Thren blushes a bit at the word 'company', her face almost as red as her cat's eyes. She opens her mouth to say something-anything-but just smiles shyly and clams up.
"Sefina, are there any other creatures on this island? Or resources such as stone or lumber? The waters seem to be teeming with food at least." The wizard asks politely.
"There is stone aplenty. You could quarry it or steal it from the cyclopes. They have some big towers scattered around."
Her eyes travel up the hill toward the palms. "I'd be careful with looking for lum-ber. The trees have guardians who have no love for those of flesh and blood."
"The trees have guardians? Sal, would you-" Ekote spins to Sal, who is still laboring under the fey's influence. He turns to Sefina.
"Sefina, is it possible for you to not entrance my captain and colleague?" The water mage asks politely.
"Sorry, it's not what I do, it's who I am. But...ah, yes, Sal, is it? Why don't you take a few steps up the beach?"
Sal is eager to please, especially someone so pretty who is speaking so kindly to her. So she marches up the beach dutifully. "Is this okay?"
As she turns and looks, she feels a little less overcome. She flushes, this time more embarrassed at her behavior. She certainly doesn't stop finding the nereid attractive but finds herself more able to concentrate. "Uh, was there somethin' else you wanted me to do?"
Thren giggles at Sal's tromping up the beach but keeps otherwise focused on Sefina.
"No, darling. That is fine. You just stand over there for a while. And Captain, why don't you join her. I think you will find it clearer to think over there."
Thren giggles, stars in her eyes, and walks over by Sal. Her mind clears up a bit and she turns as red in the face as her eyes.
"That should do, thank you Sefina." The water mage nods his thanks. "Sal, would you know anything about tree guardians?"
The two creatures Sal can think of that most fit that description are dryads and treants. Dryads are more tree spirits than tree guardians, but who knows how this pretty water fey thinks.
"Uh, tree guardians like walking trees, or pretty girls--less pretty than you of course--who're sorta woodsy?"
"Probably walking trees. Pretty girls would've circulated as stories by now. Also, walking trees might kill people who learn about them, which fits our luck."
The mage takes this in. "Are there any other troublesome denizens about the island, or is the island limited to the cyclopes and the fort and tree guardians Sefina?" The mage asks politely.
"Uh, tree guardians like walking trees, or pretty girls--less pretty than you of course--who're sorta woodsy?"
"I appreciate all you're telling us, Sefina. We want to be sure whatever we do here it doesn't disrupt your living here. Is there anything we should be sure to avoid hurting or damaging or taking?"
"Uh, tree guardians like walking trees, or pretty girls--less pretty than you of course--who're sorta woodsy?"
"Like walking palms, not girls as all. We'd get along better if they were sorta woodsy girls."
The mage takes this in. "Are there any other troublesome denizens about the island, or is the island limited to the cyclopes and the fort and tree guardians Sefina?" The mage asks politely.
"I don't spend much time in the interior of the island, but there's all sorts of animals that can hurt you by land or sea. And some various winged monsters, harpies, gargoyles, something like that. They stay away from me. There is a kelp forest to the south of the easter part of the island. I think you folk grow plants in the ground, for eating. It's like that. Feel free to go there, but don't go messing it up."
The wizard thinks, staring out towards the open sea. "I can think of nothing else, Riori, can you?" He turns to Sefina. "I appreciate the time you've taken to enlighten us to the nature of this island. Thank you. Perhaps we can repay you in time."
"Let's be friends, then. Even good friends. And keep your wits about you."
Thren's face turns red one more time, from embarrassment at the comment of keeping one's wits about them. "Sal, Riori, unless you have some other questions, I think we should keep going. Plenty of island to look at right?"
Sal nods eagerly at Sefina, "Yes, friends, absolutely!" She points down the beach in the direction they had originally been heading and heads off.
When the party regroups and she feels they are far enough out of earshot from the nereid's grove, she says to the others, "Ya know, I think she liked me!"
Riori thanks Sefina with a genuine and grateful smile and joins the party.
"I think she liked you too Sal." Thren agrees with a smile.
The southward pointing peninsula between is a mangrove lowland, dry at low tide and submerged at high tide. Many birds nest here, and the noise of them is as loud as the waves.
The whole inlet surrounding O is choked with a thick kelp forest. Crabs move about at the surface, and seals gambol through it.
"Keep your eyes open. I like crab as much as the next tiefling, but I don't want to get surprised by one coming up out of the sand. Especially one of those that eat sharks. Let alone ships." The tiefling comments.
There isn't much of interest other than a potential food source.
To the south, a mess of driftwood lies scattered and broken on these rocky shoals, continually battered by the crashing waves. Seabirds roost among them, their calls eddying upon the wind.
