Becoming the Moldspeaker
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Not being terribly interested in history lessons, the party moved on to a ruined octagonal tower. The floor was crusted with blood, feces, and rot; here at last was something they could sink their teeth into! The tower was inhabited by bloodsucking insects the size of falcons (known to your typical Minnesotan as "mosquitoes"). Othello used ghost sound to make the sound of fire burning, which really got the critters riled up. One managed to land on Ibrahim's neck and began sucking blood. Jasmine fired her bow at the bloodsucker but cleverly managed to shoot Ibrahim instead (and really, we all know that couldn't have ended any other way...) Ibrahim beat himself repeatedly with a mace and gooshed the sucker. Meanwhile Sandy had sunk her claws into another and as being dragged around the room in the air. Eventually, all of the bugs were killed. The party decided to clean the romm up a bit, so Ibrahim borrowed the magic warhammer from the party loot and bashed a hole in the stone wall. Then he and Katie cast create water and flushed out the room.. There was some assorted coins and trinkets buried in the filth.
After leaving the tower, the heroes found a small room next t the tower with gold filigree decorating the walls. Othello wanted to scrape it off to make some money, but everyone thought better of it. A statue of St. Vardishal stood in the corner of the room, with palms outstretched and facing up. Jasmine thought maybe he wanted some money. Katie, Jasmine, and Othello dropped a copper coin in each hand. Nothing happened. Ibrahim said that maybe St. Vardishal wanted a more valuable offering but everyone decided we didn't care that much and moved on.
Katie, being a druid, did not want to see innocent animals killed for following their own nature. She cast speak with animals and tried to convince the baboons not to fight. "No, this our home. We bite and claw until man-things leave!" So much for that approach... The heroes chose to pull their punches and deal non-lethal damage to the baboons, who ended up unconscious. Jasmine tied the animals up, then the party carried them back to the camp at Sultan's Claw and made a pen for them. Ibrahim thought that penning up monkeys in the open was going to lead to trouble but everyone else thought it was preferable to killing them.
The next day the party returned to the ruined monastery to finish the exploration. The baboon room smelled of funky monkey and non one wanted to go in. The next room over was a ruined kitchen. Possibly every single plate in the kitchen was broken in pieces on the floor, along with bent silverware. Then the source of the calamity became obvious - Pugwampi!. When the little monsters saw the heroes, they pulled out their bows and started firing tiny arrows (except for one, which threw dinner plates). Ibrahim decided to charge in and attack the monsters, but unfortunately he slipped on broken crockery, landed on some knives, and knocked a shelf loose which dumped its contents on his head. Also, a pugwampi used its bad luck shatter ability and broke Ibrahim's scimitar. The rest of the party wisely hung back and finished off the pugs with distance weapons. Ibrahim lay on the floor and weakly called "a little help..."
There was nothing of interest in the dining room, just dry rotted tables and chairs. There was a connected dormitory with bunk beds and a reasonably intact roof. Othello decided to jump on the beds and knocked a hole in one; Ibrahim said that would be Othello's bed from now on. There was a door at the end of the room, but it was stuck tight. Ibrahim was the strongest of the group and tried to force it to no avail. Othello used one of his summonings for the day to summon a celestial pony and told it to kick. The pony gave a solid kick and then vanished; afterwards the heroes were able to work together and force the door. Behind it were sheets of mold and fungus that had blocked the door. There was an ominous skittering and crumbling of stone, but when the heroes looked up they saw nothing. However there was a stair leading down.
The stair led down to a dank crypt beneath the monastery. There were some granite tables, potion flasks, beakers, tubes, and glass stills. Everywhere is a puffy green slime mold: on the tables, on the walls, and inside all the beakers. Othello thought the stuff could be dangerous, and Ibrahim hung back by the stairs. Sandy, however, was used to at least tasting everything she found that could be killed and padded softly towards one of the slime molds to take a lick. As everyone guessed, the stuff was dangerous and rapidly began to slither out of the glass containers towards the heroes. Othello tried to burn the stuff but it didn't seem bothered by heat. Quickly the slime molds congealed around Jasmine and Katie, then engulfed their bodies. Jasmine managed to shake the stuff off, but it quickly crawled down Katie's throat. That's right, folks, SHE ATE IT!
Katie was suddenly overwhelmed by memories of being Vardishal, one of the Five Templars who defended this world against a powerful fire genie named Jhavhul. She relived his life and death and was filled with a need to dig something up from the courtyard above. Katie raced upstairs and started digging, right where she knew her weapon Tempest would be. Tempest is a magical sickle that she knew how to use. When she held it, patches of slime mold showed up on her hand and forearm. "Uh, Katie, is there something you want to tell us?" inquired Othello, nervously.