Lakeview's Leaky Dam

The back part of Freelancers Tavern was decidedly non-tavern like in the mornings.  Various adventurers chose to break their fast there and catch up on news and whether others were desiring to take an assignment from Arnari or what.

Cathance hadn't seen Terrance in a few days, so sat at her table with breakfast.  Kaelani was there, and Terrance was describing carrying Gillian to the cart.  "Gillian?" Cathance asked.  Kaelani immediately started regaling Cathance with descriptions of how they had captured her the night before, and she and her devotees were invoking divine magic in the name of the Daystar.

Cathance was horrified.  Her hand strayed to her neck, touching the little tortoise with a diamond in its shell as if for reassurance.  Kaelani declared he was determined to find out how this was done, but Cathance's mind went in a different direction, and she turned the puzzle over in her mind: who benefits?

Anyhow, despite their late night, Kaelani and Terrance were energized and wanted to do something else, so Cathance finished breaking her fast and went with them to Arnari's office.  A kind of burly, blond, blue-eyed human male was talking to her, and she introduced him:  Thomas Evans, her new deputy at Freelancers Tavern.  Terrance and Kaelani nodded at him, and Terrance greeted him, "Tomtom!"

Cathance climbed into the oversized chair and kicked her feet as Arnari noted Tomtom was originally from Cliffshadow, and then listed three missions:

• Bouncers at the opening night of the Untz club, "Kowiri Music & Tavern"
• Lakeview needs an escort:  they are now having a dam problem, and Lizzie Brannan is to go inspect
• Sonya Drogo of House Drogo wants an escort to Stormhaven and some assistants to hire a shipbuilder

Cathance asked, "Did House Aldous… disappear?"

Arnari gave her the side eye.  "If you want to…" she started.

Kaelani interrupted her.  "The dam is a problem, if it rains."  He nodded at the map.  If the Lakeview dam gave out, Three Rivers would be underwater.

Terrance asked, "Who is supposed to come to the club?"  Arnari raised an eyebrow.  "Are people travelling to Cliffshadow from … elsewhere?"

Arnari told them, "Not really… Martin is from Pembroke… there will be artificers and constructs, playing the music."  She looked kindly at Terrance, forest child, who danced to the speech of trees.  "This is all done via artificery tinkering abilities."  Tomtom looked bemused.

"Lizzie Brannan is an artificer with a badger construct," she continued, as if the artificery comment reminded her.  "She's either good friends, or a protege, of the Mayor."

Interesting as the Untz club was, everyone agreed with Kaelani's assessment of the dam, so Kaelani, Cathance, and Terrance headed out to the Mayor's office.

Mayor Kaiea was an unexpectedly young male Fire sagani in a grey robe and a staff of ash.  His chain of office gleamed from around his neck and shoulders.  He was entirely easygoing with the Freelancers.

"We've been getting strange reports from Lakeview," he informed them.  "The dam is leaking, but not constantly.  And… not in the same place."  He walked with the Freelancers to the back of the building, where a 2-mule cart was being loaded up with supplies, including the masonry materials needed to repair a dam.  He introduced them to the driver, Adam Crossman, and to Lizzie Brannan, with obvious warmth, wished everyone well, and returned to his office.  

Adam and Lizzie were both human and obviously friends with each other.  They greeted the Freelancers, and Lizzie nodded to Cathance, who'd met her before.  She was wearing a breastplate and had a heavy crossbow slung on her back.  Once the cart was loaded, the badger construct "Bucky" hopped into the back, everyone climbed aboard, and they were on their way.

As the cart rolled westward from Cliffshadow through the rolling hills and fields, Lizzie chatted with Adam and the Freelancers.  She was a little happy to go back to Lakeview, from where both she and Adam hailed.

The land between Cliffshadow and Cliffgate is well settled, and their trip was uneventful, seeing nothing more exciting than the occasional cow ("oop cow," Adam would say, pointing it out) until they got there the next afternoon.  They pulled into The Sleepy Dog Inn, and Lizzie paid for everyone's lodging.

They left early the next morning, and headed to Lakeview, arriving in the early evening.  "The best inn is The Biting Badger Inn," Lizzie said.

Terrance, trying to sound discerning, asked, "How comfy is it?"  Lizzie laughed.  "Pretty good!  No badgers, OR bedbugs!" she declared.

Kaelani glanced back at Lizzie's construct.  "We're bringing a badger!"  Lizzie hesitated.  "Well," she said dubiously.

Cathance looked at the badger construct again.  "O hey!  Can I ride it?"  Lizzie's face became even more dubious.  "I s'pose."  She scowled.  "Not goin' t' saddle it."

