Judoc lowers his voice.  Perhaps it would seem odd that this mage, a man who had no real connection to the Watchman would take control of its three crewman, though the situation didn't seem odd at all to Judoc.  The situation was no more dire that exploring the underground in Perdition, nor was it as dangerous as fighting his way through the Path of the Ancestors.  Judoc simply had more experience with danger and villains, and so it seemed natural to take charge.

Nor does it seem that the three men take any note of the situation.  They simply listen to Judoc and then match his lead as they crouch low and approach upon the sands.

The waves and wind wash across the beach, muffling any noise the four make as they approach.

As the four make their way to the very end of the sands, Judoc sees it.  There is a wide crack at the base of the cliff which widens all the way down into the water.  Even at the base where the opening hits the water, it seems to be not much more than a foot or so across, barely large enough for a small man to make his way through.  Though Orgon echoes his thoughts as he wonders how much larger the cave extends below the waterline.

The tides are up."  Orgon whispers.  "Must be another foot or so under the water...  It wasn't nearly so high when I came to find it earlier.  Much easier to spot."

OOC:  It is 0320 on the 8th of August.  You haven't seen any of the pirates/slaves, though you are also fairly certain none of them could have heard you.  If Aiah was right that they went this direction, there really isn't any other place they could have gone without being seen by you as the beach is narrow enough that you can see all the way to the cliff from the waterline fairly easily.

As for how well she can see, I saw the same gamut of answers you did.  Let's just say they see about as well as people, which makes flying quite dangerous.

Questions keep coming to Judoc. Why had the men entered this crack in the rock? Did they have a boat hidden in here? Were they waiting for the pirates to return? What the hell was Judoc supposed to do if the whole pirate crew ended up here? How was Tibbets going to protect his cargo with just himself remaining behind? Why the hell did Judoc agree to help out a man who was so insufferably awful?

But the young mage keeps his thoughts to himself. "Let's see what we can find out inside." He touches the amulet of Haj Umr briefly. He could send the ivory eye inside to reconnoiter the area, but he needs rest, and he doesn't have the reserves for unnecessary casting.

Should he stand outside the cave and call for the men inside to surrender? How many are inside, and how are they armed? Judoc is reasonably certain the goblin is within. The rival wizard no doubt possesses an adequate magical arsenal, though surely he is no match for Judoc's breadth of knowledge. Judoc thinks again of Grobbik and smiles to himself. The Templar student wouldn't mind having another friend he could trust right about now, particularly one trained at the Battle College.

Uncertain of what he will find, Judoc cautiously approaches the cave entrance.

OOC: Go slowly and quietly. Enter the cave and see what's inside.

Judoc walks forwards into the water, the salty brine swirling around the bottoms of his leathers and between his toes.  His heels slosh on the wet leather of his sandals,  though he is thankful he does not have more robust footwear at the moment, for he knows how badly feet can suffer for long walks against wet leather without drainage.

Judoc makes the cave mouth without incident, crouching low so that he can move his body forward through the entrance.  The shallow waves lap at his knees and the meager light peters out before as he feels the walls expand back outward.  The sandy bottom too, only seems to be receding deeper below the surface.

It's clear the cave expands...  Though for the moment, Judoc simply crouches in the darkness at the entrance, his nose filled with the salty tang of the ocean and the rich scents of wet earth...

OOC:  The cave is very dark (-9 to perception here, likely completely dark any farther in), and at least this first cavern seems to be submerged in seawater.  I wasn't sure if you were planing on taking the others with you, but it didn't seem like that was the intent, so you are alone for the moment, but the others aren't far off and can easily be called to fall in behind you.

~Aiah, wait for me outside. Try to find a tree or something to roost in. Hopefully you can get more rest than I can.~

Judoc frowns into the glom. Mage Light would be very handy here, but if the goblin mage is present, it wouldn't be very helpful to Judoc right now. How many times has he wished he knew a spell not in his grimoire? How many spells do his teachers know? There are always more spells to learn. To know them all is unrealistic (and probably infeasible), but Judoc continues to thirst for more knowledge.

Not willing to risk a light, he reaches out to feel for one side of the cave wall to guide him as he goes further within.

