Kuhl picked his way past debris as he descended the stairs. The light from the Steadfast Stone faded as he moved forward. It would be impossible to be stealthy with the stone-on-stone footfalls of the massive earth elemental walking beside him, so the half-elf held Dawnbringer before him and let her golden light lead the way. The air remained cold and held a musty, acrid tang.
"I recognize that smell," Fargas said. "Last time I smelled it, we stood in front of a swirling pool of oozes and slimes. At least it doesn't smell that bad."
Kuhl well remembered what the halfling spoke about. It was when Chipgrin first showed them how many oozes and slimes the Pudding King had gathered.
"Yeah, well it's growing stronger," Ront said. "Which means some of those slimy bastards are still around and we're getting closer to them."
It was true. The smell grew with every step down the stairway. What that meant, Kuhl didn't know. Ront was probably right. Some oozes and slimes would still be here, but with the presence of hundreds of them, the smell probably lingered. At least the half-elf hoped so. If most of the Pudding King's army had not been drawn off by the gnomes, they were in trouble.
"Hope for the best and plan for the worst," Dawnbringer said in his mind. "Proceed with caution. Can't have you rushing headlong into a gelatinous cube again like last time."
Kuhl thought of reminding Dawnbringer he hadn't rushed headlong into anything. It was Sky who had done the rushing. He'd only been engulfed because he'd been pulling her out of the cube. But Sky wasn't here to defend herself. Wasn't here to protest, as she surely would, that she, in turn, had been saving someone else. He missed her flippant optimism.
At the bottom of the stairs, he heeded his sword's advice, peering ahead for possible danger. The earth elemental came to a lumbered halt alongside him. The gnomes who had founded Blingdenstone had carved their tunnels to follow the natural warren of caverns that had come before. Kuhl could see fifteen feet of empty stone corridor basked in the light of the sword and ten more feet, still empty, in dim shadow beyond that. Then the path turned.
"So far so good?" Rhianne whispered from just behind him.
There was a questioning tone to the darkling bard's statement. Rhianne's dark vision was superior to his own, but with Dawnbringer lighting the way, she would have her goggles down and she wouldn't see as well as the rest of them.
"So far so good," Kuhl assured her.
He started forward. The others followed. They were a strange group. A darkling, a halfling, an orc, five deep gnomes, two of them supposedly wererats, all led by a half-elf and a construct of earth and stone. They went down one corridor, then another. When they came to a fork in the path, Kuhl looked to the gnome priest, Gurnik, for guidance. The svirfneblin seemed confident of the way and motioned which direction with little hesitation.
The collective smell of oozes and slimes grew stronger, but they encountered nothing. Water dripped in the distance, echoing down the tunnel, the sound drowned out whenever the elemental took a booming step. The gnome soldiers hesitated before passing under a patch of wet stone, staring up at it suspiciously. They spoke to the other svirfneblin in their own language.
"Great, just great." Ront said. "The Diggermattock's couldn't be bothered to send soldiers who could speak Common?"
Topsy and Turvey raised their crossbows towards the ceiling and backed away. As usual Turvey was muttering under his breath. Though he couldn't understand the words, Ront heeded this apparent warning and also moved back.
"They don't like that oily patch of stone," Gurnik said. "They think it might be a...Look out!"
Kuhl glanced up in time to see the ceiling seem to collapse towards him. Turvey loosed his bolt. The half-elf had time to think of how ridiculous that was. What good would a crossbow bolt do against collapsing stone? About as much good as the shield Kuhl instinctively raised above his head.
To his surprise the bolt sank home with a squelch. Even more surprising the collapsing stone didn't immediately kill him, or even shatter his arm.
The falling weight drove his shield down onto his forehead with a metallic thud he felt reverberate through his skull. Dazed, he dropped to a knee. It took a moment to regather his wits. As awareness returned, he realized whatever landed on him wasn't stone at all. Something fleshy and squirming lay on top of him. It pummeled and tried to engulf him. And where it touched his bare flesh, it burned. Rhianne was partially underneath him, curled into a ball and using him as shelter.
Kuhl cried out but used the shock of the pain to give himself strength. He heaved himself to his feet. When there was space, Rhianne wriggled free and crawled away.
The half-elf brought Dawnbringer to bear as soon as there was room. He shoved the ooze aside with his shield and stabbed downward. The sword of light pierced the gray, oozing mass and it writhed back off the blade. A twang sounded as Topsy loosed her bolt and it sank into the ooze with a hiss. Ront slashed down with his scimitar. The dark steel of Gracklstugh bit deep and the ooze seemed to deflate in on itself, losing consistency and becoming nothing more than a puddle of liquid. But when the orc pulled his weapon free, the metal seemed pitted and corroded.
