Carlos wasn't depressed at all even after being politely jilted by the young priestess.  He experienced far worse rejection before, and knows very well that every failure is just another step toward success. 

@Sarya

" Pretty? No. You look awesome! " After enjoying the hot bath ( he swam and sang there a lot!), Carlos joins others and moves to the harbormaster's office. 

@Harq

"Ditto!" The cleric raises his hand and agrees with the gnome. " The girl sounds quite confident and competent. I like her. And I prefer to travel with someone at least not offend my eyes"

Sarya quickly studies Rawlings intricate braids. "You do those yourselves? Looks nice but takes some deft fingers right? Perhaps you could help me out until I can do it myself." She says, seemingly impressed with what she saw. "Dinasoar, what in the nine hells is a a dinasoar, do you make pens out of them? And what is a nossumemeum Harq, are you speaking of these pesky insects?" She adds, sounding frustrated, following along to the Harbormaster. She frowns at Carlos' comment. "I meant the flowers, but yeah I know, I'm awesome." She says with a quick smirk.

"Damn rain, my flowers, I'm being deflowered." Sarya says angrily as her hairdo is destroyed by the rain.
"Yes, yes, let's talk to this Stormfang then." She says and rolls her eyes again at Carlos' comment.

"Sure, I can help you if you'd like Sarya." Rawlings responds to her as they trek in the rain towards the harbormaster.

As they are looking at the postings for guides, Rawlings hears her companions lean towards Stormfang. "Looks to me as though most of these guides would do just fine, and Stormfang is definitely one of them.  We just need to be careful that her quest doesn't take us away from our quest.  I feel that time is of the essence." She turns to Carlos at his comment, "seems to me your eyes are rarely offended when it comes to females."

Rawlings heads over to the nearest clerk, "Excuse me, would you be able to locate Stormfang for us?  Or let us know where we can find her?"

The clerk, a rather harried-looking halfling woman, looks up at Rawlings and says, "The Monkey's Fist, deary. Azaka eats her evening meal there daily."

"Until dinner time should we head down to the Bazaar?" Harq asks the group. "I think some more comfortable clothing in this hot rain might improve all our spirits."

Thoradin kept his mouth shut and let the others do the talking. Better to be thought a fool than open his mouth and confirm it. He was eager to be on with their quest and thought they should be spending time trying to find leads to follow. The map they had seen did not fill him with confidence. With the majority of this island unexplored, they could cross it back and forth many times and still not find what they were here for. Especially if it was underground... Storybooks were filled with examples of villains leaving their bases out in the open, even building castles and monuments to advertise their location, but he thought that realistically that would probably not be the case here. Who would be stupid enough to expose themselves in this way...? If he were doing it, he'd hide it in plain sight or perhaps under ground, right beneath this very port, where no one would think to look for it.

In short if they found this Soulmonger (what would it look like, even?) it would be by complete accident. Grasping at straws, he asked Sarya, "We need reliable information. Do you think your Efreet or some of his servants could help us out in this regard? Divination, maybe? An aerial survey of the unexplored area? Anything of the sort?"   

"Hey, Monkey's Fist, I like this Azaka already." Sarya says they talk to the halfling clerk. "And I wouldn't mind helping her out with that quest either, we should expect to do some other jobs to finance our search for this Soulmonger."

"Yeah, the bazaar sounds good Harq, I'll join you." She says to the gnome and follows along. "Don't forget about those diningsawers though."

"Farouk is your master as much as mine Thoradin, you go ahead and ask him I guess but I never got the sense he was preapred to do me any favors for free. I agree that we need more information to find this Soulmonger but I have the sense that once we start poking around here we will come up with some leads eventually." Sarya answers the dwarf as they leave for the Bazaar.

After taking some mental notes about the various guides, you begin to make your way toward the Market Ward. As you stop momentarily to enjoy a lively tune being played by a tabaxi street musician, a young Chultan man approaches you. His face shows a mixture of worry and urgency, and he says, “Speak to the wise guardian of Orolunga, east of Mbala. She can direct you to that which you seek.” Then he collapses, unconscious.

He remains motionless for fifteen seconds or so and arouses suddenly, wild-eyed and confused. "What did I...what has happened?"

