Seaside 4: Where Every Week Is Shark Week

[Rebonack]

[Sea Cave]

There isn't a keyhole.

Not in the walls. Not in the floor. Not in the ceiling.

No, the keyhole is in a much more reasonable place.

In the center of the door.

At the back of the cave looms a door shining slick green in the light of Jack's torch, easily twenty feet tall in the suddenly much larger cavern just beyond the cleft. Its surface is covered in intersecting spirals, the design dizzying to the eye and drawing one's attention inexorably to the center. And at the center? A hole in the soap stone door perfectly sized for the silver key. Something about that door is deeply unsettling, as though it were radiating an almost nauseating sense of blasphemous wrongness. Especially that damnable spiral. There's no reason why something as innocuous as a spiral should evoke such feelings, and yet it does. Some deep, primal sense of unwholesomeness. That creepy feeling that something might be watching. That prey-fear of a lurking predator, just out of view.

Danger.

Does Jack push the feelings aside and use the silver key?

Or does she decide a few copper coins and berries are adventure enough for one day?

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

"Ah right. So apparently the ancient demon God died and his essence that corrupts, creates, and controls demons were put in a staff. That one got destroyed with the old Watchtower after a series of unfortunate circumstances, but there was a second one because of course there was." Ilpholin rolls her eyes and starts getting dressed nice and slowly as she explains. She always knew there was a second one of course, having discovered the initial lore in that cave years ago. It was just all split up and didn't seem like it was going to be a problem. Her thinking was messed up too much being a demon herself. Hell, for a while, she was contemplating ways to absorb the god staff into her own essence. Truly shameful.

"The second one is split up into three pieces though. As far as I know Vigil has one piece squirreled away in its vault. One, the core piece, we found and tried to destroy using dragon fire, but it got away? There's a route to follow anyways. I've just been trying to figure out how to check above and below water and collect enough supplies to see it through." Most of the money she has goes to maintenance and the silver trade. She is definitely living outside her means, it just hasn't caught up to her yet. It doesn't help Ilpholin hasn't been hired once and keeps doing her job for free. The nymph might have to go back to what she did for money when she first got to the Nexus, seducing NPCs and stealing their wallets while they sleep it off.

"The last piece is missing completely as far as I know. No idea where it is."

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will shakes his head.
”Your magic is great Tammy but I don’t think I want an imp for an arm.
Anyway, I’m seeing a really tall cliff, and another spot with a thorny tree that probably can’t hurt Titania but might catch on our gear...uh...
Uh, and some blue motes coming from the shore? Captain, was there ever a base here? Because it reminds me of an airfield, where we had the airships land. It might be pointing to a dock.” he suggests timidly, looking again to make sure he isn’t seeing things.
”Can you see them on your sensors, Titania? Over there.”

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Island

It feels weird and unsettling, and Jack hesitates a moment before putting the key into the lock and turning it. The designs are a little off-putting, and Jack thinks they're what's making her feel so disquieted. She's not going to be stopped by a door and a funny feeling, however, and will try to open the door. She's clenching her knuckle-duster tight, and adjusts her grip on the torch so it's ready to be swung like a club if necessary.

The feeling working on her prey-sense is making her nervous and skittish; she's half-tempted to adopt a slightly more monstrous shape by adding some bird-features, but resists for now. Jackdaws are quite bold birds, but aren't apex predators, unlike humans. Adding jackdaw features likely won't help.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Jack will feel the key catch on something inside the door, something heavy and ponderous as the mechanism twists within. Given that the key is made of silver, a fairly soft metal, one would expect that the amount of force Jack is exerting would bend it out of shape. But in spite of that, it does its job. With a dull thunk, the door is unlocked.

When Jack pushes on it she finds that it glides open at the slightest touch in spite of the fact that it probably weighs several tons. And beyond it-

It appears as though this cavern periodically floods with sea water, as slimy groves of sea palms are clustered on the slick floor, their fronds limp. Barnacles and muscles encrust the walls along with the occasional sea anemone or sea star. Bits of worm-eaten wood are scattered about, and the occasional metal piece of a ship corroded almost to the point of unrecognizably. Here and there limestone peaks through the sea growth, glistening in the light of Jack's torch. Water streams for the ceiling, pooling at the floor. At drips here, in stead sheets there. And somewhere in the depths, Jack can hear the roar of waves. The salty, acrid scent of decaying sea life will hit her like a wall.

