As he was released he began to fall backwards and, anticipating a fall, Hue closed his eyes. Then the room lit up. A the bolt of wild power shot through him. His whole body seized his arm flew back and his blade touched the ground allowing some of the energy to flow quickly back into the ground.
He opened his eyes to see the light ebb in the room.
Hue panicked. He rushed at the creature, tripping again with his scimitar forward. He called out reassuringly to Maddy, "You can do i'! Jus' … um … figh' to the sound of my voice?!"
Alex takes 6 damage, putting her ever closer to unconciousness, but is not blinded. She uses her hex on the target as a bonus action, then she moves back and unleashes her eldritch blasts
Even blinded, it was not hard to his the slime that seemed to be everywhere in the water. The combined attacks were enough to turn it into a nasty slime on already nasty water. There's a moment of silence as your eyes adjust again, then you hear Glabagool ask, "Did it like its name?"
I wanted to call it squiggles, but it tried to kill us before I could do that
Alexandra replies
Friends, perhaps we should have a short rest before continueing onward?
Hue fell backwards a bit … again. He searched in his back and downed the other of his two curatives.
"Can everybody see?"
Maddy looked around, not really wanting to rest beside such putrid water. "I'm all for taking a rest but I'm not sure this is the best place. Maybe Glabagool can suggest a place for us to rest before meeting the others without names?"
"Can everybody see?"
"Not really." She unshouldered her pack so she can feel around inside. "Which makes looking for what I need more difficult."
When Maddy took a couple of steps, she began to get concerned about the water level. It seemed to be getting steadily deeper and there was a moment of internal panic. What if the water was rising and they were stuck down here?
”This is getting painful,” the dwarf grunted as he poured most of his remaining power into summoning more healing berries. He wasted no time in distributing them almost evenly between the four of them. As he spotted Maddy eyeing the pools of water with some concern, he took his staff and poked at the pool to determine its depth.
The water is a foot deep at the shallowest, and getting deeper. I need to know if you're taking a short rest here.
Maddy felt her internal panic rise in her chest along with the depth of the water. I really hate this place. What I wouldn't give to see the expanse of the sky.
But then she looked around at the others and realized that they were in need of a rest to collect themselves and bind some of their wounds. What was worse? Pushing forward and falling one by one to exhaustion and wounds or drowning in the dark? Maddy shuddered. She knew her answer but wasn't sure the others would feel the same.
"Maybe we should rest here for a moment or two and catch our breath?"
You make yourself as comfortable as you can in the cold, dark, room. The water continues to slowly rise. By the end of the hour its two feet deep, and Jimjar and Hue are moving more slowly through it now . However, you've regained a little strength, eaten some goodberries, and are ready to move on. Behind you, Glabagool stays where you left him, occassionally projecting a question out to the group.
"Are you staying to become a guardian too?" "What is that thing you put in your sound-hole?" "Do you think more beings will come to visit me?" It also begins to push the mace and bones and coins inside of it towards the outside. It takes about an hour, but eventually they all splash into the water near it. "You can have these, I'm done with them."
Daw, thanks! But something calls us to protect something else! It was nice to meet you!
Alex says enthusiastically as she has recovered somewhat, and eagerly grabs the things globagool put out.
Alex scrabbles around in the deep water for Glabagool's remains. It takes her a while, as the water is murky, and there are a lot of bones as well, but she eventually comes up with 14 ep and the mace. There's a command word etched on the side of it, and when Alex speaks it, the head of the mace gives off an eerie green light.
As time went on, Maddy got more and more disturbed by the rising water and couldn't peacefully rest anymore. She had managed to wrap some of her wounds and stretched out her sore muscles but was still pretty hurt. They needed to find a secure and defensible place where they could actually sleep.
She gratefully accepted a handful of goodberries from Precious. She liked that they made her feel rejuvenated. More so, her stomach had started to growl during their rest and now she felt full again and ready to face whatever came next.
Alex recovers a suprising amount of vitality in the hour of rest. Her partying trained condition doing suprisingly well.
Hue put his last potions in his pack and his backpack on his head as the water reached above the middle of his torso and everything else he carried got soaked. He moved into a corner and put his back to it for as much support as he could find in this space. He started giggling.