(It's approximately midday)

"See, told you, we have a lead already." Sarya says to the others. "We should definitely go for that Mbala ruin then, paying this wise guardian of Orolunga a visit on our way there." She adds smiling widely. "Unless this weird message was meant for someone else." She says looking around. She then turns to the young Chultan man. "Don't worry, you just delivered an important message to us. Thank you for that and have a nice day." She says, bowing slightly to the man.

" Ouch! That looks hurt.  You know, If you live in the Template District of Baldur's Gate, you will see at least one or two guys screaming and falling down every day. I always wonder why gods don't invent better communication tools (like letters) or give their messengers pillows before they kiss the ground. " Carlos frowns. He crouches and cares for the young Chultan man. " Hey you okay, young man. No worries. You just get some interesting experience that you can boast in the bar. By the way, don't need to thank me. Praise the goddess, Selûne and give her temple donations. If there's one here…" 

Rawlings looks worried as their collective tasks keep growing.  This new one seems particularly daunting the way it was presented, but the group is right, we could hardly ignore it.  “Shall we go now or did you want to shop first?” Rawlings asks no one in particular 

"Go to that wise guardian? That's a long way, would need planning to get to Mbala and beyond. But perhaps it should be our first trek when we leave these walls." Sarya suggests as they continue toward the Market Ward.

Before the Chultan man walks away, he says, "For many hours it has been impressed upon my mind to locate individuals who look like you. I no longer carry my burden. It has been done. Forgive me for interrupting."

Then, looking to Carlos, he says, "Selûne, unfortunately, no, sir."

 - - - - - - - -

Fifteen minutes later, the five of you are navigating the narrow, crowded walkways of the Red Bazaar. You take in your first glimpse of Chultan canoes, and ponder what it might be like sitting within one and paddling upstream for several days. The cost for one is fifty pieces of gold, and the seller confirms that one canoe can hold six individuals, but two canoes would be necessary to accommodate all party members and their gear. Additionally, you see items for sale that are somewhat exclusive to the land of Chult: insect repellent, rain catchers, tej, yklwas, light tropical clothing, and wooden shields. 

Sarya quickly buys insect repellent, a rain catcher and light tropical clothing, immediately applying the insect repellent to herself. "Hey those look just like your wicked blade Rawlings." She says looking at the yklwa's on sale. "Perhaps we should use canoes to get up that river to Camp Vengeance. From there it wasn't so long to Mbala I think." She suggests to the others.

Harq does a small circle around the group on his broom and chuckles saying, "Why float when you can fly?" Then getting serious adds, "Though yes, for our guide and gear this may be needed. Though from here we'd be paddling up river, which would take some serious strength. Coming back would certainly be easier." As he looks through the rest of the gear he asks the shop keeper, "How much is the insect repellent and a set of your local clothing?"

"The repellent in incense form is just one silver," replies the vendor, who cannot mask his fascination with Harq's mode of travel. "The salve costs one gold piece but, of course, is more effective."

Then, holding up one of the vibrantly-colored shirts, he says, "Four pieces of silver for one set of clothing, but I can be talked down if you're buying several."

Sarya turns to the others, making you hudddle up a bit. "Okay, place your orders with me and let me do the haggling, I need a smiling wing man though." She says, ready to get you all a nice price package on the tropic survival stuff, if you decide soon, as patience is not her defining trait.

"When in Chult..." Harq says looking at the colorful clothing. He then turns to Sarya and says, "I'll need a set of clothing, probably children's size. And two or three jars of the salve, just to be safe please."

(Persuasion for Sarya, with advantage 17)

The vendor is amenable to selling at a lower price. "Clothing and three jars of salve...that'll be three gold pieces."

(Are we trying the same for the two canoes?)

@Harq

" If you have to choose between gold and spells.  I recommend you to keep spells. Afterall gold are useless in the wild but spells always work! "  

Carlos reaches for his wallet and pauses. He whispers to the others. " By the way, how many coins do we have in total? I keep all the income from my last adventure. Because you know… I couldn't have a proper farewell party for a … unfortunate circumstance. Anyway, just how wealthy we are now?  Can we afford the guide and boats?"