That doesn't look good! Seeing something nasty-looking at the far end of the cavern, Lubella hurriedly cast a spell to boost her agility.
With that roll you can know
Immune acid, bludgeoning and piercing damage, ooze traits; Resist cold and electricity. Spawn and sickness.
Lubella casts a spell as the creature approaches tentatively at first but turning hungry at the sight of a meal.
Initiative:
Lubella () talvek() Arcos (), Sidius()
The thing()
Lubella shouted, "It's a Globster: an ooze that's immune to acid, bludgeoning and piercing damage! It also resists cold and electricity."
She cast a spell, creating duplicate images of herself, and started an aquatic martial dance.
Sidius begins to cast a spell, quickly revising what he's calling when Lubella identifies the creature.
"Huh, I don't think I ever heard of them. Looks nasty," comments Talvek as he swims next to Lubella, shifting his grip on his rapier so that he can slash rather than thrust.
He narrows his eyes, focusing on the blubbery mass at the far end.
Lubella and Arcos call forth shimmering images
Sidius begins summoning and Talvek studies the approaching blob.
The maw laden blob tries to gulp its first appetizer as it chumps at the halfling
1=Lubella
pops an image
Sidius completes his summons of a helpful critter
=== Round 2 ===
Lubella (2 images ) talvek() Arcos (6 images ), Sidius() , critters()
Globster()
Lubella whirled in the water and slashed at the ravenous blob, "Get back, you horrible thing!"
"Wow, you're even uglier up close!" exclaims Talvek with a half-hearted attempt at battle banter as he slashes at the blobster.
Lubella and Talvek ply their blades against the amorphous beast. Both draw a small amount of goo.
=== Round 2 ===
Lubella (2 images ) talvek() , Arcos (6 images ), Sidius() , critters()
Globster(-9)
Sidius completes his spell, causing three octopi to appear and begin to try to tear into the beast with their beaks.
for
for
His hexes useless against the beast, Sidius casts a Guidance spell on Talvek to boost the tiefling's combat effectiveness.
Two of the three octopi bite the blob. Arcos moves closer for a better look
The Globster has many meals surrounding it
octo#1
The giant maw snaps at the first octo to bite it
for
The octopus is chomped and grabbed (possibly dead)
=== Round 3 ===
Lubella (2 images ) talvek() , Arcos (6 images ), Sidius() , octopods() ()()
Globster(-17)
Lubella breathed a sigh of relief as the horror turned away from her. She continued slashing furiously through, trying to destroy it before it had the chance to grab one of her friends.
"Into seafood, are you? Well, we all make personal choices..."
Feeling a little more at ease with Sidius summoning help...
Remember to ask him just where do those creatures come from?
...Talvek brings his arm up into an arc as he slashes again at the gelatinous mass.
Lubella and Talvek again pair up to inflict two small cuts on the critter.
Arcos fires a trio of magic missiles at the blob.
The two remaining octopods attack the blob....
But neither is able to gain purchase with their beaks on the shifting ooze while Sidius considers his next action...
The Glob retaliates on ...
The last octopus, which is grabbed and shredded before popping out of existing.
for
=== Round 4 ===
Lubella (2 images ) Talvek() , Arcos (6 images ), Sidius() , octopus#2()
Globster(-32)
"I'm glad it's snacking on those and not on us," murmurs Talvek to Lubella as he prepares to strike again.
"Agreed", Lubella grunted as she slashed again.
Talvek just misses the creature but Lubella lands a significant blow…
Sidius continues to use his magic to provide a small edge to Talvek, wishing he could call another set of octopi.
Talvek s blade twists at the last minute to make another nick in the blubbery hide.
Arcos swims up with his dagger in hand...
The creature once again, now cut several times, is determined to take out a meal.
Lubella or image 1=Real
for
It manages to find the 'real' Lubella but she is too spry for its teeth to chomp
=== Round 5 ===
Lubella (2 images ) Talvek() , Arcos (6 images ), Sidius() , octopus#2()
Globster(-45)
Lubella continued her martial water ballet, slashing at the ooze.
Siduis once again offers a small magical boost to Talvek, while the Octopus attempts to tear a chunk from the globster with its beak.
Lubella is not quite fast enough to connect but the octopus lands it’s bite.
"How can you be so big, yet so hard to hit?" grumbles Talvek as he sees Lubella's strike miss the creature, then follows up with his own attempt.
Talvek's blade again slashes the beast.
Arcos tries his dagger as well with some success
The blobbed maw tries to close again on the assembled morsels.
for
And the last octopus disappears in a flailing of bloody tentacles
=== Round 6 ===
Lubella (2 images ) Talvek() , Arcos (6 images ), Sidius()
Globster(-52)
Lubella lost her orientation in the water as she slashed wildly at the ooze.
"Great, now we have octopus-stuffed blob. A delicacy, I'm sure." Talvek reaches out a hand to steady Lubella before slashing at the creature again.
With the two attacks, the blob heaves and then collapses in pile of goo, giving off a horrible stench even in the water.
There is no other movement in the room.
Sidius exhales, his sigh creating a small jet in the water, "Thank the Rose that's over. Think we still have a few minutes to find a way to drain this, thanks to the extended magic."
