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Dreams of Erthe
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8949218" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 45: FORMLESS DREAD</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 9</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Robin the Balladeer, human bard 2</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 18 February 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The town of Drayleton was overall somewhat shabby in appearance; if there was a "good part" of town where the nobility made their homes, they were doing an exceptional job of keeping the area well hidden from view. Everything, from the crumbling cobblestones on the streets to the numerous cracks in the sides of buildings and missing shingles on the roofs above spoke of a town where "good enough for now" seemed to be the rule of the day.</p><p></p><p>Still, the taverns were well populated, and asking about for anyone who'd been sleeping nonstop for any amount of time granted Xandro an almost immediate answer: he was not only told to go to the cottage of <strong>Chud Muckwader</strong> but given directions on how to get there. And so it was, after a quick meal of "good enough" tavern food as a "make friendly with the locals" lunch, the five dreamwalkers and their small entourage showed up at the Muckwader residence, where Chud's wife, a young peasant woman named <strong>Grelda</strong>, answered the door with a curious look at the group assembled before her. But once Alewyth explained their reason for coming, Grelda was more than happy to let them into the small cottage, for her husband had been asleep for weeks now and she'd been forced to replace him as a sewer worker if she wanted to make enough money to cover the rent of their meager dwelling. "I know this place isn't much," she said, "but it's all we have. And at least there's just been me to feed while Chud's been sleepin', so there's that."</p><p></p><p>Grelda allowed Wakuren and Thurloe to drag Chud's sleeping body out of bed and place him flat on the middle of the floor, where there was enough room for the five dreamwalkers to sit around him in a circle. Zander activated his <em>jade cooshee</em> and instructed the full-sized elven dog to stay on guard duty while they entered Chud's dream, and the canine thumped his tail in understanding. Grelda just sat on the edge of the bed, watching in confusion as the five strangers all closed their eyes and went to sleep.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, kupo!" replied Mogo when his five students approached him in the Corridor of Dreams. As always, he was hovering by one of the seemingly infinite doors in the twisting hallways, his little bat-wings holding him aloft at the level of the doorknob. Giving the knob a twist, he opened the door and ushered the five inside. "Good luck, kupo!" he said as they entered Chud's dream, one by one, through the doorway.</p><p></p><p>The dreamscape the five entered was not one they would have guessed to be occupied by a sewer worker. It was contained to a single room, some 15 feet by 20 feet with an ornate tub in the center; the walls and floor were of a rich marble, gleaming with condensation. Chud lay back against the slope of the tub, luxuriating in a bubble bath of warm water, a side table near his right hand holding a tray of assorted cheeses and a flute of an exotic champagne. "Ah, this is the life!" Chud sighed, taking a bite of cheese and following it with a sip of champagne. If he was at all disconcerted by the fact five strangers had entered the room during his soak, he gave no indication of it.</p><p></p><p>"Mr. Muckwader," began Alewyth, "we are here--"</p><p></p><p>"Please, by all means, call me Chud," interrupted the soaking sewer worker, blowing a clump of sudsy bubbles from his hand. "All my friends do."</p><p></p><p>"Chud, then," amended the dwarven priestess, "we are here in your dream because--" But she was once again interrupted, this time not by Chud but by dint of something falling into the tub with him with an audible plop. Another object hit the soapy waters with a splash, followed by another, and then a fourth struck the priestess on the top of her head, moving around in her hair. As if this were the signal for the start of the deluge, it began raining toads in earnest, half of them ending up in the tub with Chud and the others landing on the side of the tub where Alewyth was standing, despite the fact the bathing room had a solid ceiling overhead. The toads were all brightly colored in a variety of hues - bright red, flashy green, vibrant yellow and the darkest black, a brilliant magenta, and so on - and each was no bigger than the final joint of Alewyth's thumb. They scooted around and hopped in confusion, and Alewyth could tell by the dampness on their moist skin that they were likely coated in a natural poison, in the manner that many jungle toads were - it explained the bright coloration, as well, it being one of nature's ways of warning of a venomous creature.</p><p></p><p>Zander took the initiative to rid the room of the toads as best he could, by casting a <em>scorching ray</em> spell into the constant flow falling from the ceiling along the side of the tub. Xandro used his <em>Dardolian Lute</em> to send a <em>sound burst</em> into the swarm's midst as well, each adventurer realizing using combat weapons against a horde of tiny critters was certainly not the way to go. Their attacks killed dozens of the toads, but just as many came falling through the ceiling to replace them.</p><p></p><p>"Come on! Get out of the tub!" encouraged Alewyth, but Chud seemed more concerned about guarding his plate of cheeses from being contaminated by the falling toads, and he swore aloud when one of the tiny amphibians toppled his flute of champagne, spilling most of its contents onto the marble floor, where numerous toads slipped around in it as they scrabbled for purchase on the slick surface. Since Chud seemed unwilling to exit the tub of his own volition, Thurloe tried convincing him by using his lucid dreaming training to actively turn the tub's water from "warm and clean" to "foul like you'd expect to find in a sewer." He was somewhat successful, altering the water but the encompassing layer of bubbly suds hid the foul water from view and Chud was likely already rather desensitized to the smell of sewer water in any case. Unwilling to be deterred, Thurloe upped the ante by turning Chud's exotic cheeses into dead rats, and that got the sewer worker's notice all right, especially as he'd been biting down upon a cube of cheese when it suddenly became a dead rat - or half of one in any case, as the other half had already been bitten off and was filling Chud's mouth.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren decided to try to turn the flow of replacement poisonous toads off at the source by casting a <em>gust of wind</em> spell aimed from the floor all around the tub straight up. The poisonous toads on the marble floor were all thrown up into the air near the ceiling, and the new ones falling through the somehow intangible ceiling didn't get far before the air blasts sent them right back up near where they'd come from. With the toads all well away from Chud and the other dreamwalkers in the tall-ceilinged room, it was simplicity itself for Zander and Thurloe to bombard the levitating toads with a series of <em>scorching ray</em> spells, while Chud spat the half a dead rat from his mouth and begrudgingly climbed out of the tub, soap suds and sewer filth running down his legs. Alewyth spun around to spare herself the view and breathed a sigh of relief when the walls of the dreamscape started melting away, a sure sign that Chud Muckwader was waking from his dream.</p><p></p><p>Chud sat up from his reclining position and looked around in puzzlement at the strangers sitting around him in a circle; they seemed somewhat familiar, but the specifics of the dream which had held him in a sort of magical stasis were already starting to fade. But Grelda gave him a big hug and cried out, "You're awake!" before filling him in on what had happened these past few weeks. Chud had a hard time believing he'd actually been asleep for the better part of three weeks, and was aghast to find out Grelda had been doing his work in the sewers in the meantime. "But it's dangerous!" he exclaimed. "There have already been three sewer workers gone missing!"</p><p></p><p>"Three?" scoffed Grelda. "It's up to more like eight since you've been sleepin'!"</p><p></p><p>Together, the young couple were able to tell the adventurers what they knew about the sewers. A total of eight sewer workers had gone missing in the past month or so, with no particular pattern to their disappearances other than they had all been assigned to the northern section of the sewers. Grelda said she'd heard some of the other workers talking about having seen a frog as big as a man in the sewers, and Chud confirmed he'd heard such rumors himself but had assumed they were nothing more than tricks of the shadows. "You say you're adventurers, though?" Chud hazarded. "Would you be willing to go check out the situation in the sewers? I can't pay you or nothin', but there's tales of a hidden treasure trove somewhere in the sewers, the loot of a noted ganglord who died without revealing his stash of stolen goods." Alewyth, looking at Wakuren for confirmation, agreed on behalf of the group that they'd be more than willing to check out the sewers. Thurloe just frowned in irritation.</p><p></p><p>"Do you at least have some kind of a map or anything?" he asked the Muckwaders. Chud shrugged and told the spellsword that as far as he was aware no such map existed, and if it did it'd likely not be very accurate in any case, on account of various factions adding hidden rooms and digging secret tunnels in the sewer system beneath the city over the years. "There used to be several active thieves guilds in the city, all fightin' amongst themselves and all," he added. "All of 'em used the sewers as a means of movin' about the town unseen, and all of 'em probably made their own additions to the normal sewer tunnels, like." But he did offer to take the adventurers to the sewer entrance closest to the section of tunnels where the disappearances had occurred.</p><p></p><p>"Best cast whatever spells we want protecting us when we go down into the sewers," suggested Thurloe when they got in place. "No idea what we'll find down there." He cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell upon himself, with Zander following suit. The elf sorcerer also cast a <em>bear's endurance</em> spell on himself, hoping to increase his vitality enough he wasn't a drain upon the healers' resources. For the same reason, he cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself, and upon asking how much the diamond dust cost to cast the spell and confirming Zander had enough dust for a second dose, Wakuren paid the sorcerer to cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon him as well. The half-orc was still getting used to the idea he was no longer the combat machine he had once been when he had a powerslug living inside him. boosting his physical attributes to the limits of mortal existence. Wakuren also cast an <em>air walk</em> spell on himself, deciding it would likely be useful as Chud had warned them that while there were walkways throughout the sewers, not all passageways had them and it was sometimes necessary to walk knee-deep in the sewage-tainted waters. Upon Thurloe's suggestion, both Alewyth and Wakuren cast <em>magic circle against evil</em> spells upon themselves, and the dwarven priestess also cast a <em>magic vestment</em> spell over her armor. Finally, Xandro cast a <em>heroism</em> spell on Wakuren, hoping to boost his combat effectiveness to somewhere nearer the level where it had been before the powerslug left his body upon his death. Then, when all of the spellcasters had announced their readiness, Wakuren activated his <em>ring of invisibility</em> and started climbing down the ladder on the side of the narrow tunnel exposed when Chud pulled away the manhole cover he had led them to.</p><p></p><p>At the bottom of the shaft - it was about 15 feet down, Wakuren noted, and it looked like that was the normal ceiling height down here below the town - the half-orc stepped onto the solid walkway and then immediately stepped out over the flowing sewer water just beyond. Looking about the area with his orcish darkvision (for there was no light down here in the sewers but the feeble illumination drifting down from the open manhole above), he could see three east-to-west bridges crossing the 20 feet of the sewer waters that were slowly flowing from north to south. On the northernmost bridge, he saw a human sewer worker stumbling about, as if drunk or nearly unconscious. The man wore a helmet on his head, upon which had been affixed an unlit candle. Fearing he'd fall over the side of the bridge - for there were no railings to prevent such an occurrence - Wakuren called for the man to sit down on the steps while he made his way over to him, for each bridge had about four steps on either side, raising the central portion of the bridge about 8-10 feet higher than the walkways, no doubt to prevent floating branches or whatnot to get obstructed as they drifted by. The man, however, either didn't hear Wakuren's call or blatantly ignored it, for he continued on up the stairs and then staggered across the bridge, nearly falling on the first step down on the other side. With a sigh of exasperation, Wakuren started making his way towards the worker, running five feet or so above the slowly-flowing sewer waters.