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Quest Name: Skip With Me

Participants: Two or more

Location: Marsh Flats

Post Requirements: 5 posts per person, 200 words per post

Reward: +1 Renown

Description: The Marsh Flats have continued to suffer under the wrath of the Mud Worms, the gang quickly gaining more and more control of the region. Recently, they have begun to steal and hoard Bogskippers, valuing their usefulness for navigating the swamps. It is believed that with an army of Bogskippers, they can outfit their gang and become more of a problem. Lilicors is asking for help in freeing and retrieving the Bogskippers, returning them back to their owners. You are asked to find a Mud Worm camp and free any Bogskippers they may be holding there, dispatching of any the members who may try to stop you.

A chittering chorus of strange insects filled the moonlit marsh, their shrill tones accompanied by the deep bass croaks of their amphibious neighbors. A chill winter's wind brushed through the leafless trees, and the fetid waters rolled gently beneath its touch. Now and then a quiet rumble of splash could be heard as some greater beast of the bogs stalked the night, but the marsh song kept on playing.

Perhaps it was a place of exile, but there was a certain charm to the Marsh Flats. There was something special, something powerful that kept drawing Tatalia back. For all those years she'd spent reading storybooks in a castle, for all those long months out on the road, the one place that kept calling back to the goblin was the marsh. It had taken her a long time to really admit it, but... it was home. It was her home, and she would fight to keep it safe.

The goblin crept along the top of a black tree effortlessly,¹ looking down from her perch at the Mud Worm campfires. It seemed like fifty bandits or more were seated around those campfires, laughing and arguing and brawling over spoils. They drank heavily, having recently plundered a merchant's wagon and come away with a fat pile of loot. Their guard was down.

But there were too many of them to just fight them. Even in such an inebriated state, fifty men was still fifty men. Tatalia could tell, too, that more of them were posted as watchmen along the outskirts of the camp. Some were seated on barrels or old chairs near wooden stakes facing outward; others were hiding in the trees with bows in hand. They, thankfully, did not see Tatalia, but she could see them.² Even with that advantage, though... no, a frontal assault was out of the question.

But perhaps there was another way to stop the Mud Worms. Sure, she couldn't just attack them outright, and she didn't want to go murdering anyone, even bandits. Tatalia had ended too many lives in her adventuring career as it was. But maybe, maybe there was a way to solve the problem by draining the bandits of resources. Resources like... like...

The goblin searched the camp with her eyes, flitting her gaze from one tent to the next. She just needed a suitable target, like, like-

"WHOA!" came a shout from juuust outside the camp. "Whoa, now!"

Tatalia snapped her attention toward the speaker. Six men were in the distance on the opposite side of the camp, working together as a group to herd a group of oversized beetles into cages. Oversized beetles...? No - bogskippers! Tatalia recognized them right away; they were a favorite mount among travelers in the swamp, able to walk on water as if it were land! And with so many of those bogskippers, the Mud Worms could quite literally field a small army of cavalry to harass people in the marsh!

No. No, that was not going to happen. Tatalia clenched her fist tightly, feeling her fingers bite deep into the leather of her gloves. If she was going to protect her people, she could start by rescuing the bogskippers!

Plus, uh, she one hundred percent wanted one of the bogskippers as a pet. And could she be blamed?! Those bugs were so cute!

With her task ahead of her, Tatalia slipped down from her tree and crept around the campsite.

---

The first task was also possibly the most critical: take out the sentries nearest the pens. Tatalia knew she needed as much time as possible, and that meant ensuring nobody could run off and warn the rest of the camp about her presence. Still, the green skinned prowler was no stranger to ambushes in the dark. Taking out the sentries would be simple as stone soup!

Not a sound did the goblin make as she snuck up to the tree one of the bandits was using as a watch post.³ She was used to the marshlands, after all, and each step she took was made on the right patches of ground. There wasn't a tap, a splash, or even a rustle as she reached up to touch the tree and carefully, quietly scaled it. As she came up to the upper boughs of the twisted old willow, she let her dagger fall from its hidden sheath in her sleeve, catching it in a practiced motion.

