They debate a course of action and end up waiting for more cultists to arrive and then follow them. Following a couple of cultitsts leads them to a smaller cavern in which a makeshift crane has been setup which is being used to hoist heavy loads of treasure up to a higher level of the cavern just above them. There are at least a half a dozen cultists are busily working here. Too many to take on directly. The adventurers retreat into the previous cavern to find other possibilities.
The Gray Ooze
300 XP
Retracing their steps Arno remarks at a shallow pool of water emanating from a narrow crevice at one spot of this cavern. Following the water T'an crouches in order to pass into a chamber. On the other side he finds a larger pool of water with a small landing which is dry. On the landing is a collection of coins and gems. As T'an moves in to retrieve them he notices that everything is covered in an oily or wet sheen. Just as he is pondering the fact, the oily sheen collects before him and turns into a grey ooze. He is hit with an oozy tentacle which leaves traces of its ooze on T'an's body. The slick substance burns into his skin.
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| Urine apparently neutralizes Gray Ooze |
Deciding they can bluff their way past the large contingent of cultists, they return to the crane room. Fortunately for the group, the faint and distant sound of the wooden signal drum sounds and most of the cultists return to the castle above for their midday break. Leaving only a couple of cultists to deal with Smallfang offers to relieve them of their watch, saying they would probably appreciate the fresh air after hearing them complain of the bullywug stench of the caverns. Failing miserably at this task, stuttering and stammering and doing a poor job at convincing the cultists, the cultists seem to wise to the fact that they have never seen this particular group of "cultists" before.
Realizing their deception is crumbling rapidly, the group attacks and soon enough has killed the cultists. At the groups suggestion, Smallfang drags the bodies out of sight, into the crevice where they had encountered the gray ooze. After dragging the bodies through some of the remaining ooze and witnessing the flesh melting results, Smallfang decides to dump them into the center of the remains of the gray ooze. Hopefully the ooze will dissolve the evidence. If not then perhaps it will look like the cultists have succumbed to the gray ooze's attack.
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
Able to move on up the steep rise and further into the cavern system, the group finds themselves in a mist filled room. After trying to discern which way to go, T'an and Smallfang fan the mist using T'an's hat and Smallfang's shield. They find that footprints definitely lead to a chamber which slopes down into a smaller chamber. This chamber seems completely empty, save for the mist which is even thicker hear. The mist creates a thick 3 foot sea of slowly roiling white which hinders the groups investigation of the room. The old man, Bohr/Darvin, senses something magical below the mist but is unable to see any details through the fog. T'an crouches down and runs his hand along the floor. There is definitely something carved into the floor. He removes some parchment and charcoal from
the now deceased Danifae's belongings and does a charcoal rubbing of whatever is on the floor.When T'an resurfaces above the mist he holds a fine impression of a portion of a large circle with runic symbols and writing in a mixture of draconic and other languages. The group believes they have discovered a teleportation cirlcle. After much investigating and deciphering, they come to the conclusion that they need the command word. Without this word the teleportaion spell will not activate.
Deciding they can do nothing more here at the moment they move further into the caverns. they find a narrow winding path which leads them down into darkness. Smallfang pulls out his bullseye lantern and holds it in his mouth, freeing his hands for sword and shield. The old man, spiderclimbs along the cavern walls and ceilings. Encountering several bats along the ceiling, the old man retreats to climbing along the wall beside the others.
Frog Lake
850 XP
The large dark cavern they have entered holds a large subterranean lake. Near the center of the lake is a small island upon which sits a giant frog. The giant frog watches the group and as the group continues to come into the cavern, it gives a loud croak and dives into the water. The group decides danger has been averted and continues along the narrow ledge which borders the lake.
They find the ledge leads to another cave opening. This portion of the cavern is mud filled. As Smallfang's lantern is moved across the room, the group sees fast moving creatures dart in and out of the mud. Too fast to see much, but enough to give them pause.
