(OOC: You are welcome to take some of the cooked bird for the road, in case some of you would venture eating it on the next day. Smoking the meat would take much longer than just one hour/short rest. Is the group willing to wait? If so, and with a couple of rolls, you could create your own rations this way as there are plenty of poultry about. If going through with this option, then let's call it a survival check. Proficiency in cook's utensils may be applied to the roll.)

The group makes peace with their meal and its ability to keep an intelligent conversation before death. After Hun's purification and Rhogal's cooking, the meal turns out to be quite pleasant to the palate. So much so that they consider spending the necessary time to smoke some of it for the trip ahead.

Hun shares most of what he learned from studying the battle spoils with the rest of the party, even surrendering the glass sphere to Kairus. Other than eating and adding a few words to the conversation, the bard spends a good chunk of the break playing a soothing song. (Hun recovers 6 HP; Yulmiath recovers 13 HP; and Rhogal recovers 22 HP.)

It is now mid-afternoon (after the rest.) There is about an hour left in your trek northwest to High Horn.

(OOC: The question about preparing rations need to be answered before we move forward. Is there anything else you'd like to do as the short rest ends?) 

(OOC: Strictly speaking, cooking a relatively small chicken takes more than an hour too and we had a huge bird. But I am all for simplification. And for long rest too if others are willing. Maybe a compromise? To set up the smoking chamber and leave to investigate? Good with any option!)

Despite all instincts to avoid so much as glancing in the direction of the sun, Hun bit the bullet towards the end of the rest, gauging the time, and then looked thoughtful for a moment. "Not too much time left. But, consider'n it'll take us a day to get back to the tortle village anyways -- day and a half, if truly unlucky -- might as well smoke the rest, assuming any of you are good at that. Haven't been part of any cooking staff for a good many years. But, I can provide some tips here or there, if any of you are a mind to try. Otherwise, best we be off. We've already burned enough day light dealing with those miscreants."

(@Blue: I am more than happy to call this a 2 or 3-hour short rest so we can make sure the Eblis meat achieves the proper internal temperature. 😁)

(OOC: I'm basing this post partially on information from recent posts in the OOC Chat. I'm also using @MB's earlier survival check to inform this post.)

If any meat smoking is being done, the group decides to do it away from the current location. Yulmiath reminds the party that the remaining Eblis may try something stupid should they linger, since it knows the party's current location. A still-distracted Hun agrees, mentioning the group should do any extended resting and/or cooking after arriving at High Horn. Kairus seems flexible regarding the location of their temporary smoke chamber, and so, the group begins to pack up and move.

Yulmiath leads the group during the last leg of their trip northeast. By the time they arrive at the tip of the island, the sun is already just a finger or two above the horizon.

Standing atop a rocky crag at the northernmost tip of the island, facing northwest, is a thirty-foot-tall stone statue of a turtle-like humanoid with a large stone horn held up to its mouth. Below the monument (down a cliff) is a stretch of sandy beach covered with shells. Black, moss-covered rocks jut from the water like teeth worn down by time. Just beyond these “teeth” are several barnacle-covered shipwrecks. Beyond the statue, at the very last bit of earth before the cliff begins, a lit campfire is set up. 

Smelling the burning wood before he spots the campfire, Yulmiath reasons that they may be able to parlay their way to a spot around the fire, especially as they likely have enough Eblis meat to share with whoever set the fire.

"Might be we get a chance to cook up some food earlier than we thought. Whoever set this fire can't be too far away."

Scanning the surrounding area, he attempts to spot whoever's fire this is. 

Perception - 11

During the lunch Kairus, like a child for whom the orb was meant, played with the thing entertained by the swirling mist inside. "Fun toy," concluded he finally, placing it in his backpack. "Might make a fine present too. Wander who was it meant for." It was unlikely he would ever learn the answer, of course, but who knows.

"Ha! I think we found out humans!" Sure, that particular campfire could be started by other of survivors - the "teeth" did look nasty, no wonder so many ships ended their days here. But they have been following some mysterious humans for two days now? So, it was first that came to Kairus's mind. He looked around as well (Perception: 16 ) - not only for the strangely absent people who started the fire but for the places they could hide (for whatever reason) as well and then walked on the open straight to the campfire.

At the sight and smell of the campfire, Krodhen also attempts to look for whoever set the fire (Perception 13) and will tighten his grip on the shield and draw a javelin, holding it more as a walk staff than a readied weapon (in an attempt to be ready but non-threatening).  He will linger 30ft or so behind Kairus but also cautiously approach.

