Khaz' hammer whips through the air, inches from the wererats dirty whiskers, its ratty buck teeth rotten with cavities. Meanwhile Vic makes a rapid takedown, completely surprising white.
Edlethron moves up to his captain. He tries to grab and throw Froog next to Khaz.
"Can we stop fighting and parlay?"
Edlethron steps up and puts his foot flatly on Froog's back before rolling backwards, vaulting the gnome high across the cavern. The wererats seem vicious and uninterested in talking...
Round 2:
Froog
Enemies
Cade, Kriv, Ed, Vic, Khaz <--UP
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Cade moves up and chanting as he moves and unleashes a wave of fire over the enemy and allies, thankfully for whatever reason the fire only burns the enemies.
Lines of white hot energy begin to trace out in parallel lines, as Cade chants his spell. Pairs of lines become squares, and squares become a cube. The cube glows brighter and brighter before a surging *woooooosh* sounds, and everyone feels a metallic taste in their mouth. As the brightness fades, some kind of bizarre mechanical starfish with 5 arms materializes there in the center of the cube!
Meanwhile Cades fires cleanse the dirty disaster artists, sending them writhing in an agonizing death...
*bzzzt click whir click click* "::SCANNING AREA...Material signature...Unauthorized planeshift detected. Restraining hostiles..." One of the many spherical eyes covering the mechansim turns red, and a thousand laser-like beams of vaporous matter eject all over the cavern.
Yellow sniffs some of the greenish vapors with his little ratty nose and goes completely stiff, as if frozen in ice.
Cade looks at the strange creature emerging into existence. "Well that's never happened before."
Cade seems frozen after that.
Froog causes the mace to try to knock out the last rat man then tried to revive Topsy. He stares in wonder at the new arrival. "What is that thing?"
Froog looks around at his allies seizing up but shakes off the effect.
"Well...what the fook?"
Edlethron was pleased with himself when he moved Froog off the front line, so that Cade could burn the wererats.
"What in hells is th...?" He asks before he's frozen in place.
Before the mobile death engine materializes, Kriv was lashing out with his tentacles...
Kriv is hit full force with the strange matter wave...
...but his dragon physiology shrugs it off like a splash of water!
Green retreats in fear, screaming at the top of his lungs, down the passage to the northeast.
Round 3:
Froog
Enemies
Cade, Kriv, Ed, Vic, Khaz <--UP
Tears streak down Edlethron's face as he struggles to move a muscle. Must not give up. I have not found them yet.
Khaz ran over to the death machine and hit it with his hammer. ”Demon! Ye came to the wrong tunnels!”
Froog wills the mace to attack the helpless ratman to prevent his escape. He then tries to pay Edlethron back for saving him earlier. He says a prayer heard only a few times before them touches Ed's arm as the feeling begins to return to it.
"Mr. Starfish thing! You're here by accident! It isn't or fault!"
Topsy flutters awake but is too scare to move, his little hands pad the ground gently...he wants to run away from the horror from another dimension but is still sitting right on top of a trap.
It shines a hazy amber light on Froog's face "Foolish Prime. There is no accident, all is ordained by the divine escapement of Mechanus..."
Froogs spriritual mace zips through the melee under knee and flipping across shoulders rapidly like a heat seeking missile taking down Yellow, he lands face first in the dirt with his mouth open, slobbering.
Kriv joins the attack on the death machine with Khaz slathering the drow tentacles all over...
...the tentacles get crushed in the gear mechanisms whirring along within the massive assembly, seemingly jamming it, locking it up in a few places.
Round 4:
Froog
Enemies
Cade, Kriv, Ed, Vic, Khaz <--UP
Combined with Khaz' power smash, the interdimensional choo-choo Charlie does not appear in good shape...inches from scrap metal.
Once more Khaz brought his hammer down. It smashed into the machine, breaking through metal with a great clang.
