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Thinking on the lessons learned from her last attempt, Meraki returns to Stachys's square with her painting supplies and tools with a different idea in mind: portraits of the village's citizens. Knowing that such a thing is ordinarily a luxury of the very wealthy, she offers them free of charge to anyone willing to sit for her, with the caveat that the piece will remain unfinished until the following day.
Her hope is to further endear herself (and, by extension, Lady Betony) to the people of Stachys by giving them something to treasure.
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Dro'gan and Amandine's efforts quickly bear fruit. With agents sent across the county - acting as messengers, go betweens, rumormongers, and other roles - they sabotage the reputations of both the Count and Sir Gusairne.
Over the course of the intervening days, as the latest improvements around Stachys are built, many locals talk about embarrassing missteps taken against the Night Swan which draw further attention to the other failings of the Count's stewardship. Meraki learns about these developments from the many people, both long-time Stachys residents and newcomers, stopping by to see the progress on her latest painting. Gossip about the tarnishing reputations of the Count and his seneschal are frequently interrupted by compliments and questions about her work, though.
Unfortunately, Greenly finds her efforts at building up her own reputation being overshadowed by Meraki's, as the her painting draws quite a bit of attention away from the warrior woman's wisdom.
The party boards the carriage and rumbles along the highway through the bucolic Meratt landscape, traveling east and north towards Lauchlein Lake. As the road curves near the edge of the lake, fringed with reeds and cattails, you again meet up with Atratus the Swan Maiden.
Fortunately, this meeting comes without arrows whistling in your direction.
"Thank you for returning," the fey warrior woman says solemnly. "Truth be told, I wasn't entirely sure whether you would come back."
Atratus does not know the ochre jelly's exact location, but she again mentions that it has claimed the northern hook of the lake as its favored hunting grounds.
"It's a privilege to meet you," Meraki says, clasping her hands and bowing slightly. "Thank you for allowing us to aid you."
Squinting at the armored woman and then Meraki, Dro'gan leans on his magical spear and waves away further comment.
"Yes...greetings again Maiden. I must ask: You know your lake better than most. Are there any areas near the monster's hunting grounds that could be used to slow or harass the creature with? A ravine? Fast moving stream? Or natural hilly area with large rocks? Anything? I'm hoping we won't need a boat. My lady's last boat excursion was not fun by any means."
Atratus describes the lake much as a poet would describe their muse. Through the flowery descriptions, you glean that Lauchlein Lake is rather shallow and swampy, sitting at a low elevation and serving as a drainage basin for the surrounding parts of the county. The shores are heavily fringed with aquatic plants, and the lake is home to many frogs, small fish, and water fowl.
The lake's northern hook, where the slime primarily hunts, is nestled in a gentle valley. This area would provide advantageous elevation and vantage points, but Atratus concedes that there are no large rocks or trees to provide cover, hence why she has not attempted this approach on her own.
Before leaving for the lake, Amandine shares the depressing results of her research with the others. She describes their target as a mindless, amorphous predator that hunts by grabbing prey and burning it with acid.
"Electricity does not harm it. Sharp weapons, whether blades or arrows, do not harm it, but instead divide it into smaller, independent versions of the larger monster, more of them to run down and kill. Acid, cold, or fire may work, but there are two problems. First, according to the swan maiden, this one has been magically altered. It is larger than the norm, and may be resistant to more kinds of harm. Second, if it is submerged in water, fire and acid may not work well or at all. Magic will face these same limitations, with the addition that any magic that affects the mind will be useless."
"This leaves us with blunt force, it may be bludgeoned, and perhaps magical and alchemical attacks that deliver elemental injury. As it produces acid itself, I'm suspicious of it as an effective weapon against the thing. Alkaline substances may be a better choice."[b]
Amandine sighs. [b]"I think we will be facing a long, slow, wet struggle to mash a blob into pulp. Hopefully luck will be with us and the magical tampering it has undergone is either a false rumor or of no consequence for killing it."