"Well, could be worse. We could be running from a giant multi-headed monkey squid god."
He focused on his breathing. He must have been pondering something because a few minutes later he started giggling again.
"I've been wrong this whole time." He looked at his friends. "Running around and mapping ways to mushroom groves. Taking dried samples around in my journal. When we were escaping the cave-in and I found pygmywor' spores I figured something. Sure, map them. Bu' why can' I be the grove. I can be growing them as we go …" He shook the pack on his head.
All rested up, you move further into the temple. Hue leads the way down a long passage which then turns to the right. This opens into a small chamber. To one side is a rough, natural-looking passageway. The sound of water is louder from that direction. To the right, the chamber is divided into four narrow, parallel passageways. They seem to go 20-25 feet before either ending, or turning to the left.
Lets all stay together, pick the downmost way and stick to the left wall?
Alex offers
I read in a book that this a good idea! She adds, the rest having fully rekindled her enthusiasm.
Hue nodded and began heading down the passage.
When he got to the opening he began searching for foul triggers, false floors, and tiny dart holes. He gave up on keeping his pack less soaked than the rest of him as he dunked his head under the water's surface to get the best look he could.
Hue, "I don' know wha' this section does bu' I wouldn' advise stepping here." Hue raised his arms over water level as he tip-toed on the floor areas he could reach. He waved his palm over what seemed to him a very fragile section of floor. "I' seems like i's sorta loose-on-purpose. If you know wha' I mean."
He kicked off the floor and swam past it, then kept going.
Maddy followed Hue and carefully avoided the section of floor that he had pointed out as weak. She did not want to be falling through any more floors today.
As she followed Hue, she was at the ready to snatch the halfling out of the water if it got too deep.
Precious frowned, considering the four narrow adjacent hallways. ”Were I the fellow designin’ this place, an’ wanted to line intruders all proper-like fer a trap, I’d make somethin’ like this. So better watch where ye put yer feet down,” he grunted, then nodded when he saw Hue already looking around in a suitably suspicious manner.
Hue, "I don' know wha' this section does bu' I wouldn' advise stepping here." Hue raised his arms over water level as he tip-toed on the floor areas he could reach. He waved his palm over what seemed to him a very fragile section of floor. "I' seems like i's sorta loose-on-purpose. If you know wha' I mean."
Taking note of the area Hue had indicated, he followed after, staff in hand. ”Best take yer time – where there be one trap, there might be more. Ye know, after gettin’ an intruder all confident they be on top of things after ‘voidin’ the first, only fer them to stumble into 'nother.”
Hue nodded to Precious and continued to keep his eyes open.
With Hue guiding the group, you're able to avoid the hidden trap, and make it to the end of the passage. It looks like all four passages meet here, at the entrance to a final room.
This room has a central stone fountain, the edge only about 8 inches above the rising water. Inside, is shallow, brackish water. If the water in the temple keeps rising, it will soon flow into the fountain.
In the center of the fountain is a pedestal, and a pair of clawed feet clutch the pedestal's top. Whatever the rest of the statue was, it's crumbled away now.
Carved into the walls of the chamber are seven niches. Water is seeping rapidly into the room from a crack in the wall in one niche. The two niches flanking the cracked one are empty. The other four contain contain strange, formless sculptures.
There is no other exit visible from this room.
Hue swam into the room, trying to be as watchful as ever. He tried to see through the silt-y water as best he could and was uncharacteristically quiet.
Maddy caught a glimpse of the room over Hue's shoulder and her stomach churned. There were no obvious exits! With the water rising and no where to go, she couldn't help but feel alarmed.
"Do we look for a hidden way out of this room or just turn around and find another way? There was that other path a ways back."
Hue checks the room carefully, and it seems that the floor in here is safe to walk on.
Damn, I have no idea!
Some sacrificial altar? Hmmm, maybe not take the stuff on there? Or maybe take it?
"This one o' 'em sanctified pools the faithful were shorevin' with offerin's fer their gods?" Precious hazarded as he got into the room and recalled the temple's guardian's words. "If ye wanna risk blasphemerin' there mighta be some valuables in there... although goin' fer 'em mighta git Glabagool a tad miffed at us."
