Move 213:  Always Room for Jello

Tunnels--Late, Day 5

Pruc and Ciekor either did not see any need for an advance scout or were not willing to be said advance scout since neither of them moved any farther ahead of the group than they had the previous day. They mostly stayed just out of the range of the group's light sources.

Traveling was much as it had been before they had stopped to rest. The tunnels varied only in height and width. In some places, they went through rooms with high, cavernous ceilings; in others, most of the members of the party had to duck to get through. The deep gnomes continued to make all the choices about which way to go when there were branches and forks in what was starting to seem a veritable maze of tunnels.

They trudged onward, everyone tired from their previous incomplete rest. In particular, Arachne, Blacky, and Jana were beginning to look ragged from exhaustion. Pruc mumbled something typically uncommunicative along the lines of "Rest soon". Not long afterwards, they entered an area that looked somewhat promising as a camp spot, fairly wide but with a low ceiling.

Pruc and Ciekor, still ahead of the group and out of the light, both grunted what might have been a warning as they drew their swords. It took some squinting for even the people in the front to see what they were moving after, a large transparent blob that filled nearly half of the width of the tunnel and brushed the rock of the low ceiling. It oozed towards them, moving almost as quickly as the gnomes.

Olaf stepped forward and grunted, "Great Tyr, Grant me the cleansing fires of Justice." A small ball of flame appeared in his hand. Olaf hurled it at the jello cube oozing down the hall, over the gnome's heads. After it struck, another appeared in his hand and Olaf hurled it as well, continuing
the cycle several times.

Daelen ran to catch up to the gnomes but paused as the light from his sword struck the glassy side of the monster.
"Shoot it!" He yelled back to the party as he joined the gnomes and began hacking at the cube's corner with his blade.
"Whatinhells is that?" Jana asked rhetorically.  She quickly looked to see if there was room for her to join in the hacking with her sword.  She drew her blade and took a two-handed whack at the thing.

Echo pushed her cowl back and began casting a spell.

Blacky grabbed a hand ax with his good arm and held position.

The blob flowed into one of the deep gnomes; the little warrior backed up and chopped at it with his short sword. The other gnome did the same, but it was difficult to tell if either of them hurt the transparent mass any.

Daelen and Jana rushed forward with swords drawn. Both of them gave the thing a hearty whack, splattering goo from the creature onto themselves.  Olaf prayed for a small flame and threw it. The tiny flicker fell short of  the blob, impacting with the cavern floor in a fireburst that narrowly missed the boots of Daelen and Jana. Echo produced two magic missiles that left a couple of small burnlike marks on the slimy surface of the thing.

Blacky stood with his hand axe in his left hand back with the rest of the group.

Olaf moved forward a step to make certain he was in range and hurled
another small flame at the creature.

Jana took two more two-handed whacks at the nasty blob.

Satisfied that her spell had done something to the blob, Echo started casting again.

Azrun had pulled his bow loose and knocked an arrow. He looked around at the mess in front of him not sure if he could get a shot through the mass of bodies in front of him.

The blob did not seem to want to change its tactic, continuing to try to flow over one of the gnomes. The deep gnomes continued hacking away at it.  Azrun's arrow buried itself near the top of the blob. Echo repeated her earlier spell, hitting it with two more magical beams. Jana chopped fiercely at the thing with her sword. Olaf had more luck in getting the little ball of fire to go where he wanted it this time, the resulting fire burst spreading across the side of the blob facing the party. All of this seemed successful, possibly even overkill, as the thing shuddered and seemed to lose all consistency, collapsing in a pile of slime that covered everyone standing near it.

Pruc and Ciekor extracted themselves from the goo and tried to wipe off their faces, their hands, and their swords.

"You've been slimed," Renn said with a slight grin. The elf moved to Ciekor's side, then chanted softly for a number of moments. "This place is full of surprises is it not," Renn shrugged.

"Eeew."  Jana stepped out of the spreading pool of slime.  "Gross."  She de-gooed herself as best she could.  "Whatinhell was that thing?" she asked, speaking to no one in particular.

"Gelatinous cube, I believe." Olaf answered. "Scavangers that devour organic matter as they slide through corridors underground. They sometimes have some metallic items inside them, we should check."

Jana scrunched up her nose in an expression of distaste.  "Well, I guess since I'm already covered in it, I'll go look," she said, not looking like she was enjoying the idea one little bit.  "Yuck," she muttered, as she began peering at the floor where the cube had been when it gooified.

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