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe was the second one down the ladder, and he looked over to his left upon hitting the lower platform, noting an open shed of sorts where various tools were stored. He helped himself to a wooden pole with a hook on the end, likely used to fish objects out of the sewer waters without having to enter them directly. He cast a <em>light</em> spell upon the end of the hook, creating himself a temporary light source. Alewyth was down next, and her dwarven darkvision allowed her not to worry about illumination; she went north until the walkway turned into a bridge heading east, which she saw she'd need to take if she was to catch up to the staggering man on the northernmost bridge, the two bridges being connected by a north-south walkway along their eastern sides.</p><p></p><p>It was at that time the three adventurers who had clambered down into the sewers thus far each instinctively grabbed the sides of their heads, for there was a sudden pain in their temples which, only after the event had occurred, did they realize was caused by the act of one of their most powerful spells being ripped from their brains. They'd never experienced such a thing before, but they were well aware of the possibility, for Zander's cooshee had the magical ability to "fetch" spells from spellcasting foes in such a manner.</p><p></p><p>Xandro was the next to shimmy down the ladder, his <em>Dardolian Lute</em> on his back with his light crossbow; as soon as he hit the walkway he pulled out his <em>frost short sword</em> and by its feeble blue glow started following Alewyth. Robin was right behind him, but she grabbed her own lute instead of her weapon upon reaching the walkway, having been told her primary job on the team was to play her song of inspirational courage, freeing Xandro up for other actions. For now, though, she followed Xandro silently, feeling it a bit out of place to start her song in the middle of the sewers, where the only noise was the constant dripping of water from overhead and the lapping flow of the stream of sewage in the tunnels. Plus, it was taking her a bit of time to get used to the smell; playing and singing under these circumstances was going to be a <em>lot</em> different than playing in a packed tavern hall!</p><p></p><p>Zander scurried down the ladder next and followed the others across the middle bridge, pulling out his <em>everburning torch</em> as soon as he hit the walkway. Thurloe followed, holding his bastard sword in one hand and his glowing hook-pole in the other. By then, Alewyth had almost reached the northernmost bridge, where the staggering sewer worker was still looking as if likely to fall over at any moment. Then another psychic blast went through the sewers, and the spellcasters once again felt one of their most powerful spells being ripped from their minds.</p><p></p><p>However, by that time, Wakuren had advanced close enough to the staggering sewer worker that he could see all was not well with him. It had nothing to do with his wavering about or his seemingly drunken stance, but rather the fact that his helmet seemed to be melting into the side of his head, and there was a patch of his overcoat the exact same color as his skin, as if a giant paintbrush had blobbed its flesh-toned paint a little beyond where that particular color should have been. Wakuren was no longer sure of what exactly he was looking at, but he was now fairly certain it was no human.</p><p></p><p>The realization came a moment too late, for the reason stealer - a blob of amorphous jelly that had taken on the shape of the man it had killed the previous day, and had been walking around in his form until just recently, when his stolen shape started losing its cohesiveness - slammed at Wakuren with an arm and fist that morphed into a boneless pseudopod by the time it hit. As Xandro and Robin advanced closer, Zander cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> at the increasingly shapeless blob attacking the half-orc. The jolt of magical electricity burned off an outer layer of the creature's amorphous flesh and an entire section of its body turned black and crumbly. Wakuren gave the crispy form a solid blow with his <em>shield of Cal</em> and the reason stealer lost all cohesiveness, splashing into a thick, wet, puddle and draining off into the sewer waters below Wakuren's feet. But this was not some sneaky escape attempt; the shapeshifting jelly had been slain, once and for all.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe turned and went back the way he had come, passing the shed where he'd grabbed up the hook-pole and continuing on in a southernly direction, for there were passageways branching off from there as well. Zander, on a whim, followed. Alewyth continued towards the northernmost bridge, with Xandro and Robin following. And then there was another arcane pulse, after which the spellcasters had found more of their unused magical energy had been ripped from their minds - the reason stealer had <em>not</em> been the creature responsible, apparently! Wakuren had heard about a creature said to have the ability to rip away prepared spells (or potential spell energy), and called out, "Guys! I think we're dealing with an arcane ooze!" Still <em>air walking</em>, he crossed over to a diagonal platform leading southwest and continued hovering a few inches above the surface, not really noticing his feet weren't touching the floor. But then he saw, through the space beneath yet another bridge, an enormous blob of amorphous flesh pulsing with energy and assumed he'd found the spell-stealing culprit. Calling to his friends that he thought he'd found the arcane ooze, he cast a summoning spell that formed a hippogriff from a blast of swirling air.</p><p></p><p>The air element hippogriff went diving down towards the arcane ooze, which was holed up in a vast, circular bowl of sewer water at the end of a tunnel. It bit at the blobby creature, then pulled back its beak in surprise as the ooze's acid started eating away at what little physical form the air-based creature actually had. Alerted to the activity, Thurloe crept up along the tunnel with the bridge until he could see the arcane ooze's bright green coloration in the bowl just ahead. Alewyth, having crossed the northernmost bridge and advanced down the diagonal pathway beside Wakuren, spotted the blob-monster as well.</p><p></p><p>Another pulse of energy and the spellcasters all cried out in pain again as yet another batch of spells were ripped from their minds. At the same time, the ooze formed a pseudopod and slammed the air element hippogriff, slaying it instantly. As Xandro and Robin moved to catch up to Alewyth, Zander fired a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell at the ooze, surprised to see the electrical energy coruscate all across the ooze's amorphous body, powering it up in some way. Which particular way was made clear when it surged ahead down the channel, heading north towards Wakuren and Alewyth at a faster-than-normal speed.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren did not like the odds they were facing: up against a supercharged arcane ooze that was rapidly depleting their more powerful spells, the means by which they might be able to defeat it. "Fall back!" he cried, running over the sewer waters on his way back towards the ladder to the surface, grabbing up Alewyth and giving her a boost over to the southern passageway. Thurloe and Zander were already fairly close to the ladder and made it up without incident, but the now-speedy ooze was making a beeline towards Xandro and Robin, who had to backtrack east along the northernmost bridge in order to move south to go west along the next bridge in line. It didn't look like they were going to be able to outrace the ooze, but Wakuren, taking a shortcut directly across the wide flow of the sewer waters, got there before the ooze did and held out <em>Hesperna's lamp</em>, allowing the two bards to touch it and call out the command word that shunted them inside. Then, before the ooze could reach him, he cast a <em>gaseous form</em> spell on himself and dissipated into a fine mist, something to which the acidic ooze couldn't deal any damage. Drifting slowly and serenely towards the vertical shaft to the surface, Wakuren rose up beside the ladder and only regained his solid form once he was standing on the street and the manhole cover was back in place. The arcane ooze, a mindless scavenger, saw no prey before it and returned to its erstwhile lair, the bowl at the end of the side-channel of filthy water.</p><p></p><p>"We'll be wantin' t' warn the townsfolk not t' be entering the sewers before we can go back and kill that arcane ooze," Alewyth told the others.</p><p></p><p>"We'll put Chud on that task," Thurloe suggested. "In the meantime, what are our plans for dealing with that thing?"</p><p></p><p>"I have a few thoughts on that," Wakuren promised the spellsword. Sure enough, they found a room for the night (a single room, for Scarlie would be the only one sleeping there, the others spending the night in the magical lamp), and then Wakuren laid out his plans. "We'll all need protection from acid," he started. "Between us, Alewyth and I will be able to cast <em>resist acid</em> spells on all of us. But I think it might be a good idea to cast a <em>planar ally</em> spell as well, and bargain for a week's service from an extraplanar entity."</p><p></p><p>"What kind of extraplanar entity?" Zander asked, curious.</p><p></p><p>"I was thinking a lantern archon."</p><p></p><p>The next morning found the adventuring team back over at the manhole cover from which they'd exited the previous day, ready to make another go at it. But this time, the five dreamwalkers were all protected by a <em>resist acid</em> spell, with Thurloe and Zander having cast their traditional <em>mage armor</em> and <em>shield</em> spells upon themselves; Alewyth having boosted her effectiveness with <em>magic vestment</em>, <em>air walk</em>, and <em>magic circle against evil</em> spells (Wakuren having cast the latter two spells upon himself as well); Thurloe casting <em>fly</em> and <em>false life</em> spells upon himself and Zander casting <em>stoneskin</em> to keep himself safe from physical harm; and then there were a few additional spells cast upon others: Xandro cast <em>heroism</em> spells upon Alewyth, Thurloe, and Wakuren (the three most likely to run into melee combat), Alewyth cast an <em>aid</em> spell upon Zander (to help keep the elf safe from harm - Aerik knew he needed all the help he could get on that front!), and finally Zander cast a <em>haste</em> spell upon the assembled group.</p><p></p><p>"That it? We good?" asked Thurloe, looking around. Seeing that was the case, he lifted the manhole cover and was the first one down the ladder, grabbing up a hook-pole from the shed and casting a <em>light</em> spell on the end of it, the same way he'd done the day before. Zander was the next one down, using his <em>everburning torch</em> to guide his way as he headed across the middle bridge so he could cross the northern bridge in the opposite direction and make his way to the ooze's lair. The lantern archon, a ball of glowing light, hovered down the vertical tunnel and floated across the span of brackish sewer water, alert for danger. Robin unpacked her lute as soon as she got down the ladder and immediately began the words to her song of inspirational courage; there was no point in delaying the advantages the song provided. Xandro followed her, <em>frost short sword</em> out and ready for action. Wakuren was next down the ladder, <em>air walking</em> across the sewer waters by the lantern archon before veering to the west to go down the diagonal tunnel to the arcane ooze's lair. He had some new strategies for taking the ooze out quickly, before it had a chance to steal too many of their prepared spells. But by then the ooze had detected their presence and cast out with its spell-leeching field, grabbing a spell from each of the heroes save Alewyth, who was still topside and had yet to make her way down into the sewers. But she quickly entered the sewers, cast a quick <em>prayer</em> spell upon the group, and <em>air walked</em> over beside Wakuren, ready to mirror his stated strategies against their amorphous foe.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe headed south and west across the bridge until he could see the greenish blob in the illumination of his hook-pole. He fired off a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the ooze, initiating combat. But Zander, crossing the northernmost bridge, spotted a bit of movement beneath the sewer waters to the north of the bridge; looking over, he saw a mass of brownish sludge flowing across the bottom of the circular collection basin just north of the bridge, where channels to the north, east, and west converged before the waters all went south. It was entirely possible the movement was just normal detritus following the slow currents, but the elf didn't like the way it was veering diagonally right towards him.... "Guys?" he called out. "I think we have a different kind of ooze over this way!"</p><p></p><p>The lantern archon advanced north by Zander and fired off a beam of searing light at the corrupture that was just now raising a part of its amorphous body into a slimy appendage ready to slam the elf sorcerer. Robin saw the combat ahead and wisely decided to continue her song from right where she was, along a passageway connecting the eastern sides of the two northernmost bridges. Xandro slipped past her and headed north to Zander's aid.