Maddy was just about to suggest that this was the pool Glabagool had mentioned where worshippers placed their offerings, but Precious beat her to it.
"Not sure if it's worth upsetting Glabagool in order to see what was offered in the past. Besides, I don't think anyone has been here in a really long time. It doesn't seem like the easiest place to get to."
Maddy gave the pool a long, hard look.
The water is murky, but not particularly deep. Maddy definitely sees some items in there, the sparkle of coins, and other, larger items. Maybe a bottle of some sort?
Maddy points out what she can see to the others. "That bottle looks interesting but is it alcohol that has been sitting in water for who knows how long or something useful like a potion? Only these statues know and as Precious said, it may be more trouble than it's worth to find out."
Hue handed back his bag, "Maybe i's time we go' something back from these crazy gods we've been running from. Does anyone have a rope? Le's go fishing."
Good idea, I can also guide you with my pretty good Darkvision!
I also have... perhaps the ultimate sacrifice for those in cold and wet and uncomfortable conditions...
Alex removes the "pair of incredibly warm and comfortable socks" she found somewhere on an adventurer.
"Rope? Sure 'nuff," Precious said, offering the spool of hemp rope to Hue. "If ye wanna risk the smart ooze's displeasure. 'haps don't bother with mere coins an' such? Ye gonna take somethin', pick what ye think be worth dyin' fer, aye?"
The pool wasn't deep enough to dive in, but it was a comfort to know that he could be pulled out immediately if he got into trouble. Hue held his breath and groped around in the bottom of the pool. There were handfuls of coins, impossible to see what kind down here. Also what felt like weapons, bottles, and several things so mushy that they fell apart in Hue's hands when he grabbed them. The halfling scooped up treasure and lay it on the rim of the pool for the others to examine.
Hue, "Alex and Precious? Could one of you check the passage back a little ways? You know, with your pretty good darkvision. Make sure there's a viable escape route. I hear you, Precious, however, maybe we could take the passage and be less discriminating with our sacrilage?"
As you all watch Hue duck into the water again and again, you start to feel short of breath. It's as if you're holding your breath in sympathy with the halfling as he submerges again and again in the filthy water. But even when you take a few deep breaths, the feeling remains. You all slowly realize - the air here is old and stale and there simply isn't enough of it.
When Hue finishes collecting the treasure, he too spends some time panting, but can't catch his breath again.
Hue said nothing. He only worked to get to the tunnel to the east. The treasure was in his pack and would be the first thing to go if Glabagool came after them.
Hue, "Alex and Precious? Could one of you check the passage back a little ways? You know, with your pretty good darkvision. Make sure there's a viable escape route. I hear you, Precious, however, maybe we could take the passage and be less discriminating with our sacrilage?"
"Check the passage? Sure. Ain't anywhere tae go further there, an' we need to push on." After all, going back to the entrance wouldn't get them anywhere. Nor did he like the way the air here tasted - nowhere for the air to circulate, so no reason for fresh air to flow in from anywhere... assuming they weren't trapped in here by the earthquake. "Come on, Alex. Let's do a bit o' scoutin' while Hue takes a bath an' Maddy stands guard."
Water is running down the walls of this chamber from large cracks in the ceiling, ten feet overhead. It seems very likely that the earth tremor that trapped you was the cause of these cracks. The whole thing looks unstable, and it wouldn't take much for those cracks to widen and the room to fill more quickly with water. The water here is already nearly four feet deep, Precious will soon be swimming.
Behind them, Jimjar, treading water, says mournfully. "Bet you this is where our journey ends."
As the air seemed to thin, Maddy couldn't help but gulp what she could of it. She protected Hue as he collected the items.
"How can I help make this go faster? There's also room in my pack," she said as she unshouldered it. "Let's scoop and dash and get back to a more breathable space."
Hue gave Maddy some of the special items and gasped, "Help by no' … talking unless you have to. Hand … those ou' and le's flee … this place." Hue made a slow move to the rough cave path and tried to stay calm. slow that heart down, mr hue - much obliged for the reminder, mr hue - don't think about it, mr hue