The Battle of Blingdenstone Part Two:
The Pudding King
The Pudding King
Dramatis Personae:
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Riddle, Claire's baby Basilisk
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Urthstripe. Claire's Alabaster Badger Figurine
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut who plots the murder of anyone who slights her
Lit, Mezzem's baby Basilisk
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Centaur" Wererat Berserker, "The Destroyer;" who sees magic where there is none and collects things that aren't there
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud and Geophry's "Momma;" champion of the Living Dungeon
Vadania Nailaza, the Wild Elf Oakroot of Rillifane Rallathil
Barkbeak, Vadania's Hippogriff Steed
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut
Riddle, Claire's baby Basilisk
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Urthstripe. Claire's Alabaster Badger Figurine
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut who plots the murder of anyone who slights her
Lit, Mezzem's baby Basilisk
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Centaur" Wererat Berserker, "The Destroyer;" who sees magic where there is none and collects things that aren't there
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud and Geophry's "Momma;" champion of the Living Dungeon
Vadania Nailaza, the Wild Elf Oakroot of Rillifane Rallathil
Barkbeak, Vadania's Hippogriff Steed
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut
Seluna, the Moon Elf Drow Totem Warrior Circle of the Moon Druid and Silverstar of Selûne
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
Geophry Cherry Blossom Petunia, the chair that used to be a boy
Stool, the Myconid Child was raised from the grave by Mezzem
Galothel Nightbreeze, the Moon Elf Alchemist
Amin of Citadel Adbar, the Shield Dwarf Alchemist
Mithrilye, the Sun Elf Entertainer who will do anything to achieve her goals, and believes that anything that can bring her pleasure should be enjoyed immediately, not saved until later
Lith, the Bronze Dragonborn Scholar
Fitzzle, Lith's violet faerie dragon familiar
Flimflam Pebblehead, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who has to collect everything he finds
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
Geophry Cherry Blossom Petunia, the chair that used to be a boy
Stool, the Myconid Child was raised from the grave by Mezzem
Galothel Nightbreeze, the Moon Elf Alchemist
Amin of Citadel Adbar, the Shield Dwarf Alchemist
Mithrilye, the Sun Elf Entertainer who will do anything to achieve her goals, and believes that anything that can bring her pleasure should be enjoyed immediately, not saved until later
Lith, the Bronze Dragonborn Scholar
Fitzzle, Lith's violet faerie dragon familiar
Flimflam Pebblehead, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who has to collect everything he finds
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins
Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- smashed by Orvald
Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf- killed during escape
Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress- swept away
Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard- skull caved in by rock thrown by Fidget, then finished off by black pudding
Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout- drowned
Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma, left in Hemeth's care
Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell
Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll
Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh met group briefly on route to Mantol Derith for trade
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-became a squeaky toy last seen in Bahamutsville under Zin-carla
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor- big badda boom
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child- frozen by demon Easter bunny was raised by Mezzem and went missing, it is believed that Stool ate him
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion- devoured by corbies
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster- wished herself home
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver from the Miner's Guild- grick kibble
Friendly Fire: 214
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Uktar 5, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), Blingdenstone
Before we could pursue the invisible red, we got a call from our artillery support that a group of them were cut off from the Diggermattocks and were in desperate need of healing. Mezzem decided to go help them, leaving us without a healer.
Lily had also heard the call for a healer, and he grabbed Geophry- who he had seen lurking in the background of the fight- and told the chair to take him to that group. By the time the bard had reached the group needing help, Mezzem was already there, so Lily decided to head over to the main party, since their healer had randomly abandoned them.
Flimflam was in the middle of freezing the slimy path that the Pudding King had taken when he fled, when Lily and Geophry flew in. It was a relief to see them, since we were not happy Mezzem had randomly decided to leave us. Rosebud offered Flimflam some of his blood to help speed up the process, and when he did the lad fell asleep, flashed with colored light, and was outlined in faerie fire; then a draconic roar echoed around the cavern as the floor became covered in ice. Apparently blood is a very good way to empower a spell.
