Scout Lakeview Pollution

Dryali went downstairs to Arnari's office, and sauntered in just as Terrance, Fine Branch, and Tahu were discussing Lakeview's problems with her.

"Popoki will pay 100gp each for those who take care of the pollution," Arnari was saying as he sat down, late to the party.

Typically, he immediately interjected himself.  "Is this pollution new, or a theoretical 'root cause'?" he asked, grandly ignoring the annoyed glances of his fellow Freelancers.  That's easier to do with dark goggles on.

Arnari answered patiently, "Popoki thinks that's the cause of giant… things."

Dryali was struck by a sudden thought.  "Wow, big kobolds!"  Arnari noted, "Big fish are not really better."

Tahu countered, "The frog legs were good; did anyone die?"

Anyhow, it was clear the others had already accepted this mission, and Dryali would join them.  They were prepping to leave, and as part of his prep, in case there was a need for swimming, Dryali picked up a pair of not-darkened flight goggles from the quartermaster.

Since they felt the best place to start was where the Pirates Dream River fed Mossey Lake, the Freelancers decided to head north towards Orderly Stones Monastery and then cut through the woods.  Since she had some skill in woodcraft, Terrance led the way westward off the road.

However, Terrance had never been in these woods, so perhaps the others should not have just left it to her.  They perhaps were a couple hours off the road when they encountered two giant elk in the trees, doing their own celebration of the Planting Holiday.

The giant elk were not appreciative of this disruption.

Tahu drew his swords, and ran up past the others behind the elk, stabbing one in the butt; but his offhand swing was a critical fail and he lost his footing and fell.  The elk disengaged and charged; but failing to see Tahu on the ground he charged Terrance, who managed to keep her feet despite the force of the charge.

The other giant elk turned, saw Tahu, charged him.  At least she couldn't knock him down.

Fine Branch called upon The Cat to send a guiding bolt at the giant elk in Terrance's face, but they also had a critical fail as The Cat apparently decided everyone was on their own.  Fine Branch hid behind a nearby poplar tree, hissing at the giant elk.  Dryali decided his best course of action was to climb that tree, but he was still unused to Duquesne's gravity and critically failed that effort.  He pulled out his tools and made a protector eldritch cannon instead.

The protector pulsed out an enormous protective buffer to Terrance, Fine Branch, and Dryali.

Terrance stabbed the giant elk who charged her, then climbed the poplar tree.  Tahu stood up and slashed the giant elk who'd charged him.  It attacked Tahu back, but missed.  The giant elk, deprived of Terrance, turned on Dryali, injuring him despite the protector cannon's buffer.  Fine Branch sent another guiding bolt at the giant elk, killing it.

The protector pulsed out another protective buffer to Terrance, Fine Branch, and Dryali.  Dryali, no longer facing a giant elk in front of him, pulled out his newly re-configured pole of collapsing, pointed it at the giant elk menacing Tahu, and critically failed to hit anything whatsoever with the resulting firebolt.  Perhaps he should have tried firebolt at least once before using it in battle?

Terrance backflipped out of the tree, onto the back of the giant elk Dryali had messed, stabbed it with sneak attack, then leapt back into the tree.  Tahu used sneak attack with his swords, killing the elk.

Dryali, after checking the pole of collapsing for problems and then stashing it, examined the dead giant elk.  They didn't look unnaturally large, for giant elk.  Everyone was quiet for a moment, considering that these were the natural prey of gryphons.

The party decided to take the rest of the afternoon to butcher the giant elk, and camp nearby, making jerky strips.  Dryali examined the antlers on the male.  They were bigger than he was tall!

The next day, after a somewhat reproachful look at Terrance, Fine Branch took the lead through the woods towards Mossey Lake.  Dryali looked ridiculous with the giant elk antlers strapped to his pack, their ends taller than Terrance.  

They saw wolf tracks, and avoided any wolves, and camped a second night without incident.

The day after that, after avoiding another run-in with giant elk, the Freelancers got to where the Pirates Dream river fed Mossey Lake.  It was about that time that they all realized they hadn't the slightest plan for what they should be doing to investigate.

Dryali pulled out his tools, and began the detect magic ritual.  While he was doing that, Terrance went swimming to see what she could see.

Dryali didn't really detect anything unusual, and wished he had better coverage… then he remembered Terrance had taken the broom of flying!  He called out to her if he could borrow it.  Terrance swam back, and told him she too had detect magic!  She cast it and flew around on the broom for 10 minutes, mostly on the lakeshore and near-waters of the lake.

Terrance came back and offered it to Dryali.  He took it, smiling at Terrance, then set both broom and smile aside, as he got his tools back out to cast detect magic ritual again.  Then he tried out the broom!  Wheeeee!  He flew along the riverbank.

Fine Branch, meanwhile, was digging up worms on the riverbank.  Normal earthworms.  They were 8" long, and Fine Branch was showing them to the others.

Dryali came back when the detect magic faded out, having detected nothing of course, because the broom was very fun.  Upon seeing the big earthworms, he did an Arcana check but still wasn't sure.  Fine Branch did a Medicine check, and the worms were normal, just big; they thought it was from a low-concentration, long-term thing.

At that, everyone looked in the water to see if things were unnatural; but nobody knew enough about what to expect for this visual inspection to reveal any information.

The Daystar was westering, so they decided to camp.  They set watches, but the night passed uneventfully.

In the morning, the Freelancers arose and broke their fast, and checked each other to see if anyone had become taller.  Seemed not!  Fine Branch wanted to get a core out of the riverbank, but nobody had the requisite tools, and Dryali totally spaced on the fact he could have made them.

