Seeing the ooze closing in on Froog, Kriv rush's to place himself between the two. stabbing at it as he does.
"Keep hammering it, I'll make sure it does not get to you!"
Kriv spins into the pudding with his dual swords, splattering tar all over...
Edlethron moves quickly to the south, taking a shot on the run...
Round 4:
Khaz, Vic, Froog, Cade, Edle, Kriv, Gael <--UP
Black Puddings
Edlethron threads an arrow over Kriv, which misses the pudding and skitters down the hall.
Gael once more speaks a tongue he doesn't know where he learned to conjure up black flame in his hands. The fire that seemed to suck light coalesced into a missile and the half-elf sent it to the black ooze attacking the halfling.
-------------
HP 24+7/24
AC 14
Conditions: n/a (fiendish boon for 1d4+4 temp hp?)
Melee: Dagger +4, 1d4+2, P
Ranged: Eldritch blast +5, 1d10+3, force
1/2 2nd level spell slots
Gael's blast snakes under Kriv's tail and squarely hits the pudding, blowing off a meaty chunk of slime.
The oozing mass tries to send its hair-thin tendrils of ooze through the exposed wounds of Kriv...
...but Kriv masterfully dodges, avoiding a nasty death.
Round 5:
Ed, Khaz, Vic, Froog, Cade, Kriv, Gael <--UP
Black Pudding
Vic again fires his long bow at the ooze under assault by Khaz.
With rapid speed, Kriv uncorks a healing potion, downing it even as he stabs at the ooze.
Action Surge
Trying to hold back his grin at his success, the warlock's lips already started to chant in a forgotten tongue. Or was he just babbling?
In any case, another black orb appeared between his hands and he sent it to the ooze with a flick of his head.
-------------
HP 24+7/24
AC 14
Conditions: n/a (fiendish boon for 1d4+4 temp hp?)
Melee: Dagger +4, 1d4+2, P
Ranged: Eldritch blast +5, 1d10+3, force
1/2 2nd level spell slots
With a final thrust, his sword dissolving in his hand, Kriv puts down the last of the puddings with the vengeance of the damned.
Kriv proceeds to drop his ruins short swords before collapsing against the wall gasping for breath.
"We need to rest, I am on my last legs here and I don't think I am the only one."
The water is now above everyone's ankles, and being tired from battle isn't the only reason people are out of breath...the air is running out as well.
At this rate, the air is likely to be completely gone within an hour or 2, with the water reaching almost to the ceiling in the same time.
Kriv is to exhausted to notice the lack of air, putting it down to the recent combat and his severe burns.
"I wish we had time to rest but the air will run out within the next hour or two and the water will fill this area in a similar time frame. Unfortunately we must find a way out of here quickly or we will be swimming. Kriv, Khaz, you bother have taken quite a beating fighting these things. I only have a small amount of healing magic left so hopefully this will last till we get out of here."
Froog casts a minor healing spell on both the Warriors.
"Thank you Froog, here take this Khaz, I have already had my fair share of the potions as it is, So were now, we have alot of options but little time to decide"
Kriv Hands Khaz the last remaining healing potion
Khaz dropped to his knees, tired beyond belief. The pain was excruticating. Even worse was that feeling in his stomach from being so close to death. He had been convinced that he was going to die. All he wanted to do was lie down. But...
...he got to his feet as he felt the worst of his burns close. ”Thank ye. I can walk now. Ye all did well here. Ye be right about the air. An’ the water. We need to move.”
He looked at the bottle and shook his head. ”Nay lad, ye take it. Clangeddin watches me. He will take me soul when he is good an’ ready. ‘Sides, ye took quite a beatin’ too.” The dwarf smiled painfully. ”There nay be a way I’d look me ancestors in the eyes if I survived when a friend didnae because I drank the last potion.”
Khaz, you hear the sound of rushing water from both of the unexplored corridors, but the western path beyond the pits sounds closer.
Relaying this to the party, Khaz (still holding his trusty rock) takes point as he goes west. If another ooze appeared, he would not be caught unarmed.
This room contains a stone fountain with a raised edge. The basin contains brackish water that is nearly to the point of overflowing. At the center of the pool, the rubble of a broken statue rest atop a pedestal. All that remains recognizable are a pair of clawed stone feet clutching the pedestal’s top. Carved into the walls are seven niches. Water seeps into one niche through a crack in the wall. The two niches that flank it are empty. Strange, formless sculptures occupy the four remaining niches. Finally, you catch a glimpse of something shiny beneath the surface of the basin's water.
