IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE
SESSION 12C: TO THE AID OF GOBLINS
December 2nd, 2007
The 1st Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty
In the carriage on their way back to the Ghostly Minstrel the group discussed its plans. A consensus was reached that they should return to the aid of the Clan of the Torn Ear.
And so it was, early the next morning, that they found themselves working their way back through the increasingly familiar tunnels beneath Greyson House. Passing through the vaulted passages of Ghul’s Labyrinth they made their way into the caverns of the goblins.
As they came to the cave of stalactites and stalagmites where they had first met Itarek, Tee was hailed by a goblin they did not know.
He knew them, however, and welcomed them back to the caverns of the clan. Only two of the clan were on duty here now. The true danger lay elsewhere, but the clan had an ancestral duty to guard this passage.
The goblin dispatched his fellow guard to escort them to the chieftess. Crashekka greeted them in her great hall. Few goblins were to be found there now, and she explained that nearly all of the clan had been placed as a guard upon the stone bridge.
“Have you been attacked again?” Tee asked.
“Not yet,” Crashekka told her. “But we live in fear of an assault. I am glad to see you again. Without you I fear we would be lost.”
Crashekka personally led them to the stone bridge, and there they met with Itarek. He reported to them that there had been no sign of movement within the noisome caves beyond, but no further attempt to breach them, either.
Itarek gathered to him his three finest warriors.
“Is that all that can come?” Elestra asked, with Tee translating.
“The rest will be needed here. To hold the bridge,” Itarek said. “And they would not last long against the horrors that we have seen.”
Tee nodded her understanding, and then saw to distributing the cindershards they had purchased. Each of the six companions had one strapped to their body in one way or another, and a seventh was given to Itarek.
Ten of them crossed the bridge – six from the surface world and four of the clan.
They proceeded cautiously, with Tee’s sharp eyes leading the way. As they approached the first cavern beyond the bridge, Tee raised her hand to hold them back: She could see one of the ooze creatures clinging to the ceiling on the far side of the chamber.
As quickly and silently as possible, the goblin archers moved into position and prepared to fire. Unfortunately, what Tee could not see was that a second creature clung to the ceiling just inside the cavern. Blocked from her view by the overhang of the tunnel, the ooze creature dropped down on her just as their ambush was about to be sprung.
Tee reeled backwards as the other ooze creature also dropped from the ceiling and undulated across the cavern.
In these few chaotic moments, panic seized the goblin ranks (particularly as their arrows proved ineffectual), but Itarek shouted them back into formation as Tor and Agnarr quickly came to Tee’s aid.
Despite their ambush having been forestalled, the party’s caution had left them well-positioned for dealing with the creatures. The narrow passage protected their flanks and allowed Tor and Agnarr to protect their more vulnerable comrades. Tee knew she’d be feeling the bruises from the creatures’ initial assault for days to come, but the creatures themselves were quickly dispatched.
THE SLIPPERY SLOPE
“They’ve reoccupied these caverns,” Tor said.
“We’ll need to be careful,” said Tee.
“This was hard enough the first time,” Elestra said, her python viper curling its way back around her waist. “Do we really want to do it all over again?”
Agnarr shook his head. “They’ve reinforced, but that means they’ll be spread out.”
“Unless they’ve been breeding down here,” Elestra said.
Nobody really wanted to think about that. After a brief discussion it was agreed that their first goal should be reaching the outcropping of cindershard that they suspected lay beyond the noxious lake. Since they didn’t want to cross the lake, they hoped they would be able to reach the outcropping another way. Itarek wasn’t able to give them any guidance (the clan’s knowledge of these caverns was vague at best), so they were left with Agnarr’s supposition that the large cavern beyond the underground river to their left might curve around and lead back to the cindershard from its far side.
Tee, however, was still wary of the dark, corrosive water of the river. First she wanted to explore the other passage they had avoided before – the steep tunnel that lay directly before them.
The precarious decline of this tunnel had turned them aside before, and Tee still favored caution. She tied a rope around herself and had Agnarr loop it securely around his waist.
After carefully working fifty or sixty feet down the passage, however, Tee found herself staring at a dead-end. She climbed her way back up to the chamber where the rest of the expedition waited. Wiping her hands on her pants she shook her head, “It’s a dead end. I guess we cross the river.”
