Campus falls behind Ulfric, holding her longspear at the ready.
You proceed to the south and enter a much larger room. Pale paint peels like scabs from the walls of this spacious chamber. A bent desk guards the broad hall stretching away to the north from where you came, while curtained frames shroud the room's eastern quarter. The place smells intensely of rubbing alcohol.
There's an on, faint light within the room, coming from a lit hooded lantern on a stool near the middle of the room. You can tell even from a distance that the light is wrong somehow...it is static and unwavering, as if frozen in time. There's a door in the western portion of the room and a window to the south, showing the sickly yellow fog outside.
As you set foot within the room, you suddenly see three grotesque oozes of diseased matter begin crawling towards you from underneath a pile of dirty gauze!
Ugh, I don't want those on me too! Klassalka will move to the left side of the entrance to allow those behind a clear shot, and Ready an action to attack when the slimes reach-
Campus calls upon Cayden for divine favor. She will move to stay behind Ulfric.
Cerio screams and summons a projectile of arcane acid at the nearest.
Ceerio fires a small ball of acid, and it streaks by in between Klassalka and Ulfric to impact the creature to the west as it approaches. The acid bubbles as it eats away at the vile ooze, and a terrible, acrid smell overcomes the room.
Campus calls upon her god as Klassalka holds her action. Almost as a single mass, the vile creatures swell and drift forward. As soon as one gets into range of Klassalka, she swings, and slams into the beast, cutting it nearly in two. The creature is still slopping forward, but is very obviously near death....or whatever rest it would see if destroyed.
The creature responds by moving forward its bulk to slam into Klassalka, even as the one that Ceerio had damaged does the same to Ulfric.
Thankfully for the living, the shambling mounds cannot penetrate the armor and clothing of their prey.
Targeting the one that looks most injured, Cerio summons a cascade of dark motes to fall down upon it.
Campus strikes from over Ulfrics shoulder.
Ulfric strikes at the creature in front of him.
Ramul gathers a ball of electrical energy, expanding it and shaping it for a few seconds before he hurls it toward the nearest slime.
Ulfric slashes deeply into one of the creatures, further cutting through the acid-burned mound to his south. Ramul fires his ball of energy at the other creature who had attacked - this one directly to the south of Klassalka. As the energy courses through it, the ooze begins to bubble and boil. It sinks down, then one last bubble emerges and explodes, hurling a disgusting fluid out in a ten foot radius!
At least they hurt easily!
Klassalka will swing at the least-hurt one she can reach, moving forward if need be.
Campus shields her eyes. She thrusts her spear at the mound, then steps back five feet.
Ramul doesn't feel so good after the acid splashes on him. He's not sure of the extent of his injuries, but he knows they're more than simple wounds.
Putting that out of his mind for the moment, he charges up another blast and hurls it at the foe closest to him.
Together, Campus, Klassalka, and Ramul rain down blows upon the creatures. The barely mobile blobs have little in the way of quickness or armor, so every hit slams into their forms with sickening squishing, cracking, and sucking noises.
The creatures seem to fade, and then....explode!
Acidic, disgustingly thick fluid rains down upon those within the radius of the creatures.
"Yuck." Cerio hops over the remains of the blobs as the others fight the urge to wretch on their shoes.
He looks around the room, sending the amorphous humanoid form of his dancing lights spell ahead of him, and also attempts to discern the presence of magical auras.
Ramul sags back against a nearby wall, the fight having left him seared and badly injured. He looks down at his hands and arms. Something doesn't look right about them anymore.
"I think... I think we might need to rest. To heal and to try to get rid of whatever it is that has infected us. Unless Campus or Winter can heal it."
Cerio does a quick check of the room, even through he's a bit distracted. The curtained frames are made of flimsy fabric and seem to section off areas for the privacy of admitted patients - or, that's what they once did. The door in the western wall still stands, but cannot open all the way is it abuts a collapsed portion of wall.
There's a door in the south of this room that leads out onto a flagstone path to a familiar room on the other side - the room near the entrance lobby and close to the door into Winter's improvisational headquarters. Of course, swirling yellow mists plague the path and the darkness outside.
Klassalka takes some acid burns, but remains uninfected.
Everything here is gross.
"Back th'way we come, I reckon. Ain't gettin' out in that fog, I ain't."
Gross? You didn't get cleansed by that river of blood? Campus remarks dryly. I'll follow you.
"Indeed, let's head back to Winter for now. We can decide on our next course after we've rested... and after we've hopefully resolved whatever those wretched things did to us."
"Right. Let's eat." Cerio re-conjures his glowing, humanoid shape and sends it floating out ahead of him as he circles back north to retrace their steps.
