"Ozzy, move forward!" Adrien shouts, waving the eidolon past himself. He stops at the entrance to the smaller cavern, while Ozymandias moves farther forward, taking up a position just behind Thüm with his one heavy, mechanized arm ready to strike.
Following in tow, Tio pauses at the rear of the party, a touch confused as to the sudden haul of hostilities. The creature ahead certainly strikes her as unusual, as with most things she has never seen before, but clearly her companions find it some manner of threat and she takes their cue to do the same.
"What is that?" she asks of their Dwarven ally rather flatly, muttering a brief incantation before slinging a bolt of lightning idly from one wrist to the next, feeling it ebb away by the second. She doesn't have much faith that it'll succeed, given the obstacles present, but her comrades have proven adept enough in martial affairs that she shows no real concern.
At least not yet, anyway.
The creature looks up and round from beneath its leathery hood, revealing large, disc-like eyes. Suddenly and without warning these burst with intense, blinding light. Then it lunges at Onna, its wide mouth revealing - to those still capable of seeing, two rows of sharp teeth.
Turning the corner to see the creature's eyes glow bright like the sun in the sky. Lifting his buckler to shield his own eyes from the intensity of the light, he turns towards Tio as he tries to recall any memories or knowledge of the creature.
"I cannot see! This monster is wounded, though! Destroy it!" cried Onna, holding her spear between where she last saw the monster and herself. She steps back, bringing her hand to the wound as she asks the spirits to banish her injury.
---
Luckily though, there was one more combatant. Ôka, the skunk curled atop Onna's shoulders, sensed the threat to his master and did what skunks do best - he sprayed.
As the foul-smelling musk splattered directly onto the creature's wide, bulbous eyes, everyone in the chamber could smell the horrible stench.
"Minderhal's mother!" swears Thüm. The flare fazes him for a moment, until the distinctive smell of skunk cuts through the cavern. Then the barbarian chuckles, steps cautiously into the water, and swings his poleaxe where the monster stood a moment ago--and where the musk smell is the strongest.
...
"That is a blindheim," he states to the android next to him. "They've a nasty blinding gaze that they use to incapacitate their near by attackers. Best to avert your eyes."
Arkady strides towards Onna, standing next to the shaman as he averts his eyes to look intently at the rocky floor rather than the advancing creature, and readies himself to attack the foul-tempered creature as soon as the creature's form comes.
Sensing that Ozymandias had been blinded by the creature, Adrien rushes forward, already chanting an incantation. "Ozzy, take it down! My magic will protect you!" Adrien shouts, laying his palms on the back of the automaton. After a moment, a shimmering field of force envelops Ozymandias, then disappears just as quickly. Ozymandias emits a whirring noise for a moment, before his massive fist comes in swinging blindly towards the creature's last known location. A stray spark flies off from his loose wiring as his body starts to repair the damage to his optical sensors.
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Still squinting following the creature's sudden burst of light, Tio listens intently to Arkady's explanation with an ever-deepening frown whilst Rust, by contrast, appears to have gone the more blunt manner of cursing loudly in her stead.
Nodding in understanding as Arkady moves up, his eyes diverted from the creature, she mouths another incantation and, once fired, does her best to follow suit, drawing her direct gaze away..
OZ somehow manages to slam his fist into the blindheim. These creatures are normally, as Arkady said, timid; prone to using their gaze effects to stun enemies while they make their escape. This one is, however and for some reason, maddened and enraged. Despite the blow from OZ and shrugging off the sickening effects of the the familiar's musk, it continues to fight, perhaps emboldened by the effect its gaze has had on the group. It moves back towards the retreating Onna ... giving Arkady the chance to strike.
"I know Ozymandias was blinded by that creature, did anything happen to the rest of you?" Adrien notices whatever the "thing" in the pond is, and begins to move to investigate it. "If any of the rest of you were affected, we ought to stop and rest. We run the risk of our spell wearing off, but that's still better than any of us moving around blindly."
Thüm stops hitting the smelly and now quite messy corpse of the blindheim. "Beast breathes no more? Thüm's eyes see only darkness." He slows his breathing, waiting for his sight to clear. "Darkness still! Onna, can your spirits break this curse of blindness?"
"That is the right of it, the beast breathes no more. Strange that it would choose to attack, given our number," Arkady mutters loudly, making his way towards the creature to examine it. "Have only caught a glimpse of one prior, and taught further about them from the wise woman of my clan. Skittish creatures, and normally they're only this aggressive when they've a brood nearby, which it doesn't look to be the case, unless that's it over there?" he says as he nods towards the indefineable something floating by the shoreline.
As regards Arkady's examination of the creature, its head is covered by a tightly fitting, obviously uncomfortable leather hood, shackled to its neck in a way that could only have been fastened by someone else. And it has a brand on its side, in a language you don't immediately recognise. There are no possessions on the body.
Those of the party who are able to do so, move to investigate whatever is lying in the pool. It turns out to be the remains of a male human, though it's been mostly eaten. There's nothing left that would identify it; from the tooth marks it would seem to have been eaten by the blindheim; the armour and clothing has been eaten.
A belt pouch on the body’s hip is still intact and contains 42 gp, a silver unholy symbol of Zyphus and two water-tight potions of cure light wounds.
"The spirit who walks with me this day knows only sleep and dreams. This blindness should fade before I have the chance to commune with another," Onna replies.
