"Then lets get it out of here and turned over to the authorities." Melodie says. "One less fight is a good thing."
Melodie leads the monster back to the ring of axiomites and inevitables that have quarantined the cemetery. Lieutenant Fanalyx and her deputies take the beast into custody.
The mesmerist rejoins the rest of you, but as you prepare to descend into the hole, a telepathic voice reaches out to her. "You are a curious lot, aren't you? Who are you? What are your intentions here?"
"Find out what is going on here and stop it." Melodie sends back, speaking aloud simultaneously so that the rest of the group can here. "I don't take kindly to people trying to pry into my thoughts - it usually ends badly for them. Who are you? What are you doing here?"
She makes a 'shush' gesture at the rest, trying not to give the apparently telepathic creature too much to work with.
"I am the blight. I have corrupted this place on the orders of my master, the slime naga Clacosic. He is a cruel and wicked creature. Slay him, and I will be free. Then I will leave this area forever."
Whatever this thing is talking to Melodie, she can tell it is a terrible liar. It has no intentions of leaving.
"Of course I will help you." Melodie replies, "Tell me of Clacosic so that I may better defeat him and free you. How does he control you? What are his weaknesses?"
Perhaps unfortunately for the Blight, Melodie is a superb liar.
"He is a slime naga. His kind exerts magical influence on beings like me. I am unable to attack him directly or resist his commands. He is a powerful spellcaster, but not very capable in direct combat. Engage him swiftly and don't let up the pressure, and he will fall. Then I will be free."
"And what will you do once you're free?" Zhi can't help but ask, ignoring the annoyed eye she knows her wife is directing in her direction.
"I will return to the depths of the sewers. You will never see me in this place again."
"Of course you will."
Zhi looks at her wife and rolls her eyes.
"Who are you?" shouts Sara, not used to the telepathy. "If we're to work together, show yourself!"
"Do as I have asked, and you will have no need to see me. Refuse, and be assured you will find out exactly who I am and what I am capable of." The telepathic contact abruptly cuts off.
"I think we should refuse," says Sara matter-of-factly, folding her arms and pushing her hair back.
"The Naga is likely the cause of all this." Melodie replies calmly. "Something has been orchestrating things against us since we got here. I don't know if it would be the naga - it doesn't sound like a mastermind, but we should definitely stop it no matter what. The issue will be this 'Blight'." She turns to Zil and Maria.
"Do either of you know anything about this sort of thing? Do we need fire, holy water or what?"
"Unless it's another stupid ooze of some sort, we've got this," Zhi says, flicking the end of her rapier through the air.
With a flash of inspiration, Maria recalls hearing about an ancient strain of intelligent oozes known as blights. Blights are destructive forces of nature possessed of a hatred for civilization and everything it stands for. Patient as they are cruel, blights think nothing of slowly transforming the lands adjacent to a small town or even a city to slowly starve its inhabitants of resources until the monstrous ooze can finally begin the task of reclaiming the urbanized lands as its own.
All blights are immune to acid. Blights are living epicenters for domains of evil, cursing the terrain around them and infusing them with their foul essence. It's very likely the blight is responsible for the plagued graveyard and the rise of the undead creatures. Blights are notoriously difficult to kill, rejuvenating several days after their death unless its corpse is subject to a remove curse spell.
As Maria relates what she remembers about the blight, Zhi's mouth falls open. "You're pulling my leg, right?" she asks the tiefling. Turning to her wife, she says, "Next time, just tell me to keep my mouth shut."
She looks down at the blades in her hands. "I can stab the stupid naga, at least," she says finally.
Melodie grins at her wife but refrains from saying anything, aloud.
"So, we take down the Naga first, preferably not anywhere near this Blight and then attack the ooze itself. Sara, we'll be relying on you again I fear. Any everyone, stay alert for anything watching us. Zil do you have the ability to cast remove curse?"
As if on cue, Zhi's cheeks blush. She continues looking down at her blades.
With just a quick glance at her wife, the rogue begins appraising the best way to descend into the gaping pit.
"Yes, I should be able to do that," confirms Zileska.
"Then let's go." Melodie says with a smile, gesturing for Sara or Zhi to lead the way.
Zhi's eyes widen slightly.
She nods her head as if she's made a clear point and then begins maneuvering her way down into the pit.
The ramp of rubble is relatively easy to descend, and you find yourselves in a small complex of caverns. The caverns look relatively new, as if only recently carved from the foundations of the city. Several tunnels wind away. Trails of slime crisscross the caves, and the air is heavy and fetid.