The bandit was alert, but not alert enough. One moment he was sharpening his sword as he watched the marsh. Without warning, Tatalia's pommel came crashing against the back of his head, and he slipped down toward the ground... and never struck it. Webs shot out from Tatalia's hand⁵, catching the man before he could crash, and she gently lowered him down to the ground. A silent knockout.

"Sorry, buddy," Tatalia whispered down at the unconscious fellow. Then she paused, considering the scenario, and she corrected herself: "Okay, not so sorry? You might get a concussion, I guess, and if that happens, then I'm sorry."

The bandit, not exactly able to reply due to the condition of being knocked the heck out, said absolutely nothing in response.

Still, it was a good start. One of the lookouts was done, there were only two more to go, and then Tatalia just had to... had to unlock all the cages, fight all the guards posted nearby, get the bugs to flee into the swamp, and then get out alive somehow.

"Simple as stone soup," Tatalia muttered under her breath, preparing for a long night of work.

---

_{1. Surface Scaling; 2. Dark Vision; 3. Silent Step; 4. Backstab; 5. Spider Silk Tattoo}

Unlike a certain Goblin nearby that no one in the vicinity was currently aware of, subtlety and stealth were not skills that anyone would associate with Blue Raspberry, even if they were more capable of it than they or anyone else would give them credit for.

Up on a tree branch in the middle of the bandit camp, a blue bird looked around at the drunken arguments and festivities. Birds weren't uncommon to see in the Marshflats, but this bird didn't resemble any kind of native species be it in color or shape. The bright blue feathers glistened in the firelight as if they were damp or slicked with some kind of gel. The eyes, legs, and beak were the same exact color as the feathers as if the entire bird was simply molded from the same material.

As few thoughts passed through the ooze's head, "That's too many to fight." was not one of them. No, instead their main thoughts were "Remember not to eat any of them until they're already dead." and "Don't eat the bugs. Don't eat the bugs. DON'T eat the bugs. You're here to save them, so DON'T eat them!"

Blue hadn't been expecting to be hired for a job while they were out exploring, but Lilicors Village had been in need of someone to take down a nearby camp of Mudworms that had been building a small army of bogskippers and Blue wasn't one to turn down a good mea- a good fight. They were surprised when the camp was full of bandits instead of worms though, but that was fine. It just meant they had to remember Astrid's rules. They could do that!

Ok, time to get started! Blue thought to themself as they took off from the branch and flew a bit higher into the air. One bandit was arguing with their buddy about which one of them should get a nice, jeweled dagger they swiped during the raid on the caravan when suddenly that argument didn't matter anymore as their buddy was reduced to paste right in front of them as a 12-foot-tall, four-armed, armored monster dropped from above, directly on top of him.

---

Shapeshifter's Plate
Red Rogue's Coat
Extra Arms

Yes, everything was going according to plan. Tatalia had quietly managed to take out a second sentry and was on her way toward knocking out a third one perched atop a mossy boulder. Quiet and clean, that was the way; and if she did it right, there'd be no injuries besides a few bruises and broken bones in the morning. Honestly, things were going so smoothly that Tatalia couldn't help but wonder when the other shoe was going to drop.

Suddenly, an ear piercing scream broke the night air before turning into a brief gurgle and being snuffed out entirely.

"Well, there it is," Tatalia grumbled, turning to see what awful form the other shoe actually took. When she finally saw the source, well... suffice it to say she was very surprised.

Standing a good distance away was some sort of armored... ooze? It was an ooze! Tatalia had done just the barest bit of research on oozes in the past, enough to recognize the signs: the sloshy surface, the acidic touch, the gelatinous composition, the jiggle... But she did NOT remember them ever being shaped in anything even resembling a humanoid form, let alone some multiarmed variety of one. That was new.

The part where the slime devoured someone by falling on them and melting them in mere seconds, however? That was... pretty typical for oozes. It was their most terrifying quality. Tatalia felt the contents of her stomach churn at the sight of a man being reduced to a crimson paste before being slurped up into the ooze's body. A little bile actually made its way up into her mouth, and she spat it out and shook her herself vigorously.

