Ravboom carries both weapons out, shaking his head. "Stupid stupid stupid, thy name be gobbie." He looks at Globlob. "This be no end well."
Globlob just nods furiously in agreement as he scurries back to snatch up his bow before falling into step behind the rest of the group. He has no desire to see ever more monstrosities tonight, but there is not a lot he can do about it. Yet, anyway. "Longshanks send da Biggun in first."
Retracing his steps when there is little of note in the kitchen area, Biggun moves back into the Great Hall... past the smouldering corpse of the moss troll and to the door that hasn't yet been explored. Pulling it open, the large goblin dislodges a blanket of webbing and, with it, a skeletal hand reaches out...
"Lich!" Ravboom yells as the hand drops down on Biggun!
BOOM
With Ravboom immediately alert to possible danger, the skeletal hand is reduced to powder by the BoomRav… Moments pass like aeons, the group ready to strike… yet, when the door creaks open further, the rest of the bony arm simply falls from the webs - falling apart as it strikes the flagstones.
Reassured that they are not about to encounter more undead, the door is opened and the remains of three skeletons, draped in rotting leather armour, are discovered within the web-filled room – a further examination finds that one of the skeletons is still gripping a dagger and is resting against a near-decayed leather satchel. The satchel, upon investigation, turns out to contain 58gp in assorted denominations, an onyx statuette of the Arvarenhode raven, a battered wand and a single stoppered vial,
"Now can rest? Put blockade up in front of other kitchen door, so nothing come out? Ravboom look for materials to make more boompowder. Relas have sharp eyes, find new keg or other container?" Ravboom says, returning to gathering up nitre.
Although Relas goes give Palo a courtesy glance for permission, he doesn't really figure that she'll be inclined to object to him poking around for containers. "Rest sounds good," he nods. "We can poke around a little on this floor and outside to find your boom-ingredients before we settle in."
The eidolon begins to scan around the kitchen and other areas, looking for the supplies the little goblin needs.
Globlob lets out a soft, "Ooh," of wonder and delight at yet another magic stick to wave around, before tucking it into his bag. He takes a moment to look over the other items, but when none of them end up being particularly useful to him, heads back into the great hall.
Even if there is not a lot left in the ruined mansion, those leaves and moss left over from the troll will make a decent bed. He spends the rest of his time creating a bizarre nest with all manner of soft materials he can get his hands on. Oddly, he makes it large enough for everyone to pile onto together if at all possible with the materials on hand.
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Biggun, perhaps with a mild hallucination from his wounds earlier, didn't even flinch when the skeletal hand clasped his shoulder, nor when Ravboom's Boom-Rav went off next to his head. "Huh," he said, looking around the ruinous area. "Not find this everywhere." he said mildly as he picked up the raven statue. Placing it in his mouth to test it's edibility, he shook his head when he realized that it wouldn't be eaten easily. "So, block door and take nap?" he asked the others. "Seem smart, though boring. Maybe find Solie tomorrow..." With that, he walked back to the kitchen to find heavy things to place in front of the door.
Digging around through the night and, after an undisturbed rest, Ravboom finds what he needs to replenish his powder keg... although his keg is now a moderately sized cask labelled as 'Fancies'... The remaining structure of the roof keeps a light drizzle away from the group as they take their breakfast in the morning...
...and so, replenished they move onwards...
When Biggun pushes the door to the north open, he sees a half-eroded, wooden rack tracing the edge of a large room’s north eastern wall and, next to the open door a small, cobweb-filled storage closet. Near the middle of the south wall a set of stairs spirals upwards… and down…
Again, this room – partially reclaimed by nature with moss thriving near the windows - tells of long-faded glory…
Globlob sticks his head around the side of the doorframe so that he can peer down the stairs, as well. His beady red eyes go wide and he makes a soft, "Ooooh," as he eyes the descent they will have to make. "What you think down there if not star? I bet big bear down there! Or lotta bats. Come on!" And with that, he makes to charge down the stairs without a second thought unless someone physically stops him.
"Palo, Relas, come last. Need light, and no want to warn things below. Palo let Relas lead, he no need light. Uncover torch if fight start."
Descending the first few steps into the depths below the manor, the air immediately feels musty and still – and, somewhere deep below, the sound of gently dripping can be heard echoing up the staircase. The staircase, where sunlight still touches it, is covered with moss – the walls, the steps and even the ceiling is liberally smeared with virulent green growth… and, nestled within the moss, a particularly crimson, oozing growth… as Globlob rushes down the stairs, the crimson blobs seem to retract into the moss…
Though carefully studied by healers and naturalists focusing on oozes, living boilborn are dangerous to experiment upon. This is because their death throes can sometimes be triggered accidentally, even when the creatures are handled gently and no harm has been done to them. Some posit that boilborn have only a limited lifespan, and self-destruct when that period ends. Others have labored for years under the hope that the infectious fluids contained within boilborn might somehow be used to find both cures and immunities to any number of diseases that plague the world. Though this experimentation has resulted in certain indicators that boilborn might indeed be put to such positive use, a reliable concoction has yet to be developed.
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Biggun looked around, momentarily thinking of his days in the children's cage when he was still a little goblin, before he was the fine example of goblin flesh he was today. "Looks cozy," he said before his eyes landed on the strange blob thingy. "What you think that is?" he asked no one in particular.