OOC: Try to keep one hand on the wall of the cave and advance further within. How much space is there above water?

~No arguments here!  Aiah croons as Judoc asks her to wait outside, lifting off from his shoulder with a heavy flap.

~I should be able to find an outcrop on the cliff I should think!  Keep me well enough away from the loud one you don't like.

Judoc listens as she rises up into the night, though the noise is quickly indiscernible over the small waves crashing upon the beach outside and the echoing noise of water within.

Slowly, Judoc begins to step around the cave, keeping his hand on the right wall for guidance.  He moves slowly, not just for his tiredness, but also to keep the sound he makes to a minimum...  At one point he stops completely, thinking his movements in the water are giving away his presence, although he quickly realizes that even completely motionless, the sloshing water within the caves laps at the stone walls, resonating hollow splashes that echo around like being within the churn of a full belly.

Slowly, the sandy bottom seems to give way to softer earth, and the floor drops out so that Judoc is standing tall with the water to his hips, to his stomach, to his shoulders, to his neck...  Eventually, rather than be surprised by a sudden swim, Judoc casts a spell of levitation on himself.  Though the spell drains him even further, his breaths now coming in slow, labored gasps, Judoc knows time is not his friend and neither is swimming in some unknown pond in near total darkness.  With the spell active, Judoc begins to simply hover around the edge of the room.  Slowly, the cave wall turns inward and back out, shielding Judoc's view of the dimly lit entryway.

Just as he is about to halt and reassess the situation, Judoc feels the ground again below him which rises quickly so that he is soon standing on damp ground, a gritty sort of mud that cakes at his feet...

Then, above the gurgle of the cave, Judoc hears a loud, hollow splash from the middle of the water!  Not a hard smack like something falling in, but rather the low rumble of water rushing to fill a gap...  Something out there is moving!

OOC:  You are now pretty much in total darkness, though you have a hand on the wall to make sure you know which way it is to get back out.  You still don't see any light, though at least you are now out of the water and onto dry(ish) land.  The others have not followed you, but stayed near the entrance of the cave.

Judoc freezes when he hears the splash. Shit! Is it an animal of some kind? Can it see him? Or is the sound from the pirates, perhaps a boat being launched? Can goblins see in pitch darkness? Judoc tries to remember how good Grobbik's vision is. Grobbik hadn't seemed to need much light at all, but could he see in pitch blackness?

Judoc considers casting Invisibility and then a magical light, but in his weakened state, he risks passing out from the exertion, and his need is not so great that he needs to injure his body to cast.

How high might he rise before he bumps against the ceiling? With one hand still on the cave wall, he slowly rises in the dark. He raises his staff to see if he can feel the ceiling.

OOC: Judoc will rise slowly. He will use his staff to see if he can tell where the ceiling is.

Judoc begins to slowly rise up off the floor of the cave, holding his staff high in one hand and feeling the wall with the other as he slowly lifts himself off the ground.

At first Judoc thinks the ceiling is rather low, for his staff hits hard stone rather quickly, though Judoc realizes only a moment after that the walls are simply angling inward, back towards him as the ceiling rises up...

Without much light to see how high he is going, Judoc simply times himself as he rises...  One second, two, three, four...  He gets up to seven before he is confident that the roof of the cave is fairly flat above him, though by this point he has moved inwards at least a few yards, and is likely back over the water again.

Turning his head, Judoc glances back from whence he came, spotting a wide glimmer of dim reflection upon the churning water, and the outline of the short entryway.

OOC:  You would guess the ceiling of the cave is at least three to four times your height, if not more, though it's hard to be exact when you have so little to go by.  You aren't going exactly straight up, nor would Judoc know that a slow careful move is 1 yard per second...  (I'm assuming you didn't want to rocket straight up at 10 feet/second).

As a sidenote, you can keep the levitation spell on as long as you wish, though it does count as a spell 'on'.

Judoc likes almost nothing about his current situation. Floating through a dark tunnel isn't his idea of a good time on the best of days, and tonight he is close to exhaustion. To make matters worse, the circumstances that led him here are distasteful. The mage has no love for Tibbets, and part of him wishes he had told the man to go find his fucking slaves himself. To make matters worse, something is here in the dark with Judoc, and the Templar student dares not risk a light in case he gives himself away.

