As the mental shriek begins to fade, the party marches out, led by Shazuu. They pass into a cave filled shallow water, it’s flood covered in stalactites that have all been broken off just above the water line. The walls are covered in primitive cave paintings of fish people worshiping some giant creature with tree trunk shaped legs and tentacles hanging from its face. The chamber seems to have been a seating area for the troglodytes. Shazuu leads on into the northern passage, which opens to a crossroads of sorts. They choose the southern route, which passes through another unremarkable cave, and leads back to the oily river.
The party crosses the water to a sandy bank, and continues north, through a tunnel. The passage rises rapidly, then suddenly descends. Shazuu slips on the muddy ground, sliding in the mud into a larger cave covered in black, stinking mud. Ten or twelve troglodyte and fish-man corpses are piled in the middle of the room.
Tang Wu slips and slides into the cave a moment later, crashing into Shazuu. Alabaster repeats the process, slamming into Tang Wu. Mist begins to creep into the room, and coalesces and solidifies into a giant multi tentacled creature.
The ground begins to shake, knocking Shining Brow down the muddy slide. A noise pings in the minds of the group, as if a door opened. A voice rings out,
“Leave this place, for it is my domain. I will not tolerate incursions into my holdings. If you depart now, I shall let you take the river to the south and further into the mountain. If you stay, you shall be destroyed.”
The party takes stock of the situation, and Alabaster creates a duplicate of himself behind the creature. Trusting the party’s earlier advice, he casts a curse through the duplicate. The creature shatters and disappears. The scream pierces minds again, but it also seems to emanate from one of the tunnels to the east, accompanied by higher pitched shrieks. Alabaster quickly cast’s invisiblity upon himself, and his duplicate shouts a rallying cry, “All together now! This way!” He attempts to lead the party towards the east tunnel. Tygorr navigates the muddy slope and joins the group at the bottom of the rise, while Shazuu and Shining Brow move out of the muddy ground, and head towards the shrieks to the east.
Three crustacean-like monsters emerge from the darkness, they stand 10-feet tall to the shoulder, and tenticles dripping with icor spill from their mouths. Mantis hears sounds from the tunnel leading from the riverside, and alerts the party.The party attacks, but one of the lobstrosities quickly grabs Shining Brow, poisoning and paralyzing him with its tentacles. The creature drags the tabaxi back through the caves, it’s fellows guarding it’s retreat.
Troglodytes begin to pour down the slope behind the party, but thinking quickly, Tygorr releases a fireball, destroying them utterly. The fire pours out of the narrow tunnel, singeing him, but he’s mostly unharmed. Shazuu calls upon his arcane knowlege, and takes a misty step, appearing next to the creature that captured Shining Brow. He smites the lobstrosity, which shatters its chitinous shell, kills the beast, and frees Shining Brow. Shining Brow shakes off the paralysis and keeps himself from drowning.
The party decides that it’s best bet is to escape the mist creature, and begins to flee towards the sludge filled river. The mist starts to return, and the creature reappears. It takes control of Tang Wu, commanding him to attack his companions. Mantis and Shining Brow begin to move downriver, but Tang Wu attacks Alabaster. The group returns to assist Alabaster.
The party dissolves into chaos. Tygorr magically paralyzes Tang Wu with his wand. Shazuu grabs the frozen Tang Wu and begins to flee. The mist reappears, and Alabaster’s powers seem to be ineffective. The creature hovers in place. Shining Brow abruptly tries to convince the party to leave the monk and flee downriver. The party retreats as the creature hovers over the river, menacingly. Shining Brow incats a spell, and levitates Shazuu and Tang Wu to the ceiling. “Drop the Monk! He is lost!” he shouts to Shazuu. Mantis realizes that the current picks up, making his waterwalk ability potentially ineffective.
Shazuu drops Tang Wu into the river, and Shining Brow abruptly ends the levitation spell. Shazuu falls to the river. Shining Brow repeats the proceedure, and levitates Tang Wu into the air. Tang Wu finally shakes off Tygorr’s spell of paralysis, but he cannot escape the levitation. Instead, he attacks from range, and throws a dart into Shazuu. Tygorr, having enough of this business, incants a complicated spell and Tang Wu dissapears with a *POP*, banished to another dimension.
There, the monk finds himself in a green, verdant space. Tang Wu comes to his sense immediately. He is convinced he has reached enlightenment, and has ascended to a higher state of being. This lasts for only a few seconds, as Tygorr’s spell elapses, returning the monk to the dirt and stench of the cave, no longer enchanted by the misty beast. Shining Brow tries to tell Tang Wu he must stay, or every that matters is doomed.
The group again begins to retreat, and Alabaster uses the power of Tymora to control the water, creating a path down river. The group moves quickly, but the spell eventually fails, and the watery path begin to collapse. Alabaster casts waterwalk on the party, and the group bobs to the surface. The group begins to slide down the surface of the rapids until the rushing water slows. They head forward, for a time, slipping and sliding on the water, and below it. Bobbing like corks in the rapids. A gleam of natural light appears, and the river tunnel opens into a sea. Two pillars divide the river from this new body of water. The cavern walls seem to stretch on to the horizon, beyond their vision, up into a blue sky.