</p><p></p><p>But Wakuren was already engaged in taking out the arcane ooze, their original goal. He cast another summoning spell, bringing forth another air element hippogriff to the south of the arcane ooze's position. It dove and attacked, ripping apart a piece of acidic flesh with its beak and flinging it away onto the stone floor ringing the hemisphere of sewer waters in which the arcane ooze was floating. With another pulse of energy, the arcane ooze ripped a new round of spells from the spellcasters surrounding it, then slammed the wind-based hippogriff into nothingness with a mighty wall of amorphous flesh.</p><p></p><p>However, Alewyth was ready to add her own extraplanar minions to the fight. She summoned a man-sized earth elemental onto the bridge to the north of the arcane ooze, then almost immediately became intrigued with the stone wall to her right: for there, along the diagonal passageway, was a tiny crack indicating a potential secret door in the wall! Recalling Chud's warning about numerous hidden places in the sewers, she quickly found the release mechanism and a hidden door swung open, into a five-sided room: a square with one corner cut off. There were two barrels in the room and a door in the back, but as intrigued as the dwarven priestess might be, she decided she needed to focus upon the task at hand.</p><p></p><p>The corrupture formed a solid pseudopod above water and brought it crashing down at Zander; it lacked the intellect to realize its attacks were being hampered in some way by the lantern archon's mere presence. But the sudden attack was enough to send the elf's <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> spell veering off much higher than the sorcerer had intended, hitting nowhere near the muddy blob. The lantern archon shot it again with its beam of light, scoring a direct hit.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe, in the meantime, sent another <em>magic missile</em> barrage at the arcane ooze, after having proven to his own satisfaction that the spell was effective against the blob-thing; one of the things they'd learned from the lantern archon the day before was that while arcane oozes were immune to most spells, individual oozes could be affected by different groups of spells - it all depended upon how they had been created, either by splitting off (in which both oozes were identical) or through generation by another means, in which case different spells might be effective against them.</p><p></p><p>Xandro wasn't too sure he wanted to leap into melee combat with an amorphous blob of flesh, so he held his <em>Dardolian Lute</em> in place and fired off a <em>sound burst</em> at the corrupture. Then, cautiously, he advanced towards the northern bridge, ready to fall back if it sent a pseudopod crashing in his direction.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren wasn't in the least bit perturbed to have seen his air element hippogriff get slain so quickly by the arcane ooze; it had, after all, served its purpose, in getting in a good hit before it died and providing the ooze with a target other than the heroes upon which to direct its physical attacks. With that thought in mind, he had prayed for a whole series of <em>summon monster</em> spells that morning, and he fired off the next of them, calling forth a second air element hippogriff to strike the arcane ooze in the same fashion as its predecessor. The arcane ooze absorbed another batch of spells before striking at the hippogriff, and this time it missed - the airborne creature flew up away from its reach and pirouetted in the air to go attack it from another direction. In the meantime, Alewyth's earth elemental continued its attacks from the top of the bridge, leaning over to strike the ooze in its central mass with its rocky fists.</p><p></p><p>The corrupture slammed at Zander again, and while the protective spell prevented any of the creature's acid from doing any harm to the elf, the slam itself hurt (even if much of the blow was absorbed by the <em>stoneskin</em> spell the elf had cast upon himself for this very reason)! He took a step back, away from the bridge and over by the start of the diagonal passageway where Wakuren and Alewyth stood, and fired another <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> at the corrupture. This time the elf's aim was true, but he could tell by the way the ray fizzled away upon impact that the ooze had some sort of inherent defense against spells - bummer! But at least the lantern archon was there with him, firing away with its own beam of light energy. And Xandro used his lute to fire off a second <em>sound burst</em> at the corrupture.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe cast another <em>magic missile</em> spell at the arcane ooze, happy to have hit upon an effective spell so early in the fight. Wakuren summoned an air element wolf and set the flying lupine creature, made up of swirling winds from the Elemental Plane of Air, snapping at the arcane ooze's blobby flesh. And the hippogriff was still at it, slashing with claws and snapping with a beak made up of high-velocity winds. The arcane ooze slammed at the hippogriff and killed it, then for good measure snatched up another batch of latent spell energy from the spellcasters around it. But Alewyth summoned forth a celestial dire badger to nip at the ooze with its teeth and rip at it with its claws from the solid ground alongside the bowl-shaped container filled with sewer water. And her previously-summoned earth elemental continued on its attacks from the bridge.</p><p></p><p>The corrupture had continued drifting slowly south as it attacked and now it was within range of Thurloe, who had headed north to go help deal with it since the summoned creatures seemed to be taking their toll on the arcane ooze. It slammed the spellsword with a slimy appendage, but Thurloe activated his <em>torc of the titans</em> and brought his bastard sword <em>Spellslicer</em> down at the offending appendage, cutting deep into the slimy flesh. Zander cast a third <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> and was pleased to see the third time was apparently the charm, for the creature's entire pliable body visibly shuddered under the spell's effect. And the lantern archon continued on with its own attacks, continuing to send pulses of light from its own glowing body into the putrid mass of the corrupture's viscous form. Spurred on by Robin's continued song of inspirational courage, Xandro flung the <em>Dardolian Lute</em> back over his shoulder and leaned down over the open sewer waters, stabbing the tip of the blade of his <em>frost short sword</em> into the corrupture's acidic flesh.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren channeled some of Cal's divine power into his shield, making it a temporarily even more effective weapon than it already was, and then slammed it into the side of the arcane ooze's fleshy body. The air element wolf went rushing by over the ooze's form, taking a bite out of it on the way by. The ooze responded by siphoning off even more spell energy and slamming a new pseudopod at the wolf, missing the fast-moving creature by a significant distance. As it was starting to wander north along the channel paralleling the diagonal platform, Alewyth readied her dwarven warhammer <em>Sjondra</em> for a well-placed strike once the ooze got within range. But it never got that far, for the earth elemental leaped from the bridge and landed upon the arcane ooze's body, striking down with its rocky fists with everything it had. And that was enough to finally overpower the amorphous creature, whose fluid body finally burst, spilling the elemental into the sludge of the sewer water to its great distaste. It crawled back up onto the platform, dripping wet. Behind it, the celestial dire badger exited the room in which the ooze had laired, heading south out of the open doorway and they heading west to follow the passageway over to the diagonal walkway, upon which the earth elemental was now trudging, heading northeast towards Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>The corrupture, possibly triggered by Zander's <em>ray of enfeeblement</em>, exploded acid in all directions, catching Thurloe, Xandro, and the air element wolf in the blast (but of the three, only the wolf was not suitably protected against the ravages of acid). Thurloe continued his attacks with his bastard sword and quickly sliced the corrupture up enough that its fetid body ruptured, falling apart into clumps of vile matter floating away in the slow currents of the sewer waters. The lantern archon tracked their progress, ensuring the corrupture was well and truly dead.</p><p></p><p>Zander wasted no time in exploring the room Alewyth had unearthed. The five-sided room was apparently a security station, for there were dozens of crossbow bolts in the barrels and a pair of light crossbows hanging on the walls. Opening the door in the back, the elf found a meeting hall: nothing more than a long table and a dozen chairs all around. But in checking out the hall, he discovered another secret door in the northern wall, and when he pushed it open - with a stone-on-stone grinding sound - he was surprised at what he found on the other side, for in the light of his <em>everburning torch</em> he could see a much larger room with a dozen wooden chests lines up against three of the four walls. This, perhaps, was the hidden treasure chamber of the unnamed crime boss!</p><p></p><p>However, the elf had no time to worry about what might be in the chests, for in the middle of the room stood a mass of lumpy flesh balanced upon a trio of elephantine legs. The mass spun about in a circle, bringing the creature's tooth-filled maw facing the elf, while a trio of tentacles spun about in his direction as well; one of them, Zander noticed, held the creature's eyes on one side of its paddle-shaped end. Zander had heard of such creatures: otyughs, they were called, and they were often found in sewer systems, for they fed upon offal. But then the otyugh surprised the elf, for in a gravelly voice it called out, "Who're you?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm--my name is Zander," the elf replied, surprised to be having a conversation with a creature this ugly and fierce-looking - the otyugh looked like it could pop the elf's entire body into its massive mouth with a single tentacle, were it so inclined. Zander took heart in the fact that eating him did not appear to be on the creature's agenda.</p><p></p><p>"Careful out there in the sewers," warned the otyugh. "Blob monsters around - lots of them."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, I'm aware - my friends and I have slain two of them already today - and one yesterday."</p><p></p><p>That got the otyugh's attention. Pointing one of its grasping tentacles to the northeastern corner of the room, it asked, "Big brown blob monster in the catch-basin? You kill it?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, that was one of the two we just killed now." A wide, toothy grin split the otyugh's rotund body. "Then it's safe to go back out!" it chortled, sliding open a pair of hidden, heavy stone doors from the northern wall and squeezing its massive bulk between them. It plopped itself into the slimy sewer waters without a second thought about the chests it was leaving behind; a quick glance showed the elf that however long the otyugh had been hiding in here, it hadn't even bothered trying to open any of the chests. But that tracked with what Zander had heard about otyughs: they were much more interested in eating dung than hoarding gold.</p><p></p><p>Over by the floating chunks of the slain corrupture, Robin paused in her song to open a door behind her. It led to a short corridor, with a closed door at the far end and a partially-open one to the north, about halfway down the tunnel's length. Xandro insisted upon entering the corridor first, his <em>frost short sword</em> at the ready and giving off just enough light for him to see by. He cautiously approached the side door and opened it, releasing a horrid stench - quite a feat in itself when one was already in the sewers, but this was the sickly-sweet smell of corrupted, dead flesh - and poked his head in enough to see what was in the room beyond. There was a pile of bodies, sewer workers by the looks of them, and standing among them were two human-sized masses of dripping slime, a bright pink in color. Partially visible through the slime covering were the human skeletons whose strands of remaining flesh and muscle were being slowly devoured by the pink slime zombies encompassing the human remains. "Guys!" Xandro called out to his companions. "Undead!"</p><p></p><p>That certainly got Wakuren's attention. The half-orc cleric-paladin went <em>air walking</em> across the sewer waters to the open doorway. His summoned air element wolf got there before him and ran into the room, clamping a pair of wind-formed lupine jaws around a pink slime zombie's arm. Alewyth entered the hallway as well but allowed curiosity to get the better of her, passing up the pink slime zombies to see what was in the room at the end of the short hallway. That proved to be a bunkroom, with beds for half a dozen people, each cot holding a wooden chest at its foot. Opening a few of the chests, the dwarf was surprised to see a small bag of coins in the corner of one, no doubt left behind by whoever had last used that bunk. And while the curious dwarf bent over to pocket the coin pouch, her two summoned creatures - the earth elemental and celestial dire badger - were laboriously making their way towards their summoner, having to take the long way around the sewers to get to where she was now. Zander, popping his head back out of the security station to see where his friends had gone, joined the summoned creatures in their trek over by Alewyth and the others.