Session 54: This is Slug Life Report

General Summary

Rested, and ready for more, the group looked to the next challenge as they explored this long-lost underground complex.

It did not take long for them to discover the next challenge. SixOfEighteen moved to the southernmost door of a pair of short corridors in the room where they had previously dealt with such deadly traps. Unceremoniously kicking the door open, SixOfEighteen was shocked to see several humanoid creatures encased in a yellow-orange jelly substance, and herding a massive black pudding. Quickly alerting his companions, the group rushed forward. Roy moved to the entrance of the other short corridor, and launched a phase bolt to blast the ooze creatures on the other side of the still-closed door, damaging one and blasting the other into a fine mist of goo. Jeeves moved up to open the other door, and then retreated, wanting nothing to do with the massive black pudding on the other side. Roisin Marshfield ordered Roy to attack, and the wizard blasted the black pudding with paired blasts of eldritch force. Boris, in coordination, struck one of the humanoids with his hammer. Boris then used Might of Borelius against the same humanoid, and followed up against another humanoid when the first was knocked over; sadly leaving the black pudding intact and able to be cloned. The humanoids began to attack, one throwing a glob of acidic goo at SixOfEighteen, while another used a magical rod to clone the black pudding. The black puddings moved to attack, one against SixOfEighteen and another rushing down the hall toward Jeeves . SixOfEighteen conjured a gust of wind to blow the humanoids away from him, but one was able to move around the wind to stab at him around a corner while the black pudding was unphased by the strong wind over its amorphous form. The foes were unable to connect with their blows in the initial frenzy, leaving room for Roy to strike again. Roy chose to launch two more blasts of eldritch force at the first black pudding, hammering it, but also splashing some of its acidic form onto Jeeves , corroding his flesh and destroying his clothing. Jeeves , wanting none of this acidic harm, rushed back and bound his wounds. Roisin Marshfield then ordered Roy to attack again, and the wizard launched two more blasts of eldritch force at the black pudding. SixOfEighteen, in coordination, slashed at the black pudding, but it did not seem to cause any harm, although some of the creature's acidic form splashed onto him and both damaged his armor and dissolved his flesh. Boris used Might of Borelius again, and struck the second black pudding, splashing SixOfEighteen once again, further damaging his armor and dissolving his flesh. Boris' follow-up struck one of the humanoid creatures behind the massive black ooze. One of the humanoids then strode to the second ooze, and struck it with another of their magical rods, cloning the ooze and healing it. Another humanoid spit a glob of ooze at SixOfEighteen, and struck, slightly damaging his flesh, while the black pudding failed to connect against him. SixOfEighteen then disengaged and moved back, and surged with activity to conjure a small flurry of magical missiles to strike one of the humanoids dead as the small bolts of force punched several holes in vital organs. The other remaining humanoid struck the black pudding with its magic rod, cloning it yet again. The first black pudding moved up, and attacked Roy , although it missed due to Roisin Marshfield's magically distracting cry. Roy stepped back, losing his shoes to the dissolving ooze, and conjured a sphere of gravitic force that crushed three black puddings and both humanoids, sparing only the black pudding right in front of him, then backed up. Jeeves used toll the dead against the black pudding, draining some of its vitality. Roisin Marshfield backed away and then ordered Roy to attack again; two more blasts of force further battered the black pudding, but the splash of ooze