Ahead, you can see a 15-foot-tall cavern filled with mats of ropy fungus, at the center of which lies a fungal node the size of a halfling that pulses like an evil heart.
"That's the blight, but where is the naga?" Melodie says quietly.
Melodie doesn't spot any invisible creatures in the area.
Zhi raises an eyebrow at her wife. "So, do we wait for a naga, or try to find this blight?"
"They may well be together." Melodie points out. "This is where we could really use Safina and her crossbow."
"Let's move forwards, carefully. If there's a trap I don't want anyone getting caught in it!"
Melodie is getting bossy, a sure sign that she's nervous and trying to compensate with planning!
"Let's try this one," Zhi says, picking a tunnel at random and scanning it over for traps.
None of the tunnels appear to be trapped. Each one winds for several hundred feet before connecting with the main sewers that run beneath Sayashto, away from the blight's cursed domain. Without magical aid, it will be nearly impossible to determine where the slime naga went.
Zhi growls in frustration. "So do we just sit here and bloody wait for him?"
Zileska shrugs. "I don't know. I don't really specialize in the kind of magic needed to track creatures down."
"Well the Blight is the cause of the earthquake." Melodie says with a shrug. "We should deal with that. The Naga may be there trying to keep control of it and we have to do it one way or the other. Does anyone have the sort of magic that could just blast it to bits down the corridor?"
"Not all of my magic is shadow based," Zhi says, holding up one hand as sparks jump between her fingertips. "Although, with my luck the damned thing will just jump out of the way."
"Let's prepare then. Any more spells we need, then Zhi you can get us started, from as far away as you can."
"Okay," Zhi says slowly; seemingly unsure of waging war against such a monstrously sized ooze.
Then from as far as she can still see the ... thing, she collects up the energy in the very air and arcs it in the form of lightning towards their foe.
Zhi's bolt seems to pass through the pulsating fungal sac harmlessly. With an effort of will, she disbelieves the illusion cloaking the cave, and all of the fungus seems to disappear. In fact, the area is filled with 5-foot deep, fetid water, which emits a toxic, opaque gas that fills the area within 5 feet of the water.
Through the haze, she spots what appears to be a grotesque mass of sewage, but it betrays its true nature with dozens of red eyes and two long, slimy, claw-tipped tentacles. "Clever girl. But now you will all die," the telepathic voice proclaims.
Before you can react, the ooze conjures a cloud of poisonous vapors that envelops you all!
"All that destruction..." Melodie comments as Zhi casts her preparatory spells. "Sara, you should destroy that blight for all the ruin it's caused."
As she gets swamped in the gas Melodie stands tall and with a shrill whistle covers the area where the blight seemed to be in glitterdust.
A reduced and invisible Zhi flies in to within striking distance of the blight.
"I should destroy that foul thing for all of the !!" echoes Sara, blood pumping with renewed vigor. She ducks low and flips her hood up, roaring a lion's roar!
Maria's skills as an investigator render her immune to poison, but the gas wracks Zileska's health.
Melodie coats the creature with glitterdust, outlining it and negating its concealment.
As Zhi rushes towards the ooze, it lashes out with a claw, ripping into the rogue despite her invisibility! It seems the blight can sense things without needing to see them. The noxious fumes rising from the fetid pool prove to be poisonous as well, threatening to sap the rogue's constitution as well.
Sara uses her cloak to transform into a lion. Maria drinks an extract of fire shield and moves in on the ooze, while Zileska casts a prayer to aid the party.
The blight whips its claws about to try to strike Zhi again, but this time she manages to dodge and parry with Koriana's Blade!
Zileska chokes momentarily and settles for giving Sara another Bit of Luck .
Melodie closes carefully, trying to stay out of range of the creatures gasses. Once in range to fully apply her mental powers she reaches for the creatures mind and fills it with pain and remorse.
Melodie's spell takes hold, but the ooze's mindless nature allows it to ignore it for now...
Shaking off the effects of the poisonous cloud, Zhi gets down to the business of brutality. However, her blades seem unable to strike anything that's vulnerable.
With preternatural agility, the lion bursts forth and savages the glittery thing, pulling chunks of it out and tossing them across the arena!
The ooze slashes Sara as she pounces on it, then the lion proceeds to rip it apart, though she fails to grab a hold Acid sprays from its putrid body, threatening to melt her flesh.
Zhi fails to hit, but Maria punches three deep holes in its slimy form.
The badly damaged blight's claws tear into Sara, nearly eviscerating the lion! Only timely intervention from Zileska saves her from a fatal injury.
Zhi continues her seemingly futile attempt to find some sort of vulnerable spot on this ... thing.