Teeth in the Dark

Teeth in the Dark

In the morning they had their breakfast and descended the stairs in the corner of the room to a new corridor that lead east 20 cubits and turned 90 degrees north.  The area appeared empty, apart from some rubble and debris, but Rondell spotted occasional footprints of dust or powder that lead around the corner. Following them, they found a Lemure fighting a losing battle with a Greying Ooze. The lemure's head, having already been swallowed by the Ooze gasped for breath, unable even to cry out for help. 

Rondell leaped immediately into the fray, hacking away at the greying ooze. Xuvats however, recognizing a primitive version of his own kind, was reluctant to intervene, until the greying ooze began to actively injure their new bugbear friend. 

"Hey!" They punched the ooze. "Stop it!" He punched again. "I said stop!" Another punch. Then Rondell stabbed at the ooze with her sword and it sluffed to the ground, releasing the now dead lemure. Xuvats collected a small sample from each for cataloging and they investigated the wooden door in the western wall. 

Maw Demon

It opened to a forty by seventy-foot poorly lit room. As they continued forward Xuvats could see glinting here and there about the darkened floor.  It wasn't until Rondell kicked a helmet left on the floor that they became aware of the low growl echoing about the room.  They peered into the darkness and Xuvats was able to see a shadow moving.  They lunged out with a pseudopod but struck only air. From the darkness, a great maw of teeth snapped back. Xuvats stabbed into the gaping jaw, drawing blood. 

"Stay Safe!" Rondell said through a wad of chewed-up parchment and lunged toward the demon with her sword. Xuvats once again recognized the presence of a Celestial as their membrane began to glow in a golden hue. 

"Hello Celestial Vaeros, I am Xuvats, of Thoth MM9. Are you deploying photonic deflection as a defensive tactic?" The aliens said as a magical mutant of eyes and arms, but mostly teeth rushed forward into the light. The Maw Demon carved a large gash in Rondell's Thigh. "... and you call this ..? Shield of Faith, Extraordinary!" Xuvats continued, bashing one of the demon's eye's out. 

Natural 20

"A-are you talking to my God?!?" Rondell asked, slashing at the Demon again. She carved the end off the demon's tongue causing it to recoil. Then she disengaged from the beast to gain some distance. Blood ran down her leg as she found a pillar to lean against that gave her some cover. 

Natural 20

"Not very effectively, I'm afraid," Xuvats replied. The Maw Demon, knowing nothing else, simply snapped and gnashed, in spite of its heinous wounds.  Xuvats closed in on it, growing taller and more imposing, bashing the menace to death.

They took a few moments for Rondell to attend to her wounds and Xuvats was directed to gather up anything that might be of value and bring it into the light beneath one of the few torches. The alien rolled over the room and returned momentarily with a sample of the Maw Demon for cataloguing, a hefty sum of coins, several healing potions, and a spell scroll, all of which the alien gifted to Rondell. Xuvats had also found some Graffiti, a single word painted on each wall, which Rondell translated from Goblin to be Lament, Order, Conjure, and Expose.

Natural 20

They approached the large iron door on the west wall, near the Order graffiti, with caution, remembering what had happened the previous evening. After a brief inspection Xuvats did, in fact, find a similar pit trap to the one they had seen the previous cycle. When Xuvats was unable to disarm the trap, they extended themselves in a tripodal shape about the door entrance and attempted to pick the lock. Learning from last time, Xuvats slipped a pseudopod into the lock and softened it to try and level the tumblers, and the lock popped open, and the floor dropped out beneath their tripod legs.

