The tunnel runs northwest for about two hundred feet and finally emerges at the bottom of a deep pool of water in the Mistmarsh.
Astraden checks around the bottom of the pool, then returns to the rest of the group, praying she won't catch a cold from all the swimming.
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"Hey, maybe if we sell it to a kind and loving person they'll raise it to be a good black dragon."
"And hey, if it doesn't turn out that way, we could even get paid TWICE! Once for the egg, the other for killing the thing once it becomes a problem." Farrukh smiles proudly and mentally pats himself on the back for such a brilliant and not at all evil idea.
"Is there a guarantee of that, Farrukh?" Carina looks between him and the egg. "Fine. And since it was YOUR idea, you can carry it."
The only thing Astraden notices is that there is almost no plant life in the pool, and it's a bit difficult to breathe. She doesn't know enough about plants to gauge more than that, however.
She returns to the egg chamber without incident.
Astraden surfaces, taking a moment to brush back her hair. "Carina, a lot of the plants in the pool down there are dead, and the water was hard to breathe. What could cause that?"
Carina ponders Astraden's question...
While he waits for Eben and the others to ponder out the best way to remove the egg, Tanith considers the whole situation.
"What did the dragon hope to gain out of hiding this thing down here and why hide it with empty chests? Is it possible someone got down here before us?"
"Maybe."
Farrukh flips the chests over just in case there's something underneath them.
Carina ponders Astraden's question...
[dice=Knowledge (Nature) *Action Point!* (Because Why Not?)]1d20+8+1d6
Carina doesn't know a massive amount about black dragons, but she's heard that they prefer swimming in "dead waters". The adults have an ability to corrupt water around them so it can sustain no water-breathing life.
"Don't know about the chests..." Eben says, carefully splashing his way back through the field of lizardfolk eggs, "But I'd bet you a platinum that putting her egg here is less about a sign of trust like Hishka said she'd claimed and more about giving her hatchling a plentiful supply of food. Maybe she didn't want to bother sitting on a nest, so she tricked the lizardfolk into letting her stash her egg here, with guards, and when the egg hatches, boom, all the lizardfolk eggs and babies a newborn dragon could want." He comes back out on the other side of the egg pool. "I'm going to go let Hishka know that we're done down here, see how she feels about our removing the egg from their lair."
"Well, Astraden, black dragons like swimming in 'dead water'--water that can no longer support water-breathing life." Carina says before turning to follow Eben. "Adult black dragons have the power to corrupt water around them to such a degree that it can't support aquatic life."
Once she notices the remaining chest, she stops. "Hang on a second..." She then makes her way over to the chest to examine the potions in it.
"Huh..." She picks up the nearest potion and looks at it. If Ilthane gave the lizardfolk these potions... and one of their tribe was afflicted with a parasite...
Time to give this a once-over.
At the mention of parasites, Tanith drags his feet well out of the water.
"You don't think they're in the water down here..."
Carina wrinkles her nose before stowing the four potions away in her haversack.
She then makes her way back to the chest by the egg and tries opening it.
The chest contains 5320 sp, 1,930 gp, 21 pp, and six dark glass vials—two containing orange fluid, two containing green fluid, and one containing red fluid.
There is also a small ring of dark metal.
Carina whistles appreciatively as she eyes the loot. "Let's gather up this stuff too!"
She eyes the potions with suspicion. "Guys, this might just be me, but after seeing how close that lizardwoman came to death from a parasite here, I'm inclined to not drink anything found here until it's been thoroughly examined." She gathers up the glass vials, carefully stowing them in her haversack as well.
"Anybody want this stuff?"
"Not until it's been thoroughly vetted," Cuetzpalli says.
This spell makes spoiled, rotten, diseased, poisonous, or otherwise contaminated food and water pure and suitable for eating and drinking. This spell does not prevent subsequent natural decay or spoilage. Unholy water and similar food and drink of significance is spoiled by purify food and drink, but the spell has no effect on creatures of any type nor upon magic potions. Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. One cubic foot of water contains roughly 8 gallons and weighs about 60 pounds.
While the others empty the chests and examine the potions, Eben wades (and swims) back up to the shaman's dwelling. "Velmane and his friends are dead,"he says, in common, letting Hrishka and Ahvid translate as needed for any non-liguist lizardfolk around. "And your eggs are all safe too. We're just wondering what you would have us do about the dragon egg."