Before we could advance too far, Flimflam exclaimed in pain, he had been hit with another mental attack- those were getting really annoying. I want to say war was simpler in Cormyr, but I know that's just me hating this battle and missing my home; you know you've grown homesick when you even miss the wars you were part of. I shook those thoughts aside before my homesickness overtook my ability to fight. I would not let my melancholy be the reason that my friends died.
The room we were walking into "Phosphorescent lichen illuminated this cave. the floor of which was covered with pools of green slime. More green slime clung to the ceiling and formed hideous drapes along the walls. In the middle of the cave, facing east, was a slime covered throne."* Based on the throne this seemed to be the Pudding King's base of operations.
Lily had Geophry wake his brother, and Rosebud got right up and grew much larger; then slime landed on him. I shot at the throne in this frozen room, thinking there might be something hiding back there, but nothing happened; I barely dodged a slime falling off the ceiling of the cavern. Suddenly a crown of crystallized, spiky slime appeared around Rosebud's forehead, as if the ball that had just landed on him solidified into the crown. That was not going to be good for us.
Flimflam used his ice breath at the throne and we saw "The Pudding King cowered behind his slime covered throne and chortled in his joy. 'Callooh! Callay! Now you can join the party!' he cackled. 'You can be one with the Faceless Lord. Just let yourselves be eaten and disgorged!'"* Yeah, cause that sounds fucking pleasant. Vadania's hand went to her forehead in pain from a mental attack, and Lily told Geophry to fly him to the throne; the King was indeed hiding back there, and now we could end this. I hope.
Vadania and I ran over to the throne to help Lily deal with the King, but for some reason I could not see him back there. Then Lily summoned his Hand- I shuddered- and picked up the King. Rosebud whacked Flimflam and chucked his hammer at me- that fucking hurt! The stupid crown thing must be fucking with his mind, we had to get it off of him somehow. In Lily's Hand the Pudding King screamed and blood began flowing from between the fingers... the blood turned into ooze that then enveloped the Hand- it was like looking at a pudding that was made of flesh and blood- really gross.
Lily called to us that we couldn't use fire, cold, or acid against the King, and that our weapons would do little damage. So I was going to be kind of useless in this battle apparently. Geophry pointed out to us the pudding that had been hitting us with mental attacks, and it looked like multiple different types of puddings had merged to form that one. Vadania called a beam of moonlight down on the King, and he became a gnome again, who was clinging to one of the fingers on Lily's Hand. I shot my crossbow at it and missed horribly, and Lily punched the ground with the King still gripping the finger- I pushed away the memories of the Living Dungeon at the sight of that. A shield flared before impact though, the King had cast something to prevent the punch from hurting him- so Lily yelled out that "I've shit better oozes than you!" Eew.
The King managed to get off of the Hand, and the moment he was out of Vadania's light he turned back into an ooze. He spewed acid at everyone, missing only Lily, Geophry, and Vadania, destroying Lily's Hand, dropping Flimflam, and then he engulfed our elemental. Geophry turned immediately to help his friend, and Lily jumped off of the chair as soon as he was close enough. Vadania's beam moved back onto the King, and he became a gnome again- still gripping our elemental; this was going to be annoying- more so than everything already was.
I stabbed the King, but it didn't seem to do anything to him, Lily insulted him to no avail, and our poor elemental just could not break out of its grasp. The Pudding King teleported and began to run away, calling to the invisible psychic ooze to devour us. Green bolts came flying from the ooze, slamming into the elemental and I, and then it held its head in pain- the ooze must have hit it with a mental attack.
The combination of the acid and the mental attacks were too much for our poor elemental; it died. Flimflam attempted to use his blood to do something magical- the arcane words I heard sounded like his lightning bolt- but he dropped unconscious instead of casting anything. Geophry went to revive Flimflam, and announced to us that Lily was trapped in a cube. I hurried to catch up to help him.
Lily went after the Pudding King, but there was a gelatinous cube blocking his path- that he didn't see until he had run into it. Rosebud followed, and thought at first that Lily was just playing around, the halftaur didn't realize his mother was trapped in the cube. The ooze hit Rosebud with a blight spell, but that wasn't enough to slow him down when his momma was in trouble.
