and any of his ilk that wish to ply that oldest of professions for a sliver of the earnings."
Anklebiter frowns, puzzled. "But... the rooms aren't big enough to go foraging for nuts and berries in, are they?"
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"Depends upon the nuts, Anklebiter," Bruendor deadpans.
Lefrik bellows a laugh, "I meant we could pay more easily in a keg that we could gold, religion aside, but that is an amusing thought. I'm not sure what Kel would make of it though."
"Gold will be more than sufficient," Calla says sourly. "I suspect they would rather ply their trade in the temple than our casino."
"Oh, good," Anklebiter says, smiling with relief. "The serving-girls wouldn't have liked it, I think. If there were priests of Calistria selling tingles here, they'd have to drop their rates to stay competitive."
The Goblin winks at anyone who seems surprised by his statement.
"The shaman named me Anklebiter the Insane, not Anklebiter the Stupid," he cackles.
Calla gives a long-suffering sigh of exasperation.
Lefrik pats the goblin on the back with a chuckle.
Kel rolls her eyes at the commentary on the social highlights of Riddleport, but she can't stifle a chuckle at the goblin's humor. "Right, enough banter about those poor working girls, let's get our supplies and get back after that rat Saul."
"I need to buy some scrolls," Anklebiter announces. "Yesterday's trip just about cleared me out. Some stronger summoning spells would be nice - and some more spells to make your weapons magical, too. I'll be back."
The Goblin hurriedly leaves the Goblin, but returns in short order with four crisp, new scrolls.
The next morning, refreshed and re-magicked, you make your way back down to the trapdoor in the fighting pit. Bracing yourselves for the odor and the dankness, you lift the hatch and once again head into the tunnels beneath Riddleport.
You make your way back to the last area where you fought the troglodytes. You don't have much trouble. Either you cleared out all of the creatures in that part of the tunnels, or they simply haven't returned yet.
I need a marching order from you guys. I assume Bruendor, Lefrik, Calla, Anklebiter, Kelendra is still what you are going with?
"Great, we're right back to where we were yesterday," Calla snarks. "Let's see if we can get through another 500 yards here."
Lefrik readies his great axe, "Dare to dream."
"By the gods, how can anything get accustomed to that smell? If we can clear 500 yards, I say we do it quickly and get away from this stank!"
"Probably they had to get used to it because they were born with it, or die," Anklebiter says, shrugging. "It is bad, though. Let's move."
Moving beyond the collapsed chamber, you enter a narrow tunnel. The floor here sloped downwards more sharply than before, with natural terraces carved into the stone by eons of pooling water. And the water pools were everywhere. Water dripped from stalactites above and seeped through cracks in the stone walls to form pools a few inches deep.
If you were pressed, you would say that the tunnel appears to be directly underneath the Velashu River.
After carefully traversing the tunnel, you see a strange orangish-purple glow in an upcoming cavern.
Make a perception check, and a wisdom check.
Bruendor raises the hood on his cloak to keep the water from falling directly on his head. "Mind your heads - I think the river is above us now." His brow furrows as he begins to see light up ahead. The orange hues makes him first believe that there's a flame up ahead, but the lack of flickering makes him reconsider that. That, and the glow has a purple tinge to it as well, giving it an almost bruise-like pallor.
+ 5 more if it's a trap.
"What in the name of all the hells is that?"
Anklebiter folds his ears back, mutters a brief spell -- and tries to fade into the background in case there is danger.
"Be on edge, let's not get zapped by lightning rocks again."
"Except they weren't rocks, but... thingies. Creatures of some sort," Anklebiter mutters from the shadows.
"I can't say we've been bored of late at least"
The purple light, instead of illuminating the corridor, seemed to draw the light to itself. Its an effect that is most disconcerting.
"That... isn't light," Anklebiter mutters, a growl in his voice.
"eh? What's not right?" Lefrik looks confused because, well, he is, but he trusts the goblin's judgment in matters odd and strange, after all, Anklebiter is odd and strange himself.
"That light isn't right," the Goblin explains. "It's not casting, it's stealing light."
"Well, I'm still confused," the barbarian admits, "But do you think it would suck up one of your light magics if that's the case?"
"Well, unless we want to cower like little girls because of some strange light, we might as well go ahead. .. Though I guess no need to do so unprepared."
The lit chamber is large, with an enormous pool of water covering more than half of the left side of the floor. The turgid water appears almost black in the eerie light of the mineral deposits on the walls. Calla searches with her divine senses, but sees no sign of evil in this place. Though that in itself is cold comfort.
"I don't detect any evil, but not everything that wants to hurt us is evil," the half-elf priestess says as she motions Lefrik forward, following him with bow drawn, her footfalls all but silent on the cold stone.
Lefrik shrugs, and moves forward easily enough, "True. Somethings are just damn hungry."
Bruendor warily examines the refractions made by the light as it plays through the crystalline deposits within the stone. "What in the Hell can do this?", Bruendor wondered aloud. "And what's it got to do with Saul?" Bruendor scratched his chin, shaking his head in confusion. "That might be something for you and the Cyphermage eggheads to study later, Anklebiter, but I don't see how it gets us closer to Saul. Note it, keep a wary eye on it, but for now, we move on."
"I bet the cypher mages would like a sample of that crystal stuff to go along with our story." Kel looks apprehensibly at the walls as she draws a dagger to scrape out a sample of the crystal. "Do you think it's safe, just a little bit, just a few crystals?"
"Last time you chipped what looked like rocks, you got zapped," Anklebiter says, shaking his head. "Don't cut it unless it tries to cut us, healer-girl."