"Focus, focus! Head in the game, Tatalia!" the goblin commanded herself in a whisper. Then, throwing her previous plans away entirely, she darted forward to try to stop the killing and figure out what on Charon was going on!

The swamp song was replaced with the sounds of shouting and running as armed bandits rushed through the muck to come to the aid of their beleaguered allies. Tatalia rushed on behind them, watching several of the brigands clump into a small mob as they got closer and closer to their target. Tatalia whispered a few magic words to give herself the gift of enchanted speech¹ (just in case) while she quickly mixed up a vicious concoction of awful powders in a pouch.² Before she knew it, she came right upon the scene of the ensuing battle, and she quickly climbed her way up a dead tree to give herself a better vantage point.³

It was time to make her presence known. The goblin lit the end of the sealed pouch of danger powders, then she hurled it right into the midst of the bandits.

CRACK! A small explosion shot off, enough to knock back and scatter the bandits without actually killing any of them. The bright, blinding flash of light that accompanied the blast was enough to render them unable to fight for several seconds, and the spices they found coating their faces left them choking and wheezing. Tatalia called that 'good enough.'

"Good evening, Mr. Ooze!" Tatalia called out in her enchanted voice, hoping dearly that the creature was sapient. "I would like to ask you pretty please not to kill these men! Please don't kill them! Just- just knock them out or, or something! Kindly?"

Very convincing, Tatalia. That speech was made even less convincing by an arrow whizzing out of nowhere and nicking the goblin in the ear, sending her flopping out of the tree and landing face first into a pool of mud. Angry bubbles rose up from the mud. It was probably for the best; the curses the goblin was making were incredibly uncouth.

---

_{1. Fluency; 2. Improvisation Engineer (Gunpwoder, Flash Powder, Powdered Capsaicin); 3. Surface Scaling}

Chaos was quick to break out once the giant armored ooze started rampaging in the middle of the bandit camp. Bodies were flying in every direction as bandits were swatted away by metal-plated hands. The plates in the back of Blue's armor separated more to allow a long, snake-like tail to emerge and begin swinging into bandits that tried to attack from behind. Whether the bandits they sent flying were dead or merely knocked unconscious, they'd just check later once no more of them were left standing.

Hm, these bandits aren't very strong. Maybe that village was worried for nothing. Blue thought to themself as they embedded a bandit into the mud behind them with a smack of their tail. I should go fight something stronger after this. I wonder if there's anything in this swamp. I think I heard something about a big hydra around here. Is it still around? I feel like I heard that a while ago, so maybe not... Maybe there's something else around here to fight.

The giant ooze was hardly putting much effort into the fight around them. The large gathering of bandits was indeed a formidable threat to most, but they didn't realize that they had just grown a lot stronger. The ooze was a monster in more than one sense of the word, but when they spent most of their time comparing themself to other crazy strong adventurers like Astrid, their sense of strength was a bit skewed.

"Huh?" Blue was brought back out of their thoughts as someone actually called out to them rather than shooting an arrow or swinging a sword at them. They turned their head nearly 180 degrees to look and see a Goblin up in a tree shouting at them to... not kill the bandits? What, why? Blue didn't have time to ask before the Goblin lost her footing and fell facedown in the mud.

Blue deflected some arrows and swords swings with a swing of their tail and a pair of tendrils that grew out from beneath their pauldrons as they lumbered over to the fallen Goblin. With one large hand, they picked her up by the back of her shirt and lifted her up to their face, which was still inside a helmet that looked much too small for their current size.

"But I'm not supposed to eat them while they're still alive unless they're a really big jerk." They reasoned, as if them eating the bandits was a given.

---

Prehensile Tail
Dancing Chain x2

Tatalia could not help but be flabbergasted at the situation. She was scooped out of the mud by the big, multi-limbed ooze monstrosity, and it set her down upright like a child might prop up their teddy bear to have a conversation. And the voice that came out of the ooze, well... it said the most innocent thing:

"But I'm not supposed to eat them while they're still alive unless they're a really big jerk."

