Lambrac had finished washing his armour and now finally removed his shirt and trousers, showing himself to be lean and slender and compactly muscled. He'd been reluctant to have a bath around Jibril, and had waited until the amorous priest was out of the water.

Rinsing the sweat out of his copper-red hair, he gave his vote. "Exploring the tomb may be useful or profitable, but it's a dangerous gamble. It could as easily have nothing, or only dangers. I think we should just take what supplies and knowledge we've found back to the ship, and rest up there. First, we can make certain that we have resources, a secure base, a way to leave this place."

"Only then can we consider exploration and treasure-hunting. Remember the Professor wants Iscarion, the temple of Ubtao. Given the disaster his expedition's become, we might convince him to settle for the elf-tomb instead, and take what we can get. If so, then he might have some supplies or tools useful for ruin diving."

Treading water as he washes away the sweat of the day, Krogan looked up at the others in their conversation.
It might be a longshot, but it makes a weird kind of sense that the tomb we found might have some clues about the other ones.   Only someone who lived here, and had power here, would have made that crypt, and such a person might have known about the Temple.   There might be some clues down there about that Temple, or even other parts of the land here.

Jibril gives Krogan a sidelong glance, while trying not to stare at one of the strangest sights he's ever seen...an orc treading water.

"Now that's one of the smartest insights I've heard all day.  But my point is that it doesn't need to be done today, when most of us are weary, hungry, dehydrated, injured, and depleted of our spell powers.  And while we have others depending on us at the wreckage of the Scilindar."

In reply to Jibril (msg #381):

Krogan laughed.
Relax, Jibril, my friend.   I agree with you.   I was of the opinion that we tell the professor about the crypt first anyway.
The place will be there tomorrow, after all.

Finished with his bath, a refreshed and more relaxed orc climbed out of the water and dressed.  He always enjoyed a good bath.  He'd had to sneak them into his routine back in the caves, but never turned down the chance for one since leaving.

Thaniel grows visibly tired of the discussion, stretching his arms and yawning. "Given that there is no consensus, we should probably do our best to follow the rest of the Professor's wishes, which was to gather water and be back before it gets dark. Rather boring, but he will probably go into a rant if we don't return to base camp with water. The tomb would have been a fine place to find dry wood, another morsel on the professor's wishlist, but that seems pipedream now as well."

"Me Zane. Rude." The man growls at Jib, eyes narrowed. He pounds his chest and then scampers down the cliff, dissapearing.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:00, Fri 03 Feb 2012.

"Then it would seem the consensus is to return to the Professor and update him." Abbas consolidated the views neutrally, nothing in his voice expressing dismay at twice being balked from his interest in exploring the ancient monument of his race.

"When you are refreshed, we can return.  Depending upon the time, we could gather some of the bamboo or save that for another day."  The elven swordsman enjoyed the beauty of the view before him as he kept watch.  Hopefully this would not be the equivalent of - pteradactyl? - birdbaths.

Such a strange new land.

"I must disagree with you Jibril," Fareeda laughs.  "I believe that was the most intelligent thing I've heard all day."

She walks over to Abbas and lays her hand on his shoulder.  "Fret not, proud warrior, we shall explore the tomb on the morrow, I am sure."

"And accurate," Jibril agrees with a grunt as he gets up off the ground and prepares to descend the cliff.  "It's also time for you to tone up your thighs with another hike."

As the others prepared to leave, Lambrac rose from the cool pond and began wiping the water off and dressing. They didn't have any towels, but in this humidity they would soon be soaking wet again anyway. In fact, a few moments out and he was already sweating again, rendering the whole bathing exercise pointless. Such was life in the tropics.

Krogan's idea had some merit, but Lambrac doubted there would be much to learn. "That depends how old it is, whether it was made before or after. Too long after and the elven builders would neither know nor care about an old temple of Ubtao in the area. We don't even know where we are in relation to it... Abbas, do you think would write much down, maybe make maps, and leave them such knowledge in their tombs?"

"Once can never know with certainty, Lambrac," Abbas replied thoughtfully, "But it is encouraging to that vein of thought, for they ancient elven community here took the effort to fashion the marker in permanence of stone - not common for our race, and then only in key areas - and to further soak it in heavy magics, and yet further bind the fall spirit and guardians to defence of such a site.

"Only an area of great import would warrant such effort, and with great effort comes the need to explain why and what was preserved.  Even incidental explanations or detail of the areas would share more information than we have developed presently."

"Has it even crossed your mind that exploring a tomb from your ancestors is probably sacrilegious and that it shouldn't be disturbed at all?  Hence the powerful magic and guardians. Even more so if you intend to rob it, as some have suggested here?"

Abbas, leaving the conversation for a moment, waded around the edge of the pool to investigate the waterfall. The porous limestone forming the cliff was riddled with holes and it was from many of these that the water cascaded down. He presumed there must be a stream or other water source much higher up this mountainous part of the jungle. Alas, there were no mystical caves or alcoves present behind the water flow, none visible at least - the waters by the cliff being the darkest, and likely deepest of all.