The tunnel continues for some distance, faint blue light from eerie coral growths giving the corridor an otherworldly, shadowy level of illumination. Not from the door, face down in a pool of water with one arm reaching for the threshold, is a human skeleton. Its clothing has rotted away, though a sturdy oilskin pack on the corpse's back remains largely intact.

Jack could continue down the tunnel, stepping over pools of sea water filled with crabs and tube worms, or she might investigate the side chamber she'll quickly discover on her right. Its entrance has been barricaded with the ribs of some lost ship, its spongy surface covered in sharp barnacles. She can see something glittering in there...

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack isn't put off by death, and will grab the oilskin pack and have a quick look through for anything interesting or potentially useful. She'll either transfer the contents to her satchel, throw the whole caboodle over her shoulder or empty it and take only the pack depending on the quantity and quality of the contents. If it's ruined or filled with gross, she'll leave it behind.

Jack goes to the side-chamber first, but the sharp barnacles are a little disconcerting. The tiny crustaceans are irritating, and Jack will try kicking the boards in rather than pull them out. Her boots are pretty heavy-duty hiking boots, though not steel-toed ones, but should protect her feet.

[bc56]

Tower Island

As calmly as he can, the pirate captain says, "No thank you. I don't truck with witchcraft." It's clear from his eyes that he is quite afraid of the undead creature. He reaches for the weapons again, especially the fancy sword.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The pack is pulled from the skeleton easily enough, causing what little bits of connective tissue still holding it together to slough away. Now there's a pile of bones and an oilskin pack in Jack's hands. Within the pack? Well. It's actually quite dry in there, against all odds. There are three torches and some tinder, a small metal box half filled with rations, two small pouches stuffed with pungent smelling herbs, some grotesque little thumb-sized soap stone idols inlaid with gold, and a sturdy collapsible shovel. The handle appears to be extendable, and the spade can be fixed either in a horizontal or forward position, depending on what it needs to be used for. There's also a prybar head that folds out, too. This device appears to be a veritable Swiss army knife of breaking and entering. A small metal button is set at the end of the tool's handle, which may catch Jack's eye.

As for the barricade...

Kicking at it doesn't appear to work that well.

The wood looks like it should be little more than a spongy mass of rot, but it proves far more sturdy than expected.

If Jack wants to get through, she's going to need a bit more leverage.

Now... if only she had some kind of tool for digging and prying at things. That might come in handy.

[Earl of Purple]

Tower Island

"Of course you do! What do you think fuels the wind that fills your sails? What powers the sun that grows your crops? What drives the needle in your compass? Free me, and we can be as gods!" The sun heating air, which rises and sucks cool air into the new void, a nuclear reaction which started billions of years ago, and magnetism. Or, alternately, magic, magic and magic.

The hammer, shield and sword do not resist being picked up, though the hammer is pretty heavy. All three items are also enchanted, but not cursed. The hammer feels lighter to its wielder the longer a battle goes on, so it can be swung with full force for far longer than usual. The shield reflects ranged energy attacks back at the source, deflecting Magic Missiles, laser rifles and not being as effective against fireballs or other area effects. The sword grants the ability to walk on water.

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack takes it all, though the idols are a little grotesque. The shovel will immediately prove useful, as she uses it as a crowbar to pry open the entrance to the side-chamber. She'll press the button when she's finished opening the hole, in case it makes the head fall off.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Of course the idols are a little grotesque. That's the whole point of awful little idols.

Changes are they can fetch some coin, though the amount of gold in them is pretty minimal. Still worth something as art objects, though.

As for the shovel, it proves to be an invaluable tool for prying the worm-eaten chunks of wood out of the way. Thankfully this isn't Darkest Dungeon, because if it were then Jack's cool new folding shovel would have just broken for wholly unsatisfactory reasons. Once the barricade has been dismantled (which requires no small amount of effort, sweat, and grunting) Jack presses the button on the handle of the shovel.

This does not cause the head of the shovel to fall off.

No indeed!

Rather, Jack will suddenly find that she can't move the shovel anymore! It as though it has become completely fixed in space. Immovable, one might say.