Hishka frowns. "The tribe will have to move, for the deaths of her children will doubtless enrage the Black. We will not take that egg. It may attract her to us. Do with it as you will."
"In that case, we should destroy the egg. It will grow into a monster of unimaginable evil! Kord would spit on our faces if he saw us let a chromatic be born into Oearth, Tanith. We cannot sell it, we cannot leave it. If you want we can eat it, but that thing needs to die." Cuetzpalli says passionately. "I'm sure Spiny would love to eat it," he continues, "eggs are one of Spinosaurus's favorite foods."
Spiny cocks his head after hearing his name.
It will have the added effect of putting the mother onto our trail as well. Then we can slay her! the Olman thinks to himself satisfactorily.
"Ah..." Eben says, not having anticipated the tribe's willingness to move from their sculpted mangrove den. Well, it's more a guaranteed success than just playing the victim when Ilthane comes a-calling... And "Oh..." at the realization that Ilthane will likely be interested in the whereabouts of her egg at such time as she does came back for an inspection. "I'm sorry. I apologize for the inconvenience of relocating, but I do think all of this was for the best in the long run. And... if Ilthane comes after us and we manage to defeat her, we'll get word back to you that she's no longer a threat to you either." Eben gives a polite nod to Hrishka and heads back below to relay the news.
"Hrishka doesn't care what we do with the egg; they're already planning to move out of here anyhow, and they won't be taking it with them. So we can take it or just leave it to be abandoned. Say... it's kind of fat around the middle, but if we wrapped it up, do you think it would fit in Carina's backpack?"
"I doubt it." Carina cringes. "Still, glad to hear they're letting us deal with it."
Carina looks at Cuetzpalli with a pale face, surprised that he's so vehement on destroying the egg. ...he's not wrong... "Well, if we're going to do that, we should take it outside. I'd rather not risk hurting any of the lizardfolk eggs here."
"So, because it's intelligent, selling it for a hefty profit to someone who might want to raise a pet dragon is wrong. Killing the unborn intelligent dragon out of hand is okay though?" Eben throws up his hands. "Fine, whatever. I can't get it back to Greyhawk by myself, so if you guys want this thing smashed, it'll be smashed. Don't think that I won't be seeing lots and lots of platinum pieces with little angel wings flying away, though."
During the egg debate, Astraden checks out the chest beside it, then requests permission to examine the loot Tanith picked up earlier. "These bracers will give the wearer a bomb suit of invisible armor, and the trident . . . well Eben pretty much already IDed the trident. If you throw it it flies back."
"Believe me, I'm not happy about this either." Carina sighs, the weight of her chain shirt feeling heavier.
I think I need some lighter armour...
"If it were a metallic dragon, I'd have no problem with selling it or raising it ourselves. A chromatic is a different story. Tanith told me all about Kord, and he would not suffer a dark wyrm to live. I want to be like Kord, so...neither will I," the Olman explains. While his logic may be simplistic, there is no arguing with him from a moral standpoint.
Tanith shakes his head and puts a hand on the Olman's shoulder. "Kord delights in the conquering of dragonkin but there's no glory in the slaughter of whelps. Don't forget Brother, strength is the greatest virtue but strength abused makes a tyrant."
He nods to Carina.
"But if destroying the egg is the only choice we've got, lets move it outside."
Carina walks over and gives Tanith a hug. It's obvious to everyone how uncomfortable she is with this.
Tanith returns the undine's affection, sharing a bit in her discomfort.
"We don't need to move it. The lizard eggs won't be hurt if they get a little yolk on them," Cuetzpalli says. He swings his greataxe in an overhand, wood-splitter's chop and shatters the evil egg's shell, scrambling whatever embryonic dragon lay hidden within. He whips the axe to the side slinging the egg matter off the blade. "The distasteful deed is done. Now what, we get out of here? We still don't know where the worms are coming from."
Eben sighs a little as the egg crumbles to pieces, the bits of shell in his eyes almost looking like falling bits of gold and platinum.
"If your axe gets a new name added to it from this, it should be something like Poverty or Bankruptcy..." Eben says wistfully.
"Sorry, Eben," Cuetzpalli says sounding genuinely sorry. If only the world had no evil in, then we wouldn't have to do things like this.