Succubusekai: The Demoness Just Wanted To Stay With Her Friends! [Original-Ish] [Quest]

Helen shakes her head. "I'd suggest I lead, but all of us be visible. There's enough of them they might be suspicious if they think I'm hiding someone."

Eira nods. "You first, then?"

And Helen responds by standing up. "Ahjoy!", she says, voice raised but friendly.

Two of the nixies jump a little, and turn toward your group, as you and Eira rise to standing.

"Not with them," you hear one mutter.

"Trio? Is there more of you?"

You respond with a simple, direct, "Nope! That's all of us."

"Oh! All right." One glances to the others, and they mutter something none of you quite make out. Then.

"Um. Have you seen a bullywug tribe roaming around?!", one stays, standing up as if hastily selected as the leader.

"We have not," Helen responds. "What of them?"

(Nature: 12 + 3 = 15.)

Bullywugs - frogfolk, often but not always on the vicious side. They're basically swamp-bound, as they have to keep wet basically all the time. They tend to not like that being pointed out, and are prone to communicating this displeasure… Aggressively. Usually, they will only enforce their own 'lands', i.e. the swamps.

The nixies glance at each other, before… "They've kidnapped one of our own, and we believe they intend to sacrifice her! We've scouted the area we know they're at, but…" They glance to their daggers. "... We don't stand a chance facing them."

You pause. "... Have you been looking for help?"

They pause. "We're, um. Kind of afraid that if we reach out to the only group left, it'll go badly."

"That being the keep?", Helen asks.

"Yeah. The lord, um, he's accused us of kidnapping people before!", the nixie leader responds. "If we ask for their help, they might overrun the Glimmerglass caves."

"Wait, what?"

Another of the nixies gives the 'leader' a stink-eye. The leader sighs, and settles your curiosity: "It's our homes, under the river. We farm fish and river plants. Elendiria was going out on her own, and then they showed up. We're lucky we found where they are, but…"

Helen pauses. "She's still in grave danger, then."

"Yes! The Bullywugs run their 'court' to the west, by a pond… Oh, what are your distances?"

"Erm, feet and miles?", you respond.

"That's a great help if you can't convert from strides and knuckles!", the nixie responds. Of course their measure of distance wouldn't be like that of the civilizations.

"How long is a stride?", Helen thinks to ask.

The nixie blinks, then stretches her arms out to her sides about five feet. "Plus six knuckles," she points to the length between her index finger's knuckle to first joint. So five and a half feet give or take.

"... I think I get it." The surprising part is they still use north, south, east, and west. "... But, two questions. First, if we attack the bullywugs, are we attacking innocents for you?"

The nixies shake their head. "The self-proclaimed 'Lords of the Swamp'? Definitely not. Expect them to attack you on sight, bring you before their lord, and sacrifice you."

Eira blinks. "... And, uh, second, if we save her, um…"

"We've got money! Or, uh. Something that trades as money? Pearls aren't super common for us, but we also don't use 'em much. Would, uh, fifteen of them do?"

You glance at Helen and Eira. "... Any reason not to at least check out the Bullywugs?"

"If they're as vicious as the Nixies seem to think," Helen observes - and she seems to believe they're being honest, you notice… "- then there's a nonzero chance they're with the Cult of Chaos - or, like Torgo, want to be. Verifying they're not would be good."

Eira nods. "Pearls' value can be all over the place, but even pretty small ones are a proper gold piece apiece, a short stash of 'em could go for a good bit."

You consider this a bit…

(Nature: 18 + 3 = 21.)

… You quietly cast detect magic.

Nothing on them. Nothing on Helen, so no attempt to charm her. That's important because Nixies can do that in a group - and if desperate, would be at least as likely as you to consider it, even with a good-natured person questioning.

[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) "We'll go talk to the Bullywugs. We can fight them if it comes down to it." (Demonstrate a preference for diplomacy.)
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) "Time to kick some frog butt, then!" (Indicate you will fight for their friend.)
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) "I'm in the mood for frog legs…" (Be nice and bloodthirsty!)
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) "... Could we check out your caves?" (What? With a name like that there's gotta be something neat going on!)
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) "There's this clan of Kobolds we can get to help you!" (Get Torgo and co to handle this; it'll likely go violently.
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) "Lemme get some allies, then we'll go handle this." (Bring some of the Kobolds with for force of numbers.)
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) "Nope, we're outies, sorry." (Reject the Sidequest… And try to endure their attempt to Charm you into it.)
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) Go on the attack! Helen would not appreciate this choice. And might make her dispreference known violently.
[ ] (Face The Bullywugs?) Write-in an alternate response.

---

Yeah, I tried to come up with a pun that didn't make me feel very awkward at best off 'Nixie/Dixie', and the ones I came up with I'm not comfortable with.

[x] (Face The Bullywugs?) "We'll go talk to the Bullywugs. We can fight them if it comes down to it." (Demonstrate a preference for diplomacy.)

Piecing what together… They seem desperate, but not so much they're making nonsensical decisions. So, you're going to make the most sensical option you can.

"We're capable of facing them," You say. "But we won't just go in swords a-waving immediately. We'll be diplomatic. And then beat them up, if needed."

One of the nixies shakes her head. "Yeaaaah, be ready, they're gonna go off on you immediately."

Helen shrugs. "Then we'll correct them."

"... Good luck. Please save her."