They went into the inn and Lizzie secured rooms and meals for everyone but Adam.  He made sure the mules were stabled and the cart properly stowed.  He found the others in the taproom, and took his leave of them, to go visit his family.

A local person was playing music in the taproom; typical fisherman fare.  Lizzie told them she had no family in town; they were back in the hills.  The taproom had cider from Haven, so the four of them had some carousing before they headed to bed.

Before going to sleep, Cathance wanted to know a plan, so she could prepare for the morrow.  Lizzie told her, "We are fact finding, so prepare for that.  It's hard to plan, before we know!"

Cathance, who had never been to Lakeview, asked, "Do we need a climbers kit?"

"No," Lizzie answered, "It's a long, low stone dam with water in a central spillway."

<narrator voice:  kind of like this, but converted to Skyway tech.>

The next morning, Lizzie roused the slightly hungover Freelancers, and informed them she wanted an escort as she inspected the dam.  So they headed out of The Biting Badger Inn to the low stone dam.

It was 200' long, with the water pooling at the base of the spillway.  Lizzie went to the west end, furthest from Lakeview town, and started to examine the stone methodically.  Cathance stayed nearby, also looking at the dam, and calling for guidance from the Tortoise for Lizzie to look.

Lizzie didn't really see anything unusual, but Cathance saw some corrosion and oddly-pitted mortar.  Kaelani, who was keeping pace with them but atop the dam, also saw rotted mortar.  Terrance went to the riverside and examined the plants, but saw nothing unusual.

There was a bridge over the spillway, but it was slippery from the spray.  Stone steps led up to it from where they were, and matching steps were on the other side.  As they got to the stairs, Cathance pointed out the oddly-pitted mortar.  Lizzie looked more closely, "What's wrong with the mortar?"  

They crossed the slippery bridge, and descended the stairway again.  Lizzie pulled out her mason's tools, and scraped some obvious corrosion, puzzling still, and a grey ooze appeared!  It peeled itself out of the grey stone, leaving an obvious hole.

Lizzie jumped back.   Cathance reached out with chill touch and grasped the ooze with necrotic damage as she called out to Terrance and Kaelani, "Guys, there's an OOZE!   Kaelani, get DOWN here!"

Kaelani climbed down the stairs, saw what was happening, and invoked the blessings of Ua on himself, Terrance, and Lizzie.

Terrance checked up and down the dam for more of these oozes, and saw none; so she walked up to the one menacing Lizzie and Cathance, and poked it with her rapier, kind of curiously.  That hurt the ooze, certainly; unfortunately for Terrance, piercing the ooze also damaged the rapier.

Lizzie was displeased there was an ooze in her face, and pulled out her warhammer and smashed it.  So much for the ooze, and her warhammer was fine afterwards.

Three more oozes detached themselves from the dam.  One attacked Kaelani, but missed.  One hit Lizzie with a pseudopod.  One went after Bucky, but it too missed.  The dam, where they had been, started to seep water.

Cathance thought this time was a good time for her frost bolt cantrip to work, but instead of frost bolt, a writhing chaos bolt ensued, momentarily encasing the ooze attacking Lizzie in fire.  It didn't seem to hurt the ooze much.  Cathance shook her wrists out, frowning at the double terminator crystal on her bracelet.

Kaelani hit the ooze in front of him with his rain stick.  Being wood, it had no risk of corrosion.  Terrance, unhappy about her rapier, picked up a rock from the riverside, and used her sling to hit the ooze that had attacked Bucky.  Lizzie walloped the ooze with her warhammer, killing it.

Lizzie turned to the ooze Cathance had bolted and walloped that one too, but didn't kill it.  The badger construct bit it, and also failed to kill the ooze.  Bucky's teeth were damaged though, similar to the damage on Terrance's rapier.

The oozes attacked back; Kaelani and Lizzie were hit with pseudopods.

Cathance reached out with the necrotic hand of chill touch and grabbed the pseudopod attacking Lizzie.  The necrotic effects just cracked the life out of it, and the ooze crumbled, starting with the pseudopod and working back to the entire thing.

Kaelani smacked his ooze with the rain stick again.  Bits of it spattered off and withered, but it persisted in menacing him with its pseudopod.

Terrance got another river rock and slung is at the remaining ooze.  The rock sank into it, and after a dramatic second or two, it lost cohesion, spreading across the ground at Kaelani's feet.

