Kal leans against the railing for a few seconds, breathing hard. "Luthor, you alright?"
Opal goes to check on her crewmates.
"Everyone still alive?"
"Yea, little weak, out of breath. But I'll be okay. You?"
Both crews help their mates that are tangled up in the vicious vines. A few were drained pretty severely but it looks like everyone will live. The cove is suddenly very quiet and still...
An inspection of the rudders reveal that they were damaged, likely during the sahaugin attack.
"Ooohhhh...The fishmen were setting us up for the tree to attack and making sure that we couldn't get away. How long do you think it will take for our crew to fix the rudders?"
Opal believes the crew can fix it, but it will take some time.
As the sorceress is considering the work involved the sun hits its zenith and the light of the afternoon fills the darkened cove. Suddenly the jungle cliffs come alive with patterns of shadow and light in a thousand fanciful, ever-shifting shapes. Once the sun has begun to set, the cliffs will return to their normal appearance, but for these few moments they are almost magical with this display of shadow art. In the shadowy half light, a group of caves and crevices on the cliff face takes on the appearance of a grinning skull. As the afternoon sun illuminates the shadow that resembles the skull’s mouth, a previously unseen glint of gold sparkles brightly in the sunlight, as if the skull has a gold tooth.
"Thar be loot!" Luthor yells pointing at the glint of gold. "I know what we're doing while they fix the rudders, Kal." He pats the swimmer on the back.
"Uhm...how about no?"
"I would rather wait until tomorrow 'cause I get the feeling that we will be needing all our spells. Plus it is afternoon now, so I say we rest up and get some sleep and head out in the morning."
Kal grins back at Luthor, then frowns in Opal's direction. He leans over and whispers in the Ulfen's ear.
"Thanks Kal."
"It's still light out and I feel fine. And besides, there might be more Sahaugin there. They'll just ambush while we sleep anyway. We should beat them to the punch."
Bjorkus tries to resist the urge to scratch his itchy plant scratches and focuses on Opal for a moment.
"Hmm... the enemy knows we're here. Even now they're preparing for our attack. It seems to me that we should strike while they're less prepared."
"Do you still have those wands? Perhaps they'll be useful here."
Kal nods soberly. "We certainly wouldn't want to be ambushed."
Sandara gathers the injured together again and channels again.
Leaving the crew to handle the repairs, the captains and officers set off for the glittering golden light.
After several minutes of rowing in a dingy, the party arrives at the foot of the cliff. A short but intense climb later, the 'gold' turns out to be a stack of raw pyrite ore, specifically placed to create the effect seen when the afternoon sun hit this wall.
Suddenly the words of the poem float through people's minds.
Climb the Captain’s wayward orb
To claim old king’s hoard...
"We need to climb to the eye."
"A wayward orb does sound like it should be the eye of the skull... which one, though, I'm unsure."
After they've climbed up, he joins Luthor in looking around.
Scaling the 'nose' of the skull carved into the cliff side reveals that both eyes are deeper caverns.
The cavern descends down sharply and comes to a tee. One direction descends further and terminates in dark still water. The other direction opens into a small room with a small cot, a couple empty shelves, and a small locked coffer. Someone was clearly living here but hasn't been here for a while.
Luthor takes a quick look around, tossing the locked coffer to Chubs.
A brief search of this room uncovers nothing hidden or new.
"Well... shall we check the other eye, or go for a swim?"
After examining the container, Captain Chubwart digs out his tools and picks the lock.
Inside the coffer are several coins and a few potions.
Bjorkus looks down at the dark water and snorts.
"Why don't you scout it out some first? You're a better swimmer than the rest of us."
Kal shrugs, hands his scroll bag to Bjorkus, and slips into the water noiselessly. "Back soon." He swims forward, keeping his eyes and ears open.
Kal quickly swims down the widening tunnel for about a hundred before signs of habitation begin to appear. Alcoves dot the walls of the cavern that Kal would assume function as sleeping quarters for the sahaugin. Eventually Kal comes to openings on either side of the tunnel, both of which open into large chambers. The main tunnel continues on as far as Kal can see.