Amandine collects a bag of rocks to take along for her part.
---------------------------------------------
Amandine assures Atratus "I made a promise and my word is always good. Do you know where the thing has been lairing most recently?"
Taking out a dagger, Dro'gan starts collecting fallen branches from nearby trees and cutting them into clubs for everyone.
The party arrays itself upon the steep hillside overlooking the northern arm of the lake. The soil is loose and rocky, making your footing somewhat treacherous.
Atratus wades out into the lake, trudging through the knee-high water and passing through a curtain of cattails. She draws her feathered cloak around herself, and her form morphs and shrinks into a majestic swan. Like a sleek, white schooner, she slips away into the mist dappling the surface of the lake.
You are left waiting for almost a quarter hour before you hear the loud, piercing trumpet of a swan heralding that your ally is leading the foe to you. Atratus erupts out from the reeds, transforming back into her humanoid form mid-flight, and sprints up the steep hillside.
Close on her heels comes the ochre jelly, blurping its way onto the gravelly shore.
Watching Atratus transform into a swan is one of the most beautiful things Amandine has ever witnessed. The emotion of it catches in her throat.
When the swan maiden returns, signaling their quarry has taken her bait, Amandine begins to concentrate on reaching out through her entire body with her mind, heightening the responsiveness of her synapses and nerves.
"Let it come as far as it will before strikng" she cautions the others. "We want to have a long hike back to water should it try to flee."
Greenly draws her bow and steels herself, eyes narrowed. A brace of twenty blunted arrows sits on her hip. She controls her breathing, preparing for the battle trance, and her ancestor's presence.
She whispers to Atratus as she hands another brace of arrows to the swan woman, "After we kill this thing, do you think it would, like, be good on a sandwich? It, it's jelly, ain't it?"
It's too much to even try to explain.
"Very acidic jelly. Terrible for the teeth."
The woman grimaces, clearly unhappy about the information.
Smiling evilly, Dro'gan can't help but comment as he adjusts the magical spear strapped to his back.
"The Swan-Lady said the Jelly was magically altered...maybe they made it more delicious too?"
At that point Dro'gan casts an Expeditious Retreat spell (lasts 5 minutes) and gets ready to shove a small boulder down the hill...hoping to any gods that might hear to catch the thing somehow with the tumbling missile.
"Once we engage, I will maneuver around to the far side of the creature in order to help slow its retreat.
The moment she spots the jelly's approach, Meraki begins her summoning ritual. Trust in the plan, she thinks to herself, but doesn't feel terribly reassured.
Amandine waits until the ochre jelly seems to be ready to give up its chase. She then hurries around in front of it to see if it can be goaded to keep coming. Taking one of the stones from her sack, she tosses it up into the air then telekinetically sends it hurling into the jelly's mass.
Amandine's telekinetically accelerated stone shoots clean through the slime.
Atratus hustles up the slope before turning and casting a spell upon the slime, impelling the reeds and aquatic plants to reach out and grasp the creature to slow it down.
Through the empirical evidence unfolding before you, you learn that while an ochre jelly's acidic body is deadly to creatures of flesh, it has no effect upon plants. The aquatic plants grasp the slime's gooey body, holding it like a large lump of jelly inside a wicker basket.
Greenly growls, pulling her blunt-tipped arrow deeply back and firing into the jelly, circling it in a large berth, cloaked by the wisps and whispers of her northern ancestors.
Dro'gan huffs and puffs, but he cannot dislodge the large stone embedded in the dirt along the hillside.
Greenly's arrow impacts heavily upon the amorphous flank of the slime.
The slime manages to break free from its botanical bonds long enough to slither another ten feet closer, climbing onto the shoreline, before being again ensnared by the grasping plants.
Amandine repositions to keep herself as far away from the ochre jelly as using her spell will allow. She takes another stone from her sack and repeats.