Perhaps they pause too long, because as they crowd around the mud filled room's entrance several giant frogs emerge from the dark waters behind the group and attack. Using the cavern walls to prevent the frogs from surrounding them works as it reduces the number of attacks they have to deal with but it does mean they have to fend of wave after wave of attacks from these giant frogs. The giant frogs lunge and bite at the characters and after being bit the adventurers find themselves grabbed in the frogs mouth. Several times Arno has barely escape from being swallowed entirely.
Centipede Lair
800 XP
Eventually, the group is victorious but is injured enough that they are extremely cautious about entering a room in which they now to contain some sort of creature.
The old man, still using his spiderclimb abilities, offers to carry Arno, the gnome, across the room via the ceiling. Arno climbs onto the back of the old man, as he scurries up the walls and up onto the ceiling. As they reach the midpoint of the room, Arno's strength fails him and looses his grip. Plunging down 20 feet and landing into the soft mud, Arno is not hurt but is now buried waist deep in the foul smelling muck.Several long centipedes, as thick as an elves forearm, climb up onto the gnome and start to bite him. The old man, still on the ceiling, sees this and drops down to aid Arno. The two continue to fend off the giant centipedes while the other can just look on. The old man, Bohr/Darvin is screaming as the creatures crawl over him and he begs T'an to shoot them off. Hesitant but eventually shrugging, T'an fires off and arrow. T'an is accurate, but not that accurate. He hits the old man square in the shoulder as the centipede creature moves around the old man's body. Deciding he can not help much in attacking the creatures T'an rushes across the room, his feet barely touch the mud and makes it to the other side of the room.
Smallfang wades into the room, his heavy feet sinking into the mud, making his movement slow and ponderous. He walks up to Arno and grabs at one of the centipedes, pulling it off the small gnome and slashes at it with his blade. When all the centipedes are pulled off Arno and killed Arno climbs up the dragonborn and clings to his chest. The old man, Bohr/Darvin is finally able to exterminate his insect infestation. They all finally are able to climb out of the muck and follow T'an who has found a flight of stairs ascending into light.
Frog Shrine
1200 XP
The stairs eventually lead back to the entrace cave they first descended from the castle into. The caverns still unoccupied by cultist workers for the moment they move back to the mist filled area. There they discover another room they had initially passed. T'an moves up the stairs cautiously and while lying down, uses his mirror to peak into the room. The room is lit with a multitude of candles, placed in niches along the rough cavern walls. In numerous other niches in the walls are placed a multitude of various religious symbols and artifacts. A hogpog of religions are represented.
At the far end of the cave is a bullywug, dressed in shaman's robes and holding a staff across his lap as he sits at a shrine facing away from the group. T'an decides to take the opportunity to stealthily cross the room and try and kill the bullywug from behind. As he strikes the bullywug looks up and the fight is begun.
T'an succeeds in knocking down the bullywug, but the bullywug calls out for help. As the shaman, Pharbles Spattergoo begins to mutter his incantation and pulls out a piece of bark his skin turns to a hardend barklike hide. The others now move into the room, while Arno and Orvusita remain at the entrance to hurl spells and arrows across the room. The bullywug shaman produces a spell which turns the entire midsection of the room into a tangle of thorns which encircles T'an, Smallfang and the old man.
It is then that several bullywugs emerge into the room in defense of their leader. The group which is in the middle of the ensnaring spike growth, are able to get out of the tangle and T'an takes on Phablex while Smallfang produces a lightning breath attack which kills and injures several others.The fight is long and hard but eventually Pharblex is felled. The few remaining bullywugs, seeing their leader felled, take large leaps in hopes of escaping. One of them jumps right over Arno and into the outer cave. Little Arno takes chase but his little legs cannot keep up. T'an rushes by in a blur. Running up to and around the fleeing bullywug, T'an runs up along the wall and comes down in front of the bullywug bringing his sword down the the creature. The bullywug collapses into a heap but T'an decides to kick and punch at it. Not even the creatures death can halt T'an's furry.