It took a few seconds for Lubella to realize that the Globster was dead. She asked her friends, "Is anyone injured? But it seemed that the only casualties had been the summoned octopi.
Although the stench was almost overwhelming, she forced herself to scan the remains for magic auras, on the off-chance that the thing had consumed some arcane trinket.
Then she turned her attention to the rings around the small tubes leading into this cavern. This setup had to have some purpose.
In the room of the dead blob, there was at the center of the cave, below a five-foot diameter hole in the ceiling. A trash chute most likely.
Back to the tubes with the metal rings, Lubella detects the rings and tubes into the wall radiate an aura of strong transmutation magic. There appears to be a room to the east, but only seen through the 1' diameters tubes.
Lubella told the others,"Thes rings radiate some sort of strong transmutation magic, but I can't figure our what they do.
"I'm worried about the constructs we encountered earlier. I think they might be somewhere to the east of here. I don't know that we can defeat those underwater; they seemed to heal themselves as fast as I could damage them!
"I'll see what's in the area that this blob came from."
She swam to the north, ready to flee if the constructs made an appearance.
"Don't go alone!" Talvek hurries to follow, keeping both eyes peeled for anything dangerous... or interesting. Over his shoulder, the tiefling grins at Sidius. "Thanks for those summons, they really kept us safe!"
Other than the circular trash chute in the center of the ceiling, the pair fail to find anything of value in the blob room.
Dailing to find anything of interest in the chamber the blob came from, Lubella returned south and examined the tubes. "It's possible that these minght be part of some sort of drainage system. I can see a room in there, which seems to contain some equipment. I'm going to try to crawl through this tube and get a better look! I'll have to be quick, since our air won't last for long!"
She cast a spell, coating her body with grease so she could more easily wriggle up the tube. She also moved her light spell from her scimitar to her holy symbol.
Fully prepared, she recited a quick prayer to her goddess and attempted to reach the equipment room through one of the tubes.
Lubella prepares herself then wiggles and swims into the small diameter tubes.
After half a minute or less, she reaches a room at the other end.
The west wall of this flooded chamber is almost entirely
obscured by an elaborate contraption of stone and metal
comprised of intertwined pipes, pumps, gears, and bellows.
The metal on the device seems unharmed by its long
submersion, other than being caked with algae and silt.
Lubella scanned the chamber for magic auras, and tried to figure out what all this gear was for.
She whispered, "This is amazing: the whole chamber is filled with pipes, pumps gears and bellows! It doesn't seem to have bee harmed by its time underwater."
After she had quickly examined the machinery, she left the way she came.
Lubella finds the device well beyond her spellcraft abilities. She notices on the east wall, the outline of a door which apparently leads to the narrow hall the group traversed a couple days prior, before encountering the shell golem things.
Lubella ,uttered under her breath, "Beats me how this works." She went back out the small tubes to rejoin the party.
She reported, "It could be the way to drain the caverns, but I have no idea how it works or how to turn it on. At least now I have a good question to ask Lorelu.
"We better swim back to the entrance."
Without further incident you are able to return to the upper halls.
Sidius smiles at Talvek, "Honestly, I'm glad you think so. I've felt so cursedly usless down here where most of spells don't work right."
Once the group got back to the surface, Lubella said to her comrades, "I want to look over the Grey Spiders documents we found earlier. Maybe there's some mention about water drainage."
She spent quite some time pouring over the papers; it seemed a good idea to look over the information they had before talking to Lorelu again. There was also the possibility of accessing the machinery room without confronting the constructs.
You are able to find the documents and can spend an entire day researching. You find mention of the lower halls being flooded and efforts to pump them clear to use as smuggling tunnels.
Further reading finds an interesting note...
It was Guild Master Baccus who engineered
the guild’s ingenious magical pumps that allowed them
to utilize chambers below sea level for such activities. He
was also the guild’s enforcer, responsible for punishing
infractions among their own.
check reveals the machine is a magical pump
that fills the surrounding chambers with breathable air,
but that years of neglect have resulted in some damage.
Lubella showed the description to Arcos and Sidius, "What do you think? Do you have any idea how this would work?"
Lubella spent a good amount of time trying to get the stink of the ooze out of her clothing and hair. The stench proved particularly difficult to remove, even with Prestidigitation.
She told Octavio of her discovery of the machinery room in the flooded chamber, "I'm hoping that it's a magical device to drain the water in the submerged levels. But we didn't really have time to look at it carefully today. I think we can access the chamber from the passage before the room with the constructs, so Arcos and Sidius can examine it tomorrow. I'll probably need to get some details on how it works from Lorelu's ghost, but I'd like to give them a chance to look at it first and get their opinion."
After discussing her observations on the machinery with her comrades at length, and planning the next day's excursion, she eventually settled down for a night's rest.
Octavio is interested in the equipment.
This magical device of Baccus could explain how the Spiders managed to smuggle so much all those years. However, such a device is beyond the knowledge or skills of Order of the Torrent to manage. At least of those of us still in Kintargo.
He considers options.
If not the ghost, then perhaps others in the city, those whom you can trust, could provide insights. Or archives may exist somewhere. I am sorry, I have nothing more I can offer from the Armigers.