Meraki finishes casting her summoning spell, conjuring a single earth elemental directly in the jelly's path. Suddenly realizing she doesn't actually share a language with the creature, she points emphatically at the jelly and hopes her intent is clear.
She immediately begins casting another spell to summon yet more elementals.
Greenly continues circling the ooze, firing off a second shot with nary a word.
A volley of shots from Amandine, Olivia, Atratus, and Greenly, coupled with the heavy fists of the earth elemental summoned by Meraki, cause the slime's surface cohesion to begin to fail. Small streams of hissing ooze begin to leak from its mass.
Dro'gan manages to get the large rock dislodged and tumbling down the steep hillside. The earth elemental manages to avoid the hazard, but the heavy rock clobbers the entangled slime.
Thus weakened, the slime is apparently unable to break free from the grasping plant life again. It creeps onto shore slowly but remains out of reach of the party.
Dro'gan starts moving to flank the monster, casting his one attack spell...
Casting Time 1 standard action; Components S, V, M (a bundle of sulfur wrapped in cloth); Range long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level); Effect: dragon-shaped fireworks; Duration 1 round/level;Saving Throw Reflex negates; Spell Resistance yes; Description: A favorite display at halfling midsummer festivals, this spell lets you create fireworks in the shape of tiny dragons. Once per round, as a move action, you may designate a target 5-foot-square within range and launch a pyrotechnic in that direction. The pyrotechnic takes a zigzag path from you to that square, always missing creatures and objects in its path, and detonates in that square with a bang and a colorful burst of fire and light. Creatures in the target square take 1d4 points of fire damage and are dazzled for 1 round (Reflex half, a successful save negates the dazzled condition). Normally when this spell is used as part of a festival, the chosen target is high in the sky to increase visibility and protect observers.
The warrior woman continues her slow circle, deadly serious
Amandine hurls another stone from her bag.
Bolts, stones, and magical firecrackers slam against the ooze, bound up by reeds like an oversized ham. Rivulets of acidic slime pour out from numerous breaches along its surface, and its movements become more erratic as it loses cohesion.
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Meraki conjures a veritable wall of living rock around the jelly, joining their sibling already pummeling it. Their rocky fists rain down on it from all sides as they block its escape.
The summoned ring of elementals absolutely clobber the ochre jelly. By the time their volley of earthen fists is finished, all that is left of the slime is a sizzling and popping puddle of ichor upon the gravelly soil, peppered with small animal bones from the lake denizens it has been preying upon.
Atratus heaves a deep sigh of relief, seeing that the dire threat to her home has now been eliminated.
Amandine cautiously approaches the take a closer look at the puddle. Satisfied with what she sees, Amandine exclaims "Well! I suppose that's that! Well done everyone! No injuries correct?"
"I don't know," Greenly murmurs, slightly dazed as her wisps leave her now the battle's ended. "The jelly looks pretty injured. Like, I wouldn't want to spread that on toast at all."
Striding close, Dro’gan wishes he could collect a sample of the creature’s remains. It could be used as evidence against their political enemies in the long run.
“Does anyone have a glass vial or something? I would take a sample of the slime for future study. I dare say we might could use it politically if we can prove who altered it.”
With the jelly defeated, Meraki dismisses her platoon of living earth before turning back to face the others.
"That was something, wasn't it!?" She exclaims, her voice full of surprise and relief.
The relief flees from Atratus's face. The fey warrior woman vows that Count Lotheed will pay for creating and unleashing this abomination to defile her lake and hunt her down. You clearly have another ally in your quest to bring down the corrupt, indolent nobleman.
"The creature kept no treasure beyond the bones of the fish, birds, and beasts it has gorged upon," Atratus states.
As Dro'gan collects a sample in a vial, he can confirm this fact, finding innumerable small fish bones drifting upon the oozing remains of the creature.