also struck SixOfEighteen. SixOfEighteen's armor corroded to the point of failure as that worthy was further damaged by the dissolving ooze. Boris, in coordination threw his hammer at one of the further black puddings. Boris then used toll the dead, but the black pudding, in a surprising feat of mental strength, resisted the magic. With that a humanoid rushed forward, and threw a glob of goo at Jeeves , damaging his flesh, already scarred from the earlier acid that destroyed his clothing. Another black pudding moved up and struck SixOfEighteen, leaving him very near death. SixOfEighteen focused on catching his breath, then disengaged from the enemies around him to retreat from these massive oozes. The remaining black puddings began to ooze forward as a humanoid moved into position to, unsuccessfully, launch another glob of ooze at Jeeves . The closest black pudding moved forward and split its attacks, again distracted by Roisin Marshfield, missing Jeeves and striking SixOfEighteen. SixOfEighteen was brought low by this additional insult; falling unconscious. Roy read a powerful script to empower his magic, and launched another phase bolt at one of the black puddings; destroying both remaining humanoids and blasting a portion of the black pudding. Jeeves again tried to toll the dead, but the black pudding resisted, except time wavered slightly and it failed as Roy manipulated time to change the outcome. The black pudding dissolved into foul acidic goo that corroded the stone beneath it. Roisin Marshfield rushed over to SixOfEighteen, and as a single magical tear fell from her face upon his beaten and battered form, SixOfEighteen was able to recover, fully restoring his strength. Boris moved into position and threw his hammer, battering the black pudding, then followed up with another powerful strike. The black pudding slithered forward and slammed Jeeves , laying him low, despite his normally indomitable will. SixOfEighteen launched another flurry of magical missiles against one of the more distant black puddings, battering it. Another pudding moved forward and attacked Roy , but missed. The last pudding moved up to box Roy in, but attacked Jeeves ; missing once and striking once against the unconscious chiurgen. Roy used toll the dead to destroy the black pudding attacking Jeeves , then made a misty escape to teleport a short distance away. Jeeves continued to hang on the edge of death as Roisin Marshfield ordered Roy to attack, again tolling the dead against a remaining black pudding. Boris, coordinating, threw his hammer at the more distant enemy. Roisin Marshfield then, with uncharacteristic ferocity, rushed up to stand over Jeeves and protect him from further harm. Boris used an Angel's Chain to save Jeeves at the cost of his own vitality, then moved forther back. The black pudding tried again to strike Jeeves , but Roisin Marshfield interposed herself, blocking the attack. SixOfEighteen summoned a magical bonfire under one of the puddings, burning it's oozing form, then moved up again. The black pudding, distracted by the pain of the fire, tried to strike SixOfEighteen but missed. Roy tried to damage the pudding, but it resisted. Jeeves stood up, and backed away, then again used toll the dead, and dissolved a portion of the acidic horror. Roisin Marshfield again ordered Roy to attack, and he used toll the dead, which dissolved another black pudding into noting but low-quality acid that seeped into the stones, corroding them. Boris then also used toll the dead, damaging the other pudding. SixOfEighteen chose to dodge further attacks, and also conjured a mystic shield to deflect the attacks. The magical bonfire under the ooze burned it further and Roy struck again with necrotic energy to further drain the monster. Jeeves likewise used the same necrotic magic and Roisin Marshfield ordered Roy to attack, leaving the creature dead and dissolving into foul goo that extinguished the bonfire and further corroded the stone beneath.

