Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

Kelnan comes to breakfast in a rather flashy maroon robe.

Fianna is distracted by her octopus - the little creature has found the wreck. It's just a couple hundred feet offshore, at the east edge of town, not far from where the slave ship wrecked. It would be a short distance to swim in the summer, but this time of year a boat might be advisable. The water is dark, murky, and very cold. The wreck is a wooden thirty-five foot fishing boat, settled on the bottom, relatively intact, albeit at a steep angle, its bow facing east. A small cabin or wheelhouse lay toward the stern, a closed cargo hatch leads belowdeck. A ballista is fixed to the bow. The mast, its sails long torn away, protrudes a couple of feet above the choppy surface. A beautiful, ornate fishing pole is fixed to its starboard side, now nearly pressed against the crabby ocean floor. The surrounding, sandy seabed is covered with thousands of crawling crabs. A large, roundish boulder protrudes from the seabed, perhaps thirty feet to the south. A steady stream of crabs come and go from a large hole in its north face. The water is about eighteen feet deep here. There are no sign of any bodies.

Back in the tavern, Wavechaser sips his tea.

"I have 900 gold for you. Your payment, in full." He pulls out a neat leather satchel and hands it to Molo. "To be honest, some of it is from the Solmor family coffers - there are still a few complications - but we are confident that the Council will release the funds to us this week. I wouldn't step foot in there any time soon, nor approach Eda Oweland with any business. The good news is that you will not be arrested. The better news is that Anders and I were very impressed with your feat. Copperlocks is delighted with the return of her missing parts, Fireborn is happy with your dispatching of the smugglers and the seizure of their ship, as is Anders. But Primewater wan't impressed, and Oweland is still furious. And your job offer to scout the lizardfolk lair, I'm afraid, has been rescinded. But the Solmor family always has work for those with special skills like yours."

Katernin arrives, presumably later than the rest.

     Distracted but still paying enough attention to know Wavechaser was there, Fianna blandly says “We’re going to need some help with the water...” and goes back to having OctoFin explore and look for clues...

     With no bodies, OctoFin will explore down stream a ways to see if the current moved them or if there was other shenanigans.

“Mr Wavechaser, it’s good to do business with someone who appreciates work well done. Where might we call on the Solmor family if we wanted to continue warming this relationship?” 
Molo seems to have his head in the game for being charming for once. 

"The Solmor estate is located just inland, behind the Mariner's Guildhall and the Dwarven Anvil. We look forward to working with you." Wavechaser finishes his tea and gets up to leave.

"By the way, be careful about big displays of magic here in town. A visiting wizard made a show of it a year ago, and the Guard still has her locked up in a magic-proof cell under the jail. It'd be a real travesty if somebody were to sneak in and let her out." He winks at Molo.

"Well, enjoy your earnings. We'll come find you when we have a job for you." He heads out.

Meanwhile, Fianna continues to peer through the murky water. There's little current here, and the bottom slopes downward fairly steeply to the east. The bottom is almost completely covered in crabs, with a few tufts of seaweed or boulders here and there. The wheelhouse appears empty; the cargo hatch would need to be opened with stronger arms than Octofin's tentacles to search its hold. Any bodies on the ocean floor would likely be picked clean by the crabs, or possibly obscured under the endless horde.

Molo scratches his chin, then his tail and narrows his eyes to look at the others. 
“Split the pot six ways, the extra share to be a savings of sorts to fund joint investments. And I think I sense that a certain jailbreak might be a solid interview to work for someone with real money and pull in this crap hole of a town. Anyone have any objections?”

”We can’t have anymore... misunderstandings in front of the employer. I don’t know about you all, but jobs like this sure as heck beat singing for copper pieces. Look at all this money!”

150 gold coins each btw

     Fianna will pocket the gold without comment and relay the information she’s received from OctoFin.

     “The fishing pole is there, easy enough.  But the job is to return bodies and we’re not catching sight of a thing...” Fianna advises.

Kelnan takes the money. "Ah excellent. Magic isn't a cheap profession you know. Speaking of, a wizard's jail would be an interesting thing to investigate. I can't imagine they have a proper isolation setup here though, unless these folks make a habit of imprisoning powerful magic users, in which case maybe we should move on."

     “Do t get me started,” Fianna mutters with a smirk and a side eye, but doesn’t follow up on the topic.

     “Don’t suppose our powerful wizard has a spell to keep us warm under water or to breath?” She asks instead.  “I think I heard tell of someone who dealt in such around here but they’re bound to be pricey...”

“Seems a lot easier to just find your sea elf friend and ask him to do it. This is probably no big thing to him. He probably sees so many shipwrecks that he knows where the best place to find the body is anyway.” Molo claps his hand like this job is already finished.

     “Oh, did we get his address?  So we could stop by and ask?” Fianna asks.

     “Of course he probably lives under the water, so we may need a spell or something to help with the cold and air...”

     Fianna wonders if it’s too early to start drinking yet. Her last hangover is almost gone so....

Wavechaser has departed. It is still quite early in the morning. Hanna is not up yet to tend the tavern; her sullen teenaged assistant brings you more food - mostly nuts, cheese, and hardtack, with a thin morning ale to wash it down with.

“He told us whereabouts he lives, and our excitable friend here has a familiar they can send under water down where he lives.” Molo eats up the teen angst breakfast ale.

     "You're excitable...  That's me!  You don't call your excitable friend excitable directly to their face!  It tend to get them excited!!" Fianna complains. 

     A moment goes by and she sighs and shrugs and moves on.  "I had heard of a Captain...  Umm, Captain Xander?  Xena?  Xendra...  No, no.  Captain Xendros.  I think.  At the Faithful Quartermasters of lolz...  I'll send OctoFin looking for the AquaElf if you remind me where they said they could be found, but in the meantime I am going to go check out this Captain X and see if they have anything that could help us," Fianna says.  She then asks the bartender if they have any idea where the Quartermasters of lolz can be found.

(Oceanus told Katernin and Fianna that Manaan is an undersea settlement about twenty miles southeast of Saltmarsh, without any more specific directions. That would put it far out in the Azure Sea, presumably under pretty deep water.)

((So an octopus with 30' movement and a vague notion of which was southeast is could probably find their underwater village in...  10 years or so?))

A rough idea of your surroundings, based on hearsay and observations:

And the map of Saltmarsh, for reference. (Solmor residence is #20.)

The kid at the bar tells you that Captain Xendros of the Faithful Quartermasters of Iuz can be found on the other side of the bridge (#7 on the map.)
Her affect is flat, but you can tell by the way that she lowers her voice uncomfortably that neither "Xendros" nor "Iuz" are words she likes to speak very loudly, or at all. 

"Did we ever find the key for that lockbox?" Katernin asks