Dramatis Personnae
Jakama (Rowan)
Lexomel (Rex)
Obsidian (Jase)
Calista (Reni)
Fenmyar (Freddie)
Galadin (Andrew)
Throwing the door open that the bandit captain has banged through, Calista recognizes he’ll never catch up with the fleeing villain, though he is gravely injured. Instead, Calista sends his noble eagle, Nuggies. Nuggies easily catches up to the dark dwarf, who cannot fend off the slashing of razor sharp talons. The duergar goes down.
Coming up behind his comrade, clever Fenmyar pauses, Coming up behind his comrade, clever Fenmyar pauses, debating what to do: melee or magic? Calista seems to have the bandit captain situation safely in hand. Fenmyar also casts Thunderwave, a coup de grace to the downed duergar. The wall of force travels outward, south into the smelly room, and strikes three large barrels against the back wall. The staves of two of the three barrels stored there explode outward. Wine fountains out of them and flows down the roughcut steps of the southern exit.
Meanwhile, Lexomel has determined that the disconcerted flumph means him no harm. He asks the creature its name and how it came to be in this place. The flumph, it turns out, is called Blath. He tells Lexomel that Fenmyar’s Wild Magic Dagger summons it. Blath can neither prevent the summons nor knows how to return to his own plane of existence. Flumph,
you see, are native to the Ethereal Plane. Fenmyar’s dagger has called Blath from his home before into the Material Plane. In the past, Blath explains, he has been zapped back within a minute of arrival. Lexomel isn’t sure, but he thinks he detects the creature rolling at least one of its several eyestalks skyward.
Down the narrow hallway, Galadin has been checking beyond the crumpled body of the injured Paderick to see if he is under no immediate threat is safe. While there is no sign that any enemy will ambush the party, Galadin spies a vast quantity of wine flowing down some steps. Climbing them, he enters a room, where he discovers Calista and Fenmyar. He lets them know that he’s returning the way he came to move Paderick to safety.
Brave Galadin recruits Obsidian and Lexomel to drag Paderick back to the relative safety of the site of the now-defeated hobgoblins. After a brief struggle, they leave their unfortunate comrade in a heap near the similarly unconscious Yagra, and hope for the best. They speed up the tunnel toward the sound of weeping.
As Jakama loots the hobgoblin’s body, Jakama’s owl, Golesmore, detects a distant noise. The owl alerts his skeleton friend to the sounds of a man crying out as though in pain. Without hesitation, the owl leaps off Jakama’s shoulder and flies at speed towards the noise. Over his shoulder he calls a warning to the others about someone in distress, and Jakama follows his owl.
Moving noiselessly past slime-coated walls, Jakama’s brave bird soars the twists and turns of the tunnel, closer and closer to the sound of someone in distress. Hovering at an intersection, the owl’s sharp senses detect that wailing has trailed off into whimpering.
Golesmore’s keen eyes spots a wooden door about 30 feet ahead. With no warning, the door pops opens and a tall, robed figure steps out. The being moves into the hallway. Suddenly the unearthly eyes swivel in the owl’s direction. The figure raises one long, lavender talon at Golesmore, and the owl knows no more.
Lexomel, Obsidian and Calista dash towards the distant weeping from the south. Coming from the north, Fenmyar casts Longstrider upon himself and rapidly closes the distance between him and the source of the crying. Arriving first, Fenmyar pauses to catch his breath. He spies what appears to be the lifeless body of a snowy owl lying on the cold stone floor. Gasp!
Moving silently down the hall to approach the friends, the robed, bald figure steps closer. The creature has long, lashing tentacles where its lower jaw should be and its grey-blue skin glistens with slime in the
torchlight. Trailing after the creature is some sort of small animal, about the size of a lapdog, but it appears to be brain-shaped.
Yuck and double yuck!! This is no mere wizard out for a stroll with his pet. Several of the party recognize the pair as a mind flayer and an intellect devourer! Yikes!!
Blasting past Fenmyar, the golden eagle called Nuggies arrives flying a top speed, startling the heroes and the mind flayer. Gently, Nuggies seizes the broken body of Golesmore and withdraws rapidly up the hall. Can someone get to poor Golesmore to render aid while there is still time?
As the mind flayer recovers from the eagle’s sudden appearance and resumes its approach, a low, evil laugh issues from the creature who stretches its talons and tentacles towards Fenmyar…and slips, landing on all fours. How undignified! What on earth will happen?
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