Lost Mines Of Phandelver : 15 – Butterscotch Slime
Our heroes:
Euphemia “Mia” Tosscobble, the Halfling Rogue,
Count Erspell, the Elvish Mage,
Kui-Kui, the Human Noble Fighter,
Viggo, the Human Druid,
Dave, the Human Folk Hero Fighter,
& Eorlund Granitefella, the Dwarvish Cleric
The party stocked up on provisions and climbed into Viggo’s cart. Heading out into the mountains once again, too finally end all the trouble caused by the Black Spider. After a few hours, Viggo stops the cart outside a large cave entrance. An old torn down signs reads ‘Wave Echo Cave’. This was it, the party steeled themselves and walked into the darkness.
The tunnel eventually opened up into a cavern, a small circular ‘room’ with large stalagmites pointing out of the ground. In the middle of the room lay a dwarven body. Eorlund approached the corpse, at his dismay to find it was his cousin, Nundro Rockseeker. Eorlund cleans up his cousin’s body and blesses him with his last rites. Mia thinks about looting the body but quickly changes her mind.
At the far end of the room, the floor drops off into a pit that had tunnels to the east and west. With nowhere else to go the party descended into the pit. Viggo feeling uneasy transformed back into his Giant Red Panda form. Using his heightened sense of smell, he could tell the east tunnel lead to a very damp smelling area, and Viggo knew from his time travelling in the wilderness that damp usually meant bugs and other nasty creatures. So the party took the west route.
The tunnel opened up into a carved straight corridor, with several straight passageways on either side. It seemed the party had stumbled upon an underground maze. Not wanting to turn back and face whatever was in the other tunnel, the group walked into the maze.
A few minutes pass as the group twist and turn through the maze. Erspell could shake this strange feeling he had, turning around he noticed an orange blob shuffle out of sight. The elf warned the party that they were being followed. Mia jumped to action and fired a shot with her crossbow. Eorlund just as quickly shot out a sacred flame at the slime. The slime was surprisingly fast though as it flattened to the ground as the attacks sailed above it.
Viggo, not wanting to bite the slime, moved out of the party’s way so they could attack. But Erspell had a different idea, casting prestidigitation on the slime attempting to change its flavour to butterscotch. Unfortunately, the spell failed and Viggo stayed out of the fight.
A continued barrage of arrows and firebolts but down the slime and the party continued into the maze.
The party took a break to get their bearings, but where suddenly attacked by four gricks. The mouths with tails advanced on the group, Viggo still in panda form, put himself between the gricks and the party. Mia quickly assessed the area and figured that the passages to the south would loop around and they could attack the monsters from behind. Kui-Kui, Dave and (slowly) Eorlund take the passages while Mia and Erspell stay behind to support Viggo. The gricks where too much for the druid though as they’re continued attacks wear him down, causing him to lose his panda form. This gave an opening for the party to flank the monsters and attack. This strategy worked for a while, but after a particularly nasty bite, Mia felt she needed to retreat. This left an opening for a couple of gricks, who slithered through.
The monsters didn’t get too far before they slammed into a Giant Frog. The creature opened it’s the gigantic mouth and swallowed of the gricks whole, leaving just the one. The frog turned to the other one and tried to swallow that one too, but it got caught in its throat. Erspell tried to help by pushing the grick into the frog’s mouth, but this backfired as the frog started gagging, then throwing up the half-swallowed grick, also spilling stomach acid onto Erspell.
A few more attacks from the rest of the party put down the last grick, after which the party turned to the frog. The creature croaked and started to morph, once the mass solidified again, Viggo was standing there.
The mines are looking to be more dangerous than the party first thought, can they survive and defeat the Black Spider?
The Adventure Continues…
