Teo takes a deep breath and realizes the group is in a lot of trouble. She uses a second level spell slot and fires an acidic achromatic orb at the big blob.
Magic attack
Damage
Gwenifer shouts from the acid burn and then looks horrified at Finlogan's leg transforming.
"That's not good. Not good at all! I don't want to be a cube!"
Gwen attacks the big blob again.
"Glkkh...thk....klppppblppp"
In a moment of panic, Teo sends a spell sailing high overhead, missing the combat entirely!
Gwen puts another solid hit onto the big blob!
Finlogan unleashes against a blob.
Fighting against the otherworldly pain in his leg, Finlogan pours all his fury into the marred and beleaguered larger blob, finally felling it! As he does so, his second shortsword contorts to match the first!
The last remaining blob twitches a bit, in a manner you imagine might represent fear. However, rather than retreating as in your first encounter, it fights on:
,
,
Finlogan struggles to remain standing with the wounds with the gimpy leg. He swivels and attempts to strike the blob again.
Teo knows the group is dead if she doesn't do something drastic. She again uses a second level spell slot and fires an acidic achromatic orb at the big blob.
Magic attack
Damage
"We need to end this. I can't help Naia with this creature in the way."
Finlogan fails to strike the remaining blob, focusing instead on stabilizing his own wounds. Teo again panics and sends a spell careening off-course. Gwen covers for both by laying into the blob with all her might!
The blob desperately switches targets to the terrifying Gwenifer!
,
,
Gwen takes a hit!
Finlogan wobbles on his leg and attempts two strikes on the blob.
Finlogan finishes the blob!
Just as Finlogan is stabbing the blob for the last time, sickening coughs echo through the chamber as Naia's previously motionless body convulses and returns to (pained) consciousness, blood dripping out of her mouth.
"Ouch," Finlogan says aloud while hobbling over to Naia with his gimpy leg.
"No offense, Lady Tam, but you look how I feel." Finlogan says while offering to help the elf maid to her feet.
"That was the scariest thing I think I've ever seen! We need to avoid any more huge blob things in the future!"
"I agree. But how do we do that?"
"Are you okay, Naia? I don't have any healing magic, but I can try to apply first aid if it will help."
Finlogan starts to examine his gimpy leg. How can he repair his leg?
"*koff* *koff*" The water elf looks haggard, as well as bruised and battered. Still, she smiles through a puffy black eye and a smashed cheek.
"It seems I yet live. My thanks Gwen. And to you all. *koff* *koff* Your valiant efforts have saved me...us...in this accursed realm."
Naia looks about the chamber...cavern they are in, taking in the hole they entered by and the water the blobs emerged from.
"So, we have gained this height. What now? *koff* *koff* *koff*."
A barrage of racking coughs and some expectoration of blood give Naia pause. She perseveres.
"How can we prevent these... beings... from overrunning us again? If only we could find their source, and *koff*...eliminate it."
Finlogan examines the cubically-gnarled wound on his leg. Though he's never seen or heard of such an ailment in his life, the closest thing he can think of is an allergic reaction: the area that's reshaping itself suffered deep exposure to the blobs' caustic... stuff, and you wonder if—once cleaned—the flesh might gradually fade back to its normal state.
Having a moment to get a better look at the cavern, you all see that you are probably very near the surface: the ceiling of this natural cave is riddled with patches of dirt and even roots.
Since the blobs fled your first encounter when the battle turned against them, it's odd that the last blob stood its ground. It's almost like it had nowhere to run.
Focusing on his disabled leg, Finlogan uses his waterskin to irrigate the cubically-gnarled wound. When the wound is completely clear of the blobs' caustic... stuff, he uses his Healer's kit to clean and bandage the wound.
"Naia and I need at least a short rest. At the moment Teo is faster than I can hobble, so I won't be able to take the lead when we continue. If a short rest cannot cure my leg, I can try some Elven magic."
Insight
"Anyone else notice that the big critter here didn't try to flee, and the little ones outside did? Maybe we are in the nest and there's nowhere else the big one could have gone."
"A nest....perhaps. Or, it finds the prospect of the surface even more distressing than dying. *koff*"
"Well if this is a dead end, it might be safe to rest here. Perhaps we should briefly scan the perimeter to make sure but not too far. I definitely agree we need to recuperate. But also if it is a dead end, that means we'll either need to dig our way out or go back through the portal. I'm in relatively decent shape. I'll give this place a quick look while you rest. Don't worry, I'm not going to get out of sight. You might be surprised that I don't want to get into any trouble either."
Naia smiles, then juts her chin toward the ceiling.
"This is *koff* no "dead" end. See those roots, the earth? If nothing else we can dig our way out. If *koff* *koff* we can reach the ceiling that is..."
Gwen takes a light and begins searching the cavern. She finds the water from which the blobs emerges to be murky and quite deep in the middle; exploring it would require swimming. Wading across at the edge, she eventually finds that the cavern extends another few dozen feet beyond the pond.
At the far end, the floor rises up to meet the declining ceiling, and where they meet, there is yet another opening, much like the ones you've crawled through already. However, rather than extending into the darkness, this "tunnel" is only about eighteen inches deep. At its furthest point, the "cubic-ness" of the earth is less pronounced, as though the ground has been less affected there.
