Talsil 12th
Clearing out the Drained Tunnels
Caprica, having recovered from her violent expulsion from the once-flooded tunnels, backed away from the edge of the plateau and found the comfort of the shadows once more. Across several high drops and dark ravines, a veritable city of caves mouths and crude archways honeycombed the far side of the cavern wall. Dozens of wide stairs, ladders and bridges connected castle-sized stalagmites and mineral drips wide as roads, all of it traveled by throngs of trolls, as well as pallid dwarves, and lithe, unmistakable drow.
The sound of furious bubbling suddenly turned Caprica's gaze, as a slithering collection of green-yellow slime formed a pillar behind her. It sprouted whipping cilium and attempted to lash her, but she escaped the brunt and fled back through the unhinged door. It gave spirited chase, but the sorceress was far too quick. After long she lost sight of it somewhere behind her, and managed to find Raven, who had nearly fled back up into the Greater Caverns after being left alone. Yet her shadow chided her on through her fear and doubt, and soon the princess found a bit of mirth even in the dripping, slippery, stinking caverns. Her reunions with Caprica, and then Leonardo, were good ones.
Yet somewhere in the sopping caverns an ooze hunted, and undoubtedly it'd find its way to the meat. Caprica and Raven lie in wait, intent on ambushing it, while Leonardo, confident in his ability to hide, slipped into the shadows to fish it out. The sorceress tried to object, but he'd already gone (having heard her quite well regardless). True to form, he was missing long minutes, minutes that made the girls wonder. Then a furious splashing and growing gurgle sounded down the way. Leonardo turned the corner with a fat lip and swollen eye, half-covered in sizzling muck. Surging after him was a mass of four separate oozes which collided and combined and then peeled away in an amorphous wave of ochre and goose-dropping-green.
The sorceress and the warlock laid suppressive fire, and the assassin darted and stabbed in spectacular fashion, but nothing could deny the voracious creatures a taste of new meats. As they came, their jellied masses shivered and sprouted all sorts of terrifying likeness of things they'd digested throughout their existences, trolls' heads and claws, bat wings, spider legs, centipede tails and frogs' tongues. They used these remembered features in order to successfully consume Raven, enveloping her in slimy wings, stealing away her air while also beginning a slow and painful digestion process.
The warlock managed to tear herself away through shadow jaunting, only to have Caprica next consumed. The sorceress fought from within, but Chaos was fickle and ended up leaving both gelatin and victim in a stupor. Panicked, Raven unleashed her most potent flames upon the slime seeking to taste her again, melting it into a black, rubbery puddle. Wheeling around, she willed the fire hotter still, and melted the ooze around Caprica.
Leonardo contended with two oozes all his own, the first and largest swinging no less than sixteen different arms, scoring a cut here, a slash there, and though a few of his ribs were broken in a slimy pummel, the vampire retaliated by summoning forth a swarm of shadow imps and small nightmares. While they gnawed and ripped (and were flung or digested), he regathered the wild darkness into an aura around his sword. Smoking shadow used his fullblade as a spine, creating a terrifying horned phantom's torso around it. The red-eyed angel of hunger pounced as Leonardo swung, tearing into the slime with ravenous hunger, gobbling up ever last ounce of it (natural 20).
But the expenditure of his efforts left him open to a second charge, and he was swallowed by the surviving ooze. Again Raven summoned hellfire and seared piece by piece off the strange gelatin until it was a heaped pile of black sludge like the others.
Despite concerns of discovery, the idea of civilized amenities after such an encounter spurred Raven into summoning forth a magical shelter, styled and furnished like a fine chateau, wherein the party could indulge in some much-needed rest. Soft beds and hot baths were made available, the former used quite vigorously when Leonardo and Raven wandered into one of the bedrooms. The inconvenienced Caprica found another room, shut the door tightly, and tried to sleep. The moans and screams and banging were quite enough to keep her awake, so she closed her eyes and focused on the emptiness of the Void. The white noise came to her soon after, an eerie collection of chatter and whispers, which grew until it washed out all other noise. Somehow in that disturbing chorus the sorceress found sleep.
Eight hours later, rested, washed, fed, the walls began to flicker in and out of existence, and the shelter vanished. The three were again welcomed by the awful wreak of molds, the slick mud and muck, and the black, uncertain caverns. They traveled onward to the edge of the plateau, learning what they could of the city from quiet observation. The assassin had his reservations going in blind if they could help it, and Raven ended up sending her shadowy counterpart across the uneven drops and ravines and then secretly into the city proper.
Experience: 600 xp each (35, 110 total)
Gelatinous Tide, 1800
Magic: n/a
Coin: -67 gp each (Secure Shelter ritual)
Loot: n/a
No comments:
Post a Comment