"Damn these things to the Nine Hells!" Ront shouted.
A booming crack sounded as the earth elemental drove a fist into the tunnel wall. Another patch of what looked like oily, wet rock lay on that section of the wall. Any illusion of it being harmless wet stone was lost as the elemental's fist retracted. A pseudopod formed and struck back, but its attack seemed to have little effect on the magical construct of earth. The elemental didn't so much as flinch.
The svirfneblin soldiers sighted, loosed, and a pair of crossbow bolts hissed home. This was followed by a glowing hammer of radiance, which formed and struck the ooze. For an instant, the gray mass seemed to try and shrink away from the weapon of light, then it lost its form and flowed down the wall to puddle on the tunnel floor.
Gurnik called the glowing hammer back to float over his head. He and Kuhl shared a look and a nod. But their self-congratulation came too soon. Rhianne let out a piercing wail that she cast down the corridor into a black mass of sludge oozing towards them. The wave of sound rippled through the creature, knocking it backward for an instant. Then it recovered and slithered forward.
Kuhl leapt forward raising Dawnbringer high,
"NO!"
The sword's warning came in his head too late. He brought the weapon downward in a cleaving strike. At first his attack seemed to have great effect. The blade of light scythed through the creature, cutting it. Then, with a wet pop, it split in twain. Both smaller oozes raised pseudopods to attack.
"I think you just doubled our problem," Fargas said.
The halfling held the control gem of the elemental aloft and ordered it forward.
"I noticed," Kuhl said.
The half-elf ducked a pseudopod swipe and danced back. He raised his sword up, but hesitated attacking.
"Unless you want to be swarmed by a bunch of smaller black puddings," Dawnbringer said in his head. "Don't chop with me like a woodsman splitting firewood."
"Now you tell me," Kuhl said.
"Now we tell you what?" Fargas asked,
The earth elemental intercepted a pseudopod punch directed at Kuhl and drove both of its massive fists downward, smashing one of the puddings flat.
"Nothing," the half-elf said.
"Stick them with the pointy end," Dawnbringer said in his mind.
Kuhl did as instructed, thrusting his sword into the other half of the creature. The blade of radiance pierced the oozing mass. It shrank back, obviously hurt, but it did not split.
"I meant to warn you earlier about the danger of splitting them," Dawnbringer mentally said.
"When?" Kuhl sent back.
"Earlier," the sword's mental voice sounded contrite. "But then I forgot."
The half-elf thought it was pretty important information to forget before fighting an army of oozes, but the pudding threw a counterattack before he could reply. The blow thudded against his shield, causing him to stumble back. Gurnik's glowing hammer floated forward and attacked. This was followed by crossbow bolts loosed by the gnome twins and the creature lost cohesion.
A collection of attacks from the rest of the group had taken care of the other black pudding. No other enemies presented themselves and, after a few moments of tense waiting, it seemed none would immediately.
"Good job Rocky," Fargas said, patting one of the legs of the elemental.
"Out of all the names you could have chosen," Rhianne said. "You settled on Rocky?"
"What's wrong with Rocky?" the halfling asked.
"Nothing," the darkling bard said, her voice already sounding slightly hoarse from her first vocal attack. "Except you took the word 'rock' and added a 'y'."
"And?" Fargas asked.
"If I later compose a ballad of our deeds, our earth elemental companion should have a properly heroic name," Rhianne said. "Not Rocky."
The darkling bard shuddered and shook her head.
"I like Rocky," the halfling shrugged. "Besides you have a bigger problem with names if you are going to compose this into a ballad. I mean, his name is Kuhl."
Fargas hooked a thumb towards the half-elf.
"It's my grandfather's name," Kuhl said. "It's Vaasan."
"I planned on mainly using his last name," the darkling bard said, ignoring the half-elf.
"Nightstar?" Fargas shook his head. "Never made sense to me. Isn't every star you see at night a Nightstar?"
"He has a point," Dawnbringer mentally said. "What exactly is a Nightstar?"
"As tempted as I am to debate names with someone named Rumblefoot," Kuhl said with a roll of his eyes. "We're kind of in the middle of something."
"What we are, is in trouble," Ront said. "My sword isn't going to last through too many fights like that and the runts are going to run out of crossbow bolts eventually."
The orc held up his weapon and what had been dark and deadly steel was now even more pitted and corroded. A glance at the puddles left behind by the oozes and puddings showed partially dissolved crossbow bolts. Useless.
