Astrid never has been one for awkward silences, but the search through Shadewood for a feline whose tracks are sporadic at best with it teleporting around has been exactly that. How is she supposed to focus knowing what she knows now? How does she even ask about it? Hey, Mister Blue Raspberry, weird how fittin' yer name is considerin' yer a big blue ooze! Wow, Mister Raspberry, that sure does explain a lot about why ya seemed to be kinda flustered about a lot of questions I asked ya! Did ya even really earn that armor as a knight? Are ya even a knight? Dozens of questions play through her head, and while they walk, she seems particularly stressed. 

Instead, she tries to focus on finding the snooty elf. Why did it have the be the elf that was a big jerk? She hates to admit she's less inclined to rush because he was so rude to them, but on the other hand, she'd hate for one of the likeable merchants to be the ones in danger. Why does anyone have to be in danger?! She suddenly outbursts, "What kinda cats are smart enough ta kidnap someone?!"

Her shout breaks the relative quiet, but no birds or animals scatter. The Shadewood is quiet. It is dark. Without her vision being surprisingly good in low light, she'd probably need a lantern.

The two of them move through the trees, trying to track down the giant cat. This might be a bit easier if it wasn't so dark. It's a bit awkward, walking along so quietly. Blue Raspberry is concerned about whether the girl will say anything about them to anyone else. They try not to go around letting everyone know they're an ooze, even if some people do tend to find out since they're not very good at pretending to be human. Still, they can at least promise not to spread that information around. Not everyone is so accepting of a talking ooze being among them. Like the monster hunters Blue Raspberry fought once before, even if those guys didn't know the knight was secretly an ooze, just like their target had been.

Suddenly, Astrid yells out loud about the cat being smart enough to kidnap someone. It was true. Not a lot of animals would think of such a thing. It reminded Blue Raspberry of when they'd pretended to be a wolf.

"Maybe a weird one, like your wolf friend... these cats are pretty weird aren't they? They can teleport, too." they said quietly, trying to lighten the mood a little. "Um, you won't tell anyone, right? It's a secret..."

"Oh yeah, the cats are super weird," Astrid agrees, though there's sarcasm in the stress of her voice. "Weirdest cats I've ever seen. Weirdest wolf. Weirdest knight." Her rambling continues a little bit in mutters before she whips around to look at Blue Raspberry. "Yer an ooze?? I've never heard of an ooze knight! It's... It's..." She fumbles over her words before she finally outbursts, "It's super cool! How do ya walk around? Is it weird? Do ya have bones? How do ya see? Is that why yer all sparky and can zap stuff?"


Her questions seem like they'll never end. She takes a deep breath to avoid passing out from lack of breathing and stops walking. Now her eyes seem especially shiny in the darkness. "'Course I won't tell no one. Seems like a pretty important secret ta me. But I do wanna know all about you! More than before! Like did ya really get the armor from a special quest? Did ya used to be a person before ya were an ooze and some battle with a powerful wizard turned ya into a goopy blue... raspberry scented..." Something seems to click in her head. "Nooo, that's not possible... is it?" 

Astrid turns to the knight with some suspicion on her face and gleaming in her nearly-glowing eyes.

Blue Raspberry saw the look in Astrid's eyes like she was connecting the dots, possibly realizing that Blue Raspberry and Wolfy were the same. Or maybe!

"Uhhh, what's not possible? I'm not sure I follow. But, no, I was born this way, an ooze. I was also born with my electrical powers, on a boat. It took me a while to learn how to walk very well, but I heard real human babies take a lot longer than it took me, so not too long, I guess. Um. No, I don't have any bones, but I have lots of other stuff. All the bones just get dissolved unless I want them not to, but I haven't tried keeping any of them yet. Should I?"

The ooze tried to answer every question the girl had to try and divert her mind away from figuring out that they were wolfy. They really didn't want her to find out! What would she think if she knew they'd eaten people and weren't just a dumb animal? She'd probably think they're a monster. She'd also know they abandoned her (and left her with the bill to replace all of the furniture and tableware they'd eaten) at that tavern! No, they really didn't want her to figure that out. They'd answer any question except that one.

