Nomen Infernale VII: The Necrophagic Ooze Report

As the quivering gelatinous mass of pale green protoplasmic ooze filled the tunnel before him, Alex reacted with lightning speed. Remembering the smaller gelatinous forms from the tomb of the Djeti, he popped a flask of oil and poured most of it across the passageway and then backed out to create a fuse to light the oil from a distance away. He wriggled through the small space in the rocks that had only been moderately widened by Asbjørn's tireless work, and skittered between the Rhenish barbarian's legs, stammering “j-j-jelly” as flame filled the narrow passage.

Riven knocked an arrow on her bow and began scanning the south-east side of the cavern. The massive jelly probed the wall of flame, enticed by its heat, but not enough to self-immolate. It next probed the pile of caved-in stone and found enough gaps to extrude itself through, without passing through the flame. As the viscous ooze poured through the gaps in the stones, forming into a massive gelatinous cube with each face at least 10 feet high by 10 feet wide. Teleptyon shouted for the party to clear space so that he might test his Eknoi fire on it. The flask made contact with the cube and exploded in flame, coating one face of it with enduring flame.

Asbjørn charged at the undulating terror of viridescent ooze, wielding the magic dagger Lullaby, and sliced at its glistening surface. The cube began leaking some of its protoplasmic interior out from the large tear on its surface membrane. The cube then struck back at the barbarian interloper with a pseudopod dripping with neurotoxin. Now paralyzed, the cube began coating him with acid as it prepared to pull him inside its mass to serve as its next meal. Riven fired her knocked arrow but missed the creature. Likewise, Teleptyon was so delighted by the success of his throw that he involuntarily did a happy dance and was caught flat-footed. The more experienced Medjay of Khemia, Abet Sakhat, drew his khopesh and inflicted a mighty blow on the quivering cubic mass, its taught membrane splitting open and shriveling toward a centerpoint as its protoplasm, no longer contained, spilled across the floor.

The gelatinous terror defeated, Brother Theo moved to tend the wounds of the two outlander barbarians. He perceived that Kegho felt much better after the application of the poultice of ground lapis desiccus powder, though the left side of his face remained withered from the mummy's touch. Nevertheless, overcome with the thrill of victory, Kegho erupted into a triumphant song about the valuable items that such creatures were told to carry, but on picking through its acidulated remains they found nothing and, disappointed, returned to digging out the passageway.

As the party continued chipping away at the at the mouth of the passage with their mattocks, Asbjørn eventually uncovered what appeared to be a fierce leonine visage of stone peering out at him. Caught off-guard by its fearsome mien, he instinctively moved to strike it with the tip of his mattock as Abet screamed at him, “No, you fool!”

Despite Abet's admonishment, battle had been entered. The creature of living stone, known as an ikhoni in the Khemian tongue, clawed through the sandstone like a knife through cloth, opening the passageway wide enough for it to pass through. With preternatural speed, it struck multiple times at Asbjørn with claw, fang, and horn, yet the Rhenish stalwart was able to fend off these attacks handily. As Alex saw Asbjørn backing away from the fight, he began moving past the jelly corpse toward the exit. With Asbjørn no longer blocking the passage, more animated lion-headed and winged stone creatures broke out into the larger cavern. Asbjørn struck at one with his magic dagger and did some damage to it, but the ikhoni fought back with similar violence.

Abet was attacked and he attempted to repel the attack, but, to his surprise, his khopesh could not even chip the stone skin of the creature. Meanwhile, Teleptyon focused his intellect on geometry of the flow of the Ar around him as he loosed a bolt of magical energy from the tip of his staff. It exploded against an ikhoni, causing a lattice of cracks to appear on the surface of its skin. Brother Theo laid his hands on Abet to heal his wounds. He then turned to bludgeon one of the ikhoni with his mace but the attack did nothing. Asbjørn continued to attack with Lullaby and the stone skin cracked under its touch.

The stone horror that Teleptyon had attacked with his magic spell retaliated, slashing the helpless mage with his claws, biting him, and goring him on his horn. Bleeding and in shock, Teleptyon was certain he would meet his former Faun master, Panos, in the afterlife. However, he was only dazed for a moment.

Asbjørn and Kegho were both set upon by the cruel ikhoni. Calling upon the depths of his shame and self-loathing, Kegho flew into a barbarian's rage. He swung the mighty Skullcleaver over and over but failed to make contact with the surprisingly agile creatures. Brother Theo raised the holy symbol of the Ator's Eyes in the air to call down the Hammer of Ator to punish the evil ikhoni. His theurgy was very effective, causing the one ikhoni already chipped by Lullaby to explode into a cloud of dust and stone chips.

Riven fired an arrow at an attacker, but it shattered against her target’s stone skin as if it had merely hit a cavern wall. She would avenge "Leopold" some day, but for now she followed Alex out of the cavern. On the other hand, both armed with weapons infused with mystical properties, Kegho and Asbjørn struck their targets, cracking and chipping away at the fierce lion-headed stone monsters with each blow.

The wounded Teleptyon continued to retch blood and bile onto the dusty cavern floor; perhaps he was more than just dazed by pain! Faced with a decision to follow Alex and Riven out of the mine to live another day or to assist his new companions in the battle, the Medjay Abet chose to run back into the fray. He approached an ikhoni from behind and caught it in bear-hug! He grunted as he struggled to keep the hold with all of his prodigious strength against the power of the creature. Another ikhoni sprang up and bit down on Teleptyon's exposed neck. He again thought he would be with Panos in the afterlife soon as he continued to be set upon by these vile creatures of stone. However, he narrowly survived this attack; he continued to cling to life, but would be left with a large scar on his lower abdomen.

Kegho continued to swing his axe in battle-fury. As Alex saw his friends potentially falling in battle, he became overcome by the thought that he might never see the Eye of Nekhtebu again. An agonizing fire blazed through his spine and drove him back into the cavern skulking in the shadows and past the confusion of the fight.

Teleptyon managed another bolt of energy drawn from the very root of his mind and was gratified to see the small cracks on one of the attacking ikhoni expand greatly. As Alex approached Brother Theo, one of the ikhoni bit and stabbed the cleric with its horns. Meanwhile, Asbjørn continued his attacks to repel the ravaging beasts. Perhaps the tide of battle had begun to turn!

In the chaos Alex was able to rummage through Theo’s satchel without any trouble, but the Eye was not there! Had it been transfered to one of the packs on the camels? He wondered if embracing that power would save his friends, but was distracted by the whoops of Kegho as he decapitated one of the remaining sandstone beings with the mighty Skullcleaver, after Abet had immobilized it with his bear-hug.

"No, the situation was not that dire," Alex thought. He would continue to resist its call. Meanwhile, Riven realized she’d lost track of Alex, and turned back towards the sounds of battle to look for him. At the same time, the greviously wounded Brother Theo managed to hold his spiritual connection with Ator, though he was wounded, and battered again at an ikhoni with a hammer conjured into existence by faith alone. Bleeding and sickened, Teleptyon began to move toward the cavern's exit, as he dissuaded the now lone attacking ikhoni by mentally performing the calculations of sacred geometry needed to invoke a final bolt of Ar to fly from his staff as a magic missile towards his attacker. Cracks spread across the face of the stone devil in a spray pattern from the point of contact.