Chapter 13: Hell Mouth of the Dark Mother

[ChubbyPixie]

Telkis looks up at Mouser covered in grime, then wipes mud from his own face and lets out a single barking laugh. ”Ha! Well, we’re not dead yet, Mouser. I got the wind knocked out of me pretty good, though. Garl only knows what’s at the bottom of that pit,” he says as he carefully peers over the edge. ”I guess that one's about to find out,” he adds as the cultist hurtles downwards into the gloom. As the sound of the tumult winds down above, Telkis looks back westwards to try to discern if the ledge they’re on leads anywhere, or if it is merely a ledge. He’ll then examine the ground and ceiling of their immediate area out of habit to be sure they are structurally sound.

[wolfpack]

brevos will set about getting his rope and a spike form his pack. he will hammer in the spike and tie the rope to it and toss it over to the people on the ledge below. he will also brace and hold the rope for extra support as they climb up.


Ho you below I am sending down a rope

[ravenn4544]

Mouser slowly gets up from his rather unceremonious arrival on the ledge. Shaking the cobwebs out he attends to his immediately surroundings - he'll examine the area around them as much as he can with the glowing light to guide him. Other exits or paths away? Is down the only way forward?

[DadsAngry]

Hoom Feethos:

Hoom drops down off the rope onto the ground. He turns and call down to the others below.
"Are you alright? We have a rope coming."

[OGRE MAGE]

Even after the crack to his face, Bo suddenly feels much better for some reason.

Once he sees the dead face of constable of Briarsgate, the druid helps the paladin as best he can in the cramped conditions, going from each of the hooded cultists and trying to determine if there is anyone else in the mix that the party might know something about.

"When I met that angry looking man on our first day, he was definitely someone I suspected that might be behind this mess initially. Apparently he was no more than a mere pawn, just like the rest of these poor souls."

The druid spends a minute looking at the strange vegetation around in the cave, trying to determine what it might be.

"I suppose that, if the dead guards here are actually townsfolk, someone might want to retrieve their remains sometime? Or, should we just toss the bodies in the pit so as to leave no indication behind of our being here?"

[AleBelly]

Pelias thinks for a moment. "Bo, remember the church? We killed the goblins, and they rose again. If the priests of that blasphemed church had the power to animate the dead, so do the priests here. I'd prefer not to slay these poor innocents twice. Into the pit they go. Or we could remove the limbs from their bodies."

Pelias looks at the others.

"All the more reason to keep them alive."

[ChubbyPixie]

Hoom Feethos:

Hoom drops down off the rope onto the ground. He turns and call down to the others below.
"Are you alright? We have a rope coming."

”Still alive. I got some mud in my mouth.” says Telkis. ”Everyone alive up there?”

[SocraticLawyer]

Urdur helps to secure the two living cultists. "What should we do with these two?"

[DadsAngry]

Hoom Feethos:

Hoom turns back around to view the battle scene. He spies a familiar face among the dead; his former tormentor, the constable. He grimaces at the sight and turns back to the other below to answer Telkis. "Everyone who should be alive is. Plus we have a few who shouldn't but we have them under control."

[Scott308]

Ingrid Esthof

Seeing that Bo and Pelias are injured, Ingrid will ask Trithereon to send healing energy through her.

Healing Bo:
Cure Light Wounds [1d8] = 3

Healing Pelias:
Cure Light Wounds [1d8] = 8

[drpete]

Pip observes "If we're worried about them reanimating, we can place the bodies on the ledge. Nowhere for them to go but fall to a second death."

[Inferno]

The Rushmoors, Gran March, Greyhawk
Day Ten. Early Afternoon. Tuesday, October 25th, 576 CY
Cloudy, damp, cold, foggy







Deep underground, the ferocious battle dies. But the eerie music and unspeakable stench still assail the heroes from all sides.

Stoic Grothnak stands guard, facing the eastern tunnel as Pelias hesitantly unmasks the defeated cultists, afraid of whose face might lie beneath these hoods. Afraid that they have just slain someone they were sworn to defend. Could one of them be Killian Gade?



