Session 17

Enough Slime for All of Us
25 Flamerule (morning) - 26 Flamerule (morning)

The Young Adventurers carefully make their way back out of the Rockblight and back to Blngdenstone proper. At the gate they speak with Sark Axebarrel and receive their reward for killing the medusa.

The group then returns to Gurnik Tapfinger at the Standing Stones, who is already aware that the Steadfast Stone has been cleansed. Freekend also tells him that Ogremoch’s Bane has been destroyed and Gurnik seems impressed, but worried that the group may be wrong about this. Gurnik notices that Kaia has been dramatically aged and is sympathetic, but says he is unable to heal the damage caused by the ghost. He tells them that he will grant them the blessing of Calduran Smoothhands, as he promised, which will take the form of a protective aura, but it may be possible to ask the god for some other blessing. After some debate Kaia decides she can live with being an old lady and takes the blessing of protection.

The group goes to speak with Dorbo and Senni Diggermattock and find them talking to the leader of the gnomish expedition to Gracklstugh. Apparently the expedition was unsuccessful due to civil war breaking out in the duergar city. The Diggermattocks are happy to see the party and impressed with their accomplishments but still can’t spare any men to lead them out. Kaia asks about the Goldwhisker clan they had earlier mentioned and the Diggermattocks say that the Goldwhiskers are a group of gnomes who stayed in Blingdenstone after it was sacked years ago and have since been infected by wererats. They live in a separate section and relations between the two groups are hostile. Dorbo wants them gone or dead, while Senni is sympathetic that they were citizens of Blingdenstone and would like to establish a relationship. They also offer the party a spell gem if they can find out about the source of all the oozes in the city.

Freekend tells the party that he needs to head back to the Stoneheart Quarry, and he also realized he forgot to tell Gurnik Tapfinger the information they received about Entemoch’s Boon. He tells the party that the Stoneheart Enclave would very much like to know the exact location of Entemoch’s Boon, should the party discover it. He wishes the party well and departs.

Ralkor wants to pick up his armour at the Trader’s Grotto and everybody decides to go with him. He picks it up, then the party spends some time dicking around in the magic store (the slippers are no longer on sale). Upon going to leave the grotto one of the gnome guards is attacked--three gelatinous cubes have gotten in undetected due to their transparent nature. The group assists the guards in killing the oozes (mostly just the group, really). They are pretty sure none of the cubes were Glabbagool.

Back at the tavern the group chats with Tappy Foamstrap, who is, as always, happy to see them. She tells them that public sentiment on the Goldwhiskers is pretty divided, with some wanting the wererats gone but others feel they are citizens of Blingdenstone. After a meal the party relaxes and Ralkor goes back to his room to do nerd wizard stuff.

Some time later the half-orc Xundus comes into the tavern and Kaia again approaches him to speak. She asks about his time as a slave and if he knew her brother, Stor, who was captured by the drow. Xundus tells her: ''' Eventually everybody goes to bed (level 7!) and suffers from troubling dreams they don’t remember--except Sebastian, who has a vision of Silverymoon and the House Invincible in ruins, destroyed by demons. Valadras comes to him in the dream and tells him the nightmares are sent by the demon lords and shouldn’t be taken as true. Valadras further tells Sebastian that the demon lords are too powerful and Sebastian should leave fighting them to others. He tells Sebastian about Zariel, formerly an archangel of immense power, who fell and became a devil because of her desire to fight demons. She now rules Avernus, the first layer of Hell. Those are the kind of lengths you need to go to to fight demons and it is best to have no part in it.
 * He doesn’t know her brother
 * Human slaves are rare in Menzoberranzan and are often kept by nobles as pets
 * Few slaves survive more than a couple years, she should consider her brother dead
 * Most slaves are captured by House Mizzrym but given when her brother was taken he was probably captured by House Faen Tlabbar
 * Xundus is from the surface originally and only survived as a slave as long as he did because he is a blacksmith and valuable to the drow'''

The following morning the Young Adventurers head out to wererat territory. They quickly run into a trap, which they spot and avoid, then an ambush by four of the Goldwhiskers. The wererats have no chance at all; two of them are more or less instantly killed and the other two flee. The party wanders around for a bit trying to find more Goldwhiskers to talk to or something and accidentally wander into ooze territory. At first they are ignored by the dozens of ooze they see but as they approach one particular chamber the slimes attack, trying to cut them off. Also, a gibbering mouther is there for some reason.

The party goes through a protracted combat where Ralkor’s fireballs are key to sorta winning, but not really because there are way too many oozes. They break through to the next room where they see a gnome, surrounded by oozes (including one resting on his shoulder). They yell out to him and he identifies himself as the Pudding King and demands they kneel before him. Kaia casts her rope trick and the party hides inside, giving them one hour to figure out what to do. Unfortunately it seems the Pudding King is aware of what they are doing, shouting “I’ll be here waiting, I’ve got all day,” as they disappear.

We stop there with our heroes backed into a corner and surrounded by acidic slime and whatever a Pudding King is. Tune in next time when we discover how screwed they are.