I slammed my Rod at the cube, hoping to free Lily, and I think it worked, since a second later he broke out of the cube. Rosebud dealt it the killing blow for hurting his momma, and we hurriedly scraped some of the acid that was stuck to us off so it would quit hurting us. While we were doing that, I saw Geophry fly Flimflam up near the psychic ooze, and he let loose a lighting bolt at it... which then bounced right back at him. Chairy did an impressive maneuver to make the lightning hit him instead of Flimflam.
The insane svirfneblin then used his blood to fuel a thunder spell, which hit me instead of the ooze. At that Flimflam declared that he was useless, and told Geophry to drop him off and pick up Lily instead. Something in Flimflam snapped and for the next few minutes he was convinced that he was an ooze. My head screamed in pain as I was hit with another mental attack, and I was dimly aware of Chairy dive bombing Rosebud and I to neutralize the acid on us. The mental pain struck me again, it felt like my head was about to explode.
Flimflam then decided to use blood magic to usurp control of the oozes from the Pudding King, which backfired in a few ways. First he turned into a hobgoblin, then a tree appeared and scorpions came flowing out of it, which all began attacking Flimflam, and then he was polymorphed into a pearlescent ooze.
I saw a new ooze in the room, a pearlescent one, and went for it, since I couldn't reach the damn psychic one anyway. Of course it responded to my attack, and left some weird goop on me- different than other oozes we've encountered. Vadania joined my assault of this ooze, and together we killed it... only to have it turn into a bleeding and unconscious Flimflam. Shit. Why the Hells did he think turning into an ooze was a good fucking idea right now?
The fucking scorpions swarmed toward me now that their prey had died, so I pulled out an item I've been carrying for a long time now, and turned one of them into a giant scorpion that was under my control. Vadania revived Flimflam and I tossed him over my shoulder so we could catch up to the group. For some reason Vadania decided she needed to chop down the scorpion tree before following.
Lily had Geophry fly him up to the psychic ooze and began stabbing it. The ooze responded by completely engulfing the bard, but he broke out of its hold quickly enough. Rosebud began beating on the ooze in retaliation.
I rounded the corner just in time to see Lily shove a bag of gunpowder and ball bearings into the ooze and ignite it. He couldn't get his hand away in time, and we were showered in ooze goo. None of us, including Lily, were hurt by the explosion though. Once Vadania had finished chopping down the tree, we continued on the path the Pudding King had taken.
The chamber we entered was fairly large, with a sea of oozes being attacked by our troops, water pouring from one tunnel, and a group of gnomes attacking a large ooze. We realized that not all of the svirfneblin were actually attacking the ooze though, some of them appeared to be dead, two were fighting each other, and one was spinning uselessly in a circle. There was an odd babbling noise coming from the ooze, and it had a bunch of mouths; Lily said it was a gibbering mouther.
Rosebud charged straight in toward the mouther, and Flimflam wriggled out of my grasp, going instead to the sea of oozes, slinging his ice spells at them. Vadania and I began running for the mouther, and commanded my scorpion to do the same, while Lily and Geophry flew toward it. Lily dropped his Hand on top of it, trying to mash it into the ground- I barely suppressed a shudder at the memory.
As Rosebud slammed into it with his spear, I noticed that the bodies seemed to be sinking into the ground, which had to be a trick of the eye, since it wasn't really a place where they should be able to do so. Lily's Hand punched the mouther- shiver- and he tossed an insult at it, while I kept running. Rosebud suddenly froze in his tracks, as if something were preventing him from moving. Close contact with the mouther made Rosebud temporarily insane, and he literally could not do anything.
I saw the mouther shoot something at Rosebud, and lean in to bite him. It had spat acid at him, blinding him, but it missed with its bite attack. At that I shot my crossbow at the mouther, and had my scorpion claw at it. Lily's Hand came down hard on the thing, and it seemed to die; then a cloud of toxic spores came bursting out of the mouther, killing my poor scorpion.
