The Gathering: Session 4 part 2

After Jacob the Rooster, Barracus, Draco and Link said goodbye to Kama-Zotz and Sorin Markov, they checked in with the group in the infirmary and decided to continue exploring the main hallway.

The next room was quite humid and a passage to the left seemed to have been flooded recently.  There were 2 more cells directly across from the passage, to their right.  The far end of the room was dominated by a huge and eerily murky aquarium.

Link swore he caught movement in the tenebrous water.  This led to Draco discovering some fairly recent webbed footprints leading out of the flooded passage, up to and in front of the tank.  Draco realized with horror, the footprints didn't lead anywhere else.

Meanwhile, Link began inspecting a large "painting", of bizarre geometric patterns, that dominated the wall behind them.  He discovered the painting opened up to reveal a secret corridor and he came face to face with...something.

At the precise moment, Barracus decided to heave his throwing axe at the aquarium, the weapon ruptured the tank and the room flooded with caliginous water...and the aquarium's inhabitant.

 Link was forced deep into the secret passage and the door forced closed, by the onrushing water.  As he got to his feet, he came face to face with a strange creature with the torso and legs of a spider (dyed many garish and bright colors) and the head of an eel, or a neogi.  Bizarrely, the creature shrieked that he owned this passage and that the elf owed him money for using it.  Confused, Link paid the being and found out the thing he was dealing with was known as Mr. Ocax.  The spider-think then began extorting Link for more and more money, with each movement and question the elf attempted.

Meanwhile, Draco warned has compatriots  about  the thing released from its tank.  Barracus spied it closing on him and unleashed several powerful and decisive blows to the monster, scoring a dire hit to it's head in the process.  This allowed Draco, to close on it and finish with a deadly blow to the thing's brain.  All 3 were shocked (and quite thankful) to learn they had just destroyed an aboleth in mere seconds.

They then began to hear Link and Mr. Ocax arguing loudly from the secret passage and entered to help their comrade.  The neogi, upon seeing the corpse of the monster they'd just slain, and the angry visages of the newcomers, decided to tout his mercantile services to all of them and survive this meeting.  Barracus asked if Mr. Ocax possessed any magic rings, but was dismayed at the neogi's answer of no.  After some conversation, Mr. Ocax offered to return to this spot every 10 hours and see if they required any of the inventory he would bring.  At that he was off, and Link was glad of it.

The Gatherers then left the passage and stood in front of one of the 2 new cells they'd found.  As of yet, none of them had noticed the doorway in the back of the aquarium.