Kal glances into the chambers cautiously, checking for any threats.
In the northern chamber a female humanoid with fish-like features (not a sahaugin) floats listlessly in the water. A sturdy chain is wrapped around her torso and anchored to the bottom of the underwater chamber. Her legs have been crudely removed
She doesn’t seem to notice you.
The southern chamber appears to be a barracks of some kind. Racks designed to hold tridents line the walls, most of which are empty. There’s nothing else of value in this room.
Kal sneak-swims past the chambers and continues down the passage.
Kal doesn't recognize the creature but he does know it's not a sahaugin.
Swimming further down, the tunnel opens into a huge chamber before swinging south again.
Inside the huge chamber, dozens of sahaugin spawn swim swim about or doze. Sahauagin eggs litter the ground where a massive female sahaugin watches over them. In the corner there's a group of a different kind of eggs.
Those are locathah eggs and after making that revelation, you realize that the maimed chained creature in the other chamber was a female locathah.
Kal turns and swims quietly back the way he came. When he comes to the locathah's chamber, he glances in again as if to be sure that he's identified her correctly, then swims on back to the others.
As he climbs out of the water, he speaks quietly. "There's a tunnel that goes down a ways to a sahuagin nursery... they have locathah eggs in there, as well, and there is a maimed female locathah chained in a room off the main tunnel before the nursery. There's also another tunnel that continues past the nursery, and an empty barracks."
"Why would they keep a maimed one around? Doesn't seem useful. Any guards?"
"Why would they keep a maimed locathah prisoner? And should we do anything else here?"
"Didn't see any guards. The barracks was deserted, and mostly empty. I'm guessing they're keeping her around for breeding; locathah only have one fertile female at a time in any tribe, so perhaps she was captured. I'm not sure why they'd want to breed them, though."
He glances over at Opal and shrugs. "I can go check the other tunnel if you'd like. It's not more than a half a minute's swim."
"That doesn't make any sense. But check out the other tunnel too. We'll wait here."
Kal hops back in and swims back toward the other tunnel, carefully avoiding the nursery.
Swimming past where he stopped previously, including avoiding the nursury, Kal comes upon another large chamber. This one appears to be a feeding hall as the remains of several locathah float about while a dozen sahaugin young tear at their flesh in a frenzy.
The tunnel continues further.
Kal continues down the tunnel, hoping the young sahuagin are distracted enough by their meal to not notice him.
Kal appears to be in luck as the juvenile fishmen pay no attention to him as he swims away.
Swimming further, the tunnel curves and opens into another large chamber. Two sahaugin are on guard along with a strange beast. It resembles a cross between a turtle and a crab, with flippers instead of legs, a snapping beak, and two pincers.
Kal has no clue what this creature is.
He also appears to go unnoticed.
Kal does not sneak into the room with the guards and the strange beast. Instead, he swims very carefully back to the others, taking care to disturb the water as little as possible with his passing.
"They're eating the locathah. There's a big feeding hall where young sahuagin are... having a meal. I stopped a bit farther along, where the tunnel passes through a large chamber... there were two guards and some kind of creature that certainly wasn't natural."
"That makes sense. So the big problem are two guards and some unknown sea monster. What'd it look like?"
The druid shakes the water out of his hair as he answers. "A bit like someone mixed a sea turtle with a crab, and then gave it a beak."
"But you didn't see anymore treasure down there though, right?"
"Shall we go back out and try the left eye now?"
" A turtle crab? Sounds like a challenge. Have you scouted out the whole place?"
Bjorkus nods and rumbles with thought at Kal’s description.
”It sounds like the place is half empty. If we’re gunna move, we should do it soon.”
”Opal’s right though. It couldn’t hurt to check out the other eye real quick. The legend says Wolfe kept his treasure here somewhere.”
Kal shakes his head at Opal. "Didn't see any treasure, though the locathah tribe might pay to have their only breeding female back..."
He looks over and nods at Luthor's question. "That's it... the tunnel seemed to continue past the strange creature, but it didn't seem wise to attempt reconnaissance while they were watching the entrance. I'm in agreement with checking the other eye."