A hissing noise escaped Vecaal's snout - a laugh, it seemed.  Though whether he appreciated the tiefling's initial jab or Baern's rejoinder was unclear.  He stood just behind and to the left of the gnome, towering over him in his dusky amber scales.  His tongue flicked out twice, tasting the strange air that circulated this far down the slope.  A small ripple flexed through the spike-like spines running from the back of his head down into his cloak.

"Don't mean no harm," he rumbled, as though suddenly aware of his normal aura of subdued menace.  Tilting his head ever so slightly, he awaited the tiefling's response to Baern's prompt.

"Looking for me?" A vaguely hostile reaction snaked its way through the collected Remnants, with much subtle shifting of feet and adjusting of weapons. This gave the impression, to one as accustomed to collecting debts as Baern, that there was in fact some reason armed outsiders might be looking for the tiefling.

"Well, you've found me. What do you want? Feel free to explain yourself from right where you're standing now."

Kreo, I have not been tracking time closely, but you can expect that Invisibility will be wearing off relatively soon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:18, Sat 09 Mar.

The tiefling's reaction did not go unnoticed by Baern, but he made no direct reference to it as he pressed ahead.

"Sure have, guv. You look like a blood who knows things, and we have things we need knowing," he said, innocently.

"There's a bone pile somewhere further along the slopes, past the Ledge. A bloody great big one I reckon. You know the one. We need to get there. And we're willing to pay for a guide."

"Now you look like a no nonsense sort of fellow so what do you say we cut the crap where you try to tell me you've never heard of no bone pile in the Slopes, or try to send us off to some other bone pile that ain't the one I'm asking about, and just name your price so we can start haggling? I promise you its the fastest way to get us back to Cognozzle City and out of your horns."

Frack had shifted his weight nervously at first upon the Remnant's angry greeting, but when Baern snapped back with such certainty, the goblin's eyebrows disappeared under the rim of his helmet as he awaited the tiefling's response.

As the conversation continued, he noticed the anxious preparations of the group behind their leader and adjusted the grip on his own shield just in case it would be needed.

From the way the Remnants exchanged looks, it was plain to see the tiefling held no real authority; he was merely the one who had stepped forward. Their glances carried an entire conversation without a word spoken between them. Again, the tiefling gave voice to their unspoken consensus.

"We've had some... competition. For what used to be our best harvesting site. You get rid of the monster that's taken up residence there, and we'll show you to the bone pile. But that's it. You don't touch anything, you don't take anything. The foot of The Slope belongs to the Carrion Collective."

At the mention of that name, the assembled scrappers hooted and shook their salvaged weapons.

"You see?" Baern replied, his face splitting in a broad grin. "I knew we could be reasonable about this."

"Tell us about this monster. We don't need nothing from the Slopes. Except a boot. I need a left boot."

He stuck out his foot and wiggled his toes to accentuate the point.

Knowing that Procz focus would only hold a little while longer, Kreo looked around at the mention of the conclave, his eyes peering beyond the veil

OOC: using Eyes of the Grave because sweeping for undead in 60ft seems prudent

Moving to take cover before the invisibility ran out, Kreo waited for the spell to stop, hoping to blend in with the party and not raise questions

OOC: oh hey it's a 10 with advantage. I am very good at my job

"In addition to what he dumps here, that cheap bastard Cognozzle uses slimes to clean up after his factories. Time to time, they get tossed along with the scrap. Most of 'em, like the one you just stepped in, are harmless enough and we leave 'em be. For the more dangerous one, we've got a zapping rod fries 'em up good. 'cept this one, when we zapped him, just split in half and kept coming. Cost poor Ghaston his leg. Blasted thing's taken over the best spots. Gets to all the good stuff before we can.

So... you get rid of it, we can show you to your bone pile."

"Boot's extra," a woman declared, stepping out from behind the tiefling. She was an ashen-faced dwarf, her complexion much like Baern's own, marking her as a duergar. "And you don't want to be walkin' 'round here without a boot."