After a tense moment in which no more oozes appears, everyone relaxed.  Lizzie had Bucky repair Terrance's rapier.  Then the Freelancers all examined the dam where the oozes had appeared to be.  None of them were certain about the integrity of the dam, other than the little bit of water leaking.

Lizzie was so unimpressed.  When the Freelancers started trying to poke the wall with their weapons, kind of like Lizzie had been doing with the mason's tools, she finally stopped them.  She looked at where the corrosion was, and used prestidigitation to clear it out so she could examine it more closely.

This, Cathance was more sure of herself, and she helped once Lizzie showed her what to clear away.  There were pockmarks, and holes!  Lizzie's face fell.  "This will take me a prime to fix," she lamented.

Cathance tried to see what was wrong, but was really too short to see much <narrator voice:  and Shari rolled a 1 on investigation>.  So instead she called on the Tortoise for guidance on Lizzie as she examined the rest of the dam.  Terrance and Kaelani climbed on the top of the dam, looking for hollow spots.

They did find other spots needing repair; maybe one where an ooze had tunneled!  Definitely one or two places on the lake side of the structure needed help, as well.

Inspection completed, they headed back to town.  Lizzie told the Freelancers, she would prefer they stick around to help, "Even if you can't do mason's tools," she added sadly.

"We can at least do ooze guarding!" Kaelani declared.

The next day, they headed back to the dam with the cart.  Kaelani put his great strength to work hauling out the masonry for Lizzie to use on the dam, and Terrance helped her place it.  Cathance stood watch, which was kind of boring, as nothing happened.  At least Lizzie was methodical with her repairs, which Cathance found soothing.

The following day, Cathance suggested they get more of the townspeople to help, and Lizzie told her to feel free to try.  Cathance had no problem convincing people that they, not 2'10" Cathance, would be happy to help lay down the necessary masonry to repair the dam.  Terrance and Kaelani were getting the hang of it, but having others there made the work go much faster.

The third day, the townspeople left them be, and Cathance kept watch again, and spotted hole that might have been missed!  "Guys, there's a hole!  Right there!"  Terrance and Kaelani wished they too were back in town with everyone else, but persevered anyhow.

On the fourth day, it looked like they might be able to finish if they had any help, so Cathance tried to persuade more townspeople to help.  They were wise to this, so she had less success this time, but they were able to get the repairs finished by dark.

Lizzie had had plenty of time to contemplate the situation over the last four days.  "It's not normal for grey oozes to just… appear," she said.  She crossed her arms, surveying the repaired dam.  "And with these frogs…" she said, almost to herself.  "There might be something weird in the lake!"

Once they were back in town, the Freelancers were ready to konk out, but Lizzie talked to Popoki about the situation.  He promised her he would watch out for things; she told him she thought there was something weird in the lake.

On that note, they all went to their rooms and konked out.

Adam showed up the next morning to drive the wagon with its remaining materials back to Cliffshadow, and the group bade farewell to Lakeview.  The trip was uneventful, and Lizzie paid for the Freelancers' food and lodging for the 3-day trip.

Once in Cliffshadow, they sought out Kaiea, the Mayor, in his office, and relayed the events from Lakeview to him.  He was surprised to hear the cause of the damage was oozes; he had thought it was someone messing with the dam.

Kaiea thanked the Freelancers for their help, and for not leaving Lizzie to face four oozes, and sticking around to help, and paid them each 150gp for their services.

Setting aside the implication that they had not just been paid to do exactly that, Cathance asked him, "Is there an enemy, Lakeview has incurred?"

Kaiea told them, "I don't know… enemies of Lakeview?"  He put his hands on his hips.  "Maybe little villages in the hills?  But I haven't heard of anyone…" his voice drifted off as he considered.  "Wait!  I wonder if… there isn't some sort of pollution, or magical weirdness, with the lake itself, or upstream."  Lizzie gave him a look; that's what she'd been saying.

"Well, I'll think of it, and maybe want to send people to scout," he continued, clearly moving to close the conversation and show them out.  But as he got to the door, he changed his mind.  "Actually, please wait.  I'll have you bring the mission request for this to Arnari."

Not long later, Kaelani, Terrance, and Cathance were back at Freelancers Tavern, to find Arnari and Tomtom still talking away.  Cathance wondered if Tomtom was going to get his own office.  They related to Arnari what had happened, and handed her Kaiea's mission request and the 15gp each Freelancers Cut.

"Well, I'm happy you survived!" she exclaimed.  "But I'm not happy to hear about grey oozes in Lakeview!  Thank you for bringing a new mission," she ended.  They left her office as she and Tomtom were reading the request.