Session 20-B: Good Gob, Bad Gob

Pix and Bogtooth awaken and go about their morning business at the Foaming Mug in Blingdenstone. They decide to tackle the wererat issue for the city. Bogtooth reaches into his back of tricks and produces a mastiff (Tremble names it Dogtooth) to guard Tremble, who wants to spend the day tending to Reina Rocktooth's (Jimjar's mother) ghost.

Pix and Bogtooth meet with Tappy; Bogtooth suggests he start a medieval drive-through to best accommodate a larger number of guests. Their heroic deeds at the Traders' Grotto have reached Tappy's inn; the young goblins are praised for their courage. Bogtooth takes the opportunity to give the team nicknames: Tremble the Destroyer, Pix the Creator, and Bogtooth the Leader.

The pair takes "Rocky" to investigate the outskirts of the village. They persuade, perform, and intimidate their way past a series of normally dour svirfneblin until they reach the Goldwhisker Warrens, which are barricaded and locked away from inner Blingdenstone.

The group surmounts the barricade and narrowly avoids falling into a wererat-made pit trap. They are quickly attacked by wererat guards with crossbows. Bogtooth and Pix try to convince their attackers of their peaceful intentions (and cast fly on "Rocky" so he can carry them above the fray). After repeated failures, they appeal to the shared history of the wererats and gnomes; they are related in all but the curse of lycanthropy, and there is some evidence of interracial marriage (Jimjar's mother, at the very least). The wererats take them through the slums and around traps to meet their leader in the former Hall of Miners.

During Blingdenstone's heyday, this cavern held the old city's smelters and marketplace for ore and uncut gems. It's now the main square of the wererat warrens--it smells of refuse, neglect, and poverty. A small crowd has gathered here. Most of the assembled creatures are deep gnomes, but some have ratlike features-including a fat specimen standing in front of the others, smiling at you with jagged buckteeth. "Peace," the big wererat says. He takes a step forward, arms extended and hands open. "Chipgrin's the name. I'm chief of the Goldwhisker clan. Shall we talk?"

40 svirfneblin wererats, including children, listen to Bogtooth and Pix appeal to Chipgrin. Chipgrin takes them to a plateau. Stairs lead to the top of this rise, where the floor is covered with a soft and well-manicured carpet of green moss. The wererat chief sits on a stone chair flanked by two giant rats. Draped over the chair's back is a cave badger pelt.

"Let's get down to brass hobnails, then. You were sent by the Diggermattocks 'cause they want us out, right? Right?! Well, they might get their wish soon enough, but in a way they ain't likely to cheer about."

The wererat explains the history of their clan: ever since the drow betrayal, the gnomes have been in a state of cultural upheaval. Lycanthropy was seen as a treatable disease; over time, it became stigmatized and blamed for the community's problem. The wererats have stolen and murdered for resources; they are constantly driven away from the city as the gnomes try to reclaim lost territory. Therefore, some brave wererats have tried to hunt for treasure, new land, or any other resources that could improve their lot in life. These treasure hunters include Topsy and Turvy, the two gnomish prisoners from Velkynvelve.

The wererats face constant attacks by the oozes and are close to fleeing the settlement and leaving the other deep gnomes to fend for themselves. However, Chipgrin has learned of the mysterious figure controlling the oozes, and he hopes to use that information to strike a bargain. The figure was a wererat--one of his tribe--who abandoned the others after being exposed to oozes. Chipgrin offers to show the heroes directly why he's going to leave his ancestral home. They accept.

Chipgrin leads the group to the northeast of Blingdenstone and shows them a secret tunnel to the oozes.

The walls of this great cavern are covered in slime—dripping, sickening green slime. Echoes of dripping water also fill the cave, in the center of which is a large spherical structure is held up off the floor by stone pillars. Around these pillars crawl dozens of living oozes, heaving forward while reaching out with grasping pseudopods. The sphere's surface, like the cave walls, is covered with slime. Black slime swirls with yellow and gray slime in a disgusting soup, the unearthly patterns in the movements of the slime straining their eyes and tugging at their minds.

A disembodied voice fills the cave. "What's this, what's this? Visitors? Now? Not yet! We're not ready! Go away, pests! I will call upon thee and all of Blingdenstone to announce our glad tidings of the Faceless Lord to come at the proper time! Begone!"

Bogtooth and Pix try to flee, but accidentally alert the ooze army. The oozes lash out at Bogtooth, stinging his skin and bludgeoning his bones. He calls on every ounce of his willpower and magic to survive and escape as his armor melts into his flesh.

The group retreats. They realize that this nameless wererat--whom Chipgrin calls the Pudding King--is gathering an ooze army to destroy Blingdenstone. The wererats and deep gnomes could unite against a common enemy, but they're missing key resources: their earth elementals are unreliable because of something in the Rockblight that drives them to madness and they lack acid-proof equipment. Chipgrin, satisfied that the goblins understand his position, promises that the wererats will leave the city peaceful if he can receive an assurance from the Diggermattocks that the gnomes won't attack as they retreat. In a show of good faith, Bogtooth and Pix donate nearly all of their gold to the wererats to help them relocate.

The goblins return to the Foaming Mug to rest; Tremble is napping and Dogtooth is gone. As they sleep, they recall the rumors of the myconid wedding. In their dreams, they are in a fungal forest reminiscent of a beautified Neverlight Grove. They are greeted by Sarith, whose flesh has been warped with mushrooms and tendrils. Sarith invites them to an upcoming wedding and offers that he shares the same ultimate goal as the goblins: reshaping the Underdark and destroying the systems that imprisoned and tortured them. Pix viciously rejects his claims, mentioning what he did to Stool. He responds by swelling his chest to impossible proportions and blowing spores into the goblins.

New NPCs

 * 1) Chipgrin, wererat chief
 * 2) The Pudding King, wererat servant of oozes