Annette suddenly realised that she hadn't taken into account any way of turning off her fairy magic once cast (except by just waiting for it to wear off) and so decided to spend some of her outstanding xp on a Dispel. And there was much rejoicing.
Pandora finally succumbed to Justin's moping and dispelled her transformation of him, turning him back into his old (comparatively) hideous but manly and potent self again.
The party wandered about the abandoned (and filthy) passages for a while without any useful result. They found the old bathing pool and spent an hour or so scraping dried algae crap off the bottom of it in the hope of finding a Cunning Clue, but alas, no joy there at all.
Eventually, rather than put themselves out by trying to find a way to walk there, they decided once again to use Pandora the Amazing Tunneling Fairy to chew through the mountain to get to the old family shrine. Pandora agreed, though somewhat petulantly, since she was beginning to feel that she was just being used and not truly appreciated for her many talents and virtues. In the spirit of creative expression, she created a tunnel liberally decorated with all sorts of baroque adornment, and made a person-shaped hole that looked as though Wile E Coyote had run straight through the mountain. It wasn't the easiest passage for most of the party to negotiate, but they managed it and found themselves in (shock!) another abandoned and dusty room.
Carefully following the old lady's map, they soon found that her memories of ninety years ago weren't necessarily entirely to be trusted one hundred percent. Nevertheless, by dithering and backtracking frequently, the party eventually found themselves in a passage that looked as though it led to the shrine. From ahead they heard a peculiar sucking, slurping sound, as if a giant gumboot were being pulled from a huge mud-puddle, and Pandora flew on ahead to investigate. Fortunately for the rest of them, both Pandora and Kaelli had excellent night vision, and they were therefore not wholly surprised by the attack of what appeared to be a huge, hideous, pus-oozing blob of foetid dough which proceeded to grab Pandora and Barsh with great strong pseudopods. A fight ensued to free them, and the party discovered that when wounded the thing oozed acidic slime that ate away at weapons, armour and (more importantly) body parts.
Eventually Pandora managed to create a massive blade out of ceiling blocks, dropping it on to the dough-monster and chopping it in half. Alas, her fairy background had not included any elementary engineering tuition, and her removal of vital structural elements of the roof led to a colllapse that buried the blob and almost did for a couple of the Good Guys as well. They ran away.
After dithering for a while about what to do next, Justin crept back to check on the buried blob and found it oozing its way out from under the collapse. It chased him back towards the others, and grabbed Kaelli, engulfing her entirely before she could be freed. Pandora doused it with flammable oil (made out of ceiling blocks — clearly not one to learn from her mistakes) and they set it alight, creating dense clouds of thick, stinking smoke. They ran away again before the ceiling collapsed again.
Creeping back under the worst of the smoke when the flames had died down a bit, Tallis and Pandora groped in the choking dark for Kaelli's remains so that Pandora could make them better. They found nothing, though Tallis did get badly acid-burned hands and severe smoke-inhalation before Justin plunged into the foetor and dragged her bodily away. The party retreated through Pandora's tunnel to lick their wounds and consider their options. "She was brave and true" said Justin; "Yes, I was!" replied Pandora, weeping fit to bust.
Kaelli is gone, completely digested. The blob-monster is regenerating again, and they've destroyed the magical barrier (and made a hole in the walls), potentially allowing it out of the complex into the city. Whatever will Our Heroes do next?
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