The flow of water into the pool was considerable, yet its level did not seem to rise. There must have been some other exit for its course hidden below the surface.

Meanwhile Zane began to descend back down the cliff face, obviously satisfied at showing them the pool.

Krogan got out of the water and began dressing again.   He grinned at Jibril.
That's part of the game, my friend.   When you die, you guard your valuables as best you can.   If robbers can overcome your defenses, they can keep it.   If they don't, then they die, and their valuables become part of the horde.   It's how civilized people have been doing it for generations. 

He chuckled, and it was unclear if he was joking or not.

Finishing putting on his clothes and armor, he prepares to leave.

"Oh?," Jibril remarks while trying not to glimpse the naked orc. "Well in Calimport, the Sultans would have your head for being so civilized."

"But I didn't really ask your opinion, because I assumed as much. I asked the Elves if they intend to violate and plunder an apparent tomb of their ancestors."

Several obvious responses came to mind, but they seemed unneeded, so Krogan just smiled and dressed.   The investigation of the tomb would be waiting for another day regardless, so he wasn't too worried about it.

Linni sighed and looked back towards the water, regretting the need to leave the pool. She figured her Uncle would have started preparations for repairs by now, and would be expecting them to return. "Finding water is great, but we should try and gather some materials to repair the ship before we return. Some timber, or bamboo as Abbas suggested would be suitable. I'm sure Uncle is expecting something on our return tonight."

She still held the opinion of their return, and although the crypt remained a tempting thought in the back of her mind she remained true to her Uncles purpose and getting the Scilander into their air again.

Thaniel sighs, "Our only two orders were to retrieve water and return tonight. At this point we are destined to do neither. Perhaps we should just return with full skins and share what we have tonight until tomorrow when we can fashion a bladder with animal skin and bring back a good supply. Tomorrow, we can also investigate the tomb, and I am sure the professor will want to attend."

Abbas continued to poke around the water, in part to justify his need to ensure the water contained no "surprise bats!" or their waterbound counterparts.  Once all the ladies had emerged from the water, Abbas took back his bow and used it to probe for footing.

Admittedly, his scholarly curiousity did mean he was a little less observant than normal, but he was ready for trouble... more or less.

"All ready?"

"Ah, I see the Elves have decided to ignore my question," Jibril remarks to Krogan, as he gets ready to descend the ladder. "Mature."

The water was too dark and too deep for Abbas to make out anything but his search did reveal that the cliff wall did seem to curve sharply inwards just below the surface of the pool.

OOC: If there's no more actions we'll move along tonight.

Krogan smiled at Jibril.
Elves are very evolved, with a lot on their minds.   I souldn't take it personally.   

He was ready to head back to talk to the professor.

"The water flows back beneath the waterfall," he relayed to the rest of the party.

Abbas ducked his head beneath the water to take an eyemeasurement of the the size of the entrance - large enough to explore later, perhaps... perhaps a hidden cave entered from beneath the waterfall, certainly grand tales reported such possibilities? - then emerged from the pool, dried his hands, gathered and reslung his attire, and proceeded to carefully take hold of the rope and descend the rope, to continue on his way, guarding the party.

The group, having refreshed both themselves and their empty waterskins in the pool, prepared to climb back down into the steaming jungle. Many did not bother to towell off, since a few moments later they would be drenched again, albeit with sweat instead.

The climb down was much more uneventful than the one up, and before long everyone joined Yaotl at the foot of the jungle cliff who had stood happily waiting guard whilst the group bathed.

And so they set off back into the jungles, the sound of hacked branches and trudging boots following their trail into the undergrowth. Few words were exchanged - the jungle and the day's trials having taken their toll on energy reserves. Thankfully the long trek back to the Scilandar passed without any more event, though as the sun fell further towards the horizon the unmistakable feel of watching eyes became more and more noticeable.

Zane kept easy pace with the group, darting through the thick undergrowth as easily as if he were on a flat running track. His motives were hidden; perhaps he just wanted company after what must have been years alone? How many years had he roamed this wilderness? Was he born here or left stranded long ago? His was a mystery that perhaps would never be revealed.

Asha seemed to have joined up with the group, at least for now. She had evidently seen the Scilandar's crash and was intrigued to see this pinacle of modern invention up close. What her intentions were after this seemed unclear but both a practitioner of powerful druidic magic and her fearsome prehistoric companion seemed like the kind of allies that were needed in a place such as Chult.

Finally, the sounds of the ocean joined those of the jungle, the crashing of heavy waves on the cliffs an unusually welcome racket after a day trudging through the jungle. Before long the treeline opened up and the vast blue expanse became visible again, its surface glittering under the setting sun.

Following the cliff, the group soon came to the spot they recognised - the section of cliff where the Scilandar made her fateful descent. The tree into which it crashed...

Empty.

The tree still stood, its twisting branches bent under the ship's weight, but
of the huge ship there was no sign...

Abbas leaned over and picked up a couple small rocks.  After a small moment of contemplation as to how he felt about both resolution possibilities, the elven warrior tossed the rocks one, two, at where the ship had resided.

Was this another defensive magic like the Professor had done with the cloud of fog, or... Or indeed.