The thirty-foot mostly empty circular room contained nothing of use, save a maul, a rusted spike, and a spyglass hidden amongst the rubble & debris. Back to the door on the North wall, next to the Graffiti that read Conjure, Xuvats found it un-trapped and unlocked. The simple wooden door opened to a natural cavern sixty by fifty feet. The air was dank and the floor was wet with trickling water as they proceeded in. Looking around Rondell found an arcane focus of onyx and dragon's horn which she placed in her pocket, a wooden door in the north wall that lead back upstairs, and a steel door polished to a mirror finish on the east wall.
Rondell attempted to approach the door cautiously and caught her foot on a stalagmite and tumbled shoulder first into the door, whose surface rippled with the sound of rushing water and then rejected her. 
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"What a curious phenomenon." Xuvats reached for the door and was met with the sound of rushing water but solid steel resistance from the exit. Rondell tried the same and her hand also met solid steel and the sound of rushing water. They tried this several more times before they realized that each time they touch the door, more and more water rushed into the underground cavern. Rondell tried to rush the door again with her shoulder and again it rippled beneath her weight but ultimately rejected her. "Intriguing," Xuvats stated again. The water level was now at the Bugbear's knees when Xuvats asked her to try with her other shoulder. 
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This caused more water to rush in, but without the rippling in the steel door. "What is different about your left side and your right?" The alien asked the bugbear. Rondell patted her pockets and then retrieved the arcane focus. As she approached the door with the arcane focus the steel began to ripple when the Dragon Horn was within centi-cubits of it and when the two made contact the arcane focus was sucked from her hand and ripples of steel set it into the center of the door. The sound of rushing was replaced with a sound of flushing, as the water drained from the floor and the steel door opened.
Wight KnightInside they found a sacrificial plinth with a knight laying atop it. Across the room, on n the southeast wall a door hung from it's hinges.  As they moved into the room, the steel door closed behind them, the arcane focus not visible from this side. Xuvats headed for the smashed door on the opposite wall, but a suspicious Rondell took a longer route around the plinth, drawing the wraith's attention as it rose and moved toward her, swinging wildly with a longsword. The undead knight parried her return blows, allowing Xuvats to attack the thing from behind. 
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The Wight split its attacks between them, severely limiting their effectiveness, and Rondell was able to land another blow before disengaging and moving to the opposite end of the plinth for some cover. Xuvats held the creature at bay a few moments until it landed a particularly heavy blow against them, and they also disengaged and retreated behind the plinth. This drew the heavily wounded Wight directly to Rondell, who was able to deflect the undead attacks but was unable to land any meaningful ones of her own. Xuvats extended a Pseudopod over the bugbear's shoulder and bashed the decomposing face in, where it finally fell to the floor.
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As they regroup, Xuvats could't shake the sensation that they were being observed but a quick scan of the room revealed no observational technologies. They continued to the smashed door which opened into a triangular room forty feet across with two guards cowering on the tip of the room. Xuvats quickly bashed both of their faces in before they could make a sound. One, unable to see through dangling and smashed eyeballs began running forward, past the globular alien, who took the opportunity to finish the creature off. The remaining guard, red muck and teeth where its face used to be, flailed wildly with its spear a moment before it too was easily destroyed and cataloged. 
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Xuvats proceeded to the northernmost door and bashed it down, finding the room filled with Agaricus bisporus and a few mundane items, which Rondell retrieved. The alien continued to the next door, bashing it down with such rage that they got tangled up in it, drawing the attention of the two creatures who were already battling there in the catacombs. 
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"Gozzunn?!?" Rondell said, shocked, as she entered the room. When she saw the Nilbog her bugbear acquaintance was fighting, she too became enraged, longing at the Nilbog with her sword. 
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"Oh fuck! Is that hideous beast your girlfriend?!" the Nilbolg viciously mocked the bugbear it had already been fighting, causing the Bugbear's counterattack to miss its mark. 
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Xuvats destroyed the nilbog with a single blow and Rondell dropped her sword and shield and rushed to the aid of her wounded companion. Gozzun immediately attacked her with his Morningstar, seemingly unaware that she was an ally. Xuvats tried to restrain the confused bugbear but he beat Rondell unconscious before turning on Xuvats himself, who extended a pseudopod out and skewered the him through the brain.
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A Plasmoid from Thot M-99The alien blob moved over to Rondell's side, and could see that she was breathing. On the floor next to her one of the healing potions had tumbled to the floor. Xuvats reached out with a pseudopod and pressed down on Rondell's face, smothering her until she was no longer breathing. He collected a sample of her blood and absorbed it into itself, depositing it into a vacuole to be indexed.
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"Species: Bugbear, with designation "Rondell", catalogued for DNA sequencing."  Conveniently the next door in the triangular room lead Xuvats back up the stairs and out of the labyrinth; into the warm spring morning.
 
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