DM rolls some dice...

Vanja retreats at full move+dash

Initiative: 18
Random d20: 7 

End of combat

Pascal fires off another freezing ray from his gullet, hitting the frozen ooze (12) and adding to the ice already on it (7 dmg), as everyone else scurries past him and down the hallway, Jorin scooping Hildigrim up and carrying him, Drusk waiting to make sure everyone is safely out.

The lizard man feels something pressing on his brain, but shakes his head to clear it (save 14), and (DM ex machina) sends one final bolt of blue at the thing as he backs down the hall with the others. The ooze shatters into scintillating pieces of ice as Drusk runs by.

You find yourselves, breathless but alive, (Hildi more or less so) in the blood room.

Notes: 10' of total movement with -10' of slowed movement made for one stuck pile of goo, and you all were high-tailing it, plus Pascal's declaration that he would "continue to pepper this thing with Rays" seemed pretty clear. There was little point in making it suffer, so I called the combat.

Here's a full map...

Pascal’s jaw slams shut as some now white breath escapes, “Ça y est, my friends! That jello is on ice. Took some time, but we got there in the end.” Pascal will try to collect some of the cube ooze and the newly made ooze-pops from each of them. Could make for some... flavorful cuisine.

Jorin slows to a jog as he sees Pascal make his way to the ooze bits and scoop up on cubes.  He cocks his head to the side then, remembering the spectator, lets out a small chuckle.  "Let us go upstairs, tend to the wounded, and then return.  I left one of my small axes back there and aim to recover it, but that can wait until these other two are back up.  Besides, there is still much to explore.  I think this dungeon has secrets yet to tell us."

With that Jorin will continue his way back  to the door, careful to avoid the traps they've already found.  He'll take a look over his shoulder after a few steps to make sure everyone is coming, and will stop if they are not.

Quote from Guiltysparc >>

 "Let us go upstairs, tend to the wounded, and then return."

 This... Return after a night's rest. (Drusk is looking forward to being Level 2.)

Pascal will also finish up and follow the rest of the group! He’s mostly fine, just a little tired from the psychic assault.

The party manages to make its way down the hallway and up the platforms, where Mavis and Criella help you haul Hildi up and everyone gets out.

"Oh, the poor dear," Mavis coos over the limp halfling. "We should put him on the bed," she says, looking pointedly at the still unconscious half-elf.

"I have some blankets," Criella says, and goes to her one piece of furniture, a chest, bringing back a couple of scratchy wool blankets. "Not from my sheep," she says to nobody in particular.

OOC > Let's do the leveling up in our private thread(s). Proceed there for more info. Are you going to rest? Sleep? Close the hatch?  Wait until morning? Wake the half-elf up? Heal Hildi? Wait  4 hours for him to wake up on his own?

Pascal would like to cook up some dinner! Well fed means wel rested!

Well, you have monster parts for flavoring and a day-old slaughtered sheep in the dusty ground outside. Also, live sheep. And rations, or whatever you brought with you. Criella has a larder with dried foods and root vegetables, some hardtack baking supplies. Her cooking options are limited and crude. Think indoor campfire. 

It’s a good thing that... Pascal has tools for just such the occasion!

Pascal will make some rack of lamb with Gelatinous Cube jelly flavored roasted over a magical bonfire. For a delicious side, Pascal will prepare some eye-beast eyes, left whole for maximum flavor.

Pascal has proficiency in Cook’s Utensils, but would it be a charisma check similar to performance? Constitution? Add whatever you please: 12... mmm that’s not great.

Hildigrim begins to stir and groan about an hour after you put him down to rest, and opens his eyes. The half-elf will begin to shift and groan about an hour after that.

Mavis sniffs the eye-peritif as Pascal is cooking it and says, "Well, that's interesting," but doesn't seem to mean it.

(Hildigrim and the bundled half-elf won't have to wait hours.)

After everyone is up, Drusk closes the hatch leading below, then puts any nearby heavy objects on top of it. "Let's deal with below, tomorrow."

The recent experiences have given Drusk new insights into his clerical powers (ie. level 2). He takes out his flask with some of last night's sah-kay, and sprinkles it around the room like holy water. Drawing on Lliira's divine inspiration, he uses "Preserve Life" to add 1 HP to Pascal (now at 5/10), 1 for the tied down half-elf, and 8 for Hildigrim (half of his new L2 maximum of 15).

With Hildigrim waking up, Drusk will have his mace ready to see how the half-elf responds.

Pascal licks his jaws, "That it is, that it is. Ain't that just the joie de vie! Always something new to try. Gotta love it."

OOC > Okay, everyone is awake! Half-elf reaction in the morning!

Hildigrim is thankful for the wake up! I'd say he'd gravitate toward the food, but if the half-elf is waking up at the same time, that would grab all of his attention.

Hildigrim (recipient of 8 hp of healing) is up and spry, his blistered skin magically soothed, and hungry (halflings ftw!).

After a few minutes, the half-elf moans and pulls feebly against his restraints. Then his eyes flutter open, first landing on Vanja's concerned face, then Criella's. As he focuses on the Tiefling woman, his eyes widen in fear and he screams, but it comes out mostly as a dry hacking whistle. He struggles against the rope binding him, finally subsiding into limp... terror? His wide eyes do not leave Criella... until Mavis comes over to check on him, then they widen again and he repeats the whole process.

Jorin watches the half elf closely, seeing how the ropes pull and strain as he struggles against them.  Once it's clear that they will hold, Jorin's demeanor relaxes. He walks over to where Pascal is cooking a meal and asks for a bite of eyeball, which he pops into his mouth and nods, approvingly.

He leans up against a wall, pulls out a couple items from his smiths tools, and begins doting on each of his battleaxes -- truing up the edges and cleaning the gore out of the runic engravings and off of the hafts.  For a moment, it seems like the pale blue tattoos that snake out from under his shirt collar move, as if they were being viewed through the heat haze of a hot, summer day.  The tails of the tattoos seem a little longer, though just barely.

(I assume that the Crawling Hand that Hildi brought up is still somewhere in the room, in a box or tied down somewhere. Drusk grabs it.)

Drusk starts speaking Elvish to the captive/victim. (Put in "spoiler" for those that don't speak Elvish.)

Drusk waves the mangled Crawling Hand in front of the half-elf.

He shies away from the hand as Drusk waves it at him. (Reiterating, the hand is dead dead dead.) "Ihhhhh," he tries to speak. Mavis pushes Drusk aside, "Don't badger the poor fellow. Here, dearie, have a drink." She sits on the bed next to him and pours a little water into his throat. His lips are chapped and he splutters some on the water, while still giving the elderly Tiefling the side-eye.

Eventually, he recovers enough to speak, albeit in a whisper. As his story comes out, you realize that he probably hasn't used his voice in a long time. Or at least, not for anything but screaming, or weeping.

"I am called Beaumont," he pauses, as if trying to remember. "Beaumont... Oakenheel. I am... I was, I murdered someone," and he dissolves into weeping for a while, Mavis patting his head distractedly. "I repented! I did! I am sworn to Lathander now... or I was, but I... it has been so long. A man, a horned man, he trapped me, caught me, enslaved me, made my hand... into that. I... I have been in and out of nightmare for... how long has it been? What is this day? It is cold. Is it winter? Have I been there for months?" It seems to be dawning on him that maybe he has been saved from his plight.