When the creature's apparel and branding is described to her, Onna's hangs grip her spear with anger and her skunk companion's fur stands on end, mirroring her rage. "Slavers." she mutters, vitriol evident in her voice.
"Slavers is most likely. There's a brand on the creatures flank, here. Can't recognize the wording though. Seems a shame to have had to kill such a creature after its escape, but I doubt we'd have been able to calm it."
Thüm paces like a stressed animal for the duration of his blindness, muttering Kellid blasphemies under his breath. His good humor returns with the first glimmers of sight.
"This fought like beast, not thrall," he says, kicking the blindheim's corpse. "Could be like guard dog, protecting master's hall."
The dead man in the water troubles him. "Have we found Khonnir Baine so early and still too late? What rune is this?" He turns the silver symbol of a bone pickaxe over and over in his hands, frowning.
"Other bodies may have drifted downstream," he observes, squinting into the darkness where the water vanishes. "If Khonnir Baine does not lie here, we must seek him there."
"It looks like a holy mark, but I do not know the signs of the gods that cityfolk worship," Onna replies. "But before we search downstream, there is a passage we missed. We should check it." Her vision returned, she hefted her spear and prepared to march back down the tunnel.
After the blindness subsides, the party moves back to the north-west, to the chamber just back along the stream, wading through the two foot deep water to reach a dark cavern.
The stream runs through the middle of the cavern, while to the south a stony bank rises up from the water. Thick carpets of green and grey mould and fungus grow on the bank, particularly around a trio of three-foot-high, foul-smelling mounds.
"That does not appear to be Khonnir Baine. What are those things? Are they a danger?"
Arkady's eyes widen slightly as he watches the fungal growths wobble and move of their own accord. "Slime mounds," the dwarf hisses. "They appear to have freshly grown, and likely are quite young. Underestimate their danger at your own peril, though - unthinking creatures like that are a bane to all who dwell under the earth."
"I have no knowledge of these creatures, but--" Ozymandias pauses, another low whirring coming from his head, "--I do not doubt these creatures are alive, and likely dangerous. Arkady Bollerend, should we deal with these creatures? I lack sufficient data for analysis." He looks at Adrien, his central idea re-focusing visibly. "I do not believe Adrien does either."
As the party discusses the strange masses, a portion of the soft matty covering each of the three mounds detaches itself and starts to move menacingly towards the adventurers.
As the three mounds shift and advance towards the party, Arkady flicks his gaze towards the towering machine for a second. "Don't think they will give us the choice to not. Have at them!"
Arkady then advances towards the nearest creature (likely C) he can reach safely and swings the longsword down towards the mound.
"It seems everything in this cave seeks to kill us!" Onna exclaims, flipping her spear around, bringing the heavy stone weight on the butt to bear, reasoning that it's less likely that a piercing blade will damage such gelatinous foes.
Arkady's strike misses but Onna's hits home. One of the slime creatures oozes and sputters briefly and then becomes still.
"Watch for others under water," advises Thüm. He moves warily downstream and chops at the easternmost slime .
Thüm's strike also hits and, afterwards, the easternmost slime pulses a couple of times and then ceases its movement.
"Very well, Arkady Bollerend; engaging hostiles," Ozymandias steps forward and swings his mechanized fist in a wide arc, aiming to knock the creature from its place atop the mounds. "Adrien, remain behind me for your own protection."
The third creature is, again, easily silenced by the giant construct. There are no further movements within the matted growths surrounding the mounds. The party's attention turns to the three heaps. Despite the covering of ooze and slime, each form seems slightly humanoid, curled as if in a foetal position.
"Your pet metalbeast is a fearsome warrior, Adrien." Onna observes, eyeing the construct warily. "You are sure of its loyalty? I would not relish fighting it if it decided we looked tasty."
"I do not require sustenance, fourteenth Onna of the tribe Ehrfashrëin," Ozymandias stoops lower, bringing his one large optical sensor level with Onna's head. "I do not have the capacity to find any organism tasty, I do not possess the proper sensory components." Ozymandias sits there a moment, his one large optic pulsating blue as he locks eyes with Onna. "Morever, your preliminary scans have been placed in my primary defensive matrix; my programming will not allow me to harm you without a forced overriddedddddddddddddddddd--" Ozymandias's audio cuts out a moment later, his trailing words shutting off abruptly. A moment later, he speaks again. "--by an external source."
"What he means to say is no, he's not going to hurt you," Adrien chimes again, prompting the automaton to stand again to his full height. "I'm still not sure how he works, but... I can communicate with him subconsciously. Some sort of magic connected him to me when I re-activated him. I'm not sure how, or why, but he's loyal to me."
Onna glares defiantly into the large metal eye of the creature. Metalbeasts were among the most deadly of Numeria's inhabitants, and were prone to strange, violent actions from the stories she had been told by both her clansfolk and by her spirit-sisters. She was not convinced this one was harmless, but she decided to trust Adrien for now. She would keep an eye on it, though.
Stowing her weapon once more, Onna turns her attention to the strange humanoid shapes, moving over to inspect them more closely.
The bodies are those of three halflings. They seem to have been comprehensively looted, before the slime mold developed on top.
"Adrien, there appears to be an item of interest on this body," Ozyamndias says, approaching the body slowly. "I am unsure of specifics, but it appears to be valuable." He looks around to the others at well, talking after a moment. "Shall I procure the item in question?"