"So.....Do we risk it and look or do we wanna just pass."
Froog follows Khaz past the holes into the next room. He casts a charm asking for Lathander's guidance before looking for any hidden things in the room.
Kriv stares intently at the statues, trusting nothing in this cave due to past experience with the ooze's.
Vic steps forward.
Hold on a second. This could be a trap.
Vic searches the fountain for traps.
Victor and Froog spot nothing dangerous and can see there is quite the treasure horde down there, too many coins to count and a few completely unrusted, untarnished weapons...
"Look at all the treasure! It looks like some weapons in there too. Can anyone reach them?
When the pudding stops jiggling, Edlethron explores the tunnel behind him.
"I'll do it, we are sorely in need of weapons right now as it is, someone just get ready to grab me tho encase."
Kriv will then start to get the treasure out AFTER testing to see if the water is dangerous with one of his hand axe wooden handles.
Kriv quickly and safely retrieves the following:
112 sp
41 gp
three green-gold bracelets
a drow rapier shimmering with a strange quality
a drow handaxe humming with a strange quality
Meanwhile, on the other side of the complex, Edlethron finds the main source of the flooding inside a rough-walled cave. Water is pouring through cracks in the ceiling 10 ft overhead. Perhaps the earthquake earlier is what released these waters.
"Does anyone have magic spare to check all this out?"
Edlethron shouts, "I found the flood. We don't have much time."
::Hey Cube. Can you tunnel your way up, so we can follow you to somewhere that won't be underwater?:: The wood elf thinks to the gelatinous cube.
When everything settles down. Cade drops to his knees. He wipes some tears. He sniffles. He gathers himself and follows the others as the press on. He distractedly listens as they discuss the features of the room and find the treasure. "I don't know what is harder to believe that we actually found treasure or that it didn't try to eat us . . . YET."
He continues moving around not really with it. He sniffles and begins to draw in a deep breath. "Ahh choo. Ah man." He wipes his nose. When he sneeze the ridiculous beard of feathers he had grown flies from his face and floats around.
He shrugs when Kriv asks about checking out the items.
"Froog are you able to actually detect magic."
"I can but it will take about ten minutes to cast the spell. Once we find somewhere that isn't filling with water I'd be happy to cast it. Edlethron, is there any way out over there?"
At Edlethron's odd request ::"I sense you want me to...jump or climb up? How do I do that..?"::
Vic eyes the drow Rapier lovingly.
Edlethron moves within sight of the gelatinous cube and continues to negotiate, ::We don't have a lot of time right now to discovery how we sense things, because we're going to drown soon.
::Can you dissolve a rock wall and move up within the rock as quickly as possible? Away from the water. Toward a tunnel connected to the Underdark.:: The wood elf points up if it helps.
"Maybe we need to thoroughly check our tracks and look for things we might have overlooked while fighting or whatever. Stay in groups of two and yell if we find trouble. I think Edlethron went down a tunnel most of us have not seen."
::"No, I've never been able to digest rock...wood and metal though I can! Except this thing for some reason...":: it motions with a pseudo-pod to the drow corpse holding a mace within its transparent body. ::"Hmm, let me try something...":: it slorches over to the wall and starts oscillating wildly...
...but it looks hopeless that a huge cube of goo could climb a wall.
Edlethron continues to negotiate with the gelatinous cube, ::Thanks for trying. Do you know a way out of this place? How did you get here?
::Oh, can you spit out that drow body? Maybe we could use some of the stuff you cannot digest, like that mace.:: The wood elf suggests.
Vic continues to eye the drow rapier.
Kriv, I would likd to take possession of that Drow Rapier? I can study it and compare it to the mundane one to hopefully discern its abilites, as it is my weapon of choice.
Vic eyes Ed as hd moves towards the cube.
"Fair enough, but just beware, its property's might be harmful for us, I'd like to take the hand axe myself tho, my weapons are currently next to destroyed and if we encounter anymore ooze's they will not last."
::"I...I don't know, your cousin wanted to kill me earlier...I don't know what this place is or how I got here...I just remember waking and it being very cold and wet...and my name."::
Cade, the most promising exit seems to be the cracks in the ceiling near Edlethron, but they are much too small for any of you to fit through. Perhaps you'll have to dig, but that would of course greatly accelerate the water inflow.