Tatalia blinked. The sounds of shouting and arrows being loosed and all that other din of battle fell away for a few seconds as she had to grapple with how enormously serious and sincere the ooze was when it spoke those words.

"So... just don't eat them?" Tatalia blurted out, throwing her hands up in the world's biggest, most confounded shrug. "Can't you just enjoy a nice salad instead?"

Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to press the matter further, because another arrow wet whizzing just past Tatalia's nose. The goblin rolled her eyes.

"Hold that thought!" the little thief called up to the ooze. Then she thrust her hand toward the archer that was harassing her and fired out a length of web¹ from her wrist. She caught his bow, then whipped it out of his hand with a flick of that wrist, sending the weapon soaring through the air and into the water far, far away from him. The weaponless bandit backed away slowly.

"Let's make this escapade an exercise in restraint! Help me rescue those big bugs," Tatalia suggested, pointing off toward the penned up bogskippers in the distance, "without killing anyone! Or eating them! No killing or eating! It'll be fun, I promise!"

Yes, Tatalia decided to try negotiating with a giant, man-eating ooze on the spot in the middle of a battle while the bandits around her gathered their senses. What a lovely idea, Tatalia. She realized the bandits were beginning to muster again, so she quickly slipped her dagger out of her sleeve and held it aloft.

"Cover your eyes a moment!" Tatalia told the ooze. Then the gem embedded in her dagger's blade began to glow for just the briefest of seconds before blasting out a brilliant flash of light that lit up the area like it was dawn.² Those poor bandits around them, having already been blinded by the previous explosion, were suddenly blinded all over again and were sent toppling to the marshy ground yet again with a whole stream of curses flowing from their mouths.

"Let's go!" Tatalia commanded, running off toward the pens. "We only need to free the bogskippers! That'll stop them from raiding anyone for a while!"

---

_{1. Spider Silk Tattoo; 2. Flash Enchantment (Dagger)}

Don't eat them? Blue couldn't believe what they were hearing! It just didn't make sense. TO beat down some bandits and then just... not eat them. Absurd! Eating was half the fun of a good fight. Who was this Goblin girl ruining their fun?

"A salad?" Blue huffed, a bit offended. Salads were nowhere near as good as bandits. They put their hands on their hips and looked down at her, their tail sending another bandit that thought they could get the drop on the ooze from behind flying into a tree with a loud thwack.

Suddenly, they felt that familiar sensation like they were being stretched too thin that let them know their time was up being this large. The ooze shrank back down, the metal plates of their armor reconnecting until anyone looking at them wouldn't even know there was an ooze within the suit. Well, if there wasn't still an extra pair of arms and a gooey tail sticking out of some holes in the side and back.

Blue looked over at the bogskippers the Goblin pointed out.

"Oh, I was already sent here to free those, but they said I could delaminate anyone who got in my way and they didn't say anything about sending anyone else before me." They said skeptically. They were pretty sure no one said anything about someone else being here to free the bugs, but their memory was pretty bad. Did someone say it and they weren't listening because they were too busy daydreaming about what a meal a whole bandit camp would be?

Blue was too lost in thought to hear the warning to cover their eyes. They only noticed the glowing dagger a moment before it flashed brightly and stunned everyone around, including the ooze.

"Ah!"

Blue stood there, blinded and in pain while the Goblin ran off, leaving them behind.

Tatalia was trying her best. She was really, really, really trying. Unfortunately, sometimes she just caused more problems than she actually fixed.

The advance toward the pens was going well on Tatalia's end until she realized that she wasn't actually hearing anyone else nearby.¹ That was odd - wasn't the big, armored ooze supposed to be following her? She glanced behind and realized, no, he was not actually following her. In fact, he was stunned just like all the bandits were, probably from the same source: her shiny, shiny dagger.

Sometimes, Tatalia wished her fighting style didn't revolve around blinding and befuddling people. Others seemed to have trouble picking up on how to work with her. That was probably her own fault.

