Flux puffs out his chest and curtly nods at a job well done in his book! But after a few moments of basking in success, the thought eventually occurs to check on the others, so he dolphin swims his way up to the surface once more to join everyone at the hidden beach.

Laughing as he exited the water he says to all present, "Sorry about that me friends. Missed the elemental back there on my way here. But as you saw, they can be quite the tricker buggers to spot in the own element. Fortunately, I manage to scare him straight, so you aughta make the return trip easily enough... but I'd recommend we collect ourselves and collect the contents of those chest swiftly, least, uh, listen it reconsiders its odds." 

Kerric:

"Fair enough," says Kerric, doing his part to grab whatever treasure is nearby.

Perception to find any hidden treasure:  7

Lewin meanders around the base of the pool. Besides it being the source that feeds the water system in this place, there wasn’t anything new to note. 

With T'chal'fronack'zcinicker‘s hat on her head, Ebele breaks the surface of the water. She gasps, taking in her first breath of fresh air since diving down and pulls herself up onto the beach.

Meanwhile, Kerric does another check along the short shore. He comes to the conclusion that there isn’t anything else to be found, besides the already looted coffers that Flux couldn’t/didn’t fit into his haul.

Kerric:

Picking up the remaining loot, Kerric asks, “Shall we rest here, or return to the previous room to rest?  It should give us time to sort through this treasure.”

(I believe I had detect magic up before the fight, if it’s still up Xalkas will inspect the room. If it’s not, Xalkas will recast using ritual and then scan the room. Though that does take ten minutes. If we don’t have the time for that. Xalkas will help Kerric with his search. Checking any of the lower places the tall elf might have missed. (Giving help action to Kerric))

Kerric’s perception advantage roll:  18

A second thorough search of the vault turns up nothing new, magical or not.

Picking herself off the ground, Ebele gives herself a shake. Water wicks off, splashing anyone around her. "If we are going to rest and give T'chal'fronack'zcinicker time to document our 'spoils', this room would probably be better than a bloodied one littered with bodies?" The monk wrings out her hair, sharing her thoughts with Kerric. Their backs were covered here and at least they know where any threat would be coming from if one was going to come.

Kerric:

“Very true, Ebele, assuming the watery menace from below is mollified,” responds Kerric.

”Flux, do we have time to rest here, or will the water elemental get upset?” asks Kerric, clearly getting ready to rest if he can.

Flux lets out a long "Ehhhhh~" before giving a shrug. "Not sure if you've had the pleasure of tangling with elementals of any kind since getting mixed up in all this. But those of the, uh, more watery persuasion tend to be a bit more fickle. Not nearly as much as those of the air, but pretty close! Kind of why I suggested we take our things 'n go." He reminds frankly and gave a little shrug at the end. "... But if you lot really need a longer stay, then... eh. I can work on further buttering the creature up while you dally about up here. Just don't pee in the water in the meantime, and you lot should be fine to stay." He furrows his brows. "But uh... how long a stay are we talking again exactly?"

Flux's reminder of the fickle water has Ebele wondering. "I suppose that begs to question, where did we want to go from here?" She pats her nose. "Are we done in this water cultist layer?" Her head pans to listen for the others. "Would we find somewhere better if we did press forward?" The monk would pause between each question to allow others to provide input. "If we did stay, I'd say a short rest would be sufficient. Right?" She'd 'look' to Flux.

Flux

Kerric:

”A quick breather would be sufficient for me,” responds Kerric, “and after that we should continue our search for the Dwarven delegation.”

"Unless we be thinking there hideout is connected to the one's that made off with the delegate, I'd be figuring we're more or less done with'em... for the moment. The way their leader or... whatever that priest was to them... the way they fell apart as he did still leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling in me jimmies." Flux admits while giving the back of his pants a few tugs. "Either way, you lot get your short breather than and try not to pass out altogether. 'cause like I said, 'o Undertow down there ain't liable to broker our presence here for overly long. But uh... if we leave, uh... try'na remember where they said those guys went off to now..."

Still sporting T'chal'fronack'zcinicker's hat, Ebele starts to walk around. At first it could look like she was moving as far away from the water as she could, then pacing. The water drenched blonde would occasionally mutter something to herself; make some gestures with her arms; she'd shudder and even go through the motions of a few of her techniques. However, anyone watching with the care of taking a closer look, she was actually moving with purpose. The blind monk wasn't dancing, she was retracing their steps. And when those steps would take her close to Xalkas, she'd help herself to plucking their makeshift map from wherever he stored it on his person. Continuing along, she'd eventually find herself back to where she was. "Okay, so we may as well continue to strategize while we rest." She'd hold out the map to Flux and Kerric, expecting either, or both, and any others, to follow along.