</p><p></p><p>But Alewyth soon found herself under attack. There had been another door out of the bunkroom that a quick examination had shown to be a set of empty cells, no doubt where the members of the thieves guild who had laired here kept their kidnapped victims and such. So, returning to the mausoleum of dead bodies, she helped Wakuren and Xandro fight off the pink slime zombies. Robin resumed her inspirational song, keeping well back from the corridor in case the battle spilled out of the small room with the dead bodies that had been feeding the pink slime zombies before the heroes' arrival. Xandro stabbed at one creature with his blade, slashing open a wide gash in the goopy substance coating the skeleton of the slime's current meal. Wakuren followed up with a slam from his <em>shield of Cal</em>, killing the pinkish ooze and causing the bones supporting it to collapse in a pile. The air element wolf snapped at the other zombie, no doubt thankful its wind-form did not include taste buds. But then the zombie struck the aerial wolf and slew it, the winds making up its form dissipating to nothingness upon its death.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe was still under the effects of the <em>fly</em> spell and crossed over to the southeastern section of the sewers, intrigued by a padlock on the walkway before a closed door. Alighting on the walkway, he picked up the metal padlock and gave it a cursory examination: it had been partially eaten away by acid, by the looks of things. Well, given the number of acidic oozes they'd encountered thus far, he wasn't particularly surprised. Opening the door, though, he did manage to surprise himself, for the room beyond was rather larger, with a stack of crates of various sizes piled up to make a sort of wall dividing the room in half, the crates making an "L" shape by blocking the western half of the front section of the room as well. But of greater surprise was the reddish, bloblike creature in the eastern half of the storeroom, a pulsing thing that looked like nothing so much as a massive heart - the heart from a creature that would have to be at least the size of a roc, if not even bigger!</p><p></p><p>With a pulsating shudder, the bloodheart squirted a fluid substance over at the spellsword; he flinched involuntarily, but the bloodlike fluid missed him, hitting the side of the wall by the door. Then the ooze started moving in his direction, undulating rather like a caterpillar. Then, all of a sudden, a good chunk of the northernmost line of crates - which were lined up about 10 feet tall in a room with a ceiling height of 15 feet - were covered in a <em>darkness</em> effect. Thurloe couldn't tell if the bloodheart had been responsible; as far as he knew most blob-monsters didn't cast spells, but he'd never seen anything like the bloodheart before and had no real idea about its capabilities. He brought <em>Spellslicer</em> crashing down upon the bloodheart's form, slicing it in deep - too deep, as he soon found out, for he was unable to extract it; the blade seemed to be coated in some interior substance of an extremely adhesive nature. (Belatedly, Thurloe surmised that was probably what the creature had spit at him earlier; it would be a distinct advantage for such a slow-moving creature to be able to "glue" its prey in place to give it a chance to catch up to it.)</p><p></p><p>Alewyth, seeing how quickly Xandro and Wakuren had dispatched the first of the pink slime zombies, decided to leave the other one in their care and wandered over to see what mischief Thurloe had gotten himself into. <em>Air walking</em> across the sewer stream separating them, she saw him in combat with the bloodheart. "Don't use you hammer against it!" Thurloe cautioned her when he saw her approach. "Damn thing's sticky!" By then, Zander had approached close enough to see their dilemma and sent a <em>scorching ray</em> across the sewer stream to strike the bloodheart. The lantern archon floated over as well and shot its beam of light at it. The bloodheart, in the manner of many of the oozes the group had fought the past two days, formed a pseudopod and slammed it into Thurloe, but the spellsword was lucky enough to wrench himself away before he could get stuck to the ooze.</p><p></p><p>Xandro finally slew the last of the pink slime zombies and Wakuren went over to aid the others in their own fight with the bloodheart. As Alewyth's summoned creatures continued plodding in her direction, Wakuren <em>air walked</em> across the stream of slow-drifting sewer waters to stand by Thurloe. And then he got a surprise as a mouth full of sharp teeth rose up from the sewer waters below him and almost engulfed his foot; he managed to "run" up the air enough at the last moment that the fiendish giant crocodile's wicked teeth just grazed the half-orc's boots. But inside the warehouse, hidden in the center of the <em>darkness</em> spell he'd cast on the other side of the "L-shaped" pile of crates, the bullywug oozemaster <strong>Pluglorgh</strong> grinned a froggy grin at the thought of his summoned creatures dealing with those intruders who survived the oozes he'd helped bring into being with his twisted magics.</p><p></p><p>Another crocodilian head rose up to attack Alewyth, but she gained altitude just like Wakuren had and avoided his horrid bite. Then, not liking the idea of simply retreating skyward to safety, she "ran" back down and brought <em>Sjondra</em> crashing down upon the giant reptile's head. The strike was spot on, killing the creature instantly and its immediate disappearance upon its death warned the others that this particular creature hadn't been a local sewer denizen, but something summoned here for the express purpose of fighting them off.</p><p></p><p>Rounding the corner of the northernmost bridge, the earth elemental stomped southward towards Alewyth, the celestial dire badger following behind on its stumpy little legs. By this time, each had spent more time on the Material Plane trying to catch up to their summoner than they had in combat, and the clock was ticking on their particular <em>summon monster</em> spells.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe pulled out his <em>wand of magic missile</em> and fired a blast off at the bloodheart, while Zander struck it with another <em>scorching ray</em> spell and the lantern archon sent another beam of energy shooting at the pulsating ooze. The bloodheart sent another squirt of its sticky "blood" at Thurloe, but he easily dodged it and came to no harm. From behind the spellsword, Xandro came running up, just in time to stab the blade of his <em>frost short sword</em> into the side of a fiendish giant crocodile's head as it popped back up in an attempt to bite Alewyth. Wakuren dropped back down and sent his <em>shield of Cal</em> slamming into the next crocodilian head to arise from the sewer waters, but now a pair of smaller reptiles had been brought into play, Pluglorgh having summoned a pair of fiendish crocodiles into the sewer waters to aid their giant brethren. The smaller pair snapped at Alewyth and Thurloe, neither with any success.</p><p></p><p>Realizing the crocodiles were little more than a distraction, Alewyth cast a <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell and sent it flying over at the bloodheart, whose pulsating body was blocking the entrance into the room beyond. Then she motioned for Zander to approach, saying she'd carry him over to the other side of the sewer stream, for the elf was one of the only heroes without any means of walking or flying.</p><p></p><p>Perhaps feeling their ties to the Material Plane slipping away, in a desperation move the earth elemental scooped the celestial dire badger in his rocky hands and tossed him across the sewer waters to land upon the bloodheart. The elemental faded away immediately thereafter; the badger raged and managed to claw its way deep into the bloodheart's body, getting itself inextricably glued to the ooze's interior before fading back to its own home plane seconds thereafter. Thurloe shot another <em>magic missile</em> barrage at the bloodheart, and then Zander finally killed the thing off with a well-placed <em>lightning bolt</em>. As Thurloe saw the bloodheart's body start to seep away and his bastard sword started tilting over, he flew over across the gap and grabbed it up by its hilt. As he had hoped, once the bloodheart died and started dissolving, its sticky blood lost its adhesive properties and he was able to extricate <em>Spellslicer</em> without any problems.</p><p></p><p>The lantern archon was the first to enter the warehouse, floating in through the open doorway over the melting corpse of the slain bloodheart. It cast a <em>continual flame</em> spell upon one of the crates, the light-based spell overcoming the power of the <em>darkness</em> spell's effect. With Robin's song inspiring him to greatness, Xandro readied his blade and struck out at a fiendish crocodile when it rose its head above the water's surface, slaying it in one blow.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren strode into the warehouse and rounded the corner. As such, he was the first to spot Pluglorgh and realize the bullywug was the "man-sized" frog the sewer workers had spotted several times in the weeks previous. He instinctively scanned the bullywug's aura and was not in the least bit surprised to detect the palpable evil emanating from the frog-man's life-energy. He was rather surprised to see the bullywug actively sweating, though - he hadn't been aware amphibians could do that. It didn't seem like it was just sewer water beading on its skin after a recent dip, either, for new beads of liquid were forming on the bullywug's hide as he watched. Staring back at the half-orc with its beady eyes, Pluglorgh casually cast a <em>magic circle against good</em> spell, even further indicating his evil nature.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth stomped into the warehouse, moved over by Wakuren, and sent her <em>spiritual warhammer</em> crashing into the startled bullywug's face. Thurloe followed into the warehouse, but flew over the wall of crates to land at Pluglorgh's side. Zander activated his magical headband and granted himself <em>true seeing</em>, making sure nothing was out of place and there were no invisible entities lurking about. The lantern archon flew over the front side of the crates and sent its light beam flashing down at the bullywug.</p><p></p><p>Over on the other side of the sewer stream, Robin noticed the level of light plummeting as most of the others all moved into the warehouse. Wary of errant crocodiles, she advanced closer to the dissolving bloodheart, playing her song of inspirational courage loud enough that her new friends would still be able to hear her. Xandro gave her a thumbs up and then leaped across the sewer "moat," landing safely on the warehouse side.</p><p></p><p>Inside, Wakuren had re-energized his <em>shield of Cal</em> with borrowed energy from his chosen deity and slammed it into Pluglorgh. Panicked, the bullywug oozemaster secreted some gray ooze acid from his pores and slammed his hand into Thurloe's face, surprised beyond belief when the acidic touch had no effect at all. He backed into the wall of crates, squeezing himself through an inch-wide crack between two stacks of wooden crates, his oozelike body fitting perfectly well through the narrow gap and reforming to its normal girth upon the other side. Alewyth ran around the crates the long way, her <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell trailing behind her, while Thurloe flew back over the wall of crates. Zander, standing near the doorway, managed to blast Pluglorgh with a <em>scorching ray</em> spell, the lantern archon got in one final beam, and then Xandro ran into the warehouse, stabbing the blade of his <em>frost short sword</em> into the bullywug's gut. With a final croak of surprise, Pluglorgh collapsed upon the floor of the warehouse he'd repurposed as his own lair.</p><p></p><p>"Well," sighed Thurloe, wiping the remaining goo off of his bastard sword's blade with a rag, "that takes care of that. Let's get out of here - this place stinks!"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, we're not done in the sewers just yet," warned Zander, explaining about the treasure chests he'd unearthed and filling them in on his encounter with the otyugh. Xandro examined each chest with care, disabling a <em>fire trap</em> spell from each, revealing thousands of coins. a dozen vials of black fluid, a mirror, a rapier, and a pair of goggles. A <em>detect magic</em> spell from Thurloe revealed the contents of the vials and the last three items were magical in nature, and although some quick experimentation revealed the eyewear to be <em>goggles of night</em> and the rapier to be enhanced to allow for particularly deadly strikes in the right hands, the mirror showed nothing but complete blackness. Thurloe surmised it was probably showing the image from another, similar mirror that was likewise stuck inside some chest, long since forgotten and hidden away from view. It wouldn't be until later that they found the vials of fluid to be <em>bladeshimmer</em>, a substance that rendered any item coated in it invisible until used to attack someone, much like the spell itself.</p><p></p><p>By unanimous decision, it was determined Xandro would take the goggles and the rapier for his own use, as he could make the best use of them. "You going to name this blade?" Thurloe asked him, for the bard had never bothered naming the <em>frost short sword</em> he'd been using as his primary weapon for the past several months.</p><p></p><p>"He won't need to," piped up Robin. "It's already got a name: <em>Deathwhisper</em>." Then, seeing the surprised looks she was getting from her new friends, she asked, "What? I'm a bard - we pick up stray bits of info like that. But it matches the description of the rapier used by a famous crime lord who used to work in this area - Drayleton and a few nearby cities."