The only way the Pudding King could have gone was through the tunnel the water was coming from, but there was too much water for us to just cross it, so Lily used his Hand to start digging a trench to divert some of the water. Lily and Flimflam combined their power, and their blood, in an attempt to freeze the water, but it wasn't frozen enough for us to get through yet. It did make an illusion of a tarrasque appear, which distracted the oozes from us for a moment. We were getting pinned between that toxic cloud, the water, and the sea of oozes; we had to find a way through now or we may not survive this. We could hear more oozes coming from the way we had just came from too, so doubling back wasn't even an option.
At that moment, Lily announced that the ooze wasn't dead, it was the Pudding King, and he was using the cloud to keep us away so he could heal. He grabbed Rosebud and used their dimensional portal to get back to the King. Chairy and Flimflam flew back toward it, once again leaving Vadania and I to run.
Lily hurled a fire spell at the mouther, and Rosebud moved its body, revealing the Pudding King who had been hiding underneath it; he had indeed been eating the gnome corpses to heal himself. When Flimflam got there he dispelled the cloud kill to allow the rest of the group to get to them.
I saw Lily drawing some runes around the Pudding King for Flimflam to use, as Vadania got to it; I was still a little further behind her. The flesh of the ooze began to bubble up as a green beam came out of it, aimed for Flimflam- but Vadania was in the way. My friend was reduced to a pile of ash. Seeing that, Rosebud sliced his leg, offering Flimflam fresh blood and told him to get the spell done and finish this. Flimflam threw two lightning bolts at the King, and it began to grow...
Then a chunk of the wall behind it exploded, and the debris that slammed into it seemed to finish the ooze off. A large gelatinous cube appeared, and we could hear shots in the tunnel behind it, as 150 kobolds came pouring out of the tunnel. Platinum rays of light came from the cube as it sucked itself up into a suit of full plate armor that had been inside of it. The oozes fled from the cube, as it pursued them mercilessly. This had to be Glabbagool and the kobolds of Bahamutsville! We had won! Blingdenstone was saved!
***** Blingdenstone
We spent the next couple of tendays cleaning up the remaining oozes, and reclaiming parts of the city. The myconids and kobolds settled into their new home quickly.
In addition to losing Vadania, we lost Galothel, Umund, Elyn, and Glyphic; along with about 20% of our fighting forces. Medic and Dorbo were permanently disfigured by the oozes, and Dwarvenforge lost an arm- though that didn't seem to bother him, he said he could still smith one handed. He's probably going to make himself another arm like he did for me.
True to their word, the Diggermattocks gave us a map to the surface, but the only way they knew of that would for sure take us there would put us somewhere in the High Forest. Instead of potentially spending month lost there, we chose to take the Deep Roads, which was a less scouted route, that they believed would take us to Gauntlgrym. The ancient dwarven city was near enough to Neverwinter that I could easily buy a portal home from there. We were given a guide named Schnella, who we were told was almost as good as Roswyn had been.
Lily adopted Flimflam after the fight, his antics had shown that he belonged in the Petunia family. Rosebud finished crafting the repeating crossbow that Fidget had been working on before he died, and gave it to me so I'd have a better ranged weapon.
On the 26 of Uktar we said goodbye to Mezzem, Thecker, the twins, Glabbagool, the kobolds, and our other friends in the city and set out on our journey to the surface. The group was now myself, Lily, Rosebud, Flimflam, Seluna, Niles, Twyla, Lith, Mithrilye, Amin, Arwenel, and a platinum dragonborn who was with Kibbik; he said it would be good for her to go with us.
*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion- devoured by corbies
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster- wished herself home
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver from the Miner's Guild- grick kibble
Friendly Fire: 214
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Uktar 5, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), Blingdenstone
Before we could pursue the invisible red, we got a call from our artillery support that a group of them were cut off from the Diggermattocks and were in desperate need of healing. Mezzem decided to go help them, leaving us without a healer.
Lily had also heard the call for a healer, and he grabbed Geophry- who he had seen lurking in the background of the fight- and told the chair to take him to that group. By the time the bard had reached the group needing help, Mezzem was already there, so Lily decided to head over to the main party, since their healer had randomly abandoned them.
