Writing Blog - The Fayrcose Woods: The Lake that Reflects the Skies Above

The adventurers stepped past the trees and both uttered sigh of relief after bearing witness to the clearing and the placid lake it contained.

"I'll get a fire started," the words rushed from Luke's mouth, riding atop an exhausted sigh like a log careening down a waterfall. "I thought unicorns were supposed to be nice and kindly! Why did that beast want to kill us so badly? What on earth did we do to it, hmm?"

"Probably just territorial. Besides, a unicorn is just as useless as any other horse. That is unless it's being served in a stew," Yan-shi chuckled while better observing the glade. "Get a load of this friend, have you ever seen a body of water this big in the Woods? I wasn't sure I would ever see something so beautiful again. I think I'll have a swim!"

The dwarf promptly began to doff his armor when Luke looked up from the bundle of kindling he was collecting, truly taking in the unusual sight. From this distance it seemed like a trick of the light, perhaps the shadow of a cloud, but the bard's trained eyes honed in on the rhythmically undulating shape just under the waters surface. Not a second later was Luke's attention drawn to the dwarf, naked and hairy as the day he was born, completing the arc of his jump into the lake.

"Yan-shi! Wait! Something lurks in the water!"

Luke's cries were too late and subsequently drowned by the large splashing sound that resulted from the all to eager dwarf's cannonball. The twigs and branches clattered to the ground when Luke dashed to the lake's edge, eyes madly searching for his companion or the entity within.

20 seconds had passed while the bard contemplated jumping in to rescue his friend when two fleshy mounds slowly ascended from below the disturbed surface of the water. Luke could not help but stare, dumbfounded, at the dwarven buttocks that he had been so concerned for moments prior. Breaking the silence, an insubstantial fart was released from betwixt the cheeks, followed by an uproarious laughter as Yan-shi surfaced to see his companions face.

"That's hardly funny water-dwarf." Luke yelled as he fell back into a reclined sitting position at the shore's edge. "Now hurry and get out before whatever is in that lake gets the better of you."

"You should have seen your face youngling! 'Oh no, something is in the water,'" Yan-shi managed to choke out mockingly between bountiful guffawing. "This lake is empty! There is no reason to fear."

The dwarf then ducked his head under the water, making a grandiose display of his looking around. Once satisfied with making his point, Yan-shi surfaced with a gasp of air.

"See? Nothing in here but the best monk you've ever met," said the dwarf giving an exaggerated nod, sending droplets of water flinging off of his head and drenched beard.

"But...I know I saw something just under the surface of the water. Something big," retorted the bard.

"There ain't nothing in here lad, and you've got an expert tellin' ya that. I know bodies of water like I know the bodies of women! Why don't you get back to setting up camp while I enjoy this oh-so-rare luxury," Yan-shi said as he reared his arm back and then forward to splash a surprising amount of water in Luke's direction before diving back into the water.

The bard tried to avoid the aquatic assault by rolling to his side, but only succeeded in avoiding a small amount of the water. Now on his back, looking up at the sky through the fine mist of lake water, Luke's eyes widened. Up high above the tree line, into where the sky meets the stars, Luke bore witness to an enormous snake like creature whose undulations matched those of the reflection he had seen minutes ago.

Under the water's surface, Yan-shi reveled in the weightlessness that the water provided. This brief respite from his normally dense and heavy dwarven form brought a genuine smile to his lips. After a few feats of submerged acrobatics, Yan-shi let his buoyancy keep him suspended just below the surface, eyes closed in a sort of meditation, giving him a peaceful moment of contemplation away from the world. When the dwarf opened his eyes below the water and looked up into the sky, through the lens of the lake, Yan-shi witnessed the sky serpent as well.

Luke had righted himself and stared intently up into the sky, his eyes rapidly searching for the creature that was no longer visible. His gaze was taken from the sky and drawn to his companion who had surfaced from the depths, shouting between panicked splashes.

"Luke, Luke! In the sky! There's a huge monster in the sky," yelled Yan-shi as he swam to the shoreline and clambered onto land. "We have to hide! We have to get back to the Inkwell!"

Luke however, lost in deep thought, did not hear his companion's exasperated yells until he was shaken back to reality by him.

"Have you gone dumb lad? We have to get out of here before that thing spots us," the dwarf said, looking up to and gesturing to the serpent that, to his immediate surprise was no longer there.

"What...I...it was just there in the sky," he muttered.

"I saw it too, briefly," Luke said quietly, almost to himself as the gears turned furiously in his head. "I saw it after you splashed me...," his voice trailing off as he hurried to his feet and towards the spot that he had set down his traveling pack. After some rummaging in his bag, he produced a clear glass bottle and returned to the lake shore. After uncorking the bottle he submerged it in the lake, capturing its liquid inside.

Yan-shi's voice was muffled behind his tunic as he hurried to don his armor. "What are you doing lad? We need to make haste and leave here! If that unicorn wanted us dead I fear to think of what that giant beast wants of us."

Luke raised the bottled liquid skyward and peered through the glass.

"I think well be alright Yan," Luke's voice escaped with the breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. "Whatever that creature is, I don't think it exists on the same plane as us. Here, look."

Luke passed the bottle to the dwarf to look through. Yan-shi, halfway into his trousers grabbed it and pointed it toward the sky. Sure enough, the entity normally invisible to the naked eye was rendered in full view thanks to the lake's water.

"What do you think it is," Yan-shi asked "I've never seen anything like it before."

Luke chuckled, "Yes, I imagine living inside of a mountain your whole life would keep things like this from you. That being said, I have no idea what that is either." The bard rubbed his sleeve across his forehead and flicked the remaining water into the distance. "Perhaps someone from the Inkwell might know."

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Reflective lake illusion: The dense trees widen out revealing a docile lake nearly 120 feet across. Though a light haze hovers above the water’s surface the liquid is unnervingly still. The lakeshore stretches out 15ft from the treeline and is lightly coated in shrubbery. Characters that have a passive perception of 14 or higher see a large shadowy figure undulating, seemingly on the surface of or perhaps below. Rolls of an 18 or higher grant characters insight that the image is a reflection. Looking directly into the sky reveals nothing out of the ordinary.

The puzzle’s solution is that the water of the lake is needed to perceive the entity in the sky. One must view the entity through the water in some way (Through a mist, water stored in a clear bottle, submerging below the surface and looking skyward, etc.)