The next morning, you cross back to Ancorato and proceed back down the western coast, regaling Oorka with your knowledge of marine mammals. The young strix marvels at the sounds and smells of the world outside Sheskadrann.
As early evening approaches, you come upon the locathah camp just north of Talmandor's Bounty. The normally friendly fish-people approach with hesitation when they notice the strix with you. "Greetings, friends," Koloshkora says. "I see you have had relations with the birdfolk." She eyes Oorka warily while she waits for an explanation.
Gideon steps forward and clears his throat. "We have, Koloshkora. Their chieftain, Skalorah, told us if the...unfortunate nature of the first encounter between your two peoples. She was grieved by it, but was fearful of any attempts to make amends for it, since there was no avenue for verbal communication between you, so she opted instead to wait in the hope that some way to right the wrong would present itself in the future."
"Upon learning that we had aided you in your fight against the sahuagin, Skalorah asked us if we would please return to you and express the regret of she and the people of her tribe. She understands that words cannot ever replace the loss of one of your own, but we found her to be sincere in her desire to have a peaceful relationship between you."
"She sent with us these hunting spears as a token of greeting and friendship from Akkiti-Skah, as their people are known. As you see, we have brought with us one of their number, a young woman by the name of Oorka, who desired to come with us so she could see the world outside her village."
"As Skalorah herself has already said, I know that words cannot ever replace your friend, but I hope with all my heart, as do we all, that your two races can move beyond the mistakes made in the past and come to a place where there is mutual camaraderie, trust, and friendship." the archaeologist states.
As Gideon launches into his speech, Oorka sniffs and makes a sour face. She leans in to Terana and whispers, "They smell funny."
Koloshkora accepts the gift of the spears and hands them to her fellow locathah. She listens to Gideon's words and considers them for several moments. "It is hard to forget the loss of one of our people. But perhaps it is easier to forgive. If these Akkiti-Skah are indeed remorseful for their mistake, then perhaps the time has come to put old grudges aside. Generations ago, Okolsobara became the first shokokoba to make contact with the birdfolk. I had hoped to have the chance to learn more of their modern people's culture so that we might learn from them. I am willing to give peace a chance, provided that your people can serve as translators and mediators until we can be sure no tensions remain."
Gideon smiles gratefully, nodding vigorously his assent. "Of course! I, for one, would be honored and privileged to help put these first steps into place. I have no doubt that there are those among our people who would also be happy to take my place in that role in times when we I'm out on a mission."
Tobar cracks a rare smile at the thawing of relations between the bird-folk and the fish-folk.
Koloshkora nods, mimicking Gideon's gesture. "Very well. Shall we shake on it in the human tradition?" She holds her hand out to Oorka. After a bit of translation to explain to the young strix what is going on, she smiles and takes locathah's offered hand. "K’é. Peace."
Once the grasp is broken though, Oorka turns and makes a face. "Ew. Slimy," she says quietly.
Kneeling in front of her for a moment, the corner of his lips barely hinting at a restrained grin, he whispers to the young strix,"Yes, the path to peace is often slimy. Just...not normally literally."
Giving a happy sigh and pushing himself to his feet, Gideon gives Oorka a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "This does my heart more good than I can speak. May this be just the beginning of a long, prosperous friendship between all our peoples." Gideon says simply. "Koloshora, have things been going well for your tribe? You've had no more problems with the sahuagin, I trust?" he asks.
"No problems at all, thanks to you," Koloshkora says. "We have been able to travel to Talasantri and back with no issues. If you ever need anything from the city, just give us the word and we can acquire it for you."
The next day, you meet with the strix hunter Kalikk. Oorka serves as translator as she describes the observatory's location in more detail. It rises from a small island in a crater lake of the dormant volcano at the center of Ancorato. You realize that this is likely the same place that the sahuagin's map leads to--the lair of the sea hag Helekhterie!
If you don't feel like you're ready for a showdown with the hag, Kalikk suggests a few other points of interest to explore. Just northeast of the central volcano is a strange forest of pale white trees with vibrant red leaves and bark that weep crimson sap. The strix call it the Bleeding Forest. And on the northern cape of the island are the remains of the seemingly abandoned gillman settlement of Bonetown.