Tee led them to the river’s edge and then glowered down at it. Seeing the noxious water again – the edges of the cavern floor corroded and blackened where it met the river – did nothing to distill her fears. She had no interest in trying to wade these waters, no matter how calm the current might be.
Ranthir, however, was able to tentatively offer a possible solution. He had never stopped using the few spare moments in his day to study the spellbook they had wrested from the body of Collus (Toridan Cran’s arcanist), and one of the spells he had deciphered from its contents would allow him to conjure forth a floating disc of pure energy. It was a small disc and would only carry one of them at a time – but it should be a relatively trivial matter for him to ferry them across the river and, when the time came, to ferry them back again.
Tee, continuing her role as the party’s scout, was the first to cross. Unfortunately, as she leapt off Ranthir’s magical platform, she discovered that the steeply sloping floor on the other side of the river – slick with moisture from where the river overran its bank – was even slippier than it had appeared. Not only was it wet, but the floor was actually covered with a thin layer of muck. Her feet flew out from underneath her, and she found herself rapidly sliding down the length of the cavern.
Rounding the cavern’s corner, she found that it came to an abrupt end in a large, fetid pool scummed over with fungus and slime. Skidding through the muck, Tee finally managed to find a firm grip on solid stone, bringing her to a halt only a few feet from the pool.
Meanwhile, Agnarr – seeing Tee’s distress – rashly leaped to her aid, hopping nimbly onto Ranthir’s disc (which was slowly returning across the river), and from there to the far bank of the river…
… where he promptly landed in the same slippery muck, lost his footing, and began plummeting down the slope.
Tor shook his head at the sight, and moved to get onto the disc himself. But Elestra beat him to it, bounding on to the disc and urging Ranthir to get her across. (“I’m very nimble! I’ll be fine!”)
As the disc began its slow traversing of the river of the second time, Agnarr hurtled around the corner of the cavern. Tee, who was just trying to regain her own footing, barely managed to roll out of the barbarian’s way as he went flying out over the fetid pool, disappearing with a resounding splash through the thick layer of fungus which lay over the top of the pool…
… a layer of fungus which, at the disturbance, began to lurch its away out of the pool, slithering its way in a stinking, bubbling mass towards where Tee lay.
“Agnarr!” she screamed with frustration, drawing her sword.
Agnarr, meanwhile, had problems of his own. Two of the ooze creatures were lurking beneath the surface of the pool and, although they were smaller than the others they had encountered, they grasped and pulled at the barbarian’s limbs as he tried to fight his way back to the surface.
Elestra, meanwhile, was discovering that the nimbleness of her youth was ill-matched to her confidence. Leaping from Ranthir’s disc she, too, found her feet swept out from underneath her. She scrabbled wildly in the muck, but only succeeded in speeding her way down the slope.
As Tee fended off the carpet-like expanse of fetid fungus that was trying to overwhelm her, Agnarr managed to free his sword and hack away at the globular pseudopods grasping at his limbs. With a desperate gasp, his head broke the surface and he crawled his way onto the solid (if still treacherously slippery) stone…
… just in time to catch Elestra before she, too, went plummeting into the pool.
Tor, hearing Tee’s shout and the unmistakable sounds of unsheathed steel, forewent Ranthir’s disc and simply leaped across the river. He skidded slightly, but unlike the others he managed to keep his feet.
Dominic, meanwhile, timidly mounted the disc and was ferried across. He began working his way carefully down the wall of the cavern, using it to steady himself.
The struggle with the fungus and the slime below, meanwhile, had turned into a muddy mess. Elestra had lost her footing again and fallen into the pool. Tee had been dragged in by oozy pseudopods, only to be hauled back out again (wet and sputtering) by Agnarr.
Their goblin allies, meanwhile, were beginning to jump across the river. All of them lost their footing – either immediately or while trying to descend the slope – although Itarek managed to arrest his slide into something with a modicum of control.
The ooze creatures and the mobile fungus fought wildly and randomly, their actions seemingly uncoordinated. While the fungus merely tried to overwhelm whatever creature was closest and most helpless while excreting a painful acidic fluid, the ooze creatures consistently tried to pull the combatants beneath the surface of the pool.
In the end, Agnarr’s flaming sword – its ever-burning fire unquenched even by the oily liquid of the viscous pool – overcame the ooze-like creatures. Meanwhile, Tor struggled to cope with the fungus which threatened to overwhelm Tee. Ranthir floated serenely down the length of the cavern atop his floating disc, arriving just in time to fire off a lazy blast of arcane energy. That – along with Itarek arriving to place a final, vital blow – finished off the last of their fetid opponents.