"So, we did leave a trail of blood in our wake." Ebele holds up a finger. "Their head honcho will be MIA." She holds up a second. "We may have gutted his right hand hag." A third. "We were ushered to do so by buddy who escorted us out of the brewery." She puts up the fourth finger with a bit of a huff. Still haven't been able to make some brew... "We bargained and fed some trolls." The monk puts out her thumb showing all 5 fingers, then gestures to give up counting. "I suppose where I'm going with this is, where do we continue our search." Her head tilts to Kerric. "I understand the desire to find the delegation, but where?"

"From Lewin and Flux's recount, we could conclude that the delegation isn't here." The monk keeps thinking out loud. "Having found witnesses, and now evidence of their things, it's believable that we're well on the trail." She notes. "If I remember the basics of it, Water was helping or working with Dirt?" That was pretty much right. Scholars or formally educated individuals may say earth... "Where would we find Dirty Cultists?" Ebele asks. "Back by the magic gargoyle water, I remember Hawke noting that that Nothic hallway was super dry in comparison to the rest of this damp dungeon."

"We either keep pressing forward blindly," After a pause, Ebele continues. "Or, we navigate what we know." She gestures for them to look at the map. They managed to explore a lot, but not all of it. "Are we mapping and clearing this whole place out, or pivoting?" She asks genuinely for consensus. "The feeling in Flux's 'jimmies' makes me think the 'Brainy Brewer' will take the 'Liquid Leader''s place and things could continue business as usual." She adds.

Map

Short Rest: Everyone
(Good news everyone! Smash that short rest button. This short rest nets you some XP as well. Must be added/adjusted yourselves.)

XP Granted: 1475 each player
('Current XP' of 9102 + 1475 = 10,577 total XP)

Kerric:

”Well-put, Ebele.  If the brainy Professor type takes over, he will hopefully be too involved with academics to cause problems for the outside world.  I say maybe we check out the side room (door in C25) and then head to drier passages after the earth cultists,” replies Kerric after some consideration.

T'chal'fronack'zcinicker has been unusually quiet since the encounter with the water elemental. He's pulled himself up against he wall, far and sat himself against it. His eyes briefly alight on his hat, as it bobs across the room atop Ebele's head, but he just as quickly turns his attention back to the ground in front of his feet.  He pulls out his ledger and begins checking numbers without making much comment or making any eye contact with people.  Eventually though, it seems as if a plan is made. His eyes seem to cast over at the water, and he stares at it in dread for an overly long time before clearing his throat. 

"Ahem. Yes...I concur...let us away....through the water and away from this place." He says this, but his feet fail to move him any closer to the waters edge. 

As the resident "water whisperer" Flux took it upon himself to at least pretend over the resting hour to be communing with the creature. Only instead of the garbled mess of someone rusty at speaking a foreign tongue, he'd sat at the edge with both hands and feet in the water humming a throaty song. Though as Ebele spoke of 'strategizing' his humming grew quieter and eventually died out as his attention drifted more and more towards the map.

"Hopefully after'em, yea." Flux said after a time while rubbing his chin. "Tho' I be feeling we'll only wind up side-tracking ourselves taking a peek past that side door of yours, I'd... be lying if I didn't admit to be a might curious meself on what could lie on the otha side. So, can't say I'd be of a mind to argue against a peek at the very least. Then after if folk don't be minding it sorely, I can make our trip a swifter one along the waterways, so long as folk don't mind getting their shoes and feet a bit wet."

“Can’t say I’m opposed to snoopin’ aboot if we have our direction and plan…”

T'chal'fronack'zcinicker will feel the sensation of his hat returning to his head with a gentle pat. Then, Ebele reaches her hand out to him. She understood his hesitation. “Together?” He wasn’t the only one with reason to be uncomfortable with the unknown of these waters. 

T'chal'fronack'zcinicker eyes meet Ebeles, the orbs full of distress and fear...and then suddenly something else...a deep appreciation...affection even....that had always been hidden behind his cynical legalese.  He steps forward, following her into the water.  He mumbles something about a "bonus clause" before he submerges himself in the cold liquid. 

Kerric:

With an agreement reached, Kerric draws his blade and slides into the water.  He treads carefully as the others move through, acting as a wary rearguard, but he makes no effort to go deeper than needed to defend his friends…trying to balance dissuading the elemental without being overly aggressive…

When everyone is through, he follows in their wake.

Although Ebele couldn’t see, she’d offer a small smile. 

Flux takes lead, then Ebele and T'chal'fronack'zcinicker, then Xalkas and Lewin, with Kerric taking the rear. Together, the group takes a deep breath and descends into the pool to proceed through the dark tunnel. There are no suspicious trailing warm spots during the travel.

The group re-emerges on the other side in C25. 

All is eerily quiet.