Shovel shenanigans aside, the chamber is opens up before Jack. It's quite dark in here, much darker than the corridor with its eerie glowing coral, but as Jack's torch plays over the interior she'll be met with a scene of steadily cascading sheets of water, spongy orange growths encrusting many surfaces, a patch of sickly orange scum glittering iridescent in a shallow pool, and a glint of gold at the back of the room. From the size, maybe a gold coin? It looks to be lodged in a limestone fissure that water is cascading down.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Huh. That is useful. Jack will definitely keep the shovel. Even if she doesn't know what to use the ability to anchor it in place for yet. She'll press the button and hope that means she can move it now. Otherwise it's a bit stuck.

The gold coin is a little lonely, over there. If it is a gold coin. Jack goes to check it out, and maybe make it less lonely by putting it in her pocket. Maybe there's more, and she can rescue a whole family of gold coins from the lonely and dark cave.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Pushing the button again does in fact free the shovel from the anchoring effect. There's no telling when or how an immovable rod might come in handy, but they're something nice to have in an adventurer's toolkit none the less.

Regardless!

Jack reaches the fissure without much trouble and will quickly discover that yes, it is in fact a large gold coin. Unfortunately, she also finds a crab. The wholly unhelpful crustacean is clutching the coin, and skitters deeper into the crack when Jack draws near. Jack will need to find some way to pry it out, since simply grabbing and pulling doesn't appear to be an option at the moment. While trying to figure out the coin, Jack will find herself in a position where a little waterfall of seawater is cascading down over her head. It's ice cold and tastes bitterly of brine. Pretty distracting, all things considered. Amidst all the splashing and gargling of water, Jack may also hear an odd burbling, slithering noise behind her. Whether she notices this or not remains to be seen.

Surely it wouldn't be something dangerous.

Not a chance!

After all, there wasn't a skeleton just mere feet from the door scoured of flesh.

That sort of thing is quite natural.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack sees the crab and frowns. She wants that coin! And so does the crab. Hold up, she got some rations from the skeleton, right? Maybe she can sell the crab some food. She'll turn around and leans on the wall whilst she digs through the oilskin pack she's shrugging off her back as she does so to find the food to bribe the crab. She'll shine the torch back where she came as she swings, and keeps her eyes on what's illuminated, in case there's anything she missed.

If she sees something, she'll raise her new immovable shovel and try to look threatening, to scare it off.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

That orange puddle is moving.

What looked like a puddle previously turned out to be the top of... something. It looks like a large, leathery, oblong lump of flesh with bony plates visibly shifting around under its skin.. Its surface is covered in an iridescent sheen of orange slime oozing out of pores spaced evenly along its back. At the pace of a brisk walk, the massive gastropod begins crawling through the puddle it occupies, tracing along the path Jack took through the shallow water to reach the crab and coin bearing fissure.

There comes a repulsive splurt from the aquatic horror as a small fountain of orange slime spurts out of it, spattering across a sponge encrusted rock in thick ropy strands. Immediately the air is filled with an acrid stench and a sizzling sound as the slime begins eating through the marine growth.

Well!

There's a good chance Jack doesn't want to get vomited on by the giant chiton.

And it is currently too far away to hit with a shovel, though it is steadily drawing closer.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack hasn't been to the sea before. She's never seen a chiton. She does not want to get squirted, though. That's for certain. So instead she takes her eyes off it briefly and grabs some of the rations she's got, and will try to lure the crab out so she can give it the rations. Her aim is to convince the crab to take the rations with one claw so she can pull the coin out of the other, rather than deal with both of its little painful appendages.

She'll keep an eye on the chiton as she does, trying to divert attention from the crab to the chiton and keep focused on both. Obviously, this is tricky and she may get squirted or pinched.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

"Ah right. So apparently the ancient demon God died and his essence that corrupts, creates, and controls demons were put in a staff. That one got destroyed with the old Watchtower after a series of unfortunate circumstances, but there was a second one because of course there was." Ilpholin rolls her eyes and starts getting dressed nice and slowly as she explains. She always knew there was a second one of course, having discovered the initial lore in that cave years ago. It was just all split up and didn't seem like it was going to be a problem. Her thinking was messed up too much being a demon herself. Hell, for a while, she was contemplating ways to absorb the god staff into her own essence. Truly shameful.

