Nottanis

Feverborne, Sanfire, and Ygnas casme back from the sewers looking discouraged. Ygnas and Feverborne needed a few days to recover, but Sanfire was ready to go, so we gathered a few others and took a side trip to the Caves of Chaos. We traveled to the far western end of the valley, where a natural cave bore claw marks and scratches from a large beast. Sanfire went inside and found an owlbear – and the owlbear found him. He left in a hurry and we set up around the outside of the cave, hoping to ambush it.

Quick thinking by our illusionist and sorceress (and what a rarity it is to have humans capable of making dinner conversation about the arcane over a campfire!) produced a rather impressive illusion of a young and playful dragon. I understnd it was the combination of /Phantasmal Force/ and /Ventriloquism/ that made it so convincing. The owlbear was certainly convinced, and fled back into its cave. We had free rein to search the outer chambers as long as the dragon kept up a convincing act.

The search was mostly fruitless, turning up only afew coins. But Stria spotted a glint of treasure in a pool of mud, something that turned out to be a golden goblet with sapphires and rubies encrusted around it. She lifted it triumphantly before an ooze ofg some kind dropped onto her from the ceiling, and her horrible screams chilled up to the bone. Acidic sizzling could be heard, and an acrid scent, as those with her fled. To his credit, Ransom dragged her out, but she was unconscious, and the goblet remained in the pool of water where Stria had dropped it.

We managed to drag Stria to saftey and revive her, but it was a close thing. Her armor was destroyed, and she had a new collection of scars. We had retreated far en0ugh that the oozes were not pursuing us, so we paused, trying to think of a way to retrieve the goblet without dying. One of the arcanists produced a ten foot pole, which might be enough to fish the goblet out, but wouldn’t keep the slimes from dissolving us. Then I recalled that our wagon had a spell scroll intended to charm oozes, slimes, and similar monsters. We dug it out, and decided we thought it would work. I volunteered to read it, as the other two with arcane training were busy maintainintg the illusion of the dragon.

The remaining problem was being able to see the slimes without getting killed. I found a corner where I could see ino the slime pool from as far away as possible. Ransom volunteered to use the pole to fish out the goblet; hopefully they would attack him and leave me free to read the scroll. And, err, not kill him before I could do that.

For once the plan went off without a hitch. We have the goblet, Ransom returned the 5-foot pole to the illusionist, I have a new pet ooze, and I’m sure my acid burns will heal. There is still one ooze in the pool, so I hope there is nothing else in there we need.

I’m contemplating taking this ooze to the university in Threshold, I hear rumors a scholar there likes to study such things and may pay good money for an ooze.