In order to discourage the still-not-dead amorphous acid-blob from following them, Pandora decided to turn the walls of the tunnel she'd created into salt — the reasoning being that slugs don't like salt, and the blob-monster was sort of sluggish. Or slug-like. Or something.
Just in case, Justin stood guard over the hole. His pessimism was fully justified; the blob came barrelling through the tunnel, apparently completely unaffected by the salt. Justin took a mighty swipe at it, missed, smashed his fairy-made obsidian sword, was grabbed, engulfed and began on the process of being digested. All in no time flat. Barsh attempted to pull him free, but failed utterly, the blob-creature being far too strong for him. Barsh and Tallis (with some ineffectual assistance from the dissolving Justin) tried to combine their efforts, but to no avail, and Justin was crushed and drawn further into the thing. More pseudopods formed and flailed at Barsh and Tallis; Barsh too was grabbed and pulled into the mass of the thing to be digested.
Tallis suggested to Pandora that lime-wash might hurt it, since it seemed to be acid-based; Pandora turned the wall above it into lime-wash which cascaded all over it. The reaction was immediate, it tried to withdraw back through the tunnel. Fortunately for them, neither Justin nor Barsh were dissolved enough to fit through the hole, and though badly crushed by the thing's attempt to take them with it, were both expelled as it fled, to flop about on the floor in a disgustingly oozy, digested state.
Tallis reflexively prayed to her goddess in an attempt to heal her two rather juicy semi-digested comrades, and actually made contact with the divinity! She hardly realised the significance of the event until afterwards, but then tried again, and again succeeded. This perked her up no end.
Pandora also went into a spasm of Healing, but too soon after her last bunch of spells: not having taken time to rest, the effort of trying to heal the revoltingly deliquescent Barsh knocked her completely unconscious (and failed the healing spell to boot).
Meanwhile outside, a Dwarvish merchant-lawyer named Vallana was poking about looking for likely abandoned properties in the Old City that could be profitably turned into storage warehouses. Finding the gate open she entered, and heard Acolyte Jim's plaintive squeals of terror as he ran away from the onset of the blob-beast. She decided to investigate, and proceeded into the passages — surprising and further terrifying Jim, who ran backwards and forwards in complete panic, unable to figure out which way to run away. Vallana arrived on the scene just in time to pour a convenient healing potion down the remains of Barsh's throat, preventing his immediate demise. The rest of the party (just Tallis, by this stage) was somewhat surprised by the appearance of this Helpful Stranger, but all in all handled it with remarkable sang-froid.
The party, Vallana included, chased after the blob and found it expired but entirely blocking the passage waist-deep in bubbling acidic goo. Justin leaped over it with aplomb; Tallis attempted the same but just flung herself straight into the middle of it, destroying her armour and equipment and getting badly burned into the bargain. Pandora healed her, and then created a sort of Tarzan-swing over the mound of goop. Barsh swung over carrying the terrified Jim, but Vallan was reluctant to attempt the same since she was wearing her best (heirloom) armour, and didn't want to risk getting it dissolved by a chance slip. She convinced Pandora to create a ledge in the wall to walk over.
Taking thought for the now naked Tallis' modesty, Pandora created some new clothes for her — nice shiny spangly clothes, so bright they'd give a transvestite revue dancer a headache. Tallis attempted to be polite and enthusiastic, but was rather unconvincing in the role.
The party made it to the old family shrine without further ado, and immediately tried to tip over the alter on the off-chance that there might be something phenomenally valuable hidden underneath it. Thwarted in this endeavour, they then started looking for secret doors. Jim, of all people, was the one to find the actual secret door, though it was some time before anybody believed that he'd actually done something useful. It was really only Vallana (who doesn't yet know him very well) who took any notice at all.
Everyone started looking for some sort of opening mechanism; Justin experimented with pressing strategic tesserae in the mosaic behind the shrine, and found an eye-button at the same instant that Vallana launched herself in the traditional Dwarvish response to a locked door. The lock clicked open just as she smashed bodily through the panel, sending slinters in all directions and narrowly avoiding tumbling down a steep spiral stair.
Proceeding down the stair, the party found themselves in a small atrium exiting into a long, narrow passage. Everyone trooped off down to the end of it, where they found a small room about the size of a broom-closet. Once again, everyone started searching for secret doors, without any success until Pandora thought to see if she could see any magical auras about the place. Hoorah!
The search for any sort of opening mechanism was fruitless, so Pandora turned a section of the wall into chocolate which everyone else then ate, and then dug through. They found themselves in a very large room, next to a large carved stone unsettlingly like an Altar Of Unspeakable Eeeeevil right about where Pandora had detcted the magical aura. She flew up to it, and was terrified by a horrible feeling of Wrongness, and fled to hide behind somebody else.
Others approached the altar and also felt the Fear, but mastered their terror. Justin saw wrong, impossible angles out of the corners of his eyes. Tallis attempted to bless it, and immediately her eyes rolled up and she fell unconscious to the ground. Vallana, in her direct fashion, took up her broadsword and smote it — the sword exploded in white-hot gouts of molten metal, causing a certain amount of Dwarvish swearing.
Suddenly, stinking clouds of smoke began to coalesce in each corner of the room. "This can't be good" said Vallana.
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