"The second one is split up into three pieces though. As far as I know Vigil has one piece squirreled away in its vault. One, the core piece, we found and tried to destroy using dragon fire, but it got away? There's a route to follow anyways. I've just been trying to figure out how to check above and below water and collect enough supplies to see it through." Most of the money she has goes to maintenance and the silver trade. She is definitely living outside her means, it just hasn't caught up to her yet. It doesn't help Ilpholin hasn't been hired once and keeps doing her job for free. The nymph might have to go back to what she did for money when she first got to the Nexus, seducing NPCs and stealing their wallets while they sleep it off.

"The last piece is missing completely as far as I know. No idea where it is."

[Tropical Island]

Anika raises an overly long eyebrow when Ilpholin mentions that VIGIL is keeping one of the pieces. "'tis is a bad idea to keep demon artifacts for any reason, if VIGIL is keeping some demon-thing in a vault it will probably get corrupted or something. Anything exposed to them for a longer time usually are." She shakes her head. "But yeah, sounds like something that ought to be smashed as soon as possible. I'm with you all the way there."

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The giant chiton continues slowly inching forward, making a few false detours along the way. It almost looks like it is following a scent trail through the water rather than anything akin to sight or hearing. Judging from the last slime spurt, the chiton's range is somewhat limited. Maybe three meters or so. And given that the chamber is about ten meters across, it'll have to get a bit closer before it can slime Jack. But the thing is making good time, one way or the other.

And then?

Jerky!

Jack waves a little piece of jerky at the crab. Sure enough, it grabs the bit of meat with one claw and drops the coin to begin picking tiny crab-sized bites off to stuff in its mouth.

Jack has acquired a gold coin!

Huzzah!

She might want to move, though, because the giant chiton is getting steadily closer.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Now that she's taught the crab the basics of capitalism, if not the true value of gold, she tucks the coin into her pocket and assesses the chamber. Her satchel and clothing are enchanted so they change with her when she adopts a new form, but she doubts the oilskin pack has the same property, meaning it won't shift with her. Her shapeshifting is a super-natural ability, rather than a magical one, so it literally only affects her. She'll transfer as much into her satchel as she can before tossing the as-empty-as-possible pack as far as she can past the chiton. Then she'll put the torch in her mouth and start to turn into a jackdaw, so she can see where she's going as she flies past to where she threw the oilskin and turn back.

[UncleWolf]

Operation Sea Slug

Titania hadn't expected there to be a possible air field here, but just in case she turns on her radio to try and catch any oncoming signals just in case. "We can worry about the field later. I would not risk climbing at the tree however since I do not want to risk vegetation breaking under my weight. So if you can get us close to those cliffs, I can fire a line and carry Sam with me and then carry him up the cliff face. At the top I can try and anchor a better line and set up climbing gear for others. Possibly even a lift system for us to get equipment ashore." She reasons.

Once they do get close enough to the island, her chest splits open, revealing a multitude of gunbarrels before one fires. A metal cable stretches from the point where it hits the cliff to her chest, and she takes time to remove the line so she can tie it around the ship's mast or the strongest beam that she can find on the deck. "Climb aboard, Sam. And I can probably carry one more small person with me."

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Now one coin richer, Jack makes her daring escape from the deadly giant chiton!

Flying past is proves to be simple enough, it doesn't even react to her. And a few seconds later, when it gets within two meters or so of her previous location, it begins vomiting strands of sticky acidic goop all over the area she was standing in. No doubt it would have been VERY bad for her if she had stayed there.

Might have ended up as random skeleton number two.

And that would have been just terrible.

So!

What's next?
She has acquired a nice little pile of trinkets and one really handy magical tool. Is she going to be content with the baubles she has, or press her luck and delve deeper?

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack grabs the oilskin pack, swings it over her shoulder and transfers the torch from her mouth to her hand, after she's shifted back to human. Then... Then she's going to continue on. She's got useful stuff, and a bit of money, but there's more here and she's curious as a crow.

She'll keep her torch on and in front of her and descend deeper into the cave, Immovable Folding Shovel held in hand in case she needs a weapon.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Forward it is, then.