Flimflam was in the middle of freezing the slimy path that the Pudding King had taken when he fled, when Lily and Geophry flew in. It was a relief to see them, since we were not happy Mezzem had randomly decided to leave us. Rosebud offered Flimflam some of his blood to help speed up the process, and when he did the lad fell asleep, flashed with colored light, and was outlined in faerie fire; then a draconic roar echoed around the cavern as the floor became covered in ice. Apparently blood is a very good way to empower a spell.
Before we could advance too far, Flimflam exclaimed in pain, he had been hit with another mental attack- those were getting really annoying. I want to say war was simpler in Cormyr, but I know that's just me hating this battle and missing my home; you know you've grown homesick when you even miss the wars you were part of. I shook those thoughts aside before my homesickness overtook my ability to fight. I would not let my melancholy be the reason that my friends died.
The room we were walking into "Phosphorescent lichen illuminated this cave. the floor of which was covered with pools of green slime. More green slime clung to the ceiling and formed hideous drapes along the walls. In the middle of the cave, facing east, was a slime covered throne."* Based on the throne this seemed to be the Pudding King's base of operations.
Lily had Geophry wake his brother, and Rosebud got right up and grew much larger; then slime landed on him. I shot at the throne in this frozen room, thinking there might be something hiding back there, but nothing happened; I barely dodged a slime falling off the ceiling of the cavern. Suddenly a crown of crystallized, spiky slime appeared around Rosebud's forehead, as if the ball that had just landed on him solidified into the crown. That was not going to be good for us.
Flimflam used his ice breath at the throne and we saw "The Pudding King cowered behind his slime covered throne and chortled in his joy. 'Callooh! Callay! Now you can join the party!' he cackled. 'You can be one with the Faceless Lord. Just let yourselves be eaten and disgorged!'"* Yeah, cause that sounds fucking pleasant. Vadania's hand went to her forehead in pain from a mental attack, and Lily told Geophry to fly him to the throne; the King was indeed hiding back there, and now we could end this. I hope.
Vadania and I ran over to the throne to help Lily deal with the King, but for some reason I could not see him back there. Then Lily summoned his Hand- I shuddered- and picked up the King. Rosebud whacked Flimflam and chucked his hammer at me- that fucking hurt! The stupid crown thing must be fucking with his mind, we had to get it off of him somehow. In Lily's Hand the Pudding King screamed and blood began flowing from between the fingers... the blood turned into ooze that then enveloped the Hand- it was like looking at a pudding that was made of flesh and blood- really gross.
Lily called to us that we couldn't use fire, cold, or acid against the King, and that our weapons would do little damage. So I was going to be kind of useless in this battle apparently. Geophry pointed out to us the pudding that had been hitting us with mental attacks, and it looked like multiple different types of puddings had merged to form that one. Vadania called a beam of moonlight down on the King, and he became a gnome again, who was clinging to one of the fingers on Lily's Hand. I shot my crossbow at it and missed horribly, and Lily punched the ground with the King still gripping the finger- I pushed away the memories of the Living Dungeon at the sight of that. A shield flared before impact though, the King had cast something to prevent the punch from hurting him- so Lily yelled out that "I've shit better oozes than you!" Eew.
The King managed to get off of the Hand, and the moment he was out of Vadania's light he turned back into an ooze. He spewed acid at everyone, missing only Lily, Geophry, and Vadania, destroying Lily's Hand, dropping Flimflam, and then he engulfed our elemental. Geophry turned immediately to help his friend, and Lily jumped off of the chair as soon as he was close enough. Vadania's beam moved back onto the King, and he became a gnome again- still gripping our elemental; this was going to be annoying- more so than everything already was.
I stabbed the King, but it didn't seem to do anything to him, Lily insulted him to no avail, and our poor elemental just could not break out of its grasp. The Pudding King teleported and began to run away, calling to the invisible psychic ooze to devour us. Green bolts came flying from the ooze, slamming into the elemental and I, and then it held its head in pain- the ooze must have hit it with a mental attack.