Kuhl looked down at himself. He and his companions had mended what they could after his earlier immersion in the gelatinous cube, but this most recent wrestling match with an ooze had left his studded leather barely holding together. In contrast Dawnbringer's blade of radiance was unaffected by the corrosive nature of the oozes and the bronze spiral serpent pattern on his new shield still shone brightly.
"I have a dagger you can use," the half-elf said.
"Just what I wanted," Ront said. "A short blade where I almost have to stick my fist into one of these things,"
The orc shook his head and hefted his currently damaged weapon. He motioned for Kuhl to lead on.
The burns on his face and hands from the ooze attack pained Kuhl as they moved forward. He thought of stopping to heal them, but he had a feeling he'd be needing that magic for more serious injuries. Within a few twists and turns, they had come to the great cavern where they had first heard the voice of the Pudding King and seen his army. The smell of oozes and slimes was strong, but not as overpowering as it had been the last time they were here. Much had changed. The large spherical stone structure was still held up off the floor by stone pillars and dripping green slime still covered the cavern wall and the sphere surface. But now, no living oozes crawled among the green slime. Gone was the swirling black, yellow, and gray soup that had been present. Kuhl heard the sound of distant fighting and the echo of water dripping. Other than that, the cave remained eerily quiet. Unlike last time, no disembodied voice called out to in challenge.
"The Pudding King's army is gone," Fargas said in a whisper.
"None of the oozes are left," Gurnik said. "The plan worked. His army was drawn off."
"It worked too well," Rhianne said from the depths of her cowl.
Her posture showed her doubt.
"The darkling is right," Ront said. "This stinks like a trap. I don't like it."
"If Sky were here," Kuhl said. "She would say you never like anything."
"She isn't here," the orc said. "And she'd know something was wrong. She just wouldn't be able to control her curiosity."
The half-elf had no argument against that.
"Trap or not, we need to find the Pudding King," Kuhl said. "Only one way to know for certain he isn't inside."
He started to walk towards one of the stone ramps leading to the interior of the sphere, but Rhianne laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.
"I don't know oozes and slimes like Diar," the darkling bard said. "But I do know green slime is only found in subterranean places. It does not do well in sunlight."
She nodded towards Dawnbringer, lowered her hooded head, and hooked fingers through Kuhl's belt.
Kuhl took her meaning and willed the radiance of his blade to grow. He felt the heat of sunlight on face and the sphere of surrounding light grew till the sword blazed with white hot intensity. Where the light touched it, green slime wilted and shriveled. The slime was still a threat, but not a looming one ready to drop on the party. Kuhl raised his shield and edged his way across the stone causeway, with Rhianne following closely behind, guided by her hold on his belt. The booming steps of the Rocky the elemental followed.
He paused at the doorway and raised Dawnbringer high to burn away the slime above the entrance, then entered. More slime waited inside, but it too was pushed back by the light of the sword to reveal stone underneath.
"The Royal Sphere," Gurnik said as he came inside. "Once the center for government in Blingdentone."
The chambers inside were empty, scoured clean of all furnishings by oozes and slimes. Any paint or murals had been eaten away. Some walls held etchings that may have been filled with metal inlays, but these too were gone. The footsteps of the elemental echoed as they searched the interior of the sphere, but they found no sign of the Pudding King.
"Where is he?" Fargas asked.
"With his army?" Gurnik questioned.
They should have thought of that. Why would the Pudding King send his army ahead and wait, vulnerable and alone, for it to return? Why wouldn't he invade with it? Kuhl sighed and shook his head. Thinking furiously, he decided there might still be a chance of catching the leader of the oozes unaware. He might not expect an attack from the rear. Kuhl was about to lead his group towards the sound of distant fighting when Turvey started waving his hands and muttering from near one of the other exits to the sphere. He pointed with his crossbow down the ramp there.
Kuhl walked over, Rhianne dragged along behind in his wake by her continued hold on his belt. Gurnik and Topsy had also joined Turvey near the door. All three raised their hands to shield their eyes from Dawnbringer's brightness as the half-elf approached.
Kuhl waited while Topsy translated her brother's mutterings to Gurnik who translated in turn.
"He says he saw some oozes, a gray one and a black one, down there," the gnome priest said. "They slithered off down one of the passages."
More muttering came from Turvey followed by another chain of translation.
"He didn't just see them," Gurnik said. "He thinks one of them gave him a mental shove."
"Mental shove?" Kuhl asked.
The gnome priest shrugged. "It is what she says he said."
"Some oozes are known to develop psychic abilities," Rhianne said.
