The cave mouth sits right at the lake’s shore. The water level on the lake is high enough for it to trickle from the lake and down the steep slope into the darkness below.
The entrance has stalagmites and stalagtites scattered about. Several yards beyond where Padraig is pacing, the slope of the cave increases significantly. It looks like a 45° slope downwards for multiple yards. The water occasionally trickling down as led to the slope being covered in slick moss that would make climbing back up difficult.
Fortunately, to counter that feature, there are rough hewn stalagmites that look as if they've been broken off at one point in the past, which would make for ready handholds.
"Hey! Calm down. Tell us what happened. What did you do?"
The halfling just sobs in response to your question.
"Reeeeeal nice Tesswyn, just yellin' at the poor halfing, making all kinds of demands..."
Gärwin tries to sound as authoritative as he can. "Alright Mr.Padraig. We're here to bring ya' in. You under suspicion of kidnappin' several children, and deliberately endangerin' their lives. We are authorized to use force if necessary so please, no trouble."
The dwarf obviously adjusts his sword in his belt, but does not draw it.
"Anythin' you can tell us now regardin' the missin' children can only benefit your case, so speak freely."
Charles looked to Garwin and then to the Halfling. As he did, he revealed his holy symbol of the New God.
"What do you mean the old tales were wrong? What did you do to those children?!"
The words reach through to him and he wails again. They're in there! Oh what have I done? No! This isn't a cave of curing! It's a death trap!
He starts pacing again, and completely forgets you're there talking to him as he continues to mutters to himself.
"Right, he's useless. Let's go down there and see for ourselves. How about a little light, Charles?"
Tess takes the time to cast oak skin and shillelagh. Assuming light is provided, Tess leads the way down the slope.
Charles stared hard at the Halfling. "Padraig, if you have any sense of duty left to your family or if you ever wish to forgive yourself, then you'll come and help undo your misguided mistakes."
"Everyone gather close by." he said, waiting for the group.
"By your holy power, shield us from the dangers that are soon to come."
"Guide us through the darkness with your divine light."
As he readies his gear he turns to face Padraig again.
"I won't make you come with us, but know that if we don't return you'll have to live knowing you could have made a difference. If you stay, wait until the spell fades."
Padraig doesn't respond, but as you go deeper into the cave, he does follow.
"This looks tricky to climb down. He said at the edge of the slope as he slipped his pack off of his shoulders. He pulled out his rope and grapnel, tying one of them around a stalagmites and securing it with the iron end.
"This ought to hold. I'll head down first. The rest of you follow after."
You make your way down the steep slope, slipping several times and getting yourself slimed from the moss. Despite everything, the only thing really bruised is your ego.
You reach the bottom, and find that the floor is crunchy. Looking down, and it's littered with bones. About two-thirds human and one-third troglodyte, mixed with some from livestock and from unidentifi able sources. Few bones are intact; they’ve all been cracked or snapped in pieces.
You do not see any fresh bones; at least not from any that would be a halfling or human.
There's a faint fetid breeze coming from inside the cave headed outwards.
Going deeper into the cave, the tunnel splits into in a Y shape. The breeze seems to he coming from both tunnels at the same time.
Charles looked down both paths but unable to determine which one was better he started to make his way down the left path but stopped.
"Padraig, which way did you take them down here?"
Drot stops short as his foot snaps bone underfoot, noticing the sheer amount to debris and their current location he remembers reading about fantastic creatures with similar appetites.
He bends down to inspect the damage on a few of the bones. He taps Charles on the shoulder as he tosses them to the ground.
"Hang on now, let me think here... There's not too many things that can really eat like this and go unnoticed, we might be dealing with "
"Well, this quickly turned for the worse. What kind of healing cave is filled with bones?
Gärwin inspects the bones for any strange magical symbols, having dealt with a wraith just recently.
"Last thing I want is these blaggards gettin' up after us."
"Well, I know the only fair way to choose a tunnel! Left heads, Right tails!" The dwarf flips a copper piece.
Tesswyn shrugs and heads down the indicated passage.
Drot mentions some monsters which could leave behind such a plethora of bones: ogres, trolls, dragons, cannibals... Necromancers?
Whatever it could be, Gärwin ignores it and presses forward.
As you go further in, the moisture in the air increases. As you round a bend, you see light up ahead. A soft blue light. Stepping forward, you discover the light is from a phosphorescent plant lining the floors, walls, and ceiling of the cave. The entire room is absolutely full of a variety of plant and fungal life, sprinkled in with bits that glow, shedding the blue light. The life only fills this one chamber, as it's dark beyond the edge of the light on the other side of the cavern, some multiple dozens of yards down the way.
Tesswyn looks around the cavern for any traps or hidden dangers.
Charles looked around the room with wonder. "This is incredible, I didn't know such strange plant life grew underground like this." his curiosity peaked and he decided to get down and examine the plant further.
Gärwin is not having any of this. "Don't touch it! Let's just push on and leave these things as far behind as possible." He stands between Charles and the plants.
As they move across the cavern, the dwarf keeps his distance from the glowing vegetation.
As the Dwarf begins to move on Drot scolds Charles for how close he was to making a dire mistake!
"Sir Gär is absolutely right Charles, you should never touch foreign objects... With your hands. Here use this knife and my gloves, can you collect about two dozen of those? I'd very much like to investigate the mechanism used to emit such light. They do look amazing don't they?"
Drot gets down on the ground with Charles and looks closely at the plants. He records their physical description in his book and carefully stows the samples Charles procures for him.
As Charles and Drot move in close to examine the phosphorescence, branches snap out at you, their sticky residue acting like an adhesive. You become stuck to the wall.