The good news was that all the bandits nearby were just as blind as the ooze man. The bad news was more bandits were coming out of the camp, this time armed with bows, armor-piercing crossbows, and... lances. Yes, there were mounted bogskipper bandit cavalry with lances. That was not good.

Tatalia had a plan, though. She always had a plan. She quickly began enacting on her go-to strategy when things were going badly: trap improvisation.²

The tricky goblin used a bit of her own spider silk from her wrist to fashion a makeshift tripwire between the trees, then quickly lined the thin cord with the remainder of her flash powder. Once that was done, she wrapped the stuff up with thin strips of camo cloth to disguise the trap, then darted aside and waved over toward the recovering ooze knight.

"HEY! Over here!" she called to him as loudly as she could. "Hurry, hurry! They're going to-"

Tatalia never got to finish giving that warning. A crossbow bolt was loosed with a sharp, powerful thunk! noise that made her jump. She turned just in time to see it coming right at her face. She panicked...

...and then Tatalia collapsed into a pile of spiders as the bolt slipped right through the space her head had been moments prior.³

The thousand or so skittering, scattering spiders that were now Tatalia were VERY confused.

---

_{1. Tracker Extraordinaire; 2. Improvisation Engineer; 3. Insect Dispersion (0/1)}

Blue shook their head partially out of annoyance and partially out of trying to clear the burning sensation in what substituted for eyes in an ooze, the nerves fried by the sudden flash of bright light. When their vision cleared up enough for them to see again and the pain was gone, they started to head over toward the waving, shouting Goblin.

They jogged noisily, their armor clanking with heavy footfalls. This was awful! First this Goblin comes out of nowhere and starts telling them not to kill the bandits or eat them, and now she's flashing them!? What was her deal!? As they jogged along, they saw something extremely unexpected and frankly a bit startling. The Goblin collapsed into a pile of spiders.

"What the-"

Was that Goblin a pile of spiders in disguise this whole time!?

Their mind couldn't dwell on the question for very long as they felt a tug on their foot and BANG. Another flash of bright light made their nerves burn and blinded them, making them stop and hold their hands over the slit in their helmet again as they recoiled in pain.

"Ahhh, again!?" Blue shouted in surprise. "Why again!?"

Unlike last time when the flash of bright light had also stunned the bandits around Blue and kept them from attacking the stunned knight, now they were vulnerable and surrounded by enemies. A heavy crossbow bolt pierced a hole in a plate of their armor and buried itself in the ooze. A sword swung down and deflected off their armor. A hammer came down and rang their helmet like a bell. They were being piled on and couldn't see to defend themself. Their tail swung around behidn them, flinging bandits blindly around, and their second pair of arms punched in random directions, managing to land a few solid hits here and there, but they weren't going to last long like this.

One bandit tried to stab a spear into the knight and suddenly found their weapon passing right through as if they weren't even there. The knights form crackled and glowed as it became one entirely made up of electricity. All the bandits' weapons stopped being able to hurt the intangible shape, but the elemental form could still hurt them.

Bandits shrieked and collapsed to the ground as they were shocked by lightning, the electric ooze's tail or arms still swinging blindly and delivering a nasty shock when they managed to land a hit.

---

Full Elemental Manifestation- Lightning

The next thing Tatalia remembered was sitting in the murky water of the Marsh Flats with reeds and algae in her mouth. She spat them out, rubbed her forehead, and quickly assessed the situation.

"Oh," said Tatalia as she quickly realized the situation was nothing but pure chaos.

All around the goblin, people were screaming, mostly because a whirling swirl of electric energy was tossing them about like ragdolls. Tatalia had no idea what that energy was at first... until she just barely made out the form of a knight in the center of it.

Is that the ooze?! Tatalia wondered to herself. Just what sort of entity are you exactly?!

Whatever the armored electric ooze was, Tatalia decided she had to find out more. Moreover, she decided he had to be preserved... though she really didn't want to see any of the bandits, awful though they were, get killed, either. Normally, she'd just use her various tools of trickery to throw the bandits off balance, but it seemed that the ooze kept either not heeding her commands or misinterpreting them, meaning she was hurting him as much as she was hurting the bandits. So, it was time to try a new tactic. It was time to do the thing Tatalia hated most... Fight fairly. And if Tatalia was going to fight fairly against an entire camp of bandits...

