Session 0030 - Exploring the Caves Part 2

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

List of characters who's player was absent

Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

Session Log

After the combat with the orcs, the party drag all the corpses into the horse pen. They close the gate and spend the next couple of hours recovering, treating wounds and using magic from Alicia and Harbek to cure everyone.
There is some thought about camping out, but only Harbek is down some magic ability, and he still has plenty of options. In the end the group decide to press on.
They head down the hallway into the caves and find the area where they first fought the orcs. While walking down the hallway they step into a shallow pit that was covered up with earth - a pit that was not in the hallway when they were here the previous day. Inside the pit are sticky brambles that stick fast to the legs of the party members stepping into it. This was clearly a snare that was set up to hamper anyone rushing down the hallway.
In the absence of the orcs, it does not take too much effort to remove the brambles and clean it off themselves. Afterwards, everyone searches the area. They find four small passages that clearly lead to sleeping dens. All of them are searched thoroughly and among the dirty living areas the only things that can be found are small personal effects.
From here they carry on east through the tunnels until they reach a branch heading south and north. The northern branch seems to open up into a larger chamber, while the one to the south goes a short distance before turning east. They decide to take the south branch.
It winds along a narrow passage for a short distance. The party begin to notice a foul stench up ahead. The passage turns northwards before opening up into a chamber roughly 15 feet wide and 20 feet long. There is a deep layer of filth piled up in the far half of the chamber. Bits of bone and humanoid remains are visible in the midden heap. A narrow passage is seen to slope upwards to the north-east.
As they bring their light into the chamber, movement is seen in the midden moments before four large shapes burst out of the heap and move to attack!
What appears to be four giant sized maggots squirm forward out of the muck.

Ferdinand is quick to respond, dashing forward and tumbling past the first one and stabbing it with his rapier a couple of times. The beast is easy to hit and clearly injured, but survives.
The first two giant maggots reach Sarroxtíoð and Ferdinand but fail to hit with their oversized mandibles.
As they move to attack, a buzzing sound begins to fill the chamber as two giant flies appear from the narrow ledge and launch themselves into the chamber to attack, one each on Sarroxtíoð and Ferdinand. Each of them fail to hit with its oversized mandibles.

Another giant maggot squirms forward and attacks Ferdinand. This one hits the swashbuckler critically, attempting to grab onto him with its mandibles but failing to do so.
Eriana runs into the room, tumbling past the fly and a maggot on Sarroxtíoð and ended up in the muck. She turns and strikes at the giant fly with her kukri. The first strike misses, as the fly moves quickly to avoid the slash, but her second attack hits the fly critically, bringing it down with a single blow.
001-Alicia Silvermane moves forward to take a shot with her crossbow at the other fly, but misses.
It is difficult for Harbek and Leodegar to reach the combat, but the dwarf is able to send his healing power to Ferdinand, helping him to recover. Leodegar is able to see enough to take a couple of shots with his hand crossbow at the creatures.
The combat comes to order quickly after that. Sarroxtíoð cuts through a maggot with ease and helps to bring down the other fly. Ferdinand is able to cut down a maggot, and Eriana struggles a bit as a maggot hit her and grabs her with its mandibles - trying to bring her in to gnaw at her with its row of sharp teeth. She manages to slice it down before it gets to bite her, however.
After a short combat, the party have slain four large maggots and two giant flies. Sarroxtíoð looks through the ledge where the flies emerged and finds a small hole leading upwards to daylight. It is far too small for any of them to climb through.
They spend a bit of time in the room recovering as Alicia attempts to treat wounds on Ferdinand. The others search the midden heap and find nothing. When everyone has recovered with Alicia and Harbek refocused on their divine abilities, the party press on.
There are no exits in the chamber with the midden heap, so they turn back and take the north passage that led to a larger chamber.
As they approach, Harbek gets them to stop. This area is quite large - a roughly 30 foot circular chamber. Roughly in the centre and offset a bit to their left is a massive stone that clearly is very different from the rest of the stone in this place. The dwarf recognizes it as a massive loadstone. There is an odd assortment of crude weapons along the base of the stone, but some look like they are attached to it.
He asks for something metallic that the party can spare. Eriana gives up one of her knives, and he asks her to toss it close to the stone. It lands a few feet away then skitters along the floor and flips up to stick to the rock. Harbek says "I thought so. Very clever." He looks over at Sarroxtíoð and Ferdinand, both who wear chain armor and says "You two lads ought to keep a safe distance from that rock unless you want to get stuck to it."
Before deciding to venture further, Ferdinand examines the items on the rock to see if any look particularly valuable. They all look like poor weapons, in poor condition with just the metal bits clearly visible.
They also notice a patch of bioluminescent fungus on the other side of the chamber that appears to reveal a passage heading north. To get to it they'll have to move around the rock. They decide to hug the wall to the east as they move through the chamber. As they move along the wall metal weapons tug at their straps and point towards the stone. They can all feel the powerful tug of the stone, but not so strong at this range that it is in danger of pulling them towards it.
Sarroxtíoð is in the lead, and while he moves along the wall his hand brushes up against something soft and spongy. He is surprised when a gelatinous shape moves out from the wall, forms a pseudopod and strikes at the barbarian!