The combat ended, Jeeves healed his own wounds as best he could, though the terrible scars would require powerful divine magic. The group managed to scrounge up some spare clothing for Jeeves and replacement shoes for Roy , but the armor SixOfEighteen had lost would need to be replaced. Roy conjured a magical hiding place, a "rope trick" for them to rest for an hour and bind wounds, unfortunately their enemies in this area managed to notice the hidden entrance, and prepared an ambush for when they exited the doorway. Seeing this, Roy leaned out, got struck by two of a swarm of blobs of acidic goo as the creatures below were waiting for this, and threw out a powerful magic, a "paper insects" to summon a plague of insects to tear into the enemies waiting below. The enemies, surprised, suffered initial harm, but then moved out of the affected area to wait just beyond the edge of the magic. It appeared the group would need to deal with these creatures more directly. Boris prepared by casting a spell to make himself a little faster, SixOfEighteen prepared to charge towards one enemy, Roisin Marshfield prepared to order an attack, Boris prepared to launch his mighty hammer, and Jeeves consumed a potion to make himself a little luckier and prepared to toll the dead.

The rope trick spell expired, and the party dropped. Roy canceled the insects, Jeeves and Boris teamed up on one of the new type of ooze, an eldritch purple thing, SixOfEighteen charged the other direction at an ooze, and Roisin Marshfield directed the attack so that Boris got an extra strike at their enemies. Roisin Marshfield, acting quickly, then directed Roy to launch a pair of blasts of force at two of the strange humanoids, killing one and staggering the other. SixOfEighteen was incapacitated by the maddening aura of these new eldritch oozes, and was struck by the ooze near him that battered his form and drained his intellect. Boris again threw his hammer, striking the same ooze he had immobilized before, striking it with the followup as well and keeping it immobile. One of the jellied humanoids cast a spell, and the party was engulfed in a massive ball of fire. Most of the party was terribly burned, although Roisin Marshfield and Roy both managed to avoid the worst of it. Roy , thinking quickly, used the arcane power of his ring to enable casting a spell, a protective ward, instantly. SixOfEighteen was caught outside, and while one of the humanoids ran to gather allies, others continued to batter SixOfEighteen's still form, although a divine boon enabled SixOfEighteen to be magically transported inside the protective dome. Jeeves healed SixOfEighteen, and moments later more oozes, including another black pudding, began to arrive from other rooms. Roisin Marshfield stepped out, and was affected by the eldritch ooze's maddening gaze, forcing Boris to step out to drag her back into the dome. Another humanoid came into the room behind a black pudding, and again used a magical rod to clone the pudding. Jeeves stepped out, avoided a sword strike, and tried to shock one of the humanoids, but missed, although he did discover that merely touching these creatures could be very dangerous, and returned to the dome. SixOfEighteen stepped out and attacked, missing twice, then stepped back in. Roisin Marshfield stepped out, dodged three attacks, and stepped back into the dome to rally Jeeves and SixOfEighteen. Boris conjured his spirit guardians, stepped out of the dome and up to one of the black puddings blasting two of the humanoid creatures into ash as the radiant gavels swarmed them, and damaging several other creatures. Boris dodged several attacks, and returned to the safety of the dome. The various oozes continued to gather closer and closer, kept at bay only by the protective dome. Jeeves passed a magical script to Roisin Marshfield. SixOfEighteen stepped out, was promptly stabbed and electrocuted by a powerful bolt of lightning, charged up to attack the entity that sent the bolt of lightning, killing it, managed to shrug off the disease carried in the rain of goo that splattered off the creature, and backed up, but could not quite reach the safety of the dome. Caught outside, SixOfEighteen was struck by the eldritch purple ooze again, further draining his intellect. Roisin Marshfield stepped out the other side, was struck by the eldritch ooze on that side, and ran past the enemies to get to clear ground. Roisin Marshfield used a paper cannon to strike everything within the area with magical arrows, destroying several and severely injuring those that remained. The eldritch ooze chased Roisin Marshfield, and tried to strike her again, but missed. Boris stepped out, his spirit guardians freed to strike both eldritch ooze, which was blasted to ash, and one black pudding, which was heavily injured. Boris then used paper insects to conjure a plague of magical insects to harass and sting most of the remaining oozes, severely injuring them. Another of the humanoid oozes stepped into the area of stinging insects to bring an eldritch ooze out of the danger, showing that the humanoids had some control over the less intelligent oozes. Jeeves stepped out and guided SixOfEighteen to step away from the ooze, enabling him to step back into the dome. SixOfEighteen then stepped out the other side, conjured a bonfire to try to burn the ooze handler, but his waning intellect made it easy for that creture to avoid the spell. The insects tore the remaining black pudding to bits. Roisin Marshfield returned to the dome and rallied Boris and SixOfEighteen, strengthening their resolve. Boris stepped out into the swarm of biting and stinging insects, taking the full impact, in order to throw his hammer at the ooze-covered humanoid guiding the the other ooze, killing it, then returned to the dome. Jeeves stepped out the other side, used toll the dead on the eldritch ooze there, then returned to the dome. SixOfEighteen stepped out of the dome next to the eldritch ooze, was struck, lost much of the remainder of his intellect, leaving him incapable of language and spellcasting; he slashed at the creature, ineffectively, and returned to safety. Boris stepped out to subject that same ooze to his radiant gavels, then returned to the dome and cured some of SixOfEighteen's wounds. Roy handed an herb to SixOfEighteen, which further healed his wounds. Jeeves again used toll the dead on the same ooze. The other ooze kept trying to get in the dome, subjecting itself to the stinging insects in the process. Roisin Marshfield summoned a beacon of hope from her headband of spell storing, maximizing all healing within the dome. Over the next half minute or so the remaining oozes were slowly reduced to ash as Jeeves applied what healing he could to the group.

The immediate crisis passed, the group left the safety of the dome and retreated a couple hours travel back into the tunnels behind them, and setup another dome where they could rest the remainder of the day and overnight.

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.