There was no getting around it. Tatalia had to become the spider.

The goblin rushed to the electric ooze's aid. He was faring well, but the bandits were beginning to marshal their forces again and were preparing to let loose fiery arrows at him and have what few magic users in their employ throw spells in his direction. Physical attacks weren't working, after all. But as the bandit throng started to let loose a few fiery shots and spells, the goblin came upon their backline and let out a pained screech as her body twisted, contorted, and popped. When the bandits nearest her turned, they found themselves face to face with a six armed spider-person covered in green hair with eight glowing yellow eyes staring back at them.¹

The spider threw itself forward, swinging her shortsword with surprising alacrity.² Despite her feral mindset, Tatalia struck with the flat of her blade, knocking bandits aside rather than seriously injuring them. She dashed out³ from between the spear jabs of two desperate, terrified warriors just to throw a handful of spices into their faces, sending them falling backwards into the mud with coughs and wheezes.⁴ Finally, the werespider managed to get close enough to the stormy ooze to shout over the din of battle.

"Hkkk NO KILLING! We do not kill!" Tatalia insisted, taking what brief freedom from the fighting she had to point her sword off toward the penned bogskippers. "kkkK Free bugs! I will fight, you will free!"

Tatalia couldn't trust the ooze to fight without murdering anyone, so she was going to do the fighting herself. She just had to hope he was susceptible to being bossed around!

---

^{1. Bestial Transformation; 2. Double Strike Enchantment (Short Sword); 3. Dashing Enchantment (Short Sword); 4. Powdered Capsaicin}

Blue's vision finally returned to normal after being blinded twice in rapid succession by that pile of spiders disguised as a Goblin that they were becoming increasingly aggravated by just in time to see one, giant spider standing in front of them and giving them orders like it was in charge. It sounded a lot like that Goblin did, the way is was bossing them around and telling them not to kill anyone. Was this spider friends with all those other spiders? Well, they weren't friends with Blue!

The electric ooze let out a mixture of a growl and a gurgle as they turned on the annoying spider creature. The armor plates on their back separated further up their back above their tail to make way for a plethora of long, thin spikes to grow out, and among them a pair of tendrils grew that very closely resembled those one would see on the back of a displacer beast, the tips ending in a pad of spikes. The top pair of the ooze's hands morphed, the gauntlets being absorbed and the hands reshaping themselves into a pair of sharp claws.

In a matter of moments, the already monstrous amalgamation of armor, ooze, and lightning turned into an even more fearsome beast and that beast was finished playing nice with this spider telling them what to do.

They started charging toward the spider, not caring how many bandits go between them and it as they went.

---

Quill Spikes
Displacer Tails
Eldritch Claws

Tatalia was really busy with the whole 'fighting bandits' thing. You know: slashing, parrying, ducking, dodging, the whole works. She was really giving it her all, because while she wasn't specialized in the rigors of melee combat, Tatalia was competent, and most importantly she was agile. She didn't need to kill the bandits! She just needed to not be killed by them.

Unfortunately, someone else didn't get the memo. In fact, they'd taken the memo as an act of aggression and had declared total war on the sender.

The first sign that something was very much not going according to plan was the sound of crackling electricity getting closer. The second sign was the screams of the bandits around her getting louder. The third sign was the bandits running away from her, because they absolutely did not want to get between two monsters that were definitely about to slug it out.

Tatalia peered behind her. She saw a whirlwind of metal and lightning and fury coming right at her. She panicked! She deployed a smoke bomb.¹

Okay, so it wasn't the bravest response to danger! Yes, there were probably other things Tatalia could have tried. But no, the goblin-turned-spider wasn't about to stand and fight that hulking harbinger of horror! She wasn't an idiot! Instead, she ran through the smoke and away from the electrical enemy as quickly as she could manage, using her enchanted boots² to make great leaps and bounds over difficult terrain, spurring herself onward with her wrist webs.³

"hkhkhkHK! wwWhy are you like this?!" the little goblin-spider demanded, waving her six arms in frustration at the amorphous archangel of animosity hunting her down. "We are on the same team! The same team! hhyYOU are being a JERK!"