You would bet there is a ship sunk out there.
The shoals you are looking at are about 1000 feet off shore.
"I was first mate on a salvaging ship for several years. That's a wreck if I ever saw one," Sal says. "I can swim out there in a couple minutes or so. If I see somethin' of interest I can signal."
Sal claps Ekote on the shoulder. "Ya wanna join me? We can go fer a quick sprint so ta speak"
Riori nods. "Can't hurt for them to look. What do you think, Captain?" She turns to Threnody. "If they find something that requires a bit of diving, I can cast an air bubble on us to help if needed."
"It's a plan. Go for it you two." Thren agrees to Sal's plan.
"We would be the best suited for this bit, I think. Let us hope though that there are no great octopi about." The Caldaru man grins. "Maybe we can swim a lap to see who is truly the best in the water while we are at it?"
Riori groans audibly. "Could we maybe save the posturing for after we're not searching an island of scary haunted cyclops doom?"
Sal is about to agree to Ekote's challenge when Riori interjects. "Uh... maybe she has a point. Racin' around a reef'd likely draw attention from more giant hunters anyways. But soon as we get this place settled, yer on."
After any further conversation is established, Sal puts anything that might rust into her haversack (primarily three of her four daggers) and slides her goggles down and dives into the water.
The mage smirks and throws himself into the water after Sal with a bright smile, taking to water as if it were his home.
The water is warm and tropically clear and blue. You make your way easily to the rocky shoals, avoiding being pushed into them by the waves. Hundreds of fish of prismatic colors dart about, moving back and forth as the waves push and pull. Long skinny eels stretch up from holes, waving like grass in the wind.
A sizeable ship, obviously lured onto the shoal and gutted from beneath, lies on the sandy floor just beyond the rocks.
The shoals are obvious. You can't imagine any captain worth their salt would have run aground here.
"Shall we search the hold, then move throughout the ship?" Ekote suggests. Underwater, he seems remarkably at ease.
Sal swims about halfway back to signal to those waiting on shore that they've found something.
Riori asks Threnody, "What do you think, Captain? Shall we join them? I'll be honest, despite living in the Shackles for a few years now, I'm not much of a swimmer. I grew up on rooftops, not waterways. But I've got the air bubble spell and I trust Ekote... and Sal, I guess, to get us out of trouble before it would run out."
"Cast the spell. One thing I've learned is that it's never a good idea to divide your forces. This is just letting them have a bit of fun first. Ekote seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Sal..might stir up a reefclaw nest." Thren laughs.
"And she'd do it for fun. Although in fairness to her, I expect she'd be the first to jump in front and take the bites. I'm not sure that's any comfort though."
Riori casts air bubble twice, on herself and Thren.
Ekote descends to the wreck. A massive tear in the hull, no doubt from the rocks above, makes it clear how the ship came to be here. Hatches on the main deck hang open, suggesting that the crew didn't have time to slow the sinking of the ship.
Ekote and Sal enter the hold of the ship, finding that the interior planks are heavily rotted. The whole thing is ripe for collapse. In the hold is an abundance of ruined silk and a few remains of fruit that has otherwise been picked over, the remains of rotten barrels looming like broken teeth.
Partially buried in wreckage is a strongbox that looks to be in unusually good shape.
The mage points out the strongbox. "Let's get this back to the surface before we open it." He suggests mildly. "Continue the search? Perhaps the cabins retain something of value?"
"Let's get this to shore, I think. Then open it. We know where the wreck is, so if we want to explore after we check this out, we can swim back."
Sal retrieves her rope of climbing and commands it to tie each end to the strong box's handles and then uses that set up to tow it out of the water and drag it to shore.
As Sal secures the chest with her rope of climbing, the sand explodes in a cloud. A strange creature the size of a small whale with a pair of powerful flippers, a head like a piranha, and the body of a giant grayish-black seal, complete with a razor whiplike tail.
"Can't even loot a shipwreck in peace around here. I wonder if it knew the octopus?"
Thren swims towards the strange creature, drawing her sword as she comes.
Then's movement catches its eye, and it switches from pursuing prey to defending itself.
It lunges forward, agile underwater like a seal, its piranha like maw snapping down on empty water as Thren moves aside.
Sal is too surprised to come up with the name of the creature, but she knows it's something she wants to stab, and in the end, isn't that all that matters?
"Just pretend it's an owlbear that swims!" She says helpfully, but she gestures to the others in a way that directs timing of attacks that is actually helpful if you pay attention to her.
As both her hands were already grasped around the rope, she tries to swing the strongbox into the creature's head.