"Think so! Just acid they ignore, if I remember rightly."
Eyarwen sees the ooze attack the party. He quickly draws his longbow, knocks an arrow and takes aim at the ooze threatening Harroc.
Lugaid yells incoherently and swings his club at the moving vegetation.
Gatley swiftly dismounts, drawing his explosives and taking aim while the rest of the group spring into action. At the same time, Harroc's keen eyes catch sight of the attacking ooze and, by reflex, the lizardman draws his arrow and pierces the creature's semisolid form.
Lugaid, alerted by the shouts and sudden movement of his companions, whirls around to find the second ooze not far behind. The giant takes a step and swipes at the thing with his club, but its amorphous shape evades his blow. Selda, axe in hand, stands alert and watches the oozes, waiting for an opening to charge. Eyarwen in turn takes a shot as well, landing a second arrow in the ooze pursuing Harroc.
Both oozes, recognizing they are under attack, suddenly emit a wretched, blistering stench. Harroc and Lugaid, both immediately next to the things, are assaulted by the disgusting smell of sulfur and rotting cabbage.
The putrefying stench is overwhelming, leaving both Sickened for rounds.
The reaction from both men is all Selda needs to initiate an assault, and the glastig charges with axe drawn at the nearer of the two, Lugaid's uninjured aggressor, and take a swipe. Unfortunately she overestimates her lunge and the axe swings wide, taking out a chunk of fern instead of leaflike ooze. This unfortunately also brings her into the cloud of rancid smog surrounding the ooze, which will not dissipate for a few more seconds of potency; the hearty fey's immune system, fortunately, was less susceptible to the airborne toxin, and other than a disgusting smell she was unaffected.
Eyarwen seeing his friends suffering from malady flies into position between the two oozes. . He knocks another arrow and fires again at the ooze attacking Harroc. ,
Selda coughs against the noxious fumes and frowns, stepping to the side for a better position.
5-foot step to flank with Lugaid
Seeing Selda and Lugaid surround one ooze, Gatley moves to help Harroc. Running closer, he lobs his fiery bomb at the ooze.
Harroc gags and stumbles back. Not deterred, he looses another arrow on the ooze.
Gatley hurls his explosive, and a gout of flame and shattering glass engulfs the ooze by Harroc, thankfully aimed so that none of the blast hits the lizardman. The ooze makes a rough gurgling noise, then begins to dissolve under the heat as its fluids catch flame. Harroc's arrow, reflexively shot, finishes the job before the flame can, bringing the burning ooze's existence to a certain end.
Lugaid steps up and takes a swing, but the huge man's club once again swings wide of the swaying, sliding ooze. Eyarwen, his other target incapacitated, instead turns his shot on the one between the two warriors, landing an arrow solidly in its mass as it sways left away from Lugaid's swing. Selda follows up with a broad swipe of her axe, which sinks into the ooze's fluid and carves a sizable chunk of its body away.
The hungry ooze, despite its injury and the death of its partner (or competitor for local food, whichever), isn't intelligent enough to know it's overmatched and try to flee. It senses Selda as the closest target and lunges, but the warrior's footwork is too skilled; the ooze doesn't even manage to strike her armor, much less hit flesh or fur.
Selda grunts in irritation and takes another swing at the ooze.
Eyarwen loads again and fires at the ooze attacking Selda and Lugaid. He is careful not to accidentally strike one of his friends as they engage the ooze.
,
With his quarry slain, Harroc turns his attention to the remaining ooze. He nocks another and creeps to the edge of the brush to attack.
,
Between the flurry of assaults from the two archers and another cleave from Selda's axe, the remaining Ooze quickly becomes unstable and dissolves into a rancid puddle of goo. The scent will likely remain until the leftover fluids of the two oozes have fully seeped into the earth, which may be as much as a couple hours.
Selda shoulders her axe and blows a stray hair from her eyes.
"That was interesting." She looks around for more trouble, frowning slightly.
"I've seen more treacherous roads in Sarawak," Gatley says, mounting his pony. "Still, one can never be too careful when crossing the wilderness."
One of his hands dips into his pocket and he pops something into his mouth absentmindedly.
Eyarwen swoops down and lands near the rest of the group. "Is everybody ok?" he asks.
"Just fine," replies Selda. "You didn't see anything besides those two, did you?"
"No, those were the only 2 threatening creatures I can see for now. I think we can proceed again, but we must remain vigilant." answers Eyarwen and then continues.
"On the bright side, everyone seemed to handle themselves very well against these creatures. I feel more secure in the company of such an able group."
The group resumes travel, making their way along the well-worn but increasingly overgrown road. The journey was estimated by the captain to be a half-day's ride by horse, but with the majority of the group on foot even Gatley has kept his mount's speed to a minimum, and thus quite some time still remains in the trek toward Neva. Suir is only an hour behind you, leaving plenty of "day" left. Out in the wilderness, though, you lack the artificial day/night cycle established in most cities; the stalac-crysts's light is dull singularly but constant, providing guidance regardless of hour. You'll have to rely on your own internal clocks and rate of exhaustion to determine how much longer you can walk before needing to make camp.
A crossing road, no less worn nor less overgrown than the trade road you're following, greets you a few minutes later as you continue on the beaten path. A simple sign on the east side of the crossing denotes, in Common, directions to Neva and Suir as well as northwest along the road heading to Jurgel and southeast to Sothsan and Pahl beyond. The air is still filled with the buzzing and clicking of insects, the scampering of startled rodents rushing for cover as strangers approach their lairs, and the occasional caw or hoot of the underbirds. From time to time, the hunting howl of some distant predator echoes through the caverns.
Off in the distance to the north, a flickering light through the foliage heralds a small contained fire or lamp of some sort. It might be a camp or cooking flame, but it's equally likely to be a residence; while the majority of people even in the Black Below dwell in cities, there's still the occasional family or two who will claim a plot of land or a small, easily-closed cavern pocket out in the middle of nowhere for a home.
As the group sets back out, Eyarwen, gives his wings a strong flap and returns to the air. As he glides low to the ground, he spies a flickering light through the foliage. He flies higher and begins to circle as he tries to discern the source of the light.
Eyarwen's vision is limited at this distance, and thanks to the overgrowth between - further away from the road the ferns only grow larger, eventually spreading into large bushes, and occasionally interspersed by mossy trees - he can't get a clear look. He is able to pick out bits of movement, but without getting closer it's difficult to say what it is. Could be people, animals, or simply waving brush in the breeze.
Gatley considers his options. "Any information these folk may have on our quarry is likely older than what we could obtain in Neva, but perhaps they saw something that would give us information on Deskar's condition and state of mind," he muses.
Unable to see much through overgrowth, Eyarwen glides back down to join the others. "I can't see anything from above. What do you think is the source of the light? Shall we send our scouts ahead to check it out?" asks Eyarwen.
Harroc grunts. "You need not ask. I will let you know if it is prey or predator." Harroc slips into the bushes and skulks toward the light, moving cautiously and crouching low.