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She whispers something icky this way comes
"An ooze of some sort? I am ready for it." Elena says, moving closer to the door. "Peldur, if you would please open the door and ready yourself for the worst."
Peldur obliges, and opens the door to an area where worked and unworked stone meets. One wall of this... washroom? has been gouged out by sharp claws, revealing a rough-hewn tunnel leading west. Beyond water drips down the walls of the cavern, particularly along a jumble of dangling pallid roots to the south. Beneath them is a large, soggy nest of mud and bones.
The source of the squelching is no where to be seen...
Tal looks at the ceiling.
Tal steps into the room and while there's nothing on the ceiling, it's enough to give the sharp-eyed elf a line on a disgusting slug-like creature. While its head and torso is vaguely human, it has rubbery, vestigial arms swaying awkwardly at its sides. It moans piteously as it slithers forward to attack!
Round 1:
Tal: Go
Elena: Go
Bibi: Go
Peldur: Go
Carrufikus: Go
Slug-thing: TBD
Noroc: TBD
Initiative assumes Talborel is Scouting
Avoid Notice (T)
Detect Magic (A: +1 (U), N: +8 (T), O: +1 (U) , R: +8 (T))
Investigate (A: +8 (T), C: +8 (T) M: +1 (U) N: +5 (T), O: +7 (T) , R: +5 (T), S: +8 (T))
Search (E)
Avoid Notice (E)
Scout
Bibi starts at the fiend and with a crinkled nose quips By a stink worse than Peldur's bum, something way more disgusting than I thought this way comes!!. She Draws her blade, and looks at Peldur. You better comein there too!!
She then darts in, trusting in the group tactics and speed...
Action 1: Stride
Action 2: Identify Creature
Action 3: Shield
Elena moves in enough to get a glimpse of the monstrosity and stops in her tracks. She takes a second to study it, hoping she knows something, anything that could help the group.
REMINDER: Elena has Dubious Knowledge, so on a failure she gets a truth and a lie.
She then whispers a word of power, a magical shield springing up to protect her.
Tal 1. Hunts Prey... 2. Recall Knowledge. Arcana and Occultism are both +7; Religion and Nature are both +6. Elven Lore, if it can help, is +7.
Please add.
Step 3. PROFIT... Er... Shoot it!
,
Awwww crap... This is.... s!#!. It's either a Gothlog, a sick subterrainian version of a slug centaur who saliva can melt flesh if it gets hold of a potential meal.... or it's a grothlut, a sick reject of dark elf fleshwarping, which would mean it's going to explode when you kill it. S##@! Which is it?
Desna weeps! It's a grothlut! You've heard that your black-skinned cousins experiment on creatures, warping their flesh into abominations, but this is beyond the pale! It's slug nature means you've got to watch out for acid spittle!
Elena enters the room to gaze at the horrific creature. Without a second thought she throws up an arcane shield!
Tal's mind moves to offense as they nail it with an arrow, providing cover for a skulking halfling.
Round 1:
Tal: Hit
Elena: WTF
Bibi: Skullduggery
Peldur: Go
Carrufikus: Go
Slug-thing: TBD Occultism to ID
Noroc: TBD
THING: 5
Elena curses at her uncertainty. Too many books!
As a warning she says, "Either it's saliva melts flesh or it'll explode when slain. Either way, keep some distance! Stick and move!"
Tal watches his arrow and then without looking at Elena he confirms, Indeed. This accursed Drow experiment spits acid.
Carrufikus moves closer and casts Electric Arc on the ooze!
”Zapplearkum!”
Peldur crouches down into his signature crouch and rushes with a quick series of strikes at the beastie.
As he rakes the creature, he continues in a tumble past it.
Carrufikus zaps it with electricity as Peldur gives it a solid rake. The flesh oozes something between blood and puss from the wound, but Peldur feels good wounding it.
The creature begins moaning, louder. The frequency is simply... off, like an unresolved tritone...
It spasmodically thrashes at Peldur's face!
But it's completely ineffectual.
Round 1:
Tal: Hit
Elena: WTF
Bibi: Skullduggery
Peldur: Hit
Carrufikus: Zap
Slug-thing: Disgusting
Noroc: Go
No big deal, Noroc has dealt with dissonance before.
Moving forward , he introduces the thing to his walking stick.
Noroc strikes swiftly. The abomination looks seriously bloodied, but shows no sign of flagging morale!
Round 2:
Tal: Go
Elena: Go
Bibi: Go
Peldur: Go
Carrufikus: Go
Slug-thing: TBD
Noroc: TBD
THING: 29
Bibi's teeth itch with the cacophony.
Nevertheless, she persisted...she darts in, stabs, and darts back out of reach
Carrufikus begins to feel sick from the ooze, but desperately casts another Electric Arc on the ooze!
”Zapplearkum!”
Bibi and Carrufikus both feel the moaning burrow into their minds. Bibi's strike is off, as is Carrufikus's spell!
Round 2:
Tal: Go
Elena: Go | 27/33, Sickened 1
Bibi: Miss
Peldur: Go
Carrufikus: Miss | 41/41, Sickened 1
Slug-thing: TBD
Noroc: TBD
THING: 29
Peldur dashes in and throws a bunch of kicks and punches and stuff. He dashes back away from the sluooze.
