Oscar

I spent most of the last year in a sanitorium. They thought my obsession with black sand was unhealthy. Fools. They only taught me to shut up about it. I see a bright new future in carbon trading! By regulating the burning of fuel, the church can tax absolutely everything! Transportation, farming, even lighting your home at night! Ahem. Where was I?

After they let me out, I took a role with the church running a small gambling operation in partnership with the temple of Crom. The deal was simple: Crom runs the fights, I hold the bets and set the odds. I did very well for myself. The rest of the group split up to tend to their various activities and industries. We agreed to meet in Eastdale after I retrieved the device intended to trap the gibbering mouther. (And what a pain that was – it required the whole wagon, when the roads could even support a wagon, and once we left the roads for the forest we were reduced to a rope sling between two mules and a LOT of porters.)

It turns out Sanford researched an amulet we found nearby and discovered it protects the wearer from the mental powers of slimes and molds. Normally, I would reject this as useless – since when do slimes and molds have mental powers? However, all things considered, it does seem quite useful now.

We packed the trap down into the grotto, all the way to the skeleton room, and discussed our plans. Stria offered wax for everyone’s ears. Since I was the one with the spell to disable it’s magic (hopefully), I wore the amulet, and entered the room alone. The plan was for me to grab the goblet and run out the secret door, luring it towards the rest of the group, and using the Silence spell in the narrow skeleton room rather than the big altar room. That would allow for a better plan if the creature avoids the spell. However, all did not go according to plan; the altar had a decoy monster. The real monster was off to the side. It gibbered, and while I was unaffected, I heard sounds of chaos from outside the room. Likely I will need to try the spell from where I am, and hope it works, and hope the rest of the group recovers and joins me. We will likely need to subdue it in combat.