The combination of the acid and the mental attacks were too much for our poor elemental; it died. Flimflam attempted to use his blood to do something magical- the arcane words I heard sounded like his lightning bolt- but he dropped unconscious instead of casting anything. Geophry went to revive Flimflam, and announced to us that Lily was trapped in a cube. I hurried to catch up to help him.
Lily went after the Pudding King, but there was a gelatinous cube blocking his path- that he didn't see until he had run into it. Rosebud followed, and thought at first that Lily was just playing around, the halftaur didn't realize his mother was trapped in the cube. The ooze hit Rosebud with a blight spell, but that wasn't enough to slow him down when his momma was in trouble.
I slammed my Rod at the cube, hoping to free Lily, and I think it worked, since a second later he broke out of the cube. Rosebud dealt it the killing blow for hurting his momma, and we hurriedly scraped some of the acid that was stuck to us off so it would quit hurting us. While we were doing that, I saw Geophry fly Flimflam up near the psychic ooze, and he let loose a lighting bolt at it... which then bounced right back at him. Chairy did an impressive maneuver to make the lightning hit him instead of Flimflam.
The insane svirfneblin then used his blood to fuel a thunder spell, which hit me instead of the ooze. At that Flimflam declared that he was useless, and told Geophry to drop him off and pick up Lily instead. Something in Flimflam snapped and for the next few minutes he was convinced that he was an ooze. My head screamed in pain as I was hit with another mental attack, and I was dimly aware of Chairy dive bombing Rosebud and I to neutralize the acid on us. The mental pain struck me again, it felt like my head was about to explode.
Flimflam then decided to use blood magic to usurp control of the oozes from the Pudding King, which backfired in a few ways. First he turned into a hobgoblin, then a tree appeared and scorpions came flowing out of it, which all began attacking Flimflam, and then he was polymorphed into a pearlescent ooze.
I saw a new ooze in the room, a pearlescent one, and went for it, since I couldn't reach the damn psychic one anyway. Of course it responded to my attack, and left some weird goop on me- different than other oozes we've encountered. Vadania joined my assault of this ooze, and together we killed it... only to have it turn into a bleeding and unconscious Flimflam. Shit. Why the Hells did he think turning into an ooze was a good fucking idea right now?
The fucking scorpions swarmed toward me now that their prey had died, so I pulled out an item I've been carrying for a long time now, and turned one of them into a giant scorpion that was under my control. Vadania revived Flimflam and I tossed him over my shoulder so we could catch up to the group. For some reason Vadania decided she needed to chop down the scorpion tree before following.
Lily had Geophry fly him up to the psychic ooze and began stabbing it. The ooze responded by completely engulfing the bard, but he broke out of its hold quickly enough. Rosebud began beating on the ooze in retaliation.
I rounded the corner just in time to see Lily shove a bag of gunpowder and ball bearings into the ooze and ignite it. He couldn't get his hand away in time, and we were showered in ooze goo. None of us, including Lily, were hurt by the explosion though. Once Vadania had finished chopping down the tree, we continued on the path the Pudding King had taken.
The chamber we entered was fairly large, with a sea of oozes being attacked by our troops, water pouring from one tunnel, and a group of gnomes attacking a large ooze. We realized that not all of the svirfneblin were actually attacking the ooze though, some of them appeared to be dead, two were fighting each other, and one was spinning uselessly in a circle. There was an odd babbling noise coming from the ooze, and it had a bunch of mouths; Lily said it was a gibbering mouther.
Rosebud charged straight in toward the mouther, and Flimflam wriggled out of my grasp, going instead to the sea of oozes, slinging his ice spells at them. Vadania and I began running for the mouther, and commanded my scorpion to do the same, while Lily and Geophry flew toward it. Lily dropped his Hand on top of it, trying to mash it into the ground- I barely suppressed a shudder at the memory.
As Rosebud slammed into it with his spear, I noticed that the bodies seemed to be sinking into the ground, which had to be a trick of the eye, since it wasn't really a place where they should be able to do so. Lily's Hand punched the mouther- shiver- and he tossed an insult at it, while I kept running. Rosebud suddenly froze in his tracks, as if something were preventing him from moving. Close contact with the mouther made Rosebud temporarily insane, and he literally could not do anything.
