Callomeleth briefly takes a moment to admire the cavern's natural beauty, before motion from the water draws his eye. He stops in shock as some sort of amoeba-like creature flows towards them. "What in the Nine Hells is that thing?!?", he cries, his quavering voice echoing in the cavern.
I have no idea, but in this place, we have to assume it is a threat.
The old man moves behind the others and starts casting a spell
Not real sure, mate. It be an amoeba, that I do know. They just eat whatever they get close to. With that, he takes a few steps back and tries to sink an arrow into it.
Tybus' arrow pierces deep into the amoeba's side, and it convulses spasmodically - but continues to ooze forward.
"Is it intelligent? If it's just going to follow food, maybe we can draw it back to the spider's lair where we have some room to work."
The elf draws back down the tunnel to give the others room to retreat, sheathing his remaining sword and readying his bow.
"A good plan, Lamsfel!" Callomeleth eagerly begins making a tactical retreat back to the spider room. "Perhaps it will decide to sup on the spider rather than us."
Well, I don't really want it chasing me on the way out.
,
Tristan gives the thing a good swat before retreating with the others.
Tristan's massive blade once again does its work, sending gobs of protoplasm in every direction.
That wasn't so hard, was it. Tristan wipes his blade and takes a look for any useful items. I say we continue right, how about that?
Lamsfel chuckles and shakes his head. "Lead on."
"Tybus, can your lights reach out to illuminate more of the room? Is there anything on the island?"
With a mental command, the glowing orbs float about in the chamber making sure everywhere is illuminated. Why are you asking me? You've got them elf eyes.
Laughing, "Aye, cap'n, but it's dark even for an elf in here. Thanks for the light!"
Callomeleth peeks his head back in after Tristan mentions he has already killed the creature. "It's dead? Thank goodness." He awaits the group, his eye drawn to the sparkles their light sources make on the crystals.
I think I've determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are pretty.
Once you return to the other passage and begin to follow it, you discover that progress quickly becomes problematic - the passage begins to narrow, forcing you to choose between trying to squeeze through (and risk getting stuck, potentially) or turn back.
Tybus directs his floating lights along the next passageway, taking up the rear position.
You make your way back to the cave entrance and turn southeast, hoping to find better luck in the larger, wetter passage. What looked at first in the light of Tybus' lights to be an underground pool turns out instead to be a broad, sluggishly-flowing stream of sorts, a channel where the water dripping from the ceiling and seeping through the walls gathers together in a trough in the stone. It isn't too deep - it reaches waist height briefly as you force your way across it - but it is slick, and you all (particularly Tristan, in his armor) have some difficulty keeping upright as the wet rock seems to shift trecherously underfoot.
Eventually you find a side passage that you quickly determine to be the same as the left fork you didn't take earlier after battling the spider; the tunnel you are in, though, seems to continue on for some distance. In the farthest reaches of Tybus' light, there is some sign that the cave widens out again.
Callomeleth nods with relief as the group decides to head back down the other passage once the one they were following narrows. When the cavern opens up, he spaces himself away from the group slightly - not far enough away that he is truly separated, but far enough that the five of them are not clumped together again. He squints into the darkness, trying to see if there is any end to the cavern's inky darkness.
Gan, Lamsfel and Callomeleth can all make out the signs that indicate the passage is widening out into another chamber, but this one appears to be the biggest you've seen in this cave complex so far, as the far wall is out of visual range even for your night-sharp eyes.
The cavern is indeed much larger than the others you've seen, nearly 60 feet long and about half as wide, with a large pool of brackish water along the southern edge. A number of skeletons wearing rusted and broken armor of Minkaian design lie scattered across the ground - four, in all, after you count. There is another, smaller passage leading away to the northwest.
Big chamber, Tybus observes, as he spreads the globes out to cast as much light throughout the cavern as he can.
Callomeleth stops short as he spies four more skeletons in the strange armor that the Licktoad goblins wore. "Gods above, more of them. At least we can be prepared to fight them this time." Callomeleth stows his glaive and pulls out the heavy mace on his belt.
"What? Doesn't anyone stay dead around here?" Groan. "I left the club outside! If they get up, I will work to distract them while you deal with them. Fair enough?"
Tybus sighs. I got me undead ray. It's a simple spell, and disrupts them nicely.
He'll take aim at one of the inert skeletons and voices the arcane component for the spell.
Tybus' spell produces an effect - but not the one he intends for certain. As the burst of white energy disppears into the stone next to the skeleton's ribcage, the bones begin to stir, unholy life returning to them after what must have been decades of quiescence.
Now that spell was not supposed to do that!
"This day just keeps getting better and better!", Callomeleth shakily complains as the dead begin to rise.
Lamsfel hustles forward and attempts to hit the prone skeleton beside him, but he keeps an eye on the many threats, likely distracting him from the blow.