---

Looking over the area, you see three routes, quickly deciding that the safest will be, ironically, the one that led to one of the bigger fights you've been through - going almost straight East from the island near the Nixies' home, you can slip north and avoid the Spiderwood ("Nopewood", Eira insistently calls it). You could also risk entering the Spiderwood a bit, except for the little fact that this would mean, you know.

Spiders.

There is also going south, along the foothills and around the Spiderwood ("Nopewood") to see more area. This would take longer, but would also give you a good sense of the actual scale of that particular problem. ("And how much fire we'd need to cleanse it," Eira added, earning an actual chiding from Helen about not endangering natural ecosystems. Which just gets you thinking about Sooty the Bear. You have to wonder if you could win in a fight against a bear now.)

The north route takes you near the Fiendish Lizardfolk mound… Which seems short on activity right now.

Helen pauses. "... There's still some here. But I don't think they're a threat anytime soon."

Eira nods. "You think they basically sent their entire force at us at once?"

"Yes. The remainder will be some guards and young. If we passed where we battled them, I would guess they retrieved and buried them."

… "Let's go look," you observe.

---

Helen's hand is practically grinding into her forehead as she looks at the scene.

"They came, they stripped what was left of the corpses, and they just left them. What in the name of…"

Eira shakes her head. "Worse than that. Their blood seems to be screwing with the ground around them."

"Fiendish blood can do that," Helen observes. "Especially if they decided to use some rituals on it. The place… It's not deeply suffused with evil, but - look, do you mind if I try to sanctify the place?"

"Sure. Does that involve burning what's left of them?"

"You're really in a fire mood today, aren't you?", Helen says with a smile.

"... Apparently?", Eira says. "It's not my first go-to. But if we're talking spiders…"

You nod in turn. "If we can incorporate burning them to cleanse their influence, that seems… Prudent?"

"... Sure."

(Helen's Religion Check to improvise a Solarian Ritual Of Cleansing Fire, To Be Exclusively Used On Conclusively Dead Creatures And Maybe Incidentally Some Small Insects I Guess: 13+4 = 17)

A Paladin leaning in spoken prayers.

A thief using a torch to set fires in a hexagonal pattern.

A Succubus steering the heck clear after you helped place some salt and other stuff.

… You can almost feel the result, as the lizardfolk bodies burn, and the fire takes on rainbow hues. (You know there's little chemical pellets you can toss in a fire to do that, but Helen might not, and it's kinda blatant to your demonic senses that this is Holy Stuff not Chemical Stuff.)

A cast of detect evil and good makes clear that there was evil suffusing into the ground around them, which is being 'burned out' by a presence of divine good. It's working. Apparently your touching the ritual materials doesn't inherently corrupt them, that's good to know!

Of course that means if you actually need to do a desecrating ritual later for some reason, there's more to it than just touching the ritual stuff. That's also good to know…?

… And then Helen stands. "Light is seeded in this place. They may try to respond in time. But for now, I claim a small victory for holiness."

"And sanitary practices," you can't help but add.

This draws a sigh from Helen. "... I did call it cleansing fire, didn't I…"

(Helen gains 50 XP for the holy act. Eira gains 50 XP for helping. You gain 50 XP for the small victory. This moves everyone to 1101 XP.)

"Let's keep moving," you observe.

"Y-yeah."

---

By the time you reach the solid walls of reeds, it's close to noon.

And then there's a gray, froggish head poking up above them. For about one second. Then, a voice, rough and, well, froggy.

"If you come to bring tribute to our court, go around and face our maze! Only the worthy may come before our court unbound!"

You pause, and glance to Helen, then Eira. Then you cast detect evil and good, look toward the place.

"Well, there's an altar in there, it's not looking great," You say. "But they themselves aren't fiendish?"

Helen looks at the reeds. "I could probably cut in, but that'd definitely provoke them."

Eira pauses. "So around we go, then?"

"I think so," you say. Then, more loudly, "We come in peace, and will see your maze."

"There is no 'peace', only tribute," the voice responds. "Come around."

---

The reeds of the maze are a good ten feet high, and form a fortress of sorts a few hundred feet to a side. If they went tight, this could be the kind of thing that takes hours to get through.

Plus there's likely ambush points all over.

[ ] (The Reed Maze Of The Bullywugs) Face the maze fair and square. You'll probably have to fight several times, but it'd be respectful to face them on their terms, and winning would impress them.
[ ] (The Reed Maze Of The Bullywugs) Screw that - signal Helen to start hacking and cut through. You'll still face attacks, possibly more of them.
[ ] (The Reed Maze Of The Bullywugs) Screw that - fly up over the maze to memorize the layout and take some shortcuts. An Ethereal Shift abuse or two and they won't even notice.
[ ] (The Reed Maze Of The Bullywugs) Screw that - fly up over the maze and land near their 'court', using the door trick to unexpectedly come in.
[ ] (The Reed Maze Of The Bullywugs) SCREW that - spot the court and teleport right in for maximum surprise.
[ ] (The Reed Maze Of The Bullywugs) Nope. Just leave.
[ ] (The Reed Maze Of The Bullywugs) Write-in another solution.

---

Sooty the Bear is a send-up of Smokey the Bear, created by Tundra Comics. I don't think he was intended to be a comically succinct summation of ecofascism, but damn if he doesn't work as that.