</p><p></p><p>"<em>Deathwhisper</em>," repeated Xandro, examining his new blade. "I like it."</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p><em>Deathwhisper</em> is a <em>+2 rapier</em> that adds +3d6 points of sneak attack damage to a wielder who already has the sneak attack class ability. It's my way of helping Xandro "catch up" to his appropriate level of roguishness if he hadn't spent 6 levels on being a bard, which he no longer likes.</p><p></p><p>The PCs made it to 10th level at the end of this adventure. Naturally, Harry had Xandro take a 4th level of rogue - his bard days are now behind him.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: Not having anything appropriate to represent the generic ooze monsters, I wore a white "Walking Dead" T-shirt to (sort of) represent the pink slime zombies.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8949218, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 45: FORMLESS DREAD[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 9[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 4[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 9[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Robin the Balladeer, human bard 2[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 18 February 2023 - - - The town of Drayleton was overall somewhat shabby in appearance; if there was a "good part" of town where the nobility made their homes, they were doing an exceptional job of keeping the area well hidden from view. Everything, from the crumbling cobblestones on the streets to the numerous cracks in the sides of buildings and missing shingles on the roofs above spoke of a town where "good enough for now" seemed to be the rule of the day. Still, the taverns were well populated, and asking about for anyone who'd been sleeping nonstop for any amount of time granted Xandro an almost immediate answer: he was not only told to go to the cottage of [B]Chud Muckwader[/B] but given directions on how to get there. And so it was, after a quick meal of "good enough" tavern food as a "make friendly with the locals" lunch, the five dreamwalkers and their small entourage showed up at the Muckwader residence, where Chud's wife, a young peasant woman named [B]Grelda[/B], answered the door with a curious look at the group assembled before her. But once Alewyth explained their reason for coming, Grelda was more than happy to let them into the small cottage, for her husband had been asleep for weeks now and she'd been forced to replace him as a sewer worker if she wanted to make enough money to cover the rent of their meager dwelling. "I know this place isn't much," she said, "but it's all we have. And at least there's just been me to feed while Chud's been sleepin', so there's that." Grelda allowed Wakuren and Thurloe to drag Chud's sleeping body out of bed and place him flat on the middle of the floor, where there was enough room for the five dreamwalkers to sit around him in a circle. Zander activated his [I]jade cooshee[/I] and instructed the full-sized elven dog to stay on guard duty while they entered Chud's dream, and the canine thumped his tail in understanding. Grelda just sat on the edge of the bed, watching in confusion as the five strangers all closed their eyes and went to sleep. "Hey, kupo!" replied Mogo when his five students approached him in the Corridor of Dreams. As always, he was hovering by one of the seemingly infinite doors in the twisting hallways, his little bat-wings holding him aloft at the level of the doorknob. Giving the knob a twist, he opened the door and ushered the five inside. "Good luck, kupo!" he said as they entered Chud's dream, one by one, through the doorway. The dreamscape the five entered was not one they would have guessed to be occupied by a sewer worker. It was contained to a single room, some 15 feet by 20 feet with an ornate tub in the center; the walls and floor were of a rich marble, gleaming with condensation. Chud lay back against the slope of the tub, luxuriating in a bubble bath of warm water, a side table near his right hand holding a tray of assorted cheeses and a flute of an exotic champagne. "Ah, this is the life!" Chud sighed, taking a bite of cheese and following it with a sip of champagne. If he was at all disconcerted by the fact five strangers had entered the room during his soak, he gave no indication of it. "Mr. Muckwader," began Alewyth, "we are here--" "Please, by all means, call me Chud," interrupted the soaking sewer worker, blowing a clump of sudsy bubbles from his hand. "All my friends do." "Chud, then," amended the dwarven priestess, "we are here in your dream because--" But she was once again interrupted, this time not by Chud but by dint of something falling into the tub with him with an audible plop. Another object hit the soapy waters with a splash, followed by another, and then a fourth struck the priestess on the top of her head, moving around in her hair. As if this were the signal for the start of the deluge, it began raining toads in earnest, half of them ending up in the tub with Chud and the others landing on the side of the tub where Alewyth was standing, despite the fact the bathing room had a solid ceiling overhead. The toads were all brightly colored in a variety of hues - bright red, flashy green, vibrant yellow and the darkest black, a brilliant magenta, and so on - and each was no bigger than the final joint of Alewyth's thumb. They scooted around and hopped in confusion, and Alewyth could tell by the dampness on their moist skin that they were likely coated in a natural poison, in the manner that many jungle toads were - it explained the bright coloration, as well, it being one of nature's ways of warning of a venomous creature. Zander took the initiative to rid the room of the toads as best he could, by casting a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell into the constant flow falling from the ceiling along the side of the tub. Xandro used his [I]Dardolian Lute[/I] to send a [I]sound burst[/I] into the swarm's midst as well, each adventurer realizing using combat weapons against a horde of tiny critters was certainly not the way to go. Their attacks killed dozens of the toads, but just as many came falling through the ceiling to replace them. "Come on! Get out of the tub!" encouraged Alewyth, but Chud seemed more concerned about guarding his plate of cheeses from being contaminated by the falling toads, and he swore aloud when one of the tiny amphibians toppled his flute of champagne, spilling most of its contents onto the marble floor, where numerous toads slipped around in it as they scrabbled for purchase on the slick surface. Since Chud seemed unwilling to exit the tub of his own volition, Thurloe tried convincing him by using his lucid dreaming training to actively turn the tub's water from "warm and clean" to "foul like you'd expect to find in a sewer." He was somewhat successful, altering the water but the encompassing layer of bubbly suds hid the foul water from view and Chud was likely already rather desensitized to the smell of sewer water in any case. Unwilling to be deterred, Thurloe upped the ante by turning Chud's exotic cheeses into dead rats, and that got the sewer worker's notice all right, especially as he'd been biting down upon a cube of cheese when it suddenly became a dead rat - or half of one in any case, as the other half had already been bitten off and was filling Chud's mouth. Wakuren decided to try to turn the flow of replacement poisonous toads off at the source by casting a [I]gust of wind[/I] spell aimed from the floor all around the tub straight up. The poisonous toads on the marble floor were all thrown up into the air near the ceiling, and the new ones falling through the somehow intangible ceiling didn't get far before the air blasts sent them right back up near where they'd come from. With the toads all well away from Chud and the other dreamwalkers in the tall-ceilinged room, it was simplicity itself for Zander and Thurloe to bombard the levitating toads with a series of [I]scorching ray[/I] spells, while Chud spat the half a dead rat from his mouth and begrudgingly climbed out of the tub, soap suds and sewer filth running down his legs. Alewyth spun around to spare herself the view and breathed a sigh of relief when the walls of the dreamscape started melting away, a sure sign that Chud Muckwader was waking from his dream. Chud sat up from his reclining position and looked around in puzzlement at the strangers sitting around him in a circle; they seemed somewhat familiar, but the specifics of the dream which had held him in a sort of magical stasis were already starting to fade. But Grelda gave him a big hug and cried out, "You're awake!" before filling him in on what had happened these past few weeks. Chud had a hard time believing he'd actually been asleep for the better part of three weeks, and was aghast to find out Grelda had been doing his work in the sewers in the meantime. "But it's dangerous!" he exclaimed. "There have already been three sewer workers gone missing!" "Three?" scoffed Grelda. "It's up to more like eight since you've been sleepin'!" Together, the young couple were able to tell the adventurers what they knew about the sewers. A total of eight sewer workers had gone missing in the past month or so, with no particular pattern to their disappearances other than they had all been assigned to the northern section of the sewers. Grelda said she'd heard some of the other workers talking about having seen a frog as big as a man in the sewers, and Chud confirmed he'd heard such rumors himself but had assumed they were nothing more than tricks of the shadows. "You say you're adventurers, though?" Chud hazarded. "Would you be willing to go check out the situation in the sewers? I can't pay you or nothin', but there's tales of a hidden treasure trove somewhere in the sewers, the loot of a noted ganglord who died without revealing his stash of stolen goods." Alewyth, looking at Wakuren for confirmation, agreed on behalf of the group that they'd be more than willing to check out the sewers. Thurloe just frowned in irritation. "Do you at least have some kind of a map or anything?" he asked the Muckwaders. Chud shrugged and told the spellsword that as far as he was aware no such map existed, and if it did it'd likely not be very accurate in any case, on account of various factions adding hidden rooms and digging secret tunnels in the sewer system beneath the city over the years. "There used to be several active thieves guilds in the city, all fightin' amongst themselves and all," he added. "All of 'em used the sewers as a means of movin' about the town unseen, and all of 'em probably made their own additions to the normal sewer tunnels, like." But he did offer to take the adventurers to the sewer entrance closest to the section of tunnels where the disappearances had occurred. "Best cast whatever spells we want protecting us when we go down into the sewers," suggested Thurloe when they got in place. "No idea what we'll find down there." He cast a [I]mage armor[/I] spell upon himself, with Zander following suit. The elf sorcerer also cast a [I]bear's endurance[/I] spell on himself, hoping to increase his vitality enough he wasn't a drain upon the healers' resources. For the same reason, he cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell upon himself, and upon asking how much the diamond dust cost to cast the spell and confirming Zander had enough dust for a second dose, Wakuren paid the sorcerer to cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell upon him as well. The half-orc was still getting used to the idea he was no longer the combat machine he had once been when he had a powerslug living inside him. boosting his physical attributes to the limits of mortal existence. Wakuren also cast an [I]air walk[/I] spell on himself, deciding it would likely be useful as Chud had warned them that while there were walkways throughout the sewers, not all passageways had them and it was sometimes necessary to walk knee-deep in the sewage-tainted waters. Upon Thurloe's suggestion, both Alewyth and Wakuren cast [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spells upon themselves, and the dwarven priestess also cast a [I]magic vestment[/I] spell over her armor. Finally, Xandro cast a [I]heroism[/I] spell on Wakuren, hoping to boost his combat effectiveness to somewhere nearer the level where it had been before the powerslug left his body upon his death. Then, when all of the spellcasters had announced their readiness, Wakuren activated his [I]ring of invisibility[/I] and started climbing down the ladder on the side of the narrow tunnel exposed when Chud pulled away the manhole cover he had led them to. At the bottom of the shaft - it was about 15 feet down, Wakuren noted, and it looked like that was the normal ceiling height down here below the town - the half-orc stepped onto the solid walkway and then immediately stepped out over the flowing sewer water just beyond. Looking about the area with his orcish darkvision (for there was no light down here in the sewers but the feeble illumination drifting down from the open manhole above), he could see three east-to-west bridges crossing the 20 feet of the sewer waters that were slowly flowing from north to south. On the northernmost bridge, he saw a human sewer worker stumbling about, as if drunk or nearly unconscious. The man wore a helmet on his head, upon which had been affixed an unlit candle. Fearing he'd fall over the side of the bridge - for there were no railings to prevent such an occurrence - Wakuren called for the man to sit down on the steps while he made his