As we finished in the treasure room, we were talking about heading out of the ruin and heading back to Haven. We walked to the first intersection planning how to get all of the gear, books and treasure back to the Stag. Stilicho looked down the hall to his right and then looked at us and said in a really load voice (I think the horror had hurt his ears) that we should search the mud pit to see if there was any treasure hidden there. We walked down the right hall and looked at the deep mud. No one wanted to get in to it without checking the bottom first. Stilicho came up with the Idea of using the pole axe we found earlier to probe around in the mud. I ran back to the beginning of the of the ruin and got the pole axe and ran back.

I poked the axe in to the mud; it was sloppy wet. The pole axe did not move through the mud very easy and I struggled with it to move it around. I found it was about 6 feet deep and then I hit something. The mud started to stir and move. Ten mud covered heads rose up out of the slop. They were about the size of a dwarf but were disfigured and ugly. I moved back down the hall to the rest of the group.

There was an old familiar feeling of calm that came over me as I fell in to the right side of the battle line. Stilicho, Dremnin, Urgral, and I formed the line. We had moved back away from the mud to a point were the hall had two small alcoves on both sides. This allowed us to face the four of us against only two of them in the hall. Vridich moved up behind me and fired his first spell in to the first Mud Gob that came in to the hall. I whipped my hammer around at the first one to come in to range. I caught him on top of the right shoulder. The power of the hammer drove him to the floor. Dremnin, Stilicho and Urgral, knocked down the Mud Gob on their side and hacked it to death before it could even attack.

We could see about half of the Mud Gobs were running away from us and then truned down the first hall to the left. They were trying to get behind us. Suulin moved down the hall behind us so that she could see them coming and warn us when they were getting close.

Vridich was cracking off bolts one after another striking the monsters on the back rows. I finished the Mud Gob on the ground in front of me with a shot from the hammer and the tail mace. Another Mud Gob fell to power of Stilicho, Dremnin, and Urgral.

I swung at my second target, Vridich had already morn him down. The hammer slammed in to it’s chest. The sound of breakings told everyone it was a solid hit. The hammer continued to follow him to the ground. It was then that I thought that I had hit the creatcher so hard that I had buried that hamer in his ribs. I tried to pull the hammer out. It was not buried. The Mud Gob seemed to be glued to the hammer. I pulled it away while dodging a spear from the next Mud Gob. Flesh from the dead mud Gob stuck to the hammer.

I was about to smash the mud Gob that tried to stab me when a flurry of throwing daggers came in from behind me. Suulin was walking slowly back towards us throwing daggers with in to the Mud Gobs. She dropped the one in front of me. We were down to two left of the first group to attack us. The mud Gob in the back started squealing a loud cry. We could hear the second group coming back down the hall, giving up the idea of trying to attack from our rear. We moved out of line to finish the last two.

The second wave of Mud Gobs came on faster than we had guessed. Dremnin was ready though, he sunk an arrow in the chest of the lead monster. I saw that it was going to make it through a whole in our line. I had been moving to my right, I reversed my movement and turned left swinging the hammer with all the force I could muster. I snapped my tail mace out aiming for the mud bog’s knee. Both shots hit with resounding thuds. I destroyed the monsters knee as well as caved in his chest. He was dead before he hit the ground. Both my tail and my hammer stuck to the monster. I could not get either to pull free. Stilicho moved to my right and Urgral two my left, they descended on the three remaining monsters. Vridich and Suulin moved in to provide support, spells and daggers fired into the fray. I tried again to get my hammer back but, it would not move. My frustration got the better of me and I fired of a string of curses in T’skrang. The only one that could understand them was Dremnin that had just moved up next to me to help me get unstuck. He looked at in disbelief that I would use such words. Finally I just unbuckled my tail mace and was then able to get some leverage to pull my hammer free. I turned back to the combat but found that it was over. I turned back to the body to get my mace and found Dremnin had already pulled it loose.

We decided that I would be best suited for searching the mud. I stripped down, there was no way I was going to wreck my clothing or muddy my armor. It was not until I had climbed in that I thought about the mud. This is where these 10 disgusting monsters had been living, and probably doing their bodily business. I moved as quickly as I could but the only thing I found was a piece of woolly material. I pulled it out and climbed out of the mud. The piece of material turned out to be a magical three foot long green troll sock. Vridich cast a spell to provide me with some water to clean up. I got dressed and threw the sock in a leather sack. We went back to the towns people and collected our new stuff and headed back to Haven.

Ardor Zomay Skram
4th Circle Tail Dancer