A few minutes have passed by the time Gwenifer rejoins the group. In that time, Finlogan notes that the pain in his leg is (slightly) less severe, and the cubed flesh is just the slightest bit less rigid than it was originally.
You relax and catch your breath for about an hour. Fin's wound, having first been cleaned and then rested, eventually looks much improved. It's still slightly lumpy and has a little pain, but it's clearly on the mend and is no longer crippling.
Gwenifer uses her hour of rest to change her clothes, rinse her hair, scrub her armor, and apply a new coat of makeup and perfume.
"Ah! I feel much better. I don't think we should stay here any longer than we need to. There was another path leading up."
Gwenifer checks her maul to see if is reverts back from its cubic-ness like Finlogan's leg.
Teo nods. She hadn't been hit, so she didn't even need the rest. She had used some spells, but nothing leaving her too exhausted. She was ready to follow in line.
At the end of an hour of rest, Finlogan rubs his leg and says, "right. The leg feels good enough. Ready to go? I'll take point."
Finlogan could not believe where he was. He had traveled all around Avonali but never underground fighting unnatural creatures such as these.
He hoped their trail led to the solution of Naia's problem with her people. He hoped they could return home back the way they came. He set those concerns aside and memorized their surroundings to be able to describe them later in the tale of his adventure.
When the group seemed ready to go, he proudly took the lead as any good prince would do.
There was another path leading up.
Gwenifer checks her maul to see if is reverts back from its cubic-ness like Finlogan's leg.
"While we are here, I suppose we need to check this pond. I'm sure there's plenty nasty stuff here, but if they waylaid travelers, there might be something useful in there for us," she adds, trying to figure the most effective way to search the pond.
"Right. I'm not a great swimmer. Lady Tam, when would you feel ready to explore the pond? Otherwise, the portal is our only way out... unless we want to dig." Finlogan offers.
Having healed remarkably from a short rest, a testament to the vigour and vitality of the wild water elves, Naia brightens somewhat at the mention of the pond.
"I may not be able to see very well, but I can breathe...normal...water. Though nothing in this place is normal..."
The elf-maid tests the water, then duck-dives in.
Gwenifer waits ready at the shoreline while Naia dives into the pool.
"Be careful. If you encounter anything, come back right away. We'll take it on together."
The water is clearly contaminated, and feels a bit like breathing smoke. After a few minutes of feeling around, it seems that there are no more blobs and also no underwater entrances/exits to this cavern. At last, satisfied, Naia emerges from the dark water, hacking and coughing.
Finlogan waits comfortably for Naia to regain her composure and make her opinion known about how far to investigate this cavern. He wonders how far she is willing to pursue this lead into arresting the plague on her people. He has never dug a hole in his life and would not know how to begin.
Gwenifer is relieved that there was nothing else harmful in the filthy pool and offers Naia a hand out of the water.
"I'd suggest digging but I don't have a shovel." She looks around to see if anyone else does. "I could try my maul as a sledge hammer but I'm not sure of how effective that might be."
"The water is foul, but the body is empty...It appears we are compelled to return by a lack of available options. Let us return through the portal."
The likely series of events is this.
Long ago, someone summoned those blobs into that circle and for whatever reason, abandoned them there. Eventually, time cracked the chamber and broke the circle, freeing them. The blobs began the slow process of tunneling their way to the surface, and as they drew near, the wildlife fled their presence. The dwarven druids put up a barrier/filter. Once the blobs breached the surface, they couldn't leave through the barrier, so they retreated back down to their chamber. They wandered through the only active portal, and started another upward tunnel. After a long time, they reached this cave, which is pretty near the surface. They've begun tunneling further upwards, but they're already pretty darn close to the surface. Thus, in all likelihood, you're directly beneath Naia's homeland, where the wildlife has instinctively fled the vicinity of the unnatural blobs.
Finlogan looks to Teo expecting consent with Naia's proclamation to return through the portal. "Right. Let's see if the fire's out."
He heads toward the mouth of the tunnel preparing to be the first one through. The wood elf prince waits for the group to prepare to follow before entering.
Intelligence
"None of this makes any sense. We'll never figure out what is causing all the craziness around here!". She is in favor of retreating to cover all our past steps and leave.
"I think we may have actually wound up right beneath Naia's homeworld. But why would there be a portal there? And who summoned these blobs?"
Finlogan squints at Gwenifer trying to understand what she said.
After thinking for a while, Naia nods in agreement with Gwen.
"This place could be below my homelands, but still, we know not why these blobs have appeared..."
After a bit of discussion, you decide to head back the way you came, rather than try to dig your way out and confirm your location. Though Fin's leg gives some pain that makes all the jagged tunnels difficult to traverse, you take your time and gradually work your way back. As anticipated, the portal is a two-way gate, taking you back to the original chamber, from which you climb the rope you left earlier to get to the initial tunnel to the swamp's surface.
At long last, Finlogan pokes his head out the top of the tunnel, confirms a lack of sweeping hellfire in the immediate vicinity, and ushers the group back out of the underground and into the fetid swamp. The sky is overcast, shielding you somewhat from the early afternoon sun; but the clouds are slowly breaking up from a cool breeze, and the rain has completely stopped. The swamp looks mostly unchanged, though some of the smaller vegetation in the area has burned up and the smell of swamp gas has been replaced with the faint smell of smoke (which is somewhat of a relief, not unlike the purpose of lighting a candle in an outhouse).