"All the bones just get dissolved unless I want them not to, but I haven't tried keeping any of them yet. Should I?"

That question strikes Astrid as particularly odd, and she long pauses trying to figure out what they could possibly mean about bones getting dissolved. She can't come up with a very good response to it. "I... I don't know what ya mean by that. Bones don't get dissolved? Do ya like... creep out of yer armor and slap things with yer ooze self?" She tries to imagine Blue Raspberry sliding out of their armor, inching along the ground, and encapsulating something on the ground to... absorb? And dissolved? But the armor doesn't dissolve. "Is the armor magic so it can't dissolve?" she asks. "Or do ya get to choose what you do and don't dissolve?"

What an interesting way of living. She herself likes to eat. And... well, food gets dissolved in her stomach. Do bones dissolve? The questions of life she now has that she never thought she'd have. So far Moonglade has been a bizarre and surprising adventure full of magic, strange beasts, and now odd knights. Oh, the strange beasts. They need to keep moving! So she looks at Blue Raspberry expectantly, wanting the answers to all of her questions, but she starts walking again.

Blue Raspberry walks behind Astrid through the trees. That's right, they need to keep moving. They need to get to the elf guy before he gets eaten by the beats. There's no time to stand around and talk about oozes. They're just glad Astrid didn't push about them being Wolfy. That would have been quite the conversation to have just before needing to work together to save someone.

After some more time walking along, the ground gets more uneven and oddly crunchy. Blue Raspberry looks down to see that the ground is coated in a layer of bones. Ahead is an unusually large tree in the center of a small clearing, the floor entirely made of bones of different sizes from a variety of different creatures. Several skulls are scattered around, some with horns and antlers, some that look more like the skull of a humanoid.

"Oh, it's the bones you wanted." Blue Raspberry whispered to Astrid, pointing a finger down at the ground.

The sound of a growl, far deeper and louder than any of the beasts they had previously fought, comes from above. In the large tree, on a thick, sturdy branch, is a displacer beast slightly different than the others. Instead of two tentacles on its back, there are five with a leathery webbing stretching between them that flow over its back like a cape. Its head is topped with a ring of small horns resembling a crown and a long pair of fangs extends downward from its mouth.

It looks down at the two intruders in its den, the one other displacer beast that survived the ambush on the caravan emerging from behind the tree, crunching bones beneath its paws. The elf is limply draped across another branch of the oversized tree.

Blue Raspberry walks ahead at a faster pace, so she rushes to catch up. "Wait, ya haven't answered all of my questions!" Astrid tries to pry, but it isn't soon before long they come across a bone graveyard, noticing for the first time with a crunchy step. "What..? I didn't ask fer no bones, just what ya mean by dissolvin' 'em..!" At this point, her voice drops to a low whisper regardless of how much she'd like to just shout. She does not particularly enjoy adults avoiding her questions. That is, if Blue Raspberry can even be considered an adult.

She turns her attention to the area around them, taking in the sheer number of bones in this lair. These disappearing cats sure are efficient killers. Their trail was difficult to follow with all the teleporting the beast did, but a mass of bones? Well, this is pretty obvious. Then the growl comes up above, and one slimy, nearly glistening string of drool plops to the ground. The absolute size of this beast, the sheer monstrousness of it. This creature surely can't be a natural thing, but then again, Shadewood has a reputation for the unnatural and the scary. 

Astrid swallows hard, the lump going down harder than a rock. She feels like that won't dissolve in her stomach. Her eyes glance over to the unconscious elven merchant, then at the beast protecting its meal, then at the king beast. Maybe the smaller one won't eat the elf, it's brought it to the leader for a snack. So if they can beat the leader, then maybe the other one will run away. 