Across slick stones and barnicle encrusted rocks. Though pools of brine, some deep enough to reach Jack's chest. Around the ruined skeletons of ships, wormy with holes. Past scuttling crabs and groping anemones. Through low arches, eroded as though by waves, and yet all bearing those unwholesome spiraling patterns. Nothing within the cave suggests the hands of any intelligence. The spiraling symbols are clearly enough natural in their origin. But nothing so precise should be born of pounding waves. All around comes the drip of water. The rush of brine. In slow pinks. In drenching curtains. All as icy as the lightless, crushing depths of the open sea.

This accursed water. It seems to suck the heat from Jack's body.

Jack will soon be confronted by another skeleton.

Or, no.

Not a skeleton this time.

A dismembered heap of bones.

A pile of bleached remains laying discarded in a long, shallow pool with a sandy bottom. Odd, that there hasn't been any sand thus far. But now that Jack has found it, she has discovered another less fortunate adventurer, as well. Even from this distance it is clear there's something... wrong with them. Teeth are too long and narrow. Little bony projections stick from the remains here and there. It would be possible to detour around the pool. Or to simply be a bird and fly around it. But... something's down there, buried in the sand. Something that glitters in Jack's torchlight.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack does not like water very much, so she'll try to walk around the puddles where possible and wade only if she has to. She's not great at swimming, but she'll persevere anyway- so long as her feet can touch the bottom, holding her torch high above her head because water plus electronics equals darkness. She'll fly if possible, because if she gets wet, her feathers will also be wet and won't work so well at keeping herself aloft.

The skeleton's creepy, but it doesn't scare Jack... Though were she a more experienced adventurer, she'd wonder what had ripped the bones apart. She's already super wet, so she doesn't really hesitate before reaching in to pull out whatever it is that shines in the light of her torch.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

As soon as Jack touches the shiny object she is met with an explosion of seawater and a billowing cloud of sand as a limb lashes out of the pool and attempts to fasten tight around her arm with two pairs of very unfriendly looking jaws!

Out of the sand rises a... fairly horrible looking thing.

It may have been human at one point, but at this point it is anything but. Her skin is clammy and pale, hair replaced with iridescent spines. Where eyes, ears, and nose should be there are instead long, fleshy feelers waving this way and that. A toothed tendril, the thing that attempted to grab Jack's arm, protrudes from her mouth, forcing it wide to the point that her jaw appears to be dislocated. In some places her skin has been replaced with folds of sandy gold flesh, glittering with iridescence as light plays off innumerable venomous hairs. One arm is twisted and bend, the other replaced with another toothed tendril below the elbow. Clothing has long since rotted away, and now she's clothed in sea weed and sand that clings to her mutated flesh.

Should the jaws clamp down on Jack, she'll find herself subjected to venom that paralyzes voluntary muscles. Not something that would kill outright, but it would leave her sluggish at best and immobilized at worst.

And immobilized would probably mean getting eaten by the horrible worm-faced abomination.

Fortuna has said fish people!

Bristle worm people are NOT fish people!

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

That is a horrible looking thing. The monster missed Jack's arm, but not by much- it's ripped her sleeve, but not her skin. Jack pulls herself back as far as she can, changing as she goes. A massive black beak erupts from her face, replacing mouth and nose as black feathers erupt from her back, arms and legs. Despite the changes to her face and addition of (rather waterlogged) feathers, Jack's not going full bird, just adopting a shape partway between the extremes of 'human' and 'jackdaw' to try and be as intimidating and horrific as Ms. Bobbit here. She caws loudly and raises her shovel high as she attempts to bring it down as hard as she can on the bristle worm-person, aiming for the head but just hoping to hit. Jack's not especially strong, built more for endurance and dexterity than brute force, but she's driven by fear and shock and adrenaline.

She looks a bit like a kenku, though she isn't one, and her ripped sleeve is currently feathers right now but won't be repaired by the magic imbued within it.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The worm thing doesn't give a cry of pain as the shovel mashes into the nest of sensory tentacles growing out of her face. In fact, it probably can't even make noises. Apart from a sickening metal-on-flesh noise along with a grinding of something harder under the spongy worm meat. The horror staggers back a few steps, the tentacles on the left side of its face ruined, and then quickly burrows under the sand again, vanishing in a cloud of swirling debris.

Well!

Jack has discovered why that skeleton was so violently dismembered.

Might be a good idea to look out for corpses in the future. Be a bit more cautious around them.