Agnarr crawled out upon the slippery slope, hauling with him the floundering bodies of Elestra and two of the goblins. Dominic arrived to soothe battered bodies and acid-scarred limbs.
After a brief rest, they managed to drag their way back up to the river and – with the aid of Ranthir’s floating disc – cross back to the relative safety of the sickstone caverns on the other side.
THROUGH THE WALL OF OLIVE SLIME
Unfortunately, none of their explorations had revealed a hidden way to the cindershard cavern. Worse yet, the cindershards that had been immersed in the fetid pool were found to have been burned out by the exposure – their healing properties completely negated. Although they still had two of the precious crystals left to them, most of the party once again felt the nauseating waves of the sickstone threatening to overwhelm them.
Despite their setbacks and the chaotic struggle they had just endured, they were still well-supplied and well-rested. The cindershard would have to wait, but they still had a promised duty to the Clan of the Torn Ear: Somewhere in these caverns the warcaster Ursaal brooded; the legacy of the mysterious Morbion awaited them; and the encroaching doom of the oozed ones lurked.
They made their way back through the ruined fungal garden and returned to the wall of olive slime that they had carefully avoided before. Now, with her companions and the goblins standing ready behind her, Tee stood a goodly distance off, lowered her dragon pistol, and blasted repeatedly until the path was clear.
Tee crept forward, edging her way to the entrance of an immense cavern. This, too, appeared to be the remains of another ruined fungal garden, but here all of the fungal growths were coated in sickly, greenish slime.
It was what lay between the thick, coagulated clumps of fungus and slime that brought bile to their throats: More than two dozen goblins are clustered here and there. Some stood in place, wavering back and forth with glazed eyes. Others were partially cocooned in thick strands of the olive ooze, while still others had apparently been completely encased. They were all being slowly changed into shapeless horrors – their skin flaccid; their features slowly eroding into lumpy formlessness.
There was nothing they could do to save them… but they couldn’t leave them that way, either. Not only because they couldn’t risk an army of the dangerous ooze creatures rising behind them, but because it seemed impossible to leave them to such a horrific fate.
But caution also reigned in their hearts: At the first sign of violence, this torpid scene could suddenly overwhelm them in deadly danger.
So they carefully set up a tight defensive perimeter at the cavern’s entrance. Ranthir conjured forth a magical web, using it to secure their flank so that – if any assault should come – it would come at them from a single direction. And that direction was guarded by the strong blades and broad shoulders of Tor and Agnarr and Itarek.
Agnarr took out his flasks of oil and spread them liberally over the nearest cocoons. Tee set the flame to them.
As the fire began to burn, a murmuring groan echoed through the chamber. And then, suddenly, they were glad for their careful preparations. The entire ceiling on the far end of the chamber suddenly shuddered with horrible motion. The thick coating of slime there was gathering itself, roiling down towards the floor of the chamber in a hideous tidal wave.
The ooze creature was vastly larger than any that had faced before – at least ten feet thick and nearly twice that in height. In a terrible rush it fell upon the defenders, trying to batter its way through them – trying to utterly overwhelm them in a single swoop.
But Tor and Agnarr and Itarek, bolstered by the healing magicks of Dominic and Elestra, stood firm. Goblin bowstrings twanged. Tee’s dragon pistol fired again and again and again.
In the end, the creature’s mad frenzy was an ill match for the party’s stout resolve and preparations. They battered on it relentlessly until the shuddering convulsions of its abominable dance of death had begun… and ended.
When the creature was at least reduced to horrid slick of glistening ooze, Agnarr stepped back and wiped the sweat from his brow. Glancing around, he saw that none of the goblins undergoing their gruesome transformation had been stirred by the violence. He began to work his way through the chamber, using his flaming blade to end their misery and grant a merciful doom. Tor and Itarek soon joined him, but when the work was done Itarek wept, and the goblins sunk to the knees and gave a mournful dirge to their fallen friends and comrades.
As they had worked, however, Agnarr and Tor had spotted a large sinkhole at the far end of the chamber. The sinkhole was at least ten feet across and, looking down it, they saw that – perhaps fifty feet below – it opened into another large chamber.
None of them knew what might await them at the bottom of that sinkhole, but they were certain that this was where their path must lead them…