Was that really necessary, Tatalia? Whether or not it was, Tatalia turned back around to see she was running straight for the bogskippers the pair was originally supposed to be rescuing.

Uh-oh.

---

_{1. Smoke Powder; 2. Hoppers; 3. Spider Silk Tattoo}

Blue chased after the spider monster and found their vision blocked again, this time by a cloud of smoke. Some bandits coughed and closed their eyes and were completely unaware of the ooze coming before it trampled over them on its rage-filled rampage.

"AGHHH! WHY DO YOU KEEP BLINDING ME!?" Blue shouted angrily, their voice still halfway between speaking and gurgling as they got more angry at these damn spiders that kept doing some trick to keep them unable to see anything, and now this big one did too!

The rampaging ooze burst out of the other side of the cloud of smoke, most of their armor plates gone and their form larger and more top heavy, their arms and legs thicker, and their back hunched forward. Their form just became less and less human as they went, forgetting their disguise in favor of just wanting to squash this bug and destroy the rest of the bandit camp while they were at it. Bandits went flying left and right as tails and tentacles smashed into them without a thought, bandits being flattened underfoot as the oozetrocity kept charging.

With their target in sight, Blue reeled one arm back and then punched forward. Their arm stretched out, heading directly toward the annoying spider thing they were chasing, electrified claws out and dripping with acid.

If the claw managed to connect, it would be quite the nasty hit to anyone or anything.

---

Soft Body
Flesh Rend

This started as such a nice night, Tatalia thought to herself as the punch to her back sent her wheeling through the air with all the grace of a ferret having a heart attack.

The poor spider-goblin was burning. She was also electrified. She also had a hole in her chitin that poked into the fleshy bits and that just wasn't very nice. She was also struck so hard that she was cartwheeling across the ground like some sort of macabre doll made of spiders, crashing through every obstacle in her path with impunity. She crashed through the pen keeping the bogskippers in; then she crashed through the bogskippers; then the other end of the pen; then the mud; then the water; and finally face first into a large rock. Tatalia swayed. It was a miracle she was still standing.¹

The little werespider gripped her forehead with two arms, then turned over to vomit into the marsh, holding onto that heavy stone with another limb for balance while her remaining three dangled uselessly to the side. No sooner had she managed to exhale the contents of her stomach than she peered to the side to find the big, hulking amalgamation of ooze and lightning was still ploughing right towards her.

And that was when Tatalia snapped. That was it. She was angry. He wanted a reason to complain? Fine! She would give him a reason to complain.

The goblin started putting together an absolutely unholy mixture of cruel devices together.² Gunpowder (very illegal!), powdered capsaicin, and powdered glass were all mixed together into one big sack. The goblin-spider started chittering like a crazed maniac, possessed by raw spite as she employed her wicked cunning to its maximum effect. Tatalia shook the bag mightily, practically vibrating with rage.

And then the goblin held up her dagger with a free hand, firing off one more blinding flash of light,³ just as a quick "screw you" to the oozy monstrosity... and also so he wouldn't see her lighting her bag of Terrible Awful Nasty Stuff with the very lightning he'd used to electrocute her, letting one of the sparks popping off her body ignite the horrible mess. With bestial strength and the unbridled fury of a former service industry worker,⁴ Tatalia hurled the explosive/super spicy/impossible itchy megarude bomb right at her opponent's center of mass.

And then Tatalia ran the heck away, throwing six middle fingers up behind her as she fled.

---

_{1. Werebeast Earth Domain armor (0/2); 2. Improvisation Engineer; 3. Flash Enchantment; 4. Bestial Transformation (Increased Strength)}

Bogskippers skittered out of the way to avoid being squashed as the spider monster was sent crashing through their pen. Thankfully, none of them were turned to paste though a few were clipped on the side and sent spinning, they were mostly unharmed. They would recover, and now that there were two Goblin-sized holes in the pen, they all started running out and into the marshes.