So he continues on down the tunnel, his hand still resting against the wall of the cave. Periodically, he looks back toward the tunnel's entrance to gauge his progress.

OOC: Keep going deeper into the cave.

Mistrustful and angry at his current situation, Judoc walks his hand back down the wall, looking to feel himself farther into the cave.  He leans forward just slightly, keeping his eye on the dim reflection on the surface of the water near the entryway.

Slowly, Judoc makes his way all the way down, back until his feet splash into the surface of the water again...

Annoyed that he has now lost the bit of dry land he had found, Judoc backs himself up slowly, his small beacon of light fading away behind a wall of black.

Then, after a few moments, the cave wall turns abruptly.  Judoc turns, switching his left hand to the wall as he again finds the shallows sloping upwards to the soft and fetid ground.  His feet back on the ground again, Judoc slowly begins to walk and the only sounds his ears can hear are the sticky pull of the mud with each step, and the occasional echoing drip of water in the lake behind him.

Ten yards, twenty...  Judoc's heart begins to thud in his chest as the complete blackness surrounds him.  The tunnel widens at one point, and for a moment Judoc thinks he is in a larger cave, though it narrows back again quickly...  Judoc keeps moving on, until he feels the wall turn again, abruptly to the left...

Judoc begins to wonder if he will be able to find his way out again...  Even if he did find a light.

OOC:  Ok, you found a small tunnel and followed it about twenty yards until you feel a turn on the wall.  You are still in total darkness.

Judoc is starting to feel a little silly. Is he on a wild goose chase here? The pirates could be long-gone by now. Is anyone even still in here?

And why is Judoc the one stumbling along in the dark, rather than the crew? Should he turn around now and head back the way he came, if he can even find his way out?

But Judoc wonders where the sailors did go, and why they had made off with the slaves. There seems to be some mystery here. However, he is tired of stumbling around in the dark, and he may be at a crossroad here in the tunnel. Touching the carved eye on his amulet, he makes a subtle gesture with his hand.

OOC: Cast Continual Light, moonlight strength, on the carved eye. Draw from Judoc's powerstone.

Judoc had hoped that he would have seen the pirates by now, or at least that he would have seen some evidence of them.  Torchlight, the smell of smoke, anything.. and the fact that he hadn't makes him feel rather foolish for bumbling about for so long in the dark.

With a small gesture, Judoc summons the warm glow of moonlight to the small carved eye which hangs about his neck, illuminating the small cave around him.

There isn't much to speak of here, apart from the wet and muddy cave floor which has already caked Judoc's sandals and toes.  As he already knew, a passageway opens up behind him, as well as one to the left, and one to the right...  Ahead seems to be a small alcove in the cave, though it doesn't appear to lead to anything in particular.


OOC:  Judoc is coming out of the bottom left passage

The mage considers going back and fetching the ship's crew. As powerful a wizard as Judoc is, even he cannot take on six other people at once, especially if one is a talented mage as Judoc suspects. Too, Judoc is nearly spent, and his body really wants to just take a nap right now.

Shaking off his fatigue, Judoc squats down and examines the mud in the cave. Which way had the pirates and the freed slaves gone? Perhaps he can tell from the mud.

OOC: Take a minute to see if he can work out any tracks in the mud. Check the small alcove for anything interesting. If both ways seem equally likely, use Intuition to pick one path. If one path seems more likely, choose that one.

Judoc stoops down, looking at the thick, wet mud beneath him.  He's no tracker, though to Judoc, the principle of the whole thing can't be that hard.  Footprints stick around...  especially in wet mud.  You didn't have to study for years with elves in the ways of the forrest to figure that out.

But as he lowers his lighted necklace, scanning the room around, he sees the wet earth around him is mostly smooth and undisturbed.  Narrowing his eyes, he shifts the light back behind him, in part simply to prove his theory.  Indeed, in his own path, the prints of his own sandals stick out clearly in the muck, even with the meager lighting he has afforded himself.