"I would like to visit Bonetown." Terana offers. "It may be that we can find things of use there and I feel that paying my respects to our kin is important - there aren't so many of us left that we can lose a village easily."
"Well...I'm anxious to learn if this hag is responsible for the original colony disappearing, but...you're probably right. Going off half-cocked isn't going to help them. I agree. Bonetown should be next."
While on the way, Gideon tells Oorka all about their experiences on the island so far, showing her sketches out of his journal where appropriate.
Though Oorka can't see Gideon's sketches very well, she delights at his descriptions of their experiences.
It takes you all of one day and most of a second to traverse the island on your way to Bonetown. Aside from some benign sightings of local flora and fauna, no dangerous creatures impede your progress. In the late afternoon of the second day, you reach Ancorato's northern cape.
Jutting off the north coast here is a jumble of massive whale bones, stretching up like columns from the rocky shore. Tattered remnants of tarps, tangled nets, and the collapsed domes of underwater structures are all that remains of the former gillmen community.
Gideon gives a low whistle when he sees the bones jutting up from the earth. "Well, guess we know where it gets the name from now. Doesn't seem to be anyone home, unfortunately...but it also doesn't look like they took a lot of time to pack up, either..." he muses aloud, looking at the tarps and nets and domes.
"Well...Weyve, Terana...where do you think would be a good place to start looking around?"
"Hard to say..." Terana replies, looking sadly through the water. "If this is anything like back home though the vast majority of the village will be underwater. Probably there." She points with her glaive to the largest mound of bone protruding from the water. "That's likely the best place to start - I hope you don't mind swimming for a while!"
The small settlement contains fewer than a dozen structures, all built with frames of whale bone. The structures, similar to yurts, originally had canvas, hide, or some manner of woven material stretched across their bone frames. All seem to have been abandoned for some time, though there are no signs of violence. A well-trodden path leads from the settlement towards a nearby marsh.
As you search through Bonetown, Tobar spots the blurry form of a gaunt, insectile creature lurking among the ruins, doing its best to remain unnoticed as it watches you.
Tobar is quiet on the way to Bonetown, though he becomes visibly enthusiastic once he sees the massive whalebones. "That's quite a sight," he says. "Hey, these gillmen really knew how to pick a vista. I hope you're right and someone's still home underwater."
He lowers his head and tips his hat down slightly to shade his face and says, "Also, eh, we're being watched by some kind of... giant insect? Over there. No, that way, in the ruin."
"It is a nice view, isn't it?" Gideon answers. At Tobar's question, Gideon turns his head in the direction of his friends gesturing.
Gideon turns just in time to see the figure vanish in a puff of greasy black smoke.
"Well that's...curious. What did you see? Can you describe it for me? Use as much detail as you can. Either way, it seems something is spying. We need to be wary going forward." Gideon says to the others. "Our guest notwithstanding, there's nothing to stop us from continuing forward."
"A gaunt insectoid. It was blurry, like it was under a spell effect? An image for spying, maybe?"
Before they head out, Gideon gets Tobar to guide him to the area he saw the creature in so he can search the immediate ground for any evidence of what it might have been.
Unfortunately, the creature was likely hovering in the air the entire time it was watching you, as there is no trail or prints to study.
With no other ideas for the moment, Gideon sees no choice but to move on for now.
You follow the trail into the nearby marsh. Patchy, boggy wetlands wind their way through drier and firmer ground, though the terrain is unusual in appearance. The soil is darker than that of normal bogs and marshes, vegetation is brittle, and lifeless trees scratch at the sky like skeletal fingers. Tendrils of smoke curl from bubbling patches of the marsh, and the temperature rises noticeably. Across the marsh, a thin gray haze hangs in the air, stinking of pitch and coal.
Terana looks dubiously at the bog, so different from the free-flowing waters she calls home.
"How do we get across?"