Rhogal does not trust this convenience. He looks around if there are any tracks indicating a hasty retreat or anything insidious.

Survival: 24

Feeling hale and hearty following meal, Hun happily walks side by side with Yulmiath and whoever else happened to be up front and center, and with such confidence as to not even have a weapon in hand. Technically. Nothing could be done about the shield, but deploying any of its armaments seemed far from mind by the casualness of the Kobold's approach. "Indeed, Young Blue! Quite possibly indeed! And I'm sure they'd be quite beholden to us if allowed to share in our most recent successes." Hun cannot help but chuckle.

While some of the party members approach the campfire with high hopes and a smile on their faces, others seem more cautious. Rhogal, in particular, seems a bit worried. He drops close to the ground in search of mushrooms tracks that may have been left behind. The grass here is quite short, being less prone to indentation and making it hard to tell if anyone has passed by recently. Nonetheless, the dwarf thinks he spots a couple of footprints leading toward the cliff. They are rounded and heavy-set, he deduces, with some sharp claws too, but certainly left behind by a bipedal creature.

Kairus and Krodhen look around the statue, trying to find whoever has been maintaining the fire. It is their ears, however, that pick up a hint. They hear the sound of a few pebbles rolling down and hitting the side of the cliff, as if something was moving on its almost vertical surface. Kairus thinks he picks up a grunt of effort from down below as well. And what is that over there? It looks like a piton was hammered into the ground and a rope in tied to it and hanging over the edge.

Yulmiath tried to keep an eye out too but Hun sees to be quite chatty at the moment. Although it may normally be welcomed, in this instance, the kobold's attempt at a conversation was a bit distracting.

"Climbing in the evening? Bad idea! Leaving a fire unattended is not the best thing either." But maybe there was a reason for rushing down? Kairus walked to the cliffside and looked down. Should he see someone on a rope (presumably) he would try, while looking as friendly as he could, to greet the stranger, no matter who it is - round feet and claws is not a crime by itself. His curiosity, though, did not end up with the climber(s) - after all, there was a reason for such untimely activity and he checked the sandy beach down there as well:

Perception - 23

Yumiath looks to the fire, then to the jagged teeth of the rocks at the bottom of the cliff, then to the giant statue holding a horn, then to the wrecked ships.  He gets a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  Wreckers.  His eyes having darted about the scene were now firmly fixed on the horizon, looking for signs of a ship being lured a little too close to shore.

Perception - 10

Picking over the bones of a wrecked ship is one thing.  Luring one close enough to sink it, drown the crew and steal their cargo is another.

(OOC If Yul spots a ship is he able to tell anything about its intended course from his position on the cliffs?  Is it likely to run aground or into the rocks? Not sure if this is coming up for anyone else but I can't see Yul's dice rolls.  If it's affecting anyone else, his perception is +3.)

The more news and points came in about the potential camper, the more Hun began to piece together a picture that gradually ate away at his smile. Leery of the cliff possibly giving away with too much weight at once on it, the Kobold slowed until a good twenty to thirty feet away from it, as others carried forward to investigate things, and sighed in defeat. "Guys, I... It's probably a local on walkabout to be honest. Those back in their little village did make mention I think of the young liking to explore a bit. So, they probably know this area pretty decently." He comments before people got too far out of comfortable speaking range. His gaze then turns to the statue, and with arms crossed, he'd study it while everyone either completed the investigation or called for his aid.

(Note the above doesn't assume Rhogal passed along anything about the footprint, and is more in regards to Kairus' commentary making Hun doubtful.)

Does Rhogal recognize the footprint from anything he’s seen on the island?

History: 20

(This guy is weirdly good with his intelligence rolls!)

Krodhen does approach the piton and rope and looks over the edge, getting down on his stomach to look further out over the edge if possible to do safely.  He also tugs on the rope to see whether it is weight bearing on not currently.

Perception (if needed) 20

If the rope is weight bearing, he will yell out regardless of what he sees "Hello, anyone there, shall I cut the rope?"

@Rhogal: You are quite certain the footprint belongs to a tortle. 

Kairus, Yulmiath, and Krodhen all exchange a look as they arrive at similar ideas. Hun tries to appease their concerns by guessing that the culprit is most likely a native, but the others seem intent of finding out the answer swiftly while preparing for the worst. As they look down and around, their eyes meet a humanoid figure who is climbing upward and is much closer to them than they could have expected --some 20 feet or so beyond the edge, no more. "Please don't," they answers Krodhen's question loudly. "I'll be right with you." If you had to take a guess, the voice sounds like it belongs to a woman.