,
,
Third action...? Can I use stuff in my healer's kit to Aid Elena on her Sickened recovery?
Peldur and Tal find it easy to shut out the invasive sound. It comes, unfortunately, at the cost of a good hit from Paldur.
Tal's pair of arrows nearly drop the thing!
Round 2:
Tal: Hits | 32/39
Elena: Go | 27/33, Sickened 1
Bibi: Miss
Peldur: Miss | 32/47
Carrufikus: Miss | 41/41, Sickened 1
Slug-thing: TBD
Noroc: TBD
THING: 40
Elena blocks out the sound, her mind a fortress to the strangeness of this creature.
She then rushes in, past the creature and Bibi, hoping to allow Carrufikus space to move forward.
Launching into a quick spell, Elena takes a page from the gnome's book and hurls magical electricity at the abomination.
Elena pours on the electricity, and her spell actually electrocutes the thing! It shudders, then oozes out slightly as it dies with a groan!
”Desna, bless us all! Thank you for killing that thing. I was starting to get sick by just looking at it.”
When Carrufikus feels better, he casts detect magic as he continues to scan the room.
Indeed, with a little bit of wretching the two right themselves.
Round 2:
Tal: | 32/39
Elena: | 29/29
Bibi: | 27/33
Peldur: | 32/47
Carrufikus: | 41/41
Noroc: | 18/35
This poor wretch is a grothlut. The Drow like to experiment on other living beings--warp their flesh for pleasure and for power. They made this abomination from some poor creature.
Search the room.
Me too...
”Noroc, my friend, you look hurt. Gather around everyone. Let’s all sing a song about Desna.”
While the others are searching, Carrufikus casts a three action heal to heal up everyone.
Tal begins explaining what it is.... when the body begins to undulate. It starts to bounce like an egg in a frying pan..
Then it EXPLODES!
”This is gross! Can’t we try and stay clean?”
As the corpse explodes, Peldur's instincts kick in and he flexes every muscle in his body, causing the acid to harmlessly bounce off of his mighty physique.
Bibi realizes what's happening too late; she tries to take a breath & hold it, but the explosion catches her on the inhale.
Elena suffers from the explosion, but is fortunate that it's short-lived thanks to Carrufikus and Desna.
Arrgh! Noroc is covered in bits of acid.
Tal: | 32/39
Elena: | 29/29
Bibi: | 33/33
Peldur: | 44/47
Carrufikus: | 41/41
Noroc: | 26/35
Carrufikus channels one of his first level Heal spells to try and heal everyone's wounds (except Augrym).
"Be careful of slime. Even when they are dead, their splatter can cause quite a bit of harm. Let me see if this will help just a bit more."
When everyone has gathered around (besides Augrym), Carrufikus casts a three action level 1 heal spell. A bursts of butterflies shoots out from the pilgrim's hands and as they flutter around the room, the party feels a wave of healing.
With a joyful smile on his face, Carrufikus declares, "Lead us onward, Bibi."
Tal: | 32/39
Elena: | 29/29
Bibi: | 33/33
Peldur: | 47/47
Carrufikus: | 41/41
Noroc: | 33/35
Carrufikus gathers everyone around
After cleaning up, then exhaustively searching, after the nasty bloated pustule thingy, Bibi leads the group with excitement to a place marked on her map.
I LOOOVE secret doors!! she bounces on her toes as she checks for traps, then lets the bigun's open the door.
Sorry, thought I had. The party very quickly concludes that this place is used mostly for refuse. Likely the morlocks gave that thing a wide berth. There is nothing of note here.
Bibi leads the party through a secret door. A long wooden table sits in the center of this room, surrounded by several wooden chairs. Only the chair to the north seems particularly comfortable, although its cracked leather padding is mostly decayed. There seems to be nothing of value here.
The thoroughness is impressive, Noroc says, stifling a yawn, but kinda boring, don't you think? He drifts back toward the double doors.
Elena will cast a spell to detect magic, and if nothing is found suggests moving to explore the remaining secret passage on this level.
Elena switches from her watchful investigative eye, to searching for magic as Carrufikus also does.
Noroc confidently opens the door. After all, the party has been inside, and knows the morlocks are dead.
While it’s apparent that this large room was originally a kitchen, the furnishings have been rebuilt and repositioned to create an improvised shrine. The western end of the hall, where a large fireplace for cooking food once stood, now serves as an altar of sorts. Looming over a human corpse is a towering statue in a feminine shape made of bones, covered in sheets of moldering cloth and hanging moss. A bare spot on the room’s north wall has been decorated with mud and blood to depict the same feminine form as the statue.
hmph
Blowing a lock off her forehead, Bibi moves to the next unsearched room, still hopeful.
Bibi clears the door for Peldur. The walls of this octagonal chamber are adorned with swirling runes carved into the stone and then filled with dull, silvery metal. The floor is polished smooth, as is the ceiling ten feet above. Elena knows this to be another teleportation stop which can be reactivated.
Tal looks to Elena. Shall we make another go of it, Mage?
"I would like to, yes," Elena replies to Talborel. She prepares herself for the ritual, leading the elf as he assists in the reactivation ritual.