When Pelias removes the last hood he finds he recognizes no more of the faces. They are all armed with clubs and poles to subdue their targets that they too may be enslaved to the sinister cause. Pelias sees these are battle hardened men. Warriors. Perhaps veterans of Briarsgate's Goblin Years, or traveling adventurers stopping for an ale at the Golden Grain Inn... like the heroes, mere days ago.

Pelias cuts six feet of rope and he, Bo and Urdur tightly bind the two insensate survivors' wrists behind their backs. They discuss amputating the others, or casting their bodies down into the bottomless pit.

The grey druid examines the subterranean toadstools whose soft glow illuminates the eastern tunnel.



Although warped like all the flora in the vicinity of the Hell Mouth, Bo still recognizes the harmless species of strange fungi.

Ingrid prays that the wounds of Bo and Pelias may be healed, and their anguish lessened. (+3hp and +8hp respectively)

Brevos uncoils his rope, tosses one end down to Mouser and Telkis and tries unsuccessfully to drive a spike into the wet ground. The thick soft mud will not hold a spike securely.

Across the yawning gulf, and twelve feet deeper into the pit, Telkis and Mouser call up to the others in a hushed voice. The gnome warrior examines the ground, walls and ceilings around him and finds them all structurally unsound. The cavern surfaces here are mud, not stone, and full of water pouring in from the stagnant swamp pond above.

Mouser and Telkis find no way off their narrow ledge. It's a dead end. Then, through the dangling weeds they see movement. A large, dark mass of glistening ooze, reflecting the phosphorescent glow of the fungal infestation, ripples down a spherical boulder against the western wall.



It pours to the ground and begins to slowly slide over the mud toward them. The silent horror is 25 feet away and closing in on Mouser and Telkis!


Actions?!


Cutaway Map:

West is left. East is right.
PCs are near the red "X." Mouser and Telkis are at "1." The oozing thing is at "O."





PC Status:

• Brevos, Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 23/27
  Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 2/3: Move: 9", AC 5, HP 9/15, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl
  Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 24/28
  Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 4: Move: 6", AC: 3(1), HP: 17/22, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl and 2/4 2nd lvl
  Hoom Feethos, Elven Magic-User/Thief 2/3: Move: 9", AC 3, HP 11/12, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl
  Long Bo, Human Druid 4: Move: 9", AC: 6, HP: 23/30, Spells: 1/6 1st lvl, 2/3 2nd lvl and 2/2 3rd lvl
  Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 3: Move: 9", AC: 2(0), HP: 29/30, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Pip, Human Monk 2: Move: 16", AC: 9, HP: 11/12
  Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 0, HP: 21/28
  Urdur Shimmerstone, Gnome Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC 6, HP 9/9, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl and 1/1 2nd lvl, Torch

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.
  Hold Person (Ingrid): Duration: 6 rounds.

Player Resources:

• Tale of Terror (the story so far, in words)
  Graven Images (the story so far, in pictures)
  The Innocent and the Condemned (npc's)
  A Dark and Terrible World (maps)
  Desperate Struggles (clues and player notes)

[DadsAngry]

Hoom Feethos:

Hoom drops down from the swinging rope. He directs himself at Brevos "What are you doing? Tie the end to this rope." he says holding the end of the rope towards the half-elf.

[wolfpack]

Brevos will grab the rope and knot his to it as tightly as he can.

[AleBelly]

"Well, they know we're here" says Pelias as he peers into the dark abyss. "Does anyone have a torch we can drop into the pit? I'd like to know what's below us..."

He drags the bodies of the dead towards the edge of the pit, preparing to throw them in.

[DadsAngry]

Hoom Feethos:

"Why waste a perfectly good torch. Lets light the constable on fire and drop him over the side. I for one would like to see that." he says with a grin.

[Zhym]

"That's rather bloodthirsty for an elf," comments Grothnak, straight-faced. "Are you sure you don't have some orc blood in your family tree?"

He throws one end of a rope to those on the ledge below. "Come up. Our path lies in the direction our assailants came from."

[ravenn4544]

Mouser yells up to the group "Hurry with that rope - something nasty approaches fast! Get us out of here!"

OOC: was a rope thrown down to us that we can use or was that the one that couldn't be secured because of the muddy floor?

[wolfpack]

Get up here so we can get moving

Brevos will move in to where the cultists came form checking out the area.

[Scott308]

Ingrid Esthof

The cleric will help pull up their companions from the lower ledge.