Black Slush

The party had been ambushed by a party of troll hunters in the polar wastelands, and they were taking serious damage. The male Troll Rippers were capable of literally tearing someone apart if they got their claws into them (as Sandru had learned, briefly), while their Troll Fury mate was using her magic to attack from a distance. Oh, and they seemed to be immune to fire and quickly regenerated, unless hit with acid.

Nicki had learned that last lesson, and had just smacked the Troll Fury with a Scorching Ray that he had transformed from flame to acid. In retaliation, she conjured up a Flaming Sphere, and Nicki found himself doing the Texas two-step with one of his old favorites, trying to avoid getting singed himself. Just as she finished the spell, Sawyer, closed with her again, slashing with Suishen. In response to his attack, the Fury bellowed out some furious phrase. No one spoke Troll, but the gist seemed to be “Get your worthless butt over here!”, to which her mate responded with what could only be “Yes, dear!”.

Unfortunately, he just couldn’t seem to clear Sandoval’s Glitterdust from his eyes, and he remained blinded. As it turned towards its embattled mate, Bella dashed in once again, slashing at it as she went by, but this time, instead of retreating out of reach, she moved ahead a few feet and braced herself in its path. As it blindly blundered towards the sounds of battle, it ran straight into Bella. It tried to bull its way through her, but the nimble little rogue held her ground, and its frustrated attempt to claw her away went wide.

Ulf, who had been trying in vain to get the lead wagon disengaged from the Entangle spell the Fury had cast, was a bit shamed seeing this tiny girl going toe-to-toe with a giant troll, so he finally leaped off his wagon and closed on the Fury, flanking her with Sawyer. This gave Zhustin exactly the opportunity he’d been looking for. Seeing Bella, Sawyer, and Ulf all in the same vicinity, he quickly cast Haste on the three of them. “Have fun!” he shouted, before Teleporting away out of danger.

Back to the south, another pair of Troll Rippers were harrying the rest of the party. One had been playing tag with Shinjiro. It now spotted his quarry, and let out a bellow of rage. Nicki managed to drop a Fireball (transformed into acid, thanks to his Elemental Spell ability) on it before it charged the monk, slamming him with a claw. Shinjiro didn’t retaliate immediately; instead he quaffed a Barkskin potion, hoping to forestall future damage, while Spivey, his own personal medic, fluttered nearby, casting healing spells on him just as fast as she could.

The other Ripper, the one who had taken down Sandru, was now after Sandoval. He tore at the bard with tooth and nail, but failed to get a killing grip that would allow him to use his deadly Rend abilities. He was also suffering from ongoing acid damage thanks to one of Zhustin’s Acid Arrow spells, and had been unable to regenerate for quite some time. Sandoval saw his opening, and thrust his crystal echoblade deep into the troll’s chest. It gave a surprisingly weak whimper, and collapsed into the snow.

The Troll Fury, now surrounded, and frustrated by Sawyer’s repeated cuts, abandoned her magical attacks, and with a roar, turned her claws on the fighter. She hit, but it was too little, too late. Taking full advantage of the Haste spell, Sawyer hit her three times, and it was as if she’d fallen into an Osterizer. Pieces of troll flew everywhere, and Sawyer spent the next few minutes spreading the pieces even further, to ensure she couldn’t regenerate. Bella played out the same scene on her mate, rapier and short sword flying in a blur. The snow for yards around was stained by a red mist and the blind Ripper fell with a thud.

That left only one. Sandru, now that the one who had dropped him was safely dead (he hoped) stood and fired an arrow at it, as did Sandoval. Zhustin hammered it with a volley of Empowered Magic Missiles. Then Shinjiro stepped up. He’d been fleeing the ripper since it had almost killed him with its first attack, and he burned with shame at having dishonored his grandfather’s teachings. He called upon his ki, and unleashed an awesome Flurry of Blows sending the Ripper spinning through the air. Nicki settled an acidic Flaming Sphere atop its body to ensure it didn’t regenerate. Sandru was terrified to hear the Ripper that lay at his feet suddenly draw a gasping breath – apparently it had been regenerating. Sandoval leaped in and delivered a coup de grace, and the battle was over.

As Marie administered much-needed healing, Bella searched the bodies. They were surprisingly well-equipped for trolls, with magical armor and cloaks, and several potions and other magical items. They had a collection of gold coins from a variety of different countries; apparently they preyed on caravans crossing the Crown, although what would have drawn them – or forced them – this far away from the Path of Aganhei was anyone’s guess.

Finally recovered, the caravan proceeded on, and quickly fell back into the mind and body numbing routine of polar travel. There was still no sign of the sun as they trekked through endless night. They were moving into the foothills of the Alabastrine Peaks, and the terrain grew more rugged, with rock ridges jutting up out of the ice cap. They found themselves funneled into a narrow canyon; it was leading in generally the right direction, and they could only hope it eventually opened back out onto the ice, because they’d seen no other way forward.

But then their way was blocked. For nearly 100 feet before them, the snow-covered canyon floor gave way to a pool of vile, black slush. Whether the polluted effluent was bubbling up from the ground below or seeping out of the canyon walls was impossible to tell, but whatever contaminated the snow left it glistening with a rainbow slick and filled the air with a bitter, burned odor.