way over to him, for each bridge had about four steps on either side, raising the central portion of the bridge about 8-10 feet higher than the walkways, no doubt to prevent floating branches or whatnot to get obstructed as they drifted by. The man, however, either didn't hear Wakuren's call or blatantly ignored it, for he continued on up the stairs and then staggered across the bridge, nearly falling on the first step down on the other side. With a sigh of exasperation, Wakuren started making his way towards the worker, running five feet or so above the slowly-flowing sewer waters. Thurloe was the second one down the ladder, and he looked over to his left upon hitting the lower platform, noting an open shed of sorts where various tools were stored. He helped himself to a wooden pole with a hook on the end, likely used to fish objects out of the sewer waters without having to enter them directly. He cast a [I]light[/I] spell upon the end of the hook, creating himself a temporary light source. Alewyth was down next, and her dwarven darkvision allowed her not to worry about illumination; she went north until the walkway turned into a bridge heading east, which she saw she'd need to take if she was to catch up to the staggering man on the northernmost bridge, the two bridges being connected by a north-south walkway along their eastern sides. It was at that time the three adventurers who had clambered down into the sewers thus far each instinctively grabbed the sides of their heads, for there was a sudden pain in their temples which, only after the event had occurred, did they realize was caused by the act of one of their most powerful spells being ripped from their brains. They'd never experienced such a thing before, but they were well aware of the possibility, for Zander's cooshee had the magical ability to "fetch" spells from spellcasting foes in such a manner. Xandro was the next to shimmy down the ladder, his [I]Dardolian Lute[/I] on his back with his light crossbow; as soon as he hit the walkway he pulled out his [I]frost short sword[/I] and by its feeble blue glow started following Alewyth. Robin was right behind him, but she grabbed her own lute instead of her weapon upon reaching the walkway, having been told her primary job on the team was to play her song of inspirational courage, freeing Xandro up for other actions. For now, though, she followed Xandro silently, feeling it a bit out of place to start her song in the middle of the sewers, where the only noise was the constant dripping of water from overhead and the lapping flow of the stream of sewage in the tunnels. Plus, it was taking her a bit of time to get used to the smell; playing and singing under these circumstances was going to be a [I]lot[/I] different than playing in a packed tavern hall! Zander scurried down the ladder next and followed the others across the middle bridge, pulling out his [I]everburning torch[/I] as soon as he hit the walkway. Thurloe followed, holding his bastard sword in one hand and his glowing hook-pole in the other. By then, Alewyth had almost reached the northernmost bridge, where the staggering sewer worker was still looking as if likely to fall over at any moment. Then another psychic blast went through the sewers, and the spellcasters once again felt one of their most powerful spells being ripped from their minds. However, by that time, Wakuren had advanced close enough to the staggering sewer worker that he could see all was not well with him. It had nothing to do with his wavering about or his seemingly drunken stance, but rather the fact that his helmet seemed to be melting into the side of his head, and there was a patch of his overcoat the exact same color as his skin, as if a giant paintbrush had blobbed its flesh-toned paint a little beyond where that particular color should have been. Wakuren was no longer sure of what exactly he was looking at, but he was now fairly certain it was no human. The realization came a moment too late, for the reason stealer - a blob of amorphous jelly that had taken on the shape of the man it had killed the previous day, and had been walking around in his form until just recently, when his stolen shape started losing its cohesiveness - slammed at Wakuren with an arm and fist that morphed into a boneless pseudopod by the time it hit. As Xandro and Robin advanced closer, Zander cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] at the increasingly shapeless blob attacking the half-orc. The jolt of magical electricity burned off an outer layer of the creature's amorphous flesh and an entire section of its body turned black and crumbly. Wakuren gave the crispy form a solid blow with his [I]shield of Cal[/I] and the reason stealer lost all cohesiveness, splashing into a thick, wet, puddle and draining off into the sewer waters below Wakuren's feet. But this was not some sneaky escape attempt; the shapeshifting jelly had been slain, once and for all. Thurloe turned and went back the way he had come, passing the shed where he'd grabbed up the hook-pole and continuing on in a southernly direction, for there were passageways branching off from there as well. Zander, on a whim, followed. Alewyth continued towards the northernmost bridge, with Xandro and Robin following. And then there was another arcane pulse, after which the spellcasters had found more of their unused magical energy had been ripped from their minds - the reason stealer had [I]not[/I] been the creature responsible, apparently! Wakuren had heard about a creature said to have the ability to rip away prepared spells (or potential spell energy), and called out, "Guys! I think we're dealing with an arcane ooze!" Still [I]air walking[/I], he crossed over to a diagonal platform leading southwest and continued hovering a few inches above the surface, not really noticing his feet weren't touching the floor. But then he saw, through the space beneath yet another bridge, an enormous blob of amorphous flesh pulsing with energy and assumed he'd found the spell-stealing culprit. Calling to his friends that he thought he'd found the arcane ooze, he cast a summoning spell that formed a hippogriff from a blast of swirling air. The air element hippogriff went diving down towards the arcane ooze, which was holed up in a vast, circular bowl of sewer water at the end of a tunnel. It bit at the blobby creature, then pulled back its beak in surprise as the ooze's acid started eating away at what little physical form the air-based creature actually had. Alerted to the activity, Thurloe crept up along the tunnel with the bridge until he could see the arcane ooze's bright green coloration in the bowl just ahead. Alewyth, having crossed the northernmost bridge and advanced down the diagonal pathway beside Wakuren, spotted the blob-monster as well. Another pulse of energy and the spellcasters all cried out in pain again as yet another batch of spells were ripped from their minds. At the same time, the ooze formed a pseudopod and slammed the air element hippogriff, slaying it instantly. As Xandro and Robin moved to catch up to Alewyth, Zander fired a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell at the ooze, surprised to see the electrical energy coruscate all across the ooze's amorphous body, powering it up in some way. Which particular way was made clear when it surged ahead down the channel, heading north towards Wakuren and Alewyth at a faster-than-normal speed. Wakuren did not like the odds they were facing: up against a supercharged arcane ooze that was rapidly depleting their more powerful spells, the means by which they might be able to defeat it. "Fall back!" he cried, running over the sewer waters on his way back towards the ladder to the surface, grabbing up Alewyth and giving her a boost over to the southern passageway. Thurloe and Zander were already fairly close to the ladder and made it up without incident, but the now-speedy ooze was making a beeline towards Xandro and Robin, who had to backtrack east along the northernmost bridge in order to move south to go west along the next bridge in line. It didn't look like they were going to be able to outrace the ooze, but Wakuren, taking a shortcut directly across the wide flow of the sewer waters, got there before the ooze did and held out [I]Hesperna's lamp[/I], allowing the two bards to touch it and call out the command word that shunted them inside. Then, before the ooze could reach him, he cast a [I]gaseous form[/I] spell on himself and dissipated into a fine mist, something to which the acidic ooze couldn't deal any damage. Drifting slowly and serenely towards the vertical shaft to the surface, Wakuren rose up beside the ladder and only regained his solid form once he was standing on the street and the manhole cover was back in place. The arcane ooze, a mindless scavenger, saw no prey before it and returned to its erstwhile lair, the bowl at the end of the side-channel of filthy water. "We'll be wantin' t' warn the townsfolk not t' be entering the sewers before we can go back and kill that arcane ooze," Alewyth told the others. "We'll put Chud on that task," Thurloe suggested. "In the meantime, what are our plans for dealing with that thing?" "I have a few thoughts on that," Wakuren promised the spellsword. Sure enough, they found a room for the night (a single room, for Scarlie would be the only one sleeping there, the others spending the night in the magical lamp), and then Wakuren laid out his plans. "We'll all need protection from acid," he started. "Between us, Alewyth and I will be able to cast [I]resist acid[/I] spells on all of us. But I think it might be a good idea to cast a [I]planar ally[/I] spell as well, and bargain for a week's service from an extraplanar entity." "What kind of extraplanar entity?" Zander asked, curious. "I was thinking a lantern archon." The next morning found the adventuring team back over at the manhole cover from which they'd exited the previous day, ready to make another go at it. But this time, the five dreamwalkers were all protected by a [I]resist acid[/I] spell, with Thurloe and Zander having cast their traditional [I]mage armor[/I] and [I]shield[/I] spells upon themselves; Alewyth having boosted her effectiveness with [I]magic vestment[/I], [I]air walk[/I], and [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spells (Wakuren having cast the latter two spells upon himself as well); Thurloe casting [I]fly[/I] and [I]false life[/I] spells upon himself and Zander casting [I]stoneskin[/I] to keep himself safe from physical harm; and then there were a few additional spells cast upon others: Xandro cast [I]heroism[/I] spells upon Alewyth, Thurloe, and Wakuren (the three most likely to run into melee combat), Alewyth cast an [I]aid[/I] spell upon Zander (to help keep the elf safe from harm - Aerik knew he needed all the help he could get on that front!), and finally Zander cast a [I]haste[/I] spell upon the assembled group. "That it? We good?" asked Thurloe, looking around. Seeing that was the case, he lifted the manhole cover and was the first one down the ladder, grabbing up a hook-pole from the shed and casting a [I]light[/I] spell on the end of it, the same way he'd done the day before. Zander was the next one down, using his [I]everburning torch[/I] to guide his way as he headed across the middle bridge so he could cross the northern bridge in the opposite direction and make his way to the ooze's lair. The lantern archon, a ball of glowing light, hovered down the vertical tunnel and floated across the span of brackish sewer water, alert for danger. Robin unpacked her lute as soon as she got down the ladder and immediately began the words to her song of inspirational courage; there was no point in delaying the advantages the song provided. Xandro followed her, [I]frost short sword[/I] out and ready for action. Wakuren was next down the ladder, [I]air walking[/I] across the sewer waters by the lantern archon before veering to the west to go down the diagonal tunnel to the arcane ooze's lair. He had some new strategies for taking the ooze out quickly, before it had a chance to steal too many of their prepared spells. But by then the ooze had detected their presence and cast out with its spell-leeching field, grabbing a spell from each of the heroes save Alewyth, who was still topside and had yet to make her way down into the sewers. But she quickly entered the sewers, cast a quick [I]prayer[/I] spell upon the group, and [I]air walked[/I] over beside Wakuren, ready to mirror his stated strategies against their amorphous foe. Thurloe headed south and west across the bridge until he could see the greenish blob in the illumination of his hook-pole. He fired off a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the ooze, initiating combat. But Zander, crossing the northernmost bridge, spotted a bit of movement beneath the sewer waters to the north of the bridge; looking over, he saw a mass of brownish sludge flowing across the bottom of the circular collection basin just north of the bridge, where channels to the north, east, and west converged before the waters all went south. It was entirely possible the movement was just normal detritus following the slow currents, but the elf didn't like the way it was veering diagonally right towards him.... "Guys?" he called out. "I think we have a different kind of ooze over this way!" The lantern archon advanced north by Zander and fired off a beam of searing light at the corrupture that was just now raising a part of its amorphous body into a slimy appendage ready to slam the elf sorcerer. Robin saw the combat ahead and wisely decided to continue her song from right where she was, along a passageway connecting the eastern sides of the two northernmost bridges. Xandro slipped past her and headed north to Zander's