They started trekking upstream, with Fine Branch occasionally digging up a worm to see if they were bigger or smaller.  Dryali noticed, perhaps, some strange marks on the trees and ground, almost burned.  But otherwise it was just a pleasant walk up the river.

They got up to some lichen-covered rocks, and suddenly, two large things same out from behind, and attacked Terrance and Tahu.  They were yellow-brown, ideally coloured to blend in, and perhaps 10' across.  Maybe these were oozes?  Their attacks missed, anyhow, despite the Freelancers being entirely surprised.

Fine Branch said, perhaps unintentionally out loud, "Let's do a probing attack," and called down the sacred flame of The Cat on the thing[2] that had attacked Tahu, which distorted into a torus around the strike and then snapped back into its original, blobby shape.

Dryali pulled out his pole of collapsing again, shooting thing[1] which had attacked Terrance with a firebolt.  Tahu drew his swords, and attacked the thing[2] in front of him, piercing it; then moved off and attacked the one[1] on Terrance with his offhand.  Terrance followed up and pierced it with her rapier.  It tried to attack her back, but missed.

The remaining thing[2] moved towards Fine Branch, attacking with a pseudopod; it missed.  The ground behind it appeared corroded, explaining the weird burn marks they'd noticed earlier.  Then another two of these appeared from behind the lichen-covered rocks.

Fine Branch cast something on thing[2], which appeared not to affect it.  They moved downriver from it, and got smacked by a pseudopod.  Dryali, upon seeing they now faced 4 large yellow-brown ooze things, created a flamethrower eldritch cannon, then moved back to join Fine Branch.  The flamethrower shot a cone of fire at thing[2] and thing[4], burning them.

Tahu killed thing[1] with his main hand, then moved away for the resulting formless goo to slash thing[3] slightly.  He backed up to stand just in front of Fine Branch and Dryali on the riverbank.  Terrance stabbed thing[3] with her rapier, and moved back to stand next to Tahu.

The... flan of oozes reacted as expected, and moved towards the clumped up Freelancers.  Thing[4] and thing[2] each attacked Tahu and Terrance, but missed.  

Fine Branch cast toll the dead on thing[2], the sonorous tone falling flat in the woods.  Necrotic damage broke off bits of it, but it was still large.  The flamethrower hit the oozes with its cone of fire, but did not do a lot of damage.  Dryali sent another turbocharged firebolt at thing[2], burning it severely, and Tahu finished it off with his short sword.  It collapsed into formless yuck on the ground.

Tahu stood his ground, but Terrance moved closer to get a shot with her shortbow on thing[3].  She tripped and fell.

Thing[4] reached out with a pseudopod and whupped Tahu, with added acid damage just for fun.  Thing[3] moved to Terrance and crit with its pseudopod and she dropped, unconscious.

Fine Branch called down a guiding bolt at thing[3], courtesy of The Cat, burning it with radiant starlight from above.  <narrator voice:  "moves w/in 301" is the note.>  The  flamethrower again hit the oozes with its cone of fire, and then Dryali blasted thing[3] with another firebolt, killing it.  The formless goo it fell into had burned bits floating in it.

Tahu dropped to his knee and got out his healer's kit, working quickly on Terrance; he disengaged from thing[4] and backed up.  Terrance didn't bother trying to stand up; she rolled into the river and swam back to Dryali, whereupon she shot thing[4] with her short bow.

The flat tone of Fine Branch's toll the dead on thing[4] rang out, and necrotic damage broke off bits of it, but it was still large.  The flamethrower hit the ooze with its cone of fire, and did slightly more.  Dryali sent another turbocharged firebolt at it, but it shot past the ooze harmlessly, and Tahu finished the ooze off with his short sword.  It collapsed into formless yuck on the ground, and Tahu scooped up some of the gel.

Dryali examined the ground where they had moved, and said, "We see they leave trails!"

The Freelancers followed the tracks back to a small opening in the greyish rocks.  Peering in, it seemed this was the cave where the oozes had taken shelter.  The interior was pretty dark, though, so Tahu and Terrance left Fine Branch and Dryali peering in while they were comparing their relative contributions to the outcome of the fight.

Dryali and Fine Branch thought there was something in the back of the cave, but the opening was too small even for Dryali to wriggle through.  Terrance volunteered, "I have a sack!"  So Dryali used mage hand and the sack to retrieve everything back there.  Apparently, this was all the stuff the oozes couldn't digest.

It took a while, but they pulled out of the cave:

• Coins worth 240gp total:  2000cp, 1400sp, 80gp
• 4 10gp gemstones:  Hematite, lapis lazuli, obsidian, rhodochrosite
• 2 pairs of boots
• A wand
• A scimitar

The talk turned to the oozes.  Did they seem bigger than they ought to have been?  Dryali said no, but their behaviour was weird.  It's not natural for oozes to congregate and work together like these had, and have a cave together.

Disturbed, the Freelancers decided to take these findings and their loot back to Lakeview, and talk to the Mayor, Popoki.

They got to Lakeview before nightfall.  Popoki was already in from his fishing boat, and took comfort in finding out the source of the pollution was real, and was not actually in Lake Mossey.  He paid them the 100gp fee each, but he still wanted the Freelancers to deal with it; and asked them to take this information to Arnari, who would know best how to size it out.

They took rooms in The Biting Badger for the night.

The next morning, Dryali took an extra hour, and cast identify on the boots and weapons, a topic of intense interest to all four of the Freelancers, each of whom claimed one item.

• Tahu - boots of elvenkind
• Dryali - boots of striding & springing
• Fine Branch - wand of the war mage (+1)
• Terrance - scimitar (+1)

They picked up the communication Popoki had composed for Arnari and headed back to Cliffshadow.

• Fine Branch → lvl 4!