However, Atratus possesses one more treasure that she feels you have earned, especially if you intend to avenge her suffering by bringing down Count Lotheed. She leads you along the lakeside, back to the southern shores. She retrieves something in a waterproof bag hidden within a clump of fern-covered rocks.
"This was a memento from a lover I took...it must have been millennia ago. I know not its history, but she said it was once worn by a singer whose voice left kings weeping and brought mountains low."
She offers to you an intricate mask. Fashioned to surround the wearer’s eyes and cover the forehead and cheekbones, this mask is made of porcelain inset with blue and green gems and decorated with golden filigree.
Atratus explains that, when donned, the mask seems to disappear, leaving its golden patterns as tattoos on the wearer’s face and coloring one of the wearer’s eyes green and the other blue. The wearer can remove the mask normally, causing it to appear as a porcelain mask once again.
Meraki offers Atratus a deep bow, hands clasped in front and wings tucked in close to her back. "Thank you for trusting us. I know we will protect your gift."
Amandine follows Meraki in thanking Atratus. She also adds an assurance she hopes to be true and correct.
"We intend to remove Count Lotheed from his position in this county soon. Afterward it will finally be returned to better, more just rule. We will be reporting on our activities here, including who has aided us and why. It will be made clear when we do that the poisoning of the lake you guard will not keep the peace. I sincerely believe debts will be repaid and you will be able to rest."
Atratus stiffly clarifies that Lake Pensaris, purportedly the home of the monster catfish, is distinct from her own home, Lauchlein Lake. Nevertheless, she can provide some details about the lake.
"Although it is significantly larger than my own home, it receives far too much traffic from the mortals," she explains. "I prefer the privacy of my own lake, to say nothing of the ageless stories that it holds."
There is a halfling hermit by the name of Zeke who, according to Atratus, makes his home in an old beaver dam on the northern side of Lake Pensaris. He occasionally makes the five mile hike across the rolling countryside between the lakes to visit Atratus, being the only living mortal the swan maiden allowed as a visitor prior to being befriended by the party.
"Zeke calls himself 'the General's butler' and speaks to the creature," Atratus explains. Her tone is flat and matter-of-fact. You aren't sure whether she is merely taking the eccentric hermit's words at face value or if she knows that he tells the truth.
Find the right person to talk to...
Talk up the Spear, its abilities and its provenience...
During some downtime, whilst the more visibly upstanding members of the party oversee the latest renovations in Stachys, Dro'gan ventures to Lotheedar and seeks out local clergy of Iomedae. He brings with him Godspike, the holy spear recovered from the paladin-turned-ghoul that the party fought at the old pump house some time ago.
Putting his silver tongue to work, Dro'gan negotiates with the small temple, offering the holy weapon as a potential offering for the ongoing Fifth Mendevian Crusade in the Worldwound. In exchange, they offer to lay an enchantment upon his own weapon, in the process also earning esteem for his mistress, Lady Amandine Betony.
"He speaks to the creature?" Meraki asks, blinking. "Is it intelligent? If so, maybe we could convince it to stop attacking people?"
Dro'gan sighs, then smiles.
"I think it is another Fae creature probably. Maybe I can speak to this'Zeke' and find out more...'butler' to 'butler' of course?"
"He speaks to the creature?" Meraki asks, blinking.
"That is what he has told me. I don't know of any reason he might have to lie," Atratus replies flatly with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
She knows more about the fey history of her own lake than that of Lake Pensaris.
"A different court ruled that lake, ages ago, before the great forest was cleared away as though consumed by an insatiable fire," she says with a pointed edge to her words, making it clear that what Taldor has done to the Verduran Forest has not been forgotten.
"They used to feud and duel with the court to which I owed my fealty. When they, too, fled in the face of mortal expansion, they may have left behind some prized fish that have grown enormous over the centuries. Of course, I cannot say for sure."
Amandine thanks Atratus for telling them what she knows.
"We will find Zeke the halfling and speak with him then."