Floyd’s Camp Near The Caves of Woe – Noon
I searched for medicinal leaves and plants near my camp. The goblin arrow left quite a gash on my thigh and it needed to be cleaned and bandaged. While searching I tried out my new magic over and over. Nothing happened. That part of me was exhausted. I’ll try again later when I’m better rested.
A thought popped into my head. What if the other goblin started to worry about his friend? I need to get to him before that happens. I hurried back into the cave and retraced my steps. I then heard a grumbling voice echoing through the passages. I followed the sound which lead to another closed wooden door. As I listened at the door I could hear grumbling and the sound of items being rearranged. I opened the door quietly to see the other goblin, back turned to me, looking through his bags in the corner of the room.
I moved swiftly towards him before he could notice me. I swung my sword just as the surprised goblin turned and faced me with a stupid look on his stupid face. His head popped clean off, much to his woe. Now I turned my attention to the third member of their party. The largest one, according to the tracks I found outside. I keep heading through the caves in the same direction.
Surprisingly, the next area I found myself in was a giant underground space, much different from the perfectly clean and polished dwarven rooms and hallways that I’ve grown accustomed to. I wandered this area looking for a way past when I encountered a family of mushroom people. Three large “adults”, my size, and a bunch of dog-sized sprouts running around. They poofed some spores on me when I got close and then I started hearing voices. It was their thoughts I was hearing and it turned out that now they could hear mine. The seemed friendly and told me all sorts of nonsense about hallucinations and living happily below ground and then I asked them if any big goblins came through here recently. They really didn’t have good grasp of time but they did tell me that a big orc has been passing back and forth through these caves in what I understood to be the recent past. They also pointed me to the last direction the saw the orc heading. I took their tip and carried on.
There was another exit on the other side of this giant cave opening, on the other side of which the polished dwarven passages resumed. Shortly after making my way around some lefts and right I found a long passageway. Something seemed off and, as I was slowly advancing down this hallway, I saw a greyish-blue shape filling the entire height and width of the passage, moving very slowly away from me. Curiosity got the better of me. I leaned my sword against the wall, nocked an arrow and shot it, or should I say, into it. Immediately it started moving back towards me but, since it was so slow, I decided to stow the bow and approach the blob with sword in hand. I lunged at it and gave it a poke and then jumped back as quickly as possible. The poke I gave it was not welcome so it lurched toward me but barely missed as I jumped back.
It kept coming at me so I jogged down some stairs in a nearby passage to see what it would do. I followed down the stairs as I kept it at a safe distance. Over-confidently, I tried another lunge and slashed it real good this time but it’s counter-lurch was successful and my arms were stuck in it for a brief moment. It felt horrible. Slimy and acidy it burned my exposed skin and brought me back to reality. This thing was out to kill me. I then ran quickly away from this down the maze of the passages and found a spot around some corners to regroup. I stood quietly and listened. Luckily I heard it quietly slosh by, down a nearby passage. After a moment I followed it to see it disappear down a long hallway.
Rick’s voice told me it was time to get out of the caves and assess the situation. I hurried back down the passages, past the mushroom people, and out into the welcoming fresh humid air of the forest.
I gathered all my stuff that I left up in the tree and headed west for twenty minutes along the cliffs until I found a clear creek flowing south from the mountain heights. I washed the slime off my gear and refilled my water. I ate some of my dried food and sat by a fire, reflecting on the past few days. I tried casting the spells again to no avail. Tired, I set up my camping sling high up in a tree and lay there wondering about about a million things. I was thinking about how the walls and the floor of the cave were devoid of dust and rubble, and then it hit me. The gelly blob must’ve cleaned it all up. Eventually, I fell asleep.
It’s about 9pm.
