Z uses her rod to empower her next spell, hearing of the creatures resistance to fire.
"If it still can burn at all, I can kill it."
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The Mound flails its burning vegetation about, clearly distressed!
When Amanorn hits the creature, it releases a cloud of yellow spores!
Zin's fire seems to cook off the spores however, temporarily rendering the creature unable to use them.
Ablaze and in pain, but with nowhere to go, it attacks Sledge, falling back on its tried and true grappling tactic!
But fails to find purchase on the musclebound mountain man!
" I suppose it is time to settle the garbage as well "
Darius moves up to whip the mass of plant matter bladed-whip cutting vines and tentacles.
"Is this even hurting it?"
"Allow me to try something..."
As Jones approaches the Mound, he shifts his grip on his rapier, holding it at an unusual angle. Instead of striking the Mound with the tip of the weapon, he slashes it with the narrow edge of the blade.
"You know, I've shot into a lot of strange things in my life, but strictly speaking about archery here, this thing is probably the weirdest. Still, you put the shaft where the shaft has to go, no matter how gross it looks...even if it's being whipped by a hairy man while another man wrestles it around."
Sledge will pin it...
and injure it...
Jones slashes it, as does Darius, and Sledge finishes off the poor thing with a brutal takedown.
In the murk is a magic helmet, surprisingly shiny among all this sludge. Also, a familiar amulet: That of the gagged skull.
Detect the magic.
This i a Helm of Underwater Action. It contains lenses that allows someone to see 5 times farther than water or light conditions would allow a normal human to see, and can be activated to grant a 30 ft. Swim speed and a bubble of air that allows the wearer to breath underwater.This effect lasts until deactivated.
The command word is "Glub glub burble".
"Let's keep moving."
Darius looks to Amanorn, a sneer upon his face. " The lash of Grimoire cares not for what it is that tastes its wrath, save that they need be punished. "
Letting that hand in the air he nods to Sledge. " This makes the trip easy, however why all of this underwater gear? It points toward the sea which even with these items we are ill prepared for. Hrmph Not that we wont end the evil there. "
Darius takes the other path they did not chose.
You wander down the hallway. At the end, you can see a faint violet glow, and hear a woman singing a lullaby.
In here, the oppressive sense you've felt in the background comes to the forefront, asaulting your mind even harder.
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Everyone but Amanorn feels an inexplicable sense of lethargy, but it quickly passes.
Moving on, the cavern ends in a large, high-ceilinged cavern. It is mostly dry, and is lit by a faint illumination from some quite pretty violet fungi dotting the area.
A wide pool of clear water stands just inside the entrance. A pair of ledges run along the chamber’s north and south walls, accessed by wooden ladders. At the far end of the chamber, the floor drops into a pit, the top of a ladder just visible at its edge. Scattered across the floor of the room are a number of bedrolls and assorted personal possessions, including, strangely, a number of dressmaker’s dummies, some of them child-sized. The low, haunting melody of a woman singing carries through the chamber, seemingly coming from the pit.
A branched path to the east glows with an altogether different color, one quite strange to the humanoid eye. It seems to shift slightly, almost a rainbow in a single color. Iridescent but somehow unchanging.
Another path branches to the north.
Darius narrows his eyes and looks towards the pit warily, he nudges Jones to Stealthily check it out.
The last time they heard a lyrical voice it came from a Spiderworm Queen.. thing.
Jones creeps forward.
In the pit is a young woman, cradling what appears to be a baby. She glows with an eerie radiance not dissimilar to that coming from the adjoining room, and her skin is bleached white. She is thin and emaciated, clearly malnourished, but does not seek food or water, though some is relatively near between the water pools and cauldron up above. She merely sits and holds the baby, cooing and babbling at it incoherently.
Jones comes back and reports what he saw in the pit.
"I don't know what to make of it."
"Seems familiar, oh, I think it's in the back of my mind, but I just can't quite place it..."
"You know Jones, tip of my tongue...the thing with...okay, remember, I made that joke about how I would be her baby. Nobody laughed. The professor told me to leave. That thing!"
Jones cocks his head "Amanorn, what the hell are you talking about?"
This appears to be the effect of an incredibly rare creature known as a Colour out of Space.
It is exactly what it sounds like: A living color. From space. Scholars classify it as a type of Ooze, but only because that's the closest classification they can liken it to. The color you are viewing now is, essentially, what the creature IS, though viewed from some ways out. It exudes an aura of lassitude that makes people weak willed and lethargic, unwilling to flee as it feeds on them, which is likely what you felt as you entered.
People who are strong and survive repeated feedings from this creature can become Colour Blighted, immune to further feeding, but usually left insane from the previous sapping of their psyche. They glow with the same eerie radiance as the Colour.
As you realize this, a wave of psychic energy assaults you again, akin to when you saw the Spawning Canker. Your brain is weakened by struggling to wrap your brain around such an odd creature, and the constant menta assault focuses for a moment.
Huh...wonder what will happen if I hit it with Color Spray, then..."
Darius grunts slightly.
" I would assume being an ooze it has no eyes... "
"The girl is not the ooze. She is tainted by it. And anyway, I meant, you know, being color warped, I wondered if it might have unusual effects...similarly to how fire will slow a fire golem."
"Hm."
" 'It' generally signifies a thing not a person. Regardless it seems the creature is .. close. Let's use that wand and get healed up, we don't know how bad this fight might be and it is preventing this woman from being able to leave no doubt. "
"Agreed."
Jones uses the wand to heal Darius, himself, and Sledge in that order.
"Thanks, Jones. Do we just kill it, then?"
"And would not seeing it help?"