Bote knelt next to the unconscious man, now lying on his back on the road outside the Elixir Emporium, as Ebeneezer and the guard captain stood nearby watching.
"My book?" Ebeneezer asked anxiously the moment Al exited the building.
"I put it back in your safe and locked it up. Uh, I didn't know what you normally do with the key, I put it in your desk drawer for now," Al answered.
"And is Eric all right?"
"We're not sure, we haven't found him yet. So far everything looks like it's been smashed up, does he get violent?"
Ebeneezer scoffed. "That sounds like effort, so I doubt Eric would bother. Wait, is there someone violent in there? Eric could be in trouble! Look, just because he's a lazy layabout doesn't mean I want any serious harm to come to him, I'm sort of responsible for him. You've got to find him!"
"Have you been able to get any useful information from this guy?" Al asked Bote, "Probably not I suppose, if he's still unconscious."
"I believe he is not grievously harmed," the dwarf answered. "It may be safe to try to wake him up. Hmmm, I have an idea."
Bote took off their pack and rummaged inside for the silver flask of Earthshine. The dwarf shook it to judge how much was left. "Hmm, more than I thought I still had."
Bote unscrewed the cap and held the open flask near the unconscious man's nose. He began to cough and turned his head away. His eyes opened.
"What... what happened? Who are you?" the man rasped out between coughs.
"We were hoping you could tell us what happened, we found you in the shop unconscious," Al answered.
"Right. Right. I was going to an alchemist's shop. I heard he might have some hair tonic that actually worked."
"I most certainly do!" Ebeneezer interrupted, reflexively starting a sales pitch, "Ebeneezer's Healthy Heaps of Hair Ointment is guaranteed to ..."
"If there's any still intact in there. Sorry, if there's someone dangerous in there we kind of need to know in a hurry," Al interrupted, "What happened in there?"
"I don't really remember," the man answered, "I just went inside, and the next thing I know I'm lying out here. No... wait... I think someone was hitting me with a broom."
"A broom? Did you see what they looked like?"
"No, sorry, I don't remember seeing anyone."
"If there's some nut attacking people in there Eric is in danger!" Ebeneezer insisted, switching tracks from sales-pitch back to pleading for help with dizzying speed. "Please, if you save him, I'll give you any... one... item from my stock?"
"I mean, we were going to..."
"Each?" Ebeneezer tried, possibly thinking Al was holding out for a bigger reward.
"Okay, okay!" Al said, hurrying to keep Wikwocket from charging back inside to be heroic. "Let's go, at least we know we might have to defend ourselves from a broom, I guess that's something."
"Please try not to move around too much until you're sure you're feeling better," Bote advised the broom-attack victim. "I can check on you when we come back."
"Where might someone be hiding in there?" Al asked Ebeneezer, "We'll go search for him."
"There's a trapdoor down to the lower levels by the back wall behind the counter, Eric is supposed to be down there taking care of chores by now. It's not a safe place for some nut to be swinging a broom around, I have a lot of valuable and dangerous supplies down there! Who knows what might happen if things end up getting spilled and mixed up together? Hurry!"
"We're going, we're going!"
The man they'd carried out groaned a little, carefully sitting up as the adventurers headed back inside.
"Ow," the man said, "So, you do have a hair.. Look out! Is that a gnoll???"
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"Yes, he's a gnoll," an exasperated Al answered, "Come on, Gruntle, we're going back in to see if we can save the apprentice from whoever is trashing the place."
"...Is he talking to the gnoll?"
"Adventurers," the guard captain answered, expecting this to explain everything.
The man stared in silence as Al tried to sweep broken glass out of the way with his boot to make it easier for the bare-paw-footed gnoll to follow.
"Adventurers are weird," he finally said.
Just as Ebeneezer had described, a trapdoor in the floor at the back wall lifted to reveal a short, steep set of steps and the peculiar odors of alchemical supplies. A glow like dim sunlight illuminated the room below, allowing Al to see that there was a varicolored puddle of liquid slowly growing on the floor near the bottom step. Al leaned down to listen for a moment but heard nothing but dripping fluids.
"Anybody down there?" he called out, but got no answer. He carefully descended the steps, and found himself in a storeroom.
Shelving covered the walls of the room. The storeroom extended perhaps ten paces away to the left, but with only a couple of paces to the shelves in front of the steps. There did appear to be a doorway-sized gap in the shelves at the far end of the room, so perhaps the shelves in front of the steps had been built out halfway across the room to increase the storage space.
The light in the room came from glass bottles of a glowing substance, set in holders in the wall, as well as some of the puddles of liquid on the floor mingling with still more broken glass shards. The contents of the shelves hadn't been completely destroyed, but quite a lot seemed to have been haphazardly knocked over or broken. Al eyed the puddles of mixing liquids with concern as a gnoll stepped up close behind him at the bottom of the stairs. Al looked up to see Gruntle looming over him, also looking concerned at the floor. Al looked back and down at the gnoll's feet. A single small spot of blood was on each step behind him, left behind by the paw-foot that Gruntle had picked the piece of glass from earlier.