Sighing with resignation, Judoc raises himself back up, first checking the small alcove ahead, though getting closer gives him no real other information.  It appears to be just a cave, the walls wet with condensation and the whole room filled with the earthy stink of salty marsh.

Unsure which way is best, Judoc simply chooses the left passage, walking slowly and casting his light ahead so he can see.  The corridor winds for a few feet before the cave opens back up both to the right and left.  Though the right side seems only to lead a few dozen feet on, the left continues onward.

Judoc spends a few moments looking at the the empty space here, though he quickly moves on, finding nothing worth spending his time on.

When he presses onward however, the way opens up again.  To his left, his dim light reflects off lapping tidal waters which wash up and down across the muddy beach.  To his right, another corridor continues, making its way deeper into the caves.

OOC:  Nothing of note in the cave you started in.  Please roll a default vs. tracking.  Also give me a roll vs. perception please.

The deeper Judoc continues into this cave, the less he likes it. What had that sound in the water been? The pirates escaping by boat? A massive alligator? He surmises if the pirates do attempt to escape, perhaps the crew will at least see them. However, the crew will be outnumbered.

The whole idea of keeping a man a slave is distasteful to Judoc. Why not hire someone and pay a fair wage? How do the finances shake out? Judoc is as much an economist as he is a tracker, but surely it's better to hire someone who remains loyal if only for the next pay check.

The young mage is tired and cranky. Why is he stumbling along like this? Why was he so quick to help that insufferable Tibbets? Judoc feels overextended, and he curses this damp cave. He realizes he had not formulated much of a plan. Follow the pirates, subdue them, and return the slaves. Now, he feels like a bat wandering around in the darkness, looking for a meal as he flaps his wings.

He takes a moment to observe the water washing up into the cave. Perhaps there is another boat hidden here that the pirates might use to escape.

OOC: Take a brief look around. Then follow the right corridor deeper into the caves.

Judoc thinks for a moment that in this area of water there may be some boat or other means of escape, though as he bends down to get a better view of the water, he finds evidence of entry instead.  For ahead of him, imprinted on the mud like perfect molds are human footprints, the individual toes clearly visible indents on the wet earth.

Judoc holds up his light, checking for anything else that may be apparent here, though he finds nothing immediate and his heart is beating far too fast for patience.

Quietly, Judoc follows the prints off towards the corridor to the right, which splits off almost immediately in two directions, both routes of which seem to open up into wider rooms beyond.

But Judoc hesitates... he presses himself back up against the wall and puts a hand over his light...  For he smells the faint stench of the black smoke of burnt oil...  and somewhere in the caves, echoing towards him from all directions, Judoc hears the sound of voices.

He peers his head around the corner slowly, dousing his light as much as he is able, and he can just see at the extent of his vision, the sallow glow of torchlight reflecting of the wetted walls of the cavern...

OOC:  Torchlight seems to be coming from off to the left.  You are at the intersection, coming from the bottom of the map.

Finally, some action! His heart beating faster, Judoc does his best to hide the glowing carved ivory eye out of sight. He creeps forward, sticking to the wall as much as possible, and inches forward. he peeks around the corner to see down the right-hand passage first. Perhaps he can hear more of the pirates' plans and sneak back to bring the Watchman's crew back.

OOC: Try to hide the light. Advance slowly and quietly. Keep to the right-hand wall first to look around the corner down the right corridor. If the way is clear, move to the left-hand wall and again sneak along to look around the left corner. Try to see into the room where the torches are.

His heart racing with anticipation, Judoc stuffs his necklace under his leather jerkin, snuffing out the meager light to see by.  Again, the room is plunged into darkness but for the subtle orange glow which reflects off the damp walls here and there.

Checking to make sure there are not others lurking around separate corners, Judoc firsts tests the right corridor, creeping forward several steps to try and see and hear anything that might note of more people ahead.  But after several moments, he gives up on the endeavor, hearing only the continued echoing murmur that seems to come from the same direction as the torchlight.

His hand fixed to the wall, Judoc starts walking, slowly and in near total darkness, doing his utmost to make himself unseeable and silent.

