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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3300974" data-attributes="member: 143">Ow, now that's a vivid image!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />I have no idea what you're talking about... *whistles innocently*   <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" /> * * * * * Chapter 89A MESSY REUNION“There is not enough space in here,” Zosimos said. “There is a larger room not far from here,” Varo said.  “We lured the creature there once before, and got around it there.”“Can we not just rush around it here?” Talen asked. “It’s slow, but it’s big... and sticky, too,” Dar said.  “If it gets a touch on you, you’re probably dead meat.”“Whatever we’re doing, better do it now,” Shay said, falling back from the stairs, her hands wrapped tightly around the shaft of her spear.  The company from Camar fell back, retracing their steps through the dungeon.  When they reached the initial fork that led back to the mausoleum, they turned right, Varo directing them forward, holding his staff up to light the way.  They passed a few narrow clefts in the rock and ended up in the large chamber where they had battled the dung monster, not so long ago.  The only exit, save for a few cracks around the perimeter of the room that were obviously too narrow for egress, was the collapsed corridor on the far side of the room to the right. “This plan had best work, or we shall be trapped in here,” Valus said.  The cleric, burdened with heavier armor than the rest of them, seemed a bit winded.  But despite his age, the priest was hale, and he carried his mace with the experienced ease of one who had seen many combats.“Is it coming?” Talen asked Shay, who had brought up the rear during their retreat.  Urging them to silence, the scout listened in the chamber entry, and after a few seconds, nodded. “Take up positions,” Varo said.  “Everyone save Zosimos, over there by the rubble pile.”  The companions hurried across the room, except for the wizard, who took up position near the far wall to the left, opposite the collapsed passage. “Let’s hope it doesn’t remember last time,” Dar said. “It must possess a rudimentary intellect,” Varo said, “thus its ability to duplicate objects like the one that snared Ukas.  But I suspect that the creature’s actions are determined by more primal instincts.  In any case, we must trust to the evoker’s instincts.  I discussed what we learned of the monster with him at some length, and he understands what it can do.”“What we know it can do,” Dar muttered under his breath.  “Well, we have our contingency plan,” the priest replied.  He glanced at Talen, who stood with Shay, holding a large sack between them.  The captain met his gaze and nodded. “If it comes to that, we are well and truly screwed,” Dar said.Any further conversation was cut off by a sudden noise of ooze squelching upon the stone floor, out in the corridor just outside the room.  The stench assailed them as it came rolling into the chamber, moments before the actual creature became visible at the edges of their light.    Dar and Varo had seen the dung monster before, but even so, its appearance was shocking.  Vile, amorphous, it almost filled the entry, spreading out across the floor as it exited the passage and poured into the room.  It moved slowly but inexorably, drawn to the spoor of fresh food.  Fear hung in the room like the sour odor from the creature, but the companions held their ground, their faces tight with grim anticipation.Two long pseudopods began to form out of its central mass, extending toward the larger concentration of prey.  But its attention was drawn to its left as Zosimos fired a series of scorching rays into its mass.  The flames poured over its body, but they left no apparent effect upon it.  “Fascinating,” the evoker said, retreating along the wall. After a moment’s hesitation, the monster moved after him, away from the others in the far corner.  Zosimos let it follow him into the opposite corner, the thing leaving a slick trail of foul goop behind it.  “He’s cutting it awful close,” Talen said.  Finally, while the creature was still a good ten feet away, the evoker lifted his hands, and called upon his magic.  A glowing field of transparent energy, a wall of force, sprang into being, separating the corner holding both the wizard and the monster from the rest of the chamber.  The curving plane was flawless, extending even into the cracks and crevices in the walls and floor, forming an impenetrable barrier.  Zosimos at once leapt to the side, intending to give himself a bit more distance from the creature.  But he’d underestimated its reach, as one of the long tendrils slashed out, and slapped hard against his back.  Its strength exceeded his by an order of magnitude, and it yanked him roughly off his feet, toward the bulk of its mass. “Zosimos!” Talen yelled, although it was not clear what, if anything, they could do to help him from the far side of the wall.  All they could do was watch as the wizard was dragged back toward the creature’s body, unable to break free of its adhesive grasp.</blockquote>

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