Chapter 4, Part 5: "A Triumphant Return..."

Part I Here, Part II Here, Part III Here, Part IV Here, Part VI Here, Part VII Here.

...the deformed creatures approach their aspect that of a random mishmash of amphibian and human features with glistening, milky translucent skin, hopping on spindly bent limbs, their bony arms clutching crude fishing spears and war clubs.

Once they get close enough one of the sorcerers unleashes a spell engulfing them in somnolent vapours and they collapse into the mud slumbering. Quickly the party slits their throats and crushes their heads, Dickie Dee again driving a javelin into the brain of an unconscious victim. More corpses are heaped in a pile on top of the body of the dimetrodon, more corpses for the Gyraphont.

Soon the lobster-ghoul reappears and the majority of the companions keep their eyes elsewhere. It is delighted with the pile of corpses and plows into the heap of bodies, it's numberless nippered and pincered appendages blurring as it tears into the flesh, sending fluids and shredded flesh, fat and skin flying while it's complex mandible relentlessly gobble up the feast. Most of the party are disgusted by the wet ripping and sucking sounds, but maintain a stiff upper lip.

The Gyraphont is satiated after quickly devouring a third of the mass of the corpse pile, going after the choicest, juiciest bits, and it is draped and spattered with the remains of its meal. Buzz informs it that they have recovered a glowing ocher lotus slime pod and would like to return, but could the Gyraphont please drop them off somewhere in Pit instead of Mozug's lair?

The loyal extradimensonal being insists that they be transported directly to Mozug's lair as they should immediately take the slime pod to it's master.

Buzz bluffs and frantically searches the party's baggage, "We lost the slime pod! Could you return one day hence so we can harvest another?"

The Gyraphont agrees, and expresses anticipation for how delicious the corpse pile, swarming with insects and worms, will be after rotting for another day's span in the sweltering swamp before disappearing.

The party decides to head east this time, into the Slime Lands proper, and several hours later Rygarr's keen eye spots a dim ocher glow emerging from a hummock of vegetation just as three lumbering crabmen emerge from the fog.

After a brief melee the crabmen are dispatched and an inspection of the hummock reveals a glowing slimy ocher lotus bearing an oblong pod oozing with pungents slowing slime. It is harvested, the narcotic slime numbing the skin that contacts it, and stored in a sack. The party returns to their rendezvous point, dragging the crabmen corpses through the mud.

The bodies are thrown onto the rotting corpse pile, and again they attempt to make themselves comfortable in hummocks of rotting vegetation as they bunk down for the night.

The roars and splashing of unseens behemoths sporting in the slime is the only thing that disturbs their rest, but as the suns rise three zorse-sized crabs come lumbering out of the morning mists.

Another brutal battle occurs, the injured cactoid Euphorbus attempts to stay out of the fray and peppers the crustaceans with crossbow bolts from his perch in a bush. Two of the lumbering, armored beings are quickly dispatched as the third heads directly for the cactus man and after it's pincers tear him into unconsciousness begins dragging his body away.

The companions desperately slosh through the knee-high slime, manage to prevent it's retreat and recover their chewed up and nippered ally. The three crabs are thrown onto the corpse pile.

Several hours later the Gyraphont returns and begins ferrying the party members to Mozug's lair via rends in spacetime, dropping them off before the door to the guard chamber. It cheerfully thanks them for the impressive pile of tasty corpses.

Once they have been transported to Mozug's Lair, in the tunnel right before the door to the guardroom, they knock on the door and a small aperture is opened from within revealing the face of a guard.

The nervous companions respond to the guard's inquiry with a mixed bag of responses, "Take us to Mozug!", "We have a glowing ocher slime pod to give you", "No, we don't want to see Mozug", "Just take this slime pod", "I want to speak with this Mozug!"

This babble makes the Phraint guard within the room suspicious and they hear it's buzzing insect voice expressing it's misgivings. Intimidated by the strange being the party thrusts the slimepod through the aperture in the door and tear off through the tunnels of Mozug's Lair bearing the unconscious Euphorbus.

When they arrive at the trapdoor at the top of the stairs they are unable to open it as it seems like a great weight has been placed on it. They bang and yell and soon hear a loud scraping sound before the trapdoor is opened revealing the scowling face of the Lead Cup's barkeep who is sweating from the effort of shoving a crate of lead bars off of the trapdoor. He bids them to ascend but responds to the party's overtures and requests for refreshment with hostility.

"I don't know what you fools are up to, but I don't ever want to see you again! Take some lead canteens of Gin and get the hell out of here!" Dickie Dee attempts to grab several canteens of gin from the shelves of the storeroom and it sternly rebuffed and threatened.

The party hoists their unconscious Cactoid companion and canteens of gin and exits the dive to wander the streets of Pit seeking a physician and a hostel...

Part I Here, Part II Here, Part III Here, Part IV Here, Part VI Here, Part VII Here.