You continue back to the main hall, and to Winter and her crew. The group is quite happy to see you back, even Captain York, whose typical scowl slips ever so slightly when he thinks he can't be seen.
The survivors gather around you as you're welcomed back, looking for any news of an outside world some feel they may never see again. As they pry for details, some warm and somewhat palatable food mixture is pushed into your hands, and Winter sits nearby, concern on her face.
How can we help your exploration, aside from being a safe haven?
Campus looks on thoughtfully. Keep these people up Winter. Train them. When we find a way out, we will likely need all their blades and bows.
Ramul says to Winter, "We encountered some oozes - among other things - during our exploration. They sprayed something on us. Could you give us an examination? We might need curative spells to get rid of whatever they did to us."
"Keep th'doors locked. Tight." Cerio suggests between bites of stale oatcake.
Winter nods, though her expression is not nearly so positive as she looks back to the chapel and the mostly sick, hurt, or mentally unfit people within. She leads you into the main chamber and to a small area in which you can rest. After a quick examination, she sits back with a sigh.
I'll have to wait for the symptoms to show themselves before fully determining what it is you have, but it looks it could be a long term issue. I unfortunately don't have the ability yet to purge you of this malady, but with some treatment can help your own body to fight it.
"Sheesh, our bodies need all the help they can get!" Cerio mumbles gravely, wiping his face with his sleeve.
"I suppose I could use some basic healing if you have any to spare. The fights today weren't exactly kind to me. And if you happen to find any scrolls that could work, I'd be grateful. But otherwise, thank you for your examination."
Ulfric will help as he can around camp before going to bed for the night.
Winter offers basic healing, as much as she can provide, and then of course gives basic accommodations and respite as she can. You gauge the feelings of the others within the cathedral, and can gather that a bit of hopelessness or desperation has overtaken the group. They are desperate for something to grasp on to, and tend to hover about you, waiting for some unexpected miracle.
As you gather yourselves to once again venture forth into the unknown, you only begin to wonder where you will go. Dead ends lie everywhere you can think of...the only new territories unblocked from your passage so far have been the open courtyard and the pitch black room with the nightmarish creature within.
We have explored much of this place. Campus speaks loud enough for the huddled and tired people could hear. We have destroyed many strange horrors, cleansing this place of their dark touch. Once we have secured this place to relative safety we will turn our full attentions to a means of escape. Do not fear. We are strong, and the Gods watch over us. Cayden watches over us.
I forgot she isn't very charismatic
Following Campus' speech Ulfric talks to the group, "I suggest we go to the blacked out room and try to deal with the creature in there. If we can lure it out again and have Klassalka or myself blockade its retreat then we can probably kill it."
Agreed. Let me pray. Perhaps Cayden will reveal to me what spell is needed.
"Seems like a good plan. If we can't dispel the darkness, perhaps we missed another path forward elsewhere. There are surely other survivors we have yet to encounter... and likely more shape changers. We should be as thorough as possible, for Winter and her people's sake."
Unfortunately a dispel-ing is beyond my ability. Calling for light did little either. I will pray
"I think, now that know what to expect, a simple battle with it where we lure it out will fair well for us." Ulfric says.
Ulfric then heads off to the door way to the dark room, making his way there carefully.
"I can hurl more blasts of electricity into the room to try to draw it out. Everyone else can have their weapons at the ready for when it appears, perhaps?"
"What else can we do? I ain't keen on fightin' that critter any more'n anyone else, but elsewise I cain't see how we's gonna get outta here." Cerio claims a longspear, its rotting wooden handled coated with cobwebs. "Better'n nothin' I guess..."
Thinking upon all the devine prayers I've studied, I do not believe I have a spell to force it to leave its hole. However, I will channel the holy might of Cayden to cleanse this place of its evil. Let us go.
I could try and grab it, and crush it
Maybe one of these scrolls would help indicating the scrolls in their packs that had yet to be indentified.
Cerio stands beside Campus, drawn to the magical aura like a fly to rotted fruit.
You're able to identify two of the scrolls, and with only a brief inspection realize that the second and third match. You've found a scroll of Fox's Cunning and two scrolls of Remove Paralysis
"Never had no need for smarts." Cerio disregards the scroll of Fox's Cunning. "Them other two'd be useful if we come 'cros't anymore ghoulish critters. I'll take one, someone else take 'nother, in case one of us gets paralyzed." He holds on to one of them, tucking it into his dirty bag.
You return to the unnaturally dark room, and once again try to look into the inky blackness with no luck. The room within is silent as a grave.
Campus hefts her spear, stepping to the edge of darkness, call on the might of Cayden Be gone vile thing. Campus then moves back 10 feet.