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Some administriavia about the environment in here: The ceiling here is 30 feet high. The green goo covering the floor is three inches deep and makes the entire floor very slippery. It costs 2 squares of movement to enter a square covered by the goo, and the DC of Acrobatics checks there increases by 5.
Are you guys approaching the machine in an attempt to identify it? Are you trudging through the goo?
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"What he do to Mareq?" the half-orc asks the summoner, apparently willing to wade into the tense relationship in an effort to better understand.
"Beatings. Humiliation. Disdain. Imprisonment," says the ifrit summoner. "Better to ask 'what hasnt he done?'"
A brief haunted look passes over Mareq's face, only to be replaced by one of sadistic glee. "Oh, but the wheels within wheels of the Sultan's Court in the City of Brass turn. They turn. Somebody once said 'The moral arc of the universe bends slowly towards vengeance.' I can attest to that. Now my once-vaunted and now-vanquished tormenter has been delivered into my hands for... chastisement. Yes... chastisement."
Mareq turns to look at Harrow. Brief flickers of madness vanish from his eyes and a with a short shake of his head, as if remembering something better, he turns to unrelated (?) conversation. "What of you, Mr. Tatterhood? Do you think that all beings receive their just due? Or is that but a philosopher's dinner argument?"
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Husarq struggles to move through the goo.
The goo is cold--the kind of damp cold that chills you to the bone no matter how many layers you wear. As his legs move, the eidolon creates wakes and eddies in the goo. The swirling semi-liquid seems to coalesce and congeal into faces screaming in pain, anger and torment as he passes. The eidolon gets the feeling that all of those faces reflect his own screams of torment at the hands of his master, Mareq.
But, he has a job to do, so he soldiers on:
Suddenly, the goo becomes hot. Surprisingly hot! The warm goo springs up onto the eidolon:
Thankfully, due to the eidolon's immunity to fire, he takes no fire damage.
The party is up, then the ooze. The nearest party member is 10 feet away from Husarq. The entire room is filled with goo.
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Harrow has a difficult time following Mareq's use of polysyllabic words.
"Sound like he was bad guy," the half-orc manages to catch. "How you get in charge of bad guy?" he wonders.
When Mareq asks Harrow about whether Husarq, or any being, received a just reward, Harrow shrugs. "It hard to say," he answers. "Maybe if Husarq fall and die in goo, we know better."
Harrow watches to see if anything had happens to Husarq.
"It safe up there?" he calls to Husarq, still feeling a bit bad for the eidolon.
The green goo all over him is warm, like a lovely bath of murdered salamanders' blood. Husarq smiles fondly at flickering memories of servants in Beyt Shamir emptying still living salamanders into his 20 x 20 bathing tub. Ahhhhhh... he thinks.
But this pleasantly warm goo is also constricting. It slithers about him, into his mouth, down his throat, around his neck, crushing him.
Why don't I simply snap these bonds? a small part of his mind wonders. A weird little piece of him says, Oh no, that would not be best. Better to slide out of them. Yes, try to slide, yes slide out of this goo's hold.
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Berosius, who understands vengeance and does not like it one bit, says "I like to think that it is by the grace of the gods that none of us receive our just due, Mareq. Or we would all be in for a very bad time."
He turns to Husarq and shouts "The spirits are going to set you free now!"
More quietly he whispers to no one in particular. "Yes, now. Right now, mister. No, it is not funny! Now go!"
Husarq struggles yet again to be free.
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After some cajoling and some redoubled effort (thanks to Berosius), Husarq is free! However, if the eidolon moves, he'll provoke. (Sadly, no 5-foot-steps due to difficult terrain.)
Lilli, Uthred, and Harrow are up! Again, you're all 10 feet away from Husarq and the ooze, but it requires 20 feet of movement unless you activate shenanigans.
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We'll have Harrow do the same. He'll stow his melee weapon and draw his ranged weapon.
The ooze, literally all around the eidolon, tries to get the extra-planar creature again:
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,
The ooze sloshes around violently--knocking the eidolon about. It reaches up, wraps around Husarq and squeezes the life out of him.
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The ooze sloshes around violently--knocking the eidolon about. It reaches up, wraps around Husarq and squeezes the life out of him.
As Husarq's bones begin to crunch under the stress of the ooze's tendrils, he grunts and pants, and then begins screaming terribly. His cries echo throughout the room and beyond. With each second his cries get louder and louder until... they fall silent. The silence echoes through the ears and minds of those present until...
Laughter.
Mareq ibn Bolthuni's maniacal laughter cascades through the room as he watches his thrall crushed to death.
Then he stops, suddenly, as he watches the murdered and crushed form of Husarq disappear into brimstone smoke. "Oh, don't worry Father. I'll bring you back," he whispers. "Again. And again. And again. For as many years as I was held in your palace. Oh yes. You are not even one tenth of the way through your punishment."
Anybody looking towards Mareq sees his disconcerted, nay insane, smile slowly wipe from his face as the source of his torment vanishes back into the brass lamp he holds out before him.
After a pause, he shakes his head, clearing it of the vestiges of mania.
"What shall we do now, friends?" he says lucidly and reasonably.
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Mareq squints at Berosius's mention of the word "father" and ignores the question. He focuses strongly on the problem at hand, as if thereby struggling to hold some lurking, insanity-provoking hatred at bay.
"Let me summon an ally to address this problem," he says.
With concentration and an elaborate motion of his hands, a rip in reality appears, and through it steps an icy elemental.
The ice elemental immediately sees the ooze and attacks it without even bothering to speak w Mareq.
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Mareq squints at Berosius's mention of the word "father" and ignores the question. He focuses strongly on the problem at hand, as if thereby struggling to hold some lurking, insanity-provoking hatred at bay.
"Let me summon an ally to address this problem," he says.
With concentration and an elaborate motion of his hands, a rip in reality appears, and through it steps an icy elemental.
The ice elemental immediately sees the ooze and attacks it without even bothering to speak w Mareq.
[dice=slam]1d20+7 [dice=dmg]1d6+4 [dice=cold dmg]1d4
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This is excellent fireball territory. The room housing the goo is less than a 20' radius. But you are fighting a magma ooze. It might have some resistances/immunity.
__________Mareq summons another ally to help. It easily slams the slow moving ooze.
Since the ice elemental is vulnerable to fire, it takes 23 HP of damage.
__________
Before Harrow can throw another javelin, the ooze gets a turn. (Sorry Harrow.) But, before the ooze gets a turn, Lilli, Uthred, and Berosius may post. It sounds like Lilli and Uthred might be hanging back.
Taking the liberty of making a wisdom check for Berosius here:
The spirits whisper to the halfling: "Use water!"
__________
Ooze: -18
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Mareq summons another ally to help. It easily slams the slow moving ooze.
[dice=Medium Ice Elemental's Fort Save vs Lava Body]1d20+6
[dice=Lava Body Damage]4d6
Since the ice elemental is vulnerable to fire, it takes 23 HP of damage.[dice=Magma ooze fort save vs cold]1d20+8
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This is excellent fireball territory. The room housing the goo is less than a 20' radius. But you are fighting a magma ooze. It might have some resistances/immunity.
The spirits whisper to the halfling: "Use water!"
"I haven't got any!" says Berosius to the empty space next to him.
He spreads his fingers and fires three bolts of force.