aid. But Wakuren was already engaged in taking out the arcane ooze, their original goal. He cast another summoning spell, bringing forth another air element hippogriff to the south of the arcane ooze's position. It dove and attacked, ripping apart a piece of acidic flesh with its beak and flinging it away onto the stone floor ringing the hemisphere of sewer waters in which the arcane ooze was floating. With another pulse of energy, the arcane ooze ripped a new round of spells from the spellcasters surrounding it, then slammed the wind-based hippogriff into nothingness with a mighty wall of amorphous flesh. However, Alewyth was ready to add her own extraplanar minions to the fight. She summoned a man-sized earth elemental onto the bridge to the north of the arcane ooze, then almost immediately became intrigued with the stone wall to her right: for there, along the diagonal passageway, was a tiny crack indicating a potential secret door in the wall! Recalling Chud's warning about numerous hidden places in the sewers, she quickly found the release mechanism and a hidden door swung open, into a five-sided room: a square with one corner cut off. There were two barrels in the room and a door in the back, but as intrigued as the dwarven priestess might be, she decided she needed to focus upon the task at hand. The corrupture formed a solid pseudopod above water and brought it crashing down at Zander; it lacked the intellect to realize its attacks were being hampered in some way by the lantern archon's mere presence. But the sudden attack was enough to send the elf's [I]ray of enfeeblement[/I] spell veering off much higher than the sorcerer had intended, hitting nowhere near the muddy blob. The lantern archon shot it again with its beam of light, scoring a direct hit. Thurloe, in the meantime, sent another [I]magic missile[/I] barrage at the arcane ooze, after having proven to his own satisfaction that the spell was effective against the blob-thing; one of the things they'd learned from the lantern archon the day before was that while arcane oozes were immune to most spells, individual oozes could be affected by different groups of spells - it all depended upon how they had been created, either by splitting off (in which both oozes were identical) or through generation by another means, in which case different spells might be effective against them. Xandro wasn't too sure he wanted to leap into melee combat with an amorphous blob of flesh, so he held his [I]Dardolian Lute[/I] in place and fired off a [I]sound burst[/I] at the corrupture. Then, cautiously, he advanced towards the northern bridge, ready to fall back if it sent a pseudopod crashing in his direction. Wakuren wasn't in the least bit perturbed to have seen his air element hippogriff get slain so quickly by the arcane ooze; it had, after all, served its purpose, in getting in a good hit before it died and providing the ooze with a target other than the heroes upon which to direct its physical attacks. With that thought in mind, he had prayed for a whole series of [I]summon monster[/I] spells that morning, and he fired off the next of them, calling forth a second air element hippogriff to strike the arcane ooze in the same fashion as its predecessor. The arcane ooze absorbed another batch of spells before striking at the hippogriff, and this time it missed - the airborne creature flew up away from its reach and pirouetted in the air to go attack it from another direction. In the meantime, Alewyth's earth elemental continued its attacks from the top of the bridge, leaning over to strike the ooze in its central mass with its rocky fists. The corrupture slammed at Zander again, and while the protective spell prevented any of the creature's acid from doing any harm to the elf, the slam itself hurt (even if much of the blow was absorbed by the [I]stoneskin[/I] spell the elf had cast upon himself for this very reason)! He took a step back, away from the bridge and over by the start of the diagonal passageway where Wakuren and Alewyth stood, and fired another [I]ray of enfeeblement[/I] at the corrupture. This time the elf's aim was true, but he could tell by the way the ray fizzled away upon impact that the ooze had some sort of inherent defense against spells - bummer! But at least the lantern archon was there with him, firing away with its own beam of light energy. And Xandro used his lute to fire off a second [I]sound burst[/I] at the corrupture. Thurloe cast another [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the arcane ooze, happy to have hit upon an effective spell so early in the fight. Wakuren summoned an air element wolf and set the flying lupine creature, made up of swirling winds from the Elemental Plane of Air, snapping at the arcane ooze's blobby flesh. And the hippogriff was still at it, slashing with claws and snapping with a beak made up of high-velocity winds. The arcane ooze slammed at the hippogriff and killed it, then for good measure snatched up another batch of latent spell energy from the spellcasters around it. But Alewyth summoned forth a celestial dire badger to nip at the ooze with its teeth and rip at it with its claws from the solid ground alongside the bowl-shaped container filled with sewer water. And her previously-summoned earth elemental continued on its attacks from the bridge. The corrupture had continued drifting slowly south as it attacked and now it was within range of Thurloe, who had headed north to go help deal with it since the summoned creatures seemed to be taking their toll on the arcane ooze. It slammed the spellsword with a slimy appendage, but Thurloe activated his [I]torc of the titans[/I] and brought his bastard sword [I]Spellslicer[/I] down at the offending appendage, cutting deep into the slimy flesh. Zander cast a third [I]ray of enfeeblement[/I] and was pleased to see the third time was apparently the charm, for the creature's entire pliable body visibly shuddered under the spell's effect. And the lantern archon continued on with its own attacks, continuing to send pulses of light from its own glowing body into the putrid mass of the corrupture's viscous form. Spurred on by Robin's continued song of inspirational courage, Xandro flung the [I]Dardolian Lute[/I] back over his shoulder and leaned down over the open sewer waters, stabbing the tip of the blade of his [I]frost short sword[/I] into the corrupture's acidic flesh. Wakuren channeled some of Cal's divine power into his shield, making it a temporarily even more effective weapon than it already was, and then slammed it into the side of the arcane ooze's fleshy body. The air element wolf went rushing by over the ooze's form, taking a bite out of it on the way by. The ooze responded by siphoning off even more spell energy and slamming a new pseudopod at the wolf, missing the fast-moving creature by a significant distance. As it was starting to wander north along the channel paralleling the diagonal platform, Alewyth readied her dwarven warhammer [I]Sjondra[/I] for a well-placed strike once the ooze got within range. But it never got that far, for the earth elemental leaped from the bridge and landed upon the arcane ooze's body, striking down with its rocky fists with everything it had. And that was enough to finally overpower the amorphous creature, whose fluid body finally burst, spilling the elemental into the sludge of the sewer water to its great distaste. It crawled back up onto the platform, dripping wet. Behind it, the celestial dire badger exited the room in which the ooze had laired, heading south out of the open doorway and they heading west to follow the passageway over to the diagonal walkway, upon which the earth elemental was now trudging, heading northeast towards Alewyth. The corrupture, possibly triggered by Zander's [I]ray of enfeeblement[/I], exploded acid in all directions, catching Thurloe, Xandro, and the air element wolf in the blast (but of the three, only the wolf was not suitably protected against the ravages of acid). Thurloe continued his attacks with his bastard sword and quickly sliced the corrupture up enough that its fetid body ruptured, falling apart into clumps of vile matter floating away in the slow currents of the sewer waters. The lantern archon tracked their progress, ensuring the corrupture was well and truly dead. Zander wasted no time in exploring the room Alewyth had unearthed. The five-sided room was apparently a security station, for there were dozens of crossbow bolts in the barrels and a pair of light crossbows hanging on the walls. Opening the door in the back, the elf found a meeting hall: nothing more than a long table and a dozen chairs all around. But in checking out the hall, he discovered another secret door in the northern wall, and when he pushed it open - with a stone-on-stone grinding sound - he was surprised at what he found on the other side, for in the light of his [I]everburning torch[/I] he could see a much larger room with a dozen wooden chests lines up against three of the four walls. This, perhaps, was the hidden treasure chamber of the unnamed crime boss! However, the elf had no time to worry about what might be in the chests, for in the middle of the room stood a mass of lumpy flesh balanced upon a trio of elephantine legs. The mass spun about in a circle, bringing the creature's tooth-filled maw facing the elf, while a trio of tentacles spun about in his direction as well; one of them, Zander noticed, held the creature's eyes on one side of its paddle-shaped end. Zander had heard of such creatures: otyughs, they were called, and they were often found in sewer systems, for they fed upon offal. But then the otyugh surprised the elf, for in a gravelly voice it called out, "Who're you?" "I'm--my name is Zander," the elf replied, surprised to be having a conversation with a creature this ugly and fierce-looking - the otyugh looked like it could pop the elf's entire body into its massive mouth with a single tentacle, were it so inclined. Zander took heart in the fact that eating him did not appear to be on the creature's agenda. "Careful out there in the sewers," warned the otyugh. "Blob monsters around - lots of them." "Yes, I'm aware - my friends and I have slain two of them already today - and one yesterday." That got the otyugh's attention. Pointing one of its grasping tentacles to the northeastern corner of the room, it asked, "Big brown blob monster in the catch-basin? You kill it?" "Yes, that was one of the two we just killed now." A wide, toothy grin split the otyugh's rotund body. "Then it's safe to go back out!" it chortled, sliding open a pair of hidden, heavy stone doors from the northern wall and squeezing its massive bulk between them. It plopped itself into the slimy sewer waters without a second thought about the chests it was leaving behind; a quick glance showed the elf that however long the otyugh had been hiding in here, it hadn't even bothered trying to open any of the chests. But that tracked with what Zander had heard about otyughs: they were much more interested in eating dung than hoarding gold. Over by the floating chunks of the slain corrupture, Robin paused in her song to open a door behind her. It led to a short corridor, with a closed door at the far end and a partially-open one to the north, about halfway down the tunnel's length. Xandro insisted upon entering the corridor first, his [I]frost short sword[/I] at the ready and giving off just enough light for him to see by. He cautiously approached the side door and opened it, releasing a horrid stench - quite a feat in itself when one was already in the sewers, but this was the sickly-sweet smell of corrupted, dead flesh - and poked his head in enough to see what was in the room beyond. There was a pile of bodies, sewer workers by the looks of them, and standing among them were two human-sized masses of dripping slime, a bright pink in color. Partially visible through the slime covering were the human skeletons whose strands of remaining flesh and muscle were being slowly devoured by the pink slime zombies encompassing the human remains. "Guys!" Xandro called out to his companions. "Undead!" That certainly got Wakuren's attention. The half-orc cleric-paladin went [I]air walking[/I] across the sewer waters to the open doorway. His summoned air element wolf got there before him and ran into the room, clamping a pair of wind-formed lupine jaws around a pink slime zombie's arm. Alewyth entered the hallway as well but allowed curiosity to get the better of her, passing up the pink slime zombies to see what was in the room at the end of the short hallway. That proved to be a bunkroom, with beds for half a dozen people, each cot holding a wooden chest at its foot. Opening a few of the chests, the dwarf was surprised to see a small bag of coins in the corner of one, no doubt left behind by whoever had last used that bunk. And while the curious dwarf bent over to pocket the coin pouch, her two summoned creatures - the earth elemental and celestial dire badger - were laboriously making their way towards their summoner, having to take the long way around the sewers to get to where she was now. Zander, popping his head back out of the security station to see where his friends had gone, joined the summoned creatures in their trek over by Alewyth and the others. But Alewyth soon found herself under attack. There had been another door out of the bunkroom that a quick examination had shown to be a set of empty cells, no doubt where the members of the thieves guild who had laired here kept their kidnapped victims and such. So, returning to the mausoleum of dead bodies, she helped Wakuren and Xandro fight off the pink slime zombies. Robin resumed her inspirational song, keeping well back from the corridor in case the battle spilled out of the small room with the