"Like what? Sign language? Pictures?"

"Do we know anything about its sensory modality?"

"It has things that look like eyes. It's apparently capable of navigating around underwater."

"Can you think of how to ask 'please tell us what you want, we'll help if we can and if it doesn't hurt anyone' in non-symbolic pictures?"

".....No. I know the talking beast, but that only works if it's a beast and is interested in talking."

"Me either. We'll have to hope it wants to communicate, and that if it does we can recognize it trying, I guess."

Eefina settles in to watch the scenery go by.

It's pretty enough scenery from above! One imagines the mixed marsh, swamp, and low forest would be a lot more unpleasant to hike through, though there is sort of a river. At least, there's a section of swamp that's deeper and clearer and seems to be actually flowing. That counts as a river, right?

Eventually the Peregrine Chariot sets them down in a little village of wooden huts built on stilts over the marshy wetlands. "This is the place that's been reporting problems. I can cast waterstride for us both, or we can borrow a boat. But first, think we should ask the locals about the monster?"

"Definitely. Let's ask around. What're the trade-offs between waterstride and a boat?"

"Boat's slower, but if something disrupts the spell we get soaked."

The chariot is taking off again. Tret waves. A pair of the locals, who are about an even mix between humans and some kind of lizard-people, approach them, waving politely.

Eefina's dress is hydrophobic but, "I wouldn't want to swim in this, the water looks... gross. But is it actually dangerous?"

"That's what the disease resist potion is for. It'll-"

"Ho, cityfolk! Ya the scout guardman told us would come deal with the shooba?"

"Shooba? Is that what it's called?"

"That's what we callin' it. Thing sneaks up on ya and upends boats. Breaks da fish traps and chases you off if you go eastish."

"Dern quiet if it wants to be," the lizardperson comments, "Can't fish where we used to, lost a lotta traps to it. We'll do hungry soonish, right?"

Eefina glances to Tret. "Annnnd suddenly waterstride wins."

"Does it show itself most often in a particular area?"

"Eastish. Just north of where the trees dense up, great fishing spot, the shooba lives there I think."

"Waterstride be a handy skill, it is. Can show ya the place if you can take three?"

"...I can probably maintain three waterstrides, but it's a bit of a stretch," Tret hedges.

"Short time only, just to show you where. Twenty minutes out, twenty back for me."

"Yeah, that'll work."

"Do you think it'd be worth trying to learn waterstride myself before we get there? To free you up a slot? I've only had the one sorcery class, but Windsight was really easy."

Tret double-takes and grimaces. "Only one sorcery class ever? No. Sorry, but no way that's safe. You'll get there in time."

"If you say so. Let's go see a shooba."

Waterstride feels a little strange. It's sort of like walking on something slightly squishy, and Tret warns that if you fall over or try to jump you could break the spell, but running will work normally.

They walk to the east, Tret sniffing at the air and the local guide looking increasingly nervous, until they come to a patch of dry land where the occasional tree and bush sticking out of the mud becomes almost a proper forest. The trees are bigger and straighter and less... Swampy.

"Just northish of here's the old fishing place. Is huts and docks in the wood there for resting if you like. I don't wanna go closer to the shooba than here, but the thing's right close. Oh, watch out for crocs too."

"Crocs shouldn't be a problem for us," Tret reassures the local.

"Eh, is your leg. I go back now, spellmagic gonna last?"

"It'll last about thirty minutes after you leave me - about twice as long as it took to come out here."

"Perf. Luck and good weather to you two."

Eefina focuses her Windsight as much as she can on Tret casting waterstride, and watches it work the whole way out, to see if she can figure out what its doing.

Once their guide has left them, she asks, "What now?"

Waterstride is doing... Something, definitely. It seems to be made of a spined structure of ulgu, which flows and morphs slowly, reflects off the surface of the water to lift the two of them. Something to do with reflections and boundaries and the shadows they make on the water is the lynchpin of the spell, but it would be difficult to get more than a vague idea of this without knowing what you're looking at better. It also causes the water where they step to cloud up and emit small amounts of mist.

Sniff sniff...

"Carefully advance. I think I'm smelling traces of the shooba... Let's see if I can pick up its scent. D'you mind being on the lookout behind me?"

Eefina pouts inwardly that she cannot make more sense of what she sees.

"I can do that."

Cupil flows out of her sleeve and takes discus form.

They plod through the swamp with Tret sniffing at the air occasionally for a while. They pause by an empty stilt-house with a little dock. It doesn't look much worse than the ones in the village, but Tret declares it abandoned for at least a month. 

"Something smells off but I can't put my nose on it..."

-And then some minutes later there's a rustle off to their right, birds flying off as the water froths and foams and a figure of branches and vines looms out of the water! It roars a surprisingly animalistic sound, swinging its spiky branch-ended fists angrily, then messily begins a charge towards them.

Eefina flinches, watching wide-eyed as the monster barrels toward them.

But she's ready for it.

She shifts her grip on Cupil, and he starts spinning like a buzz saw. The first stages of Eterni form in her off-hand, ready to launch at the speed of thought. There's a tree nearby. She knows which direction she will dodge if she has to.

Eefina takes one step forward, standing directly in the charging monster's path, finding its eyes and meeting them.

Charging monster is not charging all that fast. It's mostly making a lot of noise and splashes. It makes a throwing motion, letting go of a heavy branch in the process... The branch sails over her head by a decent margin. So it reaches up and breaks a branch off a nearby tree, reforming the limp limb.

Tret starts calling up ghur and flanking to the side.

"Dodge and stall, 'Fina! Something's weird here!"