Session 55: Oozing out of every nook and cranny Report

General Summary

The next day, fully rested, the party must consider next steps. It has been 16 hours since the last fight and is 06:00 the next morning, two hours from that room among the maze of connecting corridors between areas.

Roy had left Fred behind, carefully hidden in a small space dug out of the wall near the ceiling. When Roy checked in with his familiar, after the group moved close enough for the contact, he found that the oozes, controlled by those strange gaunt humanoids encased in ooze, had constructed barriers out of rubble covered in alchemical goo, to block off all but one exit from the room; clearly funneling the Roses in a direction advantageous for the oozes, and likely an ambush. Fred also noticed a very small ooze placed in a corner to observe the room, perhaps a familiar for some ooze-aligned wizard? Looking about, the party considered their options for how to proceed as SixOfEighteen suddenly stood straight, opened his chest compartment, pulled out a scroll bound by a ring, placed the ring on his finger, and handed the scroll to Roy , asking him to cast it targeting SixOfEighteen. SixOfEighteen also pulled a script from his chest compartment, and handed that to Roy as well, asking if he could use that prior to reading the scroll. Roy examined the script, which turned out to be an "advanced" slow drying ink, and the scroll, which was Ethereal Armor. The combination should provide a long-term armor for SixOfEighteen. The group took cover as Roy attempted this powerful combination of magics. The magics succeeded, and SixOfEighteen was protected, but SixOfEighteen also found his ears behave strangely when fighting. Roy , in the process, became convinced he would spontaneously and violently combust on contact with water; as though he were made of pure cesium. After some further discussion, the party began making their way through the tunnels and came upon the room where they had fought before, and it was much like Fred's report. SixOfEighteen fired off a volley of magical missiles, blasting the small ooze to droplets; reporting "The bug is squashed". Boris used a magical "Paper Workmen" to open a new door in a wall to get around the blocked halls, and the group entered the next room. The party moved through some of the more distant halls and rooms around the main bulk of the complex, carefully avoiding unnecessary noise. As they approached what they believed was the ambush point, they even used magic to maintain silence as they smashed through a door. Unfortunately they forgot to keep quiet as they then debated how best to deal with this ambush, and a highly perceptive (or just lucky) lookout noticed; alerting the forces to this back-door assault. The party was forced to rush in with less preparation than they had hoped.

Roisin Marshfield started things off, as usual, consuming an herb to make her more wily, and rushing forward. Roy stepped close, used magic to accelerate Boris and SixOfEighteen, the rushed forward himself. Boris rushed ahead at very high speed after using further magic to increase his speed; opened the door, and rushed through, discovering a massed formation rushing to reorient to face this attack to the rear. Jeeves raced forward, and prepared to face their foes. SixOfEighteen rushed up and made a series of attacks at two of the closest creatures. Roisin Marshfield rushed forward again, and prepared to use a defensive ward as soon as Roy caught up. two of the jellied humanoids rushed up, stabbed themselves, and exploded in a shower of ooze that sickened Boris, Roisin Marshfield, and Jeeves . Jeeves , in particular, became so ill his form was encased in ooze that restrained him as it tried to infiltrate his form. Roy ran up, and conjured an immense volume of sun-bright fire using Cotazh's Firey Furnace to engulf the entire army of oozes in fire. Roy enhanced the magic with power from his ring, and Roisin Marshfield further enhanced the spell with a divine boon. Most of the jelly army was fried to ash on the spot, and those few survivors were mostly blinded, although the true oozes were already blind, so had no impact from the flare. Roisin Marshfield reacted by conjuring the powerful warding dome the party had used to such great effect before. One of the surviving oozes moved aside and struck SixOfEighteen, Boris conjured an aura of vitality to prevent further disease and slow the progress of the ooze covering Jeeves . The one jellied humanoid that had made it into the dome, did as previously ordered and stabbed itself in the head, exploding into another shower of disease-causing goo, but Boris' magic protected the group. One of the eldritch oozes moved forward and attacked SixOfEighteen, but missed. SixOfEighteen averted his eyes, disengaged, and retreated into the dome. Jeeves consumed a powerful herb to cure his disease, and the enclosing slime soughed off and dissolved. The oozes outside the dome continued to advance, some even consuming other creatures in their advance, gaining strength in the process. Roy stepped out of the dome, and conjured a gravity sinkhole to pull the eldritch oozes deeper into the flames, then returned to the dome. One of the jellied humanoids managed to strike Roy as he retreated, but then fed itself to an eldritch ooze, strengthening the ooze. Boris conjured his blazing radiant gavel spirit guardians, stepped out of the dome to affect a few enemies, then stepped back in. SixOfEighteen stepped out, conjured a bonfire to burn the eldritch oozes even more, and returned to the dome. Jeeves stepped out, was struck by an eldritch ooze, then tolled the dead of the creature a short distance away, but it resisted the magic, then Jeeves returned to the dome. The oozes crowded around the dome, but were unable to reach through the protective field. Roy assessed the situation, and chose to bide his time within the dome. Boris struck out at the creature in front of him, blasting it to goo, then stepped out and his blazing radiant gavels destroyed another and damaged several more, before he returned to the protective dome. SixOfEighteen stepped out, conjured a bonfire that the target dodged, then destroyed one with his sword. Jeeves walked up the wall to get out of the dome above Boris and tolled the dead from there, then stepped back into the dome. Most of the oozes remained in place, continuing to crowd against the dome. Roisin Marshfield remained in place, as did Roy . Boris struck an ooze in front of the dome, damaging it heavily, then stepped out to expose them to his radiant gavels, burning some and destroying one. Jeeves again stepped out, tolled the dead, then returned, but the ooze resisted the spell. Roisin Marshfield remained still, and then a new enemy showed themselves. The stone door opened, a face leaned out, and the dome was dispelled, then the face moved back out. Roy cancelled the firey furnace, and followed this new enemy then placed them in a momentary stasis. Boris then stepped into the doorway, and his gavels shook this void mage out of its stasis. SixOfEighteen moved past Boris to the mage's side, and slammed them with his massive sword. Jeeves tolled the dead against the weakest ooze, dissolving it into a pool of Ichor, then moved past Boris and into the next room. The remaining ooze moved up and struck Roisin Marshfield. Roisin Marshfield disengaged, then ran past Boris into the next room and ordered Boris to attack and coordinated SixOfEighteen to strike as well. The mage then turned toward the bulk of the group, and tried to draw them all into it's void portal, but they managed, barely and with divine favor, to avoid being drawn into the void. Boris dropped his spirit guardians, and threw a hammer, striking once and almost getting the hammer sucked into the void; keeping the hammer only because Roy shifted time to make the hammer miss completely. One ooze moved up into the room. SixOfEighteen averted his eyes and struck at the mage, cleaving it from head to groin; the mage was sucked into its own black hole which then winked out of existance. Jeeves averted his eyes and tolled the dead which the ooze easily resisted. The other ooze moved up next to Boris. Roisin Marshfield ordered Roy to attack, and he tolled the dead against the closer ooze, causing it to dissolve into a puddle of ichor. Boris reacted in coordination and struck the other ooze, bashing it with his hammer. Roisin Marshfield moved around the next corner and Roy cast Toll the Dead, further weakening the ooze. Boris threw his hammer, after averting his eyes, and bashed it into a pool of demonic ichor. The entire battle, from start to finish, and taken less than a minute.

Silence reigned over the battle site. Boris cured the disease lingering on himself and Roisin as the Roses considered what to do next, and what remained before them.