Zelvin nods to Hekau. "I always thought keepin' fluent with the drow tongue would be good if I ever met any of my real parents' folk, maybe learn more about where they came from, but I figured it would be in writin' rather than talkin'." To Khoran, he continues. "I don't know much about diplomacy, 'cept tryin' to keep folks in town from flyin' off the handle and beatin' up Hekau and me. But I'll happily do my part as translator if we want to try and talk our way past the inhabitants. As long as they ain't got Mr. Khonnir captive or worse."
He gathers himself up and follows Grezzag once everyone is ready.
A dark cavern opens up here, its twenty-foot-high ceiling thick with stalactites. A rocky shore overlooks a placid pool and stream, fed by a trickle of water leaking from a narrow fissure to the north. A small garden of toadstools and dark mold grows along the banks.
If you search the pool of water within the area, you find a mostly-eaten man's body. The body has nothing of note on it aside from some ruined clothing and armor, a belt pouch with 42gp, and a silver unholy symbol of Zyphus lying next to the body itself. Inside the pouch, if you look hard enough, you also find two water-tight potions of Cure Light Wounds.
While Khoran examines the body , his Ioun Wyrd familiar flits about, slipping quietly up the water filled passageways to take a peek around the corners, to ensure nothing is sneaking up behind us...
+2 dex +8 size
+2 wis
"Another body to take back when we leave." Grezzag notes grimly, helping to pull the corpse out of the water. "Might be harder to identify this one though."
Once the body is on dry land, he moves to the passageway further into the cave, listening for any sound of the voices that the others heard before.
Hekau follows, listening for sounds either down the stream or down the passageway where Grezzag is.
A shallow creek runs through the middle of this cavern, while to the south a stony bank rises up from the water. Thick carpets of green and gray mold and fungus grow on the bank, particularly around a trio of three-foot-high, foul-smelling mounds. These three mounds of foul-smelling mold are growing over three ill-fated halflings, and they seem to be moving, but they do not seem to have noticed the floating Ioun Wyrd, however, as they just ambulate about aimlessly.
-2 int, "can attempt all Knowledge checks untrained"
Khoran pauses as his familiar sweeps back to him, stopping in front of him to communicate wordlessly...
Then he says "There are three weird fungus covered halflings up this passageway..."
"More corpses?" Grezzag asks. "If they weren't the ones making the sound, I reckon we oughta keep going."
"They're moving..." is Khoran's laconic reply.
Then he turns to Hekau and Zelvin, asking "Did Khonnir take any halflings with him on his second expedition down here?"
Grezzag frowns and thinks. "That ain't good. I think the old dwarf said one of groups was halflings, I guess this could be them. Yeah, I s'pose we'd better check them out instead of risking them sneakin up behind us."
Zelvin shrugs in response to Khoran’s question. "I don’t think so, unless they joined up later. One of the other expeditions was all halflings if I remember correctly, though." He responds quietly, trying not to draw more attention to the group by speaking loudly.
Grezzag frowns and thinks. "That ain't good. I think the old dwarf said one of groups was halflings, I guess this could be them. Yeah, I s'pose we'd better check them out instead of risking them sneakin up behind us."
"Always good to make sure your back is cleared. Grezzag, you're up front again, and I'm behind you with my longspear. But be ready for trouble - my pile of rocks thought they were strange, and he doesn't notice that much about humanoids..."
Hekau will follow along, with his crossbow loaded and in hand.
As you enter into the cavern, you realize the slime is definitely alive and moving around the bodies of the three halfling strewn about across the ground in front of you. A shallow creek runs through the middle of this cavern, while to the south a stony bank rises up from the water. Thick carpets of green and gray mold and fungus grow on the bank, particularly around a trio of three-foot-high, foul-smelling mounds.
The ooze-creatures, however, have not seemed to notice you in the slightest, as they just meander about in small circles on the body, not really noticeable unless you actually pay attention and are told (i.e. by Khoran) about the possibility.
What does the party do?
Grezzag slows down and eyes the creatures warily as he rounds the corner of the passage.
"Anyone know what they are?" he asks in a low voice, when they don't immediately attack. "I guess we'll have to get rid of 'em if we want to save these bodies."
As you round the corner into the mold-having portion of the cavern, the writhing, oozing masses of mold and slime suddenly begin to notice your presence as they seem to turn around to "face" you, slightly off of the halfling bodies they were once directly on.
They seem slow to act, however, as they slowly regain use of the oozing bodies after a fair amount of time sitting in one place awaiting a meal.
Penka doesn't recover easily from her blindness. Even after the affliction itself has passed she seems stunned or shocked, merely following the other in the group, numb and silent.
Sighting the oozes seems to wake her up though, as if an immediate threat forces her to get ahold of herself.
"It's nothing good or healthy" she replies to Grezzag.
She selects a flask containing acid and lobs it past Grazzag and onto the nearest blob , where it smashes.
Penka's flask hits the creature, splashing around to the surrounding area, although this is not enough to hit either the other creature, nor Grezzag nor Penka. The creature reacts by lurching 5 foot forwards, and slams into Grezzag, striking particularly hard
A collection of crates, boxes, rubble, and scavenged metal lie sheaped in the northwest section of this damp cave. Several strange chalk drawings of twisted, spiny plants, a strange three-legged creature, and emaciated four-armed humanoids mark the walls. You hear the sound of a flask of acid breaking on the ground, coming from the vague direction of where the rest of the party is/was.
