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The iron doors scrape inward. The sound climbs the grotto’s fifty-foot walls and dies among tiers of old gnomish seats. Below them lies a pool of black grease, three feet deep, cold and sluggish as half-set tallow. It coats the stone to chest height. The smell is ancient fat and wet leather. Six squat figures wait ten feet from the threshold, submerged to their eyes. Five spearpoints rise. The sixth wears a crooked gorget and inflates his throat until his chin clears the muck. ‘Captain Gullian,’ he announces. He pauses and looks over his shoulder to check who is listening. ‘Her Sublime Viscosity receives petitioners by appointment, tribute, and my personal approval. You possess none of these.’ Farther in, five more gloops have stopped combing grease through the folds of an immense black creature. Twelve legs stir beneath the surface. A long head lifts. Sootmurk opens one eye. ‘Perhaps,’ she says, ‘they possess a sentence worth hearing.’ Two rulings before anyone commits: movement while wading is halved. No running, charging, or fighting withdrawal in the grease without falling face-first. Gloops swim freely. The grease burns if lit: three rounds, dealing 1d6 at the start of each turn to anything standing in the pool. Ander, you are at the front. Gullian levels one webbed hand at your chest. ‘Business. Then tribute.’ What do you do?

Right. Gullian. The captives walk out of here.

Ander Vale misses Captain Gullian

Gullian stares at Ander. A slow membrane slides across each eye. ‘No.’ He draws himself higher, glances back at Sootmurk, and continues more loudly. ‘The road-things are tribute. If you want them, the price is one hundred gold each, every weapon you carry, and—’ He studies Ander’s face. ‘—your tongue, for discourtesy.’ Sootmurk’s other eye opens. ‘Do finish pricing my possessions, Gullian. I am learning so much.’ His throat deflates. The five spearpoints remain level, but none strike yet. Brea, you stand just behind Ander at the threshold. What do you do?

Brea leaves her bow lowered and looks past Gullian to Sootmurk. ‘He prices your possessions easily. How many has he sold while your eyes were shut?’

Gullian lunges half a pace between Brea and Sootmurk, splashing grease up his gorget. ‘Slander! Transparent, mammalian slander. Nothing leaves this chamber without exact accounting. I have ledgers. Sacred ledgers.’ His eyes flick toward the black pool. ‘Seize her.’ The order lands. Not one guard moves before checking Sootmurk’s face.

Ten gloops remain poised in the grease, but their spearpoints have sagged. Every eye is on Sootmurk now, waiting to learn whether Gullian still speaks for her. The dragon watches Brea without blinking. Gullian has become background noise. Mira, you recognise the tiers as an old gnomish shrine, though grease hides whatever was once honoured here. You stand at the doorway behind Brea. What do you do?

Mira stops where the light still reaches and counts. Ten guards. One captain. One Sootmurk. She says it aloud, quietly, because saying it makes it a number and not a room. "Brea. Stay off my left." She raises the hazel wand, which does nothing, and casts Sleep at the thickest knot of gloop guards, wherever the most of them stand together and Sootmurk does not. She keeps the oil where it is. Not yet. (Casting Sleep, memorised, on the largest cluster of gloop guards. 2d8 hit dice affected, no saving throw — referee's roll and call.)

Mira’s quiet count becomes a cadence. The hazel wand points. The air around Gullian thickens like warm syrup. Four of the five guards at the doorway blink once, twice, then fold without a sound. Spears vanish into the grease. Heavy bodies bob at the surface, fast asleep. Gullian remains upright beside one suddenly lonely guard. Sleep affects 4 Hit Dice: four gloop guards are asleep. Sootmurk was outside the spell. The dragon’s gaze moves from Brea to Mira. ‘That,’ she says, ‘was a better sentence.’ Oskar, you stand at the rear of the doorway. Four guards sleep in the pool ten feet ahead; Gullian and one guard remain between you and Sootmurk. What do you do?

Oskar stays on the stone at the rear of the doorway. He plants there with the shield toward Gullian and the one guard still standing. He tests the lip of the grease with the hammer haft and does not step in. "I have the door."

Sootmurk unfolds. Twelve legs rise in sequence, shedding black ropes of grease. Gullian tries to speak. One claw settles over his head without looking at him, and the sound stops. ‘I do not care whether he has stolen three captives or thirty. I care that you noticed he might.’ Her gaze passes from Brea to Mira, then to Oskar guarding the only visible exit. ‘Useful creatures are rare here.’ She drifts closer, but stops beyond the sleeping guards. ‘There is a chamber in this shrine that my servants call haunted. They refuse to enter it. Bring me every magical thing within. I will ruin them, because they have denied me the pleasure long enough. Do that, and your road-things walk free.’ Her claw presses Gullian one inch deeper into the grease. ‘Or continue negotiating with my captain. He has sacred ledgers.’ The room is still. This is a real offer: clear the magical objects from the haunted chamber in area 9, and Sootmurk releases the captives. Ander, round two begins with the choice in front of you. What do you do?

