RECAP: 5th Avengers, 12-27-20
Having used most of our spells and being badly injured, we decide to check out the gifts. Geth examines the belt. It looks brand new. It is approximately the size of a weight-lifter’s belt. It is adorned with some reliefs of nature and starry skies and that sort of thing. It is not overtly ornate. but does not seem to have a personality or intelligence. It has obvious utility, and as Geth puts it on, the world feels in balance, but not everyone around me seems to have made good choices. The belt grants a bonus to Wisdom. Everyone else notices that Geth doesn’t smell quite as bad anymore, which frustrates Geth to no end. He notices that any soils on him appear to just fall off. Lauris attempts to cover the belt in animal shit with the Prestidigitation cantrip, which works initially. Geth notices that wearing the belt in the long term would interfere with his ability to interact with the natural world. We decide to pitch camp in the Moathouse courtyard, and Balyx threatens to kill Lauris should he ever rain shit upon him like he did Geth. Lauris sends his weasel out to follow Joss the owl, who executes a search pattern under Beast Sense.
Behind where we met the dragon, the owl finds a caved-in stairwell, completely filled with rubble and inaccessible. On the way there, Joss passes through a ruined chamber with tattered tapestries and broken weapons and a skull or two, with one corner caved in and the stones repositioned to block easy egress. The floors are charred, painting a picture of some people who attempted to evade the dragon but failed.
In the next room, a wooden work table and some cabinets still stand, and a broken cask lies near the fireplace, and a rusted cleaver lies nearby.
Balyx expresses that he needs rest. We decide to set a camp right where we are, conveniently located near a freshwater well. Balyx made a lengthy aside. Jarry notices that he has a clear view of the drawbridge, the only way in. We set a watch. On her watch, Caela paces the courtyard and hears nature sounds. She wakes Geth, whose watch passes without interruption. The watch passes to Lauris, who plays with his weasel on his watch, which also passes without incident. Jarry detects nothing out of the ordinary. Balyx takes his turn, and he feels emboldened by his returned health and wanders around in the Moathouse, especially where the dragon had been. He peers beyond a door off its hinges but can’t see anything in the darkness beyond. The rest of the night passes without incident. Balyx roasts hot dogs for breakfast and shares that there is a hallway he cannot see into on the east side of the moathouse.
We pack up camp and head to the room Balyx found himself looking at last night. Balyx finds a door and opens it, finding that it swings a bit but then falls off its hinges, revealing an empty bedchamber. The bed has been hacked to pieces, and a dead rat is in the wreckage. A blood-colored cloth is nailed to the doorway. Just past that door, Geth finds another, which opens in much the same manner. This room is full of rat droppings and a shredded table. Across the hall, a few bats flutter about when the door falls in. The furniture that remains appears to have once been very fine. Geth moves on to the room at the end of the hall. The room is empty, but damp, and opens to the moat. Geth begins to poke around the room when a gelatinous ooze spills out of the rubble in the ruined corner of the room and moves to attack.
Caela misses the ooze with an arrow. Lauris created an illusion of a kobold in front of the ooze. Jarry hits the ooze with Magic Missile. Geth calls down Moonbeam on the ooze and hangs back. Balyx cleaves the ooze in the name of Baphomet. The ooze lurches onto Balyx, smothering and covering him like some Waffle House hash browns. Caela calls out, “what do you all want me to do?” Only Jarry is able to respond, “delay!” Caela waits. Lauris strikes the ooze down with Booming Blade, freeing Balyx from being digested but also stabbing him in the process. Both Lauris’ rapier and Balyx’s shield were damaged in the ooze attack. The ooze collapses into a puddle of oily liquid and is dead. Geth offers to mend Balyx’s shield and sets to it with the Mending cantrip.
