Faran Magebane

A cave-in blocked off the passageway behind us, and we were forced to look for alternate routes. We found a strange passage into the depths after a brief search, though the passages showed evidence of water leakage. I thought about warning this group of misfits that the caves were likely unstable. But then, it was the only path forward we could find, and we had just had a cave-in. If they didn’t know that much already, they are even bigger idiots than they look.

Examining the area, I spotted a skeleton at the end of a long, narrow passageway. It hadn’t noticed me yet, though it was holding a mace, so naturally I charged right at it, raising my axe for a deadly blow. Immediately before I struck, however, I was engulfed in some painfully acidic translucent gelatinous substance.

It turns out the “skeleton” was not animated, just upright, suspend in the substance just as I was. And a strange telepathic voice spoke, asking why I had attacked it. After explaining about the skeleton, the strange creature spat me out and said it is something called a gelatinous cube. Never heard of them, much less that they were telepathic. But the evidence was currently eating my face. Some wiping – well a lot of wiping – and a few healing spells later, we moved on, with the cube seemingly friendly and not trying to eat us. I bargained with it to replace my axe, which had been damaged by the acid, with the mace the skeleton was carrying. The mace was suspiciously undamaged. Hmm.

Thanks for the healing, Faolain. I slept through that day in cleric school. I preferred smiting.

My armor was also damaged, but nothing to be done about that.

The rooms beyond contained even more water, with the puddles appearing to be deeper than before, and a black pudding. The cube seemed fond of it, but couldn’t keep it from trying to eat us, so it died to several swift blows from my new mace and a touch of the old sparklefingers. The cube did say there were more of them deeper in.

The next set of rooms had four passages leading west, and a smaller room to the south with a pool of water. I charged down the first passage. Turns out there’s a pit trap with one of the puddings the cube mentioned at the bottom. Luckily, I managed to climb out before I got eaten, but I heard the rest of the group falling into other pits and finding more puddlings. Since I had the foresight to climb out of the pit on the far side, I ran further in; the corridors did all converge into one small room with a temple and a fountain.

Figuring this was a puzzle room and the puddings were more pressing – what can I say, I’m a dessert first kind of dwarf – I called out what I had found to the rest of the group and headed back. An owl passed over me on the way back; I hoped it was that soggy druid and not some new flying creature.