Step at a time, Judoc walks towards the light.  Five steps, ten.  At one point Judoc feels the curvature of the wall swing away from him, off to some other passage, though he knows the way on is straight ahead...  He takes his hand off the wall, his heart thrumming with his fears that he may stumble on some unseen obstacle in the inky black... though after a few silent steps he has made his way to the other side of the hall.

Judoc peers from the shadows for the briefest of moments, and he glimpses five men and a goblin...  Four of them dressed in little more than loincloths, standing alert, one of them holding a torch.  The other two, the man and the goblin, sit against the cave wall, the man holding his wrist, the goblin, wearing the same colorful tabard, sitting in the mud next to him, looking his way.

The last thing that Judoc notices before he ducks himself behind the nearby wall is the shaft of moonlight that is cast down from some glimmer high in the room...

[Language unknown: "Ore urceut trahatsom an er tamoom hatwe?"]  The voice is gravelly and low... inhuman, much like Grobbik's voice had been.

He's answered by another voice, this one throaty and slow.  [Language unknown: "T entvorall.  Ceai ll hoei teomla...  Ek ati chrope al fiha for.  Heinng u not ei for lihehi.  Orean thipa redall'omeect moof icnden ou son ll le ectillere, dihabe yintinion virforble omeratort sion preon n o plut o sanal conwitwhe her hear ncfi os fi wa u."]

[Language unknown: "Noil."]  The first voice answers back.  [Language unknown: "And si ck, mi Roev yinreanti itsamiwi.  Ouesek ameareess O fontas."]

"I do not understand."  A third voice says in low tones, speaking in Arabic.  "Where are they taking us?"

"No need to fear."  The first, gravely voice answers back, speaking in Arabic this time.  "We're not enemies...  Just men who are disgusted at Megalan slave laws...  And Taveon in particular."

"What is Taveon?"  Says another halting voice in Arabic.

"Never mind."  Says the first voice again after a moment of pause, continuing in Arabic.  "Lets just say we can't promise to take you back home, but we'll help you find work to raise money to get back on your own.  You're free.  As soon as we get you out of here anyway."

[Language unknown: "E haof our redearnde ichai on pa atetioear iverutdin!  Eence ivcami wer ivnane p a orereaiou constisansta?"]  The second voice says.



OOC:  You are in the bottom right corner of the map, hiding up against the left wall so that you can no longer see in the room.  Lighting penalty in the room is -3.  If you wish to move at all, roll vs. stealth -3.

Ever since finally vanquishing Agares, or at least banishing the demon from Yrth, Judoc has noticed his Arabic comprehension is much better than before. The mage used to catch the language in chunks and phrases, but now he finds himself as comfortable listening to Arabic as he is to Anglish.

He wonders what the silvery glow might be, but he suspects it is a light spell, unless the cave has a crack that opens into the outside enough to let moonlight in.

Had the goblin seen him? Probably not, if he hasn't raised the alarm.

So the pirates - if they are pirates - are not interested in keeping the slaves, but setting them free. Interesting. At least that's the story the goblin has spun, and the slaves are now unbound. Taveon. Who or what is that?

Judoc thinks back to his battle with Thresher on the sands of the arena, of how the criminals and misfits had been offered up for slaughter by the rulers of Azer. Judoc had been careful to stay neutral then, and his feelings here are similar, too. He neither supports nor opposes slavery. Keeping a person a prisoner and forcing them to work seems cruel, but it is merely a reality of society. Without the slaves to row, the crew of the Watchman are probably stranded on this island. Still, now that these slaves are free, Judoc finds it cruel to attempt to enslave them again.

So he waits, listening, to see what else he might learn about these pirates, or slave-freers, or whatever they might be.

OOC: Wait and listen.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:00, Wed 02 Nov 2022.

[Language unknown: "Anla mo itble on ngdice Arlaise?  Enc ionwerent str hassheove ri u acion?"]  The first voice grunts.

[Language unknown: "Ee."]  The second voice sighs.  [Language unknown: "Day men rut...  Ersaie, li ainsanven ons esnoma, hielsili?  Me hatthuect enlocahais o tinli veranyson mope Pa ro erwi!"]  His throaty voice seems to become all the more exaggerated and animated.

The first voice laughs.  [Language unknown: "Ulhote a ichwitovelarsom ingis no m toloom Etienne."]