Blue didn't pay the fleeing bogskippers any mind as the ooze's sights were solely set on the spider thing they'd sent flying. The walls of the now empty pen were crushed as Blue stepped right onto them, bits of wood breaking and disappearing into the mass of blue goo making its way toward its foe.

What few bandits had survived Blue's rampage didn't care enough to even try to catch the bogskippers again. They didn't want any part of this monster battle. They fled into the marshes as well, a few who passed too close to Blue getting swatted away with an absentminded flick of their tail or a tendril.

"AGGGHHH!" Blue roargled in anger as yet another flash of light blinded them. That big spider had the same dagger as the pile of spiders!? Ugh!

But, instead of blindly rampaging, Blue had an unusual moment of epiphany. They actually thought. If they were going to keep being blinded, then they'd just need to see without needing to use their sight. The ooze was surprisingly adaptable. They'd made plenty of changes to their amorphous body before, the spikes and extra limbs serving as obvious examples, but they'd made less noticeable changes to themself before as well. Condensing their ooze to make themself stronger. Learning to change its color and hardness to mimic a human form or even objects. They'd adopted so many parts from so many of the animals they'd eaten. How hard could it be to make something that let them see?

Blue's stood still for a moment, not even lifting their hands to cover their face. After a second, a large pair of bat ears grew from their head and a pair of large, leathery wings sprouted from their back. A clicking sound came from the ooze, a barely visible ripple vibrating across their slimy surface.

A clawed hand extended forward and backhanded the incoming bomb out of the air and into a tree before it could reach anywhere near the ooze.

Blue would have smiled smugly if the ooze had a mouth at the moment. They didn't waste any time resuming their chase on the unsuspecting spider that thought they'd bested the ooze by blinding them again. With their wings folded up behind them as they were too large to use in the trees, they ran forward, shooting a gooey tendril from the front of their head at the spider, like a giant oozey frog trying to eat a bug. And that was what they were actually hoping to do now.

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Bat Wings
Tongue Lash

Tatalia was very lucky she had well trained senses,¹ or she would never have known the danger that was coming.

The goblin's transformation was falling away, the chitin she had been wearing receding back into her skin, her extra arms folding themselves back into her body. It was a dizzying, tiring process, one she hated every time, but the little goblin at least knew she had escaped! At least, she thought she had escaped.

There was a sudden rush of movement far behind Tatalia that caught her attention, like an arrow shooting forward, or maybe a small boulder. She decided not to find out which it was with her body, and she activated the enchantment on her sword, zipping to the side in a blur of movement that put just out of reach of the furious ooze!² She glanced to the side to see its oozy limb (or bit? or something?) retracting back towards its body, probably for another attack.

Tatalia didn't like that at all. She didn't! She really, really didn't! She wasn't a fighter; she was an infiltrator, a thief, an explorer, a scholar! There was no way on Charon she would ever beat that thing in a fight! She needed another plan; she needed another option!

Well, that was easy. Tatalia always had options.

The goblin spotted another large boulder nearby, this one sticking out of a pool of filthy water. She dove for that boulder, and jammed her hands into it. Yes, she literally shoved her hands through the rock,³ molding it as easily as clay, or maybe very soft putty. She dug with all the reckless abandon of a drug-addled gopher. Hands went in; rock went out; hands went in; rock went out!

Finally, there was enough space to get in! Tatalia hopped inside the boulder and quickly swung her hand about, making a shield above her head made out of rock. Tatalia took a deep breath. She was balled up like an unborn baby bird inside of its egg.

"Okay," she wheezed to herself. "Now what?"

Tatalia looked down at the bottom of the rock. A light flickered on in her head. She started digging down, making a tunnel straight into the earth with her enchanted gloves, making sure occasionally to throw up a barrier of earth or rock with a desperate motion of her hands. She'd make it out alive yet! She'd just need a really long shower afterwards.

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_{1. Tracker Extraordinaire; 2. Dashing Enchantment (Short Sword); 3. Miner's Friends}