Then the strangest thing happens. Astrid feels a tickling in her mind. They both do. Foolish two-legs, a gnarly, echoey voice says to them. You approach the lair of Guarundi. You approach your doom! Cower before his might! The air vibrates around the beast king and it teleports to the ground in front of them, the tentacle cape whipping in the wind of space-time. A massive paw, large enough to smash Astrid flat to the ground as if she were a fly, comes swinging in their direction. 

As the massive paw is about to strike Astrid, she feels something grip her arm and pull her back, out of the way of the beast's attack. A large, blue, gooey, slightly sticky hand with only three fingers lets go of her arm and pulls away. Blue Raspberry is no longer fully armored, only the cuirass and helmet remain while the arms and legs have become blue, oozey limbs. They appear far larger than anything the armor should be able to contain, as if they're being squeezed out of the holes on the plate. They have no distinguishable joints, resembling tubes more than anything. The legs are tipped with nothing, only ending in flat stumps.

With its target pulled away, the kingly beast glares at the ooze and growled before vanishing once again. The beast reappeared directly behind the ooze and swiped at it, but the blue goo started to spark with a familiar electricity, a bolt arcing out at the paw as it struck the ooze in one of its arms, splattering a chunk of it across the bone covered ground. The beast seemed satisfied with its attack for only a moment before it flinched in pain and vanished again, appearing farther away from the pair.

The beast's paw was listed into the air. It was a bit numb and damaged from the electricity, but what most concerned it was the flesh sizzling and dissolving from the blue goo now splattered across the leg. It tried to lean some weight onto the leg, but found it could not.

Blue Raspberry, meanwhile, was slowly refilling the missing piece of their arm. That had been painful, but they could take a few hits before truly finding themself in trouble. However, they wouldn't be able to restore their arm again for a while. At least they'd managed to trade a strike to their arm for some pretty significant damage to the beast's front leg. This fight didn't seem like it would be an easy one.

---

Gauntlets
Lightning Armor
Flesh Rend

Astrid fully expects to be splattered across the ground by the king beast, but something yanks her back out of the way, and she watches the gooey fingers unfurl from around her arm. Blue Raspberry's form oozes out of its armor and creates a surprisingly monstrous scene. Astrid feels a mix of shock and awe but no fear when regarding the knight. Then Guarundi appears behind Blue Raspberry, and she flashes back to the scene of only an hour or two ago. She grips her armor, ready to strike, but things happen differently. This time after slapping Blue Raspberry, it disappears and howls in pain. Now it can't walk so easily. Astrid grins a little, feeling more confident about the situation. 

"Stupid cat, me and my knight friend are gonna kick your big kitty butt!" she taunts. Guarundi doesn't seem to appreciate that and bares his massive fangs at the adventurers. Bits of purple, starry magic gather beside him, and Astrid watches as a second king beast exactly matching the first manifests. The confidence falls from Astrid's face. She's never seen magic like this before, but now there's two of them. Then both beasts focus magic on each of Astrid and Blue Raspberry before Blinking away.

Astrid turns her head to look around, ready to strike at either beast that attacks them, but she finds herself moving sluggishly no matter how hard she tries. She's never seen magic like this before, what's happening?? Her words come slowly from her mouth, "Blue... where'd...they...go..? Keep...yer...guard...up..!"

---

Replicant
Slow
Blink

Blue Raspberry's head spins around, looking for the displacer beasts. They feel strangely slow, like they're moving through water. It's an odd experience. As they scan the area, the normal displacer beast appears in front of them. It looks as if it's moving faster than before as if takes a swipe at the slow-moving ooze.

Thankfully, whatever magic is slowing down Blue Raspberry doesn't seem to have much effect of the lightning that arcs off of them and strikes the beast's paw. Or maybe it did, and lightning is just so fast that it isn't noticeable? Well, either way, the beast feels its paw go numb and its muscles spasm from the jolt as its paw slashes through the ooze's leg, leaving several shallow gouges. It lost a lot of the momentum behind its attack as the limb went numb. The gouges slowly refill themselves.