Thick juicy yellow oil spurts everywhere, and it looks like the machine is about to teeter over and die...but somehow it yet stands shouting "...cRitica..llll...preshhhure...loss...self-destruct...activated..." its lights flash a myriad of colors from red to green to blue as electricity crackles across its surface, a high pitched sounds going higher and higher, beyond what a dog could hear...
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Standing over the wreckage, Khaz raised his hammer and shield in victory.
Froog's spell washes over Edlethron releasing him from his mental prison. Seeing the odd creature still speaking, the wood elf closes on it and slashes and tries to punt it away from the group.
Ed plants both hands on the ground and pushes up with both legs, vaulting the machine across the room "Flight parameters not set...errOR..erooO..*bzzzz*" the crackles of electricity accelerate and the machinery vaporizes in front of your eyes in an energetic breakdown, raining hot microscopic particles everywhere.
Vic shakes his head.
What in the name of Calistria was that?
”Demon or devil. See? Already back in the hells.”
Nonplussed by yet another unimaginable creature, Edlethron checks the vitals of all of the down creatures. Then, he would investigate where they were hiding and came from.
If the place is defensible, he would suggest a short rest for the captain to catch his breath (heal).
Cade shakes off the paralazation with a cough.
Once the adrenaline settles, you notice a small alcove to the east that looks like a forward camp for the wererats. There are a few tables you might erect into a barricade as you take a short break, you just have to clear them of all the bloody mole meat of course. It seems they were smoking the fresh kills and turning it into jerky. There is a large barrel of salt around the corner, obviously pilfered from the Blingdenstone market.
There are also some chairs should you wish to interrogate your captive...
Among the bodies and camp, in addition to their weapons (shortswords and hand crossbows) you also find:
A soft fur blanket from the hide of some exotic beast
A pair of porcelin dice with blue gems marking the numbers on the faces
...both probably worth something to the right buyer.
Froog leaves the interrogation of the captive to the others. He doesn't have the stomach for that sort of thing. Instead he uses the time to catch his breath and patch up some cuts.
After a short rest you continue down the tunnel, which quickly branches in two directions. This time Topsy is able to locate a pressure plate camouflaged in the stone flooring, and you take a moment to gather your surroundings. To the east you sense the stink of death and refuse, to the west a stairway seems hastily chiseled leading up to some kind of subterranean plateau.
Vic sets to work on interrogating the Wererat. He casually wipes down his rapier from the blood of his decimated companions, as he casually sits in a chair facing it.
Do you speak common, abomination?
Froog, you wanna take a look at the plateau, up those stairs?
"I think we should just kill them all at this point. They even summoned a demon to fight us. Anyone who summons demons should be put down."
After a bit of work breaking the captive down, he points the way around a few traps and up the rise to where the chief resides.
Stairs lead all the way to the top of the rise (your calves nearly on fire near the end), where the floor is covered with a soft and well-manicured carpet of green moss. A small crowd has gathered here. Most of the assembled creatures are deep gnomes, but some have ratlike features — including a fat specimen standing in front of the others, smiling at you with jagged buckteeth. He stands next to a silly, large stone chair flanked by two giant rats. Draped over the chair’s back is a cave badger pelt. "Peace," the big wererat says. He takes a step forward, arms extended and hands open. "Chipgrin’s the name. I'm chief of the Goldwhisker clan. Shall we talk?" assuming you don't instantly slay him "Let's get down to brass hobnails, then. You were sent by the Diggermattocks 'cause they want us out, right? Right?! Well, they might get their wish soon enough, but in a way they ain't likely to cheer about..."
"We were ambushed by your people on our way in. All we wanted to do was talk! They even summoned a five legged demon that said something about Mechanus! We were sent by them but we came to see if you could be allies against the growing threats in the underdark."
"I think we should just kill them all at this point. They even summoned a demon to fight us. Anyone who summons demons should be put down."
Cade looks around, "can't argue with that."
Cade's eyes dart back and fourth when Froog mentions the demon.
Then they dart about again when Froog says there here to broker a deal. Not sure that's what they asked us to do. . . .Hope this works.
Cade looks at Chipgrin, "You're talking like there is a threat the other gnomes don't know about?"