Arno who is by the entrance of this cave can hear the sounding of the signal drum again and it is not long until the sounds of returning workers fill the caverns. Arno tells the others. They need to hurry.
T'an discovers that below the trappings of the shrine is a chest. T'an is cautious and looks first for traps. Sure enough he discovers wires attached to the chest which rise up along with wall, to the ceiling and holding several clay pots directly above him. As the group decides the best course of action on how to disable the trap, the sounds of activity increase in the outer caverns. Smallfang decides that sometimes, disabling is too much hassle. It's no big deal to take a bit of fire damage. He grabs the chest and pulls.
It's not fire.
The pots crash to the floor releasing a powdery dust that covers T'an, Smallfang and the old man. Immediately they begin to hallucinate. Smallfang still holding the chest, finds he is holding the body of his dead mother. He begins to weep inconsolably. T'an discovers his long lost dog and hugs him close petting his luxurious fur, as he pulls the body of the dead bullywug close and nuzzles it. The old man sees the body of his dead child at his feet and sees the man responsible. He wields his scythe and brings it down upon T'an. The scythe sticks into the shoulder blade of the monk.
Arno hearing the commotion returns into the room to see chaos has taken of the minds of her compatriots. Seeing this horrific scene, he is at a loss. Finally, after a few minutes he decides to splash water in the face of the dragonborn. The surprise of the cold water on his face, and perhaps more importantly the washing away of the hallucinogenic powder, brings Smallfang back to this reality. Arno takes the chest from him dropping it to the floor.
As Arno investigates the chest, Smallfang resuscitates the others in a likewise fashion. Standing back up covered in muck, grime, ooze and blood the group has rarely looked worse. Arno is happy though. He has discovered two spellbooks from wizards who were obviously more adept than the bullywug shaman who they have taken them from.
The old man, Bohr/Darvin, sends his pseudodragon familiar to hide in the mists as the cultists workers use the teleportation circle. The pseudodragon is hidden by the mist in the room with they cultists speak the command word activating the portal. "Draezir"
Deciding that a rest is in dire need, they will return to the castle above.
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
Captured
1400 XP
As the group returns to the stairs leading to the castle above, they are halted by a couple of cultists. Try to pose as fellow cultists the group does their best "Hail Tiamat" while giving the hand signal. Unfortunately for them, they are covered in gray ooze, mud (the gnome is at least half mud), and blood (T'an is profusely bleeding from a horrible looking scythe injury on his shoulder).
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| "Tell me again. Why are you covered in ooze?" |
One of the guards removing the old man's belongings finds a rock. A simple ordinary rock and drops it to the cavern floor. The old man is incensed and frantic about the rock. The guard seeing this decides to be mean and kicks the rock. Hard. The rock bounces and rolls until it is gone out of site rolling down into the neighboring cave.
The old man flies into a rage and runs after the rock. He is stopped easily by one of the guards but using the commotion as cover, each of the other adventurers takes the opportunity to try to free themselves from their shackles. T'an easily picks one of the locks of his manacles and is actually able to manacle on the hands of the guard next to him. Arno is able to tinker with the locking mechanism enough the it releases. Smallfang uses his amazing strength to try and bend or break the manacles. He fails.
It is not long before a full out fight has broken out and the guards are on the loosing end. Orvusita has emerged from here hiding spot and just as one of the guards was running up the stairs yelling for help he is killed with her arrow in the back. Soon enough they are able to escape their bonds leaving several guards dead, two unconscious and one who has run for aid.
The group runs for the teleportation circle. Once all their they do not hesitate and speak the word, "Draezir!".
They find themselves standing between two ancient pillars of stone on the edge of a circle with three other such pairs of stones. The air is clear, dry and cold. All around them are mountain peaks and up a gravel path is a large and inviting looking hunting lodge.
A place to rest? Probably not.
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