While the beast growls in anger from the shock, Blue Raspberry tries to punch it with their fist, but the beast easily blinks away with time to spare. This slowness is really making this fight a lot more difficult! As the ooze is silently complaining in their mind, the displacer beast appears beside them and tries to lash out at their leg again, but Blue Raspberry is already swinging their fist down at it before it could do so. Honestly, they had just been frustrated and started swinging wildly. Luckily, the beast wasn't expecting something so absurd and is caught off guard as the slimy fist connects with its face in slow motion, its numb front paw not allowing it to leap back in time.

The force of such a slow impact isn't enough to actually harm the beast, but the acid that begins dissolving its face and the electricity that course directly through its brain are enough to put an end to it. It falls down to the ground, most definitely dead judging from the missing chunk of its head.

---

Greaves
Lightning Armor
Flesh Rend

Every time Astrid tries to react to the smaller displacer beast appearing near her and Blue Raspberry, the ooze manages to get a hit off on it. She's mid-swing when the beast collapses with a bloody chunk missing from its head, and with her slowness, she has plenty of time to take in the gross scene. Then momentum seems to return to her body, and the continued swing of her hammer pulls her off balance, stumbling a couple of steps away from her knight friend. She shakes the strange feeling out of her body and readies her stance again. 

"Come out, ya coward cat! I told ya we'd kick yer butt!" Her challenge is met with the roar of the king beast in the distance. Then reality warbles, and Guarundi appears both in front of her and behind her, mouths open wide and ready to take a bite out of her. In that moment, Astrid accepts she might just die here, but she's not going out without a fight. She slams her hammer into the big cat in front of her and feels it connect, but then her hammer passes through as that version of the king beast dissipates in a shattering of Space magic. The real one crunches into her torso, but its mouth is so large the biggest fangs pass around her, and its regular teeth just puncture her padded armor. Still, she's in his mouth, and she can hear his laughter in her mind. This could spell her doom, and she cries out as his powerful jaws close hard around her. She's lost her breath, and Guarundi makes to rush off with its appetizer. 

"Get 'im, Blue!" Astrid yells, mustering her strength to bash Guarundi's saber teeth in an attempt to free herself. One tooth breaks off, and as the beast snarls in pain, she feels the jaw release just a little. Maybe a couple more hits will take it out!

---

Padding (hit reduction 1/1)

Blue Raspberry feels the odd slowness fade away, and swings their arms at normal speed for a moment before realizing the displacer beast is dead. They start looking for the king displacer beast, Gaurundi, again, but the beast immediately appears on opposite sides of Astrid. One of them is destroyed by a swing of he hammer, but the other closes its jaws around her torso while she struggles and calls for the ooze's aid.

They run toward them, each footstep leaving behind an empty spot cleared of the discarded bones. They reach their arms forward to grab the beast, electricity sparking between their fingers, but it vanishes along with Astrid in its mouth. Blue Raspberry stops and looks around for the creature again, spotting it at the base of the tree where it begins climbing up with the girl in its jaws. They can't run fast enough like this to help her in time.

They drop to all fours, their limbs morphing into the limbs of a giant wolf as their cuirass is engulfed by the ooze expanding around it. In an instant, the giant, blue, wolf-shaped ooze is clamping its own enormous jaws around the surprised king of the displacer beasts as its about half way up the trunk to the lowest branches. The pain of the electricity running through it and the acid burning its torso make it roar loudly, dropping Astrid down onto the ground below.

It tries to teleport, its image flickering for a moment, but the teeth sinking into its melting flesh prevent it. The beast realizes the wolf's grip is too strong and it can't teleport with something so much larger than it. It starts to desperately claw at Blue Raspberry's snout, trying to get the ooze to release its grip.

"I am the king! You cannot do this to me! Release me at once!" both Astrid and Blue Raspberry hear in their minds.