"Ambushed? Did you say you were ambushed? Oh, I get it. You misunderstood my brother's attempts at defending their homeland from invaders as an ambush. But at least a few lived." One ran away about the time the 'demon' was summoned, and assuming you didn't kill the captive another as well. "We heard about that mechanism and are just as confused as you are, it really fits with nothing weve been seeing lately...however its true we are assaulted on all sides and at all times!"
He looks at Cade "What I'm saying is we're about to give up. Flee. Its too much. A first thought among some of us was to just offer the bird (the kind with knuckles) to the Diggermattocks and let them fend for themselves! But we're not animals...er actually we sort of are...you know what I mean. We've been attacked by oozes from the east just as the other gnomes have, but we've learned a thing or two about why...the figure who controls them! I think the Diggermattocks might be interested in that information, dont you? Of course you do. I remember him from when he worked in the tunnels, and my kin saw him when he returned. I know who he is, what he’s doing, and — most of all — where he can be found! If you and the Diggermattocks want, I can take you straight to him — he who calls himself the Pudding King!!"
"That sort of help might go a long way to burying the hatchet."
Edlethron would have translated the interrogation into Undercommon and would've insisted to keep the prisoner alive.
"The Pudding King! That sounds delicious. How do we know that you would not be leading us into a trap or ambush?" Elethron wants to believe the wererat king, but it sounds too good to be true.
He turns to Ed with a big ratty grin "Ha! Of course you can never know something like that! I could say I am not leading you into a trap but I could be lying! I could say that I am leading you into a trap but then you would never agree to go! Whats the third option?" he pauses "Oh, right...we leave you and the Diggermattocks along with whoever else is there to die alone. We really don't want to do that, though."
Khaz scratched his head. ”Too much talking. He wants to take us there? I say fine by me. He tries anything funny and I brain him with me hammer. Seems fair.”
"And Khaz wins. Let's go." Edlethron shrugs and summarizes.
Khaz grinned. ”Ed gets it.”
Vicnods, and leans in close to theprisoner and speaks through gritted teeth.
Right, and you'll be getting the pointy end of this rapier with any funny business. That will not be a rap on the head, mind you. I will end you, like I did your friends.
Cade winces at Vic's words. He speaks almost as a chirping reminder, "Diplomacy." He looks around nonchalantly.
He looks back at Vic through his bloodied black eye "Oh fine, then you can rule for the day! Won't that be grand?" he laughs, making a little ring with his hands, an imaginary crown "The end is coming for us all, drow-kin."
The party sets off to find this 'Pudding King' with a small squad of only 3 Goldwhiskers leading the way. They are exceedingly quiet and slow as the process along, disabling at least 15 deadly devices along the way. You pass through the refuse pile from before and start to see signs of ooze attacks: partially digested svirfneblin corpses.
Vic actually sees them first, slithering along in the dark...oddly they do not attack, the slimes. In the coming glow of Froog's light you spot hundreds, eerily just out of reach along the ceilings and walls...strange puddles on the floor. The Goldwhiskers don't dare say a word, pointing the way further until a tight passage bursts into huge natural chamber.
The walls of this great cavern are covered in slime — dripping, sickening green slime. Echoes of dripping water also fill the cave, in the center of which is a large perfect spherical structure held up off the floor by stone pillars. Around these pillars crawl dozens of living oozes, heaving forward while reaching out with grasping pseudopods. The sphere's surface, like the cave walls, is covered with slime. Black slime swirls with yellow and gray slime in a disgusting soup, the unearthly patterns in the movements of the slime straining your eyes and tugging at your mind. A disembodied voice fills the cave. "What's this, what's this? Visitors? Now? Not yet! We’re not ready! Go away, pests! I will call upon thee and all of Blingdenstone to announce our glad tidings of the Faceless Lord to come at the proper time! Begone!"
The Goldwhiskers seem to have kept their word, this would certainly appear to be an authoritative figure of the oozes. Completely surrounded, attacking at this stage would be most unwise...but likely no one told Khaz that.