Sniveling angrily like she never had since she was child deeply offended by a teacher’s remark (which was soon followed by a chair flying at the teacher and Hilda flying from the school…), the dwarf started pacing, trying to hold back tears and restore some semblance of order to her thoughts.

Having so much treasure just a few meters away but being unable to claim it was maddening. She could rest, but someone would notice the rich pickings for sure. With her luck, it would be some magic user who’d just eveportate the creature with a single spell and that would be that.

She’d be poorer than she was when she started this dungeon and someone else would have a domain with a nice singing mushroom garden and wide shower leaf and curtains the color of lilac in the astral plane, and lots of abstract paintings on the walls. She’d have a hurdle of annoying sisters and a mother who thought even less of her than she did before.

Unacceptable.

Hilda would get her treasure back, plus that emerald right now, even if she had to chew her way through the ooze with her-- Wait! The emerald! Oh, how could she be so unimaginative. It wasn’t just a pretty jewel. It was the creature’s core! How could it be otherwise?

Okay, so that would hurt like hell, but what was the life of a dwarf if not endurance in the face of adversity? (Well, it was also constantly crying over past defeats, but best not dwell on that right now).

Steeling herself for the agony that was sure to accompany her desperate charge, Hilda ran toward the center of the ooze, holding her ornate box before her like it was both a shield and a battering ram. She dodged the larger of the two pseudopods, jumped over another (not too shabby with just 8 Dexterity!), landed on a puddle, sailed past the creature and slammed straight into a wall.

Hilda heard trickling water and smelled charred bones and living moss. She opened an eye and saw a cavern ceiling covered in luminescent fungi and crude images of troll genitalia (she assumed). She had the kind of headache and nausea like only someone down to 1 hp could. She looked around and the first thing she noticed was Philly’s purple butt shaking from side to side as the ghoul was on her hands and knees looking for something on the floor. Hilda groaned and propped herself on her elbows. Her tunic was in tatters (with no attempts made to protect her modesty. Quite the opposite!).

Her armor was gone.

“Why am I unarmored?” Hilda moaned. “Did this slimy shit dissolve my armor?”

“No, it’s fine. I just wanted to feel your butt.” Philly said. “It’s so firm… do you do squats?”

“Philly, I’ll bash your skull in,” Hilda groaned, “as soon as I get my, eh,,” she swallowed back nausea, “everything back.” Hilda sighed at the ghoul’s absolute lack of response to the threat. Hilda couldn’t blame her. She doubted she’d be able to intimidate a chained kobold in her current condition let alone a fierce ghoul that survived two encounters with hostile clerics and paladins.

Hilda looked around. “Where is Medvak?”

Maybe he had a potion of healing she could use to resume her attack before someone looted the room. Maybe he could come up with some contraption that would allow her to reclaim her stolen possessions from a safe distance. Maybe he could just be big and strong and caring and make her feel safe and protected and less lonely.

“I have no idea.” Philly squatted by the dwarf and started chewing on a large femur. Hilda turned away to avoid looking between the ghoul’s legs. She really had to get that silly creature a decent tunic. “I came when I heard you crying,” Philly went on, spraying the dwarf with ground bones and marrow. “You were alone and passed out when I found you. A thin trickle of ooze was wrapped around your foot and slowly dragging you into the room.”

Hilda got to her feet, using a nearby altar for balance. “Okay, I’m going to finish that green shit and get all my stuff back. I have a new ability I think can make you really strong.”

“No need, I’m already really strong.” Philly flexed her bicep like a bodybuilder, except there was very little to flex. Her strength was magical, not biological. “Stay with me,” she said plaintively. “I have a board game. I’ll wear a dress if my body still makes you think strange thoughts you’re not comfortable with…”

“The humans burned your board game. You don’t even have a piece of cloth to cover your ass. I’m going.” Hilda closed her eyes and willed the world to stop spinning. The world gave her the finger and went on spinning.

“You won’t gain anything from it. Please,” Philly reached for the dwarf, but then drew her hand back sheepishly. “Stay, rest. I’ll massage your temples and read you Elven poems. You like Elf poems, no?”

“No time!” Hilda cried and stepped toward the door. “I’m not going to let them steal my treasure!”

Philly quickly got on her feet and shut the blackened door in Hilda’s face. “You need to rest. Right now a pixie with a toothpick could defeat you. I have no healing magic or healing potions. If you’ll be hurt, I won’t be able to help you. Please. Lie down. Rest. I won’t touch you unless you ask me to. I swear.” The ghoul pressed one hand to her heart and raised the other in the sign of the horns. “Please?” She repeated with pleading eyes. “I’ll guard you in your sleep.”

Hilda narrowed her eyes at the obstinate monster. “Move. Now.”

Philly sighed heavily and her shoulders dropped. However, she didn’t move away from the door. She licked her lips (and the rest of her face) with a tongue the size of a baby’s arm before speaking, “I, um,” she swallowed nervously, “I didn’t want to tell you before you were better but, um, some halfling killed the slime while you were passed out.”

Hilda felt her guts tie into a knot. Her throat was so constricted she couldn’t speak. After a while, she managed to croak “A halfling? Howwwww!” It was more a sob than a question, but the ghoul answered nevertheless.

“He just threw a knife and the ooze flooped. Just instantly turned from jelly to liquid. I think he hit some crystal inside it, but I was too far away to see. Mina thinks so too and she’s very educated in that kind of stuff.

The ghoul reached a trembling paw to comfort the dazed dwarf. This time, Hilda didn’t slap it away. She didn’t even feel the claws gently petting her disheveled braids.

“The treasure inside was enough for the halfling to win the king’s commission,” the ghoul went on, pressing the dwarf to her bosom and petting her coarse hair. “I’m sorry, sweetie. You were out for,” the ghoul looked at the back of her wrist and blinked, “for a long time. I, um, I had no way to make you heal faster except to lick you all over.”

That last part didn’t make Hilda feel better.

At all.

Current Loot

Purse (750 gp)

Gold Cup (2500 gp)

Ugly frog statue (500 gp)

Progress: 37.5%