Inktober 2023 - Drip

"When the curse that ravaged the land struck, it effected not only the fauna, but the flora as well. This goes beyond just living plants, as dead and rotting plant matter can become animate. Scum are a mixture of decomposing plants and algae. The presence of this toxic aberration is accompanied by the terrible smell of decay. Scum appears as formless piles of brown-green mush, coated in an oily (and poisonous) film. They cohabitate among each other in large colonies on the surface of the shallow water in the swamps of Olbrecht. This is perfect camouflage as from here, they resemble ordinary pond scum that you wouldn't expect to alive. They have a hive mind and can unite as one single mass. Scum's viscous and loose body makes slicing them to pieces very easy, but it doesn't accomplish much as this only serves to make them smaller rather than defeating them.

As plants, a sufficient amount of blasts of fire magic will ignite Scum and burn them to death. Alternatively, as they are waterlogged, cold magic can freeze them solid, which can eventually kill them if they remain frozen for long enough. Equipment imbued with the purification spell will make the wearer immune to the Scum's poisoning abilities, though these are hard to come by. The best countermeasure to poison is simply to carry antidotes everywhere the traveler goes.

Olbrecht is already a desolate place, but the addition of Scum only serves to make it even less hospitable. Large gatherings of Scum on the water's surface blocks out all light below, preventing life from persisting in the water. Their mere presence also creates a high level of methane in the water, which makes it toxic to many forms of aquatic life. Scum largely outcompetes the native peat moss and algae of the region, taking up a majority of the resources and space (not that the sun ever shines enough to allow for much plant life in Olbrecht anyway). Primarily defensive, Scum does not go out of its way to attack other creatures. If provoked however, it can jump from the water with surprising force, like a giant grimy hand reaching out of the polluted pools. It sticks to the surface of whatever it latches onto and then attempts to poison it to death, adding even more decomposing matter to its mass. This has understandably made travelers wary of the ponds and bodies of water in Olbrecht, and deters people from cutting through the country altogether.

Scum can be harvested for its slimy film from which poison antidotes can be produced. The Sahuagin and Bullywugs that live in Olbrecht will use the dried out bodies of Scum as fuel for fires in torches, ovens, and for bonfires."