Her companions nodded sagely.

Edit: Kreo, you do not detect any undead nearby.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:16, Sun 10 Mar.

Baern glanced at his companions and then back at the Remnants. He nodded. "We'll handle your slime."

"What do you want for the boot?"

Baern will barter at Frack's suggestion. He'll offer some of the contents of his Explorer's kit (minus the backpack which he needs to carry everything)

Includes a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it.

I wont bog us down with a lengthy back and forth. Just tell me how many items to mark off. I already presume Baern is taking a loss on this.

To whatever extent they might contribute I've rolled a persuasion and an insight check:

09:47, Today: Baern Snagglehorn rolled 15 using 1d20+3.  Insight. – 15

09:47, Today: Baern Snagglehorn rolled 7 using 1d20.  Persuasion. – 7

Now that bartering was underway, the woman stepped forward, ascending a few dozen feet up the mound of scrap until she was nearly level with Baern and could look him over. "That works," she said, indicating the entire pack. "Yeah, the pack too. Seein's how I'm about to relieve you of the burden of carryin' anything."

She laughed, but also held up a piece of soiled but sturdy-looking leather and a length of twine. Evidently she'd scoped his predicament from her home or workshop and come prepared. "Don't worry, I'll make you a good one. Fit you perfect like. Believe you me, you don't want to be walkin' round here with no shoe."

To emphasize her point, she unlaced her own boot and held up the sole of her foot for inspection. There was a large red blotch near the ball, which appeared at first to be swollen as if infected. But then the bulge shifted, revealing itself to be a living creature - or creatures - that had taken up residence in her foot.

"Got me when I was a girl. Haven't been able to get 'em out since. I think of 'em like roommates now. So what you think, fella? You fancy some uninvited houseguests or a nice new boot?""

Baern accepted the duergar's terms with a scowl and grudgingly handed the entire pack across. "This had better be the best damned boot on the whole Ledge," he grumbled, thinking hard on just how much he'd had to offer for a scrap of leather and some cord.

Having gained a little more trust in Baern as their travels went on, Frack slapped the snirfneblin on the back. "Well buttered, Baern! You're sure to get a fine boot! And I can help carry what it is you need carried."

He paused to clear his throat before continuing, betraying a slight hesitation of conscience. "Uhhhh, when you said we don't need anything from the Slopes except the boot, does that mean we don't think we're going to find the luminous aluminum here? I mean, the Remnants have a certain territory and I'm not sure if it extends past the bone pile, but if it does, they won't take too kindly to us sneaking anything from it." His memory drifted over a former Remnant acquaintance. "I once knew a Remnant and she just about killed me for sneaking a half-stack of spacklecakes... and I wasn't even sneaking them!"

Vecaal scowled at the steep price for a boot and agreed with Baern's grumbled sentiment, but figured things might carry a different value in the scrapyards than they did up in the city.  Plus, they pretty much had the interlopers over a barrel, given that Baern was walking around half-shod already.

As for Frack, the dragonborn gave the little goblin a nudge with his leg.  "We'll show them the same fairness they've shown us," he rumbled, as though that should be sufficient to still Frack's tongue.

Procz weighed the legal ramifications in his head. If this was indeed a slime creature; in effect a monster not people, it seemed appropriate to proceed with this endeavor. Of course, following that thought, there was the question of how dangerous it was. The kobold's experience with slime creatures was solely academic. He thought they came in different types and sizes, but suspected this was a nasty variant, as they wanted someone else handling the dirty work and not doing it themselves.

"Don't you worry about no aluminum, Frack, my lad," Baern consoled the goblin. "Vecaal's right. We've got it sorted."

Frack looked back and forth between his gnome and dragonborn companions, finally deciding to believe them. "Yes. Sorted. I suppose we do have it sorted then."

He sent a look Procz's way, but the kobold constable appeared to be busy with deep thoughts of his own. He wasn't sure, but Frack suspected it had something to do with resin ants, whatever those were.