The room drops into silence.  Occasionally, Judoc will hear whispers, Arabic he thinks, though he cannot make out anything intelligible.  He waits, closing his eyes and letting the surrounding mana in the caves replenish him.  He feels a forceful tug towards sleep, though he powers through the urge, touching his fingers and toes to keep himself engaged.

[Language unknown: "Aststrkor.  Ill ndeth undthaany iv ndereaund."]  It is the second voice, and Judoc hears a shifting of weight and equipment from the other room.

[Language unknown: "I ameainday, il ca oul ourca M tha m o enwa."]  The goblin responds back.

[Language unknown: "Beus el deringder."]  The second voice says, his voice light.  [Language unknown: "K ssll il ameer o ul poan.  Ic hosa actho.  Con undet rattheion ce whble yinic?"]

"Hold the light up."  The goblin says in Arabic with little pause... though there doesn't appear to be any urgency in his tone.

A few moments later, Judoc hears sounds of stone scraping against something...  low pitched...

OOC:  It is 0345 on the 8th of August.  You've recovered 2 FP from your rest/wait, though you are still half move/dodge/ST from your exertions.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:14, Tue 08 Nov 2022.

The small group sounds like it is about to move out. Up and out of the cave, perhaps? So this entire escapade was just to free these slaves? If Judoc does not act quickly, the Watchman's crew will be marooned here. Part of Judoc tells him he shouldn’t let them escape. However, another part balks at the idea of returning these men to slavery.

If he could take out the enemy mage, then that would slow them down considerably. Judoc considers his options, but other than killing the goblin outright, he comes up empty.

OOC: Cast Levitation again, and begin moving back to where he left the crew. When he is about 50 meters away, take out his glowing eye to help him see the way back.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Tue 08 Nov 2022.

It is astounding to Judoc, that while he has never studied the language, somehow he is able to comprehend everything these men are saying in Arlaise...  It stills seems foreign, but it is somehow completely clear...  as if the words themselves are gibberish, but the whole meaning intuitive.

He shakes his head, knowing that he does not have much time.  With a quick and silent recasting of his Levitation spell, Judoc floats back along the wall in the dark, pulling his lighted eye out from under his shirt once he has turned the corner.

He finds himself back at the muddy beach, the water lapping upon the dirt floor of the cave.

OOC:  I forgot that we never explicitly ended your last levitation spell, though since we sort of implied you were walking before, I'll meet you in the middle and say you recasted without rolling for it or charging you the extra fatigue you wouldn't have used had you simply kept it active.  I also apologize for the "unknown language," which you should have understood the whole time.  I'll try and be better about the details from here on out, although I suppose it happens when I've been so irregular in posting.

let me know which direction you want to use to leave the cave.  The exit to the right of the map here is back along the way you came in, though it's possible that the "beach" (either of the corridors) is back into the lake room where you entered the cave in the first place.

Also, please roll vs. Perception for me.

Judoc knows he does not have much time. By the time he returns to the crew of the Watchman, the slaves and the pirates will probably be gone. Still, he cannot take on all six of them, not in his current condition, anyway.

He briefly considers trying the exit that leads to the beach, but he quickly discards that idea. He left the crew back at the cave he first entered, and he needs to bring them along as quickly as he can.

OOC: Judoc will take the right hand exit and continue to backtrack.

Unwilling to take an unknown route, Judoc retraces his steps, using his lighted eye necklace to fill in the gaps where he had tread in the darkness before.

He remembered well enough the way to the right, the room where he had cast his light spell and stooped to look for tracks in the mud.  Slowly, he hovered his way back through the hallway, noting a small puddle at the far side of the corridor, and the larger 'lake' room where he had entered the caverns from the beach.

Judoc takes a quick moment to take in his surroundings...  The salty brine here churns, as if the small cave opening to the sea magnifies the motion of the waves, casting saltwater up the walls with all the sploosh!es and roiling of an unhappy stomach.

Judoc looks to the left and right and he notes several other passages and nooks that seem to lead out of the main cave.

The way back to the beach however, seems clear enough, as the moonlight still reflects off the surface of the water from an opening across the lake.

