In the quiet post combat moments of the darkened ruins deep within the Chult jungle, the group dedicates some time to investigation and contemplation. There are no artifacts for Van Fostern in the ruins, nor treasures for payment beyond what Slick loots from the grungs.
The treasures themselves, Tatters reckons, are smothered in a non-magic psionic energy. Bizzle gets a rare moment of insight, envisioning the inhabitants of the unruined village suddenly departing without rational cause. He tracks the grungs and finds the path orthogonal to the group’s travel is often patrolled.
Shroom looks for mushrooms but wouldn’t ignore an artifact if he sees one. He finally finds a shelf mushroom. Satisfied, he resumes harvesting grung poison for Tricksy’s specimen jars. Tricksy doubles back stealthily and attempts to spy their persistent pursuer from a tall tree. She senses the pursuer is right behind her in the tree. She sends Knit X circling around, but Knit X buzzes negative contact. Heeding Tatter’s warning about the possessive treasure, Bizzle and Tricksy offload gold and rubies onto Bill the mule. Slick would prefer to hang on to his loots, thankyouverymuch.
The party camps off the road and divides up watches. On second watch, Shroom hears a patrol of three and wakes each cohort with a probing fungal finger in the face. Tatters whispers that maybe they should be quiet and let the patrol pass. Bizzle nods affirmatively but springs out of the jungle at the three grungs anyway.
Two green grungs get stabby and the red grung casts a growth spell on nearby vegetation. Shroom shoves through the dense growth and, declaring loudly his intent to avoid bathing, primally savages a green grung. Slick retrieves a potion of flying and sails over the plant wall, charging at the red grung with readied axe. Tatters dispels the growth and strolls through, slinging firebolts. Tricksy adds her arrows to the injured green grung. Bizzle keeps contact with the red grung, but a botched swing sends a scimitar tumbling into the jungle. Bizzle runs after it. The red grung attempts to retreat, but Slick drops axe first from above. Bizzle rejoins, knocking the red grung out nonlethally. Bizzle sits on the red grung and secures it with mithril banding. Tatters and Tricksy take out the first green grung and advance on the second. Tatters dusts off his quarterstaff, hoping to knock out a second prisoner, but unbathed Shroom cuts in with primal savagery and slays the last green grung.
Tatters detects the red grung’s thoughts while Bizzle questions the uncomprehending creature in common. The language barrier doesn’t matter because red grung only thinks about all the treasures that Slick is busily gathering up. Bizzle shows red grung the dead troll. Where is that dead troll’s gold treasure? Tatters probes deeper thoughts and sees a robed, tentacle-faced creature with an enormous hoard of treasure. Detect thoughts fades at thirty feet so Bizzle measures out that length of robe, tethers the red grung to Tatters, and removes the red grung’s bindings. The red grung leaps into the air, yanking Tatters off his feet. Once the red grung tires out, Tatters uncurses it, gives it some water, and sends it on its way. Tatters then uncurses Slick and suggests he transfer all his cursed treasure to Bill the mule.
The party camps uneventfully and, thinking more clearly in the morning, realizes their grung encounters have occurred on concentric patrol paths, suggesting that they are moving directly toward the hot center of Chult weirdness. No one would be surprised to find a tentacle-faced creature with a hoard of gold in that center.
Later that day, the party approaches circular ruins. The road is blocked by a large maul-wielding man, a druid, and a ranger. Shroom hails them and proposes they be well met, but Shroom is met only with bland aloofness. Shroom takes offense at the shun and accesses his symbiotic entity. Slick takes a couple steps away from Shroom’s new and improved death scent while taking measure of the three road blockers. He notes they are wearing crude jewelry. Tatters dons his helm of telepathy and suggests the three might remove their cursed jewelry, but they are too busy thinking about a clear and placid lake to pay any heed. Another thought breaks in on the channel, impressed by Tatters’s awareness, and damages Tatters’s mind with feedback.
Bizzle charges the maul man with a surge, but accidentally hucks a scimitar into the ruins. Tricksy starts plugging the maul man with arrows. Shroom natures out and pursues the ranger with his warmushroom and halo spores. Slick sneaks a fatal axe attack on the ranger. Tatters selects the tiger-shifted druid and firebolts it back to druid-shifted druid. The druid shifts to gorilla form and pummels Slick. Shroom smashes the gorilla back into druid with his warmushroom and then puffs a halo of spores that unkills the druid into Shroom’s pet zombie.
Bizzle runs to retrieve the flung scimitar and encounters a tentacle-faced man also hoping to collect the scimitar. The tentacle-faced man retreats out of view. Bizzle yells out that tentacle-faced man is escaping, but his pursuit is stopped by a closed steel door.
A veteran man leads two orcs out of the ruins, flanking the party. Shroom takes out one orc and zombies the other just in time to replace the druid zombie that the veteran man slays. All weapons turn on the veteran man and Shroom zombies him, putting him up by one zombie in the exchange.