As Gärwin moves forward, he steps on a tiny plant with a balloon-like shape. The plant *Paffs* and a cloud of spores are released into the room. Then another plant paffs an does the same. And another. And another.
Soon, the entire room is full of spores. The spores start to coalesce and form a humanoid shape. It looks like an enormous mushroom with a drooping, perforated cap, a thick trunk with two armlike appendages ending in heavy knobs, and two rubbery legs.
Tesswyn shouts a warning a moment too late to stop her fiends from getting stuck. Finding no insights to glean, she approaches the fungal creature and attacks, though she swings wide.
For visuals, the cave is longer than it is wide. The creature is in the middle. Tesswyn, Pellius, and Padraig are near the entrance. Gärwin and Billy near the exit. Drot and Charles kind of in the middle but stuck to the walls.
Gah! What the?! Of course he had to be right."
Planting his feet, Charles strained against the adhesive and twisted himself away from the wall. "Hraaaagh!"
"Drot'ook, get off the wall, we'll need you here in a second."
Billy charges the fungal hulk.
"Hrk! I'm stuck fast! Hurrrrrg!"
Drot struggles to break free of the plant material but he doesn't seem to have any leverage to do so!
Charles glanced at the Orc stuck to the wall. "Actually, you know what Drot, you're doing great. Why don't you stay right there and relax, we've got this."
"Argh! Just my luck!" The dwarf gives the plant a swift kick before charging the mushroom-creature.
The knight's charge skewers the fungus monster! "Gotcha!" I sure hope this thing doesn't explode like the plants do.
Gärwin charges in and lands a solid blow.
Drot struggles to get out.
None.
Charles breaks free from the walls.
Everyone else approaches the fungal spore creature and attacks, severely injuring it. It looks like it's on its last legs. Tesswyn's hardened oak skin stops the second attack.
A cloud of spores is released upon the blows raining down upon it, burning everything in a three yard radius with corrosive acids.
The fungal beast strikes out twice, once at Billy and once at Tesswyn. Gärwin's shield blocks the strike against Billy.
Damage Tracker:
39
Fight through it, Pellius! Billy calls out. To Gärwin, he says, Thanks.
He strikes at the beast.
HAHA, YOU STUCK CAUSE YOU WEAK! You dull bastard...
"RAAAAAAH!!!"
Drot rips free of his bindings with fervor. Quickly grabbing his weapon with both hands, he uses his forward momentum to swing into the spore cloud!
Tesswyn coughs as the spores burn a bit, but she focuses on annihilating the fungus!
"There it is!" Charles said as Drot'ook finally managed to wrench himself free of the wall.
"Garwin, finish it!"
Tesswyn finishes the beast and it crumbles to the floor into a pile of spores. Some of the spores pick up in the faint breeze and head outwards.
Tesswyn shakes off her staff and looks at the others. "Everybody okay? We should keep moving."
Gärwin sputters and coughs as the creature explodes into spores. "Jus'... Just give me a minute!" The dwarf continues coughing but eventually lights himself a cigar. He purposefully inhales a lot of smoke, coughing the entire while.
"I'm not certain what these spores do, but 'opefully the smoke will clear em out. Better safe'n sorry."
Gärwin offers the remaining cigars to his allies.
"Once we save the little ones, I think we should burn these. Plants like these are nothin' but trouble."
Before you depart, Drot harvests some of the glowing plants. He gets stuck again, but is able to get out will a little help.
Afterwards, you all continue down further into the cave. You come across another Y passageway, this time the reverse of the last one. It's as if both tunnels led to the same location.
The texture of the ground shifts. Now that it's different, you realize the change. Before, the ground was soft and spongy, but now it's a hardened glaze, like a well made ceramic pot. Despite the look, The walls, ceiling, and floor are a fibrous substance, giving slightly to the touch.
Smooth, ceramic columns are scattered throughout the chamber, seemingly at random.
Once you enter the area, the tunnel behind you closes. It literally closes shut, with plates coming out from the walls in a circular fashion, like the aperture of an old camera. Once that happens, the entire room starts to rumble.
The columns start to rise and fall, some dropping into the floor and pressing up against the ceiling. Others withdrawing into the ceiling and then press down onto the floor.
As a pillar rises from underneath the large orc he calmly steps off of it before being crushed, landing with a thud. You can see he's concentrating on the pillars, trying to find some sort of pattern or logic to their movements.
"This is truly bizarre..."
The same happens to Billy, as he is crushed and Immobilized.
The dwarf is lucky, the closest pillar crashes downward directly in front of him. "What madness is this?"
Gärwin tries to free the closest person with his dwarven muscles!
Strain in his voice, Gärwin gasps out; "Did any of you pack a hammer? Maybe we can smash 'em!"
Like a goddess of dance, Tesswyn pirouettes gracefully through the room, dodging the pillars. "F*+%! We have to move!"
She yanks the closest immobilized person free!
Charles is unsteady as the ground begins to tilt and bend beneath his feet. As the columns rise and fall he sees Pellius stumble.
"Pellius, look out!" he shouts, rushing forward and managing to push the younger boy out of harms way,
but he ended up getting crushed himself.
"Aagh!"
Round 1 Conclusion:
Pellius, Billy, and Charles all get crushed by the moving columns, while Padraig, Gärwin, and Tesswyn jump and dance out of the way.
Tesswyn, Drot, and Gärwin help Charles, Pellius, and Billy out, respectively. Everyone is able to advance through the room.
Round 2:
As you move and dodge through the room, you hear a ghastly sound emanating from the room. The sound pierces your ears and drives into your mind.
The source of this sound is currently not visible. You can make a Perception Challenge Roll to find it.