Once buried, all Jack will be able to see of the worm-monster are a few glittering patches of its sandy golden skin. The very thing that had enticed her to poke the horror to begin with.

Creeping around the sandy pool should be easy enough. The crevice is only about a meter wide with rocky shelves flanking it and taking up the other two meters of the corador's width. The rocks are encrusted with flat, fan-like growths of pinkish coral and innumerable barnacles. Water cascades down the walls, over the stone, and into fissure where the worm person lurks. It would probably be easiest to use the bare patches of rock to walk on, but they're covered in those strange swirling patters. About ten meters down the hall the sandy pool ends, but everything beyond it is obscured by a thick curtain of sea weed hanging from the ceiling.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack turns back to human as the creature recoils, panting heavily as the shock wears off. Jack makes a note to try and avoid corpses, and will step around the pool to avoid getting attacked, stepping on the weird spirals. Naturally unnatural spirals are a lesser concern than creepy bristle-worm people.

Jack will poke the seaweed curtain with her shovel, when she reaches it- assuming the spirals haven't infected her mind with madness by then. She'll try to part it so she can see whatever lies beyond, if anything. Hopefully it's not just a bare stone wall. If the only way forward is down the bobbit-lady's fissure, Jack might just go home with her handful of copper, lonely gold coin, magic shovel and new rucksack.

[bc56]

Tower Island

The captain hands the hammer to the helmsman, then the two pirates are gone in a flash, up the stairs to the roof. They didn't want to stay in a room with a scary talking skeleton any longer.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

As yet Jack's mind doesn't appear to have been infected with any degree of otherworldly madness. At least none that she's been able to notice thus far. But that's sort of the problem with evil memes, isn't it? You don't notice that the forbidden things are warping your perceptions and your behavior. Maybe that's why people plumbing the depths of blasphemous eldritch catacombs typically travel in teams of four. Because then if someone starts acting strangely (or growing tentacles out of their eyes like the poor bristle worm person) their team members will notice.

If Jack were to never return from here, would anyone even be aware that she was gone?

She reaches the seaweed curtain without being attacked by anything else and ever so carefully uses her shovel to pull back the veil to discover-!

A bare stone wall.

Well, not totally bare. It's covered in those dizzying patterns and appears to be an inlay, of sorts. The surrounding limestone has been sheered away, making space for a massive oblong slab of green soapstone. Where the two stones meet, there's a seam of liquid gold. A golden ring encircling the soapstone slab. It ripples and flows, hissing and releasing steam as brine drips against it. Even from a good four meters away, Jack can feel the heat radiating from it. There are strange, roughly conical mineral growths in the deep pool near the base of the slab, belching out glittering black clouds and liquid gold that flows up into the seam. Bone white tube worms cluster around the mineral stacks which are crawling with fuzzy crabs, brittle stars, and disquieting looking eels. Every now and again an errant bit of sea life gets too close to the stacks and is boiled to death.

Should Jack peer into the pool, she'll be able to see the water rising out of it and pouring down two side tunnels, one to the east and one to the west. The pool itself, save for the mineral stacks growing from its walls, appears to be a bottomless black abyss.

It's a strong possibility that trying to dive into the pool would be unwise.

From the western tunnel, Jack will be able to hear a sound not unlike a massive drain, water crashing and gurgling as it pours into the depths. The smell of brine and pickled meat is overwhelming.

From the eastern tunnel, Jack will be able to hear the roar of waves breaking upon rocks and the cacophonous din of brooding sea birds. The smell of rotting fish and guano is overwhelming.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Anika raises an overly long eyebrow when Ilpholin mentions that VIGIL is keeping one of the pieces. "'tis is a bad idea to keep demon artifacts for any reason, if VIGIL is keeping some demon-thing in a vault it will probably get corrupted or something. Anything exposed to them for a longer time usually are." She shakes her head. "But yeah, sounds like something that ought to be smashed as soon as possible. I'm with you all the way there."

[Tropical Island]

"Right? Ilpholin enthusiastically agrees. "And I told them as much. Still, I mean it's not like they haven't tried either. It turned out questionably with one piece already. And they keep getting distracted by lesser non-demon things." Like duels or something.

A thought strikes Ilpholin. "Hey you're in VIGIL right? How high up? Maybe you could sneak that piece out and we can destroy it ourselves."