"I think there's just enough dry land to weave a route through here without having to slog through the pools of water," says Tobar. "Single file, I suppose, but it beats getting mud inside your boots."
"I suppose this sin't the nicest water to swim in," Weyve says dubiously.
"But be careful," he says. "There are lots of things that like to live in swamps."
"Something alive might not be the biggest problem here...these ground conditions and the wisps of smoke coming up, and the haze on the air...I think there's something toxic underground seeping up. Breathing it in is likely not good for us. Even if it means going back to the colony first, we need to rig some kind of filter. I don't want to fight whatever's in there while also fighting the very air."
"That sounds sensible." Terana opinions. "No point going into a fight choking and half poisoned. The question is, how do we protect ourselves?"
"My immediate suggestion would be to rig some kind of facemask that uses charcoal to filter the air. They might be able to come up with something better at the colony though."
Oorka wrinkles her nose at the stench from the bog. "And I thought the fish people smelled bad!"
"For now we can just dampen a kerchief and wrap it over our faces. But something alchemical to help is probably a better idea," says Tobar.
"I'm not convinced a damp rag will be enough. We've no idea how long we'll be in that swamp once we're in it, and any fumes will be stronger once we're deeper in it."
"How far does it look like this? Could we fly over it?"
"I know a spell that can make someone weightless, allowing them to rise up into the air. If they did that, perhaps Oorka could pull them along."
"The spell will only last five minutes though. So the dangerous area has to be small enough that Oorka could tow us over it within five minutes."
"Look, this is a lot of swamp. Either we need to find a way around, or we head back home an' get an alchemist to whip up some antitoxins or some way for us to get through here," says Tobar. "Every time we've reached some remote part of the island there's been somethin' waiting to kill us, an' we don't wanna be all wrecked from huffin' poison gas."
"Makes sense." Terana says, with a sidelong look at Oorka. "We don't want to take any risks. Maybe Alba can make something for us?"
Deciding to come back when you are better prepared, you retrace your trail across Ancorato. You make it back to Talmandor's Bounty after a day and a half of travel. However, Alba Divenvaar's alchemist's shop has a sign on the door that says: "Closed Due to Lack of Reagants." Asking around reveals the dwarf shuttered her shop the previous day.
"Dang it! I guess we'll have to find Alba and get a list and go see what we can find," says Tobar.
"Let's look at the map and see if we can't figure out an alternate route. The swamp doesn't cover the whole island."
"I'm gonna hunt down Carver and get his feedback, too. If there's not an alchemical solution, there might be one of a different sort. I haven't gone to let Kulena know that we're back for a bit, either." he says, the thought of his girlfriend bringing a smile to his face.
Gideon finds Carver in his home, poring over the latest maps Lyra has brought in. He listens to the bard's description of the swamp. "Hmm, sounds dangerous. Antitoxin would probably be your best bet against poisonous fumes, unless you have access to magic that can clear the air." He consults the maps of the island. "You may be able to circumnavigate the swamp and approach it from the east side, but you may not be able to find the trail from that direction."
Meanwhile, Oorka looks around the colony in wonder. Several of the colonists regard her with the same curiosity. "This is where you live? It's so quiet! Where do you paint your histories and sing your songs?"
"That's my thought as well...do you think antitoxin would be enough to protect from the fumes? I'll check with Alba and see if there are any particular reagents that she's lacking in so she can open back up. In the meantime it might be worthwhile to see if the locathah have anything that could help us. Maybe they have some Delay Poison potions or something."
Tobar does his best to be a good host and says, "Oh, uh, that usually happens in the evening, in the 'public house' - where people meet to drink, talk, gripe, sing, all that kind of socializing. We don't have much painting... our histories we tend to write down in books. They're, uh, compact, easier to put a lot of information in. Certain people keep those books and records so that they can send copies abroad to other places, and keep them here as well for future generations."
"Here, come see my workplace. I'll introduce you to my apprentice. You'll like her. She's a walking work of art." Tobar gestures for Oorka to accompany him to the workshop where he turns poles and makes gears and springs, keeping an eye out for Machi.