It hits him and he feels something burning his flesh - likely some form of acid. The pseudopod shapes itself a bit as it tries to move around him, successfully grabbing him and holding on.
The others are slow to respond, but come to his aid. Eriana rushes forward, tumbling past it and slashing into it viciously with her kukri. Ferdinand is close, and able to help out with jabs at the creature. Even Harbek farther back is able to cast a spell at it that clearly injures it, while Alicia and Leodegar hit it with crossbow bolts. It is not difficult to hit the beast, but it seems to take a great deal of damage before finally falling apart into a pile of goo.
As it dies, it lets go of Sarroxtíoð. It was clearly trying to pull itself over the half-orc, appearing to attempt to engulf him.
After the battle they think that perhaps the trap here was that people would get stuck to the loadstone and the creature would come over and devour them. If that is the case it must leave nothing behind. All they can see on the strange rock are metal parts of poor weapons.
They all manage to navigate around the rock and out through the hallway to the north.
Harbek knows that the tunnels should lead to the north and north east to continue up the mountain. They find a fork in the passage heading west and north. The party decide to take the west passage first to see where it leads.
Once again, Sarroxtíoð is in the lead. It is a narrow, winding passage that goes for about 100 feet or so before they round a bend in the tunnel and see it end in a small cave. They stop short when they see an enraged and heavily muscled orc in the cave. Instead of arms, he has elongated fleshy tentacles that he slaps against the rough stone walls and floor as if he might crack the rock by brute strength. There is a long and heavy cord attached at one end to a bolt on the floor at the far end of the cave to a stout leather collar around the beast's bull neck.

The orc rushes towards the party and stops short when it reaches the limit of its rope collar. However, the tentacles are long enough to slap at Sarroxtíoð but it misses. The creature lets out a terrible howl in rage that sends shivers down the spine of everyone in the hallway. This actually frightens most of the party, with the exception of Ferdinand and Harbek.
Eriana gets close enough to fling at dagger at it, critically hitting it in the head and leaving a nasty gash. This only seems to enrage the orc beast more, making it thrash and pull at its tether harder.
She calls for everyone to back away when it looks like the creature can not pursue them, and in light of her best ranged shot only annoying it.
Alicia decides to hold her ground as she is a little farther back and possibly out of reach. She fires off two crossbow bolts at it. Amazingly, she hits critically twice! The first bolt pins a tentacle against the far wall and the second hits it in the left eye, causing it to bleed and clearly hampering its ability to see.
Still, this does not take out the beast. It howls in anger and pain and thrashes violently.
Realizing it is in agony and pinned, the party decide to stand and fight it. Meanwhile Harbek and Leodegar have run back down the tunnel. They turn around and head back once they realize the party decided to stand and fight.
Sarroxtíoð moves in to slash at it, hurting it further but the beast remains standing. Eriana rushes in and is unable to tumble past it, but slashes at the creature and hurts it badly with yet another critical hit. Ferdinand also steps in manages to injure it, yet the creature does not fall. It is pinned to the wall, has a massive gash on its head and a bolt in one eye but is still alive.
It retaliates by slashing out at Eriana and hits her with a powerful tentacle. It is clear that two hits would be enough to drop the swashbuckler. It attempts to wrap a tentacle around her, but struggles to see her with blood in its eyes. It makes another poor attempt to attack then yanks itself free from the bolt pinning it to the wall.
Surrounded by three competent fighters, the creature is doomed. It gets cut down, first by Ferdinand with a stab from the rapier that surely should drop the beast but it refuses to fall. A final crossbow bolt from Alicia is too much for the creature and it collapses. The others all chop at it while it is down to make sure it does not get up again.
The party catch their breath and marvel at the power of this creature - thankful it was tied up and did not rush them when they came down the hallway or the outcome could have been much worse. Leodegar rushes in to examine the creature, clearly awed at what this could be.
It is curious that such a beast was tied up, leading them to speculate on how/why it was tied up here. Given its strength it seems likely that the beast could have freed itself with some effort.