In the forest on the way back to Bofomar’s, you hear the sounds of a woman crying for help somewhere off nearby.  You start to move toward the cries and the golden fox suddenly appears, stepping out from a tree. It just shakes its head, ‘no’.

You ignore the fox and investigate the source, which leads you to a clearing.   A carpet of fungi and mushrooms on the ground turns out to be a large ambulatory slime mold hiding in ambush (!) It attacks, even absorbs Daisy and Ambrosius into its fetid form, but Nim uses her wand of Scorching Ray and blasts the thing to oblivion.  Immediately a flock of ravens, who were watching silently in the trees nearby, swarm together to counterattack, but Nim casts Color Spray (TM), and hundreds and hundreds of the nasty black birds just fall suddenly to the ground, stunned.  You make a quick get-away before they recover.

Back at Bofumar’s, you provide the spidersilk you got from the Ettercap’s lair and he finishes making the untrickie paste.  He also recognizes the signs that Daisy and Ambrosius have contracted a nasty disease from the slime. With Malraali’s help, the halfling and her dog are cured of the rotting fungal ailment before it sets in.

Bofomar thinks the attack sounded like something Green Maggs would do.  The forest was Fey-owned for a while, before the elves took up stewardship. It was known as the Cronewood for an evil hag named Maggipen that seized power. The pixies still talk about her, tell cautionary tales to children, call her “Green Maggs”, but she’s never been seen since the elves defeated her and placed the scouts in the forest.

You travel to the piskie pond, perform the untrickie ritual, and find it a less festive place; the Gliggergin lost their trickie, and neither clan now can claim you as their personal playthings.   Now that the Pook Fee clan can speak to you, you seek out Weel to learn what he knows about the scouts. He says he saw the scouts acting funny with the dryad.  He wonders if the dryad seduced them as it’s said she has power over men’s hearts.

You also learn from the (not-necessarily-reliable) piskie punk:

• Green Maggs is real and she’s friends with the Ettercap. She turns travelers into spiders for the Ettercap. Green Maggs has been turned into a tree. Don’t go too close, she’ll snatch you, and pull you in with her branches.
• The Ettercap lost his “sheep”. The piskies think scouts might have murdered his pet spiders. And the Ettercap seeks revenge.  Maybe he trapped the scouts in his web house?
• Lady Eren, the dryad, is a quiet lady, keeps to herself.  The dryad, you learn, can’t be trickied.  And she can’t leave her oak. She’ll speak to you if you pour piskie pond water on her tree.

Somehow or another, you agree to let Weel join your party. You’re not sure how it happened.  I mean, the untrickie paste is supposed to be working, right?

A plan to use Trimphid’s love potion as a way to bring the two piskie clans together is briefly considered, but discarded.  Later, you discover Weel has snuck some sips while you slept one night and is uncharacteristically quiet the next morning, more red-hued in the face than usual, and refusing to look at Nim.

You decide to collect some piskie pond water and go pay Lady Eren a visit.

On the way there, you pass Talon Rock, a landmark stone outcropping shaped like a taloned finger. Only it’s gone, much to your shock. Just clean not there.  There’s a hole in the ground in its place,  but you decide not to investigate.

You arrive at the grove of the dryad but aren’t sure which is her oak.  In full view of all the trees, you decide to perform a mock argument with Weel, which turns out to not even require a Bluff check because it’s just so easy to fake annoyance with the little guy.  The ruse works and the dryad emerges from her oak, angry at being disturbed and bringing a piskie into her home. Turns out it’s a good thing you didn’t pour the pond water on her oak as it was just Weel messing with you.

You ask Lady Eren about the elven scouts.  She claims they came to attack her, and out of self-defense, she had to make them fall into a deep slumber. The next thing she knew they disappeared. But she did see a brief glimpse of the golden fox.  When asked about Green Maggs, she reveals that the evil hag-creature was turned to stone by the elves and is now known as ‘Talon Rock’.

Um, not so much anymore, you realize.

The dryad tells you one can wash a gold coin in the piskie pond water, plant it in the sunlight, and the golden fox will be summoned if you’re worthy enough.

Well, it just so happens that you have some piskie pond water that some pesky piskie convinced you to obtain.

To Be Continued…