Kuhl peered out of the sphere into the direction Turvey indicated, but the brightness of Dawnbringer interfered with his dark vision. He could see little beyond what her radiance illuminated.
"Are they still there?" he asked.
"We can't tell," the gnome priest said, motioning towards Kuhl's sword.
"I'd rather be blinded by the light," Fargas said, coming over, "Than have green slime drop on me."
Behind him, Rocky loomed, towering even above Kuhl.
"The halfling is right," Ront said. "Don't let that light drop or we are never getting out of here."
The half-elf hefted his weapon higher again in response, but his attention was focused outside the sphere. Had Turvey really seen a pair of oozes and, if so, what did it mean? Should they pursue them or assume the Pudding King was with his army and head towards the fighting? They were losing precious time.
"He is sure he saw a pair of oozes?" Kuhl asked Topsy directly in Undercommon.
"My brother said he saw them," Topsy said.
Kuhl would feel better if she had seen them. Her brother had always been an odd one, always muttering unintelligibly under his breath. She had to translate for him even with other gnomes. Turvey seemed to sense his doubt. When Kuhl glanced in his direction the gnome motioned again outside the sphere.
"It's worth taking a look," Kuhl said.
"You are sure he actually saw them?" Dawnbringer mentally asked. "He does not seem the sanest individual."
As if to prove her point, Turvey was rubbing his temples and muttering to himself.
"It's our only lead," Kuhl thought back. "Better than a stab in the dark."
"With me in your hand," the sword said in his mind. "There are no stabs in the dark."
Kuhl smiled and lifted Dawnbringer to burn away any slime waiting to drop as they exited the sphere. He walked down the ramp, the now familiar drag at his waist from Rhianne following. Neither of them would be able to fight this way. As soon as the green slime was less prevalent, he'd need to lower the light. He approached the tunnel entrance Turvey had indicated but saw no signs of a black and gray ooze.
He was just about to turn to the others when he felt it, a pushing in his mind. More than a push, an attempt to squeeze it. After a brief wave of dizziness, he resisted, and the presence retreated, leaving a headache in its wake.
"What was that?" Dawnbringer mentally asked.
"You felt that?" Kuhl whispered.
"We are attuned, you and I," the sword said in his mind.
"Did you say something?" Rhianne asked.
Kuhl still hadn't fully gotten the hang of responding to Dawnbringer without speaking. He was starting to act like Turvey with all the muttering to himself. It made him wonder if the gnome wasn't actually speaking to something after all. No time to wonder about that now.
"I felt the same thing as Turvey," Kuhl said. "Something pushed against my mind, then retreated. The attack came from down this corridor."
Kuhl turned to face the darkling bard but, joined as they were, she turned with him and he ended up facing Fargas and the earth elemental and the others behind them instead. He looked to the ceiling and nearby walls. No slimes hung ready to drop on them, so he willed Dawnbringer's light to dim to her normal level.
"I've lowered the light," he said. "Your goggles should be enough to protect you."
Rhianne released his belt, then came to stand alongside him.
"So, this ooze pushed on Turvey's mind then crawled away down there," the halfling said. "Then pushed on your mind and retreated further."
"It's a trap," Ront snorted, giving voice to what they probably were all thinking.
"Probably," Kuhl said. "But how else are we going to find the Pudding King?"
"So, we walk into a trap set by oozes?" The orc said. "Do you know how dumb that sounds?"
"All of this is for nothing unless we kill the Pudding King," the half-elf motion towards the sounds of distant fighting. "If he thinks he is leading us into a trap we might have a chance to reverse it on him."
"Or we might fall into a pit filled with green slime," Ront said. "Where is that crazy tabaxi when you need her?"
Kuhl would also feel better with Sky leading them. As flighty as she sometimes seemed, she had a sixth sense for finding traps.
"It is likely a trap," Rhianne said. "But not likely to be pit or something similar. This is an army of oozes and slimes. They have no hands to build things. Those slimes had been placed to drop on those who came here, but Dawnbringer countered that. We can probably handle whatever else they try. Kuhl is right. We have to try."
Ront shook his head, but when he saw Gurnik nodding and translating for the other gnomes he threw up his hands.
"Death from being outsmarted by mindless crawling bottom feeders," the orc said. "Gruumsh hates me."
Fargas let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Ront is right. It is stupid to go walking right into a trap. But, like you said, all this is for nothing unless we find and kill the Pudding King."
He motioned towards the corridor.
"Let Dawnbringer take care of any slime traps the Pudding King may have planted," Rhianne said.