The staircase, where sunlight still touches it, is covered with moss – the walls, the steps and even the ceiling is liberally smeared with virulent green growth… and, nestled within the moss, a particularly crimson, oozing growth… as Globlob rushes down the stairs, the crimson blobs seem to retract into the moss…
From his position in the formation, Relas' eyes widen as he sees the strange growth dart back into the moss. "Did anyone else see that? What was that?"
"Something need fire kill, most likely. Anyone have fire?" He looks to Palo, as their only real offensive caster now that firebrain gnome is gone.
The ooze bubbles and pulsates as Palomia brandishes her torch... swinging it aggressively towards the globules, the summoner forces the amorphous things backiinto the fissures that are spread across the ceiling... There are hideous red patches of mucus smeared into the moss but, for now, it doesn't seem to be moving back out into view...
Having pushed the oozes away, Palomia and her companions (Biggun leading) quickly make their way past the moss-covered steps and down, into darkness, towards the sound of dripping water. Turning around and around on itself, the spiral staircase descends for around forty feet… The lit torch provides enough illumination for those who need it to safely make their way across the occasionally treacherous stairs…
The source of the dripping sound becomes immediately obvious as the staircase opens out into a wide corridor - Murky, brown water fills this wide corridor, rising – to a depth of 3 feet - just short of several burial niches that run along the walls, each filled with old bones bound in decayed funeral wrappings. The water is quite unpleasant, now that the friends are at the foot of the stairs, with little movement and quite stagnant – a persistent smell akin to rotten eggs fills the air…
To the north, a short flight of stairs leads from the water to a massive stone door bearing strange carvings - the rest of the flooded hall splits into corridors that run to the northeast and to the south. A single rat, swimming at the eastern end of the corridor and inquisitively peering at the friends with eyes that shine brightly in the light of the torch, suddenly races towards the edge of the tunnel, climbs from the water and scurries into one of the burial niches.
Globlob practically trips over his own feet with a surprised yelp when he recognizes the little blob creatures. He babbles something about infection and oozes and awful things, but wholeheartedly agrees with Palo's idea with the torch.
For the moment, he is too busy wrinkling his nose in distaste at the smell of the putrid water to notice much. "Dis looks like grave. Big grave. Don't think star down here."
Ravboom looks up and stops, pointing the BoomRav toward the water. "Stuff in the water! Move back to stairs!"
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Biggun snorted at the little scaredy goblin. "Bah, no water beastie scare Biggun!" he said in contempt. Surely, Biggun had to be the bravest goblin in the world! However, he wasn't completely mad, either. With the warning, he peered closer at the water, his eyes glowing red in the ambient torchlight from behind him, as he tried to discern anything about his new aquatic adversaries.
As Ravboom points out the movement in the water, a bow wave starts to form… moving quickly along the tunnel, an amorphous mass – a grey translucence outlined by filthy water – bears down upon the group.
"Um Palo? This water's pretty high! I don't know if I can stand in it and fight!" Relas calls out worriedly. Unsure of what else to do, he holds his ground as the thing approaches but waits for further instruction on whether to retreat or not.
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Biggun spat in distaste as the strange blob thing rose from the water. "All thing fall before Biggun!" he yelled in anger before swinging wadding through the water and swinging his sword at the strange thing. Unfortunately, the new sensation of fighting in the water threw off his aim. He was too used to dry land!
"Ack! Amoeba swarm! Burn it!" Globlob shrieks as he scurries backward behind the nearest large body. In this case, Relas is a perfect meatshield. Once he is well out of the line of fire, he starts to belt out an invigorating chant.
"Goblin chew and goblin gnash,
Burn that big blog straight to ash!
Make it go from sticky, icky, green,
To piece of dirty, much less mean!"
"No can burn, too much water. Fall back, make plan." Ravboom says, motioning them up the stairway.
As soon as Relas hears Ravboom talk about falling back, he clambers up out of the water and moves back up the stairs. "Come on guys," he calls, his voice drifting down the stairwell. "Maybe it won't follow us out of the water!"
The gelatinous mass silently slides over Biggun as he fruitlessly flails at it….
Globlob nods furiously, his big bat ears flapping to and fro as he snatches up the wand and points it at the swarm, uttering some magical-sounding mumbo jumbo. Whether or not Biggun will be caught in the blast is another story entirely. Goblins are not known for their careful aim or a great deal of care for their fellows.
The sonic boom from Globlob's wand reverberates and bounces around the confines of the tunnel... the gelatinous mass around Biggun wobbles in a sinusoidal wave as it moves beneath the burst of sound - bouncing Biggun around within its fluids...
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Biggun thrashed around inside the strange jelly thing, his frustration at his situation letting him ignore what the thing was doing. Unfortunately, he was completely unprepared for the sudden sound of Globlob's wand. The noise, combined with his tumble inside, caused his two brain cells to rattle around with the rocks in his head. If anybody cared to look closely, his eyes took on a swirly pattern.
"On it!" Relas calls from further up the stairs as he barrels back down. Although he can't do much in the water he can at least hold the line at the bottom of the stairs, which is where he stops and adopts a defensive position.
The blob of jelly, ragged and torn after Globlob's attack, continues to feed upon Biggun - a fine meal indeed...
Seeing Biggun continuing to be enveloped by the swarm and being unable to do much about it doesn't sit very well with Relas, who fidgets and hems and haws before finally splashing down into the water.
If we win we'll have to pass this way anyway, right?
"Hang on Biggun, I'm coming!" he calls while attempting to paddle/walk towards the goblin. If the situation weren't so serious it would look rather comical.