Ander Vale misses Captain Gullian

Ander’s sword cuts down toward Gullian. The captain squeals and folds under Sootmurk’s claw; the blade skates off the grease where his head had been. For the first time, Sootmurk looks bored. She lifts her claw from Gullian and glides backward through the pool. ‘Very well,’ she says. ‘Continue negotiating with the captain.’ Gullian erupts upright, choking with rage. The lone waking guard at the doorway lowers its spear. Five more shapes spread through the deeper pool. Four guards remain asleep and bobbing at Ander’s feet. The parley is over. Brea, you are behind Ander with your bow lowered. Gullian is ten feet away. What do you do?

Brea Thornwick misses Captain Gullian

Brea snaps the bow up and looses past Ander. Gullian ducks. The arrow skips once across the grease and disappears into the dark pool behind him.

Captain Gullian hits Ander Vale for 2

something takes 1 from Ander Vale.

Gullian launches from the grease in a flat, furious hop. His spear slips past Ander’s shield and punches through the chain links at his hip. He tears it free as he lands against Ander. The hopping strike deals 3 damage total. Gullian wants him alive, but not comfortable.

gloop guard 10 misses Ander Vale

something takes 6 from Ander Vale.

A small gloop streaks across the pool and erupts beside Gullian. Ander turns the spearhead with his shield, but the creature rides the impact, twists, and drives the haft into the wound at his hip. The hopping strike turns the near miss into a hit for 6 damage. Ander is at 3 hp, with Gullian and two guards closing around him.

gloop guard 5 hits Ander Vale for 3

The last waking guard from the doorway comes in low. Ander turns toward it too late. The spear drives under his raised arm and deep into his chest. His sword falls first. Then Ander goes face-down into the black grease and does not rise. Ander Vale is dead. Gullian plants one webbed foot between his shoulders and looks back to make sure Sootmurk saw.

gloop guard 6 hits Mira Ashdown for 5

From deeper water, a gloop whips a spear over the sleeping bodies. Mira sees it leave the hand and still cannot clear the doorway in time. The point tears through her sleeve and buries itself along her ribs. Mira takes 5 damage and staggers against the stone at 3 hp.

gloop guard 7 hits Mira Ashdown for 3

A second spear follows before Mira can pull the first free. It catches her high beneath the collarbone. Her hazel wand clatters onto the threshold. She slides down beside it, leaving a dark line on the stone. Mira Ashdown is dead. The burning oil flask is still among her gear at the doorway.

gloop guard 8 hits Brea Thornwick for 4

Brea turns toward Mira. That is enough. A spear from the pool catches her across the side and hurls her into the iron door. She stays upright, barely. Brea takes 4 damage and has 5 hp left.

gloop guard 9 hits Brea Thornwick for 2

Another spear strikes Brea’s leather armour hard enough to spin her. It does not go deep, but blood runs beneath the straps. Brea takes 2 damage and has 3 hp left. The gloops stay in the water, forming a line across the doorway rather than climbing onto dry stone.

Oskar, Ander lies dead in the grease before you. Mira lies dead at your feet. Brea is beside you at 3 hp. You still hold the dry side of the iron doorway. Gullian and two guards cluster around Ander’s body; four guards sleep between them and you; four more remain in the pool with spears. Sootmurk watches from the rear. What do you do?

Mira is at 0 hit points. She is down and does not act this round. The wand is still in her hand. The three flasks are still stoppered. The arithmetic came out the way she always said it would. (pc-mira: 0/8, no action. Referee's call on whether that is dead or dying.)

Referee’s call: Old-School Essentials has no dying state here. At 0 hp, Mira is dead. Her wand and stoppered oil remain at the doorway. Oskar still has the turn.

Oskar does not step into the grease. He puts Brea behind the shield and hauls her back through the iron doors by the armour-strap. Mira is at his feet; he takes her under the other arm as he goes. Ander is in the pool under Gullian. Oskar leaves him. Going in is dying. "Brea. Out. I cannot get Ander."

Oskar hooks Brea’s armour and drags her bodily behind the shield. With Mira under his other arm, he backs through the iron doors. Spearpoints strike sparks from the shield rim, but the gloops will not follow onto dry stone. Gullian surges toward the threshold. ‘Stop,’ Sootmurk says. He stops. ‘They have carried away the useful one and left me the loud one. That seems fair.’ The iron doors grind shut on Gullian’s face. Oskar and Brea escape into the shrine with Mira’s body. Ander remains in the pool. The captives remain Sootmurk’s. The duke’s reward is lost. The fight is over.