She grasped again on his belt buckle and looked down to lower her hood fully over her face.
Kuhl willed the sword to its full intensity and started forward. Dawnbringer illuminated the tunnel, shining light in areas that probably had not seen such brightness in over a century. In the craggy surface of a natural tunnel, however, shadows persisted in nooks and cracks. No normal enemy could hide in these, but it was different with an army of oozes. These creatures could squeeze themselves into any space and had somehow continued to keep finding their way into Blingdenstone despite the best efforts by the svirfneblin to seal it against them. Kuhl's trepidation grew as they continued to encounter no resistance. They came to a fork in the tunnel. Turning right would lead them back towards the temple of the Steadfast Stone. Two choices remained. Gurnik only shrugged when Kuhl glanced at him. Before the gnome priest had known they were going to the House Center and Royal Sphere. Now their destination was unknown.
Looking both directions, the half-elf was about to choose at random. Then he thought he saw something in the distance slither across the floor in the tunnel straight ahead.
"Definitely a trap," Ront said, obviously seeing the same thing.
Others had seen it as well. The svirfneblin raised crossbows to ready position and Gurnik recalled his floating glowing hammer, which had faded while they explored the Royal Sphere. Taking this as consensus, Kuhl moved forward, the reassuring presence of Rocky the elemental walking beside him a comfort. They came to another tunnel branch, and followed the turn to the left, after the retreating oozes. Here the passage narrowed. It would only allow for them to pass one at a time and the earth elemental would barely fit.
The half-elf thought of sending Rocky first, but decided he needed to see what lay ahead for himself and led the way, Rhianne trailing after. After traversing a short bottleneck, the tunnel widened to a large cavern, illuminated by phosphorescent lichen. The floor was covered with pools of green slime and more slime clung to the ceiling and formed hideous drapes along the wall. In the middle of the cave, facing them, was a slime-covered throne, and sitting atop it, was a svirfneblin, dressed in rags and covered in patches of slime. A pair of oozes, one large and black and the other gray, blocked the path to the throne.
The slime-covered deep gnome stood, pointed, and cackled. "Devour them, my precious children! Make your father proud!"
The gray ooze quivered and Kuhl once again felt the mental crush descend on him. He gritted his teeth and shook his head to clear it. The black mass reared and surged forward. Part of it came away and flew to splatter on Rocky next to him. Green slime fell in a cascade around them, but it dried and shriveled as it struck the sphere of Dawnbringer's radiance, crumbling into desiccated flakes that broke into a choking cloud of powder on impact.
"A bunch of them are behind us!" Ront yelled.
Kuhl started to look back, but a second wave was falling, and unlike the green slime, these creatures were not affected by Dawnbringer's light. Waterfalls of yellow, gray, and black spilled to the cavern floor to pool, reform, and surge towards them.
"What is happening?" asked Rhianne behind him.
"A trap," Kuhl said. "And you were right. It is not a pit."
He doubted she would take much satisfaction in being right.
The Pudding King chanted and gestured. A cloud of yellow-green fog erupted around them. It caught the half-elf mid breath and he immediately coughed as the foul stuff burned his lungs. His throat constricted and he had to resist the urge to cast aside his sword and shield to clutch at his throat. Gurnik hacked and wheezed his way through an incantation in Gnomish and the fog glowed and dispersed.
For a moment, Kuhl could only suck in breaths still tinged with dried slime as if it were the sweetest mountain air he'd ever tasted.
"Lower the light," Rhianne said. "Let me see."
The half-elf complied, and the darkling bard's eyes must have barely had time to adjust before she let forth a shattering scream. Its wave tore through the nearest yellow, gray, and black oozes crawling towards them. Kuhl was amazed she'd managed such a feat after the choking cloud he still recovered from.
"Fight for your king!" the slime covered gnome yelled from in front of his throne. "Glory to the Faceless Lord!"
"One of the gnomes is down," Fargas said.
The half-elf looked and saw it was true. One of the soldiers lay face down, probably a victim of the poisonous fog before Gurnik dispelled it.
Despite Rhianne's attack, oozes still advanced on all sides. A blob of black was again lobbed at Rocky, who already had a patchwork of yellow, gray, and black clinging to his body, pseudopods rising and falling as he flailed back in return. The darkling bard clutched her head as the gray ooze blocking the throne quivered again. Crossbows twanged as the twins loosed their weapons. They must have been launched at enemies behind as Kuhl didn't see the bolts. Ront roared and yelled out something that sounded like a curse in Orcish and the half-elf wondered if the orc's corroded scimitar had just broken.
