Fauna the druid (played by Jenn), Excor (played by Cris), and Szoo the Black-Scael naga (played by Isis), were surveying the post-battle damage. A few shouldering clumps of slime remained not giving a hint to the tiny creatures’ formerly humanoid shapes. The statue of the four-armed goddess with dragonfly wings had fallen into the cellar up to its golden breasts (The Cabal of Eight Pt.41: The Lotus Vaults Pt.1). The floorboards around it were shattered, soggy and warped.
Cris: “See! I told you we should’ a killed that thing yesterday!”
Jenn: “But we didn’t fight these down there!”
Cris: “What dya think sent those!”
Fauna continued her brewing of healing potions while Szoo inspected the hole. The gap between the statue and the floorboards was enough for either of the human mages to crawl through but it was too narrow for Szoo to slither into the cellar. As the sunset and sky burned gold and pink, Fauna was finished, the trio decided to go back down into the caves below to provoke a final confrontation with the mushroom boss.
Excor holed the statue up in his Portable Hole revealing that the steps into the cellar were completely flattened. He activated his Ring of Ghost Form to float down to the cellar floor. Alternately, Fauna just jumped down after tying a rope off to the marble scrying pool that they had looted from the Lotus Vaults and installed in their makeshift lab-niche (The Cabal of Eight Pt.41: The Lotus Vaults Pt.1). Szoo slithered down into the small root cellar. Fauna took up the lead after finding the secret door wide open, smeared with fishy-smelling moisture and reeking of fungus.
The druid took a few careful cat-steps into the gaping portal into the dark passage. Her nostrils immediately assaulted by the choking stench of wet fungus. She saw about eight tiny sized humanoid creatures identical to those they had already faced above running towards her. The wet sounds of their tiny pseudo-feet slapping on the stone floor alerted the other two mages. As the tiny fiends hit the light of the lantern they appeared composed of black-spotted spongy material with grains throughout and covered in white and greyish hairs.
The battle was brief. Fauna slaughtered them with her dagger and Szoo scorched them with fire. Excor had flung chrono-missiles at them. During the battle, all of the creatures, the mouldmen, had swarmed poor Fauna and dealt some acid damage and drained some of her health (Constitution points). The mages lost no time in rushing into the caverns with Fauna in the lead.
Cris (to Jenn): “See! I told you that thing sent those things to screw with us! Hey, you better let Szoo lead for a little bit!”
Szoo moves into the lead to try to allow Fauna to recover. However, as soon as he took the lead, Szoo immediately spotted the oozing form of a violet blob slithering towards them from further down the main cavern.
Again, the battle was brief but Szoo had been engulfed, as this creature was much bigger than the violet blob that they had faced before (The Cabal of Eight II Pt.6: Facing the Fungus). Likewise, the creature had scored a critical hit on Fauna with a tentacle causing some serious damage to both her and Szoo using its dissolve flesh ability.
Suddenly without warning, a myconid astride a giant centipede charged from the somewhere further down the main cavern followed by two more mushroom-men covered in a thick crust of lichen-like plate armor wielding granite maces followed by an ice imp flying above amongst the dripping stalactites.
Excor whipped out his magic spike and shot a bolt of electricity at the centipede wounding it. Fauna tried to cast Lightning Bolt but the magic got away from her and went wild. A crackling burst of tiny electrical bolts filled the area. Fortunately, Excor was a ghost and unharmed. Szoo was able to avoid the bolts. Unfortunately, their enemies were just outside of the area of effect. The myconid centipede rider held up a small rod carved from red stone and the centipede surged forward heading straight for Fauna, she dodged its venomous fangs. The ice imp soared above the mages and blew a cone of icy breath at Fauna. Her magic shield absorbed the damage. Szoo shot a ray of fire at the centipede dealing some damage to it. The lichen-armored myconids leaped from the wood sled that the centipede was pulling and both attacked Szoo with their bludgeons. Szoo’s shield absorbed both hits.
Excor shot an electrical bolt at the centipede rider wounding it. The rider swung a sling above its head and let fly a stone at Excor but it passed harmlessly through his ghost form. The centipede again struck at Fauna but missed. Szoosha pulled out his fire fang and unleashed a cone of fire at the pair lichen-armored mushroom men barely singing them. The ice imp flew down and tried to kick Fauna in the head with its hooved feet. The druid easily parried the blow. The pair of lichen-armors again attacked Szoo, one missed by a wide margin the other successfully dispersed the shield spell protecting the naga.
Excor cast energy tentacle. Shooting from Excor’s hands a blinding bolt of energy took hold of the centipede rider like a tentacle. Fauna threw a lightning bolt at the imp wounding it. The giant centipede struck at Excor but again his ghost form protected him. Szoo backed up a few steps and cast elemental half-plate armor (fire) on himself. The armored myconids again struck at the naga but parried by his flaming naginata.