"You know," Al said, "in a place like this, I'll bet we could find someone who could make you some shoes or sandals or something to protect your feet, if we can find somebody that isn't going to scream and run away."
Gruntle huffed. "Gets in the way."
Al shook his head and, with a sigh, began the tedious work of sweeping glass shards aside with his booted feet, hoping that none of the liquids on the floor were corrosive enough to destroy his boots.
"Wow, someone is really trying to wreck this place!" Wikwocket said, squeezing past Gruntle at the bottom of the stairs. "You'd think someone who's a maniac with a broom would at least sweep up after themselves!"
"I'd have settled for them leaving the broom here for us to use, really," Al grumbled as he slowly footswept his way along the shelves.
"Destructive people are rarely considerate," Bote agreed.
"Yeah. Come on, it looks like this goes around and back on the other side."
"Wait a moment, you missed some spots!" Wikwocket said.
"I'm not trying to clean the place up, I just wanted to clear some spaces where Gruntle can step safely. Wait, why are you still lugging that pillow around?"
"Sir Fluffington bravely fought the fire with us, I wouldn't abandon him!"
Wikwocket swept her foot through a small puddle of fluid and glass shards that Al had missed, kicking the wet glass shards out of the way towards the shelving. Gruntle followed her cautiously along, and around the end of the shelves bisecting the storeroom. The other side was in no better shape, but there was at least a door at the opposite end of the shelving. Al groaned and swept another puddle of glass shards out of the way.
"If we all help, we'll make it to the other end in no time!" Wikwocket offered and hurried up to join Al in kicking the sharp obstacles out of the way. Bote with their heavy dwarven boots added to the effort.
"See? Teamwork!" Wikwocket said, kicking some more wet glass out of the way into the slowly-growing puddle along the shelves. The puddle flashed and flickered with pale green light.
Gloop... SCHLORP!
"What did you do?" Al called out in horror as the glowing, flashing puddle congealed and expanded.
"The same thing you are!" Wikwocket insisted, redoubling her efforts to clear the path away from whatever was happening. Al abandoned sweeping the path and rushed the rest of the way to the door. It opened easily to reveal stone steps heading down.
"Hurry up! Let's get out of here and hope whatever's happenening stops by the time we head back up!" Al yelled, holding the door open. Bote and Wikwocket ran to join him.
Gruntle considered the remaining stretch of foot-stabbing obstacles and took a careful step.
"Is it following us?" Al shouted as he watched the glowing tarry mass of mysterious alchemical substances and sharp glass shards stretch slowly down the hall directly towards them.
"Gruntle! Jump!" Wikwocket called out. Gruntle looked back at the stuff, and yelped to see a wad of it stretch itself swiftly out at him. He yelped again when the spiky pseudopod nicked his leg as he leapt away. The gnoll flew through the doorway, knocking Al back. Wikwocket slammed the door shut while Bote helped Al and the gnoll disentangle themselves and get back up in the dimly alchemically-lit stairway.
"That was close!" Wikwocket laughed, "It almost caught up to us!"
She stopped laughing when the sounds of glass sliding against glass and a flickering green glow came from the bottom of the door. A small blob of shining glass-spiked tarry mass bulged out through the gap.
"Down the steps!" Al urged, backing away from the door. Gruntle surprised him by hurrying to take that advice rather than trying to bite or smash the... substance... that was following them.
"Save us, magical sword hero!" Wikwocket called as she followed the gnoll, with Bote right behind her. "Burn it with magic fire!"
Al backed down the steps as quickly as he could without stumbling, keeping his eye on the stuff that oozed under the door.
"Are you crazy more than usual?" he asked, "We have no idea how whatever that is made of is going to react to fire!"
A thick, flickering, glass-spiked spout of the unnatural alchemical mass spurted out at Al. His reflexively conjured warding spell manifested itself just a moment too late. The burning sensation of the slashes across the side of his head stoked a momentary fire of irrational rage in him. All thoughts of caution evaporated and he let rush through his mind as much fiery intent as he could. Wikwocket cheered as three bolts of magical violence manifested themselves, burst into flame, and launched themselves at the belligerent blob. They struck deep, causing an almost blinding flash of light.
The entire thing exploded in greenish-blue flame.
Bubbling and hissing within the flames, it continued stretching down the steps towards them.
"Run!" Al shouted, and did so himself.
UPDATED: Okay, here's the source material for those who are interested:
Basement 1 / Stockroom: As the players descend the short steps into the stockroom, they notice the walls are lined with shelves,
with one shelf jutting out into the center of the room. These shelves once held potions of varying kinds however, the room is now
full of broken glass and spilled liquids. As the players watch, the potions begin to pool together and in a few seconds they combine
to form a large ooze. The ooze will attack the players immediately and will follow if they try to flee. It can also move through the
shelves and under doors. There is a door on the far side of the room with stairs leading downwards.
they did triggered the final reaction that cause the ooze to take form.
Potion of Mind Reading, a bottle of cavern-jelly concentrate, and who knows what else. Also... mushrooms.