"Why yes, while larger monsters of the depths generally stayed far away from land, at times a stray member of their pack, either because it lost a territorial fight or a youngster that was lost, would enter what most nations called their waters.
For most nations, this usually caused disaster for the fishermen and merchants in the area. No nation's navy has enough power to handle such beasts, so the best they could hope for is for the beast to grow bored and return to the depths sooner rather than later.
The Lichdom of Ptolodecca is the one exception to this." - Yvey'Jon Ocseaute, Marine Biologist from Levain.
Even from the shoreline many kilometers away, Aideen spotted the long, dark form of a truly massive sea serpent, far out at sea. For the beast to be visible from this distance with the naked eye, its size must truly be prodigious, at least hundreds of meters long, if not in the thousand meter range.
That was the issue that had caused even the Bone Lord himself to come to the southern shores, as the necromancers stationed there had long exhausted their wits on how to deal with the beast. Their assigned aquatic beast skeletons had long been expended in their efforts, which did all of nothing to stymie the beast.
From its looks, it appeared to be an adult sea serpent that lost a territorial fight and was thus driven to shallower waters, as the multitude of scars on its form suggested. She was still uncertain why grandpa Aarin had invited her or the goblins along, though.
Aideen was sure that he could take down the beast on his own, if it came down to it.
"In case you wonder, this is not the first time something like this has happened in the past few centuries since the southern shores became part of my territory," said the Bone Lord as he answered her unvoiced question. "Usually we get a similar case every century or so. It's not an uncommon thing by these shores."
"What did you do at those times then, grandpa?" asked Aideen with curiosity in her voice.
"It's usually just small ones, young beasts who did not know better, so I just shooed them off. The older ones know not to tread into my territory," replied the Bone Lord with what she could swear was a smug look on his skeletal visage. "This is the first time we had an adult barge into our waters, and it looked like it wanted to claim these waters as its own to boot."
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"Could you not… make it go away?" she asked again, with some trepidation this time.
"I could, but that would be a waste. Mature sea serpents like these are a treasure trove, child. One that's only rarely seen. Besides, we could use it as an example for the rest of its sort," said the Bone Lord as if he was talking about mere wild animals. To be fair, they were dealing with a wild animal, albeit one of massive scale. "That said, I cannot exactly take it down without causing excessive damage to it, which is not a desirable result in this case. That's where you come in, child."
"Me?" asked Aideen with obvious incredulity in her voice. She tried to think of what she could do to the beast, but drew nothing but a blank. It was far too large for all her training to matter at all, nor could her healing be of use against it. "How do I factor into this? I don't think I can do a thing against… That."
"On your own? Certainly not. That's why I brought them along as well, child," said the Bone Lord as he glanced towards the two Goblins who were still watching the massive beast in the distance in awe. "This little situation proves to be an ideal testing ground for some of their more… fanciful ideas."
"What sort of ideas?" she asked, as a feeling of dread settled down in her gut. Aideen had a feeling that she would not like what the goblins' "fanciful ideas" might be.
"Well, normally when dealing with large beasts, we try to strike its vitals from the outside," said the Bone Lord, with a positively mischievous tone of voice. "Their idea was to hit it from the inside instead. Not a very difficult proposition, as long as we have an Unliving to pull it off, don't you think?"
"So you're suggesting… I get in that thing's belly and chop at it from inside?" asked Aideen. To be honest, she could see the logic in the suggestion, and she could indeed do that, if she needed to. Her doubts lay on another matter. "I could do that, sure, but I doubt it would do more than maybe tickle that thing. It's just way too big."
"That is the dilemma, yes," admitted grandpa Aarin. "An offensive mage would likely be digested or otherwise incapacitated first before they could do enough harm to it, while a healer like you could remain active inside the beast indefinitely, but cannot truly harm it."
Aideen nodded at the hypothetical scenario. That was indeed the doubt that lingered in her mind.
"But what if you have this with you instead?" asked the Bone Lord as he tossed a storage ring to Aideen.
She caught it in mid-air, then took a quick look inside. The ring was decently large - smaller than her own room-sized personal one but larger than most backpack-sized storages used by adventurers - and it was filled to the brim with around sixty glass vials.
The vials each contained a viscous, reddish-gold fluid she quickly remembered was Dragonfire Brew, except these had a much more vivid hue, as if someone bottled actual fire somehow. They were also far larger than the vial Colin showed her back then. Each of these vials were around the size of her clenched fist.
Aideen quickly put two and two together between the "fanciful idea" the goblins proposed, her presence, and the barrelful of what was likely improved Dragonfire Brew in her hand.
"You want me to get in that thing's belly and blow it up from the inside?" she stated more than asked, to which the Bone Lord nodded, satisfied.
"I always knew you were a smart one, child," he said endearingly. "Though try to use as little of it as you can. Ideally we will want most of it in salvageable condition.