---

Shapeshifter's Plate

The feeling of being teleported away makes Astrid feel a bit sick, and she loses the angle to bash the other sabertooth from the mouth of Guarundi, being held sideways as the beast king scales the tree. She tries instead to get her breath back. With both hands, she pushes against the jaws of the king beast and tries to pry them apart, but it's to no avail. She calls again to Blue Raspberry for help, hating to be the hostage in this situation, but better her than the snobby elf. Her eyes look towards the ground in time to see the final seconds of the knight's transformation into a strange, wolfish beast. This wolf is much more ooze-like than the one she met before, but she has no time to really process it as the situation is life or death currently. 

She feels the jerk as the wolf snaps onto one of the king beast's legs and holds fast, then electricity sparks off of her from traveling up the beast. Its jaws open. She freefalls to the ground. "AH!" she shouts then lands hard on her back. Again, she's lost her breath and can't even let out the "oof" she wants to. Above her, the canine and feline battle it out, an age-old war of nature coming to fruition. If she doesn't move, they could very well fall on her, and little bits of ooze rain down as the two beasts rattle above. She pushes herself up and evaluates how she can help. She's not got any ranged options. This was a problem when she last battled with a wolf. Her hammer weighs heavily in her hand, and she decides she has no other options, so she lines up the shot and uses every ounce of her bull's strength to throw the hammer directly at the beast king. Her aim isn't perfect, but it makes contact and hits with such a force that the hammer punctures the flesh and crushes the bones caught in its path. The hammer explodes through the side of the beast king with a solid thunk and a smattering of blood.

Whatever grip Guarundi had on the tree falters, and it falls heavily to the ground in a meaty pile. Guarundi will not be ended by the likes of you, it sputters into their minds. It doesn't take much longer for the damage from the two adventurers to overwhelm the beast, and it pathetically lets out a final growl as the last sparkles of life leave its eyes. 

Astrid also falls to the ground, right on her butt, and breathes heavily. That shit hurted. 

With one last shuttering breath, the displacer beast is dead, and Blue Raspberry holds their corpse in their oozey wolf mouth. They start to swallow the once proud, majestic creature and it disappears into the ooze, reduced to nothing, not even a pile of bones to littler the ground like so many creatures that had become its prey here in its den.

Blue Raspberry is happy to have a meal, but their wagging tail quickly stops when they realize what just happened. There's no way Astrid didn't notice that they had just not only taken the shape of a wolf, but they had just swallowed something whole. They would definitely know that they were Wolfy now! They turned their head to look at the girl who was now sitting on her butt and breathing heavily. She must be exhausted. She was also clearly hurt, but hopefully none of her injuries were too serious.

The wolf slowly melted down back into the shape of a human, the armor emerging and being filled by the ooze. The knight stood in front of Astrid, once again in their full suit of armor. They kneeled down in front of her. Some ooze squeezed from between the parts of their gauntlets and produced a small metal cup in their hand filled with a blue liquid.

"Are you okay? Here, drink this. It'll make you feel better." they said, offering the cup to Astrid.

---

Flask of Feijoada

Astrid works on catching her breath and processing everything that just happened. She takes a good look at the beast's corpse, now without any anxiety about being eaten, and starts to think it'd be a really cool trophy or could make for good bits to make armor out of. Then the wolf simply walks up and swallows it whole, and she just blinks. "Wha? Wait, don't do-" then it's gone, and she lets out a defeated sigh. "That could've been a cool trophy..." she murmurs. "King of the beasts, where are we gonna get another one of those?" It doesn't occur to her that her hammer might have been embedded in the beast still. In actuality, it's imbedded in the tree where the beast had been.

She tiredly rubs her face and tries to get her thoughts together, but the pain of nearly being eaten distracts her. The clanging of Blue Raspberry putting themself back together draws her attention, and before she knows it, the knight is offering her something to make her feel better. It's evidently full of blue ooze, and she's cautious about it, looking between the glass and the knight before hesitantly taking it. "I.... Will it?" She doesn't seem so sure about drinking an ooze that's just eaten a big cat. As a wolf. Hurt feelings stir in her chest, and she looks away with a somewhat pouty, pained expression.