A few moments later, the climber's hand grabs the edge of the cliff and pulls the rest of the person up. She is a slender-looking tortle, or as slender as a tortle can be, really. She wears goggles that look homemade, and carries many sets of tools which are hooked to a specially crafted leather harness attached to her shell. Hun recognizes some tinker's tools on her, though there are many, many more sets hanging from her harness. She also carries a robust backpack, though it does sit as intended on her back due to the shell. "The name's Eeyal, dear visitors to the Snout of Omgar." She pats her hands on her side once she is done climbing back onto safe land. "How may I be of service?" Eeyal is 5 feet, 8 inches tall and looks closer in age to the younger tortles you've met in Ahoyhoy than to either Kwilgok or Mudgraw. That said, her demeanor is comparable to that of a much older, much wiser tortle.

@Kairus: At this distance, the sandy beach looks quite pristine to you except for those nasty "teeth".

@Yulmiath: You can spot a handful of shipwrecks in the water down below but there are no ships out sailing in the open sea that you can see right now. 

Kairus's smile widened - the owner of the fireplace was indeed friendly, skillful and most likely belonged to that peculiar village the group came from! In fact, he asked about it right away. "Happy to see a friendly face. Are you happen to be from Ahoyhoy? We were there just yesterday. I am Kairus. And these fellows are Grandpa Hun, Krodhen, Yulmiath and Rhogal." (Kairus made one gesture which included the whole company) "We are, as you noticed, visitors. Some more voluntarily than others but as if right now all on the mission to find Grandpa's old human friend. We heard there were two humans seen around these parts and thought you might be one of them. Alas, as pleasant as meeting you is, you are not. But those shipwrecks down there could still hold something related to our search and we hoped to get some rest before a thorough examination of the remains." He thought for a moment and added one more comment (just in case). "It seemed the villagers did not mind us searching."

Fairly satisfied that the Tortle isn't trying to lure sailors to an untimely grave beneath the waves or drowned under a boot heel in the surf, Yulmiath relaxes. As Karius does the introductions he gives Eeyal a little wave when his name is mentioned.

"Originally, yes, I'm from Ahyohoy." She reaches for something tied to her shell. "Though I reckon Fort Beluarian is my home now." She pulls a quarterstaff from among her many hanging tools and swirls it around a couple of times. "I can't resist the occasional visit to High Horn, though.There is always something interesting to be found here." She begins to use her staff as a fire-poker.

"You are quite the eclectic group," she says in response to all the greetings and introductions. "And yet, there are no humans among you, so I cannot say I have seen any humans in my current visit to the island." When Kairus brings up the wrecks and the plan to explore them after resting, she replies: "Well, if you visited Ahoyhoy and were welcomed, then you are also welcome to rest by my fire if you will. I couldn't call myself much of a tortle if I did not offer whichever hospitality I am able to extend to those who have shown to be friendly to us tortles. I am afraid I do not have much of a meal for such a large group, though." She looks at all the new faces. "Do you hunt? There is still some daylight we could put to good use."

Assuming the group begins to settle down instead of going for a hunt, she then asks: "So, which wreck are you interested in exploring? I wouldn't waste my time with the Carcerius, or the Dawn Avenger, but the Sea Mare might have something to offer if you are up for a challenge." She pauses to think for a moment and then adds: "Or do you mean to explore one of the other shipwrecks?" She counts up to six with her fingers.

(OOC: Anyone may roll history checks on any of the mentioned ships or locations. If you have proficiency in water vehicles or have spent a lot of time in the Chult region, you are welcome to roll with advantage.)

Following a once over the Tortle, Hun crossed his arms and gave her a faint but approving nod in her outfit, such as it was. But he remained quiet, electing to let Kairus and the rest handle the introduction until it came time to settle down for at least for a spell. Still full off the previous luncheon, the kobold puts up no fuss if anyone offers to share in their previous successful hunt, however impromptu as it might've been. Though it isn't long before the Kobold is scratching his jaw and become a bit sidetracked pondering the names of the ship. He even goes so far as speak the commands and summon the scalp massager 9000 to wrinkle up the brain.

History: 13.
(1d4 being from Guidance)

"Sea Mare... sea mare... why does that name sound familiar...." He murmured absently at some point. "Do you know how recent some of those wrecks are?"