"The Pudding King," Kuhl called out to Gurnik. "Can your hammer reach him?"
The half-elf forced his way towards the throne, thrusting with Dawnbringer at the mass of oozes blocking his way.
In response to his question, the gnome priest's glowing hammer of light floated forward. But the Pudding King was aware of the threat. He ducked behind his throne and pointed a finger, mouth moving through.a spell.
"My eyes!" Gurnik cried out. "I can't see!"
His hammer of light stopped its progress and hung motionless in the air.
"Rhianne," Kuhl said, deflecting a pseudopod with his shield and stabbing at the yellow jelly like thing in return. "The Pudding King!"
It was all he could manage to say as he tried to fend off the attacking oozes. They had to bring the fight to the slime covered gnome. They allowed him to cast spells on them at will, they were all dead.
She understood. The next time Kuhl heard her one of her screams echoing through the cavern it emanated from the vicinity of the throne. The half-elf could not spare even a glance to see the results of her attack. Even as the yellow jelly lost form and puddled from a thrust from his sword a black pseudopod struck him. Little protection remained in the scraps of studded leather he wore, and his flesh burned with the residue left behind from the attack. A prayer on his lips, Kuhl sank Dawnbringer deep into the black mass. Her radiant energy burned it in turn and the half-elf channeled power gifted from his goddess as well, turning the ooze into a lifeless pool of viscous liquid.
"There are too many of them!" Fargas yelled. "Rocky!"
Kuhl danced back as the earth elemental, besieged by attackers, toppled towards him. It crumbled to rubble as it struck the cavern floor.
The half-elf stuck a gray ooze as it wriggled from under the fallen construct. But, as he thrust again, a crushing mental assault squeezed his mind and he fumbled with his sword, nearly dropping it. He heard Rhianne scream an attack again as he struggled to regain his mental focus. Then she cried out again, but this time in anguish.
Kuhl looked back to find the darkling bard crumpled on the cavern floor, moaning as she clutched at her stomach. He backed to stand protectively over her and turned a baleful gaze toward the Pudding King. Their eyes met across the distance.
"Callooh! Callay! Now you can join the party!" the slime-covered gnome danced behind his throne. "You can be one with the Faceless Lord. Just let yourselves be eaten and disgorged!"
A blob of oozing mass spattered against Kuhl's shield, lobbed by the black pudding still guarding the throne. Things had unraveled quickly. Rhianne was down, Gurnik blinded, and the earth elemental destroyed. Loosed crossbow bolts told him some of the svirfneblin still fought.
"You better do something," Fargas said from beside him. "Ront is down to his dagger and they aren't going to hold off the ones behind us much longer."
And there was something he could do. A whispering presence in his mind told him he could cross the distance to the Pudding King in a single step if he so desired. All he had to do was channel the same source as the healing and smiting magic gifted to him. But to do so would mean abandoning his companions, one blind and another writhing on the ground in pain, to attacking oozes. A booming explosion rocked the cavern as he hesitated.
"Fire?" Fargas yelled out. "Aleina?"
Kuhl turned and saw the aasimar fly into the cavern on her wings of white light. She pulled a bead from her necklace and cast it and a ball of fire erupted where it struck, incinerating a mass of oozes. For a moment it seemed everyone just watched her in her flight as she threw another deadly bead, destroying more of the creatures.
Then the Pudding King looked to the ceiling and signaled. Green slime cascaded down on Aleina and she plummeted to the ground. The mad gnome started to cackle, then a beam of crackling energy flashed from the cavern entrance and struck him in the face.
"You are going to die for that you little bastard!"
"I never thought I'd be glad to hear that voice," Ront said.
Two feminine forms entered the cave, one dark and carrying an abyssal blade and the other feline with a swishing tail.
"Sky," Fargas said. "And Jhelnae, they cured her."
More companions charged into the cavern. Diarnghan loosed an arrow that buried itself into the gray ooze guarding the throne just as it started to quiver for another mental attack. The hulking form of Derendil in his shredded shirt and Eldeth hefting her hammer followed.
Any joy Kuhl might have felt at the new arrivals had been quelled by the fall of the aasimar and their current dire predicament. Well placed fireballs had destroyed most of the oozes surrounding them, but a few still advanced. A scream ripped through these, pushing some back and shredding others.
"Help the others!" Rhianne had crawled to her knees to yell out her attack. "Fargas and I can handle these."
Kuhl was unsure. The darkling bard still clutched at her stomach. But he took her at her word and channeled power to warp space so he could travel a distance with a single step. It took him not to the Pudding King, but to where Aleina lay.
The half-drow arrived at almost the same time.