Bella immediately suspected an ambush, and sent Spivey aloft to check the canyon rim for yetis, avalanches, chimeras, or anything else that might be waiting to attack them, but she found nothing out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, Ulf stared at the pool open-mouthed. “I’ve heard tales of this,” he finally said, “but I always assumed it was just legend. They say that the Nameless Spires are surrounded by lakes of this stuff, and that it flows through canals and in great underground rivers there. I always thought that was just bull, since I don’t know anyone who’s actually returned from the Nameless Spires. But this has to be what they were talking about.” He spat. “But whatever it is, I’m not taking these animals through it.”

Not everyone else was convinced that the slush was dangerous. In fact, they didn’t even know how deep it was – would the wagons sink out of sight, or was it only a few inches deep? Koya summoned a small Earth Elemental to settle that question. On her orders, it trudged across to the other side and back. Nowhere was the slush much more than a couple of feet deep, and nothing appeared to attack it. But when the Elemental returned to the solid snow, they could see that its feet and ankles were badly corroded. So much for simply wading across.

This prompted a lengthy discussion. They considered digging up snow and building up a raised roadway across the pool. That was probably doable, but would require a lot of time and effort. They considered different ways of trying to collapse the walls of the cliffs into the snow, and using the rubble to cross, but no one had viable means of accomplishing that.

After the group had been debating and experimenting for nearly an hour, Helgarval mentally tapped Marie on the shoulder. “Mistress?” she said timidly “Remember when we were trying to cross that river several weeks ago? And you suggested casting Water Walk on the horses? Could that work here?” Marie was skeptical, but mentioned the idea to the group, and Zhustin seized on it. He convinced Marie to try an experiment. He summoned another Elemental, and she cast Water Walk on it. Once again, it traversed the black slush and returned, this time staying lightly on its surface without sinking, and when it returned it didn’t seem to have taken any damage. Success!

Unfortunately, Marie had only had one Water Walk spell prepared. The group pulled the caravan well back from the black slush and made camp for the night, while Marie prepared a new set of spells. In the morning (or at least after a few hours of sleep, since there was no “morning” up here) they returned to the edge of the slush. Nicki took on Gaseous Form and drifted slowly to the far side of the slushy pool while the others prepared. Ulf and Sandru got the wagons and crews ready while Marie cast Water Walk on all the yaks, all the party members who couldn’t fly, and a few of the crew members. The idea was that someone walking would lead each wagon across, to prevent the yaks from getting spooked.

Sandru led the first wagon across, hugging the north wall of the canyon where the pool was marginally narrower. Marie followed, using Air Walk to stay just above the surface of the slush as she led Koya’s vardo across. As she reached the center of the pool, its surface erupted and a deformed creature burst up out of slush. It was not large, no more than four feet tall, but was dense and muscular. It had four arms tipped with dagger-like claws, and its body seethed with black bile. It opened its mouth and spit a stream of bile at Marie, drenching her in foul freezing spittle. Another dashed out of a hidden crevasse in the northern cliff face and charged towards Nicki; it also belched forth a stream of bile that dealt him a glancing blow. A third burst out of the muck beside Sandru’s wagon. It closed its supernaturally cold jaws on him and slashed with all four claws, and once again, Sandru was out of the fight before it even started.

Charda

Seeing abominations springing up all around her, Koya panicked. She lashed her yak forward, almost  trampling Marie in her attempt to escape. Shinjiro and Sawyer rushed to help the cleric, and Ulf ran towards the fallen Sandru, but they all were too far away to reach the attackers. Bella and Sandoval both peppered it with arrows as Sandoval began singing. Zhustin flew up into the air, and fired off a volley of Magic Missiles at Sandru’s attacker as he advanced, while Nicki blasted the one who had hit him with a Scorching Ray.

Spivey, who had flown over to the far side in advance of the rest of the group, now rushed to Sandru’s aid. She cast healing on him, and he regained consciousness. He considered crawling away, but then gave a resigned sigh. “I’m getting too old for this shit,” he thought as he stood up and swung his sword at his attacker’s back.

The charda had turned away from him because it saw Marie, Ulf, and Shinjiro all lined up and primed for a blast of his bile. It tensed its body in preparation for vomiting out the foul substance, but Marie was quicker. She took to the air, charging him from slightly above with her mace. Her vertical movement spoiled the charda’s opportunity for a group shot, so it focused its blast on her, and Marie again found herself covered in freezing bile.

The charda who had originally spit at Marie now charged Shinjiro, throwing his surprisingly heavy body at his feet in an attempt to trip him into the poisonous black slush, but the agile monk managed to keep his feet. Sawyer, jealous that the beast had thought that Shinjiro was a more dangerous foe than him, charged in to attack it from behind, and Ulf stepped forward to join them in surrounding it. Bella and Sandoval kept up their rain of arrows on the charda facing Marie, and Zhustin blasted it with a Scorching Ray.

Meanwhile the third charda charged at Nicki, hitting him with his teeth and three of four claws. The foppish sorcerer found himself in the last place he wanted to be: hand to hand (to hand to hand to hand) combat.

The PCs earned 2,743 XP for the night, putting them at 63,655 XP with 75,000 required for level 9. I’ll be out of town next week, so we won’t meet, but we’ll resume again in two weeks at Rich & Joette’s.