Sir Beauregard walks a little taller with pride.  “It would be my honor to carry the bag of crap!”

When you find Agga at the kitchen, she's almost entirely focused on herding the unruly kobolds as they prep the evening meal. Agga has little to offer with regard to the mushroom folk or the beast. She only knows what Tarrak has told her, which is even less than he's told you.

When Agga calls to the other kobolds to bring you scraps, Frub snaps at the others, hissing and posturing to ensure he's the one to do the honors. When he does, he also hands extends a palm to reveal four small twigs, then points to each of you as if this makes perfect sense... It takes a while to figure out exactly what he's trying to communicate, but you eventually deduce that he thought these twigs he found on the ground outside reminded him of your party and he now offers them to you as yet another gift...

You ask him what he knows about the mushrooms or the gatekeeper. Upon hearing the word "mushroom" he immediately darts off, returning a minute later with a slimy rotting mushroom he pulled from the garbage. He extends it to Vinn, panting from the sudden exertion.

Agga, seeing this, tells Frub to get back to work and scolds you all for distracting him. "Oi, now. Let him alone. Boy's so dim he can hardly remember to use both feet t' stand. He don't know nothing you need." And with that, Frub scampers back to the kitchen, Sir Beauregard takes the bag of compost, and you begin making your way toward the coast.

It's at this point that Ephraim excuses himself to return to the party's cell. He has no hunger for adventure right now. He needs to rest so he can resume the search for his wife in the morning. You say your farewells and push on toward the Sea Caves.

With the sun riding low in the sky, you anticipate the tides will be rising soon, leaving you only a high ground path along the bluffs. You trek for about an hour without incident, watching the sun touch the horizon.

It's around this time that you turn onto the southern banks of the island and notice something... a cove where a hot spring burbles up from the rocks and spills into a pool before draining into the ocean. The turquoise water is luminescent, and the gray basalt edges of the spring are lined with vibrantly colored mushrooms, which occasionally burst in a shower of rainbow spores.

Would you like to explore or move on?

As the party heads out, Sir Beauregard stops to look in on Ephraim, snoring heavily.  He quietly places the rabbit’s foot given to him by the sailor under the Dwarf’s beard, careful not to wake him.  At the door he says quietly, “May Sune smile on your quest and reunite you with your love.”

Seagrow Bluffs

Early Evening

Traveling only by moonlight, you approach a narrow natural stairway leading down to what, according to your map, should be an opening in the cliff face about two hundred feet below you. Unfortunately, the tide is high. You can only see misty air bubbling up from what could be the arching crest of the cave mouth... Or, it could just be a narrow fissure in the rock. With the low light and the high tide it's hard to say.

Either way, you can't help but feel an eerie thrum of magic in the waves. Perhaps it's the epic view, the relative silence, or the heavy mist that diffuses the moonlight... but you can't help but feel like you're not quite alone... Not here.... Not anywhere on this island.

Regardless, you're left with a choice... Make camp until morning and see if the low tide reveals a cave enterance... Push on to continue your search for the sea cave and risk exhaustion... Or find a way to explore the submerged opening...

Sir Beauregard sighs and turns to Autumn and Vinn. “I prefer to face my foes armored and on my feet, so I propose we camp.  But I can take off my armor and we can swim if necessary.  What say you?”

"I'm getting a weird vibe from this place, Sir," Vinn murmurs, his gaze darting nervously through the fog. He looks at Autumn and wonders if she feels it too. "It's giving me the creeps. Remember what Varnoth said about dangers near the water? Maybe we should reconsider staying here."

He glances at the map again, fingers tracing the supposed pathway from the cliffa to the cave entrance with a nervous restlessness. "I can kind of hold my breath forever. If the two of you like, I could dive in and check for the cave entrance," Vinn suggests, "If it's not there, we should move on and away."

But the eerie feeling of magic that seeps through the atmosphere eventually has Vinn feeling overwhelmed. "Give me a moment... I got a bad feeling." With a deep breath, he channels his powers, and his gray eyes glow a bright aquatic blue as he casts Detect Magic.

  “I cannot hold my breath forever, but I can hold it long enough to slay a monster or die trying.  And I am a strong swimmer.  You will not go alone.”

When Vinn has finished his Detect Magic ritual, Sir Beauregard will join him at what may be the mouth of the cave and use Divine Sense.  Assuming Autumn does not object and no Sea Beast attacks by then, he will then take off his armor to swim down.