I saw the mouther shoot something at Rosebud, and lean in to bite him. It had spat acid at him, blinding him, but it missed with its bite attack. At that I shot my crossbow at the mouther, and had my scorpion claw at it. Lily's Hand came down hard on the thing, and it seemed to die; then a cloud of toxic spores came bursting out of the mouther, killing my poor scorpion.
The only way the Pudding King could have gone was through the tunnel the water was coming from, but there was too much water for us to just cross it, so Lily used his Hand to start digging a trench to divert some of the water. Lily and Flimflam combined their power, and their blood, in an attempt to freeze the water, but it wasn't frozen enough for us to get through yet. It did make an illusion of a tarrasque appear, which distracted the oozes from us for a moment. We were getting pinned between that toxic cloud, the water, and the sea of oozes; we had to find a way through now or we may not survive this. We could hear more oozes coming from the way we had just came from too, so doubling back wasn't even an option.
At that moment, Lily announced that the ooze wasn't dead, it was the Pudding King, and he was using the cloud to keep us away so he could heal. He grabbed Rosebud and used their dimensional portal to get back to the King. Chairy and Flimflam flew back toward it, once again leaving Vadania and I to run.
Lily hurled a fire spell at the mouther, and Rosebud moved its body, revealing the Pudding King who had been hiding underneath it; he had indeed been eating the gnome corpses to heal himself. When Flimflam got there he dispelled the cloud kill to allow the rest of the group to get to them.
I saw Lily drawing some runes around the Pudding King for Flimflam to use, as Vadania got to it; I was still a little further behind her. The flesh of the ooze began to bubble up as a green beam came out of it, aimed for Flimflam- but Vadania was in the way. My friend was reduced to a pile of ash. Seeing that, Rosebud sliced his leg, offering Flimflam fresh blood and told him to get the spell done and finish this. Flimflam threw two lightning bolts at the King, and it began to grow...
Then a chunk of the wall behind it exploded, and the debris that slammed into it seemed to finish the ooze off. A large gelatinous cube appeared, and we could hear shots in the tunnel behind it, as 150 kobolds came pouring out of the tunnel. Platinum rays of light came from the cube as it sucked itself up into a suit of full plate armor that had been inside of it. The oozes fled from the cube, as it pursued them mercilessly. This had to be Glabbagool and the kobolds of Bahamutsville! We had won! Blingdenstone was saved!
***** Blingdenstone
We spent the next couple of tendays cleaning up the remaining oozes, and reclaiming parts of the city. The myconids and kobolds settled into their new home quickly.
In addition to losing Vadania, we lost Galothel, Umund, Elyn, and Glyphic; along with about 20% of our fighting forces. Medic and Dorbo were permanently disfigured by the oozes, and Dwarvenforge lost an arm- though that didn't seem to bother him, he said he could still smith one handed. He's probably going to make himself another arm like he did for me.
True to their word, the Diggermattocks gave us a map to the surface, but the only way they knew of that would for sure take us there would put us somewhere in the High Forest. Instead of potentially spending month lost there, we chose to take the Deep Roads, which was a less scouted route, that they believed would take us to Gauntlgrym. The ancient dwarven city was near enough to Neverwinter that I could easily buy a portal home from there. We were given a guide named Schnella, who we were told was almost as good as Roswyn had been.
Lily adopted Flimflam after the fight, his antics had shown that he belonged in the Petunia family. Rosebud finished crafting the repeating crossbow that Fidget had been working on before he died, and gave it to me so I'd have a better ranged weapon.
On the 26 of Uktar we said goodbye to Mezzem, Thecker, the twins, Glabbagool, the kobolds, and our other friends in the city and set out on our journey to the surface. The group was now myself, Lily, Rosebud, Flimflam, Seluna, Niles, Twyla, Lith, Mithrilye, Amin, Arwenel, and a platinum dragonborn who was with Kibbik; he said it would be good for her to go with us.
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*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.
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