With surprising skill, the dwarf wrapped the stiff leather around Baern's foot, using the twine to cinch it tight in all the right places. It may well have been the best damn boot on the whole Ledge, not that that was a high bar.

The collection of hovels at the foot of the Ledge could not fairly be called a shanty town, for there was no apparent order or plan to it. In the maze of junk, you occasionally caught sight of a door or window and realized someone lived - or at least squatted - in this particular pile of twisted metal and rotting wood.

The outsiders' presence was felt even by the outsiders themselves, in the way the life of the scrappers warped around them. Children scrambled to keep their distance while claiming vantage points atop piles of rubble from which to gawk. Adults, equally curious but more restrained, lifted tin rooves to peer out from beneath them.

There was no clear path to follow. Rather, the tiefling led them on a route that required much ducking under and climbing over debris until arriving at what appeared to be just another scrap heap. "All right," he said, gesturing with his arm so that his wing fanned dramatically above it. "Get to work."

”That’s it then, is it?” Baern viewed the junk pile with skepticism. ”Alright then.”

Baern tapped Bessie against his palm determinedly and started towards the heap.

”Ever arrested a slime before, constable?” he inquired of Procz.

"Only the figurative kind." said Procz, shaking his head. He walked slowly next to Zúm, holding one hand on the construct familiar to steady himself. "But several of those."

When they reached the edge of the scrap heap and the tiefling indicated they had reached their destination, Procz studied it for just a moment.

Then, instead of moving in between the piles of junk, the kobold used his telekinetic powers to start lifting material (at least the not too heavy pieces) up and away to reveal things that might be hidden underneath. In the back of his mind, he wondered if this display of arcane abilities was something the local children would find entertaining.

Frack had dealt with many slimes in the past, but dealt with meant walking around them and checking his boots when finished. The thought of battling one had never crossed his mind. He circled the scrap pile, adjusting his helmet in thought while Procz disassembled it from a distance.

"So how exactly do we fight this slime? Can't really stab it and they said electrics just make more of them."

This message was deleted by the player at 05:54, Wed 13 Mar.

"Alchemical creatures do indeed have peculiar qualities, Mr. Frack." Procz agreed, continuing to lift light items in the trash. "While mundane physical harm may not be entirely effective, I'm sure our weapons will have some effect. With that said, I'm thinking a combination of heat and cold and other forms of energy and disruption. We'll see how adaptive it is to our efforts. I have a few spells in store for just this kind of thing. And, your channeled powers might in fact be even more suitable than my arcane incantations."

"Well I certainly hope our weapons have some effect because my plan was to beat it like a meringue," Baern remarked.

"I never took you for a chef," Vecaal said drily, as he scanned the junk heap for any signs of this 'slime'.  "Just make sure it doesn't melt your wrench like it did your boot."

Maybe he was too focused on Baern's wordplay, but to the dragonborn the pile of rubbish was impenetrable.  Just a jumble of disparate material and colours with no rhyme or reason.  "We oughtta just blow the whole pile up as high as Cog's castle!" he grumbled.

OOC:
20:27, Today: Vecaal Alifras rolled 9 using 1d20+6.  Perception.  Looks like garbage to me!

This particular pile of junk was distinguishable from its neighbors by the lack of scrappers sifting through it. Nevertheless, Procz detected some slight shifting of the debris. Telepathic lifting of select rotted beams and rusted joints revealed something viscous and black slithering beneath. It looked like oil but moved against gravity, a tendril of the thick substance dripping up to pool upon something above it. The tendril dragged its prey down into the center of its body, where whatever it was disappeared into the inky mass.

Recalling the tiefling's words, Procz continued shuffling debris about until he found the second such creature - or the second half of the same creature, if that was how it worked - in another part of the junk heap.

The oozes are currently 40' and 60' from the party, with full cover. If Procz uses his action on telekinesis, he can reduce that to 3/4 cover.