Amorphisms

 
We began our infiltration of the town of Leafside quite cautiously, using the heavy storm and cover of night to move about undetected. The first building we went into appeared to be empty, and seemed to have been such for quite some time, save for bed and a bit parchment and a book. Hoping to uncover some clues as to what is going on in this town, Nuri reached for the book, and was immediately attacked by the bed. Apparently nothing in this town is what it seems.
I attacked the voracious bed-thing scoring substantial damage to it, and Virgil was able to finish it off. In death it melted into a puddle of amorphous goo. Neither the parchments nor the book were real. We were no better off now than when we entered the building. We decided to press onward the large building where the largest concentration of guards had been spotted.
 
As we made out way quietly through the town we spotted some guards around a short central tower. Perhaps used by the town’s guard as a single lookout point back when they actually allowed people in freely. Concerned that the guard at the top of the 3 story structure could sound a general alarm we decided to use deception and subterfuge as our allies. Nuri, now dressed as one of the guards from the gate, pretended to have captured me and the two of us walked into the tower. As she cunningly spoke to the guard on this lowest level she was able to ascertain how many of them were present as well as get the guard from the rooftop to come down without arousing any suspicions. We made quick work of them and then proceeded to our objective.
 
Once we arrived at the main building our ruse was up and we had to fight off the exterior guard forces. One of them escaped inside. Shortly thereafter a doppler imitating the form of Leafside’s mayor emerged, begging a truce and promised Nuri she could meet her father inside, but that she had to go in alone. We were all wary of a trap, but Nuri wished to try.
 
After about 10 minutes of waiting the rest of us could stand it no more. About that time a doppler opened the doors and spoke to the doppler who had been outside guarding us. They had no way of knowing that Conrad could read their lips of course. Conrad could not make out the entire conversation, but what he did “hear,” was enough. We all charged. After dispatching the exterior forces we began smashing the door, to little avail. I decided to take a different tact then, and began focusing my energies at a single point in the wood portion of the reinforced door, to create a small hole. Once we could see through, Andor teleported all of us inside. We were immediately attacked by the foes waiting in ambush. Fortunately, it did not take long for us to dispatch these foes either. Between my enlarged size, Virgil’s sheer rage at these dopplegangers having taken Nuri, deft shots from Rhumor, and fire magic from Conrad the dopplers did not have a hope.
 
Conrad then cast a spell to locate our missing friend. We began moving quickly, hoping to catch up to her and her abductors. We did not know exactly where they were taking her, but Conrad had caught something about them taking her “below”. So, down we went, winding through halls and stairwells. We eventually made it to an area that had prison cells. Inside one of them was a woman who claimed to be Nuri’s grandmother. Fully convinced we were about to free her, I eagerly began working the door to try and facilitate the rescue. To my great shame and dismay, I’d been duped. The others realized the ruse where I did not. A fight ensued and I began to become aware of my foolishness. As we attacked the thing that was pretending to be Nuri’s grandmother we noticed a tendril-like appendage that snaked from the imposter through a crack in the floor. Before we fully killed whatever it was, the entire façade turned into just a tendril and slipped through the crack, escaping.
 
From there we refocused our efforts on finding Nuri. There did not appear to be a logical path forward though. I began investigating, as did Virgil. Eureeka! A hidden door. Continuing down the path and more stairs with all haste we found ourselves in an underground cavern. It smelled of decay and sulfur. Each of us on extra high alert now, unsure of what we were going to find down here, we spotted Nuri being carried off by two dopplers. It was Aenor’s Rest all over again!
 
In we rushed, cutting down her captors with ease. With Nuri safely back in our group we began to take stock of our situation. This cavern had a couple of different paths forward. One of the paths had a giant X effectively engraved into the ground. The other was filled with water and a strange algae like plant covered the entirety of the floor wherever there was water. Mostly shallow, but some deeper areas as well.
 
I am unsure if the plant-like things in the water were actually sentient, but they actively reached out for anyone who entered the water, and seemed to be able to render the individual unconscious. We were somewhat stuck. Someone, I cannot recall who… perhaps Conrad, perhaps Rhumor, noted the presence of the strange leather armor we had seen dispersed through various parts of the cavern. We had paid it little mind before because, well, all of had much better armor, and this armor had been rubbed in a viscous liquid that really made no sense in terms of caring for the armor. We decided to to see what happened if we put the armor in the water. The plants recoiled – only directly around the armor though. It was meant to be worn as one walked about in the water. Great. Doing this would leave our Minotaur, and myself very vulnerable to attacks. But, we did not have much of a choice. We stripped off our armor and donned the strange leather.
 
A little deeper into the tunnels we came across a horrific and macabre sight. Hundreds of people, all laying face up in water just deep enough for them to be able to breathe. All of them unconscious. All of them looking to be in various stages of poor health. Then Nuri spotted her grandparents. Virgil tried to pick one of them up, but in doing so he accidentally touched some of the plants, and fell down. We rolled him over onto his back, and Rhumor and Conrad began dragging him out toward the bank. I picked up Nuri’s grandfather and carried him to the bank. I then returned and retrieved Nuri’s grandmother.
 
Both were confused, and disoriented, and unable to provide us with any truly helpful information. We took them back to the surface and to our gnomish guide and instructed the three of them to get back to Hardbuckler as quickly as possible while we delved deeper to find out of the source of this vile scene.
 
It was not long before we came to an enormously wide open grotto that was deep under ground. A single ray of light came in from the impossibly high ceiling. Before us was a grotesque creature. I have never seen its like before. A giant amorphous oozing thing with many tendrils. At the end of some of the tendrils were facsimiles of humanoid creatures. There were also a couple of actual dopplegangers standing in front of the hideous monster. It was intelligent. Apparently very intelligent. Nuri and the creature conversed for sometime, as it admitted its reason for wanting Nuri’s grandparents, and then Nuri herself. Evidently some years back this thing had met Nuri’s father, and had found him to be most interesting – full of memories. And that is what this creature craved: memories. It fed on memories. It had hoped to lure Nuri’s father back by capturing his parents, and when that did not work, his daughter.
We also learned that this creature is called an Oblex. This particular creature was an Elder Oblex, having lived far longer than most of its kind, and it had grown quite powerful. It’s offer to “allow” the townsfolk (and likely us!) to live a ‘dream like state’ was clearly not an option – and so we fought.
 
This time I was not fooled by its charms. I called forth the might of the giants, growing in size to further resist any physical attacks this monstrosity might throw my way, and I called upon the radiant spirits to surround me -and then began to lay waste to the creature directly, ignoring its tentacles. Virgil began hacking away at with the deadly Haziwran, and Rhumor was firing from… well, somewhere, taking out the feeble dopplegangers that foolishly sought to aid this vile thing. Nuri blessed Virgil and I with inhuman speed, which was followed by Conrad turning Nuri into an absolutely massive dinosaur! Before the huge Dinosaur/Nuri even had a chance to sink its teeth and claws into anything though, Virgil executed a brilliant series of four attacks that eviscerated the creature, which then simply melted into a puddle of ooze.
 
Following short but very vicious battle with the Oblex we cleared the rest of the cavern and the town of dopplegangers and mimics, and rescued the remaining townsfolk that were not too far gone. Leafside is now safe again, for the first time in a very long time it would seem. All thanks to Nuri’s courage and determination to save her grandparents, and the help of the rest of the Scalebreakers. We truly are becoming a force to be reckoned with. I just hope that it is enough to break the spine of the evil Cult of the Dragon, and to rescue Virgil and Conrad’s friends…