Judoc does not hesitate, but hovers his way across, lowering himself down into the water as he must to exit the caverns.

Outside, Judoc sees the three crewmen huddled together several feet from the edge of the cave, weapons drawn and on high alert.

"Thank God it's you!"  Reve sighs as Judoc fully exits the cave, sighing his weapon back down to his side.  "You'd been gone so long we thought you might have been captured or worse!"

OOC:  General map below.  The water is a bit deeper and goes out a bit farther than depicted.  Your path was along the top of the map, turning right to follow the long corridor to the lake room, then directly across, exiting on the bottom left of the map (which has a narrower exit than depicted).

"I found them, but we don't have much time. Follow me back in, and I'll fill you in as we go." Judoc sends out with his mind to where Aiah might be. ~Sorry to wake you, pretty bird, but I need your help. I'm going back into the cave, and I need you to go with me. Judoc waits until he can see Aiah, and then he turns to retrace his steps.

"There are two pirates, a human and a goblin," he tells Reve, Tisso, and Orgon. "The goblin is their mage. They've released the slaves from their bonds. Freeing the four men seems to have been the pirates' main objective."

If only Judoc had thought to bring the Watchman's crew along with him. They would have been outnumbered, but Judoc would have had surprise on his side. Now, for all he knows, the pirates have escaped with the freed slaves.

The slaves bother Judoc. The mage usually looks out for himself and his own best interests, but it seems wrong to him that some men would keep other men as slaves. It's just the way the Megalan Empire is, he supposes, but might other nations have a different point of view? What language had those pirates been speaking? Even though he understood every word, he wasn't sure what language they had been using. It wasn't Anglish, Latin, or Arabic. It was unlikely that they were speaking a racial language, unless the goblins have a language that Judoc doesn't know about. That left Northland, Aralaise, and whatever languages are spoken in Sahud, although there could conceivably be more.

OOC: Wake up Aiah and lead the sailors back into the caves. Maintain <i>Levitation<i>. When we get close to where Judoc thinks the pirates were, go the rest of the way without light, using Stealth.

Wishing to hurry, Judoc beckons the others forward as well as Aiah, assuring them he will explain on the way.  For Aiah's part, the bird does not seem to be too keen on being woken up for the second time this morning.

~What's on fire now?  Aiah harrumphs from the distance, though Judoc can feel her ruffling her mind-feathers as she prepares herself to alight from her perch upon the rocks.  ~Go to sleep!  Wake up!  Go there!  Come here!  Always with the one place or the next!  I hope this excursion is close to over, I need to sleep!

Just too late, Judoc sees the bird coming down fast, too fast, though she rocks her wings back in an attempt to slow as her claws reach out towards his shoulder.  Judoc sucks his teeth as the tiny bird shows him a taste of what a vole might feel, bringing herself to an immediate stop with the grip of her talons.

~Sorry.  Aiah says, and though she toes the line, Judoc can't tell on which side of sincere or flippant the word lands on.  ~I told you I can't see that well in the dark.

Aiah in place, Judoc leads the others back into the cave, explaining as he walks.  The others whisper back various things as they move, talking over each other so it is difficult to hear.

Orgon gloats, "Just two?  We'll have 'em dead to rights, two to one that is!"

While Reve seems more focused on the pirates' objective.  "Freeing them?  What the hell kind of pirates are these, that burn up two small boats just to throw away their spoils?"

"That's a fair point."  Trisso concedes, clutching his long knife ahead of him protectively.  "Most pirate stories I've heard end up with the ship the cargo and the crew all taken and sold, if not dead.  They end up making more slaves, not less."

But the conversation stalls there, for as Judoc pushes his way back into the cave, soaking himself again to the waist in order to duck under the low ceiling, he watches as his light reflects off the surface of the lake, revealing in the sloshing waves for the briefest of moments a girthy, long armed tentacle, which slips under the churn and disappears below the surface.

OOC:  Hard to tell at a single glance, but the tentacle appears to be as thick as your arm.  All four of you are standing in the entryway to the cave, with you levitating up above the water again, and the others just having entered.  It becomes clear as they funnel inward that the lake bottom quickly drops away, forcing them to swim if they want to go across.