"No, no, no, no, no," she said.
She knelt to help the moaning aasimar but hesitated when she saw the slime covering her.
"Stand back," Kuhl said.
Dawnbringer's light would not harm the Jhelnae, but he wanted nothing to shade Aleina from the sword's radiance. He willed the blade to blaze at its most brilliant and sunlight basked her fallen form. Green slime dried and flaked at its touch.
"Can you heal her?" the half-drow said, voice panicked.
Kuhl knelt to do just that. He extinguished Dawnbringer and dropped his sword and shield by the aasimar's side. Grasping her by the shoulders, he let the healing magic flow until he felt drained and empty. Aleina immediately quieted and took a deep breath.
"Stay with her, Kuhl," the half-drow said. "Protect her."
When the half-elf looked up, Jhelnae already ran towards the throne, sending blasts of energy into the gray ooze guarding the Pudding King. It quivered in response, but in its death throes rather than preparing a psychic attack. It liquified and spread across the cavern floor. Derendil ducked under a thrown blob by the larger black ooze and reached it, tearing into it with his claws.
In his arms, the aasimar stirred. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Kuhl?" she questioned, then gave a slight nod and breathed a sigh. "One moment I was flying and the next it was like on fire."
As she moved the dried slime flaked away, as well as some of her clothes, leaving her in tattered rags. The sound of fighting drew her attention and she moved to get up.
"Rest a moment," the half-elf said. "You were injured badly."
"I'm fine,'' she said, shaking her head. "I've got one more of these and I plan on dropping it right on the Pudding King."
She indicated the necklace of fireballs hanging from her neck. One bead did remain.
Kuhl helped her to her feet. Despite her words, she was unsteady and nearly fell again. Once he was sure she could stand on her own, he retrieved his sword and shield from the ground.
Diarnghan had reached Rhianne, who had managed to stand, but still clutched her stomach. The oozes who had threatened her, Fargas, and the others had been killed, arrows from the darkling ranger and bolts from the gnome twins still dissolving in their remains. The svirfneblin brother and sister were busy reloading. Gurnik was still blind, looking around wildly, but seeing nothing. His glowing hammer still hovered nearby, motionless. Ront stood, brandishing a dagger with only a partial blade, but the two gnome soldiers both lay dead or unconscious.
Only the black ooze and the Pudding King himself remained. Derendil and Eldeth fought the former while Jhelnae faced off against the latter. The slime covered gnome started to move his hands in a casting motion, but a crossbow bolt suddenly sprouted from his head. Kuhl followed the path of the missile back to its source and found Sky creeping along, already reloading her hand crossbow. But the Pudding King did not topple to the ground as he expected. Instead, he melted and morphed, his skin, rags, and even the green slime coating him, blackening. In moments he had fully liquified and he slithered towards Jhelnae in this new shape.
The half drow danced back as pseudopods struck at her. She swung at one of the attacking appendages but slipped in a patch of slime and lost her footing and fell to her hands and knees. The Pudding King surged forward in a wave to engulf her as she fell.
"Jhelnae!" Aleina called out.
With an outstretched hand, she sent a bolt of flame sailing towards Pudding King. It sizzled into his oozing form with a hiss but did not slow him.
Kuhl once again channeled the power of the divine and warped the distance he stepped across. A wave of disorientation washed over him as he appeared in front of the half-drow. Shaking it off, he ignited Dawnbringer and thrust her blade of radiance into the oncoming black mass. For a moment it continued forward, and Kuhl feared it would impale itself deeper and deeper until it flowed over his weapon to engulf him. Then, like an outgoing wave, it receded. The half-elf pursued after it, piercing it again with his blade of light.
Then Jhelnae was there, having climbed to her feet again and rushed forward. Her abyssal sword pierced the Pudding King in turn, hurting the creature more. A crossbow bolt from Sky, still stalking from behind, was the final blow needed.
"You haven't won!" The Pudding King said. "No! We will rise from our children! We will be reborn from the Faceless Lord! Juiblex will consume the banquet of the Queen of Fungi and we…will…all…grow…!"
With those last words, he dissolved into a dense puddle of black sludge.
"Did you see that?" Sky asked. "He was able to talk even in the shape of a big black pudding by quivering his body."
The tabaxi came to squat on her haunches in front of what was left of the Pudding King.
"That must have been how he yelled at us in that big cave with all the oozes," Sky said, continuing her line of thinking. "He had a bunch of them quiver in the exact same way at the same time. You think he practiced to learn to do that?"
