Elgan pats the baby dolphin gently and translates back and forth for both sides.
'That is perfectly alright little one. Just save all your excitement for when your swimming to your family! You may sing as much as you like then!'
"Iz alrigh' chere'." He says in common. "He'z jes' a lil' 'cited dat's all. Le's go. Deh sooner we kin git him back in deh ocean, deh happiah ah'll be."
He goes to Beldan and thanks him again. When Beldan mentions he doesn't like bullies, he grins sardonically.
"Remin' meh not tah pick on any body when yer aroun' den chere'!" He laughs.
You guys make it down to the end of the southbound tube; it's just a short hop skip and a jump from your position. You pass sahuagin on the way never in sets more or less than 5-10; nobody bats an eyelash that they don't have to bat in the first place....the end of the tube decends into frothing saltwater, which dips down about 50 or so feet to a hole through which sunlight filters. A brace of three sahuagin emerge from the water, hesitant like you just might have the jump on them, then files past your group. Nobody else is around.
“Anyway, with all these fish-men about, we can’t just let the little guy go here, he’ll probably just get caught again, or eaten straight up. Someone better swim out a little way with him, make sure he’s alright.” The young rogue looks about expectedly, especially at Elgan, then sighs. “I suppose I can go too … if someone else does. I have this necklace which means I don’t need to breathe, and this ring that helps me swim pretty good…”
Elgan smiles at BEldan.
"T'anks Chere'. Ah kin manage frum heah. But yer welcome tah come along if'n yeh wan'." He tells Beldan and Altai. To the baby Dolphin he leans close and says,...
'Alright now little one. I am going to change shape so that I can swim with you, and make sure that get out of here safely. Please do not be afraid. When I change, I will have to take the shape of Something scary. But I am only here to help you, I promise that no one will eat you while I am around. Alright?'
After reassuring the dolphin, he wades into the water with it, and changes into a shark, circles around a few times, then changes back. He tells both the others AND the baby dolphin,...
"In fac', if'n we run inta any udder patrols, AH'll jes' ack liahk ah'm chsing deh doplphin, an' you kin ack liahk yer chasin me!"
Elgan pops in the water; the tube goes down 50 feet and opens into the lagoon. The baby dolphin heads straight for ocean; there's two or three sahuagin milling about; he dodges them.
Elgan spot d.c. 10
Elgan shark approaches the little opening out to sea and the baby dolphin goes for it. Coming toward the opening, he sees
They ignore the baby dolphin, and seem to be ignoring Elganshark...
"Pip, is I not ugly? The tribe say I had face like bag of adjustable hand tools and mother never disagreed. Nor father." Oso whispers a bit too loud.
Pip reassures Oso
"Never you worry Oso, your sword arm is a beautiful thing, that's for sure. And with me writiing your exploits, you'll be famous enough to swim in tavern wenches!"
"Bye-bye, be careful." Elganshark says as the baby dolphin boogies for the open sea.
"Babies are soooo cute,..." He muses as he notices that the pirate ships are gone. "Hmmm, I should tell Altai and Reise. They may want to attack the remaining pirates while the ships are gone. Hm. I wonder if that's why they wanted us to explore for them so badly, to keep us out of the way of whatever they have planned?"
Elganshark turns around to head back, and sees the swimming figures.
"OCEAN!" He roars happily, forgetting that he's currently a shark, and his current smile is probably less than comforting at this point,...
Edit-
One of them says, "what the f~+% are you talking about?"
Another one gives you the time and date in some obscure reckoning that doesn't jive with yours...no common years, not elf years, something about the 15th day of the Coldsurf in the 527th year since Kreegak's Ascension to the Throne of the Bloodcoral.
"why does he want to know the date?"
"Beats me; fishheads are weird."
Elganshark zips up the tube, breaking out of the surf and shimmering to 'Fishhead' appearance as he lands in a spray.
"All deh boats iz gone!" He pants as he catches his breath. (Switching back and forth from breathing water to air isn't as easy as it sounds.)
HE notices Ocean and the others staring at the others, and realizes that Ocean doesn't realize that it's them with the spell-disguises on. He starts to say something, then pauses,... something's not quite right,...
His head turns sideways as he realizes that Ocean shouldn't know who they are, but they don't seem to be alarmed at facing 7 armed and armored 'fishmen'.
“Huh? Oce …ooohhh… I get it.” Beldan turns to Gittik and mutters. “Yeah, she must be one of those Melinksi – whatever – sahuagin that look like sea elves. You know, the priestesses? Not the sea cat bum ones.”
Beldan, steps forward towards ‘Ocean’, his best Sahuagin shark-tooth grin forward. “Hello. I’m Beshkik … kik. We’re new here, we um, came to bask in the glorious darkness of our demonic patron, praise his name! Thought we’d shake things up a bit too, we killed that blue giant guy in the temple – see, that’s his head over there. We heard there was some sort of reward? Oh and Sencho, he’s just some pitiful human pirate that we are going to cut up into small pieces, then burn the pieces, then feed the pieces to a fish, then kill the fish and eat it next time we see him…”
Elgan stares at Ocean as what she is finally sinks in. He smiles his best toothy Disguised grin at her.
"Nice, to, eat,... er,... Meet, choo." He pronounces very slowly and carefully. A shark-like grin frozen almost in a rictus on his face.
As the others 'introduce' themselves to OCean, ELgan sidles up next to Oso. He whispers softly to the priest,
"Yeh, AH'm sayin dat we jes got our new toy took by our pirate pals. An' be car'ful whut yeh say, she ain' wha' she look like. She think we really fish-faces."
"You,.....lot.....killed the Flayed Lord? You are a great addition to the fold."
Scrutinizing a second, then....
"Some more eggs are probably ready. I want you lot to take some of them to the Island. Come with me if you would.....bring your trophy, if you like."
She saunters up the tube back in the direction from whence you all came. Her entourage of five sea elves (doubtless that actually, at this point in the game) follows her.
Oso nods at the druid. "I be slow to take this up but I see now. We go with this lady to see what is going on."
"Me, I be Pip's little brother, Clawed. An' you comin'?" he points at Gittik. "Time and place man. It is coming but not yet. You will get your chance but when the brainy ones have finished chatting with the sea-girl."
Elgan looks back to Altai and Reise, and at Beldan, looking even more confused. (Although for a Saguahin face that's a pretty good trick.)
He whispers in the cluster, "Yeh, now ah'm cornfuzed. Is dis really Ocean? An' if so, is she really wit' deh devil worshippers? Or iz it jest a look-alike?"
He glances over to where Ocean and her followers disappeared into the sea. If'n we gonna follow, we need ta do it now. Ya'all git yer gills on, an ah'll tell 'er yer fightin' over who gits ta carry deh trophy." He says. And after waiting for any last minute words from anybody, dives down the hole, shifting into a shark as he slides,...
"I'll carry the head." Altai shoulders Big Blue's ugly mug. "The 'sea elf' is not Ocean, but just a sahuagin that looks like her, and the same goes for her friends. More importantly, nobody took our ship; keep in mind that we are...ah..., um, we are sometime else. The boats won't even be here for many, many years yet. You need to get your time-traveling sensibilities right." He shuffles up the tube. "Now, let's get going."