Vinn in casting Detect Magic you perceive small wisps of raw evocation magic seeping out from the ground and dissipating in the air, like the remnants of an evening's rain evaporating in the morning sun...

You consider your journey down the cliffside and a dive into the water... As you glance down, however, you find yourself staring at total darkness. Without dark vision or some sort of light source, you'll barely be able to safely make your way down to the water's edge, much less see anything while you're under water.

Behind you, Beauregard's divine sense detects no celestials, fiends or undead in the 60 foot area... but a faint, trace sense of undead, no longer present, does seem to linger in the water like a mild pollutant.

“Torches won’t work in there.  Shall I swim in and take a look?  Or shall we wait until low tide?”

"Appreciate you coming along, Sir. But let's skip the whole 'die' thing in 'die trying.'"

Vinn holds his breath once more, and submerges his head beneath the water,  trying to see if the raw evocation magic was also bubbling up from below akin to what he's seen on land.

Eventually, he resurfaces, and nods in agreement with Sir Beauregard. The lack of visibility was frustrating, but Vinn was more spooked above all else. "Unless our bard has a surprise up her sleeve, yeah, let's wait for low tide."

The air genasi soon pulls himself onto shore. "There's something magical happening-- but I think we're just outside of it? It's weird though, because it feels noticeable."

He keeps his eyes fixed on the wisps as they seep from the ground and float up, captivated. With a downward motion, he reaches out in an attempt to grasp them before they vanish into thin air.

”That seems best.  Perhaps the restless spirits of the drowned, the Sea Beast, or some mystic phantom will pay a call on us in the night and save us a bit of trouble.”

Sir Beauregard finds a rocky corner he can wedge himself into comfortably.  He unsheaths his sword and lays it in his lap, placing his shield over himself like a blanket to block wind and dew. “Please be so kind as to wake me for the midnight watch.” With that he settles in for a long rest.

It was odd seeing such a large orc wedge himself into the corner, with shield and sword nearly in hand while he rested. Vinn gives an odd look at Autumn, and gestures.

"I think I'll give Sir the room he needs to sleep and take first watch, if you'd like. The guy somehow looks like a loaded cannon in the dark, so maybe most things will think twice before trying something." 

The orc snores loudly.

After a few hours staring into the darkness around him, it comes as a relief for Vin to finally wake Sir Beauregard from his slumber and allow him to relieve her lookout duties. The night's vigilant watch, however, yields nothing but a few curious sounds and an uncanny chill. Autumn takes the final watch, settling back in for a last bit of rest about an hour or so before dawn.

The evening fortunately passes without event.

14th day of Leaffall, 1491 DR

Seagrow Bluffs

Early Morning

The rising sun creates a halo of light along the eastern mountains, shimmering beautifully over the sapphire waves below. The morning glow brings with it a sense of relief, banishing the fears that lingered in the shadows mere hours before. And yet, the sense of grandeur and the palpable hum of magic continues to envelop the island.

Looking over the edge of the cliff you can now, clearly see the opening of a cave mouth. You can also now very clearly see two natural stairways formed of stone columns, giving you the option of approaching from the cave mouth from the east or west.

What would you like to do?

Sir Beauregard eats some jerky and suggests they approach with the rising sun behind them, so from the East.

"Hear me out. Whatever cave has a bird going in and out of it-- totally safe. The things that live here got good instinct." Vinn suggests. "Or we throw a rock and wait for a response if there are no birds and they're both bad choices."

Vinn was still feeling uneasy, but the fact they made it through the night gave him confidence. Maybe the island itself was magical-- and strange wasn't necessarily sinister.

He looks out to the ocean, its waves shimmering in the morning sun. "Today looks like it will be a good one."

Sir Beauregard peers dubiously at Vinn.  He picks up a rock and chucks it into the cave.

Autumn peers after the rock and readies herself for the trudge into the cave.

Sir Beauregard lays a hand on the half-submerged carcass of the octopus and says a prayer for the creature. “There was no beauty in this, but I hope your life was once joyful and you have gone to a better place.”

He turns and walks into the cave, wiping ichor off himself as he goes and speaking loudly into the echoing chamber.

“I am Beauregard Bonecrusher, Knight of the Ruby Rose.  We are coming in.  I hope there will be no more unpleasantness.”

Autumn withdraws her blade and rinses any octo-goop off in the water before skipping to catch up to Beau. "Should I announce myself as well? I don't have a title like yours-"

She pauses a moment, affecting a stature like Beau's and lowers her voice, "I am Autumn the Octoslayer, Bard of this party! I am also coming in! I hope there will be no more octopi!"