Khoran splashes down the stream, coming up behind Penka and Grezzag. Spotting on of the oozy masses well downstream, he uses silkstring snare to try and trap it in place...
As the ancient shaman stares at the mold creature, blobs of silk emerge from the ground to ensnare the creature! It struggles and struggles, finally breaking its way out of the string as it lurches forward
As it does not seem like there is any space for Hekau to move up, he will remain where he is.
A grunt of pain escapes Grezzag as the mold-creature slams into him, but he quickly regains his composure and counterattacks with a flurry of swipes from his axe. The first slash swings wide, but the second blade slices through the creature. He uses the momentum of his assault to push his way further into the cave.
Grezzag swipes twice at the pile of animated mold, with it falling motionless on the second strike. The other two still remain, with one being visibly injured by Penka's flask of acid.
Zelvin is briefly disoriented as they go down the corridor, and winds up standing next to his brother as he can hear melee fighting around the corner in the water. With a side-eye at Hekau, he also readies himself against a surprise attack.
Alyn glances back and forth between the narrow tunnel ahead and her pistol, eventually huffing and hunkering down with Hekau and Zelvin.
As the party takes mostly defensive positions, the third slime mold lurches forward and moves into a flanking position with the other one that is still moving, with both of them being on either side of Grezzag.
It misses wildly, slamming into the ground near Grezzag, as opposed to the half-orc himself, regardless of how cornered he may be by both lurching piles of slime and mold around him.
Still sort of experimenting on what affects the slimes, Penka decides to try out her crossbow and see what happens. She takes a step back and aims at the same one as before, loosing a bolt at it.
As Penka's bolt flies wide and misses the slime mold, it retaliates (if a mindless creature can even do such a thing, that is) by slamming into Grezzag, backed and flanking by its counterpart.
The creature, however, fails to land a hit on the half-orc, allowing for an opening for everyone else.
Unable to find room to use his longspear in the tight confines of the stream, Khoran steps forward and punches with his spiked gauntlet...
+1 str +1 flagbearer
+1 str +1 flagbearer
Grezzag continues his assault, whirling his axe around to slash at the creatures surrounding him. As the blades cut into the slimes, he takes the chance to step forward out of the flank.
Hekau will move and ready to shoot any enemy that presents itself.
Zelvin moves closer to try and get a look at the creatures that Grezzag is evicerating. He tries to identify what they are and what they can do.
Then he moves back to help protect Hekau.
Alyn glances over her shoulder as Zelvin steps away, trying to see what he was planning. She turns back and huffs, muttering to herself as he tries to identify the creatures their teammates are fighting.
"I hope the rest of this place isn't this cramped."
While one of the creatures is thoroughly butchered by Grezzag's blades, one manages to slip by him and Khoran, only to be assaulted by Hekau's readied shot as it comes into his sight. And with that, the young slime molds are no longer moving at all, just lying on the floor motionless.
What will the party do, now that the gaggle of young slime molds has been slain?
Grezzag nods in satisfaction as the last slime mold falls. He wipes off his axe, then moves over to the halfling bodies and looks them over.
"Yeah, I reckon this is one of the other groups." he calls back. "Looks like they didn't get too far though. We should take 'em out when we leave. Ain't no robots here though, we oughta go further in."
"You think these are one of the other groups? They might have some gear on them then..."
Khoran pokes around in the slime mold cavern for a bit, to see if he can find anything of interest...
1 rank +3 trained +3 wis+1 trait
Penka reloads her crossbow. Since she won't be in the front when they move on, she waits.
"Zelvin, do you know what these creatures are? If they are a prior expedition, what transformed them? Is there perhaps a patch of stationary mold that could have turned humanoids into ambulatory slime-mold creatures?
Are their remains safe to touch and examine?"
You know that those are not-yet fully formed, or "young", slime molds. These creatures are still quite young and lack adult slime molds’ ability to engulf prey and inflict disease, but they’re still eager to attack fresh food should it arrive in the cavern. Most of the fungus growing on the halflings' bodies, however, is natural, and since the slime molds have been slain, it does not pose a danger.
"I reckon those were little slime molds-- young ones. I don't think they pose a danger, especially now that they're dead." Zelvin nods. "Smart to worry that things growin' down here could infect bodies or even take 'em over, though."
"We can bring their remains back to Torch for a proper burial on our way out. As Khonnir Baine does not appear to be among the victims, I suggest we move deeper into the caverns."
Hekau will proceed with his crossbow out, although not in the front of the party.
Zelvin shrugs. "I ain't figured out how to cast detect magic yet," he responds to Khoran. "But why don't we give 'em a once-over when we come back for 'em?" He makes ready to follow Hekau and the others.
Hekau is alert, but not as quiet as Zelvin.
Penka decides it's best if they don't dally for too long. She drinks down a special draught she has prepared and takes the lead moving onward.
...
Khoran pokes around in the slime mold cavern for a bit, to see if he can find anything of interest...
The others having moved ahead while Khoran was searching, he takes up the rearguard position, following the others deeper into the caverns...
1 rank +3 trained +3 wis+1 trait
+2 dex -2 ACP
His familiar bobs alongside of him, wary for trouble with it's own mysterious senses...
+2 dex +8 size
Note: It has blindsight
+2 wis