Szoo pulled out a bottle of naphtha and tossed it at the armored myconids splashing them both with the pungent substance. Fauna cast a fire ray at the ice imp wounding it badly. The imp again blew a blast of frost at Fauna. The centipede again fruitlessly snapped its jaws at Excor. Excor used the energy tentacle to pull the rider from his saddle and lifted him 20 feet into the damp cavern air. The armored myconids again swung at Szoo who once again easily parried their blows. The rider struggled in the grips of the energy tentacle but was trapped.
Szoo used his fire fang and blasted the pair of armored myconids with fire also igniting the naphtha spattered over them. They took a little damage but were also on fire. Fauna cast another fire ray at the ice imp burning it badly. The imp kicked at and hit Szoo in the head with its hooves but the naga’s fire armor protected him. Again, the centipede struck at Excor’s ghostly form. Excor used his tentacle to toss the unfortunate rider 20 feet down the cavern, a sickly thud sounded from the darkness. The flaming armored myconids both struck at Szoo again, one was easily parried but the other scored a critical hit dealing Szoo a mild wound.
Szoo again unleashed his fire fang on the pair of myconids again causing their armor to start to burn away. Fauna again struck the ice imp with her fire ray this time killing the creature. It disappeared with a blood-curdling scream and a burst of blue energy. The centipede continued to try to attack Excor. Excor tried to cast Force Ram on the giant centipede but failed the chaos of battle overwhelming his senses. The burning pair of myconids again struck at Szoo but the naga again easily parried the both of them.
Szoo slashed at one of the burning myconids with his naginata but the myconid parried. Excor successfully cast Force Ram and squished the centipede against the cavern wall. Fauna flubbed her spell too anxious to slay her enemies. One of the flaming myconids attacked Fauna and was easily parried. The other attacked the naga and struck home with a massive lucky blow dealing Szoo a mean wound. The battle continued for a few more actions until the last pair of enemies collapsed into flaming smoking heaps.
Isis: “Jeesh! How many more of these guys are down here!”
Cris: “Yeah, he’s trying to wear us down before we get to him!”
Jenn: “Well it’s working! I’m out of shields and low on spells. And I’m kinda hurt.”
Isis: “Same here sis. But I’m still in okay shape!”
Cris: “I’m still pretty good but yeah, I’m out of shields too. … Screw this.”
Excor was going to cast Ghost Form on himself again but thought better of it.
After surveying the carnage and taking time to imbibe in some healing potions, the mages charged deeper into the cavern turning south to where they had previously encountered the boss mushroom. As fortune would have it, they ran straight smack into the monster.
The first round of battle was a blur of lightning bolts, a hurling destructive ball of fungus, a slashing flaming polearm, and a well-placed slow spell. The second was a cacophony of energy rays, chrono-missiles, and repeated thorn blasts that left Excor resembling a porcupine.
The battle raged on and slowed Boss Mushroom went on the attack as the trio of mages went on the defensive casting healing spells on each other, drinking potions, and Szoo casting elemental half-plate armor (fire) on his companions. The monster’s club swept repeatedly catching Szoo once and Excor twice. A well-placed fungus ball spell nailed Fauna wounding her horribly.
The final round found the mages exhausted and all badly wounded unable to take even a mild hit. However, Boss Mushroom was just as wounded. Thorn blasts and energy rays again flew then Excor captured the monster with a shadow ribbons spell. While the horrid thing was trapped, the mages beat and stabbed it to death.
The battle was finished and the trio stood over the large bloated body of the giant mushroom creature. Its flesh was starting to break down and liquefy. Excor observed the still brightly glowing ruby embedded in its chest. He shrugged and reached out to pull the gem from the monster’s melting flesh. To his surprise the gem was set into gold and attached to that was a fine gold chain, it was a necklace. He continued to pull the treasure free though there was some resistance so it took an effort on his part.
He almost had it free of the gross corpse and gave a mighty final yank. The warty skin of the chest split open and a human skeleton, the necklace still about its neck bones, was pulled out with a gush of yellow pus-like liquid matter. The skull clattered to the cavern floor, pulled off in a nervous reflex action by Excor. The necklace was his.
Cris: “Yech!”
Excor identified the gold necklace bearing a large central ruby that sparkled like blood-fire. The gem enraptured Szoo. His eyes sparkled in time with the strange light of it. Excor described the magic abilities of the necklace. It was a necklace of Shield three-times-a-day at level 8. However, something about it was bothering him but he just could not put his finger on it. Szoo grabbed for the gem, Excor let the naga have it. The naga Elementalist immediately donned the magic necklace.
Cris: “I don’t want that stinking thing! It was embedded in a monster-mushroom’s chest!”
Szoo wanted to explore the cavern further but everyone was suffering significant wounds including Szoo who only just realized his condition when prodded by Excor. Disappointed the naga relented. To satisfy the naga at least a little, Excor cast ghost form on himself once more and scouted the cave getting a general sense of where all of the passages and chambers were. The naga seemed even more disappointed afterward.
Exhausted, the trio moved back up into the house for some well-needed rest. Excor grumbled something about having to hire some carpenters to fix the trap door and floor.
To Be Continued…
[do_widget id=”cool_tag_cloud-4″ title=false]