dead bodies that had been feeding the pink slime zombies before the heroes' arrival. Xandro stabbed at one creature with his blade, slashing open a wide gash in the goopy substance coating the skeleton of the slime's current meal. Wakuren followed up with a slam from his [I]shield of Cal[/I], killing the pinkish ooze and causing the bones supporting it to collapse in a pile. The air element wolf snapped at the other zombie, no doubt thankful its wind-form did not include taste buds. But then the zombie struck the aerial wolf and slew it, the winds making up its form dissipating to nothingness upon its death. Thurloe was still under the effects of the [I]fly[/I] spell and crossed over to the southeastern section of the sewers, intrigued by a padlock on the walkway before a closed door. Alighting on the walkway, he picked up the metal padlock and gave it a cursory examination: it had been partially eaten away by acid, by the looks of things. Well, given the number of acidic oozes they'd encountered thus far, he wasn't particularly surprised. Opening the door, though, he did manage to surprise himself, for the room beyond was rather larger, with a stack of crates of various sizes piled up to make a sort of wall dividing the room in half, the crates making an "L" shape by blocking the western half of the front section of the room as well. But of greater surprise was the reddish, bloblike creature in the eastern half of the storeroom, a pulsing thing that looked like nothing so much as a massive heart - the heart from a creature that would have to be at least the size of a roc, if not even bigger! With a pulsating shudder, the bloodheart squirted a fluid substance over at the spellsword; he flinched involuntarily, but the bloodlike fluid missed him, hitting the side of the wall by the door. Then the ooze started moving in his direction, undulating rather like a caterpillar. Then, all of a sudden, a good chunk of the northernmost line of crates - which were lined up about 10 feet tall in a room with a ceiling height of 15 feet - were covered in a [I]darkness[/I] effect. Thurloe couldn't tell if the bloodheart had been responsible; as far as he knew most blob-monsters didn't cast spells, but he'd never seen anything like the bloodheart before and had no real idea about its capabilities. He brought [I]Spellslicer[/I] crashing down upon the bloodheart's form, slicing it in deep - too deep, as he soon found out, for he was unable to extract it; the blade seemed to be coated in some interior substance of an extremely adhesive nature. (Belatedly, Thurloe surmised that was probably what the creature had spit at him earlier; it would be a distinct advantage for such a slow-moving creature to be able to "glue" its prey in place to give it a chance to catch up to it.) Alewyth, seeing how quickly Xandro and Wakuren had dispatched the first of the pink slime zombies, decided to leave the other one in their care and wandered over to see what mischief Thurloe had gotten himself into. [I]Air walking[/I] across the sewer stream separating them, she saw him in combat with the bloodheart. "Don't use you hammer against it!" Thurloe cautioned her when he saw her approach. "Damn thing's sticky!" By then, Zander had approached close enough to see their dilemma and sent a [I]scorching ray[/I] across the sewer stream to strike the bloodheart. The lantern archon floated over as well and shot its beam of light at it. The bloodheart, in the manner of many of the oozes the group had fought the past two days, formed a pseudopod and slammed it into Thurloe, but the spellsword was lucky enough to wrench himself away before he could get stuck to the ooze. Xandro finally slew the last of the pink slime zombies and Wakuren went over to aid the others in their own fight with the bloodheart. As Alewyth's summoned creatures continued plodding in her direction, Wakuren [I]air walked[/I] across the stream of slow-drifting sewer waters to stand by Thurloe. And then he got a surprise as a mouth full of sharp teeth rose up from the sewer waters below him and almost engulfed his foot; he managed to "run" up the air enough at the last moment that the fiendish giant crocodile's wicked teeth just grazed the half-orc's boots. But inside the warehouse, hidden in the center of the [I]darkness[/I] spell he'd cast on the other side of the "L-shaped" pile of crates, the bullywug oozemaster [B]Pluglorgh[/B] grinned a froggy grin at the thought of his summoned creatures dealing with those intruders who survived the oozes he'd helped bring into being with his twisted magics. Another crocodilian head rose up to attack Alewyth, but she gained altitude just like Wakuren had and avoided his horrid bite. Then, not liking the idea of simply retreating skyward to safety, she "ran" back down and brought [I]Sjondra[/I] crashing down upon the giant reptile's head. The strike was spot on, killing the creature instantly and its immediate disappearance upon its death warned the others that this particular creature hadn't been a local sewer denizen, but something summoned here for the express purpose of fighting them off. Rounding the corner of the northernmost bridge, the earth elemental stomped southward towards Alewyth, the celestial dire badger following behind on its stumpy little legs. By this time, each had spent more time on the Material Plane trying to catch up to their summoner than they had in combat, and the clock was ticking on their particular [I]summon monster[/I] spells. Thurloe pulled out his [I]wand of magic missile[/I] and fired a blast off at the bloodheart, while Zander struck it with another [I]scorching ray[/I] spell and the lantern archon sent another beam of energy shooting at the pulsating ooze. The bloodheart sent another squirt of its sticky "blood" at Thurloe, but he easily dodged it and came to no harm. From behind the spellsword, Xandro came running up, just in time to stab the blade of his [I]frost short sword[/I] into the side of a fiendish giant crocodile's head as it popped back up in an attempt to bite Alewyth. Wakuren dropped back down and sent his [I]shield of Cal[/I] slamming into the next crocodilian head to arise from the sewer waters, but now a pair of smaller reptiles had been brought into play, Pluglorgh having summoned a pair of fiendish crocodiles into the sewer waters to aid their giant brethren. The smaller pair snapped at Alewyth and Thurloe, neither with any success. Realizing the crocodiles were little more than a distraction, Alewyth cast a [I]spiritual weapon[/I] spell and sent it flying over at the bloodheart, whose pulsating body was blocking the entrance into the room beyond. Then she motioned for Zander to approach, saying she'd carry him over to the other side of the sewer stream, for the elf was one of the only heroes without any means of walking or flying. Perhaps feeling their ties to the Material Plane slipping away, in a desperation move the earth elemental scooped the celestial dire badger in his rocky hands and tossed him across the sewer waters to land upon the bloodheart. The elemental faded away immediately thereafter; the badger raged and managed to claw its way deep into the bloodheart's body, getting itself inextricably glued to the ooze's interior before fading back to its own home plane seconds thereafter. Thurloe shot another [I]magic missile[/I] barrage at the bloodheart, and then Zander finally killed the thing off with a well-placed [I]lightning bolt[/I]. As Thurloe saw the bloodheart's body start to seep away and his bastard sword started tilting over, he flew over across the gap and grabbed it up by its hilt. As he had hoped, once the bloodheart died and started dissolving, its sticky blood lost its adhesive properties and he was able to extricate [I]Spellslicer[/I] without any problems. The lantern archon was the first to enter the warehouse, floating in through the open doorway over the melting corpse of the slain bloodheart. It cast a [I]continual flame[/I] spell upon one of the crates, the light-based spell overcoming the power of the [I]darkness[/I] spell's effect. With Robin's song inspiring him to greatness, Xandro readied his blade and struck out at a fiendish crocodile when it rose its head above the water's surface, slaying it in one blow. Wakuren strode into the warehouse and rounded the corner. As such, he was the first to spot Pluglorgh and realize the bullywug was the "man-sized" frog the sewer workers had spotted several times in the weeks previous. He instinctively scanned the bullywug's aura and was not in the least bit surprised to detect the palpable evil emanating from the frog-man's life-energy. He was rather surprised to see the bullywug actively sweating, though - he hadn't been aware amphibians could do that. It didn't seem like it was just sewer water beading on its skin after a recent dip, either, for new beads of liquid were forming on the bullywug's hide as he watched. Staring back at the half-orc with its beady eyes, Pluglorgh casually cast a [I]magic circle against good[/I] spell, even further indicating his evil nature. Alewyth stomped into the warehouse, moved over by Wakuren, and sent her [I]spiritual warhammer[/I] crashing into the startled bullywug's face. Thurloe followed into the warehouse, but flew over the wall of crates to land at Pluglorgh's side. Zander activated his magical headband and granted himself [I]true seeing[/I], making sure nothing was out of place and there were no invisible entities lurking about. The lantern archon flew over the front side of the crates and sent its light beam flashing down at the bullywug. Over on the other side of the sewer stream, Robin noticed the level of light plummeting as most of the others all moved into the warehouse. Wary of errant crocodiles, she advanced closer to the dissolving bloodheart, playing her song of inspirational courage loud enough that her new friends would still be able to hear her. Xandro gave her a thumbs up and then leaped across the sewer "moat," landing safely on the warehouse side. Inside, Wakuren had re-energized his [I]shield of Cal[/I] with borrowed energy from his chosen deity and slammed it into Pluglorgh. Panicked, the bullywug oozemaster secreted some gray ooze acid from his pores and slammed his hand into Thurloe's face, surprised beyond belief when the acidic touch had no effect at all. He backed into the wall of crates, squeezing himself through an inch-wide crack between two stacks of wooden crates, his oozelike body fitting perfectly well through the narrow gap and reforming to its normal girth upon the other side. Alewyth ran around the crates the long way, her [I]spiritual weapon[/I] spell trailing behind her, while Thurloe flew back over the wall of crates. Zander, standing near the doorway, managed to blast Pluglorgh with a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell, the lantern archon got in one final beam, and then Xandro ran into the warehouse, stabbing the blade of his [I]frost short sword[/I] into the bullywug's gut. With a final croak of surprise, Pluglorgh collapsed upon the floor of the warehouse he'd repurposed as his own lair. "Well," sighed Thurloe, wiping the remaining goo off of his bastard sword's blade with a rag, "that takes care of that. Let's get out of here - this place stinks!" "Oh, we're not done in the sewers just yet," warned Zander, explaining about the treasure chests he'd unearthed and filling them in on his encounter with the otyugh. Xandro examined each chest with care, disabling a [I]fire trap[/I] spell from each, revealing thousands of coins. a dozen vials of black fluid, a mirror, a rapier, and a pair of goggles. A [I]detect magic[/I] spell from Thurloe revealed the contents of the vials and the last three items were magical in nature, and although some quick experimentation revealed the eyewear to be [I]goggles of night[/I] and the rapier to be enhanced to allow for particularly deadly strikes in the right hands, the mirror showed nothing but complete blackness. Thurloe surmised it was probably showing the image from another, similar mirror that was likewise stuck inside some chest, long since forgotten and hidden away from view. It wouldn't be until later that they found the vials of fluid to be [I]bladeshimmer[/I], a substance that rendered any item coated in it invisible until used to attack someone, much like the spell itself. By unanimous decision, it was determined Xandro would take the goggles and the rapier for his own use, as he could make the best use of them. "You going to name this blade?" Thurloe asked him, for the bard had never bothered naming the [I]frost short sword[/I] he'd been using as his primary weapon for the past several months. "He won't need to," piped up Robin. "It's already got a name: [I]Deathwhisper[/I]." Then, seeing the surprised looks she was getting from her new friends, she asked, "What? I'm a bard - we pick up stray bits of info like that. But it matches the description of the rapier used by a famous crime lord who used to work in this area - Drayleton and a few nearby cities." "[I]Deathwhisper[/I]," repeated Xandro, examining his new blade. "I like it." - - - [I]Deathwhisper[/I] is a [I]+2 rapier[/I] that adds +3d6 points of sneak attack damage to a wielder who already has the sneak attack class ability. It's my way of helping Xandro "catch up" to his appropriate level of roguishness if he hadn't spent 6 levels on being a bard, which he no longer likes. The PCs made it to 10th level at the end of this adventure. Naturally, Harry had Xandro take a 4th level of rogue - his bard days are now behind him. - - - T-shirt worn: Not having anything appropriate to represent the generic ooze monsters, I wore a white "Walking Dead" T-shirt to (sort of) represent the pink slime zombies. [/QUOTE]
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