The tabaxi looked up, but it took Kuhl a moment to realize she actually expected an answer to her question. It was Jhelnae who answered.
"Don't know," the half drow said. She dropped her dark sword and it dissolved to mist before striking the ground. "Don't care. And it hardly matters now. He is dead."
She breathed a heavy sigh, looking and sounding as tired as Kuhl felt. The half-elf suddenly realized she and the others must have run here shortly after curing her of her petrification to arrive when they did.
Before he could ask how she felt, Aleina yelled, calling him.
"Kuhl!"
He turned and ran to where she knelt over the furred fallen form of Derendil. As he approached, he noticed the acid burns covering the quaggoth. His shirt, already shredded from their travels, was in tatters and stained with the remains of the black pudding. In places it was held together by only a few threads. Strangely, Derendil held Aleina's wrists, and they seemed to be struggling against each other. Even weak as he was, the quaggoth easily held her at bay.
"He won't let her heal him!" Eldeth said, who knelt alongside the aasimar.
Kuhl didn't think he had any healing magic left. He had poured those into Aleina after she'd fallen from the green slime. Before he even got to try, however, the quaggoth warned him off with a shake of his shaggy head.
"No," Derendil said in Elvish.
That the normally loquacious quaggoth stopped after that one short word concerned the half-elf more than anything else.
"Why?" Kuhl asked. "You are hurt. Let us try and help."
Derendil closed his eyes and shook his head again. He took a couple of rasping breaths and gathered his strength.
"Because now," he said in Elvish. "Close to death as I am, I know the truth. I am not Prince Derendil of Nelrindenvane…"
The quaggoth paused for a couple of breaths.
"None of that matters to us," Aleina said. "You are our Derendil. That is all we care about."
"You do not understand," the quaggoth said. "And I do not have the time left to fully explain. Nelrindenvane was an imaginary place my sister and I made during our play as children. We were the prince and princess of that pretend kingdom."
Derendil spoke with a pausing, halting cadence. Stopping to gather his strength as needed. As he spoke, the others gathered, all huddling around.
"What is he saying?" Ront asked, and there seemed some genuine concern there.
Kuhl held up a hand to forestall more questions from those who didn't speak Elvish.
"And later, it was the setting for my plays. For that is what I was, a playwright in the city of Darmaerth," Derendil smiled a sharp toothed smile, gaze far away and seeing another place, another time. "A beautiful place, my city, before the Dlardrageth sacked it. It turns out the quill is not mightier than the sword in all instances. I was killed. My sister was the warrior between the two of us. Perhaps she escaped. I do not know. Long did I wait for her in Arvandor, but she never came. So, I came back, again and again, but each time the return to life made me forget my purpose. Only this time have I remembered, however imperfectly."
Derendil coughed weakly. It took a few moments for Kuhl to realize the quaggoth was laughing.
"The gods have a sense of humor, do they not?" Derendil continued. The sharp-tooth smile was back but tinged with sadness. "I remember now, but also realize this body would not survive the journey across the surface to Darmaerth."
The quaggoth's green eyes sought and found Kuhl.
"I have a favor to ask you," Derendil said between rasping breaths. "You once laid a gnome's finger to rest here in Blingdentone so his soul could find rest. Would you do the same for me? Take part of me to Darmaerth? There perhaps my soul can find my sister's, if she fell there, and guide her back to Arvandor, where she belongs."
Kuhl nodded. "Of course, I will. But let us help you, and we can journey there together.
Derendil shook his head and closed his eyes. When he spoke again, the half-elf had to kneel and lean over to hear his whisper.
"I am afraid I will forget again, and this body was made for deep dark places. Not the surface."
The quaggoth fell silent, and for a time they just watched the slow rise and fall of his chest and listened to his rattling breath. Then that too stilled and so passed Prince Derendil of Nelrindenvane.
Sorry for the long time between updates! Work has been crazy busy...still is crazy busy. I feel a bit guilty writing the bulk of this over the weekend. My wife and daughter also, for some reason, would often come sit with me while I was writing this and say things like, "So what are you doing?" Then I would be invited to do something else. I always went, but internally I'd be thinking, "Okay...while Kuhl is fighting that, what would Rhianne be doing?" Once I got into it, I really wanted to work on it. Yet it seems things kept getting in the way! I'm sure that is a familiar feeling to most of you other fic writers. :)
I hope this works. It is very rough. I haven't even reread many parts of it. The back story with Derendil is something I thought up a while ago, as well as a side quest for the party, but when I actually went to write it all out I was like, "Oh man. This is a big data dump. I didn't realize what a data dump this would be." I don't have time to rework it right now...