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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2115331" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Gibbering GardenThe party advances into the weird gibbering sound.  The passage opens into a wide chamber about 100’ across.  Every surface of the place is covered in weird, colorful growths and slimes.  The gibbering seems to be coming from in here somewhere.  It makes our heroes nervous.Lester starts to move forward- and the foresight Orbius cast upon him goes off.  “Watch out, it’s dangerous!” he calls.  Orbius casts a bestowed mirror image on him, and then the L takes another step and the gibbering grows much louder.  Suddenly a pseudopod of slimy matter forms and strikes out at him!  It swishes past, but it’s enough for him to cast a horrid wilting.Then the room erupts into chaos.  There are suddenly flailing pseudopods everywhere, and Inoke’s suit’s rod of radiation detection starts crackling like crazy.  The pseudopods deal reasonable damage, and worse, they inflict radiation as well!  Inoke and Gerontius strike back physically, but the slime regenerates with distressing speed.  Then things grow even more bizarre and five globs of stuff spit out, resolving into gibbering mouthers.  “What the hell is this?” cries Inoke.  “What are we fighting??”“I have no idea!” cries Lester as he casts another horrid wilting, slaying all the mouthers and dehydrating whatever is in the slime. “I’m starting to suspect that we’re fighting the whole room,” Orbius announces, testing the notion with a chain lightning.  Indeed, no secondary bolts form.  Lester follows his cohort’s spell with a cone of cold, and this seems to harm it in a way that it cannot regenerate.Once they know its weakness, our heroes grow bolder.  Beau employs his frost dagger to deadly effect, and though it takes time, the thing finally stops regenerating.  However, a search reveals a strange, pulsating egg-shaped growth.  They also find the skeleton of a long-dead humanoid with canine features, but neither kobold nor gnoll.  The party takes a magical ring on its finger and a rich-looking helm from the helm.“What about this egg?” asks Inoke.  “Should we destroy it?” “No way, man!  I’ve got a plan!”  Lester smiles a devious smile.“We can’t leave yet,” Inoke says.  “I have to check that hatch.”“What if you make it worse?” demands Orbius.  “What if you let something out that you shouldn’t?”“I have to know what I’m dealing with.”“All right.”  Orbius shakes his head.  “But we’ll probably have to retreat immediately and prepare for a couple of days before we can return and shut it down and survive.***The hatch does indeed yield to the key that was hidden in the room with the weird metal golem in it.  Inoke wisely erects energy adaptation and turns the dial on the chest of the hard suit that he’s wearing all the way up before he opens the door, for a bubble of boiling radioactive water hisses out over and past him.  Below the hatch is a 20’ diameter chamber with a number of control panels melted into slag and a ceramic door that is glowing red-hot and slumping in its frame.  Inoke’s radiation detector- Lester calls it a wand of Geiger- is crackling with a solid hiss of static, the most Inoke’s heard.  Quickly he moves to the ceramic door and smashes it down.  Another blast of superheated radioactive water tears across him.  A 30’ hallway leads down to a small core area where a violet crystal upon a strange metal pedastel glows incandescent.  Inoke can feel the radiation tearing through him.  He knows he must move fast.  He runs forward towards the crystal, a rumbling war cry emanating from his chest, and strikes-And Deadly Avalanche deflects off of a force field.With a cry of despair, Inoke turns and flees.***4 p.m., the Temple of Elemental Good WaterIn a shimmer of teleportative magic, our heroes appear via mass teleport.  They give the egg to the high priest of Elemental Water and Lester encourages him to leave it underwater and to watch it carefully, but if anything looks dangerous to get the hell away from it.  Then our heroes while away the afternoon.***9/9/370 O.L.G., 10 a.m.Orbius casts contact other plane.What is our best means currently within our power to get rid of the force field around the crystal? Wish.What is likely to happen to anyone in the chamber when the force field goes down? Radiation.What is the purpose of that crystal area? Isolation.How many maximized shatters would it take to destroy that crystal? One.What will happen when we shatter the crystal? Stop.If we cast an earthquake is that likely to prevent the evil doesers who want the crystal? No.What do I need to do to get Jezebel to like me again? Finish.Like, ‘sealing the deal’? No.Finish off the Bile Lords? (Orbius shudders.) No.He tells the party about most of his questions and answers.  Then the party goes into an orgy of identification, followed by a heavy debate about what to do with the genie bottle.  In the end it is put into the treasure to be divided by dice. Inoke worries about this; without the genie bottle, he may not be able to induce anyone capable of wishing into the crystal’s chamber.  He breathes much easier when he gets the first pick.  In the end, the divisions go as follows:Inoke- the genie’s bottle and another cat helm (this one is a helm of underwater action)Sybele- bracers of armor +5Lester- the ring from the canine headed humanoid skeleton. This is a ring of the predator.  It gives its wearer scent, Track, and deals extra damage against tabaxi.Gerontius- the ring of radiance (taken from the rakshasa’s body), which casts light 2/day and sunray 1/day.Seethe- the 4 immovable rodsLillamere- a ring of protection +3“All right,” says Inoke.  “Orbius, will you help me?  I need to go back there and shut this thing down.  I don’t need you to come in there with me, but will you take me there?”Orbius sighs.  “Of course I’ll help you.”  And Bocob help you see the way, he adds mentally.  “I’ll even send in a simulacrum with you.”The big warrior visibly steels himself.  “All right.  Thank you.”Next Time: Will Inoke shut down the reactor?  How will the radiation affect him?  Find out!</blockquote>

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